carl170

We spent a week in the West of England. We flew in and out of Heathrow and rented a car.

Our Itinerary:
First day Stonehenge
Two nights Glastonbury, we stayed at B&B No. 51
One night in Bath at the Bath Priory
Three nights in the Cotswolds at the Bear of Rodborough in Stroud
Back home

We had great weather, it turned out to be a lot more driving that we anticipated. Details to follow.

Carl

carl170

We almost didn't make it. Our flight was late leaving and there was a curfew on flights landing in London, all other flights were completely overbooked. In the end, we got a new plane and ended up arriving after midnight, 3 hours late. We had to take a taxi to the airport hotel since everything had closed. At least we made it, but we were not going to have an early start the next day.

We slept in to go to breakfast just before closing. We went to the terminal and took the shuttle to get our rental car and were on our way. There was a lot of traffic leaving London, and more traffic on the way to Stonehenge. A lot of it was people slowing down to see the ruins. We ended up arriving at almost 3. No problem getting in even though our tickets were for 2, turned out that we didn't need advance tickets after all.

We walked to the ruins and walked around them taking pictures, it is quite a site, then got the shuttle back. It was too late to see anything else, we had wanted to stop at Salisbury on the way. The GPS took us on a very small winding road to get to Glastonbury but we made it. We checked in and were able to make 6pm Mass at the reconsecrated Our Lady of Glastonbury. Our room overlooked the parking area and Glastonbury Tor. We walked into town and had dinner at Who'd a Thought It (recommended by Fodor's). We shared a fish platter to start, then we had the fish of the day and Somerset sausages. Then back to the B&B for bed.

carl170

Day 2

We were the first to breakfast, we got the full English cooked breakfast. Then we walked up to Glastonbury Tor. We passed the Chalice Well, we didn't go in, but saw the spring next to it. We missed the trail and had to walk through a sheen pen, lots of poo, we got it all over. It was a nice hike up, a beautiful day and a great view of the valley. Then we walked down and back through town. We stopped at 100 monkeys cafe for coffee and croissant, the we went to the Abbey. The ruins were quite extensive, this would have been one of the largest churches in England, completed just 15 years before the dissolution of the Abbeys under Henry VIII and its destruction. There were badgers on the grounds, but we did not see them mid-day. After touring we had lunch at Heaphy's.

We got directions for a better way to get to Salisbury, but there was a major accident on the way. We got to Salisbury, we had a little trouble finding a parking lot and ended up parking on the street. We walked into town and first saw the St. Thomas Becket church, we couldn't find our way in, but when we stopped for coffee at Cafe Nero, I could see the entrance. We looked into the St. Thomas church, saw the famous mural of the Last Judgement. We then passed the poultry cross, then walked to the Cathedral. It was huge, we actually saw the spre , the tallest in England on our drive in. We looked around the church, the very back was closed off as they were getting ready for services. We stayed for the beginning and sat through the Magnificat, then went back to the car. It was a long drive back,where the accident happened, the road was still closed. We (and everyone else behind us) followed this car though back road back to the highway, we had no idea where we were going, but made it back to Glastonbury.

Dinner was at Gigi's. Everyone at breakfast had eaten here the night before. We shared a pasta and their fritto misto, the anchovies were especially good.

annhig

Hi Carl,

thank you for sharing your trip with us. I particularly enjoy finding out what non-Brits [as I assume you to be] think of us - so far so good would appear to be your verdict.

Keep it coming.

carl170

Thanks, we had a great time. Driving was a bit of a challenge, but I only stalled the car twice in traffic.

Day 3

We had breakfast and were on our way to Wells. It was only a short ways away, we found a parking lot, but only had enough change for just over an hour. We thought we were near the Cathedral because we could see a church tower, but it turned out to be a different church. We walked to the Bishop's Palace, we toured the rooms that were open and walked around the garden. The ticket agent told us about a reflecting pool beyond a blue door that we did find. It was beautiful and the gardens were still in bloom. We didn't want to rush the Cathedral so we went back to the car park and added another hour. We went through the Cathedral seeing the main elements, the scissor arches were really unique. Wells Cathedral may be more impressive than Salisbury's or maybe we were just more relaxed here. The Vicar's close was interesting to look at, the oldest cobblestone street in Europe, which is hard to believe. We went on to Cheddar.

