Today is the end of our 2 day driving trip around South West England. We left yesterday morning from Heathrow and after navigating out from the airport, we got onto the motorway and started heading south. We then spent the next 2 hours trying to work out English speed limits, road signs and why the car keeps beeping.

Eventually we managed to get to Brighton and it was a nice sunny morning –

After a brief walk along the pier, we had some of the “best” chips in England (they were pretty good) then onto the local shopping centre so Freya could check out the local TopShop for a dress she was looking for. Alas no joy, so the TopShop locations in Salisbury and Bath were noted down for future stopovers. Then back into the car and onto Salisbury for the night.

We had a really nice meal at a local pub in Salisbury and had our first Benoffe Pie, which was delicious.

Next morning, a short journey to Salisbury Cathedral which has the tallest spire in England. The spire is so heavy that the marble supporting columns inside the church have actually bent under the weight of the spire. I also saw the Magna Carta and the oldest working clock in the world from 1386AD.

Then onwards to Stonehenge (and as promised I’ve included some pictures below of Stonehenge for you, Michelle, with more to come when I get back) –

Finally onwards to Bath for lunch and a visit to the Roman Baths, followed by a drive back through the English countryside back to Heathrow. It total we drove about 400 miles (about 650kms).

Cheerio

Here’s a quick 360 I did of London on our first full day here –

Well after all the planning, researching and purchasing, we’re finally here in Europe. First stop London

We left Sydney airport on a sunny Friday arvo, board the Qantas Airbus A380, watched our takeoff via the planes tailcam, we settled in to enjoy some inflight entertainment and the long journey to Europe. After several TV shows, movies and copious amounts of food, I was really looking forward to getting off in Dubai for a couple of hours, only to be informed that we were diverting to Abu Dabhi due to a “thunderstorm” over Dubai (the plane was unable to wait due to it running out of fuel). Once landed in Abu Dabhi, we then had to wait for a terminal to free up (one of the disadvantages of flying in the new Airbus is you can’t just pull into any free terminal at an airport as you need a terminal that’s compatible with an A380), eventually we had a spot assigned, only to find out we weren’t docking here but only pausing here briefly to refuel 🙁 After about another hour, we were finally cleared for takeoff, to fly the 15min journey to Dubai. I was so happy to finally get off the plane, as I was exhausted and over the plane journey.
We then had an indefinite wait in Dubai airport as we were now running about 6 – 8 hours behind our original schedule, so the plane needed replacement crew, needing restocking, cleaning and ground crew in Dubai needed to sort out food vouchers and connecting flights for customers.

Anyway, ultimately, we finally got to London arriving around 1pm, when we’d originally been scheduled to arrive around 7am. It was typical London weather when we landed, cloudy and overcast, but the weather forecast promised for some sunny weather in the coming days, so hopefully we’ll have some nice weather over the coming days. Will keep you posted.

See ya