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Read Ellie's Writers' Mini-Journal, Sept-Oct.
2011
[here] |
On
the Road Again
They say March is an ideal month to be in Tucson, Arizona. Perfect
temperatures-not too hot, the biggest crowds gone, lots of fun
and interesting things still on the agenda, the highest prices
now off season (we hope) and the pool is heated!
We're counting on it. So far, for starters we're planning on
visiting with friends, seeing a spectacular melodrama at the
Gaslight Theater, touring The Sabino Canyon Recreational area,
the Arizona-Sonara Desert Museum, the Saguaro National Park
and the famous artist-built DeGrazia Gallery. Keep you posted!
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The only other place
we've been in Arizona is the Grand Canyon, and that was
ages ago when we camped with our three teen-agers cross-country,
The Southwest stands out in vivid colors and memory from
that trip. The Canyon itself, the fruiting cherry orchard
in Utah where we celebrated our daughter's 16th, the art,
architecture and churches of lovely Santa Fe, the Colorado
peaks where we nearly passed out winding up our pop-up camper
at 10,000 feet! |
We camped a
lot when our children were young, and got to travel on a budget
but still see so much of our own country and Canada we can hardly
believe it when we check the photograph albums. Here we are
in a campground outside Quebec on Fourth of July trying to explain
to a group of French-speaking children why we lit small fireworks
on that particular day. There we are in the Smoky Mountains,
drinking from a stream, and on Frenchman's Bay in Maine, trying
to keep our tent upright in a mighty breeze. (We didn't succeed!)
Occasionally in later years our children and their families
have joined us on Rhode Island shore vacations or we've joined
them on Cape Cod, or a group of us has enjoyed time in a captivating
villa in Italy or in France.
But mostly MoJoe and I now have the graced freedom to travel
by two's where we can relish "other homes," countries,
cultures and new friends.
Where We've Been
For anyone planning a first trip to Europe, we personally recommend
England, or other English-speaking places like Ireland,
Scotland, and even Holland, where most everyone
does the Anglo routine. (They say they speak English in Wales,
too, but I couldn't understand a word.)
Why travel first where they speak English? That's because there's
already so much to focus on when you travel abroad-passports,
plane tickets, accommodations, how to order food there, and,
of course, what to see and do. It helps if you don't have to
do it all in a tongue you neither speak nor understand. Of course,
English is not American; there are accents and burrs and brogues,
but you soon learn them, and can always ask a native to repeat
more slowly until you "get it".
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On the other hand,
if you like to be coddled, you have the option to take
a pre-packaged tour and put most everything in the hands
of your tour director. You'll have the experience and
know-how of a professional at your fingertips, and can
sit back, enjoy the sights and get an education. However,
be prepared to stay very organized, to sit for long
stretches on coaches, and to put your packed bags outside
your hotel door by 7 a.m. almost every morning. It's
the way some folks love to travel.
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On Our Own Again
Personally, I'm a travel do-it-yourselfer. I think most of the
fun is researching, planning and making your own way around
the most foreign of landscapes. For about the past 30 years
we've gone to England, and Ireland, Scotland and Holland ten
or 12 times. We usually stay in B and Bs, and though the rooms
are not often very large, they're comfortable and usually provide
private baths. B and Bs in larger cities or hotter tourist spots,
like London, Dublin, Plymouth and Edinburgh are more iffy. Since
we rent a car and manage (barely) to drive through left-sided
England, Ireland and Scotland, we tend to choose stay-overs
that are outside the cities. Such countryside B and Bs tend
to have delightful, welcoming hosts, luscious gardens, and luxurious
morning meals with, they claim, the calories all washed out.
Also
cool in England, where we've often taken advantage of them,
are what they call self-catering arrangements, something
we in New England would call a cottage rental.
All linens and housekeeping needs are provided, and there's
always plenty to see or do nearby which the owners or managers
will help with. Several sites for these rentals are available
online. |
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Outside of
London, which probably deserves to be a separate trip in itself,
it's so full of culture, exotic food, history and a frenetic
pace, how do you know specifically where to go in a country
and what to see once you've done some basic research? (Try Fodor's,
Frommer's and other travel guides usually found in your public
library.)
The British Heritage Bonus
In England and Scotland the answer is simple: order a British
Heritage Guide, which lists just about every worthwhile
site-ruins, castles, cathedrals, parks, museums, authors' and
artists' home, historic mills and mines and mansions--in the
country. The guide describes and often pictures the place of
interest and shows its location on a regional map. If you "join"
British Heritage for a week, a month or whatever, you get a
tremendous break on admission price where there is one, and
can use it ten, twenty or a hundred or more times during your
paid-up period.
