Three Days in London and the Trip Home

Our first day in London almost began with disaster as at 8:55am we realized the breakfast ended at 9.  As we raced downstairs, the breakfast guy was quite abrupt with us and offered us toast and cereal and coffee.  We apologized, ate hurriedly and left.  The rest of the day was quite fine.  We took the tube to Picadilly Circus (which we thought was a market, but was actually a square a bit like Times Square in New York).  Since there wasn't much to see, we began to walk toward Hyde Park.  Along the way we happened upon Watermarks bookstore (the largest in the world) and spent some time browsing the titles.  We also found a flyer for a Wallace and Gromit exhibit nearby.  We checked it out, but the drawings were all around £150 to buy.  We also came across a little market in a church yard.  We ate lunch in Hyde's Park and took a tour of the Wellington Arch.  We also went through Apsley House, the Manor House of the Duke of Wellington.  It was pretty neat to see all of the paraphernalia given as gifts to the Duke by various Kings, Tzars, Dukes and other friends.  The Duke was made famous in the battle of Waterloo where his soldiers defeated Napoleon.  There is a giant statue of Napoleon at the base of the spiral staircase.  Apparently, Napoleon rejected it , saying it was too athletic - done in the Greco-Roman style.

From here we walked over the Buckingham Palace, the Parliament Buildings and Westminster Abbey.  The abbey was closed for the day but we took pictures of the rest.  On our way to the Parliament Buildings we stopped in at the Winston Churchill and War Times Rooms Museum.  This place was great.  It was the actual headquarters for him and his administrators and generals during the second World War.  Nearly everything was left just as it was after the war was over, and if it was altered - it was recreated for the exhibit.  It was interesting to learn about Churchill, his life, and the war effort in England.  It was a different feeling, being in a city that had been indiscriminately bombed and feared invasion at any moment by the Nazis.  Hearing snippets of his speeches to Parliament and the people was pretty fantastic too.

After Parliament we took a walk down by the Thames, passed the London Eye.  We grabbed a quick bite at the docks and some tea and began the walk home.  As we wandered, we ended up in Trafalgar Square.  This was a beautiful square that has the National Gallery, Nelson's Memorial, fountains and other statues and sculptures. 

We caught the Tube not far from here and after we had got some snacks (and some to spare - since Keith was still recovering from the hunt in Paris) we headed home.

 

Our second day in London was a Saturday - market day - so we headed to Camden Market.  It was awesome.  Huge and sprawling this market area was our highlight in London.  There was so much to look at and so many people, strange smells, cramped stalls that it really was sensation overload.  After a bit of shopping we were looking for a bank machine (or cash point) and we came across a hemp store.  Isaiah has fallen asleep so we must have spent over an hour in this store, trying things on and debating with ourselves.  It was cheap and the clothes were well-made and sweatshop free.  We pretty much bought new wardrobes here - but it was so fun!  We actually had to buy a new backpack to carry it home.  We even bough Isaiah a little hemp shirt and pants (not that he knew or cared).

We ate lunch at a Chinese restaurant and found shelter as it had started to rain a bit.  As we moved on and picked up a few more things it became apparent that I was not going to find any place to change Isaiah's smelly diaper and we both could use a break from carrying the bags - so we opted to stop at home for a few minutes.  Isaiah loved this since he got out of his stroller for a few minutes, some food and got a fresh nappy.  We loved it because we got to unload our burdens and rest our feet.

We took the tube down to London Bridge and walked across to the London Tower.  We had planned on seeing it, but the ticket lady told us that we only had an hour and twenty minutes left to see it and they recommended two to three hours.  These tickets were pretty expensive and we really wanted to see the whole tower, so we opted to eat some fish and chips and wait until the following day for the Tower.  After our dinner we walked over the St. Paul's Cathedral, took some family photos in the drizzle, walked passed the Tate Modern Museum, the Millenium Bridge, Blackfriers bridge, and another statue of Queen Victoria  before we went home.

The next morning was Sunday, and although Westminster was closed to visitors, it was open to worshippers so we attended Matins.  Much of the service was sung by the choir but there was a brief sermon that was great, as you would expect.  Unfortunately, Isaiah was very tired but not at all willing to sleep during the service and although Keith and I switched off walking and holding him, it was Keith who got stuck outside with Izer, trying to keep him from eating centuries-old dirt in the courtyard and missed much of the service.  He was pretty disappointed.  Although we couldn't take pictures, we did see the memorials of Shakespeare, Jane Austin, the Bronte sisters, Charles Dickens, Handel, Shelley, Keats, and many others.

From here we caught the tour boat at Westminster Pier and headed down river to the Tower.  The captain of the boat gave us an informative if un-official guided tour of the sights from the river.  He was clever and funny and made it a great ride.

At the tower we got our lunch as Subway (yes Mom, I ate veggies from time to time) and entered the Tower of London.  We picked up bits and pieces from the guided tours given by the Beefeaters going by and spent a couple of hours going in and out of the buildings, learning about who had lived there, where and how they tortured prisoners, who had been beheaded (how many strokes it took), and so forth. We caught a drama being acted out about the Duke of Monmouth.  It was really well done - although grotesque at times (the axeman describing why it took 5 strokes and still he had to use his butcher's knife to finish the job). 

