St Mawes

We’ve just returned from our second visit to Cornwall, this time to beautiful St. Mawes on the southeastern coast. The weather was very English. That is to say…partly sunny, partly cloudy, and very rainy. Still, we enjoyed a restorative “Cornish” weekend. (Everything in Cornwall comes proudly with the prefix “Cornish.” For example, “Cornish pasty” “Cornish cream tea” and “Cornish sardines”). For the most part, we spent the weekend dazzled by the beautiful Cornish sea views. On Saturday we arranged for a Cornish skipper, Mark, to take us over to the Pandora Inn, in Falmouth. The high speed ride on...

Cotswolds

We were more than ready to welcome 2016. Why not make a visit to the Cotswolds? One of the perks from our decision to plunk some retirement money into the new Cotswolds Distillery, is that we get our very own cask of whisky. This gave us a lovely excuse to revisit our favorite neck of the English woods. Brent got to personally hand-fill his cask while getting informed of the latest business developments from distillery owner Daniel (affectionately known by us as, “Daniel my brother” sung musically, a la Elton John). It was great fun to get another tour of the distillery (now as...

Cotswolds

Back again from the Cotswolds and we continue to be enchanted by this corner of England. Our favorite cottage in Ebrington has been sold (sigh) so unlike usual, we stayed in the Coln Valley this time. We stayed at a cottage charmingly situated in Winson, complete with a stream running through in the back yard. Dash loved racing outdoors every morning and evening to patrol the perimeter. Winson is a very secluded village with mostly holiday rentals. We really like this part of the Cotswolds – especially the villages connecting Coln Rogers and Coln St Aldwyns. They have all the...

Babbacombe

This year we decided to escape Notting Hill Carnival weekend with a few relaxing days on the coast in Devon. We stayed in a lovely dog-friendly hotel, where we did not do much more than sleep in, gaze at the coast, and eat well (hake and steak). It’s funny how a day can fly by and the most you’ve accomplished is a little light reading, watching fishermen and checking in on the resident seal. We did try to coax Dash into the sea, but she was pretty scared of the big waves. One dog was downright unfailing in the...

The Cotswolds

“It’s my early birthday…it’s my early bi-rth-day!” It was Katie’s early birthday, so we celebrated with a very relaxing weekend back in the Cotswolds. Not much to report from this visit except lots of down-time, walks in the country, excellent pub dinners and quality time with our poochy at one of our favorite holiday cottages. We stayed in Rosebank Cottage in Ebrington, where we stayed once before. Dash just loved being outside in the walled garden, free to sniff and explore at will until the sun went down. We loved the close proximity (one minute walk) to the Ebrington...

North Norfolk

It’s August bank holiday time again, which means one thing in Notting Hill: Carnival (see post from August 31, 2010.) As our quiet neighborhood braces itself for one of the largest street festivals in the world, the locals can be found packing their bags and getting the hell out of dodge. We loaded up the boot of our favorite Zipcar and did the same. This time we went to north Norfolk (pronounced “Nor-fuk”). We continue to love our weekend escapes to the English countryside. Especially now that we have a dog, who so obviously enjoys our outdoor adventures.  The first...

The Cotswolds

We just returned from another weekend in our favorite part of England, the Cotswolds. This time we rented a cottage in the tiny village of Ebrington. The cottage had a walled  garden that Dash loved, a wood-burning fireplace that Brent loved, and bags of chocolate-box, country character that Katie loved. In the heart of the village, less than a minute’s walk away, was the Ebrington Arms, a traditional 17th century pub with a snug atmosphere and award winning ales. This setup ticked all the boxes. We were thrilled that Katie’s brother Matt was able to join us from Oxford for...

Happisburgh

We were recently invited to join our favorite twenty Kiwis for a weekend in Norfolk. We stayed in a manor house in the small village of Happisburgh (which the English pronounce “Habsbro”).  The Happisburgh Manor is a seaside villa with the largest thatched roof in East Anglia and possibly in the UK. Set on ten acres, it is a modest home of eight bedrooms with basic amenities including a gym, sauna, heated pool, massage room, game room, study and most curiously….a disco. The property is for sale if anyone is interested. It was a great weekend, especially because Matt...

