We just got back from a 10 day trip to Tenby (in Pembrokeshire, Wales), the Cotswolds, and Manchester. An odd tour? Yes. Let me explain. My dad was born in Manchester in the 40’s and moved to Brockworth (eastern Gloucester) as a child, before moving to Canada when he was 12. My hubby (Bikerscott) and I (in our early 30’s) live in London and as part of trip to visit us my dad wanted to revisit the haunts of his youth. He and my mom had been back to Britain in the early 70’s but this was only his 2nd time back, and first time to London. Hubby and I had already booked a trip to Tenby, Wales for a 4 day weekend, so we kept that portion then moved onto the other areas.

Our schedule:

Friday Oct 10 – drive from Gatwick to Tenby
Sat Oct 11 – Tenby
Sun Oct 12 – St David’s Cathedral and Manorbier castle
Mon Oct 13 – drive to the Cotswolds
Tues Oct 14 – spend the day visiting Brockworth and Gloucester
Wed Oct 15 – drive the Romantic Road in the Cotswolds
Thurs Oct 16 – Bath (my mom has relatives from Bath)
Fri Oct 17 – drive to Manchester (lunch with dad’s cousins in Knutsford on the way)
Sat Oct 18 – Manchester
Sun Oct 19 – drive home to London

Now, this was the first driving tour we have done in the UK. The 2nd time we’ve rented a car. The first time began with my hubby (bless him) sideswiping a big red double decker bus about 30 feet from the exit to the rental place. Needless to say I was nervous. To make matters worse, my hubby wasn’t able to drive as he had exchanged his Canadian licence for a UK one, and as he had taken his test on an automatic in Canada he is now only qualified to drive an automatic which we couldn’t find for a reasonable cost. So my dad, fresh off the plane from Canada, would be driving YIKES. (Can someone please explain to me why tourists can drive a standard but people that exchange their foreign licences have to take a manual test before they can???????) Anyways, I was nervous…and it turned out that I had good reason to be. More on that as we go.

So here we go:

Day 1 Oct 10– The drive to Tenby or what I like to call KEEP RIGHT!!!

My parents had been here a week in London exploring already, but after our ‘mishap’ on our previous rental we wanted to pick up a car out of central London. Early Friday morning we got up and headed to Gatwick on the train. No problem. As it turned out that was also the day of what some analysts were calling The System Meltdown of the Financial Systems Worldwide. Well, I work for a US bank here in London and let’s just say I was a tad freaked out about not having a job when we returned. So began my news ban (which I am trying to maintain even today).

Picked up the car with no problems. A special thanks here to my in-laws who ever so kindly gave us a Sat Nav (GPS) system as a xmas gift a couple of months early. It was to be a life saver!!! Getting the keys to the car was no problem…it was getting out of the parking lot and through all the roundabouts that freaked us all out. Bless my dad, he did a really good job…but we don’t have roundabouts in Canada where we are from so this was new for him. We soon realized that we would need two ‘drivers’. One to help navigate and one to steer…so my hubby took the first turn at navigating and helping my dad stay in the right lane (the LEFT) and get around roundabouts. We were all a bit relieved when we finally made it to the M25 and then the M4 (I think) heading to Tenby. The problem for us North Americans is that we are used to the car being on our right side…not the left, so we find it hard to keep on the right hand side of the lanes. My dad heard KEEP RIGHT far more often than I’m sure he would have liked!

It took us about 6 hours to get to Tenby, including a few stops along the way for lunch and coffee and body breaks. Even so…we all needed a drink by the time we made it and found out B&B.

We stayed at the lovely Bay House B&B in Tenby. It was £70 a night per room. http://www.bayhousetenby.co.uk/index.php It is the only 5 star B&B in Tenby and it is just lovely. They have 3 rooms that are gorgeous and the most amazing breakfast spread. Full English, pastries, fruit, fresh juices, yogurt, cakes; I could go on and on. And Debra and Philip were lovely hosts and very helpful. We highly recommend it and will definitely stay again.

As soon as we had parked the car we headed for dinner and drinks. The B&B is located just outside the medieval walls and there are tonnes of pubs to choose from. We went to one called the 5 Arches on the main road and had delicious pub food and way too many drinks. The locals were very friendly and we ended up meeting the people staying in the other room in our B&B (Judith and Ed) who were celebrating their anniversary. We had a drink or two with them, and then we all headed back to the B&B for a great nights sleep.

