I love to plan travel. I don't mean I like to flick through a brochure and dream. I mean I like to download local bus routes for places I am going 8 months hence and to know the seat configurations on the plane I am taking. I like the fact that I know it costs about 4 pence more to go on the upper deck of the star ferry between Kowloon and Hong Kong Island as it does the lower deck. The planning is at least as good as the going. But that is not to say I am not capable of spontaneity.
Last Friday I went for a meal out with a friend who was about to depart for Majorca on a golfing holiday. That and the Gaudi book I was flicking through implanted a sudden urging in me. We were not doing anything particular that weekend, lets just go to Spain! So I got home and went on line to book a flight to Barcelona the next morning. There were none. None at all. Not even very expensive last minute indirect ones. Darn. I was all set to go. Later, in the dead of night I awoke to the sudden realisation that it was a good thing there were no flights as my passport is in fact with the UK passport agency being renewed. And the next day when Dennis asked if I minded him putting on the Grand Prix - from Barcelona - that the penny dropped as to why there were no flights.
But the need to just go somewhere has clearly lingered. You recall I was asking you what to do for my holiday project. Well Joyce emailed me direct ( not having the account necessary to leave a comment) to suggest,
"I think you should use your newly-acquired embroidery skills to make a modern version of the Mappa Mundi with your journey superimposed on it."
Well what a great idea! Of course, I was not entirely sure what the Mappa Mundi looked like so I Google it. It looks like the picture above ( which actually doens't tell me a lot but it was the best one I could find) and guess where it is (or at least where the oldest one is as all Mappa Mundi means is Map of the World) - Hereford. And you know where Hereford is? Yup, 33 minutes ( thank you AA route finder) from The Three Counties Showground in Malvern, home of Quilts UK this weekend.
So, I cancelled the hotel in Worcester, re-booked one in Hereford, not only allowing us to discover a heretobefore unknown place to eat there in the evening, but also to view the Mappa Mundi and the Chained Library exhibition for an hour or so before hotfooting back to the showground for day two of the show ( I reckon a day and half is perfect timing for Quilts UK anyway). Thanks Joyce!
PS I am a lawyer. I like to use words like hence and heretobefore. Herein and aforemetioned are good ones too.
PPS I am not sure that heretobefore is actually a word but I still enjoyed using it.
5 comments:
And you could pop into Doubty's (very close to the cathedral)but they'll be at Malvern. They tend to have their non reduced stuff in the shop.
Heretobefore is a great word and I will join you in using it as often as possible.
I also totally get the need to go to Spain for the weekend. When I lived in Germany and my SIL was in Switzerland we had planned for me to come visit her. She met me just over my border in Basel and then we went together over the kittycorner border into France to check out a car museum I was curious about. We could have returned into Switzerland from whence we came, but it seemed like more fun to take a different route over the mountains. Having been in three countries in one day, we seriously debated trying to get to the Italian border for dinner, just to say we did it.
you're improptune trip change sounds like the perfect the solution :-)
The map idea sounds good--hope it works out.
I love hence & therefore - especially when they are next to the semicolon!
I also like to plan my vcacations. I am going to Sisters in July - with a 6.5 month old baby, but I am loving the planning right now!
Not being a lawyer, my planning is not nearly as detailed as yours.
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