Tuesday, 25 August 2009
The British Isles: Introduction
Our vacation plans were thrown off this year since Emilie was declared unfit to fly this summer by her doctor, making a return to the States impossible. So in addition to the constraint of travelling with a baby (something we are still adapting to when it comes to vacation planning), we also had to worry about how to put together an interesting vacation when we couldn't fly anywhere.
So, in the absence of an airplane, I was naturally forced to opt for the next best alternative: two underwater trains, the world's largest ferry, two automobiles, a steam-powered locomotive, a canal boat, multiple double-decker buses, and a 20,000 tonne catamaran. Heh :-) All of this to spend two weeks driving around the British Isles, visiting all of the Home Nations, with stays in England, Wales, Ireland, Northern Ireland, and Scotland, seeing the sights and getting acquainted with the land of my ancestors. All while warming bottles and changing diapers in a car that drives on the left.
The trip was a great success, but we visited so many places in such a short period of time that we're still digesting it all. As a part of that process, I've created a new "Travel" category on the blog, and will put up articles on each individual part of our trip, and probably a few general travel tips that might be of interest to anyone considering a motoring vacation in the British Isles. Also, since it will surely take months for me to write up the whole trip, this is a way of extending the journey throughout the year, which will take some of the sting out of the return to work :-)
Day One: Departure
No need for a separate article for the first day, however, since it was a travel day. We took the Channel Tunnel, which is much faster than a ferry, and an interesting experience in itself: you drive your car right onto the train, and drive off 50 minutes later in England, with a helpful reminder to change your watches and drive on the left. It's amazing to think how close we are to England without usually realising it. Anyway, my original plan was to change to a rental car (which would drive better than our old Renault and have the wheel on the right side for driving in Britain), but the first thing we learned when making our plans was that in the UK, rental car offices are closed on weekends (technically, they are open until noon on Saturday, but we couldn't get there by then).
So instead of changing our car right away, we had to press on with our French car through Kent and all the way into Oxfordshire, stopping at Thame (where we had a good rate on the motel, £29 / night). I'll post a more detailed description of driving on the left some day, but most of the route this first day was on motorways (the UK equivalent of US interstates) and therefore not too difficult. Having to push up to Oxfordshire meant that we'd be leaving our French car there, though, so we had to loop back there at the end of the trip too, which meant missing out on Cambridge. I'll say more about why Oxford was chosen as the central hub point of our trip when I get to talking about that city. For now, suffice to say that the first day consisted primarily in getting us deep into England and finding our hotel, setting us up to begin Day Two with some earnest sightseeing: Stonehenge and Oxford University!
