England 2009
That time we decided to go to England by car for several reasons. First of all last year I decided that driving in England should not be that difficult, secondly we liked the idea of being independent, and thirdly we needed to get from England to Denmark and by car it is cheaper to get to all of these places.
The trip was preceded by large preparations. Lenka found all connections, ferries, and prices, and we had to calculate when to start, so the days would fit nicely. Both trips would last around 24 hours and we did not want to loose a day by unnecessary sleeping in England. At the end we left Prague on Thursday May 7th after lunch in direction of Calais. We traveled through Germany, Netherlands, and Belgium. Freeways were beautifully empty, and we came to Calais significantly sooner, so we had time to go to dinner. We did not want to risk unknown food and the proverbial French language barrier, so we went to a pizzeria at some square. Not only that we liked the food, but even the language barrier did not happen. The girl that was serving us was pretty, obliging, and speaking English. She even took a picture of us.
You need to get on a ferry an hour earlier before departure, and our ferry was supposed to leave at two o’clock in the morning (really on Friday), but we knew that it is possible to come earlier, and if there is a free place we can get onto the earlier boat. We came to the check-in at nine (21:00), and the lady was willing to take us, but we would have to pay. She explained that we could only get for free on the closest ferry before the proper one. We did not mind this much, we would be in Liverpool too early anyway, so we went to a parking lot and slept in the car until midnight.
Exactly at midnight we registered for the ferry that was leaving at one. The Calais port is huge - check the pictures. We were waiting there for a good 3/4 hour before they let us on the ferry. A ferry is a huge boat with several decks. Cars park on three of them; other three have space for people. The crossing should take an hour and a half, and we wanted to use this time for sleeping. We thought that we would look the ship over quickly and then we would get some sleep in the car. Well, we were wrong. When we went through both decks (the third one was an outdoor one and was closed) and wanted to go back to the car the garage entrance was closed. Later we found out that it is not allowed to be in cars, that they could even be inspected. So, we were trapped on the ship, no money and no books either. Horrible. Also the boat was tremendously noisy, so it was not possible to sleep. Well, for some people. Lenka fell asleep almost immediately; I was bored to death in the meantime, and did not die only because of Tom and Jerry that were on TV one after another in a children game room.
Nothing lasts forever, so we got to England and Dover at the end. We drove through the port and saw the sight of white Dover cliffs. I did not expect it and was really sorry that I was driving, since this was a fascinating sight.
Getting used to driving on the wrong side of the road went well, since in Dover they have it well arranged with a one-way two lane road going from the port, where you don’t have to think about anything, and then you get to a freeway, where everything is fine, too. In the beginning you could beautifully see who was local and who was not, since everybody, who was not, stayed behind some truck, and did not want to pass, but then we all became braver, passed, and we continued toward Liverpool.
Although Lenka told everybody before the trip that she would not drive in England for anything, that she would be afraid, in the morning at 7 she begged and begged to be allowed to drive. So, guys, isn’t she perfect? She drove all the way to Liverpool; we switched just before it.
The arrangement was that Anne would be at Kathleen’s place, so we were seeing the sights all together until Sunday. We saw the sea, cathedrals, went to a boat trip along the Mersey channel and went to a seaside pub. We also visited my favorite Maritime Museum on Saturday. It is so big that we did not manage to walk through it on Saturday afternoon and had to leave one floor for Sunday.
On Saturday afternoon we visited the choir Kathleen sings in. They had a performance in the evening, to which we were invited, but we preferred a visit to the Tony Colingwood club in Manchester. There were two and a half squares, people were dancing C3A, and because we had known practically everybody, the visit was really nice. Actually we did not know only about two people, and they were quite surprised how everybody was talking to us, and could not understand how we knew each other. Well, that’s how it goes when you don’t go out to the dances.
After the club ended one of the squares stayed for another half hour, and we had time to try the first half of C3B that we had learned before in practice. We were pretty good.
On the way back, almost at the end, we lived through a small traffic adventure. It was after eleven, no cars anywhere. We came to a crossroad; on the side where we were standing were two straight lanes, behind the crossroad only one. I went through the crossroad straight and ended in an opposite lane. Lenka noticed it and said: "you are on the wrong side", and I automatically turned to the right. We immediately realized that this was wrong, so we went over two lanes to the left. If there were cars this would not happen, but this way it looked like we were drunk. The same thought must have occurred to the cops behind us, because they caught up with us and signaled for us to stop. This busty girl came out of the police car and was really surprised when she saw, from which side I got out. She came closer, saw a steering wheel, understood and tried to be helpful. She asked whether I knew where I was going and how to get there and told me about three times to drive carefully. I agreed with her on everything, the rest of the journey was OK and I thought how helpful, hardworking, and obliging the police was in England. Little I had known that we would get to know them much better.
