Home Again

We arrived home safely last night after a ridiculous 20 hours of travel. Not all of that was in the air, but a lot of it was. I can hardly put into words how great it was to get home. Honestly, I’m nearly speechless with happiness to again be in my own little home, my familiar surroundings, my own bed. Shoot, I could go on and on and on about it, but I won’t. I think you get the point. That said, I did truly enjoy our trip. It was fun, interesting, educational, memorable, wonderful. It was very special to get to spend time with family. We saw so many remarkable sights – war related, castles, palaces.

I know God sent guardian angels with us on the trip – I never knew it more that I did yesterday when we landed in Philadelphia. The captain said there was a “slight problem” and that we’d need to circle the airport again… when we came in to land a second time, there were fire trucks with flashing lights lining the landing strip. Obviously all went well, but while we were circling again, I thought “you know, I’ve had an exceptional life. I was blessed with a loving home to grow up in, and I’ve been able to do everything I had ever wanted (and more) …. Get married, be a mom, be a nurse, have a wonderful job that I love, meet my “Mr. Wonderful”, love and be loved, etc etc. If this is ‘it’, I’m ready Lord. I’m ready to come home.” There must have been someone on the plane that wasn’t ready yet. So very happily, I came “home” to my little house in the forest. 

One afternoon, towards the end of our trip, I plugged in my iPod and played some music. One of the songs I listened to was the one listed on the “Playlist” above. It reminded me of something so very important. Something that is really more important than any king, or castle, or throne. If you listen, you’ll understand.

I guess this is ‘goodbye’ from your humble Buzzing Around Britain bloggers… the buzzing is done. Please be sure to read John’s final post below. Thanks to all who took the time to read about our journey and comment too!  :-)

A final word from John

Dateline: The Midlands.

The drive from York was a breeze, just pointed east and looked for one of the three main freeways which run North/South. The freeways are easily recognizable, they are the roads with three lanes, a fast lane, the faster lane and suicide alley, all filled with lunatic speed freaks .

Truckers drive in all three, sometimes all at the same time.

The Midlands, home of the industrial revolution,  (the worlds first iron bridge still stands here, ironically in a town called Ironbridge, how coincidental.) has fewer foundries, factories, or manufacturing plants these days and has replaced them with thousands of homes, which house millions of people. Robin Hood lived here, robbing the rich and giving to the poor, so the legend goes. He of course has been replaced by the Labour Party, the elected British Government.

Our hotel room was quite nice, the view pleasant, a small canal with Longboats moored at the waters edge, and in the early morning, one could hear the sound of birds, coughing, idyllic really. The problems with the “free internet” connection in the room were irresolvable, the hotel and their internet provider handled the situation like a chess game, and we unfortunately, were the ones stalemated.

We dined with family members, in the hotel restaurant, the service was excellent, the food acceptable and the mix-up in the orders was soon remedied.

As with most hotels these days, the ability to make coffee and tea was present in the room although we were a little hesitant to use it due to the substance growing in one of the teacups. The hotel manager was a pleasant chap, I met him as we departed, and at which time we discussed four star hotels in general.

Dateline: London.

Finally, we are off to London, ‘The Smoke’ or ‘The Big Smoke’ as it is fondly referred to by Midlanders. London, the hub of Britain, where pomp and ceremony reign, the laws of the land are conceived and passed, and at night thespians still tread the boards with eighteenth century fervor. We visited the West End, saw the play, ‘Woman in Black’, an excellent production, highly recommended.

The museums are fantastic, dripping in history and worth every penny spent to attend, allow many, many hours to soak up all there is to see.

London is also noted for something many people overlook when deciding where and what to visit. Stairs.

Nobody in London lives at street level!! They either live up a thousand stairs, or down a thousand stairs. Every public building and most private homes have stairs, and even if one is lucky enough to be in a building which has everything one needs at ground level, I guarantee that the bathroom is either upstairs, or downstairs. This applies to museums, theatres, stores, the tube, everything.

