May 1, 2024

We left Liverpool early in order to miss the morning rush hour until we got close to Birmingham but even then we only had a ten minute slow down as the ring road was far enough away from the city.

Our first stop today was Hailes Abbey ruins.  Fran loves these for the photos you can take especially when they have arches and large chunks of wall on a nice day.  We spent about a half hour here walking the grounds and taking photos.  We were alone except for the grounds keepers.

Hailes Abbey is a former Cistercian abbey, in the small village of Hailes, two miles northeast of Winchcombe, Gloucestershire, England. It was founded in 1246 as a daughter establishment of Beaulieu Abbey.

The abbey was founded in 1246 by Richard Cornwall, the younger brother of Henry III. Richard founded the abbey to thank God after surviving a shipwreck. Richard had been granted the manor of Hailes by King Henry, and settled it with a group of twenty Cistercian monks and ten lay brothers, led by Prior Jordan, from Beaulieu Abbey in Hampshire. The great Cistercian abbey was entirely built in a single campaign in 1277, and was consecrated in a royal ceremony that included the King and Queen and 15 bishops. It was one of the last Cistercian houses to be founded in England. 

Hailes Abbey became a site of pilgrimage after Richard’s son Edmund donated to the Cistercian community a phial of the Holy Blood, purchased in Germany, in 1270. Such a relic of the Crucifixion was a considerable magnet for pilgrimage. From the proceeds, the monks of Hailes were able to rebuild the Abbey on a magnificent scale. Though King Henry VIII’s commissioners declared the famous relic to be nothing but the blood of a duck, regularly renewed, and though the Abbot, Stephen Sagar, admitted that the Holy Blood was a fake in hope of saving the Abbey, Hailes Abbey was one of the last religious institutions to acquiesce following the Suppression of Regligious Houses Act 1535. The Abbot and his monks finally surrendered their abbey to Henry’s commissioners on Christmas Eve 1539. Little remains of the abbey. 

Then we drove to the city of Gloucester to see the Cathedral which was used in three of the eight Harry Potter movies.

It was used as the Common Room for Gryffindor House and its cloisters were used as the corridors of Hogwarts.  The East Corridor of the cathedral subsequently features when Moaning Myrtle floods the girls’ bathroom in Chamber of Secrets, while the Lavatorium is where Harry and Ron hide from the troll in the same film.

They do not have an entrance fee to the cathedral but a “strongly suggested donation” of £5 per adult.  Fran had a bunch of change that did not add up to that amount and they just looked at her so she had to use a credit card to pay her entry fee.  Doug waited outside.

Gloucester Cathedral, formally the Cathedral Church of St Peter and the Holy and Indivisible Trinity, stands in the north of the city near the River Severn. It originated with the establishment of a minster dedicated to Saint Peter around 679. The subsequent history of the church is complex but the present building was begun in about 1089, following a major fire the previous year.

William the Conqueror held his Christmas Court at here in 1085, at which time he ordered the compilation of Domesday Book. In October 1216, Henry III was crowned at the abbey. In the 14th century, the Great and Little Cloisteres were constructed, displaying the earliest, and perhaps the finest, examples of fan vaulting anywhere. The cathedral contains the shrine of deposed King Edward II, who was believed to have been murdered at nearby Berkeley Castle.

Following the dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII in 1536, the abbey was refounded as a cathedral. The cathedral underwent much restoration in the 18th century, and again in the 19th. In 1989, it celebrated its 900th anniversary. In 2015 saw the Church of England appoint its first woman as a diocesan bishop.  The cathedral has frequently been used as a filming location, including as a stand-in for Hogwarts in the Harry Potter movies.

Since Doug was waiting outside she only spent about fifteen minutes inside.  It is HUGE and well maintained.  The cloisters (covered walkways) running around three sides of it inside while several chapels and rooms.  There are many stained glass windows, graves, altars and in the centre is a huge organ.

We wandered along the pedestrian afterwards and found some lunch before continuing south to Avebury to see the stones.

Well there was no free place (or much of any place) to park so we drove past a couple of times while Fran took photos.

Avebury is a Neolithic henge monument containing three stone circles, around the village of Avebury, in southwest England. One of the best known prehistoric sites in Britain, it contains the largest megalithic stone circle in the world. It is both a tourist attraction and a place of religious importance to contemporary pagans.

