(no subject)
Days 4-7, onward,
Day 4, Aug. 25- Had a really nice breakfast sitting around a table with some other guests (not the American who hired the witch because apparently they were up all night chanting and banging drums, which luckily we didn't hear). Then we drove to Salisbury, our home base for the next week. We parked at the train station and had time to walk across the city to check out Salisbury Cathedral. The cathedral is magnificent, it's so huge and beautiful. Saw the Magna Carta. Then we went back to train station and got on a train to Southampton. In Southampton, Drew and West went off to a soccer game. I wandered around the city, went to the Tudor House Museum (which was awesome and totally worth it, and I had tea with a scone!), then wandered around some more. There was a huge awesome Pride celebration going on, so I spent time wandering around Pride. Trained back to Salisbury and went to our apartment. We rented a cute little apartment for the week, it was small but in a great location, and was a great place to stay for a week. Went out to dinner at Pizza Express, because you've got to go to Pizza Express once a trip.
Day 5, Aug. 26- There was a Great British Food Festival that I bought tickets for months ago before we even really knew we were going on this trip. Martha from the Great British Bake Off was scheduled to make an appearance there, and she was West's favorite contestant from the show, plus it seemed like a fun, less touristy, thing to do. Drove an hour and a half in the rain to get to the fancy country manor where it was being held, and got out of the car to realize it was not only pouring, it was FREEZING. But, we were there, and it was a crummy day, so we trudged onto the field to experience the festival. It was pretty sad. Hardly anyone else was there, because the weather was a nightmare, and even some of the food vendors were closing up and leaving. We weren't even dressed properly for the weather, because I didn't think to pack heavier layers for a trip in the summer. So, we went to the tents where people were selling non-food items, and I bought a blanket to drape around West. Luckily, Martha's appearance was a cooking demo that we only had to wait about 45 minutes for, so we settled into a tiny half-tent to watch that. It was interesting, she was charming, and after the demo we bought a cookbook from her and got her to sign it, so we met someone from GBBO, and then we ditched the festival.
We found a cozy country pub down the road and got a tasty Sunday roast for lunch. After that, we still had an afternoon to fill, so we went to Bath and wandered around bookshops there. The line for the Roman Baths was way too long, and it was still raining, so we skipped the baths (minor regret after the fact, I think West would have liked them, but Drew and I had seen them before, and they're expensive, and that line really was super long). We figured we'd hit a grocery store on our way back to the apartment, because were getting pretty sick of pub food by then. We had a harsh reckoning with culture shock, because it was Sunday, and everything closes at 4:00 on Sundays, there was not a single grocery store open when we got back to Salisbury. We managed to get into a Pret A Manger just minutes before they closed, and grabbed a couple of salads so we could at least eat some vegetables.
Day 6, Aug. 27- Sunrise tour of Stonehenge!! This was our big splurge for the trip. To get "beyond the fence" and actually walk around amongst the stones, you have to book an "inner circle" visit months in advance, and we didn't plan our trip early enough. So, the other way to get in is to go on an expensive tour with a tour guide, if you can find one that isn't booked up when you're going to be there. We found one tour, leaving from Bath, that fit into our trip. I had contacted the tour company when we booked to ask if we could just meet them at Stonehenge, rather than driving to Bath at 4 am, and the tour guide was fine with that. So we drove to Stonehenge to meet the group at 6 am at the Stonehenge vistors' center. It was a good sized group, not too big, and the tour guide gave us some good context and details about the stones (like, they have carved graffiti, one has Christopher Wren's name carved on it, from Wren himself). The stones are humongous, but the circle itself is smaller than I'd imagined. It was very cool, and was a total bucket list experience, I mean, how often are you ever going to be right up in the middle of Stonehenge? Going in the early morning made it feel special, too. It's about a mile from the visitors' center, so there's a shuttle bus that takes you to/from the stones, but we wrangled our way into walking back to the vistors' center, so we tromped through fields and felt properly like ancient people.
After Stonehenge we went to a joust festival at Old Sarum. It was so cool! The site of Old Sarum itself is basically an old hill fort, with some crumbling walls/foundations left from an ancient castle, but there's hardly any structure left. Spectacular views from the hill. They had a whole renaissance festival going on, there was a jester, and kids' activities (West got to paint a shield), and a tent of "hands on history" where some nice college dudes had swords and armor that they explained to kids and let kids handle, and then one of them gave West and impromptu sword fighting lesson. Then there was a joust with people on horses, it was so much fun. We went back to Salisbury (which was super close) and explored the river-side pubs with outside seating, because it was a nice day for some outdoor sitting with beers.
Day 7, Aug. 28- We had booked West for a summer camp day for this day, so he could have fun and get some kid time (and we could get a little break). The activity day was in the middle of the woods near a town called Devizes (but "near" being relative, it was probably 20 minutes away from that town, really in the middle of nowhere). Traffic was a bear, so it took about two hours to drive there that morning, good think we left crazy early for it. We finally got to the drop-off point, which was a working-farm barn on a single track road deep in the countryside. There were already kids there, sitting around a camp fire, so we left our kid with strangers in the woods for the day.