Tourist Tip: Be prepared for crowds. The ability to speak a foreign language would be helpful, any foreign language; every country in the world has sent fifty million representatives to live in London.

Some Facts: We drove one thousand six hundred and forty six miles at 47mpg and an average speed of 90mph. (seemed like). We walked five thousand and two miles. (seemed like) We consumed three thousand pounds of food. (each). We drank 300 beers and some cider.

In Conclusion: The tongue is now exiting the cheek, the reality is, we had a wonderful, wonderful time, created lots of amazing memories and to steal the title of David’s London exhibition, “Britain Can Still Make It”.

The end of the line

Tomorrow is the day.... the day we finally head home.  We are not sad, we're actually SO ready to be home again.  I knew we would feel that way....  I do love to travel, but being home is such a comfort, so peaceful, simply wonderful.  Not sure if others feel the same way I do, but there you have it.

Now for our last two days in London.   On Friday we went to Harrods.  I had never been there and was pretty much mesmerized with the whole place.  The food court was something else... then we went upstairs and wandered through so many rooms and departments that I had no idea where we were.  For instance the tableware department was divided into just how posh you think your eating habits may be.  There was the "everyday" china room, the "fancy" dishware room, and then we wandered into the "elegant dining" area.  I'll fully admit that we couldn't afford a thing in any of these rooms.  That's okay.  It was sure fun to look.  I thought that just maybe I would be able to purchase ONE small item and say I got it at Harrods.  I don't mean one of those boxes of tea that look like a London doubledecker bus.  I thought maybe I'd see if I could get... lets say, a scarf possibly - since they are all the rage here and at home as well.  I checked the price tag of one and saw 139 GBP, nearly fainted, tucked the tag back under the scarf, and moved on.  No, I would not be getting a scarf at Harrods after all.  When in the food court, we stopped and got some gelato.  You can't get a bowl or a cone and mill around the store while nibbling.  Oh no.  Totally NOT allowed.  If you want to have some gelato (or any other food) at Harrods, you will sit down at a proper place setting, and enjoy it like a civilized human, thank-you-very-much.  Here is a snap of John and yours truly enjoying our gelato....

It was so totally delicious!  Next is a close up of the gelato - gotta LOVE the little bear biscuits!

 Looks yummy, huh?  Raspberries and cream.

After Harrods, we went to dinner at a great Indian restaurant - Masala Zone.  Then it was on to our play... "The Woman in Black".  Loved it!!  After a tube ride home, we collapsed for a great night's sleep.

Yesterday (Saturday) David, John and I went to the Imperial War Museum.  People, if you have ANY interest at all in WWI or WWII history, go to this museum if you are ever in London.  It's FREE and totally amazing.  Here are a few photos:

Your humble buzzing around Britain bloggers at the Imperial War Museum, London

These are the real thing.  A Spitfire, German Focke-Wulf, a huge V2 Rocket, and tons more.  We could have spent hours and hours and hours at this place.  That is if our FEET could hold up... and that's a big "if".

I can hardly say how very tired we are at this point in our trip.  We feel like we've walked hundreds of miles although I doubt it's really been that far.  I'm sure John will mention how far we've driven (well over 1000 miles) and we are simply exhausted.    On our last day in London (today), we rode the tube into the city, had lunch at a great sandwich place, and then on to David's exhibition at the Liberty Department store.  As the design editor of the Telegraph Magazine, David has a week-long exhibition of furniture and design items made in England.  Click here for the article :)

David, behind the window at Liberty store - advertising the exhibition.

Damian and David at the exhibition.

David - the curator of the Britain can (still) make it exhibition! :)

David and his dad on the front steps.  David and Damian have been such excellent hosts.... and we are very very happy that they'll be coming over our way come December!

Be looking for one last post after we arrive home................ :)

More from John!

