Punting, Castles, Mansions

Earlier this week we punted the Cam in Cambridge! We each took turns punting, and it was lots of fun! Jacob was fabulous at punting--a natural, actually. The rest of us weren't too bad either, but it's not easy. It's definitely an activity we're excited to do whenever someone visits. Cambridge is beautiful anyway, but the scenery from the river is spectacular!

Saturday we drove to Dover. We went to Dover Castle and the Secret Wartime Tunnels (read about our first Dover Castle visit here), and we also visited Walmer Castle and Deal Castle, both near Dover. Walmer Castle was originally built by Henry VIII as a coastal defense, but it has been the residence of the Lords Warden since 1708. We were fascinated at the fusion of medieval castle and classy mansion. We also enjoyed the extensive gardens.

Deal Castle was similar in design to Walmer (it was also built by Henry VIII), but instead of having been converted into a gorgeous residence, it's a creepy old castle. We walked a few very dark, scary passages and were glad to see daylight when we emerged. We enjoyed the variety of our day and the fact that we saw 3 very different castles.

Sunday we had a picnic at Audley End House & Gardens (which we had also previously visited--read here). The house and grounds were amazing, and we enjoyed seeing a cricket game on the lawn. We're not too sure about the rules, but we were excited to observe a few minutes of a cricket game.

We'll be sad to see Emily and Joel leave Tuesday; we've had a great time having them visit. Since they're the fist to visit us here, we asked them to rate the guest accommodations at our house. Hopefully their review will be informational for any of you who are thinking about visiting.

"The bed felt like it had been assembled by an angel" ~Joel

"Encourage the hostess to bake you one of her famous American apple puddings." ~Joel

"Sitting on the toilet was like floating on the ocean waves." ~Emily

Out of 4 stars, how would you rate the accommodations overall? "Four and a half" ~Emily

In love with Scotland!

We're extremely excited to have Jacob's brother Joel and his wife Emily here for a visit. Last Friday morning we drove to Scotland and had a wonderful weekend there. We can't wait to get back to that beautiful country, and we're already talking about what we want to do next time we're there! (We're pictured above with a beautiful Scottish Highland vista in the background.)

We started in Glasgow Friday night where we visited the Kelvingrove Museum (in the photo above). I had always wanted to see the Salvador Dali painting "Christ of St. John of the Cross," and it didn't disappoint. We were also amazed to see a Monet, several Renoirs, a Degas, and many other works by renowned artists. We then ate an incredible meal at a local pub.

Saturday we spent the day in Edinburgh, and I can definitely speak for all 4 of us that we absolutely loved Edinburgh! We visited The Palace of Holyroodhouse, which is the Queen's official residence in Scotland. We were impressed by its beauty and magnificence, and we also enjoyed the historical stories of past royal figures.

Another highlight of Edinburgh was a place called Chocolate Soup (recommended by Emily when she visited Edinburgh in high school). We ordered some shortbread and scones, which we dipped in our "chocolate shots." If only I could convey how delicious that chocolate was! I think this photo of Jacob licking every last drop from the cup reflects the sentiment. The scones and shortbread were tasty too, but we could have dipped anything in that chocolate and it would have been amazing.

Sunday we drove to Loch Ness. The drive was breathtaking! We enjoyed our visit to Urquhart Castle on the banks of Loch Ness. We've reviewed all the photos we took there, and we never spotted Nessie in the water. It's quite a large lake, so she was probably in other regions...

On our way home Monday we stopped in York. We visited the York Minster, which is both a minster and a cathedral. We also enjoyed walking along the city walls. York has more miles of intact city walls than anywhere else in England. Some sections of the wall are as old as Roman times. We also enjoyed a great pub meal in York, complete with Yorkshire pudding! We hope you enjoy the photos!

(in Edinburgh)

(The ruins of Holyrood Chapel, adjacent to the Palace of Holyrood House. The plan was to pose as if we were entombed there--with our eyes closed. That's why my eyes are closed. Ask Jacob why his are open!)

(Jacob drinking from Loch Ness. We had plenty of water; he just wanted to drink from Loch Ness.)

(Part of the massive York Minster)

(An adorable street in York.)

(A half-devoured giant Yorkshire Pudding. Yum!)

(Joel & Emily at Urquhart Castle)

We do everyday stuff too

This past weekend we took a break from the nonstop travel to catch up on a few things closer to home. We cleaned the house, partially in preparation for our guests next week and partially because we've been traveling too much to pay adequate attention to the house. Jacob's brother Joel and his wife Emily arrive Thursday, and we're really excited about their visit!

