The Written Word
for June 4, 2000

As I write this I’m about to take Air Canada’s flight to London for a three week vacation in Great Britain and Northern Ireland.

Many people ask me why I visit the Isles (not the British Isles, for that doesn’t include Ireland, not Britain, ditto, and not England because we’ll be in the Principality of Wales ad well as Northern Ireland) and the answer is simple – Wendy and I love it there.

It’s not that I’m not adventuresome – we’ll be visiting South America for the first time early in 01. It’s just that with what I do for a living, I really need a rest when I take off and this is best achieved where I feel relaxed. And relaxed is how I feel in the Isles. The term selected by Norman Davies in his marvelous history of that name published last year.

London is my favourite city to visit and there isn’t really anything close. I suppose it has a lot to do with my passion for history and the extensive reading I do about British history and European history. I love the feel of London, the walks Wendy and I take, and the knowledge that even though I’ve been there over 80 times, I’m almost certain to find something I haven’t seen before.

I like the theater – this time we’ll be seeing the Lion King, Mamma Mia and then, at the new Globe Theater, The Tempest. I’m not by any means a theater buff – in fact I don’t see any movies and am hopeless when trying to carry on a conversation with friends who really know who starred in what and when. Moreover, the big drawback for me and plays is that (a) they’re usually too damned long and (b) they take me well past my bedtime. I find, however, that if I go to matinees both objections are removed so that’s what we do in London. I like getting out of the theater about dinner time instead of either having dinner (and a couple of drinks) before the play, thus ensuring that I’ll have to go to the bathroom during the intermission when everyone else does and probably that I’ll fall asleep, or waiting for dinner until after the theater when there’s scarcely a table to be had.

When we leave London Wendy and I have found the magic way to enjoy ourselves. Instead of being on the go every day, packing and unpacking plus looking for a place to stay, we pick a spot and stay for a week. This trip we’re going to the lovely village of Usk, in Wales for 8 days. Every day, as the mood strikes us, we’ll venture forth on some excursion (and it’s amazing how much you can see in a day’s excursion, then back “home” for the evening, to our own “local” and dinner. It took me a long time to discover this travel technique but for us it’s a winner. I think the best way to do Britain is in two trips. If I had two or three weeks, and I was going to return for a second time, I would take my first trip with several days in London and I would take the best tour of London available which happens to be the Big Bus Company, by a mile. I would then take a bus trip, Trafalgar Tours are good, either a week or two weeks around Britain thus giving yourself a good overview. The second trip, again if I had three weeks, would be several days in London, then get a car at Heathrow (no driving in London, which is to be avoided at all costs) and pick two spots to stay. For example, you might pick one in the Oxford area which, if you’ll look at your map, gives you oodles of places to visit – stay there a week and scoot off to all the places in the Cotswolds and East Anglia you’ve always wanted to visit. Go to Blenheim Palace, Stratford-On-Avon, pop over to Cambridge … you get the drift. And home to the same bed and breakfast or Inn.

Allow a day to travel and head up to the Edinburgh/Glasgow area. I would take Glasgow and visit Edinburgh from there. From Glasgow it’s a lovely days drive up to Glencoe and environs in the Western Highlands, a boat ride on Loch Lomond, down to the Ayrshire Coast and Robbie Burns country and much, much more. Each night return to your home B&B. Leave yourself a day to go back to Heathrow on the Motorway system.

These are just a couple of examples. Wendy and I have done similar “In-and-outers” from the West Country, from Yorkshire, from Salisbury, and from Leicester to name but a few.

And why Northern Ireland for the fourth time in the last five years?

Because it’s beautiful, fascinating historically and the people are terrific. Going back and forth into the Republic is a cinch and you can see a lot of the whole of Ireland from one central location.

So there we have it – why we love the Isles. And by the way, eat your heart out! In August we’re off for a week in the very north-west corner of Scotland and then a week in Orkney … with fly-rods in hand, naturally!