Indian Summer

I’m in a bit of a pickle.

You see, I had this blog written – in my head, at least. No, I hadn’t actual committed pen to paper or in the highly electronic world I live in, fingers to keyboard, which doesn’t sound nearly as romantic. My post was going to be called ‘Fall has ... fallen?’

You see, the temperatures around here the last couple of weeks had been hovering in the mid to lower 50’s and the overnight lows were dipping dangerously close to 40. Adam and I had been discussing the issue of turning on the heat. Or more accurately, we had been discussing trying to figure out how radiators work. I held strong though; I was adamant that we wouldn’t turn on the heat until October 1st. I don’t care how far north of Texas I am, it just seems absurd to me to turn on the heat in September.

The long-range forecast was calling for snow by the middle of October. I just wasn’t sure I could have my birthday with snow on the ground. I remember years where I went swimming at my grandmother’s house on my birthday. Snow seemed crazy. I cleared anything without sleeves and most things with short sleeve out of the closet. I moved in all the sweaters and turtlenecks I could find – we were lucky in the fact that we found out we were coming over here in mid-February just as winter clothes were going on clearance in Texas. My winter wardrobe selection is much broader than it’s ever been before.

I took pictures of trees in the autumn colors. They are beautiful, reds and oranges a few deep purple berry flowers mixed in. Sunflowers as big as your head. Even the pine trees were cooperating and I was able to get some pictures of their needles covering the walkway through the park I walk on my way to work. It was going to be an amazing post.

Amazing.

Then something happened.

We’ve entered into an Indian Summer. It is warm. Or hot by British standards. The temperature got to (you might want to sit down from this) 82 degrees here today. The locals are flocking to the beaches, the National Health Service is urging people to check on their elderly neighbors and parents (Mom, Dad – you guys okay?), the television news is running 10 minute segments on how to apply sunscreen and tips for staying cool (apparently, stay in the shade & drink water not beer).

At work today we had our ‘away day’, similar to your 5th grade field day. The 70 or so in my group all met at a historic manor house in Bristol – well, one of them, there are several, you know. The day included several team building challenges all of which were outside. It was pre planned – we would have done the same activities whether it was 80 & sunny or 50 & raining. I loved it. Couldn’t have been happier (except maybe if my team had won a challenge or two). Today was a beautiful day; sunny, warm, I got to wear shorts to work and enjoy the day outside. Days like this are much better outside than in front of my laptop. My colleagues, on the other hand, spent most of the day trying to huddle under a tree to avoid the sun and fanning themselves with the team challenge instruction sheets.

Though I’ll always be excited to come home, I’m not looking forward to our first Texas summer back (especially if it’s anything like the one you all went through this year), but a few more days that top 80 degrees are going to be very welcomed by this transplant.

You’ll just have to wait until I get cold again to see my fall pictures. Until then, I hear some ice cream calling my name!

A walk in the park

Adam & I have realized that we’ve spent most of our time talking about our trips and vacations. Probably because they’ve been really cool and we’re excited about them – I mean, who doesn’t love a good holiday! We, though also want to remember our day-to-day living while we live over here. You know, the mundane things of life, going to the grocery store, work, walking the dogs, even the randomness of the television shows. It’s all been pretty entertaining.

So, in an attempt of ‘normal’ – that’s a really hard concept with us! – I want to show you where I get to walk the dogs. I’ve always considered walking the girls a bit of a chore. We usually went after work to run some of their energy out so Adam & I could eat dinner in peace. But I never loved it, they would pull on their leashes, we walked around the neighborhood & about half way through Ginger would get tired & sit down, then there was about 20 minutes of coaxing to get her to finish the walk & get back in the house.

It’s a completely different story here. A great thing about this house is it’s location to a park. We are about a 5 minute walk from Oldbury Court Estate. It is a huge (about 190 acres) of wooded area, open fields, children’s play ground, and football (not the American kind) and cricket pitches.





