Day 4, England, September 23rd

Wow, what a day!  Hope I can record all this before falling asleep!  This will be a long one!

Set alarms for 3:40, but Brazilian roommates came in at 3:30 from clubbing and we woke up then!  Funny!  Walked a few blocks in a deserted London, which was a bit creepy.  Found Zipcar, started it, and off we went.

Boy!  Driving in England.  It wasn't too bad driving on the left and sitting on the right of the car once I got used to it.  I even grew fond of the roundabouts, which spiral outward - very different then roundabouts in the US.  The difficult thing was the signage and lane markers - all lane markers are white, and the different between oncoming and lanes in the same direction is a subtle change in length.  However, British drivers are very nice, always letting you in.  I never heard a single honk throughout the entire day, despite some close shaves.

Anyway, off to Stonehenge!  We leave with two phones, one of which has a spare battery.  If all of these go, we are completely screwed - with signs like these there is no way we are ever getting home.  Luckily the only mistake on the way there is Andrew routes a walking route - different, but way more difficult and slower than what we want. We figure this out about halfway through, and, because there are no cars on the road, get to the henge at 6:58, sunrise.  Unfortunately it's cloudy and foggy, no sun in sight.

We walk right up to the stones, touch them, take pictures. We are allowed to do this because it is the Autumn Solstice festival.  There are about 150 people there, maybe 30 pagans dressed in robes.  A guy with bagpipes, a guy with plastic elf ears, a guy with a sword, a guy with a light up walking stick.  There is a ceremony with handholding, flowers, plastic skulls, crystals, and chanting.

I see my first wedding!  A guy and a girl get married by a Druid in lovely fashion. The entire thing takes about 10 minutes, it's great!  They jump over some flowers,  everybody claps.

At 8 they shoo us out of the stones and we head to the car and drive to Salisbury Cathedral.  There are more cars on the road now, and as we enter Salisbury things get a bit more difficult.  We grab a quick breakfast, then go see the Cathedral at about 9, before it opens, but Reiter snags a tour guide for just the two of us.

Tour guide is GREAT.  85 very British and friendly ex-doctor, smart and knowledgeable.  The three of us got along very well, and I learned a lot of very interesting stuff.  We are probably in there for about an hour, asking questions and just talking about the US and UK.  I loved it. Then we go see the Magna Carta, and had lunch at "Boston Tea Party" (I had a "traditional Boston breakfast" of beans, bacon, and eggs) and off to Sudbury hill and the Avebury stones.

We never get there, and here is where things get interesting. Andrew's first batteries run out, and he switches to my phone, which he can't really use.  My Gps is terrible and we keep losing service for minutes at a time.  Despite being the navigator, Andrew thinks it is a brilliant idea to start taking naps...and naps, and naps, and more naps.  One time I wake him to ask him for directions, he pulls out the phone, opens the apps, and falls asleep.   Asleep, awake, asleep in about 5 seconds.

We get pretty badly lost in the lovely English countryside, but eventually make it to Warwick castle at ... 3:45  That means we were driving for something like 4 hours. Warwick castle closes at 5:00.

We run up to Warwick castle, catch the tail end of a 45 minute tour, and then see a real Trebuchet fire a flaming rock at 4:30.  With half an hour to spare we rush through the rooms.  They have put a lot of work into this place!  Multiple realistic statues in every room with entire scenes and sound.  Maybe 30 rooms like this. Very impressive, with other extra pay exhibits.  A bit tacky, but far more tasteful than I was expecting.  Then we climb the battlements, at which point my legs cramp up and I have to hobble down 5 flights of tiny spiral stairs.

Anyway, we leave the premises and head to the car at about 5:30.  By this point my phone is at something like 15%, and Andrew's spare battery is finicky.  Again, if we run out of juice on all devices we are completely screwed without any reasonable way of getting home.  I'm very tired and we consider heading home right then to avoid the risk.

We decide to risk it and go to Oxford College before heading home.  Between attempts to conserve battery, confusing road signs, lack of signal and Andrew's decidedly mediocre navigation skills, we wind up looping through a series of roundabouts several times.  Things are getting difficult now, and it's unclear what we should be doing when, to go south we have to go north, no wait, A42 east then M40 south.  We circle a single roundabout about 4 times while we try and figure out the correct way.  There are also plenty of cars everywhere.

My iPhone directs us to Stratford-Upon-Avon, where it dies at 3% battery.  We stop in a gas station, as Reiter plugs in his new battery - 100%.  BUT his signal isn't working at all.  I go inside to look at an atlas.  I realize, of course, that Oxford College isn't what we are looking for - we want Oxford University.  Which is in Oxford.  Shocking.  After about 20 minutes Andrew gets his phone working and we backtrack, then to Oxford (naturally by first heading north to a three connected roundabouts to get on the correct southern road).

We arrive shortly before sunsets, but it's been cloudy all day so its impossible to tell.  The university and town are oddly deserted and dark.  The buildings and lovely, but we both get the sense that something is wrong.  Maybe school is out of session?  Maybe this is a twilight zone episode?  We get lost, wind up in some creepy alleys, but make it out alive.

I'm completely exhausted from the constant vigilance of driving, and my feet are still killing me (just looked - dime sized blisters on both pinkies).  We mope through the streets, and after perhaps an hour of looking (everywhere is closed), we find a pub to eat at.  It's 9:30.

We return to the car to see two policemen standing next to our car.  I unlock it, and they turn to see us.  I greet them in a friendly manner, and they say they were about to give us a ticket, can't we read the sign?  We go to the sign, and proceed to look at it for about a minute before the confused constable points out a clearly labeled box that explains that we needed to pay.

This has error has nothing to do with Britain, and we studied the sign quite closely when we arrived: we are just stupid sometimes.

The very nice cops do not give us a ticket and we set sail for home. After about an hour of driving, partially through fog, we arrive in London.  We park at about 11 and everything is well!

Somewhere between 10 and 11 hours of driving, all told.  I am extremely proud of myself for doing an exemplary job, not killing anybody, and only driving in the wrong lane once or twice.  Andrew, for his patchy navigation skills, deserves at perhaps a certificate of attendance.  I remember at least one or two occasions where he told me the correct way to go, and for that he deserves to be rewarded.

Now, to sleep at 12:45!  21 hours awake!  Woo!