Well its been over a week since our last blog entry, we were hoping to get one done each week, but now its been two weeks since the last one. We are currently in Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, but I’ll fill you in on what has been happening up until before we got here since our last entry, so much to tell, sorry it might be a bit long, but stick with it…
It was too hard to start working and find a place before Christmas, so we decided to travel first before we settle right in. Besides, we figured that once we started getting into the swing of everyday London life, we wouldn’t have the luxury of so much spare time.
The weekend before we left on our UK trip, we went south to Brighton with Andrew and Anita to check things out. Unfortunately the weather was pretty average, but we still went along the Brighton Pier and the pebble beach, which was really strange. As it was winter most of the amusements that they have there were shut down – would be nice to go back there when the weather warms up. We grabbed a bite of fish and chips and had some brews too. At a club in Crawley (which forced me to put my jacket in their cloak room as it was “against their policy” to have jackets inside) we drank lots (well I did – damn Stella) and I ended up walking black mud throughout the house when we got home too.
So back to the trip… Our aim was to travel up to Edinburgh and we decided that hiring a car would be the easiest option, as it gave us the flexibility to do what we wanted, when we wanted. We ended up with a Peugeot 207 (for £14/day) which is a little 1.4L unit and does ok along the motorways. We had spent a bit of time researching places that we wanted to go, and ended up leaving on the Wednesday (12th Dec). Our first stop was the county of Warwickshire. After collecting the hire car in Crawley, we made a detour towards Heathrow to collect my suitcase from the repairers – apparently its pretty screwed, but with a special push, you can close it, yay! It was to be our first driving experience on English roads, and of course we took a few wrong turns, but as always, we got to where we wanted to go. A great way to save some £’s is to buy some supplies from a Tesco or Sainsbury’s store and take a packed lunch. We have spent several days eating ham and cheese rolls, which are pretty good actually.
WARWICK
Out from the east of London, we drove north/north-east along the M25 and M40 motorways, with our first views of the English countryside, and many sheep too. We arrived in Warwick without too many hassles. It’s a pretty straightforward town, with basically one main street down the middle. Warwick is situated to the north of Stratford-upon-Avon, and south of Kenilworth, which were two towns, which had a lot of tourist value to offer. There is just so much history here, dating back 1000 years. Once we arrived there, accommodation was sorted with a B&B, hosted by a nice guy called Ata, who served up the biggest English breakfasts ever. As there was quite a lot to see in the region, we decided to stay on for three nights, giving us two whole days of tourist fun. Anna was really starting to enjoy the whole traditional English pub thing. Warwick has quite a few great pubs, she has even taken to drinking ale over here too, but I still think she prefers her vodka and lemon. The weather has really started to get colder now, with most mornings everything is covered in frost, including our poor little car, which was completely frozen.
The main attraction in Warwick would have to be the Warwick Castle. It’s not the cheapest attraction at £16 an adult to get in, but we made the most of it, staying for most of the daylight hours. It was just fantastic, so much to see and do. The castle has been through several renovations over the past 1000 years, growing and improving as time goes on, and is magnificently preserved. There are many genuine artifacts and rooms decorated, as they would have been 100’s of years ago. Having the opportunity to climb up the towers and then be rewarded with some great views overlooking the town of Warwick, was certainly a highlight. Certainly a few Kodak moments there. The scenery surrounding the castle is just breath taking, and very typically “English” looking, I personally really embraced it. On top of all of this there was an ice-skating rink (at extra cost) and the Peacock Gardens, yes, complete with many peacocks roaming around. Warwick has a lot more history to explore, but we only really had time to explore the Collegiate Church of St Mary's and the War History Museum.
STRATFORD-UPON-AVON
The following day was set aside for a drive into the adjacent town of Stratford-upon-Avon, famous from being the birthplace of William Shakespeare. Anna and I explored the famous buildings from the outside only, as they hit you with heavy entrance fees that we didn’t feel like paying for. Famous buildings that we visited included Shakespeare’s birthplace, Nash’s House, Anne Hathaway’s Cottage, and Mary Arden’s House. The afternoon was spent walking the streets of Stratford, being surrounded by a horde of Christmas shoppers in the shopping district, and a visit to the Holy Trinity Church, to view the gravestones of Shakespeare and other family members.
KENILWORTH & COVENTRY
After a quick farewell to our temporary home at Warwick, we set off for our next stop at York in the county of Yorkshire. Along the way we decided to quickly visit the towns of Kenilworth and Coventry. Our stop at Kenilworth was just to quickly see the famous Kenilworth Castle, which is in ruin, but still nonetheless very impressive. This massive castle was founded around 1120, and was constructed with red sandstone and was originally surrounded by a huge lake. In 1644 the lake was drained and the castle fell into disrepair. It was really freezing here and water in the swampy areas was completely frozen – something which we were to get quite used to later on… The next stop was Coventry, which we were told to visit the St Michael’s Church Cathedral which was bombed during World War II by the Nazis. All that remain are the ruins of the church, but they have been well preserved, and gives an indication of just how huge this church must have been. Another replacement church was built only a few 100 yards away, which we felt we should visit also, but wasn’t nearly as interesting. Something that grabbed Anna’s attention at Coventry were the squirrels. Our first encounter was with a little one digging out some food in a plant pot at the church. As we walked back to our car, we saw many more of them, and one literally ran towards me and up my leg. (I thought it was trying to hump me, so I shooed it off).
YORK
With a reasonably long drive along the M1, we came to York, a town famous for its Medieval and Viking history. Our first impressions were that it was a stupid town and impossible to navigate, as there were literally no street signs to follow, only signs telling us about vacant car parking! The first mistake we made was arriving on a Saturday afternoon, the second was arriving without any accommodation being booked. After a second visit to the tourist office, we booked a B&B for the night, which actually turned out to be great. We stayed at Romley House, which was hosted by a very friendly Alaskan named Bruce. In the end we decided to stay on for 3 nights, leaving 2 days free for sightseeing.
Our sightseeing day began with a 2 mile walk along the 13th Century walls that surround York. Not only is it good exercise, but it offers great views of the town too. The second stop was to see the York Minster, which you normally need to pay for to gain entry, but some how (as it was Sunday) we managed to get in for free, no questions asked. The Minster is England’s largest Medieval cathedral, which was built in 1220 to 1480, yeah, fairly old. From here we explored the stone cobbled streets, including “The Shambles”, which features wonderfully old English styled buildings. In amongst the streets we found a market with everything from food to electronics. (I managed to buy a few things for myself that I was very excited by). Clifford’s Tower is another famous landmark that stands high upon a small grass covered hill near the centre of the town. Anna and I decided to look more into the whole Viking history thing, and visited “Jorvik”, an interactive exhibition with much to see and do, plus we thought that seeing a real Viking skeleton that had been hacked up in battle was pretty cool. With the Christmas season, York offers an ice skating rink here too, but at £8 a go, we shut that down. That evening we joined a Ghost Hunt Walk around the city, which provided us with an eerie, yet amusing look at York. The mood was perfectly set though – darkness, freezing cold temperatures, and dim lighting complete with mist.
The next morning we met some fellow Aussies staying at the same B&B, who we spent most of the day with exploring York further. We started with the National Railway Museum, which is a huge exhibition of trains, how they work and more. For lunch we embraced the chance for a £1 sandwich at Mr. Sandwich, which actually turned out pretty good – the cheapest lunch we’ve had so far. The afternoon was spent with a visit to Betty’s Tearoom, an expensive experience, but a must do for any York visit. Overall, York was fairly pricey, due to the tourism here, but still very worthy of a visit on our road trip around Britain.
To be continued…
