The Last Couple Days

Well we have been busy the last couple of days. After our adventure in Norwich, we spent the next afternoon in a small town between here and Cambridge called Ely. We had lunch at a little sandwich place and then visited another cathedral in the town. From the outside the cathedral was quite impressive and we were going to go in, but found that we could not get the door open! We figured that is was just another thing on our trip that was supposed to happen but didn't and we were a bit disappointed.

However, I managed to figure out that you had to turn the door latch to get it open. Now, I must say, we had tried this earlier and it had not worked, but it was after I had tried to push the door open which had jammed the latch. So eventually we figured it out. This cathedral would have been more impressive on a nicer day and with a tour but unfortunately we had missed the last tour and it was so dark outside it was hard to see anything in the cathedral with the minimal lighting they had. We did venture around a bit, but it would have been a better experience on a nicer day.

Yesterday Amanda and I made the trip to Cambridge to see the small university town. We had a nice walk around, ate at an amazing pub called the Anchor. I had a Magners Cider in a Magners glass, and when I asked the bartender after the meal if I could buy the glass he just gave it to me which was awesome. After lunch we wandered around and found a National Trust store (the National Trust owns and operates our cottage as well as many other properties throughout England and attempts to sustain many of the historical and environmental pieces that make England unique). National Trust has a real Monopoly version of their own and since Monopoly is one of our favourite games we purchased it. We had hoped to find it and felt lucky that we did.

After a bit of wandering and shopping Amanda and I went to see Avatar in 3D at the movie theatre. WOW. That is such a good movie and if you have a chance to see it in 3D, do it! Not only is the story amazing and awe inspiring, but the visuals are amazing and unlike I have ever seen. After the movie we headed home and read a bit before going to bed.

Today we will go see some ducks and other fowl and then hang around King's Lynn a bit. We are taking it easy today as we have a busy day tomorrow visiting some old castles and a farm and then Friday hopefully we can visit some wineries, although a couple of them have told me they are closed :( so that dream may not be a reality, but we shall see.

We are having loads of fun and are a bit sad that the vacation is over soon, although we are both looking forward to going home.

Travel to Norwich, Wines and a Pub!

Well yesterday we made our grand trip to Norwich. We never went on Friday as the weather was just too bad, but it was a nice day yesterday. Our first stop was for lunch at a nice pub with good food. I have decided that since we are in the UK and going to pubs, whenever I am at a pub I have to have either a beer or a cider. I havn't had any beer yet since I don't really like it, but I have been sampling from a wide array of ciders and most of them are quite good. I am particularly fond of Magner's, although Gaymans and Strongbo are also very good
After the pub we headed to the big cathedral in Norwich, but were more excited about seeing the castle after it. However the cathedral was absolutely amazing and we went on a guided tour with just the three of us and our guide, a very nice and enthusiastic elderly gentleman named Dave. We told him we only had 45min and he gave us a great tour in that time. Who would have ever known so much *interesting* history could be saved up in a 900 year old church.
After the cathedral we headed for the castle which was, in retrospect, a bit of a disappointment. Instead of being a cool castle you could walk through, it was really just one big room with some displays and a bit of a basement. It was okay, but in the end we regretted the short tour at the cathedral and wished we had spent longer there.
From the castle we headed to a kitchen store and then headed for home, dropped Allison off at her in-laws and Amanda and I shared a quiet evening together with supper and a movie. We discovered some old Harry Potter video cassettes here at the cottage and have been working through them in our spare time when we need a break.
Today the plan was to head towards Cambridge to see a winery and some vineyards. I cannot remember the name of the winery right now however. Our first stop was to see the vineyards and I got many pictures of them which made me happy and should give me some interesting things to discuss with Randy later on. Many of the vines are quite old (1972) and have very large and twisted trunks. Unfortunately there was no identification of what the vines were so I could not tell the difference.
After the vineyard we headed up to the winery to try and hopefully purchase some wines, but to my utter dismay they were closed despite listing on their website and at the end of their driveway that they were open today. I was very disappointed that I had driven over an hour to this winery to find they were closed, but there was nothing we could do about it so we headed off and had lunch (Amanda, Allison and myself) at a pub we found in Stuart's pub book (it was a pick of the pubs). It was really good and I would happily go there again. We might try for the winery again later on in the week and we might aim for a couple others, although they are a bit more of a distance away. We shall see.
Allison is spending the evening here and we have had a good time hanging out and thinking of playing games. Who knows what tomorrow shall bring, but it shall certainly be another adventure for another day.

