UNHENGED!

Wednesday, April 06, 2011
Bay of Biscay, Brittany, France
Cold and wet weather aside, our latest roadtrip got off to a great start. Harvey & Noelene arrived at Heathrow on time (6 am! Just for once we were actually hoping that a flight would be delayed by a couple of hours!). Without too much hassle though, we all met up and headed towards the first tourist stop at Stonehenge. Well, at least we did get to see the old stones! The perimeter barrier around the monument is now so far distant that it was barely necessary to fight the wind and rain; we had a pretty good view from the road. Just as well really. We had barely come to a stop in the car park when that dreadful moment of panic set in as Harvey couldn't find his small bag (actually a "European man-bag") containing wallet, passports and a large wad of currency. Not in the car. Only place it could be then was in Virgin’s arrivals lounge in terminal 3 at Heathrow. A quick call confirmed the worst (well at least we didn’t pull all of the bags out of the car). Good news was that the bag had indeed been found in the lounge; bad news was that the lounge closed for the day in the early afternoon. No choice then as we all piled into the car and headed back to Heathrow. Success!! Then into the GPS, the address of the first evening’s hotel . Oh Joy!! Just 20 minutes drive from…….Stonehenge! Well we did get to have lunch in a motorway service area (haven’t they improved??!!) and then drive through some of the most picturesque villages and countryside in southern England to the “chocolate box” village of Teffont Evias and our first night’s stop. The scenery, the hotel (dating back to the 16th century) and a great dinner cleared the air!

A few days before we left home, we had come across my father’s birth certificate . He was born (in 1915), according to the certificate in a street described as Railway View in the English south coast city of Portsmouth. Portsmouth was precisely where we were headed to catch the car ferry to Santander in northern Spain. A great opportunity then to explore my “roots”. The GPS duly took us to Railway View, but instead of the Victorian two-up/two-down (with an outside privy) we were expecting, there was just a sprawling council estate and a lot of road works. A bit of a let-down, but oh well…next stop Spain!

Comments

Barbara and Jim Manzi
2011-04-06

Sounds like it will be a fun trip!! Keep us all posted.
I remember how cold it can be at Stonehenge--the wind whistles around like
a living thing, and strips all the warmth away. Hope you have great weather for the rest of the trip. Love and Hugs,

alrewas
2011-04-07

Harvey!!!!

Stephen D
2011-04-08

The Virgin Lounge at Terminal 3 has a tendency to cloud one's thoughts! The pre-flight putting green and massages are much more important luggage! All's well that ends well... Enjoy the trip.

2025-02-07

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