TOUR
PACE
Our
holiday
together is intended to be well-paced without being exhausting. There
will be
time to shop, browse and wander as well as wonder at the beauty of
England.
May 19.
Depart Pearson International Airport,
Terminal One, at 2310 on flight AC 858.
May 20. Arrive at London
Heathrow at
1125. Transfer to Copthorne Tara Hotel. The rest of the day is free to rest and explore this
very historic
city. The Houses of Parliament, Tower of London, Westminster
Abbey and Buckingham Palace are but a few of the famous attractions to be found in
this
exciting city. Dinner at the hotel.
May 21.After
a full English breakfast, we
will spend most of the day at Kew Gardens. This
is an ideal time to visit this famous garden when bluebells, lilacs,
azaleas,
rhododendrons, magnolias and horse chestnut blossoms should be in full
bloom.
Dinner on your own.
May 22.
Chelsea Flower Show, organized by
the Royal Horticultural Society is one of the most prestigious garden
events in
the world It has been held annually for almost one hundred years and
features
top garden designers from around the world exhibiting their works – as
well as
specialist nurseries and numerous garden vendors. It is a truly
fantastic
horticultural experience. Dinner at the
hotel.
May 23. Today
we visit Hampton Court Palace. It is
one of only two surviving palaces built by Henry VIII. It dates from
the 13th
century and was re-built in 1514 by Thomas Wolsey who was then forced
to give
it to Henry when he lost the King’s favour. It is surrounded by kitchen
gardens, a Privy garden and the Fountain garden, a maze and what must
be the
world’s biggest vine. Dinner on your own.
May 24. A free day to enjoy London
and the
English countryside to their fullest. More information about where to
go and
what to see will be provided at the meeting prior to departure.
May 25.En
route to the County of Kent we will
visit Wisley Gardens. It has over two hundred acres of beautiful gardens; a
Chinese
Pavilion; an Alpine Meadow and Rock Gardens; a wild garden, Pinetum and
an
arboretum. After lunch we will continue to the Ramada Hotel, in the
small village of Pembury. It
will be our “home” for the next four nights. Dinner at the hotel.
May 26. The
morning will be spent at
Chartwell, which was the home of Sir Winston Churchill until his death
in
1965.It has been preserved as it would have been when Churchill owned
it. The
gardens provided inspiration for Churchill’s paintings, many of which
are on
display in the house’s garden studio.
In the afternoon we will
continue to Hever Castle. It is
a double moated castle – famous for being the childhood home of Anne
Boleyn,
one of Henry VIII’s wives. It was acquired in 1903 by William Waldorf
Astor who
restored the interior and filled it with antiques and works of art. He
also
created the romantic Edwardian gardens including the Yew Maze and the
Rose and Tudor Gardens. Dinner at the hotel.
May 27. We
begin the day’s tour at Leeds Castle. It is
set on two islands on the River Len. It has been the home of royalty
for over
1,000 years. The gardens are in continuous colour. Wild flowers in the Wood Garden,
fragrant herbs and roses in the Culpeper Garden,
and flowering borders in the Lady Bailllie Garden offer a
wide variety of gardening experiences.
In the afternoon we will visit
Igtham Mote.
It is a lovely 14th century, medieval moated manor house,
surrounded
by a beautiful garden with lakes laid out to consciously reflect the
period of
the Middle Ages. Dinner on your own.
May 28. A
free day in Canterbury. This
wonderful cathedral city is one of the most visited towns in England.
It was made famous in Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. Besides the
Cathedral,
the site of St. Thomas Becket’s murder in 1170, the Canterbury
is multi-faceted.
Its cobbled roads, its maze of intriguing side streets, not to mention
its
extensive shopping area, will provide a mixture of both the old and the
new
that will take more time than we have, to explore it all. More
information will
be provided at the meeting prior to departure. Dinner on your own.
May 29. With
a pocketful of happy memories,
we will transfer from the Ramada to London’s
Heathrow Airport in
late morning, to catch flight AC849 home. We will depart at 1500 hrs.
and
arrive back in Toronto at 1805 – just in time to miss the rush hour!!
SUMMARY.
Return flight with Air Can
Full English breakfast
daily.
Four dinners.
Accommodation
at 3 or 4 star hotels.
Porterage.
Air
conditioned coach.
Entrance to
designated sites.
Does not
include
Gratuities.
Items of a
personal nature.
Phone calls.
Alcoholic
beverages
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