It's getting close now.
Last night Meg and I discussed how much money we should convert into pounds (£ and I just spent five minutes learning how to type it on a mac keyboard, but I won't be using the mac when we go to England, so I'll need it on the iPhone later). We also talked inconclusively about whether to advance buy hop-on hop-off tour tickets for the day we arrive, the day after or the day we return to London after the walk. In April, when we first got the London guidebook, we thought we knew. Or we thought it was so far away we didn't need to know. But now it's getting close.
I'm planning to document the vacation and the walk with posts here, but I thought I ought to write at least one pre-travel post.
We must have started talking with Jan and Bruce about walking the Cotswold way nearly a year ago. A year before that, they walked the Camino de Santiago. They'd invited us, but when you work as a teacher you can't take a week or two off in October. This fall, for the first time in 32 years, I am not going to be teaching in September.
My oldest email referring to this trip is from last January. When we were all together during Christmas vacation we talked about the trip and looked through a guidebook Jan and Bruce have.
In January we booked all our Inns and B&B's. We're walking 102 miles in eight days, from Chipping Camden to Bath. Each day the next night's lodging is ten or twelve or seventeen miles walk away. Bruce and Jan have a good guidebook to the Way, and I have an app on my phone that maps the route, identifies places of interest, and places to stay, and places to eat and drink.
The lodgings have names like Shenberrow Hill, Orchardene, the Dog Inn, and the Royal George Hotel. The towns and villages evoke images from Shakespeare (we're going to Stratford-upon-Avon!), Dickens, Dick Francis and J.K. Rowling, and ancient history: North Nibley, Little Sodbury, Cheltenham, Cold Ashton, Dursley, Birdlip. I've got The Cotswolds: Slow Travel pointing me toward Burnt Norton, an inspiration for T.S. Eliot, and Beckbury Camp, an Iron Age hill fort, and Nottingham Hill, and Spoonley Villa. We'e going to see a National Trust estate that was the setting for the movie The Remains of the Day. We're going to ride bikes to a place where a canal goes over a river on an aquaduct. We're going to ride in a commuter boat on the Thames from London to Greenwich. We're going to drink a lot of local ales in a lot of local pubs. I've got CAMRA's 101 Beer Days Out, courtesy of Sadie. And Bruce found a list of pubs. And we're staying near the Sherlock Holmes pub in London.
We bought special shoes. I wore out a pair of running shoes during the getting in shape. I've got a pair of lightweight trail runners, and a pair of light walking shoes. I bought a new day pack. We bought first aid supplies and new water bottles and carabiner-style clips and a wide brimmed hat.
I set out all my clothes once to see what they'd look like. We're about to choose a suitcase or suitcases to check for the air trip, and to give to the luggage transport company. We had to think about when and how we'd get our clothes washed. We got a second credit card, and informed both companies of our travel plans. And today I need to go order some £'s, or not. Rick Steeves says wait until you land, then load up at an airport ATM.
Last night Meg and I discussed how much money we should convert into pounds (£ and I just spent five minutes learning how to type it on a mac keyboard, but I won't be using the mac when we go to England, so I'll need it on the iPhone later). We also talked inconclusively about whether to advance buy hop-on hop-off tour tickets for the day we arrive, the day after or the day we return to London after the walk. In April, when we first got the London guidebook, we thought we knew. Or we thought it was so far away we didn't need to know. But now it's getting close.
I'm planning to document the vacation and the walk with posts here, but I thought I ought to write at least one pre-travel post.
We must have started talking with Jan and Bruce about walking the Cotswold way nearly a year ago. A year before that, they walked the Camino de Santiago. They'd invited us, but when you work as a teacher you can't take a week or two off in October. This fall, for the first time in 32 years, I am not going to be teaching in September.
My oldest email referring to this trip is from last January. When we were all together during Christmas vacation we talked about the trip and looked through a guidebook Jan and Bruce have.
In January we booked all our Inns and B&B's. We're walking 102 miles in eight days, from Chipping Camden to Bath. Each day the next night's lodging is ten or twelve or seventeen miles walk away. Bruce and Jan have a good guidebook to the Way, and I have an app on my phone that maps the route, identifies places of interest, and places to stay, and places to eat and drink.
The lodgings have names like Shenberrow Hill, Orchardene, the Dog Inn, and the Royal George Hotel. The towns and villages evoke images from Shakespeare (we're going to Stratford-upon-Avon!), Dickens, Dick Francis and J.K. Rowling, and ancient history: North Nibley, Little Sodbury, Cheltenham, Cold Ashton, Dursley, Birdlip. I've got The Cotswolds: Slow Travel pointing me toward Burnt Norton, an inspiration for T.S. Eliot, and Beckbury Camp, an Iron Age hill fort, and Nottingham Hill, and Spoonley Villa. We'e going to see a National Trust estate that was the setting for the movie The Remains of the Day. We're going to ride bikes to a place where a canal goes over a river on an aquaduct. We're going to ride in a commuter boat on the Thames from London to Greenwich. We're going to drink a lot of local ales in a lot of local pubs. I've got CAMRA's 101 Beer Days Out, courtesy of Sadie. And Bruce found a list of pubs. And we're staying near the Sherlock Holmes pub in London.
We bought special shoes. I wore out a pair of running shoes during the getting in shape. I've got a pair of lightweight trail runners, and a pair of light walking shoes. I bought a new day pack. We bought first aid supplies and new water bottles and carabiner-style clips and a wide brimmed hat.
I set out all my clothes once to see what they'd look like. We're about to choose a suitcase or suitcases to check for the air trip, and to give to the luggage transport company. We had to think about when and how we'd get our clothes washed. We got a second credit card, and informed both companies of our travel plans. And today I need to go order some £'s, or not. Rick Steeves says wait until you land, then load up at an airport ATM.
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