They have traced the land and estate’s history back to it’s first mentioning in the Domesday Book of 1066 when a riding man is shown as holding a land deed to the area. The property passed through many families throughout from the mid 1400’s to 1715 when it was taken over by the Oldbury’s. They built the first buildings on the property and over time made it a grand estate. In 1799, Thomas Graeme bought the estate and called in Humphrey Repton, the famous landscape designer, who made substantial changes to the character of the grounds around the house. Graeme died in 1820 and the property eventually passed to the Vassall family, relatives to Graeme’s sister. The Vassalls held the estate until 1936 and with no male heir, the last descendent of the Vassall family sold the estate to the city of Bristol.

The city opened the lands up for public use. Then, a fire in 1948 severely damaged the main house and coach house and completely burnt down the stables. By February 1949 the house had been demolished, but the grounds remained open for the citizens of Bristol to enjoy.

Today there are several open grass land areas where you can let dogs off leash. (We’ve noticed that several people let their dogs off as soon as they enter the park area, but we don’t trust ours enough yet!) The girls sure do know as soon as we approach the area where we do let them roam free. And they’re excited about it every time. I have never seen them (especially Ginger) run as much as they do here.







A lot of the times, it’s just the four of us in the area, so Adam & I walk around the border eating off the blackberry bushes…okay, I eat, Adam watches. I never knew how much I loved fresh picked blackberries until we moved here and there are bushes and bushes of them as far as you can see. I’ve thought about picking enough to make a pie or jam or something of the like, but they just seem to keep going in my mouth instead of in a basket to take back to the house…



Occasionally, there are other people or dogs in the area we like, but the girls have done really well at going up to them & sniffing then coming back to us and continuing our walk. We’ve been quite impressed at their manners. It probably doesn’t hurt that they get a t-r-e-a-t when they return to us.





After about 40 minutes of near pure running for the two of them and a slow, meandering blackberry picking walk for Adam & myself, we leash back up and return home…up a hill.

Day Tripper

This weekend Amanda and I decided to stay a little closer to home and find sights we might be able to take a few visitors. Thanks to our Royal Oak guide book, we found two estates within 45 minutes of the house. So, Saturday morning we loaded up into the car and headed north with a full tank of gas and a dozen mini chocolate chip muffins.

The drive was easy and went by quickly, especially with Amanda quizzing me on baseball history as we drove along. (My brother-in-law got me a page-a-day Ranger’s calendar for Christmas last year & with the move and chaos in our lives, I hadn’t been faithful to it. So in the 45 minute drive, it went from August 3rd to September 17th – man, time flies when you’re having fun!) Our first stop of the day was Brockhampton Estate. This 1,700 acre estate traces its existence to the 1200’s and comprises of pasture, orchards and woodlands with streams that meander throughout. There are two houses on the property, Brockhampton House which is leased to a private residence and closed to the public (why couldn’t we have found that during the housing woes!), and Lower Brockhampton House which is maintained by the National Trust and open to the public. There are also multiple walking paths that travel up and down the rolling hills of the estate.

Upon our arrival, we decided to take the shortest path that promised magnificent views of Brockhampton House, Brockhampton Church and the surrounding countryside. In truth Brockhampton House was behind a grove of trees and barely visible from the path. However, the surrounding views were impressive and the church was pretty. One of the more interesting aspects about the church is that it was designed by George Byfield who specialized in designing and building prisons. I guess architecture is architecture, but it seems odd to switch building types like that. The Church was completed in 1798 and is still occasionally open for services.

After completing our one mile walk we hopped back in the car and made our way down to Lower Brockhampton House. Situated at the bottom of a hill and surround by a moat Lower Brockhampton House was surprisingly picturesque. Built in the late 1300’s Lower Brockhampton house is in remarkably good condition, even if the gate house leans a little bit. Of course when your building has a stone roof it’s probably going to last for a while. Inside the house has been furnished with period pieces from throughout the estates history as well as a few pieces on loan from other National Trust properties in the area. For instance the canopy bed circa 1500’s was brought over from Croft Castle just down the road.

