Vacations are like panning for gold. They take a lot of preparation if you want to succeed. While you are in the midst of them, you are so busy you hardly have a moment to savor the experience. Only afterwards when you stare down into the pan do you realize how many flakes of gold you have. Sometimes the flakes are miniscule, sometimes you have a nugget but in our vacation we … Well, I’ll let you decide.
Some of the tiny fragments of gold came from just being together. Mom gave us the 6th Harry Potter on tape so we listened to it all the way down to the motel in Frisco. We all (except Malachi, of course) read it awhile ago but we laughed and speculated on what would happen during the 7th book. We had a fabulous meal of sushi (note: bring a laptop when going anywhere! You can search for good restaurants much easier online than by driving around). The friendly couple next to us recommended a violently green seaweed salad. Malachi, especially, feared trying it. BUT, Oh, sweet and salty goodness. We loved it.
The next morning we went to the airport to fly to
A few of the golden flakes from the flight lodged in my mind are:
1. The tiny dark eyed girl behind us cried every hour or so but Malachi would pop over the seatback or peek through the crack at her until she would laugh with delight and settle back quietly on her relieved parents’ laps. It worked every time. And though we adults never spoke to each other, when we parted at
2. Quinn’s delight at looking out the window—his first remembered flight.
3. Wang appearing with a set of playing cards just as we were getting bored.
4. Malachi snuggled down on the floor in front of our seats sleeping quietly, lights dim and only the hum of the engine and the slap of Kevin and Clay’s playing cards.
The next tiny shimmer of color came after we left the plane and as we were on the train headed to
Our hotel—beautiful Georgian mansion with wrought iron gates and a lovely garden. Steps leading up to white doors in a red façade. The Banks’ family from Mary Poppins could have lived here but inside—uhmm early gym locker. Our room was about 10 x 10 with beds almost touching each other in various hideous and clashing bedspreads. The women’s bathroom was down the hall…waaaaaay down the hall (I think Moaning Myrtle might have visited there. I have to admit it was kind of cool in a Oh-here-is-what-a-English-school-bathroom-looks kind of way). And the men’s bathroom was right outside of our window, so if I had been a dirty old woman (well, 2 out of 3) I would have enjoyed the sight of various unclad young men coming from the showers. As it was I have a vivid but horrifying memory of pulling back the curtains to see what looked like several members of a rugby team snapping towels at bare backsides (while I stared frozen at bare frontsides). That part might have even been a pleasant memory except one young fellow caught sight of me. . . Even though I hurriedly dropped the curtain, I couldn't help blushing. In fact, my cheeks (facial cheeks not the other ones) are little hot now.
Quinn and I couldn’t wait so we immediately headed to Westminster Abbey. Kevin came along to be polite and Malachi was invincible-- ready to go anywhere and do anything on less than 2 hours sleep. Clay stayed behind to sleep. I think the Abbey was wonderful but jet lag struck and I actually laid my head down on a chair that had snuggled the behinds of generations of English gentlemen—and I slept. The Globe Theater, the walk along the
The next day we picked up our car outside of
Chipping
The next morning I had recovered from jet lag and wanted to go but a gentle rain was falling and everyone was still sleeping. I thought we would go to
IT wasn’t in harmony with me. When Kevin woke up, I looked out the bedroom window into the street. Yikes, Water, like a muddy fog, swirled around tires and tried to slip into doorways. Kevin got our car out before it got as bad as the picture below and then we sent Malachi to watch TV (we never lost electricity!) while we filled sandbags and tried to save the lower apartment for our landlords. Unfortunately the water kept rising.
and rising...Unfortunately transportation got a bit sticky
so we never did get to see
The downstairs elderly couple had to be carried out one at a time on a strong fireman’s back. At some point during the night, a giant lorry with tires as big as a car drove through the street shining spotlights on the houses asking people if they needed help. The friendly rescuers got quite excited when Malachi stuck his head out the window. “Lord, there’s a tyke all alone in there.” And even when I appeared next to him, they were still worried about us. “I say luv, do your lot want rescuing?” We reassured the crew that we were fine and, surprisingly we were. We had a wonderful quiet couple of days.
Eventually, on the day we were scheduled to head out, the waters abated (think Noah’s ark and the dove) enough that we could walk around and see the incredible medieval town we were in. The Market hall was built just after 1600 and was so old the stones were worn 4 and 5 inches deep in places.
Some of the graves looked as if they had been dug when the world was young and Fairies walked in sunlight.
Kevin and I discovered a tiny medieval garden surrounded by a thick stone wall with a little arched gate entrance and we explored it holding hands in the morning mist—Magic!
