Weekend 5 7/9-7/11
Had a later night than anticipated but I wanted to chat...its a Thursday night tradition. I got up and left to go to Liverpool St. Station to catch a train to Elsenham. Now Vanessa kept warning me about how much smaller everything in general is in England (houses, cars, bathrooms etc) Which thinking about it, that is true. The largest car I've seen that wasn't a truck owned by a company was a Chevy Tahoe. 1) The only Chevy I've seen since I've been here and 2) it looked lost because it didn't fit in with all the
little sedans around it. So back to my adventure, I think it was her way of warning me about her house. Since I've been here I've become even more simple when I think about what I really need to get by on a day to day basis. Anyway....I took the 958 train and got to Elsenham by 1050ish. Nice non-busy train ride. Slow, but it was good time for me to catch up in my journal. Elsenham is really out in the middle of nowhere...and I LOVED it. This trip has really made me realize how much of a country girl I truly am. I love the wide open spaces. Not to say that I hate the city, I just prefer the country. I got off the train and we walked to the house just down the lane. Small house? PISH POSH! this house is bigger than the one I grew up in and I got a whole bedroom and bathroom to myself. Never thought I would get THAT excited about getting those things again. Vanessa and I went into town to do some errand shopping to prepare for our family BBQ on Sunday. We drove through some of the cutest towns on the way to Bishops Stratford. These houses has thatched roofs...crazy expensive upkeep, or so I'm told. In town we had a lovely afternoon stopping here and there for me to do some shopping along with Vanessa's grocery shopping. We had lunch at a "fuddy-duddy" place as Vanessa called it, but I didn't care...they still served food.
little sedans around it. So back to my adventure, I think it was her way of warning me about her house. Since I've been here I've become even more simple when I think about what I really need to get by on a day to day basis. Anyway....I took the 958 train and got to Elsenham by 1050ish. Nice non-busy train ride. Slow, but it was good time for me to catch up in my journal. Elsenham is really out in the middle of nowhere...and I LOVED it. This trip has really made me realize how much of a country girl I truly am. I love the wide open spaces. Not to say that I hate the city, I just prefer the country. I got off the train and we walked to the house just down the lane. Small house? PISH POSH! this house is bigger than the one I grew up in and I got a whole bedroom and bathroom to myself. Never thought I would get THAT excited about getting those things again. Vanessa and I went into town to do some errand shopping to prepare for our family BBQ on Sunday. We drove through some of the cutest towns on the way to Bishops Stratford. These houses has thatched roofs...crazy expensive upkeep, or so I'm told. In town we had a lovely afternoon stopping here and there for me to do some shopping along with Vanessa's grocery shopping. We had lunch at a "fuddy-duddy" place as Vanessa called it, but I didn't care...they still served food. We had a relaxing afternoon and when we got back to the house it was almost time for dinner. Vanessa was getting a surprise before dinner though....a new sports car. She is such a riot, getting a blue sports car. When it arrived I decided that is suited her well. That night Jim and Vanessa took me for dinner at the Fox Inn at the "prettiest country town in all of Essex" aka Finching Field. I had chicken and was thoroughly stuffed by the end of the dinner. At the pub later that night a man was was to perform "a tribute to Michael Buble". Now call me crazy, but usually when there is a tribute, it means the person has passed away, hopefully I haven't missed that news. After dinner we enjoyed a leisurely stroll through town to take advantage of the lovely summer evening weather and to soak in the town. Finching Field is tiny and quaint. It has a hill, stream, normal small town look, and a windmill. Ice cream for dessert while chatting and watching the ducks in the stream was a lovely way to end day one. We started to make the desserts for Sunday that night (I'm bringing the recipe home to wow you all) That night I slept well. I haven't slept that good in a while....it was a fantastic night's sleep.
On Saturday Vanessa took me to Cambridge. I absolutely loved it! If any of you reading this are planning on going to England....go to Cambridge. Cambridge is a college town (they have 11 I think) and is just full of cool things to see. Don't plan on driving all the way there, you will have to go to a p+bus (signs for park and ride) and take a bus into town. The city does not have alot of room for parking and like to keep t
he streets generally not that busy unless its buses. First thing we did was go on a site-seeing bus around Cambridge. We stopped at a few spots, the Botanical Gardens. I don't know what it is with me and gardens here. I just love them. It's probably because I miss seeing green in my everyday life that I just soak in these experiences to have the illusion of nature and the outdoors. At the gardens I saw carnivorous plants...and a sign that asked for people not to feed the plants....that was an odd experience to have, but I loved every minute of it. After wandering a little bit more we hopped back on the bus and got off at the American Cemetery. Yes, American...no mistake. This was a cemetery was for Americans who lost their lives during WWII. The list of names and crosses was haunting. The amount of names and a sea of crosses is not necessarily the happiest moment to experience, but it really is a beautiful spot to reflect on alot of things. The piece of land that the cemetery was on was given to the US by Cambridge college. Its a
nice calm country area just north of the city and has a breath-taking country view. I think it was a very fitting resting place for the soldiers. We then hopped back on the bus one more time to get back into town. On the way we passed by Cambridge University...I learned some fun random facts (my fav kind). Cambridge is one of the 4 colleges worldwide that have a copyright license meaning that any book that has every been published, or will be published a copy of it will be in the library at Cambridge. The library at Cambridge has 100 miles of book shelves that will continues to grow and over 6 million books. That is insane! We hopped off the bus at the River Cam where we had sandwiches and ice cream for lunch. After lunch we went punting up the river. Vanessa had been talking about it all weekend "punting"...I had no idea what she was talking about. Punting to me is kicking a football, but she was very excited about it, so I figured it can't be bad. It wasn't bad....IT WAS AMAZING! Punting is a riverboat ride up and back on the river. We get a tour of the "backs" (since all the colleges in Cambridge, their backs face the river) with all the architectual history about the colleges and the bridges. The weather was wonderful and it was a gondala like ride too. So our gondalier (?) was our tour guide...very nice guy, name was Jake and looked like Robert Pattinson but better. It was a fantastic tour. Learned about all the stories surrounding each college and the city itself. Wonderful time. The problem is that they let ANYONE rent the punting boats, so with the nice weather...everyone (experience or not) was on the river that day. People were falling in left and right. "If you're happy and you know it clap your hands...if you're happy and you know it rock the boat!" After the tour we just walked around, had tea at four, and were heading home by 7. A fantastic full day at Cambridge. The day was hot hot hot (for England standards) so we had a light dinner of salad and ham, finished it off with tea and got another fantastic night of sleep.