Drew and I went to Devizes, which is a market town on the edge of the Cotswolds. I'd say it's cute... but it's not really that cute. It has cute aspects, like some neat old alleys of shops, and plenty of old buildings, but it's a very "work-a-day" kind of town, as opposed to the picture-perfect towns that are kept perfect by tourism money. Devizes isn't the kind of town you'd go out of your way to visit on a vacation, but I'm glad we spent most of our vacation this time seeing more out-of-the-way places that are more real-life than the perfect tourist places. There's a brewery in the town, Wadworth, that's been there since Victorian times, in the same Victorian building, still sometimes using some of the old brewing equipment along with modern equipment. We did a brewery tour there, which took a solid few hours. It was a genuinely fascinating tour, my favorite part was the sign-painting room, where we saw how their sign painter still paints by hand every sign for every pub that serves their beer (about 200 pubs). They also have horses that pull a cart for delivering their beer locally every day (before we went in for the tour Drew and I actually saw the horses clopping through town on their way back to the brewery after making their deliveries). Had a good conversation with an older couple sitting next to us at the tasting after the tour. We had so many conversations with locals this trip, it was awesome! People were so friendly.
Went back to the woods to pick up West at 3:00. He had such a fun day, they fed the farm horses, did archery, and learned knife skills (carved handles on hunks of wood to make mallets). The kids were nice, and West made buddies with the help of some football cards he had with him. Since it was still afternoon, and Avebury was so close, we drove over to Avebury to see the standing stones there. Drew and I had been to Avebury about 12-ish years ago, and we were psyched to see it again, because it really is something to see, a tiny town completely circled by massive standing stones (and you can touch the stones here, unlike Stonehenge). We wandered around there, then figured we had enough daylight left to drive ten minutes down the road to the West Kennet Longbarrow (again, Drew & I had been there before). Walked up a hill to the barrow, and it was just as cool as we remembered. After that, we went back to Avebury so we could get dinner at The Red Lion, a totally haunted pub. We actually got to sit at the haunted well in the dining room, which was a super bonus. Drew and I had stayed overnight in a room above the pub that last time we'd been there, so it was a treat to return there, and West got a big thrill from sitting at the haunted well table. What a great day!
Day 4, Aug. 25- Had a really nice breakfast sitting around a table with some other guests (not the American who hired the witch because apparently they were up all night chanting and banging drums, which luckily we didn't hear). Then we drove to Salisbury, our home base for the next week. We parked at the train station and had time to walk across the city to check out Salisbury Cathedral. The cathedral is magnificent, it's so huge and beautiful. Saw the Magna Carta. Then we went back to train station and got on a train to Southampton. In Southampton, Drew and West went off to a soccer game. I wandered around the city, went to the Tudor House Museum (which was awesome and totally worth it, and I had tea with a scone!), then wandered around some more. There was a huge awesome Pride celebration going on, so I spent time wandering around Pride. Trained back to Salisbury and went to our apartment. We rented a cute little apartment for the week, it was small but in a great location, and was a great place to stay for a week. Went out to dinner at Pizza Express, because you've got to go to Pizza Express once a trip.
Day 5, Aug. 26- There was a Great British Food Festival that I bought tickets for months ago before we even really knew we were going on this trip. Martha from the Great British Bake Off was scheduled to make an appearance there, and she was West's favorite contestant from the show, plus it seemed like a fun, less touristy, thing to do. Drove an hour and a half in the rain to get to the fancy country manor where it was being held, and got out of the car to realize it was not only pouring, it was FREEZING. But, we were there, and it was a crummy day, so we trudged onto the field to experience the festival. It was pretty sad. Hardly anyone else was there, because the weather was a nightmare, and even some of the food vendors were closing up and leaving. We weren't even dressed properly for the weather, because I didn't think to pack heavier layers for a trip in the summer. So, we went to the tents where people were selling non-food items, and I bought a blanket to drape around West. Luckily, Martha's appearance was a cooking demo that we only had to wait about 45 minutes for, so we settled into a tiny half-tent to watch that. It was interesting, she was charming, and after the demo we bought a cookbook from her and got her to sign it, so we met someone from GBBO, and then we ditched the festival.
We found a cozy country pub down the road and got a tasty Sunday roast for lunch. After that, we still had an afternoon to fill, so we went to Bath and wandered around bookshops there. The line for the Roman Baths was way too long, and it was still raining, so we skipped the baths (minor regret after the fact, I think West would have liked them, but Drew and I had seen them before, and they're expensive, and that line really was super long). We figured we'd hit a grocery store on our way back to the apartment, because were getting pretty sick of pub food by then. We had a harsh reckoning with culture shock, because it was Sunday, and everything closes at 4:00 on Sundays, there was not a single grocery store open when we got back to Salisbury. We managed to get into a Pret A Manger just minutes before they closed, and grabbed a couple of salads so we could at least eat some vegetables.
