Join us on this 5 day visit by coach to the Cotswolds, visiting Hughenden Manor, Upton House & Gardens, Hidcote Manor Garden, Chavenage, Newark Park, Snowshill Manor & Garden, Kelmscott Manor and Blenheim Palace.

Full details and a booking form are available by clicking HERE

This was a lovely holiday with a group of thoughtful and happy members of The Arts Society East Grinstead (TASEG).   It was organised by Marianne Greenwood together with Tailored Travel.

What are the perfect ingredients for a holiday abroad?

• Good weather - sunshine,  lack of rain, a flat Channel crossing minus immigrant boats and Russian shadow fleets.
• Good food - in both hotels and in our chosen restaurants in Paris.
• Good drink - well after all it was in France and their wine is better than the wine they send to England
• Good company - an extremely harmonious group, an excellent, friendly and humorous tour Manager (Sue) and driver (Dave).
• Good Hotels - very comfortable and welcoming 
• Good interests - architecture, history, art galleries, museums, gardens, countryside, rivers, seaside 

Our stay in Paris included the traditional sights including Tour Eiffel, Arc de Triomphe, Champs-Élysées and Notre-Dame de Paris

We were awed by the restoration of la cathédrale Notre-Dame.   The awful fire of 2021 had led to the collapse of the wooden spire (flèche), destroyed most of the wooden roof and some of the rib vaulting and  damaged stonework.   Notre-Dame was nearly 860 years old at the time.

Most of us included a visit to Musée d’Orsay with its wonderful collection of art and sculpture from renaissance to modern.

We then travelled to Rouen via Giverny to visit the Monet Art Museum and his garden and house.   The garden even in April was beautiful.   The water garden of course lacked water lilies in flower but more than made up for them with abundant spring blossoms.   Of note were the flamboyant peonies and draping wisteria.   The garden around the house with its mainly parallel beds were imaginatively planted with the colours of the rainbow from deep reds and purples to softer yellows and greens and shades of blue.   The house was very interesting as it contained copies of the many Works of Art of Monet and his Impressionist friends.   I loved the kitchen which felt lived in.

Our hotel in Rouen was very comfortable and  interestingly located next to the formidable tower where Joan of Ark had been imprisoned.

Rouen has a delightful medieval old town.   We also visited Honfleur which has a quaint harbour and yummy seafood.   Many years ago, my husband and I introduced our children to Moules à la Normande seated outside a waterfront café which is still there!   We were then treated to a boat trip which passed under the Pont de Normandie which links Honfleur with Le Havre and spans the Seine estuary.   This cable-stayed bridge was, when constructed, the longest in the world.

We then travelled home via Dieppe and had a further chance to view the rich and fertile land of Normandy, the Normande cows, the apple orchards and the sunshine yellow of the rapeseed plants.   No wonder the dairy products eg Brie and Camembert and drinks eg Calvados are so acceptable.

Another Channel crossing relaxing in The Club Lounge with free food and drink and back home late, tired and wonderfully relaxed.

Many thanks Marianne for a wonderful and memorable trip.

Thirty-five members of TASEG took part in the Society’s Berlin holiday from Sunday 18th May to Thursday 22nd May.   Our German guide Marion was with us during our five day visit.    Her knowledge of the geography, culture and history of the city was exemplary.

Every city’s story can be told through its urban landscape and architecture.   Being driven through the wide boulevards and avenues of Berlin, you take in the tree lined pavements, passing Stalinist style apartment blocks as well as architectural masterpieces and landmarks - many testament to the city’s famous architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel.

As always with TASEG trips we enjoyed a full programme of visits and events.    We visited the Museum Island housing two of Berlin’s many museums - the Gemäldegalerie and the Alte Nationalgalerie, receiving detailed information on selected artists’ works.    Of particular interest to the group were the paintings by Caspar David Friedrich, the 19th Century German Romantic landscape artist.   Earlier in the year our visiting lecturer had given a talk on this artist generally considered to be the most important of his generation.   The Alte Nationalgalerie exhibits several of his works, including the haunting “Monk by the Sea”, “Abbey in the Oak Forest” and “Man and Woman Contemplating the Moon”.

We were taken to the famous Kurfürstendamm (Ku’damm) to see the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church.   The ruined church, nicknamed the “Hollow Tooth” contains a crucifix made of nails from the burnt roof timbers of Coventry Cathedral - a symbol of reconciliation after WWII.    As Marion informed us, Berliners love nicknames and the octagonal new church, designed by Egon Eiermann is “The Powder Box” and the bell tower is “The Lipstick”.

