Time to say goodbye
After leaving Bristol, we drove into the Cotswolds, a 2000 km² area in south-central England.
The area is famous for it's rolling hills, the "wolds" and its honey-hued stone houses (made out of yellow lime stones) surrounded by sheep enclosures. So it pretty much is a hilly area with lots of sheep around it.
My human spent a couple of days walking around those villages and hills, enjoying the peace and quiet of nature, getting sprinkled on by the odd shower.
We visited Cirencester, with a population of 20.000, the largest town in the Cotswolds. It used to be known as Corinium and was, in the 3rd Century, the second largest town in what was then the Roman Empire, after Londinium, of course.
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| The English love their superlatives. This is the tallest yew hedge in the country with 12,2m |
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| Obelisks represent petrified rays of the sun, symbols for power and immortality |
Adjacent to the parking lot was a small theater. Just out of curiosity, my human went in to see if there were any tickets available for that day and not three hours later, she sat in a cozy chair, enjoying a performance of "Driving Miss Daisy". You might remember the movie of the same name from 1989 staring Morgan Freeman. It actually won the Oscar for best feature that year.
Bourton on the water, or "Venice of England", lies on the river Windrush. Which makes that little stream of water sound a lot more magnificent than it really is. The part about Venice is also highly debatable. It sure is a very pretty village, tough.
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| Could easily be confused with Venice |
Here you can visit a model village of - the very village you are in! Not sure how that makes sense, but people pay over 5€ to see it.
From tiny villages we made our way into a small city, visiting Oxford. Here we parked a few kilometers outside, behind a pub. Neither me nor my human had any interest in driving into the city itself. So she went out on her bike to have a look around.
Like in Cambridge, all the interesting colleges were closed to the public, so there was no chance of getting infected by any genius minds.
The Museum of Natural History is formidable, housed in a stunning, purpose-built edifice from 1860,it displays many a skeleton, lots of stuffed animals, minerals...
The Pitt Rivers Collection, housed in the same building, showcases archaeological and anthropological exhibits, around 500.000 of them! It's impossible to look at all of it during one visit!
Both spaces were really striking and come highly recommended, if you ever find yourself in Oxford.
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| Never even heard of this rather vicious bird |
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| A yellow fin tuna |
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| The Pitt Rivers Collection |
The Bodleian Library, one of 28 in the city to serve the university, had a couple of interesting exhibitions on.
One of them celebrated the 100th year of the excavation of the tomb of Tutankhamun in Luxor.
The other one was called "Sensational Books", as in experiencing books with all senses. Which included a recipe book. The smell of "Sticky maple sirup, bacon and banana rolls" will soon permeate the air! As soon as there is access to an oven, that is.
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| This book was aquired by Tolkien when he was an undergraduate here in Oxford |
The city itself is a pleasure to walk around in. Beautiful buildings on every street, the river never far, inviting pubs all over the place.
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| From castle to prison to hotel; a natural development |
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| What looks like art are actually aerial shots of toxic waste |
After returning, we met our lovely neighbours Shelagh and Malcolm.They only live about an hour down the road from here, but take their camper out for regular weekend trips to explore the country. Way to go!
They went to the pub together and shared many stories and laughs over the course of dinner and a drink or three.
Once again, the friendliness and warmth of the English people we meet is astounding. By now we shouldn't be surprised anymore by it, but it still is worth another mention.
Rather than driving the 80km into London, my human took the bus, surely saving both of us some stressful driving.
She had been to the city with her mum five years ago and recognized a lot of things on her 20km or so walk that day. But, of course, there were also a lot of new developments and corners she hadn't seen before. I guess you can live in London all your life and still discover new areas every day.
All the tourist boxes were ticked: Kensington and Hyde Park, Kensington and Buckingham Palace (including the rather anti-climatic Change of the Guards), Trafalgar Square and Picadilly Circus, Thames and Tower Bridge, Harrod's, the Tower of London, Big Ben and the Palace of Westminster, the London Eye, St. Paul's Cathedral, Soho, Chinatown and so on.
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| 25 years almost to the date. Not sure how happy the Queen is about this display... |
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| Kensington Palace |
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| Just a few people here |
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| Big Ben and the Palace of Westminster |
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| Chocolate and Rainbow bagles |
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| The very old and the very new |
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| This monument commemorates the 1666 fire of London |
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| Picadilly Circus |
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| Hare Krishna has taken over Trafalgar Square |
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| Harrod's |
It being a Sunday, the whole 9 million people that live in the city and the countless tourists were out in full force, enjoying the lovely weather, a stroll along the river and/or a pint in the pub.
By the time she got back, her feet were on fire and she hit the sack not long after dinner. Fair enough, the day had started at 6am.
Our last stop in England was Dover, from where we caught the ferry back to England.
We stopped on the way for a nice stroll along the Thames and then set ourselves up next to a cricket ground in Folkstone.
From here one can walk along the cliffs of Dover, which begin only a couple of kilometers from Folkstone. It's not the nicest walk, really, but you get some good views of the cliffs.
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| Very helpful |
Dover itself isn't exactly at the top of the list of places to visit in England. And since I have nothing much good to say about it, I'd rather leave it to that.
Our trip across to France only took 90 minutes.
Leaving Calais, we crunched some miles and arrived in Luxembourg in the early evening. We parked at a P&R some 5km outside of the center. Public transport is completely free in the whole country. Busses, trams, trains, all of it! What a pleasant way to travel!
The city looked rather nice in the fading light with large viaducts, green spaces and well-lit old buildings. Most of them banks, plenty of banks!
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| The elevator to get from the upper town to the lower part, 65m high and very handy |
I guess you could say that we haven't done the city justice, let alone the country of Luxembourg, since after 15 hours we were on our way out again. But I would argue that this is all the time you need.
Our second to last stop before returning home to Munich was Trier. Here we met with an aunt and uncle of my human and they had a lovely day in the city, just walking around, taking in the sights and enjoying some German beer and food, coffee and cake.
The first Weißbier and Leberkas in four months, Carmelo and my human were ecstatic!
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| Porta Nigra, the largest Roman city gate north of the Alps |
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| High Cathedral of St. Peter, the oldest church in Germany |
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| Bliss |
And the very last night on the road was spent in a small town close to Stuttgart where a friend of my human lives. We spent the evening and morning with her before rolling down the autobahn for the inevitable last 220km to Munich.
Another summer has come and gone and we had an absolute blast (ok, ok, I do remember complaining about the weather quite a bit).
Thanks to all the lovely people we met along the way, planned or otherwise. As always, it's the people who make it all special.
Until we see each other again...
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