On Sunday morning we went shopping to the center of Liverpool by ourselves. We went around shops, bought a few things, and finally had a good lunch in one restaurant that we finished by an ice cream bowl handmade in the Ice Cream Factory. We wanted to go to a museum afterwards, but because we had our hands full of bags with purchased things we decided to put them in the car first and then go to the museum. Well, imagine our surprise when we got to the street where our car parked. The car had the doors open and two thieves inside. We started after them, but they had bikes and managed to get away. Unfortunately they stole our navigation, which was very unpleasant. On the other hand we went through encounter with English police that was exactly the same as ours. Although, maybe it was slightly better.
Lenka present mindedly called them during the chase, but we had to wait for them for about an hour. They arrived, looked at the broken window and asked me, whether I could follow them to the station. I told them I could and we started together. They did not worry about red lights and regulations too much, and I did not want to loose them, so I went through Liverpool in left-sided England faster than through any other continental city.
A policeman at the station filled a very long questionnaire with us. It was hard, since his English was not so good. He spoke a local dialect called liverpudlian. It is similar to Maasai dialect, only it is harder to understand. He had to repeat every question at least twice, which delayed things. However, revenge was sweet. During our description of how the thieves looked, what they had on, how old they were and similar data, we also had this exchange of information:
David: By the way, it might be interesting for you; the thieves spoke very nice, understandable English.
Policeman: Better than mine?
David + Lenka together: YES!
We wanted them to take fingerprints out of the car, since the thieves did not have gloves. Unfortunately, technicians did not work on Sunday, so we were told that somebody will stop by on Monday afternoon at our place.
When we filled and read the protocol (in the policeman handwriting either in shorthand or runes) they copied a map for us and marked the way to get back to Crosby. Well, I knew how to get to Crosby; the problem was the infamous last mile. Our departure was slightly complicated, since Lenka, for whom the adventure was a little too much, became sure that we would never get back to Kathleen, since we would either have an accident on the wrong side of the road or we would get to the Bermuda triangle. It was a hard work to persuade her that it would not make sense to sleep in the car and wait to be rescued by the Red Cross. Luckily she allowed herself to be persuaded after half an hour and we could start. The last mile had to be, of course, tried twice, but at the end, almost in dark, we arrived.
As you might have noticed, we did not get to the museum that day.
The next day after breakfast Kathleen called some service about the window. The service worked surprisingly well. All that needed to be said was the type of the car and a year of manufacture, and they themselves found what window they needed. I did not even have to go anywhere with the car, they came to the Kathleen house themselves.
But the price was a shock. They told Kathleen on the phone that the repair would cost 680 pounds. Her and mine jaws dropped, but I had to agree, since I was not sure, that they would let us on the ferry without the window. I was destroyed all morning. Additionally Kathleen made it worse, since she said that 680 pounds is without VAT, so I could expect the total of 800. I resigned after this. Luckily, all ended well. It came out that even the local inhabitants do not understand liverpudlian. The price was not 800, but only 80 pounds, or rather £79.84. I gave the technician 80 pounds, and he made twice sure that I really wanted to give him those 16 pence as a tip. I was immediately free of all financial worries and felt like I was drunk.
The purchase of navigation also deserves a mention. I had TomTom 920, which was being discontinued, so I thought that I would buy 930. But in England this was obsolete also, so I am a proud owner of TomTom 940 now. Probably as the only one in CR (at least in 2009).
Outside of shopping we also managed to finish the Maritime Museum and the Chinese Quarter in the morning.
Police for taking of finger prints did not show up, of course, and since it was only 3 pm, we took a trip to Chester. Of course by our car, and as you can see in the photo gallery, Lenka was driving, too. She did great. I even had to say that she was doing better in England than on the Continent.
Chester is not far from Liverpool, and it is very old. Very old, its heyday was at the times of Romans, but it was founded before that. It has quite a few sights, both from Roman times (not all of them in good shape), and from later times (in good shape). Later means in the Chester context from 11th or 12th century, like our Vyšehrad.
While we were walking around the town we discovered a wine and liquor shop, where I bought a very good whisky. Because of driving only ladies were tasting, I paid and hoped that I “chose” right.
Tuesday was our last day in Liverpool. We packed after breakfast and started in the direction of Tiverton. By this time we felt comfortable driving in England, and I started thinking whether I would adjust automatically on the Continent, or if I was going to take some time.
Still on the same day after arrival we went to take a look at the local church, which we took as training for the Wells cathedral.
We wanted to see the famous Wells cathedral (in Somerset) last year, but there was no time, so we planned it for this year. It is a nice full day trip; we looked into the cathedral itself and on the bishop’s house, and had a cream tea in a coffee shop.
Rest of the visit went quietly; mostly we were taking walks around Tiverton.
We parted on Friday morning and went to Dover. We arrived relatively early, had early dinner, and then went to the ferry. This time we were ready for the passage with all the needs – money and books. There was no driving surprise when we got to Calais. Driving on the right came naturally. Although in Calais we drove straight onto a freeway, so it is hard to tell.