We headed off to see a friend at
Katherine Parr, Henry the VIII’s last wife, was buried in a wonderful church on the grounds. Malachi is seated in front of her effigy. The stained glass lit everything with a silvery light.
We visited Rusty, a friend of ours in
Then we drove 5 hours to
The Lodge was on a wonderful crooked cobble street with Tudor style houses lining both sides. It was tiny and dark and (in spite of being decorated in an odd tye-dyed lavender) it was wonderful in a you-could-crack-your-head-but-wow-people-lived-here-800-years-ago kind of way. Clay developed a Quasimodo appearance.
We ate English Breakfast that included Blood pudding (yes, made out of a very dark blood, probably ancient dragon, but none the less rather tasty) and a thin ham-like bacon that was wonderful. We went to Battle Abbey where William the Conqueror did his conqueroring bit—shot poor King Harold in the eye they say. Out of guilt or glee, he had an Abbey built. Just short of 1000 years old, every stone lay as if it had been placed there at the beginning of the world and would never move. We didn’t think Clay would move either—The Medieval Lodge had fast internet and Clay choose to sleep during the day and play at night.
But when buildings are that old even their guarderobes (toilets) seem interesting. Here we are below the toilets in the sewer…
Malachi was enjoying using the camera and took a nice photo of all of us relaxing in a walled garden.
Clay and Kevin
and even Malachi dressed for the occasion.
Then we drove to
In Bodiham, we noticed a reoccurring theme of
After a week in
I gasped, “Keeevin?”
He stared at me in hostile disbelief. “What?”
“Oh, nothing,” I said airily (why I was not more direct can only be explained by the belief shared by everyone in the car that I was taking my life in my hands should I express anything short of “My God, you are an amazing driver and without you we would miss our flight.”)
After getting complicated directions from the Pakistani hotelier, (I consider that there was some kind of magic carpet at work because there was an entire hotel filled with Pakistani men--from the bellhop to a lobby full of turbaned customers). As I exited the hotel another nice Pakistani man helped me find the car that I had walked past twice (apparently some sort of Freudian slip—though why I wouldn’t want to get back in the car I leave to your imagination) and then he urged, “You look for rental place? Not go the way they,” he spoke scornfully and waved a hand at the magic hotel, “say. Go this way.” And he gave a short series of simple directions. Kevin waved a grateful goodbye and we headed for the exit. …A metal gate barred the way. Apparently one needed to feed it a ticket---which one was supposed to have gotten as one entered the parking lot. Apparently we missed this small step with “our” unorthodox method of driving over barriers. No ticket, no exit! No one even glanced at Kevin. No one wanted to be accused of looking as if they thought we had entered the hotel parking lot in a less than optimum manner.
While we were contemplating this conundrum and the boys and I were carefully not saying anything, a large, large bus pulled in behind us effectively blocking us from backing up.
I’m glad tourists are not allowed guns. I think Kevin could have given a whole new meaning to going postal. The silence in the car had actual weight and texture. Eventually, I escaped the car and got help. The hotel reluctantly gave us a ticket to get out and, only being able to remember the easy directions from the man I now call the Pakistani genii, we actually got there quickly and we made the Rental place with some miniscule amount of minutes to spare…. Somewhere there is a Pakistani genii kindly laughing his ass off at stupid American tourists. When we arrived at the airport, everyone thought the vacation completely barren of gold but looking back… Hey, we made the airplane.
5 comments:
Kym,
As usual...for someone who's never done a blog...you did a fantastic job, at least in my humble eyes. You are and always have been a magician at expressing yourself with words... You always bring smiles, laugh out loud laughter, chuckling, and even small tears in your stories (especially knowing they are all true!) I have to say, Kevin did a GREAT job for driving *L*
Thank you for sharing. I wait with baited breath for the next leg of your journey in Germany.
Love always, your friends forever,
~Nan & Steve~
Hmmm, interesting format. Where did you get your inspiration? Keep it up. As always, your writing is brilliant. And Kevin is my hero. I only drove once, on the "wrong" side of the road, in Austrailia. It was only 10 minutes and probably the most frightening driving experience of my life. Abrazos (hugs) from Mexico.
Hugs to you Nan and Abrazos to you Chip! I think I love this blog thing. I got to hear from both of you and I got a bunch of emails from other people that I Miss too!!!
Honestly, Kevin was amazing. But somewhat hostile...
I think you did a wonderful job with your bloggy stuff - as you do with everything you start. I can hardly wait for the next installment! Love you!
I'm still waiting for the first hotel address and the rugby team schedule.
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