This is getting ridiculous...
We went to England again! At the end of August, again! It feels obnoxious to have gone to England two years in a row, but it was amazing, and as usual, I'm going to memorialize it here.
We flew out on a 10 pm flight on Aug. 21.
Day 1, Aug. 22- Got through airport stuff with minimal hassles (passport control didn't take forever this time!), got the car, and we were off! I had to stop at a rest area for a coffee break and stretch on the drive, because those overnight flights are brutal, but we made our way to Burley, which is an adorable village in the New Forest (New Forest not actually "new" it was called that in medieval times). There are wild ponies that just roam freely around the village, frequently stopping traffic because they just hang in the streets. It's so cute I could scream from the cuteness. The town itself is tiny, and it's capitalizing on a witchcraft theme based on one lady in the 1970s who lived there and proclaimed herself a witch, so now there are a handful of witchy shops. Seemed like the perfect place to start a trip coming from Salem! We got lunch at the Burley Inn, walked around the tiny town and then walked up the road to the countryside for some epic vistas (and more horses). Got dinner that night at the Queen's Head. We stayed at a b&b that's part of a cider making farm (Cider Cottages), it was a nice place, and we had a family room that had two separate bedrooms, so win for all of us, West got his own little room.
Day 2, Aug. 23- After a hearty farmhouse breakfast we hit the road toward the Wareham area. Stopped at Monkey World, a monkey rescue center that has its own British tv show (we watched the show a lot earlier this year, hence the idea to stop there). It was a gorgeous day, West was a delight, the monkeys were cute. Spent the morning there, then we headed down the road to the town where we were staying that night (Corfe). Tiny, adorable town again! It's a town that's at the base of a broken down castle, Corfe Castle. The castle itself was awesome. It was blown up in the English Civil War, so it's just a shell, and there are huge broken sections of it tumbled down on the massive hill it sits on, but somehow despite being all busted up, it's still majestic. There was a big activity day going on while we were there, a bunch of English Civil Ware re-enactors had a camp set up with a bunch of tents, and they were doing old timey crafts and old timey weaponry, so West got a huge kick out of that. We took a walk around the town in a vain effort to find an ATM (no ATMs at all in the town!) and down a spooky wooded path at the base of the castle. We stayed that night at a pub with rooms above (the Bankes Arms Hotel), so at the end of the day we settled in for beers in their back garden, had a nice chit-chat with another family that was hanging out back there, watched the steam trains go by, and then got dinner there. Our family room there also had separate bedrooms, another win!
Day 3, Aug. 24- Glastonbury day! After breakfast we piled once again into the car and drove up to Glasto. It was a long drive, and Glastonbury is more in the middle of nowhere than I'd expected. Also, that city is super run-down and kind of dreary. Not at all the mental image I'd had of it, but an interesting experience. It seems like a place where backpackers go and then just... stay. Reminded me a lot of Galway, from when we went to Ireland back in 2006. At one later in the afternoon, after we popped into two different pubs that we immediately backed out of because we felt like we were super out of place, West was like "wow, every place here is so rough!" And he was not wrong. So we checked into our b&b early because the lady there wanted to get on with her day. We stayed at The Covenstead, a witchcraft themed b&b that is super intense with the witchyness. It was super comfy, our room was huge (West was on a cot in our room this time, just one room). We walked around town, then separated so Drew could poke around in weird bookshops and West & I went to Glastonbury Abbey. It was actually a super nice time, the Abbey itself is broken down and it's basically just a few old crumbled walls, a couple of outbuildings and foundations, and a big green space. I thought West would be bored, but he was into it. There's some Arthurian legend stuff about the Abbey, supposedly Arthur's tomb is there, so he was into that. We met up with Drew for lunch at the Tin Pot Pasty Company (I wasn't going to leave this trip without having a pasty!!). After lunch it was time to walk up Glastonbury Tor. In Megeronian fashion, we ended up taking a footpath that led up the steepest side of the hill (and the hill is huge). At the top of the hill there's an old tower, and basically a ton of people taking selfies and photos. And that's it. We could see a storm rolling in towards us, and it was super windy and starting to spit rain up at the top of the hill, so we snapped some pics and then headed down the less steep side. Wandered around Glasto looking for a good pub to settle into for a read and a beer. We found... a place. There was an active police action going on, but it was a decent place to take a break. For dinner we found an Indian restaurant that had chicken nuggets for kids, and we had a really delicious dinner. To cap the night, back at the b&b, a couple of American tourists hired a witch/medium to do spells and a seance with them, and Drew finagled his way into that scenario, so he had a great night.
