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A trip to England and Wales

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I have pretty much edited the photos from our three weeks in England and Wales, and if you are interested, you can peruse them in your free time at https://www.flickr.com/photos/brooklands/sets/72157638324748716/

There are over 750, and some are large files, so you may need a good bit of time to get through everything. We enjoyed time in parts of England and Wales, and includes Castles, Ruins, Museums, Automobiles, Sheep, and Christmas Fairs. Please let me know if you find any errors too.

I will try to do another set of cars seen on the roads, but not right now due to Christmas Preparations. Since we left for Heathrow on November 10, we had started doing the Christmas Decorations on Halloween, but we still have lots of preparations to do in the next 2 1/2 weeks.
 
Dave looks like you had a fantastic trip.....the photos are great...welcome back.
 
I've been waiting so I would have time to view your photos. Wonderful, Dave!

Thanks for sharing.

We would really like to visit the UK....we have lots of relatives there! (including a nephew in Wales with the same name as me)

Did you book your trip through a tour group? If so, who?
 
Nial,

We planned our own trip. We made a list of things we wanted to see towards the south, then eliminated a number of them as the trip would have taken months. Then we plotted a course, decided how many nights in each town, and then booked hotels through Booking.com. We only made one error, and that was because I did not realize how isolated it was, and did not think of how early it would be dark. With my poorer night vision I did not want to have to navigate after sunset on unlit country roads. Contact my privately if you want any details. We did learn some lessons on picking hotels, and dining too. Next time we would possibly pick up a membership pass for a number of the historic sites too and save some pounds in the long run. Be we did learn to ask for Concessions everywhere.
 
It was interesting to me how different Warwick Castle was now compared to when I was there in '76. I had not realized that Warwick was the home of the Healey Motor Company. With Coventry, Gaydon, and Warwick, a lot of my favorite cars came out of that small area. Thanks for the information.
 
Dave,

Healey had two facilities in Warwick. The "Cape Works" was the experimental shop and produced the designs as well as the race shop for the 100S and later the Sebring and LeMans cars. Later, Healey moved to "The Old Cinema" which also contained a showroom. Can't find any pictures of the Cape Works online, although JME Healeys still maintains a workshop in one of the buildings. The cinema has been demolished, but there are some pics here: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.557570597596742.1073741837.458798004140669&type=3 I spent a couple of weeks touring England in 1978 with my wife in a new MGB-GT (the TR7 we hired had broken down ... go figure). Went to all the Healey "shrines" as part of the trip.
 
Dave thanks for the tour, enjoyed it much over coco (snow day) and it prompted me to pull our album from '89. Went with day packs and hopes to drive but I wasn't sure which way to look crossing the street in London so went to Constables Boat House on the Thames, hired "Clare" a 1905 24' skiff and rowed up River Wey.
Clare_zps76a641ac.jpg
 

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Richard,

I will say that the traffic in the UK was much worse this year than it had been back in 1976. That time I picked up the rental in downtown London. This time I started from the edge of Bath, and had concentrated on staying left during three coach rides. I also had read the rules of the road book that is put out for preparing for the driving test so that I had all the road markings in my head in advance. But I read somewhere that some companies won't rent to Yanks and others after certain ages, so I need to get my next trip in soon before I cross that threshold.

I love the boat idea. I bet that made for a memorable trip.
 
Dave:
Thanks for the info. At some point, I may have a chat with you. I'm at least a year away from any trip like this.
I also need to talk to my relatives over there and see what they might have in mind.

By the way, power boats in England have their steering wheel on the "American" side. And when they approach a dock, they do so from the "non-American" side.
 
I found driving to be sort of fun (and have been many times). Yes, the first day or so can be hairy, and every morning when you start can be filled with mistakes... but one gets used to it. Been all over the UK (my wife was born there) and we'll be there for Goodwood on September 14th (coming down from the midlands). I'd agree that one should AVOID London at all costs (and speaking of costs, there is now a fee to drive into the city), but most other small villages and motorways are pretty easy.
 
Dave - welcome home. I saw this thread pop up and read the first post. Stupid me, somehow thought you'd been in UK since December!

Tom
 
Some excellent pictures! Thanks for sharing! Loved the sun over Stonehenge!
 
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