I think my favourite part was learning where Lady Jane Gray had been kept, and Anne Boleyn as well.  The engravings in Beauchamp tower were amazing to see as well.  Here, prisoners had carved their names, crests, art, poetry, stories into the walls of their cells.  It was haunting.  So was the Chapel Royal.  Here, the bodies of Anne Boleyn, Jane Gray, Catherine Howard and over 2000 others were found under the floor in 1876.  In front of Chapel Royal was Scaffold Green.  Here, the private executions were performed.  The others were done on Tower Hill a little ways from the Tower itself.  There was a little garden and plaque commemorating the spot. 

People killed on Tower Hill had their heads taken to London Bridge and rammed on a spike as a public display of what happens to traitors. Their bodies were carried back to Chapel Royal and buried beneath the church. People beheaded inside the tower on Scaffold green were buried, body and head, in the chapel.  The place really was filled with sad and tragic deaths.  I was surprised to learn that Mary Queen of Scots was never kept in the Tower, but remained as far from London as possible.  She was tried and executed at Fotheringhay Castle.

We finished here just before the warning bell sounded the closing of the gates.  The Beefeaters live and work in the Tower, which we thought was pretty neat.

We ate fish and chips for dinner again and then walked to All Hallows Church (the oldest church in England).  We also walked passed the memorial on Tower Green on our way to catch the Tube home.  We had quite a bit of miracle packing to do before bed to get everything to Canada.  I am pleased to say that we were successful!  We had to leave some diapers and wipes behind but that's about it!

The following morning our cabbie was right on time and we arrived at Paddington in plenty of time to catch the Heathrow Connect back to the airport.  The only sticky business was getting our oyster cards cashed in (these were what we used to pay for the subways - you got your unused money back).  Once we had succeeded with that at Heathrow we quickly checked-in and were freed from our many bags. 

The flight was interesting since it was an afternoon flight.  Isaiah slept a fair bit, but was a bit wild the rest of the time!  Fortunately there were a tonne of babies on board so he wasn't the only fussy one.  It was a relief to know we didn't have to sleep on the plane as we did on the way there. 

Praise the Lord, all of our luggage made it back to Canada we well.  Meredith was waiting for us when we finally made it through customs and out into the Canadian air.  We got most of our unpacking done when we got home last night and I started the laundry - ugh.  Isaiah went to bed at 5:30 - which was about 10:30 to him.  Keith and I followed at 8:00.  I'm glad we didn't try to flip back to our time zone by staying up late last night because I got up with Isaiah today at 4am.  I actually felt quite refreshed J

 

And so ends our epic adventure in Europe.  Here are a few final remarks: Firstly, we almost never had sheets on our bed.  Just a bottom sheet and a comforter.  We thought that was weird.  Second, I never saw another woman breasfeeding her baby. No once.  I also thought this was odd.  Third, we had two cloudy/rainy days in England.  And finally, UK toilets are weird. 

 

En Paris!

We arrived at Paris Nord train station around 10:30am (with the time change).  Our cab driver dropped us off in front of the Tuilleries Gardens near the Louvre.  We passed by our hotel on the way so that was one less thing to try to find later.  We found a shop where we could buy our hop-on-hop-off bus tickets as well as the Paris Museum and Monument Pass.  It took some time to find the right bus stop for our tour bus, but we got to walk passed some of the Louvre buildings and took some pictures.  Once on the bus, our first stop was Notre Dame Cathedral.  This was a massive and impressive building.  It was also very busy.  I was getting grumpy because I needed some food, so we bought a baguette sandwich to share and went into the park behind the Cathedral to eat.  Isaiah ate too.  Then we took some family pictures with the Cathedral in the back ground.  This involved Keith getting up and down from the ground a lot.  Unfortunately, the ground was fine powdery sand that clung to everything it touched - so Keith might look a bit dirty in those ones.  Paris was a bit weird, in that all of it's lovely green spaces were fenced off.  No picnics to be had here.  After we ate, we took a brief tour of the inside of the church.  We didn't want to wait in line to go up the bell tower, but it would have been pretty cool to stair a gargoyle in the face.

Our next stop was the Arch of Triumph. This was commissioned by Napoleon back in the 1800's and was also massive and impressive.  The engravings and carvings were beautiful and the lookout at the top was well worth the 46 stairs (after the elevator). From here we bussed over to the Eiffel Tower.  Paris has a great deal of massive and impressive structures.  The Eiffel tower baffled me a little, because I had no idea why it was built.  The lines were huge here, and we felt like we had had a good enough view of the city from the Arch so after we had taken our pictures we went back to our hotel to check-in.  By this time we were hot and sweaty and needed a rest.  We were staying at Hotel du Louvre - which was a rather ritzy place just across from the Louvre.  It was a treat to ourselves to stay here.  They couldn't find our reservation because of a miscommunication with Eurostar (the company we booked this part of our trip through) - but after a few tense moments it was all sorted out (and we didn't have to pay again, which was a blessing). 

We took a bit of time to get freshened up and then headed out to get some McDonalds.  Some of you might think it's a shame to eat McDonalds when you're in Paris, but when you see the prices of food and know that this is only a small part of a big trip - you will likely come to the same conclusion we did.  Anyways, while we were eating it started to pour outside - but fortunately stopped just as we were walking over to the Louvre.

The beauty of travelling with children comes when you are approaching the end of a very long line, and then some man in a vest waves you over to another door where you are ushered directly in and provided with an elevator.  It really is fantastic.  The Louvre was a bit difficult to navigate since it is so huge, but we managed to find almost all of the paintings and sculptures we wished to see.  We saw the Mona Lisa (behind bullet proof glass and a crowd of people), and a few by David, we saw the headless statue in the stairwell.  This one used to be on the prow of a ship in Greece or something - she was gorgeous. 

