Car Rental Notes From Steve

He did not find a better rate via his employer, however he did find a better rate at Thrifty than at Enterprise. Using the code WEBTCR, he got a rate of £657.82 for 7/14-7/23 for an automatic "Full Size People Carrier". This does include a £12/day charge for drivers 70 and over...

little things...

just a few little things...

1) after some brief, major panic because my passport was entirely MIA (but has now been found - it was still in the glove compartment in the car from when i went to verify my employment eligibility at tufts. so glad i finally remembered; we never would have found it there.), i entered all of our passport info into the virgin website. steve also did his outgoing seat selection. we will do the return seat selections in the next few days, when they open up.

2) the robeanne house B&B, where we are staying around york, has a new website (http://www.robeannehouse.co.uk/) since we booked just a week or so ago. very exciting, i know. but the place looks nice - and i think includes breakfast, as far as i can tell (which i guess makes sense, since the 2nd B in B&B is for breakfast).

3) one of our cocoons hatched into a bee-youtiful black swallowtail butterfly today. fly free, dill2! don't get eaten by a bird!

Car Rental

After a little bit of digging, I have to do the rental - the name on the credit card has to match the name of the indicated driver.....

So, unless someone has a better idea, I'm going to call Enterprise to see if their cars have GPS systems (I don't see them listed or even available) and, if they don't, I'll buy one.  Renting one from the companies that don't include them costs $10/day ($160 for the trip), buying a "transatlantic" version (US & Europe, with lifetime US updates) TomTom costs $172 from Amazon.  So it seems like a more or less even break)

THE MOST EXCITING NEWS EVER!!!!!

I am so excited to discover this!!!!!!

The Royal Swan Upping will take place from July 14-18 along the Thames!!!!!!

Link here: http://www.royalswan.co.uk/

Our entire itinerary must revolve around this most important event!!!!!!  I know that Sarah agrees with me...

emergency kit, revisited

ok, i am getting ready to revisit the emergency kit, and replenish it with anything we think we might need.  any ideas from the peanut gallery? it already has a lot of stuff, but i don't feel like typing the list out. so give me any ideas you have, and i will make sure they are in there (or make fun of you for suggesting something mockery-worthy :p )

Some alternative plans for Saturday, July 12...

Right now, we are going on the Harry Potter tour that day, but we picked it randomly - there was no reason for that day, in particular. However, it appears that the only day for Parliament tours is Saturday, and also, there is a new West End musical of Charlie & the Chocolate Factory that has matinees on Saturdays (and Wednesdays, which won't work for us) or Matilda (more Roald Dahl), which would be perfect for HRH Princess Sophie. It's expensive, but it would be cool. Anyway, the question is, do we pay a fee to change our Harry Potter tickets (it's either 10 pounds total, or per ticket - I am not entirely clear) and do Parliament & a show, or do we stick with our existing plan, since we are sure to do plenty of cool things, even without these?

Mapmaker, Mapmaker Make Me a Map

I made us a map. It's not the best ever map, but it's a start.  I've added various and assorted things we have booked, but not everything. I think I set it up so that we all can edit it (via our google accounts). Feel free to add stuff. And appreciate my Jacobite train route; I worked hard on that ;)

https://mapsengine.google.com/map/edit?mid=zvs8IDDJOdGQ.kOwODZQdYIcE

Key:
green stars - points of interest
diamonds - transportation hubs
    purple - train stations
    blue - ferry terminals
    orange - airports
red dots - accomodations

Details to Think About....

We arrive (On July 9) at 7:20 AM; meanwhile, I assume the rental won't be available until some time in the afternoon.

So what do we do with our luggage for the day?

London Calling

I think it's time we revive our blog... 

Looking at things to do during our week in London, here are some preliminary ideas (and links) for things we can do.  This is in addition to what we've already booked (Stonehenge, HP Studio Tour):

• Royal Observatory & Cutty Sark 
• Tower of London
• Westminster Abbey
• Houses of Parliament  - only open for tours on Saturdays but we are doing the HP tour on Saturday, so perhaps we can just visit the outside?
• Tower Bridge - I'm not sure if we really need to do this or just go look at the bridge instead
• London Eye
• Changing the Guard at Buckingham Palace - the palace itself is not open to tours until late July/August
• Herrod’s
• Hyde Park
• High Tea

I know I'm missing lots, this is just what I thought of off the top of my head.  If only I had some travel books to look at... ;)

Some bad news regarding Canterbury Cathedral - it appears the cathedral is pretty much closed while we are there for graduation ceremonies.  It probably isn't worth going to Canterbury at all because of that.  Is there some other day trip we want to try?  Maybe Dover or just drive around the countryside or something?  I'm open for anything.