I really can't believe how quick Jess' trip over here felt. At least it was all very fun. Had a good afternoon in London after she finally got through the long line at Customs. Maybe it was due to the strike the day before, but Jeremy had the same issue in the same terminal (4) when he came over. We had planned to check out the Greenwich area, but diverted after we'd been on the Tube for about an hour, and realized it would probably be another hour before arriving. So we stopped off near Covent Garden for some lunch - a pork and black pudding pie, a few drinks, and then walked about 2 miles to Regents Park, which was very nice and relaxing. A couple beer stops finished off our night before the train back to Milton Keynes.
Saturday we let Jess catch up on sleep as much as possible before repacking a bag to head to Bordeaux. The trip to Luton was a bit stressful, due to, yes you guessed it - the bus. It was 40 minutes late showing up in Milton Keynes, and we were right on the edge of taking a 40 GBP taxi instead. Then we were slightly worried about being late for check-in, but in the end it all worked out, security and bag check went super quick and we were on the plane. Not as easy as security and baggage at Bordeaux though, we were out of there meeting Benedicte and Claude in no time flat! I think we'll get another post up about France specifically, maybe with Jess as a guest blogger!
We returned to the island on Tuesday afternoon, on a slight delay, but the bus was on time and we made it back to Newport Pagnell easily enough. Wednesday we spent recovering from the food and wine coma from Bordeaux and a quick trip to campus in the afternoon for a briefing about the British Grand Prix. We also walked around and explored my town a little more.
Thursday we picked up the rental car in the morning, and started the journey to Silverstone with a few stops along the way. We parked in Buckingham and walked around a bit. Lunch was a little picnic that we had packed, along with some cherries that we'd bought from a stand on the side of the road that were really good. The trip to Silverstone was for our official briefing, and to pick up the ticket for Jess. The briefing took too long, as it was scheduled when everyone else was in a different meeting. So we spent a ton of time just hanging out waiting for the people in charge to come back to finish our instructions. Finally we got out though. After Clive scared us enough about the traffic issues on Saturday and Sunday we did decide to camp at the track though, so we had to stop by a store in Milton Keynes on the way back to buy a tent and a sleeping bag for Jess (I'll return them both, and we wound up not needing the tent anyway). Our first meal out, not counting London (we'd done a good job using the food I had around to save money) was at 8 in Emberton, at the Bell and Bear. We really enjoyed everything, smoked pigeon and goat cheese pannacotta apps, pan fried haddock and lamb for entrees, and a cherry clafoutis for dessert.
The weekend turned out to be really fun, yes it was long, early and sometimes tiring work driving the golf carts around, but it was really a unique way to be part of a Grand Prix. It also allowed us access to a part of the track without the general public, which made it much easier to watch the cars when we had time off. I will say that hearing and seeing the F1 cars run for the first time was absolutely stunning. I'd almost expected to be disappointed by them, but that was not the case. You can visually tell they are so much faster than anything I'd ever seen before. And the noise is just something that you have to hear to explain. TV doesn't even come close to reproducing the sounds of the weekend. The atmosphere was really good too, tons of fans everywhere, way too many McLaren fans, and the weather was really only a minor annoyance, even though it was pretty bad on Friday and Saturday. It was really annoying on Friday, our first session off was for Free Practice 2, which was seriously wet, and no one really ran until I think 45 minutes into the session!
On Monday we had to return the car - so back to the good old bus for Chuck - and headed down to the Chiswick area in London. We walked along the Thames, down to Kew Gardens and Kew Green. It was good weather, and a nice relaxing walk. The permanent looking house boats along the river were quite interesting. Dinner was a meat platter with fabulous chorizo, chicken, steak, pate, and salami, served with gherkins and some fresh bread. A final stop for even better dessert put a great ending on the night. I got a sort of chocolate Lava cake, but served with salt caramel, tonkabean ice cream and an amazing sesame cracker. Jess had a praline nougat, with brandy soaked chocolate cookies and a chocolate whipped cream kind of thing too. We definitely kind of lucked into finding the place, which made it even better!
Tuesday morning we skipped the continental breakfast for French toast and eggs florentine at a spot close to the hotel before heading to Heathrow. The tube was delayed just a little, but we were still there in plenty of time, even with our tearful, never-ending goodbyes.
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