InvictaMoto's Family Travels

With everything sorted all we can hope for is good health (!) and of course the usual rate checking to get the most number of the mighty US dollars for our weakened pound sterling. Currently the tourist rate is shave under $1.29 and I have ordered around £250 worth. Collect Saturday. The dollars are usually nice and new when I get them.  I immediately fold them into my foreign currency wallet and that newness is gone. We generally use the Halifax Bank Clarity credit card when we are away as it is one of the few UK MasterCard offering from the banks that has no added charges for using it outside the UK.  These can mount up. We have used it before in the US and last year in Norway and France. My day to day MasterCard from Tesco Bank earns points for using it and any purchase at their stores.  The points are useful as you can spend them to "buy" things, like ferry and Eurotunnel crossings. But they charge a transaction charge plus a commissio...

I have been looking at places to go when we are in Orlando and Weston.  Neither of us are great theme park lovers so Orlando might not be the greatest choice for us to vacation! But, there are other things. We go for the R&R and the weather.  Early April at home will be showery and maybe around 12°C and the projected temps are 27°C in Florida.  Unlike last time when we went in the wake of the hurricanes and it was wert a lot of the time. I have been busy looking at non-theme park things to do and mapping them in MyRouteApp.  I have the US maps as well as Europe in the TomTom and that will go with me as hand luggage. So far I have a few botanical gardens and of course Gatorland mapped and primed.  Once there we can se what else we want to see/do. From Weston we have some old favourites to check out plus a trip to the Keys for an overnight.  Hotels are arm and leg expensive but we have one with good reviews in Marathon.  Only 15 ...

The knock-on effect of us arriving nearly two hours later into UK means that we have a problem collecting the dog from the kennel.  Reggie does like his holiday away at Wyncot Kennels but they close at 5pm and we don't land at Heathrow until 3.05pm.   With the passport controls and customs, getting the car and driving 100 miles home we have no chance of collecting him before 5pm! They are closed Sunday/Monday as it is Easter and so we will have to leave him there an extra two days. It will cost an extra £30 or so, but the problem is getting time off work on Tuesday.  So we have "reached out" to Mark the Dog Walker to see if he can collect him for us before 5pm and drop him home. It might cost us but I'd rather have Reggie home. Fingers crossed. Update 20/03/19 All sorted. Mark to collect him for us. posted from Bloggeroid

A popular question at the moment - " How will Brexit affect my holiday to Europe ?" The answer is in fact "No one knows".  There is so much conjecture.  Given that British holidaymakers spend some ridiculous amount of Euros in (fellow) EU countries every year, it does seem amazing that both sides can't agree that we carry on as usual.  Whether we are EU members or not, both sets of economies rely on temporary movement being easy for tourism to flourish. I saw that in Spain alone they expect around 19 million UK visitors a year. I guess all the 19 million spend a few euros on food and drink as well as the hotels/campsites the 19 million stay in? So it doesn't make sense to make it difficult for people to move.... But hey.  This is vested interest Governments at work.

So that's it.  Twenty-three days to go.  The car-hire fully paid up now after a few hiccups with the automatic (or not!) collection from Rentalcars. What's next?  I have a love hate relationship with Walmart.  But, they do have decent Fruit of the Loom underwear that we can't get over here in the UK. And other stuff by Wrangler that is also unobtanium here. So packing?  We always over pack.  Maybe this year take less and bring less home unused.