Summing up...

Parcels and excess baggage...

Although glad to be back home, the memories come flooding back. If they didn't, there would be no use going!!

We are still getting back the many parcels of stuff we sent to ourselves, to lighten the load. It was mainly receipts, note books, pamphlets, guides, etc., and would have just taken up space in our luggage, and added weight. We still think that if you are prepared to spend a little on Surface Post, and not have it come back to you for possibly 6-8 weeks, then it is a good way to do it, and it is much cheaper than paying excess baggage rates.

Either that or just don't accumulate things!

That isn't easy, when some of the guide books or pamphlets, or postcards are often the best way of keeping information of where you've been. A case in point are the postcards you can buy quite cheaply, but are often much better than some shots you can get yourself, i.e. aerial shots of cities or areas.
So, the only thing to come now is another tube in which there are a couple of posters. It is the best way to get these back without them being folded or crumpled.

Photos...

We took over 4,000 photos between us and Lee has now got them all sorted together in folders relevant to the areas we went to or the things we did. It is just great to go back over them all and recall the wonderful things we saw and did together, and it makes the memories of long flights fade away, and you realise that it was all sooooo worth it!

It will make a good "slide show", if only for our own family.

Driving in the UK...

By the end of the time we had the car, I was so glad to be rid of it. Not for any other reason than that I was sick of driving. It can be very stressful, as there are so many more cars and trucks and vehicles in the UK.
Of course the locals all know what they want to do and where they want to go, and you just have to adjust and go with that flow. It isn't easy, but the signage, and the indicators, and the lane markings are all very well done. It takes a while to get used to "Miles per hour", and the fact that your hired car is manufactured in Europe, so the indicator is on the "wrong" side for you, and conversely so is the windscreen wiper!!!

Depending on what you want to do, and how many of you there are traveling, YOU DON'T NEED A BIG CAR in the UK!!!! The roads other than the big freeways are quite small, and there is never enough parking in the UK, so a big car is more trouble.
Of course you must have enough room for all you luggage, and what we did when we knew which bags we were taking, was to suss out the type of car we were aiming at, and finding the same model here in Australia. That way you can gauge for yourselves if the car will suit your purposes, and local car dealers are only too happy to let you have a look at their vehicles.

Sometimes you want everyone to know that you are a tourist,and make allowances for the things you do wrong. But other times you don't want that, because then they know the car might be hired and there might be valuables inside!

We chose not to have GPS as Lee is an excellent navigator. Once I got to England (on both trips), I had no idea which way was which, and so I relied heavily on Lee knowing what she was doing, and we didn't go wrong too many times.

If you want to drive a lot in the UK, make sure you check out all the things that are covered, like being able to take a hired car on ferries. Other companies may have changed their terms, but to my knowledge only Hertz covers you for ferry travel. Petrol is always going to be a problem and we were paying about $2AUS per litre, but you just have to accept the conditions at the time you go, and enjoy it all.


You will enjoy it because there is so much to see that you can't get to easily without a car. Also,  to compare what we did for 11 weeks, with having to do it all by other means, like trains and buses, it simply wouldn't have been possible, and much more expensive.

Food...

Food in general is excellent, and the quality of some foods available was good, but over the entire 3 months, there were no really memorable meals!

We did have a lovely lunch with our dear friend in Wales, but that was home cooking. Other than that there was an excellent Chinese meal in Ardrossan, Scotland, in a small restaurant which belied the quality of the food served. It was some of the best chinese food we'd ever had.

Another of the better meals was on the island of Aaran, in the B & B we stayed at, and that was more like home cooking as well, and so beautifully cooked and served.

For all the rest, there were far too many Pub meals, and like many other countries, the servings have become too large, and in many cases we could happily have shared one meal between us. 

Ham in England is great, and the meat is good too. In all the places we stayed where we had self-catering, we were nearly always able to avail ourselves of local produce, and these meals were a really welcome change from pub and hotel meals.

Coffee is still way behind some other countries and like a lot of places in Australia, they have no idea of how to make a good cup of coffee!   In the few instances we asked for double shots in the hope of getting some strength and flavour, it was either just the equivalent of a normal shot of coffee, or they took us literally, and the coffee was almost too strong. 

(My conspiracy theory on coffee, worldwide, is that many of them are cheapening down on the quality of the beans, and perhaps not even delivering a full shot per cup. There were so many instances of coffee tasting so bland and weak, as to be not worth having. I think in many places we are being ripped off!!!)

There are enough restaurants to be found, but like elsewhere, they range from greasy spoons to very up-market establishments with high prices to match! And you really can't afford to eat out in style every night anyway, or you'd never have any money left for other things. The other thing we didn't do was make an effort to go and find "better" restaurants. This was mainly because places we stayed were away from the city centres. Then of course when you find a better class of restaurant, you then pay exorbitant prices for "twee" meals, usually of stacked food and a dribble of sauce on the plate! 
Not my idea of a good meal. 

Vegetables are universally badly done. I know the industry thinks people like "al dente", (and that is of course preferable to mushy veg), but "al dente" at least indicates that the veg has at least been partly cooked!  In some cases it was more like just warmed-over fresh veg!

Lunches on the go are easy, as all you need then is a good sized roll or rolls and some ham and cheese or whatever, and some fruit juice. Simple and filling. Local baking is also good too, like pasties and pies. Bread isn't a strong thing with the Brits, and the best we had was usually that bread from a local bakery like the one in St Mawes, Cornwall, where they make just so much and when it all sells, and it does, that's it till the next day.

Wine - when you know you can get a bottle for your daily tipple in Canberra for about $14, then think 14 Pounds in the UK, which comes out at about $21. But like everything else, if you are going to be living in another country (or countries) for that amount of time, you just have to do it, or you won't enjoy your time away as much as you could.

Fish and chips...

So disappointing. We don't like Cod, and the choices for other fish, (depending on where you are), are not extensive.  Chips vary a lot too, and they say the best are cooked in beef dripping, but generally the ones you get in pubs, etc., are OK when they get to you, but they can be very iffy, and range from excellent to very poorly done. Oh well... 

Supermarkets are generally excellent. The checkout people are very friendly, and they all sit down! The layouts are almost all the same withing each chain, and so you know what to expect when you go in.
The range is excellent in almost all foods, but the majority of it is all pre-packaged. Some of this is good as they are generally fresh, with long use-by periods. It is strange tho to see beans from West Africa, carrots from Holland, and onions etc, from Spain or wherever. 
The things we would have loved to avail ourselves of were the artisan cheese shops, or other places selling local produce, but because you don't have access to a fridge on a daily basis, it becomes difficult to keep anything beyond a couple of days.

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