Vrooom

So we hired a car to drive from Brighton to Bath. Once we decided to do this, some stupid politician told people to stockpile petrol in case there was a petrol-tankers' strike, and everyone in the UK panic-bought and ran the petrol stations out of petrol. Every time we passed the nearest petrol station to us, it was jam-packed, with queues stretching out onto the road. Say what you like about the English, at least they queue nicely!

Picked up the car, hoping it would have enough petrol to get us at least one way. It had 1/4 of a tank. Went past petrol station with huge queues. Drove on. Went past petrol station with no queues (or indeed, any cars at all, which should have tipped me off). Pulled in to find No Petrol signs up. Drove resignedly on. Stopped at next petrol station and queued for 10 mins to get to petrol pump. Filled car to overflowing, and got underway.

Driving in the UK was not as awful as i thought it would be (mostly), and we stayed on main roads. There were several bouts of road works that saw us sitting patiently in stalled traffic for ages, so the trip, which I had calculated should take about 2 1/2 hours, took 3 1/2. However, we eventually got to our first destination, Stourhead Gardens, and thence on to Corsham to visit S's inlaws.

Next day was Bath, I was not such a fool as to attempt to drive there, we took the train.

Then it was Monday, and we came home via Lacock. The trip back had its hairy moments, but was generally swifter than the trip up. We were aiming to get the car back to the hire place by 6pm, but despite me flooring it down the motorway, we missed by about 10 mins. You cannot just park on the streets here, some of the roads are Residents Parking Only, so we did a bit of messing about to get everything unloaded and the car parked nearby. Very fortunately, we managed to get to Stourhead, Corsham, Lacock and home on the same tank of petrol, for which I was devoutly thankful!

Three cheers for my navigators - C has never driven, having grown up in the UK with its excellent public transport, and S let her licence lapse since she doesn't drive here either.

Also, en route North, we passed evocative Arundel Castle, which was one of the three castles I had hoped to visit (the others being Lewes (done) and Hever (probably won't make that one as I will run out of time)), and it looked so beautiful and romantic and castle-y perched up on the hill that S&C are now keen to see it too. So hopefully that will be Friday's adventure.