May 25th - Cotswolds continued

Jesse got up super early and took more pictures of the town. pics, pics and more pics

We had a good English breakfast of eggs on toast, sausage, tomatoes, mushrooms and beans... yes beans.
Then we drove up to this place called the Slaughters - which sounds like a terribly bloody place but actually slaughter just means muddy. It definitely rained enough that day to warrant the name.
They had an Old Mill there with a water wheel and just off the main road was a pasture with sheep. I wanted to stay and live there.
Then we went to Stratford-upon-Avon to see Ann Hathaway's house (Shakespeare's wife). It has the most beautiful wildflower garden I've seen and a thatched roof, which I had not seen before.
We also went to the Holy Trinity Church where Shakespeare is buried (and was baptized - they still have the font he was baptized in) This church made the one in Burford look small and run-down. It's hard to imagine how old things can be over here and still be around.
In America, something is old if it dates back to the Civil War. It's really old if it dates to Revolutionary times.
Here... things seem to be 400 years old on average. It's not uncommon to find buildings dating back to the 15th or 12th century.
Jesse's camera ran out of memory on this day so alot of the pictures from the church and house are on his mother's camera. As soon as I get them, I'll post them as well.

"I love my family. But quite a few times on this trip I wondered if we should even make an attempt at civility. We're loud, boisterous, and we take up a lot of space wherever we go. Granted, I'd have it no other way.
When the family decided to leave for Stratford, we all clunked down the tiny stairwell and trampled our way outside. We all piled into the van and dug our feet in. Outside, next to us was another British family, talking to each other while witnessing our American spectacle. While Doran (my stepfather) was steadily maneuvering the 14-passenger tank out of a space meant for a Mini Cooper, I said, in my best UK accent, "Oh, so the Clampett's are leaving, they are." You would've thought my grandfather was having a heart attack. He literally was hurting himself due to his exuberant laughter. Even after the main outpouring of laughter, he chuckled about that for the rest of the van ride. I guess that joke really hit home with him."

May 24th - Cotswolds

We landed in London at 7am and rented a van/bus to take us through the countryside from London to the Cotswolds.
Doran was driving and he is quite the trooper. First of all, this van is a giant vehicle. Second, it's England and everything is on the opposite side. Third, it was raining pretty hard that first day, and fourth, Beverly isn't great at reading maps "bless her heart!"
I'm sure Doran was pretty frustrated and tense those first few hours, but he never really let it show. We had to turn around no less than four times because we had missed our turn or gone down a road that didn't lead out.
It is terribly hard to turn a 15 passenger van around in a road meant for a horse and buggy.

We stopped for lunch at Burford. It looks like something right out of Disneyland but older and real.
There was this old cathedral in the town. Built in 1170. We wandered around it and the vedger (not vicar) came out and decided to give us a spur of the moment tour and tell us all about the history of the place.
Like nearly all European churches, people are buried into the floors of the church and some had interesting tombstone headings.

"We ate lunch at a tiny little restaurant named 'The Priory'. This was our first official meal in the UK, and my first true taste of culture shock. The restaurant housed no more than five tables, each table only holding up to four people. All of this was snugly placed into an area the size of a living room. This, I imagine, was to be expected from a small eatery in the heart of a quaint village. However, after eating, my mother came to our table (we sat separately) and told us to use the restroom before leaving. Not an odd request, considering the drive awaiting us. But then she told us her reasoning. "You have to pay to use the restroom here." Now, this is something you hear about from other people, scoff at, and forget. Bathrooms are few and far between in the UK, and the ones that exist require payment of some sort. We had patronized the eatery, so toilets were free in this case. But this culture shock hits the hardest when you're scrambling for a spare pound while doing the 'pee-pee dance'. And on a complete side note, the water pressure of the toilets there is tremendous; you could easily flush a friggin' phone book. Seriously - it's almost scary."

By late afternoon we had traveled to Burton on the Water. This is an adorable little town with stone bridges over the 'river' that runs through the center of town. Though the river was only a foot deep. There were shops and pubs all along either side of the river.
We stayed at this pub called the Mouse Trap Inn. Apparently Agatha Cristie had stayed there and written a novel about it, though none of us had ever read it.
Our room was upstairs and down a narrow hallway. (These stairs Beverly would fall down and break two ribs on the next day, but we didn't know they were broken until we got home)

May 23rd - Journeying there

Spent about 4 days on the plane. No really - it was only 8 hours but it felt like forever.
We needed to sleep on the plane since we were flying overnight and losing 6 hours.
I knew Jesse wouldn't sleep but I can usually sleep anywhere. But not on this flight. It was impossible to get comfortable and people kept talking really loudly behind me - at 2am!!

So none of us slept at all.
All in all we figured we went about 30 hours straight without sleep.

"The entire day was travel. Fly, wait, ride, eat, ride, wait, ride. To make matters worse, the 12 passenger van we rented had tough plastic seats. You couldn't even sleep in the van. We all were loony and irritated. We were driving on the wrong side of the road. England didn't sell normal-tasting Coca-Cola. It was a long, long day."

UK Vacation - Introduction

We recently traveled to the United Kingdom with Jesse's family for vacation.
While there I kept a diary of our travels. And since I was unable to access a computer while there I am putting together a series of blogs chronicling our trip.
Most of these blogs are based on the notes I kept while on the trip, interspersed with pictures and comments from Jesse, which will be shown in italics.

Please look here for updates over the next couple of days.