3 May 2009
We’re doing a bit of catch up here. The kids had a two-week break from school around Easter -- the week before and the week after. The first week of the break Heidi and the kids kept mostly busy here around the house. We loaded up the car Thursday night, and we took off early Friday morning for the 4 hour drive to Calais, France where we had a reservation for around 11:30 for the train. We got there a few minutes early, with just enough time to go into the little shop they have there, grab some sandwiches and drinks for lunch, then we drove the car onto the train for the 30 minute trip to Dover, England. When we got to Dover, we drove to a park where you could walk along and see the cliffs. It took a little while to get accustomed to driving on the opposite side of the road, but I found it much easier than driving in Australia and New Zealand, probably because I was driving my car with the steering wheel on the left hand side. It is far more difficult for me to drive with the steering wheel on the right side of the car, because it is difficult to judge where I am within the lane (all I remember from driving in NZ and Australia was Heidi telling me I was drifting over to the left, either off the road or into the other lane).
After Dover, we drove to Stonehenge. Yes, it is just a bunch of big rocks, but they have a fairly interesting audio guide that explains the history and the geometry, etc. of it all.
We went to Bath, did a tour of the Roman Baths, then went on a walking tour with a guide and saw several of the sites around town, and enjoyed hearing about the history of Bath. We left in the early afternoon to head back to our hotel and to do some shopping at an outlet mall, and were glad we did because as we left Bath the roads coming into Bath were packed -- it was backed up for miles.
We also drove from that area through the countryside and made a couple of stops at some towns in the Cotswolds before arriving at Stratford-upon-Avon. Instead of touring several of the homes around town that are tangentially related to William Shakespeare (not a whole lot is really known about his life or the about the time when he lived in Stratford -- just a lot of educated guesses), we did a walking tour, which was pretty interesting. We saw his birthplace, his school, the site where he had a home (which is now gone), the church where he is buried, and a few other sites. The boys and I ended up renting a row boat for an hour (those things are harder to control than it looks, as the boys found out). Lets also just say that a few of the boys were a little wet by the end of it. Heidi and Mallory waited at a park on the bank, and apparently Mallory put on a little song & dance show on the picnic table for everyone to watch.
We went to Warwick Castle one day, and had a good time seeing the inside of the castle, as well as all of the people dressed up in costumes, doing demonstrations, re-enactments of the War of the Roses, etc.
We drove up to northern Wales and stayed at a Bed & Breakfast just outside of Conwy. We checked in, then walked into downtown and found a place to get burgers and fish & chips. We went back the next morning and walked around the walls of the city, saw the castle, and then we drove about 30 minutes south into Snowdonia National Park and went on a hike up and around a lake. After 3 days of cities, tours, castles, etc., it was a good change of pace to get outdoors and do some hiking.
After hiking we drove a few hours east and checked into another B&B in York. Following the same pattern we had for the last few days, we got into town in the late afternoon, then went into the downtown area in the evening, got something to eat, and looked around for a bit. The next morning we came back and saw more of the city, including the ruins of an Abbey destroyed in the 1500’s. We also went to the Jorvik Viking Center, which had a museum showing several exhibits from the Viking period, and then a 15 minute ride where you sit in a little car on a track and it takes you past statues of people showing life as it would have been in a Viking village in the 800’s - 900’s. They tried to make it authentic, by pumping in air with an unpleasant smell. They made the point about the fact that they didn’t have any means of sanitation in that time period, so everything just stunk. But the smell they put into that room was putrid. It was almost unbearable.
We left that afternoon to go to London, where we had rented an apartment right on Charing Cross road near Leicester square. We stayed for 4 nights, walked a lot, took the tube a lot, ate Cornish pasties, fish & chips, and all of the other things tourists do.
All in all, it was a great trip. I feel like we were always rushing from place to place. We could have spent more time in several of the castles, museums, etc. (several times we had to pull the kids away from whatever they were looking at), but the Miller in me kept us moving, trying to make sure we didn’t miss anything.
Millers in Shanghai
