Tue, 08 Jul 2003

author Tim	location Wassenaar, Netherlands
posted 21:13 CEST 11/07/03	section Europe2002/Europe/UK/England/Across England ( all photos )

Kindly Les and Pearl ( No photos )
(Continued from Ireland 2)
Back into the strangely sunny England, Liz had a sleep in the van and I was considering the same, but remembered not to as I was driving. The strange hours have wreaked havoc with our body clock. It's these late night ferries we get to save money. All part of the fun.
After a coffee stop somewhere along the M4, we got stuck in really heavy traffic around the M25, then getting lost with the hopeless signposting that exists around Romford and Hornchurch making us a few hours later than intially guessed to arrive at Les and Pearl's place in Essex.
How fantastic these people are. There's not much we wanted more than a huge baked dinner, and there it was. Wonderful stuff, followed with a great dessert as well. Thanks in public for a job well done!
A bit of chat then bed for us, tired once again.

author Tim	location Wassenaar, Netherlands
posted 20:53 CEST 11/07/03	section Europe2002/Europe/UK/Wales/South Wales ( all photos )

It's still foggy and empty ( No photos )
On our previous journeys through Wales, you may remember that we were not too kind to the place, owing to the horrible weather and seeming lack of anything vaguely interesting to do.
This time we were not disappointed - Wales put on a great show, more than enough to convince us that our initial impressions were correct.
To be fair, it started back at the ferry port in Ireland - there was heavy fog all over the place, but this was just an omen - Wales was only a three hour ferry ride away after all. When we arrived, more and more fog had been assembled to greet us.
We drove on through the pea soup, headlights on during the day to see where we were going and warn oncoming traffic on the far-better-than-Irish roads that a large red box-like object was coming their way.
Deciding against stopping in many places on our way back to Les and Pearl's in England, we had morning tea for two in St Clears, and Liz failed to find anything resembling a bakery anywhere in the town for something to eat. Very strange, so we pushed on, stomachs rumbling.
This was eventually rectified at a motorway services near Swansea, where a Little Chef provided us with a couple of hours reading the paper, eating pizza and cheap desserts before we were back on the road again.
Crossing the M4 toll bridge without paying this time, we waved Wales goodbye until such time as we can return to give it justice, and we drove drove out of the fog (no seriously) into England.

(customised)