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OUR ENGLISH CHRISTMASDecember 22nd to 29th, 2002 England, United Kingdom By Stef

Condensed Version:
We headed to England on 22 December and stayed until 29 December. We drove through Belgium and stopped in Brugge then took the ferry across the Channel from Dunkerque to Dover. Once there we stayed at RAF Lakenheath. We spent two days in London and saw the Tower of London, Tower Bridge, London Bridge, Big Ben, Parliament, Westminster, Buckingham Palace and the Changing of the Guard, plus numerous monuments, statues and squares. We also went to Ely, Cambridge, Stonehenge, Leeds Castle and a drive by of Windsor Castle.   We took the ferry back and headed home to Germany. If you want to read the extended version, keep reading!

22 December, 2002
Well, we left bright and early Sunday morning for our Christmas trip to England. As we may have mentioned before, our friends the Bennett's were going with us. Jeremy used to be stationed at RAF Lakenheath so was familiar with the area we were going to be staying at.

Anyway, Sandi and Jeremy spent Saturday night in the apartment so we could leave at the very, very, very crack of dawn- which we did. At 4:39 a.m. we hit the road and headed for Belgium. The roads were foggy, but Gordon was not deterred and drove as quickly as he possible could.   We hit the German/Belgium border and did the customary search for an Esso station. In case we have not explained about Esso stations before.. we can purchase gas coupons on base to use at Esso gas stations in Germany. Then we pay U.S. gas prices instead of European prices which are ridiculously high.

Anyway, the trick is to find an Esso station. We have a special map that shows the general location of the Esso stations in Germany, but there are no signs off the exit telling you where and how far it is.   You may be able to figure out which exit to get off of, but it may just mean that there is an Esso in a particular city and you may drive for an hour looking for it.
Also gas stations here are not like in the states. There are not a ton of them off an exit to choose from, and the service plazas are few and far between.

So now you may be asking yourself, "Why go through all this trouble?" Well, gas right now is about 1.04 Euro a liter, now there are 3.4 liters in a gallon, so gas on the economy is about 3.50 Euro a gallon.   Pretty expensive.

Ok, anyway.   We got to Belgium several hours ahead of time so we stopped in Brugge, Belgium and walked around for about an hour. We browsed in a few lace/tapestry shops and of course got some chocolate. Then we piled back into the van and after driving for about an hour and a half we got to Dunkirque, where we were getting on a ferry to Dover, England.

We checked in and waited an hour to board the ferry. The ferry was pretty nice. We parked the van on the lower deck and found some nice seats in a front lounge in one of the upper decks. There was a big box of Legos there and the kids played with those for the two hour trip across the Channel. As we came into Dover we went onto the deck and got a bunch of photos of the white cliffs.

As we got off the ferry, Gordon driving on the wrong side of the road, which was really the correct side, just not the right side.. we unfortunately got stuck in a horrible traffic jam, traveling about 4 miles in a little over an hour. We finally found an exit a (exits off motorways here are few and far between like in Germany). The 2 hour drive had stretched into 4 and we arrived at RAF Lakenheath (air force base) around 8-8:30. Lakenheath is about an hour from London.

Our room in the guest house here, Liberty Lodge, is actually pretty nice. It is very large and more than adequate for the seven of us. There is a kitchen, dining room, living room, 2 baths, 4 bedrooms and W/D- all for $42 a night.
Ok, so we unpacked the car and got some Popeye's chicken (the only thing still open) and walked over to the shoppette to get some milk and a few together basic essentials.

Monday, December 23, 2002
We headed to Ely where there is a HUGE and beautiful cathedral. Ely is also the home of Oliver Cromwell (think Commonwealth of England). Around midday we got hungry so we got some fish and chips in a little restaurant that was actually across the street from Cromwell's house. It was weird sitting there eating fish and chips and looking out the window at a huge piece of English history.

After Ely we headed to Cambridge. Unbeknownst to me Cambridge University is not ONE school. The title encompasses 31 universities and colleges in Cambridge. We walked on the grounds of Trinity College and Kings College before it started to get too dark to take photos. By the way it gets dark here about 3:30ish. We stopped in a restaurant for some tea and delicious cream cakes before we headed back to Lakenheath.

