my winter vacation, part 2 by Susan W. Story

Day 6 - Dec 22, 2009 (Tuesday)

We spent a few hours at nearby Warwick Castle, which is considered to be the finest medieval fortress in England.

high up on the ramparts

self-portrait of us at the mound, the oldest part of the property!

Day 7 - Dec 23, 2009 (Wednesday)
It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

... if you wear a lot of red and live with elves. (In case you can't see the fine print, the car read -4 degrees Celsius.)

Frommer's Guide rule #189: Don't go to Stonehenge. Period. But if you decide to go, don't go in the pouring rain when temperatures are near freezing. It will be a memorable experience, but not in the way you hoped.


Day 8 - Dec 24, 2009 (Thursday)

Our lovely old neighborhood butcher preparing our leg of lamb

St. James Cathedral, a 15th century church, where we worshipped at their Christmas Eve service

the Christingle Mac received from the rector (see earlier post at Christingles)

Our Christmas portrait, taken after Christmas Eve dinner at the Eight Bells Inn

Day 9 - Dec 25, 2009 (Friday)

The Cotswolds are famous, among other things, for their great "rambles". You can basically just walk these "public footpaths" that cut through people's properties. It's you, nature, and the farmer's sheep, and surprisingly, nobody gets shot!

After opening Christmas presents and playing the Wii for a couple hours, we headed out on a Christmas Day ramble before cooking dinner.




not your mother's Christmas dinner - roasted leg of lamb; roasted potatoes, parsnips, carrots and brussels sprouts; and yorkshire pudding.

after popping our Christmas crackers, we donned our crowns and took a self-portrait

Day 10 - Dec 26, 2009 (Saturday)

Boxing Day provided us another strenuous day of playing Wii, rambling, and eating a late lunch at the Eight Bells where we had the pleasure of meeting an older English couple named Jill and Peter (affectionately called "Petey" and "Speedy" by Jill). They made for an entertaining couple hours.





Day 11 - Dec 27, 2009 (Sunday)
We drove back to London, returned the rental car, and had dinner at the Maynard's local pub.

Day 12 - Dec 28, 2009 (Monday)
Monday was a sad day for us. We said goodbye to Jimmy, knowing that we won't see him again until late March or early April. Parting is such sweet sorrow.

Monique suggested that we go to the Hyde Park Winter Wonderland, an amusement park set up for a couple weeks over the holidays. Surely an amusement park can bring out the smiles, right?

Mac and Caitlin as they prepare to get on a ride


Day 13 - Dec 29, 2009 (Tuesday)
I had promised I'd take Mac on one of the double-decker tour buses in London so he could see "the white palace" aka Buckingham. Naturally we had beautiful (but cold) weather on every day we were in London until the final day, the appointed day for the tour. It was freezing cold and raining and miserable. Not one to back out of a deal, we left the warmth of the Maynard's house for a day of cold, wet misery. Even my trusty umbrella that I've had for years could not withstand the London wind and died on this day. We never got off of the hop-on, hop-off tour because neither of us could muster the courage to brave the elements. So we rode around for a couple hours, saw a teeny little glimpse of the white palace, ate lunch afterwards, and called it a day! I have no photos to share from this day as it was difficult to get any good pictures from the inside bottom of the bus with the windows covered in rain!

The Conclusion

We had a PERFECT vacation. It was so relaxed and marched to its own rhythm, which was a very slow, very peaceful beat. Exactly what we all needed.

my winter vacation, part 1, by Susan W. Story

Day 1 - Dec 17, 2009 (Thursday)

London taxi ride from airport (Mac in the jumpseat!) with newly shaved Jimmy


Snow, glorious snow!

Day 2 - Dec 18, 2009 (Friday)

catching the Tube to the London Dungeon

arrival at the London Dungeon

SCARY ride at the London Dungeon - Extremis Drop Ride to Doom


...and a partridge in a pear tree (Burrough Market)

the most fabulous cheese in the world - Comte from France (Burrough Market)

Jimmy's pork belly sandwich bought at Burrough Market; it was love at first taste for Jimmy!

one of the greatest joys of life: catching up with old friends. One of Jimmy's Georgetown roommates, Shad, lives in London and we caught up with him on Friday night for drinks and dinner.



Day 3 - Dec 19, 2009 (Saturday)
Trafalgar Square with great friends, the Maynards, who also happen to be the most gracious hosts and wonderful tour guides.

the hustle and bustle of nearly last-minute Christmas shopping

Day 4 - Dec 20, 2009 (Sunday)

En route to Chipping Campden in the Cotswolds, we stopped for lunch and a quick walk in Oxford where we bought Mac an Oxford hoodie and rugby shirt. You can never start too early for college preparation.

