A days England/Wales

Wednesday, 22 June 2011

Day 1 

15th June, New Forest/Stonehenge and area.

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We landed at Heathrow airport at 6:30am, a daunting reality coming off a 25 hour flight. We do not believe in Jet Lag, by not giving any validity to the concept it is pretty easy to overcome.

It took under an hour to clear customs and immigration, amazing. There was a moment when the woman checking the passports asked what we were doing in England and we panicked a little, not knowing how much detail about our trip to tell. Then we calmed down by reminding ourself, this isn’t America and the immigration people are not nearly so frightening. So straight from the airport we picked up our hire car and off we went.

We were headed straight for the New Forest in the south, on the way we did a drive by of the Ascot Racecourse and Windsor Castle. And without a Sat Nav at this stage it was interesting to say the least. The roads here are terribly confusing, each one seems to have six different names, M3, A35, M303 etc, We haven’t made sense of this code yet. So we found a mall, bought a Sat Nav (at this weird shop that was sort of like an online store that you walk into, they had catalogues that you looked at then put an order in on computers around the place, then they called out your order number and brought you your purchase. Weird.) We also, got coffee, my first in over 55 hours. I decided to go without caffeine for the plane trip. So that was well enjoyed. :P

Then we set off again for the New Forest. The highways here are very confusing in terms of speed limits. We could not find a single sign, but then there were these signs with a camera, which seem to mean speed cameras in the area. In any case, they drive very very fast. We would be cruising along at about 120km and people keep zooming past at what must be 150 plus. On the way sarah spotted 4 dead pheasants, they must be truly dumb animals. She could remember the ones in the "Animals of Farthing Wood" were lunatic idiots that got them selves killed.

Oh My God, the New Forest was stunning. I must admit that I was expecting England to be nothing much special in environmental beauty. I don’t understand how a country with such a long history of human domination can have any beauty left. But these heavily settled areas are sort of just set in the middle of this lush and stunning forest. Like, people live here, among the deer and wild ponies in all this green.

We saw some deer and of course the wild New Forest Ponies (which seem to have a pretty diverse interference of different breeds mixed into them these days). We found one mare and foal that let me come right up to them. The baby was really interested in me but the mother made it clear it wasn't allowed to come right up to me (it did this by walking between us) that was cute.  Then they headed off into town, down the road. They knew the cars would stop for them.  The main centers of all the town are lined with fences and cattle grids on the roads to keep the ponies from coming down the main street. Also, we saw a dead badger, woo (for us seeing it, not for it being dead)

Then we drove down to the coastline, Highcliffe-on-Sea, to look at these little beach shacks that people rent. They are colored little huts on the beach that people use to change in and store things in for trips to the beach, also to set up tables and chairs in because it is too damn cold to sit on the beach. Fools, going to the beach here, it is freezing. Brrrrrrrr.

The towns here are incredible, such history. They are a style that I don’t normally like, quaint little cottage type things with white windows, stone walls and well kept English gardens. But here this style looks fantastic; I want to live in one of these. I do have to say though I have seen a whole eight ugly buildings. Eight! I mean for god’s sake, Disgrace! :P

Driving through one town, I looked up and said, “huh look, a castle”. And yes, right there was a random castle, just there, no drama. Lol

Next we went to Stonehenge. As you are driving down the Highway you come over a crest and there it is. I thought I was going to cry when we came over that crest. But I held it together. We brought our tickets and walked over to it.  

This time I didn’t hold it together, I actually cried. Like real tears running down my face, sobbing. Slightly embarrassing, but it was the most profound thing I have ever seen. And I have seen some amazing things in my life. Even the slightly annoying touristy vibe and all the people didn’t detract from the pure majesty of this place. I have studied it a bit in Archaeology and so it has always meant a great deal to me, it’s not just a must see place but something important to me personally. The henge is massive, so much bigger then I was expecting. And to think that they lugged all those mammoth stones from Wales.

We left there, me shaken to my core and totally moved, and drove about to look at some of the white horses in the area. These are the hillsides where the earth has been stripped back to reveal the white limestone rocks to draw giant white horses on the hillside. These are actually very cool. Don’t turn out quite so well in photos but in life are very impressive.

We also saw some burial mounds, one (Silbury Hill) I can not fathom how men could have possible pilled up that much dirt. It was huge, just a massive, symmetrical mound plonked in the middle of a paddock. Right next to the highway too. And we also went to the site of Woodhenge, it is the counter part to Stonehenge. The most plausible explanation I have heard of Stonehenge is that the whole community would start the day at Woodhenge with the sunrise (on Summer solstice) then walk to the river and then to Stonehenge, a walk that takes all day having the group arrive at Stonehenge for sunset. As the sun rises and falls at each it aligns with gaps in between the stones/wooden pillars.

