United Kingdom - Travelling to the UK, the Cotswolds and entering Wales

Since this blog is titled European “Experiences” I thought I would tell you about the trip we took to the UK in June this year. There will be multiple parts.

We left Alicante on June 2^nd taking a taxi to the Alicante airport (Alicante-Elche Miguel Hernández Airport). It was our first experience with the Alicante airport and it seems quite nice and modern. We were plenty early and ate the muffins we had brought the day before from Levaduramadre and bought some coffee at the ever present Tim Horton’s.

Our flight (Ryan Air) went smoothly and we arrived at Stansted Airport (outside of London) only about 10 minutes behind schedule. The arrivals area of the airport seemed very disorganized, chaotic, and crowded. We had a quick lunch  from M&S foods (Marks & Spenser) then took a shuttle bus to the “Car Rental Village”.  We had reserved a Mini for the first couple of weeks. The counter person tried hard to up-sell us to a BMW 1-series. He seemed to think it would save us a lot of money in gas due to better gas mileage; however, it would increase the cost of the rental by 200 pounds ($267; that’s a lot of gas!). No … we want the Mini. Finally, a squeaky clean red Mini was driven up and we loaded in our luggage. Unfortunately, it didn’t all fit in the boot (Brit speak), and one bag had to ride on the back seat.

Our first destination was Bourton-on-the-Water in the area known as the Cotswolds. The Cotswolds is an area in England known for picturesque villages with buildings made of yellow limestone which was sourced locally. Dennis took the (“wrong sided”) steering wheel for this first day of driving. It was raining off and on and there was a lot of traffic (especially trucks) on the ring road outside London but this lessened as we moved away from the city. We arrived at the Landsdowne Hotel just after 6 pm. Our room was in the “Boutique Quarters” across the street from the main inn, up one flight of stairs (carrying luggage). The ceiling sloped in the room but no heads were hit. It was cozy.  There was a tiny refrigerator holding a small container of milk for coffee (or tea).

Breakfast the next morning was at the main inn. First thing first – “do you want something to drink” (i.e. coffee or tea), and “do you want toast” (which is brought out cut on the diagonal and arranged in a special toast rack); then you can order your main breakfast (Avocado on Toast for me and Full English Vegetarian breakfast – seems like a contradiction in terms - for Dennis).

The day was cool and intermittently rainy. Our first stop was the Broadway Tower and surrounding grounds. It turns out the tower was never a fortification of any kind, but rather a “folly” built for the wife of the 6^th Earl of Coventry in 1798. We got quite wet during this stop.

We went on to stroll through the villages of Broadway, Chipping Camden, Moreton-in-Marsh, and Stow-on-the-Wold. We had a very good lunch (Greek Salad for Miki and a Pitta Pocket for Denny) at Michael’s Mediterranean restaurant (small, cozy) in Chipping Camden and later returned to Moreton-in-Marsh for dinner at Wolds Bar Bistro; it was very good.

We checked out of the Landsdowne after breakfast and moved on to Hay-on-Wye which is just over the border into Wales. It was my first turn behind the wheel. It takes a while to get used to your position on the road; the tendency is to shy away from the center line and go too close to the left edge. Hay-on-Wye is known for its book stores (mainly used) and we browsed through a couple (I could have spent all day!). I found a couple of books from the Martin Beck series (Sjöwall/Wahlöö) that I haven’t read yet . Of course, there was a castle in the town to visit as well. There’s a world-renowned annual literary festival held there (concluded just before we arrived).

We checked in to The Old Black Lion (old, but neat, and highly rated) for one night. We hauled our luggage up one flight of stairs and ducked under the low support beams and doorways.

The next day, Friday, June 5, was Denny’s Birthday!  We had breakfast at the Old Black Lion before heading out; started with coffee and triangle toast again (the toast rack spelled out T-O-A-S-T).

This day’s destination was Cardiff with a few stops along the way.

First was Llanthony Priory which is a ruin that dates back to the 1100s. It’s in a pretty isolated area and much of the way was narrow one-lane (but two way) roads. Weather was nice, cool and sunny. We passed through a lovely open mountainous area (Gospel Path) with lots of sheep alongside (an in) the road.

Next we visited the Aberfan Disaster Memorial. It was very somber and heartbreaking. In 1966 a spoil pile (from coal mining operations) became saturated with water from recent heavy rains and collapsed, sliding down the hill and engulfing a school and some houses. There were 116 children killed (mostly aged 7 to 11) as well as 28 adults.

Lastly, we stopped in Caerphilly and toured the Caerphilly Castle (built around 1260’s by Gilbert de Clare).

On to Cardiff … to be continued.