Traveling in England on a shoelace

 

A good holiday does not have to be expensive. Airline tickets, if booked early enough, cost less than parking fees at airports.

Budgeting is the hardest part of the holiday. Set a budget for the weekend and stick to it. Patricia and I did, and we almost succeeded.

'I never get the credit,' Patricia said as she read my latest holiday review in the newsletter. It is true that she plans the holiday, calculates the budget and makes the arrangements. She claims that all I do is tag along, write up the ที่เที่ยวในอังกฤษ and get the city line in the newspaper. So I challenged her to full credit, a weekend stay in England for two with a budget of £ 200. 'Easy,' she said, appearing from the internet an hour later with flights for two to Bristol, costing £ 75 and an event to burst the balance of the budget at Colleys in exchange for free accommodation and transportation from his sister. On the flight with us was a party of Bath University students. Apparently the different regions opted for weekends away and this was their first trip to Ireland. They were impressed with the audience.

Colleys in Lechlade-on-Thames is a Victorian-style dining room where the waiters dress in a period costume. You sit down for dinner at exactly forty-seven, and the carriage is called at eleven-fifteen. Colleys must be booked weeks in advance to be safe at a table. The chef had briefed each waiter on my dietary needs and even made tomato soup specifically so I could enjoy all seven dishes. He told us that a lactose-free diet is quite common. The house wine is the one delivered to Her Majesty the Queen Mother.

Bristol is two hours from London and one hour from Cardiff. We lived in Shrivenham near Oxford. Our route from the airport took us past Swindon and McArthur Glen Designer Outlets, 106 designer brand stores under one roof. Everything sold there should be at least 30% off the normal retail price, but unfortunately we were between the seasons and the choice of clothes was disappointing.

Friday we went to see Oxford by the dreamy spiers. We spent two hours walking around the old town. In an alley below Oxford's replica of the famous Venetian "Bridge of Sighs" we found The Turf, arguably the oldest pub in England. Keep an eye on low beam. The covered market is worth a visit for small local craft shops and the food is value for money.

In keeping with our budget weekend, I chose a hike in Oxford as opposed to the open bus ride. There's a ghost in the library at St. John's college and things that go bump at night in the adjoining studio. Meanwhile, Patricia and her sister, Margaret, had gone to check out the Bicester Village Shopping Center on Junction 9 on the M40. It received a five star rating for value shopping. The business there was even better than McArthur Glen.

Saturday we went to explore Burford, a traditional and completely authentic town in the Cotswolds, with a long main street full of nooks and crannies and old houses of yellow stone. The craft shops there were expensive but good. Cirencester, where we went next time, is a more traditional shopping town with all the usual shops. Lovely but rather soulless. It set us up nicely for dinner at The French Horn, a traditional pub in Pewsey, Wiltshire. The food was excellent and the table was ours in the evening.

Sunday morning we were offered a chance to see skydiving at Netheravon. Arthur, our host, said the journey was statistically more dangerous than jumping, but we opted instead for a walk through Lambourne, past Jenny Pitman's house and stables. Then it was time to go back to Bristol and the airport.