England

October 10 - November 11, 2006

After years of running around the country, spending a night here and a couple of nights there, we thought we’d rent a house and invite people to come visit us. It was a brilliant idea and it’s hard to think we’ll go back to our old way of visiting after this.

We rented a 3 bedroom apartment in Broadway, in the Cotswolds. It was a lovely place, apart from there was no internet connection. Not only was there none in the apartment, there was none in the entire village. We had to drive 12 miles to Starbucks! We were a little concerned at first that we’d become addicted to the internet, but quickly realised that it’s not an addiction, it our primary tool for everything - communication, information, finances… For example, you’re on vacation - ‘what shall we do today?’ we would normally turn to the internet where we’d find what to do, how to get there, and what the weather’s going to be like to boot. We still enjoyed our vacation, but an internet connection will be mandatory from here on in.

Even though the trip was much more restful than our usual trips, we still managed to pack plenty in. We had Pete and Ali stay for a weekend with their 3 girls; spent a weekend in Brighton with Roman’s brother, went to Portsmouth to see the Mary Rose and HMS Victory; visited a couple of country houses, went to Bletchley Park which was a brilliant day out; Roman’s sister and her family rented a house near us so we hiked with them; caught up with some old TI friends of Roman’s; had Anthony and Shannon stay with us for a weekend; met a friend from Truckee in London for the day; had an excessive bonfire night with the Dyers; took in some theatre; and did lots of hiking.

The weather was exceptional for the time of year - we were even able to hike in t-shirts some days. It was a great trip, even without our own internet connection.

< Previous Page

Next Page >