England is small in area, about 50,000 sq. miles, roughly 1/3 the size of California. But it seems HUGE if you have only 3 weekends to explore it. Especially if you include London in your itinerary. (Duh!)
Given our planned base in Bristol which is in west England, here's my loose schedule of what cities to visit on those weekends:
First weekend:
Windsor on Friday -- directly from Heathrow airport where we arrive at 7:00am
Bath on Saturday -- 1 hour by car from Bristol
Salisbury/Stonehenge on Sunday -- 1 and 1/2 hours by car from Bristol
Second weekend:
Cardiff, Wales on Saturday -- 1 hour by car from Bristol
Cotswolds towns on Sunday -- 1-2 hours by car from Bristol
Third weekend:
London on Saturday -- 2 hours by train from Bristol
London on Sunday -- 2 hours by train from Bristol
London side trip on Monday -- 2 hours by train from Bristol
I've realized over the years that when it comes to vacation and travel, underplanning rather than overplanning works out better for me. It's more relaxing to figure out the day-to-day logistics when I get to my destination. So far, though, I've already done more research for this trip than I have for any other trip in the past, except for one -- my very first trip to the US, when I was going to live for a year in a college dorm at Brandeis.
The month before leaving for Brandeis in 1972 was a deliriously exciting time for me. This month before leaving for England and Paris, 40 years later, comes pretty close to that.
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