We’ve been moving around a bit, so we haven’t quite had chance to sit down and write a decent entry in the blog. Part of the problem too is finding ready access to wifi in places in the UK that don’t charge an arm and a leg. We really balked at one place that wanted £28 (USD42) for a day’s worth of access. Too cheap, by far, to do that.
Anyway, Virgin Atlantic was fine, small seats per normal, dinner acceptable. No alcohol for us, just ambien and off to England. Getting through Heathrow was fine and the car was a very nice Peugeot, standard shift, and kept up well on the motorways and the country lanes.
Liz and Tim’s wedding, the reason to undertake a trans--Atlantic voyage in the merry months of March and February, was lovely. Held in a massive old manse, where even Chaucer roamed the halls from time to time, Maunsel House, was great. Battle gear hanging off the walls, huge fireplaces with log fires going, rifles,some antique others modern,a real plush library with a big, stuffed, almost Brown University, bear in one corner. The art and portraiture, particularly the portraits going back before the days of Queen Elizabeth I, look down on the guests. Great time in the evenings, though we were staying in the colossally small-town county seat of Taunton, in a Holiday Inn. (It had a gym for Ben.)
The food ranged from lasagnes, both beef and veggie, the Friday night we began our visit with members of the bride’s and groom’s family, to the wedding luncheon of roast beef, Yorkshire pudding, roast potatoes, mixed veggies. That was preceded, of course, by rounds of Prosecco or fizzy elderberry water (great stuff, never had it before), and lots of pâtés, jiggers of parsnip soup, smoked salmon and quail eggs. Dessert included gooseberry fool, strawberries in jello followed hours later by a collection of English cheeses arranged as a layer cake and a humungous but one level wedding cake made by the groom’s mother: lots of English fruit-cake and then a half-inch (2 cm) layer of marzipan and then a layer of white hard-ish icing. Mmmmm. Just like John’s mother used to make.
Fortunately we did not overindulge and getting up the following morning was not difficult. Then it was back to Maunsel House for an afternoon of roast stuffed pig (the whole thing), and various salads.
The beauty of Maunsel House, now in the hands of Sir Benjamin Slade, who hosts events to maintain the place, is a delight. At the end of a lane of sycamores (John thinks) with geese, peacocks, roosters and lots of pigeons using the old barns as dovecotes, it’s lovely. And, as we found out in a taxi late at night, the local narrow (very narrow) lanes with their high hedgerows house hedgehogs. We even saw on as s/he successfully scurry across the road on tiny little legs. Our first hedgehod sighting the wild!
Then to Bristol for a night at the airport and this morning a quick flight to Dublin.
At that point, John’s frustration level went up. Avis informed him that credit card companies no longer cover damage insurance in the Republic of Ireland. After 45 minutes on the phone with two customer service agents wherever (probably in the Philippines), we found out that it was another $400 for insurance for the car!
Then, we had decided to head north to see the neolithic stone burial mound at Newgrange, about 45 minutes from Dublin, but we got lost and ended up spending 90 minutes on back roads to get to where we should have been. Ben enjoyed the countryside. John is bushed. But he just wanted to add the picture of a robin that decided to flit around the hedgerow and start singing, quite beautifully and tamely, to us.
Tonight we are sitting in front of a coal fire in Rathdrum in County Wicklow, sipping a local Irish Smithwicks ale and thinking about venison for dinner. More to come tomorrow.
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