Sister City Oxford, Cotswolds English Countryside & Guy Fawkes Day

This weekend we continued our travels and headed to the English countryside.  JJ picked up the rental car (a little Vauxhall - very European and I forgot to take pictures!) early Saturday morning and we were on our way.  This was the first time that we had driven over here and it felt very strange for both of us.  JJ did an excellent job maneuvering the crazy narrow roads and being on the other side.  He said it was so strange to look to the left to the rearview mirror but I think he got used to it by the end.  I was the navigator and did a pretty poor job!  The roads are so confusing here and the roundabouts definitely take some getting used to.  A lot of the road markings are actually written on the street so it was impossible to see in the rain.  At least we had GPS on our phones.   I also went to the drivers side to enter the car a million times instead of the passenger side.  Driving will definitely take a while to get used to here!

We stopped in Oxford on the way and planned to have lunch there.  It is really a beautiful college town.  There were some graduations this weekend and there were tons of people everywhere.   It is huge - it felt about 10x the size of Ann Arbor.  It was just a quick stop this time, I think we will definitely be back to do more exploring.  We had to take some pictures for the folks at home in Oxford since it is the sister city!

Then we were back on the road and headed to the country.  The fall colors were beautiful.  I feel like the leaves change a little slower here since it is a more mild climate.  The whole drive was beautiful with the colors and the sheep and the rolling hills.  It was exactly how I pictured the countryside to be.  We arrived at our B&B around 5pm.  It is a small B&B in a farmhouse built in the 1700s in a tiny little town.  The owners live there and they only have 2 guest rooms.  We were the only guests there so we had it all to ourselves.  Our host, Rosemary, greeted us with the best tasting tea we had ever had and these delicious brownie cakes.  Tyler enjoyed playing with their cat and dog and we enjoyed relaxing with our tea by the fire.  It was perfect!  There is only one restaurant in town so we headed to there for dinner.  We were the only people there as well and the owners were super nice to us.  Autumn - if you are reading it was very reminiscent of the Hometown Tavern, except no dog named Potato.  The owners lived there and they cooked all the meals from scratch.  After dinner we headed back to the B&B to put Tyler to bed.  There was a great sitting room by the fire so JJ and I took advantage of that we enjoyed the relaxation!  And the bed was incredibly comfortable and much appreciated after our couple weeks on the air mattress.

In the morning Rosemary cooked a wonderful English breakfast for us that consisted of fresh pressed apple juice from their orchard, homemade applesauce, scrambled eggs, toast, sausage and bacon.  It was completely delicious.  Tyler enjoyed his fresh apples and yogurt and Rosemary took Tyler to their side of the house to play with him so JJ and I could eat our breakfast in peace.  We hadn't had a meal without Tyler basically since we got here so that was so nice!  On our way out, they gave us some great recommendations of things to see in the Cotswolds on Sunday.  We loved it there and would love to go back and stay for a longer time in the summer.

We headed up to the town of Great Malvern which is perched on top of a huge hill.  Again, the colors were amazing and on the hill you could see the whole countryside.  There are a bunch of little old towns in the Cotswolds.  They are all adorable and all the buildings are made out of stone and look like they have been there for hundreds of years (which I'm sure they have).  We stopped in a town called Broadway for lunch and shopping and enjoyed both.  Then we headed back east to London but had one more stop on the way - Costco!

JJ found a Costco on the way home and they accept our US membership too.  It seems stupid but this was incredibly exciting for us.  We picked up a lot of the old favorites that they have in the US.  They even had the same baby wipes that we love and Pampers diapers.  Sadly for JJ they did not have Cheez-its so that will need to be something that he really savors back in the states.  We loaded up on good old bulk goods and then came home.