We lunched at a pub that was frequented by literary types, including C.S. Lewis, who reportedly read from The Chronicles of Narnia for the first time inside the pub.

Christ Church at Oxford University

us in front of Mac's future institution of higher learning


our most fabulous and charming cottage for the week: Little Orchard Cottage on Hoo Lane in Chipping Campden

Day 5 - Dec 21, 2009 (Monday)

We started the day thinking we'd celebrate the winter solstice at Stonehenge, but quickly changed plans and went to Stratford-upon-Avon to visit Shakespeare's birthplace and Anne Hathaway's cottage.

Shakespeare's birthplace

Jimmy and Mac by the nearly frozen Avon River

Susan and Mac in willow arch in the forest walk at Anne Hathaway's cottage


Part 2 will follow!

things that make a perfect vacation seem like it never happened

1. 5am wake-up call at airport hotel

2. 5:15am begging and pleading with a 7 year-old to get up and get dressed

3. 5:35am check-out at said hotel, 5 minutes ahead of scheduled shuttle to airport, only to find out shuttle is running late

4. dreaded 6am arrival at Delta check-in counter (read earlier post on my current feelings about Delta check-in agents)

5. 6:05am discussion with Delta man (while still in line) about the toy bow Mac bought at Warwick Castle. It was too big to fit in a suitcase so I intended to carry it on the plane. It's wood and string. The arrows, which have a suction cup tip, were packed in the suitcase. It is clearly not a weapon of mass destruction. After conferring with all Delta agents on duty at 6:05am, Delta man decided Delta would allow me to take it as long as the airport security people let it through.

6. 6:10am -still in line waiting to check in when some overly cheerful Delta man with a ponytail comes through the line telling people that the only carry-on baggage allowed is a handbag or briefcase. This means that all the stuff I'd packed in the little wheeled suitcase had to be stuffed into my bag. Epi-Pens, fever medicine, allergy medicine, wet wipes, kleenexes, that handblown (breakable) Christmas ornament we bought in Cirencester, etc. All put into what became a VERY heavy carry-on bag. But not to worry - they'd allow me to check that carry-on suitcase for free. Which just shows how much excess baggage room they must always have if they were able to suddenly take a couple hundred extra carry-on bags. But I'm glad they got their $50 for the 13 pounds extra I carried on the way over.

7. 6:20am meeting with the British version of the surly Delta agent we have come to know and love (?). This woman was a piece of work. I had one suitcase that was 2 pounds over (but another that was 10 pounds under) and she made me move 2 pounds from one case to another. Okay. I asked her why the check-in bag policy change had not been announced on the website. She said that the policy changes happen so quickly that they can't keep up with announcing these things on their website. W-H-A-T? (For the record, I have just checked the Delta website and there is still no mention of this policy from Europe.)

8. 6:30am run-in with British version of TSA guy who tells me under no circumstances will the bow be allowed past security.

9. 6:33am - we go back to Delta to ask if they'll stick a luggage label on the bow and send it Charleston. I'm told by yet another Delta agent that because I've already checked my luggage, no. I tell her in my most upset voice to just throw it away then and we walk off.

10. I really dislike Delta more than you can imagine by this point and vow to not use them again if I can help it. We have used Delta as exclusively as possible for the last decade (to the point of fighting the US Government to fly Delta instead of other US carriers), but no more.

11. 6:45am - we are through security and enjoying a lovely cappucino which is really the higlight of the entire day.

12. 7am - we head to our airport gate even though the flight isn't scheduled to leave until 9:15am. When we arrive at the gate, there is already a line. Why? Oh, because they're patting down everybody. That's right. So we wait and wait and wait. Mac will hopefully be empathetic one day when his wife has to wait in much longer bathroom lines than he does. There were far fewer men on the flight than women so they were all called up as soon as they got in the queue. When we finally got near the front of the line, the irony of this security debacle unfolded. As they were patting down everybody, going through every single thing in handbags and briefcases (down to opening up wallets), there was a full-length fur coat laying over the railing at the start of the line. As the line moved forward, nobody claimed the coat. Finally the coat was brought to the attention of the head screener, who started asking around if the coat was anybody's. Now what I love is that you hear these public announcements in the airport every 3 minutes that say "keep your personal belongings with you at all times" and to "report any suspicious items", but when a personal belonging is left unattended not five feet from the security person, they miss it. They were so busy checking to make sure you didn't have explosives sewn in your underwear that they really missed the forest for the trees.

