Travel with Dale & Margaret

We got up about 8:30 am to a wonderful, big English breakfast that Judy made for us.  It was a lot of food and we were happy to have this sustenance as we went for a walk-about around the property.  This included Margaret seeing the sheep with the blue spots on their back.  As we approached the house Franco came out and gave a tour of his storage sheds and all his gardening equipment.  There were a lot of doors to open and many have their son’s growing collection of extra stuff in them.

After our first glass of compulsory champagne of the day we headed down the hill to go to lunch at The Venture In in the village of Ombersly.  It started to rain as we left the Range Rover but we got safely inside the cozy entry which also doubled as their bar.  Like many of the pubs/restaurants in this part of the UK it was hundreds of years old, had pretty low ceilings and hand-hewn beams.  The menu only had four course fixed price brunch with several choices for each course.  The wine arrived and we each made our choices.

After seeing the huge pigeons walking around our house Dale had to try the local pigeon.  With her braces, Margaret went for the softest things on the menu.  The food was great as was the wine, talks with the servers and our hosts Judy and Franco.

Next we drove to Witley Court and Gardens in Great Witley.  This was once one of the most lavish estates in the country including its own incredible Barouque Church.  There is quite a story of its development over the past few hundred years but, in the end, it was sacked, much of the stone, furnishings and other accutrements ended up in local homes and the only thing left is a beautiful small church and the ruins of the house.  Turns out that the wealthy often built churches on their property near the main house and let the local folks attend church there.  We’d see that in another estate the next day.

As we left it started pouring rain so we killed the idea of going to the local safari park and instead started thinking of an Africa cruise on the Explorer.  We went “home” and decided to just take it easy.  Out came the champagne, scotch and vodka and in came their son Ross and his wife Dom for a nice visit.  They decided to stay for dinner and Judy effortlessly prepared us another incredible feast.  It was truly a grand time.  Sadly, we forgot to take pictures of everyone.

Pictures and edits coming soon.

The roads in We laid our fancy seats flat and slept for probably 5 hours.  We woke up to breakfast being served and we arrived approximately 30 minutes early into Heathrow.  One thing we failed to discuss yesterday was that the lavatories on the A380 are the biggest we’ve ever seen in the sky.  Plenty of room to stretch out and even a full-length mirror!  In retrospect they can’t compare to the incredible bathrooms in our Explorer suite but this one can be used at 30,000 feet.

We texted Judy and discovered they were already at the airport!  We went through passport control and waited for our bags.  Judy and Franco were waiting for us at the exit area in the terminal.  We walked to their Range Rover in the Car Park and got underway for the 2 hour drive to their country home.  The roads got progressively narrower until the hedgerows were lightly touching the sides of the car.  Turns out that you can’t legally trim your hedgerows in the summer because they are the homes of lots of birds and they do like their birds over here.  Along the way we received an education on the naming of UK roads.

The biggest ones, equivalent to freeways in the states are called Motorways.  For instance, M1 and M4.  The next level are divided highways, many with two lanes on each side.  These are called A roads.  We ended up on A443 on our trip.  After than, you don’t get any letters but they turn into non-divided roads which are perhaps wide enough for two cars but barely.  Next come roads, like Netherton Lane which takes you to country houses, which are barely wide enough for a typical car.  To add more complications, there are “hedgerows” on either side of the road which are upwards of 12 feet or taller and they cannot be trimmed certain months of the year to protect the wildlife that lives in them.  Scratchs on your car are commonplace.  Fortunately, the trimming started while we were there so we got to see them both ways.

As we drove up to their home there were beautiful fields all around and lots of sheep.  A neighbor uses the lower part of their land to raise sheep and there are currently about 30. Their property is beautiful and their home, originally built in 1570 as the main house on a farm and remodeled several years ago is beautiful.  We took a quick tour and found our room upstairs.  We had two rooms across a hall from each other with a large full bath in one and a powder room in the hallway.  One we used for sleeping and the other for storing our many bags of luggage.

