After thawing out in Glasgow and buying a much needed heater, we set off for the coastal resort town of Southport. It made us laugh that the English think this is a good beach. I tried telling Aaron that just because its different doesn’t mean it’s a bad beach but even I couldn’t make that sound convincing. The caravan park was almost full when we got there which to us is just crazy seeing as everyone else there was English and it didn’t seem like nice camping weather to us! I had an interesting conversation with a man while doing the dishes and he commented “well, if the sun was out it would be sweltering!” Really? Sweltering? Not the word I would have used! We spent 5 nights here mostly so that Aaron could do uni work and I spent my days reading, shopping and staying warm and dry. We also were able to have some lovely Skype conversations with our families and friends.
Our next stop was Bath where we spent our sightseeing day looking at what else? But baths of course! Bath gets its name because of the underground hot spring where the Romans built a bathhouse. It was very interesting to visit.
After two nights there we went to Oxford via Stonehenge. It was great to see Stonehenge, would have liked to not lose some limbs due to frostbite though! (Just kidding obviously). Aaron kept getting mistaking for a photographer too. Or perhaps he has more Facebook/Instagram followers than he thought and is being recognised! We stayed near Oxford for four nights, Aaron again hard at work (the end is in sight!) and me staying warm. Sorry, we’re starting to become a bit boring…
From Oxford we drove to Harwich where the next day we would catch the ferry back to the Netherlands. We enjoyed our ferry trip despite a bit of seasickness, the water was quite choppy. It was more of a mini cruise ship then a ferry and it turned out we had accidentally booked luxury lounge tickets where we had peace and quiet from the high school kids on an excursion (although not from their teachers who sat in the lounge and complained about work :-p) and got free drinks and snacks. How can you “accidentally” book lounge tickets? I hear you all asking… Well… Unclear websites? The website wasn’t very clear whether you had to book separate tickets for our car and for the passengers or if passengers were included with a car. So we booked our car and the cheapest seats assuming that’s what we had to do. The “cheapest seats” turned out to be the luxury lounge as everyone else had free seats. Couldn’t do much about it by that time so we enjoyed it very much!
Now we are staying with my Oma for two nights. It’s lovely to see her again and of course our never ending joy at real beds and bathrooms. (“We’re like normal people!” Aaron says).
