Well, what else can I say about the M 50 expierence that hasn’t already been said? On our way to Stratford, we ran into a little trouble. Six hours worth. Yep, we were stuck on the M 50 for six hours. England reportedly recieved two months of rain in two days! Flooding occured and we were in the middle of all that. About 15 miles ahead of us, ALL ROADS AND BRIDGES were either completely flooded or closed for safety reasons. So that meant that we had to wait. For six hours. The road crew ended up cutting the guard rail and letting everyone do a U-turn. But, as happy as everyone was to move again, there was more waiting to do. We find another road only to be caught up in more flooding. And more waiting. After a couple of more hours, we start moving again at a pretty good pace. Only to, you guessed it, get caught up again by the water. Long story short, we were over twelve hours late getting to our hotel. And our beds. Although some of us got some sleep on the bus, we were all pretty wore out by the experience.

Out of everyone that was stuck in that situation, we on the tour bus had it pretty good. Plenty of room. Comfortable seating. And a bathroom! Which some of the outside natives took advantage of. And we had each other as company. We laughed and talked. We played games. We got to know one another. We bonded. It was a difficult situation, but I wouldn’t change a thing. It was something that I now look back on fondly.

Our driver Brian and tour guide Allan were great during this whole ordeal. Calm cool and collected. Got us through it and made us as comfortable as possible. Thanks guys!

In closing, even though the rain slowed us down a bit, it didn’t ruin the trip. If anything, it made it more interesting. And we met alot of cool people on the road with us. I know I learned alot about patience. Which is always a good lesson. The Dear Lord protected us and nobody on the bus was hurt in anyway. We should be thankful for that. The BRCC group all arrived at the hotel safe and sound. Which really is all that matters in the end.

I have had the extreme pleasure this week of traveling with Blue Ridge Community College on their Literary Tour of Southern England.  Our journey began at Stonehenge and continued on to Salisbury Cathedral.  Our next morning was spent in Bath at the Roman Ruins, in the Abbey, and at the Jane
Austen Museum.  Our afternoon took us to Tintern Abbey in Wales, a most beautiful and sacred place.  Then we recited verse, played a trivia game and silly walked our way to Stratford through flooded roads and long lines of traffic.  But the experience could not damper our excitement over Shakespeare and the beautiful city of Stratford. After several snippets of restful sleep, we were off again to Oxford where we had the extreme pleasure of attending Sunday services at Christ Church.  The setting and the music were simply amazing.  Much of our day was spent exploring this lovely little college filled town, highlighted by lunch at The Eagle and Child, a local pub where CS Lewis spent time with his buddies.  We enjoyed Oxford, but were excited as we started our journey to London, where we walked by Big Ben, Parliament, Buckingham Palace, through Piccadilly Circus, and Leicester Square. We spent a day down in Canterbury, where we visited the Cathedral and a museum on the Canterbury Tales. It’s a two hour train ride, but well worth the visit to this old English city.  Our next day was spent at Westminster Abbey (incredible, especially due to our Blue Badge guide, Ian), walking through Shakespeare and Dickens’
London, culminating with a lovely evening performance of Othello by the Royal Shakespeare Company at the Globe Theatre.  It was an amazing performance, and a beautiful end to a lovely tour of Southern Literary England.

Now that I am back in the states, I realize how many memories and friends I made in 8 days. My feelings towards England are ones of pure joy. Although I am glad to be back home, I would give anything to be driving through the English countryside watching the rolling hills pass by and having the feeling of pure satisfaction. I would not change that for the world. If there ever comes an opportunity like this again, I would jump on it in a heartbeat. Reading a poem by Wordsworth and then going to where he wrote it in Wales is absolutely mind blowing. Hearing the beauty in the poetry is one thing, but seeing it in person is another. One cannot fathom what this would be like, and I recommend if anyone ever got the chance to go on a trip like this, do not hesitate, because this is a once in a lifetime opportunity.

Thanks so much to Blue Ridge for being able to support us through our journey. It was pure amazement! Thanks again!

I want to start this journal by saying I had a fantastic time over across the Atlantic. Although things did not always go as planned, I had one of the best times of my life. Something I’ll never forget.

I had never flow before this trip so I was a little nervous. My brother Kevin was along for the trip and is a veteran at flying so he wasn’t worried at all. The flight was better than I expected but I was relieved when we landed. Speaking of which, we hit the ground running. Meeting our wonderful tour guide Allen and driver Brian and heading straight to Stonehenge. That was a beautiful site indeed. Then off to Salisbury and our hotel.

That night, we were all wore out indeed. We had dinner and we to our rooms to rest for the next day. And we would need in too!

The next day, among other things, we head to Wales to see Tintern Abbey. That was awesome. Words alone cannot describe the place. Better yet, we were the only visitors there that day. And, factor in the fact that it was raining ever so slightly and you have yourself a wonderful experience.

Of course, the ride to our hotel that evening was a bit out of the ordinary. I’ll go into more detail of that in the next entry, but let’s just say we didn’t get to the hotel in Stratford on time. About twelve hours late. Water issues.

The next day didn’t start for us until that afternoon. We slept in and started the tour of Stratford until two or so. But we saw a lot and that interesting.

Bath was my favorite city on the trip. It had the old town feel and the people there were great. It had a great mixture of both the bustle of the big city and the comfort of the small community. If I go back to the U.K., I’m going to stop there for sure.

We saw a lot of churches on this trip. That’s a big part of what England is known for. I don’t know if I ever seen as many churches on one trip before this or not. But many of them were extremely old and full of history.

London was our last destination. That was an adventure in itself. London is a great city. But I think it loses some of the English feel that the other towns we visited had. Besides the obvious, it could have been any big city USA. The people weren’t as nice and cars were everywhere.

Lastly, Kevin and I did the night life thing while on the trip. We discovered that they LOVE America! Music, stars, lifestyle. The party people dig Americans. Which was good for us. And we met some of the coolest people on the planet.

Overall, the trip was a success and I’d do it all over again!