All right, I will try and recreate what I posted earlier before the forum played another trick on me!

September is when we were looking at coming, (haven't bought tickets yet) for 2 weeks. I kind of thought that it would make sense to start at the farthest point from London first and work our way back. I am still getting funny looks from Dan over a side trip to Latvia (sorry Joanna!) so I am guessing that would be Danuta!

And I have to go see Barbara, and I'll have to go find Val, and I have to seek out Cornwall and Ruth….

And Kate was going to collect us at Heathrow…

And at some point we need to go find Danny and Fiona….

I told Dan maybe we are going to have to separate and he can go see all the trains he wants, and I can go visiting all the people I can squeeze in…

Danuta, are you coming in October or November? If your here in November I can take you around for the Thanksgiving wine tasting, that's when they tap the casks on the new vintages…

Michelle from Oregon said:

Michelle from Oregon said:

Mass Transit – iffy.

Don't plan on moving too quickly – gotcha'.

But what else? Where should we go? What should we see?

Where do you go when you have a couple of days?

Mass transport is good compared to the US! My sister-in-law and niece visited a couple of years ago, and did not have a car, and got almost everywhere they wanted to by train. From here you can get to the Lost Gardens of Heligan (see Ruthie's post), driving, in about an hour and a half–well, P can, I am more of a town driver and do not like the roads in the southwest, too narrow! Anywhere that is 2-way and barely is wide enough for one car is not to my liking.

Danny and Fiona would be a side trip from London. Val, Ruthie and I are in the same direction from London. (Unless Val is in France. ) Dan could do train trips around where you are. He'd need to check time tables to see which of the preserved lines are running at that time of year.

We do day trips from here. My next trip away will be to daughter, based in Bradford area. From there we will do a couple of day trips, by train/bus since she doesn't have a car and pubic transport is good in that area. Train to Settle? York? Harrogate? Skipton, Ilkley, Leeds Farmer's Market? Next trip away with P will probably be Winchester. (For that we will use a carshare car so we can visit places en route and in the area when we get there.) And we keep meaning to do a couple of days in Cornwall to do some of the gardens that we haven't seen yet, though most we do from here in a day. And as a longer trip we are talking about Scotland–out of the midge season!

So you can do the whole of the UK in 2 weeks, with 5 minutes in each place…. or do fewer places for longer, or come for more than 2 weeks. (I know, limited vacation time. But 3 weeks is a lot longer and less time in proportion is lost to jet lag….)

As for slow public transport–we went from Vancouver to Seattle by train, and then Oakland to Santa Barbara by train last fall. Both were good, especially the second. But most Americans wouldn't consider doing it that way! One train a day from Oakland to Santa Barbara, taking 9 hours or whatever it was–ridiculous! There are lots of trains from London to Edinburgh, about 400 miles, every day. And several from Penzance to Edinburgh and further on in Scotland daily. It gives you both a chance to look out the window and see the quaint countryside.