Sept 21, return to London, Warwick Castle

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Sept 21, back to London, Warwick Castle

It's Sunday evening, back in London - tried to get on to the Internet, but wimped out. At the desk I was cheerfully told that it was cheaper to use a credit card, rather than their L7.50 voucher for about an hour. When I tried to go the credit card route, which came up at L6.00, I kept getting a security domain error message, so I didn't want to put in my cc number. It was too late to wander over to the KFC nearby that claims to have free wifi - I have to get up at 0430 for my connection to the airport. And hope I have better luck at Gatwick with wifi access.

Yesterday was an excellent day, but today, our last day, was yet another disappointing day. Poor breakfast, lots of driving, a visit to Warwick castle and more lack of information about things. Some fun company with some of the other singles has kind of saved this trip (along with seeing several really good sites).

I slipped in the tiny shower this morning which messed up my back/hip again, and two of the women who have even more physical problems than I do went to bat for me to try to get me a better way to the airport tomorrow. I'm a little concerned about how much of my luggage handling I'll have to do. They got better info from the tour director than I had gotten after asking her about 3 times. Most people are leaving from Heathrow, which is much closer, altho it's also bigger - and altho I'm used to wrangling my own stuff, now that I'm sometimes using a cane, I'm a little concerned how it's going to work . Hopefully I'll be having a good day tomorrow and not twist anything in the morning. It just proves that you have to be prepared for anything to happen when you're traveling.

At least I'm not facing what the mother-daughter duo had to deal with - with having to have the son/brother fly over from Australia to help out with getting the mother home. I hope they make it okay - the mom had a bad chest infection, altho she can get around somewhat okay.

Altho I can see that it could be a fun family attraction, Warwick Castle was not a good stop for us on this particular tour. It's a grand old site, that has been turned into kind of a theme park type place, with Madame Tussaud's wax figures, some medieval demonstrations, and so forth. The weather was beautiful, and it's Sunday, so it was very busy - difficult to get around part of it because of that (and of course, since I'm gimpy, the stairs were a problem). Got some nice photos, tho, and a couple of fun ones. Had a pleasant lunch of cottage pie, with good vegs and beer, about L8.65 ($15.00 !).

We got back to the hotel at the time TD had expected (most of us would rather have skipped Warwick after we saw what it was, and had a little time in London), and then she told us that we needed to have our vouchers to check in - many of us had left them in our luggage. Why she couldn't have told us that yesterday remains a mystery (she went off-duty upon arrival back in London). Fortunately, the reception people at this hotel are very good - they just needed our passport, and asked us to bring the voucher in later. I guess we were supposed to pay closer attention to our documents, and keep them available at all times.

Had a fun pub dinner with our “group” -- those who could make it - we went over all the annoying little details again, and talked some about the things we enjoyed. Had fish and chips (L6.95) and Old Speckled Hen Ale (L3.09 a pint - a rather odd price, but used up a few of my small pence). There were 5-7 of us and when they went back to the hotel, just across the street (the pub is on a side street - someone has to tell you it's there), another group of some of our couples adopted me til I finished my second beer - they had a lot of the same complaints as well - and had been on other Insight motorcoach tours that they really enjoyed. I guess a TD (tour director) can make or break a trip.

With some tweaking, this could be a great itinerary, instead of just good/okay - there were several good stops, but a lot of missed opportunities, that would have fit in with the timing and theme of the tour. Many people were unhappy about the hotels (and I guess I found them aggravating as well, based on the cost of the tour and the brochure), but I've certainly stayed in much worse places - they were certainly adequate, altho limited for some safety/mobility/accessibility and comfort concerns. We had people with some mobility difficulties (not extreme, but a little limiting) that had to cope with carrying their hand luggage up 2 or 3 flights of stairs, and the tour information did not warn us about that at all. I think it may have said it was not suitable for wheelchairs, but no indication that it was as strenuous as it turned out to be. The TD did appear to make efforts to request rooms that were easier access for some of us, but it was not always successful. Granted, there are old buildings here, and they're not expected to meet our American ADA standards, but the tour company is marketing to us, so they should be using facilities that are more reasonable for accommodations. (They certainly are marketing to an older part of the population).

My room is Art Deco, and I asked for one closer to the elevators (lifts) and she did that for me. I have two twin beds, some of the singles group have 3 beds, one has four. I have more road noise than my previous room here, and drafty windows, with a distant view of the London Eye.

I am looking forward to going home, but I wish I had added an extra day (or two) so I didn't have to get up in the middle of the night to head to the airport, after being so exhausted from the tour. I'm supposed to be picked up here at 5:30 a.m. to go to Victoria Station to transfer to a train, to go out to Gatwick for a flight at about 10:30 a.m. (Not sure why it takes 5 hours - to beat rush hour Monday morning traffic maybe?). Gatwick is quite a ways a way, but ?

With the confusing road signs, all the roundabouts, the traffic, and driving on the other side of the road, I think it would be very challenging here to drive on my own. The motorcoach does take care of that, but it has a lot of limitations also. I wonder if a better plan might be to have a base of operations somewhere (not London, it's too expensive), and take day bus trips, and use the excellent train system. This is certainly a wonderful country to visit - great/awesome things to see, really good beer, and pretty good food (except for breakfast). And pretty friendly people.

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Photos

Wax figures representing Victorian era
There is a range of time periods covered at Warwick. It is nice that they allow photos inside.

Our final evening at the nearby pub
Most of the single ladies from the tour made an early evening of it -- a very enjoyable group.