More Signs

England is full of entertaining signs, so we wanted to share some of our favorites. The figures on the signs are sometimes very expressive, despite being little more than stick figures. We hope you enjoy!

We saw this sign at Dover Castle. I wouldn't say the figure in the picture is climbing at all.

If you've always wanted to drive a cartoon car, come to England! (Just don't pull a trailer behind your cartoon car.)

The following photo is a little dark, but it's clear enough. The humor in this sign is that it never fails to be true. We've seen it frequently, and we pass it on the way to church every Sunday. There are ALWAYS vehicles driving in the middle of the road (to avoid cars parked on the already narrow roads).

This sign is one of my favorites; it's on EVERY power line post (and other places), but it leaves more questions than answers. (What should one avoid doing to escape death?) The ambiguity is certainly not about the nature of the consequences!

This is my absolute favorite sign so far; it's posted all over around the base. The guy is obviously walking in an 'unauthorised' place, but something about his body language tells me he might be walking out of the closet. He reminds Jacob of Disco Stu from The Simpsons.

I was in a store called Home Base (sort of like a Home Depot), and this sign refers to a department. The other departments in the store were perfectly normal: bathroom, kitchen, plumbing, furniture, garden, etc. Anyone who knows what ironmongery is, please leave a comment on the blog.

Home, Sweet Home

The purpose of this entry is to give you a virtual tour of our new home. We are fortunate to have such an amazing and large house. The photos and videos might seem a bit bare because we haven't received our furniture shipment yet. Hopefully it comes soon! The house has 5 bedrooms and 3.5 bathrooms, so we hope everyone who reads this blog plans to visit us in the next few years while we live here. It would be a shame to waste all the extra space! (Plus we'd love to see you all!) Since the house is large, this blog entry is too!

The following video takes you through our front door. The 3 doors to the left are the living room (French doors), dining room and half bath. I also made sure the video shows the cute space underneath the stairs (Harry Potter fans will think it could be our 6th bedroom). To the right of the stairs are the kitchen (notice its distance from the dining room-?) and the study (/Rachel's office).

The Bathrooms

There are no electrical outlets and no storage spaces in ANY of the 4 bathrooms. It was also a bit distressing to discover that neither of the 2 bathroom color schemes we're bringing from Albuquerque (chocolate brown and red/black) will work in ANY of the 4 bathrooms. Color possibilities are dictated by wall colors, tile colors and other fixture colors. So we've already begun to purchase ALL NEW bathroom rugs and towels for the bathrooms.

The Master bathroom doesn't have a shower, so we're using the hall bathroom extensively. It's the largest bathroom in the house and the only one with both a bath and a shower. Jacob feels that this photo of the hall bathroom shows an area where we have to exercise a bit of "English Patience." Can anyone spot the issue?

There are a few items in the house that the owners don't want changed. For example, we have to live with the curtains in all the rooms, whether we like them or not. Here's a video (dedicated to Nancy) of the guest suite, where you'll stay when you visit us. It begins at the top of the stairs and shows you a great, unusual feature for a British house--built-in closets! The guest bathroom has perhaps the most objectionable feature in the entire house: the dolphin toilet seat. Just something to look forward to when you visit! (:

The Kitchen

We love almost everything about the kitchen, and thankfully we'll still be able to continue our yellow/green color scheme there. However, there's a strange, built-in table jutting out into the otherwise roomy space. The trouble with the table is that regular chairs are too short and bar stools are too tall. Wish us luck finding something suitable!

After watching that video, you might be wondering where the fridge and dishwasher are. They're actually hiding behind what looks like more cupboard space! (The freezer is on the far left, the fridge on the right and the dishwasher in between.)

The Garden
In Britain a yard or lawn is referred to as a garden, even if it's just grass. At the front of the property there is a charming "elderly brick boundary wall" (according to the property description); we'll let you know if we find out how elderly it is. So here's a video of part of our garden. We especially enjoy the deck area where we can barbeque!

