Arrived at Heathrow at 5:30am, after 16.5 hours. Anne thought the Airbus 380 was quieter, and the food was better. I liked the 787 OK. Higher ceilings, 3-3-3 cabin layout. We freshened up, spent 30 minutes inserting Vodafone SIMs, selecting plans and topping up. Everything worked perfectly and we are +353 899726974 and 7. Then we found the rental car buses outside Terminal 3, went to Hertz and got upsold from the petrol Astra we booked to a diesel Qashqai, so we have SatNav and a 4 cylinder engine. All the petrol engines are now 3 cylinders. I don’t like the thrum of 3 cylinder car engines. The lady in the GPS sounds exactly like the British Prime Minister, so we dubbed her Theresa.
Up the M40 to Oxford at 75mph, found a parking spot in central Oxford, and a cafe. It was only 8:30am. I haven’t driven in the UK since a 2004 trip to Scotland. This brought back memories of the parking hassles and crowded roads in the UK. It’s much easier to drive in France, but the driver behaviour here seems OK.
Lots of dogs here, in cafes, our hotel, the pub we ate in later, and everywhere else. We spent some time talking to people in the cafe, then hit the road again. A van overtook us, emblazoned with “John Taylor & Co, bellfounders” Bellfounders, in 2018? Only in England. Theresa delivered us to the Cotford Hotel in Malvern, and it’s delightful. Built in 1851, set in extensive gardens. We checked in at about 11:15am. The town is very cute too. There was a monthly market going as we arrived. Talked to more people. Brexit is a very live subject here.
Back at the hotel, we changed our mind about dining there, but it was too late, at 1:30 pm, it was booked out for dinner. They reserved a table for us at the Nag’s Head pub just down the road.
We could see people on the crown of the hill high above the town. I couldn’t resist walking up there. Great view over Malvern and Worcester to the east, and undulating fields to the west.
Dinner at the Nag’s Head was very good, with a pint of local ale. Walking down there, it was obvious that the English drive much faster than we do, both in suburbia and on the motorways.
Wifi at the hotel is marginal, and the photos didn’t transfer between iPhone and iPad. Upstairs in our room our devices could see the wifi repeater but it couldn’t see the router. I explained this to the proprietor Chris, but downstairs it appeared to work OK. Couldn’t download the Age newspaper either, or do anything, really. If the wifi isn’t really good, many things don’t just go slowly, they don’t work at all