English Adventure Part 2

In 2011, when Nan and I went to England, we both thought that it would be a once in a lifetime trip, and that Nan's travelling days were behind her. That turned out to not be the case. This past January, while I was reading The House at Riverton by Kate Morton (a great book by the way) I started thinking more about the house where Nan worked when she was younger. I decided to do a bit of research about the house. I called her to get the name of the place, and soon discovered that it was now a hotel and conference centre. When I told Nan this, she was very surprised, as the last time she was there it was an electrical college.

A few days later I got a phone call. It was Nan, and she was proposing that we go to England and stay at the house. She told me it was my decision. I wasn't sure at first, but as I finished reading the book, my decision was made. I called her and told her we were going. In July, we were on a flight to Birmingham.

We landed, rented a car, and were on our way. It was quite an experience driving a standard car, on the wrong side of the road, with no sleep, but we made it to our b and b. The b and b was a converted farm, and was very close to Rugby.That first day we just toured around the area a bit, and got rested.



Nan at the bed and breakfast.

 The next day we headed to Stratford Upon Avon to tour around and to meet Sue and Alan. We had a great day, including a boat trip on the river, a stop at Shakespeare's burial place, and an evening at the Attic Theatre to see A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Royal Shakespeare Theatre

Alan, Sue and Nan on the boat trip

Shakespeare's Grave

The next day we went to Kenilworth Castle. It was the home of Queen Elizabeth's lover Robert Dudley. It's just ruins now, but it's still pretty impressive.







Garden Dudley had made for Elizabeth

After the castle, we went to Coventry. Nan was born nearby, and pretty much grew up in Coventry. We went to the Coventry Transport Museum, because the lady at out b and b recommended it. It was very cool. The best part of it wasa 'tour' of Coventry through time. There was a section on the blitz, that devestated the city, and while we were looking at the pictures from then Nan told me that her Mother was in Coventry when the city was bombed, and wasn't able to get home for 3 days. Nan and her sisters didn't know if she was alive or dead.

At age 14 1/2 , Nan had to get a job. Her choices were Cashs, or going into service. She tried Cashs for a day, but said it was too noisy, so the next day her mom set up with an interview at Dunchurch Lodge.

The used the sewers in Coventry to film the original Itatian Job movie.

The ruins of the Coventry Cathedral

The next day we met Alan and Sue in Rugby. While we were having a rest, Nan mentioned that she'd try contacting her neice who lives in Rugby, but had no success. Alan got out this cell phone, called her up and within minutes, she was at the pub with us. We all had a great time, and it was nice meeting another family member.

The highlight of our trip was going to and staying at Dunchurch Lodge. We stayed in the converted stable.  The first night there I toured aound the whole original house and took pictures of all the rooms for Nan. It was cool actually seeing the things she'd told me stories about. I saw the staircase that she slid down on baking sheets, I saw the area of the roof where she walked from window to window, and I saw a lot of the brass that she had to clean daily.

Selfie at the Lodge. The upstairs windows are where she walked along the roof.



The Lodge from the bottom of the garden.



The servant's staircase.

Billiard room

Second front entrance gate

This lawn is where the tennis courts were when Nan worked here.



The staircase where the sliding took place.

 We had a great time in England, and survived me driving on the other side of the road. It was really nice seeing family, and even meeting new family. I guess the lesson learned was 'never say never'.

Scotland and Ireland

During March Break 2013, I travelled to Scotland and Northern Ireland with some SF students. It all started out well...we made it to Ottawa in plenty of time to catch our plane to Toronto, but that's when things started to go badly.

When we got to Toronto, we were to collect our luggage and then transfer to a flight to the US. From there we would connect to Dublin. The airport had recently updated their systems in the US area, and it backfired on us. We waited for luggage that never came, tried to get through customs, with no success, and were eventually forced to face the fact that we were stuck in Toronto (we did see Mike Holmes in customs though). And to make matters worse, because of a storm on the east coast earlier in the week, and it being March Break, there was no way to get us out until 2 days later. The kids and I were pretty upset, but I was determined to make the most of it. We were booked on a flight to Belfast, and were to spend some time in Toronto and New Jersey.

Since we would be stuck in Toronto the next day, I decided that we should go downtown. We got on the subway and made our way to the CN Tower.

After the CN Tower, we went to the Eaton Centre. The kids shopped while I read. We all had a great time. The next morning we flew to Newark where we were to have a 9 hour layover. The company we were travelling with arranged a personal sightseeing tour of New York City! Everyone was so excited. We toured around for 3 hours and saw all of the sites.

New York City

 Finally, we were on out way to the UK. Because of our delay, we had only one day in Ireland, but we made the most of it. We saw the sights, bought our souvenirs, and had a great time. While in Belfast we toured both the Protestant and Catholic areas. Even though it is now pretty peaceful, tensions are still high.



The murals in Belfast

 We also got to go to the Titanic Museum, on the spot where the great ship was built. It was very cool.

After one day in Ireland we were on our way by ferry to Scotland. This was to be the highlight of our trip.

One of the first sights we saw on our trip from the ferry to Edinburgh was this giant rock sticking out of the ocean. Turns out it is the place where they get rock to make curling stones.



While were were in Scotland, we visited two castles. The first was Edinburgh. It was very cool, but my favourite part of this city tour was going on a witchery (haunted) walk that evening. I learned a lot, and it was very entertaining.

Edinburgh Castle

The place where JK Rowling wrote Harry Potter.

On the way to Stirling we travelled through Glasgow where we had an impromptu visit to the cathedral and the Glasgow Necropolis. We stayed in a hotel just outside of Stirling. I walked down the street one night and I could see the castle sitting on a hill. Stirling was also the place where the boys stocked up on Irn Bru, a delicious Scottish pop.

Glasgow Cathedral

 

Stirling Castle

One other place we visited was the town where Robbie Burns lived. We toured his home, and went through the museum, but the most exciting part for me was seeing this monkey tree. They are my favourite kind of tree.


Monkey Tree

Overall, I'm very glad we got to go on this trip, and I can't wait to go back to Scotland again!