We spend quite a bit of time wandering through the rooms, looking at the work that had gone into these paintings and sculptures.  The great thing about the Louvre, was that it was the loudest gallery I had ever been inside.  Most galleries are very quiet and hushed, but the volume of people alone, made this impossible.  It was a great relief to me however, since Isaiah absolutely loves big rooms with vaulted ceilings.  His voice echoes and he is almost never quiet when he's in one.

After the gift shops we began our most epic quest of the whole Paris trip - finding snacks.  We hadn't eaten much during the day so Keith was really looking forward to finding a drink and some chips or a chocolate bar.  It didn't help that we had a fully stocked minibar back in our room with tasty but fiercely overpriced goodies tempting us from inside.  We walked for a couple of blocks and almost everything was closed.  There was not a convenience store in sight.  Just when we had given up all hope - we came across a Superette.  Keith breathed a sigh of relief.  We had found our snacks and went back to our hotel room.  As we watched Scrubs from our king sized bed, eating our snacks, we let the luxury sink in.

The following morning we grabbed a quick breakfast at McDonalds and headed over to the Louvre to finish off our tour.  This time we focussed on the sculptures and saw the Venus de Milo and another one of Psyche and Eros.  We both loved this one.  Although made of marble, it was so delicate and simply amazing to look at.  From here, we raced back to our hotel in time for check-out.

Le Musee d'Orsay was our next stop.  It was a short walk away from the Louvre and focussed on 19^th century art.  The paintings housed here were truly impressive.  They had rooms of Monet, Renoir and Degas.  The highlight - or piece de resistance - was the Van Gogh room.  They had just brilliant works by him.  Keith took a video of it.  The gift shop was fantastic too - because they had prints of our favourites available to buy.

We hopped back on the bus to the Opera House and ate lunch at McDonalds at LaFayette.  LaFayette was a store we had no business being in.  I didn't see a dress under $1500.  McDonalds was the same though - and we ate next to some nice people from New Zealand.  Not being high-end fashion shoppers - we soon moved on from this district and began the walk to the train station.  It was a fun walk because the farther we went, the more "real" Paris seemed to get.  We started to see supermarkets and bargain shopping.  I found dresses for £20 (and bought one just outside of the train station).  When we arrived at the station, we took a quick look around for where we had to go and then did a bit more exploring outside.  We found a crepe stand and Keith had a lemon juice and sugar crepe and I had a banana and nutella one.  Yum.

The ride home was uneventful but pleasant as we talked over the journey and all that we had seen.  We arrived home after 11pm and were happy to learn that we had been given a room on the first floor and that our luggage had already been put in our room.  It was a lovely flop into bed.

Oxford to Paris

The following morning we packed up the car and all of the stuff inside the car that had been accumulating over the last two weeks, and went for a last walk down the Thames near the university.  It was so peaceful and smelled so good.  Along the river the boathouses for all of the different colleges were scattered.  There was even one solo rower on the river.  His coach was riding her bicycle along the path and videotaping him as he went along.  This was the perfect way to end our time in this town steeped in history and tradition.

The rest of the day was spent in travel. First, we dropped off the car at Heathrow.  This, for Keith, was the part he was most stressed about but it went really smoothly.  No accidents, no wrong turns.  Following this we took a shuttle back to the terminals and then bought our train tickets that would take us back into London.  Heathrow Connect was a great way to get to Paddington Station without having to take a very very expensive cab ride or try to cram onto a regular train or subway car with a tonne of bags and a baby.  At our destination station, we did some browsing in their many shops.  I re-learned that Paddington bear was found at Paddington station in the story and that's how he got his name.   From here we took a cab to our hotel. 

Our cabbie was great.  He told us about "the Knowledge" that all London cab drivers have to pass before they are permitted to be a licensed driver.  According to Wikipedia, "it is the world's most demanding training course for taxicab-drivers; and applicants will usually need at least 12 'Appearances' (attempts at the final test), after preparation averaging 34 months, to pass the examination".

Anyways, it took some time (because it was the start of rush hour and they were repairing a water main on one of the major roads) but we arrived safe an sound at hour hotel.  They said they didn't know we had a baby so they put us on the top floor.  In England, the top floor doesn't mean the second, or even the third floor, but the fourth.  It was arduous bringing all of our luggage up that far, only to have to bring it down the following morning at 5am. 

After we got settled, we headed out to attend to a few matters of business.  Firstly, we had to catch a train to Paris at 6 the next morning, so we had to find an alarm clock.  Secondly, because we were leaving most of our luggage in a corridor at the hotel while we were in Paris, we wanted to buy a new bag that would keep a few of the smaller bags inside. 

It was fun to get to know our neighbourhood as it were.  St. Pancras (were our train was leaving from) was just down the road and right beside it was King's Cross station.  Obviously I went inside to look at the station and I even tried to find the barrier between Platforms 9 and 10 but I was without luck.  However, after a lot of walking we were able to find both of our desired items - and for relatively good prices too.

