It’s been a great week of holidays, so far. There’s been a lot of driving: we booked our flights in and out of Stansted – as our main purpose was to attend a good friend’s wedding in Suffolk – but fairly late on we decided to drive up to Cumbria to visit my grandmother.
My birthday dinner at The Windmill Inn in Redmile – a pub used to film certain episodes of the classic UK series, Auf Wiedersehen Pet.
As my old friend Charles McAuley used to say, the difference between England and America is that in England 100 miles is a long way and in America 100 years is a long time. So the 4-5 hour drive up north was pretty tiring, but at least we really got lucky with the accommodation – the Oakwood Park Hotel in Brampton was incredible.
The weather was also a little fresh for the start of our week, mainly due to the biting wind. But we got to stand on Hadrian’s Wall, visiting Birdoswald and Lanercost Priory and refuelling with lots of cups of tea in various teashops.
We drove back down south on Monday, staying over (once again lucking out) at Peacock Farm in Redmile before we drove through to Suffolk. We stopped off briefly in the town where I grew up – mainly to show the kids how lucky they are to live in Switzerland – and then visited Grimes Graves, as they all have a thing about flint (and this is very much flint country).
Today is the wedding day, so I’m starting to think about getting suited and booted. I’m really looking forward to catching up with some of my oldest and dearest friends (some of whom have travelled across from New Zealand and Kuala Lumpur to be here).
Also the sun has come out, so it’s warming up a little, thankfully. And when the sun is shining in the UK, it’s really a wonderful place to be. :-)