One of the things I enjoy so much about the National Trust properties like the two we saw today is that they have volunteers in almost every property who act as tour guides and docents within various rooms. From our (admittedly limited) experience, these volunteers also have a connection to the property in some fashion or another. Today, I spoke to the most interesting man…well, he spoke, I nodded a lot and added the occasional ‘wow’ or ‘oh, that’s neat’. He’s the individual that told us about canopy bed from Croft Castle but that’s not where his wisdom ends. He also told us about the main dining table that was designed with removable ends instead of leaves that are added to the middle of the table. He related stories of how portrait artists would typically spend their winters painting backdrops and outfits before approaching the individual they were hoping to be hired by and he showed us a Goat’s Foot which is a hinged implement used to draw back the string of a crossbow. He also had a several personal stories about the ten years he and his wife had been working at this particular site. On display within the house are a vintage 1940’s typewriter and a family bible that’s several hundred years old that he donated on behalf of his wife who passed away five years ago. It’s rather amazing because when I approached him I was really only hoping that he would grant my request to take a couple of photos of the interior and after nearly 20 minutes I came away with so much more than a few photos could have provided.

Amanda also found ways to amuse herself while I was gone. World's largest Jenga game, anyone?

Beyond the house a short distance are the ruins of a Norman chapel which they believe was constructed around 1086 when the area was medieval settlement in the valley. After taking a few photos of the chapel and wandering through the orchard the skies began to open up so we made our way towards the car and our next stop of the day.

Croft Castle is about 20 miles from Brockhampton Estate and was home to the Croft family for nearly 1,000 years. Situated on 1,500 acres at the top of a hill this castle has great views and the impressive stone façade one should expect to find when touring a grand family estate. Inside the castle is well appointed with family heirlooms, portraits and busts throughout. Most of the furniture was very impressive with exotic finishes and inlays of mother of pearl. This was definitely a wealthy family! Mom would love the dentil molding in every room that matched the ornate plaster ceilings. Unfortunately, no photos were allowed inside, so you’ll just have to take my word that it’s amazing.

After strolling around the interior and visiting with some more of the guides, we made our way to the Walled Garden. While not as impressive as the gardens at Dyrham Park they were still very well done and included a small vineyard.

I’m going to own one of these someday.

I did manage to pick up a couple of souvenirs at the gift shop while Amanda was distracted with the used bookstore inside the stables. Happy with our efforts to discover places we can take guests for a short day trip we decided to make our way home and treated ourselves with a return trip through Wales and a few more mini chocolate chip muffins. It was a great day made even more exciting by the prospects of being able to share it with friends and family when they come to visit.

Cheers!

Winner, winner, chicken dinner!

Thank you to everyone who played in our What does this mean? challenge. Adam & I loved reading your responses and guesses. Believe me, most were not far off from our original guesses!

Congratulations are in order to Paul Anthony for successfully answering 10 of the 15 (when I scored or 8 when Adam did – who would have thought he was the tougher grader out of the two of us!)

For those still scratching their heads, here’s the official answers.

Well, isn’t that just keen as mustard?
Ain't that grand?

It’s good to have insulated walls in your house, incase you want to have a row.
If you have a big fight, your neighbors can't hear.

That is so waffle.
That is lame!

Don’t mug me off.
Don't brush me off / ignore me.

You can have David help you, he’s just doing noddy work for me today.
David was doing easy (childish) work. (There is a children’s cartoon with a character called Noddy – kinda like Dora the Explorer)

That’s no cricket.
Very unfair!

White goods included.
Washer, dryer, and dishwasher included. (Sometimes also refers to the oven/stove, but most of the time those are standard in rentals now)

You’re a brick!
Thank you so much, you did a solid job.

Give it welly.
Step on it. Not so much in the car context, but like do your job really fast.

The best of British to you on that one.
Good luck!

I thought I’d come check with you so we didn’t play Chinese Whispers all day.
I don't want to play phone tag.

Before this goes pear shaped, let’s chat.
Before the situation gets out of hand, let's discuss.

