Traveling with a 14 yo grandson

I just came back from two weeks in the UK with my grandson (ds's son).
My mother had done this with her grandchildren and by trial and error
we found that the best time for them to go was when they were 13 or 14
(7th or 8th grade). 6th grade is a little too young.

We had a good time. We flew from EWR to Shannon via Heathrow and had
a week long bus tour, after which we spent a couple of days in London.

He was cheerful, even when waked up early. I had him do the wake-up
calls for me. The hotels had some kind of automated way to do it
which I didn't really understand.

He was polite to other people on the tour. He had hoped that there
would be kids his age, but there were not. There was a boy 9 and a
girl 10, and a young couple that the male part of had a lot of tattoos
that dgs thought were scary. He felt that the tour was boring for
them and I'm sure he is right.

He spent some time in the back of the bus with the little boy and a
middle aged bachelor playing cards. There were no opportunities for
him to meet others his age, which he regretted. The tour I originally
wanted to book would have been a perfect family tour for him, but it
was withdrawn by the tour company without explanation a day after I
found it and wanted to book.

He set me up with a MySpace page, and his parents and I and his little
sister (age 10) were my 'friends'. He posted some of his digital
photos on his page, and I posted by email each night a journal of what
we had done, and put the photos of him on MY Myspace (friends only
viewing) so his folks could see what we were doing.. (I had my laptop
with me)

He was not too picky an eater although it was almost incomprehensible
to me that he did not like cheddar cheese (especially sharp cheddar)
on his hamburgers. I had forgotten (because I don't use it myself)
that people like catsup on their fries/chips and sometimes what we got
was something more like steak sauce. He didn't complain about the
food, but he did know an appropriate price for a KitKat and he bought
an awful lot of cokes.

He doesn't like tea, and he does like Dr. Pepper. He didn't figure
out in two weeks that I drink tea and not coffee, and he went out to
Burger King on the last morning and got me a cup of coffee to get me
going - which was sweet of him, so I drank a little of it.

He was totally astonished at driving on the left - he was afraid that
he would step out in front of a car when he got home. We went to the
Tower of London, and he wanted to know why the Queen didn't wear her
crown all the time. He was disappointed in Buckingham Palace because
he didn't think it looked very palace-like. We'd seen some more
awe-inspiring ones in Ireland such as Muckross House.

He was unhappy at leaving his guitar behind because he likes to play,
so one morning we took the bus to Harrods and went up to their music
department where he looked at and played some guitars.

Riding the train from Baltimore to Princeton to my sister's house was
an adventure as he had never been on a train. We (my sister and I)
took him to NYC by train and then went on the subway to Battery Park
and took the ferry to see the Statue of Liberty and visited Ellis
Island. We looked up his great grandparents there. After we ate
dinner and saw Times Square we had to take the transit train back to
Princeton.

Our flight was delayed for 6 hours in taking off, which made us miss
our connecting flight. The agent at the desk where we checked our
baggage did NOT ask to see the permission slip I had from his parents.
We do have the same last name of course. I was not asked for it until
we got to Heathrow. Had I not had it, I don't know what they could
have done at that point.

Our tour started out at the Bunratty Castle Folk Park, and we went for
a 'medieval dinner that evening. The next day we drove to the Cliffs
of Moher which were really spectacular and then had a ferry ride
across the Shannon River to Kilkenny and a jaunting cart ride to
Muckross House. The hotel in Kilkenny was the only one with a pool.
We did the Ring of Kerry the next day (an awful lot of scenery
interspersed with some shopping).

Next we drove to Blarney Castle (He liked that and kissed the Blarney
Stone - I didn't even go to the castle - I bought Christmas presents
for everyone), and tea at a farmhouse (he doesn't like tea and he
doesn't really like scones or cream either, so this was kind of a
bust). We ended up in Waterford where we had an amusing walking tour
after dinner. The hotel internet blocked us from MySpace, so it was
good we were only there one night. The next day we had a tour of the
Waterford factory - his mom absolutely loves cut glass, so he bought
an ornament there and had it engraved.

Then we drove to Dublin via Kilkenny (which he thought was a funny
name re South Park) where we had a 'typical' Irish dinner, and Irish
dancing and singing. At the end, they called the kids up on stage to
participate. The next morning we tour the Jameson distillery and saw
the Book of Kells.

In London we saw three plays - two hits and one miss. We did
Shakespeare "Midsummer Night's Dream" outdoors at Regent Park, and it
was hot and he said he knew what happened already so it was a bit
boring for him. But I also took him to "We Will Rock You" which he
really liked, and "The Mousetrap" which my mom took his father to 22
years ago. He didn't guess who had done it.