Constructed over several hundred years in the third millennium BC, during the Neolithic, or New Stone Age, the monument comprises a large henge (a bank and a ditch) with a large outer stone circle and two separate smaller stone circles situated inside the centre of the monument. Its original purpose is unknown, although archaeologists believe that it was most likely used for some form of ritual or ceremony.

Nearby was Silbury Hill.

Silbury Hill is a prehistoric artificial chalk mound. It is part of the Stonehenge, Averbury and Associated Sites UNESCO World Heritgage Site. At 39.3 m / 129’ high, it is the tallest prehistoric human-made mound in Europe] and one of the largest in the world; similar in volume to contemporary Egyptian pyramids. Its original purpose is still debated.

For more photos the above sights, click  here.

Now for the highlight of the day: Stonehenge!

The parking lot is rather large and there is a Visitor’s Centre, a shop and an café.  Purchasing a ticket gets you the free shuttle bus to the stones which is 1.6 km /  1 m away or you can walk.  As we were able to use our Heritage Card, we got in free.

Stonehenge consists of an outer ring of vertical sarsen standing stones, each around 4 m / 13’ high, 2.1 m wide / 7’ wide, and weighing around 25 tons, topped by connecting horizontal lintel stones. Inside is a ring of smaller bluestones. Inside these are free-standing trilithons, two bulkier vertical sarsens joined by one lintel. The whole monument, now ruinous, is aligned towards the sunrise on the summer solstice and sunset on the winter solstice. The stones are set within earthworks in the middle of the densest complex of  Neolithic and Bronze Age monuments in England, including several hundred tumuli (burial mounds).

Archaeologists believe that Stonehenge was constructed in several phases from around 3100 BC to 1600 BC, with the circle of large sarsen stones placed between 2600 BC and 2400 BC. The surrounding circular earth bank and ditch, which constitute the earliest phase of the monument, have been dated to about 3100 BC. Radiocarbon dating suggests that the bluestones were given their current positions between 2400 and 2200 BC, although they may have been at the site as early as 3000 BC.

One of the most famous landmarks in the United Kingdom, Stonehenge is regarded as a British cultural icon. It has been a legally protected monument since 1882, when legislation to protect historic monuments was first successfully introduced in Britain. The site and its surroundings became UNESCO sites in 1986.

Stonehenge could have been a burial ground from its earliest beginnings. Deposits containing human bone date from as early as 3000 BC, when the ditch and bank were first dug, and continued for at least another 500 years.

We probably spent about 90 minutes total here including the museum.  We were definitely not alone here, there were several busloads of teenagers and a few tour groups but it was not overcrowded.  You cannot not enter the stones or get on the mound they are mounted on but you can make your way all around it.  We actually saw them as we were driving up along the road but there’s no place to stop.

Click here to see lots more shots of our time at Stonehenge.

It’s now after 3 and it’s been a long day.  Fran found a farm with a few rentals in it and we booked the Loft room with a mini kitchen, living room, Wi-Fi and free parking.  It was pretty nice for $89.  It was super quiet until the overnight thunder and lightning storm!

We were awake early today and decided to get going after tea.  The weather was quite grey and socked in but it wasn’t supposed to rain much.  Yeah right!?!  We’d been driving for about an hour when it started and it lasted until we were almost at our first destination:  Tintagel Castle.

This is another Heritage site so we visited at no cost (except we had to pay for parking in town).  The weather held off for us (probably because we wore our rain jackets AND brought umbrellas!) but it was not warm as the wind off the Celtic Sea was cold.

At the site, after getting your ticket, you walk down, down, down to a bridge that takes you to the “island” where the castle ruins are located.

The island where Tintagel Castle is located was settled during the 5th and 6th century, the early medieval period when it was probably one of the seasonal residences of the regional king of Dumnonia.  A castle was built on the site by Richard, 1st, 1st Earl of Cornwall in the 13th century, during the High Middle Ages. It later fell into disrepair and ruin.

Archaeological investigation into the site began in the 19th century and two digs in 2016 and 2017 at Tintagel Castle uncovered the outlines of a palace from the early medieval period, with evidence of writing and of articles brought in from Spain and from the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea.