Now for this week the great news is that our sea shipment has cleared customs and we are set to have our things delivered on Friday!  This is so exciting we can't wait!  It's been a long 5 weeks and we are really looking forward to having this place feel like home.  Also we will be closely watching tomorrow on Election Day and JJ has his absentee vote cast (I'm ashamed to say that I had a slight issue when trying to vote in that I hadn't changed my name to Kern yet and it was too late - I realize this makes me a horrible American and pretty much a waste of space).  As for local happenings, for 3 straight nights there have been fireworks displays all over.  When we were at the restaurant in Cotswolds the owners said that they were empty because everyone was at the fireworks and bonfires.  She noticed us giving her blank stares and said, "It's close to the 5th of November if you know what I mean."  We kind of shrugged it off and thought it was a strange time of year to have fireworks.   Again tonight there are fireworks all over so I googled it and found out that it is Guy Fawkes Day.  According to Wikipedia here is the explanation:
Guy Fawkes Night, also known as Guy Fawkes Day, Bonfire Night and Firework Night, is an annual commemoration observed on 5 November, primarily in Great Britain. Its history begins with the events of 5 November 1605, when Guy Fawkes, a member of the Gunpowder Plot, was arrested while guarding explosives the plotters had placed beneath the House of Lords. Celebrating the fact that King James I had survived the attempt on his life, people lit bonfires around London, and months later the introduction of the Observance of 5th November Act enforced an annual public day of thanksgiving for the plot's failure.

So that is the explanation.  And the Brits are loving their fireworks displays right about now! 

Oxford, England

Fight on, Wildcats fight!  Found Oxford High School and had to take a picture :)

Sister city Oxford, England.  I was disappointed to see that sadly Oxford, MI was not recognized on the sign...

Tyler enjoying his dinner with the restaurant to ourselves!

The breakfast room at the B&B

The huge fireplace in the sitting room at the B&B

Teddy, resident at the B&B

Downtown Broadway

Tyler enjoying the cozy bed in his English sweater :)

 

Happy Halloween!!!

I hope everyone had a great Halloween yesterday.  I was super excited to wake up and see all the little kiddos dressed up in the Facebook pictures this morning.  Kids on Halloween are the best.  We still dressed Tyler up but we decided not to go trick or treating last night with him for a few reasons:
1) He is sick.  This is his first cold and the poor guy has snot pouring out of his nose.  He gets so frustrated every time you touch his face to wipe it away so the days are a constant battle!  He seems to be a bit better today so hopefully he is on the mend.
2) It was windy, cold and rainy last night
3) We didn't really have a set activity.  JJ said there were kids dressed up walking around when he came home from work but we didn't really have a plan on where to go
4) The clocks fell back last weekend here and since Tyler is so accustomed to going to bed right at 7 (he loves a routine just like his daddy), he basically conks out at 6pm now.  The other day he crawled up to me and put his thumb in his mouth and head on my shoulder as if to say, "It's time mommy"

Still I put him in his outfit and had some things to mail so we went to the post office dressed up.  The person behind the counter seemed to enjoy it!

Now the next couple weeks are big for us in finally making this our home.

First, my first big online grocery order came yesterday so we finally have a fridge full of food and don't have to stop at Tesco every single day.  Groceries are so funny here.  JJ and I were big Costco shoppers so we are used to bulk sizes.  It is the exact opposite here.  I didn't really understand the sizes when I was shopping online (who knows what 500 grams of tortilla chips really are?).  So when I got some things, it was in such a tiny package that it made me laugh.  For instance, the biggest size of tortilla chips was the 500g package and that is about twice the size of a single serving bag.  Oh well, we will get used to that I guess!

Second, our Ikea order comes today.  We still don't have a single piece of furniture here.  JJ and I have been sleeping on an air mattress and Tyler in his pack & play.  We made some make-shift chairs out of a playmat that we brought for Tyler and we have a couple yoga mats.  That's it until our sea shipment comes.  So we bought some things from Ikea to make it more manageable until the shipment comes.  Including 2 chairs.  Now with the chair I will be able to put Tyler in his high chair again, making my life much easier.

