Help!! Info needed re trip to England (Full Version)

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GoddessDustyGold -> Help!! Info needed re trip to England (5/21/2006 5:24:33 PM)

To any from across the pond!  Help!!!!!!!!!
My mother has taken it into her head that we will be going to England this summer.  She wants to stay for a month.  My sis-in-law thinks a week is great.  I am willing to compromise on two weeks.
I have spent the last few hours online searching for cottages.  I can also look at houses, farmhouses or condo/townhouses, but I think we need to keep it to about  450 pounds per week.  Less is better, a little more is probably doable.   With all this time already invested, I have come to the conclusion that I have no idea what I am doing!
Can anyone please tell Me...
What is a hob?
What is a cooker?
When I read shower over WC...what am I reading?
What is the Eurotunnel terminal?
I think we would like to be in the countryside...probably southeast of London.  So, My geography being so lousy, I am thinking I should be looking in the Kent, Brighton, Bournemouth areas?  I am totally confused with the descriptions I am reading.  I am not sure if I am reading geographical locations as shires, counties, towns or what!  I wish I had about  a year to stay since it all sounds so wonderful.
We will need to be not too far from London (about 1 hour driving?) and reasonably close to a medical facility since I worry that the Mother is in her 70's and not so great sometimes.  I also see that most rentals seem to be on two floors, and one floor would be helpful.
Any advice and direction is greatly appreciated.  I am all for the gardens and the castles and quiet walks or a bike ride.  Mom wants to see the sights in London, but not stay in London proper. And I will probably be coming back with more questions.  I am glad I am reading English...it is definitely the King's English and not American!  *Smile*
Thanks so much.  I will check back here, or also check email.
I love you all! 




maybemaybenot -> RE: Help!! Info needed re trip to England (5/21/2006 5:30:44 PM)

I'm not from UK, but can answer a couple of your Qs.
. A cooker is a stove, a hob is a stovetop,
WC is water closet, which means bathroom
The eurotunnel is the tunnel that connects UK to France, if I am not mistaken.

                   mbmbn




PAVANE -> RE: Help!! Info needed re trip to England (5/21/2006 5:39:51 PM)

Hi , I am from the UK. The reply below is correct about hob and cooker. I dont know what 'shower over wc means'. The eurotunnel terminal is near Dover on theenglish channel. It where the car carrying trains terminate. There is also a euro star terminal at waterloo station central london. the tunnel takes you under the channel with trains to paris brussels etc.
castles and gardens? well theres lots an hours drive away. Do you have a good map if you do i could list some and some towns you might like to stay in.

mick




GoddessDustyGold -> RE: Help!! Info needed re trip to England (5/21/2006 5:51:01 PM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: PAVANE

castles and gardens? well theres lots an hours drive away. Do you have a good map if you do i could list some and some towns you might like to stay in.

mick


LOL...No map.  I have been trying to access something helpful online.  I know Mom wants to stay in one place outside of London as a homebase, and make little treks from there.  So I am trying to figure out where the best
places are to look for cottage rentals.  I see tons of places, and the locations are totally confusing without a map.  Bath? Brighton? Kent?  Bournemouth?  I am not even sure if Kent is a town or a county. 
When I am looking, I have no idea if I will be in the boondocks, or suddenly find something only to realize it is 3 or 4 hours away from London.  We will probably rent a car, so we can go either by train or private car, depending on the plans for any given day.  I also realize we will be traveling during the high season, so I am stuck with that.  Prices are prices, and, of course, she wants to go now!




NastyDaddy -> RE: Help!! Info needed re trip to England (5/21/2006 6:01:14 PM)

A fag is a cigarette
Bloody means other things (a lot of them)
Tea time means 1600 (4 pm)
Time is told often in 24 hour format (2400) as above example
Steering wheels are on the wrong side, so they drive on the wrong side...
A loo (lou) is also a term for the bathroom (WC)
Metric, but currency in pounds (Kilo Sterling sounds goofy)
A kilometer (km) is 6/10 of a mile (or .6 miles)
Knock me up means a wake up call

I'd recommend a google search for UK accommodations, or SE London accommodations for a start and narrow the area down. In many places where former NATO air bases and army bases were closed there are quite nice accommodations and available often, but most were W or SW of London (ie. Bentwaters). It sounds like you are thinking of the Stonehenge area, which is a major tourist draw which impacts acommodations considerably.

If you're into UFO's, Bentwaters Air Base is where the UFO's were reported to have landed back in the 80's.

Added:

You can get maps and topos many places on the net, try http://www.mapquest.com or Yahoo Maps and use London UK as the city. You can also search google for world maps, and use google earth. Once you find the one you prefer, zoom in on the countryside for your interest area.


  




MHOO314 -> RE: Help!! Info needed re trip to England (5/21/2006 6:02:39 PM)

I think as soon as RavenMuse wakes, He will be able to help--




slavejali -> RE: Help!! Info needed re trip to England (5/21/2006 6:11:24 PM)

Check out the bed and breakfasts across the UK....really worth looking into.[:)]




PAVANE -> RE: Help!! Info needed re trip to England (5/21/2006 7:21:22 PM)

Bath Brighton and Bournemouth are all towns. Kent is a county. Generally speaking if a name ends in shire its a county (except kent lol).
I strongly suggest you get a map.
btw we are NOT metric despite what nastydaddy says.
I'll have a think in the morning about where you could base yourself.




NastyDaddy -> RE: Help!! Info needed re trip to England (5/21/2006 9:22:24 PM)

oops, I was under the impression the UK uses the metric system as does mainland europe where I spent most of my time.