The castle has a long association with legends related to King Arthur. This was first recorded in the 12th century when Georffrey of Monmount described Tintagel as the place of Arthur’s conception in his mythological account of British history. Geoffrey told the story that Arthur’s father, King Uther Pendragon, was disguised by Merlin’s sorcery, to look like Gorlois, Duke of Cornwall, the husband of Igraine, Arthur’s mother.

Tintagel Castle has been a tourist destination since the mid-19th century. While the castle is in the possession of William, Prince of Wales, as part of the landholdings of the Duchy of Cornwall but the site is managed by English Heritage.

We enjoyed the walk across to the island on the new bridge (donated five years ago), the views across the sea, the ruins of the site, the Gallos statue:

It is popularly called the “King Arthur statue”, but the site’s owner, English Heritage, states that it is not meant to represent a single person and reflects the general history of the site, which is likely to have been a summer residence for the kings of Dumnonia.

Instead of taking the bridge back across, we took the stairs down to the beach to see Merlin’s Cave in the hopes of seeing his face in the rocks, but the tide was coming and beach access was limited.

We then walked back to the town via a different path and returned to our car.  The rain held off the entire time.  On our drive further into Cornwall, the sky actually began to lighten but by the time we reached St. Ives, our next stop, it had darkened up again.

After finally finding a parking lot up the hill from the main part of town where we had to pay but we didn’t see any other option, we got the ticket and parked before we walked down to the beach and strolled around town for about 45 minutes.  We had read about getting ice cream from Moomaid of Zennor so of course, that was our first stop.  While getting our ice cream, a local suggested we eat in the shop as the seagulls love ice cream and are prone to stealing cones right out of  your  hands!  Well, we figured we’ll take our chances.

We had not gone more than five minutes when Doug got dive bombed by a seagull and it knocked the cone out of his hand!  He managed to pick it up and scrape off the bits of sand and two minutes later – it happened again!  He retaliated by crushing the remains on the cone so neither he nor the bird could eat it.  Guess we should have listened to that piece of advice.

We saw the beaches on both sides of town and walked through the narrow streets ending up back at the car park.

Upon trying to pay the parking, the machine kept saying “you have paid for your parking”.  When it happened to the lady behind us, we chanced just getting out and lo and behold the bar raised and the parking ended up being free.

Fran had booked us an attic studio apartment in Penzance for $98 (most everything with a decent rating was well above $100) and we arrived at check in time of three.  By now the sun was coming out and it looked like it was really going to clear up.  We got settled, did a few things online that needing tending to and decided to go out for dinner.  We walked down to the sea and then along the corniche looking for a place to eat.

We found Gino’s Italian and went in for pasta.  We had a window table with a view of the water and had a nice dinner complete with wine for Fran and beer and Sambuca for Doug.

We walked back to our “home” and had a so, so sleep.  Again (like in the Middle East, Sri Lanka etc., these places we stay in never have a top flat sheet on the bed and the duvets are far too warm for Fran especially now that it’s not quite so cold at night.  She’s decided she’s going to have travel with one from now on.

Click here  to see more photos of the above.

We left Penzance early as we were awake early and got to Land’s End, the most southwesterly point of England well before the place opened.

We didn’t bother paying for parking either.  None of the shops or services were open by the place was not blocked off.

In 2022 when we visited Scotland we saw visited John O’Groats point – the most northerly point on the island and today we are at the other end of the UK.

The sun is still shining and it promises to be a much nicer day than yesterday with no rain.  We next wanted to see the Minack Theatre at Portchurno but that didn’t open until ten and it was barely past 8 so we opted not to wait around; partly because we didn’t want to just sit, partly because there was no place to park and wait (the lots were all barricaded), partly because we didn’t want to spend the nice part of the day just doing nothing and partly because it was not included in our Heritage Pass and we’d have to dole out £12 each to see it.   We could see trails that might take us to a viewpoint where we might be able to see the theatre but again, NO place to park.

So we continued on back along the south coast of Cornwall passing Penzance to the town to Marazion where we could see Saint Michael’s Mount (England’s version of Mont St. Michel).  We could see it last night at from the boardwalk in Penzance but it was far away.  It’s still kind of far away and into the sun so this shot is not that great:

At low tide you are supposed to be able to take the boardwalk out to it.

We found this on Google:

England especially Cornwall & Devon, has some cute and strange town names like “Mousehole”, “Puddletown”, “Didlington” and “Minions”. There are also many names that we have back in Canada like Truro, Edmonton, Halifax, Victoria and of course, London.

