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Post by whollygoats on Feb 5, 2017 21:50:32 GMT
Once again...
I intend on going 'semi-improv'. I'll be winging my way to Vancouver, British Columbia, on April 20 and thence to Heathrow by late morning on April 21. I was thinking about attempting the reach the Fleet Air Arm Museum in Yeovilton, but in several attempts on how to actually get there when one does not have a personal vehicle, I've found it to be price prohibitive. Evidently, the Royal Navy has located their air support museum out in the 'middle of nowhere' (8 miles dead south of Glastonbury, no less) to discourage limited mobility furriners like me from attending. So be it, I'll just push on to Carmarthen and Pembrokeshire.
My present itinerary includes Carmarthen, Cosford, Colwyn Bay/Bangor, Ballasalla, Whitehaven, Aberdeen, Kirkwall, Lerwick, Inverness, Stirling/Falkirk, and Duxford, using each locale as a 'base of operations' to explore the surrounding area by vintage train and/or bus. The Aberdeen to Lerwick portion is already a 'tour package', but I'd be most interested to hear suggestions and recommendations for any of those areas. I'll probably book a local tour in Inverness to take in the Speyside end of the Whiskey Road and was hoping to see some of the country in the central highlands from Inverness to Sterling and Falkirk. I know I'll have to go through Glasgow or Edinburgh, but I've been to both and along both coasts.
I'll probably pre-book my Dragon flight over Cambridgeshire and London for my final week and use that location to do train-fueled surgical strikes in to London to do British Museum and Tate visits. I always leave London until last, to avoid having it suck too much of my limited assets too soon.
It looks to me as though my plan to fly to Man and back from Liverpool Airport looks sound and competitively priced. It'll be fun to see what aircraft I get to fly.
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Post by whollygoats on Feb 5, 2017 22:01:05 GMT
In meeting with a travel planner with AAA, I was informed that the tourist assistance offices in many rail stations still provide walk-up assistance in obtaining local B&B accommodations. This is reassuring, as I mastered it my first trip, which was also as a lone traveler. I purchased a BritRail pass for 15 days of travel in two months (60 days).
I already have what looks to be a perfectly acceptable accommodation in Whitehaven, thanks to Farther Kye's recommendation.
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Post by Kye on Feb 5, 2017 23:18:45 GMT
It was certainly perfectly acceptable to me! Sounds like a fun trip, WG.
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Post by JoeP on Feb 5, 2017 23:28:24 GMT
Improv is good. How long is the trip overall? (I presume you won't improv booking flights back to the US.) And thus, if you make southeast England the end of the trip, when will you be in this vicinity?
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Post by tangent on Feb 6, 2017 1:06:14 GMT
It would be nice to know dates even if approximate.
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Post by whollygoats on Feb 6, 2017 2:53:37 GMT
Fly out of Heathrow on summer solstice, June 21. Total extent of time; two months.
I must be in Aberdeen on May 27 to catch the ferry to Kirkwall and Lerwick, otherwise, I've no hard and fast dates, just some general destinations, in the order listed in the above post....unless any natives can provide adequate inspiration to depart from it.
I'm thinking of booking my Dragon flight in Duxford on or around May June 15. I'm planning on making forays in to London from there (I expect somewhere in or near Cambridge). That's as far southeast in England as I have any intent of reaching.
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Post by whollygoats on Feb 6, 2017 2:58:05 GMT
It would be nice to know dates even if approximate. I'm still in process of firming plans. I suspect I'll be in and around Winterhaven the week or so prior to my run north to Aberdeen. So, around mid-May. I think Cosford is near you, but I'm not quite sure how 'near'.
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Post by tangent on Feb 6, 2017 6:46:15 GMT
A two-hour journey, so just on the doorstep if you're American but a day's journey if you're British.
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Post by JoeP on Feb 6, 2017 9:23:14 GMT
I suspect I'll be in and around Winterhaven the week or so prior to my run north to Aberdeen. It's "Whitefell".
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Post by Deleted on Feb 6, 2017 14:56:36 GMT
whollygoats I see you're interested in aviation and unfortunately I can't add much to this thread to help you. But I've visited two air museums, albeit not recently. Near Edinburgh, there's the National Museum of Flight and in north west London you can visit the RAF MuseumMy gut feeling is that you already know about them and you've either visited them or decided to give them a miss...
