This Week!

Have a great trip! Come back and tell us about it when you get back!

Safe travels and have a wonderful time!!!

Enjoy it and I hope it all more than lives up to expectation!

Time to exhale and enjoy! You have put a lot of thought into your trip and I am sure you’ll have the feeling of gratitude when your plans bring you so much joy and happiness. And even when things don’t go exactly to plan, find joy and happiness in the mess- ups!

Safe travels and let us hear all about it when you return! (but after your brain/body recovers, of course)! 😊

Have fun! We leave next Monday...our England and Scotland are reverse yours.

Get your rest.

Make sure all electronic devices are charged.

Don’t forget passports.

Stay hydrated on your flight.

Remember, flexibility is the key.

Explore your neighborhood. Closest market for bottled water and snacks.

Find your local. Have a pint and smile! Cheers!!!

Have fun and throughly enjoy my favorite city on the planet!!!

Bon Voyage!!!

My trip is about 2 1/2 weeks away and I got the butterflies also. Glad I am not alone.

I feel like I have everything under control but I also am worrying about leaving something very important behind. Right now, I am beginning early packing.

Yesterday, I had a cortisone injection in my arthritic right knee.

Have a wonderful trip. If you are up to it, I would love to read some reviews.

So are you feeling better?

Remember that the vast majority of things you might forget will be available to buy here.

Claudia,

That depends! Logically, I know I have done everything on my list. I have to finish packing, but that is all. But...I wake up at 4am every morning feeling so nervous. I'll be fine once we are on the plane.

I have never planned or taken a trip this big. Usually it has been flying to my husband's hometown to stay with his mother, or taking the kids to Disneyland. One flight, one hotel. Done. I've been working on this for a year!

Oh, I contacted a pub in London and they are reserving seats and Sunday roast for when we arrive from Edinburgh. They were very helpful.(The Victoria, Paddington)

Remember that the vast majority of things you might forget will be available to buy here.

I'm not worried about forgetting to take something. I'm just talking about the irrational 4am fear that I somehow forgot to book a hotel for the week in London or something!

Have a fabulous, fun trip! We just wandered around and let the city guide us sometimes. Oh, and we did Rick’s The City audio tour. It was really an interesting tour.

I understand the butterflies. A couple we have been friends with for over 50 years are leaving tonight from JFK to meet us here in Croatia. The husband suffered a brain hemorrhage 1.5 years ago and luckily is 90% recovered. This will be their first overseas trip since it happened. They did a few trial trips to Florida and Costa Rica. They have clearance from the doctor. I have 17 days planned, just hotels and transportation. No tours. Just a relaxing vacation of eating great food, meeting some of our family, and sitting at cafes people watching.
I don’t know who is more nervous, them or me. My husband is fine with repeating to me “it’s gonna be great, relax”.
So, enjoy, and relax, it’s gonna be fine.

Breathe!

You will LOVE the Victoria Paddington. Nice regulars. Beautiful etched glass at one end of the bar.

Had a lovely Sunday Roast there a couple of years ago! Excellent choice.

BTW do check out the small but wonder Tudkin Flavors of Malaysia. Paddington neighborhood. Few blocks from 63 Bayswater.

Wishing you a wonderful time, especially in Edinburgh!

When my wife and I travelled to England I had booked just 3 things, our flights (both ways), a cheap hotel near Heathrow for the first night, (ETA was mid afternoon).The other was our vehicle hire to be picked up the following day.
Everything else we organised along the way. It all panned out just fine.

I think it is better not to be timetabled up to the hilt, but to have time to do the unexpected that you stumble on or just find by chance.

Ultimately, if you have forgotten to book a hotel somewhere, or to book a train or car rental, there will always be a work round solution. It will never be the end of the world.

Say you forgot to book a hotel in London or Keswick or wherever, or it burnt down/closed down/whatever the night before you arrived, you will always find a PI or similar in London Zone 1. And anywhere in Zone 1 (or dare to whisper it Zone 2) will do you for sightseeing, especially if you are open minded to supplement the tube with the buses, overground and river services. Likewise in Keswick the market is not that tight at this time of year- somewhere will be available. Say it wasn't, you have a car, we'd get you somewhere out in Penrith, one of the villages or (shock horror) on the West Coast of Cumbria. Any of those you are under 30 minutes drive back to Keswick. OK I know the roads but I have done west Cumbria to Penrith junction 40 in 35 minutes in the early morning (the normal advice is 1 hour)- the distances are not huge.

Likewise, when on the trains, there will always, always be a work round solution. If there was a major incident say on the east coast main line, then inter operator availability kicks in whereby if one operator can not offer service, then other operators step in to accept all ticket types and routeings.

So relax. If the unexpected happens go with the flow. If there was a huge drama happened the forum will solve it.

“So relax. If the unexpected happens go with the flow. If there was a huge drama happened the forum will solve it.”

Isn31c, this is just the best. I love so many of the people present on this forum who are incredibly supportive and willing to help. When my kids and I went this past summer, I thought in the back of my mind that should I have a real “help, I can’t figure this out” moment I would ask here. I came really close (had a bit of a late night medical emergency- think a very tall, sharp cornered bathtub, a knee not clearing it after slipping and weird vein swelling- ugh!) but I was able to go the ten days and just go with all the great pre-trip advice I gathered!

But, it is so nice to have travel group who genuinely cares about others’ trip experiences- good and not so good!

I have come back to this thread and see mustlovedogs comment about medical issues.

That was why I came back, because when I was writing this morning I had an e-mail from a lady from Seattle, who had a medical emergency last night in Oslo. She's all right and has been cleared to fly home, but it shows what can happen.
Mercifully (for me) cyber space was slow and the e-mail took 9 hours to get across the North Sea, or I would have been anxious last night.

Last night in Oslo set me thinking- If something like that happened in Cumbria, and a forum member needed personal support that would be forthcoming (or indeed there was a transport failure, that kind of thing). From Cumbria, if it was a serious medical issue, you would be airflifted (free of charge) to Newcastle or Middlesborough. Something more routine it would be land or air ambulance to Whitehaven, Barrow or Carlisle. It is pretty unlikely you would be taken to a community hospital like Keswick Mary Hewetson Hospital.

I don't think we will ever again have an incident where every route in and out of the County is closed due to flooding (as has happened in the past) or by snow. Even the M6 sometimes gets closed by snow.

Mustlovedogs, Yes! This group is so incredibly helpful and supportive. It is nice to feel that there is someplace to ask for advice if something goes sideways.

That being said, I am relaxed and excited! Tomorrow is the day! Now my brain just wakes me up too early because I'm excited.

Now, I really should pack...

Enjoy even the mishaps are part of the adventure! We started week ago in Edinburgh /now starting week in London then off.to Paris for another week!. Great experiences. Husband said sometimes is like Family Vacation movie but all is working out. Enjoy😃

Lets us know when you’re settled into your accommodation and what you did on your arrival in London.

Bon Voyage!