Hi

I am working on my tour tale right now and have so far made it to day 3 (only been working on it for 5 hours - phew!!) I will post this up sometime tomorrow I hope.

I am very much enjoying writing the tale It is a lot of fun and I am remembering so much!

Re Chartwell- you will have plenty of time to explore the house and gardens - I am sure you will love it!

Re the Cotswolds.... Oh my gee that was a wonderful part of the trip! We drove through the cotswolds on the way to Stratford upon Avon and Shakespeare's birthplace so we really didn't have much time to stop and explore. However - you will want to add the Stratford Dinner Optional to your must do list as it gives you a wonderful drive in the cotswolds with photo stops in at least 3 villages including Stow on the Wold. And then it gives you a great evening meal too at The Royal Oak a 1300s tavern in the Cotswolds! I have given heaps of details about this in my tour tale as it really was a great optional. Outside of the optional we also got to drive through the cotswolds the next day and we stopped for even more photos at another village whose name totally escapes me right now.

You will have time to wander through some of the villages and take photos if you do the optional.

There were 24 of us on the tour so we had plenty of space on the coach and getting on and off wasn't a major performance so we had the extra time we saved there to use in town and at the houses and gardens

Re the Def departure - I know exactly how you feel! I think that the introduction of DEF departures is a wonderful feature as it reduces stress so much!
Once your tour is marked DEF you can relax and get on with the fun of planning your holiday.

I will crack on and write my tale so you know what you are likely to experience.

Keep the questions coming - always happy to answer them as best I can

Hugs
Jeni

Woohooo! Tour Tale is finished and posted!

I hope you enjoy it

Hugs
jeni

Thanks again Jeni, your tour tale is really terrific - descriptive and very helpful. You have answered most of my questions.