OH LONDON! Oh England! Oh the blessed Mother Country. I love it to obnoxiousness. It must love me just as much because it is so welcoming and wonderful to me. How would I live without my England, I ask you?
Most of you know that I went to school in England in days of yore (1999) and fell deeply in love with it. I chose England for my study abroad experience after backpacking through Europe in 1997. It became one of my favorite and my best during that trip as well. It did, in fact, start the ridiculous Anglophilia from which I now suffer (oh, how I treasure the suffering). I should probably be hospitalized for the condition, but I remain at home and believe that frequent trips to the Mother Country will be good enough medicine for my Anglo soul.
Let me try, if I can, to summarize the best adventure I've been on in a very long time. Mind you, I have not been to the Land of Blessed Glory for nearly 11 years (take a moment and mourn for me). We left Sunday afternoon from Salt Lake and flew into Houston (idiot, IDIOT airport run by idiots), about a 4 hour flight. We then hopped on our plane to London and about 8 hours and NO sleep (despite a Xanax) later, we were in the Motherland. I cannot tell you the joy that filled my heart. I was tired beyond all reason but I had beatings in my heart and flutterings in my tummy that would not cease the entire trip. Every time I looked around and realized where I was, I would get little butterflies all over again.
We got a car and headed up to Bath first thing. Bath is such loveliness. So quiet and serene and picturesque. Our bed and breakfast was charming, with helpful staff and a perfect room (and a really fab shower, as it happens). Also, a super breakfast. It was about 10 minutes' walk to the city center and our first night there we walked into town and had dinner at Jaime Oliver's restaurant "Jaime's Italian". Wonderful! We also just meandered around town and took in some sights (as many as we could in the pitch darkness). We were able to see Bath Abbey, the Royal Crescent and the Circus and took a scenic route home through a park where we got the scare of our lives at the hands of some clever person who had set a Halloween mask on the back seat of their car for the purpose of scaring the pants off innocent passersby. Hilarious. All in all I'd say it was a pretty productive day for two people going on about 2 hours of sleep (in the form of a nap we sneaked in at our B&B before we went out).
Here we are at Heathrow waiting for our shuttle to take us to the car rental. Soooo excited!
Steve driving. I was VERY scared at first but he soon got the hang of it ;). Sort of.
A sign that, for some reason, struck me as funny.
Bath Abbey
A jet lagged me at Jaime's Italian.
Our second day started out with a trip to Stonehenge. Ahhh, what an amazing pile of rocks. I really do mean this. I am constantly amazed by this structure. How in sam hill did this come to be? AND how is it still standing? Also, do the people who drive past it on the way to work everyday know how lucky they are? Seriously. Here is this ancient ruin just sitting on a hill and there's a highway RIGHT NEXT TO IT. I'm not complaining, it's just so funny to me.
Steve was in utter awe by Stonehenge. He was a bit like a kid in a candy store with a smile on his face the whole time we were there. I think it was definitely one of the bigger highlights of the trip for him. I love it too. Very much. Mostly because it's in England.
Here we are. It was windy. So windy that when we later bought a hot chocolate, the wind blew the liquid out of the spout of a covered cup and onto Steve. That's a gale.
Steve's mad hot photography skillz at work. Love me some Henge.
Later that day we went to Old Sarum. I'm fascinated with this site because of Edward Rutherford's book "Sarum". If you've never read any of his books, you're missing out. He writes historical fiction and his novels usually focus on a specific area in England and he writes about the history of that area from as far back as he can possibly go up to the present day. "Sarum" was one of my favorites.
Old Sarum was the original site for Salisbury Cathedral. It was started in 1075 and in 1220 the Bishop ordered the Cathedral torn down and rebuilt (using the same stones) on the site on which it currently stands! Amazing!!! It is so unbelievably beautiful. BUT, back to Old Sarum... The very ancientness of this place just gave me chills. I'm always in awe when I find myself walking in ruins. It's crazy to me that I'm touching walls or using stairs that people used over 1000 years ago (my favorite thing is the way the stone steps are always worn away in the center!). Tell me that isn't amazing and you'll get a smack ;). One tiny side note. After our adventures in the ruins, I had to use the ladies so I headed in the direction I was pointed and found out that I had to go potty under a hill. Yes, the toilets had been built into a hillside. Well, good for them. Those clever space savers!
Here I am standing atop something old. I really have no idea what it was but I still love it. And just LOOK at that countryside!
Here's a little photo that I found quite touching. First, take in the sheer beauty. Then notice, if you will, the small dots on the farm below. Those, my American friends, are free range pigs. Notice the lack of evil pens? Now look closer. The smaller specks are free range chickens! My favorite thing! This was one of the sweetest things I've ever seen. Laugh if you will but I simply cannot endure the thought of animal cruelty and the English delighted my soul with this adorable farm. I had never seen anything like it before. Sad.
On to other things. Okay, we're racing now. Racing against a sun that refused to stay up past 4:30. Really. In Utah we're used to longer days, even in winter. We were shocked to find out that it began to get dark at around 3:30 (and the sun was officially set by 4:30. I just looked it up for good measure)! We'd get a bit frantic every day at around 12:00 when we realized that we had very little light left. It was quite comical.
So, we proceeded to Salisbury. What a lovely town THAT is. First of all, we lost about 45 minutes of light because of a tragic parking situation, but a lovely man helped us to find a parking garage and all was well. We walked around for a bit, taking in the sights, and again I was struck by the history. MY GOSH the history! Just oldness everywhere. And charm! England oozes charm. There was a market going on the day we were there and while we didn't buy anything much, we came away with two fresh doughnuts that set us up nicely.
When we decided that we were playing Russian Roulette with the sun, we toddled over to the Cathedral. It really is an amazing piece of architecture. Apparently the spire should not be standing. It is too heavy to be so tall. Ah well, I guess those sage architects don't know everything. Inside the chapter house we were able to see an original copy of the Magna Carta (always an amazing thing to view) and a letter written by my girl, Queen Elizabeth I!!! How amazing is that? More amazing to me than the Magna Carta (don't tell anyone I said that). I LOVE Lizzy! She is one of the most fascinating people to have ever lived. She had really great handwriting (I wish I could have shown you, but alas, no pictures).
A really great building. I am in love with the saggy, wonkiness of it all.
Steve by some old archway. I love how there's a little shop selling postcards built right on to it.
The one, the only, Salisbury Cathedral. Isn't it pretty? This picture was taken at 3 pm. Really, it was already getting darkish.
And now I shall wrap up our second day (being that this was a 10 day trip, this is going to take up a LOT of posts). Steve's sister, who travels to England fortnightly (not really, but very often) has a "go to" B&B called The Carpenters Arms. She claimed the food was amazing and the atmosphere amazing-er. She was right! We found it, thanks to the blessed Garmin that we bought just prior to our trip, and settled in for a glorious dinner. It was probably the best dinner of the trip (and that is saying something because we had some great food). The staff was wonderful and the atmosphere was very cozy and relaxed. I'm so glad we went!
Here I am at The Carpenter's Arms. I'm just about to be fed one of those free range chickens I told you about earlier ;).
I suppose this post should have been entitled "Here is Bath, Stonehenge, Sarum and Salisubry" but I have to have some cohesiveness to these posts. I know it's wordy but really, I have to document this. It was sort of the best trip ever.
Peace out,
Heidi
