So I was wondering if I should tell you if I ever met Dracula or if I should tell you another story and let you hang for a little while longer. I realize it’s been a longtime between storytime with shell sessions and I apologies heartily. But getting back into the swing of work again has taken its toll.
Also when I decided to finish writing this adventure story today I realized I had lost it. I have actually lost two stories but luckily I had already told you one.
So here’s hoping I remember enough to make this an adventure worth reading about.
Oh and no I’m not going to tell you about Dracula im going to save that for another day. I know im cruel.
So where was I… oh that’s right Glastonbury and the very strange B&B… here we go…
I awoke to the sound of a conversation. A very loud one in the room next door or so I thought. Considering we had been told breakfast wasn’t till 9, I thought it quiet rude that they would sit and have a loud breakfast right next door before hand. On closer listening I realized it sounded almost like a monologue.
I soon understood that I was not going to be going back to sleep with this weird conversation next door as I couldn’t quiet make out the words and hence it sounded like the drone of bees and that really wasn’t helpful for sleep.
After dressing and repacking it was 8.45 and as I could still hear the conversation I thought it time we ventured out to find the breakfast room.
The kitchen door was still closed but it was from behind this that I could hear what now definitely sounded like a monologue. I knocked and wasn’t heard but decided to enter anyway, hey I was hungry.
We were greeted by the strangest sight of a fellow in an oriental dressing gown tied loosely with a big thick old fashion corded tie with the chest open, silky trousers and bare feet who had backed the breakfast lady up into the corner of her kitchen and was talking at her. This explained the monologue.
He gave us a startled look, said goodbye to the breakfast lady and fled. Only to appear 5 minutes later dressed normally and wearing flip-flops.
She gave us a very grateful look and sat us down for breakfast, which wasn’t quiet ready due to Mr Talkalot. But was still delicious.
I tried very hard not to catch Mr Talkalot’s eye as I could see he was dying to get into conversation with us. But I was conscious of the time and well I wasn’t awake enough to deal with someone like him! He seemed to be one of those people who head to Glastonbury to find themselves, think they are cool because they are a trying to be a hippie but just totally miss the mark.
I know its rude but I kept hoping mum wouldn’t start talking to him, luckily she was feeling like me or was too interested in breaky to realize.
Eventually he started talking to the breakfast lady again and to save her she dragged us into the conversation. I was sure we would never get out of there!
Luckily I found a break in the conversation and we made a dash for it. Hitting the road much later than I wanted to we started out for the must see of England. Stonehenge.
Now I would just like to point out, coming at Stonehenge from the non London side there are no signs until you can almost see it yourself. Even though I knew I was on the right road and we had a map, without signs to let me know im on the right track I stress. I still think they need to think about signs, im really not the most confident tour guide.
When we finally arrived into the carpark of Stonehenge it was to be greeted by busloads of tourists down from London on whirl wind tours. I totally forgot about that - an early start and breakfast on the run should have been the plan.
We hesitated, im not a people person, but we were here and I couldn’t let Mum not see Stonehenge no matter how crowded it was going to be.
Now this was my third time here and I love it each time. The Audio guide is one of the best ive had and I am just captivated by the stones. I cant believe im here everytime I see it. I know I know – it must be the hippy in me.
Everyone stops as soon as they get to the first stone to take a photo, no matter that the crowd in front of them are doing the same thing and blocking the view of the stones… never less mum and I fell for it and tried to take one of her there as well! Tourists.
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| The last shot of the day... the best |
As I said ive been three times.. I know the view gets better as you move around the circle, the path pulls away from the stones and the crowd thins out… but I still try and take photos at the start and all the way round everytime.. some professional I am. I end up with millions of photos..none good till the end. What can I say? as I mentioned im captivated by the stones.
I lost mum once again as I was taking all these photos.. lost her among a busload of Japanese tourists (all getting in my photos..grr). Finally found her way around the other side having her photo taken by a distinguished elderly gentleman… obviously gave up waiting for me to take her photo!
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| Thought id get the distinguished gentleman to take a photo of both of us seeing as he was already taking pics |
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| The slaughter stone - so called for its blood red stain |
So one more must see before you die icon down .. after escaping the souvenir shop, never again. I had to bolt for the door before I freaked out.. I needed a coffee. Even with our late start we seemed to have time to take a detour so we decided to continue in our King Arthur theme and visit Winchester. Coffee and a quick lunch stop. Hmm yes I knew better, you can never have a quick visit to Winchester.
After finally finding a carpark, it seems every man and his dog has headed to Winchester for the afternoon. We head to the Great Hall. Here hanging on the wall is King Arthurs Round Table. (some say it’s a replica.. but I don’t mind, its King Arthurs round table! Though I haven’t quiet worked out what its doing in Winchester)
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| Check the size of that table and Great Hall! |
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| King Arthurs Round Table - Winchester |
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| The Great Hall with Politician 'family tree' - Winchester |
The great hall was the seat of parliament in the middle Ages. .... This fascinated mum more than King Arthurs table. Maybe King Arthur was wearing a bit thin.