Frederick II,  “Frederick the Great” was King of Prussia from 1740 to 1786.     His influence on Berlin is evident through his love of music, literature, philosophy and architecture.    We visited two of his favourite residences  - Charlottenburg Palace, built for Sophie Charlotte, wife of Frederick I.     The ballroom known as the Golden Galerie, in the new wing, is a breathtaking example of the Rococo style.    Frederick’s summer residence, “Sanssouci” in the pretty town of Potsdam is another example of flamboyant Rococo.  

We visited the Brandenburg Gate which once marked the boundary between East and West Berlin.    In nearby Ebertstrasse Marion lead us to the white crosses, memorials to victims who died attempting to cross the Berlin Wall - a moving reminder of Berlin’s darker legacy.   

A visit to the starkly structured Jewish Museum, designed by Daniel Libeskind, was a further sobering insight into an earlier period of systematic persecution.   The museum, with its slanting floors and zig-zag layout achieves its aim by evoking feelings of disorientation and displacement.

“Kaffee und Kuchen” is a social institution in Germany and where better to enjoy coffee and cake than in the rooftop restaurant of the Reichstag building.    After this welcome refreshment we climbed the spiral ramp of the glass dome on top of the building.    This amazing piece of architecture was designed by the British architect Sir Norman Foster.   It is made of 3,000 glass panels and the view at the top is well worth the climb.

Activities tended to end around 16.00.   This allowed time to relax or explore the area around the hotel in Alexanderplatz such as taking a stroll along the avenue Unter den Linden with its magnificent historical buildings.    Nearby is the impressive Berlin Cathedral, grandly situated next to the river Spree - a pleasant evening walk from the hotel.   

A lovely way to end each day was dinner in the hotel with like-minded friends, discussing our impressions and opinions of what we had seen and learned and of course enjoying the opportunity to get to know new people!

And so, all good things come to an end.    A tired but cheerful group arrived back at Gatwick, already asking “where next?"

To view our online album of photos from the holiday, please click HERE

It didn’t take long for us to realise that Malta is further south than the most northerly tip of Africa!   We had continuous sunshine, temperatures above 25degC (reaching 39degC on one occasion) and high humidity.

Malta is a fascinating island with a long history.   Its strategic position in the Mediterranean made it important for many civilizations, particularly those of a warlike or colonisation disposition.   Having been part of a great land mass that included Europe and Africa, there was archaeological evidence of man living there from the Stone Age onwards.   In fact Malta was formed after the ice age when the melting of ice increased the volume of the oceans.   This caused flooding of valleys and formed the Mediterranean Sea leaving a previous mountaintop to become the island of Malta.

We had a Maltese guide called Odette (yes she was named after the wartime French heroine) who was very knowledgeable, very experienced and very fast.   Her British group struggled to keep up with her as, unused to the heat after our British ‘summer’, most of us needed a more gentle approach.   However we learnt a lot from her about the history, politics, architecture, archaeology, agriculture, horticulture and art of the island.   This we learnt on our coach journeys around the island, the neighbouring island of Gozo and a boat trip around the enormous Valletta harbour.

We would have preferred her to stick closer to our planned itinerary and would have appreciated more time in the Museum of Fine Arts in Valletta for example.   We did however see the famous Caravaggio painting ‘The Beheading of St John the Baptist’ in the cathedral.   The cathedrals in Mdina and Valletta were stunningly beautiful inside and as Malta is a Catholic country had not been desecrated in any way but had been superbly maintained.

Another highlight was the National War Museum.   Malta was awarded the George Cross for the contributions of its civilians towards preventing a Nazi invasion.   Its strategic importance had been realised by many cultures, amongst them Phoenicians, Romans and of course the Knights of St John.

Our hotel, the 4* Preluna in Sliema, was excellent.   Based by the Mediterranean with sea views from all our rooms, it was both comfortable and caring.   The staff were very friendly and accommodating and the food was extensive, imaginative and very tasty.​

For a selection of photos from the holiday, please click HERE

TASEG trip to Northern Ireland 21st - 25th April 2024

This short holiday lived up to expectations.   When you have sunny weather for the entire five days, a coach full of lovely TASEG members, an extremely interesting tour, a great guide and splendid driver and a great hotel to stay in, what more could you want?

