After the company away day and dinner on Thursday night, Erin and I started packing our bags at 11pm to get ready for our 6:25am flight to Berlin. After 3 hours of sleep the alarm went off at 3:30 and Dick, Erin and I were off to get in a cab at 3:45am to Liverpool Station. We safely arrived at Liverpool by 4:15, plenty of time to get on the 4:25am train to Stansted airport. After arriving at Stansted, we got our boarding cards and proceeded to security. The line was one of the longest I'd ever seen...snaking throughout the airport, but we were relatively close to the front of the middle...should be fine. After waiting in security for an unbearable 60 minutes, we made it to the gate at 6:27am for our 6:25am flight. Huffing and puffing with about 12 other people who ran from the tram to the gate, we all saw the plane pulling away from the gate. Missed the flight by mere seconds, even though we did everything right to get there on time...no oversleeping, no stopping for coffee perfect early morning trip. After getting back through security the opposite way and going to "customer service" Ha! We were told that there was another flight Saturday morning at the same 6:25am and we could buy new tickets for 200 pounds each. Afterall "we cannot be responsible for the airport security...we don't have to defend our policy to give no refunds...we're Ryan Air". And, we will never be flying Ryan Air again.
Completely exhausted, angry, deflated, confused...we sat in the airport contemplating what to do next. We looked at all of the airlines and found no flights to Berlin for less than 200 pounds. We decided it would be kinda stupid to pay another $1500 for us all to go to Berlin. Rather than going home to go back to bed we figured we were already packed, so we may as well go somewhere. So we walked over to Budget car rental and rented a car. Why not take a tour of the English countryside....plus I can now learn how to drive on the left side of the road.
Our first stop was Cambridge, a mere 30 minutes from Stanted airport. We figured we could stop there and get a book on England, have breakfast and coffee and plot our course. Cambridge was certainly a beautiful town with all of the colleges of the university. We were fortunate that despite the rain on the drive up, the skies opened up and we enjoyed a beautiful mid-day in Cambridge. I even pulled my best impression of my dad by managing to get a quick nap in in the middle of the bookstore and again on the punts on the canal behind all of the buildings.
With my two short naps, I was ready to go. Next stop Stratford on Avon, home of the Bard. Erin worked the books and phones and found a new hotel for us to stay in. We arrived in Stratford aroung 5pm and all felt that if we napped before dinner we were done for the night. Instead we checked into the White Swan in, an inn since before the Americas were founded (1450), right in the middle of town. We had a hard time finding it though because it was in the center of a town carnival with rides galore. After dinner, we rode the bumper cars about five times, all three of us laughing like 5 year olds as we slammed into each other. Dick and I also went on a ride that was a small steel cage hooked to two bungy cords stretched 100 feet in the air that shot the cage straight up like a cannon. Erin took a video which I will figure out how to attach. It was a blast...
After a solid 12 hours of sleep, we toured Stratford on the common double decker tour bus, and toured the birthplace of Shakespeare. Next we were back in the car to figure out where to go next. First stop was the Warwick Castle. This was an amazing midevil castle run by the Tausaud's so the castle was filled with wax figures. I thought it was a little weird with the figures, but it was a very cool castle. One of the highlights was a giant Trebuchet set-up out on the lawn where we got to witness them shoot a flaming ball about 1/4 mile. We'll try to attach the video of that as well.
Next stop was the Cotswolds. We piled back in our right hand drive car and started cruising around the Cotswolds (english for cute little towns in idyllic settings). We stayed in the tiny town of Witney at a great little hotel. While we were checking in the restaurant looked fantastic so we all went up to rest for a minute before heading down to eat. Unfortunately, the restaurant was booked solid until 10:15p (it was about 7 now). But they gave us a few recommendations in town (english, thai and Indian). First stop english, booked. Next thai...booked. next indian...booked. There were only about 5 restaurants in town, all booked solid. Just before we were to settle on the "American Pizza/chicken/kabob" house, we went down one more street. There we found a hotel with a dining room...and a few open tables. The service was absolutely horrible, and fortunately they overheard me talking about it. Midway through we got the most attentive service and they redeemed their previously long-lost tip.
Sunday was spent touring Oxford. Another beautiful college town with very old buildings, many featured in Harry Potter books. I loved seeing the pub that has been open since 1242. We all really liked Oxford but agree with everyone who said Cambridge is nicer. It is. After Oxford we went to Blenheim Palace, birthplace of Winston Churchill. Unbelievable. Definitely one of the nicest palaces we've ever been to. The rooms were amazing, it was in great shape...Beautiful.