More to come!
We flew out on a 10 pm flight on Aug. 21.
Day 1, Aug. 22- Got through airport stuff with minimal hassles (passport control didn't take forever this time!), got the car, and we were off! I had to stop at a rest area for a coffee break and stretch on the drive, because those overnight flights are brutal, but we made our way to Burley, which is an adorable village in the New Forest (New Forest not actually "new" it was called that in medieval times). There are wild ponies that just roam freely around the village, frequently stopping traffic because they just hang in the streets. It's so cute I could scream from the cuteness. The town itself is tiny, and it's capitalizing on a witchcraft theme based on one lady in the 1970s who lived there and proclaimed herself a witch, so now there are a handful of witchy shops. Seemed like the perfect place to start a trip coming from Salem! We got lunch at the Burley Inn, walked around the tiny town and then walked up the road to the countryside for some epic vistas (and more horses). Got dinner that night at the Queen's Head. We stayed at a b&b that's part of a cider making farm (Cider Cottages), it was a nice place, and we had a family room that had two separate bedrooms, so win for all of us, West got his own little room.
Day 2, Aug. 23- After a hearty farmhouse breakfast we hit the road toward the Wareham area. Stopped at Monkey World, a monkey rescue center that has its own British tv show (we watched the show a lot earlier this year, hence the idea to stop there). It was a gorgeous day, West was a delight, the monkeys were cute. Spent the morning there, then we headed down the road to the town where we were staying that night (Corfe). Tiny, adorable town again! It's a town that's at the base of a broken down castle, Corfe Castle. The castle itself was awesome. It was blown up in the English Civil War, so it's just a shell, and there are huge broken sections of it tumbled down on the massive hill it sits on, but somehow despite being all busted up, it's still majestic. There was a big activity day going on while we were there, a bunch of English Civil Ware re-enactors had a camp set up with a bunch of tents, and they were doing old timey crafts and old timey weaponry, so West got a huge kick out of that. We took a walk around the town in a vain effort to find an ATM (no ATMs at all in the town!) and down a spooky wooded path at the base of the castle. We stayed that night at a pub with rooms above (the Bankes Arms Hotel), so at the end of the day we settled in for beers in their back garden, had a nice chit-chat with another family that was hanging out back there, watched the steam trains go by, and then got dinner there. Our family room there also had separate bedrooms, another win!
Day 3, Aug. 24- Glastonbury day! After breakfast we piled once again into the car and drove up to Glasto. It was a long drive, and Glastonbury is more in the middle of nowhere than I'd expected. Also, that city is super run-down and kind of dreary. Not at all the mental image I'd had of it, but an interesting experience. It seems like a place where backpackers go and then just... stay. Reminded me a lot of Galway, from when we went to Ireland back in 2006. At one later in the afternoon, after we popped into two different pubs that we immediately backed out of because we felt like we were super out of place, West was like "wow, every place here is so rough!" And he was not wrong. So we checked into our b&b early because the lady there wanted to get on with her day. We stayed at The Covenstead, a witchcraft themed b&b that is super intense with the witchyness. It was super comfy, our room was huge (West was on a cot in our room this time, just one room). We walked around town, then separated so Drew could poke around in weird bookshops and West & I went to Glastonbury Abbey. It was actually a super nice time, the Abbey itself is broken down and it's basically just a few old crumbled walls, a couple of outbuildings and foundations, and a big green space. I thought West would be bored, but he was into it. There's some Arthurian legend stuff about the Abbey, supposedly Arthur's tomb is there, so he was into that. We met up with Drew for lunch at the Tin Pot Pasty Company (I wasn't going to leave this trip without having a pasty!!). After lunch it was time to walk up Glastonbury Tor. In Megeronian fashion, we ended up taking a footpath that led up the steepest side of the hill (and the hill is huge). At the top of the hill there's an old tower, and basically a ton of people taking selfies and photos. And that's it. We could see a storm rolling in towards us, and it was super windy and starting to spit rain up at the top of the hill, so we snapped some pics and then headed down the less steep side. Wandered around Glasto looking for a good pub to settle into for a read and a beer. We found... a place. There was an active police action going on, but it was a decent place to take a break. For dinner we found an Indian restaurant that had chicken nuggets for kids, and we had a really delicious dinner. To cap the night, back at the b&b, a couple of American tourists hired a witch/medium to do spells and a seance with them, and Drew finagled his way into that scenario, so he had a great night.
More to come!