Just completed a fantastic 2 weeks family vacation in Great Britain and back in time to celebrate the approach of a new year with friends last night.
This trip was planned for months and timing was critical because of my older son’s A-level exams and subsequent military national service enlistment in early Jan. It will be the last long vacation with the whole family for a while, given that for the next 4 years, both sons would have to complete their 22 months NS one after the other and it will be tough for them to take their annual leave of 14 days at one go.
Given the shorter daylight hours (only 8 hours per day from 8 am to 4 pm), we decided to start off with a road trip directly from the airport when we landed. Pleasantly surprised that the rental car was a Mercedes C220 diesel model that drove very smoothly.
First stop was Torquay for 2 nights in Devon after a 3+ hours drive. Visited the Eden Project and then to Stone Henge and Bath before another 2 nights at Southampton. Had to get used to the weather that was below 10 degrees Celsius most of the time. Last stop was in Oxford where Justin had applied for, to help him get an idea of the university town that he may attend.
Dropped the car in London and spent 8 nights at King’s Cross in a nice service apartment. Rediscovered London again after my last trip there almost 20 years ago. Lots of eating and walking around and Christmas eve and boxing day were spent with close relatives. The 5 kg prime beef bone-in roast was really good…
We tried all the great eating places (Barrafina, Four Seasons, Lobsters & Burgers and Core) and watched 2 musicals (Thriller and Book of Mormons). Cost of living is so high there, even the train tubes were expensive. Made a mistake of taking the black cab taxi once and the damage was GBP 28! Thanks to Uber, we discovered it was the cheapest way to move around London. They were a manageable GBP 7 to 12 per trip, sometimes even cheaper than public transport for a group of 4.
We even had an adventurous day trip to Cambridge where we experienced snow for a few hours. Christmas day was when everything was closed and we had to eat at Chinatown where they only had “special” menus. White rice was a ripoff at GBP 5.5 per person!
Overall, a very nice family vacation where we had quality time with the boys as they get ready to turn into men soon when military service starts. Told wife we will probably be having more couple vacations in the future as they start getting plans of their own with friends and girlfriends.
A pleasant surprise while on vacation : Thanks to XRP Ripple shooting up in price from 0.20 to 2.30 , my crypto portfolio MTM is now +400% … Crazy!
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