Day 3: Stonehenge & Longleat

The Monday morning started out drizzly.
One of those days, you can't decide what to wear... will it be cool or warm?
In the end it turned out to be a very warm day.
Luckily I've mastered the art of dressing in layers :)

Our first stop that day was Stonehenge.
I wasn't sure what to expect.
I've read and heard about this magical place. All those legends of King Arthur and Merlin.
And the mystical kelts.

For some reason I had always thought Stonehenge was by the sea.
I have no idea why.
I mean obviously you look at the map and it's right there in Salisbury.
No sea closeby.

It was still dramatic.

Even though we just saw it from the other side of the fence...

Still a sight worth seeing.


It was quite muddy though...

The surrounding countryside was dotted by these old burial mounds.
Many battles were fought in these parts.


The clouds were clearing as we approached our main destination for the day:

Longleat House and Safari Park.

HUGE house.

Would make a really nice summerhome, don't you think?
And if your kids bugged you, you could easily not find them for a week or so...

But before the house we headed to see the animals.
The giraffes were my favorites.


Such graceful creatures.



Although they do look a bit funny when they drink ;)

I'm a bit dubious about this place.
OK, so the animals aren't in cages and can roam "free", but it's not the most ecological zoo with all this traffic.

Mind you it was a bank holiday in England and what seemed like half the country was at Longleat.

Cute monkeybabe.



Any idea what this is?

Yes I know it looks like a tractor, but it is in fact a rhinoceros deterrant.

In case these guys thought it was time to turn a few cars around.


The forests were beautiful with wild bluebells in bloom.


The lions however were napping.


Once we got out of the park and our coach we headed into the house itself.
No photography was allowed, but I did find these pics online, so you can get an idea of the grandour of the place.
And do pay attention to ceilings again.
I did.
And tripped....








Understand why I tripped?
Pretty amazing.

There is another cool feature at Longleat to get rid of your kids for a few hours.
A giant hedgemaze.

This is again from online, that is a viewing tower in the middle there.
Saara got lost for an hour.

That's what I was told.
Us women sat down for a traditional English cream tea.
Tea and scones.
With creamed butter and strawberry jam.
Mmmm.

This miniature gives you an idea of the roof towers.


A little stroll around the gardens.







A peek into the butterfly garden.
Found this beauty with transparent wings.


On the way back we passed Stonehenge again.


Our host, Mrs. C, believed in serving ready portions at dinnertime.
On hot plates.
Hot plates are good, but those portions...
..fit for a truckdriver if you get my drift.
Don't get me wrong, the food was excellent, she really is a great cook.
But there was no way we were able to finish up.
Which naturally hurt her feelings.

At one point during our visit, she accused us from eating on the sly before dinner as we could never finish it all...
A bit childish I admit.
There were a few evenings I felt I was five.
And we made an effort to get gracious guests, but there was no way I could finish those portions.
Not if I wanted to have some of that bread pudding for dessert...

That evening we had field for the kids again.
Football, pizza and coke.

And a last stop at Boundary House for us adults before heading to bed.

Hey, can anyone make a guess to what my banner is?

Day 2: Oxford

It was a cloudy morning.
Occasional showers predicted.

We met up at the Thames shore in Abingdon, since tradition was that this crew would attend the anglican Sunday services at St. Helen's Church (steeple in the background).




But before that we got the day's first shower and some lovely views of riverboats.

The church was beautiful, built in 1538.


Personally I loved the choir. Such a happy feel to it all.

I particularly liked the way they included the sunday schoolers (3 year olds) by having them come up and show off their drawings :)






Then it was time to hop on the public bus and head onto Oxford.

The bus driver got a laugh giving us the tickets.... that'll be all 41 of them.

I should mention that by this time we had lost two girls to a tummy bug... our first course of action was to make a quick run to Boots and buy all the antibacterial handgel bottles they had... under no circumstances should anyone put anything into their mouth without disinfecting their hands first. And absolutely NO sharing of gum, candy or chips.. I mean crisps (chips are french fries in Britain. Just imagine me writing with a Brit accent ;) )

NO SHARING!
AT ALL!

A few days later and three more kids who had the tummy bug we were wondering if this wasn't enough. Until we realized there was Truth or Dare going on in the backseats... which involved snogging (=kissing).

Sigh....

Sorry kids... did it occur to you to DISINFECT YOUR LIPS??!

No.
They are 12 and 13.
Logic doesn't come into it.

But back to Oxford.
We had our packed lunches and then had a little shopping time.
Maija and I hit the bookstore second (1st stop had been Boots for the handgel).

This just looks so inviting to me.
I bought Niina one Charlie and Lola book, one Winnie the Witch book and a Little Miss Naughty book.

We also set up an account with one souvenir shop, Flaggs, so the kids could go and choose a Oxford t-shirt or cap, and at the end of the day I'd go pay for it all.

Then it was time for our guided tour of Christchurch College.


Here's our dear Heather S. who organized this amazing trip for us and my colleage and friend Maija.

We had a wonderful guide called Eleanor who taught us so much.


One of my favorite bit involved the Tudors.

I don't know how well you know that time in history, but it is one of the most interesting times for me. The college you see was built by Cardinal Wolsey and founded by Henry VIII. Back then Henry was married to Catherine... only she wasn't "producing" an heir and he wanted to get an annulment. The pope wasn't willing to grant his wish, so Henry separated the Anglican church from Roman authority to get a divorce. In the end the king got his wish, the cardinal ended up in trouble and Henry married Anne Boleyn.

