The Last Few Days

In my last blog I forgot to mention that after our lunch in Tansley we drove into Chatsworth, one of England's stately homes but the entire front of the building was wrapped in scaffolding. We had planned only to photograph the outside as we wanted to move on to the small town of Eyam. This town was struck by the Plague in 1665 and decided to isolate itself.
As you walk through the town, signs in the front gardens of the cute little cottages provide information on the names and dates of the deaths that occurred within. Quite staggering numbers within just a few days.

On our last Tuesday we drove to Calke Abbey, an old English home once owned by an eccentric family who, during the early part of the century couldn't afford the upkeep of the house. Most of the rooms were abandoned with the furniture in place and eventually it was given over to the National Trust who decided to leave it almost exactly as they had found it. Aside from safety issues the house is therefore as it was in the early 1900s and provides a fascinating look into the times and the running of an estate of this size which covered many thousand acres. The nutbars who owned it had hundreds of stuffed animals...and I mean hundreds. The people who work there now to keep the place going, do not even know how many birds, deer, fish, and small mammals are part of the collection. Almost every room is full of cases with stuffed animals as well as furniture and tools of every kind that would be needed to run a place of this size. You can see the original kitchen, the wine cellars, the underground tunnels as well as all the rooms and miraculously a pure silk bedspread and curtains for a 4 poster bed, highly decorated, that was found in several crates. It had apparently been given as a wedding present and never used. There are stables and all the different vehicles, coaches etc that were used. There was also a walled garden for medicinal plants and fruit trees which is now given over to growing vegetables that were previously grown outside in the fields.

We had a lovely day wondering about this crazy place which now has a restaurant for tired feet to rest.

On Wednesday we drove for 90 minutes to get to York. They have a great Park & Ride system but the first parking lot was competely full so we had to drive on to the next one. Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, the second parking lot was at a designer outlet mall so we couldn't resist popping into the Marks and Spencer...just for a minute or two. An hour later we emerged and made our way to the centre of town to see York Minster. It is a wonderful building and we made it inside just as the heavens opened and the torrential rain was so bad that they closed some of the doors to the building. It wasn't hard to spend a few hours inside the Minster touring the many parts of the building including a basement museum providing information about the original buildings on this site and the treasury containing silver goblets and candlesticks etc.

Unfortunately by this point in our lengthy trip we were not in great shape and after the Minster didn't have much energy for a lot more. We did wander some of the cobbled streets for a while before heading for home.

On Thursday morning we had an appointment at the bank and from there we went into Nottingham to do a bit of shopping for Michelle. By Friday we were ready for a quiet day which we had planned as our repacking day. It was the last day that we could relax and enjoy the beautiful garden and patio of our friends in Ilkeston. Although we had been out and about every day during this last week, we still found time to relax in the evenings and the weather was good enough to sit outside and enjoy the sun, the flowers and the many visiting birds. My friend Maggie has adopted a stray cat who visits regularly and she regularly puts out food for the foxes who come for their dinner every night.

We were really sorry to leave but on Saturday morning we set off for our final visit of this trip to some friends in Wokingham who we met in Toronto before they returned to the UK many years ago. Their proximity to the airport means that we usually leave them until the end and Roger and I stayed with them for a night almost every time we visited the UK on those many visits we did for my mum and Aunty Lily. We arrived on Saturday in time for lunch with them and their son Steve and his family. My mum always said that you know how old you are by looking at other peoples children and I think of that whenever I see Steve. I saw him for the first time a few hours after he was born and now he is 41 and has a lovely wife and little daughter of almost two years. In the afternoon after "the kids" left we sat around and chatted for a while before dinner which was followed by a video showing that was walk down memory lane for me and delighted Michelle. Many years ago, B.C. (before children), Roger and I had a transvestite party and although we have photographs of this which our kids have seen, our friends in Wokingham have a few minutes on video. Michelle got to see her father, aged about 30, prancing around like an idiot in a mini-dress, and a large hat. Although all the women were dressed as men and looked pretty silly, it wasn't quite as funny as the guys dressed as women...especially if one of them is your dad and another one with a long wig and a maternity dress, a guy that you have never met before, is now at the wrong end of his 60s and is sitting across the room from you. It was a great laugh!!

And so we came to Sunday and it was time to take the car back and claim our hotel room at the airport for the final night of our almost 6 week vacation. We were both so ready to come home but we've had a fantastic vacation which I am sure we'll talk about for a long time to come. Michelle enjoyed getting a taste of England and even enjoyed meeting all my old friends. We both thoroughly enjoyed the sight seeing in England and the Czech Republic and of course the highlight of our trip was to Karlovy Vary, my mum's home town which I think exceeded all our expectations.

Thank you all for following our blog and the many positive comments.

Back in England

Hi Everyone...yes, we are fine but have just found it more difficult to post the blogs. The reason is that since returning to the UK and moving on to other places, we now come home in the evening to friends and so spend the evenings chatting and not blogging.