13. 10am - we finally take off (a little late but not as late as I expected) and surprisingly, the Delta flight attendants are as friendly as they can be. It used to be that we could count on the attendants to be the surliest people in the whole experience, but Delta seems to have told the flight attendants to take their happy pills and to share the ugly pills with everybody else.

14. 9 hours and 2 minutes later, we land in Atlanta. Mac never shuts his eyes to nap nor does he get up to use the bathroom. I decide he's part camel. We watch movie after movie and eat when we're offered food.

15. Back on American terra firma, we make record time going through Immigration, only to wait and wait and wait for our bags. With bags finally in hand, we go through Customs, recheck our bags, and go through security once again. We share a snack of Gardetto's Chex Mix and a Coke (and a smile) and board the plane for Charleston.

16. 6:10pm - we land in Charleston on an uneventful flight. Mac naturally falls asleep 5 minutes before landing. We get three of our four checked bags.

17. 7pm - We get in the line to file a claim for the missing bag. I take note of one angry customer whose bags are missing and how the Delta woman is basically ignoring her and the other customer, a very nice young man who's pleasant and clearly vying for Mr. Congeniality and how the Delta woman is being so nice to him. I decide to assume the latter role. When it's finally my turn, I turn on my uber-polite charm, she enters something in the computer and tells me that my bag is already loaded on the next flight that's coming to Charleston and that the bag will be delivered later that night. Since the bag actually was delivered last night, I can now tell you that it was nice that it was "lost" temporarily because Mac has a hard time pulling two suitcases and he would have had to pull two all the way out to the parking lot had they all come.

18. 8pm - After going through the Chick-Fil-A drive-through for dinner, we arrive home. Mac is sound asleep and doesn't want to get out of the car.

19. 9:30pm - The missing bag is delivered.

20. 9:55pm - after a shower and reading about 2 paragraphs of The Hemingses of Monticello, I zonk out.

After a day that started at 12am EST, it was a long 22-hour day. Mac and I have decided we're not traveling anywhere that requires an airplane anytime soon!

what an afternoon

We have just returned from the children's service at the 15th-century St. James Cathedral. The church was so beautiful, the organ played BIG music (meaning loud, which I love), and the service was lovely with all the traditional Christmas carols sung. The village children assumed the roles of sheep, the donkey, shepherds, angels, and wise people (as the rector pointed out, not "wise men" because they had some girls). They even used a real baby. There were at least 40 children in this production so there was a lot of movement and noise and funny "bloopers".

The highlight of the service for us was the Christingle portion of the service. I've never heard of this tradition but it was started by the Moravians in the mid-1700's. The rector called all the children up (and of course, our young shy Mac went forward as soon as he saw the first child go forward) to receive their Christingle, which is an orange that's had an X cut in the top. A candle is inserted into the X, a red ribbon is tied around the orange and toothpicks with gummies are stuck around the orange. According to the song we sang after the children had received their lighted Christingles, here's the symbolism:

the orange - the earth as created by God
the red ribbon - bloodshed and pain which led to forgiveness when Jesus was slain
ripe fruits (or gummies in this case)- when God hands out the gift of His creation, it's meant for us all
candle - the light of the world, Jesus

It was a lovely and meaningful service and I'm so glad we went.

On our walk back home, I stopped to take a photo of this beautiful house that was decked out with wreaths and trees and lights. Well this older woman stopped and said something about it being a lovely home and wouldn't I love to go inside. I got excited for a minute that she owned it and that we were getting ready to be invited in for the family dinner. But alas, she wasn't the owner.

Anyway we talked for a few minutes and as we were wishing her a happy Christmas, she told me I was "life-enhancing" (her words, not mine), had a positive outlook and a warm smile. Do you think she recognized me as royalty?

We're re-grouping now before we go to our Christmas Eve dinner at the Eight Bells Inn (so named because they stored the bells for St. James Cathedral in the inn at the time of construction).

We hope that wherever you are and with whomever you're celebrating this special holiday, you feel the love and joy and promise that is Christmas. Merry Christmas from us to you.

because I am too dumb...

to figure out how to respond to comments, I'm leaving a new post for the comments left from yesterday's post.

Pam and Belle - Vera nor Mathilda are doing it for me. I'm waiting for the right vibe. In the meantime, I'm over-using words like shant (or is that shan't?) and mustn't.

