Silverstone

Mike headed off to watch Formula 1 practice day at Silverstone before heading back to London. Marie stayed in Oxford shopping.

Whilst going to Silverstone proved to be a useful research trip, in case we come again, it wasn't really the fun it should have been.

Actually, the racing event in Melbourne is too good to believe we'll be back at Silverstone.

The traffic makes it a maddening affair. Mike left at 7am but didn't get into the track 60km away until 10am!

Knowing we had to return the rental car in London by 6pm it made it very important to not be leaving the racing at the same time as everyone else trying to leave the carparks!

So, after a good look around the Fan Zones:

and watching the first practice session:

Mike caught a shuttle bus back to the car.

Another concern was that the shuttle buses were to stop once they had everyone 'in' so there may have been no shuttles between 1-4pm when people start leaving. Fortunately this nice lady (driver) agreed to take me back to the park and ride airfield.

One thing I learned and would recommend to anyone going to Silverstone for the racing is: Camp just outside the grounds. Hundreds do it so there would be a great community and easy walking to the track each day. Arrive a day early and leave a day late to avoid the nightmare traffic.

Our trip back was good (thanks to Google maps) albeit through huge traffic volumes as you reach wider London.

We enjoyed renting a choice of car through the Turo app.

Now we are back with Katie and Nigel in Kingston until we fly out to Singapore on 9 July.