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THE WORLD OF JAMES BOND ‘The name’s….’. Doesn’t need completing, does it? It’s perhaps the most famous personal introduction of all time! And 100 years ago, Ian Fleming, the man who created him was born. Fleming knew the world of espionage. While the Bond he created was very much a pastiche, Fleming himself knew the realities. There was something of Bond in Fleming; he was educated for a while at Eton and was a Commander in Naval Intelligence during WW2. He was author, journalist, sportsman, traveller, bon viveur and spy. But the books also reflect the time they were written; when spying and the secret agent was the front line soldier of the Cold War. This short tour, another in our series of those being ‘a Brit different’, celebrates Fleming’s 100th anniversary and the world of the spy. We discover key locations of Fleming own life, have fun finding James Bond film locations and, more seriously, visit sites and attractions that uncover the secrets of espionage! Like all of your theme tours, we take advantage of where we find ourselves to uncover a few bits of ‘Hidden Britain’ and discover a few secrets of our own! DEPARTURE DATES & PRICES FOR 2008
This GUARANTEED DEPARTURE begins WEDNESDAYS as above from central London hotels below.
Cost: $989 USD per person in a twin share room. Single $1035 USD single occupancy What your tour price includes: Your accommodation for 3 nights while on the tour including both full breakfasts and dinners. Your price also includes all entrance fees to attractions, transportation, services of driver/guide-companion and all taxes and tips other than those you may wish to give your guide. Airport transfers and accommodation pre and post tour is not included but can be reserved at a specially discounted price. Our London tour base is the Chiswick Hotel so you will be picked-up for your tour here at 09.00 if booking pre-tour accommodation with us. Want to upgrade your tour package to include international airfare? Click here for info.
TENTATIVE ITINERARY NIGHTSTOP DAY ONE - Wednesday Donning dark glasses, trilby and heavy overcoats, we’ll start with the capital and, unseen, follow Bond’s trail through London! We’ll see where Fleming worked and lived, uncovering HQs of the intelligence communities, SOE, SIS,MI5 and MI6. Using a manual written by a Soviet spy, we’ll discover sites that have authentic espionage links; places favoured by the spies for covert surveillance, ‘dead letter drops’ and surreptitious assignations… meanwhile, you’ll also be seeing sites linked to famed Cold War spying scandals, with people like Philby and Mclean featuring. We’ll see the Soviet Embassy, the place where the poisoned tipped umbrella killing took place, and a café popular with all sides because of its good vodka! For good measure, we’ll throw in a host of Bond film locations. And before dinner, Martinis, shaken, of course! London DAY TWO - Thursday This morning we begin with a visit to the Imperial War Museum. Here we’ll visit both the UK's only permanent espionage exhibition and that celebrating the life of Ian Fleming. Next, we drive to Dover, where the cliffs conceal myriad underground secret tunnels. The route we follow, ironically though some of the prettiest Kent countryside from Maidstone to Dover and through Canterbury, is that followed by Bond in ‘Moonraker’ in pursuit of the evil rocket scientist, Sir Hug Drax… And we’ll stand on those very cliff tops beside Dover, between Kingsdown and St Margaret’s Bay, where Bond battled with the megalomaniac villain! Dover DAY THREE - Friday Another book, ‘Goldfinger’, also had scenes set here at nearby Sandwich Golf Course where Fleming was a member. It affords us the opportunity of visiting this quaint coastal fishing village with its ancient churches, guildhall and windmill. Next, we cross the Thames to the county of Essex where we’ll find a number of fascinating sites that were a lot easier to go in and explore it now than it was when Kosygin or Brezhnev was ruling the CCCP! The county is simply littered with secret bunker sites designed to hide nuclear facilities or international eavesdropping centres. And are they still eerie! As we poke around these underground caverns or aboveground in deserted, windswept concrete facilities, you’ll feel you’re in the middle of a film set and any minute cold-eyed Eastern European style guards will appear hold back baying Alsatians! Our actual location will depend on which site provides the easiest access! Our final visit of the day is to a real jewel in the crown of espionage history, Bletchly Park, home to the fames ‘Enigma’ code breakers of WW2. This absolutely fascinating attraction boasts a number of other exhibitions and attractions, not least vintage cars, the Colossus Rebuild Project which is re-creating the world's first semi-programmable electronic computer and a 1/5 scale MkVII U-Boat used in the feature film 'Enigma'. Bedfordshire DAY FOUR - Saturday For our final day we take the freeway north to the national Cold War Museum at Cosford. The new permanent exhibition hall, set amongst the hangars at Royal Air Force Museum Cosford, tells the story of the Cold War, from national, international, social/political as well as cultural perspectives. This landmark building and unique exhibition covers over 8,000sqm. Visitors will be able to see Britain’s V Bombers the Vulcan, Victor and Valiant and other aircraft suspended in flying attitudes, including a Dakota Canberra, Meteor, Lightning and Javelin. Other exhibits range from military hardware, to postcards sent across the borders of Berlin, film posters, album covers and toys, as well as life size Russian (Matryoshka) dolls are set between tanks, submarine models and aircraft such as The American F-111 and The ex-Soviet Bloc MiG21. Other exhibits focus on key aspects of the Cold War such as the Berlin Airlift, the Cuban Miss le Crisis, and the Space Race. The exhibition also includes a section of the Berlin Wall, missiles, model submarines. There’s even a statue of Lenin! We return to London from Cosford via Buckinghamshire. Pinewood Film Studio is here and while we can’t get in to see a Bond set, we can visit some of the public places in the area that have provided the backdrop for Bond location shoots.
This tour is operated by Back-Roads Touring Co Ltd |
