Very interesting trip, so many highlights and interesting experiences it's hard to capture. We started in Jerusalem, a great walking tour with a guide, just us 3 and 2 others who happened to be from the UK. Efret our guide was from Argentine.
Highlight included the wailing wall
Via Deloroso (the path of pain)
Merry Christmas everyone
Well what a year, I’m looking forward to what the queen comes up with to call it as she already used “annus horribilis”. I’m not sure I have the words. No vacations to share, some short little breaks locally, luckily we live in a very beautiful part of the world. Hope everyone is staying well and we will come out the other side.
Nathan is in his last year and doing absolutely no school this quarter, he should have been flying drones from a boat to count jellyfish but it was all cancelled. He will be back on track in January.
Sam is in his 2nd year, working from his dorm room as all his classes are online, quite hard to do but it is what it is.
Lilly has actually had quite a good year, 2 days of in-person teaching with one friend, then 3 days at home with dad for homework and some online classes. Much better than the alternative of being stuck at home doing online-only classes for 5 days! Some soccer played but just practices in small groups but at least she was getting out and exercising with friends. Also quite a bit of paddleboarding through the summer, the weather was fantastic and 6 feet from everyone is quite easy on a big paddleboard.
Debra continues to work at Redgate preschool, it closed for just a couple of weeks but classes moved outdoors, even up to this week, through rain and bad weather.
Andrew is lucky enough still to be at Disney and still enjoying his work. The company is suffered through the pandemic but is ready for the bounce back.
Alan was more than happy to cook, he even shopped for the steaks from a local butcher he knows.
With Laura away it was, Sarah and Sha, Julie and Alan, Mum and dad and us 5, so quite a noisey little gathering, sometimes it seems like we have never been away and that we had just popped over for a regular Friday night family dinner, funny that.
Alan is a great cook, steaks carefully prepared to everyones liking, carefully timed to perfection, Sarah had made a coleslaw, and salad plus some potatoes and just to top it off, Julie had copied a picture of a cake I'd sent her from Oxfrord, it had about 6 different chocolates on it, each in it's own section, carefully separated by chocolate fingers, yum. It was a big hit with everyone.
Lilly left just 3 mouthfulls, demolishing a rather large chunk of meat, she had to leave a llittle room for cake.
The walk back was nice, mom and dad had driven and they took the kids so it was just Debra and I for the chilly walk home, through streets I know well from childhood though to 19 years old when I left for Reading University, not a lot seems to have changed. A few more cars perhaps but other than that hauntingly familiar.
So it's been quite a while since either Debra or I have been to stonehenge and whilst the stones are unchanged everything around them from where you park to how far you walk to get to them has. Mom and dad remember when you could just wander through the stone circle but I always remember there being a little rope barrier. There is now a large visitors center, that then busses you close so it's just a short walk. The new path is actually quite close, they built it to protect what is still buried. It crosses past one side then let's you onto a grassy area a little further away but still easy photo distance and my there were a lot of photos taken and not just by me. Selfie sticks, people asking others to take photos of them, I think I took enough to piece together a full 360 movie.
Still the same mystery, still the same strangely imposing ring of stones, the exhibition does a good job of describing the other items around the site, it seems to have been an important areas for a long long time.
Our next port of call was Glastonbury, for some lunch and if we remembered rightly some rather hippy type people and shops.
So after a hectic few days in Oxford, punting in the rain (had to be done) we made it to Wales, time for some washing and sorting things out at mom and dads. Popped over the road to Cheryl and Si's to say hi and arranged a night out in the pub for next week.
I'll do a whole post on our journey down as we stopped of at Stonehenge and Glastonbury
Debra and I walked up Penarth, got some Euro's and stopped for a coffee, leaving the boys in bed and Lilly watching CBBC (Childrens BBC) knowing that mom was there to look after them if they needed anything, so freeing to finally be able to dump the kids with relatives :-)
Afternoon in Cardiff, seems a waste given that the sun has come out and it's got quite warm but it seems like the urge to shop is just too powerful. We got on a local bus into Cardiff and went into the St Davids center, huge multi part mall, I'm sure there use to be streets and separate buildings but it all seems merged into one. Even spotted a Starbucks, Nathan jumped on their wifi to post on snapchat.
Talking of wifi, Dad's has not seen this much traffic, ever. I'm suprised it's not crashed, Nathan huddles underneath the modem just to get the best signal, the room he is in only get's 1 bar if he is lucky, my pictures are still uploading, Ieft dad with instructions.
Trying to form a plan for tomorrow, there is a new white water raft and canoe center opened up, they pump the water round and round, you can even surf indoors, may be fun to watch the boys doing it.
Evening will be with Julie and Alan, pursuading Alan to cook us steaks, Nathan is already drooling at the thought.
It's lovely to be home, Penarth is actually quite a pretty town, brick and stone victorian buildings, old churches and very walkable, although there are lots of cars parked both sides of the roads making them very narrow.
Wow, what a full day, left the B&B at 9:20 am and did not get back until about 9pm. Started right with a full cooked breakfast and plenty of tea.
Wandered into town, past the punts that we planned to have a go at later in the day, walked through Christ Church meadow, around the back of the college, through to the high street, watched the gardeners mow the already impossibly short grass, seemed to be in the middle of a marked out running track, guessing it was for cricket.
Then headed to M&S where we had planned to meet an old friend, Nathan after putting off his clothes buying from yesterday, found more and decided to buy, he ended up with a shirt, skinny jeans and some shoes so he is very happy. Then we went to a coffee shop that was in a converted church, sat outside until it started to rain.
Next up was a walking tour, Magnus showed us around multiple colleges, giving us history and great stories about each, entertaining young and old a like, he even fitted in a Welsh story associated with Jesus college, with it's little hidden dragon on the gate. I also liked the story about how C. S. Lewis saw the green man on the door panel (Aslan), gargoyles either side of the door (Mr. Tumnus) and the first thing they see through the wardrobe was the lamp post a few yards up the lane.
On the tour the dining halls were closed, inconsiderate students were having lunch so us poor tourists where inconvenienced. So after the tour, we went back and did a tour of Bailiol college dining hall, very Hogwarts.
After this we went to the covered market for lunch, plenty of choice and it was covered (raining lightly outside), seems like most places now have wifi so the boys got on and messaged various friends. Feeling much refreshed we went back to the recently refurbished library, we had stopped there on our walking tour but were just told about the exhibit they had. We went into one of the galleries and saw the Guttenburg bible, 2 original Magna Carta's and a J.R.R. Tolkien book cover amongst many other famous original note books and other famous literary works but this was just a small sample from the Bodleian Library.
Back to the covered market for shakes and coffee and with plans for the evening we decided that punting would have to wait until tomorrow. Come 6 we headed to Exeter college Chapel for Evensong evening service. Amazing songs from the choir, readings and organ music, the boys managed to stay awake but only just, Lilly was a trooper, and was following along with the words in the leaflet they had given us.
Dinner in a pub then short walk back to the B&B, tidied cases ready to leave Oxford tomorrow for the wedding then onto Wales Sunday.
What a day.
(republished after proof reading by Debra)