We found a pub that Jeremy used to eat at called the "Bird in the Hand." Ben and I shared Steak and Ale pie which came with some roasted potatoes and steamed vegetables, and Gordon and Emily shared lasagna. It was fairly inexpensive and very good. The pub had a big stuffed Santa crawling out of the fireplace in the dining room where we ate and a big basket of Poppers that I guess they gave to guests who came for parties or something. The waitress said we could take a few home with us. (Poppers are a traditional English party favor- primarily for Christmas I think- picture a toilet paper tube wrapped in pretty wrapping paper and twisted on the ends. When you pull the ends to open it, it makes a popping sound like a cap pistol. Inside is a paper crown and usually a small trinket or toy or candy).

TUESDAY, CHRISTMAS EVE.
We headed to London. We drove to Redbridge station, which is on the outskirts of London and parked in a tiny parking lot for 2.50 pounds. We jumped onto the tube, a.k.a. subway to London, a family ticket cost us about 13 pounds.

We came up from the underground and our first view of London was the Tower of London and the Tower Bridge..totally awesome. The actual Tower of London was closed due to the holiday, so we could not go into the Tower grounds, see the graves of Anne Boleyn or Catherine Howard (Henry VIII's executed wives), or the Crown Jewels or even the Beefeaters who live there and act as guides. BUT! The tower itself was incredible to see, and of course if you check the website you will see some fabulous pictures of it.

Ok, point to make before I go any further- there is SO MUCH to see in London, that we pretty much ended up running around the city looking at the sites but not actually going into them. This was ok though since many of them were closed anyway.

After the Tower of London we walked along the Thames (pronounced temz) on the Queens Walk, went past a WWII museum, a Dungeon museum, and walked across London Bridge, which by the way is no longer anything interesting as it was dismantled and given to Phoenix, AZ or something.

Anyway, we also missed the reconstructed Globe Theater, which is something Emily and I wanted to see, (she has developed an interest in Shakespeare recently). We continued on through the banking district looking for some place to eat. We passed the Fire Monument, which stands in recognition of the Great London Fire, but we could not find any place to eat that was open so we hopped back down to the tube and came up at Parliament and Big Ben.

Parliament is an incredibly beautiful building and Big Ben was very exciting to see. We of course took pictures of Little Ben in front of Big Ben! We walked past it to Westminster Abbey, which is just down the street and St. Margaret's Cathedral which is part of Westminster.

Continuing further on down the street we passed Westminster Cathedral and found a Pizza Hut to eat at. Yeah, I said Pizza Hut! Remember this is Christmas Eve!!

Mindful of not eating any meat on Christmas Eve, the kids and I had cheese pizza and then ran up the street to a grocery store to buy orange marmalade while Gordon, Sandi and Jeremy finished eating.

When we all joined up again, we went to Victoria Station and then took the tube to Piccadilly Circus and got some ice cream. Coming up from the tube onto the street our first impression of Piccadilly Circus was that it reminded us of Times Square with the huge electronic marquees and the lights, crowds and mayhem.

We continued over past St. Martins-in-the-Field Church to Trafalgar Square where they were giving a choral concert, and singing "Shine Jesus Shine". The kids had a lot of fun climbingh on the gigantic lion statues.

By this time we were all pretty tired so we headed back to the tube, hopped lines to make our connections and started the drive back to Lakenheath.

CHRISTMAS DAY 2002
Our morning began with the kids waking us up to check their stockings. Santa graciously filled their stockings which we had brought with us while (thankfully) delivering the rest of their presents to our home in Germany. We then sat down to a lovely breakfast of bacon, sausages, and waffles with strawberries.

After breakfast we got dressed and headed out sightseeing. We visited Castle Rising first, an d although it was closed, we were able to see it from the outside. Next we headed to Sandringham. As we drove we enjoyed our lunch of gas station sandwiches and Pringles potato chips (in a wide assortment of flavors not usually found in the U.S. such as Salt and Vinegar and Curry). Now, you may be thinking.how pathetic. gas station sandwiches on Christmas! But these were not just any gas station sandwiches; these were sandwiches from a gas station in ENGLAND!!

