28th July 2017
ENGLAND
We arrived in England, got the car and headed off on a new adventure.
Old Windsor and Windsor Castle.
Staines on Thames – with the wooden boat yards. Yards and yards of old wooden boats in various stages of repair.
Then an all points tour to our hotel. Why – well the GPS in the car was a shocker. She did have a bit of a mind of her own. There were occasions where we knew she was wrong. The phone said turn left – she said turn right.
BUT…there may have been some human error as well. We reached the hotel at 9.45 – after many hours and about 100ks of driving around it the dark, on narrow lanes, in the rain. Addresses are different here. You enter road numbers and codes. Turns out that road A345 is not in fact the same road as A354. Hahahah.
All very amusing until Helen started acting like Dobby when he displeased Harry Potter. She was really beating herself up – I was so glad that we didn’t have an iron handy for her to iron her hands.
But we did see some amazing things – that is…until it was dark. Very dark. Then we couldn’t see anything. Almost literally – the cars headlights were out of alignment.
Once we got back into phone range(as we had no reception and therefore no good GPS), we rang the hotel and asked them to do us dinner before they closed the kitchen. Yay. Pity – as the food was so very bad and so very expensive. Haha.
Sailsbury.
Off to Bath. Still an amazing place. I saw the Royal Crescent. I have seen it on TV and always loved it. 30 terraced houses laid out in a sweeping crescent designed by the architect John Wood, built between 1767 and 1774. It is one of the greatest examples of Georgian architecture in the UK. And was wonderful.
And then a cruise down the canal with the Narrow Boats. Wonderful. We rode the boat from Bath down to Bathampton. This canal was where the heavy horses plodded along pulling the barges. At the edges of the bridges are deep gouge marks where the traces have rubbed on the stone.
We searched for Mole, Toad, Rat and Badger.
These tourist almost smashed into us. Our driver was not happy.
Then a walk of a few ks past the old Bathampton Mill and a tiny toll bridge. 50p. We jumped onto a town bus for the other few ks back to town followed, by another few ks around town. So much beauty.
And back to Bath.
We then drove to Wales – as you do.We went down to Newport and looked at some amazing bridges including the Transporter Bridge. We went to a pub at the docks but decided it was a bit too much of a workman’s pub, went to another with no food! Not a good run.
of course, as with all mu visits to Wales we got stuck in hideous traffic with 30 minutes of not moving then some ducking a weaving through residential area.
Then a stunning drive back to England and down to Swanage, on Jurassic Coast.
We booked into our accommodation which was a BnB.
I was entertained with fireworks out my bed window just after going to bed. Because of the rain, the sound was amazing. Booming and reverberating around the stone town. It was better then the fireworks.
Sunday 30th July
Up at stupid o’clock to get to the ferry in Poole on time. It should have been a 30 minute drive, but there was bridge work on a different road into the port- so who knews….. and we had to check the car into long stay parking etc.
But we did make time to go back through the township of Castle Corfe. Talk about a town with a view, and a town that is the view. One of THE most amazing towns I have seen. Like a movie set.
The weather might not be idea with lots of rain – but it certainly makes dramatic photos.
We did make it to the port in 40 minutes, car parking was easy so – no pressure. A bit scary heading off for two days leaving most of our gear in the hire car in a carpark. Imaging coming back and all our Polar clothing was gone!
The ferry was huge. Full of cars loaded up with bikes and holiday gear. The seating area was very like a plane – but you could walk around easily. And huge.
There were families, buskiness people, a huge group of Scouts.
“Blimey, it’s blowy out there” said a kid as he walked inside. Funny.
So there we were heading off to the Channel Islands. Off to Jersey – to see cows. Jersey cows.
Next page – The Channel Islands