Trip Report: AMS, Paris, London, Mark Seymour’s Northern England tour! April 10-May 19 2023

Day 2 saw us trying something else new which was driving out into the Yorkshire Dales to Yockenthwaite for lunch. Any All Creatures fans? The new series? We came around a curve and WOW..there was “Helen’s” farmhouse. Turns out that was the start of our short hike along a public pathway to lunch sitting on a stone circle. Yes. Not a sacred circle but probably the base of a Bronze Age hut. Mark pointed out several more humps in the landscape that probably indicate other hut bases as well as across the Bronze Age river ford, a large enclosure you could still see the outline of. He felt it was a fairly sizable settlement for Bronze Age Britain. We women finished off lunch by walking to a house up behind “Helen’s” that had an honesty box of cakes and scones. Her Victoria Sponge was amazing. OMG. Delicious.

Hotels were all quite nice and all different. They were chosen for both location and for boutique style. He doesn’t include meals every night, I think we had 4 over the 13 nights although sometimes we ate together any way plus maybe 4 or 5 lunches? Food was good, choices were ours to make off the menu. He does not have a food budget as he wants everyone to have what they want.

Mark’s knowledge of history, geography, archeology (and everything else, lol) is freely shared. I believe he could talk on anything and make it interesting. Lunch sitting on the Roman Walls at Birdoswald Roman Fort? (hint - that moss soaks up water and can be wet and so can your pants, hahaha!) Let’s discuss the structure of Roman armies. Lunch at Yockenthwaite? Let’s talk Bronze age community set up. He is an awesome, awesome leader and a terrific guide. He makes it a point to make sure everyone has things they particularly enjoy and is so energetic, caring and funny. It is clear that he loves educating people and particularly likes myth-busting! The ultimate guide.

Lorraine Dineen was along doing some research for upcoming tours. She is brilliant with flora and fauna and her very dry British humor is hilarious. I loved traveling with her! They are planning a couple of itineraries for 2025 that she will guide and I’ll be first in line to sign up for them. She and I and 1 or 2 others did Evensong in a couple of places. HINT: have a snack before so your stomach doesn’t growl during the service, hahaha!!

I’ve already signed up for Mark’s tour to the Loire Valley, Brittany and Normandie for October 2024. I’ve been to a number of places on the itinerary but it starts at Fontevraud Abbey with Alienor d’Aquitaine so who can pass that up? I’ve wanted to go there and now I will!

Pros:

Small, intimate group with personal attention from Mark or whoever is leading.
Interesting locations and experiences with a focus on things that are sometimes not mainstream tourist attractions yet always interesting.
This particular tour was very outdoor focused which is right down my alley. It was chilly some days, heavy mist/rain other days, bright sunshine other days. We kept going with rain gear and sunscreen.
This is not a basic tour of an area’s highlights. I think it probably works better for a traveler who has seen the big stuff and now wants to focus in on people, places, the way residents in an area live and enjoy life. (I could not decide if this is a pro or a con, haha! It was a Pro for me!)

Cons:

This is not a good fit if you are in any way prone to car sickness. Hurtling down hedgerow-sided lanes in an 8-person van can be dizzying and would be terribly uncomfortable if you are not good with riding in cars.

I’m not sure this is actually a “con” but I think you need to be a fairly independent tourer. Often we’d arrive at a location, he’d give us an overview, get us started and we were on our own to see what interested us until time to meet up and move on.
I truly can’t think of any other cons…..

Continued....

The rest of the trip!

Weather/clothing: I left Spokane April 10. My SIL drove me to the airport and I had on my puffy vest because it was pretty chilly. I’d agonized for days over packing it and at the airport she just said - You need it. Take it. Dang! She was absolutely right! I wore it a lot in Amsterdam and Paris and started at least half the days in Northern England with it on. I also had my trusty waterproof jacket with a hood from Cabelas. It’s wearing out but I’m not ready to give it up! I refreshed it before I left by following the directions with a gentle wash and spray made for Gortex fabric. It worked great. At the last minute I also left out an umbrella trying to save weight. MISTAKE! Many Thanks to Kate in Volendam who gave me one of her old ones (she swore she had at least 10 of them!) and I used it a LOT. I’ll not make that mistake again.