Third, our sea shipment is due to arrive next Wednesday!  Now we had some significant delays getting our air shipment here so I'm not holding out too much hope that it will actually be on that day, but regardless it is definitely getting closer!

Here are some pics of Halloween and our makeshift chairs.  As much as I kind of want to stay here this weekend and am tired of packing up and traveling, JJ and I both agreed that it may make sense to go somewhere close by and stay at a B&B so that we can have furniture for a couple nights and be comfortable.  So we are looking at a getaway in the English country-side in a region called Cotswold just about 100 miles outside London.  Hopefully we will have some fun updates for the blog on Monday!

Happy dinosaur!

Side view of dinosaur

Sad dinosaur

Close-up dinosaur

The best we can do for chairs around here

Happy 9 Month Birthday!

It's a short post today, just sharing some pictures of Tyler celebrating his 9 month birthday, a couple days late and in an empty flat.  Today we are off to go to lunch, go to the park, and find out if there are any Halloween activities to do tomorrow. 

Happy 9 Month Birthday Tyler!

It's getting harder and harder to keep him in one spot for these photo shoots!

Rainy Days on the Italian Riviera: Our First Trip to Italy Part 2

Friday evening we took a 3 hour train ride to Monterosso, the largest village of Cinque Terre.  It was a packed train and we sat in a full train cabin.  Tyler enjoyed making friends with an Italian young lady and she entertained him for quite some time.  When we arrived in Monterosso it was raining and we didn't know how to get to our B&B, Pietre di Mare.  Monterosso is a tiny village and most of it is not accessible by car so the roads weren't really on GPS.  We decided to call the owner of the B&B, Moreno, to get directions.  He met us in one of the little squares and helped us get to the B&B.  He had brought a friend who speaks better English with him to explain the situation.  She explained that they had been having heavy rains and it was the 1 year anniversary of a devastating flood/mudslide that they had last year.  To be cautious, the police shut down all businesses in the village at around 7pm.  So she explained that Moreno had picked up some dinner for us (yummy pizza and fococcia sandwich) aand milk for the baby so that we could eat because everything was now closed.  We graciously thanked them because we were starving.  We put Tyler to bed and found a wine shop that was just about to close.  They let us buy a bottle of local Cinque Terre wine and we stood on the street under an umbrella and the open windows of our room so that we could hear Tyler if he woke up.  That gave us some space to talk and have a nice dinner.

We were hoping that the weather would break on Saturday but when we woke up we found out that all the shops and restaurants were still closed and it was still raining.  So we had some energy bars that we had brought and I thankfully had brought some baby food too for Tyler.  There was nothing to do so we all took a nap with Tyler.  When he woke up we decided to venture on the train to another little village to see if anything was open there.  The 5 villages are all accessible by hiking trails, train, or boat.  All the hiking trails were closed to the the weather so we hopped on the local train and got to Corniglia.  There was a bus there that took you to the top of the cliff where the village is perched.  Corniglia was beautiful and had such a cool little downtown where everything was open.  We had a wonderful lunch outside under a tent while it poured off and on.  We took some pictures and headed back on the train to Monterosso to catch Tyler's afternoon nap.  By the time he woke up things were opening again but the weather was still pretty bad.  We walked a bit when it cleared up and found our dinner spot.  We had a lovely dinner and headed back to the B&B, hoping Sunday may clear up.

Sunday brought more rain, even heavier rain than the previous two days.  We asked Moreno if we could have a late check out and tried to pay him for our dinner Friday.  He did not want to take the money but finally took 10 Euro and then gave us a voucher for a free breakfast, so I think we still ended up ahead!  We met his wife, Sabrina, and she told us that the building had been in their family for generations but they just opened the B&B 3 years ago.  The stone in the building was the original stone of the building dating back to 1500!  They were the nicest people and showed us pictures of their 3 year old daughter, Lynda.  She joked that in 20 years Tyler can come back to the B&B and rent a room from Lynda.

