Vacation Post #4 - England (and Briefly Belgium)

On Monday morning we headed out through the Channel tunnel to NATALIE! Brief walk around Latimer Road (not a street, just a Tube stop, or the Tube stop and the street are not near each other, or something...) and Notting Hill but not much doing that day. It was at this point that I had gotten sick and exhausted and spent the next two days (aside from a lunch outing to the Russian embassy with Natalie) flat on the couch while Lat roamed the city streets unaccompanied. We spent Tuesday evening at The Lion King, one of the best things I have ever seen. Ever. (Even though my ticket is upside down.)

And Wednesday evening cooking (or watching Lat cook) spring rolls before heading to York Thursday morning to see Emily and Dan. We had a lovely tour of York, it's minster (not cathedral), grocery stores, and the wall surrounding the city that you can tell is very very not American because there are no guard rails to be seen! Fish and chips for dinner, up the next morning to briefly glimpse Emily's castle (Conisbrough Castle to everyone else) on our way to Roche Abbey where Emily was working for the day. She VERY kindly bought us a guide book and we wandered through the ruins figuring out what the crazy monks did in each "room." ie square grassy area enclosed by some stones. We also walked in the woods around the Abbey and were kindly fetched by Emily's parents mid-afternoon to head on another outing to see the Major Oak in Sherwood Forest and find Robbin Hood's special cows... of course! Here lies the last photo I took! (Not sure what keeps their horns from growing into their noses?) 

Lovely dinner eating early-anniversary savory pie and panna cotta and birthday breakfast for Emily's dad before we headed to the wedding. Jonny and Rosie were married in a gorgeous ceremony in a gorgeous location where we played word games & croquet, ate and ate and ate, danced and tented out... overall a great time. Sunday morning we boarded an ill fated train to London... and after about 5 hours of 'this platform, no that platform, no this platform' we finally arrived, the only travel hiccup of the whole trip. We said our goodbyes and I boarded a train to Brussels to stay with another friend Emily for tea and ice cream before heading out early the next morning. Safe and sound and arrived in America, we certainly have an epic trip to look back on! I spent a lovely summer at home and arrived back in Kin on July 29th to prepare for two weeks of teacher orientation, new teachers and then all of us. It has been busy! Just catching my breath after the first week of school.