“The Aggressive Seagulls” is my new band name…

Instead of AAA for roadside assistance they have AA here. We had to use them on both of the first two full days we had the rental car. Yes, that’s right. Two days in a row we needed roadside assistance. I may actually need the other AA before this trip is over….

The first morning after we rented the car we walked out of the hotel and it would not start. The battery was so dead that it would not even attempt to start. It seems I had inadvertently left the lights on. On the second full day we were going to visit Cambridge and Canterbury. Cambridge is likely a gorgeous town but we spent 6 hours there and saw little more than student housing. We had parked there to go explore and were getting jackets out when the keys somehow got locked in the “boot”. This meant that the car “hardlocked” and AA could not unlock it. We ended up having to call a locksmith. The MG we had been “upgraded” to is very new and it took the locksmith a while to figure out how to pick it, but he was eventually successful. (I put upgraded in quotes because it’s really questionable if that can be counted as an upgrade. The car is bigger but the engine is not and bigger is not as important on these tiny roads as being able to get out of the way!) A couple of the Cows About Cambridge that we did get to see:

Luckily, after that fiasco, we were booked into an Air B and B with possibly the sweetest hostess ever. Laura had thought of every possible need and we were able to relax and decompress.

This morning we left Laura’s place and headed to Dover where we spent far longer than we expected at Dover Castle. The view is unbelievable! We ended up buying an Overseas Visitors pass for English Heritage, the charitable organization that oversees over 100 significant historical sites. It was £87 but should pay for itself rather quickly.

We ended up eating lunch in the car at Dover Castle and that is when we discovered that they have some extremely aggressive seagulls. One in particular tried to break the windshield for our crackers.

We had intended to take the kids to Brighton, as that seems to be the British equivalent of Myrtle Beach but ended up choosing to go to Arundel, instead. Arundel is the first British town that Rob and I fell in love with on our first trip here almost 20 years ago. It has both a cathedral and a castle but still retains a small town vibe and friendly residents.

Driving is stressful, although possibly getting just a little bit easier. I only got honked at once today! Roads are closed in places, though, with no warning to either us or the GPS, and so today we used it very little. GPS has always annoyed me, anyway. Rob says it’s a control issue but I have no idea what he is talking about. I will admit that driving on the left does not go well with my propensity to drive close to the outside shoulder. Due to this and the insanely narrow roads I have managed to scrub the side of my tires on the curb a few times now.

We are spending the night in Portsmouth tonight where all my time in hotels is paying off. We are using points and were upgraded to The Portchester Suite. I am a sucker for named suites, lol!

Tomorrow we are headed to Plymouth with a stop on the way to see Dartmouth Castle, and whatever else we just can’t pass up.