Return of the Ring and Barrow-Downs Mega-moot - Celebrating Tolkien in 2012

[Kath]

Bahaha this is the one I liked anyway! Though I now feel even worse about forgetting to send you money. *ducks* I will rectify this at the weekend when school finishes. Thank you Hook!

[Lalwendë]

Fantastic!!! I was very near here last Wednesday, I went over to Newark and Southwell. It's a lovely area with loads to see and Notts people are lovely. You'll have to accept everyone will call you 'Duck' and 'Flower'. There's a very nice pub and old church in the village and it's very close to Sherwood for Ent spotting.

Street View Link

I have also done a quick look up for travel. There are two bus services in the village almost outside the cottage, the 14 (Stagecoach) which runs to Mansfield each hour and the 36 (YourBus) which runs to Retford each hour. I note, no buses on Sundays though. Retford is on the line for Kings Cross and it's a very quick trip. It's also on the line for Sheffield, Worksop and Doncaster where you can make other changes. Mansfield is on the line for Nottingham where you can change for St Pancras and Loughborough (which is 17 minutes). If anyone has travel queries I'm happy to look them up.

[A Little Green]

Yay! The cottage looks fantastic! Lal, we're probably coming from Liverpool, do you have any idea if it's smarter to use a train or a bus?

[Aganzir]

Great, thanks Hookbill! I was so keen on the bunk barn only because of a joke Bêth-b told on Facebook, but this sounds a lot better! Let me know when you need more monies.

[Hookbill the Goomba]

Originally Posted by Aganzir

Great, thanks Hookbill! I was so keen on the bunk barn only because of a joke Bêth-b told on Facebook, but this sounds a lot better! Let me know when you need more monies.

Any time is good, as long as I get it before 14th of May. The Indiegogo Campaign is still open, though it only goes up to £550 at the moment because I took a guess at how much we'd need. As soon as it finishes / reaches the 'goal', I'll restart it and we can raise the rest of the money. So feel free to donate now or later, whatever suits you.

Had a thought today about getting people together. If most people are arriving on the 6th August, I suggest everyone trying to get to a near-by city like Nottingham - I think you'll be able to get there from every airport with little difficulty, though Lal will no doubt correct me if I'm wrong - and spend the day there while we gather friends before heading off to the cottage in cars / buses / whatever.

EDIT:

If you want to see more of the cottage, there's a website here;

http://www.thehomesteadnotts.co.uk/

BIG pictures and it looks very pretty and awesome.

[Estelyn Telcontar]

Nottingham lace industry?! I may be the only person interested in seeing that...

It all looks very nice!

[Kath]

I'll be driving up from daaahn saaath that day so meeting at Nottingham sounds good as it means I'll have time to get to you. :-)

[Bêthberry]

Originally Posted by Aganzir

Great, thanks Hookbill! I was so keen on the bunk barn only because of a joke Bêth-b told on Facebook, but this sounds a lot better! Let me know when you need more monies.

What! I made a joke! Heavens!

I think this place is also much nicer than the bunk beds. You should have lots of fun without the spartan accommodations.

Originally Posted by Oddwen

I found an airfare search engine that seems to have consistently lower prices than the main ones I have used. http://matrix.itasoftware.com/search.htm

You have to manually enter your results into another booking site....somehow. Maybe it'll help someone.

Thanks! The charter airlines are several hundreds of dollars cheaper than my regular national airline, but they don't give me much flexibility about the dates. And the good old national airline is several hundreds of dollars more expensive suddenly after May 31st. *grumbles some more*

I don't know quite how close you will be to Yorkshire, but there is a lovely little museum that is under some financial pressure due to cutbacks which has a bit of literary history to it. Some of you might be interested in it.

Red House Museum Gomersal

[Aganzir]

Originally Posted by Guinevere

Is it confirmed that there will be 13 people staying at the cottage? If there are 1100£ left to be paid, that would make about 85£ each, right?

I'm not sure about the numbers, but we might have to take into account that people will be staying for different periods of time. I'm not sure if it's fair to make those who only stay for four nights pay as much as those who stay for the whole two weeks.

Originally Posted by Bêthberry

What! I made a joke! Heavens!

See, your sense of humour influences the choices I make in real life.

[Guinevere]

Originally Posted by Aganzir

I'm not sure about the numbers, but we might have to take into account that people will be staying for different periods of time. I'm not sure if it's fair to make those who only stay for four nights pay as much as those who stay for the whole two weeks.

And since there are only 12 places for sleeping in beds, I wouldn't think it fair that those who have to bring an air matrass and sleeping bag and sleep on the floor should pay the same amount...
I wish things weren't so vague!!

[Lalwendë]

Originally Posted by A Little Green

Yay! The cottage looks fantastic! Lal, we're probably coming from Liverpool, do you have any idea if it's smarter to use a train or a bus?

There's an hourly direct train to Nottingham from Liverpool Lime Street! It's the Liverpool-Norwich train and goes via Manchester and Sheffield - also known as the student train because it goes through the major student cities - so is usually packed on Fridays/Sundays! It's very regular though. If you are coming from John Lennon airport then there should be a bus service into central Liverpool.

It's a very good idea for travellers to meet up in one place and move on from there!

Nottingham has lots to do, and you've also got Lincoln, Newark and Southwell nearby which are all stunning places.

[Oddwen]

The signs of historic times continue when moving upstairs with a genuine beam looming at the bottom of the stairs and is also capable of inflicting a very sore head on those who don't keep aware!

We can re-enact a popular scene from the blockbuster movie "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring"! Yaaaaay!

[Lalwendë]

Originally Posted by Oddwen

We can re-enact a popular scene from the blockbuster movie "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring"! Yaaaaay!

Heh. Might as well make use of NHS concussion checks while you're over here

[Hookbill the Goomba]

Originally Posted by Oddwen

We can re-enact a popular scene from the blockbuster movie "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring"! Yaaaaay!

I was thinking we should learn and sing all the songs from the animated Hobbit and Return of the King. Including such hits as, "Where There's A Whip There's A Way", "Down to Goblin Town", "The Bearer of the Ring", and "Frodo of the Nine Fingers".

On Saturday I'll compile some sort of rough guide for getting to Nottingham from the various cities with airports. Tell me where you'll be flying to before then and I'll try to get it worked out.

Also, I'm going to start compiling a first draft of a vague list of things what we will do on each day. Nothing solidly set, of course, but just to start the ball rolling towards discussion on what is do-able / desirable.

[Oddwen]

I found an airfare search engine that seems to have consistently lower prices than the main ones I have used. http://matrix.itasoftware.com/search.htm

You have to manually enter your results into another booking site....somehow. Maybe it'll help someone.

[Oddwen]

Originally Posted by Hookbill the Goomba

Also, I'm going to start compiling a first draft of a vague list of things what we will do on each day. Nothing solidly set, of course, but just to start the ball rolling towards discussion on what is do-able / desirable.

Is Loch Ness doable?