Visiting Westminster Palace

Yesterday I was lucky enough to spend 8 hours on a bus. Four hours to get to London and four hours to get back. The four hours in-between the travel was totally worth it, as I got to tour the Houses of Parliament!

The House of Lords and the House of Commons as well as the Queen's Robing room and all of the parliamentary offices and meeting rooms are all located within Westminster Palace, right below the clock tower that houses Big Ben. 

Westminster Palace is right next to Westminster Abbey, where William & Kate were recently married. Here are a few photos of the exterior of the Palace.

  

Once our group made it through security, we were to meet our local, Yorkshire MP, who was to meet & greet us up in one of the committee meeting rooms. I thought MP meant some sort of military police man, but it turns out MP stands for Member of Parliament. So, yeah, I met an elected member of Parliament! MP Smith took us upstairs to a formal Parliamentary meeting room where he told us a little bit about himself and answered any questions about how the British government worked. Afterward, he took us to the private Parliamentary terrace so we could take some photos. 

 MP Smith on the terrace with the London eye in the background.

I'm on Parliament's terrace! 

And another picture of the London eye from the terrace.

After our 45 minutes with the MP, we headed back to the main hall for our official tour to begin. Inside the main hall (one of the remaining original buildings - last king to live in Westminster Palace was Henry VIII) is a very large and beautiful stained glass window.

And within this hall is were VIP English are Laid in State prior to being buried. Most recently, Margaret Thatcher lay in state in this hall. As has Queen Elizabeth...

and Winston Churchill.

I wasn't able to take pictures during the tour, but in my next post I will be detailing the Parliamentary rooms we saw and some of the history behind each room. 

Ripley Castle

Last weekend, we visited Ripley Castle, which is located just 10 minutes by car from our home. Neither Bill nor I had ever heard of Ripley Castle prior to living here, but we now know it has a long and rich history (as do most places around here). 

We learned that the same family has lived in the house/castle since the 1300 - I think our tour guide said the current owner is the 27th generation of Ingilbys to live in the house - Wow! We toured what felt like a pretty large area, but the family lives in the private area comprised of eight bedrooms, living rooms, bathrooms, etc. etc. Needless to say, they've still got plenty of room, even with tours and the like happening all the time. 

Three major events took place at Ripley Castle. Shortly after it was built, King Edward III was seriously injured while hunting boar nearby. One of the rich (crown tax collectors) Ingilby brothers killed the boar, King Edward recovered, and the brother was knighted for his bravery. The boar's head is still mounted in the visitor's entry way. 

Jane Ingilby held Oliver Cromwell prisoner overnight (girl power!!) in the castle's library after the Battle of Marston Moor. But the next morning, Oliver Cromwell executed several Ingilby supporters in the courtyard, where you can still see the bullet dents in the stone wall. 

And lastly, James I stayed the night at Ripley Castle while on route from Scotland to London for his coronation, the first time England & Scotland were united by one crown.

... Can you tell I was a history major and get off on all this stuff? :-)

We couldn't take any pictures inside the castle during our tour, so you'll just have to settle for outside facade and garden pictures.  

There was a lovely pond with an aqueduct feature. Right behind where I took this picture was a large stone "eel tower." The pond was fed into the tower which was kept stocked with eel, a delicacy. So even if the pond ran low, the Ingilby family would always have a supply of yummy, yummy eel for their feasts.  

There were beautiful moss-covered wrought iron details, and lovely walking and cart paths throughout the gardens. There were a lot of birds as well, but we weren't able to get close enough to identify most of them. We did get a great picture of a Mom & Dad goose with their wee goslings. 

 

We enjoyed our visit so much we converted our one-day tickets into a couple's annual pass for just a few extra pounds. So we'll be able to go back any time to walk the gardens, re-take the tour, or get discounted tickets to their many special events. In fact, we've already got tickets for Ripley Castle's Shakespeare in the Park in June!

Daffodils, Daffodils, Daffodils!!

