Wednesday, August 02, 2006

England Travelogue - 2

Speaking of wildflowers, they are just incredible in England. I took this walking from Tugwood to Grange-Over-Sands, but on every roadside they are prolific and gorgeous. I bought a bunch of seed packets and snuck them through customs. It turned out they weren't contraband after all, so I won't be going to Sing Sing for Harebells and Cowslips.



Our first day, we sort of laid low due to fatigue from the 24-hour slog-through-hell that it took to get there. We went food shopping in Grange-Over-Sands in our little rental car, which we dubbed 'Sky' because of the color. They drive the cutest little cars over there. You can go for an hour on a major highway and you'll see maybe one SUV and it'll be a RAV4 or a CRV - I never saw a big SUV. Not once. And I drove the entire length of the country. This car was some kind of Nissan that you can't get here. It looked a little like a Volkswagon Beetle but was much roomier and more comfortable inside. Tiny turning radius - that Sky got us out of the tightest spots effortlessly. And the back seat folded down to give almost as much cargo space as my RAV4. I saw a car with three wheels. It only had one in the front. It looked like a go-cart. I loved their teeny cars and would happily buy one for my next vehicle, but you can't get them here. Doesn't that sound like some kind of conspiracy? The Carlyle Group strikes again?

The British seem very conservation-conscious in their home design as well. If you want hot water to take a shower, you turn on this electric gadget that is a sort of coil that resides inconspicously against the wall. The water flows through the coil and is heated on the spot. So they never have to keep a 50-gallon tank of water hot all the time. There were lot's of things like that, yet I was always comfortable and never felt inconvenienced. Moreso than here, actually. Everything felt soft and organic and pleasant. The air, the light and the houses.

Grange-Over-Sands is a little Victorian resort town located on Morecambe Bay. It is on the outskirts of the Lake District and we appeared to be the only tourists there, which was exactly why we chose it. Everyone was so kind and so civilized, even though I think we stuck out like sore thumbs, and the newspapers were full of Bush-Bashing. Cheryl said she caught some scandalized glances at her flip-flops in the tea shop. And I heard someone whistling "I Want To Be In America' from West Side Story as I was walking along one of the lanes. Maybe it was a coincidence. Here is the main street in Grange-Over-Sands:



The level of civility in England is so much higher than here. I kept a list in my diary of all the things in England that are more gracious and pleasant than in America - some of them are natural, but many are cultural:


  • There are no radios or loud music. Very few headphones, even. People just walk and talk to each other.

  • There are no skateboards or bikes allowed on the public walkways - only pedestrians and dogs.

  • The dogs were all really sweet. I'm scared of dogs here but there I never felt threatened.

  • No poop (the fine is 1000 pounds).

  • No litter.

  • No SPIT. This is a biggie for me. No one spits publicly and there are no gobs to step in.

  • I don't sunburn. Really. I mean, I used sunscreen but I do here and I still burn a little. There I could be out all day, sweating, and all I got were a few freckles.

  • I had no allergies. I could stand in a field of grass and I never sneezed once and my nose never itched and I could breath. Sadly, Cheryl did not have the same experience. But she's Irish :)

  • No one honked at me even though I drove like a total moron. They were so polite that if I noticed someone behind me, I pulled over to let them pass. They do drive like demons possessed on those tiny roads, though. And apparently kill one another with wild abandon.

  • The children have very pink cheeks and are SO CUTE. Little redheads and towheads and freckles and chubby white knees. I wanted pictures but didn't want anyone to think I was weird. They seemed a bit plump but the adults were not obese so it all works out.

  • No cellphones! No kidding. They all have them and they are sold everywhere. But they don't yak on them in public. I saw someone on a cellphone twice while I was in the Lake District and one of them was a German tourist. London was different but still much less than here.



Not that they're all saints, mind you. If they have a pithy message, they definitely get it across. But I always found their manners so quaint and charming that I never felt irritated even if I was being scolded:

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

You are so enthusiastic ! Glad you took such an interest in everything and were so open to having a good time.

The "Polite Notice" thing is quite common here. It seems very quaint and good-mannered but it is a bit two-edged, because the person putting the sign up is hoping that you will think it is an official "Police" notice (The lettering and colours are the same as in Police notices). Cunning eh ?