England Trip (14th - 29th July 2006)

Goldsworthy Cottage

This year we went to stay in a self-catering cottage in a small market town near Oxford called Thame. From this location we travelled to various places within a 1.5 hour radius (time includes country roads), including Legoland, Woburn Safari, Blenheim Palace, Oxford and various National Trust properties. Tesco Clubcard Deals paid for a lot of our trip including the ferry, Legoland, Woburn and Blenheim, and part of a night in a hotel (as we had to go a day early due to the ferry demand, even though we booked really early).

We took the Stena Larne - Fleetwood ferry over and the Belfast - Stranraer ferry back. The Fleetwood ferry was overnight and we slept in cabins. One of the highlights of the ferry trip was the inclusive meals, one of which was an all-you-can-eat buffet, which was very diverse and excellent.

As we arrived an hour earlier than we intended, we were able to avoid the Manchester rush hour on our way to visit our friends, the Gribbens, on the eastern outskirts. After our visit, we headed down to a National Trust property south of Birmingham called Packwood House, which is renowned for its topiary.

The traffic between Manchester and Birmingham on the M6 is awful and there doesn't seem to be any reason for it! There were no accidents, roadworks or junctions near the traffic jams. It was slightly worse on the way back at the end of the holiday too, so we understand why the Gribbens were reticent to visit some of the NT properties near Birmingham with us.

We stayed that night at the Hilton Bromsgrove and went to see "Superman Returns" at a local cinema. We thought that it was a lot more serious and brutal than the old Superman movies, and the new Superman and Lois Lane weren't a patch on the old ones. Kevin Spacey did a good job of acting Lex Luthor though.

We travelled quite a distance on both Sabbaths to visit a small Baptist fellowship that I know in Wood Green in North London called Pilgrim Tabernacle. We went to encourage this small group and be able to sing the Psalms (although they also sing hymns). We had great fellowship with them. It is quite a difference to N.I. with its multi-cultural constituency, which is very refreshing. (The food's good too!)

The weather in England was really hot and we both thought it felt hotter than being in America! We had to drink a lot of water, stay in the shade a lot and buy ice creams every day (except low-carb Mary!). We really appreciated the water fun area at Legoland! On the last couple of days, we experienced thunderstorms and got wet on two occasions, although we dried off quickly.

We'll be posting more articles on the places that we visited soon.