England Vacation Part 11

Monday, September 6, 2010

It's a holiday in Canada for labour day, and here, it's still vacation and will be for a fortnight. I love saying that. Don't get me wrong, I'm not getting all soft on English culture and adopting their ways. I still won't drink tea. But, I am starting to learn the lingo a bit. Prior to arriving here, all I knew about the Brits is what I learned from Benny Hill, Monty Python and the Carry On movies. Not that that's a bad thing.

Let me first say that I love my kids. Their behavior while on vacation has not been stellar. In fact, I'm questioning the rationale in bringing them in the first place. I'm not sure how much of the English countryside they've even seen with their heads buried in their Nintendos. I hope they remember more about the trip than being lectured by their parents.

We are right by Stokesay castle and I hope to see it... There are so many castles, we didn't even see Raby castle or Barnard castle and both were within a mile or two from our last residence. Today we visited Shrewsbury, the birthplace of Charles Darwin. They named the shopping mall after him, how nice. There's probably more tributes to the man but, that's all we saw today... along with a lot of really cool shops.

We found a McDonalds... I know it doesn't sound great, I won't eat there back home, but a break from fish and chips with free wifi is a win in my books. I got to check some emails and post a couple more blog posts.

We visited an old abbey... not too shabby. Our parking was running out, you pay for parking everywhere over here, 1 pound per hour is typical, but it can be a lot more if your not careful. Also, in Canada we enjoy such brevities as 'parkade' whereas the Brits like to call them 'multi-storey car parks' and our road signs say 'uneven' theirs say 'adverse camber'. It's these subtleties that provide some challenges when trying to converse with the locals.

Tomorrow is a big day, getting up early to head into Caerleon, Wales, then to Bristol, then to Bath (insert weather joke about showers in bath here), then to Stonehenge. If we have time, there is a small town (probably a grouping of 2 or 3 houses) called Tiddleywink, which would be worth the extra petrol, just for the photo. Early night tonight.

England Vacation Part 10

Saturday, September 4, 2010

We left Stinkholes, er, I mean Foxholes and the smell of rotting flesh and manure behind us, we're off the Shropshire today.

Although we were happy to leave the smell behind, the spot was nice and very central to all points north. But it's time to head South West, into the Shropshires.

We're very close to the Welsh border, the Wedgwood factory as well as Bristol and Bath. There should be many good day trips from this location.

It was a very long drive and getting into the area where many of England's rich have getaways, there were many nice cars on the road and the roadhouses were starting to look less like greasy spoons and more like country clubs.

Our new residence is called 1 Church Farm Barn... it is also a barn conversion but nicely done, with a loft that the boys have called their 'man cave' - there's satellite TV but still no wifi. Should be a good spot to see this side of the country from.



Sunday, September 5, 2010

I woke this morning to a nice breakfast and coffee. The kids got me a gift and some cards for my birthday and my father in law bought me a nice book on England. A great way to start the day.

A bit later, we went North to Knutsford for the Penny Farthing Race, if you don't know what a Penny Farthing is, I'll give you a few minutes to Google it..... OK, now you know.

Anyways, the race is held every 10 years, and it just so happens that it landed on my birthday this year. We got to see three races; the hobby horses - bike like contraption with no peddles, the Bone Shakers, a crude bike of sorts on metal wheels and then the Penny Farthings... talk about a fixed gear bike!

The Penny Farthing race went for 3 hours, enough time to drain the beer tent out of every drop and exhaust the kids (mostly). We met up with Karen's uncle Jim, and her cousins Catherine and Robert - it was a nice visit and we had a great lunch.

The race was sponsored by Bentley... to give you an idea of the money in this little town, they had a Rolls Royce dealership as you entered the town. 275,000 pounds for the nice coupe with the suicide doors... not sure why Bentley's are so popular with the wealthy, I guess they are more affordable, the Rolls were pretty spectacular.

We went to a great pub for dinner, it was originally called The Black Boy, but changed their name to the something else... I didn't even look at the new name, but did snap a picture of the original sign with the black boy on it... that's a keeper for my No Longer Appropriate Museum. Got a few other pics for that gallery from my travels.

At this point we were about 88 miles from our new residence, driving home on nearly all country roads at night with hedges and trees crowding the lane ways. The road feels as though it was cut out of the landscape the only thing to concentrate on are the white reflectors built into the roads. There are very few straight aways with many traffic circles breaking up the winding highway. After this trip, I'm gonna kill at Atari Night Driver... if I can find a right hand drive version.

