The airport was incredibly dead with no lines of any sort for the bathrooms (which have funky seats with no folding seat/lid things, and the toilet paper dispenses in small rectangular pieces) and no lines for customs, which we breezed through. I've never been in such a dead terminal before. It was such a nice surprise!
We found our baggage easily and met Daisha and Tabitha in the meet/greet area.
She took the kids and me in her car to the car rental place while Hyrum caught a shuttle to it. I have to admit that I had a hard time adjusting to the "other side of the road" thing, so I immediately tried to get in on the driver's side (which is the passenger side in the US), and then when we got on a divided road, I about had a heart attack for 2 seconds when I thought we were speeding head on toward a car in the wrong lane, until I remembered that they drive on the wrong side. Did you know that they drive on the left in England because that's the side they'd ride on during jousting and they used their right hand to hold the lance? Napolean started the driving on the right thing because he was left handed and he set up the major roads across Europe first (that's straight out of a book on things you didn't know about England...Edward read it to me).
We got our outrageously expensive car (narrowly avoiding extra costs from the heavily German-accented desk guy trying to rip Hyrum off with lots of unnecessary insurances since he was American) and I opted to drive with Hyrum since his eyes were extremely bloodshot, he hadn't slept on the plane, we were on the wrong side of the road, shifting with the wrong hand, and we had an hour drive ahead of us. Good thing I went with him because he fell asleep for a half second with his eyes open.
Being the old truck drivers we are, we couldn't help but notice all the cars on the freeway, or M25 as it's called, which is the outer hub that outlines greater London like a huge circle. There were mostly hatchbacks and smallish cars (not nearly as small as everyone warned us they'd be), small cars (sedan-like) were pulling travel trailers, but the semi trucks were the funny thing. They were extra narrow, tall, and cab-over (no noses on the trucks), and the trailers were mostly soft-sided curtain vans. You could tell which ones were from Europe because their steering wheel was on the American side. They had some speed cameras, but they warn you about them with tons of signs and pictures and dashes on the road, so everyone goes the proper speed in those areas, then FLIES on the rest. Some must have been going well into the 100s. All the license plates are white in the front, and yellow in the back with easy-to-read lettering.
They don't even know how to spell over in England!!!
Can you get any more lights on a semi?
We had to follow Daisha so we wouldn't slam head-on into someone (she's the one in the silver nissan crossover).
Gotta love the names on this sign!
We made it to Daisha's house in one piece, but the village streets are so narrow here! My mom wasn't kidding when she said you have to dive into shrubbery sometimes. Well, we didn't have to, but in some places it would be your only option! It was nerve racking driving with Hyrum, and I don't know that we could have kept the streets and side-of-the-road straight if we hadn't been following Daisha. I'm so glad Hy was driving instead of me.
This was a building right before we got to the village. I love the Tudor style. It reminds me of Ashland with its Shakespearean influence.
When we pulled into Daisha's village, we noticed that the roofs were all made of one of three types of tiles, but there were no composition roofs like the ones that are on 97% (it seems) of American homes. There was a lot of moss on the roofs, and being American, I thought "Man! Aren't they concerned about resale and the damage that will cause?", but apparently it doesn't affect tile. Daisha's house was quaint like the rest of the village homes, but I have to start dispelling some myths I'd been informed about. Everyone kept telling me the cars look like miniatures compared to ours. Not so! Most of them are sedan size, but the small ones aren't any smaller than the small ones they're making in American now. Daisha said her house is TINY and not so cute. Not so! It's a decent size (WAY bigger than what I live in right now) and very cute and adorably decorated. In fact, the first thing Hyatt did when he entered Daisha's house was stop, look around, then announce in an adoring tone, "I love this house! It's SO pretty!!" I've NEVER heard him comment on anyone's house before, ever, so Daisha better realize that her house is actually really great and she can be proud of it.
When we got inside, Daisha had made us an adorable tea party, complete with hats, cucumber sandwiches, scones with clotted cream (sound gross, but it's delicious), cakes and biscuits (those are cookies). To drink, she gave us hot chocolate and apple cider since Hy and I have an aversion to tea, even the decaffeinated variety.
Hyrum's jet lag kicked in and he couldn't hold his eyes open a second longer after the tea party, so he napped while Daisha took us on a walking tour of her village of Eynsford.
She took us to the ford...
and the cricket field. By the way, I thought a cricket field was a field with little chirping crickets to chase and capture since Tilly's totally into bugs and Daisha had asked the kids if they wanted to go there. We got there and didn't see a cricket anywhere, and I realized, oh yeah! I'm in England, where they play "cricket"!
Next we went to Eynsford castle, which is a ruin made of flint, but it's the oldest place I'd ever been to (it's nearly a thousand years old).
We also saw their cute post office boxes (you can't mail letters from your own house, you have to drop them in these boxes).
This alley was so narrow! Like the streets!
The old buildings are really "wonky" as Daisha would say, and if you own one, you can't fix it to be straight and level. It's part of the history and charm to have it wonky.
Then we visited an old graveyard since the church was closed. We'll have to visit it another day. They're so weathered and old, it's hard to read the names on them if the names are even there anymore. It's not disrespectful here to walk or climb on the graves and stones. It's definitely a different culture.
Hyrum finally woke up in time for dinner when Edward got home from work. Daisha's determined to have us sample all kinds of English food and treats, so for dinner we had Edwards favorite meal of sausages (the stuffed dinnerish kind), beans (which taste just like pork and beans without the pork) and chips (thick french fries). Each item was good by itself, but it seemed to be a rather strange combination of foods altogether. I guess it's really popular though, out here. For a drink, we tried lemonade, which isn't lemonade like American's are used to. It's carbonated and tastes like sprite or seven up. I put it in my orange juice since I'd already poured that but still wanted to try the "lemonade".
For a special treat, Edward took us on a night drive of London at 9 pm to introduce us to the city before we went there in the day. But before we left, Daisha found a hedgehog in her yard! They're everywhere around here apparently and eat snails and slugs. How do I get my hands on one for my yard!?
Daisha watched Tilly and Hyatt for us while we went with Edward. The kids all get along really well, even though Tabitha is almost the opposite of Talea. Talea's a tomboy and Tabitha only wears dresses and hates getting dirty. We love her curls!
The night drive was really beautiful! Hyrum was all refreshed from his nap, but I was fighting to keep myself awake. I wanted to see the city so badly, but my eyes kept shutting involuntarily. I managed to see the whole tour, but I did have to be woken up a couple of times. He showed us every major tourist attraction, plus he knew all the background on the sites and gave us the insider scoop. It was well worth the effort of propping my eyelids open. Definitely a must-do when visiting London. I didn't get any pictures of it because they weren't turning out with the darkness and reflections, but I'll take pictures in the day.
My favorite part of the day was the night drive and my favorite food was the scones with jam and clotted cream.
2 comments:
sounds like you have a fun adventure ahead of you. Have a great time.
I'm so glad you made it and you're already having fun, also glad you decided to share it by blogging while you're there!!
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