There’s been plenty of road construction especially here in Cornwall – a major expansion of the A30 – the road that runs the length of this peninsula.  The minor roads, like in most of the UK – can very narrow and there’s lots of backing up or trying to find a bit of a wide section to get past cars going the other way.  At least we’re in a car this time and not Minou – much easier.   Much of these narrow roads are line with tall hedges, bushes or rock walls which makes seeing the countryside difficult.

When we were on the A30 – a dual carriageway we could see better and took these photos:

Then we headed inland to see a few interesting looking Heritage sites that were all free:

1. Kind Doniert’s Stone

King Doniert’s Stone consists of two pieces of a decorated 9th-century cross. The inscription is believed to commemorate Dungarth, King of Cornwall, who died around 875.  In the 5th century, Christianity was first brought to Cornwall by monks from Wales and Ireland. The early missionaries are believed to have erected wooden crosses to show places in which they had won victories for Christ. In time these places became sanctified and the wooden crosses were replaced by stone ones.

2. The Long Stone (aka Long Tom Stone)

Longstone Cross, or Long Tom as it sometimes called, is one of the best-preserved examples of a wayside cross, still in its original position on the southern edge of Bodmin Moor. The stone stands beside a long-stablished route on the southern edge of Craddock Moor, and at least 2 other crosses are aligned on this ancient route across the moor.

3. The Hurler Stones

The Hurlers is a group of three stone circles in the civil parish of St Cleer.  The Hurlers comprises three stone circles that lie on a line from SSW to NNE, and have diameters of 35 m / 115’, 42 m / 138’ and 33 m / 108’. The two outer stone circles are circular. The middle circle, the largest is slightly elliptical. The survival of the southern stone circle, which now contains nine stones, has been most precarious: only two of the remaining stones are upright and the other seven are partially covered with soil. In the middle circle 14 stones survive out of 28. The stones show clear traces of being hammered smooth. The northern stone circle contained around 30 standing stones, from which 15 are still visible. Two other monoliths, the Pipers, are 100 m / 330′ southwest of the middle circle and may be entrance stones to the Hurlers. 

The name “Hurlers” derives from a legend, in which men were playing Cornish hurling on a Sunday and were magically transformed into stones as punishment. The “Pipers” are supposed to be the figures of two men who played tunes on a Sunday and suffered the same fate. According to another legend, it is impossible to accurately count the number of standing stones.

4. Trethevy Quiot

Trethevy Quoit is a well-preserved megalithic structure. It is known locally as “the giant’s house”. Standing 2.7 m / 9’ high, it consists of five standing stones capped by a large slab.

Like other portal structures of this type, Trethevy Quoit was originally covered by a mound. At the upper end of the cover slab is a natural hole, which may have been used for astronomical observation. The front stone is often called an entrance stone, although in most portal structures this cannot be moved. Trevethy Quoit is a rare exception here, because a small rectangular stone moving at the bottom right of the front allows access to the chamber, which is now opened only very rarely.

The back of the chamber has collapsed inwards and now forms a pile inside the chamber. Erect, this stone would be about the height of the front stone, so that the cover slab would not have once been held up by the side stones, but rested almost horizontal solely on the front stone and rear walls.

These four visits took just over an hour to visit them all as they are fairly close together.  The Hurlers and the Quoit were the most interesting.

Here  are more photos of these sights.

We then drove back to the south coast and made it to Plymouth via the toll bridge – this is where the Mayflower set sail from in l620.

After parking in a parkade at a large shopping mall on the edge of he city centre and walked out to the main pedestrian area.

We checked out the giant sun dial in a large plaza called the Armada Dial:

Then we made our way on foot to the Barbian.  Here they have set up a memorial called the “Mayflower Steps” complete with a Union Jack and the Stars and Stripes.  There are plaques providing information about other firsts here too.   The actual steps are naturally no longer here but the location is believed to be accurate.

We walked to some waterside pubs and stopped for a snack and drinks in the sunshine.  They had great music and it was pleasant stop.

Doug had made an appointment for an eye exam as he feels he needs a new prescription and the prices here were better than in the US or Canada.  For £30 he had a complete exam with all the bells and whistles.  While he was in the Exam room, Fran picked up a few groceries and we went back to the car and drove to our accommodation for the night.  Fran had found a room in a place called “The Ivy Barn” for $77 and upon arrival we saw there was a hot tub!  Bonus.  We had a twin room with private bath including a fridge and free parking with good Wi-Fi and it even came with bathrobes and slippers.  It was really nice and we enjoyed our soak in the tub.

