England Road Trip.

This photo is actually just me at the tube station, nearest to the home of the Fenton's.. but i forgot to put it into an older post.

Now for this post..

On our return to London from Leeds, Sam and I began dreaming of a road trip to Bath, so i could vist the setting of two of Jane Austen's novels, and her our residence in the later part of her life. So we hired a car, borrowed the GPS and a Map, booked a night in a hostel in Bath, and began our journey... when i say journey, Bath is only a couple of hours out of London and we only planned to make one stop to Shakespeares home town, Stratford - Upon- Avon.. so a journey wasn't what we were really expecting... however a journey is what we got.

After picking up the hire car, picking up some supplies ( red bulls and a cord so we could play the ipod in the car), we were off. Only to discover that the GPS wasn't working ( we later realised a small part of it it was left in another car)...so this left us with a Map and as Sam was driving my Map and Direction skills. Everyone who knows me should at this point realise, this put us in the dangerous position of being constantly lost, as i can't read maps, and still have difficulties in telling my left from my right. However this turned out to be a blessing in disguise as we made more than the schedule stops and ended up having a whole day of driving which turned out to be one of the highlights in both Sam and I's trip.

First we stopped at Oxford, were we munched on a delicious lunch, grabbed some yummy treats for a picnic later on,a and signed a petition to save a car park.

Next Stratford -Upon - Avon - where we sat down by the canal and had a lovely picnic lunch, whilst watching bubbles float past, and listening to a terrible busker. We wondered around the town and too the Swan theatre, though unfortunately it wasn't the right time for a tour or a show. So then we wondered down to Shakespeares's old house and had a tourist photo.

From here we went through a tone of little towns which were all very country England ( which makes sense because thats where we were) - some of these places included Worcester, Cheltenham, Glouster, Stroud, Dursley,Malsberry, and Chippenham. between these places we got out of the car now and again and would look into a forrest or over a breath taking landscape.

Finally, about 7 hours later we arrived in Bath. We had planned to go out for dinner and a drink, but even though it was only 8'oclock in the evening we collapsed into our bunk beds, and didn't wake until the morning. After rescuing our car bright and early from ticket inspectors of the car park, we were able to take the beauty of Bath in. We began with the Roman Baths, which are utterly amazing, both beautiful, breathtakingly interesting, and the ancient but constant use of the same site is intensely interesting. We got a free audio guide there, that was narrated by Bill Byson that was super informative.

From here we had a lunch break, of super yummy sandwiches in the village square, before taking a bit of a walk. Sam went for a nap in the middle of the circle ( a circular street of amazing houses with a park in the middle) - where if i recall correctly he woke up to a smart car pulling right into the park, close to his sleeping spot, where a couple started seating on the car posing for photos... weird.... meanwhile i was at the Jane Austen visitor centre, where it turned out i knew just as much if not more than they did - so it was short lived visit. So we headed to the Royal Cresent, another famously beautiful strip of houses, we also visited other places such as the Assembly Rooms, which feature in Jane's novels ( i feel like if i lived in the 1800's we would of been on first name basis).

Finally we headed back to the car, and began our journey home. We travelled though Caine, Marlborough, Newbury and Reading before arriving back in London. The only notable point on our return journey being that we got stuck in Reading in Peak hour, continually hitting traffic jams, as we couldn't find how to get out of the damn town.

I feel like the English countryside needs a whole trip dedicated to it, as it is outstandingly beautiful, and road trips are perhaps my favourite things ever.