When we went to bed Saturday night, November 23, 2013, after all the Dr Who festivities were over, we truly thought that getting up Sunday morning to pack and such would be a simple thing. Nope! We were groggy, had to rush to get breakfast, pack...and pack...and pack. Our original plan was to be up and gone by 7 so that we could catch the trains that would get us to the Gatwick airport, south of London, where we had arranged to rent a car. Our itinerary had us going to church in a township near Gatwick with the possible drive to see the Temple there.
What really happened: no one was up before 8, we managed to get down to breakfast by 9ish (they close at 10). Packing was extremely hard as there were several Dr Who and tourist stuff we hadn't counted on. We had to consider who was carrying what (me? only my purse) and try to distribute the weight accordingly. Steve then arranged to have the hotel call us a cab that would take us to the train station in downtown London that would put us on the express train to Gatwick.
When we all were finally down in the lobby all packed up (at 11am), Steve was dealing with our final bill and such when the kids and I went out and got settled in the cab. Due to leg room, I sat in front. :) While waiting for Steve to complete his transactions, I was chatting with the cab driver...told him that our grand plan was to get to Gatwick, rent a car and drive to Stonehenge, then on to Cardiff, Wales for the next two nights of our trip. The driver sat there and did some calculations, even called someone and determined that he could take us all the way to Gatwick for much less than a taxi ride into London and purchasing tickets for the train times 4. Add in the time we would save by just having him drive us was a huge benefit. So we took the cab.
It was an additional bonus when we found out from Stephanie, who was listening to a local radio station on her MP3, that the train to Gatwick had hit a deer and was delayed. I also loved it that the cab was able to drop us off right in front of the car rental building.
Driving in England
Renting the car was fun. There were no other people in the lobby, so we had all the time we needed to get the car. Before the trip even began, I had declared that I would be the designated driver as the controls were on my side of the car...and so it was. The clerk had several choices of cars for us, so it was decided to go ahead and upgrade to the next level so that we could have the top of the line GPS system. That turned out to be money well spent! It will also probably be the only time I ever drive a new Mercedes. Loved it! Another good thing with me driving, my computer geek was able to focus on the complicated GPS and we were off.
At first all the driving was on main highways. It wasn't until we turned off to head to Stonehenge that we were on 2 lane roads. Our lunch pit stop was at a fancy rest stop...it had food, fuel and a motel. We just needed food and to stretch our legs a bit.
One really cool thing about the car...it knew when there was rain on the windshield and how often it would need to wipe them off. All I had to do was turn it on.
Have to tell you, there were backseat drivers a plenty in the car. It was not easy to stay on the left side of the left lane. I had no problems of wanting to be on the right side of the road...so my loving family was always telling me 'curb', or 'move over', watch out for that bush. I will say that while we were driving in the smaller towns, in the black of night that I did hit the curb two times (going slowly) and they claim I scraped a bush. My favorite parts of the drive? Going through tunnels of trees in the countryside. It was so dark that all you could see was shadows. There were times that those narrow streets were downright scary, especially with cars going in the opposite direction heading directly towards you. The GPS did save us...when I did make a wrong turn, usually from taking the wrong turnoff from a roundabout, she let us know right away and that made it pretty easy to get back on the right path.
Stonehenge
We arrived there about 3pm and the site closed at 4, so we didn't have much time. Even so, I am really glad that we made this stop an important part of our itinerary. After purchasing our tickets, we went on a low grade path that when you came up level with Stonehenge, the view of it was spectacular! There is a paved path that goes all around Stonehenge that you are required to stay on and both Stephanie and Scott went all around. Steve and I went about a quarter of the way and then went back to the main buildings where the tourist shop was.
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| Scott |
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| Stephanie is taking most of these pictures. :) |
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| Being Sunday, I was wearing a skirt. It was cold and damp, but we survived. |
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| Sharon. Steve liked that we could see all the way across the monument from this spot. |
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| Steve :) |
Cardiff, Wales
This is where the Dr Who studio is, so yes, we had to come here. Please see my blog in December 2013 for all about that.
The only time the GPS failed us was at the end of our journey. We were in a big parking lot for a shopping center/mall. A quick call to the hotel had us there in moments. In this hotel, the rooms were bigger and we had normal bathrooms. The kids had a connecting room. I think that the hardest part of our trip was all the electronics that needed charging almost daily; three phones, a camera, a 3DS, an MP3...you get the picture. I had been smart and included an extension cord with my cPap, which saved us. We only had 2 converters each for England and France. Thankfully we managed very well with those.
I would have loved to explore this city much more, but what we did see was beautiful. When we finished our tour at the "Experience", we slowly meandered back towards our hotel by walking along a beautiful waterfront. For a Monday, it was very peaceful, the sun was shining and just plain lovely.
We then found a small shopping center, which was mainly a movie complex and eateries. To our delight, they were showing Catching Fire (a Hunger Games sequel) on their Imax screen. The movie came out this weekend, so it was really cool that we could see it in England. Having it on the Imax was a bonus!
By the time we came out of the theater, it was dark outside. So more meandering towards our hotel. That was my maximum speed. We had already decided that we would have dinner at Pizza Hut, which was next door to our hotel, so as we were passing it, I made the executive decision to go in and sit down while they took all our stuff (purchases from the Dr Who store) to our rooms and Steve could deal with our medicines.
While waiting for them to return, I ordered for myself the salad bar and a soda. I knew that all they would want is the pizza. We ordered two large ones and when we were finished eating our fill, we still had about 3/4 of a pizza left (the two combined into 1 box). Not wanting to waste it, Stephanie and I took it into the lobby of our hotel and offered it to the clerks. According to Stephanie, they were quite pleased to have it.
http://www.futureinns.co.uk/cardiff/
Future Inn
If you are ever in Cardiff, I would totally recommend this hotel. The staff were very welcoming and personable. The wait staff was fun to chat with too.
Next stop: Paris, France
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| Steve, on the train back to London |
