During the second half of 1984, I was studying abroad, away from Boston University, at Westfield College in Hampstead, in north London (the College has since been absorbed into Queen Mary University of London). My parents – who had pretty much funded my entire experience – also wanted to be part of it, so they came to visit for two weeks, beginning in late May, toward the tail-end of my semester there. I recently re-read my journals from the April before their visit and was reminded of how excited I was about their (then) pending visit. They first spent two days in London – some touristy things, including afternoon tea at The Savoy and going to the theater – and then we started the portion of my trip my parents were really looking forward to.
We would take the overnight train from London to Edinburgh (my dad loved trains), where we would rent a car and meander our way back to London, taking about a week to do so. My dad had always had a thing for Scotland (he listened to bagpipe music and took mom and my two brothers and me to see the Scottish games in Connecticut), while my mom really had a desire to see the remains of Hadrian’s wall, an ancient Roman defensive fortification built in AD 122 across northern England, stretching coast to coast for a distance of about 73 miles.
So – off we went. The train had to pull into a siding overnight, as the train ride wouldn’t actually take all night. We had sleeping cars, which was just a great experience, and the porter offered to “knock us up in the morning” – wake us up – which we all got a kick out of.
We arrived Edinburgh in the morning, spent the day and an overnight there and, the next day, rented a car – a Triumph Acclaim – and began our drive south, stopping along the way at the Scotland/England border, at Hadrian’s Wall (my mom was over-the-top thrilled!), and ended in York for a two-night stay. We liked the restaurant we went to the first night so much – Hudson’s Below Stairs – that we went back to the same place the second evening; dinner the second night was 25 British pounds for the three of us – about $120 in today’s dollars.
Over the course of the next four days and three nights, we continued the drive south, stopping at a long list of traditional – and top-notch – tourist spots – Coventry, Stratford, the Cotswolds, Blenheim Palace (we got a special tour from the Duke of Marlborough!), Oxford, Bath, Wells Cathedral, Tetbury (where Charles and Di had a weekend home), Chartwell (Winston Churchill’s home), and Stonehenge, before the return to Hempstead.
All in all, we drove 931 miles. When my dad returned the car the next day to Kenning Car & Van Hire in London, the proprietor asked him, “you’re an American and you drove a standard on the opposite side of the road all the way from Edinburgh into Central London?” My dad replied, “Well, I learned how to drive in Brooklyn, so I can pretty much drive anywhere.”
They stayed three more nights in London, doing touristy things (they saw Peter O’Toole play Professor Higgins in “Pygmalion” at the Shaftesbury Theatre, and they had tea at both the Waldorf Hotel and Brown’s Hotel) and visiting with my friends at Westfield.
We had a great, great time. My parents were in seventh heaven; my dad, the history buff, ate it all up, and got a train ride and Scotland as well. My mom was all smiles at Hadrian’s Wall, loved her afternoon teas and shopping at Harrod’s, and created a photo and memory album for this trip, including a detailed day-by-day itinerary (which I partly depended upon for this post and to make the map I’ve included), train tickets, theatre programs, handwritten directions, restaurant receipts, bed and breakfast bills and business cards, and – of course – photos. It’s because of that album that I have a small collection of items from that trip.