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Post by whollygoats on Feb 6, 2017 15:13:49 GMT
Oop...Whitehaven. I haven't even watched a single bit of Game of Thrones, yet this stuff permeates my intellectual environment.
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Post by whollygoats on Feb 6, 2017 16:31:15 GMT
whollygoats I see you're interested in aviation and unfortunately I can't add much to this thread to help you. But I've visited two air museums, albeit not recently. Near Edinburgh, there's the National Museum of Flight and in north west London you can visit the RAF MuseumMy gut feeling is that you already know about them and you've either visited them or decided to give them a miss... I was unaware of the National Museum of Flight. I was aware that the RAF has multiple sites and I had heard that Cosford was amongst the best, but I was aware of the London site. If I have spare time at the end, I'll squeeze the London RAF in. What I'd really like to find is a decent, easy to reach FAA museum. I'm bound for Pembroke Dock just to check out their Heritage Center and the site of the WWII seaplane base; I understand they have a Sunderland. In my mind, that is where the Fleet Air Arm Museum ought to be, not out in the upland hinterlands of Somerset. Thanks.
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Post by Moose on Feb 6, 2017 18:58:05 GMT
And there's the pencil museum in Keswick! (apparently more interesting than you might think)
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Post by JoeP on Feb 6, 2017 19:22:20 GMT
And there's the pencil museum in Keswick! (apparently more interesting than you might think) What's the point?
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Post by Moose on Feb 6, 2017 20:06:19 GMT
Haha
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Post by whollygoats on Feb 7, 2017 15:18:48 GMT
Hmmm....I'd have to chew on that...
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Post by JoeP on Feb 7, 2017 15:59:11 GMT
No, no. They draw the line at that sort of behaviour.
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Post by tangent on Feb 7, 2017 17:38:57 GMT
For literary critics...
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Post by Moose on Feb 7, 2017 18:20:20 GMT
Too many pencil puns here
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Post by JoeP on Feb 8, 2017 9:56:27 GMT
Too many pencil puns here she said, bluntly.
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Post by Moose on Feb 8, 2017 22:08:54 GMT
Shoo! Right now! *makes flappy shooing gestures*
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Post by tangent on Feb 8, 2017 23:00:09 GMT
It would be nice to know dates even if approximate. I'm still in process of firming plans. I suspect I'll be in and around Winterhaven the week or so prior to my run north to Aberdeen. So, around mid-May. Mid-May, you say. OK, I'll just pencil that in.
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Post by JoeP on Feb 9, 2017 0:16:25 GMT
I'm still in process of firming plans. I suspect I'll be in and around Winterhaven the week or so prior to my run north to Aberdeen. So, around mid-May. Mid-May, you say. OK, I'll just pencil that in. It's just an outline plan. It will remain sketchy for a while.
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Post by Moose on Feb 9, 2017 2:21:31 GMT
*stops shooing and starts shooting*
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Post by whollygoats on Feb 9, 2017 3:27:50 GMT
Hey...I get the point. I'm trying to get the lead out, but I'm not some mechanical tool, y'know...
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Post by Moose on Feb 9, 2017 3:33:32 GMT
You can't comment. You're dead.
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Post by JoeP on Feb 9, 2017 9:42:32 GMT
Don't write him off yet.
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Post by whollygoats on Feb 9, 2017 15:33:32 GMT
Anybody got a rubber?
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Post by whollygoats on Feb 9, 2017 15:42:17 GMT
A two-hour journey, so just on the doorstep if you're American but a day's journey if you're British. Yeah...scaling is an issue in both directions. I was surprised that London to Pembrokeshire is five hours, basically across the country. Cambridge, however, is two hours north, by rail, and I perceive it as a 'distant' suburb of London. If that were a choked American urban freeway, I'd understand, but it is by rail, which should not have 'traffic jams'....so I suspect my impression of the distances are warped.
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Post by JoeP on Feb 9, 2017 16:35:36 GMT
If you're asking in the American sense ...
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