Jonathan and I have been happily married since 2006. We took a trip to England shortly after we were married, before I legally changed my last name to Jon’s last name. My American driver’s license was still in my maiden name to match my passport. I did not have any problems going through customs in England or the United States.

When we got home from that trip we put our passports away and did not think anymore about them. When Jonathan called me last September to tell me that we had won the “Face of Opportunity” contest from British Airways, we were both over the moon. As we talked about the trip we planned what we were going to do, what we’d pack and who we’d meet. The last things on our minds were our passports – something you just don’t think about because you always have it.

That is until one night three weeks before the trip. I was laying in bed watching television as Jonathan came running into the bedroom in a panic. He remembered that my maiden name was still on my passport. We had forgotten to have it changed when I legally changed my name. Now all of my documentation saying who I was did not match my passport. Jonathan had booked the trip and all the tickets were in my married name.

We were unsure of what to do. With a three-week window in order to fix the name on the passport we knew it would be very risky to have the name changed. See, to make changes to an American passport, you have to send your current one in and they issue you a new passport. So, essentially I had a chance that I would be left without a passport at all in the amount of time before the trip. I called the British Airways trip hotline and explained the dilemma to them. They assured me that with the correct documentation, which I already had in my possession, that I could pass through customs without incident.

The documentation you need if your name on your passport is different that your married name:

• Birth Certificate
• Driver’s License
• Marriage License
• Social Security Card

As we prepared to leave for our trip, I assembled all of my documentation that would assure any customs officer that I was who I said I was. Having to carry it all around was probably overkill – but I wanted to be sure.

As we went in for landing at Heathrow I remarked to Jonathan that I did not want to see the room with the purple chairs. We are big fans of the television show UK Border Force. The room with the purple chairs is where customs officers send people with discrepancies in their documentation. In most cases, the people who sit in the room with purple chairs are often sent home.

Much to my relief, I did not visit the room with the purple chairs. In fact, I went easily through immigration as Heathrow and through Chicago when I returned home. The passports have not been put away since returning home, mine is sitting right next to my computer so I remember to have it changed. Like I said, I don’t want to ever sit in the room with the purple chairs.

Reluctant Anglophile: Dealing With a Passport Snafu – Maiden Name on Passport is a post from: Anglotopia.net

Editor’s Note – In case you missed any of the posts about our recent trip to England, here’s an aggregated list of all the posts so you can check out what you didn’t have a chance to read. Enjoy!

Trip to England 2009 – Day One – The British Airways Face to Face Events – In case you’re new to the blog I thought I should give a brief explanation as to how we got to go on the trip. Basically we won a contest. British Airways held a contest called the Face of Opportunity – and it’s premise was the businesses are more successful if you conduct meetings and deals face to face instead of via the phone or e-mail. So, they launched a brilliant contest to help small business owners achieve their goals by facilitating those face to face meetings. Click to read more.

Trip to England 2009 – Day Two – London Arrival and More British Airways Face to Face Events – Every time I’ve landed in London, I’ve always had to get off the plane on the tarmac, pile into a bus and drive to the terminal, which was old, dingy and usually involved a lot of walking. It was never a pleasant experiece – especially after being on a plane for 8 hours. Click to read more.

Trip to England 2009 – Day Three – Being a Tourist for a Day in London – Due to the shortness of our trip to England – we were only going to have one full day in London and we wanted to make the most of it. As Dispatches from the North Columnist Lisa Coulson wrote about in the weeks up to our trip, she’d had a tempestuous relationship with London and wanted to get the grand tour from me – someone who had a passion for London despite it’s warts. Click to read more.

Trip to England 2009 – Day Four – Leaving London for Salisbury and Shaftesbury – Even though we’d had an exhausting day touring the sites in London the day before – I still woke up around 5am. I blame jet lag and excitement. We had another busy day planned and I couldn’t wait to get it started! Click to read more.

Trip to England – Day Five – The Heaven That is Shaftesbury, Updown Cottage, Weymouth – On Saturday I awoke in our warm, soft and comfortable bed in Updown Cottage. I woke up as the sun was coming up. I didn’t want to miss a beautiful Dorset sunrise as the Blackmore vale was filled with sunlight. That didn’t quite happen though, as it was raining and quite windy. But I still managed to take far too many pictures than were necessary of that early morning… Click to read more.

Trip to England 2009 – Day 6 – Final Bits of England and the Journey Home – This will be a rather short post and will be the hardest to write. I woke up again ridiculously early to photograph the morning in Shaftesbury. It was raining and blustery. One thing I was really looking forward to was picking up the Sunday papers and having a cup of tea on our last morning in Updown Cottage… Click to read more.

A Video Tour of Updown Cottage – The self catering cottage that we stayed in Shaftesbury, Dorset. Heaven on Earth. Can’t wait to go back.

Random Observations from our Trip to England – A collection of seemingly random thoughts about our trip and England in general.

Pictures from our Trip - Check out this post for all our trip related pictures.

A New Dream Achieved – Everyone I Know Must Read This Post – A special post dedicated to everyone who played a part in making the whole trip possible.

Trip To England 2009 – Recap of All Posts is a post from: Anglotopia.net

Luggage is the worst part of traveling.

Driving on the left just feels right.

If you think you’re good at starting a fire – you probably aren’t.

Sometimes, it just makes more sense to take a cab everywhere.

You don’t have enough time to do everything you want to do, even if you think you do.

The British were the most friendly they’ve ever been to us on any trip before and made us feel very welcome.

Terminal Five is awesome. Enough said.

I love British Airways. So what?

I hated the movie ’500 Days of Summer’ on the airplane. Reminded me too much of previous experience.

Airplane food isn’t that bad after all.

I’m finally in love with drinking tea. I get it now. I now keep a tea stash in my desk at work of delicious Devonshire tea.

Yes, the Brits even do a bathtub tap differently.

Under no circumstance should you turn on international data roaming on your iPhone. Or send text messages.

Gordon Ramsey really knows how to run a restaurant. And cook a delicious steak.

Peep Show is the funniest show I’ve ever seen, it’s up their with Yes, Minister in my book.

When driving in the UK, watch out for Pheasant crossings. Yes, I said PHEASANT.

The fact that the Evening Standard is now free is awesome. It’s better than ever.

Don’t expect a restaurant you last ate at 3 years ago to have the same menu. That was disappointing.

If you want good fish and chips, make sure a local takes you to a place he frequents.

Cathedrals never stop being amazing.

WiFi really is essential to living. It’s up there with water.

If you’re flight from the USA comes in at 7 in the morning in London, take the Heathrow Express into London, don’t take a bus, car or taxi.