Tomorrow – some rain, some more bevies, and NO driving!

Pictures to follow…

Day 2 Oct 11 – Discovering Tenby

We rolled out of bed and headed downstairs around 9am to be welcomed by economic chaos and financial panic. Great way to start our vacation. We promptly turned off the news and devoured a deliciously huge Full English breakfast before heading out on the town. Tenby is a beautiful seaside town in Pembrokeshire Wales, surrounded by beautiful beaches and lovely painted houses. http://www.virtualtenby.co.uk/

The weather was typical October weather – blustery and drizzling just hard enough to be annoying - that light misty rain that makes umbrella’s useless. We bundled up and headed out for the beaches to check out the view. We wandered through town and up to the castle lookout. The views are simply amazing, despite the rain – nothing between us and Newfoundland but a couple of whales. We walked along the beach and stopped along the way for hot chocolate. We decided to have a look at the Tenby Museum, which was small, but interesting (in a ‘built by locals on a budget that wouldn’t take you far at the pub’ sort of way). We then headed for lunch at one of the many busy pubs near the high street. The pubs were really busy and so was the high street. After a pint and lunch we shopped down the high street and enjoyed the lovely views of the colourful painted houses. It was very relaxing and a great way to see town.

Dinner I am ashamed to say, was at the same pub as Friday night. The food was good, and my parents got their first taste X Factor, which they loved, much to our dismay.

Tomorrow – St David’s Cathedral, and The Closed Castle (and the drive to see them!)

Great report! Looking forward to hearing the rest.

Thanks Irishface! Hope others are enjoying too!

Day 3 Oct 12 – Do we have to get in the car again?

OK, so Day 1 was a big driving day…a big scary driving day (we logically knew that it would eventually end, but there were moments when we couldn’t feel it. Very nearly brown-trouser-time at a few points). None of us particularly wanted to drive again; however, we obviously needed to get over it as this was a DRIVING tour of the UK. So we reluctantly (even dad wasn’t looking forward to it) got back in the car and headed west to St David’s cathedral. The driving would have been fine if there were fewer roundabouts…so thank goodness the roads were pretty empty as it was Sunday.

It took us an hour to get to St David’s and we made it there safe and sound. In fact, we were doing splendidly until we missed the road to the parking lot and had to park farther away. But in general it was all good. The city of St David’s is situated on the far south west coast of Wales. Granted city status by Queen Elizabeth II because of the presence of the cathedral St David’s is in reality a small attractive village. St David’s Cathedral has been around since the 12th century and was a popular pilgrimage destination throughout the Middle Ages that still attracts many tourists today. Right beside the cathedral are the magnificent ruins of the medieval Bishops Palace. The palace and cathedral are beautiful…my only complaint is that they charge you to get in, plus they charge you to take pictures (the entrance fee is an optional donation).

We didn’t go into the palace, but did wander around the beautiful cathedral. During this wander we ended up losing my dad. I should not here that my dad is always wandering away from the group. We always joke that we need one of those leashes parents use to keep hold of their young children. He wants to see EVERYTHING and he reads EVERY plaque and so tends to get left behind. Of course he doesn’t just stay where he is, he then wanders off. Sigh. So after waiting for him for about 15 minutes I made a run around the cathedral to hurry him up…but he wasn’t there. He also wasn’t in the bookstore, or the cloisters, or the coffee shop, or outside the door. Grrr….where was he? After searching for about 30 minutes we decided to settle down outside the door and figured he could find us…and at that moment I noticed him standing up on the hill overlooking the cathedral video taping everything (making family videos is another of his passions, most of my life can be found on VHS tapes in my parents living room). AGH!!!! So we climbed the hill to meet him and decided it was time to eat lunch!

On the way to St David’s we drove through a cute little town/village and we decided to head there for lunch. The town’s name is Solva, and is really just a high street with cute stores and pubs. We settled into one of the pubs and had a delicious pub lunch. I can’t remember the pub’s name, but the owner was a cute little old lady that kept checking in at all the tables to make sure everyone was ok. Very cute!