Since we were getting up so early the following morning, we had an early night.  It felt so good to crawl into bed after such a big day.  When the alarm went off at 5am it only took a few minutes for us to be ready and out the door.  The station was only a five minute walk away and since we had scoped out where we had to go the previous day it was a pretty stress-free morning.  Well, except that I insisted that I get a coffee before we went through check-in, only to discover it was a full security check-in where they don't allow any open drinks.  There goes my coffee.  When we were cleared, Keith bought us some snacks before we boarded the train.   It was such a blessing to leave our luggage at the hotel.  We only had two back packs, my purse and the stroller.  It was glorious - and we were on our way to Paris!

Oxford

We were so keen to get moving today that we were downtown about an hour and a half before most places were even open.  Since we had already scoped out the places we wanted to visit today, it made the day go very smoothly.  9am on a weekday is a wonderful time to see Oxford.  There is almost no one about so it's much easier to take pictures of buildings without people in them.  And it smells amazing.  We wandered over cobbled walks until we came to a few open shops.  Once we had purchased some Oxford paraphernalia we headed over to Christ Church for our first tour.  This was a neat campus for me to visit since a few scenes from Harry Potter were filmed here like the Great Hall and the Great Staircase.  Well, actually, the great hall was based on the Great Hall at Christ Church, except Hogwarts needed four tables and here there were only three.  Not to mention the room is too small (but still huge and impressive) to work.  The film crew came in and videoed the hall from every angle and then the set crew built a duplicate (with some modifications) in an airplane hangar or something like that. The other reason they couldn't film there is because it would have been far too disruptive to student life since the room is so well used.  The staircase was the very same though.    Christ church cathedral was impressive as well, as were the grounds.  We talked to one of the stewards at the church for some time about the history and what was happening to the preachers during the Reformation.  Apparently, many of the priests stayed on at their churches when Henry VIII split from the Catholic church.  They also remained when Edward VI enforced his hyper-Protestantism and then switched back over to their Catholic services when Mary was on the throne, only to switch back over for the reign of Elizabeth I.  The steward was saying that some fled to the Continent during this time of religious upheaval, but many stayed on with their parishioners to perform the ceremonies and rights and services.  I thought that was pretty cool.

After the tour we spent some time in the Botanical Gardens.  It was such a gorgeous day and we tried hard to take some family pictures with the spire from Magdalen College Cathedral in the background.  They had all sorts of plants growing both outside and in green houses.  It was a lot of fun for us - but I think Isaiah got the most enjoyment out of our time there.  He got to crawl around on the grass, scorning his stroller.

We were pretty hungry by the time we finished with the gardens so we sat on a patch of grass and ate our tasty lunch of baguette sandwiches and ate dark millionaire shortbread.  I will attempt to make this when I get home.

Our last big "to do" was the Bodleian Library.  We weren't able to see any of the new library since it is exam time, but we were able to see a bit of the old library.  Unfortunately, and much to Keith's chagrin, we weren't able to see any books.  The Gutenberg Bible was housed just above us - but we weren't allowed! 

A Lack of Updates!

I had hoped I would update more frequently now that we have an internet connection here in London.  Unfortunately, our days are so full that there is little time to write or reflect on what we've seen and done.  We will be back in Canada on Monday so I will do my best to complete the updates in between loads of laundry and post them for you all!

Thanks for reading so far!
Darcie

Smart Brits: Past and Present

With one large detour (not my fault) we arrived at Stonehenge around 10 this morning.  With Isaiah in the snugli, I was actually able to listen to the audioguide for the exhibit and thoroughly enjoyed it.  I was expecting Stonehenge to be over-rated and anti-climactic, but I was wrong.  Although we couldn't get close enough to actually touch the stones, we were close enough to really get an idea of the size of the rocks, and the amazing feat of engineering and strength it would have taken to create the monument - not to mention the precision.  We learned that it actually serves as a calendar, where each month the sun's rays shine through a different archway onto the altar stone.  There is too much to write about what we learned here, so I'll wait until we return and just tell you about it then.  

After we finished up there we were Oxford-bound.  Keith has been waiting for this part of our trip with great anticipation.  I don't think he's been at all disappointed.  No wrong turns to the B&B this time, and they even had a room for us tonight as well as tomorrow.  It really is lovely here.  We are only about a half mile from the city centre, a nice flat walk.  We did a great deal of walking through the downtown and Oxford University footpaths.  We managed to get to the two major C.S. Lewis locations we hoped to see: The Eagle and Child Pub and Magdalen College.

The Pub is where he, J.R.R. Tokein, and some other great minds would meet to discuss their writing, thoughts and other issues over a pint.  They called themselves the Inklings.  We ate caramel chocolate chip ice cream in front of a framed tribute to Lewis and Tolkein.  The College is where Lewis taught for a number of years.  It was one of the only campuses open to the public.  As with Cambridge, the campuses are mainly closed to visitors since it is exam time for students.  The campus was just beautiful. The Church and buildings had faces and gargoyles carved into them, the archways were draped with lilac and ivy.  The lawns in the quads were perfectly manicured.  I could have stayed all day it smelled so good.  We even attempted to stay for Evensong.  Isaiah was a big wild, it being 6pm and him being corralled either in his car seat or his stroller for the entire day.  We stayed for the first 2 of 3 parts and they decided it was time to go.  The singing was - well, it was what you'd expect from Oxford. 

One other stop that is worth mentioning is Blackwell's Bookshop.  Wow - this place puts Chapters to shame.  It was 3 levels of books, both rare and common.  Keith said they had some great books in their philosophy and religion sections downstairs.  He browsed down there while I wandered through the well-sized and stocked children's section.

