Stray Thoughts And Observations

There are a few things I've wanted to mention here, but mentally I feel drained. Doesn't everyone these days? Our area is still very much all about the devastation left by Hurricane Helene, and now here comes Milton hot on her heels. We're not expected to see any weather related impact from Milton, but some of the linemen and other folks skilled in disaster recovery and relief, working so hard to get NC up and running, will need to shift their immediate focus to Florida. 

Add to that war in the Middle East, the heartbreak of Israeli families whose loved ones continue in captivity or worse, and the most contentious election cycle the US has experienced in a long time and whew. It's a lot. 

Is it any wonder people are feeling like their emotional bandwidth is full? 

When everything feels huge writing helps. And writing about nothing is okay too. Life carries on in an everyday kind of way even as it teeters on what feels like the edge of a precarious cliff. 

Our trip feels like it happened a million years ago but of course we've only been home a week. We thoroughly enjoyed our visit and it's made me extra grateful to have had the opportunity to live abroad in an era before the internet took over and everyone decided they needed to see the world. 

And pose in front of it. 

There are lots of what used to be little out of the way places that are now filled with tourists. I'm not suggesting people shouldn't travel, I'm just saying it's a different experience than it once was. If you could see the queue of people standing in line for an hour just to snap a photo of the Harry Potter Platform 9 3/4 wall in Kings Cross you'd know what I mean. 

There's less discovering something for yourself with the world in the palm of your hand. 

We opted not to go back into London after the day spent there because there were just so many people. Throngs of people. And protests. And then more people. In 2024 the world feels somewhat less stable than it did even right after 9-11, and I have a greater sense of caution in big crowds than I did fifteen years ago. My teenagers used to hop around London with friends and honestly it felt fine. 

There were no Iphones, but they did have a 'top up' phone and we'd put money on that so they could call in an emergency. Mostly though, my teenagers learned how to figure some things out for themselves and that most certainly helped shape them into who they are today. 

Timetables were little printed cards you held in your hand. You checked the tube maps (actual maps hanging on the wall) to figure out what line you needed, and you had a paper ticket you entered at the gate to get to the correct track.

There's an app for absolutely everything now so all your travel related documents, questions, and needs are right at your fingertips. So long as your phone is working I mean. 

The countryside is where it's at. It's beautiful and ancient and green, and in every little dale and borough there is something to see. Not with your camera, but with your own two eyes. To feel a sense of history and place and wonder as you stand where others have stood, and see what people made centuries before you were born with rough hewn tools and their bare hands that still stands today. 

We did a lot of driving, mostly on small roads with high hedges opening up into big vistas. We crossed many a roundabout, and hubs and I both say that in general we think people in the UK are better drivers than Americans. I know the narrow streets and multi-lane roundabouts and single track roads with oncoming traffic in your!! lane all feel a little bit crazy to those of us who learned to drive on this side of the pond, but somehow it works. 

People seem to obey the rules of the road, and this of course helps. The passing lane is for passing. Keep up with traffic. If you're approaching a roundabout the highway number is painted in the appropriate lane so you know exactly where you need to be. 

Also roundabouts. Just go round again if you somehow ended up in the wrong lane. 

There's very little honking. 

One thing that felt especially odd to us was how fast the speed limits were on some of the smaller roads. We were on a 2-lane road with high hedges on either side and I kept asking hubs how fast he was going because it felt like we were literally flying. He was going 45 and the speed limit was 60!! In the US you don't find two lane roads with hedges on either side with a speed limit of 60. 

Hubs loves driving in the UK. 

You see very few police officers/speed traps on the roads in England, but there are speed cameras everywhere. So many cameras. And there are signs telling you there are cameras so no excuses. 

Driving in the UK is definitely easier with GPS, but you miss out on the feeling of accomplishment you get when you navigate a place on your own. When we lived there we carried pages of printed instructions off of Mapquest and also had a huge atlas book in our car. We used it too! Actually I like an atlas because it allows you to see the whole of your trip which I find helpful. We're all about verbal instructions from our devices now, which I'm not complaining about exactly because my sense of direction is pretty much nil, but driving around England was more of an adventure before GPS. 

