First, I had asked for Thursday and Friday off, but not planned what to do with them. Sunday, my friend asked me if I wanted to go to a play on Wednesday night, in Oxford, and I thought hey cool - I can do that, I don't have to work the next day! So I worked from home on Wednesday and took the 4:21 train to Oxford, ate dinner with my friend, and we went to see "The Secret Agent" an adaptation of the Joseph Conrad novel. I stayed there, and made plans to meet Monica on Thursday for lunch. We strolled through Oxford on a gorgeous day, found somewhere to have a glass of wine and £5 lunch special and sit in the sun, then some quick shopping, went to check out the rental car prices at Avis, which were a bit too much for me to justify at that stage, back to her flat, and then to see "Dancer and Mechanical digger" which was this choreographed routine with a ballet dancer and one of those huge tractor digging things. It was even cooler than in that photo because the moon was out and it was getting dark and just such a cool atmosphere.
From there we had burritos and Monica and Ian's, and then massive, yummy crepes at this cute cafe down the road, and started talking about maybe renting a car for a day and going to the Cotswolds together.
Friday morning, we met up after breakfast, and started looking online to make sure the prices were right, and found we could rent a car for 3 days for £42!!! So cheap! So then we started thinking, where else could we go? Looking at the map, Cotswolds are west, and if you keep going west....WALES! So we start planning a trip to Wales :) Decided on Brecon Beacon National Park because it's pretty easy to get to, has lots of waterfalls, and there's a great B&B lodge/spa with a night available right in the middle of it.
So off we go...Ian was awesome and drove the whole way - his first time on the left
side of the road! We saw so many cute little villages - one with a mechanical music shop/museum, all with adorable stone houses and buildings and flowers and walls and sheep, it was great. And we had the best weather I've ever seen in England.
Bourton-upon-water was the favorite, had all these little bridges over the river running through it - we stopped there for cream tea.
I think we hit about 6-7 places all in all before hitting a nasty traffic jam (doesn't seem likely in the idyllic setting of the country shires of England, but it can happen) and starting our trek west. We ate our sandwiches at Ross-on-Wye, had a cup of coffee, and reached Nunt Ddu around 9.
I think Ihave to stop there because I'm exhausted and have a lonnnnng day at work ahead, I can just tell, more upheaval may await!
1 comment:
It was the best weekend for us too Jennie! Thank you for your hospitality and patience with us. And also your openness to all that seemingly random string of events which turned into something we are all marveling about! We loved your summary on the trip. Perhaps will post something too b/c it was amazing...but you have truly done the work. To the travels and deep conversations ahead!
Post a Comment