Some car rental questions for the Brits.

I just checked the Enterprise website out of interest - the price for an AUTOMATIC transmission car is SIGNIFICANTLY higher..

prices in pounds PER week:

Class B Economy:
Manual Trans: 90.58
Auto Trans: 119.57
or - as a percentage: 32.00% higher for an Auto Trans

Class E Intermediate:
Manual Trans: 101.45
Auto Trans: 156.52
or - as a percentage: 54.28% higher for an Auto Trans

Class F Standard:
Manual Trans: 109.79
Auto Trans: 206.52
or - as a percentage: 88.10% higher for an Auto Trans

So my suggestion would be - if you can - get the Stick shift - the up-sell to Auto-Trans is EXPENSIVE.

M_Six said:

Geez, are all the roads that small that a 1er will be too big? :yikes:

We'll be staying in the southwest, mostly in the Stonehenge-Glastonbury-Bath area. I plan to do as little driving as possible. I'd like to drive from one town to the next and park the car for the day.

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no - not at all - that is my neck of the woods - I grew up in Wiltshire.

There is a fun little road you need to drive though... I'll PM you the details - we used to hurry down these roads as teens in our Minis...

Go and see Stonehenge - get out of the car - walk across the road but don't pay to go into the place - take photos OVER the fence - walk up and down the road and get an idea of the history...



Now get back into the car - and drive to Avebury - park the car at the Red Lion pub and get a drink and bite to eat, THEN tour the stone circle at Avebury - where you can walk up to the stones, touch them - sit on them - please don't chisel them or steal them... the pub is basically in the middle of that S-curve on the bottom of the curve - the road to swindon goes right through avebury.



- then drive up the road to Silbury Hill - it's 2-3 miles



You can cllimb to the top of Silbury Hill unless they closed it. Now - 1 mile or less from Silbury - is West Kennet Long Barrow - a saxon lord's burial chamber - you can go inside this...



Now head to Devizes and take in the Wadworth Brewery Tour - I grew up in Devizes - and there are a ton of places I can recommend to eat/drink in the area - viewing of the Caen Hill Locks are mandatory...



(if you're stood where this photo was taken - you're within a few hundred yards of the house where I grew up)

Then you have that drive I was telling you about - imagine doing the road I will give you info on at 60-85 mph in a mini ... - don't try it though...

Other things of interest you can take in on the way to Bath - Westbury White Horse - if you didn't detour on the way to Devizes and take in the Cherhill White Horse:

Cherhill:



Westbury:

maybe 100 yards to the west of the wall of that lower lock in the Kennet and Avon Canal is where we used to dig up bottles, clay pipes and I even found a roman coin there - the canal was empty when I was a wee lad - we would put our boots on - go dig up "treasure" and often get stuck in the mud there - it would be under 8 feet of water now..

This is neat - I just found this on the BBC site today - the Tow path of the Kennet and Avon canal from Devizes is now the first canal to get Google streetview via their trike:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-wiltshire-19065434

A Wiltshire canal is one of the first stretches of Britain's canal network to appear on Google Street View.

The application allows internet users to take a 360-degree virtual walk along the Kennet and Avon Canal past the Caen Hill Lock Flight in Devizes.

Canal tow-paths between Devizes and Semington were photographed by Google's Street View Trike early in the summer.

A Canal and River Trust spokesman said it puts the canal "on a par with the likes of Stonehenge and the Coliseum".

The stretches of canal available to see on Street View include the historic Caen Hill flight of 16 locks constructed in the early 1800s and the Kennet and Avon Canal between Devizes and Semington.

"Two hundred years ago, the canal network helped put the 'Great' into Great Britain as an industrial nation," said Robin Evans, from the Canal and River Trust.

"Having these canals on Street View helps open them up to millions of people right around the globe who might not otherwise be able to come and experience them."

The Google Maps service, providing panoramic street-level views, was launched in 2007.

It focuses mainly on towns and cities but also includes the ancient heritage site of Stonehenge.

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http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=51....=GtFJEqxZjFgM3aqGg0nhaQ&cbp=12,71.14,,0,10.95

M_Six said:

So we made it to Devizes and Avebury today. Very cool places. I loved the locks. We sat at the cafe up top and watched a canal boat go through on his way down. Then we stopped at the bottom and got "the shot."

We also had lunch at the Red Lion Pub.

And you may recognize this spread, wyb.

I owe you one, wyb. We had a great day seeing some of the sites you mentioned. Thanks a ton for the excellent advice. :thumbup:

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:thumbup:

When you were taking that photo of the canal locks, you were just yards from my childhood home...

oh heck - I just noticed - that is my childhood home - they got a windmill now! lol

The solar panels on the ranch style home are right over my bedroom - the field to before the home is where I took-off by hot air balloon on the day the Queen came to re-open the canal after it was renovated...