Editors Correction!!

Thanks to my UK editor, Roni Green, for informing me that I have been going on and on about the beautiful fields of yellow GRAPE seed flowers when, in fact, they are RAPE seed flowers! I guess I am not picking up all the nuances of the English accent yet...thanks Roni :)

Knights, Royalty and Shakespeare - All in a Day!

Today we set out for Warwick Castle (Mike has a thing for castles) and once again, getting there was half the fun. Our country drives are definitely going to become a habit. I just love the charming Cotswold villages and rolling farmland everywhere. We passed through several villages that will require a return trip so we can wander through the high street and look in the shops. For the record, they are Stow-on-the-Wold, Moreton-in-Marsh and Burford.

Warwick is a larger but equally charming town. We wandered through the narrow streets and peeked into St. Mary's church on our walk to Warwick Castle. As we entered the castle grounds we found ourselves in an environment not unlike the Renaissance Festival.

We were enticed to take a Dungeon Tour. I passed on this at the last minute but Mike went ahead and found it a bit hokey. I did visit the Gaol to see how prisoners were treated and it was pretty chilling stuff! Throughout the castle the staff was dressed in period costumes and on the grounds you could try your hand at archery. Ownership of this castle has changed hands several times and at one point was owned by Madame Tussauds so there were wax figures of past castle residents positioned throughout the living quarters with recordings of their stories. The theme of the day seemed to be high society adultery! Apparently they were quite the swingers behind closed doors.

We climbed to the towers where you could see for miles in every direction. The fields of yellow flowers on the grape seed plants where everywhere and, while we were up there, the eagles being trained on the castle grounds below soared past us within just a few yards - pretty cool!

On our way home we drove to Stratford-upon-Avon and had just enough time to tour through William Shakespeares birthplace. This was actually a really interesting tour and gave lots of information about his life and how his family lived. Our entrance tickets are good for several other important houses in Stratford so we will be going back. History aside, Stratford-upon-Avon had some seriously tempting boutiques that will need to be explored too!

Hopefully tomorrow (Tuesday) is move-in day. I am so ready to have my own kitchen so we can cook our own meals. It will also be nice to do laundry. An interesting note is that the washing machine is generally located in the kitchen in the homes that we toured - just under the counter like the dishwasher. Most homes do not have clothes dryers so we will have to get a hanging rack. If all goes as planned, we will get settled and then head home for Megan and Amy's graduation celebrations on Wednesday!

Cheers...

Day Trip to London

After a week finalizing housing arrangements and taking care of other business around Swindon, we are making the most of our weekend. Today we hopped the train to London for the day. First stop, Leicester Square for discounted theater tickets. We had every intention of walking to St. Paul's Cathedral but it was VERY cold - can it really be May here?!! We made it about 1/2 way and then hopped on the tube.

Having tried on two previous trips to make it to St. Paul's Cathedral, we finally went in and it was worth the wait. We explored from top to bottom, quite literally. After touring the ornate Nave, Dome and Quire areas, we climbed up 257 steps to the Whispering Gallery that circles the dome from above. From here you have a birds eye view of the Cathedral below. A whisper spoken against one wall of the Gallery can be heard on the other side of the Dome. We were up there with a bunch of school children so I would say it was a little louder than a whisper up there today! From this level we continued to climb another 119 steps to the Stone Gallery on the outside of the dome. This set of steps was up a winding and narrow stone passageway with no open windows and people in front of and behind us. If you know me, you know that I am the one who climbed out of the MRI enclosure, so it was all I could do to appear calm, cool and collected in that situation! Again, the climb rewarded us with a spectacular vantage point. We peered through the stone enclosure to view London in every direction. My hiking buddies would have loved this climb and we went still further up another 152 steps to the Golden Gallery. This is an unobstructed, 360 degree view of London and I don't think the pictures do it justice.

Before leaving we climbed back down to the Cathedral floor and headed down to the Crypt holding the tombs and memorials of many important people from British history. And no journey through a famous landmark would be complete without being funneled through the gift shop and cafeteria on your way out!

Next stop, Apollo Victoria Theater to see Wicked. I LOVED this show last year when I saw it at this very same theater with Megan. Mike had not had a chance to see it yet so what the heck...it was still fantastic the second time around! Afterward we avoided the tube because there was a track closure that made every line extremely crowded (enough with the claustrophobic situations for one day) so we walked past Buckingham Palace and through Green Park before heading up Piccadilly - great shopping in this area! At this point we really were just wandering until we found a place that looked interesting for dinner. We got lucky in Covent Gardens. We ate at a place with a lame name (Cafe Pasta) but fantastic food. It was full and WARM so we figured it was a good bet at this point. A couple of glasses of wine, hot soup, seafood salad, dessert and hot tea was just the ticket. I have to say that we have fallen into this terrible habit of ordering sinful desserts for every dinner. It will be good for our wallet and our waistline when we move out of this hotel and into our own place!

All in all a great day.

Bank Holiday Weekend

Well, last weekend was a UK Bank Holiday weekend and it seemed clear to us that not much would happen with our realtor during this coveted holiday so we set off to explore the Cotswolds a bit. Here is a recap of a blog post I did for work...


A Day in Cirencester – Capital of the Cotswolds

Despite having been to London several times and making sure to cover all of the ‘must see’ landmarks, museums, theater…the list goes on. I have never had the time or opportunity to explore the English countryside beyond that until now.