So a couple of weeks ago, there were daffodils everywhere. Growing wild like weeds, almost. Daffodils along the roadways. Daffodils along fences. Daffodils in the yard. Daffodils in the parks. Amazing color and really a striking way to enter spring. We captured a few and would like to share them with you.

And in a nod to today being Mothers' Day, it seems to me that our Mothers teach us to recognize beauty in the world. Thank you. Here's a sample of the result of all your hard work!

A Gentleman Farmer's Farm

Spring is Lambing Season!

The lambs are SO cute, bounding around in every rock-walled field throughout the Dales. A friend of ours lives out in one of the smaller villages and has a gentleman farmer friend who let several folks, including Bill and I, visit during lambing season.

We got to see a lamb who was only a few hours old. I wanted to hold the super young lamb, but the farmer thrust that wee lamb into our friend's arms... and I was immediately glad, as I realized the wet umbilical cord was a'danglin' and the lamb promptly pooped on her sweater. Whew, dodged a bullet, there! And 5 minutes later the mom proceded to deliver the afterbirth right in front of us. Yup, this was a real, working farm all right!

We saw lots & lots of moms with their newborn lambs. The farmers spray paint #1 on the first mom & lamb pair, then #2 on the second pair and so on so that they know who belongs to whom. 

I eventually got to hold an adorable 3-day old black sheep, who was super sweet. Almost made me want to give up eating lamb. Almost.

Once the newborns are feeding well and doing well, they get to go out into the fields. We hiked around in the fields and got to see a lot more sheep and slightly older lambs. We also got to see a horse and her week-old foal. They only stuck around for a minute, so this is the best picture we took.

 

And finally, no farm is complete without a rooster! 

PS Driving home from the farm we spotted a wee lamb who had bounded over its rock-wall fence and was in the road. All of his/her little lamb friends were bleating on the other side of the fence, but this little lamb just couldn't figure out how to make it back over. We stopped our car on this small two-lane road and Bill hopped out, grabbed the lamb and plopped it on the other side of the fence. The wee lamb and all its buddies happily bounded away, and the other drivers who had to stop for us smiled and nodded a quick thanks before we all drove our separate ways. Bill's a rock star!! :-)

Brimham Rocks

Sorry for the delay; having a laptop run out of memory means you cannot download photos onto said laptop until more memory is found or installed. After deleting the first 5 seasons of "The Office," we're ready to start blogging again...

Bill and I celebrate our "date-aversary" on Easter Sunday and every year we try to get out for a little hike to commemorate our first date/hike together. This year we celebrated by signing up for the British National Trust (kind of like the National State Park pass) and used our new card to visit Brimham Rocks.

Honestly, the rocks of Brimham Rocks do not look like they belong in England. Aside from the snow, the rocks look like they are from Disneyland's Roaring Thunder, the southwest-themed roller coaster that may or may not still be an attraction. But I digress...

Bill Climbed up on one of the rocks (it was too snowy & slick for me to want to try)

and got some amazing shots of the Dales from his high vantage point.

The rocks were of various shapes, many of which were gravity-defying

 and strikingly beautiful.

After hiking around for several hours, we headed over to the tea lorry for some warmth. I think I have drunk my weight in Yorkshire Gold tea at this point :-)

British Packaged Treats: A Taste Test!

I have been shopping in British grocery stores for almost six weeks now, and have noticed the strange (in my humble opinion) flavors of packaged items.

Crisps (called chips back home; chips here are our french fries, but I digress) range in flavors from prawn cocktail, beef teriyaki, ketchup, to basic salt & vinegar. I know we have strange flavors in the US (cool ranch or flaming hot, anyone?) so who am I to say their potato chip flavors are strange. However... I was just at Marks & Spencer and saw their "Ever so Posh" brand of crisps and one of the flavors was parmesan, asparagus, and truffle. Say what?!? That flavor sounded so weird, I gave in and purchased a bag.

I reheated last night's chicken stir fry and sat down with my lunch and side of "Ever so Posh" crisps.