Tommy our guide and Jimmy our driver were old friends both past retirement age but always chosen by Tailored Travel for the Arts Society trips.   With lovely soft Northern Ireland accents, they thoroughly and thoughtfully both informed and entertained us.   Tommy was known everywhere we went and, not surprisingly, when we turned up early he managed to get us into an apparently full car park.   He had a wealth of knowledge from the history of Northern Ireland, including the troubles, to its geology, geography and agriculture.

Our hotel staff were delightful.   The buffet breakfast was excellent and dinner each evening was à la carte.   For once, no pre-ordering!   The choice of wine was also good.   The service was friendly, prompt and courteous.

We were asked if we wanted to visit the areas such as the Falls Road and Shankhill  in Belfast and the Bogside in Londonderry.   These were both very thought-provoking.   The remains of the very tall dividing walls and the alarming murals on the sides of the houses had been left in situ and brought to life the troubles of the late 60s and 70s. 

Their contrast with the Stately Homes we visited and Stormont, home of the devolved government, could not have been greater and provided a sharp contrast between the wealth and poverty which has defined the history of Ireland and that of Northern Ireland after Ireland was divided.

Ireland’s geological past was clear to see on our visit to the Giant’s Causeway.   We were provided with an audio guide which helped us on what was a rather long climb down and an even longer (and steep) climb back up.  There was a bus provided for those whose legs needed refreshing!

On the last morning, we visited The Titanic Experience housed in an extraordinary and architecturally imaginative building with its wings shaped like the prow of the Titanic.   This was built on the original construction site of the Titanic and faced the slipway down which Titanic was launched.   We soon found out why it was called ‘Experience’ and not ‘Museum’.   We saw and experienced all Titanic’s history from the initial design process, through its construction and furnishing.   We were immersed in its tragic sinking, the reasons for the catastrophe and the human misery involved.   We saw relics which had been salvaged including two which have recently been auctioned.   Finally we understood how the wreck was discovered and experienced the lights gradually going out on the ship and looked down through a glass floor as the underwater cameras gradually discovered first a boiler and then the Titanic wreck itself.​

For a selection of photos of the holiday, please click HERE

Little appreciated treasures in the flat landscapes of Lincolnshire and East Nottinghamshire now revealed!

Our early autumn holiday was based in Lincoln, oddly a city of some steep hills (!), but otherwise an accommodating base, in which we explored its own delights as well as venturing out to the surrounding countryside.   City and countryside together presented the impression of a neat, tidy and prosperous corner of England.   The official title of the trip “The Historic Houses and Heritage of Lincolnshire” might have sounded a trifle dull, but this wasn’t what we experienced.   There were riches indeed.

The star attraction is of course Burghley House, the magnificent palace of William Cecil, Lord Burley, advisor to Elizabeth I, who never actually visited the place.   Perhaps she felt that too much was more than enough.   But now well worth a visit if you have the stamina.

The anchor of our visit was Lincoln Cathedral, despite the hill.   The third version of this church is arguably the finest cathedral in England, and home to the See of Lincoln, once the largest and most populous in the country, and earning the Bishop great riches and influence.   This is evident in the extant remains of the Bishop’s Palace, designed for lavish entertainment and, evidently, well supplied with latrines (medieval style).   Hold your nose if you visit!   The adjacent Castle offered a relaxed afternoon enjoying the sunshine, viewing an original copy of Magna Carta (surprisingly small) or walking the walls.   Down the hill we were privileged to explore Stonebow, the Lincoln Guildhall and still the seat of the City Council.   We felt momentarily important as we sat in the Council Chamber, and amazed at the collection of ceremonial objects presented to the City by Richard II and many others since. 

Across the border into Nottinghamshire we found Newark, a fascinating and cultured town which has flourished for centuries from its location on the navigable River Trent and more recently from the intersection of major roads and railways.   Our guided walks revealed the impact of the English Civil War, still evident today, but also the wealth built on trade by land and sea.

Changing tone we visited Southwell Workhouse, restored and maintained by the National Trust.   It’s a sobering experience, affording insight into the ungenerous Victorian view of poverty, but highlighting the gradual introduction of concepts of medical care and rehabilitation through education, as modern social norms evolved. 