The US Embassy in Grosvenor Square is by far the ugliest building in London. On behalf of all Americans, I apologize for it. At least we’re building a new one!

No matter how much I love Britain – it still always feels good to have US Customs say to you “Welcome Home.”

Random Observations from Our Trip to England 2009 is a post from: Anglotopia.net

While we stayed in Updown Cottage, I took the chance to use my iPhone to take a video tour of Updown Cottage in Shaftesbury, Dorset, so that you guys could get an idea of just how lovely the place really is.

If you’re looking to get away from it all and stay in your own Self Catering Accommodation in Dorset, then Updown Cottage is a MUST.

The tour is about 7 minutes long, please forgive the wind at the beginning and the Blair Witch style camerawork. Updown Cottage deserves better!

If you’d like to stay in Updown Cottage – then check out their website for details and to check on availability. Happy Travels!

A Video Tour of Updown Cottage – Self Catering Cottage in Shaftesbury, Dorset is a post from: Anglotopia.net

My Final Shot of Gold Hill – and England

Editor’s Note: This is the fifth part in a week long series about our fantastic trip to England two weeks ago. If you’d like to see the rest of the posts about our journey, click here.

This will be a rather short post and will be the hardest to write.

I woke up again ridiculously early to photograph the morning in Shaftesbury. It was raining and blustery. One thing I was really looking forward to was picking up the Sunday papers and having a cup of tea on our last morning in Updown Cottage.

I set out pretty early, grabbed a few pictures, but then the rain started pouring and by the time I’d stopped at the news agents to get the newspapers, I was soaked from head to toe.

But I didn’t mind. It wouldn’t be a proper British Holiday if I wasn’t miserably wet, right?

Our flight was at 3:30 in the afternoon, so we had a half a day to enjoy the rest of our trip. We planned 3 hours to get us to Heathrow by car, which ended up being plenty of time.

We read our newspapers, Jackie didn’t have as much luck with breakfast as I did the day before, so we just snacked, enjoyed our tea, the newspapers and our last glimpses of the Blackmore Vale from the dining room.

One thing I had been afraid to do during our entire stay was drive the car up the cobbles on Gold Hill to Updown Cottage – it just seemed wrong to do so and it was quite a narrow squeeze to get up the hill and I didn’t fancy finding out how good the insurance was that we’d paid through the nose for. However, I didn’t really want to lug all our luggage back down Gold Hill and walk them down St. James to our car to load it up.

So, with much bravery and gusto – I managed to drive all the way to the top of Gold Hill, turn the car around and park it in front of Updown Cottage to load up the car. I was quite pleased with myself.

With much sadness we loaded the car, tidied up the cottage, left a small gift for Simon and Jane and piled into the car and left Updown Cottage for the airport.

We’ll be back.

Driving to Heathrow

I was still a little bummed that we’d missed our chance to see Stonehenge, but as we went down the A303 towards London, I realized that the A303 actually runs practically next to the national monument.

So, about 40 minutes into a drive, sure enough there it was, Stonehenge. I wish I’d been able to take a picture but I was driving. One thing that struck us about it was how rather small it looked – from the road at 50mph at least.

Still, it was rather amazing to see and we’ll definitely have to make a trip their on our next journey to England.

The traffic to Heathrow cooperated and we made good time. It was a drive that I didn’t want to end. The scenery was amazing and I was quite enjoying driving the British way.

Traffic got worse as we got closer to the airport and bad signage in the airport complex meant we had to make a big circle through the whole placejust to find the rental car return lot. We dropped off our car and took the courtesy shuttle to Terminal Five.

Even though we were leaving, I was very much looking forward to going through Terminal Five again – and it didn’t disappoint. The departures area is amazing is it’s massiveness. There were no lines and we got right through baggage check. The British Airways staff were friendly and helpful. There was a slight problem with our luggage as I didn’t know I couldn’t carry my new umbrella onto the plane with me and I had to check it as oversized baggage and hope that it made it to Chicago.

After we’d made our way through security – our goal was to eat a full meal before we were trapped on a plane, hungry. So we grabbed a bite at a pub in airport. The food was all right but it took forever for it to get to us and we were on a time crunch. We still had souvenir shopping to do and time was running out.

We were a little disappointed in the shopping selection in Terminal Five – but that may have been because we didn’t have enough time for a proper walkabout. We were especially dismayed at the Harrods in Terminal five that seemed to only carry luxury goods and none of the touristy stuff we were used to in the old terminal.

Still, we managed to load up on souvenirs for everyone at a tatty store right before we had to make a beeline for the plane. One thing I was looking forward to was being to board the plane at the gate – as that was the selling point of Terminal Five. Sadly, that was not to be the case, we were loaded onto a bus and driven to the plane sitting on the tarmac. We were delayed taking off as Heathrow is quite busy and we had to wait our turn. But it was no big deal, we had plenty to keep us entertained. I wanted to stay in England as long as possible.

The flight home from England is always the worse – you’re sad the trip is over and it’s actually longer because the plane is flying into the headwinds. Still, the British Airways staff on board managed to make it go by quickly and in 8 hours we’d landed at home in Chicago.

My parents were waiting for us at the airport and they were kind enough to give a lift home, which was wonderful of them and was just what we needed after being cooped up on that plane for so long. My umbrella also survived oversized baggage.

After souvenirs had been passed out and my parents had left, it was just us as we prepared to go to bed.

It wasn’t Updown Cottage.

It wasn’t the Park Lane Hilton.

But it was home.

We both went to sleep with the same question running through our heads:

When will England be home?

Trip to England 2009 – Day 6 – Final Bits of England and the Journey Home is a post from: Anglotopia.net

Editor’s Note: This is the fifth part in a week long series about our fantastic trip to England two weeks ago. If you’d like to see the rest of the posts about our journey, click here.

On Saturday I awoke in our warm, soft and comfortable bed in Updown Cottage. I woke up as the sun was coming up. I didn’t want to miss a beautiful Dorset sunrise as the Blackmore vale was filled with sunlight. That didn’t quite happen though, as it was raining and quite windy. But I still managed to take far too many pictures than were necessary of that early morning.

We’d had a little bit of trouble sleeping the night before. One thing we were not prepared for was just how quiet Shaftesbury is. We’re used to having a fan for white noise when we sleep, so it was hard to sleep with no background noise, other than silence. That first morning though – we’d slept with the windows open, so there was a lovely chill in the air and when we awoke, it was no longer silent. The air was filled with the sounds of birds, beginning their day.

It was truly lovely.

