10 Bridges across London

Today I got my exercise!!! Joined a walk of "10 Bridges of London" with the American Women's group. Started at Vauxhall Bridge and walked all the way over to Tower Bridge!!!! and across every bridge along the way. That is a long walk. If you look at it on a map - it's actually only 8 bridges, but we walked over 2 of them twice to end up on the south side of the river- so we called it the 10 Bridges to give ourselves credit for the full walk :-) Finished with a browse through Borough Market for lunch. It was great fun and makes you realize on one hand how big London is and on the other hand, how close together things are.
FYI - there are more than 10 bridges, but the ones we cross encompass the central area of the city.

Our first bridge....

Our last bridge... whew. I'm tired.

Tomorrow we are off to the "Trooping of the Color". I just found out last night that we have to be majorly dressed up. L even has to wear a tie!! for a Saturday morning parade. DA will be in a suit. I'm not sure I can get them going and dressed up but I will try. Just though it would be a fun "once in a lifetime" kind of thing. We'll see how it works out.

funny sighting in Bergen

When people visit England for the first time, they are enchanted when sighting black cabs, the double Decker buses, Tower bridge, etc. Well when we were in Bergen, Norway waiting at a stop light, L tugged on my sleeve and said, "look Mom, a big Suburban!" ha. I cracked up! It's been so long since we've seen a Suburban truck, it's now a tourist attraction for us. I didn't take a picture though. He was also over joyed that they had "real" 7-11 stores there. I think he found at least 5 of the 7-11 stores in Bergen. Just think, little old Southland Co. from Dallas has stores in Norway. It's the simple things in life that give you a little "taste" of home - the kids only bought a package of mints and 1 doughnut at 7-11, but they begged to walk through them all. Cant believe they forgot to look for a slurpee!!!

Bank Holiday in NORWAY

DA and I in front of a waterfall. It looks like snow, but instead is a massive waterfall!

WOW, never thought or even considered that we would have the opportunity to travel to Norway, but we did. Spent the bank holiday weekend there. Norway is great. Seems like the theme of all our 2008 travels has been "beautiful places with picturesque scenery and water". Norway fit that to a tee, it did not disappoint. We booked a trip that was called "Norway in a Nutshell" to see the Norwegian Fjords and boy did we see Norway, no nutshells though. ha.

Now I didn't initially know the actual meaning of fjord - but my first impression was that fjord meant "lake". I now know it means a deep valley cut out by the glaciers and in its place is a inlet of the sea. got that? Basically looks like steep mountains surrounding a lake. There are many, many fjords in Norway - kind of like the land of 1,000 lakes, but I'm probably insulting them by calling it a lake - it's the sea.

We flew into Bergen, Norway and the next day took the train to Myrdal. From there we boarded a touring train ride for a slow, scenic ride over the mountains to Flam. Had lunch and rented bikes to ride around the Fjord. The bike ride was one of my highlights. The sun was shining and there was a cool breeze. I was very happy the kids were good riders so that we could all enjoy it.

DA was dying to go fishing!
We later boarded a boat for a 2 hour tour through the "Narrowford". I would spell it like Norwegians do, but I cant figure out how to insert those characters into blogspot. DA and I loved the boat ride, but the kids were a little impatient and mainly wanted to visit the cafe and play their ipods. Their excitement of seeing hundreds of waterfalls wained after about the 5th one. ho-hum. B was a little celebrity - All the Asian tourists (of which there were MANY) kept pulling her aside to take her picture. I don't know if they thought she was Scandinavian or if they just wanted a picture of a blond child. Either way, we kidded her about being stalked by her own private paparazzi.

What was so funny about the town we left from (Flam) and the town we arrived in (Gutvangen) - they had a population of 200 people or less. Imagine all those tourist pouring through a tiny town of 200 people. It was so funny. One or two tourist shops and a cafe or two. That's all that was there.

We road a bus to our hotel which was nestled at the top peak overlooking a valley. great views and hikes from there. We hiked to 2 waterfalls and had the kids wade through some still water - yikes. that water is FREEZING! You couldn't stand it for more than about 5 seconds. We all loved the hikes. One bummer about being there - our camera was on some funky setting and the pictures did not turn out well. DA and I are really bummed about that. Have to keep the picture in our mind.

Made our way back to Bergen by bus and train and enjoyed our last day walking around the historic town, famous fishmarket and rode the funicular train to the top of the mountain.

Bergen

Top 5 thoughts about Norway:

5) Norway is crazy expensive. Think traveling to England and then add onto that!!! two examples: buffet lunch for 4 was about $200USD. my kids ate fruit, cheese, crackers, a pat of butter and kernel corn. yeah...that's worth $50!!??! also we went to the "toalette" in the mall. Very nice mall, but the public toilet cost $2 to use. I just laugh thinking of the outrage if Northpark mall charged $2 for every person who needed to use the toilet while there.

4) The Fjords are beautiful. Every where you looks just like a postcard photo. Norway is not very populated which must mean the winters must be AWFULLY hard or else there would millions of people living there to bask in the beauty.

3) Really need to like to eat fish if you live there! We actually had a great TexMex meal in Bergen, but most food is of the Salmon, tuna, shrimp variety.

2) The sun sets soooo late. On our first arrival, we landed at 11:30pm and it was dusk. I woke around 3:00am and the sun was already up. very short night. If we had traveled further north - to the North Cape - it is called the place of the midnight sun. The sun never sets.

1) It should really be called the land of waterfalls. I had heard tons about the fjords, but never about the waterfalls - they are so powerful and awe inspiring.

I hope each of you will jump on the chance to visit Scandinavia if the opportunity ever arises - just save your krones!!.

My one regret, we didn't have the opportunity to see the Northern Nights (Aurora borealis). I'm not sure if we would have to travel further North, or just visit at a different time of year, but that is one thing I would really like to see for myself.

