I am going to start typing up my experiences during my trip to Amsterdam and Britain, before I forget them.
In case you happen to be a new reader, I’ll give a quick background to the trip…
I was born in Britain, and spent my first 27 years there. I met Irina back in 1998, and got to know a little bit about her home country (Kazakhstan) from talking to her. August 2001 saw us get married here in Astana, and we spent the next 5 or so years living in Britain, coming over here in the summer or winter each year. Eventually we decided to try living in Astana for a while, which gave Irina the chance to be closer with her family and friends for a while, and for me to discover her home nation, and see how life is for people in Kazakhstan now. Anyway, to skip back to the wedding a moment, Irina flew over to Kazakhstan a little before me, to start the paper work required for the marriage to take place.
As you may imagine, I partied quite hard in the last week or so before I was due to leave, to the point that a friend had to pack my luggage for me an hour or so before the coach was due to take me to the airport. My flight went via Amsterdam, so I had decided to take the opportunity to actually visit the city itself. We’ll skip most of the gory details, but suffice to say I missed a couple of flights, and spent too much time too ‘tired’ wandering around the city (I was just 22 at the time, as opposed to the responsible, mature and well behaved 28 year old who now types this post out 😉 ). A few years after we were married, Ira secretly arranged a long weekend in Amsterdam for us, so I already knew it was theoretically possible to not get lost, miss flights, and actually have a bed to sleep in!
This year ChrisD was meant to come and visit us here in Astana again, and the plan was that I’d follow him back and visit Amsterdam with him. However circumstances dictated that he couldn’t come this year, so I decided to meet him over in Holland, unfortunately Irina could not get the time off work. As I was travelling all the way to Western Europe, I decided I would check how much more it would cost me to visit Britain, and see my family and friends. As it turned out, if I used different airlines and booking agents, I could spend less than $150 and spend some time in the UK 🙂
A bit later on, AlexC decided she would like to tag along as well, as the apartment we had booked could hold four, and they had both met previously, we decided to make it a threesome. NOT that sort of threesome… Anyway, I’ll leave the rest for now, I just wanted to make sure that everyone would be at the same level of background knowledge before posting any pictures and stories.
Oct 26 2007
Let The Story Begin
Comments Off on Let The Story Begin
Sep 17 2007
Trains, Coaches And Cars…
OK, so after Amsterdam, I am travelling to Cheltenham and Evesham to spend around a week with Dad & Jan and Cheltonian friends. The next week I am travelling to Clydach, near Swansea to see Mum & John, and then some time after down to Falmouth to see my brother for his birthday (12th October).
With the Cheltenham/Evesham to Clydach journey, I need to decide whether to travel on a train, catch a coach or rent a hire car for the day.
The advantages that I can see of each…
Train – plenty of room to stretch my legs, normally has a little buffet section on board
Coach – get on coach, read/listen to music/sleep, get off at other end, often no changes required, usually cheaper than a train
Hire car – a lot more flexibility with when I leave, taking a rest break and don’t need to worry about my luggage getting too battered/stolen
The disadvantages…
Train – often pricey compared to a coach, most previous journeys I have taken have involved a change of trains
Coach – cramped, no food or drink onboard, risk of noisy/smelly/annoying passenger sitting next to me, at least on busy routes
Car – can be expensive in comparison to the others, need to get myself to the pick up and drop off points (hire car company offices)
So, after a little research, things are not as simple as I hoped. The coach (National Express) doesn’t seem to have a terminal in Swansea, the trains are not running on the first date I was looking at (Bank holiday maybe?), and the hire car company comparison sites don’t allow for picking up a car in Cheltenham/Evesham and dropping it off in Swansea to be entered into their comparison search table.
So, does anyone have any advice?
[edit]
Another option I considered would be to buy a bargain banger with at least a month’s tax and MOT left, and hope it lasted while I was in the UK…
Comments Off on Trains, Coaches And Cars…
Sep 13 2007
GPS With Speedcamera POI
Now that I have my GPS systems sorted for Amsterdam (we will have TomTom Navigator on the PDA, GPS Tuner also on the PDA, and TomTom Mobile and a couple of basic GPS apps on the Smartphone), one positive side effect will be having a navigation system ready to use in Britain, should I end up hiring a car for any of the long journeys. (If it costs the same to hire one as a coach or train ticket, I may well do this, as I have not driven in 9 months, and sort of miss driving, especially in a country where people have at least a semblance of lane discipline 😉 ). What with the speed camera database installed on the PDA, the only other item I could do with is a radar detector to ensure I am aware of any mobile speed detection units on the road I am travelling on at the time. Obviously this would be for interest only, as I never go above 70mph on Britain’s motorways.
Comments Off on GPS With Speedcamera POI
Jul 08 2007
Alex Safe & Sound
We have just received a text from Alex, of Dryad Musings fame, and she is back in Britain, on the coach back to Cheltenham. So no unexpected 24 hour delays in Kaliningrad this time, which is a huge relief. Early this morning, we saw her off at the airport (they did not seem to mind her 28 kilo suitcase, luckily), and it would appear that the cigarettes and vodka did not receive undue attention at the UK airport 😉
It was really good to see her again, as we last met at Christmas. Although it was sad to see her go, we will hopefully be meeting up once more this coming December, if all goes well. We may even be able to persuade Ira’s parents to come and visit England with us!
Comments Off on Alex Safe & Sound