PTO
Please Turn Over (usually written at the bottom of the page, for those of us who think people usually end sentences midway through a thought, it’s a good reminder)

British Summer Time ends October 30th.
Daylight Savings Time Ends October 30th.

Your rubbish pick up is once a fortnight.
Trash pick up is every two weeks. (Yes, really. Can you even imagine!!)

Safety First

The term ‘red tape’ is often taken to a whole new extreme over here, I’ve noticed. If there is a way to complicate a process, we do. Our classic example of the chip & pin system shows just one of many circumstances where the powers that be in the UK have decided that a certain way is the best and there is no arguing with them, no attempts to convince them that there might be another possibility, nope – that is how it is. Full stop. (Another phrase I should have added to the list of British phrases)

The amusing side of this to me, is that they also like to make fun of their self-imposed systems of order and regulations. It’s kinda tricky though; you still must follow the rules to the nth degree, you are just allowed to sarcastically mock them while doing so. This is allowed for the fact that you are not allowed to throw away garden trimmings (branches, grass clippings, etc) in your trash pick up, yet you can drive them down to the city dump yourself & dispose of as much as you’d like. There is no sneaking a sack full of grass into the bin, but you are more than allowed to complain about driving down to the tip and how horrible the city council is for making you do so.

My favorite thing that they mock are the health and safety regulations (and regulators). There is a whole department to oversee the well-being of citizens. I admit, they do issue ridiculous regulations. For instance:

An office must have a designated health & safety supervisor for every 50 employees; this person must be equipped with a reflective safety vest and have a designated safety plaque in their workspace.

All new employees to the company and any visitors on site for an extended period of time must be briefed on the fire exits, timing of fire alarms, locations of first aid stations, and any necessary infrastructure procedures.

Fire alarms are to be tested weekly (our office is every Tuesday at 10am – I still jump every week).

There is also some sort of regulation over the random fire drill. In the lovely DR Horton tower in Fort Worth, they were nice enough to announce the fire drill a week ahead of time so you could plan to be sick or take an early lunch to avoid the 18 floor walk downstairs. Not so much over here. I went through two fire drills in the first 6 weeks we were here. One of which in the pouring rain, the other only in a drizzle. Luckily, I guess, our office is only 3 floors so it’s never a long way down.

From what I can tell, however, they are equally as annoyed by all the regulations too. In a brief google search of health & safety regulations, you will find many articles of seeming normal everyday life that have been ‘banned’ by increased regulations.

This all became very personal in my office this week. We have large rolling filing cabinets to store all our files. It’s a good system – space saving. I’ve seen it in many office buildings I’ve been in over the years. Until this week. On Wednesday, someone was rolling the cabinets to get to a file that was on the interior of the shelves. I wasn’t there, but I can only guess (as the drawers are next to the kitchen area), they had a cup of tea in their hands and were carrying on a conversation while rolling the cabinets and perhaps not paying full attention to what they were doing. They somehow managed to pinch their finger in between two of the units then they screamed. And it just so happens that the designated health & safety supervisor for our floor was nearby, so they had to file an accident report. More red-tape and paperwork. In, what I hope is, a tongue-in-cheek move there are now 8 of the posters below hanging on the 10 filing cabinets. Ah, those Brits.

Phras - i - ology

We have completed three full months of our two years abroad and I think we’ll both agree that we may have spent a fair amount of that time confused by the English language. So we have come up a contest for our loyal blog readers. A game we like to call : What does this mean?

Here’s how you play. Email me (or post in blog comments) the translation of the following phrases that have been said to either to myself or Adam in the last three months. The person with the most correct, wins. Because I know you all, I feel I must also set out some rules.

