Hope you enjoy your trip to England!!
Take lots of gum for the flight - its LOOONG
Good companies to fly with are BA and Virgin (personal TV's!) but beware of connecting through JFK on Virgin - they're ALWAYS late.
I wouldnt reccomend shipping a car to England. Sending 250 cuft of household items back from the UK cost us £2000. A car is going to be far far more expensive to ship than that and you'll only have to ship it back to the US again! I dont know if the dealerships would service your car over there if its from the USA. They might but it would probably be at your cost (not under warranty). On top of that - youre going to Birmingham. In the two years youre likely to be there you'll have to use the new M6 Toll once and a while. Your driver's side will be on the wrong side of the car to pay the toll if youre in an American car! And dont forget roundabouts! Besides, it wont take you long to feel comfortable driving on the different side of the road/car.
So my beloved coffee maker is a no? crock pot? how about my gas grill? Can you get propane over there? This sucks! We got so much great new stuff for our wedding and now I need to give it up!
Leave your things with your mom or in storage! Leave ALL the electrical appliances except for your computer and portable music devices in the USA. Coffee pots and crock pots are no problem to find at places like Curry's (Junction 9 on M6 - remember that, you'll be there alot!). Say £30 - 40 each? You might be able to bring your grill though - check out online retailers in the UK to see what the propane tanks look like, see if they match.
And as far as beds go Im with Azroomie on this one. The rooms in the UK are very very small. Many 3 bed houses have two rooms that only just fit a UK Queen (like a Full in the US) and the third room just barely fits a Twin comfortably. My 3rd bedrom (large by UK standards for a third bedroom) was 7' x 11'.
If you want to buy up on ONE thing before you come to the UK - let it be TOWELS!! Towels are SO SO SO expensive in the UK. I lived there for 3 years and every time I had to grit my teeth when I needed new towels. I couldnt bare to spend that much money - ON A TOWEL! Im talking £10 each. Thats like... $17... EACH! The best place I found to get towels and things like that was a store called Dunelm.
I mentioned Junction 9 on the M6 - the M6 is the main motorway that goes by Birmingham. Junction 9 is at a place called Wednesbury which is near Birmingham - it has an Ikea (the only one for MILES AND MILES AND MILES), A B&Q (owned by Home Depot in the USA), A Curry's (appliances etc), a PC World (computers), and several carpet & furniture stores.
A couple exits down the M6 further you'll find signs for "Warner Village" which is a GREAT Movie & Entertainment Complex. Martin and I highly reccomend "That Mexican Place" for really what we thought was the best Mexican food in town. Unfortunatly it doesnt get much more "authentic" than that. Its good food anyway. About £40 for both of us on a night out for dinner. Old Orleans is also very good. When you go and see a move there splurge and go for the Gold Cinema tickets - theyre far far nicer
But the regular cinema tickets are good too. Gold just gives you a private theatre with about 40 people and nice big seats! They also serve alchohol in the gold cinemas.
And remember - its BUR-MING-UM ... not BIR-MING-HAM. Best way to endear yourself to the locals is to know how to say their city's name properly
Its also fondly referred to as Brum.
Only listen to BBC Radio - all the others are horrible. Who could ask for better than commercial free radio?
Shop at Sing Fat for great chineese groceries if youre into that sort of thing. Its just outside China Town in Brum (across from the Market Hall).
When you get the chance to explore - go to Lichfield! Its a nearby town. It sports the UK's only 3 spired cathedral
I used to work there for the council.
And one last thing...
Tell your husband's boss' wife that I was brought up in Buffalo (well Yorkshire, NY - but its only 40 minutes away)
I lived in Cannock (in Staffordshire) for 3 years. She'll probably know where it is. Its funny how people from little towns like Buffalo can end up in the same place half way across the planet.
Oh and if youre in the mood to stalk Tiffany (yes, "I think we're alone now") - She's a regular at the Sports Bar in Cannock. She just married a local boy and she lives in a terraced propety just down the street from where I used to live. Go figure, eh?
Anyway, enjoy your time in England!! Tell us if you like it when you get back
