Day 15 4/7/19 Cuxhaven to Cardiff

Day 15 4/7/19 Cuxhaven to Cardiff

6AM start today as our flight is at 10AM from Bremen, sounds early but we expected to have trouble finding the car park etc and we did.

Quick breakfast and of to Bremen airport. Getting there was straight forward, and finding the airport, but finding where to take the car back was quite a challenge. We had been there once before, which was obvious when we found it, but not prior to this. Didn’t see a fuel station along the way but the car was nearly full anyway so it didn’t really matter.

Returned the car and went to check in. Next challenge, finding baggage check in, was the opposite end from where we were of course. Up and down the escalator a few times and bags are gone, hope we see them again.

Now, where to next, more escalator’s, then the gate was again at the opposite end, being Ryan air it’s squeezed into a corner of the old section of the airport, holding area not much longer than the plane itself.

Eventually boarded the plane and away we went. Landing at Stansted, border control was actually easy, new Biometric passports actually worked, the slow down was all the ones from other passengers that didn’t work.

View as we leave Bremen

First glimpse of UK coast

Approaching Stansted, North of London

Anyway, eventually, after asking, found there was a bus to take you to the hire car village adjacent to the airport. Here the fun started, it was lunchtime and even though there where several people wanting cars there was only one poor fellow on the Europecar desk, the others had apparently gone to lunch. Must have taken 45 minutes to collect our hire car, ridiculous as we had already booked and paid for it on-line. Also, apparently you can’t hire  a car without a mobile number, even the Germans where happy with an email address. Eventually we gave them our Australian mobile numbers, even though they won’t work till we are home, didn’t seem to matter.

Now, get out GPS, it recognised we where in the UK, good start. We had decided to visit some good Alvis friends on the way to Cardiff for a cup of tea, hopefully they are home as we hadn’t been able to contact them. As it was they got home just before we arrived and where exceedingly welcoming even though they only got our message that morning.

Complex road system can be quite confusing but works well (M25 around London)

Anyway, put Denham in the GPS, not known, Qainton, not known, (I had had some trouble previously downloading Garmin UK maps, so had found some free ones which worked well in Germany but not so well here), tried to input the postcode (how you find things in the UK, but the GPS wouldn’t do that) eventually found Aylesbury and decided to take the risk. Found Aylesbury and a sign to Denham, little while later we found a sign to Qainton and followed that, by now the GPS is calling all the lanes, “roads”, no street names. Almost at Qainton and I thought I recognised a small lane so turned up it, the farm gate and cattle grid seemed familiar so went along it (the GPS is calling it a track even though it is sealed). Stopped to ask directions from a local and whilst he was thinking about it we realised we were standing outside our friends house, well done, and they had just got home. Tea and light lunch was most welcome.

County side at the entrance to our friends house in Qainton

Next stop North Cardiff. Again GPS didn’t co-operate, although it got better when Peter rang the owner and got some directions including the correct suburb and that Brookfield Close is the name of the building, not the street its on. Peter also provided some directions for a picturesque route via Thame (where we got a bit confused for a while) to just outside Reading, using relatively quiet country lanes and taking us along ridge tops with excellent views of the countryside.

Maritta can continue her fascination with thatched roofs.

 

Ornate building and gates near Qainton

Typical English road, actually quite a large one when I think about it.

Very green given the unusual heat

From Reading we followed the M4 all the way to Cardiff in South Wales. We stopped at a Roadside Services centre for supplies then proceeded to North Cardiff. After driving around in circles for a little while, we eventually found our accommodation, we knew where it was, just took a while to find the right combination of roads to get there. Arrived about 8:30PM (local time) making it a very long day.

Approaching the Wye Valley

View from the bridge across the estuary

Bridge cables look like gossamer in the evening sun

Interesting bridge silhouette (and again below)

Wye River Estuary

Our accommodation, Left building, flat at the rear, has nice view of the garden and stream. Gate and parking is very cosy, wasn't sure I could get the Vauxhall in (car on far left) as street is basically 3 cars wide but with cars parked on both sides, very tricky.