Today we passed through one tunnel in Plymouth and a toll bridge that cost us £2.30 and worth avoiding an eighteen mile detour.

It was another glorious sunny morning today and we left our room around 8:45 after a leisurely morning.  We continued eastward along the south coast of England.  Our first stop was by the town of Charmouth to see the fossils.  This town is along the Jurassic Coast – a world heritage area where fossil hunting is a favourite pastime and the bones of dinosaurs have been found by locals.

The Jurassic Coast is on the English Channel. It stretches a distance of about 154 km / 96 m, and was inscribed on the World Heritage List in mid-December 2001.

The site spans 185 million years of geological history, coastal erosion having exposed an almost continuous sequence of rock formation covering the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous periods. At different times, this area has been desert, shallow tropical sea and marsh, and the fossilized remains of the various creatures that lived here have been preserved in the rocks.

The area nearby contains a fossil forest, and 71 different rock strata have been identified at Lyme Regis, each with its own species of ammonite. The Charmouth Heritage Coast Centre, a volunteer organization with a fossil shop is located here. 

Doug was like a kid in a candy store in the shop and we bought several items for gifts.  The museum contained mostly local finds and that was pretty cool.

We ate some lunch here – a “bap” – which is sandwich made with a bun similar to a hamburger bun with various fillings.  We had bacon, egg and brie – it was pretty good and very filling.   Then we took a walk along the beach to check out the cliffs called “the Black Ven – Europe’s largest mudslide” where many of the fossils have been found.

The tide was rapidly coming in and so fossil hunting was out of the question so we only walked along the top edge of the beach.  It was lovely and sunny and very pleasant.

We continued along the coast and traffic increased noticeably.  It’s a long holiday weekend here in Britain AND the sun is shining so it seemed EVERYONE was out enjoying it.  We arrived at the “Durdle Door” parking lot was nearly full upon our arrival but we got a spot on the grass.

Durdle Door was created when the sea pierced through the Portland limestone around 10,000 years ago. There is a dearth of early written records about the arch, though it has kept a name given to it probably over a thousand years ago. In the late 18th century there is a description of the “magnificent arch of Durdle-rock Door”, and early 19th-century maps called it “Duddledoor” and “Durdle” or “Dudde Door”. In 1811 the first Ordnance Survey map of the area named it “Dirdale Door”. Durdle is derived from the Old English thirl, meaning to pierce, bore or drill, which in turn derives from thyrel, meaning hole.  The Door part of the name probably maintains its modern meaning, referring to the arched shape of the rock; in the late 19th century there is a reference to it being called the “Barn-door”, and it is described as being “sufficiently high for a good-sized sailing boat to pass through it.”

You hike down the hill to a fabulous viewpoint of the the “Man of War” rock formation off the beach

and then walk a little further to see the “door”

and down the beach to another arch called the “Bat Hole”.

It’s a pretty spectacular view and the weather made it more so.  It’s just gorgeous out and today we hit a whopping 17C / 63F – we’ll take it especially since it’s not supposed to last.  As we left the parking lot we saw the line up of cars heading in and the traffic was even worse.

Fran had booked us a place for two nights in Poole and we arrived there shortly after two o’clock.  It was a room with a kitchenette in a house with a private bathroom and free parking.  The hostess was very kind and we are paying $203 for two nights.

We got settled, Fran changed into sandals for the first time in weeks and we had a quiet afternoon as well as a chat with Serena before heading out to see a movie:  The Fall Guy with Ryan Gosling.

The price of the ticket was not bad but the popcorn was another story.  Normally we go to the movies and popcorn is that night’s dinner so we get the bucket size.  Here the large size is barely medium and costs £7.80!  They have no “buttery topping” on offer (didn’t bother Fran as she never gets it but Doug was super disappointed) however, you can get salty, sweet or a mix of them.  Doug ordered two large salted and Fran got a large mix (which Doug added a bit to her bag from his bag during the movie).  They do NOT have ice for their sodas (?) so Doug got a bottle of water and Fran had already snuck two ice teas in her purse so she didn’t need a drink.

