A trip to jolly old England

I embarked on an airplane last Thursday to Manchester, England for a 16 day holiday. The pleasures and pitfalls of modern travel are not trivial. So far, my allergies while flying were horrific. I couldn't breathe and couldn't stop sneezing. To make matters slightly worse, the man in front of me was telling his little girl a bedtime story....ah, how sweet! In French... genial. At full volume. Complete with voices. I thought of a few choice words in French and English...but I bit my tongue. Hard.

We arrived in Paris Charles de Galle and went through security again for our connecting flight. Customs in Manchester was a breeze. Grabbing a taxi, we crashed for a few hours rest at a nearby hotel with day rooms available. Then it was off via train to York in northeast England.

Our arrival was a bit rainy and cool. But the ensuing days were sunny and warm. I loved wandering the small crowded streets of this touristy town. It was quaint with small shops and a glorious Gothic cathedral.

The adventure continued...when we rented a car. Leaving York for a short trip to a nearby castle, we hadn't gotten far when there was a horrible noise f Rom the bottom of the car. It felt like the whole under carriage fell off. We pulled over and couldn't find anything wrong. Later, w e found the front passenger /left tire was dented. I think we threw a rod...

So we ditched the car in a little town called Pickering. We stayed at a beautiful B and B for two nights. This little town was a little haven after a miserable start. We headed back to York to continue our journey by train.

We chose Stratford Upon Avon for our next location. We eliminated all of the places we wanted to visit up north along Hadrian's Wall and the Lake District , both of which would have required a car and a fair amount of hiking. I forgot to mention above that my travel companion broke her foot two days into our journey. So we improvised. We did some driving tours, visiting the Cotswolds while in Stratford. The scenery was amazing, with small villages of thatched roof cottages - historical buildings now worth millions of pounds. It feels like stepping back in time.

We found out that the trains are quite as straight forward as in other countries. In the 1950s it seems some politician decided to close half the stations. There are no longer direct routes to get to places other than traveling through London or another major thoroughfare. So we hired a cab to take us to Bath.

Bath was a wonderful small town with lots of history and more literary references. We got to visit the Roman baths and try the thermal waters in an outdoor swimming pool on the roof of the spa.