DAY-17: Cambridge To Portsmouth
Day – 17: Friday, September 8, 2017
Starting Location: Cambridge, England, UK
Interim Location: Heathrow Airport Area
Interim Location: Heathrow Airport Area
Ending Location: Portsmouth, England, UK
It was raining this morning so the "punt on the Cam" tour was deferred for a future trip to Cambridge should that ever occur. Today's drive was to be busy as we would be traversing major traffic corridors en-route to Portsmouth.
In that we were driving past Heathrow we decided to make a practice run into the airport readying for Sunday when we would pick-up the Maxwells. We found our way into Heathrow Terminal 5 with relative ease and established a plan for the rendezvous. Once out of the terminal we decided that finding our Heathrow lodging would be a good idea so after much play with the GPS, the hotel confirmation directions and a call to somewhere either in the hotel lobby or in Mumbai, India, we finally found the hotel. Sheila went in to check it out and inquire as to whether they had washers and dryers. She was back out in about two minutes indicating that we would not be staying at this hotel for the foreseeable future, well actually for ever. So much for the $99/night rate. Within that brief moment of time Sheila had experienced India and a part of it's culture.
We continued on to Portsmouth around London on the evil M25 (something like Washington's I-495 beltway during rush hour) finally reaching the M3 about 4 PM. From there our companions were the thousands of London workers streaming home. By 6 PM we were in the Portsmouth Marriott, our home for the night.
By then with the stress of driving the M25 I needed a beer and Sheila needed a "fru-fru" drink. Not knowing what to ask for she simply left the decision in Ashley, the bartender's hands. His concoction turned out to be a strawberry daiquiri made with fresh hand squeezed and strained berries.
While at the bar Sheila chatted up the locals from whom we learned that many of the guests and bar patrons were in town for the Goodwood Revival a series of auto races at the Goodwood Estate in Sussex.
The "revival" is a fun and competitive series of events with classes of cars from vintage to new, from street model to formula type racers. In fact we met a racer sitting at an adjacent table with his wife and child. His car was a 1958 Lola Mark-1 Prototype.
Apparently for the Goodwood Revival people dress for the times, wearing period clothing for the vintage racing that they follow.
For dinner we ate in the hotel and called it an early night.
It was raining this morning so the "punt on the Cam" tour was deferred for a future trip to Cambridge should that ever occur. Today's drive was to be busy as we would be traversing major traffic corridors en-route to Portsmouth.
In that we were driving past Heathrow we decided to make a practice run into the airport readying for Sunday when we would pick-up the Maxwells. We found our way into Heathrow Terminal 5 with relative ease and established a plan for the rendezvous. Once out of the terminal we decided that finding our Heathrow lodging would be a good idea so after much play with the GPS, the hotel confirmation directions and a call to somewhere either in the hotel lobby or in Mumbai, India, we finally found the hotel. Sheila went in to check it out and inquire as to whether they had washers and dryers. She was back out in about two minutes indicating that we would not be staying at this hotel for the foreseeable future, well actually for ever. So much for the $99/night rate. Within that brief moment of time Sheila had experienced India and a part of it's culture.
We continued on to Portsmouth around London on the evil M25 (something like Washington's I-495 beltway during rush hour) finally reaching the M3 about 4 PM. From there our companions were the thousands of London workers streaming home. By 6 PM we were in the Portsmouth Marriott, our home for the night.
By then with the stress of driving the M25 I needed a beer and Sheila needed a "fru-fru" drink. Not knowing what to ask for she simply left the decision in Ashley, the bartender's hands. His concoction turned out to be a strawberry daiquiri made with fresh hand squeezed and strained berries.
While at the bar Sheila chatted up the locals from whom we learned that many of the guests and bar patrons were in town for the Goodwood Revival a series of auto races at the Goodwood Estate in Sussex. The "revival" is a fun and competitive series of events with classes of cars from vintage to new, from street model to formula type racers. In fact we met a racer sitting at an adjacent table with his wife and child. His car was a 1958 Lola Mark-1 Prototype.
For dinner we ate in the hotel and called it an early night.
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