Today is also the day of the Morrone Family Reunion, no, no the Morrone crime family from The Dark Knight, but the Morrone family from Sepino, Italy. This is the first time I've missed the family reunion since it's inception and I missed catching up with everyone, and the famous bocce tournament. Tutta La Genga!!

Until the next time, Cheerio!

England Vacation Part 9

Friday, September 3

Off to York to see the York Minster and the many shopping areas around the city centre... very cool to see modern shops in 500 year old buildings. Pizza Hut, Starbucks and McDonald's are hard to find, but when you see them in a very old setting it's kind of neat to see... not that we're looking for these places.

The Minster was neat as it has been rebuilt over the ages, on the same spot... first by Romans, then by Normans then again in Medieval times, each time growing in size.

We left the city of York and drove to the East coast. Whitby Bay. What a beautiful spot. Sandy beaches and beautiful countryside - we drove through North Yorkshire National Park - there was the purple hue of heather for as far as the eye could see in all directions. Incredible. There was also many sheep on the road to avoid, as far as the ewe could see.

The roads are incredibly narrow in places and cars park on the sidewalk. Some homes come right up to the edge of the road, if you're not careful, you can loose a mirror as you pass them. It's also neat to see 20 foot travel trailers being pulled by Audi A4's and Mazda 3's... makes you wonder why we need F350's and Ram 3500 trucks to pull such things back home. Actually, the thought of the ridiculous size of the trucks back home is mind boggling. There is no point, other than compensation for something else, I guess.

The vehicles in England are neat. There are many brands that we don't have back home, including the one I'm driving, a Vauxhall Insignia. There are Fiats (which are all very cool and well designed), Seats, Rovers, MG's, Skodas and Lotus. And, the car brands that are familiar offer up different models than back home.

I think we can learn a lot from the Brits when it comes to automobiles and driving. Trucks (18 wheelers) aren't allowed out of the outside lane and the inside lane is for passing only, use it and then get the hell back in queue! It's very efficient.

England Vacation Part 8

Thursday, September 2, 2010

We started the day at the Metro Centre, Newcastle's largest shopping mall... it was pretty large. A few bargains to be had and a McDonald's with free WIFI!!!

I finally got a chance to look at my e-mails and get a bit of correspondence done and learned of the passing of someone that I've known for quite a few years. Ronalda you will be missed by many.

From the Metro Centre, we travelled to Hadrian's Wall, the wall built by the Roman Empire to stop the Scots from invading their territory in the 1st century. The Roman's probably would have kept pressing north only the temperatures and the land probably wasn't deemed worth pursuing. Along the wall are many ruins and artifacts, the Romans occupied the area for nearly 500 years so, they left more than a few tent poles and Kit Kat wrappers behind for us to find.

The ruins were quite spectacular and the craftsmanship was very evident... 2000 years and still standing... for the most part.

Our kids are a handful at the best of times and spending a bunch of time with them is good, but I think their grandfather is beginning to rethink the 3 week tour. He's only seen them when we visit, or for one or two nights... to see them in full action is an eye opener. Sorry grumps.

We then visited Karen's grandmother's home north of Newcastle and stopped at the local ASDA for dinner at McDonalds. ASDA is just like Walmart, only the colour theme is yellow not blue. I wondered if there was a "peopleofasda.com" website but the WIFI at this McD's wasn't working. I can tell you, if there isn't already a site, there should be... it was frightful to say the least.

I must say that the English drivers are courteous and accurate. Accuracy is important when the average street is the exact same size as the width of the car... and they're going 50mph. There are many traffic circles, luckily I live near one in Calgary and have had some experience with how not to take them. English drivers know how to queue and give right away, in order. It seems that they know they are part of the system, where in Alberta, everyone thinks the road is there for them and them alone. It's very refreshing. ...now if they could only drive on the right side of the road!

Arrival back at camp stinky was much of the same, the wicked odor seems to be concentrated at our front door, 25' away and it smells moderately better. The house is hot tonight, but we don't dare open a window in fear of stinking up our accommodation.

Cheerio!

England Vacation Part 7

Wednesday, September 1

6:45 and the coffee's on. A quick breakfast and on the road North.

We headed up to Alnwick (pronounced Anik, you ignore every second letter) to see the castle where many parts of Harry Potter 1 and 2 were filmed as well as numerous other films including Elizabeth and Robin Hood Prince of Theives. ...In my opinion, I thought Kevin Costner's English accent was bang on.

The town of Alnwick is beautiful, as are most old English towns, the market place was on two winding roads that were intersected by another road forming a nice triangle shaped plaza.