Then we went to our hotel in the gorgeous town of Tetbury, a place called the Snooty Fox. It is so named because once upon a time there was a rich industrialist (new money) and the local fox hunting club would not allow him to join because he wasn’t old money like them with social connections and such. So, to get back at them he proceeded to buy the hotel and pub that the hunt club liked to drink at, he then banned them all. Winning.

It was a pretty lovely place, and its best feature? A bed, like an actuall flat and padded bed. Something we had not seen in a fair while. We had prepaid our dinner so had to eat it, and I mean this was a real struggle. I was so exhausted I actually could not eat, like couldn’t even force it down. So dinner went barely touched, despite it being delicious.

I had a beer of course, a nice local brew but much to my surprise, it wasn’t cold. Whaaaaaaa? Ewwwww. Like it’s not warm, but its not chilled either. Bizarre cultural difference. FYI poms, beer is better cold.  Do it!

I was more upset with my tiredness because the bar was pretty full of friendly looking people but I couldn’t talk to them, I was incapable. So I staggered (and I mean that quite literally) up to my bed and crashed out pretty damn hard.

What a day. Expectations for the remainder of the trip are greatly lowered, there is no way it can keep up to this standard. :P

I forgot to mention the rain, not really rain so much as a constant veil of water drops hanging in the air.

Also, we saw some massive pigs. It was a pig farm we drove past, these pigs must have been well over 11 hands (if you don’t know hands, that is about the size of a not small pony). Anyway, they were big.

DAY  2

Wednesday, 22 June 2011

Day 2. 16th June. Bath, Bristol and Wales.

Straight into it, we got up, ate our breakfast and set of again past the stunning old buildings and the busker playing a piano accordion. This time to Bath. Bath is unsurprisingly incredible. The town is remarkable, a huge expanse of space packed with old stone buildings, castles and churches. A lot of the beauty comes in the repetition. The same buildings are repeated next to each other and instead of this being a bad thing it is actually beautiful.

The baths themselves were incredible. I am a bit of a lover of Roman history (wait till you see how nuts I am going to go in Rome) so it was special. It annoys me a bit that they have built these platforms through the inner works of the baths that are supported by being drilled into and cemented onto the ancient stone. I really think if they need to do that to let people see it, then people shouldn’t see it. Not the general public in any case.

I splashed around in the water, duh, of course. Then read all the signs saying not to touch it because it is untreated. So untreated water is going to kill me is it? Something makes me think I will be fine. It is very special being in this place, so old.

Then we went to the Fashion Museum, which was cool. The streets themselves were fun to walk around too. Alive and bustling, so many tourists, we did actually manage to get there at a good time, there were a hell of a lot more people around as we were leaving. Nice dodge. There are a few buskers, and I would like to know if there is some sort of standard that is kept and bad buskers are chased away or something, because they were all very good. Like really good.

Driving around we saw a few private forests, these forests that are on private property, lining the property. It is nice that they forgo a bit of land for the sake of privacy. Not like in Australia where the land is cleared all the way to the fence line.

Next we went to Bristol, a place specifically for my benefit because I love the show Being Human which is set and filmed there. So we meandered around the city (which is lovely) and went past the Hospital where a few scenes were filmed for the series and past the studio.

Then it was into Wales. Over a bridge that is XXXXXXX long and very impressive. Wales is a bit of a funny place, it took us a very long time to find somewhere to eat, and a toilet. We got petrol, 52 pounds for a tacky little ford and a days driving (eeek, remember the pound is nearly double the dollar). Funny thing was, the petrol station sold booze. In there it was the first time I have been really aware of my own accent, because Welsh accents are so thick and funny.

Then we headed to our hotel, what should have been a half hour drive was a two and a half hour drive. You see we were somewhat reliving our experience in LA in 2008 (when bushfires blocked our path to our hotel). This time in Swansea, Wales a tyre factory caught fire. An extremely imposing plume of smoke and diversions sending us the long long long way (which is unfortunate in a country this tiny) Anyway we eventually made it to our hotel checked in a left straight away. Back into Swansea where we had an invite to attend a Welsh men’s Choir practice. This was pretty great, they are an award winning choir and are about to feature in a Welsh TV show. They were spine tingelingly good and it was interesting hearing what the coach (what do you call a choir teacher?) was saying to them. They used the SolFar method - Doe, Ray, Me, Far, So, La, Tea and then sung in Welsh. Which reminds me, earlier on we found a radio station in the Welsh language, so just listened to that as we drove.

Back to the hotel, via some wild Welsh Mountain Ponies. Which is super special since Welshies were always my breed of choice, Artex and Brego my two standout horses of my life, Artex, my first pony and Brego my soul mate were both Welsh (just Brego was a cob not a pony). We got so close, to foals even and the mothers weren’t phased in the least. :D So happy.