We packed for wet weather but they are having their own Global Warming woes in England and it has been a very hot, dry summer there. It never rained once and we spent a week in the Lake District where they get 120 inches of rain a year. Here is a picture of Hyde Park. I've never been there before, but I think this field is usually green. A lot of the trees appear to be dying as well. My traveling pal, Cheryl, said she heard that they don't believe in watering gardens in England. They consider it a waste of water and feel it should be left up to God whether the plants make it. Very sensible.
We flew into London/Heathrow and immediately headed up the M6 to the cottage we rented near a tiny resort town in the Lake District called Grange-Over-Sands. Cheryl is a goddess at driving on the left. I trembled in fear everytime I had to do it. They told us it would take 4 hours but it took 7. The traffic on the M6 was bumper-to-bumper the whole way. We were so tired from flying all night - it was a long day. But as soon as we got to the cottage all that melted away. It was so charming and so old. Made out of stone - at least 19th Century and probably older. But all fixed up and pretty and so comfy. Here is our street:
Here I am in front of our little home-away, called Tugwood Cottage:
Tugwood was set into a rocky hillside called Bell Hill. The houses on the street were all sort of carved into the rocks in steps, so you could look over the rooftops of the house in front of you to the gorgeous views. Here is the view from our garden:
But my favorite feature had to be the skylight. Because of how Tugwood was set into the hillside, I could look straight up through the skylight and see sky plus the wildflowers clinging to the cliff edge above us:
3 comments:
So glad you were aiming to see lot of different parts of England. And its great that you got so much out of it.
After your experience, do you think it is wise for so many USA citizens to rent a car straight after a disturbed night of sleep on the plane and then drive many mile only half-awake on unfamiliar roads using an unfamiliar manual shift and driving on the "wrong" side of the road. Would you not have felt responsible if you had killed someone in a crash ?
How nice to come back and find new comments on my blog after all these months! And in answer to your question, I think folks from the USA and other countries should think very carefully about renting cars in the UK. Fortunately, my traveling companion, Cheryl, had spent several weeks in Ireland in the not-too-distant past and was fairly competent at driving in the UK. She did most of the driving that first day - all of it on the smaller road - and we rented an automatic - no manual shift!
I can tell you that Hyde Park used to be very green. Apparently, that's changed.
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