I'm guessing reading 'shower' over 'WC' indicates a bathroom equipped with a full shower (versus small square tub w/bidet).




meatcleaver -> RE: Help!! Info needed re trip to England (5/21/2006 11:46:39 PM)

You really don't want to be thinking about driving into London. You want to find a cottage near a town with a railway station where you can park a car if you are hiring one and catch the train into London. If you want to be in to the centre of London within an hour, that gives you a lot of areas to cover. Keeping your costs down might mean looking elsewhere than Kent or Surrey etc. 450 pounds a week sounds an awful lot to me but I can believe the robbing bastards are charging it down there.

There are some beautiful places in Kent but if you are interested in castles such as Windsor and Hampton Court, they are over the other side of London on the Surrey/Berkshire side. It will be a long trek round the M25, the London circular to visit them. If you are on the west side of London there used to be a ferry ride up river from Hampton Court, that is a nice way to get into London if you have the time. I don't know if it is still running or not. Actually if you look on the west London side you might find cheaper cottages. Hmm Then there is Leeds castle in Kent.

If you want walks in the country you are better staying on the west side of London. That way you have easy access to London but you can also drive west towards Wiltshire and the west country or south west towards the New Forest in Hampshire which is beautiful and probably what you are looking for. Here is a map of counties just to show you the rough geographical areas. If you want more detailed help, let me know precisely what you are looking for and I'll try and give you the info.

http://www.picturesofengland.com/mapofengland/counties-map.html

Shower over WC, I haven't a clue what that is but it sounds to me as if the place is small. A lot of the cottages you see for holiday hire are very quaint and pretty but they were originally farm labourers cottages so they weren't very big. One could imagine whole families sleeping in one room and generations of a family looking suspiciously alike and getting mentally simpler with each generation.

Actually it looks a good site, the one with the map http://www.picturesofengland.com
There are links to cottages but I can't believe the prices they are charging. It seems very expensive to me. Maybe that is why English people go to France and Spain for their holidays! lol




twicehappy -> RE: Help!! Info needed re trip to England (5/22/2006 5:16:08 AM)

You need to email one cutie named cheekysmile here on CM, tell her twice, Scooter and Jewel sent you. She lives in England with her hubby, they are lovely people and have been to our home before. Cheeky was in my owners collar of protection for a couple of years; a tip, bribe her with peppermints from the U.S.A., lol. 




TheLegend -> RE: Help!! Info needed re trip to England (5/22/2006 1:50:10 PM)

I am from Kent and  am pretty sure I can put you in the right direction. Pretty busy at the moment but give me a couple of days and I will come up with the info in the meantime feel free to email.




PAVANE -> RE: Help!! Info needed re trip to England (5/23/2006 12:59:31 PM)

hi nastydaddy on re reading what u said r u getting mixed up with the fact we use decimal currency?




NastyDaddy -> RE: Help!! Info needed re trip to England (5/23/2006 1:37:38 PM)

lol, distance being in meters and km, speeds in kmph and liters all around you is reminiscent of the metric system yes... but what about a 'pint' of ale? [;)] 

As far as a yard of ale... isn't that the coach drivers longnecked drinking vessel... (with or without the coach)?  




mnottertail -> RE: Help!! Info needed re trip to England (5/23/2006 1:42:35 PM)

apparently, you shouldn't go to england via the bermuda triangle....just fyi.

LOLOL,
Ron




siouxie -> RE: Help!! Info needed re trip to England (5/23/2006 4:06:42 PM)

i'm from near bournemouth - i think you'dlike to stay between bournemouth and the new forest, as that way you will have the countryside, coast, and towns, and still be close to london.

feel free to message me if you want any advice or info.




LadyMedhbh -> RE: Help!! Info needed re trip to England (5/24/2006 12:13:31 PM)

Hello,

I live in Austria and have been all over Europe, including the UK.  Just so you are aware, "shower over WC" may mean exactly that... that the toilet (Water Closet) and the shower are in one location, ie. the shower head is directly located over the toilet and you pull the door closed around the toilet to keep water from going everywhere.  I tend to travel on an itty bitty budget and have run across this exact thing once or twice.





darkinshadows -> RE: Help!! Info needed re trip to England (5/24/2006 4:36:29 PM)

A hob is the top part of an oven for boiling/frying etc.
A cooker is the seperate part of an oven, which bakes.
A shower over is usually a shower over the bath(they just do not add that part) with the toilet in the same room.  Otherwise they usually write *seperate WC*.
Eurotunnel is the train that goes beneath the sea to France.
 
I live in the county of Cornwall, which is the SW tip of the UK on the map.  To give you some idea of traveling... it takes me approximately 5 hours to get into London City from my location by British Rail.
 
British Rail is the overground train service.
The underground is just that... an underground train network - also known as the 'tube'.  That covers most of London and surrounding areas.
 
Surrey is a good place to come from(I loved there about 7 years) - little travelling time and has wonderful countryside - Try Kingston or Wimbledon Village... they have the most beautiful places to rent and it has some lovely river views and journeys and is easy to commute to London Central.  There is also Richmond.  Beware that these areas may be expensive.
 
Driving into London would be a very bad idea!
 
Bounmouth and Brighton are lovely areas - but will take a couple of hours commuting into London via Train.
 
I would suggest maybe staying close to London to take in all the city a few days - then move out and try a different county as travelling into London daily is very hard work.
 
I would say visit Cornwall... but then I am biased... It is beautiful here.
Feel able to contact me for anything I can assist with.  I was born in London - I am a cockney (Bow bells and all that) - so I know it well.  And above all - have a wonderful trip!
 
Peace and Rapture




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