1. Don’t cheat. This includes, but is not limited to: Googling, accessing your English-to-English dictionary, or asking a British friend, neighbor, or soon to be husband/son-in-law/grandson/brother-in-law/cousin/nephew/or any other way Matt maybe related to you in two weeks.
2. If there are multiple people tied for the most correct, the winner will be selected by the person who entered the contest first as determined by the Microsoft Outlook email timestamp or Blogger comment post time.
3. No purchase is required to enter the contest, though bribing the administrators is highly recommended.
4. The prize will be determined by the administrators of the contest. The prize has no cash value and will not be substituted for any of the three currencies I have in my wallet at the moment.
5. The contest ends at 12:00 midnight on September 16, 2011. Any entries received after this time will not be considered in the contest. The winner will be notified by email and subsequent blog post.
6. Any dispute to the rules or judgments needed regarding the contest will be handled by the What does this mean? co-commissioners, Daisy Marie Powell and Ginger Snap Powell. Please direct any and all questions to them.

Now, on with the contest.

What does this mean?

1. Well, isn’t that just keen as mustard?
2. It’s good to have insulated walls in your house, incase you want to have a row. (hint: row rhymes with cow in this context)
3. That is so waffle.
4. Don’t mug me off.
5. You can have David help you, he’s just doing noddy work for me today.
6. That’s no cricket.
7. White goods included.
8. You’re a brick!
9. Give it welly.
10. The best of British to you on that one.
11. I thought I’d come check with you so we didn’t play Chinese Whispers all day.
12. Before this goes pear shaped, let’s chat.
13. (in written form-not said aloud) PTO
14. British Summer Time ends October 30th.
15. Your rubbish pick up is once a fortnight.
    

    
    

Good Luck!

Road Trip!

For our encore to Barcelona, we decided to take a road trip to the south east coast of the UK. Not the epic 2200 miles in 3 days (a la Abilene to Tuscon to the Grand Canyon to Abilene on a weekend from my college days) variety, but a bit more relaxed 400 mile round trip affair covering a three day holiday. We left Friday the 26th of August in one of the heaviest downpours we have seen in the UK. Despite the rain, the drive was reasonably simple. It’s right at 200 miles from our west coast town of Bristol to east coast town of Dover. Not a very wide country. The scenery along the M4 (the main highway between London and Bristol) is very rural with long rolling hills and sparsely populated hamlet’s mixed in with some large townships just off the highway until you reach the outskirts of London.

Just before we got to Heathrow International Airport, our route took us off the M4 and onto the M25 (think 635 in DFW) so we could bypass downtown London. However nearly as soon as we entered onto the M25 the skies opened up again and traffic slowed to a crawl. After nearly 25 minutes of rain and a distance of about five miles, our pace slowly began to pick up and we made it out of the London Metro area about 40 minutes later. After another half hour we pulled into Dover at around 9:30 PM and found our waterfront hotel awaiting us.

During my search for accommodations online I had found a Best Western in Dover that boasted waterfront views and a central location for right around £70 per night. The hotel’s location certainly didn’t disappoint and from the pier in front of the hotel we could clearly see Dover Castle towering atop the White Cliffs above us. After checking in we went up to our room only to discover that it must have been designed by Antoni Gaudi. Not a single wall in the room was straight and after a cursory look neither of us could find a 90-degree corner in the room. The floor felt as if we were walking amongst the waves traveling from crest to trough as we moved around the room and the ceiling was three different heights. Altogether a weird sensation that took on a certain charm when you consider the age of the building.

Seagulls awoke us early Saturday morning and we decided to get started with our tour of the surrounding area. Dover’s waterfront is guarded by a harbor of refuge which consists of two long piers (Admiralty pier which creates the westerly boarder and the Eastern Arm makes up the eastern boarder) and the Southern Breakwater which are all built of concrete blocks weighing in at 30 to 40 tons and lined with granite on the outside. Currently only the eastern end of the harbor is being utilized for cross channel shipping leaving the western half of the harbor open to public boating and swimming. As we strolled along the pier we were amazed to see dozens of locals out for a morning swim in the harbor in waters that couldn’t have been more than 50°.

Once we reached the end of our walk along the pier we started inland to find a path that would lead us to Dover Castle. We didn’t have to walk far until we found a winding road that took us up yet another steep hill (we never seem to walk downhill in this country) and brought us to the gates of Dover Castle. The grounds around the Castle are impressive.