Miscellany
This video of the dining room is great because it shows the lovely French doors that lead out onto the deck. Also, out the other window you can see our double garage (pronounced with greater emphasis on the first syllable). Any garage at all is a rarity in England, and we'll barely be able to do it, but we intend to park both cars in it.

Here's a photo of the back of the house. As we mentioned before, we'd love for you to visit (just not all at once), and you're welcome to stay in our house!

Dover

Saturday we drove to Dover to see the famed white cliffs and Dover Castle. The castle was built in the 1180s by Henry II. The keep is surrounded by 2 rings of wall fortifications, and the whole thing is massively impressive!

I took the photo below from on top of the castle keep. This is a Saxon church and, to the right, one of the most complete Roman lighthouses in all of Europe.

The castle and grounds are beautiful, but the highlight was the tour of the Secret Wartime Tunnels, dug deep into the white cliffs on the castle grounds. There are tunnels from Medieval times, the Napoleonic Wars, and a set of World War II tunnels, which are very extensive. There was even a complete, functioning underground hospital there during the War! We were very impressed with our tour guide Mary, who managed to tactfully discuss the Napoleonic Wars and WWII with a very diverse group that included Germans, French and, of course, 2 crazy Americans. She did a great job. (No photography was allowed in the tunnels, but I snapped this photo of Jacob in the entry to the tunnels, which is one of the WWII tunnels.)

The tunnels are also reportedly haunted, but we didn't see any ghosts. And our s-i-l Melissa will be delighted to know that the video we watched during the tour ended with the song "(There'll Be Bluebirds Over) The White Cliffs of Dover."

We went from the castle grounds to the white cliffs, which are breathtaking! We're excited to cross the Channel to France sometime and view the cliffs from the English Channel. We experienced gale-force winds while walking along the cliffs, which have no railing. We're glad we didn't fall!

(Up next on English Patience ... a virtual tour of our house! Stay tuned.)

Thetford Priory

There is so much history in this country that we don't have to go too far to discover something really cool. Thetford is a town very near the base; in fact it's heavily populated with US Air Force personnel who work here at RAF Lakenheath.

These are ruins of one of the most important monasteries in East Anglia: Our Lady of Thetford. It was founded in 1104 and owed much of its prosperity to a supposed visitation from the Virgin Mary. I thought the ruins were fantastic. It just shows that this country really is full of amazing little places!

Stonehenge, Bath, and other Auds and Ends

We had an action-packed weekend, and this entry can only be a partial accounting because we can't possibly fit it all in. Our trip began with a visit to Stonehenge, and let me be roughly the 80-trillionth person to say that Stonehenge rocks! It was amazing, and we had a great time. It's such an iconic place, and it was incredible to be there.

We also made a brief stop in a tiny village called Stockton, which is near Stonehenge. This is a picture of me in front of a church where my ancestor (John Terry) was a vicar in the 1500s! The church was locked up, but we enjoyed visiting the quaint village where my ancestors once lived.

Then we went to Bath, a place I've wanted to visit since I was 15 and began reading Jane Austen. The visit did not disappoint--it's an incredible place! There's definitely not enough blog space to show all the photos of everything we saw and did. (We took 210 photos this weekend.)

Here are the 2 sides of Pulteney Bridge, which crosses the Avon; you can tell why the side on the right is generally the one shown in photos, but we thought the "back" was cute too. Pulteney Bridge is one of only a handful of bridges in the world with shops built on both sides of it.

The Roman Baths were the most amazing part of Bath; they were built there by the Roman Empire about 2000 years ago. This photo also shows the beautiful Bath Abbey above.

This is a photo of the Circus, an example of the breathtaking Georgian architecture. The Roman Baths have been attracting England's elite for hundreds of years, and they've built gorgeous homes for their stays in Bath.

