Greetings, all--
I just joined the group a few days ago after finally placing a
reservation request for a narrowboat during our upcoming trip to
England. It's the fulfillment of a longtime dream of mine! My wife is
from Liverpool, and ever since first visiting England with her, I have
been intrigued by the idea of taking a canal holiday. She told me
stories of trips she had done with her brother and friends, and it
just sounded irresistable! It's been three or four years since our
last visit, and this time we are finally doing it! We reserved a 12
berth boat for a midweek short break from Willow Wren in Rugby, and
we'll be with another family--friends of ours who live in Alcester.
I can't tell you how excited I am! For the past two weeks, I've been
scouring the internet for information, and since making the booking
have spent hours creating my own Google map of the canals in the area
of Oxford and Braunston, with locks, tunnels and pubs marked. If you
care to see it, here's the link:
http://tinyurl.com/3ybwks
It's intended to be used in satellite view. I was finding it hard to
understand what was what with some of the maps I found on canal sites,
so I used Google to zoom in and see for myself. (Had a lot of fun
counting locks and trying to find both ends of the various tunnels!)
If you see anything out of place, or needing to be added, feedback is
welcome!
Finding the canals.org site led me to this group, and I've been
enjoying the threads. We won't be over until July (I am a teacher and
so bound by the school holidays), so I hope to learn as much as
possible before then. I certainly don't want to be one of those
annoying "beginners!"
Would appreciate any tips about the routes around Rugby, e.g. what we
could reasonably expect to cover in a short break, kid-friendly
attractions, good pubs, best beers, important supplies to carry
on-board, etc.
Thanks very much!
Dave