We had a quick lunch at the Cafe in Cheddar, then drove up the gorge. We had to pay for parking, but did find the real cave aged cheddar to bring home. The gorge was over before we knew it, we planned to stop somewhere and walk around a bit, but we were already out of the gorge and on our way to Bath. We decided against going back and just went on. We had a little trouble turning into our hotel, the Bath Priory. There were stone gates on either side of the entrance and we needed assistance to make the turn into the hotel. Once we got there it was very nice. We had a huge room, much different than the converted garage at our Glastonbury B&B.

Dinner was over the top, but this is why we wanted to come there. We started with champagne and amuse bouche in the garden, then moved inside for a 10 course surprise tasting menu with wine pairings. Wonderful!

BBgt

Carl170 - Thank you for sharing your trip report. My mother and I have been to all of the places you've mentioned so far and really enjoyed them, so it's nice to hear about them again from someone else's perspective. Aren't the cathedrals in Salisbury and Wells amazing? And I loved Vicar's Close - just picture-perfect!

Looking forward to the rest of your report....

carl170

A day in Bath

Breakfast in the hotel, this was also excellent. We had smoked haddock and poached egg and a scrambled egg with smoked salmon. We walked around the grounds and took pictures. For our Bath tour, they recommended we walk into town and take a taxi back, we'd be walking downhill and there are more taxis downtown. We walked through Great Victoria Park, past the Marlborough buildings (townhouses on the side of the park), the Royal Crescent, the Circus. All really nice looking Georgian architecture. Queen's Square and its memorial obelisk. We passed the Jane Austen experience, but didn't go in. We did a little shopping. We walked across the Pulteney Bridge.

We walked down the Grand Parade to the Abbey. Bath Abbey was destroyed with all the others, but it was restored as the Parish church of Bath, then we toured the Roman Baths. We had to wait awhile, and it was a bit Disneyfied, with characters and stories. The water still flows into the baths and out into the Roman sewers. We could see steam coming off the warm water. We ended the tour at the Pump Room. We got a table right away, which was lucky. There were three tables of ladies dressed in purple and red. They even got up together to sing a song. They were members of the Red Hat society. We had squash soup, tuna, a red snapper Niçoise salad and Cheddar strawberries for dessert, we had seen them for sale by the side of the road.

After lunch we took a taxi back to the hotel and got directions to Stroud, we followed them most of the way. We got confused and turned around, but got directions at a pub and we were back on track. We got to the Bear of Rodborough, we checked in and unpacked. We had time for a short nap. It turned out to be very noisy from the road next to the hotel. We were the only guests for dinner. We had lamb and John Dory. The restaurant was actually very good, not like Bath, but better than we expected.

MikeS

"It was only a short ways away, we found a parking lot, but only had enough change for just over an hour."

When traveling around the UK by car you do need to have a lot of change. Almost every carpark wants coins.

annhig

When traveling around the UK by car you do need to have a lot of change. Almost every carpark wants coins.>>

a relatively new phenomenon is the ability to pay by phone for your parking by ringing a phone no displayed on the parking notices board, or even better to download an app which will do the same thing but more easily. The problem is that, at least in my home town, they have now changed the provider of these services so I need to set up another app to cater for this one, but keep the old one for when I visit nearby places where it still holds sway.

some car parks take card payments too, but perhaps paying by cash is easier!

stokebailey

Fine report, carl.

Did you like your hotels? Glad to read the details about Bath.

flanneruk

"The problem is that, at least in my home town, they have now changed the provider"

The bigger problem is that many councils don't explain their policy on the web. In this case, there's simply no reference on the Mendip District Council website to payment mechanisms - or even prices, so visitors can't easily precalculate how much change they need, or whether they need any at all.