Dateline: Welsh Wales

Wonderful country, wonderful people, even if they do speak a language that makes no sense. Met some fellow Americans who were on their way back to Scotland which they had visited earlier in their vacation. Apparently they believe that the Tartan Savages north of the border are friendlier than the English or the Welsh. How misguided, but they are from Oregon, need I say more?.

Conwy was great, and the guest house awesome. Lots of walking here.

Tourist Tip: If a welsh person says to you “ ca a 'n glws ddiwrnod” do not reach for your concealed weapon, or run to the Scottish border like our Oregon friends. It means “have a nice day”.

Dateline: Liverpool & The Northeast

Liverpool.

The ‘amazing race’ drive from Wales to Liverpool was uneventful, I’m now really getting the hang of things, except for the short yellow lights which promotes ‘red light running’ in abundance, and the red/yellow combination which comes after red, and means ‘go’ apparently.

What can I say about Liverpool other than it’s the home of the Beatles, on which they prey heavily, and it has a cathedral and a mediocre soccer team.  The Cavern, where the Beatles sang, is not really the Cavern where the Beatles sang, however, they did use some of the bricks from the original Cavern to construct this tourist trap.

The people are generally friendly and like Londoners, speak a form of English.

Whitby.

If you have ever seen an ant colony, you have seen Whitby. It teems with people who have suicidal tendencies, all rushing around endlessly, jumping from curbs into the paths of passing vehicles.  Parking here is no problem, providing you are driving a unicycle.

The guest house was good and we did find a fantastic pub, where we ate a scrumptious dinner.

York.

What a great town, if you like history, and university students clogging up the public places. Had two long nights here, staying with, “the wicked witch of the east’s” twin sister, where the cooking of an egg at breakfast time, must be requested twenty four hours in advance. Apparently, the frying pans in York take too long to heat up, which would result in exceeding the allotted eating time, set down by the commandant.

Tourist Tip: If you are staying more than one night at a B&B, and on arrival, are presented with a checklist for the next day’s breakfast, be sure to ask if you will get a new checklist for the following day. This avoids having porridge ad infinitum!!.

Longer update on Midlands and London

Whew.  Finally a few free minutes to catch up on what we've been up to for the past several days.  First up: Midlands.  John was born and raised in the "Black Country" area near Dudley, West Midlands.  His sister and her husband still live there.  We met them at a local cemetery so we could at last view the graves of John's parents who passed quite a few years back.  Well.... upon arriving, we discovered that while his sister had said that "mom and dad are 'buried' here", she didn't really mean buried.  They were cremated (which we don't have a problem with), their ashes were apparently buried above the graves of his Grandparents, and there was no headstone to show that they were there, that they had lived, loved, and died.  John was quite surprised to find these things out.  In the end, we placed flowers on the grave, tried to clean up the grave site a bit, and did discuss with Chris and Alex about the possibility of getting a stone to commemorate their parents.  While we were there, two cemetery workers came over to us and suggested that they would, "under the table", be glad to properly clean up the headstone for granny and grandpa - for a mere 40 pounds!!  We were in shock, both at the ridiculous price they mentioned, as well as the simple fact that they would come over to a family and try to "sell" something.

After the cemetery visit, we checked in to our hotel, the Merry Hill Copthorne.  It was a very nice place - Neat and clean..... but we ended up having lots of "issues".  The internet connection wouldn't work, no matter what John did or who he phoned for support.  The dinner got all mixed up in the kitchen.  We were totally locked out of our room, even after receiving new keys.  The tea cup which we planned to use the next morning was "growing something" inside it.  Needless to say, hubby had a (very calm and civil) word with management the next morning and we did get an adjustment on the bill.  We did have a very pleasant visit over dinner with John's sister and brother-in-law.  It was great to catch up and have a good long chat.

