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Trips before 2007
For details of our more recent past trips, from the current year and
from last year, use the relevant links under the Events link on the
left.
"Gothic Paris" Trip September 22-15, 2006 A splendid long weekend in Paris was had by approximately 20 members with visits to catacombs, cemeteries, cathedrals, and galleries. Sites visited included the Paris Opera House to pay respects to The Phantom, and the splendidly Gothic cathedral of Notre Dame - home to gargoyles and hunchbacks.
A Weekend in Bath May, 2006 A group of Dracula Society members enjoyed a delightful weekend in Bath in May
The events included a trip to William Beckford’s tower and tomb on Lansdown Hill, a ghost walk and a day excursion to Silbury Hill, Avebury and Glastonbury, interspersed by plenty of delicious meals and suitably chosen DVDs, including Roald
Dahl’s The Landlady set in this beautiful (if sometimes spooky) city. A good time was had by all!
The Trip to Egypt November 2005 Fourteen of us had a splendid trip to this timeless and magical land where we saw many wonderful sites. We covered the length of the country visiting such splendours as The Pyramids, The Sphinx, Cairo Museum, Abu Simbel, Karnak and Luxor, together with the treasures of the West Bank such as The Valley of the Kings. One of the major highlights was gently travelling the Nile from Aswan to Luxor in a Nile cruise boat stopping off at beautiful sites en-route. This was a truly amazing experience!
Spring Trip - Whitby April 15-18, 2005 A major event in the Society's calendar for this year, this was our first official visit to Whitby since 2000. This trip was held in April specifically to commemorate the 25th anniversary of our Dracula Society Bram Stoker seat. This was placed up on the West Cliff at Whitby, and unveiled on 20th April 1980, the 68th anniversary of Stoker's death. From the seat all of the main locations in Whitby which feature in "Dracula" can be seen. An unprecedented 35 members made this one of the largest Dracula Society trips ever, and a splendid time was had by all!
Bram Stoker's West Country A weekend in Exeter and Taunton, from Friday 17th September 2004 through Monday 20th September 2004.
Summer Outing
West Wycombe Caves 15th August 2004 A visit to West Wycombe, in Buckinghamshire, to see the famous caves, the home of the infamous Hell-Fire Club, and visit the National Trust village there.
Spring Trip
Edinburgh 21st-24th May 2004 This weekend in May saw the Society's first trip to Edinburgh. Led by Dr Gail-Nina Anderson, it was a long weekend exploring the Kirkyards, Art Galleries old and modern, Edinburgh Castle, and the restaurants. Edinburgh Castle, despite its expensive entry ticket, proved to be a real delight.
The sun shone on us everywhere we went. We had a screening of the film Mary Reilly, based on the
Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde story. The Jekyll
and Hyde connection was plain to see everywhere in Edinburgh, from exhibitions of the author's work to the pub named after the famous story. The
Witchery By The Castle restaurant proved a big hit with members, with its Gothic splendour and fabulous food. The long weekend ended on the Monday. Amazingly, we only managed to scratch the surface of this fine city.
A Tour of Romania with The Dracula
Society 29th May to 10th June 2003
The Romania Travel Centre www.romaniatravelcentre.com
have kindly allowed us to display the above graphic which they created to
promote
our event. They continue to offer other Dracula-themed trips to Romania, following on from the success of our trip with them.
View our 2003 itinerary.
We will be doing the main Dracula related sites featured when we visit again
in 2009. Watch out for details! One Traveller's
Report On the 29th May we started our 12-day tour of Romania. This was a combination of trips we had done in the past, a kind of 'best-of". We visited Cluj in the north, the destination of our internal flight following the international flight from London Heathrow. We stayed at Hotel Castle Dracula in the Borgo Pass and spent an afternoon going out into the countryside, enjoying a picnic, and exhilarating cart ride! The painted monasteries in the northwest and northeast of the country proved popular with all the members. We visited citadels, climbed hundreds of steps to see Vlad Tsepes's real home at Poenari Castle, a fabulous ruin high above the Arges River. We saw the Princely Court at Targoviste, residence to both Vlad and his father at one time, with its imposing tower. We walked through Bicaz Gorge, with its sides towering above, with the torrenting river beside us. Small medieval villages greeted us as we toured the country in our coach. The stunning town of Sigisoara, the most popular medieval town in Romania, has the birth place of Vlad to its credit, which is currently home to a good quality restaurant. This final trip for some years to Romania by the society was, in this author's opinion, the best he can remember!
Trip to York Friday 2nd August 2002 A trip we had wanted to do for some time, recommended by one of the membership. The theme? Medieval Vampire Monks! Yes, it's true, there were such things, apparently! We stayed at a B&B (Bed and Breakfast) near the city centre, so we did not have far to go to do some shopping! We were guided around haunted abbeys across the beautiful Yorkshire countryside in what can only be described as
heat-wave conditions. We were regaled with stories that would chill your blood, which was handy considering how hot it was, and took in the wonderful Newburgh Priory, Byland Abbey, and Rievaulx Abbey. These fantastic places inspired the imagination. We ate in York City at some excellent restaurants, and wished our 2 day trip had been longer. York is a great city.
Literary Dublin 28th June to 1st July 2002 It was off for a long weekend in Dublin, leaving from Luton Airport on the Friday. It was the first time that an official trip to the birthplace of one of our favourite authors had been organised by the Society, and we were near to turning members away this trip was so popular. Julia Kruk and Des Bradley organised this trip, and we took in the literary sites of Dublin on a tour organised on the Saturday. We saw the home of Oscar Wilde, visited his statue in St Stephen's Green, and went to one of the houses Stoker lived in during his time in Dublin city centre. We had dinner and a tour of Trinity College courtesy of David Lass of The Bram Stoker Society, and visited Stoker's birthplace in Clontarf. The park opposite Stoker's former home has been renamed The Bram Stoker Memorial Park, and there is a tree and notice board to mark this special memorial. As always with the Dracula Society, shopping is a must, so plenty of time was reserved for this; yet we even squeezed in a ghost walk! |