Christmas is just around the corner. The time of year when my company generates a large portion of its annual revenue. Customers are busy buying gifts for themselves and their relatives. Even though there’s no official vacation ban, there is an internal policy that vacation during the pre-Christmas season should be carefully considered and only approved in absolutely necessary cases. Consequently, I’ve had a stressful pre-Christmas season for the last five years, and with it, hardly any Christmas spirit.

But since I’ll be leaving my company at the end of the year, the situation is different this year. I’ve had a successor for my position in logistics for a few weeks now, and as a Product Owner, my work isn’t tied to the Christmas business. Plus, I still have to use up my remaining vacation days. Now that my successor has been trained on the basics, I’m treating myself to a week of vacation at the beginning and end of December.

Since my girlfriend was also able to request vacation for early December, we decided to go away. She initially wanted to go to the mountains, I wanted to go to the sea. I’ll be seeing mountains regularly soon enough. After consulting various travel agencies, however, it was clear: a beach vacation in December isn’t just around the corner, nor is it exactly cheap. At least not for just a week of lying around. But I still didn’t want to go to the mountains.

After some discussion, we’ve now settled on Southern England. By car to Calais, then with the ferry to Dover, and first to London. My girlfriend wants to see London decorated for Christmas. That’s also the only hotel we’ve booked in advance. The hotel, near Tower Bridge, offers a parking garage. The parking costs more than the overnight stay for one of us. A few days later, we found out something else: there’s a congestion charge in London. And for older diesel vehicles below Euro 6, like our BMW 1 Series, there’s an additional environmental penalty. For the price of one night in London, you could stay three nights in other places. But oh well, Christmas decorations.

Afterwards, the plan is to travel via Oxford and Bath to Cornwall, all the way to the westernmost point of England, aptly named Land’s End. From there, along the coast via Exeter, Bournemouth, Southampton, and Plymouth, back to Dover. We’ve planned for seven nights. For cost reasons and because we hope it will be quite quaint, we’ll be looking for classic B&Bs along the way, preferably smaller, family-run ones. We’re sure to find something.

Culinarily, I’m not expecting much from England. From past experience, even the English don’t eat English cuisine. Sure, we’ll have fish and chips. But other than that, the country has little of its own to offer in terms of food. Tea and pastries, though, and I’m looking forward to that. Otherwise, we’ll most likely be eating internationally. Italian and Asian are supposed to be okay. Hot chocolate made from Belgian pralines, too. Beer, probably not.

But one thing worries me. The British drive on the wrong side of the road. I’ll still be driving dutifully on the right side of the road to Calais, but in Dover, I have to switch to the other side. I just hope I get used to it quickly. At least before I hit the city traffic in London. Rome and Palermo were no problem for me, but London is likely to be hell. Or rather, the whole trip.

I will definitely write another post about our impressions after the vacation. Thanks to a cleaning brush, there are no more spots on our camera’s pictures, and I’m looking forward to photographing beautiful landscapes and towns.