I know I said we were going to have a more normal vacation once we got to the UK....but that wasn't exactly correct. While great sheets, real beds and good food have certainly been in our itinerary...the rest of the past couple days has been anything but ordinary.
We left north of London early Thursday morning....all snug and happy in our little "left handed" car. Actually the driving part was going pretty well. I even managed to figure out how to set the emergency brake! Of course, the first time we had to put gas in, it took us about 15 minutes and the assistance of two different guys who were getting gas at the same time, to figure out how to open the gas tank. We felt pretty stupid to be "baffled" by something so simple. Note to car rental agents....INCLUDE THE OWNER'S MANUALS!
Our goal was to head north about 3 hours on the "motorway".....getting off to see York Minster Cathedral, which was to be the start of a three day "castle hunting" expedition. Oh....and the second part of our goal was to figure out where exactly in the UK has the best fish and chips! We've put a big dent in both of those.
The motorway was a breeze. Its hard to even consider driving the wrong way on a divided highway and we made it to York in less time than we expected. There we went to see York Minster (a magnificient Gothic cathedral) and a castle just outside of the town. From there, we pretty much shot from the hip. Armed with a list of the best castles in the UK that we got from the internet and an atlas, we've wound our way up the northwestern coast of England, into Scotland, zig-zagging our way across the lower portion of Scotland, and now are headed back down into England tomorrow.
Our search for castles have taken us into small little medieval walled villages, down little dirt roads and even into a few "no private vehicles allowed" areas. We are still a bit early in the season and were finding many of the castles closed and some we found are not ever open to the public. The adventure of finding them has been as fun as any other part of the trip! I'm not sure why we are so interested in the castles.....perhaps we fancy ourselves princesses of sorts.....or maybe we are finding a future home for our real little princess Alexa.....or it could be we've seen too many romantic comedies and just like the idea of traipsing around small roads in the UK. Regardless of why, we have seen some spectacular castles, in all stages of repair and ruin, and still on the agenda for tomorrow are the Welsh castles.
Doing a tour like this with Cait is amazing. She is such a British history buff and great story teller than she can fill us in on who lived in almost every castle and weave wonderful tales about what each family's part in history was. We learned about everyone from the Roman leaders who built Hadrian's wall across northern England to keep the Barbarians out in the days of the Roman Empire, to William Wallace and Mary Queen of Scots, to the bits and pieces of history that have been salvaged from the dark ages as we looked at some of the castles that are little more than stacks of stone left standing on a cliff overlooking the North Sea.
In between our "castle spotting" we've sung countless songs, listened to stories, both old and new, and have seen literally thousands of sheep. Its lambing season in the UK and the fields are filled with flocks of sheep, all the ewes followed by their adorable little lamb babies. Funny thing about sheep in the UK, they don't bob their tales, so all of them, adult and newborns, have long tails! If Cait had her way we would spend a lot more time climbing fences and chasing after the baby lambs.
We are truly seeing some amazing country and some sights that are something that we never imagined seeing. When we stop someplace, we always seem to create a little bit of a stir, as the places we are going and the people we are running in to are not the sorts of places where American tourists normally go. One of the best treats was getting to meet Robert Watts....a precocious 5 year old, who wants to be a "proper bus driver" and completely charmed us as he practiced the songs that he is performing at a Mother's Day program at his school. (In the UK Mother's day is this Sunday) He chattered away at us, bright and cute and filled with personality.
We did have a bit of a "fright" today. While shifting left handed has gotten to be more and more natural, I got us into a bit of a predicament today. We were leaving one of the small little farm roads we had been on, turning back onto a larger rural road. I was going to have to make a right turn, meaning I was going to have to cross oncoming traffic. Sitting on a hill, I started out and was in 3rd instead of 1st....and the car died. Normally, even if I couldn't go ahead and start in 3rd by heavy clutching, I would simply start the car and go on. This time, as the car died, I saw a lorrie (18 wheeler) coming at us. When I looked in my rear view, another car had pulled up behind me, leaving me no room to back up. I was only out about 4 feet into the road, leaving the truck plenty of room to go around.....so I was hesistant to try to re-start and pull forward, thinking that if the truck veered to the other lane to go around me, my pulling forward could put us further in harm's way. Well, the truck didn't seem to want to leave his lane. He just kept coming right at us. I was sitting and watching.....begging him to change lanes.....Cait hid behind the atlas, as if could protect her from the impact with the 18 wheeler.....and Mom just sat and stared, not wanting to miss anything, not even us being hit by a big truck. Finally, at what seemed like the very last minute, the truck swerved, barely missing the front of our car, and we were able to pull out.
Honestly, I was pretty shaken by that.....and while we kept going, I was working hard at trying to keep my composure and calm. Even Mom and Cait were surprisingly quiet for a bit. Then, just as we started to get back to normal, we noticed a truck ahead of us driving very erratically. We dropped back a bit, as he kept veering into oncoming traffic and thought that if he got hit, we didn't want to be too close to him. After following him for about 5 minutes, watching him run several vehicles into the shoulder as he veered into their lane, he finally crossed over the opposite lane completely, hitting a road sign and fishtailing for about 200 yards before he came to a stop. I'm not sure if he was sleeping or drunk....and though Cait wanted to stick around and see what happened with him....we drove on, thankful that we had avoided two potentially vacation ruining incidents.
Fish and Chips.......we become quite the experts on them! 3 days in a row that is what we have eaten and really I anticipate eating it many more times while we are here. The fish is huge chunks of either cod or haddock, so mild and sweet each and every time we've had it. And the chips....big, and thick, but still perfectly done. We've even learned to really appreciate the vinegar on both the fish and the chips. Mom and I are both in heaven, as seafood is our favorite food, and Cait is being a great sport about our obsession with this dish. Can't wait to report on eactly where we find the best fish and chips while we are here, but so far, I think that the Wetherby Whaler just outside of York is leading the way! We've yet to try a street vendor, but I think tomorrow might be the day for that.
Tomorrow, after heading into Wales, we are going to Stratford upon Avon and hoping to see a show there. Then its off to Hampton court, Brighton Beach.....and finishing up in London.
Well, as I'm writing this blog Cait is perusing British TV. She is watching a show called "Embarrassing Body Problems" This is just unbelievable. Not only are the embarassing problems, really REALLY embarassing....but what they are showing on network tv is shocking. The first girl has a particularly hairy "backside"...and we were more than a bit taken aback that they showed it. Then......the next girl has thrush as a result of a yeast infection....AND THEY SHOWED THAT!!!!! Now, a man has an enlarged testicle.....a very old man....and finally Cait has changed the channel, but not before we were priviledged to see that testicle on our big screen tv!!!! And I thought American reality tv had gone too far. Please, please, don't let this trend move into the states.
Well, we're off early in the morning, so this is a short one. Keep your fingers crossed that we continue to have good luck with my driving and that we can charm our way out of any spots we get into by making our way into places where we aren't really supposed to be.
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