After I’d had my fill of taking many pictures, I made my way down to the kitchen with the plan to make a delicious, slightly traditional English breakfast. Simon and Jane, the owners of Updown Cottage, had left us a welcome basket that featured everything that we would need to make a good breakfast. The kitchen features everything you need to cook breakfast, including an electric tea kettle and a beautiful AGA cooker.

So, I set about cooking breakfast on unfamiliar cookware. I had mild success, until I set the smoke alarm off. I had intended to make Jackie breakfast in bed, but the smoke alarm woke her up and she made her way down, hungry for some tea.

Speaking of tea, the welcome basket featured Devonshire Tea and I must say, it is quite possibly the best tea that I’ve ever had. I highly recommend giving it a go. I keep it in my desk at work to help remind me of that wonderful morning in Dorset.

I managed to finish cooking breakfast, but it was a little off, at least the eggs were. But it was edible and we enjoyed eating in the lovely dining room at Updown Cottage, at the Provincial style table that overlooks the lovely garden.

The plan for the day was simple, we wanted to enjoy ourselves and take it easy after the long days we’d just had. So we fancied a spot of shopping on the high street and a trip down to Weymouth to see Chesil Beach and the ocean. I’d never seen the ocean and since we had a car, it just made sense to drive on down and have a look.

Shopping on Shaftesbury High Street

The High Street had changed quite a bit since that last time we’d been there, 3 years ago. Some storefronts were empty, others had changed to new businesses. The Woolworths was gone, but the WH Smith was still there as were the country outfitters.

One of the goals of my trip was to find a proper English umbrella. Every umbrella I’ve bought this year has turned to crap with a single Chicago wind gust. Our umbrellas are cheap and are not made to last. Even the expensive ones are terrible. They’re all made in the same factory in China. I’d been on the lookout for a proper British Brolly the whole trip and the only one I’d found that was of quality was at Harrod’s and it was way more than I was willing to pay.

Luckily, there’s a good shop in Shaftesbury called Squires that sells typical English country menswear and they had a good selection of umbrellas and they were well priced. So, after much deliberation, I sprang for one and it has been a worthwhile investment. It is holding up well to Chicago wind gusts, it’s sturdy and keeps you dry.

We popped in and out of the stores and bought various bips and bobs. My favorite acquisition was a Dorset themed 2010 Calendar that features lovely images from all over northern Dorset throughout the year.

By far my favorite stop, though, was Gold Hill Books. I’m not sure when the last time Shaftesbury had a good bookstore was – I don’t think the WH Smith really counts – but it’s a lovely little shop right at the top of Gold Hill. If features a great selection of local books so if you’re interested in local history, it’s the place to stop. They also have many maps, guidebooks and an excellent selection of fiction. The shop owner is very helpful and she directed us towards some interesting tourist attractions in the area.

Weymouth

After we’d had our fill of shopping, we decided that it was a good time to journey down to the ocean. My goal was to see Chesil beach, it’s on my ‘Britain Bucket List.’ The recent book by the same name by Ian McEwan is one of my favorites.

We hopped into our little car, planned our route and headed down to Weymouth. The drive down was lovely, I just love driving on English country lanes. We got to see some lovely scenery and pass through some very beautiful villages. It was not a quick drive – it took almost an hour.

Our atlas did a good job of guiding us down to Weymouth, but once we got there, it was pretty much useless. So, we followed our noses and headed for what we thought could be the ocean. We passed through a roundabout, rounded and curve and there it was: the ocean.

It was so beautiful it took my breath away and almost reduced me to tears. We quickly got lost and thought we were heading back towards the city center, when in actuality we made a giant circle and ended up back where we started. We took a different way and pulled onto the promenade area of Weymouth, filled with gaming rooms, hotels and various other amusements.

The weather was atrocious, but Weymouth Harbor was still a beautiful sight. It was incredible to see the English channel lapping on the shore. We parked the car and admired the scenery. We wandered into the high street area, which was rather large and explored the various shops. We didn’t really buy anything though, they had many of the same shops that Shaftesbury did and really, we didn’t see anything worth buying.

In all honesty, Weymouth reminded us a lot of a town near our hometown called Michigan City. It’s a very tatty placed, a little rundown with lots of shopping, expansive beaches and a general tiredness about it. That’s exactly how I would describe Weymouth, though the weather probably had something to do with the feeling.

Still, Weymouth is an interesting place to visit. Sadly, we were out of time and it was very clear that we would not have time to see Chesil Beach. We had to get back to Shaftesbury to meet Simon and Jane for afternoon tea. So, we bid farewell to that interesting little seaside town and made our way back to Shaftesbury. Chesil Beach would just have to wait for another time.

Back to Shaftesbury

We made it back to Shaftesbury after dark and just in time to meet Simon and Jane at The Salt Cellar – an excellent little cafe at the top of Gold Hill. They have the best chocolate cake I’ve ever had!

Tea was lovely and it was great to chat with Simon and Jane, learn some local gossip and hear some of the history of the cottage. Simon is a bit of a techno geek and we chatted about that as well. We headed back to the cottage and visited some more while Simon checked on a leaking faucet (it wasn’t leaking, just stupid Americans not knowing how to work a British tap). It was a lovely evening and we can’t wait to see Simon and Jane again, so welcoming!

After they’d left, we had to sort out dinner for the evening. On their way out of town, Simon called us to let us know what restaurants were still open on a Saturday night in such a sleepy little village. We opted for an Italian Restaurant called Amore, located in an old church.

The place was lovely, they converted the old church into a a scene from Italy, with lovely paintings on the wall – it had the feeling of an authentic Italian courtyard. The place was even staffed by real Italians. My wife is of Italian descent, so she has a critical eye towards any food claiming to be Italian. The food was fantastically delicious and met her approval!

After dinner, we took the long way back to Updown Cottage and strolled through the village, stopping at the local Somerfield grocery store to pick up provisions for the next day’s breakfast. It was a very romantic walk, the air was filled with the rich smell of wood burning fireplaces. I was in my Anglophile Zen place and it was heaven. I did not want the evening to end because the next day, we would be leaving it.

After our stroll, we settled into the Cottage, engorged on the Harrod’s chocolates we bought a couple days before and discovered a hilarious new British Comedy (well new to us) called Peep Show. It was so funny, we ended up sitting and watching 5 episodes!

We turned in pretty late as Peep Show managed to keep us awake. I was a little sad, going to bed on our last night in England. It was strange to think that I would be going to sleep in Shaftesbury and the next night I would be going to sleep in my own bed, back home in Valparaiso, Indiana.

