ecided that there are way too many stories and pictures to potenti
ally post about my recent visitors to do it all in one posting, so I think this will be a three-part update. First of all, let me review who came to visit ... my Mom & Dad, my brother, Mike; his girlfriend, Lynn; and his girls, Erin [12] and Emily[10].Day 1: Travel
We shuttled, trained and taxi'd to Paddington, only to miss our scheduled 1100 am departure for Bristol by six minutes! We made it to Bristol by nearly 1330, half taking a taxi to Portishead and half riding in my very ugly, though practical, mustard yellow Renault. And then it began to rain ... for the rest of Day 1, I shuttled folks from
the hotel at the bottom of the hill to my house in the middle and fed them. Goal: stay awake until 1800.
Day 2: Stonehenge
They arrived on Bank Holiday Monday, 26 May, at Gatwick Airport. Murphey's Law was wo
rking against us. I traveled via train to meet them and bring them back to Bristol. First off, their flight was newly scheduled to arrive an hour earlier, at 700. I could not leave [by train] until 530, scheduled to arrive @ Gatwick airport by 815 ... which was delayed to 900, once in the journey, and THEN, just three stops from the airport, a tre
e had fallen on the tracks, closing the line! I followed a guy in a white sweater to circum-navitate around the closed line and arrive at Gatwick airport at 930am to a tired gro
up ... and we had three more hours to get to my house!
rking against us. I traveled via train to meet them and bring them back to Bristol. First off, their flight was newly scheduled to arrive an hour earlier, at 700. I could not leave [by train] until 530, scheduled to arrive @ Gatwick airport by 815 ... which was delayed to 900, once in the journey, and THEN, just three stops from the airport, a tre
e had fallen on the tracks, closing the line! I followed a guy in a white sweater to circum-navitate around the closed line and arrive at Gatwick airport at 930am to a tired gro
up ... and we had three more hours to get to my house!We shuttled, trained and taxi'd to Paddington, only to miss our scheduled 1100 am departure for Bristol by six minutes! We made it to Bristol by nearly 1330, half taking a taxi to Portishead and half riding in my very ugly, though practical, mustard yellow Renault. And then it began to rain ... for the rest of Day 1, I shuttled folks from
the hotel at the bottom of the hill to my house in the middle and fed them. Goal: stay awake until 1800.Favourite quote of the day from Lynn: "I feel like I've joined the Navy Seals. I've been awake 24 hours, and now I'm walking in the woods!" [The dogs and I walked them to their hotel room via the Chicken Run, at the bottom of the hill at the end of the day.]
Day 2: Stonehenge
On the second day, we headed for one of the most visited tourist-y spots in England: Stonehenge. It was raining ...
Stone
henge is only 70 miles from my house. It took us two hours to travel the first 
35 miles. We stopped for lunch [always my favorite!]. Mike hit his head on a low-hanging beam ... Dad missed it. There were road works [construction] along the way, so we were delayed quite a bit, and re-routed to a 25% grade [read: vertical!] hill. I honestly have no idea how the people mover ascended the hills. I was happy to stop for some food and get out of the car!
henge is only 70 miles from my house. It took us two hours to travel the first 
35 miles. We stopped for lunch [always my favorite!]. Mike hit his head on a low-hanging beam ... Dad missed it. There were road works [construction] along the way, so we were delayed quite a bit, and re-routed to a 25% grade [read: vertical!] hill. I honestly have no idea how the people mover ascended the hills. I was happy to stop for some food and get out of the car!That's pretty much all we accomplished! It was soon time to head back to Portishead for some food in Portishead!
Day 3: Wye
River Valley
River ValleyOn the third day, we crossed over the British Chann
el to Wales. Two notable things about Wales: 1st- it was raining, and 2nd- it was under construction. We stopped to tour Chepstow Castle [pronounced "chep' sto"] and then made our way up the Wye River Valley [pronounced, "why"]. At Chepstow, we toured the castle ruins. Here is a picture of the castle view of the Wye River ... and then how the former tenants may have ... used some of the rooms in the castle to keep it clean-er. Yes, Mike is on the loo!
el to Wales. Two notable things about Wales: 1st- it was raining, and 2nd- it was under construction. We stopped to tour Chepstow Castle [pronounced "chep' sto"] and then made our way up the Wye River Valley [pronounced, "why"]. At Chepstow, we toured the castle ruins. Here is a picture of the castle view of the Wye River ... and then how the former tenants may have ... used some of the rooms in the castle to keep it clean-er. Yes, Mike is on the loo!Technically, we saw the Tintern Abbey ... but that was from the Car Park, as NO ONE was motivated to do any touring in the rain. Mom got a photo from the people-mover [mini-van].
Personally, I saw great-looking pubs and plan to return to in the Wye River Valley.