It was wonderful to arrive home and play with Isaiah, put him to bed and have hot showers ourselves.  Right now, Keith is watching TV (and has more than 1 channel to choose from) as I finish up this latest update that I will actually be able to post tonight.  What an improvement over yesterday!   

Stood Up in Bath

We were on the road shortly after 8 this morning and were headed south to Bath.  It was about a 5 hour drive away from Penrith, so we were anxious to get there as soon as we could.  Our plan was to take get into Bath early enough to see all of the sights and shops before they closed around 5pm so we could move on to Oxford earlier than planned.  I am happy to report that we succeeded.  We skipped Stoke-on-Trent since we felt we had seen enough pottery at Wetherigg's so our stops were much shorter. We arrived just after 1pm and did it with only 1 wrong turn.  Yay for the navigator (ahem, me.)  There was no one at the B&B to receive us, but we were anxious to get to the city centre so we didn't think much about it. The walk downtown to the Roman Baths and Abbey was pleasant and steeply downhill.  We knew this was likely going to finish us on the way home but with all of the chocolate bars and fish and chips we've been eating we knew it would do us good.  We decided to see our priorities first so we made our way into the Cathedral.  This massive house of worship was beautiful inside and out.  Keith took quite a few pictures but he mentioned that in churches, some things aren't really meant to have their picture taken.  Afternoon prayers took place while we were exploring the sanctuary so as sat in the pews as the priest lead us in a reading from John 3 and lead us in the Lord's Prayer and others.  It was so wonderful to be in a church and praying in a city that is famous for its pagan gods and practices.  It was refreshing.   

The Roman Baths were next and were not disappointing.  The exhibition was very informative and well done and they provided audioguides for everyone as well as had informative plaques throughout the exhibit.  I felt the spring water (and later realized I wasn't supposed to) and it was hotter than I expected.  The Roman Baths were built around this hot spring when it was found in the first century AD.  It was thought to be sacred so there were many altars and statues to Minerva and others throughout.     The smell of the ruins underground were stagnant and damp and musty - but we could still imagine the baths the way the recreations on the plaques illustrated. 

The remainder of our afternoon was spent wandering around the shops, looking for a dress for me.  All of the ladies in Bath were wearing skirts or dresses and looked so pretty.  I was feeling a bit frumpy in my tank top and pants so I tried a few dresses on.  No luck though.  One of our last stops was at the Jane Austen Centre. Touring the house exhibit was a bit pricey but the gift shop was fantastic.  I spent less than half the price of what our tickets would have cost.  If we had had more time or I wasn't feeling so tired I would have liked to do the tour - but as it was, I was happy with my choice.

When we finished our seemingly never-ending uphill trek back to the B&B, we were a bit surprised to find there was still no one to let us inside.  It was after 6 and I remembered telling our hostess we would be arriving sometime around suppertime.  I made a quick call from the payphone across the street and left a message.  The friendly neighbour came home and asked if he could bring us some tea or coffee as we waiting on her front lawn.  As time went by, we started to brainstorm alternate plans.  Around 7:45, Keith found a mobile number and left a message indicating that if no one arrived in the next 20 minutes we were moving on to Amesbury.  Miraculously, just as I was buckling Isaiah into his car seat, a woman arrived at the B&B.  Apparently, she was the owner's sister and was running the place while her sister was away in America.  She had just stopped by to check on things before meeting a friend for  a drink when she saw Keith waiting by the gate.  It seems that there was no record of our arrival in the diary, but there was a room available for us and a cot for Izer.  We were happy to accept.  She even agreed to knot £8 off of the room price for our trouble.  After we were settled and she left we got ready for bed.  To our horror, there was no hot water in the shower.  Not a great way to end the day.  But we managed alright and went to bed clean and well. 

 

Another Day of Rest

Friday - our last full day at the resort.  We had a restful lie in this morning, a duck-feeding session and some miniature golf this morning. Keith got quite a bit of work done on our pictures and I got our newly laundered clothes repacked. This afternoon we picked up a few supplies in Penrith and stopped for an early dinner at The Little Chef.  Isaiah ate so much food but behaved himself very well.  It was a relatively uneventful day but the perfect way to spend our final few hours in the Village.

Haggis Day

We wanted to start out early today and we actually made it on the road by 7:45am.  Thankfully, the route to Edinburgh was straight forward and I had little navigating to do until we were actually in the city.  Isaiah had a strange sleep last night and I was up quite often with him and didn't get much sleep so I was able to do some catch up on the way.

Our first view of Edinburgh Castle was majestic.  It is set up high on a cliff with shear walls and is visible from all directions.  We found parking at the bottom of the cliff and started the long march upwards.  We got our tickets and made it just in time for the beginning of a guided tour.  Our tour guide was an older man, kilted, and had a great Scottish accent.  He told us about each of the buildings in the castle: Saint Margaret's Chapel, The Royal Apartments (where Mary Queen of Scots lived, and gave birth to her son James), The Banquet Hall and so on.  We saw the 6 canons Queen Victoria ordered be stationed on the outer wall and the field gun they fire every day at 1 o'clock.  He explained that they fire the gun at 1 so that all of the ship captains and everyone in the castle can synchronize their time pieces. "Why not 12 noon?" he asked us.  The rest of the world uses 12 noon but not the Scots.  He explained that if they were to use noon, they would have to use 12 rounds of ammunition - and the Scots don't like to be wasteful - so 1 o'clock it is. 