Belle - tell Mason we went a couple days ago to Broadway and had a delightful pub lunch followed by shopping on High Street. The highlight was visiting the Broadway Deli where we bought our second piece of this most delectable French cheese called Comte. We discovered it first in London at the Burrough Market and were thrilled to find it again in Broadway.

Cirencester - we bought the bracelet at Donnell's (I think that's the name), an only jewelry store in town. We looked at the jewelry at the New Brewers Art Centre and while I saw A LOT that I could have bought (including this silver bracelet that had little silver rings around it - bad description but I can see it in the glass case as vividly in my mind today as I did in the shop yesterday), this bracelet (made by a guy in Bath) just jumped out the window at me. We did, however, buy the Christmas ornament from the glassblower in the art centre and it is phenomenal!

follow-up to yesterday's random musings

1. Jimmy's traveling name is Nigel and Mac's is Nicholas. I still don't have mine and time is ticking.

2. We spent a lovely day in the town of Cirencester where I got a beautiful early Christmas gift (not opening until Friday morning, though) of a gorgeous silver bracelet that says "love conquers all" in Latin and made by a local silversmith. We also went to an artists' cooperative where we got this exquisite Christmas ornament made of handblown glass. It will be a nice contrast to the ornament Mac picked out in London, which is very big and very shiny and features the British flag. It will not be missed on our future Christmas trees.

3. Unless you happen to be in the neighborhood of Stonehenge, I wouldn't recommend riding 1.5 hours out of the way to see it, especially if it's raining and it's about 33 degrees. Soooo not worth the money we paid to take 2 photos in the freezing cold, driving rain. If you do choose to ignore this advice, don't wait until later in the day to go to Stonehenge in the near-freezing temps because when it's time to turn around and drive home, the temperature will most assuredly drop below freezing because the sun sets by 4:30pm, the roads will get dangerous and the snow (really a blizzard for somebody from South Carolina) will start to fall. The long trip home becomes even longer, which isn't so much fun with a 7 year-old in the backseat constantly complaining.

4. We hit a farm stand on the way home that was FABULOUS. We are cooking a traditional British meal of some sort (I don't think a traditional Christmas meal, but maybe Sunday lunch) for Christmas. I have my order in with the village butcher to pick up a rack of lamb tomorrow, and we bought all the veggies at the farm stand today. We're having potatoes, parsnips, brussels sprouts, and carrots, all roasted in goose fat (which we bought a jar of in Cirencester). Our friend Donald makes the best roasted veggies of all time and he (and the man in the Cirencester market today) said that goose fat is the way to go. We also bought our yorkshire puddings and the ready-made gravy with which to drown the said puddings. Oh and we bought those cute Christmas crackers that you pull apart and out comes a paper crown and prize. I can't wait! I just hope Santa finds us here.

4. Tomorrow afternoon we're going to the children's church service at St. James Cathedral here in Chipping Campden. This cathedral was built in the 15th century. Can you imagine? My only concern is whether they'll have heat. I want to wear my fancy sweater but that requires heat. Let's hope.

random musings from England

1. We have all assumed fake British accents that we think sound marvelous. Don't worry that we're offending actual British people. We only use the accents among ourselves. Now we just need to come up with our traveling British names.

2. British people are so much more polite than Americans. Highway signs in America say things like "No Shoulder". British signs say things like "Please take caution if you pull off on the side of the road because we have interfered with your driving abilities and removed the shoulder on this little stretch of road. We are so sorry and truly hope we don't cause you any inconvenience."

3. I know why British people are generally pasty white except for a small oval around their eyes. It is so cold here that you have to be covered up complete with scarf wrapped around your head, thus creating an opening to the elements only around the eyes.

4. I haven't actually done any research to support this, but I think a higher percentage of the British population (as compared to, say, the Hawaiian population) must suffer from rickets because I don't think that little aforementioned oval opening around the eyes is sufficient for Vitamin D absorption from the sun. They do have awfully good and fresh milk here, so maybe they get enough of the vitamin from that.

5. When we arrived at our cottage on Sunday afternoon, it just appeared magical. Except in my dreams, "magical" is more hot than cold and this cottage was cold. Turns out they have the thermostat set on a timer that only comes on TWICE A DAY. We obviously had to remedy that because it's been below freezing more than above, and I would have died, literally. I do not suffer the cold well or quietly. Jimmy assured me we'd just pay a heat surcharge if necessary, which gave me the permission I needed to flip that little thermostat button from "Timer" to "ON". It's so lovely and toasty warm in here now. We have a fire going for ambience and I don't have to wear my coat, hat and gloves in the house nor do I see my breath when I exhale.