Clothing: I run hot! Here’s what I took including what I wore on the plane:

4 SS Tee shirts (white, black, aqua and cobalt. White and black ones are recent acquisitions from Macy’s athletic section and dried really quickly)
1 LS Tee shirt (Only wore this a couple of times when it was very chilly but was worth taking)
2 LS quarter zip Drifit tops (I started out in these nearly every day)
1 LS Eddie Bauer Departure 2.0 sunshirt (I just did not wear this as much as I did in Italy last Fall as it was cool enough that I usually had on one of the Quarter zip shirts)
1 pr jeans
1 pr Costco travel pants from several years ago
1 pr Eddie Bauer travel pants from Costco (These are very light weight and TBH it was really never warm enough to wear them. I did not have them out of the suitcase)
1 puffy vest (Old 32 degree one from Costco)
1 waterproof rain jacket with hood
1 pr Smartwool glove liners (I did wear these a few times so they were worth taking)
4 pr unders (Fruit of the loom wicking unders - dried quickly most times except in the chilly room at Alnwick until the radiator and towel heaters came on!)
2 bras
4 pr socks
1 pr compression socks for the plane
2 pr athletic shoes (Altra Provisioness black shoes which looked nice enough to go to a play in London plus a waterproof pair. Although we were not really walking in the rain there were many days we were out when the grass was still wet and the waterproof helped with that)
Toiletries, OTC meds
Electronics - iPhone 14, iPad Mini, Air Pods, power bank, charger cords, old ear buds with the round connector that I used with museum audio guides.
Covid stuff - about 10 N95 masks, thermometer, pulse oximeter

Suitcase/Tote/purses/day pack:
Suitcase - I took the Osprey Ozone I got last fall for Italy. It weighted 19# on the way out. I was able to lift it into the overhead bins on all flights AND it also fit in the overhead shelf on the Thalys train from AMS to Paris, the Eurostar from Paris to London and the LNER trains from London to Harrogate and York to London. This bag has a monopole handle so is not suitable for everyone. I don’t stack a personal item on top so it works great for me. I can push or pull it and it rolls well over cobbles. It packs weird but I’m getting better at that!

Tote - I took the Longchamp Le Pliage which I gave myself for Christmas, lol. It worked just OK. Plus was it was very light weight and there was a time that I emptied it and packed it flat in my suitcase. It did not stay on my shoulder when loaded and it’s a light color so has gotten a bit dirty so I’ll have to clean it. I think I will go back to my cross-body baggallini tote next time even though it’s not light enough to pack.

Purses - I took the same “around town” purse as to Italy last Fall. It’s a Baggallini Town Bagg that I found last year at TJ Maxx for $25. It’s 10x9x3.5. Since it was smaller it didn’t pull on my shoulder as much. It is big enough for my iPad Mini if I wanted to bring that along as well as my Zeiss compact binoculars.

continued....

On airplane purse - I have a very small cross body I wear on the airplane with my passport, money, cc’s. I am a solo traveler and it kind of bothers me to leave those at my seat while I go to the bathroom on the plane. There is probably nothing to worry about but well, you know I am a worrier. It’s about 4x6 - just big enough for my passport and small wallet.

Small day pack - For Christmas I asked for a Sea to Summit 2.5 oz daypack that folds up to the size of my fist. It’s lightweight and small and I thought it would be good for the tour portion of my trip. It was perfect! It fit my rain jacket, sunshirt, puffy vest, bottle of water and if it was a day we had a packed lunch that fit as well. The straps are a little wimpy but they were fine for a 45 minute walk along Hadrian’s wall or a couple of hours along the Coastal Path from Craster to just past Dunstanburgh Castle. They would not do for a day hike in the mountains of N. Idaho unless you had young, strong shoulders, lol! Trust me on this, that train has left the station, haha!

