York, England and Eastern Europe 2014

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This trip got canceled since my husband passed away August, 2013. I decided to go this year and take my cousin.

Since I am using airline vouchers and miles, I had to book our trip to London from Boston. We will be in Boston for a couple of days before heading over to London.





Our Hotels:





Here are the hotels I have selected for this trip.



Boston: The Boston Harbor Hotel





Boston: The Taj Boston













London: The Milestone Hotel and The Stafford Hotel







London: The Milestone Hotel







London: The Stafford Hotel



York: The Mount Royale Hotel









Prague: Alchymist Prague Castle Suites











Vienna: Hotel Imperial







Salzburg: Hotel Sacher Salzburg









Budapest: Corinthia Hotel





Tours:



Boston:

We are taking a walking tour of Boston.

London:

I have two set up for London.

One day, we will do a full day tour out to Leed's Castle and Dover. Another day, we are doing The Total London Experience Tour. It should be fun!

York:

We have our own private guide! One day, we will tour all of York. Another day, we travel to Durham. And the third day, we will see castles and abbeys.

Vienna:

We will be taking a trip out of Vienna to the Vienna Woods and Mayerling. On the agenda is a Roman city called Baden, an abbey built in 1133, and a hunting lodge.

We have a walking tour scheduled and an evening concert at Schonbrunn Palace.

We will take a city historical tour and visit the Schonbrunn Palace.

Prague:

Someone gave me the name of a local guide and we booked her to show us around Prague.

Budapest:

We also got the name of a local guide here and she will take us around Budapest to show us the sights.

Salzburg:

I booked a walking tour and a tour to the Hohenwerfen Fortress, along with a falconry show.



Trains:



I just booked our train from London to York and back to London. We have train passes for the trains between Prague, Vienna, Salzburg, and Budapest.



Transfers:



I have the transfers arranged from the airports.





I guess my next entry will be when we are on our trip! I will probably do like I did last year and put the date I am making an entry.



9/7/2014:

Today was an all day travel day. I got only about 4 hours of sleep so this was a rough day. However, all the flights were on time or early, so it was a good day!

Tomorrow, we are taking a walking tour of Boston.

Good night everyone!



9/8/2014:

Today we took the historical walking tour with a local guide. We were the only ones, so we got special treatment. We saw the old north church, Paul Revere's house, Quincy Marketplace, and the old south meeting house. Our guide also showed us a lot of local neighborhoods and told us about historical building techniques. It was all very interesting. It was a great day.

Tomorrow, we fly to London!



9/13/2014:

We arrived after a long day flying! We didn't get to our hotel until around 9:30 p.m. Trying to find our driver at the airport was madness! There was a sea of people holding placards! There were 100's of them! When I was about to give up, there he was!

The next day we saw the main sights of London: St. Paul's Cathedral, changing of the guard, the Crown Jewels, and the Tower of London. We also were able to see the art display of poppies, there to mark the anniversary of the Battle of Britain.

Note: I will be adding photos later. I am having issues with my devices not using the photo sharing feature.



On the 11th, we saw Leeds Castle. I have seen many castles but this one is the most beautiful to me! I would love to go back and stay for a week. The grounds are fabulous and a dream for walkers!

We also went to Canterbury and Dover. We also made a brief stop at the memorial for the Battle of Britain.

Yesterday, we had a lovely train ride to York! People are amazingly friendly. One lady had her dog with her so I was able to get my "dog fix!"

We have been walking between 3 and 9 miles a day. Travel days are the lightest of course! Even though yesterday was a travel day, we managed to get in a little over 6 miles!

Today, we meet our guide and he will give us a tour of York!



9/18/2014:

I have to admit that I have been bad about updating my blog. I have mainly posted to Facebook. I will try and fill things in and add photos when I get home.

Today, our guide took us to a town that became an internment camp for Jews. The town is Terezin. It was all very interesting but also sad.

Later, we walked over the beautiful Charles bridge and saw fantastic buildings in the old town!

Tomorrow, an easy day and a tour of the castle in the afternoon.

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Comments

[Brother Dan]

Hotels
From the night photo shown of the Mount Royale Hotel it looks more interesting from a quaint historical viewpoint than the other more formal hotels. It has a village inn look to it. Maybe it is just the lack of detail in the night photo. It has an appeal to me.

[travelprincess]

Yes, York is much more village like. It is very interesting and has lots of history.

[Nicola Tomasini]

Upcoming Trip 2013
The hotels that you have chosen are absolutely beautiful. Your intinerary is amazing. I am looking forward to seeing more posts. Always enjoy being kept up to date on your travels.