England Part One - December 20th-26th

Lets see how well binge posting works, okay? An eleven day trip in only two blog posts. Buckle up and get comfy for part one.

So this was the end result of where we visited outside of London, and a reference map. I had a few more places on the list but we just ran out of time. I think we are happy with the end result and what we did get to see.

Saturday December 20th: Travel Day to England

I found a special price on parking at the Munich airport terminal that was as good as what it would cost for a taxi and we did not want to mess with any of the other methods we have tried in the past to get to the airport or train station. We got to drive to the airport and park close enough to the terminal to walk in. The line to check our bags was about what was expected but the security line was over an hour. We were ready for this, it was the Saturday before Christmas. Now we had to get on a bus to be hauled out to the plane on the tarmac, as we have now grown accustomed to in Munich. The actual flight was the shortest part of the journey I think. We flew into Stansted airport north of London. We did not expect to be in another hour long line once we arrived. This time it was immigration holding up the vacation. For whatever reason England is outside of the Schengen Area which comprises of 26 European countries that don't require immigration visits when passing between these countries. We made it through and rented a car. I was not real sure how it would be driving on the left side of the road in England, but here we go. The plan was to take a short drive into Cambridge to check it out and stay for the night. Our hotel was right in the city center, we got checked in quickly and still had a little daylight to look around.  

I knew that the chapel at King's College closed pretty soon so we stopped there first to get tickets and tour the inside. This is the area around the city center and King's College area.

I had seen pictures of this place before, the inside and the outside I find fascinating. I took a whole bunch of pictures and put a lot of them here. It is a beautiful building. We spent a good amount of time walking around and taking pictures.

This is the first time that I can recall seeing this type of setup. There is a clear seating area in the back then a large wooden structure with the organ pipes, then the choir section, then the front of the chapel. I still don't understand how the people seated in the back know what is going on up front, other than being able to hear. This must be a church of England thing, it was not the last time that we saw this arrangement during this trip.

These are the buildings that surround the courtyard outside of the chapel.

The plan for the rest of the day included a visit to the Santa's Grotto then the Winter Wonderland park. David was not excited about Santa. When I pressed him on the reason he said it was because there was only one Santa and all of the other Santa's that we see in malls and other cities are just fake. Katherine had a different take, she said it was creepy to go sit in the lap of somebody you don't know very well. That a girl, just keep that mindset for another twenty five years or so.

So while pondering the next step we were approached by some young guys asking if we want to go punting on the river. I had read that this was a thing to do in Cambridge, but I did not expect them to be doing it when it was near freezing outside. It was the last trip of the day and they had space for us so we went for it. Only because he promised Cindy extra blankets on the boat.

By the time we left the city center and walked to the river it was getting dark. The camera lens was able to see a bit better than we could so I managed to get a few good pictures. Above is the mathematical bridge. It is comprised of all straight pieces of wood but it forms an arch. One myth is that Sir Isaac Newton constructed this bridge without the use of any nuts or bolts or nails. Later students took it apart and tried to re-construct it but failed and had to use bolts.

A view of King's College from the river. 

Above is the wedding cake building at St. John's college. It was really dark at this point. Below is the Cambridge Bridge of Sighs.

We had a brief time in Cambridge but we got to see a lot. After the boat ride Cindy and David headed back to the hotel to warm up and rest. Katherine and I decided to go visit the outdoor Christmas festival in a large park nearby. The first thing was ice staking.

My action pictures were not too good from my cell phone in the dark. We got a few memories from our father daughter evening at the festival.

After ice skating I was a little bummed to break it to Katherine that all of the rides had closed. There was not one person on any of the rides. As it turned out, they were actually still open. We just had the whole thing to ourselves. The ice skating rink was still busy but no kids riding rides.

The rides were not that expensive either. We paid once for the giant slide and she did it over and over for about thirty minutes. Then the trampoline jump, Ferris wheel, small roller coaster, etc. Some of the ride operators had to come over to the ride to start it up for her. We never saw another kid the whole time. After some hot chocolate and cotton candy for her dinner we met up with the rest of the family at the hotel. Great first day even with the travel delays.

Sunday December 21st

The next morning was a planned kid fun day. We were traveling a little further north and back to the west to Warwick Castle. I say it was a kid fun day since this is a daily operating castle with activities like a Bird of Prey show, jousting, princess tower, a working trebuchet, etc. 

When we arrived the first sign that this might not be as fun as planned was telling us that the super structure play area was closed. We kept going and signed up for a time slot in the Princess Tower Experience for Katherine. While we waited we did our tour of the inner part of the castle. This was much different than other castles that we have seen in Germany and France. It was overall more modest than most others but still really nice. This wood carving was amazing.

Katherine and Cindy headed to the princess thing while David and I climbed a big hill to get a view of the castle and surroundings.