And we always carried a 'torch' aka flashlight in the car back then too, so we could read house numbers or house names as the case may be. Now we all have phones with flashlights at the ready. You don't have to figure out as much on your own or learn by doing like you did in the early 2000's. It was nerve jangling fun and I'm so glad to have had that experience. It helped shape me into who I am as well. 

We rode a lot of buses while visiting my daughter, and unless you live and commute in a major metropolitan area of the US chances are you never ever ride a city bus. When we'd have visitors and  suggest a bus they would usually recoil at the idea. But in England everyone rides buses. 

My daughter has a bus stop very near her house and this is most often the easiest way to get around her area. Like everything else bus lines, timetables, and tickets are all on your phone and she had it all figured out before we ever got there. She knew which bus we needed to be on (there are many many), where to catch them, and where to get off depending where we were going.

My daughter. 

She treks all over her city with three kids in tow, usually 'wearing' one while the two oldest each grab a hand to hold. Sometimes she's carrying shopping bags too. Y'all. It is something. She weighs about as much as a feather and it's no wonder.  Her youngest of course can walk but in general you're moving at a clip so as not to miss the next bus. Plus safety is a factor and it's just easier to have the littlest one contained when they're moving from home to bus to town and back. 

The boys always want to ride up top (a lot of the buses are double decker) so it's get everyone on board, show your ticket on your phone to the driver, schlep three kids up a flight of spiral stairs and then find a seat. Her boys act like they've been riding public transport all their lives and one of the cutest things you'll ever see is my almost two year old granddaughter, with an arm outstretched at the bus stop to let the approaching driver know he needs to stop. 

One thing I've been thinking about a lot since arriving home in the wake of a hurricane is cash. We still have a large supermarket chain in our area that is cash only because their servers are underwater in nearby North Carolina. We found on our recent trip to England so many places would not take cash. Most places it seemed were card only. 

Helene (and also Hurricane Sandy several years ago) have shown me we don't want to be a cashless society. At least I don't. When there's no power your card won't work and you need cash. 

When we travel we like to keep a very loose schedule. We don't want to book every minute before we even set foot in country but in 2024 booking some things ahead is sometimes necessary. We love to go where the locals go and eat where the locals eat and we love to meet people along the way and think about all the ways our lives are different, yet the same. It's not as easy to get off the beaten path now because it feels like people have a giant check list and they are going to check it. I get it but I don't love it. 

We always make room for spontaneous side treks and unexpected finds. For sitting in coffee shops and plazas and on park benches to watch and taste and learn. We did a lot of that this trip and it's our favorite. 

Add grandchildren to the mix and it was pretty much the perfect holiday. 

Of Castles And Carparks And Cruising The Countryside

On Wednesday we headed home (home to my daughter's, not home home), but not before making stops in two nearby towns. We mentioned to someone at the hotel that we were going to Harrogate and he said we should stop in Knaresborough which is right on the way. He said it was a cute little village with an aqueduct and we'd probably enjoy it. 

He didn't mention the ancient castle. 

Back in the 1170's Hugh de Morville and his followers took refuge in this village after assassinating Thomas Becket. 

The castle was taken in 1644 during the Civil War and mostly destroyed in 1648 because of an order from Parliament to dismantle all Royalist castles. 

Many of the buildings in the town center are built from 'castle stone'. 

Knaresborough is a market and spa town on the river Nidd. Discoveries in the area lead researchers to believe there was a strong Roman presence in the area, and Knaresborough is mentioned in the Domesday Book of 1086. 

We walked through the market, the first one held here was in 1206, and then over to the castle ruins for a look inside? 

You do go inside but technically the inside is also outside now as it's just the ruins. 

The docent at the castle said we shouldn't miss the river walk so we climbed down another million stone stairs (I'm getting my steps without even trying this trip!) and got a closer look at the bridge too. 

There were homes and cafes along the water, and after walking a bit we trudged back up the hill and got in the car to make the short drive on to Harrogate. 

If you know my hubs you know he has great style. There's a men's shop in Harrogate he follows online so when we realized we'd be nearby we decided to see it in person. He and the owner chat back and forth from time to time so we were hoping to meet him. 