I didn’t want it to end. But one thing you learn in life is that all good things must come to an end.

Check back tomorrow for the chronicle of our journey to the airport and our bleary eyed homecoming.

Trip to England – Day Five – The Heaven That is Shaftesbury, Updown Cottage, Weymouth is a post from: Anglotopia.net

Salisbury Catheral – Hiding Behind a Tree

Editor’s Note: This is the Fourth part in a week long series about our fantastic trip to England last week. If you’d like to see the rest of the posts about our journey, click here.

Even though we’d had an exhausting day touring the sites in London the day before – I still woke up around 5am. I blame jet lag and excitement. We had another busy day planned and I couldn’t wait to get it started!

The plan for day four was:

• Catch a cab to Paddington Station
• Ride the Heathrow Express to the Airport and pick up our Rental Car
• Drive to Salisbury and Get a Tour from local Matt Penny
• Hit up Stonehenge then head to Shaftesbury before it got dark

The day did not go quite to plan and it all started with traffic. Normally a cab ride from the Park Lane Hilton to Paddington Station would take about ten minutes. For some reason or another – traffic was really bad coming off the flyover and it took forever to get to the train station.

By the time we got to the train station, the train was leaving in 10 minutes and we were starving. Jackie ran off to find us some sustenance while I waited outside the train. British Airways had provided us with free Heathrow Express tickets – which was lovely of them. It really is the quickest way to get to and from the airport but we normally wouldn’t pay for it (£25 or so a return ticket).

We boarded the train in time and scarfed down a croissant while the train sped to Heathrow. The journey is lightning fast and we were at the airport in no time. The only problem was that we were already running about an hour late.

Once we got to the airport, we had to navigate the terminal to find the rental desk, then wait for the free shuttle to the parking lot and eventually we made it to the rental lot. A few signed papers later and we were in possession of a nice Mercedes hatchback for the next two days. I’ll write more about the process of renting a car in the UK in a future post – it ended up costing almost twice what I was quoted – pretty much because of that magic word: insurance.

When we were in the car, we plotted our course to Salisbury on the map, I familiarized myself with the controls of the car, texted Matt to let him know we would be an hour late and we hit the road.

Driving in England was an amazing experience and I picked it up right away. The whole wrong side of the road thing didn’t really phase me. The most difficult thing to deal with was keeping a sense of space for the left side of the car. Jackie had to warm me of hedges quite a few times because I’m so used to worrying about it the other way around.

We merged onto the M4, then the M25 and then off onto the M3 towards Wiltshire. Navigating the motorways was no sweat and I was impressed with how high the speed limits were. But I didn’t dare speed – I’m well aware of Britain’s love for the Speed Camera.

We saw some amazing countryside on the way to Salisbury and it was a shame that we couldn’t explore more, we were on a schedule and had to keep it. We arrived to Salisbury around 12:30 and met up with Matt outside the city center in a car park, so he could guide us in.

Salisbury

The day before, Anglotopia columnist Lisa had said that she thought I would love Salisbury and she was right. Salisbury is a fantastic town. We parked the car in the central car park and Matt led us into the city center. We got to know each other a little bit and that was nice.

I really liked the look and feel of Salisbury. One of the coolest sights was that pretty much wherever you were in Salisbury, you could see the massive cathedral spire off in the distance, shrouded in early afternoon mist.

Our Excellent Tour Guide Matt Penny

Matt led us to the town center, where there was a French Market on – which we didn’t really linger in. The market wasn’t very crowded that day as most Brits were pretty unhappy with Ireland’s treatment by Frenchman Thierry Henri.

We were starving and our first priority was to eat. We had a taste for fish and chips and we entrusted Matt to take us to a good place. He took us to Stoby’s – a fish and chips takeaway with a sit down restaurant. It was a very interesting little building, with the restaurant spread over 4 floors. It was cramped and intimate and smelled of fish and chips.

I loved it.

When the food came I was a little apprehensive as it looked quite foreign, but when I dove in – I tasted what was possibly the best fish and chips that I’d ever had. And their chips! My god were they good! I’m going to need to make a trip back to Salisbury just to visit Stoby’s!

No Picture Can do the Painting Justice, I’m Afraid

After our delicious lunch – Matt showed us around the city center – which was breathtaking and lovely. Our first stop was St Thomas’s church – I thought it a little strange that we were visiting a little chapel in the same town as a massive cathedral – but Matt had a reason. Inside St Thomas’s is the famous Doom painting that depicts the events in the Book of Revelations.

It’s an amazing work of art that managed to survive since the 1400′s – it even survived the dissolution of the monasteries when it was whitewashed over. The painting depicts Jesus lording over his new kingdom with the dead rising from the grave and the damned being sent down to hell. It’s incredible – as is the setting. It was lovely little church.

After that Matt took us through the streets of Salisbury and pointed out many cool local facts and history. We saw the pub where late former Prime Minister Ted Heath used to drink (and his house a bit later). I know I sound hackneyed but Salisbury was just a lovely picture postcard of a town.

Eventually we made our way to the cathedral close – which was interesting, the area directly around the cathedral is surrounded by ancient walls and there is actually a sort of city within a city with houses, schools and businesses inside. One thing that struck me was how quiet it was inside – you couldn’t hear bustling Salisbury outside the walls.

We passed by Matt’s old school and learned two interesting facts – William Golding – author of the Lord of the Flies was headmaster there at one time (Christ, I hated reading that book!). The second fact was that Matt actually went to school with Ralph Fiennes – also known to most as Lord Voldemort.

We explored the close and I took a million pictures and then, there it was:

The cathedral. What a magnificent site it was.

Despite being covered in scaffolding on one side – it was still amazing. The size, the scale, amazing. Coming from America – where they just don’t build them like this – you never truly grasp the scale of a proper cathedral until your standing next to it.

Salisbury Cathedral is famous for several reasons – first, it’s got the UK’s largest Cathedral spire at 404ft. Sedcond, it’s home to the world’s oldest working mechanical clock (1386). Third, it’s home to one of only 4 remaining copies of the Magna Carta – the foundation of modern parliamentary democracy (that includes you America).

We walked around the cathedral and I snapped pictures and Matt told us some interesting anecdotes and pointed out what all the statues on the front meant. And then we went inside.

I really don’t think my words can do justice to the inside, so I’ll let my pictures do the talking.

Onward Shaftesbury

Since our day had been shortened by traffic delays and learning to drive in England, we decided to pass on Stonehenge. It was getting late in the day and we wanted to make sure that we got to Updown Cottage in Shaftesbury while it was still light out. Stonehenge has been there for 5,000 years, it’s not going anywhere, right?

