Travel Diary Britain ’06 – last entry – 26th July 2006

So, now I’m sitting at the airport, waiting for the check-in to open and re-living the events of the past week in my head. A truly marvellous week and a week full of firsts: it was a first for me to drive a British car, a first to see British Baroque, to see Shakespeare’s birthplace and to see a Shakespeare play in English, a first to see the impressive monument of Stonehenge, to see truly beautiful English beaches and to stay at Charlie’s place. A week full of experiences and impressions, without a single boring minute. Even now I’m not bored as I’m busying myself with finishing this diary…
It wasn’t exactly cheap, especially all the petrol and parking but the whole experience has once again confirmed it to me: it is well worth living a modest life as long as you can go travelling once a year!
My little round trip has also given me confidence on British roads: while I was kind of anxious and uncertain how well I could handle a car with the steering wheel on the right side, now, after 1500 miles of driving practice on all types of roads – from motorway right down to 20mph – single – lane country roads – I’m really confident in my driving skills and I don’t rally feel any difference between driving on the left and driving on the right side of the road anymore. So, in a way this trip has also opened the roads of the world – including Japan and Australia – to me. And it has also proven to me that England has really clean and nice places with no litter on the pavement, with no broken windows and bricked-shut doors.
It has also shown to me that there are some really peaceful places providing rest and the chance to observe the stunning beauty of nature and, speaking of nature, it has also proven the cliché wrong that almost all of England is flat. In fact the area around Cornwall, Somerset and Dorset is pretty hilly and of course there is also the Peak District that didn’t get its name by chance.
Yet another thing this road trip has done for me is that it helped me memorising a good deal of place names – the names of the cities and countries I was passing through. Of course, if you make an effort, you can also learn these names by heart from an atlas and in fact I had learned quite a few names before but it’s just not the same as to be able to link a place name to a live memory because only that is what will ensure that the names remain in one’s brain and don’t get forgotten again.
So, all in all it was a great trip, I regret nothing and I wouldn’t do anything differently if I had the chance to do it again. It is only that it was a bit short. But then, there are still places to see, like Scotland or Wales and there will be definitely a time for travelling again.
But for now, I’ll enjoy my extended stay in Austria. Goodbye.

Endlessly long queues at Stansted Airport

...and strict security measures. In this glass box sharp items that former air passengers had to leave behind are displayed

Finally boarding the plane...

...taking off...

...crossing the borders of Britain...

...soaring above the clouds...

...and arriving in Austria two hours later...

...then a 45mins drive...

...and here we are. Home sweet home.