Harrogate is another spa town and the greenspace when you enter is amazing. The shop owner told hubs it's a 200 acre public parkland surrounding the city center and it's so pretty. We ate lunch at a spot called Farmhouse and both ordered Japanese bowls. They had a lot of breakfast type dishes on the menu, which I guess is where the name came from, but we both thought the Asian flavors in the bowls were fantastic!

I didn't take a picture of the bowl but I did snap one of the pretty tea service. 

Hubs did not have tea lol. 

We walked to the shop after lunch, and had the nicest time chatting with the gentleman working there. The owner was out and messaged hubs later he was sorry to miss us. 

Of course there was a shop dog who looked a lot like our pup at home and who we're missing. We take pictures of dogs. We can't help it. 

They had the most beautiful robes in this shop and I was thinking hey, maybe I'll get one for hubs for Christmas, but then I saw the price and-yowza!! I won't even print it here because you wouldn't believe it, but this particular company made the silk robes worn in Downton Abbey and these are similar if that gives you a clue.

We made it back to Cambridge in time for dinner with 'the kids' and the kid's kids and it felt good to be back in our home away from home. 

One of my favorite things about traipsing around England is discovering villages I'd never heard of until now. The small villages here all seem to hold some beauty, some historic significance, and usually an amazing church or cathedral. Plus you traverse lots of gorgeous English countryside to get to them and that's worth all the stress of driving on single track roads with signs saying two way traffic?!, and carparks that require super sharp 90 degree angled turns into spaces so narrow you have to slither out of your seat sideways. 

In the words of Oliver Wendell Douglas...'Land spreadin' out so far and wide, Keep Manhattan just give me that countryside!' 

Grantchester

September is the nicest month in England. That's how I remember it anyway, and so far it's proved to be true. 

Thursday was another beautiful day weather wise and we had plans to go in to the nearby village of Grantchester while the boys were in school. Max had a change of heart and decided he needed to hang with us so the five of us made the short drive into the village. 

Do you watch the show Grantchester? I thought it was a fictional place, but it's real and it's lovely. It's called a village, but there's not really a 'town' here. There is a beautiful church...

several pubs...

 ...adorable stone houses, thatched roofs, and a tea room with a garden made for sitting and sipping which is where we started.

We had tea in the garden then a nice long ramble along the river that runs just beyond the orchard...

It's one of the things I miss most about life here. 

Long walks on public footpaths all across the countryside. 

You frequently encounter 'wildlife' on these rambles, usually sheep but today it was cows.

We came up the river path into the village and we had to take a peek inside the beautiful Church of St. Andrew and St. Mary featured in the television series...

The care that was taken in the building of these old churches is awe inspiring.

The oldest part of the church dates all the way back to 1250, a date that pretty much boggles the mind. The chancel itself was built in the 14th century, and the bell tower in the 15th century. 

It was the perfect way to spend the day, and we were home in time for naps...little miss and ours both lol. Once the Mancub got home from school we sat in their very lovely garden and sipped a cup of Pimms while their momma made my birthday dinner. 

We'd gone to the pub on my actual birthday but she wanted to cook a meal for me at home and it was delish. There was even a yummy apple crisp for dessert made with apples from the trees growing just outside their kitchen.  A two day birthday celebration. 

I highly recommend.

A British Birthday Bonanza

I've had the most fun time celebrating my birthday this year. I'm in one of my most favorite places in all the world with some of my most favorite people.

Hubs and I hopped the pond on Monday. Barely. We were supposed to fly out of Atlanta at 5 PM and we even boarded the plane, got comfy, and settled in for the duration. Four hours later we were still on the tarmac. 

Bother. 

There was a problem getting fuel to the wings or some such nonsense, and after turning off the power twice so umpteen people could attempt a fix they decided we should de-plane and wait in the terminal. There was one more possible correction but that would take an hour so we were told to stay in the general vicinity of the gate. Everyone was very cooperative and well behaved and collected all their belongings to wait inside. 

