26 October 2010
The Arrival
Are arrivals ever easy? Many times they are fraught with the emotions of excitement, apprehension and trepidation. With these emotions, compounded with exhaustion, we made our arrival into England. We flew in on Wednesday at about 7 o'clock am (2am US time) just at the beginning of a busy day in a London airport.
A 3 hour train ride West from London Gatwick Airport to Sampford Peverell in Devon became a 5 hour train ride when the train had to stop because a bridge had been struck by a car. The delay caused us to miss our connecting train in Reading (pronounced "Redding") so we had to wait with all our bags for an extra 2 hours.
The train ride from Reading to Tiverton Parkway displayed a beautiful and pastoral landscape. This part of the journey was decorated with stone chuches, cows, sheep, and even a fox.
Upon arrival at the final station, we took two taxi's to our room at the Globe Inn. It was a typical British pub/inn. We were so happy to be finally somewhere where we could put our bags as well as ourselves to rest. In an effort to get as accustomed to English time as possible, we all took a walk before sleep. I had to drag poor Charlotte off the bed because in the time that it had taken us to get settled into the room, she had already fallen asleep. The walk revived all, and after a small snack of tea and chocolate we all fell gratefully into bed.
28 October 2010
Somerton
We were very drawn to the town of Somerton even before we arrived. There was a cottage here for rent and as we explored the town more it seemed to have everything we needed within walking distance.
We came to view the cottage on Thursday (the day after arrival) and loved it as much as we thought we would. It is an old vicarage that had been empty for about 3 years before our landlords bought it. The vicarage sits next to a beautiful 13th century church which rings the bells to mark the hour. We are very fortunate to have kindred spirits with our landlords and they allowed us move in on Friday. (more on the house in a future article)
My first trip to the grocery store proved eventful. I left the house on Saturday morning with high spirits, my three shopping bags and Frances and Charlotte. I was quite optimistic about the amount of groceries that we could carry in those three bags and by the time we checked out I realized that not all of them would fit. The kind store clerk gave us a box to take some of our food home in. As I was trying to leave the store I dropped the box (that held the eggs) and had to carry the box home with eggs dripping down my front. Needless to say, I was not as inconspicuous as I had wanted to be!
Today, however, I have successfully negotiated the library, post office, antique store and grocery store. I even managed to buy a beautiful English tea set. I will have six months to decide how I am going to get it home!
30 October 2010
Visit to Glastonbury
On Sunday we visited Glastonbury Abbey. We only had one more day with our rental car so we wanted to to something easy, but memorable. The day did not begin very propitiously. We were all feeling the effects of jet-lag (especially the girls) and our house was still very far from feeling settled. To top it all off it was raining. I packed a picnic, bundled everyone up and we set off.
I am so happy that we did. It was such a lovely spot. The Abbey ruins are preserved in a beautiful 36 acre park. The autumn colors were absolutely stunning. The rain was fleeting and the sun even poked through the clouds once or twice.
The Abbey itself has history all the way back from the first century. The legend of the Abbey says that Joseph of Arimathea actually founded the Abbey on a trading trip to England. The Abbey is also the traditional burial site of King Arthur and Queen Guinevere although there is nothing concrete to prove this.
Even besides the beautiful legends we had a wonderful time together; a much needed relaxing day.