We had a hop-on-hop-off bus ticket (with the tour booking) but they
booked us on the Original and that was far inferior to the Big Bus
which I was on before. I had tickets to Madame Tussaud's which I was
told he would like, but we didn't. We did the tour of Tower Bridge,
which I think he liked.

He said he was really starting to feel at home in London when we had
to leave and come home. Our plane was NOT delayed on the way home,
BUT his suitcase did not arrive in EWR with us and he still hasn't
gotten it. Fortunately, I had told him to have everything he bought
in his carryon, so what he lost was mostly dirty clothes, and his
picture of kissing the Blarney stone (which I had photographed with my
digital camera so we have that much of the record). We went and
bought him some clothes because he left for some kind of primitive
scout camp the Sunday after we got back on Tuesday..

I know, but had forgotten, that with children you can't pack as much
stuff into the day as you can with adults. I think we tried to do too
much, and there was still stuff I wanted to show him that I didn't get
to do. We didn't get to St. Pauls or the British Museum or the V&A or
the National Gallery. He was interested in the London Eye but we
didn't have time.

Wow Rosalie that sounds like a wonderful trip.
--
Sue

"Rosalie B." wrote in message
...
I just came back from two weeks in the UK with my grandson (ds's son).
My mother had done this with her grandchildren and by trial and error
we found that the best time for them to go was when they were 13 or 14
(7th or 8th grade). 6th grade is a little too young.

We had a good time. We flew from EWR to Shannon via Heathrow and had
a week long bus tour, after which we spent a couple of days in London.

He was cheerful, even when waked up early. I had him do the wake-up
calls for me. The hotels had some kind of automated way to do it
which I didn't really understand.

He was polite to other people on the tour. He had hoped that there
would be kids his age, but there were not. There was a boy 9 and a
girl 10, and a young couple that the male part of had a lot of tattoos
that dgs thought were scary. He felt that the tour was boring for
them and I'm sure he is right.

He spent some time in the back of the bus with the little boy and a
middle aged bachelor playing cards. There were no opportunities for
him to meet others his age, which he regretted. The tour I originally
wanted to book would have been a perfect family tour for him, but it
was withdrawn by the tour company without explanation a day after I
found it and wanted to book.

He set me up with a MySpace page, and his parents and I and his little
sister (age 10) were my 'friends'. He posted some of his digital
photos on his page, and I posted by email each night a journal of what
we had done, and put the photos of him on MY Myspace (friends only
viewing) so his folks could see what we were doing.. (I had my laptop
with me)

He was not too picky an eater although it was almost incomprehensible
to me that he did not like cheddar cheese (especially sharp cheddar)
on his hamburgers. I had forgotten (because I don't use it myself)
that people like catsup on their fries/chips and sometimes what we got
was something more like steak sauce. He didn't complain about the
food, but he did know an appropriate price for a KitKat and he bought
an awful lot of cokes.

He doesn't like tea, and he does like Dr. Pepper. He didn't figure
out in two weeks that I drink tea and not coffee, and he went out to
Burger King on the last morning and got me a cup of coffee to get me
going - which was sweet of him, so I drank a little of it.

He was totally astonished at driving on the left - he was afraid that
he would step out in front of a car when he got home. We went to the
Tower of London, and he wanted to know why the Queen didn't wear her
crown all the time. He was disappointed in Buckingham Palace because
he didn't think it looked very palace-like. We'd seen some more
awe-inspiring ones in Ireland such as Muckross House.

He was unhappy at leaving his guitar behind because he likes to play,
so one morning we took the bus to Harrods and went up to their music
department where he looked at and played some guitars.

Riding the train from Baltimore to Princeton to my sister's house was
an adventure as he had never been on a train. We (my sister and I)
took him to NYC by train and then went on the subway to Battery Park
and took the ferry to see the Statue of Liberty and visited Ellis
Island. We looked up his great grandparents there. After we ate
dinner and saw Times Square we had to take the transit train back to
Princeton.

Our flight was delayed for 6 hours in taking off, which made us miss
our connecting flight. The agent at the desk where we checked our
baggage did NOT ask to see the permission slip I had from his parents.
We do have the same last name of course. I was not asked for it until
we got to Heathrow. Had I not had it, I don't know what they could
have done at that point.