We also got to see Scotland's crown jewels.  In 1993, Queen Elizabeth opened an exhibition that relates Scotland's rich history of kings and queens.  In 1996, Her Majesty ordered that the Stone of Scone, or the Stone of Destiny be brought back to Scotland.  For centuries it had been part of the throne for the Coronation ceremony in Westminster Abbey.  Apparently, this block of sandstone was used in the crowning of the first Scottish King.  However, this Scottish relic must be returned to the throne in Westminster for the coronation of any King or Queen of the United Kingdom.  It was a very neat piece of history we learned.

After we browsed the gift shop we spend the afternoon on the Royal Mile.  We ate some lunch at an Italian restaurant called Bella Italia.  I know, I know - Italian food in Scotland - Shame on us.  But we did each try some haggis in the first shop we went in.  We both though it tasted pretty good but weren't sure we wanted any more.

At the end of the Royal Mile is the Holyrood Palace.  We didn't actually know about this place before we stumbled upon it, but it is in fact, the Queen's Royal Palace in Scotland.  We perused the gift shop and thought about taking the tour, but it was a bit expensive.  Instead we walked round the outside and took some pictures and leafed through the guide book. 

After some pictures near the Parliament building and a meandering walk back to the Mile we stopped for some steamed milk at Starbucks and went back to the car.  We both found Scotland and the Scots, for that matter, wilder than England.  They are fiercely proud of their history and heritage - and for good reason.  Edinburgh reminded me of Ottawa as far as cities go.  I imagine London to be more like Toronto: skyscrapers, concrete, lots of cars and people and fashion. 

We got back home shortly after 9pm.  Isaiah was a monkey since he had been either in the stroller or car seat 95% of the day.  After some play time and a bath, he went to sleep around 10:45. Keith and I followed shortly after - it had been a big day - a very good, exciting, and big day.

Laundry Day

Today we're spending close to home base.  There was some discussion early this morning about whether we could do most of our laundry in the bathtub or if we had to pay the money and do it in the washing machine.  We decided to compromise. The really dirty clothes that would require scrubbing went into the washer and the others are now soaking in the bathtub.  Keith just agitated them with the vacuum cleaner-wand.  He's so very resourceful.

We spent part of the day feeding the ducks.  There are at least 20 ducklings here and about 10 adult ducks.  I love ducks.  These ones are particularly friendly and many will come close enough to eat out of your hand.  Isaiah also loves ducks.  He likes to race the ducks for the bread we throw for them.  He likes to try to pick up the duckings too. He's nearly succeeded a few times.  It is very cute to watch. 

Most of our laundry was done by dinner time and was either in the dryers across the way or hanging on our patio furniture.  We decided to take advantage of the leisure facilities.  My mom bought Isaiah some board shorts for our trip so we got all swim-suited up and headed for the pool.  I've taken Izer swimming once before so he wasn't too weirded out by the experience.  It was fantastic to watch he and Keith play together in the kiddie pool. 

It felt so good to have a quiet day at home and to get the laundry done.  Isaiah was so glad to have a day away from his stroller and car seat and just to play.  The downtime also helped us get ready for our big trip to Scotland tomorrow.

Relics from Another Age

We had a bit of a later start this morning, but we got to Carlisle around 11:30.  We came to see the Castle and Cathedral and then move on to Birdoswald Roman Fort and Hadrien's Wall.  Carlisle is way up near the Scottish border and was a key defensive position against invasions.  It also served as a holding place for Mary Queen of Scots in the 1500's after her husband was murdered and she, being forced to abdicate her throne, sought asylum in England under the reign of her cousin Queen Elizabeth.  Lizzy didn't quite know what to do with Mary since she was Catholic and had James, her son as her heir.  Queen Elizabeth did not have an heir and there were still many Catholic sympathizers in England, so Mary was a considerable threat to her crown.  As a result, she imprisioned Mary in Carlisle Castle for a time, and then moved her and her court of servants to a number of castles through the country as a means of deterring any plotting to rescue her, until she was finally moved to the Tower of London for almost 20 years before Elizabeth finally had her executed.

Another interesting part of the history of the Castle was when the Scottish heir, Bonny Prince Charlie lead a revolt trying to reclaim the English and Scottish throne for his father James III, who was forced out by William of Orange.  Prince Charlie retreated back into Scotland and a garrison of his troops were forced into the dungeons at the castle and held there with no food or water.  As the stones began to weep water, the soldiers would press their tongues against them for moisture.  These "licking stones" were clearly visible, and very disturbing.

After we finished at the Castle and I bought a great book on Castles and Keith bought a trebuchet pencil sharpener we walked over to the Cathedral.  It was neat to see the little church community on Abbey St.  They had a little restaurant and shop alongside the beautiful cathedral.  It was a busy place, which was great to see since a few of the churches we've visited have been desolate places, beautiful, but almost dead.

After a couple of wrong turns, we were on our way to the Roman Fort.  Along the way we stopped in at Lanercroft Priory.  This was a beautiful ruin of a Priory but the Chapel was still in use.  At Birdoswald we listened to a brief history about the fort and the wall and then walked over the ruin and explored the outer walls where sheep grazed.  It was a bit odd to see sheep wandering around in the middle of this relic from the first century AD.  Hadrien's wall is only about waist high and one to three feet thick now, but it used to tower at 15 feet high and 3 or more feet thick.  It also used to be nearly impenetrable due to the towers and milecastles, forts and patrols.

