A slow Sunday with a hike on along the clifftop

We're easing into vacation today with a nice, slow start.  After sleeping in, we walked a bit around the house and grabbed some photos.  It is very windy and raining all over this area today and worse up here on this hilltop farm, so I didn't stay out too long.

The line of cottages, in the old barn

The lane up to the farm

We are in cottage #2, the old cow shed

the view from the hot tub is pretty fantastic--see that big wood plank on the lid?  It (and bungee cords) are needed to keep the lid from blowing away.

 It was in this early morning time period that we also discovered that something was amiss with the hot water--showers blasted out about 30 seconds of scalding water and then went stone cold.  I sent an email, and we thought if we had not heard a response by lunch we would call---when we walked out to head to the store, the owner was already out looking into it as the other rented cottage had the same issue, and they had already put in a call to a plumber.  They kindly offered use of their own shower in the man house, and later realized one cottage worked properly and unlocked that for us to use.  By mid afternoon the issue was fixed completely and the owner was stopping by to be sure things were working as the plumber had said.  No one wants to have an issue when travelling, but I have to say I was impressed with how well and how quickly this was handled.

After speaking with the owner as he looked into the shower problem mid morning, we headed to the local Tesco grocery store to pick up some things for lunch and dinner and some general breakfast and snack items to have around the house.  Being able to shop on a Sunday is a very clear reminder that we "are not in Germany anymore, Toto."  The open 24 hours sign out front just served to reinforce that.

British grocery stores amaze me.  German stores carry more ready made items with each passing year, but the majority of food sold in our local Rewe or Edeka is still a basic ingredient (fruit, vegetable, meet, cheese, grain, etc).  US stores have considerably more ready made or boxed (partially made) items, and British stores (both up North last August and now here in the South today) have more than anywhere I have seen.   I would hate living with that, but for a week of vacation it is kind of fun to peruse all the many premade foods, grab a few and enjoy a reasonably decent tasting meal  (better than fast food but certainly not homemade) with almost no effort for a fraction of the cost of eating out as a family.

Here is what we ended up with for lunch: a rotisserie chicken, mashed potatoes, cauliflower in cheese sauce, salad and a chicken masala dish for Dave who doesn't care for rotisserie chicken---all told that came in at 11 pounds.

After lunch we bundled up (well, all except Rio who hates wind and loves British game shows and opted to stay at the cottage) and drove a bit further west to do some hiking along the famed coastal area known as The Gower.  We spent about two hours walking along the cliff tops, in some very serious wind, the kind of wind that can making walking into it difficult, my New Hampshire readers will know what I mean when I say it was "top of Mount Washington" wind.  It was cold but pretty.

Once back home,  the wind had calmed down to tolerable, so we took a soak in the hot tub to warm up after all that time in the worst of the gales, before heading in for our frozen pizza and premade salad dinner (I told you we bought all the premade junk!) and now we are comfortably settled in with a fire going in the woodstove, while we play checkers and watch a movie.

All in all it was a very nice, unwinding kind of day.  Tomorrow will be a bit busier--we will head into Cardiff where we have prebooked tickets to the Doctor Who experience.

--Hadley

A lovely adventure making our way from Calais to Swansea today

We are spending the first half of our Easter break in the UK this year (mostly in Wales).  This is Marika's last year living in Europe, before she heads to university in the US this summer, so we are trying to hit some of her top destinations on trips-- and being the nerd that she is, she has wanted to go to the Doctor Who Experience and the Harry Potter Studio Tour, and thus the trip was planned.

Dave was able to take yesterday off and we pulled Rio from school a bit early (after his math test) so that we could get on the road and drive to the ferry port of Calais yesterday before it got too late.  The drive went without incident and the only "glitch" was upon arrival--both the car's navi system and google maps said our prebooked hotel was located in a bit of a sketchy part of town, where there was no hotel to be found (though we suspect the apartment building in the area might have been an apartment at one point).
Reading through the reservation email more carefully, we found another address which turned out to be correct and then we were all set to check into the Calais Ibis (not to be confused with the smaller, Ibis Budget from our last crossing).  It was a nice hotel for the money.  Cute, clean, a little sitting space by the windows, free gated parking and friendly staff.  I would certainly stay there again.

We were on the 10:45 ferry crossing--so we could sleep in a bit, found a pastry shop to stock up on goodies to munch on as breakfast while crossing (really, you must have pastries if you wake up in France, right?).  Once we had our goodies, we drove over to the ferry port, only a few minutes from the hotel.