Day 6, Aug. 27- Sunrise tour of Stonehenge!! This was our big splurge for the trip. To get "beyond the fence" and actually walk around amongst the stones, you have to book an "inner circle" visit months in advance, and we didn't plan our trip early enough. So, the other way to get in is to go on an expensive tour with a tour guide, if you can find one that isn't booked up when you're going to be there. We found one tour, leaving from Bath, that fit into our trip. I had contacted the tour company when we booked to ask if we could just meet them at Stonehenge, rather than driving to Bath at 4 am, and the tour guide was fine with that. So we drove to Stonehenge to meet the group at 6 am at the Stonehenge vistors' center. It was a good sized group, not too big, and the tour guide gave us some good context and details about the stones (like, they have carved graffiti, one has Christopher Wren's name carved on it, from Wren himself). The stones are humongous, but the circle itself is smaller than I'd imagined. It was very cool, and was a total bucket list experience, I mean, how often are you ever going to be right up in the middle of Stonehenge? Going in the early morning made it feel special, too. It's about a mile from the visitors' center, so there's a shuttle bus that takes you to/from the stones, but we wrangled our way into walking back to the vistors' center, so we tromped through fields and felt properly like ancient people.
After Stonehenge we went to a joust festival at Old Sarum. It was so cool! The site of Old Sarum itself is basically an old hill fort, with some crumbling walls/foundations left from an ancient castle, but there's hardly any structure left. Spectacular views from the hill. They had a whole renaissance festival going on, there was a jester, and kids' activities (West got to paint a shield), and a tent of "hands on history" where some nice college dudes had swords and armor that they explained to kids and let kids handle, and then one of them gave West and impromptu sword fighting lesson. Then there was a joust with people on horses, it was so much fun. We went back to Salisbury (which was super close) and explored the river-side pubs with outside seating, because it was a nice day for some outdoor sitting with beers.
Day 7, Aug. 28- We had booked West for a summer camp day for this day, so he could have fun and get some kid time (and we could get a little break). The activity day was in the middle of the woods near a town called Devizes (but "near" being relative, it was probably 20 minutes away from that town, really in the middle of nowhere). Traffic was a bear, so it took about two hours to drive there that morning, good think we left crazy early for it. We finally got to the drop-off point, which was a working-farm barn on a single track road deep in the countryside. There were already kids there, sitting around a camp fire, so we left our kid with strangers in the woods for the day.
Drew and I went to Devizes, which is a market town on the edge of the Cotswolds. I'd say it's cute... but it's not really that cute. It has cute aspects, like some neat old alleys of shops, and plenty of old buildings, but it's a very "work-a-day" kind of town, as opposed to the picture-perfect towns that are kept perfect by tourism money. Devizes isn't the kind of town you'd go out of your way to visit on a vacation, but I'm glad we spent most of our vacation this time seeing more out-of-the-way places that are more real-life than the perfect tourist places. There's a brewery in the town, Wadworth, that's been there since Victorian times, in the same Victorian building, still sometimes using some of the old brewing equipment along with modern equipment. We did a brewery tour there, which took a solid few hours. It was a genuinely fascinating tour, my favorite part was the sign-painting room, where we saw how their sign painter still paints by hand every sign for every pub that serves their beer (about 200 pubs). They also have horses that pull a cart for delivering their beer locally every day (before we went in for the tour Drew and I actually saw the horses clopping through town on their way back to the brewery after making their deliveries). Had a good conversation with an older couple sitting next to us at the tasting after the tour. We had so many conversations with locals this trip, it was awesome! People were so friendly.
Went back to the woods to pick up West at 3:00. He had such a fun day, they fed the farm horses, did archery, and learned knife skills (carved handles on hunks of wood to make mallets). The kids were nice, and West made buddies with the help of some football cards he had with him. Since it was still afternoon, and Avebury was so close, we drove over to Avebury to see the standing stones there. Drew and I had been to Avebury about 12-ish years ago, and we were psyched to see it again, because it really is something to see, a tiny town completely circled by massive standing stones (and you can touch the stones here, unlike Stonehenge). We wandered around there, then figured we had enough daylight left to drive ten minutes down the road to the West Kennet Longbarrow (again, Drew & I had been there before). Walked up a hill to the barrow, and it was just as cool as we remembered. After that, we went back to Avebury so we could get dinner at The Red Lion, a totally haunted pub. We actually got to sit at the haunted well in the dining room, which was a super bonus. Drew and I had stayed overnight in a room above the pub that last time we'd been there, so it was a treat to return there, and West got a big thrill from sitting at the haunted well table. What a great day!