Guardian article - 2014 Travel Hotspots

[Pauline]

The Saturday Guardian (UK newspaper) has a good travel section. This week in Travel tips: La Graciosa, 2014 hotspots and the Cotswolds they recommend:

- La Graciosa, part of the Canary Islands for a beach vacation. The Canary Islands belong to Spain and are very popular with Brits. The article recommends La Graciosa, an island off Lanzerote.

- Portugal, prices are down for Brits because the £ (GBP) is strong and Portugal is less expensive in general than other European destinations. We visited Portugal in 2012 and found it to be less expensive than France.

- Croatia, new low cost flights from the UK are bringing more visitors. One of our forum members, Shannon, is leading her first tour to Croatia this spring (www.grapehops.com).

- Greece, their economy is recovering and more tourism is predicted for this year.

- Last, but not least - "For rolling hills and sleepy villages, head for... The Cotswolds"! And it is a lovely English countryside destination. This is where I live - but my village is hardly sleepy. There is always something going on.

 

[Colleen]

I'm looking forward to Croatia in May! Just looking at the photos in the DK guide has me excited about the places we'll visit on the GrapeHops tour.

Sharon and I went to a Croatian wine tasting in Cupertino in December, and got to talking to a couple who run art retreats on Hvar island. They gave us several suggestions for sights to see, and for places to eat and drink.

If I had any kind of artistic talent, I'd love to participate in a retreat with this couple - they were wonderfully friendly and helpful.
http://painthvar.com/artistprogram.html

 

[Pauline]

I would like to go to Croatia someday, especially after reading Shannon's blog posts. I am looking forward to hearing about your trip Colleen.

 

[Shannon]

Pauline you need to go! LOTS of Roman stuff there... like in Split where part of the town is INSIDE the remains of a Roman palace.

 

[Heidi]

Split where part of the town is INSIDE the remains of a Roman palace.

That is such a cool place! Split was built around... and in... Diocletian's Palace, where the only Roman Emperor to abdicate, went to cultivate ornamental cabbage in his retirement

Shannon, your itinerary sounds wonderful! It's been too long since our travels through this region.... I need to get back!

Have a great trip!

 

[Pati]

Last, but not least - "For rolling hills and sleepy villages, head for... The Cotswolds"! And it is a lovely English countryside destination. This is where I live - but my village is hardly sleepy. There is always something going on.

My sister, best friend and I came to the Cotswolds in 1997 to celebrate some momentous birthdays. We stayed in a self catering cottage in Wincombe. It was the most glorious vacation. The beauty of the landscape stays with me still. We made a pact to return in 10 years, but circumstances prevented it. I'm determined that we will return. We took wonderful walks, although we still laugh about the one where we were approaching a field of rape see and we heard a sound we couldn't identify...bees! Thousands of bees! Obviously we took a different route.

One thing I would recommend is to write for a booklet (of course, it's probably online now) called The Romantic Road from the Cheltenham Visitors Center. Just checked. Yep. Driving that road as a first time driver in England cured any fears I may have had. But it was gorgeous, exciting, harrowing, and I would do it again in a second.

My only regret about that trip is that digital cameras were in the future. The peacefulness of your beautiful land is still in my memory. Whenever I have my blood pressure taken, I picture standing near Sudeley Castle on a Sunday morning, gazing over the valleys, watching a grandfather, two children and a dog heading across to, I assumed, church, when the bells rang out throughout the valleys. Stunning. The visual memory is like taking " a deep cleansing breath".

Here's a quote from Joanna Trollope about following The Romantic Road.

"Of course it’s beautiful – nobody who uses this beguiling booklet will be left in any doubt about that. But it’s more than just beautiful – it is ancient and interesting and varied and uncompromising. I like that last quality - the fact that the high limestone hills will sustain little but sheep; that winters can isolate the steep valleys; that the winding and often vertical lanes deter all but those who really want to discover and appreciate this remarkable landscape, these memorable towns and villages.

So – off you go, and, as they say on some footpath signs round here, kill nothing but time, take away nothing but memories. And I can promise you that you’ll treasure those."

Joanna Trollop

 

[Pauline]

Hi Pati, I love the Cotswolds too and after visiting every summer for several years, we moved here in 2010. It is an amazing area to explore. We keep wanting to see more of England, but spend most of our time in the Cotswolds.

Here is a link to a page about The Romantic Road with a link to the Cheltenham tourist site where anyone can order the brochure.

I have heard of The Romantic Road, but never looked into it. From that page I can see what a lovely drive it is - and it hits all the Cotswold highlights.

