England March 2013- Hungerford

On my last full day in England, Dan's mom took me to the nearby town of Hungerford. The Hungerford adventure started with a ride in Dan's parent's Smart Car. As a member of the SoCal Smarties, I've seen all types of Smart Cars. However, this was my first time in a UK Smart!

Dan's Parent's new Smart.

UK Smart Car!

The interior of their Smart.

Their car has a feature that I had not seen, Eco. The engine shuts off when the car is at a stop.

I love having my Smart Car in Los Angeles, but I think that if I lived in England, I would definitely want to have one. The narrow roads are scary!

The drive to Hungerford was very beautiful. Here is a picture of one of the prettiest spots that I saw on my trip, a giant field that is a cow pasture in the warmer months.

Just like Newbury, Hungerford is a beautiful town filled with buildings steeped in history and full of character.

Alley to residential section.

Travel agency.

Pretty window.

The main street in Hungerford.

Warning sign

Mom and pop hardware store.

Hungerford street sign.

Building address

Shop front

Hungerford is filled with antique stores...some high end and some just junk.

Great store name.

The community events board.

Bumps in the road.

Naturally, i had to take a picture of the bookstore.

Clock close-up

Beautiful old building with a clock tower.

I love writing reviews on Tripadvisor and I was happy to see the familiar owl in a shop window.

Our first stop in Hungerford was the Antiques Arcade. The Antiques Arcade is deceptively small looking from the outside, but is massive. Inside, the building is split into two halves, each with a row of individual antique stalls going deep into building, including some on a second floor and in a basement. It's a place where you could spend many days and never see everything, objects are crammed into every available space.

I don't even like antique shopping, but I have to recommend the Hungerford Antique Arcade as a must-see. It's quite spectacular and the building itself is nothing like we have in America. I quite honestly had no idea where to look, as there was just so much to see. The best thing about poking around the arcade was finding objects that were completely foreign and unusual, like old machinery. There are some really old and unique objects for sale!

Caution Sign.

Steep stairs leading to the Junk Shop.

The Junk shop, located in a damp basement.

Books for sale!

Sign for a British reality show. If this was on an American channel, it would totally be a TLC show.

Giant flag

Cool ceiling

Taxidermy for sale ( not even remotely the strangest thing that you could purchase)

The Hungerford Antiques Arcade

The Hungerford Antique Arcade

My favorite part of Hungerford was walking by the canal. The canal runs through the town and has a lock allow for boats to enter. It is filled with ducks and lined with pretty homes.

Walking towards the canal.

Mooring info

The crossword notice...love it!

The Hungerford Canal.

Ducks

Lots of ducks!

This house had a notice on the door...

Just in case the message wasn't clear with the crossword.

Pretty canal house

Door knocker

Ivy lined path

A boat parked on the canal

The walking path along the canal.

People fish here too

The Hungerford canal.

Another fishing info sign

The Hungerford Lock

The Hungerford Lock.

The Hungerford Lock

Written in stone near the lock

The Hungerford Lock.

The Hungerford Lock

The Canal

Underneath the bridge

Great name for a boat!

After the canal walk, we went back to the main street and found a hidden path to take us back to where the Smart Car was parked. I took a ton of pictures.

The only red phone booth that I saw on the whole trip.

Round-a-bout

Funny

Pub Quiz is a big thing in Los Angeles too! Love it!

indian restaurant

That's a lot of logs!

Graffiti on the hidden path.

Another antique store

Warning sign on the hidden path.

A more modern church stuck in among the old buildings.

A dog house

i want to live in "Mole House". I also learned all about mole holes on this trip.

Town map

The hidden path.

We decided to walk up a set of stairs and found the hidden pathway.

The local pet store.

old gate

A round-a-bout without any physical barriers.

I love the vines on the brick building.

We came across a flooded road. Luckily the Smart had no trouble managing the water.

Driving through Hungerford

The Smart waiting for us in the parking lot. We left just as it was starting to pour.

Driving back through the beautiful fields with dark skies.

A big THANK YOU to Dan's mom for taking me to Hungerford. We spent a wonderful afternoon in a charming town.

England March 2013- British Airways

My first trip to Europe has sadly ended and now it is time for the onslaught of blog posts and Tripadvisor reviews. As I'm writing this, I'm still in the throes of jet lag and my entire system is completely confused by the time change. We were home and in bed before eleven, but I woke up at three in the morning, thinking that it was the afternoon and that I should be having tea or visiting a castle. I'm going to try my best to make it through today without a nap and hopefully be back to normal by tomorrow.

England was a good mix of everything that I imagined and stuff that never occurred to me. More on that in future posts, now let's start at the beginning and talk about the journey on British Airways.

I'm not just saying this because Dan's dad is a retired BA employee, but British Airways was far nicer than any other airlines that I have flown on, this includes many different US carriers and Air Canada.

We flew economy, so you know that it's going to be cramped and kind of miserable, but I felt like British Airways did everything possible to make the journey more bearable.

