The time came to leave London and  head to a more rural England, with a few smaller cities along the way.  We had reserved a rental car back in March and it was a good thing we did. A one week rental was only $239 CAD a few months ago, while the day we left London, the per day rate for an upgrade was more than the rental for a week! So, no Mercedes S class for us; we’re more the diesel Honda Civic hatchback kind of people anyway. It had plenty of room for all of our stuff with lots of space for us too.

Mark is a great guy, with many talents, but I have a new appreciation for his driving. The car we rented had a manual transmission. So, on top of driving on the opposite side of the car and driving on the left hand side of the road, he had to deal with shifting, lots of traffic and REALLY narrow winding roads. The main highways (like the M4) are similar in size to our 401, but the smaller highways and rural roads have no shoulder. Also, there are hedges and trees growing right up to the road. Add in roundabouts everywhere and it’s madness. But, after the first day he was a pro.

Our first stop out of London was Oxford. We stayed in a hostel (2 sets of bunkbeds – the kids loved it) that was walking distance from everything we wanted to see. Even the hostel didn’t make me miss our London hotel.

Mark booked a free walking tour through Footprints Tours, which is run by university students and you tip what you want when you’re done. Our guide, Peter, was really good. We left feeling like we knew a lot about the history of the city as well as other interesting info. Parts of the Harry Potter movies have been filmed there (we haven’t seen any of them, but it’s on our list for a rainy day), Bill Clinton may or may not have inhaled at the Turf pub here, C.S Lewis, Tolkien and Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) all lived there. So we heard lots of tidbits about their lives and inspiration. We also climbed the church tower to see why Oxford has been called “the city of spires”.

We had read about a ride you could take on the canal system around Oxford. The boats are called punts and they move by pushing with a pole. But…unless you know what you’re doing, trying this on your own can be a disaster. We chose to have a summer student take us on our ride, and we were glad we did. We saw people going in circles, crashing into other boats and precariously balancing hoping not to fall in. It was a nice rest after a long day of walking and we got to quiz the local girl (Rosie) about life in Oxford (not as a university student, but a local). She was happy to chat and ask us all about Canada as well.

The drive from Oxford to Holt was an experience in unbelievable scenery. Rolling hills, pastures, sheep….so many sheep. You’d think because we took a bigger, more direct highway that there wouldn’t be a lot of scenery; not the case at all.

Our plan was to try to prepare as much of our own food as possible during these 5 days of the trip. Our cottage had a small fridge, stove, oven and small appliances, plus all the pots, pans and dishes we’d need. We stopped off in a larger town to pick up supplies. Grocery shopping in another country was an adventure for Molly and Grace. They took on the mission of looking for foods we don’t have at home or figuring out the what they call things we do have, while Mark and I picked up the stuff we needed.

Some of our ‘must do’s’ in this area were Stonehenge, Stratford-upon-Avon, Bath and just taking in some small Cotswold villages. But, I have to say that the greatest things we did were the things we just stumbled on…..

Like the huge White Horse!! We were driving along headed to Avebury (more on that below) and in the distance, on the hillside, we see the silhouette of a large, white horse. It’s bizarre. Apparently there are 6 of them in various parts of the countryside. Mark decided we had to hike up and get a closer look. Apparently, they were first carved out of the hillsides in the 1700’s sometime (so not ancient), I had no interest in the history aspect, Mark read all about it. So if you’re really interested he can tell you about it when we get back, or the Interweb can fill you in.

After our hill hike (Mark told the kids it was physed class and they ran up), we continued our first “country roads” day, which Grace ended up labeling “Neolithic Day”. Pretty much everything we did centred around sites from that era. We first went to Avebury which is a lesser known Stonehenge type site, but you actually get to walk amongst the stones. I was all for seeing Stonehenge, an overload of “neolithic” was not what I had in mind. But the day really ended up being so interesting. We also visited a burial site called West Kennett Long Barrow and the Silbury Hill (a prehistoric artificial mound-it’s just like it sounds, a really big mound. They aren’t sure what it was for, but humans made it during the Stonehenge time). All of which are UNESCO World Heritage sites.

Stonehenge was next. We had initially planned to see it the same way everyone else does;  park in the lot a mile away and take a shuttle bus to the site. But Mark had seen a brochure for some walking trails and decided to do some research. It turns out that there are walking trails that go right up to Stonehenge….and its FREE and encouraged by some trail walking association!! We had budgeted for Stonehenge, the whole trip isn’t about saving money, but it is about having some cool experiences. The fact that we saved over $85 was a bonus. The walk we did was called “The Avenue”; it’s an ancient pilgrimage route to Stonehenge. After the day full of these types of sites the girls started randomly blurting out “neolithic” in booming voices whenever we recapped what we had seen.

The rest of our days were spent taking in Bradford on Avon (we went on the coolest long boat ride on the canal – which has lock system that the boaters operate themselves), Stratford upon Avon (huge disappointment – we saw where Shakespeare was born, the rest felt like we were in Banff. But the drive to get there was worth it), Salisbury (the tallest cathedral in spire in the UK & we got to see the Magna Carta), Bath (city, not tub) and our own little village of Holt.

This leg of our trip has been so great that we’ve all said we want to come back. Everywhere you look is beautiful. We were able to live in a small village and get a taste for English life. I think there is a fear that there won’t be a place we like as much, which I know is ridiculous, it’s just the beginning, but we did love it that much. My hope is that we have this feeing many more times over these 10 months. Leaving a place wanting to come back is the best way to go.