Money/CCs/Apple Pay - I did not even go to an ATM this trip either for Euro or GBP. I had Euro left over from last Fall. I also had old paper GBP that I turned in at the Bank of England for new plastic notes - key point - go early if you are going to do that - be there at 845 to be at the head of the line. Very easy to do and quick if you are early. I used ApplePay at every opportunity. I even used it at the Amsterdam Train station for the .70 Euro cent charge for the bathroom (77cents was charged to my card). The small ice cream vans at various tourist sites in Northern England generally only took cash. So that was 3 GBP here and 3 GBP there. Mark talked me into eating a non-vegan ice cream treat called an Oyster - ice cream cone type “shell” filled with marshmallow cream and ice cream and topped with a Flake. OMG…good. Anyway…back on topic, I came home with enough cash to last me my next trip as well.

Apps - I had Delta’s app along with the various train company apps and used those for ticketing. The exception was the odd encounter at the Spokane TSA which wanted a paper boarding pass from the lady ahead of me. I’d gone ahead and let the check in agent give me a paper pass as she seemed eager to do so and had no problem. I also had several museum apps which I used. In the Bowes Museum I quickly downloaded the art museum app Smartify. It worked OK - those apps never seem to have info on the works I’m interested in, lol!! I purchased my entrance tickets thru apps for the Rijksmuseum, Louvre, Orsay, Orangerie, National Gallery (special exhibition), Queens Gallery, Windsor Castle…and maybe some more.

Data - I have Verizon. I used a combo of the month-long international pass and the $10/day travel pass for the extra days not covered by the month pass. I had data everywhere and used it often. When I got to the airport on Friday I found my flight from LHR to SEA had been cancelled between the time I left the hotel and my airport arrival. I clicked on data, saw the update, found they had already rescheduled me on LHR to SLC flight. Got my boarding pass for the new flights in the app and was set. I just can’t imagine traveling without data anymore. I can keep up with any airplane or train schedule changes as I go.

continued....

Covid: I masked in airports and train stations, on the planes, trains, public transit, in crowded museums and on crowded streets. I did not mask once I was on the tour except the two museums we went to. We were mostly outside the rest of the time. No one blinked an eye in Amsterdam, Paris or London at my mask wearing. I realized after a few hours in Harrogate that I was getting some “side-eye” looks from adults and frank stares from kids. Hmmmm, I said to myself, and realized their perception of masking has changed from “protecting yourself” to only masking when you are positive for Covid or have another respiratory ailment like a cold or influenza. Mark confirmed this for me and said in UK Covid has now pretty much been downgraded to the same status as a bad cold or influenza. This took some doing to get my head wrapped around but it felt fine once I did.

Amsterdam: Wow and double wow to the Vermeer Exhibition. Oh my word. I was completely poleaxed when I walked into the first room with the View of Delft and The Little Street so beautifully displayed. I loved the spare walls so you could focus on those specific paintings. SO well done that I could almost not even enjoy the rest of the Rijksmuseum as my brain was still back in the Vermeer exhibition. Honestly, talk about Stendhal Syndrome! It took several days for me to return to “normal”, lol. The plus in Amsterdam was meeting up for lunch with Friend Kate! Woohoo! I stayed in the De Ware Jakob Boutique Hotel in the Museumquartier. It was a great location. Very nice hotel recommended by Kim from Paris. The downside is that for parts of 2 days the elevator was out and I was on the 3rd floor. That included my departure day but as I was headed down the stairs the housekeeper saw me, ran to get my suitcase from me and carried it down. So sweet of her even though I could have managed.

Paris: Again, very museum heavy which is what I enjoy in the big cities. Did the biggies because I enjoy them - Louvre, Orsay, Orangerie, Musee du Luxembourg. Cluny was reopened finally so went there as well as Musee Quai Branley and the Musee de l’Homme, neither of which I’d done before. It was quite rainy and cold in Paris so I did not do as much sitting in gardens as I wished for. I met up with several friends for dinner and it was nice to catch up with folks with whom I did an RS tour in 2018!!

