Monday 19 September 2016

From Heathrow to Wells.

We made it safely here started the road trip today. Yesterday we had time to run into Notting Hill and Earl's Court in London. My card reader for my camera fell apart in my hand and I needed another one or a cord to connect my camera to my computer. Found one, walked around both areas and ate some great food in a pub.

Today we picked up our rental car. It was supposed to be a compact but instead we got a large 6 speed
manual, Fiat 500 SUV. Big diesel that moves like a truck until you get it going.

Of course we missed two exits on the motorway. GPS British lady with an accent that is hard to understand told us to get on the right side of the motorway but we discovered a mile later the exit was across five lanes on the left. Then we took another wrong exit and ended up going around a fairly big roundabout 3 times before getting off the thing and stopping at a servo to reorganise ourselves. I have not driven a manual car for many years and stalled it twice. But now we have completed one day and everything has fallen into place.

We are in Wells, Somerset. We are staying at the Wooky Hole Hotel. Don't you love that name? There are large caves here but we are bypassing them as both of us have visited lots of caves in the past. Instead we are visiting the cathedral tomorrow. Wells qualifies as England's smallest city with approximately 7000 people living here. But it has the largest cathedral in the country. We see that tomorrow.

I spent this afternoon walking around the town, relaxing with  my camera and enjoying nature, scenery and photography after our harrowing start to the day. I have never driven around a roundabout 3 times before. We started laughing and that caused problems too. So hard to problem solve when one is laughing hysterically.

The Penguin stayed in the room and rested. I recovered from jet lag a bit faster than he did. He should get out tomorrow with us. From the cathedral we head towards Porlock and the national park on our way to Bude. We will visit Port Isaac, home of Doc Martin on Tuesday and then head towards St. Ives Wednesday morning.

So far lots of laughs, good food, beautiful scenery and very friendly people. Travelling makes one realise how many really good people there are in the world.



Enjoy a few photos.

In the garden

Our rooms are on this end of hotel.

This sign made me chuckle. Danger of Death
combined with Wookey Hole Church sign.

We have a Lindisfarne suburb in Hobart. My
friend lives in it so I had to send this to her.

These roses were climbing up the old church wall.
Beautiful.

The old church. No name.

The accommodation next door. I loved the artwork of the sheep and cow
on opposite sides of the wall.

The diesel car that happily took us around the roundabout three times.

3 comments:

  1. was it difficult driving on the left? that alone would keep me home... they have round up bouts here some places and everybody(well, older persons) have trouble with them. i wonder who thought up the idea? anyway, the pictures are outstanding - love the cow - sometimes the little details are the most absorbing... great seeing and following along: many tx...

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  2. Hi Mudpuddle. I am used to driving on the left as Australians are all on the left too. (Usually) The roundabout were created to help traffic flow. Kind of like a 4 way stop in a circle. I imagine they began in Europe?? There sure are a lot of them here. I glad you enjoy the photos. I loved the cow and the sheep. When one has a camera in one's hand so many things appear that usually goes unnoticed. It is like having another eye. Today we head to Porlock and stay two nights at Bude in Cornwall.

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  3. I remember the wonderful mechanical clock at Wells Cathedral. I love mechanical clocks.

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