Phoning Home

Enjoying a family Skype with Uncle Jimmy in Portland, ME.

Life at Audley

Our little stable boy.

Our first trip to Audley End centered on exploring the gardens. This trip, with Jim and Eliza, we took a tour of the manor house (an incredible art and antique collection) and poked through the dairy and kitchens where actors in period costume go about their day caring for the home and preparing meals. It's great to see a historic home, but it's another to really see how people lived. (Did you know they used to put carrot juice in the cream before churning to give their butter a yellow hue?) It was really interesting.

The scullery maid.

Petting Captain the horse.

The manor house.

A small patch of the grounds at Audley End.

On the H Train.

Of course we returned to the neighboring miniature railroad for a few more rides, courtesy Paba and Zaza. My only regret is not being close enough to snap a photo of Big Jim riding atop a teeny-tiny train as it looped the track. That's grandparent dedication.

York: Day 3 (Fondant Fancy)

Fondant Fancy at Betty's.

While Harry returned for his third visit to the railway museum (sheer bliss), the girls did some shopping and Charlotte was treated to a pink fondant fancy (think: very large petit four, pink, flower on top...more bliss).

I ended the trip by spraining my ankle (a complimentary injury to the swollen eye, surprised Paul wasn't arrested for battery), but fortunately I had Zaza and The Bean there to chase the kids around the Minster park and pour wine into my maw to numb the pain.

It was a very nice trip. And if Harry has anything to do with it we'll be back next year to revisit the Railway Museum. 

Snuggling at bedtime.

York: Day 2 (The Hogwarts Express!)

The York Minster

The highlight of any trip to York is a visit to the York Minster, one of northern Europe's greatest Gothic cathedrals (and home...wait for it...to the largest stained glass window in the world, they say). Click the link for a virtual tour (or come visit us, definitely better).

Paul and I are starting to sort out visiting some of the grandest sites with little ones (a lot of taking turns during tours) and gobs of patience (ours). But we're enjoying it, to be sure.

After the Minster, we ambled to Betty's Tea Room, an English institution,  for lunch where the kids went mental over the pudding cart.

Betty's

Every child's best memory: the dessert cart

So Yum.

Driving Miss Charlotte

Then it was off to the National Railroad Museum (THE railroad museum in the UK), where we all ogled the trains, the history and the Hogwarts Express. It was Paul who found the Platform 9 3/4 sign, which they recently removed from Kings Cross station during an extensive renovation. 

The Hogwarts Express

York: Day 1

We decided to take a short holiday before the start of school, so we packed our bags and hopped the train to York, complete with the grandparents and The Bean.

Cambridge to York via Peterborough

Waiting for our Connection to York

AquaVision!

York is a walled city, situated at the confluence of the Rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire. The city has a rich heritage and has provided the backdrop to major political events throughout much of its two millennia of existence. The city was founded by the Romans in 71 AD, under the name of Eboracum. It became in turn the capital of the Roman province of Britannia Inferior, and of the kingdoms of Northumbria and Jorvik. In the Middle Ages, York grew as a major wool trading centre and became the capital of the northern ecclesiastical province of the Church of England, a role it has retained. In the 19th century York became a hub of the railway network and a manufacturing centre.

Our motley crew covered a lot of ground in three days: the spectacular York Minster, the National Railway Museum (three times! for Lucky Harry), which I'll note is the home of the Hogwarts Express (Lucky Mommy!), the Jorvik Viking Museum and 2.5 miles of stone walls that date back to the Romans and still partially ring the beautiful city.

But perhaps the highlight of our short Day 1 was our room in the Grange Hotel where the children enjoyed 'AquaVision,' positively the BEST way to get kids into the tub sans complaint.

Many thanks go to The Bean, who hauled me to an NHS clinic after I developed a wicked infected eye in Cambridge. It was my first experience with NHS (I have nothing but compliments). Saw a doc, got diagnosed (all free) and then spent 7 quid on a prescription that fixed me right up (after a few days in York looking like I'd been punched in the face.)

King's College

Inside the chapel

The grandparents' arrival has given us an opportunity (and reason, at last) to start exploring Cambridge's more well-known colleges (there are 31 total). A few of them are spectacular, starting with King's college, which is a very short walk from the house. Henry VI (1421-1471) founded King's College in 1441. The College's buildings were intended to be a magnificent display of the power of royal patronage, and Henry went to great lengths to ensure that King's College Chapel would be unequalled in size and beauty.

I was delighted to learn that as Cambridge residents we get free access to the property. Well worth a visit if you come to see us (and like stained glass. Come to think of it...you can't really escape the stained glass in England, so I believe you just learn to love it). Click on the link for a virtual tour, really spectacular.

We're told you must line up at 3 a.m. to hear King's College's world-famous Choir sing on Christmas day. Not happening. But we hope to catch a rehearsal or an evensong this year. (The Choir owes its existence to King Henry VI, who envisaged the daily singing of services in his magnificent chapel. This remains the Choir's raison d'être, and is an important part of the lives of its 16 choristers, who are educated on generous scholarships at King's College School, and the 14 choral scholars and two organ scholars, who study a variety of subjects in the College.)

Next stops: Trinity and St. Johns Colleges. 

More deep thoughts

 

We're lighting a LOT of candles these days. A LOT.

With a Twist

We're experimenting with a new hairstyle as we transition to the very grown-up world of school: a french braid. While Charlotte complains bitterly when I put her in pigtails, she believes herself positively Rapunzilian when I braid her hair.