London: Hadn’t been there since 2018. I wound up being there the week before the Coronation - left for Northern England on the Tuesday before the Saturday Coronation. I enjoyed seeing all the decorations going up and enjoyed a special edition London Walk on the Coronation Route. I did museums here too - British Museum, National Gallery, Queens Gallery, British Library. I went to the British Library specifically to see the LIndisfarne Gospels and was crushed to see that they had it turned to what looked like an index page instead of one of the illuminated pages. Darn!

Harrogate: Went up 2 nights before the tour start because, well, train strikes loomed when I figured out my days and I didn’t want to be anxious. What a neat town! Before the tour started I did a tour of the Royal Hall, a walking tour, the Spa Museum, the gardens. I stuffed myself with an Afternoon Tea at Betty’s and my gosh, I felt like a python who swallowed a goat! No, I did not have the vegan tea.

continued:

Windsor: Stayed here for 2 nights after the tour and before my flight out. It is convenient for Heathrow and I liked staying there EXCEPT for the airplane noise. I knew it was on the flight path to Heathrow. I did not expect 1 plane every 60 seconds from about 6A to 10-1030P. There were a few breaks for several minutes but not much. I’m sure the locals can ignore it but it was bothersome. I think I’d stay in London before I’d stay there again although I did like going to a sung Eucharist service at St George’s Chapel which made it all worthwhile! Gorgeous choir who did parts of a Mass by Haydn.

The locations we stayed on the Seymour Travels tour were: Harrogate, Aysgarth Falls (a country inn in a terrific location!), Hexham, Alnwick and York These all worked out really, really well for the touring we were doing.

I had such a terrific time in Northern England. I found the local folks to be so friendly and talkative. I had to start allowing myself extra time to get back to the van for a meet up because people kept wanting to stop and talk, lol. This sums it up:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PT0ay9u1gg4

Jet lag seems to have worked itself out fairly quickly but I’m missing the excitement of being on a tour and seeing new things every day!

Thanks for sticking with me! What did I miss?

Thanks for the report, Pam. I love how enthusiastic you are, and how you roll with the punches. Having your flight home cancelled while you're on the way to the airport? Yikes!

On a couple of our recent trips to Europe, we've stayed in airport hotels the night before our flight home. This works very well, and so far the hotels we've chosen have been fine, and cheaper than what we would have paid had we stayed in the Center. We did this in Paris a couple of years ago, and in London this year. It takes away a lot of the stress.

Pam, Thanks for the great report as usual. Am I reading correctly that there were only 5 participants on your tour? That is truly a small group. I’ve been looking at the Seymour itineraries and see a number that look interesting to me so am glad to see the positive review.

I was anxiously awaiting your trip report. So glad to hear you had a wonderful tour with Mark and no single supplement, which seems to be getting more and more expensive these days. I'm looking forward to catching up in a couple weeks and hearing more about it.

What a terrific trip report, Pam! Many thanks for all the great details, esp about the Mark Seymour tours, which I will investigate further.

Sorry that you had that last minute re-routing on the flight home, but I’m glad that Delta made the flight change so quickly. And with SLC as your entry airport at least you could be sure that you would not be seeing that same dorky immigration/customs agent you encountered in Seattle last year!

So happy to see your trip report, Pam! And I’m glad this one was such a great trip for you! I saw the title, said a “Yeah!”, and paused to grab my first cup of coffee. : )

I loved all of the detail and personal commentary! I just told Dan about the friendlier northerners, and he is very excited to be there soon!

I appreciate your details about clothes. I have several options on the guest bed now to make the final decisions. I certainly could picture you on the ride to the Spokane airport going back & forth mentally about taking your puffy vest. ; ). I just purchased a Sherpani Camden as my personal bag per the airlines, and it arrived yesterday. I love it! Perfect to hold my purse and some other stuff, and it works crossbody. I’ll bring it to one of our local travel forum meetings.

