Lor, I sat in that beautiful garden at Iona Cottage and had a glass of French red on our first night there. And I thought of you. It was just as beautiful as its pictures on the web. And I needed the glass of red... it was what kept me going all day!

We boarded the Eurostar in Paris with not much time to spare since we didn't realize that we'd be going through Customs on that end, and it involved Paperwork.

When we arrived in London, I called the car rental agency to find out how to get there. After being informed that it would take 1.5 hrs, decided to pick up the car at a nearer location and just pluck up my courage (all the while chanting "French red, French red") and drive out of busy London. Still took 1.5 hrs to get the car due to a line up ("queue") but got an upgrade in the process. Upgrade included a 2nd driver, better insurance, and a TomTom GPS. We have nicknamed the GPS "Butler" as Neal changed the voice to Irish, Male and now it sounds like one of the characters from our Artemis Fowl audiobooks.

And Col, Butler has saved our collective butts too many times to count already. Except that the kids keep saying 'you have reached your destination' or 'after 300 yards, bear left' in a weak Irish accent which can get tiresome...

I've also lost track of the number of roundabouts I've done/survived. Driving out of London was nerve-wracking to say the least. Started off by stalling the car, but it was on a hill and we just kept going. Our upgrade also meant that we have a Kia Sedona minivan (>shudder< at least it's manual!) which by Cdn standards is not large, but over here it's a tank! We've had to collapse the sideview mirrors numourous times - we now refer to it as bringing in the flaps. Now that I've got the hang of it -- and it is just me so far, and may be me the entire time... -- it's been less stressful than driving back home. Roundabouts make sense.

In order of appearance, we have visited Bath, the standing stones at Avebury, been to Glastonbury, Wells, Stonehenge and Lyme Regis. We left Iona Cottage in Limpley Stoke this morning (sniff, sniff) and drove up into The Cotswolds. Made it to the medieval Warwick Castle in time to see them launch a fireball with a trebuchet. Which is great, since Maeve's class is doing Medieval Times and Castles right about now. Drove into Ebrington, near Chipping Campden for this evening. We're staying at our first B&B tonight, on a working sheep/cattle farm. Tomorrow we're off towards North Wales.

Yvonne

hmmm, can't quite recall where we are here... I'll have to check my notes;
it looks cold you say? yeah, you could say that... blustery too!

at the Avebury standing stones

the Wells cathedral, managed to hear part of the Evensong Mass



doing the Incredibly Difficult Children's Quiz
at Dinosaurland in Lyme Regis
(where they had fossilized dino poo)