23/12/2024
MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM ENGLAND.
December 2024.
Dear Friends,
30 years ago people visiting the U.K. had a choice of the big bus tour, whizzing them around to places where they might not necessarily want to go and giving them little time to take in the sights, or they could try to go it alone and drive themselves around, with possibly a loose grip on British geography and gambling on finding the right accommodation. So we had an idea that we could help by offering small individual and personalised tours based on what our visitors told us that they would like to see and do, and so Homemade Holidays was born. This was in the days before the internet, when Google was a noise you made at babies and Windows was where you were tempted to throw these new fangled PCs when the technology beat you. But despite all the sophisticated science fiction type technology we now have, we can still stand in awe and wonderment in an 800 year old castle or a magnificent medieval cathedral, trying to imagine just how they managed to build such places. We can still take pleasure in the simple delights of a cream tea in a cosy old tea room or a pie and a pint in a country pub.
These are just a few of the things we have had the pleasure of sharing with our visitors from around the world over the last three decades. Now it is time to put away the road atlas, hang up the car keys and gradually slip into retirement. We have had the privilege of meeting and travelling with a whole host of delightful people, many of whom are now life long family friends. Some who arrived as children, now have children of their own, and just a very few who we prefer to forget. (They are not on the Christmas list).
It would be impossible to chronicle all of our adventures here, so maybe we will have to write a book of our many escapades. Who knows...?
We would like to thank you for the pleasure you have given over the years. Sharing some of our favourite corners of these islands with you. We have learned a lot from our visitors about our own history, about how others see us and most of all we have learned that despite all the troubles in the world, most people, who although they might be different to you and to us, are just decent, ordinary folk underneath.
We wish you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.
Paul & Pauline.