So glad you had a good time Pam. It all sounds wonderful. We are signed up for our first Road Scholar trip next January. Micro group which means 12 folks or less. Hope we like the very small group and Road Scholar. I like the English attitude towards Covid I have to say……

Jane! I loved Northern England but you would have been freezing, lol!! I think an airport hotel is a good plan. May do that next time. I was shocked that the notification came thru literally as I was getting in the cab and had signed out of hotel wifi.

Laura - yes only 5 group members. He keeps it to 6 or so and if more than that divides into 2 vans. Kim from Oklahoma has also done several of his and in fact is on one now. It's addicting. I told him I might as well have my Social Security check start coming direct deposit to his business account, hahaha!

Leslie - I thought of you a number of times! As you can tell, I really enjoyed this tour.

CorrieTen - hahaha!!! I can't believe you remembered that and YES! That was my first thought, no need to worry about that jerk OR the huge escalators up and over from the S gates to immigration.

Jean, I have been following your thread on the personal item. I'll look up that Sherpani...getting ready to head to the Honda place for a maintenance thing and will have time on my hands, lol!! This is for Dan:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PT0ay9u1gg4

Tammy - I'm eager to see how you all like the micro Road Scholar Mexico trip!

What a fabulous write-up, Pam ! I am so sorry that the hotel didn't have an elevator for most of your stay !!!! Yikes. Sorry about that. I was lucky that it worked when I was there.

Your trip sounds absolutely fabulous, and the tour with Mark sounds SO good. I am gonna have to check out his site -- luckily I have no carsickness issues !

You really made so much of your time. I wish I had your energy !! Thank you for taking the time to capture all of this for us. This was a really enjoyable read. And I am so glad you kept your vest with you !

Pam, great trip report as usual! Thanks for taking the time to write it. I've really enjoyed reading it!
What a wonderful trip you had! It's no small feat to plan such a trip, with all the transportation, hotels, etc.
I'm always impressed with your trip planning and your skill at putting together a string of interesting destinations!
Your Mark Seymour tour sounded amazing!
Would you rate the amount of walking on this tour as Easy, Moderate, Strenuous, or Very Strenuous?

Sorry to hear of your experience at Windsor with the plane noise!
A real down side to staying there.
I can identify with you changing your mind several times about taking the puffy vest.
Northern England can be so cold in the spring and early summer! I remember it was freezing and windy at Hadrian's Wall in late April 2018 when we were on the RS Best of England tour.
I'm really wanting to do this tour with Mark, as I have been wanting to do more of Northern England for quite a long time.
So glad you had a great trip!

What a wonderful trip you had and your trip report is fantastic. It’s almost (but not quite 😉) as good as being there. Nice to see you’ve already signed up for another tour next year. It sounds like a good one.

Wow great trip report. I read every word, reread some of it to my husband with a shorter attention span, then be both watched the hilarious YouTube clip twice. You made our Mornin.

Wow, Pam, just wow. What a terrific report. I only read parts so far, but will return later to read it thoroughly. I apologize if I missed it, but did you mention how much hiking/walking you did each day? I have been looking at the tours and they really appeal to me, but I have been afraid they'd be too much walking every day over uneven ground for me What are your thoughts?

I was looking forward to your trip report and you did not disappoint ! Thanks

Kim - Well, no way you could have predicted their elevator would go down. The first set of steps wasn't too bad, the 2nd and 3rd sets were more those typical old Dutch house steps - steep and narrow. I managed fine but once I got upstairs I was not eager to go back down, hahaha!! I loved the location. SO handy for the museums and for walking in Vondelpark. Lots of restaurants around as well and veered widely around the one where you were sickened. Plus there is that huge Albert Heijn under the Museumplein that was easy to stop in for a sandwich or tub of hummus, haha!!

Rebecca, I appreciated your input previously on Windsor hotels. I suspect if I hadcome directly from London it might not have been so noticeable. Coming down from 2 weeks in Northern England with very little ambient noise it was a shock to the ears!

Andrea - thanks for reading!

Mona, glad you enjoyed the youtube clip! So funny!

