Visiting England...
We just spent 4 wonderful days with Mikael's parents and younger sister. It is such a blessing to have family around! In our little community here, filled with students from 15 different countries, there aren't many grandparents hanging around. We live with an intense connection to people we only see every few years. It is a strange life, but I think we get to appreciate each other all the more for it. It helps that I have some pretty awesome in-laws!
They arrived on Wednesday in time to pick up Jakob from school on his 11th birthday! He was very excited and felt a little like he was the sole reason for their visit. They came to celebrate him, but also because Irene is turning 70 this month! We had a special dinner and cake and presents from Sweden. It was nice.
Since Mikael and I are both taking classes this month, Katie got to entertain them in the mornings. On Thursday we headed to Oxford. We got lost because I wanted to show them the beauty of Oxfordshire... but also because I tend to have an aversion to taking the same road twice anywhere if there is an alternative. (This drives most people crazy.) Oxford is beautiful once you figure out that you are allowed to walk through the imposing gates of all the colleges to appreciate the architecture. We waited too long to eat lunch... then we found Thai food on the High Street and we wandered through the Botanical gardens and enjoyed an afternoon coffee (because they are Swedish and even though we are in England, they need their coffee three or four times a day!)
On Friday I was allowed to skip all my classes! Fortunately, the topics of language learning theory are pretty well ingrained in by now. We decided to visit the villages of the Thames valley here in the Chilterns. First we went to Turville via Fingest. "Single track road" means narrow road with zero visibility through twisty hilly countryside with high hedgerows nearly brushing the car on both sides. My father-in-law is the bravest man I know, I think. He didn't say a word as he sat helplessly in the passenger seat while I plowed on into the unknown. Turville was worth it: famous windmill (Chitty-chitty-bang-bang was filmed here in the 60's), a 900 year old church, and a quaint pub. My favorite was the crooked house that adjoins the vicarage. My mother-in-law is amazing. She beat me to the top of the steep windmill hill. I didn't want to climb all the way, but I couldn't be out-done by a 70 year old granny!
From there we headed to Henley on Thames which is much acclaimed in guide books. Unfortunately, lunch took a long time at a cafe... and the River wasn't in view of the main part of town. I like Marlow better and I'll stick with that for any other visitors coming this way. It is smaller and very pretty with just enough boutique shops and charity shops to make it fun.
On Saturday we spent the day in London. Leaving home around 8am, we made it to the London Eye by about 10:15. Not bad actually. London Eye was Jakob's birthday present. It feels more like a slow elevator than a Ferris wheel, but you can see everything from up there. The long line went quickly. Then we had something to eat before taking a river bus down the Thames to the Tower of London and the Tower Bridge. Pretty cool to see even if you don't pay to go in. Covent Garden market was also on the schedule, so Kristina plotted our course flawlessly in that direction on the Underground. She knows her stuff. Covent Garden deserves longer than the hour and a half we had there, but with two young boys and hungry husband, it was long enough this time.
We were hungry again and ended up eating at "Pret a Manger" sandwich shop. Fresh, good variety and not expensive... and they had bathrooms (which are not all that easy to find in London). We eventually found a bus that would take us to Trafalgar Square because the boys wanted to climb on the lions again. It is really one of my favorite places in London so far. Huge space with monuments and fountains surrounded by museums and taxis and red double-decker buses. I think you could watch people there for hours. From Trafalgar, I think you can go anywhere in the world... so we went home. But we were tired and happy and sad to see our guests go home to Sweden early the next morning.
They arrived on Wednesday in time to pick up Jakob from school on his 11th birthday! He was very excited and felt a little like he was the sole reason for their visit. They came to celebrate him, but also because Irene is turning 70 this month! We had a special dinner and cake and presents from Sweden. It was nice.
Since Mikael and I are both taking classes this month, Katie got to entertain them in the mornings. On Thursday we headed to Oxford. We got lost because I wanted to show them the beauty of Oxfordshire... but also because I tend to have an aversion to taking the same road twice anywhere if there is an alternative. (This drives most people crazy.) Oxford is beautiful once you figure out that you are allowed to walk through the imposing gates of all the colleges to appreciate the architecture. We waited too long to eat lunch... then we found Thai food on the High Street and we wandered through the Botanical gardens and enjoyed an afternoon coffee (because they are Swedish and even though we are in England, they need their coffee three or four times a day!)
On Friday I was allowed to skip all my classes! Fortunately, the topics of language learning theory are pretty well ingrained in by now. We decided to visit the villages of the Thames valley here in the Chilterns. First we went to Turville via Fingest. "Single track road" means narrow road with zero visibility through twisty hilly countryside with high hedgerows nearly brushing the car on both sides. My father-in-law is the bravest man I know, I think. He didn't say a word as he sat helplessly in the passenger seat while I plowed on into the unknown. Turville was worth it: famous windmill (Chitty-chitty-bang-bang was filmed here in the 60's), a 900 year old church, and a quaint pub. My favorite was the crooked house that adjoins the vicarage. My mother-in-law is amazing. She beat me to the top of the steep windmill hill. I didn't want to climb all the way, but I couldn't be out-done by a 70 year old granny!
From there we headed to Henley on Thames which is much acclaimed in guide books. Unfortunately, lunch took a long time at a cafe... and the River wasn't in view of the main part of town. I like Marlow better and I'll stick with that for any other visitors coming this way. It is smaller and very pretty with just enough boutique shops and charity shops to make it fun.
On Saturday we spent the day in London. Leaving home around 8am, we made it to the London Eye by about 10:15. Not bad actually. London Eye was Jakob's birthday present. It feels more like a slow elevator than a Ferris wheel, but you can see everything from up there. The long line went quickly. Then we had something to eat before taking a river bus down the Thames to the Tower of London and the Tower Bridge. Pretty cool to see even if you don't pay to go in. Covent Garden market was also on the schedule, so Kristina plotted our course flawlessly in that direction on the Underground. She knows her stuff. Covent Garden deserves longer than the hour and a half we had there, but with two young boys and hungry husband, it was long enough this time.
We were hungry again and ended up eating at "Pret a Manger" sandwich shop. Fresh, good variety and not expensive... and they had bathrooms (which are not all that easy to find in London). We eventually found a bus that would take us to Trafalgar Square because the boys wanted to climb on the lions again. It is really one of my favorite places in London so far. Huge space with monuments and fountains surrounded by museums and taxis and red double-decker buses. I think you could watch people there for hours. From Trafalgar, I think you can go anywhere in the world... so we went home. But we were tired and happy and sad to see our guests go home to Sweden early the next morning.
Comments
Post a Comment