Last weekend, however, we decided to snatch the Friday and the Monday and take a short trip away from the land of fondue, fridge farts and furtive fireworks.
The weather is the best hint of any.
Even a proudly Swiss-engineered and manufactured umbrella was made a mockery of, the entire material cover and frame whisked out to sea faster than a tornado in a trailer park.
Cold, wet and hungry we ploughed on, ready to take Snap Two of my new tradition - Eating In Front Of Famous Monuments. The above one, aka The First, featured a prosciutto and emmental sanger in front Chateau Chillon near Montreux and the second one....
...... a Cadbury caramel Wispa bar in front of Stonehenge. Would have been a Creme Egg if I'd been able to find one.
Love Chunks, after all these years, still retains a sense of bafflement, pomposity and a dollop of shame at my antics.
Sapphire, on the other hand, just tells me to 'shoosh.'
Even a proudly Swiss-engineered and manufactured umbrella was made a mockery of, the entire material cover and frame whisked out to sea faster than a tornado in a trailer park.
Cold, wet and hungry we ploughed on, ready to take Snap Two of my new tradition - Eating In Front Of Famous Monuments. The above one, aka The First, featured a prosciutto and emmental sanger in front Chateau Chillon near Montreux and the second one....
...... a Cadbury caramel Wispa bar in front of Stonehenge. Would have been a Creme Egg if I'd been able to find one.
Love Chunks, after all these years, still retains a sense of bafflement, pomposity and a dollop of shame at my antics.
Sapphire, on the other hand, just tells me to 'shoosh.'
All in all, it was a wild and wet few days that loaded us with heaps of history, a re-acquaintance with the left-hand side of the road and more than a few opportunities to chuckle at the West Country farmers' accents. Not to mention access to local cider, chips, bacon, carrot cake and the ability to pass the time of day with shopkeepers, bus drivers and fellow tourists.
Shopping for codeine at Boots chemist, purchasing clothes without the 'you must be kidding me' automatic gasp of shock when the price tag is turned over, newspapers full of supplements and enduring a choking fit after Love Chunks made me laugh to hard over breakfast were all worth the admission ticket. These are the experiences we up-ended our lives for.
14 comments:
Hello Kath,
Last weekend was bloody awful. We had so much rain here that I thought the island was going to sink. A tree blown down in a road near to us missed a house by just a couple of feet.
I went for a walk during my lunch hour and the wind destroyed my brolly, leaving me at the mercy of the elements.
And there's a hosepipe ban and a drought at the same time in the south all this after the wettest April on record!
Glad you enjoyed your jaunt - but you picked the wrong weekend.
:0)
Cheers
PM
Glad you enjoyed it, lovely part of England, weather was not good Sunday but better on Monday here on the East Coast. Hope you filled your bags full of goodies, sadly we are running out of supplies of cailler chocolate!! Cornish pasties, scrumpy and ooaarrr!
You went to England!!!!!!
I'm so happy for you all, my heart is practically bursting out of my chest!! Really! If you could feel what I'm feeling right now.....
English language! Bacon! Cake! You must have almost felt like you were home in our winter.
Does Stonehenge have a mystical feel to it as so many people have said it does?
Next time your umbrella blows out, grab the handle up by the spokes and immediately turn into the wind and it will blow back the right way.
England!! *sigh*
Oh wow. What a weekend. A few jealous thoughts. And much happiness for the smiles on all of your faces. Yay, for stolen long weekends.
I have troubles here with brollies inverting themselves. Will have to try River's trick next time it happens (as it assuredly will).
I am still giggling at the umbrella photos. Must have been nice to have some English chips, although they are overrated in my experience.
Ah, see, I would have guessed Windy Wellington if it wasn't too far for a long weekend jaunt. Too much experience of Wellington winds. Great photos and I'm sure it was lovely to get away for a bit :)
Love the expression on LC's face in that photo too, priceless!
One of my favorite parts of the UK is down that way. Glad you had a wonderful break. And I get you about clothes shopping - brilliant over there - next time you're over, check out TKMAXX.
Rather envious I am.
PlasMan - yep, the topic of the weather was on all the locals' minds, that's for sure. We still loved it though.
We didn't buy many edible goodies - the one suitcase we brought back (EasyJet makes you pay) was full of clothes for Sapphire, magazines and silver jewellery for me. Poor LC scored the actual suitcase for future work trips!
River, you'll love England. Having lived in London for two years and briefly visiting it last year, the entire place just feels like home. Even LC said he felt the same way.
As for the umbrella, I tried the turning-it-into-the-wind thing several times, but it just whirled around by the sheer force of the winds. We headed to Sidmouth so that we could take a few snaps of the pebbly beach, but the wild waves were lapping up against the edge of the pier.
Thanks, E-Child. Hearing English again was very refreshing - so many conversations and signs that could be read instantly!
Andrew, agree re the chips. The French-Genevoise 'frites' are much, much better.
CatJB, Love Chunks does indeed have a lot to endure in his life.
Exeter was too small for TKMAXX but we found enough to keep Sapphire clothed to a level that is acceptable to her rapidly-escalating standards. Ah, the impending teenage years....
i'm jealous, but i got to travel via your blog a bit...so thanks. =p
love the pictures.
You closing lines make my heart soar :)
I, too, have a handful of people in my life who tend to tolerate my antics more than join in... but I love 'em anyway :)
Such a happy feel to this post - that weekend would have been wonderful. Great pictures, especially the one with the top gone off the umbrella!
Thanks Have Myelin - my version of travel is usually not the breezy, 'Take a lovely walk through the cotswolds' type usually favoured by journos and tourism brochure writers....
Hannah, they do indeed. In fact it is precisely *because* I am happy that my antics emerge, which they then have to endure. Or something like that.
I couldn't believe it, Jackie - such strong winds and any pebbles (where Aussie sand would be) was hidden far below the churning brown water lapping the edge of the high rise cement footpath.
Speaking of your travel description - reminds me of when my son went to Alaska with his grandmother on a cruise - when he got off, everyone went to Wal-Mart for "trinkets".
He, on the other hand went to the local town and had more fun!
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