Spilled Inkwells

It is quiet afternoon in the writing center. Grant is doing a reader response. Caleb is eating a late sack lunch. I'm trying to let my mind unwind from a semester of beating the books. We've been so preoccupied with class assignments, our time for contemplating the joys of journeying to Englad has been nill. Sunday, we will depart; I can hardly wait!

Our itinerary follows:

Sunday18 November 2007:
DAY 1 DEPARTURE FROM KANSAS CITY
Enjoy full meal service on your scheduled wide-bodied flight to Manchester.
Route: Kansas City MCI - Atlanta ATL
Departs: 18 Nov 07 15:35 Arrives: 18 Nov 07 18:33 Flight Number:DL468

Route: Atlanta ATL- Manchester MAN
Departs: 18 Nov 07 20:20 Flight Number: DL64

Monday, 19 November 2007
DAY 2 ARRIVE MANCHESTER - HAWORTH - LAKE DISTRICT (2 NIGHTS)
Arrives: 19 Nov 07 09:25 Flight Number: DL64
We will be met at the airport by our Tour Manager/ Guide and transferred to Haworth, where we will visit the Bronte Parsonage, the home of the Bronte family during the mid 1800s. The home now houses the Bronte Parsonage Museum, which is decorated as it was during the 1850s, and contains letters, manuscripts, books, furniture and personal treasures of the famous literary family. Our day continues, as we immerse ourselves in the Bronte’s great novels, and take an evocative Bronte Walk through the we continue to our Hotel in the Lake District.
Dinner tonight will be at your hotel

Tuesday, 20 November 2007
DAY 3 THE LAKE DISTRICT (FOCUS ON WORDSWORTH & RUSKIN)
Our day begins with a visit to Wordsworth's Dove Cottage and the Churchyard where Wordsworth is buried at Grasmere. We will also stop at Rydal Water, where we will view Dora’s field, the land Wordsworth bought and named after his daughter, which is filled with “a host of golden daffodils... fluttering and dancing in the breeze.” We will then take a leisurely Lake Cruise around England’s largest and most beautiful lake. Our next visit will be The World of Beatrix Potter, where the tales of Beatrix Potter are brought to life with the use of modern technology. Our afternoon will conclude at Hill Top Farm, once owned by Beatrix Potter and inspiration to many of her Tales, here we will have the opportunity to visit the gardens and view the house.
Dinner tonight will be at your hotel

Wednesday, 21 November 2007
DAY 4 LAKE DISTRICT - BATH - WESSEX (2 NIGHTS)
We leave the Lake District early this morning and venture to Wessex. We will make a visit to Bath a city with some of the strongest literary associations in England. Here we begin our sightseeing with a Walking Tour of Jane Austen’s Bath, beginning with a visit to the Assembly Rooms and Costume Museum, Pulteney Bridge, the house where Austen lived with her parents for 5 years, and the Georgian splendors of the Royal Crescent and the Circus. We will then make a visit to the Roman Baths, first associated with the Celtic King Bladud, and later established by the Romans in the 1st century. Our afternoon in Bath will conclude with a visit the Jane Austen Centre, dedicated the novelist and her time in Bath. We continue to our hotel for the evening.
Dinner tonight will be at your hotel

Thursday, 22 November 2007
DAY 5 DORCHESTER, EAST COKER & GLASTONBURY
This morning we journey to the heart of Thomas Hardy Country, where we visit Hardy Cottage in Higher Bockhampton. Thomas Hardy was born and lived in this cottage, where he wrote many of his marvelous novels, including: Tess of the d’ Urbevilles and Far from the Maddening Crowd. We will also make a brief visit to Stinsford Church, where we will view Hardy’s Grave. Our day continues to East Coker, a place of pilgrimage for all lovers of T.S. Eliot’s poetry. His ancestors lived here before immigrating to America, and he returned, fell in love with the place, and his ashes are buried in the church. The second of his Four Quartets was inspired by this ancestral home. We will read some of Eliot’s work in the Churchyard, where his ashes are buried. Our afternoon concludes in Glastonbury, where we will hike to Glastonbury Tor to search for the Holy Grail, before visiting the beautiful ruins of Glastonbury Abbey, burial place of King Arthur and site of the first Christian church in England.
Dinner tonight will be at your hotel

Friday, 23 November 2007
DAY 6 WESSEX – WINCHESTER - CHAWTON - STRATFORD-UPON-AVON (2 NIGHTS)
Our first stop today will be Winchester, closely associated with Alfred the Great and once the ancient capital of England. Our sightseeing begins with a visit to the remains of Winchester Castle where a round oak table, King Arthur's Round Table, is attached to the wall. We will also visit Winchester Cathedral, the longest medieval cathedral in Britain and the burial place of Jane Austen. Next we will visit nearby Chawton, where we will visit Jane Austen's Home. The author lived in this house with her sister and her mother, and it was here that she wrote and revised Pride and Prejudice, Emma, Sense and Sensibility, Northanger Abbey, and Persuasion. The home is preserved as it would have been in Austen’s day and memorabilia, first editions, and even the writer’s donkey cart help to recreate her life, and we will see the drawing room where she did her writing, always listening for the creaking of the door, which warned her that visitors had arrived. We continue to Stratford-upon-Avon.
Dinner tonight will be at your hotel

Saturday, 24 November 2007
DAY 7 STRATFORD-UPON-AVON
We begin the day with a visit outside the city center to Anne Hathaway’s Cottage. The cottage provides a rare insight into the life of a family in Shakespearean times, and many of the original furnishings are preserved inside the house. We continue to central Stratford for a visit to Shakespeare’s Birthplace, where the Bard was born on April 23, 1564, and died on the same date 52 years later. We will also visit the modern Shakespeare Centre, built next door to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the Bard's birth, before viewing: the Grammar School, where Shakespeare received his education, New Place, Shakespeare’s retirement home (of which only the foundations remain today) and Nash’s House, the home of the poet’s granddaughter. We continue with a visit to Mary Arden’s House. This was the home of Shakespeare’s mother, and today is still a working farm. We conclude the day with a brief visit to Holy Trinity Church, the parish church where Shakespeare is buried, located in an attractive setting near the River Avon.
Dinner tonight will be at your hotel

Sunday, 25 November 2007
DAY 8 DEPARTURE FROM MANCHESTER
Our enjoyable and rewarding tour will come to an end as our guide accompanies us to the airport for the return flight home.
Route: Manchester MAN - Atlanta ATL
Departs: 25 Nov 07 12:00 Arrives: 25 Nov 07 16:40 Flight Number: DL65

Route: Atlanta ATL - Kansas City MCI
Departs: 25 Nov 07 20:10 Arrives: 25 Nov 07 21:21 Flight Number: DL1047

Comments

Lillibeth said…
Oh, it all sounds so exciting! What a whirlwind tour- I wish you had more time to savor it all!
I'll be thinking of you!
Love,
Lillibeth
Lauryl Lane said…
i've been having trouble commenting on your last few posts, where is the comment link hiding? i think i only did it this time b/c lillibeth had already commented?

anyway, i am SO SO SO excited for you and your immenent departure. samuel and i were reading your itinerary and are ridiculously jealous. i wanted to take him to bath when we were in london/oxford for our honeymoon but we just didn't have the time. we almost went to london or dublin for christmas this year and then at the last minute decided to go to san francsico to be with my dad's family instead. but anyway, have such a fabulous time. wave to the falcon hotel for me in stratford, k? it's right across the street from anne hathaway's garden. the room i lived in for two weeks two summers in a row overlooked the garden. i miss it so. can't wait to see your pictures and hear a full report! xoxo

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