English Vacation (Day 18): Windsor Castle and Cheddar Gorge

Today started as a wrap up the trip day. We were scheduled to leave tomorrow, so we only had one day left to play. It was either go to London again, or go back up to the Cotswolds to get the bag Hyrum left at the hotel (they wouldn't mail it to us unless we shipped them a postage paid box first...too much trouble). We decided to make it one last day of touring the countryside.


We started off by going to Windsor to see the Queens suburban home. We saw Buckingham Palace in the city, so we thought we'd see her home on the outskirts of London. Windsor Castle is far more impressive on the outside (in my opinion), but we didn't have time to tour the inside. It's open to tours year round, unlike Buckingham.


The city around the castle is very beautiful. I'd like to go back someday and spend a day there seeing the city and touring the castle.

We snacked on candy on our drive, and I had to take a picture of their mini candy bars. Their candy wrappers are twisted on the ends, but you can't pull them to open the wrapper because the seam is sealed. It has a little nick in the middle of the wrapper that you pull to open the candy, which is fine, but you end up with two pieces of trash rather than one most of the time, which is slightly annoying. I think I prefer to pull the twisted ends.


As we drove, I was finally able to capture a picture of Kiersa and her noistache. That would be nose sweat. You know how you sometimes get moisture between your nose and top lip, like a mustache of moisture? Daisha calls that a moistache. Well, since Kiersa always sweats on her nose, we called it a noistache. I know, we're weird. But really, she ALWAYS sweats on her nose first. That's how I know she's hot or sleeping.



We made it back up to Cheltenham to the cursed Travelodge, and picked up Hyrum's bag. Now, we were free to roam. We drove down to Bristol to see what it was like, but it was actually a rather unattractive city centered around shipping. Just a port was all it seemed to boast. We didn't have time to stop, so we drove on.

You have to understand that all these places took a long time to get to, with lots of driving, so when we finally arrived at our next destination, Cheddar, it was about time for things to close. We quickly jumped out of the car in hopes of making it to the tour of the cheese factory. Cheddar is where cheddar cheese originated.


We walked down to the Cheddar Gorge Cheese Company, only to find their tours were finished for the day. We settled for browsing in their shop and tasting cheese.


We tasted all kinds of cheddar (which is white by the way...American cheddar is only orange because they add a dye or something), and most were pretty good, although I have to admit in the end that I prefer our orange mild cheddar to anything I tasted there. It all was a bit sharp and funky with a reminiscent hint of soured milk lingering in the aftertaste, but really not bad. We actually bought a hunk of the chive and something-or-other cheddar.

A million great things happened while we were in England, but the two worst things that happened to me this whole trip were getting my camera stolen, and tasting sheep milk cheese. The buffalo and goat were just fine, but the SHEEP....it tasted exactly like how I would imagine licking a sheep would taste! Like wool and manure! It was the last thing I sampled, and I about died! I couldn't hide my reaction because my disgust was so severe. I told Hyrum and Daisha to taste it while I scrambled to find a yummy cheese to eat to get rid of the taste. They tried it and thought it tasted normal, like the other cheeses! What the heck!? Did my little square get dropped in the field while the others were fine? Mine must have been milked from a poo-y tit, while theirs was from the sanitized one. Or maybe it's just my heightened senses from being pregnant. I don't know, but I do know that I wasn't imagining the wool and manure taste. It lingered far too long! I thought my reaction might have offended the people working there, but they told Hyrum they preferred my reaction to his, probably because I was so melodramatic.

We had been looking for some kind of souvenir this whole trip that we could display and that would be a unique reminder of England, but found it difficult deciding on what we wanted. We thought a tea set would be nice, but then how could we transport it home? While we were at the cheese shop, we saw some handcrafted pottery and knives and utensils that would be great for entertaining, so we bought a blue triple pickle bowl for putting appetizers in,


and then some utensils like a scoop, a spoon with holes, and a cheese knife. So if you come visit us, we'll pull them out and use them so you can see a little piece of England! Cheddar, in fact.


We wandered around the shops for a bit, then we took a drive up the Cheddar gorge. It was "gorgeous". Is that where they get the word gorgeous...because gorges are so beautiful?


There were wild goats and sheep all over the place. On the hillsides, running down the road. The kids loved that part!


We took a few family pictures, with sheep in the background sometimes. We even got one that shows how difficult it is to get the kids to sit in the right places and look at the camera.



There were some guys rock climbing, so Talea wanted to try her hand at it. She climbed up really well, and Hyrum stayed right behind her to keep her safe, but we worried the rock climbers. Like most overly cautious Englishmen, they kept watching us and telling us to be careful. They don't know my little monkey!!! She's been climbing things since she could stand.


Hyatt got brave and decided he wanted to go up too. I stood under him, but stepped back when he was okay to take some pictures. I was impressed that he did so well and climbed so quickly by himself. He loves to copy Talea, so that must have been his motivation.


Instead of scaling down the rocks, they walked down a path, much to Daisha's relief. She's inherited her husband's cautiousness.


We left the gorge and drove back through Cheddar, with its adorable buildings


and on through Wells and then home. It was late when we arrived, but Daisha made us yet another traditional English treat: Rhubarb and custard. It was interesting and okay, but probably something I wouldn't request again. Not too bad though.


Hey, I think I forgot to mention that Daisha had us try spotted dick while we were there. It actually wasn't half bad. It's a dessert by the way...a spongy cake thing. Nasty name though.

Daisha was wonderful and started doing loads of laundry for me so I wouldn't be overloaded with washing when we got home. When I was picking up toys that night and packing, I found Tabitha's notepad, and in it were the most adorable pictures she'd drawn and some very sweet little notes she'd written about my kids. You have to understand, Tabitha is only 3 and a half and she can read (I heard and saw her reading "King Bidgood's in the bathtub" to my kids) and even write by figuring out the phonetics. Her spelling isn't accurate in these notes, but if you say them phonetically, she did a darn good job. I mean, come on, she's three! She did as good as the twins do! Sorry boys.

"I love you, Talea"

"Hyatt, I love you"

"Kiersa, I love you"

I love how she made boxes and checked them! You have to admit, that's pretty darn impressive.