Euro 2012 - England/Spain Part 4 - On to England

Travel day on to England.  Traveling with a one year old means getting up way early and getting to the airport very early as well.  The benefit of this is we do not run into any sort of lines checking in or going through security.  At Amsterdam’s Schipol Airport there is a good kids play area where #3 and Glo take 3.1 to work of some energy.  

 Feeding 3.1 at Schipol

 3.1 is very good on the plane. We arrive at Gatwick airport, walk a long ass way to finally get through passport control and get our bags.  The bag trolleys are the best I’ve run across.  I was tempted to challenge #3 to racing them down the halls but there were too many people around.

  

Evidently no trip through Gatwick is complete without stocking up on food from the Marks and Spencer Simply Food shop.

We are renting a Ford S-Max which is a pretty good sized vehicle and we are able amazingly enough to get all of our bags in.  

Ford S-Max - Official Car of the #3-de-I Family Vacation

Call us Ford for our endorsement

 3A has some issues getting 3.1’s car seat in so #3, Glo and I play a long game of “Let 3.1 runaround in the parking garage but keep her out of the traffic”.   

Finally the car seat is in and it is off the West Country (Wessex) and the traditional multi-hour traffic jam on a British motorway.  Instead of taking us 40 minutes, it takes us 2 hours and 40 minutes.   

 Traditional English Motorway Back-up

We need to stop at a highway rest area to get something to eat and let 3.1 get some exercise.  This is our first chance to have a Cornish Pasty (a savory filled pastry.  

Typical Wessex countryside according to 3A

 Finally we get to the town of Avebury. 

 This is like the Stonehenge, town with a huge Neolithic rock circle.  The rocks are smaller but the circle is much larger.  It is part of similar Neolithic sites in the general area from around 3000 to 2500 BC.   

Part of Mighty Ring 'O' Neolithic Rocks

There is also some medieval buildings there as well.   

3.1 is really tired but #3 is in her “let the baby suck it up” mode (that trades off rather regularly with her “oh poor baby” mode) so off we go.  3.1 is pretty unhappy about things but quiets down and falls asleep in the carrier.  

"Suck it up kiddo.  My parents (your grandparents) forced me to spend two weeks in Luxembourg when I was 4 months old.  You're already 1.  This is a piece of cake."

We then head on to our bed and breakfast just outside Bradford-on-Avon, a really lovely place picked out by 3A.  It only has two bedrooms so we have the place to ourselves.  There is a pub just down the street (as we are in the country) so we go there for a quick dinner.  They are very baby friendly and the hostess behind the bar used to live in LA, and has friends who live in Albuquerque just miles from us.  It was quite enjoyable.  We head back and crash for the night.

Tea at the B & B