Schengen. A word that conjours uncertainty and confusion amongst many a traveller these days. I'd never heard of it but recently when Clare came to Europe several months before i did it became prominent in our minds when trying to plan where to go and what to see. The reason i'm telling you about this is because it justifies the seemingly absurd decision to do a road trip around the UK in Winter. Never did we expect to be doing this. Clare hates the cold and we both like the sun, the surf and the beach.

The Schengen Agreement is an arrangement between the majority of European countries that basically allows for freedom of movement across borders throughout the member countries. I belive it was instigated with trade and economic activity in mind but it has implications for travel as well. To be able to move between all these countries only needing one visa and not having to deal with border controls every few hundred kilometres is fantastic. Here's the kick though. To only be able to that for 90 days out of 180 day period is an absolute pain the arse. Seeing as Clare arrived several months before i did it meant if we wanted to travel together we could only stay in continental Europe another six or seven weeks after I arrived.

If you've followed other blog posts you'll have a rough idea of the route we have taken. You'll notice that it has brought us to the UK in November. Stupid. It is outside of the Schengen area though so despite being stupid it's also very sensible. The expiration of Clare's Schengen visa meant that we still had another 5 weeks to enjoy before we return to Australia briefly for a wedding. So a road trip around the UK seemed like a good idea.. And it was.

Firstly I want to give one piece of advice to anyone considering a road trip in a foreign country when hiring a car might be a good option. Use a website called www.travelsupermarket.com. There's a section for cheap car rental. It looks quite good for other travel arrangements too but i can only comment on the car hire. Through this website we came across a company called Inter Rent (write that down) who are in most of Western Europe. We found a four door fiat 500L diesel that could do over 800km on a tank and only cost 10.50 pounds per day. Between two of us it was by far the most affordable way to see a whole lot of the UK in the space of a month.

I won't go through all that we did for a month but a few of the highlights might be worth keeping in mind if you're thinking of going to the UK whatever time of year it is.

Windsor Castle

It was as much of a surprise to me that I appreciated this experience as it probably is to you to hear that I enjoyed it. What caught my attention was the fact that the furnishings, tapestries, paintings, weaponry, porcelain, chandeliers were quintessentially royal. All were extravagent almost beyond belief making the decor/decoration museum-esque. The rooms were huge, with ceilings higher than any I can recall in any place of residence i've ever seen and yes, it is still the Queen's residence. Clare loved it. I'd even go again.

Chessil Beach

Here is what is basically a dune 15m high, 18miles long and made entirely of pebbles. It separates the Atlantic from the lagoon it has created directly behind it. The view from Abbotsbury Hill just behind gives a great over all impression. This formation dates back to the last ice age and has something or other to do with the movement of the ice etc. Worth checking out as a matter of curiosity should you ever be driving along what is known as the Jurrassic Coast in the south of England. It was given this name due to the exposed coastal cliffs where an abundance of dynosaur fossils have been and will continue to be found which as you've probably guessed date back to the Jurrassic Period. This is a world heritage listed 155km stretch of the English Channel Coast

The Eden Project

Have you ever seen the movie Biodome? Pauly Shore at his finest. Anyway, it's now reality. As recently as 1995 the site of the biodomes was nothing more than an open clay pit used in the making of China/porcelain. Today it is the site of two giant biomes (as they're called) or housed environments. The rainforest and the mediterranean. The rainforest has already grown to over 20m tall and is expected to reach over 50m. A suspended platform has been constructed that will give visitors and scientists full time access to the rainforest canopy once it reaches this height. Apparenlty it's even possible to take a hot air balloon ride within the biome over the rainforest.

One of the primary functions of the Eden Project is to act as an educational facility amongst all the other education programs that are run by the organisation. The biomes house and display sustainable agriculture and demonstrate techniques used by indigenous peoples of like environments to educate and hopefully inspire visitors to be conscious about they can reduce their environmental footprint in a wide variety of ways. Unfortunately i only had the opportunity to spend a few hours here. I could have spent a couple of days wandering around, reading and just basically being amazed by what had been conceived, constructed and achieved at the Eden Project.

St Ives

You've all heard of Cornwall i expect. Well we consider this place to be the jewel of Cornwall. We arrived on a grey, wet and windy afternoon. Before we could even find a place to park (which is the one problem we found with this place) the sun came out and a double rainbow hit the water at one end and disappeared behind the hill at the other end. On the other side of that hill is the surf beach. Not a bad one either i might add. This side is the harbour and the bulk of the town. It is the quintessential British beach side town in all the glory i'd been told of in the past. It really was all that, despite my past determination never to believe that a decent beach or even beach side town could possibly exist in dreary old England. We arrived without intending to then stayed an extra couple of days just because it was worth it. The answer is no, i didn't pluck up the courage to go for a paddle. It was all we could do to sit through a beer on the hill in the cold while watching those keen enough to go out.

Cearfilly Castle

We went to Cearfilly in Wales a little north of Cardiff at the suggestion of a Welshman. I suspect it was a sentimental suggestion more than anything as it was his "local" castle. Not many of us can say that we have one of those so we went out of our way to check it out. We were not disappointed. This place is nothing like Windsor Castle. It is a ruin but with significant structure still standing. Having been to Windsor first we can at least imagine what it would have been like in it's prime. The great part about this place is that it takes pride of place beside the town of the same name. It has a double moat around it which we didn't see anywhere else on the trip. From the town's perspective, it seems to be a place to feed the swans and take their dogs for a walk. What a back drop. There's a whole lot of fascinating history behind this place but it escapes me at the moment and i'm not going to start researching it now.

Isle of Skye

WOW. Who knew you could see the Northern Lights; Aurora Borealis from Scotland. Well you can. We just happened to overhear a conversation between the hostel manager and a guy with some pretty serious looking photographic equipment and latched on to the idea. I'll be honest with you, we didn't see masses of dancing colourful lights in the sky like you see in tourism commercials for Iceland or Norway. The camera however did give a very good idea of what it could be like and justify the time driving around the Scottish country side in the middle of the night.

Don't let me fool you into thinking this is all that Skye has to offer either. This was another of those places we stayed several days longer than intended. There seems to be one micro landscape after another up here. From the area they call the fairy pools, to the mountain ranges, to the lakes, the fair Glenn, the area known as the garden of skye and the coastline there is a multitude of different things to see and do. Even by comparison to the rest of the UK in winter it is quiet, laid back and uncrowded. So worth staying longer even considering the places that had to be sacrificed.

We're coming home for a week now. Then it's off to Myanmar to see a man about a dog.

Until then.

Brett and Clare.