The UK Countryside

After bumping around for a few days in Southern England, we headed north via motorway with Maylene driving and me navigating.  Yes – she gets the award because not only is she driving on the left-hand side of the road, but she’s also driving a manual and shifting with her left hand — my hero!!

Prior to heading north, we spent a few days driving through the Cotswolds, a beautiful section of the English countryside.  It was amazing — green and lush and tranquil and yes, as Rick Steves says, quaint even.

As we headed to Wales, we were surprised to find that, if it’s even possible, the Welsh countryside is even more spectacular.  The hills and valleys dotted with sheep and ruinous castles took our breath away.  We stayed in the town of Conwy, a small harbor town built within the still-standing Conwy castle walls erected by Edward I in the late 1200s to suppress the Welsh uprisings – it along with six other enormous castles and 2x his total annual budget – definitely had the intended effect.  We went on the very good guided tour – we loved learning about the castle defenses and in our heads, relating them to the RPGs we’ve enjoyed playing so much.

The town and surrounding area is so very charming – it is a must-see for any visitor to the area.  We also really appreciated the dual-language used in the area as all signs were in both Welsh and English.  The area even has it’s own BBC programming in Welsh as 25% of the people still speak the beautiful language.  We were sad to finally leave Wales and to no longer have the bilingual signs.

We were headed to another really amazing area, however, the Lake District.  It is this hilly and lake-filled region that has been designated a national park.  The rocky hills covered with grass and shrubs are home to – you guessed it – sheep too.  We took a detour off the “main road” (a two lane windy thoroughfare) on a tiny lane that really should have been one way but was designated as two – passing the Volvo in a tight spot was fun — I watched as they electronically pulled in their mirrors so we could squeeze by.  Maylene told me she didn’t see anything – she was too busy trying not to hit their car!  The detour ran along the lake and was supposed to take us to another ancient rock circle but instead took us across the lakes along a reservoir road and when we reached back to the main road, Maylene had enough of it and we headed to the town proper.  Too funny!

So now we’re sitting here debating about which area is the most beautiful – Maylene still votes Wales and I have to admit, there really is something brilliant about it but the Lake District is also amazing — I can’t wait to see what we think of Scotland which is next on the itinerary!