London & the Cotwolds

Hello from the Cotswold’s

July 10, 2010

To catch up, on Thursday the three of us, Madi, Lynda and Tim visited Covent Garden where we did some shopping and watched a street entertainer impersonating Harry Houdini. Busking (street entertainers and musicians) are considerably better in London than in Italy. We heard a string quartet playing Mozart in Covent Garden. Beats the heck out of the crumby clarinetist playing the theme to “Titanic” with electronic accompaniment that we heard in Rome. Believe it or not, we found a reasonably good Mexican restaurant in London for lunch. After lunch we journey to Abbey Road. We stood in line with all the other tourists to take the de rigueur pictures of us crossing Abbey Road ala the Beatles from the Abbey Road album cover. Next we ventured to Harrods where Madison went nuts over the chocolate room in the Food Halls. She was with Tim (while Lynda shopped for duvetcovers (!)) and at one point told Tim that he needed to buy her chocolate before she drooled all over the window of the display case. Tim explained that drooling was allowed, even expected, knowing full well a Harrods employee was next to them. As a perfect example of Harrods customer service, the Harrods representative said that there were towels available for such occurrences. Hurray for Harrods! We had a lovely evening with Tim and Lynda’s friends from East Lansing.

Friday morning we got Madison to Heathrow and her plane left on time. She had another unaccompanied minor sitting next to her on her flight so she was not bored to death as she feared. She is now safely home, merrily fighting with her sister and telling all of her friends how weird and embarrassing her grandparents were.

We rented a car at Heathrow and drove to the Cotswold’s. We had spent two months here in 2003, living in a cottage in Stow-on-the-Wold. We are staying in a B & B just outside Stow. We spent yesterday and today exploring old haunts and enjoying them thoroughly. All of the pubs have been wonderful. We visited Hidcote Gardens yesterday. If you are a gardener you understand that British gardens are the gold standard for gardening. Hidcote is one of the best. There was a profusion of beautiful flowers. Today we visited a lavender farm near Snowshill. This farm commercially produces lavender oil. Field after field of lavender in different colors was very striking.

Tomorrow we have our Sunday joint ( a joint in England is the roasted meat that is served for Sunday dinner. It can be either beef, pork, or lamb. Shame on those of you who thought of something different!) at a pub that we visited repeatedly seven years ago. From there we drive to Eastbourne to visit our friends, Clive and Angie. Monday morning we return our rental car and travel to Dover to board our ship for our cruise. Our next blog posting will be from the high seas. If you suffer from motion sickness, take a Dramamine before reading the blog!

Hopefully we will have pictures posted with this posting. There should be one of some of us on the Millennium Bridge in London. Also pictures from Hidcote Garden and the Snowshill lavender fields.

Cheers!

Tim and Lynda