Hi there,

John and I also went to Glastonbury. We climbed the Tor. I had the impression we could wander around hiking inside this National Trust property, but that is apparently only allowed if you are a cow or sheep. If so, you can wander freely and leave whatever you like behind...watch where you step! I found it interesting that the people who climbed the nearly vertical Tor sat anywhere, without any obvious care to make sure they weren't putting any part of their bodies into a cow pie. Disappointingly, we did not have a mystical experience, unless you count the fact that the bus barreled up the hill like a racecar and miraculously did not knock down any of the stone walls that at times seemed to be inside the bus.

Here several cars and the bus seem to be in a tizzy as to who actually gets to drive in the lane. I think the bus won.


The view was nice though. There was also a very handy map to show what you were looking at while you enjoyed the view. The above photo shows Glastonbury.
As an American, I continued to be amazed at the amount of two way traffic that could speed around corners, up hills and through roads wide enough only for one car without touching each other or the buildings that seemed to be built in the middle of the narrow roads just on the curve as you go up the nearly vertical hill in 1st gear. Driving was definitely what I will remember most about England! The above photo shows our Ford Fiesta on the lane to our B and B, from John's perspective as the navigator. John asked the silly question, "Is it a one-way road?" To which the hostess replied, "Oh, no, but we hardly get more than one car per hour"...as you can see below, that was a bit inaccurate... It was a beautiful B and B on a working farm, and the hosts were very friendly and wonderful gardeners.

We went canoeing on the Kennet and Avon Canal (boating traffic goes on the RIGHT side of the waterway...the chap who rented us the canoe was not amused by my enquiry) and met some very polite ducks. This friend just waited quietly and expectantly for the morsels he knew would fall from our chocolate digestive biscuits...well, he didn't know me very well. There was lots of good duck food right there in the canal...although the water was a bit murky...food might be hard to find.

It was, of course, a canal with a lock AND a low bridge together! We only went 10 miles though...

Cheers! Tina

Bus B count off...Anne?

Nice to have a place to talk to everyone, although I really did like the microphone on the bus. Like Flo said in her e-mail, I've suffered major whatever (depression, withdrawal, letdown) in addition to wonderful thoughts about our adventure together with concern that I'll lose track of all my new friends. I'm in DC so call when you come through...

Post Tour Traveling

Some of you have asked about Kate & mine's post tour traveling. We figured out where we would sleep on Monday night, picked up our rental car at Heathrow, and off we went. Here, in fact, is a photo of the little silver VW Golf that we drove. Kate played navigator and on the second day we made a sign for the back window: "Mount Holyoke or bust!"

On the way through one of our first roundabouts, we had a moment of temporary confusion -- where were we exactly? Back in Boston? Nope -- but there was a sign for Fenway Park!

On the way to our first hostel in Exeter, we went through Glastonbury and stopped at the ruins of the Abbey there for an educational experience. It was about at that point, while making our way back to the car that we first thought to ourselves, "Gee, I haven't seen anyone else from the tour lately. What time did they say we needed to be back on the bus?" Yes, we know.

On the way to our second day's sleeping destination, a little village called Sennen, we drove through Penzance. Alas, there were no pirates there, at least none that we saw. We also drove down roads where we were thankful that we were driving a very small car -- the roads through one particular village called Mousehole (but pronounced "maws-el") were only about a lane and a half wide, but two lanes of traffic were supposed to go down them -- in opposite directions! You instinctively pulled in your elbows, as if that would make the car skinnier or something. We also stopped at a little stone circle called the Merry Maidens. Like Stonehendge, only smaller -- it was set on the top of a little windy hill and it seems that some people may still use it for religious rituals.

After dinner in a pub set on a beautiful cove, we made our way to Land's End, the most southwestern point on the island.

Cornwall was beautiful, but southern Wales was gorgeous too. We stayed with a college friend and she played tour guide, taking us one day to a beautiful beach on the Gower penninsula. We had to walk down a path down a 100 foot cliff to get to the beach, but was it ever worth it!

Overall, driving was a blast -- I only hit our "wing mirror" (side view) once! We met tons of interesting people and got to see a bunch more stuff. Enjoy!
--Cynthia

three cheers for our blogmistress

Hip hip Hooray!
Hip hip Hooray!
Hip hip Hooray!
The work of a blogmistress is never done...
Thanks so much for giving us ways to connect and share

Just getting over a nasty tour/vacation letdown cold. Sparks me up to see friendly names and faces here.

I've got some digital videotape of our Chepstow performance - nice and tight of the duet, but the choir shots aren't so tight and have a column in the way. If you're in the center third of the choir, you're blocked from view - sorry bout that - it was the only place I could tape on a solid surface without interfering with the concert - but if you are interested in seeing/hearing it, please let me know. I'll be able to make some VHS duplicates at work.

Hope you're all enjoying your summer - Nathalie

Hello everyone!

Thanks to Cynthia for setting this up, it's a simple, fun way to keep in touch. I've been back for a little over a week and I feel so comfortable driving on the right side of the road...I will never take it for granted again! I have recently picked up several books by Bill Bryson, which include "Notes on a Small Island" and "I'm a Stranger Here Myself. " Both are laugh out loud funny, prompting John to say I was being too loud...although maybe he did mind that I kept interrupting him to read him the funny bits. There were so many I had to just tell him to read the book! The first one is about Bill's life in England, and the second is about his return to the U.S. after 20 years of living in England. I've been wanting to read them for a while, and it seemed appropriate now that I can relate especially to his return to the U.S.

Tina

Welcome!

Welcome to the long-awaited Post-Tour Blog!

If you've found the blog, that means that you've been invited to join. In order to participate on this blog, you must set up an account with Blogger. It is free and should be fairly self-explainatory -- after all, they want people to participate! Once you are a registered user of this blog, you will be allowed to post and comment on posts, as long as you are logged in.

If you have questions about registering, please email me. Registering will require you to give your email address.

I'm still working on a photo community. It's requiring some more investigation to find something that really fits our needs, so be patient. It will come!

Enjoy! --Cynthia