Pirate Island

[Mission]

I am going over to London and attending the Pirate Island event which takes place July 30-31 this year. I will be bringing garb and hoping I fit in with my funny accent. It is on the Isle of Wight. As Ed Foxe put it, "The advantage with that is that the Isle of Wight is a short ferry ride from Portsmouth, home of such lovely goodies as HMS Victory and the Mary Rose." Portsmouth is about 2 hours from London.

I think it would be really cool to go with a group of pub re-enactors.

My tentative plan is to spend about 4-6 days in London and a day or two in Portsmouth. With the Tube (a splendid subway from my experience), you go just about anywhere you like in the city. I plan to visit some of the little dental and medical museums. I am also figuring to do a pub tour if we have a group; when I was there last I did one and had a splendid time. Other than that, I am open to suggestions of what to do. (I usually don't make very rigid plans when it comes to stuff like this, to be honest. It takes all the fun out of it. However I find generating a list of options is better than just showing up without having done any research.)

Ok, that's the jazzy part. I checked on a flight out of Detroit and the cost of that alone at this time is $1000. (If you want to check airfare prices from your city, London Heathrow airport code is LHR.) I should note that airline prices are running high just now. I will be keeping an eye out for better prices and will be sure to post something here if they come down in the future.

On top of that will be hotel and food expenses and so forth - I am personally figuring this trip will run me around $2 - 4K, depending on the cost of the flight. My (very tentative) plan is to arrive a week early and leave on the Tuesday after the event (which is August 2nd).

(There will most definitely be a Surgeon's Journal for this. In fact, the stupid plane trip is long enough that I may get a page or two done on the way back.)

So having heard all that, is anyone interested?

[PoD]

I am going over to London and attending the Pirate Island event which takes place July 30-31 this year. I will be bringing garb and hoping I fit in with my funny accent. It is on the Isle of Wight. As Ed Foxe put it, "The advantage with that is that the Isle of Wight is a short ferry ride from Portsmouth, home of such lovely goodies as HMS Victory and the Mary Rose." Portsmouth is about 2 hours from London.

I think it would be really cool to go with a group of pub re-enactors.

My tentative plan is to spend about 4-6 days in London and a day or two in Portsmouth. With the Tube (a splendid subway from my experience), you go just about anywhere you like in the city. I plan to visit some of the little dental and medical museums. I am also figuring to do a pub tour if we have a group; when I was there last I did one and had a splendid time. Other than that, I am open to suggestions of what to do. (I usually don't make very rigid plans when it comes to stuff like this, to be honest. It takes all the fun out of it. However I find generating a list of options is better than just showing up without having done any research.)

Ok, that's the jazzy part. I checked on a flight out of Detroit and the cost of that alone at this time is $1000. (If you want to check airfare prices from your city, London Heathrow airport code is LHR.) On top of that will be hotel and food expenses and so forth - I am personally figuring this trip will run me around $2.5 - 4K. My (very tentative) plan is to arrive a week early and leave on the Tuesday after the event (which is August 2nd).

(There will most definitely be a Surgeon's Journal for this. In fact, the stupid plane trip is long enough that I may get a page or two done on the way back.)

So having heard all that, is anyone interested?

I'll be there as its organised by my reenactment group (well the group i am in that it, I dont actually own it ha ha). I'll have a look and see if i can get there a day early maybe so I can check out the Naval museum in Portsmouth too as I havent been yet.

A good cheap hotel chain is http://www.travelodge.co.uk/

[Silkie McDonough]

Sounds great Mission but I can't justify the cost at this time. Too bad because my unused passport expires this year. would have ben nice to use it.

[Mission]

One note - I think airline prices are running a bit high just now. I've seen tickets to London at $600 - $700 from here. I'm going to keep an eye out and if they go down I'll post that fact here for those who are interested in doing this.

[jendobyns]

My husband and I are kicking around the idea of going over there this summer, so I'll be very interested in seeing how this develops. Have to update the munchkins passports first, though.

Also, have you checked out Gatwick or Stanstead to see if those are viable alternatives to Heathrow?

[Mission]

Gatwick appears to be an option for some cities - the airport code is LGW. Unfortunately, Detroit isn't one of them - Travelocity threw it out. However it worked from JFK, so those of you searching may want to try it departing from your local airport.

