The road trip begins

So dad’s final words to us were no fights. This I thought maybe a bit difficult seeing as we were going on a road trip. My thoughts were who was going to be the first to read the map wrong or who was going to be the first to snap. Needless to say I was the driver therefore I was the first to say a few short words but I hate to disappoint you all, its been fine so far. A few U-turns but well it is a road trip.

We chose our timing well, (we were very lucky actually) the weather was perfect, the cotswalds put on their best for us. All the blossoms, daffodils and tulips were out. The sun was shining and better than anything there was hardly anyone around. So going 15 miles an hour down a country lane and stopping (or U-turning) where ever I wanted disturbed no-one.  I got so used to travelling in this style I freaked out when we hit the highway and took the first exit making mum find a back way for me to reach our next destination!

I totally recommend everyone visit the slaughters (my pictures don’t do them justice) but in the off season, I can see the peace and beauty of them wreaked by the millions of tourists during summer.  (I know they are lovely as we accidently visited them a few times, doing a lovely loop between upper and lower slaughter everytime I missed an opportunity to park or missed a spot mum wanted to stop). Mum had her first experience of pheasant shooting, though with a camera not a gun.

Taking in the view - Upper Slaughter

Upper Slaughter

Lower Slaughter

Lower Slaughter

The first evening we stayed in a village in the middle of nowhere . We asked our land lady where to eat. She said there was a local pub. We asked if the food was good. She shrugged and said its ok, people eat there. She was obviously being modest. It had all sorts of awards and reviews in the window. The food was amazing. People travelled from surrounding villages to eat there. To get there the lady suggested we do a loop from her place to a neighbouring village and along the river back to our village. So mum went on her first ramble across fields, past sheep and to her big surprise through a broccoli field. Just a nice enough walk to make us really appreciate dinner.  Then the 10 min uphill to our b&b made us appreciate bed!

A field of broccoli

Learning the art of stye climbing

The next morning after the above highway incident we found our way to Bath via Prince Charles’s village Tetbury and its cute little church. We saw his place too, well who else would have a policeman opening some huge gates with a crest on the top?

We arrived in Bath, luckily along the main road we needed to get to our b&b. It all looked very simple from the map, but if any of you had had the pleasure of driving in the upper suburbs of Bath you will know that the steep hills, narrow roads and odd angled intersections make directions and a map totally separate things. I was also very very thankful for our tiny little car.  

After escaping from our very talkative Land Lord. We headed off via the co-op and recommended coffee shop to sit on the grass in front of the Royal Cresent and introduce mum to the joy of hommus, tomoato and cheese rolls made with the pocket knife and my stolen teaspoon, Soak up the English sun and the grandeur of Bath. It was almost too hard to move on but we were on a tight timeline, the upper suburbs of bath and the land lord had eaten into our afternoon.

Jane Austen, that’s what this visit was all about. Ive been to bath twice, once as soon as I landed in England. That trip I had to do everything a heroine of Jane Austen would do in bath, even to the point of taking myself to the theatre to be able to say I’d been, though I didn’t have tea in the pump rooms that requires a small mortgage and I was only a scummy backpacker.  Second time was with Simon, he put his foot down at doing anything Jane Austen, understandably. Mum was more than happy to join me in my Jane Austen worshiping. Being a bit of a fan herself. Unfortunately the theatre was sold out and we ran out of time for the tea rooms but keeping with our travelling tradition mum made it into the Baths for her audio tour as the doors were closing and I headed off to find a pub in the sun for a glass of wine and to type up the first travel adventure.  That’s not all I did in bath! We had checked out the Jane Austen Centre, the Abbey, river Avon and the assembly rooms already. I had earnt my wine, bath is not a flat city.

Next stop Glastonbury and King Arthur but escaping our Land Lord seemed our first hurdle the next day. Luckily we didn’t leave anything behind in the room as he totally mucked up our system by constantly talking. Though there were a few of those oh no we’ve left this behind moments along the way only to discover them packed somewhere else.