When we boarded the plane, each seat had a pillow, a blanket and a little bag with headphones and a mini tooth brush/tooth paste kit. Having the means to brush your teeth after a long flight is a big mood booster. I have grown accustomed to airlines only providing pillows and blankets upon request and them never having enough on board for all the passengers. It was nice to have the extras and not have to fight for them.

Note, although it's nice that they give you headphones, my own Iphone headphones were so superior in sound quality that I would recommend to make sure to bring your own.

We made the mistake of not double checking if our flight was delayed prior to leaving the house. It was delayed for two hours. Normally, this wouldn't be a huge deal, but the international terminal at LAX is a wasteland. I didn't appreciate how bad LAX is, until I walked through Heathrow. Heathrow is like a mega mall and LAX is like the DMV. It's bad.

We found this spot to wait and named it "Dan's Nap Room". LAX is the pits.

Even with the wait, it was impossible for my excitement to wane. It only took thirty-five years, but I was heading to EUROPE!!!

Next stop, England!

Our plane.

If you have to fly economy, picking the best seats is essential. Dan knows the ropes. The plane has three rows of two seaters on either side in the very back of economy. However, only the first set of two seaters on either side has extra space by the window. It's not a lot, but every inch counts. I was thankful to be seated with Dan and not squeezed in with other passengers. My only negative about BA, is the leg room seems more cramped than economy planes that I have flown on with other carriers.

Economy after the flight..what a mess!

Panorama of economy.

The inflight entertainment was plentiful, with a good range of movies and music. They even had a spoken word series of short stories and podcasts, including my favorite podcast, This American Life. I was very excited to watch movies and read books on the flights, but misjudged how sleepy I would be. On the flight over, I only watched, Lawless. On the way home, I fit in two movies, On the Road and Seven Psychopaths. The movies were okay, but I most enjoyed the documentaries offerings, including a travel program on Brazil. Next vacation destination perhaps?

I've not seen meals on an airlines since the mid-ninties. I know that airline food gets a bad rap, but really, I'll eat just about anything and the food that BA served was pretty darn good. We had a full dinner and a light meal each way. They also served free alcohol on board. Did you hear me, FREE ALCOHOL! I think that the only reason this is so exciting is for the novelty. I've never seen free booze in economy. It's not such a great idea to drink while flying and you'll feel crappy for it later. I had a mini bottle of wine (two going) with my dinner. It's the little things that count.

Excuse the bad Iphone picture...but this was our curry chicken dinner. The carrot cake was outstanding.

Complimentary beer and wine.

Pur breakfast box, served about ninety minutes prior to landing.

I really liked the yogurt drink.

When not watching movies, it's hard not to stare at the moving map screen. I love and hate this feature. It's fine if you can refrain from checking it every five minutes. A watched plane doesn't fly faster!

The map.

I was seated across the aisle from the most unaware man that ever existed. An hour into the flight, he knocked my water over and it spilled on my lap and IPad. The Ipad was safe, but soaked jeans make economy travel even more uncomfortable. During dinner he flung food from his plate on to mine. It kept things interesting.

Welcome!

Grimy and happy after a long flight.

My landing card

Heathrow Baggage Claim

Almost there...

The trip back to Los Angeles was even smoother. The plane was delayed nearly an hour, but they managed to make up the time in the air and we landed only fifteen minutes late. It's easy to kill time in the Heathrow airport, because there is just so much to see. We spent most of the time having coffee in a quiet lounge, where Dan even ran into a former co-worker.

I can move to England and still go to country concerts!

Dan and I, before a long flight home.

funny lottery ad.

latte and smores cake

Funny Red Nose Day advertisement

Goodbye..we will hopefully return soon!

Red Nose Day was on the Friday of our visit. We spent that day at Legoland and sadly, didn't see any Red Nose activity.

We found a quiet spot for a latte and complimentary paper.

I read the London Evening Standard

Shopping at the airport

We left on a cold, rainy Sunday afternoon. It even snowed earlier in the day. Here are all of the BA planes in the cold.

Panoroma

Plane on a stormy day

Even though the flight going home was an hour longer, it was an easier flight due to the time of day. It ran into the late evening, but wasn't overnight, so I wasn't completely exhausted. It's much nicer when you can stay up and take advantage of the entertainment, rather than attempt to sleep in a cramped chair.

The food on the way home was good too.

Dinner..Butter Chicken Curry with pasta salad and a caramel chocolate mousse for dessert.

The second meal was a chicken salad sandwich and chocolate chip muffin. Decent.

Again, BA did a great job with the desserts.

I didn't see London from the air coming or going. It was too cloudy. I like to think that London was just saving itself for my next trip, when I will hopefully get to visit the city.

Both trips with British Airways were as nice as they could be for an economy flight. The staff was friendly, professional and very attentive. I look forward to flying on BA on future vacations!

Stay tuned for my England trip reports!