Again, no wifi, not until the pubs open that is. We went over to the castle and started to explore. The tour guide took us through the castle exterior and explained many of the scenes from Harry Potter and how they filmed them. The castle itself and Haggreds house are very recognizable and there are still some remains from the film crew like metal hangers for torches that could not be removed from the arrow slits.

We visited the poison garden, a collection of all plants poisonous including the extremely dangerous and dreaded cannabis plant. But seriously, there were some pretty nasty little flowers to see. Someone asked if the Angel's Trumpet flower was traceable if used to poison a person. I think everyone was thinking the same thing... wondering if that little brat in the tour would like a cup of tea. The answer was yes, most all of the poisonous plants can be traced.

The interior of the 700 year old castle was gorgeous, quite typical by castle standards, silk wall coverings, framed masterpieces, massive libraries, beautifully painted ceilings and stuffed family pets. That's right, the nut jobs that live in the castle, the Duke and Duchess of Northumberland felt it necessary to call the taxidermist each time their dog died and proudly display it in the castle.

After Alnwick, we went to Lindisfarne, also known as Holy Island. Which is only an island part of the time. When the tide goes out, it's attached by a narrow road and a large sandy plain, when the tide comes in, it's a full fledged island... that you can wade through the water to.

At the top of the island is a fortified castle that is likely a thousand years old - it't a really neat spot and the kids enjoyed combing the beach for shells and mussels. The narrow road on the way out of the island was demonstrated when my daughter spilled her drink and I veered off the road for a few meters, luckily it was just sand where we went off and not the rocky bit a few meters before.

We got back onto the motorway and headed north, to Scotland. The kids were pretty excited about visiting the wee country north of England. We stopped at a town called Burntmouth to have dinner. Yeah, that's what I thought. We found a great place to eat, it was called the First and Last Pub and the proprietors (the people filling in for the actual proprietors) were very friendly and were from Inverness. They thought it was neat that we lived in Prestwick a community in McKenzie Towne, along with Inverness and Elgin - all cities in Scotland.

The drive back was only 80 miles, but it was getting dark and it was a long, long day. Our arrival at Stinkholes, er I mean Foxholes was greeted with the strong smell of fermenting animal carcass or something less sweet. The accommodations are nice, but it smells like hell. We can't even open the windows, luckily it does not permeate the interior of the dwelling.

England Vacation Part 6

Tuesday, August 31, 2010.

The Beamish Museum was on the agenda for today. It's pronounced like it sounds, but I called it Be Amish all day, and it fit quite nicely.... a quaint old spot similar to Heritage Park in Calgary with the park staff in period costume.

Our kids liked the Beamish Museum and even Derrick got to see the trolley car that his father drove. The number 10 trolley, driven by Mr. Wilkinson, made the last run of any trolley car in Newcastle before they were replaced with buses. The last run was attended by the mayor of Newcastle as well as many dignitaries at the time.

After Beamish, we drove into Newcastle and timed it perfectly to experience rush hour traffic... luckily we were only going to the very centre of the city. After making a few circles and a bit of a walk, we found ourselves at the Millennium Bridge on the Newcastle side looking over at Gateshead.

There was a great art exhibit in an old flour mill on the Gateshead side so we went in. There was no photographer but I left my email address so that they could forward me a couple of images of the exhibits.

After a nice drive, we stopped in Staindrop at the Black Swan pub for dinner. The proprietor and his daughter served us, they were very friendly and the food was really good.

Now, a word about English beer. Nearly every place serves Peroni, Stella Artois, Budweiser and Heineken. I'm not sure why. Even the grocery stores carry all these beers, but no local beers - they can only be found in the pubs (mostly). So, not that I'm trying to avoid English beer, quite the opposite, I keep looking for some to try. We just haven't spent much time in pubs. On the plus side, I did have a Black Sheep beer, a local beer for the Wensleydale area. It was pretty good, room temperature, but good.

Tomorrow, we're off to Anick Castle, where parts of Harry Potter was filmed, and England's North East coast.

England Vacation Part 5

Monday, August 30, 2010

Bank holiday. The day off for most Brits. We got up at 6:30 and made breakfast - today, we were off to Durham. Home of the cathedral and the castle, both bearing the Durham name. No bull.

We drove past Raby Castle on the way to Durham, a beautiful castle only a few miles from where we are staying then drove through every round-a-bout in England on the way. Many have said that Calgary has the second most expensive parking in the world, obviously the surveyors didn't make it to Durham's downtown shopping centre, the Gate. For 6 hours, we paid 12 pounds - about $20.