A little over an hour later they said we could re-board and would be taking off in about thirty minutes. The crowd cheered and got a little bit excited as everyone re-collected their belongings and re-boarded. We did not feel overly confident as we were sitting by a former Delta flight attendant who said she didn't think we'd get out on this particular plane. 

She was correct. 

We sat on the plane about another half hour when they announced the flight had been cancelled. No fanfare, just 'it's been cancelled'. At this point it was 11 o'clock ish and we got in the queue with everyone else on our flight to figure out a plan B. Hubs was already on the phone trying to shortcut what we knew would be a big ginormous hassle.  Not his first airport rodeo. While we were waiting a fellow passenger informed us he had just received an email saying he'd been automatically rebooked on a flight leaving at 11:55 PM so we checked our messages and found the same. 

Course we were in terminal F and the new flight was leaving from terminal E in thirty minutes, which if you know the Atlanta airport you know is a train ride away. 

I was forced to do what I have sworn I would never do again, and that is run through an airport. Never say never. 

We made it-yay! but our bags did not-boo. Our original flight found a new crew and eventually left Atlanta sometime after 1 AM, and our airline app said our bags were on that flight. We opted to plant ourselves in baggage claim and wait it out. The airport could deliver but it might be a couple of days or more, and we felt like going ahead and getting them same day was the better option. 

Three hours later we had our bags and only a small headache  

We rented a car as we're going to be hopping around a bit, and I gave hubs a pep talk before we took off. He wasn't the least bit worried, but I needed to hear the pep talk myself. Our driving instincts are so ingrained that you don't even realize how much so until you're once more sitting right, driving left. 

Turns out it's a bit like riding a bicycle and hubs fell right back into it as soon as we left the airport. When we lived here cars did not come equipped with all the warning sounds they do now. If you're too close to a curb or another car your vehicle lets you know. Fifteen years ago you learned that the hard way. You shredded tires on sharp curbs and lost a mirror or two. C'est la vie. 

It was an absolutely beautiful night when we pulled away from the airport. The sun was setting and as we zipped past fields of gold and green lit up by a full bright moon, the affection we hold for this place, this country, welled up all over again. 

Little Miss had gone to bed by the time we finally arrived at our daughter's house, but we hugged the boys, chatted a bit, then hit the hay.  Our girl left a few of our favorite sweet treats on the guest room dresser to say welcome back. We slept soundly and felt surprisingly good Wednesday morning. 

My birthday. 

It was a grand day made so sweet by so much. My daughter made us a wonderful breakfast and we savored a cup of coffee at her kitchen table which was filled with little people and their chatter. After breakfast we walked to a nearby park, saw where the boys are attending school part time, then wandered a little further to one of their favorite coffee shops/Italian markets. 

I could have filled two shopping bags with goodies from the market side, but settled for a Cappucino instead. 

We walked back home and momma made her crew lunch, then got her littlest one ready for a nap. Then hubs manned the fort (and by manned I mean he had a short nap on the couch while the boys watched a movie and little miss slept) and my daughter and I went out and had ourselves the loveliest of afternoons. 

Tea on the sixth floor of a hotel restaurant overlooking Cambridge. The sun was shining. The sky was a brilliant blue. We sat on a glassed in patio and we had a whole complete entire conversation, uninterrupted. 

We started with a glass of Prosecco because hey, it's my birthday, followed by a beautifully served traditional afternoon tea. 

There were small sandwiches...egg and cress, cucumber and mint, curried chicken salad...along with scones with jam and clotted cream (why is this not a thing in the states???), and then a selection of sweet treats including a lemon meringue tart, a chocolate mousse, and a piece of raspberry swirl cake. 

It was perfect. 

We browsed in a couple of nearby shops before heading home and then it's possible I had a short jet-lag induced nap before we went to dinner. We rode a bus into the city center for dinner at The Eagle. We're all about a great pub and this one is special. The Eagle opened in 1667 as a coaching inn and is the second oldest pub in Cambridge. 

It was in this very spot in 1953 Francis Crick announced he and James Watson had discovered 'the secret of life' after coming up with their proposal for the structure of DNA. 

More importantly I had my first plate of fish and chips with a side of mushy peas. 

Cheers to beautiful birthdays and another trip around the sun!