An 18th birthday tour of southern England

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Just to confuse you, this blog is being started three days after our journey started, as it's only now that it occurred to me that we could do this, and that after re-living some of the more humorous moments of the Spurin's blogs with them whilst staying at their house in Boscombe. But I am getting ahead of myself.

We set off on this family holiday which will coincide with Anna's 18th birthday on the hottest day of the year. In fact, if you believe the news reports, it was supposed to be the hottest day ever recorded in Britain! It certainly felt like it, and we were very thankful that our car has air conditioning. Even Anna, who normally grumbles when I turn it on, demanded that it be switched back on after only a few minutes of ambient temperature air being pumped in. We showered when we got up. Half an hour later it was if we hadn't bothered, with temperatures nudging the mid-twenties by 9am.

With no road delays to speak of, we broke our journey at Warwick, and leaving the car was like stepping into an oven, with the mercury pushing the high thirties by this time. Anna and Helen opted for an ice cream in the park, I shouldered my camera bag and strode off into town to see the sights.The castle is one of the main things to see, but at £29 per adult to get in it's got to be on your 'must do' list if it's going to be worth it. On a previous visit to Warwick Helen and I unknowingly by-passed the pay station by simply walking through a gate which had been opened to allow some garden machinery to be brought in, so I didn't feel the need to open my wallet this time. In any event, the gate was firmly locked.

Our brief sojourn in the oven called Warwick aver, we motored on to Berinsfield, just outside Oxford, where Amelia (one of Helen's cousin's) lives. She had invited us to stay the night on our way to Boscombe to stay with Helen's brother and sister-in-law. We loved Berinsfield, and Amelia's house. Everything you could possibly need for a comfortable place to live was there. A village green, shops, a dentist and so on. More importantly, it has a rather attractive concrete water tower close by. Best of all, Red Kites wheel and soar overhead.

Exhausted by our long, hot journey, we relaxed in the cool front room and chatted amiably until time for an early bed. Tomorrow, onwards to Boscombe!

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