After lunch we wandered around the town and took pictures, and then got back in the car and headed east 3 miles and stopped at the village of Newgale. Newgale is in a little valley on the sea and has a beautiful beach that was still full of surfers! It was definitely not a sandy beach though…to protect the high street there was a great wall of pebbles you have to climb to get to the water. Truly lovely.

There was one more stop on our roadtrip for the day…Manorbier Castle. This is a 12th century Norman castle complete with battlements. I would know more about it but we arrived at 5:15pm, just as they were locking the doors!!! Manorbier Castle has now been renamed The Closed Castle in our books. The funny part was the TINY road my poor dad had to negotiate to get to the darn castle…and then it was CLOSED! But all was not lost. A beautiful cove was just minutes away and we watched the sun set over the beautiful Welsh landscape.

Back in the car we negotiated the tiny roads to the best of our abilities and made it back to Tenby in one piece, just in time for a pre-dinner pint. We dropped the car (thank goodness) in front of our B&B and headed back into town for a pint at a beautiful tudor pub. We were all tired and we found ourselves at a fish and chip joint for dinner and then headed to bed.

Tomorrow: another drive and the Cotswolds

Pictures from Wales:

http://picasaweb.google.com/jamie.a....ripTenbyWales#

Jamikins:
Your delightful report convinces me that we are right always to plan our UK trips by public transport. Look forward to reading more.

Hahahaha...I want to say it wasnt THAT bad...but it was!!!! We arent driving again until my hubby gets his UK standard license!

Day 4 Oct 13 – The Drive to the Cotswolds

We were all very excited about visiting the Cotswolds, and we were all a little bit less excited about getting in the car and driving there. But my dad did a great job with the help of my fearless hubby. We left the Bay House after breakfast and said goodbye to our lovely hosts. The drive was about 4 hours, but it flew by and shortly after 12 we arrived at our next stop: The Colesbourne Inn http://www.thecolesbourneinn.co.uk/

The Inn was located on the A435 halfway between Cheltenham and Cirencester. I chose this Inn for its location as it was also very close to Brockworth, Gloucester. The pub attached was excellent, complete with roaring fire, good bartender and great food. We settled into our basic rooms (£75 per room a night) and headed off to Cirencester, 8 miles away.
Cirencester is an old Roman town with a beautiful Cathedral (which was also closed by the time we wanted to go inside…sense a pattern here??). We wandered along the shopping streets and stopped here and there for a pint and a pasty for lunch. I really love the beautiful colour of the Cotswold stone used to build all the buildings in this area. They seem to just glow. As the afternoon wore on we decided to find the large park in town as it was suppose to be beautiful…but alas, by the time we made it there is was closed!!! Hahaha…no problem, we jumped back in the car and headed home to the Inn.

Dinner that night, and every night, was in our pub. And the steak and ale pie was definitely the winner. Delicious. The food was excellent. I really do love all the pubs along the roads in the Cotswolds.

Tomorrow: reminiscing in Brockworth and Gloucester

jamikins,

The photo of your dad with his camcorder in hand made me laugh outloud after having read your report. you seem like a fun group to travel with.

I hope you're enjoying living in London. I was able to do it for a summer in college and dream about returning.

keep the report coming please!

Jamikins - great report. I spent ten days driving in Scotland a few years ago with my brother in law yelling "WATCH OUT" every two minutes. It got a little annoying.

I am enjoying your report, and your pictures.

Thanks.

Thanks everyone!! Traveling with family can be stressful, but I think we pulled it off hahahaha...

Day 5 Oct 14 – The Cheese Hill and Memories

My dad moved from Manchester to Brockworth when he was a young boy and he had only been back once since leaving in 1957 so he was really looking forward to this part of the trip. We gave him the whole day to decide what he wanted to do. So we piled back into the car and I took my turn navigating through the roundabouts and roads to Brockworth, a few miles away. The first stop was the Cross Hands.

The Cross Hands is an intersection, or better still, a roundabout around the corner from where my dad’s house was. It is also the location of a pub my grandfather frequented call the Cross Hands. As we drove along towards it my dad could not believe how small everything was. Having left as a boy everything had seemed so big in his memory. And of course there were changes…a big Shell gas station on one corner…and the Cross Hands pub has now been renamed The Toby Carvery and is under new management. But it still looked much like he remembered.

