When we got to London (SO SO excited…… we’re in ENGLAND girls!!!) we had a half hour wait before our driver picked us up so just time for a pick me up coffee (and for Gwendols to phone home/face book etc etc….. That girl and her third hand….. Sorry I mean her mobile phone….. It’s like a fourth friend on our travels!). The driver dropped us off at the car hire place in Oxford and given the journey in the dark up there along the very fast motorway I was quite happy we’d made that decision so I didn’t have to participate in any navigations at that stage.
The car hire place wasn’t open yet but after 20mins standing outside waiting (and witnessing some quick change artists at work as Liane and Gwendols added layers) they let us inside to wait in the warmth until they officially opened. We did all the paper work, put our luggage in the car and locked it as we’d asked them if we could leave it parked there whilst we wandered into Oxford proper to pick up some passes we’d ordered etc. We left them the key though as they said they might need to move it…. Which turned out to be a slight problem as we only got 2 streets away and Larn remembered we didn’t have the paperwork necessary to pick up the passes as it was in the car inside the luggage……Damn… at least she thought of it then not when we got all the way there which was a good thing, the bad thing though was they’d already had to move our car and the guy who had done it had then gone off site to do something else…… yes with our keys! After another wait (I’m not that good at waiting in my “real” life but I seem to be getting some serious practice in on this trip already!) and with our keys in hand and paperwork picked up we took off down the road walking towards the town centre. Now it’s a funny thing travelling with Liane as it seems everywhere we go that she has been there before. She very confidently directs the action, knowing where to go and the like which is slightly disconcerting in a savant kind of way until you realise that it’s because she is so incredibly well prepared. Virtually every route we have walked or driven so far she has not only mapped out but has done it at the street view level…… so she isn’t actually re-visiting a town she lived in at some time in a past life (which was my original puzzled conclusion) but rather is the most organised and efficient traveller I’ve ever been privileged to accompany!
We picked up our passes, bought some postcards and popped into Tescos (as you do!) to pick up some supplies and then made our way to our home base for the next few days. There was a slight hiccup when we started driving and I was SO glad that Liane was driving and Gwendoline was in the navigator’s seat because without a word of a lie I would have probably bolted from the car screaming and left them to it! What happened was that each time we would stop at traffic lights the car would stop….. Just stop….. And then Liane would have to re-start it again and then it would do it again etc etc. The two of them were outwardly incredibly calm and tried various button combinations whilst Gwendols was also consulting the manual in the glove box. Meanwhile Liane just kept driving to the next traffic lights, stalling and then re-starting when the lights turned green. Of course there were cars everywhere and LOTS of traffic lights and even sitting in the back I found it all incredibly stressful so I can only IMAGINE what it was like in the hot seat! They figured it out in the end but being the technological moron and least car savvy person in the world that I am I still don’t quite understand what the problem was…. Something to do with an automatic start button maybe? Anyway the girls were calm, legendary saviours and sorted it out with the minimum of fuss so we were then on our way properly! We had booked a place called Mellowstone in what some would say is THE village of the Cotswolds.... SO much to look forward to!!