We bid Matt farewell and he gave us directions for our onward journey. If you’re reading this Matt – thanks again for taking the day off of work and showing us around your town. We’ll definitely be back. Matt keeps his own blog about the history of Salisbury and it’s always an interesting read – check out his blog here.

The drive to Shaftesbury was even more amazing than the drive to Salisbury – we drove through green rolling hills. I mean it was literally hill after hill. There isn’t a straight road in Northern Dorset!

As sunset approached, we finally made it to Shaftesbury and faced a rather distressing issue – I didn’t know how to get to the bottom of Gold Hill by car – I knew by foot, but cars must go a different way. My senses, knowing that they were where they belonged after 3 years of anticipation guided us to the proper roads and pretty quickly we had parked the car, unloaded our bags and began hoisting them up the hill to our cottage.

It’s safe to say that by this point in the day we were pretty knackered!

The owners of Updown Cottage, Simon and Jane Colston, happened to be in the village, waiting for our wood delivery so they popped round to have a chat. It was great to finally meet them in person. Jane and Simon have been a (loyal) advertiser on Anglotopia for nearly six months now and we’ve greatly enjoyed e-mailing back and forth. It was just so lovely to meet them in person. They didn’t want to impose on us for too long and they were on their way after a bit of visiting.

The irony is that since we’d arrived at near dark – I hadn’t actually seen Gold Hill properly yet. That would wait for tomorrow morning. We ordered a pizza from the local Pizza Palace – it was delivered quickly. We attempted to start a fire in the stone fireplace – and we had moderate success after Jackie looked up how to start a fire on Wikipedia… We curled up and watched some British Telly.

It was heaven and perfect end to a perfect day.

Check back tomorrow for more about our stay at Updown Cottage and our full day in Dorset – which included a drive down to the seaside.

Trip to England 2009 – Day Four – Leaving London for Salisbury and Shaftesbury is a post from: Anglotopia.net

The 7-7 Memorial in Hyde Park

Editor’s Note: This is the third part in a week long series about our fantastic trip to England last week. If you’d like to see the rest of the posts about our journey, click here.

Due to the shortness of our trip to England – we were only going to have one full day in London and we wanted to make the most of it. As Dispatches from the North Columnist Lisa Coulson wrote about in the weeks up to our trip, she’d had a tempestuous relationship with London and wanted to get the grand tour from me – someone who had a passion for London despite it’s warts.

So, as she wrote about last week, she rode the train down from Hartlepool and met us on Thursday for a whirlwind tour of London.

I woke up at about 5am – the sun wasn’t even up yet – because I couldn’t sleep. I mean – despite the exhausting day before – I was in London! How could I waste my time sleeping? Sadly, my wife did not quite share my enthusiasm and I could not wake her up too early. So, I played on my iPhone and watched the sun come up outside our window until it was safe to wake Jackie up.

On our way to meet Lisa – we stopped by the new 7-7 Memorial in Hyde park and that was a very moving experience. Jackie really summed up the place better than I could. Read her post about it here.

We met up with Lisa in front of the Gloucester Road Tube stop to eat breakfast at the restaurant across the street – they have a good hearty breakfast and quite possibly the best orange juice in the world. They have a machine that literally crushes the oranges on site and turns them into juice. You will not have better orange juice anywhere.

It was great to finally meet Lisa in person. She’s been writing for Anglotopia for almost a year now and I’ve really enjoyed reading her adventures of acclimating to life in the North of England in Hartlepool. We shared a breakfast, talked and bit and prepared for the day ahead.

The plan was:

• Victoria & Albert Museum
• Harrod’s
• National Gallery
• London Transport Museum
• St. Paul’s Cathedral

V&A Museum

The Victoria and Albert Museum

After breakfast we walked down Cromwell road to the Victoria and Albert Museum, which wasn’t far from where’d we’d eaten breakfast. We actually go there about 5 minutes before the museum opened and stood around outside it’s massive wooden doors and waited for it to open. The goal was to see the special Maharaja exhibit and wander the museum.

Anglotopia Columnist Lisa Coulson

Well, we didn’t see the Maharaja exhibit – it cost extra (the regular museum is free) and it required timed ticketed entry – something we didn’t have time for. So, alas we did not get to see the exhibit. However, we did explore the museum and see some interesting sights.

The V&A is the strangest museum – because it’s a sort of hodgepodge of many different things from cultural artifacts, to artwork, clothing and artifacts from the far east – it has often been called Britain’s attic. We saw lots of things and the ladies particularly enjoyed going through the displays on the history of fashion.

I got to wander the museum and saw a lot of interesting things – my favorite displays were the ones on British History from the middle ages onward.

But by far my favorite thing I saw was something I wasn’t even looking for and just stumbled upon. Located in a library are various displays of modern artifacts that exemplify modern British History and off to the side is a very famous picture that I was delighted to see.

I’m talking about the famous picture of Christine Keeler sitting in a chair. Christine Keeler was at the center of political sex scandal in the 1960′s that claimed the career of Minister for War John Profumo and eventually brought down the conservative government. The salaciousness of the story simply can’t be made up – it really happened and was a huge story at the time.

Famous Picture of Christine Keeler

Well, Christine Keeler happened to pose nude in a chair and it’s an iconic symbol of modern Britain and I saw the original hanging in the museum. I couldn’t have been more please. The whole episode was made into a very good movie called Scandal starring John Hurt, which I highly recommend.

Harrod’s

After we’d had enough of Britain’s Attic, we headed up Cromwell road to Harrod’s. Even though I’ve been to Harrod’s every time I’ve been in London and, in the end, it’s just an overpriced department store – it’s always worth a pilgrimage.

Our goal on this visit was to visit the Harrod’s Christmas Shop and pick up some Harrod’s peanut butter cups – which put Reese’s to shame.

Harrod’s was a zoo and we didn’t really fancy wandering around very much but after our goals were achieved, we decided it was time for our feet to get a break and eat some lunch.

We wandered up Cromwell Road until we found a good enough looking pub. I don’t remember the name of it but it was your typical British gastropub. I had a burger (I know, how predictable of me). We talked with Lisa about life in the UK and my future plans for Anglotopia. The service in the pub was terrible and we ended up having to sit there for far longer than we had time to, which ended up shortening our day a bit.

National Gallery

Nelson’s Column

Our next stop was Trafalgar Square – my favorite tourist attraction in London – and the National Gallery. We were beginning to run short on time so we didn’t linger in the Square as it was a bit of a zoo due to the African trees that were on display. We made our way to the inside of the National Gallery and wandered around with no particular path in mind.