Even though the weather was dreadful, there was something so sleepy and romantic about it.  And even in the rain, the views were incredible.  We had a wonderful time and left feeling well rested, well fed (pizza, pasta, gelato and wine every day!), and thankful to have met some of the nicest people in the world.  We definitely look forward to the next trip to Italy!

Beautiful shoreline of Monterosso

Eating breakfast (Nana notice the t-shirt!)

More Monterosso

Loving the train ride to Corniglia!

Narrow village streets of Corniglia

Somebody had too much fun in Corniglia and took an early snooze waiting for the train

The wine bar that stayed open to let us buy a bottle!

Loving the Ergo carrier instead of the stroller!

Church in Monterosso

The sun peaked through for a couple minutes!

We had the whole train cabin to ourselves on the way back.  Plenty of space to play!

Dinner Dates and Duomos: Our First Trip to Italy Part 1

I tried to post this on Friday but was having wireless issues so there are 2 fairly long posts today... We arrived in Milan Wednesday morning and Tyler has become quite the international traveler. An Italian woman sat next to us on the plane and Tyler spent some time bouncing around on her lap at her request. We have found that Italian women just ask to take your kids for a while.  A woman that worked breakfast at the hotel did the same thing while we ate.  It was kind of awesome to get a little break!  When we arrived in Milan, JJ headed off to work and Tyler was in need of a nap. He's become a bit of a sensitive sleeper which makes sharing a hotel room with him difficult. Usually in the US we try to put him in a closet so that he is shielded from noise and light but over here the closets aren't big enough so now Tyler snoozes in the dark hotel room while I hang out in the bathroom for 2 hours emailing and today, blogging!  The first afternoon he decided to take a 3 hour nap so that gave me plenty of time to research our activities over the next few days in the bathroom. He woke up so late that I figured we should probably stay close to the hotel to make it back in time for bed. JJ had a late meeting, one of many over the past couple weeks, so Tyler and I were left to dine by ourselves. I've done this a few times with him now, sit down for a proper dinner just him and I, and its quite hilarious.  As much as I love him, he is a horrible dinner date. He's messy, demanding, drops things, and doesn't talk back. Wednesday night I decided that I wanted pizza and wine so we found a pizzeria nearby. Unfortunately we found out that restaurants don't open until 7pm for dinner. This is pushing it for the little guy but I really wanted pizza and wine so after going first at 6:15pm, and getting turned away we went back right at 7pm.  We were the first ones to arrive and I wanted to sit outside. It was probably in the mid sixties and felt great to me. The waitress looked at me like I had two heads and said, "Are you sure? Isn't the baby going to be cold?"  I said we liked it and watched everyone else sit on the heated patio side or inside. Everyone was also wearing winter coats which I found humorous. I guess coming from Chicago and now London this felt almost tropical to me!  So we sat outside by ourselves and Tyler made a complete mess of the table and floor as he attempted to eat some of my pizza. He loves food. He wants to have whatever you are eating and sometimes refuses the spoon and wants to eat everything himself. This makes mealtimes a bit stressful for me when traveling but we are getting by ok.  The deliciousness of the pizza and wine made up for it!

On Thursday we set off in the morning to tour Milan's city center. We took the Metro subway from our hotel to downtown and got off at the Castello Sforzecio stop. It's a big castle with museums inside and the exit of the castle is one of the biggest parks in Milan. This looked like a good place for us to start. I got a focaccia with prosciutto and mozzarella for the little guy and I to share. On this trip Tyler has become quite a bread eater. JJ thinks he's getting a little chubby with all these extra carbs but if it relieves his teething I say whatever works. He loved the focaccia and we walked to find a playground. Tyler played on the swings for a while and then I took him over to a rope ladder to stand by where some bigger kids were playing. While we were on the rope ladder we attracted a little crowd of local kids. One Italian girl about 4 years old was very curious about us and came over to talk. She was speaking in Italian and I had no clue what she was saying so I just smiled and nodded. She kept repeating it and looking at me for an answer like, "Duh I'm asking you this simple question."  I couldn't remember how to say I don't speak Italian so I just mumbled "no Italiano, English?"  Her mom was watching and started laughing and broke in and said to her daughter, "she speaks the happy birthday language."  I smiled at her for saving me and we set off to do some more strolling.  It was time for Tyler to take his nap so I started strolling around the park. The park wasn't very big so I made it around the whole thing 3 times, kept passing the same guys trying to sell me a rose, and I decided we needed to venture out. I knew this was risky since there was a lot of road noise that could wake the little guy up, but we headed on to the city center.

