this:
and this:
but so totally worth it!
The trip started out a little rocky with flight delays, missing the connecting flight, the possibility of coming in 10 hours late, (mind you we were supposed to meet my mother-in-law there, thus her having to wait for us for an extra 10 hours!! And THIS was the best option compared to an entire DAY late!) not to mention the Denver to London direct flight, changed to a Denver to Chicago, to Washington Dulles, to London flight = NOT FUN!!!
However, while we were looking depressed and unsure of what to do at the payphone by the baggage claim, we received an answer to silent prayers and the nicest baggage claim girl in the whole world, (seriously) informed us that she thought we could still make our flight in Denver if we caught a Frontier flight that was about to board, (don't ask me why this wasn't an option at the ticket counter...I should have been more forceful) and she quickly re booked us and we RAN to the gate, made it, and then RAN to our next flight and to our relief and joy, we made it again!!! We were SOOOOOO happy, and when Jan saw us waiting for her in London, instead of her waiting for us, she was SOOOOO happy as well.
Our bags were not so fortunate though, and we were finally reunited a mere TWO days later!! Not to worry though, we could all fit into Jan's clothes:) That is not to say that United will not be receiving a strongly worded letter about the matter though.
Once we arrived in London, our first couple of days were to be spent in the countryside, which necessitated us renting a car, and I was the lucky one elected to drive:) As I was the only one even the least bit (and I do mean just a least bit) familiar with driving on the wrong side of the road, I didn't mind and I was confident we could do it, but not entirely stress free about the matter until we had successfully handed the keys back over to the rental car company . I am happy to report that we did so without incident, and it is one more thing I can add to my list of "things I didn't know I could do". It was actually a team effort and I must give credit to Jan and Cayly - never before have I actually wanted a "backseat driver"- but it was a big help to have all of us paying attention to the road. Jan also did most of the shifting (which was on my left hand side) so I could focus on the road and that was a big plus. The whole way of driving may be a bit nerve wracking with the tiny streets, tons of cars, and very few street lights, but I must agree that it promotes a much more defensive driving style and I actually felt a lot safer with the other drivers on the road than I do often times here in America.... But onto the fun stuff.
We successfully found our countryside B&B for the first night just outside of Bath. The home, hostess, and view were all fantastic and it was a great experience. We walked up the lane to an old English pub for dinner that night and ate by fireside. It was quite, quaint, and over 300 years old!
The next morning we awoke to an amazing breakfast of
croissants, yogurt (which is much better than in America I must say), cereal, juice, tea, fruit, and THEN a full
English breakfast!! It was fantastic and by far the best "English breakfast" I have ever had - and I have had several. (For those of you who are wondering, that usually consists of eggs, bacon (but its more like a slice of ham), mushrooms, cooked tomatoes, sausages, and toast, or sometimes they have beans too.) We didn't want to hurt her feelings when there was no way we could eat it all, so we ran up and got a plastic bag and hid 3 huge sausages in it to throw away later. If she really thought that we ate it all, she probably thought we were pigs...I don't know what the better thing to do was. She was probably having a good laugh while she let us go to town on the first course and then brought out the "
English" portion. Oh well, we were smarter the next morning and just asked for a few of the options.
After breakfast we set off for Bath and strolled through town, popped into the Jane Austen museum, and then toured the Roman Baths. We were fortunate (we thought) to get to watch Becoming Jane on the plane ride over, so it was fun to go right to the countryside where she lived and based many of her novels. We enjoyed many of our own countryside walks while there:)
After Bath, we headed for
Lacock Abbey which boasts the Fox Talbot museum (
inventor of photography) and the window which he chose as his very first subject to be immortalized on film. It has had a
fascinating history including playing host to hundreds of children during the war as a makeshift school and more recently as movie set of several films including Harry Potter. I guess that is about as close as any of us will ever get to Hogwarts, (with its magical protective charms and all:). We navigated our way through several more small villages and found our way to our next nights lodging which was also hundreds of years old. It was actually an old mill even mentioned in the Doomsday book. It had a delightful little pond and our host had a lot of character. It was a "jolly" time, as she might have said. We enjoyed another pub meal of fish and chips and reunited with our luggage late that night.
On Thursday morning, we were able to go to
Stourhead gardens and we
thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. After our 2 1/2 mile walk around the grounds, we then climbed 200 and something steps up King Alfred's tower! It was a beautiful view and totally worth the climb.
Our next and last stop on the countryside tour was Stonehenge where we were especially lucky to also get to see a wedding taking place, a very different wedding, but a wedding none the less. I don't know if they were druids or what, but it was strange. It may have been the guy in the black cloak with the antlers, or the hopping hand in hand over a very old looking broom, or the leaning on the stones in the main circle (like they were gaining some special power from them or something), but it felt a little funny. Anyway, we couldn't stay long as we needed to return the car, but it was good to see all the same.
We had an awful time trying to return the car, (note to self: signage around
Heathrow Airport - not good, and I should listen to the navigator better) but after an hour of driving around (after having been just blocks away from our destination), we finally made it. We were then off to central London and
Wicked that night.
We arrived to our hotel, and although we initially had some reservations, we were pleasantly surprised with it and had a great stay. We settled in and headed to Wicked. Awesome. That is all I can say. If you ever get the opportunity to see it, don't miss it.
Stay tuned for part II of the exciting three part trilogy....
