We decided we'd celebrate our
50th Anniversary driving through the British
Isles and what better way than to ship our MGA
over? Then we did some research on shipping a
car overseas, only to read about a Mercedes 300
SL Gullwing being dropped onto the deck of a
container ship from 30 feet up! That, combined
with the fact that the shipping process could
take up to 6 weeks each way convinced us not to
ship!
We next tried to find an MGA rental in the UK,
but to no avail, so we decided to rent something
equally impractical - a Morgan! As one of our
friends pointed out, MorGAn has a hidden MGA in
it's name!
We arrived in London in late July and picked up
the Morgan at Heathrow, then took off to visit
the birthplace of all MGA's - Abingdon. The
factory was replaced by condo's years ago, but
the Kimber House office building remains.
From
Abingdon we headed north to meet up with MGA
friends, Colyn and Chris Firth. We had never met
in person before, but had "met" on the MGA BBS
internet forum. Colyn and Chris, in their
beautiful 1960 MGA MKI, led us north into
Scotland where we participated in the yearly
Scottish MGA Day. The event is a wonderful 125
mile tour of the Scotish Highlands and Lochs.
The group likes to travel fast, despite the
narrow single-track roads and it was all we
could to to keep up, even with the V-8 engine in
our Morgan!
We spent 3 more days in Scotland, blasting down
the tiny roads in the Morgan, with Celtic music
blaring from the CD player...
We drove the Morgan all through Scotland, then
down to England's incredibly beautiful Lake
District.
While there, the Morgan surprised us with the
classic "parts falling off this vehicle are
of the finest British Craftsmenship"
We managed to zip-tie
the bumper back on, then later got some bailing
wire to make it solid. We then set off for
another spectacular area of England - the Peak
Distric. Unfortunately, the cooling fan died
while in heavy traffic on the way.
The rental agency sent a repair truck, but no
permanent fix could be found, so we asked for
another car. They offered a new Mustang GT, but
we couldn't see ourselves touring the Briish
Isles in Detroit "Iron". After threatening to
end our contract they came up with this...
Yikes! This was a rolling piece of historic art!
Driving the E-Type was a
thrill, until it rained (hey, it's England).
That's when the Driver's side wiper arm
decided to depart!
We hammerd the wiper back on but it came off
again. After chatting with the agency's
mechanic, he agreed to have us super glue it on.
Our toolkit now looked like this:
Despite the problems, the E-Jag got us to our
next destination, Liverpool. Yep, the place the
Beatles became famous. Melon was in heaven!
The Cavern Club was empty at 9 AM when we
visited, and we took full advantage of it!
Liverpool is also the home of Gerry and the
Pacemakers, famous for their 1965 hit, "Ferry
Cross the Mersey"...
The day we were to drive onto the ferry to
Ireland from Holyhead, the Jag's battery died -
permanently. With no replacement available for
over a week (!), we left it at the dock and
boarded the ferry to Dublin. Among other sights,
we visited Trinity College to see the famous Book of Kells
After two days in Dublin, we rented a 2019 Audi
in Dublin (stick shift of course), then traveled
the full width of Ireland to the west coast and
the famous Cliffs of Moher.
We spent a week touring the Dingle Peninsula,
the Ring of Kerry, Killarney, Cork and Kinsale
before flying home from Dublin.
2500 miles driven; 3
rental cars; 15 hotels/B&Bs; 29 days; 4
countries 50+ pubs and restaurants.
Made many new
friends – fellow travelers as well as
innkeepers.
Many Castles and
gardens
Favorite dishes –
Local Oysters and “Traditional” Irish
Cottage Pies.
Least favorite
feature – Roundabouts every mile or so in
England!
New skills –
driving on left and shifting with left hand
Great Trip – flew
home with broad smiles and wonderful
memories!
You can read more
about the trip in the article Melon wrote
for MGA! Magazine.
It is a 4 page spread so it takes two PDF
files - here and here
You can
also read the article Colyn Firth
submitted to MGA! Magazine
here
