We're off to Europe and UK next Wednesday for a 7 week holiday. We begin in Vienna for three days before the Christmas Markets cruise to Nuremberg and then on 23rd fly to Southampton for Christmas and London for New Year. On the 2nd we drive to Moushole (Mozzle) in Cornwall for ten days, then Dartmouth for a week bfore returning to Southampton till the 31st January when we return home.

Just as a teaser and to get this blog started, I'm sharing a photograph of the Royal Castle Hotel in Dartmouth. We'll be having dinner (or lunch) with a cousin who lives nearby. Margaret and I share a 5th Great Grandfather from Grantown in Scotland. While my family moved to Ireland and then Australia and back to Scotland and the U.S., hers moved south to London and then one line to South Africa. I've been in touch with Margaret and my South African cousins for some years now.

The Royal Castle was built in 1639, but there was evidently a previous hotel or inn on the site because Sir Francis Drake reputedly stayed there. Many of the mistresses of Charles 11 were said to have stayed at the hotel. In 1688, Mary stayed at the hotel after she and her husband William (who later became William 111 of England) arrived in England from the Netherlands to claim the throne.