When we first entered the grounds we came upon a couple of guided tours that took us into the cliffs below the castle and learned about the history of the tunnels and the role they played in guarding England from invasion as well as serving as an operational center during WWII for evacuation efforts during Germany’s Blitz across western Europe in the opening stages of the war.

After our guided tours had ended we made our way around the grounds towards the castle itself. Outside the Castle walls a band of pirates in full regalia had set up shop and were providing entertainment for young and old alike with tales of adventure on the high seas and endless wealth to be made capturing merchant ships transporting tea around the world. Apparently, back in the day tea was more valuable than gold as a trade commodity and so most pirates were more interested in it than treasure.

We finally entered the castle around 11:30 and wandered through the maze of corridors that made up this 12th century fortress built by King Henry II. Climbing the circular stairs of one of the towers clasping to the hand rail that was added sometime several hundred years after it was first constructed I couldn’t help but imagine what it must have been like traversing those steps in chainmail and armor without the benefit of a proper handrail. To say that it would have been hazardous is a serious understatement. Atop the stairs we accessed the roof of the castle were we were afforded breathtaking views of the city of Dover directly to the west and the straights of Dover the south and east.

Having spent a little more than an hour invading King Henry’s keep we decided it was time to move on to our next objective of the day.

Lunch.

On our way out of the castle we came across this Trebuchet guarding the northern entrance of the castle. An impressive piece of siege warfare technology.

After walking back downhill (finally we get to go down!) we got in the car and made our way to Terlingham Vinyard in Folkstone just down the road from Dover for a tour and wine tasting. Since we hadn’t had anything to eat yet we decided to head into to Folkstone for lunch first. We drove through the town and came across The Little Switzerland caravan sight and cliff top restaurant promising the best views in town. As we turned down the lane and made our way through what was essentially an English KOA camp my hopes for a decent lunch began to dwindle. When we reached the end of the road however the views were magnificent and the lunch was decent.

We left little Switzerland and drove back toward Terlingham Vinyard where my first experience with English wines awaited. The vineyard lies amongst the rolling hills a few miles from the coast with impressive views of Folkstone below.

It’s a family run vineyard that has been producing mostly sparkling varieties since 2008-09 and is the smallest vineyard in the UK that boasts its own winery. Right at 3 acres in size they manage to produce nearly 15,000 bottles of wine per year, several of which are award winning wines. Our favorite was the White Cliffs 2010. I also quite enjoyed walking through the vines.

Once we finished our tour and tasting we made our way to our final stop of the day. The Battle of Britain Memorial overlooks the channel and commemorates those who fought the Luftwaffe for air supremacy over the channel and England itself. The site immediately brings to mind the Vietnam Memorial in DC with its polished granite face that reflects your appearance as you read the names of the fallen etched in stone as if you are among them in a solitary and solemn moment of remembrance. It is a touching monument to “The Few” who defended so many.

Upon our return to Dover we made our way to one of the local pubs for nice warm meal and local watching before we turned in for the night.

Sunday we got moving and found breakfast at a café in the main shopping district a short walk from our hotel. We are really getting into scones with cream and hot chocolate for breakfast. Interestingly though, in the west where we live the cream is very thick & rich (Devon Clotted Cream) in Dover both places were more of a whipped light cream.  For the record, clotted cream is better, but it didn't slow either of down from eating scones here. 

From there, we made our way just to the other side of Dover where we took a self guided tour of Crabble Corn Mill. The mill was built in 1812 and still operates creating specialty grains. The five story facility is kept in the same condition it would have been seen shortly before it closed down in the 1890’s. The tour was interesting and near the end one of the miller’s who was working on some of the equipment directed us past the rope barricades to show us how they maintained the mill stones. (I have a feeling they don’t get many visitors & he was excited just to have someone to talk to.)

