This Tuesday, Patricia and I leave for 10 weeks touring England, Wales, (maybe some of southern
Scotland) and Ireland.

We have been busy over the past few months planning our trip: Pat went through about 5 or 6
"Great/Beautiful Gardens of UK, ... Ireland, ... Wales etc. I sat in Chapter's bookstore copying
from books entitled with the likes of "Cute Villages of UK, ... Ireland, ... Wales etc. We both
went through World Heritage Sites, and British Isles Archeology Sites books and of course our
mainstay; Lonely Planet. The main attraction for Pat is the Chelsea Flower Show (and about 30
other gardens). For me, my son is in Galway, Ireland so that will be nice to see him for a few
days, and of course the opportunity to engage in my photography hobby. We have a British Isles map
on the living-room floor with Red (points of interest), Green (Gardens), Yellow (Archeology), and
Blue (Cute Villages) dots all over the map with numbers cross-referencing page #s in various
books. A bit 'much' on the detail side, but now the route begins to plan itself. We leave May 2nd
and return July 18th. Rather than ship my van over and back (about $3,000), we're renting a Diesel
EuroVan Syncro Westy from Marc Peters in the Netherlands, so we'll fly (using points!) into, and
out of, Amsterdam with a few days in the BeNeLux countries.

I will of course send some trip reports and I'll be trying to take some photos that will make it
onto the next Calendar.  "Happy trails to you..."  Malcolm  (Halifax NS)

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