We made it home ... bodies still adjusting to time zones (eight hours difference), sunrises and sunsets (almost a two hour difference), and temperature. It was a fun, beautiful, learning experience. It's always rewarding to talk to other folks not of the same culture, history, politics, or perspectives as us. It enhances our thought process when hearing about world events and how our country is responding or considering responding. We've found in our travels that folks really like Americans ... but may not trust our government. We love our country's beauty ... but the places we visited are just as beautiful ... and folks love their country as we love ours. We've summarized our trip with observations and more pictures.
The BIGGEST CHALLENGES ...
- Learning to drive on the "wrong" side of the road, shift with the "wrong" hand, navigate narrower roads, and looking the correct direction way. In the cities, it's critical to look in the correct direction when crossing streets (it's the opposite of what your brain is telling you). The large cities had wording painted on the road at the curbs ("look right" or "look left") for the tourist.
- Learning to navigate the roundabouts. Roundabouts were everywhere! They really don't have signalized intersections (outside the bigger cities). More often then not roundabouts have multiple lanes circling around ... sometimes roundabouts are connected to other roundabouts. At one point we came across a series of four-linked roundabouts. The challenge is in taking the correct exit out of the roundabout while circling around and trying to read the signs (some in Gaelic or Welsh) while trying to avoid being hit by traffic entering and exiting the roundabout at high speeds. We finally figured out that we could just keep circling around to get another look at the signs to make sure we went the right way.
- The long days were both a blessing and a curse. It gave us a lot more time to travel and explore. But when the sun doesn't set until 10:00 p.m. your body feels like it should stay up at least an hour or two after it gets dark so we often went to sleep after midnight. Then the sun would rise around 5:00 a.m. With so much to see and so much to do ... we would get up early and be on our way.
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| Driving on the single lane country roads that are supposed to accommodate two-way traffic. Note that there are no pullouts and typically there are rock walls on both sides of the road (don't be fooled by the green weeds on the side of this road ... most likely the weeds are concealing a rock wall). It gets exciting when a truck or tractor comes toward you at high speed in the opposite direction. |
The FOOD... is all locally sourced and always fresh.
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| When in England ... Ron tried the fish and chips with salt and vinegar. They were amazingly delicious! |
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This is your typical English/Irish/Scottish/Welsh full breakfast. It consists of eggs (the traditional meal has eggs over easy), sausage, "bacon" (it's more like slices of ham or canadian bacon), black and/or white pudding (blood mixed with meal and cooked), cooked tomato, toast, jams, butter, and juices. For the authentic full English breakfast you would also add baked beans.
It's a very hardy meal! |
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| When in Scotland...we had to give it a try! This is Haggis and Black pudding on a bed of mash (mashed potatoes) with gravy. Even knowing what the Haggis (stuffed intestine) and Black pudding (blood and meal) are made of... this was surprisingly tasty. |
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| This piece of Farmer's Pie had chunks of beef and ham in a pastry shell. It was wonderful! |
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| A lot of dairy products are used here. This is tomato soup with added cream and it was delicious! |
The NORM...
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| Typical streetscape with local Chemist (pharmacist). |
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Typical village community
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| Typical upscale English home made from limestone. |
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| Brick housing in the cities (this was in York) |
The SURPRISES ...
When speaking to folks in these other countries, the number one place that they wanted to visit in the United States was Las Vegas! WHAT???? Don't get me wrong ... Vegas can be fun for a weekend but we hardly think it should represent the United States. We were expecting answers like ... wanting to see America's National Parks or big cities like New York, San Francisco, or Los Angeles. We never expected to hear Las Vegas ... especially more than once from folks of all ages.
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Men really do wear kilts in Scotland. We saw more than one businessman with his briefcase, suit jacket and kilt on hurrying through town.
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| We knew there would be sheep. We had no idea there would be SOOOOO MANY sheep! |
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The BEAUTY...
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| Hydrangeas are EVERYWHERE! ... so are foxgloves and every other kind of flower that Kathy loves. All they need is LOTS of water (sigh). |
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| Water is everywhere! This photo was taken from the car as we passed through Stratford-upon-Avon, the birthplace of Shakespeare. |
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There is so much natural beauty here. This shot was taken from the side of a busy road. There was no designated pullout or scenic overlook...this was just a view to the valley and lake below that we happened upon when driving from one place to the next.
The HISTORY...
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| Old next to older |
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| Even in the countryside history abounds |
Other GENERAL OBSERVATIONS and TRAVELING TIPS
- There are closed circuit cameras everywhere in these countries. In fact there are cameras on the highways to take photos of your vehicle at different points along the way. If you reach a subsequent point faster than you could if you weren't driving within the speed limit then a ticket may be sent to you in the mail (we're hoping not to get any nasty surprises). There are no highway patrol vehicles checking for speeding. In fact, it is very rare to see a highway patrol vehicle at all unless there has been an accident. There also seems to be relatively few accidents. Towing is free from the motorways, called Recovery.
- Motorways (designated with an "M") are very similar to our interstate highways and speed limits are 70 to 75 miles per hour. M roads have services about every 20 to 25 that contain a service station, market and a couple of fast food choices. The "A" designated roads are similar to our byways and typically have adequate lane widths (but on occasion the lanes can get narrow). The speed limits are typically 60 miles per hours. Any other roads can be very narrow ... and challenging.
- Full coverage rental car insurance (Collision Damage Waiver or CDW) may be a wise investment. We thought we had it when we hit a raised pedestrian island (they're everywhere) while driving in the dark and rain the first night (damaged the two left tires). But when we checked back in with Hertz, it was pointed out to us that we had the lesser CDW insurance coverage that had a 900 pound (about $1800) deductible. So, the first souvenir of our trip was the purchase of two new tires. We saw many cars with the left side (passenger side) of the car scratched, scraped and dented. Rent the smallest car possible for your needs ... larger, wider cars are going to be more challenging to drive. When driving through villages, towns, and cities, cars park where they can and that two lane road becomes a one lane road because cars are parked along the road (half in the lane and half on the sidewalks.
- Although not essential, getting a "chip and pin" (not "chip and signature") credit card and/or debit card is helpful. The US is behind Europe and other parts of the world in credit card security (although that changes in the US by no later than fall of 2015). The magnetic strip on US cards are not as secure as chip cards. We found that most attendant machines also take the magnetic strip cards (but not all) ... the problem occurs with machines without attendants (e.g., gas stations, subways, toll roads, etc.). If you have a chip and signature card, it will not work at these locations (the machine will ask for your pin). We got a chip and pin credit card for the trip (it also has a magnetic strip for use in the US) ... and it worked but we had to always sign for attendants. Funny, the attendants actually looked at our signature carefully and compared it to our card signature (so take some time when initially signing the back of your credit card).
- Except for the three hotels we stayed in on our trip, the rest were B&B's, guesthouses, and lodges. They don't have lifts (elevators) ... so that cute four-story B&B can be fun to climb with your luggage when your room is on the 4th floor. Make sure your legs (especially thighs) are in good shape.
Time to COME HOME...
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| Like this little lamb who discovered she had wandered a little too far away ... |
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... it was time for us to hurry home.
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We hope you enjoyed following along with us. Until next time...CHEERS!
