The English Countryside: Day 3

June 30th

Today we got to sleep in!! It was glorious! We went down for breakfast at 9. Kay and Steve has a lovely arrangements of fruits, yogurts, cereal and juices set out for us. That was just for starters. Then they cooked us a "Traditional English" breakfast. That would be eggs, sausage, ham, mushrooms, black pudding and toast. It was delicious! Best breakfast of the whole trip. I think we will stick with B&B's in the future. We chatted with them for a good while, it was nice to feel more like a house guest verses a client at a hotel. After breakfast we took our time getting ready and didn't head our till after noon. 

Driving came much more naturally today and neither one of us was very stressed while in the car. We drove 20 minutes to Stonehenge. 

It was a neat place to visit with a nice audio guide. The wind was SOOOO strong. You can tell when looking at our pictures that my dress was sticking to me the wind was blowing so strong. The stones are in the middle of the country and not surrounded by any building. It was beautiful! We were sad the wind made it a little colder than we wanted so we didn't stay longer than an hour. Then it was back on the road to drop off our rental car. 

(I love this picture except for the fact I look pregnant. I promise it is just the way my body is bent and the way the wind blew my clothes.)

Most of the drive was on a motor way. We drove for about 2 hours and found a good roadside rest area that had a ton of food places inside. There was a bridge over the freeway to connect one rest area to another so you could walk across and try the food on the other side. We thought that was pretty cool. After lunch we got back on the road only to realize we were basically almost to the airport where we were dropping off the car. Our GPS had the wrong address in it so we had to quickly revise our trip and luckily didn't miss any major turns in the process. 

We found a gas station to fill up our tank with diesel fuel, that was new. Mike had to go inside and ask how to use the machine because it was a little tricky and then he had to use the car key to open the gas tank (good idea to keep people from siphoning it out of your tank.) We put about half a tank of gas in the car and paid 25 pounds. That is like 35-40 USD!! I don't think I will complain about gas prices as much anymore. After we filled up we dropped the car off, scratch free, and got a taxi to our hotel.

The hotel room is nice in this hotel. Very big with a shower and a couch! We were anxious just to spend a night vegging in front of the TV and enjoying each other company. We watched a little tennis (Roddick loose) before we wnt down to get some dinner at the pub. Food is so expensive here once you convert the pound to the dollar. I am anxious to pay american prices again!!! After dinner we spent the rest of the night watching the Murray v Baghdats match. What a little tennis fan Mike has turned me into! I really loved all the time we were able to spend together on this trip. Mike was saying that we have spent more time together in the past 10 days than we have in the past 6 months... it is probably true. 

I am sad to be saying goodbye to Mike tomorrow. We aren't even able to take the same shuttle to the airport since we are going to different terminals. I am excited to go on to Paris but really nervous to do it all on my own. I am crossing my fingers and praying that all goes well and I make in to my Aunt's safe and sound!