How we planned the trip

We quickly came to the conclusion that, with our age and unfamiliarity with British roads, travelling the United Kingdom by train might be an option. They have BritRail passes you can buy for a discount if you are a tourist and the trains go almost everywhere

We got a book titled Britain From the Rails and started researching. The author documented all of the "scenic" rides and rated them 1 - 5 stars. We started with a map and marked the routes of all three or more star trips. That became the foundation of our month in England. Those rides took us to or through most of the major places we were interested in and we filed in gaps with less scenic rides 

At each major stop we signed up for Hop On Hop Off buses. These take you through the town stopping at all the major tourist spots. You can hop off whenever you want to see something and then hop back on when the next bus that comes by in few minutes. It seems to be a quick way to get the lay of the land for deciding how to spend the days in each town.

We will be taking 16 person bus tours to all the places not directly on the train schedule. This allows us access to The Cotswolds, White Cliffs, Stratford Upon Avon, Canterbury and a host of other "must see" places.

We will rent a car on day to get to a graveyard in Balqhidder Scotland where I have family.

I am posting a photo of the map. We will fly into Glasgow and take a clockwise trip from there to Mallaig, Inverness, Orkney Island, Edinburgh, York, London, Salisbury, Chester and back to Glasgow. 

Not mentioned above will be stops at Stonehenge, Oban, Oxford, Stirling, Falkirk and a day through Wales. If there is something you think we should see let us know. I have already promised a picture from Wrexham for some fans of the show and I promised to take one bite of haggis (my mother would be so proud).

We will start a daily travel diary starting Wednesday Sept 3 when we arrive in Glasgow.