Wednesday
August 18, 1982 – To Birmingham
We woke
amazingly late as the traffic outside our window was not nearly as heavy as I
had expected it to be. It was pouring down and I got quite wet bringing the car
around. It really was an odd set up at the pub and we had breakfast upstairs in
the family living room. But it was comfortable.
We got off
to a good start and before long the weather started clearing. As we were
heading for Birmingham, we took the coastal road
to Glastonbury.
The scenery was again beautiful but quite different from that in Cornwall and Devon. The
view of Porlock Bay was absolutely magnificent, as was
so much of that area. The Porlock Hill
Road with it’s 1:4 gradient was quite an
experience too.
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| Glastonbury Abbey |
The reason
that we were making for Glastonbury
was because I remembered younger brother Pad telling me that this was real Hobbit country and that there were some
interesting standing stones there. Well, it turned out that either Pad or my
memory was wrong and I should have checked my Fodors first. Although to be
fair, Roy had
also thought that this was the area for standing stones. Anyway, what there is
at Glastonbury,
apart from the Tor, is the remains of an old Abbey. Matt and Rab had not the
slightest interest in more old stones so while I looked around they browsed
around the shops.
Once I read
up the guide about the Abbey I realised why the name had stuck in my mind. It
is all mixed up in the Arthurian legend and Avalon etc with even Jesus and
Joseph of Arimathea reputed visitors. I was most impressed with the ruins as I
always am because it is always awe-full to think of the effort and logistics
that were required to put into these enormous buildings a thousand years ago.
We had a very nice lunch at a little pub opposite the Abbey. Matt stuck to his
Ploughman’s but Rab and I tried something a bit different. Steak and kidney pie
for her and a pork pie for me. Excellent.
Onwards from
there to Bath.
Again my choice as I wanted to see the Roman baths again. Matt and Rab were
both asleep when we got there and I nearly went straight through but then
thought I could at least see the baths while the other two slept on. What a
mistake! The traffic was incredibly heavy and the signposting very poor. Rab,
having woken up to the dulcet sounds of my swearing finally asked a Traffic
Warden who gave us very good directions to the nearest parking garage. That was
full and there was a queue about half a mile long. At this stage I gave up and
headed North.
We got on to
the M5 which is a very nice bit of road and we were able to keep up a high
average speed – the views weren’t as good of course. While there were three
lanes the traffic flowed very well with the right hand lane being left clear
for overtaking. It was not so good when it narrowed to two lanes as the heavy
lorries tended to cling to the outside lane.
The weather
cleared nicely as we got closer to Birmingham
and Bob’s clear instructions got us to his house very easily. (Bob was another of the group I had met at
Ashridge the previous year). Bob’s elder daughter was at home. I went off
with her to the local off licence to get a few beers and some wine and then
just sat around chatting until Bob and Pauline
got home at about 18.30. Rab was getting more and more long faced with what she
saw as a typically cheeky teenage girl and the fact that it became apparent
that the family were somewhat disorganised. That all changed as the evening
progressed and she got on like a house on fire with Pauline
and Bob. The younger daughter arrived during the evening from London but she didn’t impress Rab either.
Our beds
were very comfortable although Pauline
had warned Rab that her bed was propped up on a pile of books.
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