Fact: you can only touch the stones at Stonehenge 4x per year! Normally there is a rope holding you a football field away as the site is now run by the Historical Society and there are rules in place. No more just showing up. And you have to park far far away and take buses into the site now. Very Disneylandish.
As we started our England adventure flying to Philadelphia, we were bumped from our flight and flew in late, arriving around 9pm when we were suppose to have arrived at 12pm the day before! We got our rental car and headed to Salisbury which is closest town to the stones, About 1.5hrs away from Heathrow. We couldn’t just show up at our B&B at midnight, so we decided to go on to the Stones and sleep in our car! Having no idea if you could actually do that, if it was legal or what, but we didn’t have a choice really so off we went. Darren driving a car on the right side steering wheel on the Left side of the road for the Very First Time! pitch black, 10pm at night with SatNav telling us how to get there! Its a wonder we didn’t wreck or die!
Arrived at midnight and managed to find the entrance in the pitch black dark and pulled right up to the gate and parked. With about 50 other cars parked along a country type lane in the middle of the field, we could see in the distance some gates and buildings but had no clue what they were. We could see people walking about and some out tailgate style of the cars, with fires and singing songs but all very calm and quietly, not a big Party scene so we settled in to our car to try and sleep after 2 Very Long Days of travel. But we had Made it, Universe and Airlines be damned, we made it to Stonehenge for Fall Equinox as planned.
At 6am everyone started stirring about and more cars started arriving. The guards wouldn’t let anyone in early, so be prepared as the restrooms are Inside the gates! And no services are open so no coffee either! By the time they let us all in, there were about 150 people and many Druids dressed in style: top hats, Highland costumes, bagpipes, drums and more! We all marched in together to the beating of the drums and the wonderful bagpipes piping. What a surreal feeling.
In a typical UK fashion, there was falling mist, it was still dark and rainy but no one seemed to mind, we just all bundled up and away we all went. Straight up to the stones. Amazing experience but no wonderful sunrise this morning unfortunately. No great photos of lights thru the stones that we had seen on the internet, but many fun times were had and we got to walk all around and touch and feel the stones.
We finally made it across the pond and to London, our first trip and we packed it all in, in just a few days. There is so much to see and so much to do. Everything you’ve seen in the movies and there you are! The double decker buses, the black taxi cabs, Big Ben and Parliament, its all in front of you and so bizarre and we Loved it
We are about to start the second half of our life with a BIG adventure of becoming Flex Pats living in Europe as American’s! Europeans think nothing of “hey lets move to the U.S” and yet very few American’s think, (except for backpacking college kids), I want to move to Europe and learn/live a different way.
Well Darren and Darla have talked about this for YEARS and now we are finally going to go for it. We have an advantage of moving there and being able to work in two ways: Darren is a British citizen due to his father and grandparents being born in England, making him an automatic UK citizen. We have worked on finding about all of this for years, and finally secured his UK passport 3 yrs ago and still have not used it! Well now is the day and we are on the beginning of our adventure.
We are selling our house in Carlsbad as Major Step 1. So wish us luck as we will be listing it this week. We’ve been prepping, upgrading, beautifying for a few weeks and this is the week to go live on the realtor MLS. Wondering how long it will take and whom will love our house as much as we do?
We joined a UK online tutorial group of a married couple in London who have traveled and worked abroad for 6yrs. They are hopefully going to share and teach us the pitfalls, pros and cons of how to do all of this, and how to work and travel as well.
Our first adventure travel, is we are going to England for 10 days this Fall/Sept/October to check it out and work on getting our credentials for living in England first. Setting up bank accounts, getting their version of Social Security #s etc etc. and identifying WHERE in England do we want to become our home base for a minute.
But first things first, and that is selling this house, selling our cars, and most all our furniture and possessions as I don’t want to lug anything across the pond. we will start anew. So if you know anyone that wants a beautiful ocean view house in Carlsbad CA and furniture to go with it? just drop me a line!
This was where we began to dream of letting go of most of our worldly possessions (and good lord we had ALOT of stuff) and taking up the mantle of “World Travelers”. Our beautiful home in Carlsbad Ca/San Diego. Two people with a burning desire to explore the world and evolve into our higher selves through open communication, meeting new people/cultures and shared experience. Learning all along the way thru experience. Taking a 10 day holiday once a year or even twice a year just isn’t enough anymore! Join us as we do our best to document this incredible journey.