Before July of 2005, neither my wife nor I had ever owned a passport. We had often, in the last few years, discussed taking a trip abroad, but it seemed that each time we seriously considered a potential location, some major home repair or family crisis would divert our vacation funds, or some political turmoil in the country we were considering would discourage us from pursuing our trip. Five years ago we decided we would do whatever it took to make our dream happen and visit England.

As a teacher of high school English for over 30 years, I felt I needed to see England at least once, and having made the decision to come to England, we began reading as many British newspapers as we were able to purchase on a weekly basis in the local bookstore. We also became devoted listeners as well to the nightly BBC America broadcasts. What we read, and heard, were a lot opinions that we seemed to have in common with the British people.

We were bolstered in our decision to take the trip and intensified our research and planning for what would turn out to be the adventure of a lifetime. This decision and the subsequent planning began in the year 2001. By the end of 2004 we had finally secured the budget we felt we needed to support spending two weeks in England.

We felt two weeks to be the minimal amount of time essential for us to really experience the people and the place. It didn't take too much effort to discover an abundance of attractions and activities sufficient to fill an exciting agenda that could easily stretch over four months. Reducing that list to a mere two weeks was a daunting task.

We spent the intervening years researching every aspect of the trip, transportation to and inside London, lodging, dining, festivals and recurrent special events, museums and galleries, entertainment, and possible day trips from our intended London base. We accumulated over 300 websites, found and subscribed to seven informative online services, including the multi-faceted London Lantern, and read 10 guidebooks from cover to cover, several times.

By departure time I sincerely believe no one had ever been more completely prepared to experience their first trip to England than we were. Neither the Romans, nor the Normans, nor even the Blue Badge tour guides knew more of the land we were about to invade.

As it turned out, the preparation for getting around London was time well spent since the terrorist bombings of the public transportation system which occurred six days before we were scheduled to arrive, somewhat disrupted our daily transportation plans. For example, the number 30 bus and the Kings Cross station had both figured heavily in our pre-plans for daily travel from our hotel in Bloomsbury into the City, and had both been bombed. The bus attack had occurred only two blocks from our hotel, and the Kings Cross station was a short walk in the opposite direction.

We had a serious decision to make. Should we postpone this long planned trip, or forge ahead? We had purchased travel insurance that covered terrorist activities in our destination country and would reimburse us the full amount we had spent thus far, including airline tickets, tickets to attractions, etc.

We sought travel advice from the U.S. State Department, the BBC, and my two cousins who live in England, one in Oxford, and the other in London. We studied and weighed the options open to us. One of the things I've taught my students consistently over the decades is that it's not as important what happens to you, as it is how you deal with it. I called on that belief as we made this important decision.

We had observed in several of the news reports, the calmness with which the London authorities and citizenry dealt with the attacks and their consequences, and it was impressive. No one panicked. No one appeared to be abandoning logic, or overreacting in an out-of-control manner. Everyone was focused on what they could do, and got immediately to work dealing with the tragedy.

After noticing this attitude over and over for several days I commented to my wife that those persons who had sought to terrorize someone by their attacks, had evidently picked on the wrong bunch of people. The Brits weren't buying into it. My wife agreed and we decided to continue our plans to come to England.

The British people, through their handling of the terrorist attacks, had become even more attractive to us than they had been prior to July 7th. We were not going to miss the chance to spend two weeks living among these people. What had been planned as the trip of a lifetime, had already become the adventure of a lifetime.

Now that we have returned home and can look back on our first trip outside the USA, we feel uniquely qualified to offer our advice in several areas to potential travelers to the UK. (To be continued next month)

Mike Turvey