This time of year they do not do the daily jousting or fire off the trebuchet, but they still do the bird show.

I enjoyed seeing this a lot. The trainer explained in a lot of detail that this was a new bird that he is still training for the summer season. Even though he was in training he still did pretty good as far as I could tell. It was interesting to hear the guy tell us when the bird was not doing what he was supposed to do.

The coolest part was when he would tuck his wings and dive for his treat. He was flying at over 100mph at times. The below picture was the best one that I could take. I had the shutter on the camera slowed down to 1/250 second, or .004 seconds exposure due to low lighting. The bird is still blurry. 

The rest of the time there we checked out some other birds where they are housed and took some other pictures around the grounds. Below is a trebuchet in case you were wondering what that is.

No words for the above picture, the one below has a lot going on. See if you can tell what is happening.

The kids got done with Warwick early enough for us to make it to the tourist trap Shakespeare birthplace Stratford Upon Avon. Above is the house. It was funny because there were a lot of people around and not one person was in front of, or looking at this house. We actually did a lot of walking around this town, looked in some of the shops, and saw a few other sites. Below is the Harvard House.

I know nothing about the house above other than when we saw it I had to take a picture. It looks straight out of a Tim Burton movie.

We started to lose the light for another day. We made a loop around the town back towards the pedestrian walkway near the birthplace house. The Christmas lights were coming on and the crowds thinning out.

Here is the house again from another angle, again nobody looking at it. I said it was a tourist trap but I am glad that we made the stop. This was our first of many stops in this area known as the Cotswolds area of England.

That evening we made a short drive to the town of Cheltenham to stay for the night. We again had a hotel in the city center but this time it was much more difficult to find. There was a weekend Christmas market closing down, a lot of traffic on a one way street, and it was dark. We finally located our place and managed to avoid parking violations while we checked in and figured out where to park. The hotel room was up sixty three steps with no lift. They had a guy there to take bags up for us. It was after this night that we decided to repack one suitcase with everything that we would need for the next two days. Up until now we had been unpacking everything each night and loading back up the next morning. Our dinner that night was at an Italian restaurant close to the hotel. It was a forgettable meal, but it got the job done. 

Monday December 22nd: Touring the Cotswolds

This morning we did not have breakfast included in our hotel so we ventured out to see Cheltenham in the daylight. Above was the front of our hotel that is connected to the town hall building, below is the view from our back window.

High Street in England is what Main Street is to small town USA. All of the little towns have a High Street where the shops and restaurants are located. We found an open restaurant a little off the main street where nobody was. We ordered a traditional full English breakfast. The kids asked for scrambled eggs and ended up with egg whites whipped so much they just melted the second they hit the tongue. They were not big fans of this. 

We loaded up after breakfast and headed to our next stop, Stow on the Wold. By the time we arrived the city center was busy and we lucked out with a good parking spot. 

We walked around and checked out the shops for a while before heading on to the next town.

Just down the road was Lower Slaughter. This was even smaller and much less going on. We parked at a large resort hotel parking lot and walked around. This was a very peaceful and quiet little town.

Many of the town churches have the cemetery in the church yard. As we made our way to the old mill we noticed the houses did not have addresses, instead each house had a name.

It was a short walk to the Old Mill Museum area. We just looked around at the scenery for a few minutes then headed to Upper Slaughter and just drove through.

Our next stop was Bourton on the Water. This was one of my favorite Cotswolds towns with the river running through the middle of the action. There were plenty of shops and restaurants. We stopped for fish and chips and afternoon tea at one of the restaurants. The front door did not close unless you slammed it, so every person that walked in would end up leaving it open for the freezing air to rush in until a waitress came along and slammed the door shut again.

There was a small bird zoo and a maze that we tried to visit but it was closed for the Christmas break. Below is a auto museum that had a cool hedge growing into the frame of a car.

After seeing several small towns these travel veteran children needed a little break. We found an animal park in the middle of nowhere. I was shocked at how much they charged us to get in to this place and just about drove away. I was glad that we stayed after it was over. This was by far the most amazing zoo experience that I have ever had. We were all blown away that almost every animal exhibit resulting in a very interactive experience.

First stop at the animal park was of course the play area. Above is just one section of this large playground. It gets dark here at around 16:30 so we had to move them on to see some animals. We found our first monkey cage and stayed there for a while because the monkeys were very interactive with us, at least we thought they were. Later we came across another set of monkeys. These guys were nuts. Pictured below these guys were playing, swinging, and letting us be part of their game. They were bouncing off of the glass and giving high fives to us through the glass and putting on a show. There were four adults and one little baby all playing. We stayed in there for a long time laughing and playing.