My Lovely Wife

One thing I had hoped to see was The Hay Wain by John Constable, as it had been on loan last time I was in London. It’s one of my favorite paintings and is considered one of Britain’s National treasures. It’s of a simple country scene but it’s considered the beginning of Britain’s romantic conception of it’s countryside. One thing that always amazes me when I see the real painting (or any painting actually) is how large they are. You just don’t expect to see a painting of British Countryside take up a whole wall.

The Hay Wain by John Constable

On a side note – one Constable I did notice was his painting of Salisbury Cathedral which was cool – because I would be seeing that the next day in real life!

I lingered on the other Constable’s and Turner’s and we explored the rest of the museum. I must say, without a doubt, that the National Gallery is my favorite art museum – I enjoy it MUCH more than the Art Institute in Chicago.

Covent Garden

My main goal for the day was to visit the London Transport Museum. It had been closed for renovations on my last few trips and I’d never had a chance to go through. So I was very excited at the prospect of going there.

We couldn’t catch a cab outside the National Gallery – so we decided to walk to Covent Garden – which isn’t very far anyway. On our way we stopped at the Muji Store where I picked up my favorite pens and Mandarin soap. After that we headed for the Market itself and decided we needed a tea break as our feet were killing all of us. We had tea and as the time passed, we realized that we weren’t going to have enough time to fully enjoy the London Transport Museum.

So, we decided skip it – but not without visiting their awesome gift shop.

St Paul’s

St Paul’s Cathedral

With the clock ticking until St Paul’s closed for the evening – we hopped a cab and got there just before they closed. Lisa and I walked around and admired the amazing building. Since Lisa is a Royal Navy wife, we were sure to make a stop by Nelson’s tomb. We lingered a bit in the Cathedral and appreciated it for what is was. Even though it costs money to get in, a visit to St Paul’s is always worth it.

King’s Cross and St Pancras

Lisa had to be back to King’s Cross around 4:30 in time to catch her train back to Hartlepool. So, after admiring all that St Paul’s had to offer, we hitched our longest cab ride yet and all rode to King’s Cross together. Once we got there, we bid her goodbye and Lisa was off.

St Pancras International

Next up was a visit to St. Pancras International Station – I’d been really wanting to see it ever since the renovations were completed and the Eurostar was moved there. So, we walked the short distance between King’s Cross and had a look.

The station is simply amazing – it’s a cathedral to trains. It’s beautiful Victorian engineered structure was a site to behold. By far my favorite site was the statue on the concourse of the couple, happy to see each other (or sad to part).

Another reason I took Jackie to St Pancras was to show her the World’s Longest Champagne bar – something a wine connoisseur like her would truly appreciate. We sat under the beautiful train shed, watched the Eurostar trains come and go all while enjoying fine drink provided by the bar.

Dinner at the Maze Grill

After our aperitif at St Pancras, we headed back to the hotel to relax for a little bit and get ready for what was sure to be the highlight of our time in London – we had reservations at Gordon Ramsay’s Maze Grill. We both got dressed up in our best and decided to walk to Grosvenor Square, where the restaurant is located.

It was a lovely cool London fall night – we were pretty tired – but excited to be walking through the streets of one of London’s most beautiful neighborhoods. It wasn’t a far walk from the Park Lane Hilton to Grosvenor Square. We knew when we were there as we saw the ugliest building in London approach – the US Embassy. I’m sorry London that we plopped down such an ugly building in your picture postcard square. If it’s any consolation, we’re moving in a couple years.

I don’t need to say much about dinner except that it was the most delicious and expensive meal I’ve ever had. Check out Jackie’s review of our experience here.

Back to the Hotel

After a whirlwind day in London, we headed back to the hotel, curled up in bed and fell asleep to British telly. The day was exhausting but it couldn’t have possibly been better.

Check back tomorrow for day 4 of our adventures in England as we rented a car, toured Salisbury and discovered heaven on earth: Updown Cottage in Shasftesbury.

Trip to England 2009 – Day Three – Being a Tourist for a Day in London is a post from: Anglotopia.net

The View Across South London from our Hotel

Editor’s Note: This is the second part in a week long series about our fantastic trip to England last week. If you’d like to see the rest of the posts about our journey, click here.

Every time I’ve landed in London, I’ve always had to get off the plane on the tarmac, pile into a bus and drive to the terminal, which was old, dingy and usually involved a lot of walking. It was never a pleasant experiece – especially after being on a plane for 8 hours.

So, the last few times I was in England, there was a massive construction project going on to build Terminal 5 – a new terminal dedicated to all British Airways traffic. It cost £5 billion and was Britain’s largest construction project. A few years ago, when you taxied to leave, you always got a glimpse of it being built.

The building is a beautiful modern design with massive glass walls under the world’s largest single span ceiling. As a geek who appreciates such things, I could not wait to pass through Terminal 5 for the first time.

After we landed, something happened that had never happened before on my travels to Britain – the plane actually pulled up to the Terminal and let us off. No bus, no ridiculous amounts of walking. We got off the plane and sailed through immigration and we’d arrived in London. Terminal 5 was amazingly beautiful. It was everything I hoped it would be. Sadly, I did not take any pictures as you’re not supposed to do that inside an airport these days. Terminal 5 had a bad rap after it opened, but it’s a smooth running operation now and it’s a beatiful building to behold.

One of the biggest hassles when traveling to Britain is getting into central London from Heathrow, all options are expensive. Thankfully, this time British Airways provided us buses to get us into Central London to the Park Lane Hilton, where the rest of the day’s events were to be held.

By the time we got on the buses, the sun had finally come up and we had the pleasure of getting into Central London on the M4 during rush hour. It took about an hour – but we didn’t mind, the scenery was fabulous and the route took us through some of my favorite London neighborhoods.

Unfortunately, at this time I was quite hungry and ready for breakfast and my stomach was doing summersaults from the bus ride, the airplane food and the other junk I’d eaten in the last 12 hours. That combined with jetlag – I was not a pleasant person to be around during those initial hours in London.

I needed tea and I needed it STAT.

Once we got to the Park Lane Hilton, we were able to quickly check our bags and partake in a delicious traditional English breakfast that was waiting for us. By this point in time, our body clocks thought it was 4am and we’d had no sleep. As with most people on the plane, we were the walking dead.

The breakfast was delicious and hit the spot perfectly and we waited for the speeches to begin. We were in the the conference rooms at the Park Lane Hilton and they were nicely appointed. Outside the window was a view of Hyde Park – the leaves still on the trees and a Union Jack blowing in the wind off in the distance.