Ok, now let me explain about Sandringham. Sandringham is the estate where the royal family, namely the Queen, spend their Christmas Day. So we may have traveled about England and known the Queen was around somewhere, but on Christmas Day we knew exactly where she was.
Of course, the estate was closed to visitors this day, but we drove around and saw the top of the estate over the stone wall. We pulled over at one point and I was prepared to hold the kids up to peer over the wall, and pop a few pictures of the house, but the moment (let me emphasize the word moment here). the moment the car door opened, a Land Rover appeared out of no where and pulled up to us. They politely inquired if we spoke English and when we said yes, they asked us to kindly move on. Oh well!

We headed back to our apartment for Christmas dinner. We had opened our Poppers from the restaurant that morning at breakfast, but the kids and I had made some before we left home and brought them with us. We had filled them with chocolates. We opened those before dinner and then ate baked ham, mashed potatoes, corn, broccoli, bread, and homemade Mac and cheese.

After relaxing after dinner for a bit, the kids headed to bed. Sandi, Gordon and I talked to our families for a little while to wish them a Merry Christmas and then we watched a movie before we all headed for bed as well.

December 26, 2002- Boxing Day
In the U.K., the day dafter Christmas is called Boxing Day and is another holiday. Not sure exactly what it is for. But supposedly all the shops have huge sales on the scale of our Thanksgiving Day sales. Well, we headed back to London, but found that most of the sales were going to start the 27th!

Ah well! We had not really gone to London to shop anyway! We parked in Greenwich this time as the Redbridge station was closed for the holiday.   This station was much nicer and cleaner than Redbridge.   We took the tube in came up at Green Park, which is just across the street from Buckingham Palace. We charged across the park, and I say charged because we had about 6 minutes until the Changing of the Guard began.

We heard the band begin playing "the Twelve Days of Christmas" so we scurried across the street and shoved our way into a place along side the gate. It was really cool as the band and the new guard marched directly in front of our unobstructed view, however we did not know that we should have then raced over to the gated wall to view the actual ceremony and had a hard time seeing the rest of it.

We took some great photos of the Palace and the HUGE monument in front of it which has a gigantic statue of Queen Victoria. Queen Victoria was the first royal to actually live in Buckingham Palace.

We then continued on the other side of the palace, into St. James Park, where we walked along the Princess Diana Memorial Walkway and the kids had fun feeding the ducks, swans, geese and of course pigeons.

We then traveled up and saw the monument to Frederick, the Duke of York. Now if I have my history correct, Frederick was the son of George III, (think American Revolution) and the younger brother to George IV.
He died before his brother George IV. After George died their younger brother William became King as William III I think. Anyway, I think Will died without heirs and the throne passed to Frederick's heir- who would become Queen Victoria.   Ok, there's a little history lesson, but like I said it may not be totally accurate. Please do not correct me even if I am wrong!!

We hiked some more up the street and saw Trafalgar Square in the daylight and then saw the Horse Guards which was really neat. There are two Guards on either side of the gate, and they wear bright crimson capes, and golden helmets with white tassel plumes. They sit stock still on the most beautiful coal black horses. Anabelle did not want to leave the horses and wante4d to keep petting them. The horses seemed very gentle and obviously used to people petting them and crowding around them for photographs.

We again continued on and went past the Royal Mews, (the horse stables where all the carriages and coaches are kept), but it was closed and we couldn't go in. We found ourselves standing under the Wellington Arch (think it was) on the edge of Hyde Park and continued to walk towards Harrods. We found Harrods which was displaying all of the James Bond movies in its windows. It was closed, but was cool to see. We got back in the "tube" and headed to Piccadilly Circus again and ate at a steak restaurant. The food was pretty good, but it lacked the atmosphere of a cozy pub and it was also fairly expensive especially after they add a 10% gratuity tax on top of the 17% VAT.

Speaking of VAT. VAT is value added tax which is 17% and is included in the price of most everything purchased in Europe. To bring up the gas issue again.we assumed that being military; we could purchase the same sort of gas coupons that we buy on base in Germany, here at Lakenheath for use here in England. Not so. Apparently you have to be stationed here in order to buy them. It has something to do with the government.
This of course put a sizeable hole in our wallets, because this meant that we had to buy gas on the economy which was much more expensive than in Germany. Gas was about .79 pounds per liter, which equates to approximately $1.20 a liter. We were told that we could try to recoup the VAT back at the customs office at the port when we left.

