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.
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.
posted by Kevin Franco at 9/07/2010 04:07:00 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home