I  would love to travel like you and yours are going to do!!   Personally  the only city I'd be visiting would be London, England.   They have Royal  museums,  Buckingham Palace  which has tours  in the latter part of the year (book ahead,  these tours get sold out quickly)  and shops.   Tower Of London would be great too.   You will learn the history of it,  and of the ravens which "camp" there.   If yu go to Paris,  be sure to visit  the eiffel Tower.   They filmed parts of the Highlander series there,  Above all,  pace yourselves,  don't do too much in one day.   Enjoy as much as you can.   sit at a nice cafe,  be romantic, feed the birds (tuppence a bag)  Have fun!! 

September will be better than July or August to be honest. The weather is often really nice, Indian Summer. The children are all back in school by then as well. October is often really nice as well and you get the wonderful changes of leaf colour then too.

The moors are definitely worth a visit. I have close relatives who run a Bed and Big Breakfast, literally on the edge of Exmoor, in a 16th Century thatched cottage.  . I can PM you their details if you are interested (is this advertising? I hope not...I'm a Moderator).


The restructuring sounds very much like what is happening in all sorts of areas of the economy here. 

Anyone here who'd like to try out a round of chess with me via email or PM? You know what I mean. One sends their move to the other person. All you need is a chessboard and a minute of your time a day/a week or whatever's convenient for you. If we get bored in it, we'll call it quits. I've never tried it before but I've been thinking about it every now and then and it might be fun to try. Anyone interested?

I am excited. It is official. We are going to Europe! And what's more, my new boss arranged it so that we will be traveling from August 14 through the end of the month. That's good because it is before the kids go back to school. That will make looking after them logistically easier.

I am not sure yet what cities we are going to visit. I do know that if we go north up to Scotland and Ireland we can do so, but we would have to arrange our own travel between stops. The travel company that we have been looking at is more geered toward start points in the UK and then either traveling northeast through Germany and then down or traveling across to France and moving south east and then back up. Those trips have the train arrangements between stops all worked out as well as hostel or B&B arrangements. I know that I would like more than 2 days in London.

How hot is it there in mid to late August? I am used to summer temps of 80 to 90 degrees F. I prefer it to be 70 to 80 to be honest. When it gets up in the 90s I wilt! LOL Although the 110 degrees in Vegas one year wasn't so bad because it was very dry. Humidity is a real killer.

PS: Word of advice to anyone over there ever considering a trip to the US. Vegas is seedy. Sure there is glitz, but it doesn't make up for the raw side that is really quite unsavory. We were there for 3 days. I will never go back.
 

Davina wrote:

May well be cheaper to fly between stops. The train is expensive in the UK. Flights with Easyjet etc. You can also fly cheaply across to the Emerald Isle ( out local airport which is not that far from London flies to Waterford etc). If you want to let me know nearer the time the sort of itinerary you are wanting to do I can investigate to relative costs for you.

DramaGod- I'm rubbish at chess despite my dad's best attempts getting me playing from the age of 4. I was very keen but I don't have the right kind of mind for it.

The travel agency that we are using takes care of all the travel between stops as well as accomidations so that shouldn't actually be a problem. It is all in the cost of the trip. What might work is if we stay in the UK longer than what my husband is thinking and maybe take a train or something from London north to see that part of the country. It can't take that long. I mean the whole of the UK will fit inside Texas which is 790 miles long and 660 miles wide. I'm from NY state and from my home town to New York City is 260 miles and that is drivable in about 6 hours at the speed limit. More like 4.5 to 5 hours if I'm driving LOL.
Once we firm up the actual iteneary I'll definetly post it. Who knows I might actually run into someone I know. 

We stayed at the Paris. When we walked up and down the strip (the main drag of hotels and casinos) there were dozens and dozens of guys handing out cards for their "girls"
Prostitution is legal in Vegas. They would shove these cards at you even though you gave no indication of wanting them. I mean my husband and I are middle aged and walking down the street hand in hand and these folks are trying to interest my husband in an evening of fun. It was intrusive and irritating because we passed at least 20 of them just in the block between Paris and Planet Hollywood. Family friendly is not really what I saw, however, the MGM had some interesting things that kids might enjoy, but it was a bit smelly walking past the casino floor since indoor smoking is allowed. 

The main attraction in Vegas is the gambling regardless of how many roller-coasters or other "family" things they incorporated. Outside one of the hotels they had a pirate show that you could watch from the street. That was kind of cool. We were literally across the street from the Bellasario where they have the famous water shows every half hour. 

There are tours that you can take. We went to the Hoover Dam. That was a nice side trip. I didn't hate the trip, I just felt like 3 days was more than enough. The shows are quite expensive, we went to see Penn and Teller and enjoyed it. Actually everything was pretty pricey. It makes it hard to do much on a moderate income. 

A short stay can be enjoyable if you spend your money wisely. I wouldn't go back mainly because of the sensory overload and the pimps working the street. That bugged me a bit.

SusiGo wrote:

If anyone wants to keep his/her fingers crossed for me … 

Just fingers? I'd offer to you every of my crossable extremities...

That's amazing! Wish you so much luck, Susi!

... and toes too

SusiGo wrote:

Sorry for going off-topic, but I'm so excited. An English translator sent me the first chapter of my "Leo Berlin"! It's so amazing to read it in English. She'd love to do the whole book, but of course she'd have to find a publisher first. If anyone wants to keep his/her fingers crossed for me … 

No off topic in chat 

Okay I am a little lost. I googled Leo Berlin and got some interesting things that didn't seem to fit, so I have to ask. What is Leo Berlin? Is it something you wrote? I mean I'd cross my fingers for you as well, but I've no idea what for.