The initial flavor was a dark, musky parmesan (probably influenced by the truffle oil) with a hint of earthy green. Not bad, really. After eating a few crisps, I started to notice a distinct asparagus taste in the back of my throat. However, it wasn't a fresh asparagus taste, it was more like what the unfortunate smelling biological after-effects of eating asparagus would taste like. Needless to say, I stopped eating them and drank lots of water to get the "Ever so Posh" taste out of my mouth. 

I also spotted a box of sweets in the Marks and Spencer checkout line earlier today. I figured what the heck, I'm already trying some weirdly flavored chips, I might as well try something else, too. The rhubarb and custard drops faired much better in my one-person taste test. They were similar to an old school Werther's butterscotch but with a hint of fruit. I couldn't have said they were rhubarb flavored (in fact, the back says there's more elderberry juice in them than rhubarb juice), but they're tasty nonetheless. And helped get rid of the asparagus aftertaste.

I doubt I'll buy either item again, but the taste test (and this write up) was a nice diversion while I await our washer and condenser dryer delivery and installation. The delivery will take place between 2PM - 6PM. It's 2:19 now, so I only have 3 hours and 41 minutes to kill...

Sunday Drive

The snow is melting, the air is warming (we were up to 40* today!), so Bill and I spent Easter Sunday taking a drive and exploring Brimham Rocks. We also purchased our National Heritage Pass, so we can start visiting historic sites with reckless abandon - woohoo!!

We took pictures at the rocks with our nice camera which I have to download & tweak before posting them. Until then, I share an example of one of England's wide (ha!), two-way country roads. We also took a video of typical country driving, so we'll upload that soon as well.

By the way, I've driven a few times now and it's getting a little less terrifying every time. I look forward to tooling around the countryside comfortably!

Lost in Translation

You know what's easy?

Setting up your ScottishPower&Gas account with a telemarketer who speaks with a very, very thick brogue.

Yeah. Easy-peasy :-/

Inside our New House!

As I mentioned in the last blog post, we've rented a Victorian House!

There's a little story behind finding this house. A gal I worked with in publishing, Joely, used to live in this town several years ago. I contacted her when we found out we were moving and she offered lots & lots of useful informations. Several months ago she also told me that the house she lived in while here was currently available. Well as luck would have it, it's the house we ended up renting! And as a side note, my friend Rachael (who worked with Joely & I in publishing) has been in the UK for 8+ years and is now married to a British archaeologist... who is a business friend/colleague of our new next-door neighbor!

Anyway, here are a few inside photos of our new house.

In the entryway is the most awesome chandelier!

In one of the "receiving" rooms, is this beautiful fireplace that may or may not work.

The kitchen's fireplace:

A stained glass window in the stairwell:

The guest bathroom on the 3rd floor:

Look at this hob (range)!! And the two ovens below!! I think I'm going to like cooking & baking while in england :-)

We have a small British fridge, and when we opened it up this afternoon, there was a bottle of Bill's favorite Irish cider that was left behind by the landlord. I have a feeling Bill will crack this open the first night we stay at the new place.

Sláinte!

We Rented a Victorian!!

After looking at many, many houses, we ended up settling on a 3-story, 6-bedroom Victorian house. Did you just think "That's huge!" So did we. However, all of the houses comparable to our house at home have zero storage and tend to have street-parking only - a bit of a challenge when you want to live near the city centre. This house was well within our budget (actually a lot cheaper than some we looked at), and we figure we can close off the three bedrooms on the top floor unless we have visitors.

So, without further ado, here's a photo of the house:

And the backyard:

And a few photos from the upstairs windows:

As you can see, we've had some snow. In fact, we couldn't even get to the house yesterday as our car was snowed in!

We will post some photos of the house's interior in our next post.

Bye for now!

A Cute Story

During our first week in England I spend almost every afternoon walking around our new town and getting the lay of the land. I also learned quickly that the gloves, hats, and scarfs I packed in the sea shipment would have to be supplemented. Quickly. Have I mentioned it's snowed or rained almost every day we've been here?

