Well, I can't seem to get in the mood for writing up a complete trip report, so I'll just post what I wrote after our first day in London. But first, here are some pictures (hover over pictures to see descriptions, or click the photos to see larger versions):
London
Mad cows of Ufford
Summerhill
Lowestoft on the North Sea
Saturday in London
Greetings from Lower Ufford!
Well, the cottage is everything it appears to be in the listing. It's very cozy and private, nicely appointed and clean and pretty. The 800-year-old Ufford Church is just behind us, the 18th-century Dower House is in front, a pink thatched-roof place is to the left, and a rabbit-inhabited shrub-and-grass area and the large Dower House daffodil garden are to the right. Dower House is a family home; there's a swingset and trampoline in their other yard, and their dog Molly greeted us when we arrived. She's very sweet and was thrilled to see us, but she stopped short of coming into the Granary's yard. We found out later that that's training; they don't want her bothering the guests.
But I'm getting ahead of myself. Our day today didn't begin at the Dower House Granary, it began in London. Or in Slough, to be exact. As I said before, the hotel there was fine. We had a nap after arriving from the airport, then went down to the hotel restaurant for dinner. The food was unexceptional, the prices something of a jolt (and I thought I'd prepared myself for London prices). We ate, then went back to our room for Laffy Taffy and Snickers bars (courtesy of Papa Tom) and an early bedtime.
This morning, Chloe popped awake at 6 a.m., so we decided to get on our way. We were packed and checked out and on the road by 7, then I had my first go at driving on England's "motorways" -- aka "freeways" or "expressways" to my American compatriots. Well, motorways are a piece of cake! No roundabouts!!!! And at 7 a.m. on a Saturday, virtually empty. The only trick was remembering that here, it's "Keep *left* except to pass." Washington state drivers would fit right in.
Chloe and I had settled on parking the car at Epping, the end of of the Central Tube (subway) line. Turns out Epping is a quaint little village well outside of town, so navigating and parking were easy. Well, there was one exception: I forgot momentarily that right turns are the turns that require caution and cut right in front of some poor guy. Fortunately, he was alert and quick on the brake pedal, so we escaped mishap. I'm hopeful that the big scare I received has drilled a lesson deep into my tiny little brain.
With that excitement over, we popped into a Shell station to buy something, anything, in order to break a 20-pound note and have change for the Tube carpark (parking lot). We settled on some fabulous "biscuits" -- Jaffa cakes, they're called -- dark-chocolate-frosted cake cookies with orange jelly filling -- and a bottle of chocolate milk. Just the sort of breakfast a growing (in the wrong direction) girl needs.
So, we parked, figured out the Tube ticket dispenser, and got right on a waiting train. The trip to town took about 40 minutes, which we spent reading and being happy, then we climbed up to street level and got our first look at London.
We started off on Oxford Street and on down Regent Street. This is an upscale shopping and business area, with lots of snazzy shop windows to look in. Of course nothing was open yet -- it was about 8:30, I think -- but we had a lovely stroll, watching all the double-decker buses go by, down to Picadilly Circus. That, too, was fairly quiet, relatively speaking, but it's still a bustling area with lots of traffic noise. We took obligatory photos in front of Helios' horses and the central monument (I'm drawing a blank on who that was dedicated to), then continued walking.
Next stop was Trafalgar Square, where we saw some more impressive statues (George IV comes to mind) and took pictures of the National Gallery. One kind of funny thing: One of the lesser statues is of George Washington, donated to Great Britain by the Commonwealth of Virginia. It seems a bit strange for Virginia to have donated a statue of a man that Brits must consider a traitor, but that's us cheeky Americans for ya.
From Trafalgar, we headed up Charing Cross Road. This was one of the highpoints of Chloe's day, because we think we found the entrance to the Leaky Cauldron. It's described in one of the Harry Potter books as being between a book store and a music store, and we found just such a place, in a rather unprepossessing little cubbyhole on the otherwise trendy street. Just the sort of spot those wily wizards would choose to throw us Muggles off.
After a stop for lunch (at 10 a.m.!) at a nice little cafe -- we both had toasted sandwiches, mine cheese and tomato, Chloe's sausage -- we went over to the Piazza at Covent Garden. Loved it! Once upon a time, this series of halls -- huge glass-roofed bays that are mostly open air but lined with enclosed shops -- was home to bustling, crowded fruit and vegetable markets. Nowadays, it's trendy shops and arts and crafts booths, but it's still bustling and crowded. The architecture of the shops is a real treat. We went into one that had archways between rooms that weren't much taller than Chloe.