December 27, 2002
Leeds Castle
We headed out this morning for Leeds Castle in Maidenstone. We had to pay an entrance fee of about 30 pounds, but it was worth the money. The castle was beautiful. It is considered one of the most beautiful castles in England. We toured the inside of the castle, which was fully furnished, the wine cellar and the very extensive grounds. The castle was decorated with wreaths and a huge Christmas tree. There is a moat that surrounds the castle, gardens, a stream that winds around the grounds and a fair sized lake that connects to the moat. The grounds are teeming with foul (fowl is spelled foul here in England)!

There was a large aviary with many exotic birds which I believe was established by the last owner, Lady Bailley. (The castle was turned over to the British Heritage Foundation after her death in 1987 I think),   She was very fond of birds and decorated the castle with them.

The grounds also included a maze that the kids enjoyed. Emily, Ben and I raced through it trying to find the middle before Gordon and Belly did. We managed to find the center just seconds ahead of Gordon and Belly! Once you get to the middle you go down underground into a grotto that is decorated floor to ceiling with mosaics made of shells and stones. It was very pretty, very wet and a little spooky so of course the kids loved that part too.

It was getting late again, so we drove back to Lakenheath to eat at the Crown Hotel,
est. 1650, another favorite haunt of Jeremy's.   Many pubs here are also hotels, and may have one or several bars connected to a dining room. Often you will order from the bar, pay for your meal and then they bring your meal to you in the dining room.

We were all pretty hungry so we ordered our own plates of food instead of sharing like we had done before. The barmaid said she would give Emily and Ben a children's portion. Ha aha ha! Emily got tortellini in a tomato, pesto, and walnut sauce with fires and salad. Ben got fish and chips with salad. These portions were huge!! I ordered a puff pastry filled with leeks, potatoes and cheese in gravy, served on sauerkraut with a mustard sauce. Sounds weird. Tasted delicious. This came with a big plate of chips (fries) and steamed mixed vegetables that were NOT drowned in butter as they usually are in the States! Gordon got a steak, Jeremy got duck breast in a cherry sauce and Sandi got sausage. We had so much food we could not eat it all.

December 28, 2002
Today was our last day. Jeremy and Sandi decided to rent a car to se some stuff on their own. They were also planning to visit his ex- in-laws. Yeah sounds weird. Jeremy's second wife was English and he got along wonderfully with her parents, just not her! Anyway, they have kept in touch the last 5 years and wanted to see him and meet Sandi. So they went off to do their thing and we headed to Stonehenge.

The drive was not as long as we had anticipated although we hit a couple traffic jams. Just when you get within\ visual range of Stonehenge, the motorway ends. Not really a problem you would think, except it ends into a round-a-bout. (The English love their round-a-bouts) they are used frequently in lieu of a stop sign intersection or a stoplight. Well, with the round-a-bout you have to wait your cue to enter so the traffic gets very backed up as people are entering the round-a-bout from other directions as well!

Ok, paid our money and saw Stonehenge. It was really, really, really cool!
And really, really, really cold! The wind was biting and we were frozen in a matter of minutes. We spent about 20 minutes walking around it and taking pictures (you cannot go into it or touch the stones), and then retreated to the gift shop to buy a few postcards. By this time it was about 2:00p.m. We had passed the turn off for Windsor castle on the way so decided to swing by it on our way back to Lakenheath to meet Sandi and Jeremy for dinner. Well, about 2:30 we hit a traffic jam (surprise, surprise) and were at a dead stop for about an hour. We later passed a smoldering van so this time at least the problem was not due to simple gawking.

We got to Windsor Castle as the sun was setting so we couldn't really see much. Gordon jumped out of the car to take a few pictures and ran into a shop and bought an information book on it. Then we parked up the street near the visitors' entrance and we all got out to take a quick look. It is IMMENSE!!! We will definitely have to come back to see it, esp. since Queen Mary's Doll house (an interest of Emily's) is inside.

We left Windsor at 5:00p.m. and made it back to Lakenheath around 6:00 p.m. We spent abut an hour packing and then met Sandi and Jeremy at another hotel/restaurant/pub called the Smokehouse. They had several menus, and we ordered off the bar menu. We sat in a deserted dining room at a HUGE table surrounded on two sides by long upholstered benches. Remembering the previous evening, Emily and Gordon shared a half a roasted chicken and Ben and I split a Shepard's Pie and vegetables. The food was again delicious and very inexpensive, and more than enough to fill us up.

