Leaving London for Barbara's

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We got an early start this morning, as we needed to pick up our rental car downtown. Just before we were to leave, the internet repair people arrived and so we left Joshua and Benjamin with them and took the tube downtown to Bond Street.

After turning in our tube passes, we walked a short distance to the car rental place. I would have preferred not to be picking up this rental car right in the heart of London, but this seemed to be the closest Hertz car rental place to where we are staying.

Getting from the car rental place to our apartment seemed a bit tricky at first, with fast moving London traffic and lots of roundabouts. Once on the road to our flat though, the route was easier. Having driven on the right side of the road in France just last week, it was a bit hard at first to get use to driving on the left again, but with all the time in New Zealand, it quickly seemed familiar.

At our flat, we loaded the car and then waited sometime for our landlord to turn up. After settling up with him (we were due some money back as we were leaving a day early) we followed what seemed to be a long series of roundabouts (and missed turns) before we found ourselves on the M4, heading away from London.

When we heading off the M4, we missed our first turn and ended up quickly on country roads where the trees formed a green tunnel, with just enough room for the road. It seemed quintessentially English.
It had been over twenty five years since I was at the house, but rounding the corner, it was easy to spot. Barbara and Rusty, her dog, greeted us in the drive. It seemed somehow strange to see her and this place after such a long time. I felt almost like I had stepped into some strange time tunnel and popped out and eighteen year old.

Joshua and Benjamin were playing with Rusty, the dog, in no time. Rusty is a large German Sheppard and absolutely adores Barbara, following her everywhere.

Barbara fixed us some lunch and we got a chance to catch up on her life and our trip. After lunch, we took a walk around the village. With the thatched house, old church, and narrow lanes, Evy commented that it felt like we had been dropped into an Agatha Christie novel. We followed the roads down through the town, and then took a footpath through a farmer's field back to the village.

Back at Barbara's, Joshua and Benjamin did school work. Benjamin worked at creating the mythical creature for his art class, using the photos he took at the Natural History Museum for reference.

For dinner, Barbara drove us to a nearby pub. The pub is one of the few that lets dogs in, so Rusty was able to join us. This was our first visit to and English pub and it did not disappoint with good food and equally good beer. We talked a fair bit about home and Barbara pointed out that my parents had sat at the exact same table on their last visit to England.

After returning to Barbara's house, we watched the evening news before heading off to bed.

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