I imagine Brits take it all in stride, but the age of everything here is really impressive to me. There's a pub still in operation in Covent Garden that was founded in 1623, and the famous Punch and Judy Pub was established in 1787 or so. I remarked at one point that the brick streets off the Piazza are probably older than the USA.
From Covent, we followed my sense of direction (usually a pretty risky thing) and actually ended up right where we wanted to be: on the banks of the Thames. We passed through Victoria Embankment Gardens to come out right at Cleopatra's Needle. Chloe got very excited to see that, too, because it features prominently in the second Bartimaeus book. I got very excited to discover that it's a real Egyptian obelisk, from Alexandria, a treasure that was actually a gift from Egypt, bestowed by Viceroy Mohamed Ali, no less.
We then strolled along the Thames, watching the ferry boats and the big Eye of London mega-ferris wheel while eating soft-serve ice cream cones with yummy chocolate sticks as garnish. We saw a nice monument -- dedicated to those so few who did so much for so many in the Battle of Britain -- the Old War Office and Ministry of Defence (gorgeous, huge old buildings), and arrived at Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament just in time for the noon chimes. We couldn't have timed that better had we planned it!
Westminster Bridge and Great George Street were PACKED. Can't imagine what it must be like during peak tourist season. But we shuffled our way along and went around the other side of the HoP, where we got a nice bobby to pose for a photo with Chloe in front of a triumphant (and yes, Frank, probably misrepresentative) statue of a triumphant Richard the Lion Heart. They incidentally were also posed in front of several gorgeous 30's-era cars that were all parked at the HoP for some reason.
From there, we crossed over to Westminster Abbey. Neither of us was interested enough to stand in line to go inside, so we ducked into adjacent St. Margaret's Church instead. It was lovely and grand, and the organist was practicing, and we got to SIT DOWN for a while. A very pleasant stop. Oh, and our pew was labeled "Members of Parliament" so we got to have delusions of grandeur (?) for a moment.
After our rest and some discussion, we headed up Victoria Street to Buckingham Gate and across to Buckingham Palace to visit the queen. She wasn't "at home" for us unfortunately, so we had to settle for pictures in front of the gates like everybody else. The guards with the big furry hats were too far away to appreciate the way I wanted to, though. :-(
There was one moment of drama at the Queen Victoria Memorial fountain in front of the palace. Some tourist had left his big duffle bag unattended. By the time he came back for it, the cops had cleared the immediate area and gotten on their radios for a bomb squad (I'm guessing). Silly tourist was scolded roundly then sent on his way.
Chloe and I left the palace plaza by walking around the corner along the wall of the palace gardens. It's secure enough, with spikes and barbed wire and on-high motion detectors supplementing 12 or 15 feet of brick wall, but Chloe thought the big trees next to the wall looked climb-able (with some sort of spiked assistance), and from there, she figured she could do the squirrel thing to the trees inside the garden. I think if she were queen, she'd give it a try, except she'd do it to get out of the palace without anyone knowing.
Rounding out our first day in London was a stroll under Wellington Monument (a big arch), then we returned to the Tube and rode back out to Epping and the car.
And then we found our way back to the M11 and out a couple of secondary highways to Lower Ufford. I successfully negotiated about a dozen roundabouts and made only one wrong turn (easily rectified at another roundabout), so I didn't do too badly.
The market in this teensy little village closes at 1 on Saturdays, so we haven't yet stocked up on "self-catering" supplies. That being the case, we walked down to the White Lion pub for dinner. We both had fish and chips, and it was really terrific. We learned some things:
1) Carlsburg beer is really nasty, and Stella (or is it Stellar?) is pretty good.
2) Orange pop is called "Fanta" even when it's not Fanta.
3) The fish in English fish and chips (or White Lion fish and chips, anyway) has skin on it under the batter, but we love it anyway.
4) Ketchup is ketchup. Heinz and everything.
Oh! And the other thing I learned today that I just have to share: Crocs are the best shoes ever in the whole history of shoes. I walked for, what, 7 or 8 hours today, and my feet do NOT hurt. In fact, I took an evening constitutional tonight. Pretty impressive, eh? My bright yellow feet sure do get a lot of funny looks though! That might have something to do with Chloe's bright green feet being right next to them. :-)
Note to Schuyler: Thank you for the Highway Code link! That really helped!