Step one is to drive by the border control agents, where you show your passports and answer a few questions.  Then you drive on to the entry lanes for your specific ferry line (we were on P&O again; we liked them the last time so we thought we should stick with them), where you give them your booking number, are given a hang tag for the front mirror and told what lane to drive up to to await boarding.  We were sent up to 169, being on the early side we were among the very first to drive on once that time arrived.  We had a bit of time though, so we (and many others) left the car in line and walked over to the small building that had restrooms and vending machines for coffee, hot chocolate and the like (most for 1€).  We amused ourselves by playing "guess the nationality" as other groups came through.

Here are some photos of the process--I find it so fascinating; they really empty and refill the ferries so very quickly.

Cars waiting in line while their owners get a drink, stretch, etc

The trucks start driving on first, coming in from behind the cars

When those trucks start moving, everyone else heads back towards their cars

Driving up the main ramp

and then routed onto the smaller side ramp

We had not bought the premium lounge passes this time.  That was a good thing, this crossing was not at all full and there was plenty of space to sit and enjoy in the main lounges.  Here are the kids with those pastries we picked up earlier in the morning.

It was rainy, foggy and the water was a bit choppy as you can see off the front bow there.

It was too foggy to get much of a view of those White Cliffs as we came into Dover.

But when we were driving off you could see them a bit.

A friend had recommended a pub near Leeds Castle called The George.  We arrived at Dover at 11:15 (so, 12:15 in the time zone we are used to--and by the way, we have a nice little bonus, tonight is "spring forward" time in Europe, so that effectively cancels out the time change and we more or less skip the annoying daylight savings thing this year!).  Anyway, the area around Leeds Castle is about an hour from the port, and on our way towards Swansea, so we thought that would be a nice place to stop for lunch as we headed across England towards Wales.  On the ferry I had been given a free half hour of internet and looked up the pub to get the address and check the menu.

It wasn't until we saw the exit for Leeds Castle and still had 15 minutes left to drive that we realized I must have found the wrong The George--but we decided we might as well try it; the website looked good and we are nearly always up for an adventure.  Which is how, after a series of small roads and tight lanes (including having to stop the car in the widest spot we could find and allow some riders to walk their horses past, we ended up here:

They had a nice little outdoor area that would be great on a sunny day.  It was a very Pooh like blustery day though, so it was empty:

It was an adorable little place, pretty much in the middle of nowhere, but with a pretty steady stream of local customers (and a nice staff who all seemed a bit puzzled as to how on earth we ended up there).

Rio making a face because he had already finished his ginger ale and had nothing to toast with

The food was all delicious, and the servings quite large.  Dave got a large appetizer combo, Marika had fish pie, Rio had sausages with eggs and chips and I had fish and chips of course.  I think that is the entire cod on my plate:

They also had excellent, very creamy, ice cream.  We can all highly recommend the toffee chip and butterscotch.  Oh YUM.  Prices were not bad for what it was: a bit under 80 pound with tip for four large meals, wine, cider, two sodas and four ice creams.  Not cheap but not at all overpriced for what it was either.

So, I can most certainly recommend going to the "wrong" The George  if you are near Leeds Caste and have a hire car to get there:

http://www.thegeorgekent.co.uk/

Maybe we will have a chance to try the "right" one on our way home.

We had debated spending the small fortune needed to go to Stonehenge (and prebuying timed tickets, which worried us because traffic is so hard to predict).  Luckily, I posted about our quandary on faceobok and our friend Sara chimed in to tell me that the circles at Avebury are also excellent, cheaper and far less crowded.   Being both frugal and crowd adverse, we set course for Avebury.

Before we got there, we drove through the very cute little town of Marlborough, where we just couldn't help but stop and walk around a bit enjoying the scenery:

Before leaving, we were drawn into a little cake and ice cream shop down at the end of a narrow street, for tea, scones, cake and ice cream (depending on who you were--I had the tea, keeping with that quintessential British theme).  The little shop was called Applebys, and much more pleasant than the American chain of a similar name (Applebees) lol  If you ever find yourself in Marlborough, I would suggest stopping in.  Their lunch menu looked good too, with homemade soups and crusty bread for 3.95.  

Avebury was only another 20 minutes down the road.  Whereas Stonehenge would have cost us 86 pounds to enter the area (and the stones themselves are fenced off and only view-able from a distance, I am told) and there would have surely been many fellow tourists, Avebury only charges 3 pound for the carpark and you can walk right up around the stones, and very few people were out there with us.  And it was pretty dang cool (I am sure Stonehenge, with its visitors center, museum, etc also has its merits).  Avebury was one large circle with two smaller ones inside.  Here are several photos from our visit:

From there, we drove on another two hours to arrive at our oh so adorable rental cottage: we couldn't be happier with it:

Overall, our vacation is off to a lovely start with a whole string of little adventures today as we made our way across the channel and across the nation.  

--Hadley