Sunday, June 27, 2010

Driving in England…it’s an adventure!

Picking up the car on Saturday was an adventure in itself as we took the Tube to Heathrow then hopped the shuttle to car rental office where the queue was almost out the door…Saturdays are popular pick-up days for the locals as it turns out. After chatting up the desk agent, I was able to get us upgraded to a zippy little Mercedes for 5GPB…still trying to figure out all the bells and whistles!

Di gave us two routes – a scenic route and a motorway route – we opted for the scenic route which was lovely and a bit narrow at times. A small portion of the journey was on a motorway which was actually less nerve wrecking than the small roads at first. By process of elimination, I figured out the left lane was the slow lane…I’ve been hanging out in the left lane needless to say.

We stopped off at a Welcome Break along the way for a quick bite where I called Di’s neighbor to give an update on our arrival. He was so funny when he told me to be careful on some of the scenic roads when I tried to “over take” other drivers…no worry of me over taking…though many drivers were over taking me on the small roads! We stopped on the roadside at one point and heard sheep…poor things had just been sheared. After battling the roundabouts along the way, we finally arrived at our destination!

Di and Bry have the cutest house! Their conservatory is wonderful and a favorite spot of ours. Di has done a fabulous job decorating their home…right down to the matching conservatory drapes and upper landing wallpaper. Her kitchen is quite snazzy…with the exception of the over and hob (aka stove), the other major appliances are built in and hidden. It is such a treat to have all the windows open…something we don’t get to do for long in Charleston!

After a lazy morning, we headed out to Cheltenham – the larger town nearby and area where Di and Bry work. Our mission was to find Dad some shorts as the weather is definitely warm. As I was having some challenges with Bry’s GPS, we just winged it and eventually made our way to town centre where we accomplished our mission. Later in the day, Moma and I headed into Tewkesbury to visit the Abbey…we actually arrived in the midst of Evensong…definitely want to revisit for the full service. Tewkesbury is a cute town and we look forward exploring it more.

I think we may try to make our way to Stratford-upon-Avon tomorrow. With such long days, we have so much time to explore. It is just past 10pm and there is actually still light outside!

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