Wednesday morning after speaking with the hotel manager, we hightailed it out of town.  John had planned to get some of his favorite (but horribly UN-healthy) snack of pork scratchings to take home.  Maybe it's a good thing in the long run that we just hit the motorway and didn't go on the scratchin-hunt!  Pork scratchings are fried bits of pork fat.  YUCK.  How he can eat that stuff I don't really know...., but then he won't touch a "cheeto" - an unhealthy snack that I love.

Our next stop was Hampton Court Palace.  What a fantastic place!  I'd read all about it in "The Other Boleyn Girl".  As I had said in a previous post,  we got the idea to stop here from the super nice girl we met in the pub in Lynton.  Well worth a visit!!  Here are a few photos....

 

 

Part of the reenactment of Henry VIII and Katherine Parr's marriage (see video in previous post)

 

Henry VIII "presents" his new wife, Katherine Parr

I particularly loved the interactive reenactments.  There were several different ones going on while we were there, with people in full traditional regalia.  During one we got to see all the bits and pieces that made up the clothing of the day.  I found that soooooo interesting.  There was some talk about the popular TV show, "The Tudors" - how it is mostly, but not completely authentic.  We haven't seen The Tudors yet, but I've got the first season on DVD on request at our local library - and can't wait to watch it!

After Hampton Court Palace, it was time to take on the biggest challenge yet for your humble "navigator".  We had to wind our way through the many, busy, crazy streets of London proper.  I had a map - but we have no GPS with us here.  It was slow and steady, but we arrived safely at David's home at precisely 6:30 pm.  It was great to get here, sit back, enjoy a dinner at home, and reeee-laaxxxxx.  David and Damian have a lovely home in the Brixton area of London.  I will have to take some photos of the house - haven't done that yet.

Thursday morning we got up, walked to the Brixton tube station with David (who was on his way to work), rode to Victoria station, then on to Westminster.  It was there that we went to visit the Churchill War Rooms and Museum.  If you are at all interested in WWII, this is a great place to visit.  We both enjoyed it SO much and spent at least 3 hours there.  Here is a picture of the "map room" - the way it looked during the war.

This was a secret location where Winston Churchill and his vast array of assistants pretty much directed the war.  It was underground and protected with slabs of concrete and huge steel ballasts across the ceilings to make it as "bomb proof" as possible.  Apparently the war rooms never received a direct hit during the many bombings of London, so they never really found out how "bomb proof" the area truly was.  I could go on and on about this wonderful museum -- but to make it short, if you are ever in London, DO make this one of your stops.  You'll be glad you did.

Just around the corner, literally, from the Churchill museum, is Westminster Abbey.  When we were in London five years ago, we never went inside, so we decided to pay the price and see it this time.  Unfortunately, when we got there, they had just closed the doors to visitors.  We were ever so disappointed!

We sat down on the steps of a nearby building, simply for a bit of a rest, while deciding where to go next.  An Australian woman sat down next to us and said "are you waiting for Evensong too"?  We replied that no, we were just having a rest.... but then it dawned on us.... wouldn't it be marvelous to attend a choir service inside the church?  We decided we would, and it was wonderful.  A chance of a lifetime for us to hear the Westminster Abbey choir singing in the nave of the church before entering the main sanctuary.  Then to actually be able to be part of the service was something I'll never forget.  I'm SO glad we decided to attend.

Today, we are going to explore Harrods here in London, go out to a fabulous Indian restaurant, and then attend a play this evening in London's west end.  Sounds great to me!! 

Hampton Court, London

We've made it to London! On our first afternoon in London, we stopped at Hampton Court.  Believe it or not, the woman we met in the pub in Lynton suggested that we go here - and I am SO glad we did!  Hampton Court was built in the 1400's by good old Henry the Eighth.  What a spectacular palace it is, so full of great Tudor history!  The day we were there, they were reenacting the marriage of Henry and Katherine Parr his 6th and final wife.  Check out the video below.  More coming soon!

Taken at Hampton Court