We recently spent a long weekend in the UK and decided to split our time between city and country. Our first stop was at a "Glamping" site south of Gatwick, in Surrey. Glamping (Glamourous Camping) is huge in the UK and we've been toying around with the idea of opening our own Glampground on our land in Maryland. But we had to experience it first hand in order to really plan out our own American version. It was fantastic! This place was way the hell back in the woods and made our 1-mile gravel driveway in Deep Creek look like the autobahn. But what made it "glamping?" No tent to set up. Soft bed. Clean sheets. All the comforts of home with all the nature of camping. We chose The Magic Bus because it had a small wood burner and the weather predication was a bit on the cold side. Not quite the first magic bus "Further", this would have made Ken Kesey proud. There was also a selection of Yurts, dome tents, and small cabins.
Fire ring, tapas, wine, loads of owls, and the occasional badger sighting capped off the relaxation portion of the tip.
The 62 acre site was classic British countryside.
Setting up for a Celtic forest wedding.
Inside the Magic Bus, solar LED lighting and everything!
Our wood burner, a bit funky to operate, but effective.
We're thinking of going more the cabin route. These 12 x 12 units were perfect! We can't find this kind of thing (yet) in the states and may end up shipping over a 1/2 dozen of these from the UK.
Then it was in to London for a weekend in the city. As a side note, this is the first time that I've driven on the left. I was pretty nervous and even updated the will. ("STAY LEFT!"). But, it all worked out and there was only minor damage to the rental car.
An old wharf's view of Tower Bridge.
The almost complete Shard. Not bad from a skyline perspective, but when you walk along the base it is 100% out of character for it's location above Borough Market. They should have made the first 3 stories more classic to fit into the neighborhood.
"I wonder what anti-climb paint is?" A sticky, smelly mess!
Classic London park.
A night in a West-end theater...Wicked!
And no trip to London is complete without a street food extravaganza! Borough Market produce THE best sandwich I've ever eaten! Crispy Duck! Then it was over to Brick Lane for more ethnic fair.
Why doesn't Beth get this? It's meat! It's on a stick! What more could a person possibly want?
2 comments:
What an excellent blog....i just accidentally came across it.The British countryside's pictures were really pretty.
we've done teepee (sp?) camping. very fun. might be cool to have at your campground/glampground. the one we stayed in had a wooden platform, so u were about a foot off the ground. it could have slept more than 10 people. there was a fire pit, so we had a fire all night. Very fun. place was called dreaming turtles B&B near ithica, ny. also seen it a lot in canada, but didnt stay in any there. keep us posted! carolyn
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