Beautiful Saturday in England!

Saturday, May 15, 2010 Cambridge to London

Another fun, warm and sunny day in England. We awoke in Cambridge and left our apartment early to hit the Cambridge Botanical Gardens before our check-out. They gardens were beautiful and the children, especially Connor enjoyed skipping along the curvy paths. I think he's missed that freedom- jut following a path, otherwise unguided. He has had very little unstructured, free time here. So it was nice to see him so content in his own little world- music on, of course. We took some nice photos.

After check-out, the super-nice landlady held our bags so we could go punting on the Cam. The thoughts of either of our children flipping the boat were suppressed once we saw that it looked so much fun and truly is part of any Cambridge experience. We had to do it! So, to the dismay of our fellow passengers, we jumped on board. Once the smooth ride began, the children were great and never a real threat to anybody. Not the same with the mentally-handicapped Japanese tourist sitting across from us. He yelled on his cell phone in Japanese while our punter, who was trying to maneuver a crowed river, politely tried to keep him quiet. The passenger obviously couldn't speak any English and eventually gave the cell phone to the punter. Now, he's maneuvering the crowed river and on the cell phone to a stranger, probably in Japanese! He handled it well, until the turn-around point when the passenger stood up and tried to get off- in the middle of the river. He finally made it to a dock and let the overly annoying passenger off. Even the other, unrelated Japanese tourists in our boat were revealed. At least it wasn't our kids this time! Anyway, it was fun, relaxing and we all enjoyed it!

Next, we took a double-decker city bus (much to Connor's delight) to the train station to head to London, making our way to the airport for our flight home. Our super-kind landlady (the English accent makes her even sweeter) dropped off our luggage at the train station. Really, that's just super sweet!

The hour-long train ride to London was beautiful. There are these fields of bright-yellow flowers (called rapeseed, used for bio-fuel) making the farm land look like a beautiful quilt. A few pictures through the train window turned out well.

I think my favorite part of this trip has been meeting the people who live here, which has been easiest here in England, since we speak the same language. I so wanted to join the old women playing poker in Italy, and the little men's group in Spain, but it's hard to communicate on gestures alone. So, finally, I found my opportunity to make friends at the playground in Cambridge. I met this super nice mum, who was shocked to learn we are from Charlotte (though she wasn't from Cambridge either, seems no one really is). Her dear friend is in the process of moving to Greenville, SC and she immediately took me to meet her. Now I have two new friends (plus the lovely girls from the plane ride who read stories to Hope). See, that's better than history lessons and old cathedrals!

Tomorrow we are in London for the day, then head to another hotel at the airport in preparation for our early flight home Monday. However, the news is reporting a cloud of volcanic ash that might affect the UK on Monday. Just our luck!

Actually we have been very fortunate with our travel, dodging many bullets (oh, except for the four-hour train delay in Cingue Terre, which was marked by five-minute delays every five minutes for four hours). The first volcanic activity cleared just a few days before our flight over. And, upon leaving the Cinque Terra, which is only accessible by train, we learned that a train strike was set to occur just a few hours after we left. It was going to last over 24 hours. There really is no other way out- I don't know what we would have done had we been set to leave the following day. So far, of our four flights, all have been on time except one, which was one hour late. Hopefully, that tract record remains! For our children, waiting even a few seconds is intolerable- I can't even imagine days trapped in an airport with them. Prayers, please- safe, but not delayed, travel!

Here are links to our photo album (click picture below). Newest photos are at the end- you can skip to the last page if you wish.