Getting so much accomplished in one day, we felt quite pleased with ourselves.  It was a good thing Keith knew his way home because I couldn't keep my eyes open.  He said I looked cute with my little head bobbing up and down. 

 

Potter and Pottery

We had planned to stay home and relax the following today - but when we woke up to bright sunshine and warm temperatures, we decided to strike while the iron was hot and head out for another full day.

Our first stop wasn't too far from where we're staying.  Wetheriggs Craft Centre joins a bunch of artists and their wares under one roof. Visitors can come and walk through and watch the artists at work while browsing their shop.  The shops we walked through were Pots and Pine and Romantic Ceramic (this was my favourite).  The Centre also has an animal rescue centre and a newt pond.  They also have the original beehive kiln which was massive.  The place is steeped in history and it was a treat to get to read about some of it.  We merely scratched the surface of the activities offered at the centre but I was pretty excited to get to see Peter Rabbit.

We arrived at Bowness-on-Windemere without much difficulty, but getting a parking space for the museum was like running a gauntlet.  The museum was fun and really well done and through the eyes of a 7-year-old, would have been absolutely magical.  They had scenes from the stories recreated throughout the tour and provided some info on Beatrix Potter, her life, her love of animals and the English countryside.  Quite a few of her stories were written in picture letters to her nieces and nephews and many others were based on animals she kept on her little farm.  She did in fact, have a Peter Rabbit, a Benjamin Bunny, a Jemima Puddleduck, and the two bad mice. 

In order to maximize the use of our beautiful parking spot, we spent some time walking around the town, eating ice cream cones with Cadbury Flakes stuck in them, and eating fish and chips (yet again) down by the lake.  Isaiah had fun sitting and playing on the grassy hillside, although it made sitting up a bit interesting because of the steep slope.

We took a different road home which was quite an adventure.  We never got lost, but British roads are scary.  Although they are supposedly wide enough for two cars, they really only fit about one and a half.  The drive allowed us to see the beauty that is the Lake District, but the roads are winding and hilly and don't allow an inch on either side.  This, however, does not seem to bother Brits one bit.  They don't slow down at all for oncoming traffic and aren't concerned about blind corners or frightened tourists.

Fish & Chips, Famous Cars and Well-Trained Sheep

After a leisurely morning and a frosted-flake breakfast, we headed for Keswick.  This was a great little village with all sorts of neat shops.  One was a Tea Pottery.  They had piano teapots, car teapots, marmite teapots.  Nearly anything you could want to make tea in - they had a teapot for it.  The main attraction in Keswick, however, was the World Famous Motor Museum.  We got to see a bunch of famous rides including the General Lee from Dukes of Hazard, K.I.T. from Nightrider, and the piece de resistance, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.   Keith bought a small model.  It was a pretty cool place.  After a fish and chips lunch (the best fish and chips we've had thus far), we decided to skip the Lakeland Pencil Museum (no joke) and headed down the road to the Lakeland Sheep and Wool Visitors Centre.  I have never heard of anything like this before.  After spending some time in the gift shop deciding what sheepish things to purchase, we took our seats and waited for the real show to begin.  We were thrilled as one by one a sheep would appear from a doorway, and march up a podium and take his place while a lady told us information about what breed they were, where they were found, how long they've been in the UK and the various pros and cons of the breed.  We also learned the difference between beef and dairy cows and watch a sheep dog herd huge white geese around the stage.  One goose kept wiping out on the sawdust.  At the end of the show we were able to go up on stage and pet the cows, sheep and dogs and a couple of little kids got to help bottle feed a lamb (who practically throttled the kids as they tried to pull against the lamb's suckling).  Our favourite sheep was a Ryeland - who we nicknamed Muttonhead.

Whitehaven was our next destination - away to the west coast.  It was raining when we got there and despite the weathershield over Isaiah, we were both cold and windswept by the time we left.  Keith got some great shots of the ocean (which we hope will do it some justice).  We were able to walk way out on to a pier where the lighthouse stood and took in the bay at low tide and the ocean crashing against the breakwall on the other.  It was worth it, in spite of the wind and rain.

  We retired to our lodge happy to be home, but feeling great about our busy and successful day. 

 

Bicycles to Woolies

The B&B in Thrisk was easier to find than we expected, eventhough I missed our exit off the highway and we came in through the back roads.  It was so quaint.  It was a low stone building covered in creeping ivy with a lovely country English garden with arbours and fountains.  It was the type of house Thomas Kinkade would paint. The field across from the house was dotted with sheep and they had a brick stable with two horses.  Sam, the black lab, met us at the gate.  The room was spacious and the hosts were friendly and open.  Isaiah was so happy to be out of his car seat and out of his stroller he didn't want to sit down at all.  Fortunately, it was a relatively baby-proof room so he could crawl and pull himself up on whatever he wanted.  I still managed to spill grape juice on the linen night table cloth.  That's the third time Tide-to-Go has come in handy on our trip already. We curled up on the bed, watched a Scrubs episode and ate our dinner.  Isaiah ate Cheerios.