From Crabble Corn Mill we made our way to the Dover Cliffs. Since the park entrance is only a few miles outside the city, Amanda had planned for us to spend the rest of the day there exploring the cliffs. After finding a place to park we swung through the visitor center to get our bearings and made our way to the trails. The main trail departs from the car park and ends two miles away at the South Foreland Lighthouse which has guided tours throughout the day. Since Amanda is fascinated by lighthouse’s that is the route we chose.

After hiking about half a mile the weather began to look rather ominous so we decided to head back to the visitor center for lunch while we let the storms pass. After another cup of hot chocolate and a shared Kentish Rarebit (toasted bread topped with English mustard and melted cheddar cheese) the rain had stopped and we made our way down the trail again. On a side note, Amanda is very proud that she ‘sniffed out the rain’ before we got wet. She says we’re starting to get the hang of this country. I think we may have just gotten lucky.

Like everywhere else in the UK, the land above the White Cliffs is remarkably hilly. The path is only two miles long yet it took us more than an hour to reach the lighthouse, we however were not hiking with any great speed either. The tour of the lighthouse wasn’t as interesting to me as it was Amanda but I certainly could appreciate the view.

We took our time as we walked back to the car looking for the perfect picture of the cliffs and we finally found a shot we think works.

Sunday night, we had dinner at an Italian restaurant a few hundred yards from the hotel where I had one of the best salmon dishes ever. If you ever find yourself in Dover I highly recommend il Rustico Ristorante. The staff was a little overwhelmed due to being understaffed. Only two waiters handling the entire restaurant, but our food was amazing. On our walk back to the hotel we tried to get a picture of Dover Castle at night but the battery on our camera had died earlier in the day and my phone just doesn’t take very good pictures as witnessed below.

Monday was the summer bank holiday and we spent the day traveling from Dover to Canterbury and then back to Bristol. On the way to Canterbury, Amanda found another small vineyard that offered a tour and tasting lead by one of the co-owners. We arrived at the three acre Barnsole Vineyard and found the owner plying his trade in the fields. He started his tour by telling us a little about how he and his brother operate the vineyard and why the decided to take up winemaking at retirement. Apparently, they aren’t very good at golf. At the end of the tour which took us from vine to fermentation to bottling to aging and finally distribution we got to taste the fruits of their labor. Our favorite wine from Barnsole was the 2009 Dry Medium which won a Bronze medal for UK wine of the year. Funny enough, a bottle mysteriously found its way into our car as well (after Amanda paid for it).

With bottle in hand, we left Barnsole and made our way to Canterbury. Famously remembered for the unfortunate execution of Thomas Becket and Geoffrey Chaucer’s “Canterbury Tales,” Canterbury appears as the quintessential English town. The shopping district of the city is completely devoid of vehicular traffic which is probably a good thing considering the narrow streets manage to feel crowded regardless. Before making our way to the Cathedral where Thomas Becket was slain, we ventured down a few cozy side streets until we found lunch at bakery tucked into the historic buildings that line the walkways.

Having finished lunch we made our way to the Cathedral. It has been in place since 597AD when Pope Gregory the Great sent St Augustine to establish a seat in Canterbury. Over the centuries the Cathedral has been rebuilt, expanded and repaired numerous times to the point where it appears as a hodgepodge of architectural design throughout. Within the Cathedral are several tombs of former Archbishops and Royalty alike including the Tomb of Henry IV and his second wife Joan of Navarre.

From Canterbury Cathedral it’s a short walk to the ruins of a Norman Castle started by William the Conquer around 1070. All that remains of the castle is the outer shell but it is possible to climb the circular stair in one of the towers. Never a very prominent castle due to larger facilities built at Dover it was primarily used as a prison by the 1300’s and was condemned as a ruin by the 17th century. Even though there is not much left to see it does provide a glimpse into the construction techniques of the time.  Even more odd to us was the fact that they built a 1970's apartment building not 20 yards from the 1070's Castle.

For a short excursion (and an exceedingly long blog post) Dover was a great trip. The attrations were interesting and well worth a few days visit.