After 20 days, it was time to say goodbye to the UK. We had a 4 hour drive to Heathrow from York and took the time to stop at the famed Sherwood Forest to break up the journey. It was a re-education of the story of Robin Hood. Was he real? Or folklore...Our last walk in England was pleasant with the weather holding up. We stopped briefly at a local pub for our last English fish & chips, as well as sticky toffee pudding. It was then straight on to Heathrow. We were happy to report that the Hertz rental return process was quick and easy. They didn't punish us for having a 95% full tank. The shuttle to Terminal 5 also came quickly with a very friendly driver. Before we knew it, we had checked in and were enjoying food and beverage in the BA lounge.
Some reflections in no particular order:
The first one that came to mind was that although we enjoyed our trip, as a destination, it didn't quite come anywhere near the top. Perhaps this was partially influenced by the difficulty of driving a minivan through narrow country roads and finding parking in tiny villages! We also moved at a cracking rate like crazy Australians who were used to driving large distances. Perhaps if we had slowed down, the trip would have had a different feel to it.
Scotland was gorgeous, especially the Hebrides. If we had our time over again, we would have spent a little bit more time so we could have done more hikes.
Edinburgh is a cool city. Pretty and with a great vibe. Glasgow was great as an overnight stop but not worth spending more than a day.
After a while, all the tiny villages blurred together. So I would suggest picking a couple of seaside ones, a couple of inland ones and leave it at that!
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| The edges of Sherwood Forest that once used to cover most of the county |
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| Hints of the story of Robin & his merry men everywhere |
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| Time for our last walk! |
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| The Major Oak, believed to be a place of gathering |
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| Last pub meal! |
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| Massive fish and chips |
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| Great way to say goodbye to England! |
I do think it's really important to approach every country with a different approach. Having lived here 3 years now it is a place that you enjoy more if you slow down a bit...unless you're in London. Then you are welcome to be insane touristy tourist barely seeing 20 attractions in a day to tick them off your list. You are certainly slightly crazy thinking you can drive around the UK like you do the USA in a huge minivan. I drive a Toyota Auris Hybrid and even that you can have moments of needing to squeeze in and around. When we were in Cornwall for a wedding we had harrowing moments with our Landrover. I adore going to Ironbridge but you'd never get a Minivan around some of the streets and end up parking miles away.
ReplyDeleteThat's just how it is ;-) and really shouldn't be held against them.
You're not from 'round 'ere...