Kelly Trips and Tours

Today was our last day of our 2017 European Adventure, and there couldn't be a better place to end it. We started our morning with a hearty breakfast here at the Manor House.The rain stopped and the temperature reached 71 degrees. Just georgeous!  As mentioned yesterday, here are more pictures around the property. Ric & Vicki's room Rooms in the Manor House. In 2010, Castle Comb played host to Hollywood director Steven Spielberg when it was the setting for a major part of the film Warhorse. Below are pictures we took and pictures taken when filming. We must rent the movie. For our Small Group blog readers: Jeff & Sue Knight drove up from Southampton to join us for lunch at 'The Old Rectory Tea Room'. It was so nice to get some real English hugs from special people.  Good friends, good food at a great place in the small village of Castle Combe.  The Old Rectory Tea Room is in a private residence which dates back to...

This morning on our way to breakfast (our 'house', approx. 30-ft from the main house) Ric asked the grounds keeper "how do you water the lawn"? He said we don't.  We hope it will rain tonight and while eating, his wish came true. Welcome to England. Staying at this bed and breakfast farmhouse has allowed us the chance to interact with the Inn Keeper and other guests. It was great to hear about their lives and life here in England. On our way to Castle Combe where we will spend two nights, we visited Oxford. So if anyone asks, we can say we went to Oxford! The old buildings and campus are beautiful, alhough we only saw a small amount. Oxford is definitely a University town - lots of universities, students and tourists. Like Venice, Oxford has its own 'Bridge of Sighs' Rather than eating lunch in town (very crowded) we opted to drive out of town and hope for the best. Sure enough our english driver (Bill) spotted a place along the 2-lane...

This morning again brought us sunshine and a nice farmhouse breakfast with eggs to order with all the trimmings, even fried bread (how dies she do it - eyes shut?). All of us are Downton Abbey fans so while in England, we had to visit Highclere Castle and Bampton Village.  So off we went with Bill at the wheel. We arrived at Highclere Castle quickly since it is located very close to where we are staying.  We were very surprised by the amount of land on the property - expansive grassland with sheep, large trees and beautiful gardens as far as the eye could see. We didn't have to wait too long to get into the castle.   We were disappointed that we weren't allowed to take pictures inside, so we don't have any to share with you. The rooms were very much like what we saw in the series and there were additional rooms to see as well. The castle is the home of the 8th Earl and Countess of Carnarvon who still live there.  The house had many personal family...

This morning Viking kicked us off the Viking Sea.  We were sad to go and thought they should have kept us longer but they would not change their minds.  After another hearty breakfast, we were tendered to the Greenwich Pier where we collected our luggage and waited for our ride.  That was the easy part. Before I go into the transportation, you must know that we have a travel rule against visiting emergency rooms on our trips.  Ric came close to breaking that rule when he sprained his ankle while trying to find a restroom.  It is a little swollen and bruised, but we think he will live and our rule will not be broken. Now about our transportation to Heathrow Airport where we planned to pick up a rental car.  Bill arranged a driver to pick us up, and when he arrived, he was not in a good mood.  He called Bill to tell us where he was (maybe 50-yards from where Bill was standing) and was impatient because Bill told him several times he did not unders...