The "Chunnel" train click-clacked us from hot,
sweltering Paris to cool, damp London in just over two hours. It doesn't seem like an
especially fast train, nor is it luxurious. And it is expensive, $350
round-trip. But it sure beats flying!
It actually took a while to realize we could not only read the
signs but we could also understand what people were saying – most of the time
anyhow. I fell in love with England immediately. Then I had to negotiate London traffic on the “wrong” side
of the road! It has been several
years since I drove on the left side of the road and never in city traffic.
Getting out of London was a bit hectic and required a lot of concentration on
my part and patience on Connie's. Keep left, but not too far left, shift
with your left hand, look up and to the left for the mirror and pray in the far-too-numerous
roundabouts.
Our car is a brand new Vauxhall, a quirky British machine. It has even less power than a Subaru, the gauges are upside down and I haven't figured out half of the dodads. It has plenty of room for our stuff and should get 30+ MPG, very important when gas costs more than $9 a gallon.
England is about the same size as Michigan but has a population of 50 million - five times that of Michigan. Once we got away from London Connie navigated us on back roads and I was surprised to see how much is country. As you drive through the tiny, ancient villages, all you see are green fields, cattle and sheep.
We are headed for Cornwall, the extreme southwest corner of England, so we can begin to work our way around the country. Our goal is to visit the World Heritage and English Heritage sites and anyplace else that seems interesting. Distances aren't great by US standards but the narrow, winding roads are slow-going, especially through the tiny villages where speed limits are 30 mph. Interestingly, distances are measured in miles, gasoline comes in liters and the money is in pounds.
