The Joys of Driving in England and a Day Trip to Christchurch Castle

“You got to be careful if you don’t know where you’re going, because you might not get there.” – Yogi Berra

While we enjoyed the mostly fine weather in Paris at Christmas time, the UK was hit with a terrible period of heavy rain and huge tides that have resulted in large areas of flooding. We have been terribly lucky to date, unlike a lot of others, and we have not had any of our plans disrupted, but everyday we see what we presume are fields but look much more like lakes.

Upon leaving Australia I pretty much believed I wouldn't be driving much in the next twelve months. Don't get me wrong I love to drive but Perth is a fairly small city and I know where I'm going when I get behind the wheel. Also the prospect of wet weather and flooded roads was a bit daunting. Rob also likes to drive and isn't worried by a bit of water so I expected that most of the driving would fall to him, but luckily for me it hasn't turned out that way.

After leaving London by train we collected a car for Hertz at Southampton Airport, a convenient stop on the train journey. We discovered that Rob had left his Australian Drivers Licence at home in Bournemouth, he believed he needed his International Driving Permit, which is not a stand alone licence and is not needed in the UK.  In the end this mistake has turned out to be a blessing in disguise as now I have gained my confidence to drive here through necessity.

Of course as both countries drive on the same side of the road it makes it much easier and I'm so glad I bought Rob a TomTom for Christmas as it has proved invaluable. We have grown quite fond of toffy speaking "Barbara", as we have named her, who tells us where to go. We have had only one disagreement to date, when she wanted us to turn at a road that was completely underwater and we preferred not to.

 

 

We chose Christchurch Castle as our first daytrip, as it is only a little over three kilometres from home and an English Heritage site so we had free entry. In actually fact everyone has free entry but it was still a fun visit. On the way we saw a soccer pitch completely inundated with water, the first time we had seen any real flooding, but we were stunned by the beauty of the Avon River, at the bridge adjacent to the Norman House, obviously full to overflowing.

The Norman House usually has water flowing alone one side but on the day of our visit it had gained its own moat, which made getting inside a bit tricky but leaping muddy puddles was fun. I was a bit concerned about the state we would be in afterwards as we had a meeting in the afternoon at the kids school, as school was starting the next day, but luckily we avoided any major mishaps.

 





After luxurious apartments at the Louvre and the furnished medieval palace at the Tower of London, Emma was much less impressed with this shell of a building. I loved it as Rob and I could look around and see the signs of what had been there, big square holes in the walls where huge beams would once have held up the upstairs floor, the remains of a spiral staircase in the walls and a complete chimney that has been standing there since around 1160.  We were able to take these clues and with the help of some very helpful information boards, reconstruct the scene for the kids, weaving them a tale of a knight and his lady and where they might have slept, dined and held court. This way we were able to bring the building to life for Emma. Julian on the other hand was very happy just leaping over the puddles and looking for fish in the moat.

 

We decided that before climbing the Motte to the Great Tower atop the hill we would take a wander by the river in the direction of the Abbey. Unfortunately we were running short of time and short of footpath as it too was underwater so we abandoned our riverside walk and headed for the castle with our picnic lunch.

 

As we looked up at the remains of the Norman castle, on top of it's man made hill, I asked the question "why would you bring all this sand and rubble here and create such a big hill before you start to build your castle or fort" and I was very pleased with the answer "to keep the baddies out". Which was a great start for a terrific conversation about why you would build a fortification in the first place and who really were the baddies and goodies.

 







It was lunch time so we chose our picnic spot in the least windy spot we could find in the remains of the castle, and lunch was a hurried affair followed by a terrific game of hide and seek. On the spot we all decided that this must become a family tradition, hopefully not the freezing picnics but definitely the hide and seek in historic ruins.

There was only the castle walls to hide behind but there were also huge hills to roll down, so much for looking nice for the school meeting. We enjoyed the game until we were so cold we had to call time and head to a very historical tea room we had seen on the walk over for a nice hot drink to thaw ourselves out.

 

The building housing the tea rooms we chose, known as the Old Court House, dates back to the 13th century. The old age of this beautiful building was evident from the thatched roof, leaning walls and very low ceilings which Rob again ignored to his peril. I am tempted to invest in a hard hat for him if he is to survive this adventure.

 

 

After a nice cuppa we had to leave Christchurch, feeling very happy to know that while we had only scratched the surface of this beautiful town and seen the amazing Priory only from a distance, we were living just down the road so we could come back again soon and explore some more.

 

 

And so it is there that I finish this instalment, with school starting and our plan to live a normal life from Monday to Friday and day trip on our weekends. I look forward to sharing our adventures in Corfe Castle very soon. Thank you for keeping us company on our travels.

(Date of visit to Christchurch Castle and Norman House Tuesday 7 January 2014)