Love the report, glad you had a great time (but not surprised), and TOTALLY understand not wanting the trip to be “officially over”. LOL!

Laurie Beth (and Rebecca) - the days were not as strenuous as I was expecting but I think it was because we were not doing huge treks across ancient cities, lol. One of the folks on the tour was using a cane after they'd had 2 knee replacements in early Winter. They chose to walk less than the rest of us. Another was a birder and probably did more strenuous, longer walks than I did. I'd say the hardest thing was the uneven turf surfaces. That gives your feet as much of a workout as cobbles! Mostly you could choose how far you walked. One of the other group members and I walked about 40 minutes along Hadrian's Wall. Mark had given us plenty of time so someone else might have gone further than we went. I was concerned before I left as this early in the year it's hard for me to be in "tour shape". I need not have been concerned as there was plenty of chance to opt out of more walking or add if you wanted. It was not as strenuous as the Best of Italy tour I did last October but that one includes some very strenuous city walks. This tour IS an active tour so I'd want to be walking at least 4 miles 3-4 days a week to enjoy myself.

Ginger, so happy you enjoyed it!

TexasTravelMom! Laughing....yes, you know I didn't want it to end!

Pam, I have stayed at the Castle Hotel in Windsor and didn't have airplane noise, but the a/c in my room didn't work in the middle of a heat wave, my credit card was hacked & the rooms were nothing special + the hallway carpets were dirty. That was about 6 years ago, but I would never try again as the staff were just rude. However, I have also stayed at 76 Duke Street B & B in Windsor and loved it. Julia only rents to one group at a time, but has 2 bedrooms that share a lovely bathroom. I was traveling alone and she booked me. Her breakfasts were divine and I didn't hear planes. Now she didn't have a/c but had a large fan that kept my room comfortable. What a difference. Try 76 Duke Street if you are ever in WIndsor again.

I enjoyed your trip report. We went to York in 2019 and took a small van tour that ended up in Whitby. I thought at the time it was an interesting area. Of course, watching every episode of Creatures Great and Small multiple times since has only increased its appeal. I was envious of you seeing Helen’s house! And even in York I wasn’t sure what people actually were saying!

I’m guessing that this is the Seymour Travels small groups tours! I wondered about them, so thank you kindly for the report….. great report!
I wanted to do something in England or Scotland next year and this sounds great. Thank you.

What a great trip report, Pam !

Your comment about the thin Eddie Bauer travel pants from Costco caught my attention. I've got two pairs packed right now in my Osprey Ozone for my upcoming trip to London, Cambridge and a nine night cruise to Norway. I live in Tucson and am cold natured. I was hoping that somehow they would be warm enough for Norway and that they'd be good in case it rained, but now I'm rethinking bringing them as it sounds like they won't be warm enough. Hmm, back to trial packing #20+, lol!

What a great trip - trip report! Now I want to go on a Mark Seymour tour. Thanks so much for posting.

Sounds like you had a blast, Pam. Between your report and Carrie's I'm so excited to see some of these places soon (and meet these much talked about friendly locals!)

Another great trip report! Pam keep on traveling please so I can “go with you”, since it practically feels that way. Thanks for all your efforts in writing these up.

Saw this this morning and saved it to read after dinner tonight at my leisure!
You write so well that I feel I’m there too!
Glad you enjoyed every day of your quite long trip.
I’ve never been on a tour vacation, but your England 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 tour this time does sound wonderful!

I think people who are on tours with you would go home and say: “You know, there was the happiest lady on our tour, from Idaho…she was a joy to travel with!”

Pam, thanks for your wonderful, insightful trip report. I love your enthusiasm about everything you do and see.
Where to next?

Laurie Beth, gosh, sorry to hear about your experience at the Castle Hotel. That IS where I stayed and my room was small but nice. It was in the annex building out back. I found staff very helpful including having the manager step out and carry my suitcase to the taxi for me (even though I did not need it, lol). My biggest gripe is that the front is currently covered in scaffold and I could not actually tell where the entrance was, lol.

