UK Day 3 : Getting to Tavistock

We were in a bit of a rush this morning. We needed to catch a train at Paddington station to Bristol at 12:02, and the station was about 30 minutes away. Checkout was at 10, and we wanted to see Kensington Gardens, so we needed to leave early. The night before, Aaron was reading about the history of the hotel, and discovered it was designed by one of the designers of the Titanic. There’s a dragon on the stairwell in the hotel that’s a twin to a dragon on the stairwell of the Titanic. The one at the Hotel is called ‘Lucky George’. It’s lucky, because it didn’t go down with the ship. We rubbed it’s head for a little good luck, and we were on our way.

Once we got to Paddington, we got our train tickets, dropped off our bags, then started power walking to Kensington Gardens. By the time we got there we were already starting to get worried about missing our train, so we really didn’t get to explore much. There’s a statue of Peter Pan, and we got some selfies of that, but that was about it. We made it back to the train station and got some breakfast while we waited for the train. We were taking our time eating when we noticed that our train wasn’t on the board. We casually walked up to one of the rail staff who told us THAT TRAIN IS CANCELED! THE NEXT ONE LEAVES IN 4 MINUTES! HURRY! GET ON! GO! GO! So, once again, 8 years later, we had to run around a train station to figure out what was happening. At least this time, they were speaking english. 100% of the 2 times we’ve visited Europe, there’s been a train strike. So much for Lucky George.

We managed to get on the next train an hour later. It was chaotic, but we got on. From the Bristol train station it was a short walk to our rental car company. They gave us a free upgrade because they were a little short on cars. We ended up with a BMW, which seemed like a fun idea... at first. Aaron quickly realized that driving on the left side requires a lot more attention than he remembered from New Zealand, and now he had to do it in a luxury car. With Kaylea as a trusty co-pilot, we survived our 2 and a half hour drive to Tavistock.

Our hotel in Tavistock was great. Tavistock House Hotel. It was a building from 1840 that was renovated and run by a small family. They were extremely nice, and super helpful. We ended the night by running to meet Aaron’s cousin’s new husband’s family for some tea and desert. It was a lovely evening.

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Beauty and the Beard:
Bound to Wander

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