The center has a cute little cobblestone road leading from the castle to the duomo that is shut down to traffic so it is lined with shops and cafes and people are everywhere.  We went to the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II which has all the high-end shops to check it out. I also wanted to see what the deal was with the tradition of spinning on the bull painted on the tile floor there. I had read something unusual about this tradition that if you spin on the bull's balls that you will have good luck. I saw a crowd of Asian tourists crowded around something and figured this had to be it. Sure enough they were all spinning on the bull's balls. The floor is even dented in this area of the bull from so many people spinning throughout the years. I must read more about the origins of this tradition but I waited my turn and spun on the bull's balls. This wasn't an easy feat with a sleeping baby in a stroller but I did it and sleeping Tyler spun with me!

Tyler woke up shortly after spinning so we walked to the duomo. It's a magnificent building with ornate details. You can walk through the inside of the cathedral so we entered. Tyler is having a really hard time with his top two teeth coming in and he hasn't been a very happy baby lately. He started screaming when we entered the cathedral and we made a bit of a scene. We walked around a bit more and I had read that you could go to the top so we looked for elevators but I couldn't find them. At this point Tyler was screaming off and on so I decided it was best that we left. I saw a sign that said that the elevator entrance is actually outside so we walked around the whole outside of the building until we found them. Tyler was refusing to sit in the stroller so I carried him while pushing the stroller and started sweating. After waiting in the elevator line I realized two things- 1: it was 12 euro to get to the top. This seemed a bit outrageous to me and 2: I needed to get tickets somewhere else. That was it for us, I exited the line and we were both done with the duomo and never made it to the top. At this point we were both tired and frustrated so we stopped on a corner to listen to some Italian music that was being paid by two street performers. We sat and danced and it was a nice, much needed break.

Now we were both hungry and JJ had to work late again so we found a nice ristorante in the city centre that was open before 7. They were so nice to us there and we sat on the street and people watched and ate delicious spaghetti. Tyler is pretty lucky to have tasted his first pizza and spaghetti in Italy!

Now today is rainy and we are going to stay near the hotel to get ready for our next adventure to Cinque Terra tonight (Friday). The only thing we didn't get to do was go shopping, but that's just another reason to go back!

Always loves to swing!

The castle

Duomo

Spinning on the bull's balls

The hottest dinner date in Italy, fully enjoying his spaghetti

The park outside the castle

Inside the Vittorio Emanuele II

Go Blue (and other good stuff)!

Sorry Sparties, I had to name my post that today!  We finally figured out how to stream Michigan football from our computer with BTN2Go International on Saturday so that we could watch the game.  It was definitely not the same as being there or even watching it on real TV, but much better than watching the score update on ESPN.com.   It was on at 8:30pm here so Tyler was sleeping.  Because we live in such a small place right now, JJ was "scream whispering" at the computer so he didn't wake him up.  Sometimes it was an angry scream whisper (with words I will not repeat) but at the end it was a scream whisper of victory!  So that was nice to be able to tun into a little piece of home.