Having done our usual trick and lost track of time we power walked on.. I introduced mum to Cornish pasties.. (Continuing in the tradition of Simon and I last time we visited) . We eat these and our coffees (finally!) sitting on the cathedral green… along with what seems like the whole of the towns population. Though I soon realize looking around that its not a green.. it’s a graveyard!
No-one seems to care everyone is having their picnics at total ease, out enjoying the sun in the tradition of the English on a sunny day. Or so it seems until you look closer and around every gravestone is at least a meter of clear space. Everyone has unconsciously not sat near the tombs. Which is totally understandable not my thing either.
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| IMum got this nice shot of winchester Cathedral the graveyard is off to the left. You can just see one tomb on the left edge of this shot. (Very annoyed we didnt think to get any shots of people picnicking amongst the tombs) |
Checking our time we rush to have a quick look inside and decide not to on finding out the cost. I couldn’t justify paying that for the 15 minutes we could give it. I’d programed in enough cathedrals to our itinerary to skip this one. Jane Austen’s grave would have to wait for another day.
I also thought that Jane Austen would appreciate us visiting her house more than her grave. That’s where we were rushing to next. I lived 15 min down the road from her house for 5 years and never made it there. This was one of the places I insisted we visit. Though I think our problem with time was that we had a chance to see it the next day if we needed though preferred to get it on the way to our stop for the night. So we needed to get there before it closed and get out in time to make it to Guildford by six.
Hmm now remember I said that I knew better than to try and do a quick visit to Winchester… the reason for this is that if you drive in you cannot get out. Its like a black hole all roads lead in none seem to lead out. Fair enough we get lost and end up driving back the way we came.
You know how dad said no fights… well we came pretty close. What’s a road trip without the navigator and driver getting into a fight? The navigator once you end up on the wrong road cannot read quick enough to satisfy the driver who is trying to keep to the right speed, but not go too far in the wrong direction, read signs and try and picture the map in their head. Meanwhile the navigator is frustrated, your lost so doesn’t know where on the map you are, most usually has never been in this area and is getting yelled at by the driver.
Well id been in the area knew which road we were on and which one I wanted to get to… so decided to go cross country. Mum knew where we were by then and had worked out how to get across… if only the map had matched the actual road network it all would have been fine.
Time was ticking away.. We saw a sign I went one way… mum was sure it said the other way. I insisted no it wasn’t on there…
Hmmm when we pulled over 5 min later after I realized that we really didn’t want to go the way we were going. I apologised… the sign must have been right or it wasnt on the sign at all. (Unusual for me to read signs wrong.)
We totally were going cross country now.. there were no road names on the map, and no signs on the road we were on. We had no idea where we were but I was sure it would all work out… there are always signs in country England. Plus mum was back being happy again I had pulled up next to a thatched cottage. She was out taking photos while I worked out where we were!
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| Mum's thatched roof - somewhere to the east of winchester.... |
Well it worked out. We finally made it onto the A31 you should have heard the cheering in the car when a sign for a village that was actually marked on the map appeared and we could work out the next village we needed.
So our only problem next was… I didn’t quite know where Jane Austen’s house was.. I was sure the turn off was off the A31…id passed it so many times! But you know when you see something, make a mental note to yourself you really should go there and then forget in the excitement of wherever you are off to at the time?
It wasn’t on our maps or in our guidebooks and I was beginning to doubt myself a little like Stonehenge. We were getting closer and closer to Guildford, we decided that if we couldn’t find it Iwe could check the internet later and we would go the next day. And there it was and we were just in time. Last entry! We had been taking photos out the front when I realized we really should check that they were still open and take photos after!
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| Jane Austen's House - Hampshire |
It was all ok, I wasn’t excited about it at all inside it was just another old house… and then I was standing next to the table she had written all her books at, and it hit me, this was Jane Austen’s house and I was next to her table. Some of my fav books had all been written right there. After that I was like an American tourist… I turned around and there was the dress Kate Winslett had worn in sense and sensibility.. click… the first ever edition of sense and sensibility, written ‘by a lady’ as she wrote anomously so she could be a normal person in society. Click. By the time we had finished looking and taking photos of everything.. we had been locked in! We had to get the security lady to let us out of the house and back into the barn which was the entrance and gift shop.
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| Jane Austen's writing desk! |
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| First Edition of Sense and Sensibility signed by a Lady |
Luckily I already had all the books (except one, I now own it, from that gift shop) and the American tourist feeling had worn off enough not to buy all the other tat in the shop.
So it was homeward bound well that’s what it felt like. Back to Guildford and a Guildford Family dinner party. Mum was going to be able to finally put faces to names… but well I wasn’t expecting her to get all the correct names and faces.. We had about 20 people at dinner!
The only place we could get for that many people on a Sat night in Guildford was the Rum Wong and sitting on the floor Thai style… Some how all the tall fellows ended up on the wall side.. Mainly cause us girls needed to socialize.. and they had trouble unfolding themselves at the end of the night!
Thanks once again to everyone for coming along. The Guildford family dinner for the last time.. again.. im sure there will be another one someday soon ;-)
