Definately gone

Been in England now for the past two days, and it’s been wonderful. We got in yesterday at 7:30am UK time (so just before midnight Sunday) and have done quite a bit so far.

The flight to Newark, NJ wasn’t too bad, and while there we got to meet up with our friends Sean and Charmian for all of a half hour during our layover. Once we got onboard the next plane we we knew we’d be happy… when we booked our flights with Continental we were given an option of choosing our seats. We chose the last row, to the far right, which means unlike the rest of coach, we there were only two seats. With nobody behind us we didn’t have to worry about putting the seats back and leaving them there. The only problem with that flight was that somebody decided at the last second they had to leave the plane, which meant a 30 minute delay while the airport sent people to rummage through the luggage hold for the persons luggage. Since that delayed our takeoff we were put at the end of the line of jets, 14 in front of us, which resulted in another 30 minute wait. Oh well, the flight itself was fine.

We got here and wandered through the maze that is Gatwick airport to get to our car rental pickup and get our car. Thankfully I’d driven in Ireland so it wasn’t too jolting to be on the other side of the car and road, and we got on our way. Got stuck in some bad Monday morning traffic jams on one of the big motorways that go all the way around Londong (the M25), but finally reached our exit and after another hour or so made it to Stonehenge, which was really pretty impressive to see.

After that we drove another couple hours to our friends (Joanna and David) house in the town of Newton Abbot. Spent the past couple of days with them, letting them show us around this part of England, which is very pretty and it’s be a lot of fun seeing them again. They’ve been taking us to really great (and small, off the beaten path) pubs, and today we went to the city of Exeter. We wandered around most of the afternoon and got to see the big cathedral. Tonight we had dinner at what was a farmhouse built in 1437 and is now a very nice hotel and restaurant called Sampsons. Very charming old building with a thatched roof and thick wood beams, and a very good menu.

Tomorrow we’re considering a 3 hour drive to Land’s End, though from what we’ve been told it’s not that impressive, so we’re not quite sure what we’ll end up doing tomorrow. Anyway, that’s all for now, more to come I’m sure.