Our tour started out at the Bunratty Castle Folk Park, and we went for
a 'medieval dinner that evening. The next day we drove to the Cliffs
of Moher which were really spectacular and then had a ferry ride
across the Shannon River to Kilkenny and a jaunting cart ride to
Muckross House. The hotel in Kilkenny was the only one with a pool.
We did the Ring of Kerry the next day (an awful lot of scenery
interspersed with some shopping).

Next we drove to Blarney Castle (He liked that and kissed the Blarney
Stone - I didn't even go to the castle - I bought Christmas presents
for everyone), and tea at a farmhouse (he doesn't like tea and he
doesn't really like scones or cream either, so this was kind of a
bust). We ended up in Waterford where we had an amusing walking tour
after dinner. The hotel internet blocked us from MySpace, so it was
good we were only there one night. The next day we had a tour of the
Waterford factory - his mom absolutely loves cut glass, so he bought
an ornament there and had it engraved.

Then we drove to Dublin via Kilkenny (which he thought was a funny
name re South Park) where we had a 'typical' Irish dinner, and Irish
dancing and singing. At the end, they called the kids up on stage to
participate. The next morning we tour the Jameson distillery and saw
the Book of Kells.

In London we saw three plays - two hits and one miss. We did
Shakespeare "Midsummer Night's Dream" outdoors at Regent Park, and it
was hot and he said he knew what happened already so it was a bit
boring for him. But I also took him to "We Will Rock You" which he
really liked, and "The Mousetrap" which my mom took his father to 22
years ago. He didn't guess who had done it.

We had a hop-on-hop-off bus ticket (with the tour booking) but they
booked us on the Original and that was far inferior to the Big Bus
which I was on before. I had tickets to Madame Tussaud's which I was
told he would like, but we didn't. We did the tour of Tower Bridge,
which I think he liked.

He said he was really starting to feel at home in London when we had
to leave and come home. Our plane was NOT delayed on the way home,
BUT his suitcase did not arrive in EWR with us and he still hasn't
gotten it. Fortunately, I had told him to have everything he bought
in his carryon, so what he lost was mostly dirty clothes, and his
picture of kissing the Blarney stone (which I had photographed with my
digital camera so we have that much of the record). We went and
bought him some clothes because he left for some kind of primitive
scout camp the Sunday after we got back on Tuesday..

I know, but had forgotten, that with children you can't pack as much
stuff into the day as you can with adults. I think we tried to do too
much, and there was still stuff I wanted to show him that I didn't get
to do. We didn't get to St. Pauls or the British Museum or the V&A or
the National Gallery. He was interested in the London Eye but we
didn't have time.

Rosalie B. schrieb:

I know, but had forgotten, that with children you can't pack as much
stuff into the day as you can with adults.

*cough* Well, next time you can just take me and cram as much into a day
as possible ;-)

Honestly, that trip sounds totally fantastic. I hope to one day be able
to take my children around europe the same way (I'm German, so it's not
really that far an initial trip).

Btw: if you enjoy travel "novels" (they're not really made up, but
they're not just travel logs either, I don't know how else to describe
his work) you might want to check out Bill Bryson. I find him to be the
funniest travel writer. He wrote one book about England it's called
"Tales from a small island" or something along those lines. He doesn't
just describe the scenery but also the people he meets. Sometimes not
very kindly, but usually in a very hilarious way.


cu
nicole

"Rosalie B." wrote in message
...
I just came back from two weeks in the UK with my grandson (ds's son).

Rosalie - it sounds like a wonderful trip!! What a lucky guy your grandson
is!!


--
Nikki, mama to
Hunter 4/99
Luke 4/01
Brock 4/06
Ben 4/06

"Nikki" wrote:
"Rosalie B." wrote in message
.. .
I just came back from two weeks in the UK with my grandson (ds's son).

Rosalie - it sounds like a wonderful trip!! What a lucky guy your grandson
is!!

My mom did it for my kids, and I think it was wonderful for them. So
I think she would approve that I'm doing this for her great
grandchildren with the money I inherited from her.

Also while dd#1 was on a job exchange to England for three years, and
her three children got to travel a good bit in Europe at that time,
and dd#2 is an airline pilot and does a LOT of traveling with her
family, my DS does not have those opportunities for his children as
his wife (my grandson told me) keeps him constantly in debt. And
dd#3's children are too young to go as of yet on this kind of trip as
the oldest is only 9.

Once they get to HS, it is really too hard for them to be away from
their friends. And before 13 or 14, they can't take care of
themselves that well. My grandson could pack and carry his own bags
(and sometimes mine), he could do his own laundry (including ironing).