More detail on our driving adventure (Revised)

This is Bruce, and since I am primary author of this entry, I will write this time without the ()'s.

First was tea. Our first tea, and this happened the day before our trip. At about 3 (15:00), Barb and the kids showed up at my office (which is discouraged by the administration, apparently due to the potential disruption of high seriousness), and so we decided to try our first official tea at a very official tea place, called Fitzwillies (Fitzbillies), or something. We stood out as we entered; the other patrons were well-dressed older ladies, just like you might picture. We ordered tea, scones with jam, and clotted cream, which, incidentally, is much better than it sounds. Tea is a lovely tradition: caffeine and cake in the afternoon and home just in time for drinks and dinner.

We had been researching a drive through East Anglia, and the next morning, when we awoke to sunshine, we decided to go for it. I packed the kids while Barb bravely took the bus and rented a car (we later found that they would have delivered it for free). We drove back to the rental firm because they needed to see my license to allow me to drive. Then I practiced in a large Tesco parking lot while Barb bought food for the trip. The only difficultly I had was when I had to yell at the kids to stop whatever it was that was pissing me off at the time -- it seems I can't yell and stay on the left at the same time.

We left town on the A10, and we learned of round-abouts (which lane do you get in? How do you remember when to get off? These people signal right and turn left.) and the difficulty judging the proximity of objects to the left side of the car -- we hit the curb several times, though we managed to miss all large objects (while I was driving Barb mentioned loudly several times that the left wheels were completely off the road. She was not right about that. (His exact words were, "No, I'm not." I considered getting out of the car, as you might imagine.) Once when she was driving through the small town of Ely, she chose to avoid an on-coming truck by steering almost directly toward a parked car. As I was about to scream I noticed she was completely calm: she had no idea we were about to shear off the left most 2 feet of our car. I managed a high-pitched squeal and Barb said, "You deserve it." It was only through some miracle of quantum physics that our mirrors passed through each other instead of being smashed to pieces).

Our first stop was a castle ruins, called Castle Rising. It was built in the 1100's, and was almost entirely open for exploring -- I loved it, and the kids did too, though perhaps not as much as doing their gymnastics in the grass around it. It even had a moat.

Next, we drove to our Bed and Breakfast. Nice and quaint, though small for 5 people, even by European standards. Then, a short walk to the beach and we were at the white cliffs of Dover, if a bit farther north (other side of the island, I believe). As always, the kids threw off there (their) shoes and were immediately immersed in looking for agates and shells. The clam shells were different, and so, interesting, and there were also large curly snail shells.

We strolled along a board walk (prom) toward town (the town center), watching waves crash into the barrier wall and found a nice pub for dinner. Then straight to bed as Barb and I were mentally exhausted from the drive.


In the morning, we set off to see the North Sea (our B&B was in a bay) and after an hour of hair-raising small winding roads, with cars parked in ridiculous places, we finally saw it in the distance. Was it worth it (If you zoom in, you can actually see the water)?

Finally, we headed to the Royal House at Sandringham, which is apparently where the Queen winters. It sits on 600 acres of manicured lawns and gardens, has 75 bedrooms and a staff of 30. The kids enjoyed it, but did grow tired. Sophia decided she would marry the prince if asked. The trees were amazing. Note the "Magnum Ice Creams" in the last picture (some of us remember these from the Czech Republic days).