We went back to our room, finished packing and sadly left for home early the next morning. The ferry ride back was uneventful, and they played the movie "Snow Dogs" in a little video movie theater for the kids. By the time it was over we were docking. We got back in the van and were home by about 6-6:30 where the kids joyfully unwrapped all the presents Santa had left for them!!

Ok, now that I have explained about our awesome trip, let me talk about our overall impressions. We absolutely LOVED England! You could not turn around without smacking into some piece of history! I thought of my Dad often and wished he were here with us. My sisters and I joke about him being a font of useless knowledge, (the kind of person who wins a million dollars on "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire") however his knowledge would have been interesting and indispensable on this trip.

Thankfully the little tidbits of info that are usually displayed at historic sites usually were sufficient enough to jog my memory of people, dates, etc so that I could rattle the historical facts off whether anyone listened to me or not!

We spent a lot of time on the motorways which I will get into in a moment, but we also spent a lot of time driving through the back roads of the English countryside (where Lakenheath is located) Sheep, pigs, cows and Welsh ponies were everywhere. It was very beautiful and I can imagine even lovelier in the summer months as it is here in our part of Germany.

London is of course in a class by itself. It is loud and fast and dirty like any big city. There are bums and beggars, ladies of the evening and other sorts of social dregs and deviants. The traffic is frantic. Big black taxis and the familiar huge red double decker buses that barrel across the streets. If they have a green light, you better not attempt to cross as they do not slow down and I have even seen them accelerate!!

But it is also exciting. It's hard to describe. Being somewhere that holds so much history. It's like a book begging to be read, or better yet a present waiting to be opened. We walked all over London for two days and didn't even see half of what we intended to see. There are churches and towers to explore, palaces and houses, museums and if that wasn't enough we passed a dozen restaurants we would have loved to eat at (not including Pizza Hut)
The subway is plastered with advertisements of plays and musicals playing that we would have loved to see, and then of course the shopping. Although most of the shops were closed the two days we were there, we really were too busy sightseeing to do any shopping!

There was a lot of things we missed; Shakespeare's Globe theater that I mentioned already, and several places the kids wanted to go to- Portobello Road (from Bed knobs and Broomsticks), Drury Lane (couldn't find it), and St. Paul's Cathedral (Mary Poppins- they wanted to "feed the birds, tuppance a bag")

Outside of London, we did not make it to Ashdown Forest, to see the home of A.A. Milne, author of Winnie the Pooh, or visit Stoke-on-Trent, also called the Five Potteries, where the Staffordshire pottery is produced.

But we definitely have plans to return. We want to see the sights we missed in London, see Shakespeare home in Stratford-Avon, actually go into Windsor Castle, and visit Kensington and Hampton Court Palace. The kids also want to go to the Lake District to see where Beatrix Potter was inspired to write the Peter Rabbit stories, and they have in mind a particular Abbey that was used in the Harry Potter movie. We ambitiously want to explore more of the U.K. as well, Wales and Scotland especially.

One thing we found not so great about England was of course the traffic. Definitely the traffic. It seems that Britons are idiots when they drive. (And I say this with great affection and totally without malice!) If a car is pulled over on the shoulder of the motorway, (for whatever reason), this apparently is the cue for anyone and everyone driving on the motorway to slow to a crawl and gawk. Gawk at what? I have no idea. But this turns the motorway into a long snaking line of stopped cars and glowing taillights. This also seems to happen whenever approaching a motorway exchange. We thought perhaps this phenomenon was only partial to M25, the motorway which circles London, however we soon discovered that it pretty much happens on any road!

The other thing was of course having to pay for the gas, and of course on our last day, when Sandi and Jeremy rented a car they had to rent it off post since you apparently have to be stationed there to do that as well. Very annoying policy.

Sunday morning we were very sad to pack up and leave. None of us wanted to go home. I think we felt more at home in a hotel room in English speaking England than here in Germany. I know that I myself felt let down at having to return to the struggle of living here. But we truly enjoyed our Christmas in England, and despite the difficulties in adjusting to living here in a non-English speaking country, we do enjoy living here too. It is all a wonderful life experience and we are lucky to have this opportunity to live in and travel around Europe.

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