It was quite surreal at that moment to realize that we were in London. We were in the place I’d been working to hard to get to. It was a dream I didn’t want to wake up from.

The first speaker on deck was Sir Clive Woodward – who is the Director of Olympic Performance for the British Olympic association. Sir Clive is most famous for leading England’s national Rugby team to victory in the World Cup.

Sir Clive had a very interesting speech – he talked about what makes a successful athlete and how that can be applied to the business world. His basic premise is that it’s not enough to just be talented at something. You have to hone that talent with education, perserverance and discipline. You should spend just as much time studying your craft as you are performing it. I really enjoyed Sir Clive’s speech as what he had to say is something I very much believe in – you are capable of doing anything as long as you have talent, drive and perserverance.

Without all that, I wouldn’t have been sitting in that very room!

My favorite catchphrase from Sir Clive was T-CUP – which is having total control under pressure – it’s not enough to be great at something, you have to perform well and in control when you are hit with the most pressure. When you’re under the most pressure – that’s when you truly show how good you are at something. It’s a great analogy and I’ll definitely be spreading it on.

After Sir Clive Woodward spoke, it was the turn of Digby, Lord Jones of Birmingham’s to speak.

Lord Digby was a fantastic speaker and he talked about a range of subjects including, his time working for the British Government and UK Trade and Investment, the relationshop between the US and the UK, he also threw in some history and many interesting anecdotes – even even brought up The War. It was a very enjoyable speech – it’s a shame I was having trouble staying awake or else I would have enjoyed it more.

There was a third speaker – Andrew Sherman, but we didn’t see him speak and I don’t think many others did either. After Lord Digby was done, there was a short break and we decided to see if our hotel room was ready because we were quite ready for a nap.

Our room was ready, we grabbed our bags and headed up. The room was phenominal – very happy to stay there for two nights. We had an incredible view across the South of London and the room was spacious, had a flat screen tv, luxurious bathroom – it was perfect. We were only able to stay there because BA provided a free night and we got a discount for our second night.

We shut the curtains and set our alarms for two hours and got some sleep, intending to wake up with enough time to make it to the swanky cocktail hour at the Orangery at Kensington Palace at 4.

Well, the good news was that the two hour nap was enough to reset our body clocks and get us refreshed. After a quick bath and a change, we decided that in order to make the most of our trip to London we would not attend the cocktail hour. In retrospect, I regretted this after I found out that Lord Alan Sugar spoke.

Oxford Street

After we were refreshed, we hailed a cab and headed for the Apple Store for some free Wifi. We had been disconnected from the internet for quite some time and it was time to see what was going on in the world back home. After the Apple Store, we did a spot of shopping, ate some dinner at one of my favorite restaruants – Garfunkel’s. We admired the Christmas lights and window shopped through the stores on Oxford Street and I picked up some delicious cookies from Ben’s Cookies. It was a magical London evening and the perfect start to our quick trip to Blighty.

When we got back to the room to turn in for the night, we watched some British Telly and fell asleep at a pretty early hour. It had been a long journey but it had been fantastic.

I must hand it to British Airways for planning such a wonderful event on both sides of the Atlantic. There were no hiccups and we got the Royal treatment. My only regret is that I didn’t get a chance to meet Simon Talling-Smith – the North American VP of Operations for BA – in person and thank him for the wonderful opportunity and the excellent service. I e-mailed him after the trip – but as the whole point of the trip was face to face interaction – it’s just not the same. Hopefully our paths will cross again soon and this is the start of a wonderful relationship with British Airways.

Come back tomorrow for the tale of our whirlwind day seeing the London sights with our Disptaches from the North Columnist Lisa Coulson.

Trip to England 2009 – Day Two – London Arrival and More British Airways Face to Face Events is a post from: Anglotopia.net

The View from our Room in the Park Lake Hilton

Editor’s Note: This is the first part in a week long series about our fantastic trip to England last week. If you’d like to see the rest of the posts about our journey, click here.

Preface

In case you’re new to the blog I thought I should give a brief explanation as to how we got to go on the trip. Basically we won a contest. British Airways held a contest called the Face of Opportunity – and it’s premise was the businesses are more successful if you conduct meetings and deals face to face instead of via the phone or e-mail. So, they launched a brilliant contest to help small business owners achieve their goals by facilitating those face to face meetings.

You had to write an essay on how winning the contest would help your business. Since Anglotopia is starting to turn into a small business – I threw my hat in the ring and entered. I basically had to argue for why a trip to Britain would be valuable to Anglotopia. So, I wrote the essay about how I would get a chance to meet some of my columnists, meet some connections face to face and do some research for the blog for the next year.

It convinced them – and I was notified that I won while I was in Atlanta for Dragon*Con. It was a dream come true. I had been working for nearly three years to get us back to England and this was our chance. So, on November 17th, 2009 – we headed to the airport for the Face to Face series of events.

Our trip breaks down as follows – the first 2 days were spent with British Airways for the events they held. The third day – we had in London to give our Lisa of Distpatches from the North a tour of the town, for the fourth and fifth days, we rented a car and drove to Dorset where we got a tour of Salisbury from Matt Penny and stayed in a self catering cottage in Shaftesbury for two nights called Updown Cottage. During our time in Dorset we visited the seaside in Weymouth and explored the back country roads of Dorset. On our last day we drove to the Airport and headed home. It was a whirlwind trip and it was a dream.

So, what follows is a more detailed journal of our trip. I hope you enjoy reading it!

Day One – British Airways Face to Face Events

We got a lift to the airport from my best friend Chad – who is a bit of an Anglophile himself but hasn’t had a chance to go to England yet. I planned the day to arrive early at O’hare airport – I wanted to make sure that I didn’t miss anything! We arrived at the airport at about 12:30 and even though we were an hour early, check in had already started and there was pretty much no line.

It was our fastest British Airways check in experience yet. Everyone was so nice, especially the British Airways staff. We did well in the seat lottery and managed to snag World Traveller Plus seats, which meant that we would heave bigger seats and more legroom. Having spent most of my journeys to England stuck in coach – this was going to be a fantastic treat – but it would be the first of many.

After we checked in – we hit up the McDonalds in the airport to fill up on food incase I didn’t like any of the food provided by BA (I’m a very picky eater). Once we finished eating, we got in the very long security line and got through in about 20 minutes.

Now, one of the things we were most looking forward to was being able to see the inside of the British Airways Terrace lounge – something we had never thought we would be able to do. All the events for the day were being held in the lounge. One we got inside there was free champange, a huge buffet of free food and ample seating.