We parked in the pub parking lot and wandered down the street to his road. It was great to see this with my dad as I could now see where all his stories took place. His house had a fantastic view of Coopers Hill, where the big cheese run is done every year. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brockworth . We spent an hour or so walking around his old street, the park behind it and his old school…trying not to look like we were scoping the joint! Back at the Cross Hands pub we had a pint so my dad could absorb what he had seen and then headed out again to find his old church down Green Road. As it turned out, the old church was gone, so we headed up the hill on a tiny, steep road to see Cooper’s Hill up close. We made it around one steep turn and then decided to park and walk the remaining way! It was great to see and I know my dad enjoyed it.

Back in the car we headed to Gloucester for lunch. We stopped at The New Inn, on old beautiful coaching inn, and had a burger. I have to say, Gloucester was not my favourite town. It was quite down and out looking, with lots of stores closed down.

We did see the Beatrix Potter store, and Gloucester Cathedral, which was beautiful. The cloisters are amazing, they look like lace. The cathedral is huge and well worth a visit if you are in town.

We headed back to our inn but decided to stop at the Air Balloon pub on the way as my dad remembered it from his youth and had always wanted to go inside. I should point out that my dad is not a big drinker, and only had a half pint or less when we went in for drinks.

This is where it all went wrong. Thinking I knew how to get home, we didn’t turn on Tracy, our faithful Sat Nav, and I guided my dad through the wrong exit in the first roundabout. This got us both flustered, and started up the backseat drivers (we had had a firm NO BACKSEAT DRIVING rule in place since day 1). My dad entered a roundabout, got flustered AND STOPPED!!! His reflex whenever he didn’t know where he was going was to stop, not go around again, so we had cars honking and flying around us like crazy. Finally we got out of the roundabout, my mom nearly in tears, and turned on the Sat Nav to get home. Poor mom was completely freaked out, my dad was upset, and it was time for bed.

Tomorrow – more car fun and beautiful surprises

Day 6 Oct 15 – A tour of the small villages

We started our day with our usual Full English and got into the car. My dad did a great job maneuvering around the inn and turning into the correct (left hand) lane…until he saw the other car coming at him in the right hand lane and instincts took over…our car wildly swirved into the right hand lane in front of said oncoming car at which point we all screamed!! Thank goodness he regained his senses immediately and got back into our lane…have I mentioned how happy I was to drop off the car at the end of the week???

From there we had a whole day of driving planned along the small lanes in the Cotswolds. Adrenaline subsided and we continued on our way with no further mishaps that day.

We started off driving in the direction of Cheltenham and carried on by. Our goal was to get to Chipping Campden for lunch via Broadway and Stanton. We meandered through Winchecombe (super cute village I’d love to spend time in) and then made a wrong turn. No worries, we had no set path so we continued down the tiny lane and ended up smack in front of Stanmore House. This was a lovely manor house, which was unfortunately closed, but we got some beautiful pictures. We headed around through to Stanton, at which point we decided to stop and walk around. This village is adorable, and apparently used as a movie set frequently. We wandered around and met up with numerous hikers doing the Cotswolds Way. Basically the only thing in Stanton is a pub, which is at the top of a hill at the end of a lane. As we were heading up a large semi-truck (lorrie) drove up the hill and immediately got stuck. Apparently Sat Navs (GPS) are leading truck drivers down tiny lanes all over the UK and they are getting stuck as the drivers blindly follow them. Well this driver got stuck. My hubby and dad spent quite a while watching the truck back slowly down this tiny lane down the hill. Mom and I quickly got to the pub and saved us a table and got us a round.

The pub was actually quite busy with hikers and locals, so we decided to continue on to Chipping Campden for lunch. No troubles getting there via Broadway and we parked and headed to find a pub. Unfortunately, it was just after 2pm and most pubs had stopped serving lunch (hubby and I were trying to rush my parents but they were busy taking pics and looking at everything) so we settle in at a pub that said they would make us some sandwiches. And they did. They were beautiful huge sandwiches and we devoured them!

After that we headed out in the direction of Bourton-on-the-Water, but upon discussion in the car we discovered that we all appreciated the non-touristy aspects of Stanton and so decided to skip Bourton and head to Lower Slaughter. Hubby and I had been to Lower Slaughter in the spring on a London Walk, so we knew what to expect…and it didn’t disappoint. It is a lovely place with a small river running through and an old mill that makes delicious ice cream. My dad is an ice cream addict so he was thrilled. This village ended up being one of the highlights.

