Today is going to be a record temperature in Boston - about 95 deg. F. I took Madeline to gymnastics then we grabbed burritos for lunch. Next stop was our local booklovers bookstore where they still maintain the old book store snobbishness of cataloging everything by publisher. However they have the best remainder section of any bookshop I've seen. Madeline agreed to come on the condition I pay for half of a webkinz (trendy animal soft toy). I ended up buying 4 guidebooks for Britain - three $5 remainder books on 2006 hotels, B&Bs and inns/pubs. Of course all proved pretty useless once I got them home and started reading. Even the coupons inside all expired in 2006. But one find was a book called The Rough Guide to England. It's up to date and written in a very down to earth, almost sarcastic, witty style. It gives honest opinions on all sorts of things and is over 1000 pages. I also dug out my old 1/400,000 Michelin maps (3 cover England and Wales) and several Ordinance Survey county maps. Detailed maps are a must when driving a car and allow you to find all sorts of off-the-beaten-track roads and places.
I've started thinking about places to visit. If we go to Cornwall, St Just-in-Roseland and the surrounding area is supposed to be beautiful. If we amble over to fair Yorkshire, James Herriot's town of Thirsk and the museum therein may be worth a visit, but getting to Yorkshire may be a bit of a stretch given other plans.
Just read an email from Bryce so I will go ahead and hire a car that is not too small given the two of us and luggage. I intend to travel very light and not to wash (clothes that is). One pair of shoes, two jeans should do it. Shorts? By October that shouldn't be necessary. The only extra bulky item would be my not-state-of-the-art clunker of a video camera - rather old and heavy. I just need to allow for a few small car parts if I manage to pick them up in Bournemouth. But after a quick look at my "needs' list, they'll take an insignificant amount of space. I think my wheeled duffle bag should do it.
Looking forward to visiting Merrie Olde England.
Saturday, September 8, 2007
Friday, September 7, 2007
Latest news
The work week has finally ended after a stressful 3 days! Today I booked tickets on Virgin Atlantic arriving Heathrow 7:30 AM on Saturday October 6, leaving at 2:30 PM on Sunday October 14. Several ads for cheap tickets proved misleading once the fees were added. This ticket was cheaper than anything else I saw by about $300, so going to Manchester wasn't an option. Oddly this ticket also gave me direct flights and the best arrival & departure times allowing me to work a full day Friday and then leaving England mid-afternoon. (The last departures for the US are circa 3:30 PM.)
Next step is probably to book a car, but first I'll ask Bryce if he wants to book it and keep it after I leave. Otherwise, I'll book it myself for the days I'm in the UK. Looks like it won't be too expensive, especially if we share costs. Other things to do are to decide where to go. I'm not sure of Bryce's interests, but on my list of possible places to visit are Viginia Woolf's Monk's House and Jane Austen's house, both south of London. However, these are only suggestions and since I can revisit at any time (and aussie Bryce cannot), I'm happy to fit in with him. England is a small country so it's only a day's drive (traffic permitting) to go from the south to the north.
More on Aruba ... I have to say the place is expensive, especially if you eat out for all meals. The hotel strip is a bit of a tourist trap, with all the restaurants being quite expensive. I didn't actually buy anything to take home. Madeline bought some small presents for her friends and Gail bought virtually nothing. Madeline and I spent quite a bit of time playing arcade games. My favourite being the Suzuka 8 hour motorcycle race. I managed to work it out and get some good lap times by the end of the week. However, basically our days were spent between the hotel beach and pool. Hiring the Jeep for 2 days was stressful as it was such a shonky operation that I feared being hit with bogus rental expenses, although it did allow us to explore the island to some degree. But outside the tourist area, it appears to be a little dangerous, and this was confirmed by a co-worker who used to live in Caracas (about 20 miles from Aruba). One highlight was the hotel bird collection - parrots, macaws and several cockatoos. Madeline loved this most of all. Gail liked Aruba, found it relaxing. That's it for Aruba. Future posts will be mainly about preparations for my UK visit.
