Blog 022 – Whilst In England

This year we decided to visit all of our kids on a two month journey – think trains, planes and automobiles. Not one of them live within a thousand miles of the others. So during hurricane season this is what we did. The month of July we spent in the U.K. visiting our son Ryan and his beautiful family and traveling around sight-seeing. It’s been a year and a half since we last saw them and we sure did miss our grandsons Oliver and Rowen. They are growing up fast. We planned on spending a month there but it was shortened a bit by the passport fiasco.

Our travels on Silhouette will take us even further away so we wanted to visit now. In England we enjoyed some of the nicest days on record, even though the first few days we were very cold. It took a little time to get adjusted to sixty degree weather after spending months in above ninety degree weather.

Our daughter in-law Abigail is a wonderful cook so I am pretty sure we left ten pounds heavier. She made scones for breakfast nearly every morning and covered them in her own special maple frosting (impossible to resist). Delicious! Once, she went out to the garden and picked lavender and made one of the best cakes I have ever tasted. But England as a whole has foods that are bland – the only thing missing is flavor. I guess my wife’s Puerto Rican roots have spoiled my taste buds. We prefer hot and spicy. While we were there my son also smoked some chickens and that was fantastic…Ok, I love food – what can I say.

Every morning our grandsons would come down the stairs with big sleepy smiles, give us a hug, and curl up next to us. Breakfast was always fun with them cramming food in between excited 2 and 4 year old conversations. We went to the old train depot where the original Thomas the Train was housed. We spent an afternoon riding a steam powered train through the beautiful English countryside complete with whistle blowing at every intersection. Over rivers and ponds filled with ducks and beautiful swans. We crossed farms filled with cattle, sheep, and horses. Green lush countryside with each field separated by tall green hedges. For the record hedges are way more beautiful than barbed wire but no one would say we conquered the West with a hedge. The train car we were in was wooden and must have been a hundred years old but very well kept. The conductor came to our compartment in his blue hat with a gold band and punched the boys’ tickets and even chatted with them for a minute. The boys played on the floor with toy trains brought from home in between times of excitingly looking out the window.

We visited London by way of The Tube – their underground train system. The culture shock of millions of people shoulder-to-shoulder made me feel claustrophobic, and I spent years under water in submarines. Ok, it just felt like millions. We made the mistake of beginning our visit to London with a humungous open-air market with even more millions of people. (see above comment) and then we toured the city on a duck boat, much more my speed.

These boats are relics from World War II now taking tourists around the city and on the River Thames for a view from the water. We saw Buckingham Palace, House of Parliament and even Big Ben. We heard the history of London back in the days of Winston Churchill and Nancy Astor, who referring to the rank smell of his cigars and his temperament said, “Sir, if you were my husband I would poison your tea” and Winston, without skipping a beat, responded, “Lady, if you were my wife I would drink it!”

We learned about the odd rules of Parliament and even drove by the building that houses the MI 5 & 6 spy agency. I always thought the MI meant Mission Impossible but it turns out it actually means Military Intelligence. Who knew? We saw the iconic red phone booths and learned that the rounded top was designed so that men, a hundred years ago, could step in, make a call, and never need to remove their top hats-like the one sported by Sherlock Holmes. Red double decker buses and tiny cars were everywhere and everyone carried an umbrella. The buildings had gargoyles, a throw back to mid-evil times, and huge moss-covered stone castles abounded.

Since we live on a boat, we must mention the canals and all the brightly colored house boats. These canal boats are very long and narrow with a shallow draft. They looked a lot like train cars on the water. Most were powered by small in-board diesels and had tiller steering with the cockpit in the stern. Some had patios on top and all had a long row of windows on each side. Many had plants growing on-deck. This looks like fun. If we get tired of sailing we may just have to take a European Vacation (pun intended).

I had my son and daughter-in-law tutor us on street signs and symbols. Abigail was even brave enough to let me drive, while holding on with both hands and squinting through one eye. Only once did I make a u-turn and wind up heading on the wrong side of the road. It’s a good thing Ryan was not with us. He tends to be a bit more critical. I would have never lived that one down. But we managed to tour Europe wreck free!

Liana and I rented a car and wandered around on our own for a bit. Every time I would get ready to make an exit or a turn, Liana would chant, “Stay left, stay left, stay left.” I am pretty sure this was to help her feel she was giving me better odds of not screwing it up. We make a good team! The roads are so narrow, routinely I would catch myself thinking these speed limits are too fast for these roads. Our kids would zip down them like Mario Andretti. I think I just dated myself. The trucks are called lorries and are narrower and taller than the semis in the States. They tend to drive more aggressively. Basically when they put on a turn signal you best get out of the way because they turn them on during the maneuver – not before. There are roundabouts everywhere. I sure hope this never catches on in the States. It takes three times as long to get anywhere and the first time you enter one it’s a bit terrifying with everyone changing lanes and going in a death spiral at 50 mph.

We ventured to the other side of the island and stopped in the hometown of the Beatles. I had to ask myself why would anyone name a city Liverpool? It turns out the reason has been lost to history – they don’t even know. From Liverpool we took the ferry to the Isle of Man. This was definitely one of the highlights of our time in the U.K.

Our trip was not nearly long enough and soon it was time to fly back to the States. With big, long, little hugs and a few tears we said our good-byes. The flight back to New York was uneventful… until we landed. But thats when our next adventure begins.