By this time it was getting close to dinner time, so we headed back to our inn. We had a 7:30pm reservation for quiz night!!!! This was our first experience with a British pub quiz and as Canadians let’s just say we did not win…not even close…in fact we scored the lowest score in the room!! We were completely ready with our UK knowledge (1066, King George 4, Queen Elizabeth 1 and so on) but alas we were not equipped with knowledge about Scottish Islands and the rules of netball. But we had a blast with the locals.

Another great day!

Tomorrow – Bath anyone?

Day 7 Oct 16 – A trip to Roman Bath

Post breakfast we all headed back to the car to drive the 1 hour to Bath. We weaved through the lovely countryside and even managed to find a garage that had some old cars for dad (Rolls Royce and a Morgan I think). We pulled into Bath around 11:30 and of course got lost trying to find the parking lot. After a few tense moments we found one right by the Cathedral and jumped out to start exploring.

My dad is a huge roman history fan, so I knew he would love the baths as they are the best preserved in Britain (maybe even the world)! As previously mentioned, my dad likes to read EVERYTHING in these types of exhibits, so we knew we had to give him a limit…so we gave my parents 1 ¼ hours (we’d already been twice). Ensuring the ‘rents were safely inside we headed out for some shopping and a quick pint. It started out as a beautiful day but had some big scary clouds blowing across by mid-afternoon. We went back to the entry way at the agreed upon time and waited. And waited. And waited…that’s when we realized that the exit was on the other side of the baths so I went on a mission to find them. Found them safe and sound in the gift shop and we headed out for a pizza lunch. The rest of the afternoon mom and I spent shopping, and hubby and dad spent exploring.

Based on the a couple nights ago misadventures, we decided to head back to our inn at 4 to avoid driving in the dark. Along the way we stopped at the Thames Head pub for a drink and dad was able to talk to some locals to get an idea of how long it would take us to get to Manchester in the morning. We weren’t quite ready for dinner when we arrived at our inn so we headed to the nearby Green Dragon Inn…which was down a tiny lane. For some reason this lane was super busy…cars were flying at us and dad had to basically drive into the bushes to make room hahahaha…he handled it well but I think he was relieved when we arrived. We had a couple pints there (it looked like a great place to stay) and headed back for our final dinner at our inn.

Tomorrow – lunch with some relatives and driving through Manchester at rush hour

Pictures of The Cotswolds:
http://picasaweb.google.com/jamie.a..../TheCotswolds#

I'm enjoying your trip reports, and the pics! Love the Hikers Boot Rack.

Wow - guess your next trip around Britain will be via train? I'm thinking about that myself, even though our driving tour wasn't nearly as scary as yours...and I must admit I was paranoid as I wasn't sure we had insurance...oh, well, it's a long story!

Hahahaha...well my hubby will definitely be getting his UK standard license before we do another road trip in the UK so I will feel much better then!

Day 8 Oct 17 – Manchester here we come!

Another long drive ahead of us, we headed out very early. The inn was nice enough to provide us with some bacon sandwiches, but they really weren’t that great. We headed out of the Cotswolds (sniff sniff) and up the M5 and M6 towards Manchester. My dad had gotten in contact with his cousin Graham who lives in the Lake District and arranged to meet him for lunch in Knutsford, just south-west of Manchester. We were a bit worried about getting through Birmingham in time to meet him, but after a few queues on the highway we were in Knutsford…early! We were able to walk around town and visited a great garden store before meeting up at the Magnolia Restaurant at the Cotton Hotel.

Graham had a surprise in store for my dad…he had also invited his sister Lynn and her husband John, so we had a fantastic lunch (food was excellent, company better) catching up and talking with family. 3 hours later, we headed out for Manchester…and entered at rush hour. This is where it all could have gone awry.

Tracy had thus far been extremely reliable leading us through the winding roads of Britain. As it turns out she didn’t like Manchester quite as much. She led us through a complicated route and I accidentally led dad astray. Several stressful minutes later we were back on track and pulled into our hotel, The Premier Inn, around 5. Thank goodness.

