notes about the England

[rowanf]

I spent another morning fussing about hotels in York. Since all my self-catering inquiries came through I'm on to regular hotels. The cheapest I've found is L80/$140 a night with most being about L140/$250. Yikes. My current candidate is Queens Hotel.


Continuing to contemplate the Swanage Folk Festival. Swanage seems rather back-of-beyond. One could train to Bournemouth from London (2 hours) and then take a ferry it seems. This is not sounding like a day trip. Both performers I'm particularly keen on are playing on Sunday. We're supposed to have checked into our London apartment on Saturday. And I had planned to travel late afternoon so we could go to the Brigantia Crafts Faire at Castle Howard that morning. So it would be hard to travel to London, get our apt, train out to Bournemouth and spend the night there or Swanage to go to the Festival on Sunday. Unless I decide to leave York early and forget the crafts fair. Maybe get to Swanage and do some Dorset/Purbeck sightseeing. I need to figure this out because I need to book the hotels soon.

Well, I've spent enough hours on this for today. *sigh* I need to get off the computer, my touchpad finger is numb.

Comments

have to looked at hostels

[breccia.livejournal.com]

When I have traveled to London I have found back packer hostels to be a great place to stay, much more affordable, and they have different sized rooms if you aren't interested in sharing with strangers.

http://www.hostelworld.com/ Is a great site for research.

Re: have to looked at hostels

[rowanf.livejournal.com]

Looks like York is all dormitory accomodation. Not really what we're looking for, but thanks for the link! I'll keep it in mind.

[dalbino83.livejournal.com]

When will you be in England?

[rowanf.livejournal.com]

The first two weeks in September. This summer is crazy for travel... Vegas twice (interfaith meeting & honeymoon), Santa Fe (MerryMeet) and then England. And I want to go to Albuquerque for the balloon fiesta George gathering at the end of September. *grin*

[as-im-babbar.livejournal.com]

I have been reading your lj for years, you may even have noticed ;) but I live in England and felt I could give some advice about the fair. I love Castle Howard and its well worth a visit *just* to walk around the grounds, very romantic, but as regards the fair, although its a local fair and will have lots of local stuff you may not be able to get else where its probably better to give that a miss and go for the folk concert and Dorset. Two reasons, one, I have read a lot of what you enjoy and two, the really good craft people sell on the internet these days. I think the folk festival, with its great social aspect will give you lots of opportunity to meet like minded souls.
Any help?

[rowanf.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the advice. I do want to go to Castle Howard, but we could do that during the week. And the other thought I have about the craft fair... I can't really buy alot since I'd have to carry it from then on. *grin* But I really like chatting with artists and looking at local work. I will see if I can get Russell to fall in with my new plan to head to Dorset. If he doesn't want to stay 'til Sunday to listen to New Scorpion Band or Sid Kipper, he can always head to London since our self-catering apartment starts on the Saturday night. I think it may work out quite well.

Sooo, your user info doesn't give much of a clue as to where you are located. :-) Any chance of a meet-up?

[as-im-babbar.livejournal.com]

Ohh, I'd love to meet you. I live, work and study in three different locals, Birmingham (not so bad now), London, and Southampton. So anywhere south of Manchester is in my world any given week *g*. I have my trusty steed and could travel just about anywhere dry land allows. It would be wonderful to meet up for a chat or to do something. Let me know where you could fit me in and I'll be there.

Castle Howard is lovely, there is a picnic spot (or was some years ago) across the river on a little road and the view is the exact one that Charles and Sebastion have as they approach in Brideshead Revisited. Easily one of my happiest memories.

[rowanf.livejournal.com]

We come in country on September 4th and immediately head for York. Exactly when we leave York is up in the air at the moment. I'm pushing to head for Dorset on the 8th/9th or so. We have a flat in London (Kensington) for the week of Sept 10-17, but at the moment it is a bit uncertain if both of us will be in London then or if I'll swing being in Swanage for the festival on the 11th. I'm worried about the train to ferry link. The late return train from Bournemouth says it takes over 9hours to get to London instead of the usual 2 hours. I don't know if the web schedule is just messed up or if that is true! *laugh* And I really don't want to rent a motor to drive into London. We sometimes drive in the country but driving out of London once cured us of that.

So, get together sometime during the week of the 12th in London?

[jilara.livejournal.com]

I still mourn the fact that the Castle Howard costume collection was recently dismantled and sold at auction, sigh.