We really stayed too long, it started to get dark outside and we had not seen enough of the zoo yet. Next we found the red pandas. There were several of them walking right up to the edge of the enclosure to see us. David loves red pandas every since he picked out a stuffed animal red panda when he was very young.

The other pictures did not turn out but we had a close encounter with two wolves. That was a little creepy being the only people in the back of this animal park, almost dark outside with these wolves barely visible to us.

By this time we were the only people there and the zoo started to close up early. We found out that we had been locked in to this back part but the guy told us that he would come back around to let us out. While we walked towards the gate and waited we came across several other enclosures that included other active animals like wallabies, ant eaters, and others. Walking back to the car we found a barn that was a petting zoo area that the kids enjoyed. After the reptile cages with the largest anacondas and other snakes that I have ever seen in person we hit the bat cage then called it a day. 

That evening we drove in to Oxford for the night. The traffic leaving the city was crazy. This time our B&B was not in the city center. It was late but we still managed to get ourselves back out to find dinner. The intent was to see the Oxford campus and see inside the Divinity School this evening since we were a little behind on our schedule. We wanted to see if one evening would be enough in Oxford for us to continue of journey the next morning.

It was cold and windy but we managed to get a few pictures and dinner. The Divinity School was thought to be open but we found locked gates. Dinner was still great and we got to see some of Oxford. That night before bed we decided that we wanted to see it in the daylight too.

Tuesday December 23rd

Our family bus pass was good for 24 hours. After breakfast was served in our room we headed back to the city center. The first stop was the Divinity School. Pictured above it is an old lecture hall that also played a role as the hospital in a Harry Potter movie. This is part of the Bodleian Library which is the central library for all of the Oxford colleges with over 11 million books.

Above is the Radcliffe Camera, another library off limits to tourists. 

Above and below is the University Church of St Mary the Virgin

High Street Oxford

Below is a street between Queen's College and New College. 

I had the Turf Tavern marked as a place to visit. It was fun finding the narrow passage to get to it.

Yet another Bridge of Sighs. I am now convinced that any arched bridge joining two buildings in any part of Europe is called a Bridge of Sighs. Oxford was great but I like Cambridge better. Cindy is team Oxford so we will just agree to disagree.

We made it back to our car and headed out for our next stop, Bampton. Does anyone out there watch Downton Abbey? Bampton is a Cotswolds village where they film the in town scenes. It is supposed to be the village right next to Downton Abbey that they walk to in the show. In reality it is a good 40 miles away.

Everything that we have seen in the show is all right there together. The church above and the big tree with the park bench.

Inside the town library they have some pictures of the actors and the film crew in town. The library also doubled as a hospital in one season.

We did not stay very long, but it was fun to see and on the way to our other stops.

Stonehenge is the well known pre-historic stone circle site in this area. We wanted to see it but I had also read about Avebury. This place has similar stones, pre-dates Stonehenge, and is larger. It is also free to park, walk around, and actually touch the stones. Stonehenge is expensive and you only get to walk along a walkway to get a closer look at a specific time of day.

This was fun to see. The kids loved the hill and trench built around this massive stone circle. We walked around a large portion of it, the kids went up and down the hill.

Avebury is just north of Stonehenge and our hotel in Salisbury that night was further south. We made an attempt to drive by Stonehenge that evening before the light was gone but got stuck in a traffic jam less than a mile away. We lost the light so we headed on in to Salisbury. We stayed in the center again at the Cathedral Hotel. Parking was not included and we had to navigate a pay lot where you have to wait until after 18:00 to pay for the next morning after 08:00. Dinner was at the Wildwood Restaurant that night. The next morning we had a large breakfast. When we came into the restaurant we saw toast and cereal, not the English breakfast that we were used to at this point. After making six pieces of toast and getting yogurt and cereal the waitress explained to us the menu card on the table was included with the free breakfast, now you tell us.

Wednesday December 24th

I wanted to see Salisbury because the cathedral here was home to one of four original copies of the Magna Carta. I was excited to see it, but I was not anticipating how much I would enjoy seeing this cathedral too. This was another entry fee that seemed high at the time, but was well worth it in the end.

They had several people walking around telling us about various parts of the building along with a map adding more detail. The above picture with the fountain I really liked.

This place was massive. We spent a long time just in the main worship area. The below picture shows some of the architecture with the many layers and features.

You walked out into the courtyard area to get to another chapel that housed the Magna Carta. They did not allow any photos but the room and the exhibit was great. We read about the history of the document and how it came to be at the Salisbury Cathedral. We took a long walk around the grounds to try and get an exterior picture with the sun in the right direction. It was for not as we were thwarted by a fifteen foot stone wall surrounding that side.

We did a quick drive by Stonehenge and started heading in the direction of London.

I am really fine with our Stonehenge visit, we could see it from the road and Cindy got some nice pictures from the moving car. A paid visit was not an option as they were closed on Christmas Eve. They close off the road to the parking lot so you can't get a free peak at it. To heck with them, we saw it anyway.