The last adventure of the weekend was figuring out how to navigate small english towns to take "backroads" to Stansted to return the car. We'd heard so many horror stories about driving back through London, that we did what we could to avoid it. Unfortunately our map was terrible, but we had a good adventure of it all.
All-in-all a fantastic weekend...but now we need to plan another trip to Berlin. And apologize to Mary Core and her friend (who we were to meet there) who did get to enjoy Berlin.
Ted
Photos
Monday, October 23, 2006
Tuesday, October 17, 2006
Lots of company
Finally Amy Faber emailed me today to demand an update to the blog...and ask what happened to the pictures. Amy, this update's for you.
We've been busy with visitors for the last few weeks. The day after Brian left Kevin and Katie Davis from Hitachi spent the night here on their return to Seattle from France. The next day my Mom and her friend Linda arrived.
We had a great visit with them including a big tour of our favorite spots in London. They learned how to use the Nespresso maker, ate shwarmas, went to the flower market, saw a play, rode the big bus around london...ate more...walked more. One of the highlights was dropping in on a little Yemeni place for dinner. You may be surprised, but that was my first Yemeni restuarant experience. The other surprise was that Erin, Ma and Linda were the only three women in the entire restaurant that was packed with Yemeni's. Linda coined it "No Womeni, Yemeni" (which sounds funny if you say it quickly). It was really great to have them here. Always great to get a little dose of home and make sure your mother knows where you live.
Not long after all of them left, Erin's dad Dick arrived in London. He arrived on Thursday last week. The highlight of the trip so far was that we all went and saw Spamalot on Saturday. For those of you who don't know, it is based on Monty Python's Holy Grail. It was fantastic from start to finish. The star of the show was Tim Curry (of Rocky Horror Picture Show fame). See it if you get the chance.
The next big adventure is this weekend when the three of us get on a 6:05am flight (from Stansted; a couple of hours by tube and train away) to Berlin. I can't wait, I've wanted to go to Berlin for a long time. It will be fun to have Dick along too who hasn't been to Berlin since 1959...I bet it's changed...
We're now planning our next big adventure as well. November's big trip is going to be to Iceland! I know what you're thinking, "Iceland in November?" Reykjavik is actually home to countless hot springs and spas. We see it as a restful place to relax, eat and drink... Admit it, it sounds nice. Here is a link to the Blue Lagoon which convinced us to go.
As you can see, I've also updated the photos. I hope you like. If you read all this, drop me a line, or add a comment. It's fun to know who's reading. I do have a site tracker and can see the city of people visiting and how they found the page. The best so far was someone who googled "Kirsten Nesholm" and found our page. Kirsten, you have a stalker!!
Look forward to talking more soon,
Ted
We've been busy with visitors for the last few weeks. The day after Brian left Kevin and Katie Davis from Hitachi spent the night here on their return to Seattle from France. The next day my Mom and her friend Linda arrived.
We had a great visit with them including a big tour of our favorite spots in London. They learned how to use the Nespresso maker, ate shwarmas, went to the flower market, saw a play, rode the big bus around london...ate more...walked more. One of the highlights was dropping in on a little Yemeni place for dinner. You may be surprised, but that was my first Yemeni restuarant experience. The other surprise was that Erin, Ma and Linda were the only three women in the entire restaurant that was packed with Yemeni's. Linda coined it "No Womeni, Yemeni" (which sounds funny if you say it quickly). It was really great to have them here. Always great to get a little dose of home and make sure your mother knows where you live.
Not long after all of them left, Erin's dad Dick arrived in London. He arrived on Thursday last week. The highlight of the trip so far was that we all went and saw Spamalot on Saturday. For those of you who don't know, it is based on Monty Python's Holy Grail. It was fantastic from start to finish. The star of the show was Tim Curry (of Rocky Horror Picture Show fame). See it if you get the chance.
The next big adventure is this weekend when the three of us get on a 6:05am flight (from Stansted; a couple of hours by tube and train away) to Berlin. I can't wait, I've wanted to go to Berlin for a long time. It will be fun to have Dick along too who hasn't been to Berlin since 1959...I bet it's changed...
We're now planning our next big adventure as well. November's big trip is going to be to Iceland! I know what you're thinking, "Iceland in November?" Reykjavik is actually home to countless hot springs and spas. We see it as a restful place to relax, eat and drink... Admit it, it sounds nice. Here is a link to the Blue Lagoon which convinced us to go.
As you can see, I've also updated the photos. I hope you like. If you read all this, drop me a line, or add a comment. It's fun to know who's reading. I do have a site tracker and can see the city of people visiting and how they found the page. The best so far was someone who googled "Kirsten Nesholm" and found our page. Kirsten, you have a stalker!!
Look forward to talking more soon,
Ted
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