The city of Durham is a beautiful spot with a river that wraps around a small piece of land that hosts the castle and the cathedral as well as the old town that is now a series of narrow streets with shopping and restaurants. We walked through the medieval courtyard through the streets of quaint shops up the hill to where the castle and cathedral stand. The bells were ringing, we arrived right at noon. At 1:30, the bell ringing apprentices came out and they didn't stop until long after we left the city at about 5:00.

The tour of the castle was informative, the castle was occupied by Bishops for several hundred years - from what I can take from it, they were the local power. The castle was built in 1070 with several additions over the years, the most recent addition was in the 1800's so no Starbucks yet. It was really cool.

The cathedral was fairly large and like the ones I saw in Italy, demonstrated a huge parity between the haves and the have nots. It was well designed with very high ceilings and beautiful stained glass windows. And, for a fee, you could do anything there, light a candle for 40p, climb the stairs for 5 pounds or buy a religious artifact in the gift shop, a feature no medieval cathedral should be without.

We drove up through Newcastle/Gateshead to get to Wickham, where Derrick's brother lives. We stopped in for an afternoon tea and visited for a bit. We headed back to Casa Del Stinko to find that the foul stench had somewhat dissipated, which was good news... we may be able to enjoy the nice evening - tonight you can see the stars.

England Vacation Part 4

Monday, August 30, 2010

Bank holiday. The day off for most Brits. We got up at 6:30 and made breakfast - today, we were off to Durham. Home of the cathedral and the castle, both bearing the Durham name. No bull.

We drove past Raby Castle on the way to Durham, a beautiful castle only a few miles from where we are staying then drove through every round-a-bout in England on the way. Many have said that Calgary has the second most expensive parking in the world, obviously the surveyors didn't make it to Durham's downtown shopping centre, the Gate. For 6 hours, we paid 12 pounds - about $20.

The city of Durham is a beautiful spot with a river that wraps around a small piece of land that hosts the castle and the cathedral as well as the old town that is now a series of narrow streets with shopping and restaurants. We walked through the medieval courtyard through the streets of quaint shops up the hill to where the castle and cathedral stand. The bells were ringing, we arrived right at noon. At 1:30, the bell ringing apprentices came out and they didn't stop until long after we left the city at about 5:00.

The tour of the castle was informative, the castle was occupied by Bishops for several hundred years - from what I can take from it, they were the local power. The castle was built in 1070 with several additions over the years, the most recent addition was in the 1800's so no Starbucks yet. It was really cool.

The cathedral was fairly large and like the ones I saw in Italy, demonstrated a huge parity between the haves and the have nots. It was well designed with very high ceilings and beautiful stained glass windows. And, for a fee, you could do anything there, light a candle for 40p, climb the stairs for 5 pounds or buy a religious artifact in the gift shop, a feature no medieval cathedral should be without.

We drove up through Newcastle/Gateshead to get to Wickham, where Derrick's brother lives. We stopped in for an afternoon tea and visited for a bit. We headed back to Casa Del Stinko to find that the foul stench had somewhat dissipated, which was good news... we may be able to enjoy the nice evening - tonight you can see the stars.

England Vacation Part 3

Saturday, August 28, 2010

We arrived in Manchester, a beautiful sunny morning which didn't last long, it quickly turned to rain when we picked up our rental cars. Yes cars, plural - we got two identical Vauxhall Insignias. It was cheaper than one large vehicle, besides the large vehicles over here aren't exactly large by our standards.

The kids slept for about a half hour on the plane and were completely wiped. I was too, and was about to embark on the hairiest driving experience of my life. Pouring rain, no sleep and I've got to get this standard transmission car off the 13th floor parkade... and, on the wrong side of the road.

Once we got on the motorway, it was smooth sailing. The motorways move quick, we were averaging 80mph... what the hell? I thought Britain was metric? We drove into Barnard Castle, a beautiful little town with a great market and some old buildings (I suppose there will be a lot of that!). Charles Dickens stayed here once, we know because there was plaque... on the building where he stayed ... for a night or two. Marketing old country style.

We ate lunch at the Turks Head pub, a neat old place and I had my first beer in England... A bottle of Heineken. Matthew and Isabella slept at the table while we had a very tasty fish and chips.

