traveling with J&D

England

Well, we made it to the England! First stop was Gatwick; we stayed at a B&B called Oakhurst Gatwick about 5 minutes from the airport. It was perfect for the first night and after the long flight we didn’t want to go too far! We had dinner at a restaurant right around the corner that we could walk to called The Parsons Pig. Perfect dinner choice! Very good Indian food. After a night’s sleep we were ready to venture on! On our way to our lovely VRBO in Barham we stopped to tour Leeds Castle. So beautiful and the grounds were amazing!

Next stop was our beautiful little cottage (Church Cottage) in Barham. So cute! Reminds me of the cottage in the movie The Holiday!

Decided to explore Dover next. First stop Dover Castle! It was fun walking around the grounds and exploring inside the castle. There was also an incredibly old church on the grounds that is still functioning! We explored the underground tunnels, so interesting how inventive they were with defending the castle. We then had a tour of the underground hospital – not sure I’d want to be treated there! Lunch was at a pub in Dover – The White Horse Inn. Typical pub menu, had a toastie – ham, cheese and english mustard!

Our fourth day was spent walking around the White Cliffs of Dover. What a beautiful day it was! The cliffs are very impressive! The cliffs face France across the English Channel. They are made of fine-grained white chalk from the remains of tiny sea algae. In great English style after we finished the hike to the lighthouse there was a teahouse where we were able to get cream tea for 3! They even served it in actual china teapot and cups!

Canterbury was our next stop – what a cute town! We of course explored the Canterbury Cathedral – how impressive! I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves! We wandered around the town a little bit, saw The Crooked House, which is now a cute bookstore, had a great lunch in the plaza at The Old Buttermarket – meat pie – which was so much better than I expected! We also walked along Westgate Gardens which was beautiful.

Last days in Kent area we checked out the Church that was the church of our “Church cottage” in Barham and then spent a rainy few hours in Sandwich – just a quick lunch and a quick walk around until we were soaked and gave up to go back to our cottage for a dinner at the local pub so no pics of that day! The next and final day we stopped in Whitstable for a quick breakfast and look around on our way to London!

We made it to London! We have been here a few times so it’s nice to relax and not feel the pressure to see all the tourist sites. We are staying in a “flat” hotel called Marlin Apartments – Aldgate Tower Bridge very nice to spread out with 2 bedrooms, a living room and a deck overlooking the city. First stop was checking out Regent’s Park – saw Queen Mary’s Rose Gardens and Queen Elizabeth II’s new garden. Walked around a bit then stopped for lunch at the Green Man pub where we tried out a couple of their beers. So, one thing strange about England so far is that everywhere we have been to eat no matter what we order they are out of at least one item. Not sure what that is about but we have learned to always have a backup plan! Next, we wandered around Marylebone and stopped at the Daunt Books Store – very cute place! After that we headed back to get ready for our night on the town – dinner and a show! We got tickets to see The Play that Goes Wrong in the West End – very funny – good show. Didn’t know it at the time but it turns out one of the costumes was made by Lawrenceville’s own Sean Robbins, who graduated LHS with Zach! Super cool! Next day we wandered around London seeing sites some were repeats but some we haven’t seen on previous trips. Stopped at Borough Market where we had chocolate dipped strawberries! Yum! Went to the Graffiti tunnel – very cool. Stopped in Paddington to see the Paddington Bear statue then wrapped up the site seeing with a trip to Notting Hill. Very fun day!

So, Saturday we moved Ry into Regent’s University for her study abroad program. A very emotional day for all involved. She ended up hanging with us one more night and day and then spent her first night in the dorms on Sunday night! We wish her such a great year filled with exciting adventures and lots of new friends!

Sunday was our last day with Ry. We ended up exploring Abbey Road and the surrounding area. Then we had a lovely dinner with my former colleague from International Schools Services – Laura Benson who was in town celebrating her 50th high school reunion! On our last night in London, we had to enjoy the classics – fish & chips, and English meat pie & chicken kabobs!

LANCASTER

We are back in England! This time the northern areas. We are currently staying in Lancaster, exploring the Lake District.

Went on a hike on the Windermere Circular through Bowness, very nice hike not super challenging and some good scenery!

Last days around Lancaster brought a day trip to Morecambe Bay – not really worth it, another day trip to Liverpool – fabulous! and a tour of Lancaster Castle!

A cute bookstore in Morecambe Bay was the highlight… On to Liverpool! Beatles everywhere of course but I was interested to learn how much more musical the city really is beyond The Beatles. Lots of places to see live music and seemed to be a lot of great restaurants! Wish we could have spent more time here! I would definitely go back! We did see the original entrance to the Cavern, where The Beatles played a total of 292 times! Unfortunately, the original Cavern was destroyed in 1973 under great protests from fans. It was reconstructed in 1984 and sits about 75% on the original site. Outside there is a wall of fame where the bricks have the names of everyone who has performed at The Cavern – pretty impressive list! Of course we had to go to one of The Beatles museums, this one was on Albert Dock, and I thought well worth the trip. They have the original demo 45 record where Paul McCartney’s name was spelled wrong! Bet that never happened again! We then of course had to go to The Cavern to enjoy a pint and some live music!

Lancaster Castle was our last stop before moving on to York. Lancaster Castle has an interesting history as a prison (up until 2011), a courthouse (only recently closed) and the Pendle Witches were imprisoned here before they were hung on the hill. We also went to the Police museum which is on the castle grounds – actually very interesting!

York has been our next stop. Very quaint city. We stayed within the city walls which I recommend. We are able to walk everywhere. Lots of different restaurants which has been nice as we are both a bit sick of pub food! Especially chips! First couple of days were rainy and windy with the 2 tropical storms hitting the UK, but we had the sun back today! Explored the highlights of York and also made a side trip to Durham. So, we just walked around the first day here to see the sites, the streets are so cute! Very busy town! We walked down Shambles (the street that was the inspiration for Diagon Alley in the Harry Potter movies). There is a store called the York Ghost Merchants which has apparently enjoyed Tic Tok fame. I took a picture through the window, but we did not go in, people were waiting up to 6 hours in line to enter! No way! Not to just look at little ghost statues…. Of course, since it was a rainy day we stopped for some cream tea at Betty’s! Yum!

Next day we headed out on a day trip to Durham. Got to see the Durham cathedral, where some scenes from the Harry Potter movies were filmed – see if you can recognize any of the sites! We also were able to get tour tickets for the Durham castle – since it’s part of Durham University and students actually live in the castle who go to school there you can only go in on a tour. The Prior Castell’s Clock was interesting; it is made all of wood (still works!) and apparently when the Scottish were held in the cathedral suffering in the winter cold with no food they wouldn’t destroy the clock, although they destroyed everything else made of wood to make fires to keep warm, because at the top of the clock there is a thistle and we were told that the thistle is a very important symbol for the Scottish! The black staircase in the Durham castle is supposedly haunted. If you smell lavender while you are there it means the ghost is close by! In the Tunstall Chapel there is a picture of Tunstall that should have rosary beads in his hands, but he had them painted over so that he wouldn’t be beheaded by the King at the time who was killing all the Catholics!

Today we went into the York Minster and walked along the town walls. We enjoyed the break in the rain! I was also able to go to the Shambles early and get pics without so many people in them! They really milk Harry Potter here, on this street especially!