England Adventures! Part 1
May. 23rd, 2008 03:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wildflowersoulIt is time kids. Time for you to hear about our vacation! First of all, I just want to say that this was the kind of vacation I've daydreamed about pretty much my whole life. It was just a fantastic time, and despite a few getting lost issues and my dislike of driving on twisty windy roads, it was 100% fun.
Wednesday, May 7- Got up bright and early for the airport and spent the whole day in transit. I actually really like early morning flights, something about getting into a cab as dawn breaks makes me feel fancy and important. We stayed the night at an airport hotel near Heathrow, got a few drinks and collapsed for sleeps. Oh, and there was a fascinating documentary on tv about Amy Winehouse's life. To bookend fascinating documentaries about mediocre musicians, I watched a Spice Girls documentary on the plane on the way home. Posh Spice is kind of endearing.
Thursday, May 8- A word to the wise for anyone renting a car from Alamo in England- they actually go by the name National (but partnered with Europcar so even if you look for National you'll find Eurocar), which helps a lot to know when you're looking for directions. We were given the worst directions possible, and got a fun time hour long bus ride to some far-flung suburb of London. When in fact, we could have walked to the car rental place from our hotel. Seriously. So we got the car, had the fear of god instilled in us from the car rental lady who kept asking if we were sure we didn't want to take out their insurance ("you are on the line for 15,000 pounds!" over and over). Cue to us getting our car and it's a Mercedes, at which point I'm convinced someone is bound to steal the damn thing. Not that anyone would want to drive a tank like that around those roads... Anyway, so we trucked on our merry way towards Avebury.
On the way to Avebury we stopped at the West Kennet Longbarrow, 'cause you know, you see an ancient burial mound and you can't just drive by it. From the barrow you could see Silbury Hill. That picture does not do the grand scale of that hill justice. Tromped through some pretty fields, and wended over to Avebury, a village almost entirely surrounded by a stone circle. And filled with cute sheep cavorting around. We spent the night in a totally haunted pub/inn, the Red Lion. The pub houses a medieval well which in turn houses a ghost. I got too drunk that night, so if any ghosts visited our room, I was too passed out to notice them.
Friday, May 8- Onward! We spent the morning in Bath. Man, traffic getting into the city was a bitch. But it was so pretty, and there were pasties! Nom nom nom. We checked out the awesomely old cathedral and, of course, the Roman Baths. Though the baths are expensive to get into, and you feel like they may be a tourist trap, I actually felt that they were worth the admission. There's a neat museum, and for some reason the audio guide includes commentaries by Bill Bryson, who amuses me greatly. Most of his commentaries are him walking around the baths and musing on days of yore.
After leaving Bath we trekked on to Brize Norton, our home away from home for a week. That cottage was fantastic! We had use of the pool almost any time we wanted (and a pool inside a greenhouse is more like a large hot tub, it was delightful), and our hosts were so nice. It turned out that they were involved with the church that was right next door to the cottage, so one night our hostess very nicely took us on a tour of the church, which turned out to be pretty darn old and neat.
Saturday, May 10- Turned out to be a whirlwind of a day. We headed out to Didcot for their farmers' market, and on the way back decided to check out the Uffington White Horse. It was a big chalk horse. Ok, and there are other chalk horses on hillsides in the Wiltshire area, so we went to see another one, but it was made in the 18th century, and the construction of it involved a rich dude yelling instructions to workers with a megaphone. Not as mystical as Uffington. Which is pretty weird, because it is out in the middle of nowhere, and who on earth (or not!) was going to see that thing? Anyway, so we saw the horse, and signs in the area pointed to Wayland Smithy being pretty close. Enjoying ancient things, as we do, we decided to set off on a pleasant 1 mile hike to get to it. To do so, one needs to walk the Ridgeway, a very nice path that crosses through pretty all of the Cotswolds. We had two directional choices in front of us upon entering the Ridgeway. We chose a direction and began hiking. And kept on hiking. And on. We finally got kind of tired and questioned our directional choice. Our poor, poor choice was confirmed by a friendly passerby, who told us were going in the exact opposite direction.
We didn't have enough time to go all the way back and then further out, so we packed up and went back to the cottage for a quick lunch, and then went out to Witney for a tour of Wychwood Brewery. The tour was really interesting, and their beers were tasty, though I couldn't sample much because I was driving. After Wychood we very excitedly went off to Burford, where we believed a ghost tour would be running to thrill and delight us with fake scary stuff. We got to the ghost tour meet up point and waited despondently, for lo, no one showed up to run it.
Sunday, May 11- After all the excitement of Saturday, Sunday was our enforced day of rest and relaxation. We went to the local farm stand to get delicious steaks and veggies, and spent the rest of the morning swimming. We then spent a leisurely afternoon in a nearby pub, The Swan. It was a gorgeous day, and as you can see, the swans were out and about.