The movie was very enjoyable and we’d recommend it; it’s an action rom/com and do not leave the theatre when the “The End” appears, wait until after the credits.

Sunday it was overcast once again and after a leisurely morning we drove over to see Julie & Marcus at his sister’s place where they are currently housesitting.  As mentioned in our last blog, we met them in Colombia but had read of them before on the PanAm FB page.  They began travelling the same year as us but have covered some different and similar ground.  They were stuck in Whitehorse, Canada during COVID – so they, unlike most overlanders, had a much longer time to explore once the provincial borders opened.

We met them at Marcus’ sister’s house and walked over to the South Deep Café for lunch and caught up over appies, mains and dessert – it was our first time to have the famous Sticky Toffee Pudding and we loved it!  Very sweet but so yummy!

We went for a walk after lunch, ended up at the harbour, and went into a pub for cold drink.  The Poole Arms dates back to 1635.

We all walked back to the house before saying our “so longs”.  They are in the process of buying a house in Ireland so they can have a home base once again so who knows where in the world we’ll meet up again.  It was lovely to see you both.

The day continued to be grey and there was the odd on and off drizzle and it didn’t get near as warm as yesterday.  Shame!

Marcus told Doug about a nearby attraction that we wanted to check out:  The Cerne Abbas Giant.  So when we left our guest house on Monday morning, we took a detour to check it out.

The Cerne Abbas Giant is a hill figure near the village of Cerne Abbas.  Measuring 55 m  / 180’ in length, the hill figure depicts a bald, nude male with a prominent erection, holding his left hand out to the side and wielding a large club in his right hand. Like many other hill figures, the Cerne Giant is formed by shallow trenches cut into the turf and backfilled with chalk rubble.  (The English Heritage organization re-chalks it every 7-10 years.)

The origin and age of the figure are unclear, and archaeological evidence suggests that parts of it have been lost, altered or added, over time; the earliest written record dates to the late 17th century. Early historians associated it, albeit on little evidence, with a Saxon deity, while other scholars sought to identify it with a Romano-British figure of Hercules.  Recent optically stimulated luminescene testing has suggested an origin between the years 700 CE and 1110 CE, possibly close to the 10th-century date of the founding of nearby the village.

Google photo:

 Photo by Peter Harlow on Wiki

Our photos – even with Fran’s big camera, shots were not that great on this cloudy, cool day with a touch of dampness in the air.  Ah England – although we did read that April was one of the wettest months on record in this country.

So now we just had to get back to Woking to Neels’ house.  It was about 161 km / 100 mi and it should have only taken a couple of hours.  However, today being a holiday Monday, we hit traffic (although much of it was in the other direction) and it slowed us down and the heavy rain at times didn’t help.  We stopped at a little café/deli for lunch around noon and then made one more stop for gas and to get some dessert for dinner tonight.  We arrived at the house around 2:45 and they were out with their grandson, but had left us the code to access the house and had offered us the use of the washer and dryer to get our laundry done – so kind.

Milk Vending machine at the cafe where we stopped for lunch:

We had ordered a couple of things on Amazon.UK and they were waiting for us in the guest room.    We spent the afternoon online and doing laundry.  While Fran was just sitting, not eating, she felt something in her mouth; a crown had popped off!  Neels and Hille arrived around 6 and we asked about a dentist; we totally forgotten their daughter is one!  So Hille called her and Lara said she’d check her schedule upon arriving at work tomorrow and have her assistant call with a time she could squeeze me in.

We had a lovely dinner and evening with them and off to be we went.  Tuesday morning when we woke up they were already gone to their day to take care of their grandchildren and we begin the repacking of our duffel bags.  We had purchased two new ones in order to double bag them to ensure they are strong.   Neels returned around 9:30 and we spent some time chatting and Doug went for a walk while Fran spent what seemed like forever trying to get us checked in and get seats.  We are flying on three different airlines for our three legs of the journey back to the US tomorrow but all on one ticket.

We’ve been in touch with Amanda and Kevin, who store our car, and they took care of taking the Honda to repair the air con that had died last time we used it and they had the mechanic give it a once over before we take this big trip and they recommended several items and quoted $2200 but thanks to the kindness of Kevin, he was able to do the work for us and we’ll pay just over $1000.  Now it may seem odd to put that amount of money into a 18 year old car but it’s a Honda with around 240,000 miles on it so it’s not dead yet and it does save us car rental costs every time we come to visit Josh (which is at least once a year) so with that in mind, it makes sense.

