Buying a Train Ticket

I spent way too much time today learning how to purchase a British train ticket online and thought I would pass along what I learned. Perhaps this will save someone else some time and frustration. If you order train tickets ahead of time, they are much cheaper.

Initially I'd wanted to make a roundtrip reservation from Alnwick to Edinburgh for the second weekend we are in England (July 26 and 27). I went through the website above and discovered that, according to the website, Alnmouth is the closest train station to Alnwick. (Mert and Marcia, does that correspond with your experience?)

You can type in: Alnmouth or the three letter code -- ALM.

However, I ran into a couple of glitches and thought I'd pass them along. First of all, even though I typed in the date and day of departure and clicked on their option for that date, by the time I got to the final page and was ready to purchase, the dates had changed. Be careful. I still don't know what happened, but I'd suggest triple-checking everything. I checked it each step of the process, yet somehow the information had changed by the last screen.

Also, when I clicked to purchase, a screen came up that I hadn't seen before. Advance tickets (with very reasonable prices) can only be purchased if you are living in the UK or if you can pick up your ticket from the local ticket kiosk at certain stations in person on the day you expect to travel. It appears that Alnmouth does not have one of these ticket kiosks, so I could not purchase that portion of my ticket ahead of time. However, I was able to purchase the portion from Edinburgh to Alnmouth because they have one of the ticket centers at the Edinburgh (Waverley) station. Once purchased, all you need to claim your ticket is the confirmation number they give you on-line and the credit card you used to make your reservation.

My one-way advanced fare was about 9 pounds. I'm sure the other portion of the ticket -- one-way from Alnmouth to Edinburgh will be quite a bit more! I couldn't find any way to order that at the advanced fare special rate, however. The estimated traveling time on the train between Alnmouth and Edinburgh is an hour.

If anyone else is planning to travel from Alnwick, I hope this information is helpful.

The link to plan and purchase a train ticket is http://www.nationalrail.co.uk/

More about Sandals

I went to Hoigaard's to buy Keen's sandals for walking and ended up with Chacos instead. The person there said that the Chaco brand had more support and was the only sandal they had officially recognized by the American Medical Podiatric Association for extensive walking (hiking). Another nice thing is that Chacos are adjustable; I was going to break mine in, but they've been very comfortable since the first time I wore them. If you feel like you might need more support, you could check into Chaco footwear as well as Keen. Both Hoigaard's and Schuler Shoes had both brands, so you can compare what feels best. Other places may have them as well.

http://chacousa.com/ is their website for more information.

Cautionary Tales of Packing

I just checked the temperature in Newcastle and the high today is 61 degrees so pack your jackets. Speaking of packing (and as a late minute packer I hate to say this), but plan carefully. We are allowed two suitcases, but the weight limit per suitcase is 50 pounds and it is being enforced. One of our daughters just returned from a study trip to Mexico, and her suitcase weighed in at 52.5 pounds. Her choice was either to pay a $50.00 overweight charge for the extra 2.5 pounds or to remove items from her suitcase and somehow fit them into her carry on. She said that everyone around her was well acquainted with what her underwear looked like before she finished the repacking!

On a similar note, I was at the St. Cloud airport last week (I spend my free time just hanging out there!) and a person came in who was traveling to Indonesia. The first suitcase was weighed and I heard the clerk say $50, then the second was weighed and she said that will be $100 total. To make a long story short, both suitcases were overweight so it cost the passenger $100 to take them. So if you plan to travel heavy, be prepared to pay the price.

As we have mentioned, there will be laundry facilities at the Castle, so don't try to pack something clean to wear for each day. Dark colors are great--you can wear them a lot longer without needing to launder unless you have a major mishap.

I'm off to e-mail our friends in Newcastle to get an update on what the weather patterns have been. I'll pass along their information to assist in your packing planning.

23 days and counting...

This is my first blog and I'm very excited to try it out. On Friday I finished my last day at work for the summer and can now concentrate on the trip to England. I've very much enjoyed reading the Beatrice Potter stories and learning about her life. She must have been a remarkable woman. I've made many attempts at keeping a journal but never seem to be able to keep it up. Perhaps I'll be inspired after spending time at the Potter house.