Chickerell

Monday October 17th
In Which we Visit Mary but Stonehenge is Closed

At 8.30 am in the morning I rang Europcar to explain what had happened the previous day. I said that I did not want to turn up at the rental office and find the same thing happening the second time round. "I will give them a call", the representative explained.

Nearly an hour later I was still on hold.
"I cannot understand why they are not picking up their phone", he lamely apologised.

What an incredibly inept way for a large company like Europcar to run a business.
Not only had I wasted the previous day and 20 pounds in taxi fares, I had also spent around $40 on phone charges and I still had no definite result.

When the guy seemed unable to do anything, we decided that we had no other alternative other than to return to the depot and hope that it was going to be attended.

Another 10 pounds taxi fare later we were back at the depot, with all our bags.
At least it was open this time.

I walked to the counter and explained the stuff up of the previous day.
"I don't work here", was the helpful reply. Then why was she sitting behind the desk ?

Eventually someone who apparently did work there appeared and explained why nothing could be done for me. I showed them the printed contract with the collection details on it. Finally we were offered 2 day's free rental (I will believe it when it is actually credited back to my bank account) and eventually we were sitting in a Vauxhall Mokka (what the hell is that ?) outside the depot.

The first few minutes in a new rental car are always a little stressful, especially when you cannot figure out how to get the blessed thing started. Press this, push that, what is that beeping noise ?, how did I turn the wipers on ? What gear I am in ? And so on.

Finally we were underway and making our way gingerly through the unfamiliar and very busy streets of Portsmouth.

I had decided that our time would not be wasted entirely if we could visit the Historic Naval Dockyards. They were only about 6 km away and we had the expert assistance of Tom (actually Tom Tom the resident GPS).

Tom directed us through a succession of interesting manoeuvres until we could see that we were nearing a naval precinct. "Turn Right Now", he ordered. I did what he instructed. I shouldn't have. "I don't think you should be here", Maggie helpfully suggested, adding liberally to my state of stress.

The policeman windmilling his hands furiously also added to my stress as well. I stopped and put on my best "senile old fart" expression. "Is this the way to the Mary Rose Museum ?" I asked. "NO, you are heading straight into a military base", was his tert reply. The nearby sign proclaimed that the base was in a state of "heightened terrorist alert", so I probably should have been grateful they didn't fill the rental car with bullet holes.

An embarrassed U turn later and a few more turns found us in the correct place. We were then able to spend a couple of very interesting hours exploring the HMS Warrior and the HMS Victory

I have to admit that this was really fascinating, although the five foot ceilings in the Victory added some extra bruises to my ageing head. I should have worn my bike helmet.

By 1.30 pm we decided that it was time to say goodbye to Portsmouth and head to our next port of call at Weymouth. I checked the route and noted that it was not all that far away from the famous Stonehenge. "It would only add about 70 km to our drive", I told Maggie. She didn't seem convinced, but soon we were telling Tom to take us to the famous stone circle.

At least the drive gave us our first real look at the countryside of Hampshire and Dorset. Maggie made up her mind really quickly. "All these places look old and tired", she commented, "and the shops are disgusting". Fair comment, they were.
Soon after 3 pm the road took us past the famous ring of stones. "Look Maggie, there it is".
"Where what is?" she answered.
"Stonehenge".
"I didn't see it".
Some days are like that.

I drove on to find the official car park. It was a couple of kilometres further on. We turned in and were met with a CLOSED sign. The young guy at the entrance explained that Stonehenge, for some completely unknown reason, closes at 3 pm each day. What utter rubbish. Why on earth would such a famous attraction close at 3 pm ? Apparently it just does, they don't have to have a reason.

We had no choice but to drive past a couple more times and view it from the road. It actually didn't look all that impressive anyway. I decided that it was just another "Rubbish Attraction" and that we could just as easily give it a miss after all.

We asked Tom to take us to Weymouth instead. It was only about 80 km further on, every single one of them directly into the face of the setting sun. It made for very tiring driving, but eventually we safely made it to our next B&B in the tiny hamlet of Chickerell, on the outskirts of Weymouth. Fortunately the Heritage B& B was absolutely delightful and our room was probably the best we had stayed in for the entire trip so far. At least the day ended well.

We had a fine dinner at the Turk's Head Pub which was directly next door to our B&B and retired for an early night.Read more