In mid-October we closed the bed and breakfast for the winter and took off for three weeks in England. After 14 years of long summers we were tired and were ready for a break.
We paid long-overdue visits to family and friends, driving 2,000 kilometres in the two weeks we had a car. We will not bore you with a detailed account but if you are planning a trip to England you might like to visit some of the highlights we enjoyed.
Firstly London which, like Paris, is easy to get around by foot, tube and bus. We had met in London, married and lived there but after all these years we could see the centre with the eyes of tourists and thoroughly enjoyed it. Wandering alongside the Thames is fascinating, diverting ourselves periodically to explore something of interest.
The south west is Martin’s home area so we drove there via scenic routes whenever possible to take in moors, hills, small towns and villages. You never know what little jewel may be encountered. Take Martin’s old church in Taunton, Somerset for example. I showed Linda the pulpit with the date 1633 clearly carved and the stone baptismal font which was buried in a field to hide it from Hitler’s possible invasion. And then we were invited to climb the church tower for a view of the town.
We took a break from visiting people, staying at a lovely B&B in Cornwall close to a place you really should visit: The Lost Gardens of Heligan (below).
Its highlight was a sheltered valley with a mild climate where we were suddenly in a delightful jungle. For gardens, Linda preferred Kew Gardens in SW London where we enjoyed glorious autumnal colours. (If you like gardens you will find accounts of half a dozen on our travel blog.)
We could go on and on so if you are really interested see the travel blog. We visited museums like the Ashmolean, stately homes like Knightshayes Court, lovely towns like Lacock, charming villages like Lower Slaughter, had nostalgic visits to our past, eg fascinating Oxford. There were also traffic jams, ubiquitous roundabouts, speed and security cameras, pubs empty of people, and variable qualities of foods and accents.
It had been a wonderful break though it did not address the issue of our weariness (too much driving and too many visitations) but we were refreshed to return to Victoria to catch up on our gardens.