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The first time we
planned a trip to England around a British Heritage pass,
we selected over a hundred places we wanted to see, and
outlined the map with their locations. England seems like
such a small country compared to the U. S., we figured
we could do it in three or four weeks.
Not. We were overwhelmed by the variety and richness of
every site and how it was maintained.
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| Tour guides
took us around, or let us ramble through fascinating ruins
on our own, snap pictures and have picnics on castle lawns
and seaside beaches. |
We still haven't
finished our original planned tour, but have returned often
and are still working on it. One year we focused on authors'
homes and birthplaces, another on castles, for the sake of the
energetic grandson we had along, and on another we discovered
the haunted Manor House on the Devon coast where I was inspired
to start writing my very first published novel-Chambercombe
Manor in Ilfracombe, Devon.
We've been back many times to the Manor to do research, to sell
the completed book, The Moonrakers, in their gift shop,
and to actually stay in the 900-year-old house with its friendly
staff and ghostly sounds. The Manor was a gratifying personal
"discovery," and we probably wouldn't ever have known
it was there, hidden in the combe, or valley, had we not read
about it in British Heritage over 15 years ago, and used our
frugal little pass to see it and make it a home away from home.
What's on Your List?
You, too, can make your own personal discoveries in these English-speaking
places with less hassle than you'd imagine. Want someplace to
start?
How about the stunning Cathedral in Wells, a couple of
hours outside of Heathrow Airport going west? If you're there,
be sure to catch a meal (and perhaps a room, too) nearby at
the award-winning Fountain Inn and Boxer's Restaurant,
built in the 16th century to house builders working on the great
Cathedral. Superb food, good wine, not overly expensive, and
an atmosphere you won't find in the U. S.
For
standing megalithic stone circles, try Avebury, in
Wiltshire, almost as massive as Stonehenge which is roped
off nowadays from human contact.
But you can walk right up to the Avebury stones and touch
them, feeling the vibrations of millenniums and wondering
about their origins. |
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Enjoy a whole
day exploring Fountains Abbey, in Yorkshire, a huge estate
of beauty, contrasts and surprises including the largest abbey
ruins in the country you can wander through, and also one of
England's most spectacular Georgian water gardens. Sometimes
you can catch a concert playing by the water, and a teashop
provides the requisite refreshment-tea and scones. Gorgeous.
In Scotland alone, the many castles, refurbished and
otherwise, make you feel as though you're stepping into another
era. In Callander, the area reknowned for Rob Roy and
many historic battles in Scotland's roaring past, we stayed
in a refurbished small castle that was one of the best B and
B's we've ever been in. If you go to Ireland, don't leave without
seeing the Dingle Peninsula on the West coast with its
soaring cliffs over dramatic ocean drops, and its potters to
explore inland among ancient beehive ovens.
As for a Dutch adventure, one of the most fascinating attractions
for us and our two grandchildren who visited it, are the Keukenhof
gardens where hundreds of thousands of flowers bulbs bloom
with exquisite beauty every spring in a huge park.
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10,000 new bulbs are
planted annually, and last year, on the 400th anniversary
of Dutchman Henry Hudson discovering the island of Manhattan
and calling it New Amsterdam, a spectacular flower mosaic
was created depicting the Statue of Liberty. The display
was made up of over 25,000 flower bulbs, with America as
its theme. Each spring visitors throng to Keukenhof for
the dazzling sights and scents, but last year's sounds like
a lollapalooza.
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Dutch
Treats
| Amsterdam
itself features much to see, but at a more leisurely pace
than the larger European capitals. The Anne Frank House
makes for a touching visit, and the houseboats that
throng the canals create a different world. The small but
lovely Van Gogh museum is worth a visit, but part
of the Riikjsmuseum, with more than four hundred
highlights from the Dutch Golden Age, has been under renovation,
though will reopen sometime in 2010. Here Rembrandt's famous
and huge billboard-size The Night Watch, as well as masterpieces
from Hals, Vermeer and others will amaze. |
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If it's more your style,
you can visit the famous Diamond Exchange, or
bicycle for miles on the flat and quaint countryside,
enjoying windmills, wooden shoes, gouda cheese and other
Dutch treats such as acre upon acre of flowering bulbs started
on small and large farms for the Tulip trade.
Holland's great for Spring.
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IF you can,
plan your own European adventure. When you get there, and even
as you prepare, time will seem to stand still and refresh you,
as you immerse yourself in another land, another people, a new
way of seeing life.
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