We also baked pies to take to our neighbors. We've intended to introduce ourselves since we moved in, and we're glad we finally got around to it. Our neighbors seem really nice, and we think it will be helpful to be on friendly terms with them. One set of neighbors very thoughtfully visited the local cheese shop and brought us some cheese the very next day because they remembered I said I liked cheese.

One more note about pies: We made the below pie for a get-together with friends, and it reminded me of something my Dad says. A pie that doesn't spill into the oven just won't taste right. This one was (obviously) delicious!

Paris

Our weekend was an absolutely unbelievable adventure! We started at 5 a.m. Friday, driving to the port in Dover where we put our car on a ferry to Calais, France! We were incredibly excited as we drove the car off the boat and into France!! We saw and did SO MUCH over the weekend, it will be impossible to cover it all in the blog. We'll cover what we can, in no particular order.

(Also, we've recently received requests for more photos with ourselves in them; so instead of the postcard-perfect photo of the Arc de Triomphe, for example, you get ME in front of it. Disappointing, I know.)

There's probably no better place to start than with food. You can see where Jacob's priorities are; it's all about the baguettes! The above photo is our first picnic at the Parc du Champ de Mars at the Eiffel Tower . Notice the cheese in addition to the baguettes. (For those of you who don't know, I'm a huge cheese fan.) The video below is our Saturday dinner picnic; we purchased the food at a street market we stumbled upon between the Eiffel Tower and Les Invalides. We took the video just to show how idyllic the setting was: absolutely perfect!

We were both excited to visit the Louvre, and it didn't disappoint! The architecture of the museum is amazing, not to mention the art and artifacts. One of my favorite items was the Venus de Milo (photo below).

Some of you may wonder whether we saw the Mona Lisa. We did, but we were disappointed we couldn't take a closer look. The museum keeps guests at a distance, which seemed unnecessary because she's behind a thick glass panel.

We walked up the Champs Elysees to the Arc de Triomphe. And due to an unfortunate footwear choice on my part, we even made a purchase on the Champs Elysees. The Arc de Triomphe is spectacular!
This is the Sacre Coeur Basilica at the top of Montmartre Hill. (We could actually see the Basilica from our hotel room.) I love the clouds in this photo, and the Basilica is beautiful. It was almost worth the hike to the top of the hill.

Here's the Notre Dame Cathedral. We were amazed at how white and clean the facade is after 800+ years!

We also visited the Pantheon where such people as Voltaire, Jean Jacques Rousseau, Victor Hugo, Alexandre Dumas, Emile Zola, and Marie & Pierre Curie are entombed; and we saw the sister statue of Liberty Enlightening the World; and many other gardens and statues and monuments and buildings and bridges and fountains, etc. We wish we could share all the stories and photos of our amazing trip!

Overall we had an excellent time in Paris this weekend! I knew enough French to survive and was proud of my efforts in that area, and Jacob's flawless sense of direction and working knowledge of subway systems were valuable beyond estimation. Paris is an exciting, wonderful city to visit!

I can't resist just a few more photos...

(From the street market where we purchased that picnic--it ALL looks amazing, doesn't it?)

(Another shot from inside the Louvre.)
(The Champs Elysees from the Place de la Concorde)

Springtime, Part II

Last week we blogged about spring in Ipswich, so this week we'll focus on springtime closer to home. We've had beautiful weather this week, which is wonderful. But one effect of nice weather is an increase in spiders. A massive spider made its way into our house--the living room, to be exact--last week, and it was frightening. I didn't find any suitable anti-spider spray on base, so I asked Nigel, our gardener (responsible for the beautiful tulips in our garden, pictured above), to recommend a spider solution, and his answer shocked me. He said they don't actually spray for spiders in England. If a spider enters the house, they simply pick it up and throw it outside. Oh, the culture shock! We didn't realize we'd have to exercise English Patience by welcoming spiders into our home!
Many fields in our part of the country have recently turned into "rolling fields of mustard," as Jacob so poetically phrased it, and we were interested to find out the purpose of the flowers: they're rapeseed (brassica napus). In addition to being absolutely breathtaking in its flower form, rapeseed is a very useful substance. It has 2 interesting uses (in addition to the less interesting uses): First, it's used as a biofuel. Rapeseed is used more than any other plant as the oil base of biodiesel in Europe. The second interesting use is as a cooking oil. Rapeseed oil is actually more healthy than the ever-popular olive oil, with less saturated fat and far more Omega 3 and Omega 6 than olive oil, and rapeseed oil also contains Vitamin E. The flowers are also interesting in that they don't exhaust the resources of the fields they're planted in; later this year the same fields will yield something else, like sugarbeets. The countryside is literally flooded with these flowers, and we were interested to find out why!

