Happy times in the Uk

As my brother has told already in his post, we had entertainment provided for us in the form of a British gentleman on our 8-hour flight. Within moments of the flight getting underway the gent across the aisle from us began sipping vodka from a bag under the seat. It became apparent that he was already drunk and he only went downhill from there. He required assistance from the nice guy (whom I’ll just refer to as Saint from here on because I can’t decide if he really was a saint or just enamored by the gents strong British accent) sitting next to him to get his seat belt fastened and apparently never quite figured out how to get the zipper of his pants zipped up after visiting the lavatory. He quickly maxed out what the stewardess would serve him and settled back to drink from his private stash and talk constantly to the Saint. Poor fellow never got to finish ‘The Dark Knight” because the man literally never shut up. I woke up at one point in the night to find him chatting on while moving his empty liquor bottles from his tray to Saint’s tray only to move them back to his own. Breakfast proved to be a total disaster resulting in spilled coffee and muffin crumbs everywhere. Upon exiting the plane, Saint had to help him all the way and pull him out of the way of all of us un-saint like travelers in a hurry to get to customs and around the gent as he stopped in the middle of the way to look out the window and state that it was “a lovely day out.”


“You’re okay with a manual car, mate?” The nice Enterprise car rental dude, Dominick asks. “A manual?” my brother fairly shrieks, utter horror spreading over his features much to the delight of Dominck “Oh no! I definitely requested an automatic . . . . . . ..”
Thus began our time in the United Kingdom. Back into the Enterprise building to fix the paperwork so we could drive a “more manageable” car. We were just about to get into our car when Dominick asks, “Do you have directions then?” Ben gave some vague answer prompting D. to take us back inside the building yet again this time for directions. Apparently our plan to just “wing it and go” to put it in his words would be “a frightful horror.” Once in the car, we drove off to start on our delightful vacation! Well . . . put the brakes on that thought because you have to remember that Ben is driving on the left side of the road, through millions of roundabouts with road signs that are non existent or vague at best! Our journey getting outside of London took a while with a lot of bumping up on the curb and exiting at the wrong spots in roundabouts only to end up right where we started. However, once out of London Ben’s driving improved and I felt like I could look down for a SECOND without worrying that he might knock any poor unsuspecting Brits off the left side of the road.

So far we have traveled from London to Stratford Upon Avon where Shakespeare was from. We wandered around there for a bit and then headed to out of town to Warwick where we visited the beautiful castle there. Back in Stratford we spent the night at nice little bed and breakfast and slept for 14 hours. This morning we drove to York and had a great time walking around a very fun shopping district, visiting Clifford’s tower and eating dinner at the “Living Room,” a great restaurant overlooking a river. From there we headed to Durham where it took us several tries to find the motel recommended in “Rick Steve’s Travel Guide to Great Britain.” Some of our friends (wink, wink) swear by him though I have to admit that at times we have ignored his advice. J I have come to believe that his book is a bit geared towards the middle aged and not so much for the young and adventuresome like ourselves. We were disappointed in the fact that he didn’t mention anything about Nottingham or Nottingham Forest because we were wondering if there was anything to be seen where the great Robin Hood was from! However, Ben couldn’t work up enough courage to ask the man at the BP petrol station if there was anything there, so I guess we’ll never know unless we look it up on Google sometime.

Ben and I have become quite adept at sounding British and when in the car we talk with the lovely accent ourselves. In fact Ben can do it so well that I at times have to ask him “pardon mate, but could you speak a bit clearer, then.” Of course, we refrain from doing it in public because people (at least the younger ladies and gents) seem a bit enamored with our American accents and we wouldn’t want to disappoint them or embarrass ourselves by sounding like dumb Americans who think they can do the accent. However, I think we do it jolly well and I am positive you all will enjoy the new way I sound.

Well, that is all for now so Cheerio mates and I’ll catch up with you all over a cup of tea or a pint of ale soon!

~me