On the Road Again: Dundee to Bath and Back Again

It's the October holidays, so it is time to stop climbing the walls, and get out of town.  In Scotland, holidays mean 2 weeks off school for the kids, and though I usually can't take quite that much time, I did take a week.  This was plenty of time to drive down to Bath, meet up with my parents, tour around, completely wear them out, and send them back to the States.

I say "we" drove, but really it was Paul *now a licensed UK driver* who drove our rented minivan (called a "full size MPV" in the UK, reflecting that is a much larger car than you typically see on the road) from Dundee to Bath.  Now, the UK is a small country.  We drove across Scotland and almost down to the Southwestern corner, and it took approximately 8.5 hours (with stops).  Try THAT in the United States.  Leaving D.C., you'd still be in Virginia! From Tucson, you'd only make it to Albuquerque. It was still a long drive, and we laid down the law to the girls.  "Look," Paul said, "This is going to be a long drive.  It's going to be boring. I don't want to hear about it. This is part of the family vacation, the long, boring getting-there-and-coming-back part. No one will ask "Are we there yet?" Do you understand?"  To their credit, they mostly didn't ask.

And of course once we got to Bath and found Nana and Papa already there, all the long boring hours were forgotten.  The weather cooperated - mostly - which is to say it was mainly cloudy, with strategically timed rainstorms that coincided with our indoor activities. We even had a little sun, pulling off all out raincoats and sweaters to soak in the rays and the 17-degree temperatures (practically 63 degrees - considering it's already autumn in Dundee and about 10-11 (50ish) degrees there, it was balmy!)

Zipping about in our trusty minivan we hopped through history in and around Bath - back to Prehistory at Stonehenge (Paul: I can't live in the UK and NOT visit Stonehenge; he was suitably impressed) and Avebury (where you can actually get close to the stones, and the sheep...)

..through Roman times (the Roman Baths, in the city of Bath itself),

 the 12th-15th centuries (Wells Cathedral) in Wells,

the 17th-19th centuries (Bath Abbey) back in Bath,

and finally to the 1960's at Longleat, with trippy murals by Lord Bath (not pictured, but see here for examples), a hall of mirrors, and the first drive-thru Safari park outside of Africa (opened in 1966).

   

 











When it was finally time to go home, it was an even longer drive, as we did it all in one day instead of splitting it up.  What I appreciated about the British motorway system on the way home, however, was its optimism.  Every time they posted a sign, they only told you about the nearby towns. "Preston 25 miles" it would say, cheerily. Anything further away than about 30 miles just fell into a large category, with a helpful arrow: "The Midlands" "the North."  This would never fly in the United States - what do you mean, The North? I want to know how far it is to Minnesota - never mind that I'm in Mississippi! When we finally started seeing the arrow marked "Scotland" we knew we were nearly home, back to our life in Dundee.