In closing, here is a photo of springtime in Cambridge this past Friday. We love living so close to Cambridge that we can drive there after Jacob gets home from work and get home before it's dark!

Here's a teaser: next weekend we're going to Paris! Maybe the next post will be "Springtime in Paris," je ne sais pas. (:

Springtime in Ipswich

While Jacob was attending a meeting in Ipswich Saturday, I bravely ventured out on my own to do a bit of exploring. We had never been to Ipswich before, and I was eager to show myself around. After a few adventures in driving and parking I ended up at the magnificent Christchurch Park, a beautiful 70-acre park in the heart of Ipswich. It was the first really nice day of weather we've had--warm sunshine all day and no wind--so the park was full of people just enjoying the weather. It was absolutely idyllic.

One fascinating feature of the park was the trees. Some of them had interesting shapes and features, and I took a few photos of individual trees because of their uniqueness.

The central feature of the park is Christchurch Mansion, a stately home built in 1548-1550. Some rooms in the mansion have been preserved as past inhabitants might have known them; other rooms have become museums and galleries with paintings, pottery and other works of art. I was particularly impressed to see many works from John Constable and Thomas Gainsborough, the famous 18th-century Naturalist landscape painters who are both from Suffolk County.

The mansion and park were gorgeous, but the best part was the beautiful springtime weather!

St. George's Day at Wrest Park

We had an incredible time Saturday at the nation's largest St. George's Day celebration at the amazing Wrest Park! St. George is the patron saint of England, but the historical person St. George had absolutely no connection to England. Nevertheless, his day (April 23) is celebrated here.

First we'll talk about the house and grounds, then the St. George festivities. The property was the home of the De Grey family from the 1200s to 1917, and they added many features to the gardens throughout the centuries. The house wasn't completely open, but we did get to go into the Ante Library and the entry hall--both beautiful. The photos we took of the actual house aren't that great because there was scaffolding around most of the house, so if you're interested to see photos of the house itself, follow this link to Wrest Park (it really is impressive). We walked around the extensive grounds and enjoyed many hidden features of the property. The foremost is the many statues, each incredible on its own. We counted over 25 statues just in the immediate garden. Jacob described them as "magnificent," and you can tell he really feels that way. Here he is admiring the intricate details.

The Orangery was beautiful. I don't think an orangery has to be orange in color, but this building really is impressive.

We also really enjoyed the pavillion, built in 1709. Here's a photo of the exterior; the interior was extraordinary, but the video we took was a bit too dark to post.

In the next two photos is the Bowling Green House, built in 1735. You can see part of the bowling green itself just in front of the House. We particularly enjoyed the beautiful green interior with white trim.

There are many more, but we'll just share 2 more features of the grounds. The Chinese Pavillion seemed a bit out of place, but interesting. We also came across a pet cemetary. Apparently very wealthy people can afford really nice gravestones and statues for their pets when they pass away.

The St. George's Day festivities included many interesting tents and displays. As we entered the gate to the festivities, a guy in a crazy hat asked our names and where we're from. We told him our names and that we live in Suffolk County. He trumpeted very loudly, then yelled: "JACOB, A POOR MAN OF SURREY; AND RACHEL, HIS EVEN POORER MISTRESS." He didn't get the county right, but we loved being announced to the crowd! We enjoyed looking at the various displays of armor and weapons, especially the swords. We are also enjoying the fudge we purchased from a very nice man (who said my accent is lovely). They had living history encampments, and an exciting Victorian gymkhana, among other activities.

The falconry display was amazing! The presenters stressed the fact that falconry wasn't so much a sport as it was a means of putting food on the table. This photo shows a young child, plucked from the audience, enticing the falcon to his gloved arm. It was amazing to see these birds, especially the beautiful African spotted eagle owl and the peregrine, which can swoop up to 200 mph! I couldn't help thinking about my dear Mom who has a legendary fear of birds--Mom, the birds were swooping near our heads; you would have hated it.

This photo depicts the battle between St. George and the dragon. No surprises here; St. George won.