We also stayed in Winchcombe on one of our trips - September 2004. We stayed in the Sudley Castle cottages (which were not nice unfortunately) and loved Winchcombe.

I have a small website about the Cotswolds with photos - Cotswolder.

 

[Pati]

I would love to live there, and I did visit your website. The photos of Kiftsgate brought back such wonderful memories. If you get a chance, visit one of the most beautiful gardens we were able to see, Stourhead. It was amazing.

 

[Pauline]

Kathy is also a big fan of Stourhead. We did visit a couple of summers ago, but on the way home from a fabulous week in Dorset and we like it but it didn't stand out that much for me. We should visit again. It is supposed to be lovely in the fall.

 

[Pati]

I think part of what made it special for me was a couple who came into the Temple of Apollo and started singing this magical song? chant? They were Lithuanian, so I couldn't tell what it was, but the acoustic of the rounded ceiling swirled the sound around, and I felt as if I were in a different time.

Also, I think I was there when the azaleas were in bloom.

Actually that whole trip to England holds so much meaning for me because it was a breakthrough in my life on several fronts. Since my brother's death in a car accident, I had been experiencing panic attacks. They first started on an expressway crossing a bridge, which of course I started avoiding. Because at that time, early 70's, there was no one talking about panic attacks and how to overcome them, they escalated. 25 years later, after much therapy, biofeedback, hypnosis, etc. I had conquered most of the debilitating effects, but still couldn't drive on an expressway. Claustophobia usually goes hand in hand, not the common locked in tight spaces, but the psychological feeling of being trapped in a situation you can't get out of. So! Turning 50, had developed a love of gardening and a respect for the English gardeners, I determined that I wasn't going to spend the rest of my life stuck in my own mental trap. I was lucky to have a mother that esposed us to literature, art, architecture....beauty, in other words. And to me, English gardens and the English landscape represented all of that.

I knew that driving in your country would present a special challenge, and I still didn't think I could handle the larger highways, so I found an AA book at the library and studied the small county roads like a Bible. Knowledge is power, I figured, so I made a list of the gardens that I wanted to visit, bought maps, booked a self catering cottage in Winchcombe and armed myself with courage. Originally I thought my husband would be my companion, but after reading a description of a cottage aloud, " listen honey, a badger comes to visit each night!", he told me that I would probably be happier if I took my sister with me. He was right, and another woman friend, who I had known since school days joined us also.

I don't know how this turned into an essay! Suffice to say that not only did we have a marvelous time, I was pretty much cured by your tiny country roads, having to squeeze to the side for a lumbering lorry, constantly being aware of what side of the street I was on, and my first encounters with roundabouts and their many confusing letter and number road options. We drove from London to the Cotswolds, as far north as Worchester, as far south as Lyme Regis, visiting everything we could in between, then travelled east as far as Dover. We met marvelous people, and ate wonderful food , the highlight of which was your Devonshire clotted cream with scones. Oh. Just the memory is adding inches to my hips right now. And of course, the gardens. They inspired me to organize a yearly garden walk in my home town. It continues 17 years later. What also continued was a need to travel to all the countries I'd ever wanted to see.

Thank you, beautiful England for opening my heart and mind to possibility.

 

[Pauline]

That is an amazing story Pati! I think you made a good choice staying off the motorways here. The scenery is boring and the driving is intense - more so as you get close to the big cities. Driving on the smaller roads is fun (although it always seems to take forever to get anywhere) - you see the villages, and the countryside.

I think many Americans don't tour the countryside here because of the driving difficulties. The "other side of the road" thing still gets me and we have been here nearly 4 years. I am at the point now where it does not feel natural driving on either side. But the real difference in driving here is how narrow the roads are. You have to pay attention all the time.

I think that any trip to a place that is different from where you live can have a profound effect on you. It takes you completely out of your life, and your problems. You learn to be flexible, to deal with the unexpected. You are taken out of your comfort zone. I remember our first long trip to Italy in the mid 90s - I felt like I was on another planet. I didn't even know how to order coffee.

This is one of the reasons, IMO, that travel is good for people. To make them look at things from a different point of view, to see people who live differently, to experience different ways of doing things.

 

[Pati]

You're right. I now love to travel. My latest trip was with the local extension of Indiana University and Purdue, The Culinary Traditions of Tuscany. We explored the slow food movement...went truffle hunting, ate wild boar, stayed in a monastery, watched goat cheese being made and ate the results, learned how to make gnocchi, etc., all with 12 people I had never met. You see how far my need to travel has taken me? BTW, the next time I drive in your beautiful country, I'm going to remove the hubcaps, put them in the boot, and put them back on when returning the car. The narrow roads taught us that lesson.