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!
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!
posted by Kevin Franco at 9/06/2010 06:43:00 AM
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