Our temporary apartment is located very close to the town center, and within 10 minutes I can walk to a street that has a Topshop and H&M (kind of like high-end Forever 21 stores), Primark (low-end Forever 21), Lush, and a Marks & Spensors (like a Macy's, but with a grocery store in the bottom floor) as well as many, many boutiques. Needless to say, I headed that way to pick up some inexpensive warm layers for the weather we're having. In one shop, I arrived at the cash register line right when an older lady walked up. Here's our five minute conversation in a nutshell...

"Go ahead, dear. I think you were here first." Said the nice lady.
"Oh, thank you!" I said as I took the place in line in front of her.
"How lovely, you're an American! Are you visiting?"
"Actually, I just moved here 3 days ago."
"Wonderful! And where in America did you came from?"
"California, about two hours south of San Francisco."
"How nice, dear! You know, I've been there before... Humm... Can't remember where exactly we went. It was near a lake. You know, the big lake."
"Hummm... Tahoe?" (I tried to think of a big lake near San Francisco, but this was all I could come up with.)
"No. Hummm... Let me think. Honey?" She called over to her husband who was waiting outside of the cashier area, "What was the name of the place we stayed when we went to America?"
"Chicago!" He called back.
"That's right, Chicago!" She beamed.
"Oh! How nice... I've never been to Chicago, but I have some friends from that part of the country." I said as I was called up the the cashier. "Have a great day!"
"You too, dear. Welcome to England!" She said.

So I hope all is going well over there, be you near San Francisco or around the corner near that big lake in Chicago.

TGIF! :-)

What's Up with That?!

It's officially the first day of Spring, three days after St. Patrick's Day and this is what it looks like. Still. What's up with that?!? :-)

The Snow of St. Patrick's Day

Bill has always told me that the last snow of winter tends to happen on St. Patrick's Day. And what do you know, we got some snow last night; let's hope it's the last snow of the season!

Bill wearing his new rain/snow slicker

An Afternoon in the Dales

We've spent the last two weeks getting our life somewhat organized. But last weekend we took some time for a little drive through the Yorkshire Dales. It had snowed the day before and there was a bit of snow still on the hillsides. I took a few photos of some weekend mountain bikers on a rugged hillside:

Just a few miles down the road the sun had melted all of the snow for a beautiful pastoral scene:

We then drove up to a National Heritage site called Brimham Rocks. We have been told to sign up for the National Heritage card, which is kind of like a State Parks Pass but good for all heritage sites (manor houses, castles, cathedrals, ruins, gardens. etc.) in Northern Ireland, Scotland, England, and Whales. We parked and talked with the National Heritage employee, but unfortunately, we don't have our UK bank cards yet so we were unable to sign  up at that time. And it was about 2* C with a harsh wind - COLD!! Bill and I agreed we wouldn't spend enough time in the cold, cold weather to spend the daily fee, so we set off. But we did manage to get one photo of a rock in Brimham Rocks from the car park (British for parking lot).

We'll go back soon and have a good look all around the rocks, gardens, historic home, etc. and be sure to post more photos!

Flashback Friday - Moving Day Edition

Two weeks ago all three of us flew from San Francisco to Newark to Edinburgh in order to drive four hours to our new home in North Yorkshire, England. It was one of the longest days EVER! We have flown long distances before, but never with a cat flying in the pet cargo area, two maximum weighted checked bags each, and two large carry-ons each.

Here's a picture of Scout being loaded onto the plane. She's on the back conveyor belt (thankfully, the giant labrador was in the forward pet cargo area so as not to freak her out too badly) closest to the United Pet Van.

Scout was fairly catatonic when we picked her up 20 hours later in Edinburgh, but she has recovered nicely. (She even went to the vet yesterday for a checkup and she seems to be doing as well as any almost 15-year old cat with thyroid issues can. Yay!!)