Overall, Norway was a trip we all enjoyed. The kids were so happy to be able to run around and be outside in the sunshine and DA and I enjoyed all the scenery and the ease of traveling around the country- plus it is very nice that the Norwegians are very courteous about speaking English to you if you don't speak their language.

Norway, the land of Trolls - who knew??The water streams are crystal clear with great blue, green, brown colors, but dont be fooled, it will freeze your toes off!

Bergen -old town

View of Bergen from top of moutain where you get off the funicular.

the sun, the heat - never mind!

Oh, that heat I wrote about last - I think I jinxed things. The very next day it started raining again. It was on track to be the warmest May in something like 200 years, but the last part of the month ruined that. The clouds and rain returned. The kids had made the switch to shorts so they just put their winter coats on top and rode off to school.

Before the rain came, I snapped this photo of the rhododendron tree at school. It was so pretty. I love those trees. The purple ones and pink ones (like this) are blooming all over town. Do we have these in Texas? Looks like a cousin of the azalea tree.

Summer heat is here

It has been a brilliant week. The sun has been shining every day and..... stop the presses... we actually wore shorts and flip flops on Saturday!!! I havent worn a jacket the last 2 or 3 days. I told the kids we will have to take a photo to prove that we dont wear a jacket every day. Maybe this summer we will have warmer weather than last year. All the spring flowers are in bloom and the photo below is on our bike path to school. Those are bluebells. Not exactly like bluebonnets in Texas, but still looks familiar to have blue wildflowers blooming beside the road.

Camping in The Lake District

The Lake District - loved, loved, loved it! Cant wait to go back! Over this last Bank Holiday weekend (3 day weekend) we drove up to the Lake District and went camping. Nope, I'm not the most avid camper :-) but we had a great time. The area was popularized through the works of Beatrix Potter and William Wordsworth. Potter lived just a couple miles away from our campsite, Low Wray on Windemere lake. The movie "Miss Potter" brought even more attention to what has to be one of the most beautiful parts of England.

Our SatNav said it was a 4.5 hr drive, but when leaving London on a Bank Holiday Friday afternoon, just tack on some extra time to that. Took 6 hours and we found ourselves at a campsite with the barrier closed at 10:00pm. I anticipated having to sleep in the car with all of our stuff, but due to DA's diligence we were able to borrow a card key from another camper and get inside to set up our tent. DA and I went about setting up camp in the pitch black, cold night - brand new, fancy, 2 room tent with 1 flimsy page of instructions which were in total 6 sentences and a couple of pencil drawings. Word to the wise - always familiarize yourself with the tent BEFORE having to pitch it up in the dark. It took us 2 HOURS! We found out the next morning that we had broken a major rule setting up after 8:00pm and the National Trust was none too happy with us and they let DA know about it. He was just being honest and was trying to pay for that night. They allowed us to stay after reading him the riot act, maybe being a NT yearly member helped a little. We were serenaded all night by the cows and sheep and very noisy baby lambs right across the fence from our tent. Sometimes the country can be so loud. B was so distraught by the lambs "baa-ing" all night, that she wanted to jump the fence to go rescue them.

Our neighbors in the fieldSaturday was fun - took in a hike along the Windemere Lake shore, saw tons and tons and tons of sheep and lambs, and cooked over the new gas burners DA bought me! (he's given up the image of backpack camping since I insist on eating real food and not bagged-pour hot water and stir up - nasty camping food.) There was a creek about 15 feet from our tent, it was calling B's name. She got wet, and wet, and wet... and ended up changing clothes 9 times on Saturday. The tennis shoes were wet, all socks wet, inside of the wellies wet, everything! but she loved it. L managed to stay dry. He was a little subdued (tired) after arriving home from a 4 day school field trip to Bath the day before.

Sunday was rainy, but our tent held firm and endured about 15 hours of continuous rain. Fortunately we had that 2nd room in the tent to keep food and stuff dry or else we would have been camping in the car. Ended up touring Hawkshead, Grasmere, Ambleside and just enjoying driving through the area. It's so lovely, peaceful and green. We spoke to one of the locals who said, "yep, it rains alot. That's where the lakes come from." So I guess if you ever travel there, expect some rain. The Beatrix Potter gallery in Hawkshead was very interesting. I enjoyed getting to view some of her original artwork up close. The drawings are so charming. No wonder generations have loved her books. It was B's first introduction to her stories, so now she is writing her own about the cows and the sheep we saw.

Monday we rented a boat on the lake for an hour in Bowness-on-Windemere and just cruised around. There are lots of little boats in the water with people doing the same thing. The kids loved driving the boat themselves. It had two gears - forward and reverse - so driving was pretty simple. (Mary and David - B said it reminded her of Cedar Creek and she wished she was there instead).

DA and I had to laugh at the boat rental procedure though. In the States, there would have been forms to sign, liability releases to sign, insurance info, life jackets, etc. but in England where they don't have the liability issues, we handed them 18 pounds and they showed us to the boat. No signatures, no names, no forms, nothing. Just take your money and here's the boat. DA asked as we got on the boat, "where are the life jackets?" the guy said, "you want life jackets?" There were none on the pier so I guess they don't provide them. crazy.

As we were leaving the Lake District, DA and I decided that besides Italy, it was the one place we had visited that we absolutely will come back too. Even talked about staying for several weeks in the summer. I'm sure the traffic is congested with the tiny 2 way roads, but the scenery is just so nice. We loved it.

see, I'm having to remind myself of all that fun we had because today, well it's clean up, do laundry, get out the tent to dry it off, put up all the stuff day. fun, fun!

I asked them to hug each other and this is what I got, a fake hug with stiff arms. No actual hugging took place.