A Royal Weekend

As you all know, England has been the center of attention throughout the world over the past few days.  We have felt so lucky to be here to witness first-hand what a Royal Wedding in England truly looks like.  Boy, do the English sure know how to put on a show!  After a lot of discussion we decided not to make the trip into the city to join the madness.  The experience of watching everything from home and joining in the local festivities with the residents of our town made it a more intimate but equally authentic experience.  

My attempt at Royal Wedding cupcakes

Watching the actual Royal Wedding live on BBC from start to finish was something we will not forget.  We obviously shared this experience as there were over 3 billion people watching!  I decided to take full advantage of having the day off for the wedding by making Royal cupcakes, hanging Union Jack bunting and drinking lots of tea.  We spent the morning in front of the television just taking it all in.

As the pomp and pageantry of the wedding was amazing to witness, John and I both believe the best part of the Royal Wedding was the buzz and energy leading up to the big day.  There was so much talk and speculation leading up to Friday’s events so the discussions with our friends and colleagues at work provided us with a unique perspective.  Some people were incredibly excited and talked about parties they were attending and special outfits they were wearing.  Others talked about deciding to spend the day low-key at home in their pj’s enjoying some time off.  Surprisingly, there were a lot of people who thought the whole idea of the wedding and the massive amount of money spent on it was ridiculous and were not going to watch at all.  Overall, the opinions and ways of spending the day varied greatly from the people John and I had talked to.

One of many Truro storefront windows

There were numerous TV specials leading up to the big day that recounted all of the royal weddings in history and all of the traditions that are involved.  It was so interesting to learn about all of the little details that you would never know about otherwise.  The attention to detail has always been top priority and as we all witnessed, this wedding was no different. 

Celebratory drinks in Truro

But for the massive amounts of people in the UK that did decide to embrace the day, it was spectacular.  After the wedding, John and I walked through Truro and could feel the energy of it all.   The atmosphere was definitely palpable as most people enjoyed the day off and appreciated the opportunity to celebrate as a nation.  All of the shops’ windows were adorned with flags and pictures of William and Kate.  People’s houses were decorated with bunting and flags streaming from their windows and planted in their flowerpots.  Most restaurants and pubs had Royal Wedding festivities planned and some people got dressed up and began celebrating early in the morning.  It really was spectacular to see and be a part of.

As we both had off work, we decided to go out for dinner and drinks last night.  Our night of English celebration ended in a pub with a Beatles cover band playing while patriotic partygoers draped with Union Jack flags danced around.  Definitely entertaining.  It was a perfect British end to a perfect British day!

Easter Exploring in Cornwall

It has been a quiet couple of weeks here in Truro since our trip to Italy.  John and I have both been busy working and just getting back into the day-to-day routine of things.  Yet with this weekend being a four day weekend here in England (bank holidays for both Good Friday and Easter Monday), John and I both had off work and decided it would be a good time to try renting a car for a couple of days.  So far we have had no problems using public transportation to get where we need to go, but we have heard about multiple places in Cornwall as “must visits” that are mostly accessible by car.  So we took the plunge and decided to give it a try!

We picked up our rental car from the rail station on Thursday after work and decided to spend some time just getting used to driving on the “other side of the road” around the Truro area.  John started off driving our little four door and found that he got used to driving pretty quickly, though it did take some practice getting used to the roundabouts!  As we knew we had a full couple of days ahead of us, we called it a night and spent the rest of the night figuring out where in Cornwall we wanted to visit.

First time we haven't had to carry our groceries home!

We decided to spend Friday exploring the two southern peninsulas of Cornwall: The Lizard and Land’s End.  We made our way to a tiny fishing village called Cadgwith first thing in the morning.  As it was a bank holiday and many people were home for the day, the little village was very serene and we just walked around the small beach and up onto the cliffs along the coastal path.  After some hiking, we headed back through town and got some Cornish ice cream cones before hitting the road. 