It was time to check into our manor. We drove into Staindrop. I know, I know... the English have a way with words. We found Foxholes, our quarters for the next week. It's called a conversion, but it's really a grouping of several hundred year old barns. The Strathmore Barns were just that, barns until a few years ago when the land owner converted them into homes. They are very nicely done but they are still in the heart of a farm, which, if you arrive at a certain time of the year, the pungent aroma of cow and sheep manure is overwhelming. It's pretty gross actually. The smell has not permeated the interior of our cottage, which tells me it's a temporary thing and our arrival was just ill timed. I'm hopeful it will clear up in the next day.

We got unpacked and the kids crashed, as did I. I slept from about 3:00 to 8:30... all caught up on sleep for the next little bit and ready to take on England first thing tomorrow. For tonight, it's a cigar and a Stella Artois.

Cheerio!

England Vacation Part 2

It's 8:30 in Calgary and 3:30 in London, difference is that in London, its tomorrow. We're somewhere in between. We are 37,000 feet over Greenland, Godthab to be exact. It's pitch dark outside and I'm reminded of the last time I flew over Greenland, it was a few years ago. OK, quite a few years ago... let's put it this way... there was smoking in the plane, not a smoking section, every seat had an ashtray and you could call the women working on the plane stewardesses without upsetting them. It was 1979 and we took a family vacation to Italy.

Today, our trip is to England and my kids are 13, 9 and 9. Old enough to enjoy and learn from an overseas trip and young enough to keep Karen and I on our toes. I hope they look back on this as fondly as I remember Italy.

Before we left, we were in a toy store at the airport and the kids were looking at die cast cars and I was reminded of the car I bought outside of Napoli, a silver Mercedes 450SEL - my favorite car of all-time (at that time). I guess I've wanted a silver Mercedes, ever since I was a kid. Somewhere in a box in the basement, I still have the toy car and in the garage is now the real thing.

Three hours left in the flight and I'm certain my kids are wishing we were there already, because I am too. In this age of instant downloads and access to anything it's still hard to get your head around the fact that we can only move so fast on this planet. Someone's gotta come up with some kind of hi-speed mode of travel.

We are now midway over Greenland. I was reminded of the subtle differences in culture just now as I ordered a drink. The crew is all British and when asked if I would like one or two shots of rum, I held up two fingers. Realizing quickly that I just made an obscene gesture to the man, I quickly reversed it, gave him the peace sign and apologized to some laughter. It's gonna be fun. They use the same language, but words have different meanings - a fanny pack for instance is a verb in the U.K.

I have come to understand the pronunciation of certain words to like Glouchestershire - it does not sound like it looks. I suppose, if I make a fool of myself and say the wrong things, I will simply say, "sorry, that's not how we say it in the good old US of A!"

England Vacation Part 1

Here I am, about to fly over Hudson Bay, listening to Blue Oyster Cult at 11277 meters over the earth. Directly below my plane is where thousands of people fly every year to see polar bears scavenge for food in the Churchill town dump. I mean see them in the wild. We're traveling at 1010kms per hour. Man, I wish we were on the ground doing that speed.

Traveling with kids is a challenge for anyone, they are as excited about the pending adventure as us grown ups, but they have a different way of showing it. They don't listen to Blue Oyster Cult in quiet reflection for one. They tend to be more physical and audible about their excitement.

There's a lot to think about when traveling, with 3 kids and two adults you must have 5 boarding passes ready, 5 passports open and all 5 people together... sounds not too bad, but we've got some pretty independent kids and like their father, aren't necessarily conformists if you know what I mean.

So, three kids all marching to their own drummer. One heavy metal, one pop and one Punk. OK, maybe all Punk, but three radically different bands. Going anywhere with my kids without attracting attention is unheard of.

My daughter, who I love to bits wants to sit next to her dad, which I love. My youngest son, who couldn't contain his excitement with any amount of ridalin has been pretty good so far and my oldest son is steady as usual, he is so grounded for his age. I love my kids.

So, we're about to fly over Hudsons Bay, a large bay by any standards. Looking at the screen on the back of the chair in front of me, Hudsons Bay looks like a large meteor landing spot than anything else. So many explorers struggled through that region over the years, and when you think of us flying over the same area so effortlessly really makes you appreciate technology. Well, this iPad doesn't hurt either.

OK. we're over water. Canada is so big. So immense, so open and uninhabited. I love that part of it. The fact that we're not stacked upon each other. The fact that there's room for two massive SUV's for every one of us is comforting.

In another hour or so, we will be flying over Greenland. Is that a continent? I don't have Google up here, so I'm half as smart as when I'm land based. Then Iceland. One thing that's always amused me is that Iceland is green, while Greenland is ice.

Anyways, that's our first part of the journey. If I get time, I'll post some more later.