The Czech Republic was of course a wonderful experience for both of us. After Karlovy Vary we returned to the same hotel in Prague arriving at lunchtime and in the afternoon we wandered down to the astrological clock. The following day we took the bus up the hill to the monestary and the castle and walked down the hill visiting as much as possible along the way. We were both extremely tired and walked very slowly and really couldn't be bothered to fight the crowds. People had told us that Prague was the most beautiful city in Europe but we had been so taken with Karlovy Vary that it really didn't strike us this way. It is very lovely but I'm not sure that we would use as many superlatives. Michelle kept commenting on the huge amount of graffitti everywhere and was particularly upset when it defaced the beautiful buildings. While Karlovy Vary seems to have been totally cleaned up, Prague is a bit of a hit and miss affair with some things having been cleaned up and others looking pretty sad.

Michelle can post here pictures of two lamp posts. They are identical and stand within 100 yards of one another. One is completely rusted out and really grotty looking and the other has been cleaned and freshly painted and is beautiful. We particularly noted the famous bridge in Prague, the one with all the statues which has not been cleaned up at all. It seemed strange to us. Anyway we had a wonderful 6 days there and wouldn't have missed it for the world.

On our return to London we took the coach back to Victoria and passed the Natural History Museum. This building has been totally sandblasted (or otherwise cleaned up) and it is certainly as beautiful as anything we saw in the Czech Republic. London has certainly cleaned up a lot of buildings since I was last here, particularly the churches but other building as well. It is just that they aren't all in one location.

The next day we reluctantly said goodbye to the lovely apartment that had been our home for almost 3 weeks although I have to say that we were looking forward to getting the car and being kind to our feet! We went back to the airport to pick up the car and spent quite a while figuring out where everything was. On this occasion nobody even came to the car with us. They just gave us the key, pointed to the parking lot and waved goodbye. We thought we had found everything important ...the lights, the wipers, etc etc....until we came to buy gas. Some days have gone by since I wrote anything so I'll skip ahead and tell you what happened a couple of days ago when we thought we'd buy gas. We pulled into the gas station and looked for the button to release the gas cap cover. I couldn't find it anywhere. Michelle got in the drivers seat to look. She couldn't find it anywhere. We moved the seat back...still couldn't find it. So...feeling rather silly but thinking that there must be some new thing either with newer models or perhaps something specific to the UK we waited until another customer drove into the gas station. I was happy that it was a very young guy because I figured he'd just think I was some silly old lady....which he probably did, but I explained the problem to him explaining that despite my accent, I wasn't living in this country and had a hire car. As all you Brits will guess, he walked over to my car, tapped the gas cap cover and the thing opened. So...for the sake of you Brits I have to tell you that in Canada all our gas caps are locked and it never occurred to us that yours are not.

So back a few days, we drove the car to our next stop which was Olney, a delightful little village near to Milton Keynes. My school friend Carole has recently moved here from Cornwall so it was great to see her lovely new old place and then go out for dinner and to get caught up on all the family news since the last time we had been together. The next day we drove an hour across country to my old friend Moni(ca), emphasis on the friend not the "old" who lives with her husband in Baldock. They had just returned from vacation so were both still on holiday and we had a lovely lunch with them before returning to Olney where Carole had been joined by Bob,yet another friend from many years ago so we spent another evening chatting and recalling old times. Carole and I had fun telling Michelle all the naughty things we did together while we were at school.

The next day we wandered around Olney and had another lovely lunch before heading off for Ilkeston in Derbyshire. This was Friday and we are now with friends Maggie and Lew who have a lovely house and garden. We elected to spend Saturday around the house and realised that we were more than ready for a lazy day.

On Sunday we were off again to meet another friend with whom I made contact through Friends Reunited an English website that connects people who went to school together. Sheila and I were not really in the same crowd although we spent 6 years in the same class and it was really lovely to see her again and to catch up on our mutual friends and current lives. We met at a lovely pub that Roger and I have been to many times and which I wanted to show to Michelle. The place and food were as always excellent and after our meal we all took a lovely walk along the tow path next to the canal. Michelle even got to see a boat passing through the lock.

We had two more calls to do after lunch. The first was successful, a trip to see Aunty Lily's house, now sold. It at least gave Michelle a look at a place about which she had heard so much if only because Roger and I spent a lot of time there in the last couple of years of Lily's life.

Unfortunately the neighbours were not at home but that gave us a time, so we thought, to go to Asda (Walmart) to check out the clothes. Unfortunately British Sunday laws interferred with this trip as they closed almost as soon as we got there but we saw enough to know we have to go back.

Today Monday 1st August we tripped out with Maggie while her husband went golfing. We went to another place that was an old haunt of mine and Roger's but found the pub had changed hands and didn't appeal to me any more. It turned out to be a stroke of luck as we found an alternative place to eat and had an absolutely wonderful meal. Boy, have we been eating well on this trip but everywhere seems to provide much more meat than we are used to.

Our plans for tomorrow are to go to an old home (big old house) and on wednesday we are going to York for the day. One week from today is the day we will return to Canada so not much more time but still a few more places and people to fit in. Will try and write some more as we can and I hope Michelle can add a few more photos.

To all the "Novel Women", my bookgroup friends....I miss you all and part of me is looking forward to being back home. I'm bringing some goodies with me and will have to throw out a few things in order to get them all into the suitcase.

Thanks for your emails those of you who have written. I do check my gmail every day.

Sue