Cornwall

Every year during the August bank holiday thousands flock to our tidy little neighborhood for Europe’s largest street festival – the Notting Hill Carnival. Although it is largely peaceful, most locals leave town for the two-day party madness. We’ve learned to do the same. This year we wanted to go some place where we could bring our puppy and we still had never been to Cornwall, one of Britain’s most well-loved holiday destinations, so that became our planned escape. We stayed a week in an apartment overlooking the harbor in St. Ives, a fairly large fishing village with numerous beaches...

The Cotswolds

Last weekend we headed back to one of our favorite corners of England, the Cotswolds. This time we stayed in Stow-on-the-Wold, with visits to many nearby villages – our favorites being: Burford, Bourton-on-the-Hill, Stanton, Snowshill, Bibury and the pocket-sized hamlets of the Coln Valley. Saturday we hiked around the villages of Kingham and Bledington. The public footpaths are great because they take you through private property, usually across pastures of grazing cattle or sheep and occasionally even through someone’s backyard. It was fun to see so many farm animals up close, although the sheep seemed to be a particularly curious...

Devon & Dorset

While we’re enjoying life in the big city, we felt it was high time for a relaxing weekend in the country. After a three-hour train ride on Friday evening, we were happily situated in southwestern England, in a county called Devon and just over the border from nearby Dorset. This area is known to be of “outstanding beauty” and has England’s only natural UNESCO World Heritage site, the Jurassic Coast. As the name implies, there are some really old rocks and fossils to be found here, which is rather fitting as there are also a substantial number of really old...

Rye

Just returned from one of our best weekends away yet! We were in Rye, and we were really fond of the village itself, plus we spent a sunny (but cold) day at the coast and ate like kings. But the icing on the cake was a fabulous celebrity encounter…one that could only be matched by meeting a royal (some would argue it beats meeting a royal). Any guesses? We’ll get to that. But first… When you’re in Rye you feel like you’ve stepped back in time…the narrow cobblestone lanes and the crooked, half-timbered homes…it was such a breath of fresh...

York

Last weekend we made our way up north to the medieval city of York. The city is probably best known for two things: it’s large, gothic cathedral called York Minster and a very well preserved 3-mile medieval wall that surrounds the town. The wall was first built by the Romans around 50 A.D. and was later added to by the Normans in 1066. We packed a lot into the weekend including an enjoyable walking tour given by a local volunteer and an evening at York Minster’s evensong (although by minute 45 it was getting a little long, not to mention...

Tomato Tomahto

Here’s a little entry we’d like to call “tomato tomahto.” I say tomato, you say tomahto I say dessert, you say puddings I say fries, you say chips I say chips, you say crisps I say niche, you say neesh I eat zucchini, you eat courgettes I keep a schedule, you keep a shedule I wear a sweater, you don a jumper I check my calendar, you check your diary I eat veges, you eat veg I say cilantro, you call it coriander I say custom, you say bespoke I say right away, you say straight away I follow sports, you follow sport I say things, you say bits and pieces Potato, potahto, tomato, tomahto,...

Mom’s Visit

We were so happy when Katie’s mom decided to come out for a last minute visit. Unfortunately, Brent was in the States for work for most of Mary’s visit, but it was a wonderful and busy week full of mother-daughter QT. We went to a number of shows – “The Lion King” and “Jersey Boys” in the West End and “Cirque Du Soleil” at the beautiful Royal Albert Hall. We wondered if the British cast of Jersey Boys would be able to properly capture the Jersey accent and sure enough they did. We really enjoyed the shows and thought we...

