Since I haven't written anything about travel for a long time now, I thought I'd recycle some old material. This is based on an email I sent after a trip to England in February 2001 to meet up with my brother Sean.
Part I: Andy makes it to London
I started out early on Thursday morning, making my way from Lausanne to Geneva by train with a couple of friends of mine who were on their way to Dublin. I was about 2 hours early for my flight [there's a first time for everything!], so I figured I was set. Well... they cancelled the flight due to fog. I had to run downstairs, back through passport control and back up to the easyJet desk. Once I convinced them I didn't check any bags, they plopped me on a flight to Gatwick instead of Stansted. I had to run to make the flight, but I made it...
Sean's flight was supposed to arrive at 2110h, so I had the day to wander around London as I arrived just after 1200h. I found my way from the airport to Charring Cross station, thankful to hear English again. I was planning to go to The National Gallery for a couple of hours then head to The British Museum before making my way to Heathrow to meet Sean. As I stepped out of the station, though, it was a beautiful sunny day - a rarity for London - so I decided not to spend it inside. I wandered down the street and stumbled across the Parliament buildings, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, and Downing street. Incredible architecture!
I found my way to Trafalgar Square to say 'hi' to Nelson and to check out the Canadian Embassy and the National Gallery. I wandered a bit farther and discovered Leicester Square. After grabbing a bite to eat, I went looking for the Virgin super store and stopped in at several bookstores on Charring Cross Road. Then I went in search of caffeine. I discovered a Costa's in Soho. [Costa's is a chain similar to Starbucks, but better.] Lots of, well, interesting people about.
It was getting dark, so I thought I'd head to the British Museum. What an incredible building! I only had time to look at a small part of the collection, so I checked out the Roman/Celtic stuff. They have quite an incredible collection. Time was running out, so I hopped the tube for Heathrow...
Part II: Andy and Sean experience driving in England
After he arrived and deplaned [why don't we use that word anymore?] Sean and I went to the car rental desk to pick up the rental car. I inquired as to whether they had a practice track for North Americans, but they did not. So we stepped outside to check out our transportation for the week. I cannot begin to describe the ugly green colour of the little Fiat that idled before us. I figured they gave these to all the North American drivers so that locals could identify them and stay out of the way...
We had to make our way Southeast to Salisbury, where Sean had arranged for accommodation. A colleague of Sean's had given him directions, so I became the 'navigator'. This basically consisted of directions like 'straight on' and 'all the way right' at roundabouts and screaming 'LEFT LANE' every once and a while white-knuckling the dashboard. It was quite a stressful drive, but we made it intact to Larkhill Camp at around 0100h. The security of British military bases certainly made a laughing stock of ours in Canada. Once we signed in at the guard house we found our way to the Royal Artillery Officer's Mess. Sean had a room lined up, but I hadn't made any arrangements anywhere. The mess manager was kind enough to give me a room for the night.
Part III: Salisbury and Bovington Tank Museum
Friday morning we met with Sean's friend Terry who had made all the arrangements for Sean. He gave us some pointers on where to go, what to see, etc. We then headed towards Amesbury to find a B&B for me to stay at. We pulled into the first one we saw [on the left hand side of the road] and arranged a room for three nights. It turned out that the B&B is practically right beside Stonehenge [...where the demons dwell; Where the banshees live and they do live well...].
Once I settled in, we took off for Salisbury to wander around. It's a nice little town with lots of little shops and pubs. We strolled by Salisbury Cathedral which was very impressive. It's one of the only cathedrals I think I've seen that is not crowded by other buildings. They have a fair bit of flat land around it which makes the church stand out that much more.
After grabbing a bite to eat at a local pub [The Cloister], we headed towards Poole to find Bovington. It seemed at the time that it took us hours to get there through all the roundabouts and side roads, but it was probably only an hour and a half. The Bovington Tank Museum must be Mecca for Sean. They have an extremely large collection of armoured vehicles from the Mark I to the Challenger all in an absolutely massive building.
We stopped in at Salisbury on the way back to the B&B and had dinner at another pub [don't remember the name - not very good] and then stopped in Amesbury at The New Inn [which isn't exactly 'new'] for a couple of drinks. There was a Jazz band playing and the atmosphere was quite cool. The beer was good.
Part IV: The Royal Signals Museum and a Long Lost Cousin
Saturday, we thought we'd tool down to Poole to look up David Foy - our mother's cousin. We took a different route from the one on Friday which happened to take us past the Royal Signals Museum. We thought we'd pop in to the museum shop to pick up a couple of things, but we ended up going through the museum. Another very impressive, well organised collection. Enigma! They even had a section on the SAS which included one of The Pink Panthers they used in the Gulf War [I].
After this impromptu detour, we made our way into Poole and stopped at a shopping centre to try to contact David Foy. We got in touch and drove over to his place. We spent the afternoon chatting with David and his partner Sandy about all sorts of things, and then we all went out for dinner at a local Indian restaurant. Great food!
Part V: Oh how they danced the little people of Stonehenge
Sunday morning we headed to Stonehenge. We decided not to pay £4.00 to wander around it. I gave a summary of what they would say: 'We don't know who built it. We don't know why they built it. We don't know how they got the bloody big stones here from Wales.' I then ceremoniously quoted scenes and songs from the movie This is Spinal Tap and we mounted up to go north.
We had been told by several people that Avebury was a better place to go for standing stones, even though it does not have trilithons [two large stones set upright to support a third on their top]. We arrived midday and meandered around the [somewhat muddy] site. It was absolutely awe-inspiring. The place is huge! There's actually a town built in and around the structure. Unlike Stonehenge, we could wander amongst the stones. Of course they ask the same who, why, and how questions in Avebury, but it didn't cost us £4.00...
After perusing a gift shop and having a coffee at the local pub, we decided to go to Bath. At this point we were a little tired of museums, etc., so we just strolled through the streets of Bath and popped into a couple of bookstores. It looks like quite an interesting city, and I think I'd like to check out the Roman baths next time. We found a pretty cool cafe and hung out there for a while, and then headed back to Amesbury to The New Inn for a pint or two...
Part VI: Andy Returns Home
Monday morning, Sean drove me into Andover and I hopped on the train to London. After a series of delays and transfers, I made it to Stansted and, after the flight was delayed of course, finally made it home to Lausanne. I even found myself looking right when crossing the street...
The End
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