Driving in the UK

WHAT IS WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE?

Blue Doors

For this Too Good to Miss Tuesday I must address a universal truth . . . blue doors are beautiful. The evidence: substantial number of instances found throughout Europe.

With shades ranging from chicken egg blue (yes they exist--my sister has a chicken that lays blue eggs) to "almost green" turquoise I love them all. Included are a few "un-door" examples too significant to leave out.

"Sky on a snowy day blue" with a "dash of retro vibe aqua"

Clockwise from top left: Riomaggiore Italy, Bratislava Slovakia, Paris France x2, Verona Italy, Paris France

"Solemn-enough" grey/blue fit for nobility and a monastery

Clockwise from top left: Modena Italy, Prague Czech Republic (x2), Inveraray Scotland. Center: Prage Czech Republic

"You know you want to know more" electric blue  juxtaposed with "sophisticated sky" blues

Clockwise from top left: Bologna Italy, Amsterdam Netherlands, Zurich Switzerland, Amsterdam Netherlands. Center: Paris, France

The unorthodox mix . . . of course the Gelato University sign is blue, and the 2 black doors in Amsterdam are made even more stunning by the neighboring blue paint. Those sky blue/grey door and window frames in Zurich are the portals to a cozy home decor shop. I dream of wallpapering a nook with their library/book wall covering just as they did.

Turquoise that's all I'm gonna say

Clockwise from top left: Ghent Belgium, Inveraray Scotland, Dozza Italy, Gothenburg Sweden, Verona Italy, Edinburgh Scotland

And below, the pic of that romanticly lit door caught in a drizzly haze was the last blue door I captured on my last night in Europe.

Ardently Indigo

Clockwise from left: Bergen Norway, London (Notting Hill) England, Paris France

It's not All Daffodils and Roses in the Lake District

I've had my accommodations in the Lake District booked for over a month (the most advanced planning I've done for the trip). It has been at the top of my "must do" list with Prague and Italy. I wish I could say I've been off the grid because my every waking moment has been consumed with the atmosphere, but alas, I hit a snag, in the form of a wretched stomache bug that kept me in bed the better part of 4 days. The kind that colors everything around you putrid even the most beautiful of surroundings and experiences. So bad that I was ready to throw in the towel, come home early. The thought of getting on the airplane sick was about the only thing stopping me. Enough of that....

Here are some good things

1. The Old Rectory in Bootle, my home base for 6 nights

2. Sheep and lambies prancing and sunning themselves everywhere. I prefer to think #4 is the entry number for the local beauty contest.

3. The flowers and benches nestled in the Old Rectory garden

Manchester with Books

My plane arrived 30 minutes early in Manchester. I didn't know that was possible. So I peeked into an airport shop, scored 3 books for the price of 2 and now have 2 weeks to finish them before I return my rental car (aka extra luggage space).

And this is how I make them portable, tearing into sections. Some may think it's sacrilege, I call it being prepared. You never know when the urge to pop into a cafe or onto a park bench to read for a while will hit.

Then I happened upon this gem: Magma Books.

When I told the cashier I wanted 7 others but was limited due to travel he whipped out a card and said "let us do the heavy lifting, shop on our website," which is: Magmabooks. Here's my beauty. It's big!

Last but not least I went to the John Ryland library. It may look like a place of worship and it is, for books. And I'm a believer.

Brings back memories of my French lit class.

Mirrors are available to view the ceiling without straining your neck. Brilliant.

The subject of a current exhibit is: Al Mutanabbi Street. If you don't know about it look it up and be prepared to get emotional, I did.

Looking for Mr Darcy in Lyme Park

I looked

And looked

And Looked

He was not in the pond

He was not in the lake, those white haired volunteers didn't fool me

He was not on yonder side of the wall

So I did the next best thing. I went to Rams Head, a pub in the neighboring village of Disley. There I had the most amazing Lamb-burger with yogurt mint sauce and a rich treacle tart with lemon curd while cozied up in my own little alcove just big enough for 2. He really did miss out.

Maybe Mr Darcy was hiding in the house. It was closed to the public today, but I'm now a card carrying member of the National Trust, which means I've paid for the right to stalk him, I mean visit as many national trust locations in England as I can, for one whole year.

Paris

We arrived in Paris by Chunnel today. I didn't expect confetti or streamers to fly but I at least thought there would be an announcement when we emerged on the France side. It was a smooth ride but got a little crazy with all of the swindlers at the station on the Paris side. No worries they didn't fool us.

