For this trip, we chose to fly as the flight cost from Edinburgh to Bristol, our first stop was much cheaper by air than by train. Yeah I know, crazy isn't it?... Our plan is to actually meet up with a friend of ours from the company, Ian.We will be staying over his place for just one night. He must be the nicest and kindest person that I've ever met so far. Ian's from Reading and it will take him about an hour's drive to Bristol Airport to meet us. When we first arrived at Bristol, the weather was very foggy, with visibility of less than 10 metres.
Our first destination was heading South to Cheddar at the Sommerset County. Yes, Cheddar as in Cheddar cheese, the home where cheese were first made. We, however were not going there for the cheese. With the foggy weather, we kept our fingers crossed as we made our way to the Cheddar Gorge. When the sun came out, weather improved slightly and boy, it was indeed a sight to behold looking at the marvellous view of the Gorge, just like giant scultures carved out of rocks. Somehow, the view reminded me of the limestone hills on the way to Ipoh..haha...Never can I imagine that there's actually a limestone gorge in England! There were even primitive Bronze Age sheep species, known as "soay sheep" grazing on the hillslopes.
Before the Cheddar Gorge, we did past by the Cheddar Village, which is a pretty little village, very touristy in fact. You can also see and participate in how cheese were made and all in one of the shops. I must admit that CT and I have grown so old these days that getting out of the car to visit these places of interest is more of a chore. We thus chose to just have a quick drive through this town and head for the next destination.
The next destination, we went further South to Glastonbury. Nothing much here except that this is where the headquarter of Clarks ( the famous shoe company) is based. The interesting part here was that there is a shopping village started by Clarks company known as Clarks Village. From a humble beginnings of only 1 shop selling Clarks shoes this shopping village has now grown to cater for more shops that gradually transformed this village into an outlet mall. Brandnames like Timberland, Nike, Gap and Thorthons etc has opened an outlet here too. As usual, shopping is our favourite and with the limited amount of time that we have, we shopped with our adrenaline rushing, whizzing by shop by shop with quick purchases! We simply love shopping!!!!!!!!!
We took our lunch at the food village and make our way to the next destination towards the town of Salisbury at Wiltshire County. On the way, we make a quick detour to check out a winery in one of the little farms scattered all along the backroads we took. Unfortunately, no wineries found but we saw some sheep farms and loads of wild raspberry! We also drove through the Haynes Motor Museum. Ian told us that Haynes is world famous company that provides services to write manuals about DIY repairs for all kinds of vehicles. Interesting.
After about 2 hours drive, we arrived at Salisbury, the home of Stonehenge. Amazingly, the structure looked smaller than I thought. With the sunny weather and blue sky, the structure looked magnificent. We chose not to pay for the entrance (it costs 6 pounds) as we could well see the structure clearly behind the fence. It has always being my dream to visit all the Unesco World Heritage sites, and I was glad that I can now take this off my list of to-visit :).
Next off, we head home to Ian's for a BBQ feast.We had the chance to have a look at Reading, and to our surprise Reading was an industrial town with many factories. Microsoft and Oracle has a huge offices there too! When we arrived home, it was already eight, and after we took our dinner and bath, we just hit the sack. It was indeed a tiring day.
Day no.2, the final day, we manage to squeeze our itinery to visit the Windsor Castle at Berkshire. I think this is Queen Elizabeth's weekend retreat. How I wish I have a home like that! Oh, we even saw a cute little crooked House at Windsor also called the Crooked House of Windsor.
Next, our plan was to head up North to the town of Oxford, the old university town. Oxford University a.ka. Oxbridge is a place that I have dreamt of and still is dreaming of studying at one day alongside Harvard and MIT..(wishful thinking). At Oxford,we just make a quick drive around the town to save time. One that is worth mentioning is that along the way, we did pass by many quaint little towns which was indeed very pretty too. The next destination is to head up further North to the Northampton County. Our plan is to stop by Silverstone, yes, the home of motorsports, Formula 1. When we were there, I think there was a motorcycle Grand Prix.
We also make a quick drivethrough to the University of Southampton to check out the campus, who knows we might further our studies there one day.We then head off to Stratford-Upon-Avon, the town were Shakespeare grew up. Along the way, we also stopped by the Aston Martin headquarter for a quick snapshot while Ian read the map! :D..too bad we were not allowed to get in.
Our final destination was to get to Cadbury's world in Birmingham. I envisioned it to be something out of Charlie and the Chocolate factory but thankfully not. By the time we got there, it was already 3.45pm. Luckily we were short of 15 minutes before the factory closed and we could make it in time. In fact, we were the last visitors of the day! The factory tour was pretty educational and we were given a few complimentary chocolates too! As usual, the last stop would be the Chocolate shop, and we did buy some chocs and souvenirs as well :D.
After our tour, Ian dropped us off at Birmingham airport where we bade goodbye to him. I would say that this is indeed a short trip but well worth it. Thanks so much to our dear friend, Ian for accompanying us and be our designated driver for the day. It's indeed a memorable trip :)
