When Mum and Dad moved to England in January 1988, we all knew that we would have to go over and see them. In fact all but one of the eight kids got over to visit during the 22 months that my parents lived in Poole and Fleet. My husband Mark, who was then only my fiance, decided to go all out and make the trip a three week long european vacation. We went out and bought travel guides galore, made a few plans in advance, and trusted that everything would work out for the rest.
We had frequent flyer tickets on British Airways, compliments of Mark's summer spent in Ottawa redesigning our company's budget system (at that time we both worked for SHL) which included a three day rental car. We made all of our plans very carefully around those exact three (actually four, we added a day) days. We also planned with Mum and Dad to go to Paris, something they had never done. And we planned the trip for March and April, starting at Easter, to miss the really busy tourist season.
I've broken the narrative down by week. Be warned, there are pictures and LOTS of words, so these may be a little big to download.