Wychnor Park Country Club nearish to Birmingham UK

[jp10558]

Well, for my third timeshare location, I'm in the UK and trying the west midlands out because RCI had a passable extra vacation here. Let me say, the Hotel itself is ok, has a pool and sauna, 2br accommodation with laundry. The bedrooms and bathrooms are upstairs so you have to climb stairs to get to them. Not a huge problem for me, but the UK and Ireland seem to not really have something like the ADA or a lot is grandfathered in because I can't see getting a lot of places if you need a wheelchair or even help walking.

The hardest part is actually driving - only one of our party drives a manual, and he's a bit rusty. But the automatics to rent are like double the price of a standard. Driving "backwards" is hard enough, but Google maps leaves a lot vague for us to figure out what it means. And my goodness, the roundabouts. I have been pretty good with the ones in the US but they are simple in comparison. The worst one I used was a 2 lane, and they built a flyover because people disliked it.

In the UK near Birmingham there is multi lane (up to 3 I think) roundabouts every 500ft to 2 miles it seems. There are stoplights in some of the roundabouts. And some of their roads have 70mph speed limits going up to stoplights. It's quite different / crazy seeming to me. And Google maps was only somewhat clear, we ended up going in circles at least 3 times trying multiple times to find the right exit from one of these roundabouts. Of course this was in the dark and it was raining. It might be better in daylight. We'll see.

The reason for commenting on the driving is we need to drive to food, stores and attractions up here. I hope to see and photograph one or more castles. After the stay here we are off to London by train and sadly a Hampton inn due to location nearish the train terminal. But it's tiny compared to even most US hotel rooms. Oh well, I hope we can make due for that week.

 

[SmithOp]

While in London, take a day trip to Hampton Court, you can walk to it from the train station. One of the stops along the route is Wimbledon if you fancy stopping there for a walk around. A visit to the British Museum is a must, and the Tower to see the crown jewels. The hop on bus is a great way to get around.

You are close to Warwick Castle, but it's very commercialized like a Disney park. Kenilworth Castle seemed more authentic. York is a nice medieval city to visit.

I know what you mean about driving, and the locals are well versed in using roundabouts and weren't exactly tourist friendly on the roads. Stay away from Milton Keynes, it's all roundabouts! It took getting used to shifting with my left hand and leg, and my peripheral vision on the left was not trained for clearance, I clipped a lot of curbs but luckily no parked cars.

 

[RudiJ]

I prefer using the Waze app for directions in the UK.

It seems to be quicker and better at giving directions - especially when you're approaching roundabouts.

Make sure the audio is on and you can hear it clearly. It makes a real difference.

I've often found myself INSIDE a roundabout when Google Maps is telling me to leave e.g. at the 2nd exit. Waze tells me well before I get to the roundabout and again just before I enter the roundabout - and it helps a lot to get me to focus on where I'm supposed to be going.