England, Spring Break 1996

As most of you know by now, my boyfriend Ray Collins I went to England over spring break 1996. Here is what we did and a little of what I thought of it.

It was lots of fun. We got into Heathrow airport at about 730am then rented a car and drove to Canterbury and saw the cathedral. In Canterbury, I went into a wonderful shop called the London Teddy Bear Company and bought a t-shirt.

Then we went down to Dover and stayed the night at a little bed and breakfast. In the morning we went to the Dover Castle and then I went to a museum. In the afternoon we took the hovercraft over to Calais France. After wandering around, we checked into a hotel near the bus station. The hotel clerk didn't speak English. We ate dinner at a small cafe near the hotel. We went back to Dover the next morning, again on the hovercraft.

From Dover we drove down to a castle that was closed for the winter *sigh* in Arundel. We spent the night in Arundel. We found a neat little public garden by the river. I found in a book shop a book that has all of the Grim fairy tales written in 1900 for $12. Needless to say I bought it. Ray found a small book on minerology and bought it.

Then we drove to Wales and a town called Hay On Why which has the most bookstores per capita in the world. I bought a bible from 1835 for $4, A Study in Scarlet from 1908 for $3, a book on mideaval England, , and all of Beatrix Potter books.

We spent the night in an old farm house that has been converted into a bed and breakfast. It is made from stones taken from Hadrians Wall. Durring the night it snowed three inches. This was a 'blizzard' so they shut the main roads for a while. I saw a farmer clearing the road with a flat garden shovel. Quite a contrast to our Alaskan blizzards!

The next day we drove north into Scotland. On the way we saw lots of Roman ruins and stopped at Stonehenge. Did you know they had plumbing, padlocks and keys (as we know them), and central heating? Well they did! We ate lunch at a little cafe near Edinbough and had the best banana split; it was made with peaches. We also drove to the castle featured in Robin Hood Prince of Thieves; the one Robin used to live in.

Then we drove back down to London and stayed at Windsor. The last day before I left we spent in London. We only saw 3 places in London. The ones we saw were the Tower of London, a ww2 batleship, and the London Dungeons. We traveled by train to and from London and by subway while we were staying in Windsor. At the Tower of London we saw the crown jewels. They are magnificent! Lots of armor and swords, all of the royal seals are there. One of the train stations we stopped at was Paddington and of course I had to buy a Paddington Bear in Paddington station :)

Windsor has 2 train stations, we left in the morining at one and arrived in the evening at the other. We got lost trying to find our hotel from the second one so we wandered around for about an hour. We didn't go inside Windsor Castle though because it was closed by the time we returned for the night to Windsor. Then in the morning we went to the airport and I left :(

The driving is strange over there, and not just because it is on the opposite side. You quickly get used to the oppositeness of it. They have very few stoplights, even at major intersections. Most of the intersections are roundaobouts which are circular intersections that you go around and exit the circle when you get to the road you want. It is good because if you aren't sure of which direction or road to take from the roundabout you just get in the circle and go round and around until you decide where to go.

The roads over there are of 4 classes: M, A, B, and C. The M roads are like our interstates. They don't have speed limits and have 3 lanes going in each direction at all times. The slow lane is 70 mph, the middle is 90mph and the other averages about 110mph. The A road is the main highways through the countryside. The average speed on these is 60 even on the most windy sections. These roads are usually 2 lanes total but in places are only 1 lane through towns. The B roads are paved cart roads used for centuries between towns. They have beed used so long the level of the road is lower than the fields. The C roads are cart roads and rutted trails usually unsuitable to drive on.

We stayed mostly at bed and breakfast places. No matter where we went we were always served the same breakfast of cereal, toast, fried egg, baked beans, english bacon (basically pork side meat), fried bread and marmalade with tea or coffee.

The stone fences that are over there are truely amazing. They are regular fence height, but are made entirely from stones with no mortor to hold it together yet they have lasted centuries that way. The Romans built a wall between England and Scotland entirely out of stone. It is about 6 feet high and 4 feet accross and runs all the way accross the island (70 miles). Not all of the wall remains because the farmers used the rocks from it to build their homes out of. A good way to tell if there is a farm near the wall is if the wall is intact there is no near house but if the wall sudenly ends there is probably a house nearby that was made from it.

On both the way down to Anchorage and back I saw the northern lights out of the plane window. They are soo much clearer and brighter from the air.

I was chosen for a random search at Heathrow. I had my suitcase tied up with string and sailors knots to make sure it stayed closed. As I was untieing the knots, the clerk sighed and told my not to worry about it. She then stuck the inspected sticker on it without me ever opening the bag or her seeing what was in it.

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