Well, today is our last in the UK for this tour. Tonight we are staying at the Crowne Plaza in Heathrow Airport ready for our flight back to Paris tomorrow.
The last couple of days have really been driving days and today certainly more than originally planned.
Day 1
We woke this morning to drizzly rain and after a tasty breakfast today – yesterday we missed out as just after we placed our order and were about to put toast on, the lights flickered and the power went off ! After a few minutes investigating the staff advised it was the whole area and didn’t expect to be fixed for an hour or so we just had fruit and pastries.
We had the best part of a 5 hour drive for the day with a stop at Bletchley Park. Along the way the rain stopped and by late morning it was back to a warm sunny day.
Bletchley Park was the famous location of the British intelligence operations during WWII and where the cracking of the German Enigma codes – as well as Japanese codes – helped turn the tide of the war to the Allies. In fact, it is estimated that these operations shortened the length of the war by at least two years, saving countless lives. Whilst D-Day is generally remembered for the contribution of those in the invading armies, without the knowledge obtained through Bletchley Park prior to the actual invasion, the odds for the successes achieved by them would have been significantly lower.
We probably could have spent the whole day here as it is much more extensive than we had realised. The exhibits were quite fascinating and we watched a short film on how information had been gathered as well as how dis-information was spread amongst the Axis powers and how they were able to confirm its success in being accepted as fact.
After leaving we headed to our hotel in Oxford and then after walked into the main part of town for a look around. We were back to weekend crowds so it was very busy and crowded. We eventually decided to have dinner back at our hotel which was tasty – pasta for Adrienne and pizza for me.
Day 2
For our final day we had originally planned to visit Blenheim Palace but despite being the birthplace of Winston Churchill, our experience at Castle Howard had made us question whether it was worth the cost. Eventually we decided we would go into London to Greenwich Observatory which we had not seen in previous tours.
Although in mileage it was not overly significant, we hadn’t factored in “London traffic” which was horrendous! Adding to this, about half an hour after we left Oxford, we realised I had left a jacket at the hotel so we turned around to collect it.
By the time we got Greenwich, it was already time for lunch. Luckily being the weekend, Adrienne had found we could book parking at the Museum which saved us finding some other alternative. We had lunch in the museum then walked around the Maritime Museum before heading to the Observatory.
The parkland around the Observatory is huge and was full of people enjoying Sunday in the lovely weather. There were plenty also at the Observatory all trying to stand along the Greenwich meridian line – which we also did of course. And after looking around the other parts we eventually got back to the car for our next trek out of London to our hotel at Heathrow Airport.
We returned the hire car then walked across terminal 4 to the Crowne Plaza by which time it was around 6 pm so we headed straight to the bar ! It was a big night in town as England were playing Slovakia in the knockout stages at Euro 2024. As we found a table, Slovakia were already ahead by a goal and for the remainder of the game England struggled despite having a lot of chances and a goal disallowed.
Then in the last minute of stoppage time, England scored! To my amazement there was really only polite applause from the gathered crowd in the bar and I had to stop myself laughing out loud at the lack of reaction!
As extra time began, almost immediate England scored again to take the lead and again the crowd responded with polite applause! Talk about “stiff upper lip” ! At this point we decided we were too hungry to wait for the final whistle and headed to the restaurant for dinner. We had some delicious curries for dinner – Adrienne a chicken curry and I had a Prawn Laksa.
After dinner we got our bags organised for our morning flight to Paris and the end of our time in the UK.
PS England held on to win 2-1