Will has to travel for work periodically, and has already been out of the country to Spain and Germany. It was really great to be able to go with him, and not be dropping him off at the airport this time! I pretty much got to come for the price of my plane ticket which was amazing.
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| Waiting in the airport in Atlanta to board |
We flew from Memphis to Atlanta, then to London. Our plane leaving ATL for London was pink! My favorite color! This had to have been a great sign.
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| If you look closely you can see our PINK Jet |
The flight wasn't terrible. I definitely didn't sleep. It was also weird with the 6 hour time difference. We arrived around 2 back home... definitely time for sleep. However it was around 8am there... time to start the day. I was very sick upon arrival- thank you lyme, so that was unfortunate, but it only lasted the day thankfully. I loved hearing English accents in the airport. We traveled by cab about an hour and a half to Northampton where Will and the rest would be meeting with a research group at the University of Northampton the first part of the week.
We traveled through the beautiful English country with fields of what we later were told were yellow rapeseed flowers-used to make canola oil. I noticed we were in the wrong lane, the driver was in the wrong side of the car, and roundabouts were everywhere! "Toto we're not in Kansas anymore!"
The first day staying up, was torture, especially being in the hotel room for their first meeting. I caught up on Netflix, and watched some pretty weird house hunting and English cartoon shows on TV. We later met the rest of the crew downstairs in the hotel lobby to eat dinner at the hotel restaurant which was comprised of a traditional English buffet. We had some interesting food... but nothing too terribly crazy.
The entire first part of the week, Will continued to work with group comprised of professors at the University of Northampton, so of course I used this time to explore... which was kind of different for me. I was all alone in not just an unfamiliar city, but country at that. However, it was amazingly fun to explore while he was in meetings, even with sore feet. The town center was around a 45 minute walk from where we met at the University.
Each morning we had breakfast in the hotel restaurant. It was pretty amazing. There were definitely some very different dishes- beans and toast, greens, porridge,mushrooms etc. but some things were the same- yogurt, cereals, bagels, croissants. They would always ask if you preferred tea or coffee and bring a tiny personal pot for you, and there were tiny personal little jars of honey or jam. I loved these!
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| Beautiful trees and greenery on the racecourse |
Across from the small university was a beautiful park called the Racecourse... you guessed it-used to be a racecourse. This was full of green and sweet dogs that all made me miss Kaia. There weren't a lot of leashes, but were a ton of well behaved dogs interestingly enough. The racecourse was huge, but surrounded by tiny little townhouses lined up beside each other in perfect rows each with their own tiny potted gardens. Literally every house had pretty window boxes. I LOVED that. I walked down the sidewalk and explored a few shops off to a corner. I also went in my first English grocery store! They are definitely very different than ours... more quaint. It was fun to see familiar products with different labels and ingredients.
I headed back to the University and waited just outside of a coffee shop in an area with huge windows for the guys to get finished. I ate lunch with the crew and was warned by one of the University professors to avoid the "dodgy areas" for his fear that I might get "knifed" the apparent English word for stabbed or shot... He printed me a map though which was really helpful the rest of the week.
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| Town Centre |
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| Shops in Town Centre |
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| Weird art... |
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| Church from the year 1189...we have no buildings this old, so this was so strange to see! |
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| Standing in front of the church |
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| Not blue, like Doctor Who, but we kept our eyes peeled! These cute telephone boxes were everywhere. |
We went and walked through the Town Centre that night. Most of the shops were closed- they close around 5, so I made plans to come back during the day. We ate at an amazing little Italian restaurant in a basement. Best pizza ever. The owner asked if we had heard rumor of how good his pizzas were across the pond. And the best lemonade ever! I mean I heard English drinks were different... but the lemonade came bubbly... and its literally my new favorite drink. It was kind of like a very fresh sprite. Really wish I had the recipe.
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| Inside Papa Cinos |
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| Cute melted candle table centerpiece |
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| The BEST lemonade ever |
The next day I walked a 45 minute walk to the Centre again. It was definitely an interesting journey. The road names were sometimes marked...but I think they took this as a suggestion ha. Sometimes on the side of buildings in a small faded sign, sometimes this was painted on the street only on certain sides or areas. I did however make it eventually! I walked through the shops. I went to a quaint bookstore and grabbed some books on the history of the city. I walked through the mall- very much disguised and hidden just as if it was any of the shops, and another larger grocery store inside it. I went in a little bakery-these were spread all over the city- called Oliver and Adams and got a recommended cheese and onion pie to eat for lunch. It was amazing! I walked out to the tables in the open air market- that had been around hundreds of years.
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| The open market |
I also went to the Northampton Museum. I learned all about the history of Northampton. It was kind of the capitol hub before it was moved to London. There's a ton of rich history, though other Englanders look down on it as being the "country". Mary Queen of Scotts was imprisoned and eventually was beheaded in Northmapton. I've been watching a TV Show based on her, so this was interesting. Also there was a huge fire that destroyed most of the city. Apparently shoe-making was also a huge part of the industry of Northampton. There was an entire museum filled with shoes! Those shoes from hundreds of years ago- people had tiny feet! up through the spice girls shoes in the 90's. It was definitely pretty interesting. I also sign talking about foot binding in China... but then a sign about Americans cutting off their small toe to wear smaller shoes.... ummm never have I ever seen this. "Those crazy Americans ha." Also found in the museum was a history of women's underwear exhibit ha and a tiny art museum- but yeah I always love those they were featuring paintings based on the famous Northampton poet John Clare.
I then began my trek back through the little villages, trying not to get lost, and to avoid the dodgy areas.
When we made it back to the hotel around sunset, we noticed something really neat. Bunnies! There were fields of them... they surrounded the hotel... they were everywhere. Apparently England has bunnies like we have squirrels- at least Northampton does. So cute and unusual to see so many.
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| BUNNIES! |
We walked from the hotel to a traditional British Carvery this night. (Lots of walking in this country!) It was a little over a mile walk on a "kind of" sidewalk through some beautiful wildflowers. Even London's weeds are about the size of daisies- so unusual, but so pretty. This almost gardener LOVED all the pretty flowers. The carvery wasn't super impressive- Kind of the equivalent to a golden corral or something here. We had traditional roast. That mystery meat Gammon is pork fyi. Not sure why pork was featured twice- Beef, Turkey, Pork, Gammon. These all came with sides and Yorkshire pudding- which is kind of a roll.
The next day I spent mostly reading in the nice little sunny lobby by the coffee shop- all that walking made my blisters have blisters- so this sounded like paradise.
We ate at the Church restaurant this night. It was literally a restaurant inside this very very very old church. Apparently the church had stood empty for years until the restaurant decided to take it over. I guess it would be a great place for a wedding reception. The food was also amazing... I had thyme roasted acorn squash soup, a fish dish- I didn't recognize the name- with a lemon butter sauce, potatoes and asparagus- English portions of course, and a creme brulee desert.
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| The Church Restaurant |
The next day consisted of meetings until a little after lunch, and we were off to London for the weekend!
Some bonus aerial photos Will took when he had the opportunity to go up in a tower with the other guys from work.
Northampton Dialect
Clod hoppers- Heavy boots
Jitty- an alley or narrow walk way between or alongside buildings
Peps- Sweets
Spotting- starting to rain
London Post to follow!
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