Judy and Franco offered a pre-shower beverage to Margaret (champagne) and while Margaret took a shower, Dale walked down the grassy hill to where the sheep lived and got to see the lay of the land.  After Margaret was refreshed, they joined Judy and Franco in the kitchen for more celebratory beverages.  Dinner was a fantastic multi-course extravaganza.  Judy fetched their new granddaughter Sarafina and posed for some pictures.  We also got a chance to meet her son Ross for a few minutes.

We fell into bed around 11:00 pm after lots of fun, laughter, wine (7 bottles went to the bin in the morning) and incredible food.  We were asleep as soon as our heads hit the pillow.  Definitely a full and fun day with two more to go at Upper Norchard Farm.

Pictures and edits coming.  The internet is slow on the ship.

After doing some gardening up to the last minute, Dale finished some last-minute packing and loaded all the bags into the car.  They were going to use Uber but, because their dear friend and adopted “mom” Mabel was not doing well they figured they could drive to Reno upon their return to visit her.  Having their car would be a good thing.

Margaret insisted on leaving a “bit” early so they would miss the dreadful traffic for which Silicon Valley is famous.  While Dale thought leaving at 1:30 pm for a 7:30 pm flight was a bit too early, it paid off.

The traffic on the other side Southbound lanes of the 101 were awful, other than a couple mile-long sections they breezed right along and arrived at 3:00 pm at the off-airport parking lot.  A quick shuttle ride later they found themselves the only people in the large checkout area at British Airways.  It took less than 5 minutes for the whole process and the attendant was quite nice.  She told us our Business Class seats would give us access to go to the British Airways lounge which.

Security took about 15 minutes but was painless.  Our gate was the first one we came to but we continued another 200 feet to the lounge.  This was a nice thing since we hadn’t had lunch yet and they had several choices of sandwiches, cheeses, chips and even some nice vegetable soup.  And, of course, several kinds of wine and a nice selection of beers and hard liquor.  And, it was all self-serve!  A great way to spend a few hours before our flight.  We settled down into some reasonably comfortable leather chairs that were in front of a wide-screen TV, plugged in our iPhones and Macs and started eating and drinking.

We boarded the A380, went up the stairs to the second level Business Class section and began to settle in.  Our seats were engineered so we could lay flat with a divider between us.  Margaret was facing towards the rear of the plane, me the front.

Our flight attendant was a very nice lady from Liverpool.  A brief conversation with Margaret uncovered that she also had braces on so she and Margaret got to exchange some stories about that.  We ate dinner and turned off our televisions for a nice sleep.

Margaret is turning 50 next January.  She has always wanted to go to Ireland since her heritage is Irish/Czech with a couple other things thrown in for good measure.  Since she has never been to Ireland she picked a trip to that part of the world.  Since the weather is pretty awful in January she decided to go in September.  So, we are off on a new adventure and the first cruise we’ve had in quite a while.

We will start by flying from San Francisco to London (Business Class, upper level on an Airbus A380…the biggest plane in the sky).  Our dear friends Judy and Franco will pick us up at the airport and take us to their home in the country.  They will be kindly hosting us for 3 days at their beautiful estate.  Then, they will drive us to the port in Southhampton where we will board Regent’s newest ship the Explorer.  Our itinerary and links to available content are below.  Just click on the date if it is highlighted.

Sep 8  Fri — Depart San Francisco

Sep 9 Sat — Arrive London

Sep 10 Sun — Visiting the Midlands

Sep 11 Mon — Midlands Continued

Sep 12  Tue – Depart London (Southampton), UK (England)

Sep 13  Wed — Cruising the North Sea

Sep 14  Thu — New Castle, UK (England)

Sep 15  Fri — Edinburgh (New Haven), UK (Scotland)

Sep 16  Sat — Cruising the Coast of Scotland

Sep 17  Sun — Belfast, Ireland

Sep 18  Mon — Dublin, Ireland

Sep 19  Tue — Liverpool, UK (England)

Sep 20 — Wed — Cork/Cobh, Ireland

Sep 21  Thu  — Dartmouth, UK (England)

Sep 22  Fri — London (Southampton), England

We will then fly back on the A380 to San Francisco.