Guildford & Home

OK, so I went through 2 days of jet lag and 8 days of denial that I'm in America. I still have to finish the story - don't I?

Easter Sunday we meant to go Greyfriars Church... but I misplaced the service details and we were uncertain about Ian's ability to meld into a strange Sunday School. So we read the Easter story in Ian's comic book Bible in our pajamas before going down to breakfast at the hotel.

After spending our last hour in Quark's Internet Cafe, we hopped on the train to Guildford. None of us, Megan included, were up to London after our experience at the Tower the day before. All we wanted was a quiet place to walk and look a High Street and some castle ruins. We were not disappointed.

The Guildford train platform was a bit of a puzzle. Unlike every other platform we've ever been on, there was no "Way Out" sign. There were signs to other platforms and the university, but in our confusion we tried going down a tunnel only to turn around and go up some stairs - eventually finding the way out. The streets of Guildford were much less confusing. Just outside the station, a giant map of the city let us know where the castle and High Street were. There were plenty of brown directional signs to help us at each intersection as well.

We ate our Easter meal at Yates's (also spelled Y8's)...after waiting a half hour for the "chef" to return from his break. We had the entire place to ourselves. Kurt and Megan split a burger, I had the "Sunday Roast" special complete with mini-Yorkshire puddings (they were out of steak & ale pie), and Ian had his cheesy garlic bread. The whole thing was a bit surreal: it's Easter, we're sitting in a bar with our kids, smelling stale cigarette smoke, hearing our favorite Brit bands on the muzak, and watching a muted version of "Keeping Up Appearances" on the big screen TV. (We later saw much more appetizing options on our explorations through town, but hunger overrode patience.)



We found the castle ruins smack in the middle of the prettiest garden we'd seen this trip. The tulips and daffodils were HUGE, the grass was GREEN, the sky was BLUE, and the stone paths were so TIDY. Best of all there were NO LINES. The castle was inexpensive and newly restored. They had some interesting displays on the ground floor with plenty of signage on the other floors. Best of all, I could enjoy being on top of the keep (don't laugh, Sid). There's always such an anxious mystery to what awaits you at the top of spiral castle stairs. But this time, the whole viewing platform was enclosed in an iron cage that not even my wiggly son could squirm out of. I actually enjoyed the view, took more pictures than usual, and allowed my children and husband more than 5 milimeters away from me!



We walked through a closed shopping district. All the great British and American shops were represented - must be quite an experience during business hours. Ian needed a loo, so we followed the signs and found a clean and serviceable one not connected with any shop. We saw the Guildhall with it's ancient clock, a statue of George Abbott (one of the Archbishops of Canterbury), and another Quark's Internet Cafe tucked into a side alley. The historic "hospital" had it's gate and door open with a sign that read "If the door is open, come in." We did. Just inside the courtyard was a sign that told us to stop there and just look. Apparently it is now a retirement community. We obeyed the sign, and were then rewarded by one of the staff who took us beyond the sign into another garden at the back. We got to see a huge copper pot that the historical occupants used to wash their clothes and cook festival meals in - now a planter since the bottom rusted through. We also saw the Hershey's-kiss-shaped niches in the garden wall which used to house bee bowls. As he led us back out with a "please use the path through the center" (not the one that traces the courtyard near the buildings), our gregarious host quickly changed moods. New visitors had not respected the boundaries and were greeted with an icy-yet-formal "Actually visitors are not allowed past this sign unless you are invited to a tour, and I must go. I don't have time." Ooooo, glad we obeyed the sign.



We got ice cream from the van parked outside the train station and waited for a non-Virgin train to take us back to Reading. The kids used their own pence to buy sweets at the station shop. (Megan discovered Cadbury Cream Eggs for the first time.) The kids had their last swim and I watched my last proper BBC while packing.

Our trip home was unremarkable, except for a Bank Holiday snag. We arrived at Paddington Station expecting to take the Heathrow Express to the airport. Unfortunately, it was Easter Monday - a holiday that the US does not observe. The Heathrow Express does not run on Sundays or Bank Holidays. A very kind attendant wearing a black jacket over his Heathrow Express purple suit told us our options were: 1. the Tube (been there, done that, no way with kids), 2. the Heathrow Connect which is a train to Hayes and then a bus (20 minutes before the train would arrive & when would we see the bus?), and 3. a cab (which he said would be hard to find since everyone will want them). We walked to the Connect platform and quickly decided we didn't want to wait. We walked to the taxi stand which was deserted of passangers and chock full of black-cabs (it's the shape, not the color). The head cab's driver estimated ₤55 to Heathrow. A quick talley of the pockets and purse yeilded ₤65 - so in we went.

