Our Itinerary

With only a week to go before our departure, we're getting everything ready for our trip. Hubby has been busy working on our itinerary. He spends hours and hours researching where we'll go, where we'll stay, how we'll get from place to place, and what we'll do once we get there. This trip is no exception! So here is a brief synopsis of where we'll be and when:

Aug. 31: We leave Boston at 9:30 PM on IcelandAir flight #630 to London/Heathrow. We'll get our rental car and, remembering to drive on the wrong side of the road, make our way to:
Sept 1-4: The Bellhouse Hotel in Beaconsfield, close to my family in Rickmansworth. We're going to visit with cousins, an aunt and uncle and other assorted family who are all on my Dad's side of the family, but I'll also visit places where my ancestors lived and worked. Below is Braunston Cottage which my great-great-grandfather, Joseph Nutter built in Rickmansworth for my great-great-grandmother, Sarah Ann Berry. He named it after the village of her birth, Braunston, Northamptonshire.

Here is a close up of the plaque on the house with name and date:

Sept. 4: We go to Bedfordshire to research the Nutters who lived in Risely and Harrold and date back to the 1600's here. I hope to find some graves perhaps but if not, we'll visit the churches where the family attended. In those days, the church was the center of life and kept all the records of births, deaths, marriages, baptisms, etc. On this night we'll travel north and stay in Derbyshire.

Sept. 5: We go to the village of Langley in Nottinghamshire to visit a second cousin there. We have never met, but we've been corresponding about common ancestors on my Mom's side of the family. We'll have lunch with him and his family, then again drive north to Carlisle where we'll stay at a lovely B&B, the Willowbeck Lodge, below:

Sept. 6-8: On to Edinburgh, Scotland for two nights. While here we'll visit St. Andrew's Golf Course and hopefully the weather will cooperate and we'll be able to play 18 holes. We'll also visit the Edinburgh Castle and spend some time sightseeing here.

Sept. 8-10: We drive on to Inverness for two more nights. From here we'll visit Culloden, the site of a famous battle of the clans and the Jacobites. I've read two of Diana Gabaldon's books in her "Outlander" series, the story of Jamie and Claire, and this place figures highly into these books of historical fiction. Her third book is accompanying me on this trip! On the second day, we'll go to Invergordon, the tiny town north of Inverness, where my parents met during World War II. My mother had been sent there to live with her grandparents, Joseph Fyfe Beacom and his wife Margaret Gansinger so she would be out of London during the bombings. My Dad was in the Royal Navy and his destroyer came into port there, and the rest, they say, is history. In my case, family history. Hubby and I have been here before, in 1976, but back then I was too young to appreciate the historical significance of this place. My hope is to find my great-grandparents' graves. I've been in touch with the library and the minister in Invergordon so I think I at least know where to look. Here is the high street of Invergordon:

Sept. 10: We will travel through the Great Glen on our way to Glasgow. We'll see Loch Ness, Urqhart Castle, Fort William, Glen Nevis, then on to Glencoe, the Trossachs, and Loch Lomond, arriving in Glasgow late in the day. We'll stay overnight here so we're ready to catch our flight in the morning.

Sept. 11: We fly from Glasgow to Reykjavik, Iceland on IcelandAir flight #431. I dare say, this date has not escaped me, but I am not going to let it bother me. It will bring some reflection though, I'm sure.Once in Reykjavik, we'll see the tower at Hallgrimskirkja (the large church here), walk around enjoying the sights, and perhaps take in a concert in the evening.

Sept. 12: We'll drive north to the Snæfellsnes Peninsula. Possibilities for this day: Glymur waterfall (a one hour hike each way) if we go around Hvalfjörður instead of taking the 4 mile tunnel under the bay; or maybe see the Eldborg crater (a nice half hour hike), then we'll choose one of these for the afternoon: either Arnarstapi (just beyond Búðir) to get to the glacier via snowmobile, or go on a whale watch from Olafsvik. They see Orca whales here, like Shamu! In between, we'll drive around the end of the peninsula to see rock formations and sea birds. We'll stay the night at Hótel Búðir, which proclaims itself "at the end of the habitable world".

Sept. 13-15: We head southeast to the Golden Circle via Húsafell, Hraunfossar, Barnafoss, and then thru Kaldidalur to the Hotel Flúðir in Vesturbrún. We'll spend two nights here and see other things on the Golden Circle the next day: Skálholt, Geysir (geyser), Gulfoss (golden waterfall).

Sept. 15: We leave for the airport this morning but not before stopping at the Blue Lagoon, where the water is heated geothermically. They actually add cold water to it so people can bathe in it.

This will be our last memory of our vacation. On this night we fly back to Boston on IcelandAir flight #631. I'm sure we'll be sad to see our holiday end, but I know it will feel so good to sleep in our own bed!!

A Mission with a Purpose

One month from today, I will be traveling to England, the country of my birth, to visit relatives, both alive and dead, do some genealogical research, see sights both old and new to me, and spend two wonderful weeks with My Hubby, the Love of My Life. Hubby actually calls this vacation "The Great Dead People Tour". He is being very patient with my need to know my ancestors. I've created this blog to share our travels with those back home. I hope to update regularly, subject to Internet availability, of course. I want this to be an electronic record of our trip but also a way to stay in touch with all the people who mean so much to me and may be curious about our adventures. We will spend time in England, then Scotland where my mother's family came from, and finally, we will spend four days in Iceland on the way home. No relatives there, but it will certainly be a different place to visit.

St. Thomas Church will be one of the first stops when we get to England. This is the church where my Carter/Ford families attended starting back in 1847 when it was first built. Two sets of great-great-grandparents where married here: Thomas Carter and Mary Ford on February 12, 1849 and George Ford and Mary Wise on November 14, 1857. As far as I can tell right now, these two Fords were not related. My grandparents were baptized here as was my father and all his siblings. Some of my relatives are buried in the churchyard here. I have poured over the parish records of this church and I know many of the names of families who lived in West Hyde, Rickmansworth, and Chalfont St. Peter. This is one of my most important stops on our journey. My plan is to attend the worship service on Sunday, Sept 2, the day after we arrive. It's important to me to worship in the same church as so many of my ancestors did. Will I feel them there? I hope I do.