But the little rhyme we learnt about Henry's six wives goes like this:

Divorced, beheaded, died.
Divorced, beheaded, survived.

Sadly Henry's wish of a male heir was never fulfilled.
He was succeeded by Anne's daughter.

Elizabeth I.

Much like her father, you didn't want to mess with her...

I have to say that in so many of the places built in 1500's and 1600's that we visited I had my neck craned up.

The most fantastic ceilings.
So much intricate detail.
Just imagine the hours that went into making this.

Harry Potter fans, does this look somewhat familiar?

The college's Dining Hall (built in 1529) was the inspiration for Hogwart's dining hall. It was recreated for the films.
Students of the college eat here daily. All that history at your fingertips.


Here you go:
Elizabeth I, Henry VIII and Cardinal Wolsey.
Loved the little blue gargoyle heads in the trim.

This is a bigger file, click on it to see details of it.

It's the Alice window.

As in Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. He was inspired to write it while teaching mathematics at the college.
You'll find the characters of the book on that window.



That's the landmark of Oxford: Tom Tower built by Sir Christopher Wren in 1682.
Same guy that built St. Paul's Cathedral. Busy man he was.




The Oxford Cathedral.
Shall we look up again?


Stunning gothic vaulted ceiling.

After the tour we hit the shops again.
I found myself a cute skirt.
And payed for all those t-shirts out of the class account.
I was the chancellor of the trip.
That means the woman with the cash :)

I also bought a present as one of the girls turned 13 this day.

Once we got back, everyone headed to the hostfamilies for dinner and then met up at the field for some football and birthday cake.

After having walked all the kids to their families some of us adults met up here:

The Boundary House.
Our local pub.
Just for the one.
It had been a long day after all.

Mine was a G&T, naturally.

Tired but happy... DAY 1: London

We're back home.
One exhausting and exhilarating trip.
And to give you all benefit of the nearly 900 photos we took... I'll be giving you a separate account from every day as I go through the photos.
(while listening to the wonderful music from The Lord of the Rings musical we saw.. more on that when I get to day 6..)

We all met at the airport bright and early at 6am on Saturday the 3rd.
Once we were airborne the captain got on the microphone and said: "This is your captain J. Rantanen..." and there was a huge roar and applause from the back of the plane where the kids were sitting. The guy next to me looked at me and wondered what on earth he had said. I had to tell him it wasn't so much what he said than who said it :) The captain being one boy's father.
The kids were somewhat excited, in fact I kept waiting for our captain to get on again and tell the backseat to SHUT UP! But.. he's far too kind to do that.

When we were landing Saara sat on the left side of the plane and got a great view of Windsor Castle:

We got our luggage and hopped on our bus.
Sorry.. coach.
When in Britain... :)


Something truly Londonesque. The red phonebooths.


Big Ben.

We had lunch on the southbank of the Thames right in front of the Globe theatre (more on that also on day 6) and as it was a lovely day most of us got some ice cream too.


Then it was time to head onto the other side of Thames and walk over the Millenium Bridge towards St. Paul's Cathedral.


A very impressive place. And even though I have been to London many many times I had never visited it.

We saw paramedics on bicycles taking a break on the steps.


I have to say that these are quite handy in the London traffic...

We climbed up winding narrow stairs...

..up and up and up we went.
Stopped 163 steps later at the Whispering Gallery and continued another 119 steps up to the Stone Gallery.

See that railing just under the dome?

That's where we are standing.


The Millenium Bridge with Tate Modern in the background.

The London Eye.

I didn't climb further while others went up 152 steps more to the Golden Gallery past the dome. I stayed and enjoyed the views with a few claustrophobic kids. Those stairs higher were even narrower..

Once we all got safely down from the heights we headed back to the bus and drove to the London Science Museum.

Yes.. it's a BIG place.

We found a Formula 1 car that the Finnish Mika Häkkinen had crashed some years back.

So naturally I snapped a couple photos.

Then looked a little closer and saw the no photography signs on the car...heh.

The Apollo 10 command module.

Cool structures.

Hi there!

While the kids and some adults went around the museum, four of us ladies sat and had nice big Café Lattes and chilled.

Another cool structure.

Then it was time to hop on the bus and head to Abingdon.

While driving in London we came across a cool Indian wedding on the street!


Brass section and drums... lots of beautiful saris.
Looked like a good party!

We got to Abingdon around 6.30pm and distributed the kids to the host families and then it was time to distribute us adults.

I stayed with three others at Mrs C's.

Oh boy.

We had been placed together as we all had pet allergies.

Want to hear the kicker?

Our host was a chain smoker... who smokes inside the house.

Lived in the same house with same carpets for 20+ years.

Eeww. Eeww. Eeww.

We dubbed the house a gas chamber.

Sigh.

Luckily the only time we spent there was to eat and sleep.

But still.

Mrs. C would get up at 5am and start smoking.. and coughing.

But she is an excellent cook.

Although over ambitious of how much we could eat.

Ready portions on hot plates delivered to the table.

HUGE portions.

Glad the week involved lots of walking :)

Tomorrow an installment about our visit to Oxford.

Gone for a week

I'll be in England from tomorrow to May 10th.
I shall return with LOTS of photos.
(I bought a 2 gb memory card...)