Learning to drive all over again
Trip Start
May 02, 2007
1
3
70
Trip End
Ongoing
Where I stayed
Stansted,
United Kingdom
Wednesday, May 9, 2007
The first sign of things to come was when I got in to drive and found myself in the passenger seat. It was very strange having everything completely opposite...you have to look to your left for the rear-view mirror and shift with your left hand. I was just grateful that the clutch and gas were on the same side as at home! As we left, I immediately found myself driving on the wrong side of the road...oops. Having straightened out that minor issue we took off for our campsite near Stonehenge. Let's get this clear, Yvonne is a GREAT navigator and a whiz at reading maps...but give her a crappy map like the one we had and even she can get confused...we drove probably a hundred miles in the semi-wrong direction, but, after finally giving in and asking for directions at a petrol station (that's right, it's said petrol here), we were on the right road and heading for Stonehenge
01. Need we tell you what this is?
. Our plan was to camp overnight and do a 14 km trek from Salisbury into Stonehenge. That plan changed when we came upon the ancient relics on the side of the road. It was pretty weird...for those of you who've been, you probably know what we mean. It's extremely anti-climatic. It's just sitting there on the side of a highway, fenced in. We stopped to get some pictures and found it was closed...but there were a few people inside walking within the stones. We discovered that they paid many times the normal fee to have special access during closed times. We also found out that this special access is booked up until September, and that, under normal access you aren't even allowed to go near the stones. There is a walkway around them that doesn't get you any closer than 50 meters...which is about the same distance from the fence. So we took it in, studied the structure a bit, took some pictures, and decided it wasn't worth going back the next day. We left and found our campsite, right beside a tiny town called Orcheston, about 4 miles from Stonehenge, and pitched our tent. It was extremely windy but we managed to snuggle the tent between our car and a fence to block most of it.One thing worth mentioning...on the highways here they have these Welcome Break stops every so many miles...like rest stops, but with WAY more services. They have shops and various fast food outlets, also a Days Inn hotel. The bathrooms are immacculate - they have a countdown clock to their next cleaning (every 45 minutes).
(May 8)
This morning we drove to Bath, a beautiful city with old Roman spas
01a. Sun shines through the clouds at Stonehenge
. We didn't bother to check out the baths but we did walk all around the town and indulged in "Award Winning" cornish pasties - yummm...Bath is at the southern edge of a really nice section of England called the Cotswolds and we continued northeast through this area, navigating the narrow and windy country roads and passing through acres of green pasture riddled with sheep. To say the Cotswolds is picturesque is kind of an understatement. It's exactly what you would hope to find out in the countryside of England. You pass through lots of small villages with low stone fences and stone houses, several covered in ivy that danced in the wind and made the buildings come to life. We stopped in a very small town called Bibury that had a river running through it that was home to lots of ducks and swans. We kind of went overboard with the pictures of ducks...but they let you get so close...our guess was people feed them all the time. After walking around the sleepy town and visiting its old church and ancient cemetery, we continued throught the Cotswolds and found camping in a small village called Lechlade, which had the Thames flowing through it. We ate dinner at a pub (fish & chips for me, sausage & onion stuffed potato for Yvonne) and had a lager, played a bit of darts, then it was back to the tent for some shut-eye.(May 9)
Our last stop before heading back to return the car and fly out of Stansted was the university city of Oxford. We parked in the park & ride and took a bus into town
02. Yvonne setting up the tent
. We walked around marvelling at the beautiful colleges while students milled about, riding their bicycles around or walking in groups discussing school subjects. We didn't waste any time getting back to Stansted as our car was due back at 14:00 sharp. We made it (barely) and waited at the airport for four hours for our flight to Munich. I used the time to soak up the last bits of english cuz it might be the last for quite some time! We also had to repack our gear to try to get under the 20 kg limit for checked luggage (and none for carry-on)...we came close, 4 kilos over, so we had to pay 24 pounds. Yvonne's mom and sister were waiting for us in Munich to take us to our Europe "homebase" of Landshut. Even though we'd only driven in England for two days, it was weird driving on the right side of the road again. Funny how fast you adapt to change. 
