Brave or Crazy? On Our Way to Manchester

We decided it would be fun to drive all the way up to Manchester.  You know, that way we could stop along the way, see some sights, enjoy the beautiful English countryside.  We rented a car in London, near Hyde Park, and managed to get out of town.  Luckily for us, they were all out of the standard car we had reserved, so they just HAD to give us this one.  A convertible. Darn.  A Mercedes.  Drat. 

Lucky for us it was a beautiful sunny day!  The best day so far - 

we could drive with the top down.  

Notice the driver's side?  It's on the WRONG side!  

You would think that getting used to driving on the right-hand side of the car would be difficult enough.  You would think that driving on the WRONG side of the road would be challenging.  Add to that the fact that London (and Manchester for that matter) streets were designed to fit one horse, not four lanes, 5 gazillion taxis and buses and 14 quadrillion people crossing at all different times on the road.

We turned on our trusty Ms. Navi and she directed us so primly and properly out of the chaotic city.  Whew!  We made it!  I love Ms. Navi.  She is so sweet.  I want her in my car.  My Ms. Navi is not nearly so pleasant as this one.  This picture by the way was taken when we were safely out of town so we could stop and put the top down.

We did make one stop along the way to Cambridge.  What a beautiful college town.  Nothing like other college towns I've seen, like UCLA, USC, or BYU - or even Harvard - well, Harvard is a tiny bit similar.  

This was spectacular - and to think of the centuries of history laid within the cobblestones and library bookshelves is staggering.

You could rent a punt and have fun on the little picturesque river.  So cute! 

We stopped for lunch at a little cafe across from King's College.

Back on the road . . . en route to Manchester.  Lovely pastural scenes with plenty of cows and sheep dotting the landscape. 

I thought the sunset was just stunning - and not bad considering this was taken at 80 mph.

We almost arrived without incident.  I feared it was too good to be true.  If getting out of London, and navigating the cart-sized-streets-with-cars-parked-on-both-sides of Cambridge wasn't bad enough, trying to find the rental return in Manchester proved to be too much.

The place just didn't exist.  Ms. Navi couldn't even find it.  She thought she did a couple of times, but no luck.  It would probably have been easy if places around here had actual addresses.  Anyhow, it was dark, we needed to get to the hotel so John could meet up with his team, and we were quite frankly d-o-n-e.  We tried calling Hertz, but they never did answer, so we continued on to the hotel and figured we'd either have them come pick it up themselves in the morning, or I (gasp!) would return it.  

Saved by the bell, or boom, or pop, or whatever you want to call it!  

There was a noise, a hiss and then a bumpy ride.  We got a flat tire!  We were in who-knows-where-industrial part of town, not far from our hotel, so we drive on the flat . . . hoping that we'll make it, and that Ms. Navi won't misdirect us.  

We find the hotel, pull into the lot and the bellhop comes over to help with the car and our bags.  We tell him we have to park it because it has a flat, and he looked at it and said, 

um . . . both tires are flat!  

What?  

He took everything for us, told the concierge, and they handled everything!  They were able to get a hold of Hertz!  By the time we had dinner (which was fabulous by the way, and the chocolate mousse was sinfully divine, but I digress), our fun, sporty, stressful car was happily towed away for us.  Yeah!  I don't have to figure out how I am going to drive on the WRONG side of the car on the WRONG side of the street in a crazy busy part of a strange and unfamiliar town! 

Not only that, our super nice and friendly and overly helpful concierge delivered a nice card in a sealed envelope to our room explaining how everything was taken care of for us.  

If you are EVER in Manchester, this is seriously the best hotel.  It has to be one of the nicest I've been in, but the staff is by far the most helpful and friendly and accommodating ever!  Even the maitre de, the busboy and the waiter were over-the-top nice.  

Now I'm hoping that there is actually something for me to do in this city tomorrow.  John will be in meetings all day.  I think I get to paint the town red, or at least walk it.  Too bad the dollar is so weak compared to the pound, making everything cost nearly twice as much, because there is serious shopping that can be done!