Back in Lincolnshire we visited Doddington Hall.   Just another Elizabethan pile?   Well, no.   It is a pile, but still a family home, not overdecorated, and furnished in comfortable styles from all ages.   It felt homely. Similarly Belton House, visited on our way home, made visitors welcome in many different ways, including a spectacular garden.

We are grateful to Marianne Greenwood for devising and organising this splendid holiday.   A major upside of our holidays is the social interaction, making members new and old feel welcome in TASEG.   Do try it!

For a selection of images from the holiday, please click HERE

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A report of our visit to Amsterdam, The Hague and Delft is available by clicking HERE

What makes a good holiday when you belong to The Arts Society?   Travel, sunshine, comfortable accommodation, good food, good wine, spectacular views, friendly hosts, the taste of a different culture and of course great art to discover.   One other thing that makes it all hang together is the affable company of like-minded companions.

Our recent trip to Naples combined all of these, and especially the companionship.   For thrill seekers, we also had terrifying mountain roads with unimaginable hairpin bends and swarms of kamikaze motor cyclists everywhere, but our cool Italian coach driver Ciro took all this in his stride as second nature, much to our applause (and relief).

On this trip “great art” was focussed on the classical past.   The main targets were the remarkable extant remains of Pompeii and Herculaneum, two Roman cities destroyed (and in a sense frozen in time) by the eruption of Vesuvius in 79 AD.   The volcano lurked in the background wherever we went, but thankfully wrinklies are not encouraged to scale it.   Of the two, most members found Herculaneum the better preserved and more artistically interesting by virtue of its wall paintings and in many cases the preservation of upper storeys, which protected the art below.   To complement field observations, we visited the National Archaeological Museum in Naples, where many of the treasures recovered from the excavations of the two cities are exhibited.

Our journeys were hosted and accompanied by local guides, fluent in English and anxious to provide us with detailed background historical details delivered by radio from their microphones to our earpieces, so even the deaf amongst us (the majority?) could not complain of being ill informed.   Our favourite guide was Roberta, with a great talent for humour, especially when explaining Roman provisions for public toilets!

The third ancient site we visited was Paestum, where three Greek temples have survived from a pre-Roman era, and another ancient city has been excavated around them.   For light relief (allegedly) we took a boat trip to the island of Ischia, for more dramatic scenery, an excellent lunch with a stunning view, and finally a visit to the famous Mediterranean garden devised by Susanna Walton, the wife of the British composer of the same surname.   On the last full day we saw the Villa Poppaea, what remains of a luxury 1st century AD vacation home for Nero’s second wife.   Great wall paintings demonstrate the sophistication of what we are tempted to regard as the crudity of ancient art.   Clearly, it’s not so.

Exhausting? Yes.   Reviving?  Yes.   Worthwhile?  Absolutely.

For a selection of images from the holiday, please click HERE

Our Spring holiday took place 1-5 April, focused on the West Country and based in Bristol.   On the way down we visited Laycock Abbey, where photography was invented, before lodging in the very modern and comfortable Aztec Hotel on the outskirts of Bristol.

The next day we toured Bristol, concentrating on the old parts of the city and the Clifton suburb (including walking over the Suspension Bridge: not for the faint hearted!) and the restored 19th Century liner SS Great Britain in the Dockyard.

Day 3 was devoted to Bath, where we admired the notable architecture and the Georgian Crescents, were stunned by the Abbey, and took a cruise on the River Avon.

The following day we passed through a very wet Cheddar Gorge to visit Wells.   The rain abated and we enjoyed a tour of the stunning cathedral, followed by a drive to Stourhead Gardens, just over the border in Wiltshire.

The holiday finished with a return to Bath, to visit the Hershel and American Museums.   TASEG holidays are intensive, but hugely educational, and of course very social.   Do sign up for them.

For a selection of photos, please click HERE

22 members of TASEG including a few spouses and friends enjoyed a wonderful cruise of the Aegean, on board  the 350 passenger ship MV Aegean Odyssey.

You can read all about it by clicking HERE

Going north in the early autumn carries the risk of wind and rain, but the 38 intrepid Arts Society East Grinstead holidaymakers who boarded their coach at 7.30 am one September morning were not deterred, and were rewarded not only with generous weather for the time or year, but also trouble free motoring throughout.

An excellent 5 day holiday, highlights being visits to Hardwick Hall, Newcastle, Arbeia, Durham Cathedral, Barnard Castle (before it became famous for other reasons), Alnwick Castle and Grimethorpe Castle. 

You can read more by clicking HERE