We then made our way to Kynance Cove, which is also a beach spot in The Lizard.  We parked the car and made our way down a trail to a beautiful cove where there were families spending the holiday on the beach making sand castles, playing in the water and just relaxing.  We ended up eating lunch outside at a beach café overlooking Kynance Cove and just enjoyed people watching for a while before moving on.

Kynance Cove

From there we decided to make our way to Land’s End and drive through some coastal towns along the way.  At this point, John was very comfortable driving and started the journey through Newlyn and Mousehole.  This is when we got our first of many tastes of the much talked about “Cornish” driving.  Mousehole was, as its’ name implies, a tiny maze of roads throughout the village.  There were many moments of disbelief that our GPS was actually taking us through these roads that you wouldn’t expect would be on a map.  They were extremely narrow and typically only fit one vehicle (very small vehicle at that!).  It was a driving challenge for John, but he did a great job with it! 

Lunch overlooking Kynance Cove

At this point in the afternoon (and for the rest of the day), the English weather set in and it began to rain.  We made our way to Land’s End where on a clear day you can see the Isles of Scilly.  It was definitely not a clear afternoon, so we didn’t see much and headed for Sennen Cove for our last stop of the day.  During our time at Sennen Cove it was downpouring so we enjoyed the beach through the car windows.  It looked to be a gorgeous beach so we will have to make a point to visit again on a sunny day.  From there we decided to call it a day and head back to Truro for the night.

Saturday was our last day with the car so I decided it was now or never to try driving in England.  I found that it didn’t take long to adjust to driving on the other side of the road and I enjoyed being behind the wheel again.  Though once we got closer to our first destination of the day and the roads began to get more and more narrow, I did tend to get a bit anxious.  But we made it in one piece to our day exploring the northern coast, starting with Tintagel Castle.  The background of the Tintagel Castle ruins is that it is believed King Arthur once ruled from this castle mounted on a set of cliffs overlooking the sea.  Once we hiked our way to the top of this cliff and through the castle ruins, we couldn’t believe how amazing the views were!  It was literally breathtaking.  We spent some time wandering around the cliffs and made a point to just sit and take it all in--definitely a good way to start our day. 

We had heard about this cute village called Padstow, so we hopped back into the car (with John driving) and started a driving experience like no other.  We drove the main way to Padstow which was miles and miles of truly Cornish roads.  The roads were barely big enough for one small car, just imagine what it was like when two cars met!  There were multiple times that John would be pulled over and had our car in the hedges while the oncoming car would have to open their windows so we could look out our window and let them know if they were going to hit us or not.  There were many moments of reversing back until there was a wider part of the road so the oncoming car could barely squeeze by.  Let’s just say “Cautious Katie” was out in full force during this time!  But John handled both Cautious Katie and driving under these crazy conditions very well!

Tintagel Castle

Padstown was a much busier fishing village with lots of shops and cafes.  We had some lunch of fish and chips and a Cornish pasty and then made our way to Padstow’s beach for an afternoon walk.  The sun was out and we enjoyed spending some time by the water and on the sand.  By this point in the day, we were exhausted and decided to head back to Truro and call it a day.  Before dropping off the car at the rental station, we had to stop and fill the tank up with petrol.  We had only gone through a quarter of a tank of fuel but it cost £32!!!!  Gas prices here are around £6 a gallon, which depending on exchange rate, works out to be about $9 to $10 a gallon.  Even though gas prices in the States currently are considered high, we realized how lucky we are in the States to have access to such cheap fuel compared to other parts of the world!

After a busy couple of days, we have decided to take it easy for the rest of our weekend.  We took a stroll through town earlier today and have now spent the rest of the afternoon eating breakfast and hanging out on our deck in the sun.  Since we can’t spend Easter with our families, this is a pretty enjoyable second option :-)

Three Henrys & a Mohr....An Italian Adventure

Italy….the only place where you can drink a bottle of wine every day and not feel like an alcoholic.  What an amazing week.  Katie and I have just returned from an amazing week in Italy, but what we are most grateful for was the opportunity to spend it with my parents who came to visit for 12 days.