Below is a garden with the Royal Crescent (more Georgian architecture) in the background.

We also discovered this tasty beverage (Belgian chocolate milk), which Jacob described as "liquid awesome." We hope to find it again a little closer to home. We also enjoyed another fabulous pub meal; so far the food here hasn't failed to impress.

On our way home Saturday we made a couple of stops. The first was at Costco, which we've been excited to check out (yes, Dad/Garth, we made a Costco run). We thought they had lots of great products, but it's too far away to make our continued membership worthwhile (not to mention the unfavorable exchage rate).

We also stopped at this house: Audley End House and Gardens. During the winter months they give a special tour of the servants' quarters, which we took. The house was built in the 1600s and includes gorgeous Jacobean ceilings and other great artwork and architectural features from the time of King James. The grounds are extensive and beautiful! We will definitely return to this house (only about 30 minutes from our place) when more of the gardens are blooming this spring. Sometimes the house's reflection can be seen in the Cam, but I love this photo because you can see a beautiful black swan in the Cam instead!

I think this hedge is one of the more amazing garden features at the house.

Below is the view from the back of the house (notice the fountain).

Cambridge

Saturday we spent the day in Cambridge. It was only about a 25-minute drive to the park and ride, where we took the bus into the city centre. It was a cold, blustery day, but we managed to have a great time anyway.

(Jacob in front of the amazing King's College)

We're really excited to go back in the spring and punt in the Cam when the weather is nicer. We've heard that a person hasn't really seen Cambridge until she or he has seen it from the river. But with the wind and threatening rain, we didn't brave it Saturday. As you can see by the many stationary punts, we weren't the only ones who decided to wait until the spring!

One memorable activity we did participate in was eating at Chili's. It was a nice taste of "home," and we were delighted that the salsa tastes the same as it does in the U.S.



As you can see from the photo below (taken from the top of Castle Mound), Cambridge is a series of incredible, beautiful buildings and churches; it was like stepping into a different world! We also enjoyed walking around the market and the various shops.



We anticipate many future trips to Cambridge, and we really enjoyed our first one!

The Official Highway Code

Driving in the United Kingdom will be an adventure! We have both passed our driving tests and are ready to hit the road! After we both had the chance to test drive a few cars, we purchased a vehicle with the steering wheel on the right side of the car. (A 1998 green Toyota Camry) Test driving was a scary experience because it was the first time either of us drove on the left side of the road.

We recently had the privilege of studying the Official Highway Code in order to pass our driving tests here in England. I'm sure we would find funny moments from highway codes in the U.S. too if we really read them. But here are a few road signs and excerpts from the Code that we thought were cute or funny. We hope you enjoy!

• “Drive carefully and slowly when … passing parked vehicles, especially ice cream vans…”


• “When passing animals, drive slowly. Give them plenty of room and be ready to stop. Do not scare animals by sounding your horn, revving your engine or accelerating rapidly once you have passed them.”


• “If a road is blocked by a herd of animals, stop and switch off your engine until they have left the road.”


• “Take great care and treat all horses as a potential hazard; they can be unpredictable…”
  

•“If you are dazzled by bright sunlight, slow down and if necessary, stop.”

•“Older drivers. Their reactions may be slower than other drivers. Make allowance for this.”

•“Avoid distractions when driving or riding such as … arguing with your passengers or other road users”

•“Be careful of electric vehicles such as milk floats and trams.”

It's not just the traffic signs that are a little caricatured; we've grown fond of the "exit" signs indoors, such as this one right outside our hotel room.

To close this post, just a few other items we learned from the Highway Code:

• The word curb is spelled kerb in the UK
• It's not maneuver, it's manoeuvre
• A road is generally called a carriageway--but we assure you that no one drives an actual carriage
• There are a variety of different kinds of crosswalks. All of the following are actually for persons, not animals: zebra crossings, pelican crossings, puffin crossings, toucan crossings