Standing Room Only in the Terrace Lounge

We were expected to mingle and network before the festivities started but I’m not much of a networker so we didn’t meet too many people. It would have been cool if the staff had played some introduction type games, you know to loosen everyone up and put e-mail addresses to faces. Oh well.

We did manage to meet some really good peeps – Jeanette Balleza from Scribe Marketing and her partner Will Collins from Archetype Productions. It was refreshing to meet another young couple working in the same fields as us. Ironically they also won 2nd place in the recent Moonfruit contest and are going to Japan next year (they beat me, I was 9th place). Definitely going to keep in touch with them!

About an hour or so before the flight there were many speeches to prepare us for our jouney and they were very interesting. The most interesting thing we heard was from the folks at Think London – a public private partnership that seeks to encourage businesses to move to London – they have a program called Touchdown London that provides free office space for a year for new businesses to setup shop in London. Very cool. Now, if only Anglotopia had venture capital!

After the speeches were through, Jackie and I were done with being cooped up in the lounge so we grabbed our bags, went outside and waited by the gate for boarding to begin. Words could not describe how excited we were!

Our Magic Carpet to London Awaits

We boarded the plane pretty quickly and found our seats, which were pretty much perfect. We stowed our bags, took a look at all the free swag that BA, Think London and UKTI gave us and after a short wait, we took off (which was very smooth).

The Kick Ass British Airways World Traveller Plus Cabin

The flight to London was about 7 hours or so, we had a good tailwind. The food on the flight was pretty good and we were lucky that the plane had an On Demand video system, so you could choose what to watch when you were ready to watch it. The legroom in World Traveller plus is AWESOME and I really do think that we’ll pay the extra money in the future to sit in that cabin instead of cheaping out and sitting in coach.

The cabin service was fantastic – they provided free British newspapers which was fantastic and helped get us mentally prep for touchdown in London. I watched the movie 500 Days of Summer which I didn’t particularly care for much at all. I watched some British TV on the iPhone. I did not get any sleep, though I tried. I just cannot sleep on a plane. I was just too damn excited that I was going to be in London in a matter of hours. I hadn’t been there in 3 years – how COULD I sleep?

Many people networked on the flight but we pretty much stayed in our seats and relaxed. There would be time for networking later. In what seemed like a flash = we arrived in London at about 7am (which was about 1am at home in Chicago).

Check back tomorrow to hear all about our arrival in London and the awesome British Airways events for the day.

Trip to England 2009 – Day One – The British Airways Face to Face Events is a post from: Anglotopia.net

It’s hard to wrap my head around the fact that I was in England this time last week. It’s been a whirlwind week as I got back to work, jet lagged and sad that our time in Britain was over.

I’ve just now had the time to start going through the 600+ pictures that I took on the trip and now I’d love to share the best ones with everyone.

I’ve put them on flickr on the Official Anglotopia Feed Here. I’ve also embedded a slideshow below. I’d love to hear your thoughts on my pictures!

Cheers!

Pictures of England: Check out the Pictures from our Trip to England is a post from: Anglotopia.net

We lost the power cable to our video camera on our last trip to England and never got around to replacing it, so that tape sat in the camcorder for nearly three years.

We finally got a new charger and loe and behold we found the video footage of our last trip to Blighty. I edited it together and have posted it to YouTube for anyone that may enjoy watching a lame home video.

Shaftesbury and Dorset March 2007:

Ghosts of England Trip Past – Video of our Trip to Shaftesbury in March 2007 is a post from: Anglotopia.net

When this post is published, there will be 19 days until our trip to Britain. Our Plans are progressing nicely. I thought this would be a good time to share our plans with everyone who may be curious as to what we’ll be up to.

First off, we had originally planned a 10 day European odyssey when we won the British Airways Face to Face contest. However, my employer put the breaks on that plan when they would not allow me to take off all the time I needed to take full advantage of the prize (even unpaid days off). I’m being a good sport about it – I have quite possibly the best job in the world and I’m grateful for the time off they are giving me. Besides that just means the trip is cheaper! So, now we’re going to be in England for 5 days and coming home before Thanksgiving.

Here’s our detailed itinerary:

Tuesday, November 17th

BA Face to Face Event at O’hare in Chicago and we depart for London at 5pm in the evening. Hopefully we’ll be able to sleep on the plane.

Wednesday, November 18th

Arrive in London at 7am
There’s a series of events in the morning, which I haven’t decided if we’ll skip.
We have the day to do what we will. Though we’ll be pretty jetlagged.
Cocktail Hour for BA Face to Face Winners at the Orangery at Kensington Palace
We’re Staying at the Easy Hotel in South Kensington for Two Nights

Thursday, November 19th

Our only full day in London
As Lisa posted about Yesterday, we’ll be showing her around town for the day. We’ll get to be proper tourists

Friday, November 20th

Leave on an Early Southwest Trains for Salisbury
Getting Tour of Salisbury by Matt Penny
Heading onto Shaftesbury in the Afternoon
Staying at Updown Cottage on Gold Hill for 2 Nights

Saturday, November 21st

One day of Bucolic Shaftesbury Dorset Bliss
One thing we will be doing is climbing Melbury Hill. Both of us (long story)

Sunday, November 22nd

Leave Shaftesbury and go Directly to Heathrow.
Come home to Chicago

This trip is going to be short and sweet. We’re not going to be able to do many of the things that we planned, but we’re making the best of it and it will still be awesome. We haven’t been to Britain for almost 3 years, so I’ll take 5 days over no days.

Sadly, due to the shortness of our trip, I’ve made a major decision. I know I planned to blog about our trip while we were there, but I really don’t think we’re going to have the time or be near enough to a computer for long enough.

So, I will not be blogging our trip while we’re in England. Don’t worry, though, I’ll write all about our trip when we get back. I do plan to update Twitter throughout the trip, I’ll post what we’re doing, post pictures and maybe videos from my iPhone.

Another side affect of the trip – I’ve gotten countless offers from people in Britain to take me for a pint. I was looking forward to taking everyone up on this, but sadly, I’m not going to have the time so I will have to politely decline requests for pints.

The day we arrive in London also happens to be the State Opening of Parliament – one of the biggest days of British Pomp and Circumstance during the year. I watch it every year on TV (it’s aired on C-SPAN) and I don’t know if I’ll be able to pass up a chance to see it in the flesh – along with the Queen. However, doing so means we would miss all the BA Face to Face Events. So, I haven’t decided what we’ll do yet.

19 Days Until Takeoff!

Our England Trip Plans is a post from: Anglotopia.net