At first sight, it beggars belief that an English council can be locked in the steam age like that. As a general rule, such antidiluvian-ness gets more common the further you are from London.

In practice, though, it's a particular problem in towns with a number of tiny, town-centre, parking clusters. The cost of installing modern web-linked machines at each cluster just can't be justified: but most such towns -like Wells - do have free parking only a few yards away, and a quick browse on a smartphone will show where they are.

Though a pain for casual visitors, spending those few minutes will often mean better use of a day than driving off just as you've found something interesting.

chartley

"At first sight, it beggars belief that an English council can be locked in the steam age like that. As a general rule, such antidiluvian-ness gets more common the further you are from London."

But in parking cost terms, there is no such place as "London". Each borough has its own rules and charges. In some cases, this can mean different rules on different sides of the same street.

In rural areas, the problem is that the needs of a village are different from those of a market town. As the council itself states on its website "Mendip District Council operates 44 car parks throughout the district. Of these seven are free, three are for residents only, three are for business use only and the remainder are pay & display. Charges and operating times vary between car parks."

And if you make a day of it, and also go to Cheddar (my dear, the people!) or Weston super Mare, they are in different local authorities as well - Sedgmoor in the case of Cheddar, and North Somerset in the case of Weston.

Regarding Wells, I understand that the best option may be the free Morrison's car park, although time there is limited.

carl170

The Cotswolds

Breakfast at the Bear also good, we had smoked haddock and a poached egg and Eggs Royale (Benedict with smoked salmon). We got directions for Chipping Camden, I thought we'd start at the furthest village and Broadway seemed too touristy. We drove through Tetbury, past Burton on the water and stopped at Stow on the Wold, the highest village in the Cotswolds. We walked around and had lunch, and visited some of the antique shops. Then we went onto Chipping Camden. We parked and walked into town, we picked up the Cotswolds way walk and went up Dovers Hill. We had to go through more sheep pens, not as messy as the one in Glastonbury at least. The views were nice, once back in town we walked past the Main Street through residences. We found some of the noted houses, the Court, the ruins, and the church. We got there just before it closed. Then we drove back to the Bear. We came back from the other direction which was very scenic. The idyllic Rodborough Commons is intersected by two main roads with a lot of traffic, this is the road that we were hearing from our room.

Tonight there were several more people in the restaurant. We had the crab lasagna and soup to start, the lamb a second time and a trio of pork. Dessert was the rhubarb again and cheese.

The next day's breakfast was poached egg and smoked haddock and a full English breakfast. Our first stop was Tetbury, we wanted to shop at some of the antiques stores, we bought a Dutch print from the 1880's. We then drove to the Slaughters, there was a hike that was written up that went from Upper to Lower Slaughter, a longer version went to Bourton on the water, but we thought this would be enough. We couldn't find anywhere to park in Upper Slaughter. We weren't sure what to do, we stopped at a hotel to ask. They gave us a map of the trail and said we could park in their lot, this was the Lord of the Manor hotel, we're staying here next time! The trail was perfect, just what we were expecting from the Cotswolds! Great classic views! We had lunch in Lower Slaughter at the Mill restaurant. Very good soups and sandwiches. We then went to Bourton on the Water which was highly recommended by several people we talked to, the car park was full of tour buses and the town was overwhelmed with tourists, it was picturesque but we didn't stay long. We tried one more village, Bibury, also described as one of the most scenic. This was smaller, but also very crowded so we didn't stay long.

Tonight we tried the local cider at the bar then went to dinner. For our last night we had soup and the crab lasagna again, then we tried something new, the duck and halibut. We had so much food this trip we opted not to have dessert.

Our last day, we had breakfast and tried the fried kippers, which were smoked fish and very good, then we got on the road. We planned a stop at Blenheim Palace, just to see the garden, which were quite extensive and the weather was perfect. We didn't have enough time to visit Oxford, we went right to the airport. Oxford will have to be another trip.

bilboburgler

Hard to imagine that towns need pay car parks, I guess some sort of Southern England thing.

rtwin80days

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