In other news our air shipment arrived in Hampstead on Friday.  In the shipment were a handful of things that will make life livable in our flat: air mattress and sheets, towels, dishes, more toys for Tyler, etc.  We also got our cable/internet/phone hooked up so we can watch a few more channels here.  I was excited to find out that we get new Modern Family episodes and also the E! channel so that I can continue keeping up with those Kardashians.   We also even get a few NFL games, but no baseball so we are probably out of luck to see those Tigers in the World Series.  A side note about British TV - there are a few shows that are on all the time including Big Bang Theory, Two and a Half Men, How I Met Your Mother (but not the new ones), South Park, and Who Wants to be a Millionaire.  I've found that at any point in the day, any day you will find one of the above shows on.  There is also a network that JJ and I love - Challenge.  It has these crazy 80s British game shows.  The games make no sense, the fashion is heinous, and they are incredibly entertaining.

Now that we have the air shipment, we are going to fully move into our flat tomorrow!!!  I love it up there and the neighborhood just feels like home.  We stayed there on Friday night and we all slept in the next morning, I think Tyler was enjoying that there was no water heater strobe light in his room.  Saturday morning we went for a delicious breakfast at a little cafe down the road.  The place had a very European feel and there are just a few big tables there so you sit with random people.  We weren't sure how Tyler would do with that but he had a blast watching all the other people and was very well behaved.  Then we headed into Hampstead Heath, the huge park by us to go to the playground and Tyler very much enjoyed another round on the swings. 

We headed back to our place in central London and did some sightseeing in Westminster Sunday.  It was a cold and rainy day but we made it over to see Big Ben, the London Eye (from afar), Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, and St James Park. Tyler is teething again and his top two teeth are coming in.  From what I can see about the placement of them so far, it appears that he is going to have a significant gap between his two front teeth :)  He is a champ though and aside from grabbing for anything that he can put in his mouth, it hasn't affected him too much.

Now today, since it is our last full day in central London, we headed to the Victoria & Albert Museum which has been on my list of things to do while we are so close.  The museum is beautiful, free, and huge.  It has little bits of just about everything from sculptures to paintings to various artifacts and it had two special exhibits - Hollywood Costumes and Ball Gowns.  It's quite an interesting place, but I quickly realized its not the best place to take a child as young as Tyler.  I think Tyler might enjoy it more when he is a year or two older but today he was not a happy camper.  After a few minutes of carrying him and pushing the stroller I decided that was enough.  JJ checked in to see how it was going and I compared it to how I feel walking into Ikea on a Saturday - completely overwhelming.  But it is definitely a place to go back to when Tyler is older or maybe without him.

Now here are lots of pictures!

Unpacking and playing in our new living room in Hampstead

Our tiny new kitchen that actually feels huge compared to the kitchen in our temporary home!

Our new park - Hampstead Heath

Big T meets Big Ben, while teething...

View across the river of London Eye and Aquarium.  The dirty hand in the picture is of a person on the street asking for money to make kids smile.  We didn't need his assistance!

Westminster Abbey

Buckingham Palace

Tyler and some busts before his complete meltdown at the V&A Museum today

Playdates and Progress

Today we had our first playdate here in London!  A wife of one of JJ's co-workers invited us over to play with her and their 2 year old son in Chelsea.  They moved here from California a few months ago and she had some great information about life here and suggestions for children's activities.  It was a great outing for us and nice to meet some friendly folks.  And our air shipment is finally expected to arrive tomorrow! So we will be at the flat in Hampstead all day to receive that and wait for the cable/internet hook up.  Then we plan to move into the flat over the course of the next week.  We will be living off only what is in our small air shipment since our sea shipment probably won't arrive for another few weeks but it will be so nice to have a bit more space and be in a more child-friendly area.  Also we have confirmed our travel to Italy next week!  JJ has some business in Milan so we are going with him next Wednesday and then headed to Cinque Terra (Monterosso - one of my favorite places on earth!) for the weekend. Reena - if you are reading this- it will bring back fond memories of our trip!

Apparently here it takes a few days to actually hook up the internet so I probably won't be blogging again until next week.  Have a great weekend everyone!