Our last hour in London was spent at Brompton Cemetery which seems quite appropriate because we've been homesick for London since leaving.

But never fear we enjoyed sweets at Laduree as well as the sparkling Eiffel Tower.

But my favorite moment in Paris so far was as we passed 2 Paris policeman walking on a quiet side street as they ate THEIR crepes with Nutella.

The English Countryside with Car and Map

Since arriving in Europe I've had wifi connectivity, battery draining, blog formatting issues (it makes my skin crawl when pictures and text are not aligned) and I'm about ready to throw my phone out the window and jump up and down on my iPad. Ok I'm done complaining--but now you know why we only had a map when leaving London.

We had one goal for the day: visit Jane Austen's house in Chawton about 1.5 hours outside London. It may take others less time to drive but we took a few "detours". Miss Austen is the author of my all time favorite book, Pride and Prejudice. So why not visit during the year of its 200th anniversary. It was lovely and quaint but this quote pretty much sums up the rest of the day's activities.

We totally had a spontaneous change of plans and it was a thrill. We had planned to visit a historic building (which i cannot rember the name of) when I saw a certain estate on the map about 30 minutes away. Ok I didn't know it was 30 minutes away, remember, the tech stuff is not working so well, it was about 6 inches away from our current location so that was a guess. We had really wanted to go to this estate but an all day trip was ruled out because it's closed. But we said, "if we are this close now we have to go and at least try to see Highclere Castle"!
We found it.
Yes we were giddy schoolgirls. All you Downton Abbey fans know exactly what I mean. Here we are facing a field of sheep hoping no one kicks us off the grounds.

Next random destination, Oxford. We had an hour before everything closed, wasting half of it because we didn't trust a certain map (no surprise why neither of us went to Oxford) but then we found this at Christchurch. Look familiar?

Now back to London in the dark...
Driving in central London on the WRONG side of the road, narrow one way streets, pedestrians, busses that don't fit, street signs either too low or too long to read unless you get out of the car and look. Taxi please! So when my iPad map started working during the trickiest part of the journey my sister and I both said, "this is a miracle", seriously.

Last but not least if you see a sign in the English countryside which reads "oncoming traffic may be in the middle of the road" then around the next bend oncoming traffic just may be in the middle of the road in the form of a red double decker tour bus. Ahh!

Notting Hill

Our first excursion this morning was to Notting Hill. As we were walking to Granger (a restaurant from Where Chefs Eat) we walked by a private park--the kind surrounded by a tall wrought iron fence, the kind where you have to peer through the wall of foliage to see the manicured lawns and walkways, the kind from the movie Notting Hill. And as we were oohing and awing (actually being voyeristic tourists) a sweet little man opened the gate and said, "would you like to come in?" Of course we said ,"yes". We walked in imagined for just a moment that we wandered these grounds as our own and then the nice little man let us out of the gate.

 

Then we enjoyed a full Australian breakfast, ricotta pancakes with honeycomb butter an hot chocolate with callebaut chocolate melting into the foamy hot milk. In my sister's words this is the best toast I have ever had. Yes, the toast and everything else was that good. Darn that means I have to continue to carry that  brick of a book.

Next, to Kensington Palace. We didn't see Kate or Will, but we did see their faces embroidered on pillows along with 20 other royals. Funny thing, Diana had a pillow but Charles did not. Also at Kensington we had afternoon tea at the Orangery. Good thing we practiced our pinky exercises last week so we could enjoy our scones with good form while gazing out the windows to Kensington gardens. 

   

Last but not least, I can't stop smiling because we just returned from a stage performance of Singin' in the Rain. And I'm really grateful we did not buy the orchestra seats in the splash zone.

London

2 days in London and we (christy & I) have taken the wrong tube too many times to count (granted this was on an underground line with multiple ending points but with the same name) tried to pay for a ticket using euros instead of pounds, forgot to bring directions to the hotel (never been so happy to see the Golden Arches with free wifi) and we're having a blast.

Here are just a few highlights from day one because on day 2 my camera battery died).

Lauduree macaroons from Harrods. Not sure which I like more the macaroons or the hot guy in the background.

Westminster Abbey

Big Ben at the stroke of 6:00 sounds just like it does on Peter Pan.

Now, name that movie?