Seattle to England & Return by Surface Transport

Husband and wife team Jess and Vicki decided on a once in a lifetime trip. They had traveled many times before but were becoming disillusioned with air travel, rapid time changes and today's security requirements, so they determined that a surface transportation trip to England would be a challenge and very interesting. The purpose of their trip was to visit the places in England where their supposed Browning ancestors lived from 1255 beginning in Bristol and ending in Shipton Moyne near Tetbury in England about the year 1621 AD. They say supposed since one never knows for sure who their old ancestors may be. Jess has done a lot of research on family history in the United Kingdom and wanted to visit some of the sites where ancestors may have lived in England. That meant travel by car, train, and ship on land and water. They stayed in a manor house that was once owned by a supposed maternal ancestor in 1356 AD. The ancestor was responsible for the incarceration of King Edward the Second of England and participated in his murder in the Berkeley Castle. Both the manor house and castle are located between the English cities of Gloucester and Bristol near the Severn River. The death of King Arthur and Maltraver's participation was put into a play a hundred years later by Christopher Marlowe which is included in a later book titled "King James the Second of England - Murder in Berkeley Castle" The car, train, and adventures aboard ship as well as visiting the land sites in England were a challenge and interesting as the reader will see in the following accounts by Jess and Vicki.