The Cotswolds

We’ve been living in England for six months now and have been on a number of excursions outside of London. Although we’ve enjoyed all our getaways, we’ve been absolutely charmed by our latest…a visit to the Cotswolds, about an hour train ride west of London. People go to the Cotswolds to see the English countryside at it’s best….green pastures dotted with grazing sheep, cozy thatch-roofed homes and quaint villages that haven’t changed much in 300 years. Some villages in the Cotswolds can be very busy with tourists, but in the dead of winter, we enjoyed having the whole place to...

Oxford

Having done a day trip to Cambridge a couple months back, we were anxious to get to Oxford to see how it compared. Not surprising, there were a lot of similarities between the two. Besides the fact that both towns have distinguished universities founded about the same time, both have plenty of historic pubs and the opportunity for punting on the river. The universities themselves were also very similar – both comprised of individual colleges sprinkled throughout the town. We enjoyed a very informative (and cold) walking tour. Later we were quite pleased with a couple of stops at some...

Whitstable & Canterbury

A relaxing weekend. A small seaside village. World famous oysters. Fresh sea air. And all this only one hour away from London? Sounded like a no brainer, so off we went for an overnight to a fishing harbor town called Whitstable. The town is said to be one of the few remaining traditional English towns, virtually free of chain restaurants (“virtually” because there are a couple in fact). But nevertheless, it has retained its charm and historic character and was a nice change from the bustling city. Many of the main streets of Whitstable are linked by cleverly named narrow...

Bath

Just back from a weekend in Bath, a 90 minute train ride west of London. Bath is meant to be one of the nicest places in England and the entire town is considered a World Heritage site. Our B&B owners told us it is a year round tourist destination, second only to Venice for having more tourists than residents. We especially enjoyed a canal walk from Bath through the countryside to the nearby town of Bathampton, where we were told “in less than an hour” we would come upon a great pub. From minutes 30 to 80 of our...

Cambridge

Monday was a bank holiday here so we ventured off to Cambridge for our first official day trip from London. We went with London Walks so had a guided tour of the area. First stop was the Cambridge American Cemetery. Next we got to the town of Cambridge itself, which was just the right size for our full day visit. We didn’t know much about Cambridge University or British universities in general. We learned that Cambridge is actually made up of over 30 separate colleges, and we visited some of the most well known. Shocking to us was that tuition...

Sercer’s Visit

It’s been a very busy weekend with our good friends the Sercers (aka the Griswalds) visiting us from North Carolina. It was Paul and Kelly’s first trip to London so we had a lot of touristy things to see…Big Ben & Parliament, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, Tower of London and Borough Market, not to mention loads of walking with a few pub stops sprinkled in to wet our whistles. It was a banner weekend filled with lots of laughing (especially after we settled into a few steins at the legendary Tiroler Hut). This weekend was also the annual Notting Hill...

Fall Activities

This month kicked off with our first English Premier League soccer game at Craven Cottage, a friendly between Fulham and Bremen.  We are still deciding which English soccer team we want to adopt, but Fulham is looking like a strong contender. We like supporting the underdogs (Fulham has been around since the 1800s and their best league finish was 7th place in 2008 – take that Cubs fans!)  We also like watching Clint Dempsey, an American who has played on the team for several years now. Plus the stadium is real old-timey, not to mention easy to get to...

Getting Settled

After being in London for a few weeks, we had to make a trip back to the States (to Boston) to get our visas. It was the first time we had set foot on US land for a number of months. It felt good. Coincidentally, it was the 4th of July holiday weekend so there was definitely a feeling of patriotism about us. We partook in some great all American leisure including a b-ball game at Fenway and grilling out with friends on the 4th. Now we are settling into life in London. We were lucky to snag a great...

Brother Matt’s Visit

Can’t believe we live in London! The first week was a bit of an adjustment. Coming off our vacation, Brent had a lot on his plate his first week back at work. We’re also busy taking care of living details, visas and housing. Right now we are in corporate housing in the Bayswater/Notting Hill area of town. The best part about our first week here was already having our first visitor – brother Matt! It was nice for Katie to have her brother’s visit to look forward to. We spent a lot of time knocking around different neighborhoods: Notting Hill,...