BethinFL - well the women in the group were thrilled when we realized it was "Helen's" house, lol! I loved being in the small van and being able to go on the very small roads and lanes. And laughing about the accents! I'm sure they couldn't understand me either!

They call me the Wanderer - yes, Seymour Travels. I'm pretty sure all his guides have worked for or are working for Rick. They have experience dealing with Americans, lol and are gracious and educational! His tours fill up quickly. I trust Mark 110% with my money. He is also not setting up itineraries to compete with Rick. His tours cover smaller areas and are much more focused than Ricks are.

Slws - I think those EB pants would be fine for England right now but I'm not sure if they would be warm enough for ME in Norway and I'm pretty cold tolerant! Yea to the 20#! I did not weigh mine back home. Had a few maps (Roman Britain!!) and other heavier items....

Estimated Prophet - Which of Mark's tours do you have your eye on?

Roubrat - thank you and you will have a wonderful time! I am a pretty talkative person (especially when I've been traveling alone for several weeks, hahaha!!) but they had me beat!

Luv2Travel, thank you so much! I love it when people "go with" me!!

SJ - that is so kind of you to say! I am pretty sure I had a big goofy smile plastered on my face the whole tour, hahaha!!

Horsewoofie - Oh, off to my annual 2 weeks in Yellowstone, the other location where my heart just sings! You would have loved all the dogs everywhere. On the day we walked to Dunstanburgh Castle from the small village of Craster it was along the Coastal Path. Sunday afternoon. Bright sunshine. ALL the dogs were out taking their owners for walks. It was quite funny really.

Pam, was the Roman Britain map bought online before you went or in a bookshop while you were in England?
I hope you don't mind me asking where you found it.
Thanks!

Rebecca, of course I don't mind if you ask! One was a free local map in one of the racks of tourist brochures at the entrance to the museum at Vindolanda called Hadrian's Wall Map from www.hadrianswallcountry.co.uk The other was one he bought in the bookstore there and is an Ordnance Survey called an "OS Historical" of Roman Britain.

It's pretty funny because I had looked at both of them and thought...no...I do not need to bring back paper! Oops!!

Pam, thank you!

Great report, Pam!!!!!!! Love to read about your travels:)

Thank you Valerie! You can tell I had a great time!

Pam, I just got back last night and was in no condition to read anything, but just now poured over this! It is wonderful - I loved reading it, and it is starting to push me towards doing a tour. Mark sounds wonderful and I loved how he was so flexible on the tour. I'm still jet-lagged but could easily imagine all the wonderful things you saw and did!

BTW, my Eddie Bauer travel pants never left my bag either. I'm working on my trip report and am doing a packing one as well, but basically they were too darned uncomfortable! Dumb me, I never thought to actually wear them around instead of just trying them on. They dug into my skin when I was driving around Scotland, so after one wear, they got rolled up and tucked into the nether regions of the bag.

Fabulous trip report, I enjoyed it very much! I love the idea of “field trips”! I have been perusing the 2024 tour itineraries of Seymour Travels and several interest me. I’m not sure where I will go next year. I did love my recent Southern England tour with Rick Steves.

Thanks for the details around clothing, electronics, etc. That is really helpful to me for planning future trips.

Mardee - I was impressed you got your TR up as soon as you did. I am saving reading it...baby sat for great nephews last night and my ears are still ringing so will decompress and read it in a bit, lol!!

JudyB - I loved the field trips too AND being guinea pigs for including things in to future tours. We all voted yes on the canal lock field trip and on a field trip and new-to-Mark and Lorraine stop at Belsay House, Castle and Gardens. The gardens were in an old quarry and were unbelievably awesome. Giant rhododendrons! Camellias, and all manner of flowers in this space protected from the weather. So cool!!

Gacllc - What I didn't say is that I also lined up all of my electronics and the charger plugs AND the charger cords to make sure I had cords with the right end pieces. Some are lightning, some USB, some the other smaller plug thing - so made sure I was covered. Probably took one cord too many but it was fine.

