A coach ride, a driving lesson and a visit to the bath.

This morning, after another night of tossing (ugh, jet lag), we got up bright and early to head for points south of London.  Unfortunately, we didn't get up quite as early as we should have as we ended up having to make a mad dash down the street from the Victoria underground station to the Victoria coach station (farther apart than we thought).  As a side note, they seem to call it a coach when the bus is going a long distance but still call it a bus when it's a local bus.  Anyway,  we made it in the nick of time for our 2 hour coach ride down to Southampton where we picked up our car.  Yes, that's right, we'd decided to drive in Britain.

By the time we were pulling away from the car hire it was just after noon.  So, it turns out that driving on the 'wrong' side of the road from the 'wrong' side of the car isn't too difficult, if you're just going straight.  The problems come when you're trying to take turns, go around roundabouts(which they have a lot of) and shift with your left hand.  We made quite a few wrong turns and almost got smoked entering a traffic circle (gotta remember to check if traffic's coming from the right not the left!) but our marriage is still intact and we made it to our destination in one piece and in good time.  Along the way, we stopped in Salisbury and made a mad dash for the famous cathedral before our parking time ran out and then stopped at Stonehenge and took a quick peek from the road.  Lastly, we arrived at our hosts for the  night in Bath.  They are the in-laws of one of the guys Reuben works with.  They were so hospitable and since it was getting on, they immediately offered to take us around to all the sights.  We went into Bath Abbey, the famous Roman Baths, drove by the Royal Crescent, around the Circus and through the little village of Newton Saint Loe (owned by Prince Charles, the whole village).   Our hostess sings in the choir at the parish church in this village.  It was really a quaint little place full of tiny stonewalled streets and even a legitimate thatch roofed home!

Then they took us home for a dinner of roast beef, roasted spuds, Yorkshire pudding, veggies and several amazing puddings(desserts).  All the while regaling us with tales of their travels and their life.  It was quite a nice evening!