Jock and I headed to Stratford for our Anniversary – two nights and two days. Here are the photos to prove it! Click on the photos to see an enlarged version of the picture.
It was a dark and stormy day...
Older than our Country!
As America was having their Memorial Day Weekend, England was having a Bank Holiday.
Friday night Jock and I stayed in and enjoyed the knowledge that we could sleep in the next morning…and the next two mornings after that. However, why is it that whenever you can sleep in, you can’t? I woke up at about 8AM, and the sun was shining! We went for a run, got back, showered and headed to the Downs to meet some friends.
It was absolutely gorgeous, and I even played a bit of cricket. well, all I really did was use their “bat” to bowl a tennis ball and pretended like it was baseball. I think I have the terminology very confused, but you get the picture. I also did a bit of ‘bowling’ which is just like pitching, and the next day my right arm hurt so badly it was hard to pick up a glass of water.
It was a full day out in the sun. After the Downs, we headed to the Avon Gorge Hotel where the sun was still shining, and you had to scramble to get noticed at the bar. It was packed, but we managed to find ourselves a nice table in the sun and drank some ciders. Jocko feels he has crossed the threshold into the realm of cider drinking – hey, I think they taste better, there’s more alcohol for your buck, and served over ice – what a nice summer treat.
We headed out after that to a wine bar where we met some other friends. I think we got home around 3AM or so that night. Needless to say, the next day I drank water for the rest of the day. We watched Manchester United beat Hull in the last game of the season only to further say they are indeed the champions – even when they play their 18-year old nippers. Big game today versus Barcelona that I will indeed be watching!! European Cup baby! God, I have become such a fan – what has England done to me??
We had a birthday party to go to after that game again at the Avon Gorge hotel – which is fine by me because I love the atmosphere. The boys hate it because the bar literally take 30 minutes to get served. Apparently, the England cricket team showed up, and the girl who’s birthday it was invited them out later that night. I wonder if they would have recruited me for their team had they seen my skills at the Downs the day before? …probably…probably…or actually, definitely NOT.
Monday we spent the day in Portsmouth or Pompey, as it’s affectionately called, with Jocko’s parents. A nice BBQ with more sunshine and again I drank water! Summer makes me want to slow down on the drinking – if not for losing the stomach flab, but also for remembering it all! My first summer in England!
Wales was beautiful. I had no idea.
We went up to Swansea on Sunday morning since Jocko had the day off on Monday, and Gemma and Liam had invited us down for a couple of days. Gemma was our official tour guide of Swansea. Spent the day walking around the beach, stopping multiple times to feed the boyfriends, and around the narrow streets. I actually think that the town of Mumbles might have a step up on the Hollywood Hills. It’s twisty and turny with large beautiful houses (plus a few castles here and there) and a gorgeous view of the sea but minus the pollution and mean big headed people and it’s where Catherine Zeta Jones is from (thanks Gem for the insider info!).
For lunch, we went to the King Arthur Inn and had a traditional Sunday roast by the sword in the stone and the round table. Yes, apparently, King Arthur was indeed originally from Wales. Another new tidbit from the wealth of knowledge of our tour guide. The sun was shining, but ended up being too cold to sit outside. The lambs that Jock and Liam had for lunch were probably grateful that they didn’t have to bare another cold dreary day munching grass.
That night we stayed up until about 5AM just playing drinking games and debating our different languages of love. I didn’t know I still had it in me to stay up that late! Although, to be fair, we have been going out quite a bit despite my last entry of claiming to be an old woman. Maybe I’m an old woman during the day with my writing, blogging, housework, and gardening and a dynamic traveling Bristolian socialite by night!
The next day we had an amazing breakfast at The Junction Cafe and then headed down the street to the famous Joe’s Ice Cream Parlour. It was probably the second best ice cream I have ever had right next to Mashti Malone’s in Los Angeles where Jock and I seriously went about twice a week to get their peanut butter chunk ice cream cone and gained five hundred pounds. I do recommend the Ice Cream for anyone taking a stop to Swansea!
All in all, it was really nice to go to a beach town where we could just chill out with some friends, and smell the sweet sea air.
The King’s Hotel (previously King’s Arm Hotel)
I had to leave the hotel room to let the maids come in and do their cleaning bit. Amanda (my sister) and I learned this when getting a hotel in Bristol this February – maids here do not touch your things! This could be a majorly good thing, because who really wants a maid to touch their dirty clothes, or rummage through their suitcase, right? I completely see the point. On the other hand, when you can be as messy as Amanda and I can be; part of the joy of staying in a hotel is that you can leave your clothes strewn all over the place, only to come back to find them all neatly folded in a pile on top of your made bed. Not in England! They will leave those pajama bottoms on the floor where you left them next to your dirty socks.
All that said, it has made me learn to get in the habit of always picking up after myself. And, that we are very spoiled in America. That being said, there’s nothing like staying in a hotel that is over 500 years old, and imagining what it must have been like with the horses and carriages outside and women in their petticoats. It was a 16th Century Coaching Inn!! I don’t even know what that means!! But it just sounds cool!! Not to mention the pure marble bathrooms!
Early 20th Century Version of Hotel
Anyway, as I was getting back from my walk, and about to enter my newly cleaned room, a couple walked by, and the woman in her best posh English voice asked, “Can you tell us where room 113 is? You do work here, don’t you?”
My first reaction was to slap her across the face, but then I thought that would be a bit harsh, so I just politely said, “I don’t work here, but you can find a sign right here with the room numbers on it.”
She just mumbled quickly “Oh, sorry,” and quickly twiddled by me. Toodle Pip!!
As I entered my room, I started thinking why that bothered me so much. What does that say about me if I get so easily offended by what someone thinks of me, or that I look so down upon others who do work in hotels? I had to reassess my view on this.
So, I made myself a cup of coffee, and wrote this blog. I think I have come to the conclusion that it was actually her that I was so offended by, and if I had actually worked in the hotel and she came up to me that I still would have thought she was a twit.
I’m glad I reflected on that.
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