Pam, I actually started it when I was traveling. Since I was writing the online journal, I just started the TR and then added to it. Made it easy to finish it off when I got home. :) BTW, I went to Mark Seymour's website - very impressive! All his tours look great!

What I didn't say is that I also lined up all of my electronics and the charger plugs AND the charger cords to make sure I had cords with the right end pieces.

I thought I did that but I think I must have mistakenly thrown in extras. I wound up separating them and putting the ones I actually used in the TB travel tray and the others in a pouch that stayed in the bag. But it annoyed me that I had that extra weight because I wasn't paying attention!

Mardee...truthfully....better to have too many than not enough. I actually intended to get one of those plug things that convert the end to something else (you can tell I did a heckofa lot of research on that, hahaha!!) but ran out of steam before I left!

Pam, I loved your trip report. I also loved seeing your pictures on Facebook. I enjoyed all the unusual places you visited. My favorite places are always the small towns and talking to the locals. Enjoy your time in Yellowstone this Summer. We had planned to spend some time driving all over Idaho, Montana and North Dakota this summer, but figured out we could take a cruise through the fjords of Norway for the same price. So, we’l be celebrating our 50th wedding anniversary in Copenhagen and the fjords. Maybe we’ll come to Idaho in the next few years and we’ll try to get in touch with you.

Hi Pam - I perused quickly …. Leaving in 30 for our adventure today. I am sooooo glad you enjoyed Mark’s tour. We are having a great time with Mark and Liz on Sw England tour. In Plymouth today. Have four mire days. I am very spoiled with his small group tours. I don’t know when we will do another RS tour. 11 of us 5 couples and one single, two guides, two cans. We already have 2024 plans with river cruise with my work and east coast with work, so I don’t think we can squeeze in with mark. But 2025 we will do a france with him.

This trip has been a lot of walking/hiking so my knees are barking at me. I gotta get back in shape when we get home. We head to Glasgow on Friday for 5 days. Then to outer Hebrides tour, jun 14 head to london for 13 days and baseball game cards vs Cub and meet up with mona (california) and Margaret ( Missouri).

Our weather has been terrible. Too warm for me at time. Plymouth was the hottest temp in England yesterday, I believe it.

Loved mawgan porth hotel. Bedruthan spa. Free time I had a 90 massage. Very very lovely. Liz cracks up the way my southern accent of “awesome”!

Anyway…. These two ( mark and Liz) are fantastic. I would highly recommend these tours.

See ya later

Kim

Janet! You'll have to plan your swing thru Idaho to land on a 1st Saturday in CdA so you can come to our meet-up! We'd love to have you. I loved the small places as well and the people in Northern England are just so friendly AND talkative, lol!!

Kim - I'm loving your FB pictures. Are you sure your knees aren't barking at you because of that cricket match? lol! I've got about 3 of his new possible itineraries I want to do for 2025...hope I am not too old by then! I love the new areas he's planning to include. Heat I can not tolerate. Northern England was very cool and pleasant. I can't do 80 degrees at home or elsewhere! You'll be comfortable once you get up to Scotland! Travel well!

I'm waiting for him to develop some tours someplace warm, like south of France, Spain, or Italy!

Pam, you're an Okie who lived in Florida; you can't do 80? I consider that a tolerable minimum Lol.

Kim, can't wait to see you when you get home. We'll set our July meeting for the 8th so you can be there.

Pam - the cricket on the beach was brilliant. I hit the ball on all tried, scored about ( pts.). My pic thing to husband was grand. He said I had a wicked pitch! Lol
Running on the sand was tough!!!

Jane - that will be great!!

Jane....since my long ago high school and early college days in OK and being in N. Idaho for 20+ years I just cannot tolerate 80! I can do ok if I am lying or sitting completely still, lolol....but very difficult to do that when you are touring, haha!! I AM a heat wuss!!

Kim - Mark's short video (probably filmed by Liz) of the cricket instruction was hilarious!

Loved your trip report, thanks for taking the time and energy to post it! The Mark Seymour tour sounds fabulous! Loved the detail and it made me want to go immediately! (I wish!)