Driving in England!

We got a call from the National Trust last night telling us that our cottage in Wales was inaccessible because it was a drive straight up a hill for 3/4 of a mile on an unserviced road and then further up a hill on an unserviced driveway in the middle of nowhere. So that was never going to happen.
Well we have finally sorted out what we are going to able to do. As much of the northern part of England is locked up in snow we will staying at our current accommodations for another 6 days past what we were supposed to. The last day we are staying in England we have been invited to stay overnight at Allison's future in-laws as the cottage we are at is booked. We have the car until the day we leave on the 16th so we will always be able to get around.
It is a bit disappointing that we will not get to see Wales, the Yorkshire Dales and Scotland, but we do have a whole lifetime ahead of us and there will be plenty to see around here anyway. Changing our plans with the National Trust was very easy and we actually managed a significant refund because of the longer stay in a single place.
This is apparently the coldest winter in 29 years and the worst snow in 20 years. It really shows because the infrastructure for handling snow on the roads here is nowhere near what it is in Canada. Many schools have been closed for several days now and many counties have run out of grits (sand) and have no access to salt and some have even taken to digging up sand from their beaches to make road travel more bearable. I will admit that even after a few days the main roads have not been cleared off here which is a testament to how snow gets handled.
There are also 2 types of drivers here in the snow. Most people get really really slow and seem to have no idea how to drive, but others, typically the very few (compared with Canada) who have SUV's who drive really fast despite the weather conditions. I get stuck somewhere in the middle but usually end up following the really really slow people as I am never in a rush on vacation. It has basically snowed for at least a while every day since we came.
Lunch yesterday was fish and chips with Allison from a great little place with a very ecstatic asian lady serving the food who moved like the wind and was very inspiring. The portion of the chips was massive and that came with 2 pieces of fish. A great meal for an even better price. We really enjoyed it.
Last night we had supper with Allison's in-laws (I am tired of writing future, although typing about it takes more words than actually writing it once!) and it was a great time. They are some of the friendliest people we have met and made us feel very much at home. We enjoyed some wine and a wonderful supper and were even surprised with a turn-up of Stuart who was able to share supper with us.
Plans for today were to go to Norwich, but that remains to be seen as the weather there is terrible and according to the news they cannot get grits on the road for some reason. Thus it remains to be seen what shall happen!

Two Down...Now What!

*this is an add-on to the blog below*

We have just been informed that our other cottage (the one we are supposed to go to in 2 days) is also inaccessible due to the weather. Now both our cottages (where we are to stay for the next 7 nights starting Saturday) are closed due to the weather. We have no idea what s going to happen next, but it should be interesting!

The Weather Outside is Frightful!

It sounds good if you sing it like it is Christmas!
It has really been snowing quite a bit here in England the last few days which has made travel a bit interesting although it pales in comparison to what we can get in Canada. Traffic gets really slow here when it snows and the car rental company didn't even supply us with a snow brush, only an ice scraper so I have to use my leather farm mittens to wipe off the car in the morning.
We have been informed that the last cottage we will be staying at near the Yorkshire Dales is currently inaccessible due to snow so we will have to call the National Trust (the organization that operates these cottages) to find a solution. Hopefully the snow can be cleared by then because it is one of the cottages we will be staying at that is on a working sheep farm! (insert excitement here)
We have been mostly relaxing, hanging out with Allison and doing some light cruising around the British countryside during our stay here in Wisbech (pronounced Wisbeach, everything here is pronounced funny). Yesterday we got a nice tour of King's Lynn and then Amanda and I went to the beach nearby (very, very cold) and then tried to find a castle, but it was closed and we found sheep instead, which we took pictures of. They were eating brussel sprouts.
It gets dark here very early, around 4pm and so we tend to spend our evenings at our little cottage watching something on tv and just relaxing with supper.
Today we will be doing some stuff (who knows yet) in the afternoon and then having supper with Allison's future in-laws, by ourselves, as neither Allison nor Stuart will be there because of work. We are told they are very friendly so we are looking forward to meeting them.