Stansted (STN) doesn't appear to have flights coming in from the US - I couldn't get there starting in New York's JFK airport.

[jendobyns]

Gatwick appears to be an option for some cities - the airport code is LGW. Unfortunately, Detroit isn't one of them - Travelocity threw it out. However it worked from JFK, so those of you searching may want to try it departing from your local airport.

Stansted (STN) doesn't appear to have flights coming in from the US - I couldn't get there starting in New York's JFK airport.

Thanks! I wasn't completely sure about either of them, some of my UK airports conversations have been with folks already on that side of the Atlantic. Good to know about Stanstead, I won't even bother checking that one out.

[Mission]

Well, I've learned something that is sort of interesting for those of you searching for a flight to London - at Travelocity (which is where I always search from*), you can enter as your airport LON - then select London from the popdown list - and it will search all the airports in London for you. I'm also noticing that the flights after May of this year are dramatically more expensive than those before. Just playing around, I entered a flight in March going on the same days of the week as I want and the price comes up as $656 (as opposed to $1030, which is what I find for July.)

My thought is that it may be better to search in May for a flight in July to get decent pricing. (Pure guesswork on my part, naturally.) It does make the trip look that much more affordable, though.

*I only use Travelocity to search, I actually book direct through the airline's site if it's the same price. This is because the airlines charge you an extra fee if you cancel a flight booked through an external site.

[Fox]

I'll be at the event on the Isle of Wight (or Pile of Shite, as we from the opposite mainland call it). Having grown up in Portsmouth I'd be very happy to conduct a tour of historic Portsmouth one day either side of the event if that's of any interest.

Highlights might include the house where the Duke of Buckingham (he of Three Musketeers fame) was murdered; the oldest school in the City, founded for the sons of seamen in 1731; the church in which Charles II got married; the old sailors' quarter; we could even follow the path of Nelson's last ever walk on English soil; the spot where Jack the Painter's gibbeted corpse was hung; and more besides...

[Mission]

I'll have a look and see if i can get there a day early maybe so I can check out the Naval museum in Portsmouth too as I havent been yet.

I'll be at the event on the Isle of Wight (or Pile of Shite, as we from the opposite mainland call it). Having grown up in Portsmouth I'd be very happy to conduct a tour of historic Portsmouth one day either side of the event if that's of any interest.

Fantastic! Hopefully you can both be there. I am (tentatively) planning to stay at Somerset House Hotel (based on a recommendation by Red-Handed Jill), arriving Wednesday or Thursday and leaving for the island on Friday. I assume you are talking about touring on Friday, Ed?

And, while I'm asking questions...have you been to the Wellcome Collection? What do you think of its pirate-era stuff? I have seen many photos of surgical equipment in books from that place.

[Fox]

Could tour on the Friday or the Monday, it'll probably make little difference to me.

I've never been to the Wellcome Collection so I can't really comment. The one museum that everybody misses when they go to London, but which is one of the most fascinating, is the Museum of London. I believe that the Docklands Museum is hosting a pirate exhibition this year, but I'm not sure of the dates.

[MarkG]

Gatwick appears to be an option for some cities - the airport code is LGW. Unfortunately, Detroit isn't one of them - Travelocity threw it out. However it worked from JFK, so those of you searching may want to try it departing from your local airport.

Stansted (STN) doesn't appear to have flights coming in from the US - I couldn't get there starting in New York's JFK airport.

My daughter lives in Brighton and has used both Gatwick and Heathrow. She says to avoid Heathrow at all costs. She also advises against JFK. I think that we went to Gatwick via Atlanta last year.

Be sure to set aside at least a day for the HMS Victory and the rest of the museums at Portsmouth.

[Mission]

Thanks for the advice, Mark. (Although, to be honest, price is a bigger concern the convenience for me.)

Look at this! http://www.medicalmuseums.org/

A whole site listing the medical museums around London that includes info on which Underground (subway) stops to take to get to them! I think I'll be researching that in some detail.

...the three primary branches of 17th c. medicine museums (physician, surgeon & apothecary) are of great interest. The Wellcome museum is a cert. There's also a dental museum not listed on that site that I'd like to visit. I just hope and can squeeze everything in...