Some More Photos

Just got done tweaking some photos and posting them online. You need to see them fullsize to really appreciate these.

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Driving in UK (AKA The Tractor Incident)

So driving on the other side of the road was a bit fun. Sure, it was unnerving a bit of the time and it took a little getting use to, but overall, we lived. Now our GPS was another story. It had a tendency to always take us on the quickest way regardless of the type or width of the road. This following video is a great example. We had just left Hampton Court Gardens and we decided to go visit a little town where Cheri's great grandparents had lived. The shortest route according to our Tom Tom GPS was down this road. A narrow road with hedgerows.

Did you see the tractor? If not, go back and pause right near the end. You'll see it. If you go back a few more seconds you'll notice a small dirt pull out on the right side of the road. We backed up to that spot and he barely squeezed by us.

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Greenland Flyover

Since our returning flight went from Paris to San Franciso it's actually quicker to fly way north on the way home. As a result the flight path takes you over Greenland. For most of the first part of the trip we only saw clouds, then just before getting over Greenland the clouds broke and we had this beautiful view of ice sitting on the ocean. At first we weren't sure what the huge swirls were. But as we looked we realized they were large sheets of ice sitting on the ocean. To really appreciate it this you might need to click here to see the fullsize image.

It was beautiful to see. Then as we got closer and closer to land you could see snow cover mountains popping out of the snow.

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And a few more answers

All right, so finally getting back to what President Draper would like….The look in London, and pretty much all around the places we visited in England is tights. Tights with shorts (long, short, or even cargo), tights with any length of skirt, even popular with the older women is opaque tights with a tunic length top or dress, then add clashing shoes. Or even tights with capris. Tights of almost any color, black and nude seemed to be the most popular with ANY color or style of shoe: open-toe sandals, boots, sneakers, Mary Janes in tan with black tights, and the list goes on, well except for flip flops. So basically, you could wear a red skirt with black or navy blue nylons with pretty much any color of shoe and you’d be hip!

Our understanding is that London is generally ahead of us in fashion, and it seemed sort of 80’s to us, so maybe that’s coming back. Not really sure. Perhaps it will be the thing in a year or two. We shall see. We suggest you ladies stock up your nylons to be worn with everything. President Draper will be so pleased.

And sort of related to this, much of England seems to be an interesting mix of traditional or trendy. This includes not only the fashion, but the restaurants and the cities. If you want to go into a nice restaurant, well, you’d better be traditional. For the men that means no jeans, a sport jacket or blazer and absolutely no trainers! They won’t even let you in with those. The Ritz has ties you can borrow if you don't have one.

From our perspective, these are the things the British appear to be quite fond of…

Tea—duh (They need to be able to get a cuppa ANYWHERE they go.)

Cheese

Tights/nylons—we covered that one.

Alcohol (Beer, Ale, Wine…)

Coffee

Raisins in just about everything, such as scones and hot cross buns.

Roasted tomatoes (Cheri thought they were icky and mushy, but Drew liked them.)

On scones they pretty much always put clotted cream and jam on top.

Meat, meat, meat for breakfast. The only place we could get a waffle was at the Priory Marriott. They love their British bacon which is like a fatty ham, their sausage, eggs, salmon, and just about any fish for breakfast, with tea and toast of course. And generally roasted tomatoes and sautéed mushrooms. But meat is the main thing. Cheri was checking out the history of British breakfast for her ghost story and discovered that it showed how wealthy you were if you had lots of meat available for breakfast. So, it seems, they have stuck with that.

Gravy

Potatoes (but not usually at breakfast) and in some of the meals we ordered we got them cooked more than one way. They seem to love chipped(fries), crisps(chips to us), boiled, roasted, and creamy mashed.

Pudding (like bread pudding) many times the dessert menu will say “puddings” across the top but will include ice cream and cheesecake as well as puddings in the list. So it seems that to them, pudding, in some cases, just means dessert. We’d even been asked by the waitress if we’d like to see the pudding menu after we’d finished with dinner.

Duck, fish, beef or lamb (which explains all of the cute baby lambs we saw all over the place.)

Scarves

Pointy shoes

Cow-girl boots with tights of course. Actually any style boot is popular.

Peg-leg pants--the men.

Black

White belts with white shoes. This goes for the men and women, if a girl is wearing this, then she usually has black tights on too.

Some of the men like big hair just like Robert Pattinson. But not the women, they like is straight.

Bright Colors, such as lime green, bright red, hot hot pink, bright yellow, and purple. Not that those colors are bad, we just saw then a lot and many times with the tights.

Meat or cheese pastries, pies, and pasties. Every bakery we saw had a selection of sweet pastries along with just as many meat-filled selections.

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Answers to the Questions

To finish answering the questions we asked earlier:

Still...We’ve already covered this, but we’ll do it again. In case you missed it. You have a choice when ordering water. Tap water, which is free. Bottled still water, which is not moving like the third choice, which is sparkling. And if you don’t ask for ice, you won’t get it.

Pram…is a baby stroller. In Harrods there were signs that said no prams on the escalators.

The man who takes care of the rubbish is the dustman.

The check is the bill and it seems the British like to take their time with dinner. The servers sure are slow about serving you and if you don’t ask for the bill, don’t expect to get it anytime soon. Apparently us Americans like to eat and run, and they just don’t get it.

Wheat or any kind of grain bread…is called brown.

To Let…means for rent.

Trainers…are sneakers. (We told you that already.) Anyway, yes, they were called that in Harry Potter.

Paracetamol…they said it was the same as Tylenol, but it didn’t say acetaminophen in the ingredients.

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Day 14 - All things come to an end!

We come home today. We leave London then a short layover in Paris. Then Paris to San Francisco. Then home to SLC. Total flight time today will be over 14 hours. But don't fear - there will be more pictures and a few more stories to come. We just need more time to post things. We also have some funny videos to share.

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Day 13 - London

Well today is our last full day in the UK. And we are sort of sad and happy all at the same time. We are excited to get home and see our girls yet we wouldn't mind a few more days in the UK. We travelled back to London after doing a little shopping in Winchester and taking a few pictures.

One picture we needed to take was this guy - King Alfred the Great - Cheri's 34th, 35th and 38th Great Grand Father! How is that possible? Let's just say the royal blood line intermarried a bunch.

After driving back to London we checked into our hotel, dumped our bags, dumped the rental car and took the tube back into London. We grabbed a bite to eat. Got stuck in London Tube closures and simply walked around.

Finally ended up at the Ritz for Afternoon Tea. The herbal tea's were great. The little tea sandwiches were just okay. To be honest, there is a place in SLC that makes great little tea sandwiches.

We weren't suppose to take pictures at tea. We didn't know this. We shot off a couple of pictures and then set the camera down behind us. A bunch of others tried to take pictures and were told not to. That's when we realized we got away with it. Oops.

Now, don't fear if you think this all. We have a few more stories to tell. A few more pictures to post and we'll do all that after we are home for a few days.

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