Going Strong in Wisbech

Well we made it to Wisbech a couple of days ago, but we no longer have consistent access to the internet so blogs might come and go from here on out.
Just before we left London we went for a ride on the London Eye. It was a lot of fun, but one cool thing that happened is that on the bubble with us was Gary Dourdan! That doesn't sound impressive, but he is the actor that plays Warrick on CSI. Amanda and I never went up to him to talk to him, partially because we didn't want to bug him and partially because we are both shy, but we did snap some photos of him when we thought he wasn't looking. It was awesome.
On the 4th we headed back to the airport to pick up our rental car. Everything was going fairly smooth until it was time to start driving. It took a bit of getting used to, driving on the left side of the road and once I ground the curb because I am not used to how the road looks from that side of the car. Roundabouts are everywhere and take some getting used to for driving. I basically drive it like I stole it and get through...it is fun! By now I am used to driving on the opposite side. It still gets me once in a while, but it is more or less okay.
Finding our cottage in the town of Wisbech was hard. Turns out construction crews were doing work in front of the entrance when we arrived at night which is why we couldn't find it. We eventually found it after an hour, but it was a bit frustrating. The cottage is really nice and we will show you all photos when we get home, but we are happy we got this place.
We got to see Allison yesterday (Amanda's cousin) as well as today and will get to see her all day on Friday. She is only a few miles away in a town called Kings Lynn so it is easy to get there.
Dinner times are hard to figure out. Most places close after lunch and don't re-open until 6:30 or 7:00pm for supper. Last night we tried to make taco salad for supper as we have a kitchen, but it was a total disaster. It is hard to find the same ingredients here as we can get at home and we ended up making nachos and cheese with some really strong goats cheese which was interesting to say the least.
Much more has been happening but I cannot remember it all and I must get going. I hope that everyone is having fun at home and we look forward to seeing you all again in a couple weeks.

London England (brrrr)

Well yesterday we safely arrived in London. We made our way to the airport in the morning for a flight that was leaving Frankfurt at about 2:30. Our flight was uneventful, until we landed. It seems the doors on the walkway thing they move around outside would not open so we had to get out of the plane using rolling stairs. It was fun. Customs was easy and eventually we figured out where to go to get the trains.

I managed to figure out that where we had originally been told to go for our hotel (all we had was an address) was wrong before we made it onto the trains and I thought I had it figured out how to get there. Unfortunately my map only went down so far, but I was counting on the hotel being in a certain place.

The subway ride to the Waterloo station took quite a while, but the airport is quite a ways away from the city centre. I managed to get a fix of our position on the map and we headed off. Well after 45 minutes of walking with our heavy packs as well as a knapsack each we finally found the hotel. It seems Albert Embankment went a little further than I thought and we had to walk quite a ways. By the time we arrived we were both quite cold and tired and probably looked a bit rough.

As it was quite late by the time we finally made it all we managed to do last night was eat some supper at the restaurant downstairs and then try to watch a movie on television. We had rented "Over the Hedge" a Disney movie of sorts for only 1 pound, but Amanda fell asleep 20 minutes into it so I turned it off and we went to bed.

One note on the hotel. It is a really fancy hotel that Amanda tells me costs 300pounds/night (on a sign downstairs) but we got it for a really great deal apparently and it is quite nice although I would never pay 300pounds a night for a room like this.

We woke up this morning, had breakfast and headed out. We spent most of our day wandering around and somehow made it to Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey and a bunch of other place. I got to stand beside a royal guard (not the black hatted ones) and Amanda took a photo of us having a contest to see who could look more solemn.

We also found tickets today for Wicked the musical from a half-priced place. We paid full price but got cheaper tickets and were lucky we found some as there seemed to be none anywhere else. We plan on riding the London eye tonight as well as going to see the show.

London has been great so-far and it has certainly been easier with everything in english. We are having a great time and are looking forward to the rest of the trip as this is really only the beginning.