6. Now I'm not British, despite my new accent, but I think any self-respecting British cottage should have a tea strainer gadget in the kitchen. Monique and Donald gave us this lovely basket from Fortnum & Mason that had all the fixings for afternoon tea. So I decided to make afternoon tea today and couldn't find a tea strainer thing anywhere. I don't really know how those work anyway but I know I need one for loose tea. So I made the tea in the French press that we've been using for morning coffee and it was excellent. Maybe that's how the modern British people do it?

7. We went to Warwick Castle today that has the most impressive medievel fortress in all of England, along with this fabulous castle. Let me tell you this place was amazing. Parts of this fortress were from the year 900 and something. WHAT? The cottage we're staying in was built in 1710. WHAT? Our cottage was built nearly before the first colonists came to the US. That is so crazy. And it's just one building after another like this. It's one giant history lesson.

8. We visited Stratford-upon-Avon yesterday and toured Shakespeare's birthplace and Anne Hathaway's cottage. Anne, as you'll recall from high school English, was Shakespeare's wife. I believe a trip to England to see these places should be requisite for all students studying Shakespeare because your appreciation level goes way up. I might just take up studying Shakespeare again because I've been so inspired. (Do they still sell Cliff notes?)

9. I learned at Warwick Castle today that Winston Churchill's mother was courted by and later married a man much younger than she. The man's name? Thomas (or James or something) Cornwallis West. As some of you know, my maiden name was West and I do believe this means I'm a direct descendant of Churchill's mother's husband. That means Winston Churchill and I are step-relatives of some sort. In fact, I think this makes me almost royalty, but let's just call it genuine royalty. Jimmy said this makes sense since I grew up near Queenie Road. Now I just need to get people to treat me as such.

More to follow...

we have arrived

After a much-anticipated battle with the Delta agent over overweight luggage (I knew we were overweight and wanted to pay the 3rd bag charge of $50 without having to actually move 13 pounds of goods into the 3rd bag and she said no. To which I said, "this makes no sense at all. Doesn't Delta want to save the space taken up by the 3rd suitcase?" To which she responded and I quote, "Delta isn't concerned with space, they only want to make money." To which I stalked off to the car, leaving my 7 year-old boy in the airport guarding 113 pounds of suitcases plus 2 carry-ons plus 2 backpacks. He was playing with his DSi so anybody could have hauled off all our worldly possessions and he probably wouldn't have noticed.

But I digress.

We have arrived in London. And we were met by Jimmy at Heathrow who, as his first Christmas present to us, shaved off his Grizzly Adams beard. Wow, what a treat. He says it was a Christmas gift to us, but you and I know it's a Christmas present for himself because he gets more kisses from his favorite people (that's us) when he's sans Grizzly Adams beard.

Then our second Christmas present was splurging on a cab to haul us and all our worldly possessions back to the Maynard's house, where we're staying for a few nights, instead of taking the bus and then a shorter cab. Riding in a black London cab seems so civilized.

Then our third Christmas present was getting to catch up in person with the Maynards, who we know from Brasilia days. The Maynards are some of the funniest people I know and it was a fun evening of seeing them in person instead of talking via Vonage or Facebook.

Our fourth Christmas present came in the form of snow last night. Oh my goodness. Georgia, the Maynard's oldest daughter, came flying down the stairs and yelled that it was snowing. Well we acted like a bunch of South Carolinians do at the first flake spotting. We all ran outside, without proper clothing on. Mac had so much fun. They threw snowballs and made merry. Not surprisingly, we were the only people out on the street at 9pm in the snow. I guess people accustomed to snow know it's just more of the same. We, however, had to make hay while the sun was shining, so to speak.

Today, Mac, Jimmy and I went to the London Dungeon, which is scary as all get-out. It's listed as a good kid's attraction, which I imagine it would be if your child likes haunted houses and blood and guts and things of that nature. I was scared to death. We have a very good photo that I will post later but it shows the fear and angst and horror that we all felt by the end. After it was over, Mac declared it the most fun ever. I define "fun" otherwise. But I'm trying to play my cards right so that this will "earn" me a shopping trip or high tea somewhere.

Afterwards we went to the Burroughs Market which was delightful and delicious and fun, until we all got so cold that all we wanted to do was come back home and get warm. So now Jimmy and Mac are playing the Wii, and I'm typing. Sort of a normal winter's afternoon scene. And just what we wanted for this vacation.

More to come...

snowing in London today!