The ride went smoothly, except for Ian's obsessive reading of the meter. I've never been on the M4 before, though I've heard it on traffic reports from BBC radio streamed over the internet. There was NO traffic, so we got to Heathrow for a mere ₤49.80 plus tip. We breezed through check-in, thanks to our online boarding passes printed at Quark's. Security was a piece of cake as well. The kids enjoyed shopping in the international terminal while we waited to board. Our flight was smoother than the trip over - only turbulence over Greenland. We saw an agriculture-sniffing hound catch a woman with an apple in her handbag at the baggage claim (quite exciting, actually). My mom was there to take us home in our car with home-baked pretzels as a bonus.

All in all, I know Kurt is glad to be home. Ian wants to go back to England so he can swim. Megan wants to live in England. And I think I'm STILL in denial that I'm even home.

Cheers,
Jessi


Quote of the Day:

Ian, to the driver of the ice cream van as we threw our rubbish in his bin, "That was the best 50 pence I've ever spent. That ice cream cone was the best one in the universe!"

Megan, after resisting pictures the whole trip, "Ooh, take my picture next to these flowers. No wait, take my picture while I smell the flowers."

London x 2

We are officially done with London now - except for the flight home on Monday. Ian is definitely glad. He's tired of hearing the announcers at some of the Tube stations saying "Mind the gap." At one point, the kids turned it into a joke using the GAP sweatshirt Megan was wearing. We stopped at stations and the kids would say "Mind the..." and point to Megan's sweatshirt. I guess you had to be there.

Lot's of rail repairs were taking place this weekend, but we lucked out and got the express into & out of London instead of a local that had to be redirected on the bus. We also needed the Tube lines that were NOT being worked on. Ian has a special fondness for the sound of the Picadilly line. Every time we stopped at a station that connected to it, he would say it over and over for at least a minute.



We made it through the ticket line for the Tower of London. Ian was a real trooper, and the line only got bigger behind us so it put our short wait into perspective. Many portions were under construction, unlike when Kurt and I had gone two years ago. They also "enhanced" the Medieval Palace display, but Kurt and I liked it better the old way. They took out a beautiful metal chandelier in the room with Henry III's chapel and replaced it with a video projector showing not-quite-relevant historical information. It completely took away from the intimate, sanctuary-like feel that used to be in the room. Some of the other walls have had their ancient stone white washed (except for the tiles that bear 500 year old inscriptions from prisoners). It completely messes with the awesome feeling of antiquity that should be felt in a place that's nearly 1000 years old.



Kurt and Megan braved the "queue" for the crown jewels while Ian and I did the wall walk. We thought the wait was bad...that is until we looked at the wait after a Richard III re-enactment on the green. The line went from the door of the tower, all along the side, turned 90 degrees, went all the way down by the armory/cafe, turned 180 degrees around a central cannon display, and up the length of the green to the sidewalk that enters the White Tower. Unreal!

Navigating the White Tower was an experience as well. They have rerouted the traffic to see the armor & prisoner inscriptions first, then the Norman chapel and the rest of the tower. You couldn't move on the "ground floor", there were so many people. Upstairs it smoothed out a bit until the Guy Fawkes display. Megan wanted to watch the videos, but Ian had had it and it would have taken more than 30 minutes.

We all talked to an employee dressed like Robin Hood (though that wasn't who he was portraying). Ian told him all about Henry VIII while Kurt and I made some history-related-dry-humor jokes. The man asked where Ian lived, then turned to us and said, "But you're not from America, are you?" When we said yes we were, he gave me the biggest compliment in the world: "Oh, I just - you're more well-spoken than most of the Americans that I meet." Quite funny and well appreciated:-)



After the Tower, we walked across Tower Bridge. We followed the Queen's Silver Jubilee walk markers along Southwark, saw the Globe Theatre recreation & London Bridge, and then crossed the Millenium Bridge (Ian nearly went through the wires trying to see when I stopped to take a picture - serves me right!) We took a look at St. Paul's then found the neares Tube station. Megan liked retracing "Daphne's" steps from the movie "What a Girl Wants."



We arrived back to Reading just when all the disappointed fans were returning home from the home match against Liverpool. I had to sniffle because we tried for a very long time to get tickets to that match. They lost, so I guess it's just as well. This was, however, Kurt's first trip to the UK without a soccer/football match. We finished the evening with Pizza Express, a swim in the pool, and Victoria Sponge Cake from Sainsbury's. A great way to wind down from all the urban stress:-)

As we have to leave early tomorrow and the internet cafe closes early for Easter, this will be our last post from this side of the pond. I'll try to fill in the last of the blanks on Tuesday from the comfort of my own chair. Thanks for sticking with us and sending us your well wishes. We miss you all and hope to be seeing you (even our far away friends) very soon.

Cheers,
Jessi

Quote of the Day:

Ian, after noticing some stations were handicapped accessible and some weren't: "Is there such a thing as a cat wheelchair? How about a disabled litter box?"

Megan, once the Tower of London came into view & responding to my "Look, there it is!": "Mmmmm, the ice cream?"
(There was an ice cream van parked next to us on the sidewalk.)