Overall, it was so nice having our first guests and getting to show them around this beautiful part of the country where we live.  Of course they had to have fish and chips, cream tea and real Cornish pasties while they were here, but that goes for anyone who comes to visit us : ) 

Before I forget to write this, can I just say that we could NOT have asked for any better weather during the entire time my parents were in Cornwall or the entire week we were in Italy.  Lots of sun and temps in the 60’s and 70’s.  Not bad at all.

After a busy few days in Truro we all spent Saturday night preparing for our week in Rome and Venice.  Sunday morning came bright and early and we were off for Italy!!!  We hired a private car whose driver (Basil Jelly…yes this is his real name) drove us throughout the English countryside, past Stonehenge and directly to Gatwick airport.  All travel was smooth, we arrived safely in Rome and before you knew it we were sitting in a restaurant for what would be the first of a week filled with meals of pasta, bread, wine, etc.  

First gelato in front of The Trevi Fountain

We filled our Monday with the Roman Colosseum, the Forum and the Pantheon.  Katie and I took some time to ourselves in the afternoon to check out the Trevi Fountain and the Spanish Steps even though we knew we would be back to both later that night with my parents.  As we did every day of the week, we all took a much needed nap and spent another great evening out having an Italian dinner to cap off another great day.  After dinner, we all had our first Gelato (first of many) and spent some time at the Trevi Fountain and Spanish Steps before heading back to our hotel. 

Sistine Chapel

Tuesday was filled with a full day in the world’s smallest country—the Vatican.  Since the Pope didn’t return any of my e-mails we weren’t able to meet up as we had hoped, so instead we decided to take in the Vatican museum (which was huge), the Sistine Chapel and St. Peter’s Basilica by ourselves.  All were just as beautiful as I imagined them to be and were great reminders of how incredibly talented artists of that time, like Michelangelo, really were.  My parents stayed in the Basilica for the daily mass as Katie and I headed back through the rest of Rome for some exploring.  Our last night in Rome was spent around a table filled with more amazing Italian food as the next morning we would board a train which would take us straight to Venice. 

First night in Venice 

One of my favorite aspects of our time in Rome was witnessing my Dad experience Rome for the first time.  I grew up hearing him talk about places like the Roman Colosseum, ancient ruins and the Vatican as if they were something out of reach, that most people never get to see for themselves. So getting to share this with him and to see just how excited he really was to be there is something I will always remember.  The history of these places truly is difficult to grasp.  However, being there to see them with your own eyes does help you to imagine what life may have been like for these whole civilizations of people who walked the same earth that we were now strolling along.  Needless to say, it was really something to remember.    

On Wednesday, all travels to Venice went smoothly.  We had roughly a 4-hour train ride to Venice and we arrived by mid-afternoon. In researching Venice prior to our trip, I remember reading a quote that said, “Venice is not just a city to see, it’s a place that you have to experience.”  Truer words have never been written.  For those of you who have been to Venice, you know that this is a city that not only has no cars, but also has no roads.  In fact the only way to even get to the island is by boat.  All of this just added to the atmosphere and the amazing experience that was Venice.

Date night at Rialto Bridge

After a short Vaporetto ride we hopped off at our stop a few blocks from our hotel.  As you may know, Venice is a labyrinth of canals, bridges, alleys and passageways making it incredibly easy to get lost (more on that later).  As a result we were so grateful to have met a very nice Venetian man on our boat who knew exactly where our hotel was and offered to show us the way as it was in the direction he was headed.  These are the kind of small things that set a tone for an entire day so it was great to start off a new city on such a positive note.