Next step is probably to book a car, but first I'll ask Bryce if he wants to book it and keep it after I leave. Otherwise, I'll book it myself for the days I'm in the UK. Looks like it won't be too expensive, especially if we share costs. Other things to do are to decide where to go. I'm not sure of Bryce's interests, but on my list of possible places to visit are Viginia Woolf's Monk's House and Jane Austen's house, both south of London. However, these are only suggestions and since I can revisit at any time (and aussie Bryce cannot), I'm happy to fit in with him. England is a small country so it's only a day's drive (traffic permitting) to go from the south to the north.
More on Aruba ... I have to say the place is expensive, especially if you eat out for all meals. The hotel strip is a bit of a tourist trap, with all the restaurants being quite expensive. I didn't actually buy anything to take home. Madeline bought some small presents for her friends and Gail bought virtually nothing. Madeline and I spent quite a bit of time playing arcade games. My favourite being the Suzuka 8 hour motorcycle race. I managed to work it out and get some good lap times by the end of the week. However, basically our days were spent between the hotel beach and pool. Hiring the Jeep for 2 days was stressful as it was such a shonky operation that I feared being hit with bogus rental expenses, although it did allow us to explore the island to some degree. But outside the tourist area, it appears to be a little dangerous, and this was confirmed by a co-worker who used to live in Caracas (about 20 miles from Aruba). One highlight was the hotel bird collection - parrots, macaws and several cockatoos. Madeline loved this most of all. Gail liked Aruba, found it relaxing. That's it for Aruba. Future posts will be mainly about preparations for my UK visit.
Thursday, September 6, 2007
Ramblings
My first blog - inspired by Bryce Little's blog created for his first UK trip in September/October 2007. Bryce is an old school chum from RMIT computer science days and lives in Armidale, NSW.
I've just returned from Aruba with Gail and Madeline - nice trip, relaxing and busy at the same time. The weather was hot, but not too humid, probably in the 90s every day and with a steady, tropical wind blowing all day. The sea was turquoise and very warm - no trouble in taking that first dip.
We started out on the last Monday in August from Boston via Puerto Rico which looked nice and civilized from the plane. It even boasts one large freeway, no doubt courtesy of the American Govt. After three hours at the airport, we flew to Aruba and took a bus to the hotel on the tourist strip consisting of about 10 multi-story hotels, a main road and restaurants to cater for the visitors.
The room had two kingsize beds and a flat screen TV hooked into the satellite to give us New York city TV including local NY advertisements. The first night we went to "happy hour", free drinks for guests. I rashly had two drinks instead of my standard limit of one. After some hokey entertainments involving the audience getting up on stage, we stumbled into what seemed the only place to eat. We ate a largely meat buffet and then another hokey audience participation show started, so we got the bill asap. Shock, horror, the bill was $105! And this for a few greasy pieces of meat! This proved to be our worst ripoff of the whole trip. Lesson learned!
These hotels all have casinos and are isolated from the rest of Aruba. It's a tourist isle within an island where everything is priced for the tourist. Aruba seems to have two cultures - the tourist culture and the relatively poor local inhabitants.
I've just returned from Aruba with Gail and Madeline - nice trip, relaxing and busy at the same time. The weather was hot, but not too humid, probably in the 90s every day and with a steady, tropical wind blowing all day. The sea was turquoise and very warm - no trouble in taking that first dip.
We started out on the last Monday in August from Boston via Puerto Rico which looked nice and civilized from the plane. It even boasts one large freeway, no doubt courtesy of the American Govt. After three hours at the airport, we flew to Aruba and took a bus to the hotel on the tourist strip consisting of about 10 multi-story hotels, a main road and restaurants to cater for the visitors.
The room had two kingsize beds and a flat screen TV hooked into the satellite to give us New York city TV including local NY advertisements. The first night we went to "happy hour", free drinks for guests. I rashly had two drinks instead of my standard limit of one. After some hokey entertainments involving the audience getting up on stage, we stumbled into what seemed the only place to eat. We ate a largely meat buffet and then another hokey audience participation show started, so we got the bill asap. Shock, horror, the bill was $105! And this for a few greasy pieces of meat! This proved to be our worst ripoff of the whole trip. Lesson learned!
These hotels all have casinos and are isolated from the rest of Aruba. It's a tourist isle within an island where everything is priced for the tourist. Aruba seems to have two cultures - the tourist culture and the relatively poor local inhabitants.
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