We headed off today from Bath and
on towards Birmingham via a couple of small stops. We stopped to fuel up the
Motor Home at a Roadside station about an hour and half out of Bath were we
were able to have a delicious morning tea of baguette , Latte and Danish pastry.
We were also able to book our accommodation for the next two nights while we
were there as the cafe had free WI-FI!
From here we headed along the
street with views of beautiful countryside – which we could actually see today
as the fog had finally lifted – or through villages with houses that were right
on the roadside edge. So very different from the housing we see back at home.
We made very good time and
arrived at our next destination almost 2 hours earlier than anticipated. This
was meant to have been a surprise for Michael however best laid plans all fell
apart. We drove into and parked at the Long Marston Airfield where Freedom
Sports Museum – Microlight Flying School was located. I had booked for Michael to
have a flight in either a flexible wing or fixed wing Microlight for an hour,
and given that they were duel control and he had experience, he would have been
able to do most of the flying himself! But this didn’t end up happening!
Arriving early was at it happened very fortunate as the bloke I booked this
through for some reason hadn’t put it into his working diary, and had other
things booked in for today! Given that the weather was shocking for flying –
really windy – he had cancelled all his bookings for the day except for one for which he had to come to the airfield to cancel! Thank goodness we arrived when we
did, as he was see the couple who were waiting
there and then he was heading off home again! If we had turned up when we were
supposed to we would have been waiting there forever because he wasn’t going to
be there later! So unfortunately my surprise for Michael didn’t turn out!
We headed off and continued on
our way to Birmingham enjoying the view as we went – in fact we actually had
glimpses of blue sky and for a minute there was even sunshine, it was so nice
to see something other than fog!
On our journey through Stratford
on Avon, we happened across signs for Anne Hathaway’s Cottage, so we decided to
detour and have a look. The cottage is a twelve-roomed farmhouse where Anne
Hathaway (the wife of William Shakespeare) lived as a child in the village of
Shottery, Warwickshire. The earliest part of the house was built prior to the
15th Century. The Cottage was known as Newland Farm in Shakespeare’s
day and had more than 90 acres of land attached to it. As in many houses of the period, it has
multiple chimneys to spread the heat evenly throughout the house during winter.
The largest Chimney was used for cooking. It also has visible framing, a
trademark of vernacular Tudor style architecture. The present cottage is owned
by the Birthplace Trust who restored it to its original character where it
retains its own beautiful, old fashion English garden with an orchard adjoining
it. I’m sure in Spring this garden would look gorgeous, however given that it
is Autumn here at the moment, everything is dying off and looking not so
pretty. Well worth a visit here though!
Leaving here we headed straight
for our next caravan stop – Somers Wood Caravan Park which is quite lovely and
also has the most up-to-date and clean toilet/shower block we have seen so far.
We arrived here at about 3.30 and once we had powered up, Michael took himself
off for a good walk and investigated the surrounding area. I stayed back and
continued the blogging journey so that our memories will be fully up-to-date
and as accurate as I can make them. Michael found a convenience store on is
travels, and brought back some supplies which will see us through for the next
short while. We decided to have dinner in our vehicle tonight rather than going
out again, and we ended up having a really early night!
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