One of many cappuccinos 

Our hotel was great and after we checked into our rooms we decided to start our time in Venice with a gondola ride at sunset (it’s a rough life).   One of the greatest things about our hotel was that it had a private landing for water taxi’s and gondolas so we literally walked right out of our hotel and onto a gondola.  As the sun set over the Grand Canal we floated along the canals in and out of back passageways observing a mixture of tourists struck with the beauty their eyes were seeing and locals living their lives—strolling home from work or hanging laundry on the line.  Witnessing this from a gondola sitting next to people that you love was the quintessential Venice experience.  It was touristy but worth every penny and a great welcome to the city.  Our gondola dropped us off along the Grand Canal so we were able to stroll along the waterfront as small shops and local artists closed up and packed away their things for the night and as restaurants set up tables and wrote dinner specials on outdoor menu boards as an invitation to those who passed by.  We strolled along a few back canal passages, found a restaurant and had another amazing meal.  As usual, we all had bread, wine and a variety of pastas to end another day.  The walk back to our hotel was a bit more complicated than intended as we ALL forgot to bring a map that EACH of us was given by our hotel.  Needless to say that this added a little stress (and a lot of time) to the night, but in my opinion getting lost in Venice is better than knowing your way around any other city in the world : )

Rainbow and ALF along the Grand Canal

The next morning, we took a private water taxi to the island of Murano, most famously known for its glass-making.  Venetians have been known for artistic glass-making for centuries and Murano is a small island just north of Venice.  We were able to take a tour of one of the factories and see some of the glassmakers/artists first hand.  Again, the artistry is amazing and we all agreed that we will never look at glass the same again.  Murano is a very small island, but like Venice is filled with charm and winding walkways that parallel the canals.  However, unlike Venice, there are more locals than tourists, so we spent the morning strolling along the “streets” and walking in and out of shops as Katie and my Mom attempted to satisfy their shopping needs.  We took a vaporetto back to Venice and after some lunch headed back to the hotel.  One great thing about life in Italy is that most people don’t go out for dinner until 8 or 9 o’clock so it was great to wake up a little later, have breakfast (usually croissants, pastries and cappuccino) spend the day exploring, take a nap, and go out for dinner.  Definitely a lifestyle I can get on board with. 

Earlier in the night, we decided that Thursday would be “date night” so Katie and I decided to literally wander around and get lost in Venice.  We ate gelato and strolled along the Rialto Bridge, had dinner at a small restaurant off of the canal and had dessert (tiramisu and cappuccino) at another restaurant before heading back to our hotel.  What a great way to spend a night together in Venice. 

The perfect end to a great week!

Friday, our last day in Italy, snuck up on all of us.  We all knew that we had to make the most of it so we decided to adopt a “no-plans” mindset and set out for the day with nothing specific in mind that we wanted to accomplish.  This can be difficult for four people traveling together, but I think by then, we all realized that this was truly the best way to take in a city like Venice.   I think it helped us to all truly relax and really appreciate every moment of our last day together.  We ate more gelato, did more shopping, and had lunch sitting in the sun at a canal-side restaurant just under the Rialto Bridge.  We had another late afternoon nap and spent the last night in Venice enjoying another great dinner together.  By the end of the week, dinner almost became like a ritual, but one that we were all very comfortable with and a ritual that I think we could all carry out every day for the rest of our lives.  Even the worst meal you have in Italy would be the best meal you would have anywhere else.  The standard is set high and I think we all did a good job of savoring every bite and every moment talking and laughing across the table.  Like a lot of things during the week, they weren’t just events—they were moments and experiences that we would each carry with us forever.    

Awesome!

As we said goodbye to my parent in the airport I found myself thinking about how time is a funny thing.  We spent the months leading up to my parents visiting feeling like time was dragging on until they arrived.  It couldn’t get here soon enough.  But once they were here, I found myself wishing for nothing more than for the time to slow down, so we could enjoy every second of it together. 

There is nothing like being an ocean away from your family that makes you appreciate spending time with them more.  I love that I have the kind of parents that would choose to do something like this with us.  I love that they began planning their trip to visit us the second we told them we were moving over here.  After all they are the ones who instilled in me the confidence to do something like this and the gratitude to appreciate every moment of it.  In that way, sharing this kind of experience with them was very fitting. 

Hanging out on Rialto Bridge

It was an amazing week filled with a lot of memories, and yet we will look to our next trip and our next guests to remind us of how precious our time here really is.