In the morning we enjoyed yet another wonderfully prepared Full English Breakfast.  For those of you unfamiliar with what this breakfast includes let me explain: 1 egg, either poached or fried over easy, toast (served in a toast rack), 1 fried tomato, baked beans, fried mushrooms, back bacon, and sausage.  In Cambridge, Isaiah was so tired he slept right through out breakfast, but in Thirsk, he was wide awake and made eating a bit troublesome.  After we packed up and took a quick walk through the garden, we headed off for the James Herriot Museum about 15 minutes away.  This was the highlight of our trip for me so far.  It was market day in Thirsk so the town was very hustle-bustle.  The museum was fantastic.  It is set in the original Skeldale House where James (Alf Wight) really came to work for Siegfried (Don Sinclair) and his brother Tristan (Brian Sinclair).  It really helped us learn about the "real" James Herriot and his life, as well as the background to so many of his stories.  The gift shop didn't have the sort of souveniers I had hoped it would, but we still found a few momentos to bring back home.  We walked around their cobbled marketplace and I couldn't help but notice how different the items being sold were from those described by Herriot in the 1930's and 40's. I really wanted to see the china merchant, plying his teacups on the town ladies while Tristan's run-away pigs trotted passed.  We bought out lunch at a little sandwich shop and found a bench to sit and eat right across from the church where James and Helen (or Alf and Joan) were married.

 

From Thirsk we were headed to Penrith in the Lake District.  We took a small break at Barnard Castle. After navigating the city centre packed with people on market day, we were disappointed to see the castle was a ruin and the price of admission but we still enjoyed taking pictures of the outside and stretching our legs.  We arrived at the resort around dinner time on Saturday.  We love our little lodge.  It has two floors and is self-catering which has worked out really well for us.  After we brought in our luggage we drove into Penrith for groceries and spent a quiet evening at home.

The Beginning of our Journey

In the beginning was the flight.  Travelling with small children is awesome in a lot of respects; special lines for check-in and security at the airport, pre-boarding, special treatment, and these neat bassinets that fit into the wall if you're sitting in the front row.  Isaiah did quite well sleeping in it throughout the flight.  If only they made those for big people.  Sleeping in coach airplane seats is not so easy.  Especially when you can see the first classers in their seats that look like something straight out of Star Trek.  They were seriously cool.  Despite this, Keith still managed to get a few hours of sleep.  I managed about 20 minutes.   When we landed, we determined to do the first day on adrenaline J.   Praise the Lord that all of our bags made it to the UK and our rental car pick up was problem-free. 

 

The first roundabout experience was a bit funny in a frustrating and unfortunate kind of way.  We had just cleared the guard in the rental car pick-up place and merged with traffic when the roundabout jumped into the road.  Keith took the first exit.  We ended up right back into the rental car parking lot and had to through the guard again - except this time there was a huge line and it took ten minutes to get back through the guard.  By the end of the first day - we must have gone through two dozen roundabouts and barely think twice about them now.

 

Amazingly, we didn't even get lost until we got into Bletchley.  It's interesting that neither of the two people we stopped to ask for directions really had any idea where they were themselves.  When we arrived, Brian met us at the door and we were soon greeted by Aunt Shirley, Uncle Sam and Uncle Andrew as well.  They have a sweet little brick home on a very tidy street.  They have a lovely garden in the back that Uncle Sam landscaped himself.  Andrew and Aunt Shirley briefly re-capped their trips to America.  We ate biscuits and drank tea and coffee.  Socks, the dog, meandered through the living room as we conversed.  It was a brilliant time.

 

The spire of the Olney Chapel was our next beacon.  Olney is where John Newton and William Cowper lived next door to one another and wrote hymns.  Newton, an ex-slave trader, wrote Amazing Grace.  We visited the Newton and Cowper museum.  It was pretty interesting, especially the rooms devoted to Newton.  Olney was also fun because it was market day.

 

Our next stop was Cambridge.  I started to feel the tiredness on this leg of our journey, but fortunately it was a relatively short one.  We almost found our first B&B on the first try.  In our defence, the house number was nearly impossible to see.  Our hostess was a bit frazzeled when we arrived but she was pleasant enough and showed us around.  We got settled and headed out for a walk to the city centre and university.  Isaiah retreated to sleep - the poor guy wasn't sure what was going on.  We've decided the Cambridge is the land of bicycles.  Old and new with huge, let me repeat, HUGE baskets on the front.  And not just on the girl bikes either.  And not just on student or old people bikes.  Everyone rides bikes and nearly everyone has a huge basket.  It was a beautiful city.  Nearly everything was closed, other than the food shops, but we made some mental notes of what we wanted to see the following day.  We were sad to discover that all of the colleges were closed to the public because it was examination time for the students.  We did get to see a fair amount of the grounds and outer buildings.  We also got to enjoy the market and the Cambridge University Press Bookshop.  I found a lovely tea shop and another artsy store where I did a bit of shopping.

We decided to skip York and drive straight to Thirsk.  Isaiah had a melt down along the way so we decided to take a detour into Ripon to see the chapel.  We weren't entirely sure at first if the church was still in use.  We picked up some pamphlets on the way out, but we were both left with the feeling that the church was just a shell the town was trying to keep up, but that it really had no life in it.  We were disappointed.  We picked up some food for dinner at the grocery store where we had parked.  Well, at least I thought we parked there.  I took Isaiah out to the car to start his dinner while Keith found a washroom.  Keith appeared just as Izer and I finished our third lap of the parking lot and panic was setting in that our car had been stolen.  It wasn't.  We hadn't parked at the grocery store, but in a parking lot just below.  Oh Darcie.