cindyabs

Thank you-sounds worth checking out.
A shame sometimes they couldn't leave well enough alone with the renovations on some of them.

scrubbedexpat097

Ray and I discussed this in another thread somewhere. It is true......it happened in '82 or '83 about 2 weeks before Christmas. Our house was completley cut off, the snow drifted across all the small back village roads and everything came to a halt

Ray

Was it as late as that ..I cant really remember

scrubbedexpat097

I only remember because it was the first winter we had in the little village we lived on the Essex/Suffolk border and I know my kids were only about 2 and 3 years old then.............otherwise most dates just blend intogether....

Tootsie Frickensprinkles

Okay that is in my lifetime, but I was a kiddie, I don't remember it

Five days is a bit much indeed ...

scrubbedexpat097

Where in Suffolk were you living?

Tootsie Frickensprinkles

Oh, I've never lived in Suffolk - although we did visit a lot when I was young as my older brother was at school Ipswich way.

I was in Lavenham for a weekend away and visit to Cambridge and was recommending the village to Jenney which brought up the subject of Ray's unhappy detainment.

Just Jenney

Do you mean that Barclay's doesn't charge ATM fees for anyone, or Barclay's waives the ATM fees for BOA customers?

Our ATM card is linked to our USAA checking account, and they (USAA) doesn't charge extra for international withdrawals.

~ Jenney

ps. As of right now, the Pats are winning!

cindyabs

They don't charge BOA but Lloyd's does. BOA charges their normal 1.50.

Go Pats,

Just Jenney

Ooh -- what about travel insurance? I've started looking up some options, and it's becoming clear that I have to be very careful to look for plans that will cover Mark (non-US citizen / US resident) on trips outside the US. How tricky!

I've also been looking up BritRail passes -- they are expensive!!! One adult 4-day pass costs $260!!! We can't afford that!!! Shoot -- I thought we could get a pass for like $50/pp or something. I can't believe it's that expensive, just for a 30-minute ride from Stortford to London. I must be missing something...

(Can you tell what I've been doing all day today!? LOL)

~ Jenney

Elvira

What about:

http://www.nationalexpress.com/home/hp.cfm

And did you find *any* of my suggestions useful at all...

cindyabs

Those days are long gone on the cheap passes, but if you get an idea of where you want to go and for how long you may find for example that a round trip is cheaper than a one way, just like an airline ticket.

Travel insurance can be tricky if you're considering coverage for the airline ticket non ref portion, usually has to be bought within two weeks of purchase of the ticket............
It goes by WHERE the covered person is a resident of, which Mark is a resident here. It's priced by age too as well as the cost of what you're insuring.

Ash UK/US

If you are planning on doing anything in London check out Ebay.co.uk look up Tesco S3010 coupons/vouchers. We bought these for our last trip and saved a lot of $$$ They basically sell for half their face value i.e a £20 vouchers goes for around £10. You can use them in places like Tower of London and Kensington Palace or on a sight seeing tour. A nice way to do some cheap sight seeing. Also you can use them in restaurants and half the price of eating out. I used them all over and did not have a single problem.

Just Jenney

Yes, your suggestions are great! I'm still working through them as well as the others. We talked a little bit tonight about the trip (not very much -- Mark loses steam after a point!) and we're looking to take several day trips to London, not necessarily consecutively. We can't afford to stay overnight in London (the cheapest hotel deals I've found are $100/night), but taking day trips will work out just as well. We're still deciding what we want to do exactly, and when.

EDITED TO ADD: Ideally we'd like to take day trips from Stansted/Bishop's Stortford to London. It may turn out that we might just have to bite the bullet and get the BritRail passes I mentioned earlier ($260/pp). That's just SO expensive, in my opinion. I'm going to have to read back through this thread -- I'm pretty sure someone mentioned a much cheaper option, I just have to find it!

One thing we had discussed was trying to attend a film premiere in London (as I mentioned earlier, Mark's a big film buff). He specifically mentioned the new Indiana Jones film, that it's set to premiere "sometime in May" at the Odeon Leicester Square. This was where Mark went to see one of the Star Wars premieres a few years ago (don't know which one), and George Lucas presented the film. Unfortunately, I just discovered that the new Indiana Jones is premiering in London ON THE NIGHT WE FLY BACK HOME! I haven't told Mark yet; awww, he'll be so disappointed.

I looked at the coach option, but I think Mark will probably want to take the train. I'll keep looking and comparing prices -- there's got to be a cheaper way to get there and back!

~ Jenney

Tootsie Frickensprinkles

If you are hiring a car for the full duration this is a very expensive option for you ... drive to the outskirts and go in on the tube ... from out west on the met line I think its about 8 pounds for a travel card so it cant be any more from the far ends of the east.