Whew. I think a separate entry is in order for more travel stories!
Wednesday, May 7- Got up bright and early for the airport and spent the whole day in transit. I actually really like early morning flights, something about getting into a cab as dawn breaks makes me feel fancy and important. We stayed the night at an airport hotel near Heathrow, got a few drinks and collapsed for sleeps. Oh, and there was a fascinating documentary on tv about Amy Winehouse's life. To bookend fascinating documentaries about mediocre musicians, I watched a Spice Girls documentary on the plane on the way home. Posh Spice is kind of endearing.
Thursday, May 8- A word to the wise for anyone renting a car from Alamo in England- they actually go by the name National (but partnered with Europcar so even if you look for National you'll find Eurocar), which helps a lot to know when you're looking for directions. We were given the worst directions possible, and got a fun time hour long bus ride to some far-flung suburb of London. When in fact, we could have walked to the car rental place from our hotel. Seriously. So we got the car, had the fear of god instilled in us from the car rental lady who kept asking if we were sure we didn't want to take out their insurance ("you are on the line for 15,000 pounds!" over and over). Cue to us getting our car and it's a Mercedes, at which point I'm convinced someone is bound to steal the damn thing. Not that anyone would want to drive a tank like that around those roads... Anyway, so we trucked on our merry way towards Avebury.
On the way to Avebury we stopped at the West Kennet Longbarrow, 'cause you know, you see an ancient burial mound and you can't just drive by it. From the barrow you could see Silbury Hill. That picture does not do the grand scale of that hill justice. Tromped through some pretty fields, and wended over to Avebury, a village almost entirely surrounded by a stone circle. And filled with cute sheep cavorting around. We spent the night in a totally haunted pub/inn, the Red Lion. The pub houses a medieval well which in turn houses a ghost. I got too drunk that night, so if any ghosts visited our room, I was too passed out to notice them.
Friday, May 8- Onward! We spent the morning in Bath. Man, traffic getting into the city was a bitch. But it was so pretty, and there were pasties! Nom nom nom. We checked out the awesomely old cathedral and, of course, the Roman Baths. Though the baths are expensive to get into, and you feel like they may be a tourist trap, I actually felt that they were worth the admission. There's a neat museum, and for some reason the audio guide includes commentaries by Bill Bryson, who amuses me greatly. Most of his commentaries are him walking around the baths and musing on days of yore.
After leaving Bath we trekked on to Brize Norton, our home away from home for a week. That cottage was fantastic! We had use of the pool almost any time we wanted (and a pool inside a greenhouse is more like a large hot tub, it was delightful), and our hosts were so nice. It turned out that they were involved with the church that was right next door to the cottage, so one night our hostess very nicely took us on a tour of the church, which turned out to be pretty darn old and neat.
Saturday, May 10- Turned out to be a whirlwind of a day. We headed out to Didcot for their farmers' market, and on the way back decided to check out the Uffington White Horse. It was a big chalk horse. Ok, and there are other chalk horses on hillsides in the Wiltshire area, so we went to see another one, but it was made in the 18th century, and the construction of it involved a rich dude yelling instructions to workers with a megaphone. Not as mystical as Uffington. Which is pretty weird, because it is out in the middle of nowhere, and who on earth (or not!) was going to see that thing? Anyway, so we saw the horse, and signs in the area pointed to Wayland Smithy being pretty close. Enjoying ancient things, as we do, we decided to set off on a pleasant 1 mile hike to get to it. To do so, one needs to walk the Ridgeway, a very nice path that crosses through pretty all of the Cotswolds. We had two directional choices in front of us upon entering the Ridgeway. We chose a direction and began hiking. And kept on hiking. And on. We finally got kind of tired and questioned our directional choice. Our poor, poor choice was confirmed by a friendly passerby, who told us were going in the exact opposite direction.
We didn't have enough time to go all the way back and then further out, so we packed up and went back to the cottage for a quick lunch, and then went out to Witney for a tour of Wychwood Brewery. The tour was really interesting, and their beers were tasty, though I couldn't sample much because I was driving. After Wychood we very excitedly went off to Burford, where we believed a ghost tour would be running to thrill and delight us with fake scary stuff. We got to the ghost tour meet up point and waited despondently, for lo, no one showed up to run it.
Sunday, May 11- After all the excitement of Saturday, Sunday was our enforced day of rest and relaxation. We went to the local farm stand to get delicious steaks and veggies, and spent the rest of the morning swimming. We then spent a leisurely afternoon in a nearby pub, The Swan. It was a gorgeous day, and as you can see, the swans were out and about.
Whew. I think a separate entry is in order for more travel stories!