Fran got the call she could see Lara at 1:30 so around noon we left Neels’ to head to Farnham, where the dental office was located, grabbed some lunch nearby and they took her right on time.  The crown was in great shape, there was no tooth damage at all, so she cleaned it all up, recemented it and it was done.  The bad part was it was not cheap:  £150!  But it got done and we didn’t have to go hunting around for a dentist on our own.  We will submit it to our travel insurance as an “emergency” and hopefully we’ll get reimbursed for at least a portion of it.

So we left Farnham and drove to the accommodation Fran had booked near the airport.  All the airport hotels charge for parking and this was a suite in a private house with a private entrance, Wi-Fi, a private bathroom, fridge and small kitchen area with free parking for $79 – all the hotels were over $100 so that was better.  It was quite nice and in a nice neighbourhood.  We have to get up early tomorrow so we showered, had our left over food items for dinner and vegged.  We both wish it could suddenly be Thursday and all the pain of travel would be over. 😉

We know:  first world problem!

This is the link  to our final English and European album!

We travelled a total of 2,868 km / 1782 miles in our rental car in England this time.  No way we could have covered that much ground in Minou!

These past two weeks in Europe were quite enjoyable.  We saw a lot of what we missed in 2022, caught up with old friends and the Heritage site pass was great value.  Despite the weather, which although often gloomy, we didn’t get too damp, and we had a good time and spring is a great time to visit  due to lack of crowds.

We were up before our alarms that were set for 3:30 and at the car rental drop off before 4 – turns out the shuttle bus doesn’t start until 4:30 despite the information we received on the phone telling us they run 24/7.  So we had wait for the first bus wrangle our luggage onto that from the car.  Then it was off the bus onto a trolley to take it to check in; we, of course, had checked in online but bags needed to be dropped off.  Doug had booked these particular flights because it said “two free checked bags”.  However, when we got the confirmations, they said “one free checked bag”.  We got on the phone with Expedia who, after getting through to a supervisor, advised they would reimburse us up to $500 for checked bags after we pay for them.

Lufthansa was our first flight and they said the bags would be checked through all the way to Buffalo and the excess two bags would cost £172.  We will wait until we get everything all the way through before submitting that receipt.

Our flight from Heathrow left early and landed early in Frankfort – nice for a change but there was no immigration out of the UK.  The flight from Frankfort to JFK left a bit late and shortly after takeoff there was an announcement looking for a doctor – that’s never good.  Again, we did not pass through any immigration landing or leaving Germany.

A couple of hours into the flight, we noticed that the time to arrival shrunk from 5.5 hours down to 37 minutes – WTH?  Then an announcement came on saying due to a medical emergency we were turning back a bit and landing in Manchester, England.  We’d drop off the ill passenger, his bags, refuel and be on our way again.  Well we circled at Manchester for a good half hour before landing, then we had to wait for a refueling truck and final left after an hour or so.

Fun facts about England:

1. Winchester was the first capital of England.
2. French was the official language of England for over 300 years beginning in 1066.
3. Several iconic scientists were born in England: Sir Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin and Stephen Hawking to name a few.
4. The World Wide Web, sparkling wine, (not in fact, Dom Perignon ) were invented in England.
5. Despite having over 35, 000 pubs, it is illegal to be drunk in a public place (a law on the books since 1872).
6. The national dish of England features Indian cuisine: Chicken Tikka Masala (followed by fish and chips, Yorkshire pudding with roast beef). There are more Indian restaurants in London than in New Delhi or Mumbai.
7. Nowhere in the country is it more than 115 km / 84 mi to the sea.
8. The English drink about 100 million cups of tea every day.
9. All the swans in the Thames River are property of the King.
10. Many English cities have two football teams; one for the Catholics and one for the Protestants.
11. More than 200 bridges cross the River Thames.
12. Sausages got the name Bangers as they were filled with water during WW1 amid food shortages which caused them to explode when cooked.
13. England and all of the UK uses the metric system for measurements except for a few measurement systems, such as pints for liquids and miles for distances.
14. To qualify as a London cab driver, you must memorize 25,000 different lanes, streets, hills, yards, and 20,000 landmarks.