he streets generally not that busy unless its buses. First thing we did was go on a site-seeing bus around Cambridge. We stopped at a few spots, the Botanical Gardens. I don't know what it is with me and gardens here. I just love them. It's probably because I miss seeing green in my everyday life that I just soak in these experiences to have the illusion of nature and the outdoors. At the gardens I saw carnivorous plants...and a sign that asked for people not to feed the plants....that was an odd experience to have, but I loved every minute of it. After wandering a little bit more we hopped back on the bus and got off at the American Cemetery. Yes, American...no mistake. This was a cemetery was for Americans who lost their lives during WWII. The list of names and crosses was haunting. The amount of names and a sea of crosses is not necessarily the happiest moment to experience, but it really is a beautiful spot to reflect on alot of things. The piece of land that the cemetery was on was given to the US by Cambridge college. Its a
nice calm country area just north of the city and has a breath-taking country view. I think it was a very fitting resting place for the soldiers. We then hopped back on the bus one more time to get back into town. On the way we passed by Cambridge University...I learned some fun random facts (my fav kind). Cambridge is one of the 4 colleges worldwide that have a copyright license meaning that any book that has every been published, or will be published a copy of it will be in the library at Cambridge. The library at Cambridge has 100 miles of book shelves that will continues to grow and over 6 million books. That is insane! We hopped off the bus at the River Cam where we had sandwiches and ice cream for lunch. After lunch we went punting up the river. Vanessa had been talking about it all weekend "punting"...I had no idea what she was talking about. Punting to me is kicking a football, but she was very excited about it, so I figured it can't be bad. It wasn't bad....IT WAS AMAZING! Punting is a riverboat ride up and back on the river. We get a tour of the "backs" (since all the colleges in Cambridge, their backs face the river) with all the architectual history about the colleges and the bridges. The weather was wonderful and it was a gondala like ride too. So our gondalier (?) was our tour guide...very nice guy, name was Jake and looked like Robert Pattinson but better. It was a fantastic tour. Learned about all the stories surrounding each college and the city itself. Wonderful time. The problem is that they let ANYONE rent the punting boats, so with the nice weather...everyone (experience or not) was on the river that day. People were falling in left and right. "If you're happy and you know it clap your hands...if you're happy and you know it rock the boat!" After the tour we just walked around, had tea at four, and were heading home by 7. A fantastic full day at Cambridge. The day was hot hot hot (for England standards) so we had a light dinner of salad and ham, finished it off with tea and got another fantastic night of sleep. On Sunday I was ordered to "lie in late" and that they did not want to see my face before 9...so I made an appearance at 915. I actually slept really late which is what I needed. We left for Hertford at half past 10. We had
a relaxed afternoon at their cottage with the whole Reed family. I got to play with the girls and watch them. I've never watched kids like that before and see the differences between the two sisters. One is not better than the other, but they are different and similar in their own ways and it was interesting for me to observe that. but the BBQ....SOOOOOO much food. Lamb kabobs, chicken kabobs, pasta salads, garden salads, burgers, sausages, corn on the cob, bread, potatoes...for the main course. For dessert we had chocolate fondue with fruit and merranges. YUM! Met Charlie....he is tooooo cute and has the best hairdoo in the world. he is 9 months old and has Shirley Temple curls up to the wazoo. SO CUTE!
a relaxed afternoon at their cottage with the whole Reed family. I got to play with the girls and watch them. I've never watched kids like that before and see the differences between the two sisters. One is not better than the other, but they are different and similar in their own ways and it was interesting for me to observe that. but the BBQ....SOOOOOO much food. Lamb kabobs, chicken kabobs, pasta salads, garden salads, burgers, sausages, corn on the cob, bread, potatoes...for the main course. For dessert we had chocolate fondue with fruit and merranges. YUM! Met Charlie....he is tooooo cute and has the best hairdoo in the world. he is 9 months old and has Shirley Temple curls up to the wazoo. SO CUTE!So I got home to London by 930 that night and had a fantastic weekend in the north with the relatives. I hope to see them once more before I leave for home.
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