We made a valiant effort to see Highclere Castle on the way in to London. This is the real name of the Downton Abbey castle. It was also closed and the gate was locked. Even the public foot path was blocked. We never got a view of the castle. It was on into London from there. The first order of business was to return the rental car. Cindy found a gas station right next to the return facility. We actually drove very close to the center of London to return the car. It was a bit stressful but we managed. We were now on foot with our luggage to the tube station to get to our hotel. We had tickets to see the Christmas Eve service at Westminster Abbey at 16:00. We made it to the tube stop by the apartment, I just had to walk to another hotel to get the keys. The kids found a McDonalds and a Krispy Kreme while I was gone. The Christmas Eve service did not work out in the end. There was just no way to make it work. We were not allowed to get the apartment keys until 15:00, walking time, luggage, then catching public transportation across town to get there by 15:45 was not possible. We also needed to stock up on some groceries since the stores were not open over the next two days. We unpacked, got the groceries, and prepared for Santa to visit. We had seven night in one place which was a welcome change after four hotels in four nights.

Thursday December 25th
Did I mention the giant stockings that we found in Bourton a few days earlier? I should probably admit that we let the kids open their Christmas presents from us early, before the trip. I did not want to take wrapped presents on a plane and across England for a week. We also talked Santa into limiting his gifts to items small in stature for getting back home.

Santa was good to the kids as usual and we had a nice Christmas morning. Mommy and Daddy found Dr. Pepper at the store the day before, the kids were really excited about that.

Christmas day turned out to be a restful day for the most part. We did have to do laundry since we were in the middle of the trip. We enjoyed have television service in English too.

Late that afternoon we decided to venture out on foot to check out the area. We walked down to Covent Garden area. All of the shops were closed but there were still a few people out walking around.

We got a few good pictures and found the Rules Restaurant, the oldest in London.

Covent Garden is a large shopping area near with several theaters around the area. It was nice.

We saw the Royal Opera House on the way back and Katherine spied a ballerina statue.

Friday December 26th: Boxing Day
After the success of the Christmas festival in Cambridge with Katherine I was excited to check out another one in London. This was the Winter Wonderland at Hyde Park. We took the tube a couple of stops west to Marble Arch at the corner of Hyde Park.

The kids were excited to see all of the rides only to find out that it was crazy stupid expensive.

We walked around this massive festival looking at rides that cost 8 British sterling pounds to ride. Keeping in mind that one pound is over 1.5 dollars, this was nuts. I was proud that both kids understood and did not complain. David was even outraged at the prices and was against spending money for the rides. He did splurge when we found the sweet cinnamon goodness of churros though. He used to love getting churros at the Ranger games in Arlington, and has not seen them in Europe until now. We invested in in churros and the kids even got to do one of the fun house rides since they were so good.

I had several sites that I wanted to see around Hyde park. We left the festival and walked around the lake. We had fun with all of the birds and squirrels in the park. These swans were at the top of the pecking order with the lady feeding the birds. A couple of dogs off of a leash ran up to scare the birds, the swans did not move. They started hissing at the dogs, the dogs backed off. London has some bad ass swans.

We came across the Princess Di memorial walkway and a memorial fountain for her. We tried to talk to the kids about who she was and why she is so important to the people in England. They did not care too much.

The kids were chasing squirrels earlier then we saw this random guy feeding them. Even the squirrels are brave around here. They don't quite get bad ass status like the swans, but they were cool. Next we found the Peter Pan statue which was used in a scene of Downton.

At this point we were close to Kensington Palace and close to the Notting Hill area. We made a plan to hit the tube for one stop to get to Notting Hill then make our way down to Kensington.

This was a really nice London neighborhood. Each block of houses has a gated green park area behind it that looks to be private for each street. Half of this area was green park area with the other half housing. There was no retail or grocery stores in site, but it seems like a nice place to live close to the craziness of central London. We found the street that was in the Julia Roberts Hugh Grant movie from the 90's.

By now it was way past lunch time and we were hungry. On the way to Kensington Cindy spotted a sign that said Tex Mex!!!! We had to stop. Just like our visit to Berlin we were more interested in food options that reminded us of home than local cuisine. We had Krispy Kreme donuts almost every morning during our stay and now we had a tex-mex option? Too good to be true. After some fajitas and a chimichanga we almost felt like we were at home again. It was actually pretty good.

Our plans for the rest of the day got cut short. It was raining with some heavy rain moving in. We did not have "proper" rain gear (inside joke for those that visited us last July) and it was cold. We turned tail and made it back to the apartment. We had plenty of groceries for the evening and rested up for the next day.

Next time will finish up the time in London. It was a long post, thanks for hanging in there.