After the two long flights, we picked up our crazy amounts of luggage, easily made it through customs, stepped out the airport sliding doors and saw this image: 

I guess we made it home!! 

The four hour drive was a little longer than anticipated due to the sat nav (GPS) giving us incorrect directions (or, more likely, our misinterpreting the sat nav's directions) and the fact that car direction finders will only get you to a post code (zip code) and won't deliver you directly to an address. 

Since we arrived in Edinburgh at 7:30AM, we stopped along the way for a proper Scottish breakfast. Nothing like two rashers (slices of bacon), two sausages, blood pudding (yes, that's correct), two eggs, beans, tomatoes, toast, and a lovely pot of tea for two to start off your British Boondoggle! 

First Week

Bill and I have been breathing UK air for one whole week as of today. We have been running a ton of errands, getting paperwork t's crossed and the like, as well as setting up banking, viewing rental houses (aka houses to let), etc. Scoutie even has her first vet appointment set up for next week!

Needless to say, we haven't really done much exploring aside from around town. But we plan to fix that this weekend, and we'll take the good camera and upload some pictures later. In the meantime, here's a photo (below, first pic) from a quick drive we took yesterday. The picture was taken with my iPad through the windshield of our car, but it still turned out pretty nice.

The house hunting has been a bit of a challenge. We feel like we're on house hunter's international....

First house: w/in easy walking distance to town, right size, parking spot; but it looks like a basic townhouse and doesn't have the British charm we were both hoping for.

Second house: brick townhouse built in 1818 (lots of charm!) & fully updated (warm & functional!), great amenities and w/in easy walking distance to town; but no parking space and it's right on the corner of a main road with b&bs all around. We're worried about noise on weekends when bars close and parking issues (since we wouldn't have a designated spot) on holiday weekends. And the kitchen's a bit small.

Third house: huge victorian house w/in walking distance to town, but farther than the other two. Cheapest and largest house with plenty of parking and a cute front/back yards. But no appliances and we're scared of the heating bill for such a large place.

Argh!! We are viewing 4 more properties over the weekend which will likely just confuse us more :-/ We will keep you all posted as to which one we choose!

The last photo is an item I picked up at marks & spencer (kind of like a high end super target). I couldn't resist! Now I'll be ready when Wills & Kate meet us and want to be our new BFFs ;-)

Blue Sky!!

Day 4 in England gave us a wee bit of blue sky! It was much appreciated, as it was 36* yesterday with 87% humidity, which made it bone-chillingly cold. We'll get used to it, but I'm happy to see some blue out of our apartment window today.

Park Benches

Day 2 in England gave us the opportunity to get the lay of the land and pick up a few needed items. The town of Harrogate has a "green belt" type area called the Stray that meanders through town. We've been told that within a month it will be covered in wildflowers and tulips, so we'll be sure to post a few pictures when spring is in full bloom. In the meantime, here's a picture of one of the many park benches dotted around the Stray. If you look closely, the back of the bench is a forked snake tail and the head of the snake is under the bench. This motif is on every bench & it is so charming - even if it is snakes!

Living Room View: Day One

Having endured the travel day, we now find ourselves living in the UK! Everyone has been very helpful. We especially wish to thank the talented folks at Extraordinair, the pet import agency at the Edinburgh Airport that helped us so very much with Scout's clearance process.

The drive from Scotland was very pretty. It was cold, but gorgeous - lots of sun and few hiccups caused by our own sleep-deprived poor decision-making. Sorry, no pics - we were in a hurry and wanted to get Scout out of her cage as quickly as possible.

But this morning we are starting to adjust. Here is the view from the apartment living room:

Leaving Monterey

Monterey has been my home for 13 years and Jennifer's for 16 years. It's a beautiful place we have been happy to call home. "Have been?" you ask? Yep - we're moving to the UK! Work takes us there for a two-year assignment in North Yorkshire. But Monterey is home in our hearts and we will miss it. Jen took these photos yesterday during a final drive around the peninsula.