Chances are you haven’t heard too much about Swindon, but we discovered that it is ideally situated to explore the unique character of the Cotswold landscape. With a car at our disposal and a free weekend in front of us, we took off traveling mostly country roads and meandered our way to a charming town called Cirencester. Along the way we passed through rolling hills with timber and stone farms tucked in here and there. We witnessed walkers trekking along remote walking paths with a pack and a walking stick, and we travelled through tiny villages with quaint stone cottages that seemed to have come out of a fairy tale. As a kid, I have painful memories of loading into my grandfather’s big old Lincoln for a Sunday drive through the countryside and I can honestly say that I didn’t think I would ever get around to enjoying a car ride just for the scenery but, in this case, getting there was more than half the fun!

Upon arriving in Cirencester we were delighted to find a well preserved and bustling old Roman market town. The town center has a beautiful church, Church of St John Baptist, overlooking the main street that is in the process of a restoration. It borders on Cirencester Park, a surprisingly large park hidden in the middle of town and surrounded by beautiful old wool merchant homes and Cotswold cottages. The town center is lined with one of a kind boutiques, cafes, restaurants and pubs. Although this is a small town, you can get lost wandering up and down the narrow streets lined with stone buildings. We found markets tucked away in the most unexpected places along the way.

Surprisingly, Cirencester used to serve as the Roman capital of England and is known as the capitol of the Cotswolds. A visit to the Corinium Museum helped us get familiar with Cirencester’s history as an important producer of Roman mosaic art work and features excavated objects depicting life in a Roman household. This museum is a must see. Another typically English activity is afternoon tea and we particularly enjoyed taking ‘tea and cake’ at a popular place called Made by Bob. It was worth the wait!

Exploring Offscript

It is amazing to me how much you miss when you navigate new areas by following directions.

Friday I set off on foot to explore the area and get a better sense of what it would feel like to live close by and I was amazed at the neighborhoods and green space tucked away off of the beaten path.

I found a wooded trail off Marlborough Road that immediately enveloped me in nature only steps from a heavily traveled area. Following this path let to different neighborhoods and eventually to a large open park area called Lakeside. I found this park to be an ideal cut through to Old Town that took me by a beautiful old church and cemetery, a lake, several crisscrossing bike paths and lots of birds and beautiful blooming gardens.

As a bonus for my wanderings, I found a flat for let and the agent happened to pull up while I was walking by and offered to show me through. It gave me a completely different perspective to the kinds of properties we viewed Thursday. This one was unfurnished which may, in fact, end up being a good option. Next step...check into furniture!

I had big plans for Friday afternoon but, after a quick trip to The Cooperative Food store, I started browsing the internet for housing and was asleep for 3 hours! At least I was rested for the night (but that actually consisted of another super long walk all over Old Town with Mike). Tomorrow we will have to take a break from the house hunting...

First Impressions

Day 2 in the UK and here comes the rain everyone was talking about! On the plus side, EVERYTHING is blooming here. Beautiful gardens and parks are full of tulips, blooming cherry trees and other colorful things that I cannot identify. The rolling countryside, or Downs as they seem to be referred to locally, are blanketed in yellow flowers that apparently are grape seed used to make oil. I'm so glad we got here when we did. A few weeks later and we would likely have missed that bit of color.

The house hunting today was a mixed bag. There is not too much available for a relatively short lease that is furnished. We found a couple of possibilities but I am inclined to hold out for some options in Cirencester. If we opt to stay in Swindon, we found a charming home in the Old Town area and another home that is a short walk to work for Mike and just around the corner from a beautiful area to walk, ride bikes and even play golf. Stay tuned on that...

Another development today is that we changed hotels and Mike can now easily walk to work. That should make the one car situation easier for the time being. We're off to dinner now - STARVING! Until tomorrow...

Cheers from the UK

Well, it is a new year since the last time I posted and definitely a new adventure. We have just arrived in Swindon, Wiltshire, UK for a 6 month Intel assignment and have spent the last 24 hours learning to navigate and get connected.

Kudos to Mike for getting us around Swindon last night; without a map, in rush hour traffic, while driving on the 'wrong' side of the road. I didn't appreciate that feat until I had to drop him at work this morning and do the driving myself. Swindon boasts the largest roundabout in England with one main circle surrounded by five smaller ones. You could seriously get lost (and dizzy) in there.

After a short time I felt confident enough to go touring the countryside to visit nearby towns that might make a good home base. Upon the recommendation of one of Mike's new colleagues, I headed to Cirencester today and had a ball. It is a charming, historic town in the Cotswolds. I roamed the narrow streets for a couple of hours poking my head into the many unique shops, grabbing a snack at Marks & Spencer & walking on the wide open green space behind the beautiful church in the center of town. We'll see how the house hunting goes tomorrow, but Cirencester is DEFINITELY on the short list.

Today's outing also led to the successful acquisition of a UK mobile phone and (after lots of frustration over an ISP outage) an internet connection to post this blog and connect with my family. Before I knew what hit me it was time to get back in the car and go get Mike again. I only actually got in the wrong side of the car once. It was embarrassing to hop in and realize there was no steering wheel in front of me - did I just admit that?!

We decided to wander through Old Town Swindon and look for an interesting place to eat dinner and we stumbled upon a place called Los Gatos Spanish Tapas Bar & Grill. This is clearly a town favorite and we were lucky enough to be there before 7pm, as every table was reserved after that. We are already planning a return trip on Tuesday to try the many items on the menu we haven't yet tasted and listen to the live music. Tonight we relaxed with a bottle of red wine (Mike would know the name - I just know it did the trick). The owner suggested several of the house favorites including pork meatballs, roasted beets with an amazing sauce, a shrimp dish, chorizo, an egg dish with salmon and asparagus, and a house specialty that tasted something like ham and potatoes.

All in all, the first 24 hours in England was a success. I believe 6 months will go by very fast so we will have to make the most of every minute. We would love to have visitors so give us a shout if you are interested.