I had a heck of a time trying to find affordable places to stay in Manchester…I think there was a Man U football game on that weekend, and I really didn’t want to spend more than £70 a night per room as my parents would be paying in $CDN. So I booked the Premier Inn. It was ok. Typical budget hotel, although the rooms were very large, bathrooms modern and there was a decent restaurant inside. Big bonus was being walking distance to the Disney-like modern mall/plaza that has become downtown Manchester. Seriously, I couldn’t believe it…it was like a neon Disney mall for blocks and blocks…more on this later….

So we unloaded the car and headed out on the town to get our bearings and find somewhere for dinner. Manchester was not what I was expecting. I knew it had been heavily bombed…but I didn’t expect the whole ‘downtown’ to be a HUGE shopping mall complex! They have the biggest Next store I have ever seen, a full North American style mall, a high street, and a huge restaurant/cinema complex surrounding the Manchester cathedral. It was crazy…neon and people everywhere!

My dad wanted to figure out where Piccadilly was so we walked around until we found it. The statue of Queen Victoria has now been replaced by a smaller version and a huge building splits the square so it wasn’t exactly as he remembered. They also have a huge bus exchange and a tram service running through the area. I think he was quite startled by the changes!

After that we wandered around and ended up at a North American style restaurant next to the Hard Rock Café (don’t ask…it wasn’t my hubby and my choice!) and enjoyed an evening of wine and fajitas.

Tomorrow: What happened to the neighbourhood!!??

Day 9 – A trip in history

My mom wasn’t feeling very well on Saturday so dad, hubby and I headed out to find Brockworth Manchester (not in York!). I had googled it a few times, and couldn’t find it, so I assumed it has been renamed or amalgamated into another area of the city. It is located on the east side of city centre.

We left the car at the hotel and took a bus from Piccadilly. Now dad remembers it being quite far, in actuality it was about 1 mile, so we arrived in short order…to find that they had built the new Man City football club stadium over his old neighbourhood!!! Dad was not impressed. I though the area looked quite good, nice new boulevards etc.

Dad wanted to walk down Grey Mare road to see what streets, if any were left. We found one…Bosworth Road. One side of this road has now become a correctional centre (nice) but the other side was just as dad remembered it. What would have been his street is now a parking lot of a new housing complex, but at least a bit was still there. On the way back out of the street a little old lady came out of a house…and so my dad went to ask her if she had lived there in the 40’s and 50’s ….and SHE HAD! She actually remembered my dad’s mom and the fish and chip shop they used to run out of there house. Dad didn’t know her, but he was very excited to talk to her about all the changes. I think it was the highlight of his day. We got a picture of her and headed back to the city centre for a spot of lunch.

After lunch mom was feeling up to shopping so we split up, girls heading to the mall, boys to the museum. Mom was actually able to cross a lot of presents off her list for my hubby, so that worked out well.
Hubby and I went out for dinner alone that night and enjoyed steaks at Café Rouge. We had a blast people watching and laughing about the trip.

Day 10 – HOME

Sunday we got an early start and drove back to London…no incidents to report…by this time we were all feeling much more comfortable with driving on the ‘wrong’ side of the road hahahaha. Although we all sighed a big sigh of relief when we finally got to Gatwick and dropped off the car. I even took a picture of my dad beside it to remember it!

All in all it was a fabulous trip…now that we can all laugh at the mishaps. I am so glad I got to share the adventures with my parents!

Pictures of Manchester:
http://picasaweb.google.com/jamie.a.shearer/Manchester#

thanks very much for posting
My husband and I are Canadians who spent our honeymoon in Wales including the first week in a cottage just outside of St Davids(for no particular reason!) and my Dad is from the Manchester area (born in 1940) so I felt a particular connection to your report!

And the two phrases that saved us driving in Wales (and later in Scotland and England) were

"The passenger is on the curb" (was a more immediate reminder of which side to drive on then trying to remember left from right!)
and
"Edge alert" (meaning, excuse me honey but I think you are starting to line your self up on the road as if you were sitting on the other side of the car!)

Enjoyed the read!

Hahaha...love those sayings Canada V...they sound so calm, but I know the feeling behind them!!!

Loved the stories. As you noted the IRA did the city of Manchester a great service when they destroyed the Arndale shopping centre.