I have been really bad about neglecting my blog lately. I am currently working to establish a "business" making cat toys that I will sell on Etsy. You can keep up to date on
HoboCat Creations by following the link to the Facebook page.
@HoboCatCreation is also on Twitter. Right now the Etsy page is not set up as I have not completed product development and testing. There will be more to come in the next couple weeks, so stay tuned!
Part of the reason for neglect is I spent a week in England with my mom. It was a trip we were planning for a couple years now. The first time we were going to go, the Royals decided to get married. The next timeframe was the Olympics, which would have made travel a nightmare. So finally we were able to go this month, and I was able to get the time off from work. (Have I mentioned how much I love my job, I'm part time, and been there a year and a half and have over 60 hours of paid time off?)
We took
C&J Buses to Logan from Dover. What an awesome way to get to the airport or Boston! Leave the driving to someone else! I would recommend anyone traveling in the area to take them. They have a very well maintained fleet of new or recently renewed buses as well as very professional drivers. Did I mention the terminals are very nice and have great bathrooms?
Had a lousy flight to London Heathrow....crowded, turbulence, not to mention it was overnight. The landing was the worst thing I had ever experienced, it was extremely windy when we touched down. I was very happy to be on the ground again. I am not a very good flier. Solid ground works for me! An freakishly easy trip through customs and baggage claim got us on our "taxi" to my Aunt's house. My grandpa is awesome and hired a car for us to go straight from the airport to my Aunt's. The funny thing was even though I had not slept since 7am the previous morning, I never felt any jet lag or any challenges adjusting to the 5 hour time difference. When we landed it felt like 6am in the morning!
At my Aunt's we took it easy. Decided to go to a nearby town, Thornbury, to get some groceries as I am very picky about breakfast and non-alcholic drinks. Tesco, the supermarket, was awesome. Well, it was just an everyday grocery store to the locals, but to an English food loving American it was heaven! There were so many things I wanted to bring with me, like sausages, all the HP sauce in the country, all the Cadbury everything, so many of the almond flavored snack cakes!
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| Thornbury |
We spent the rest of the day relaxing and socializing with my Aunt and Uncle and their wonderful dog Toffee. My grandpa came over and I got to spend some time with him. It was really nice.
I went to bed early as I was exhausted.
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| Old and New in Leeds |
The next day we caught a train (like Amtrak) to Leeds. Leeds was an area my mom spent quite a bit of her time in when she lived in England. I was expecting a quaint town like the one pictured in Thornbury...just a bit bigger. I was in for a surprise. Leeds was a busy city, I would compare it to a larger Manchester, but with even more history. It was amazing to see the old and the new combine. Buildings over there are considerably older than anything you can imagine over here in the USA. Next to these amazing ancient buildings are new, modern structures.
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Creepy Underground Tunnel thing...it felt like
something out of a vampire movie! |
Just getting to the hotel was an adventure. You had to go underground, underneath the train station and other buildings. I'm sure there were surface roads to get you there, but they definately were not practical for you to walk on. I much prefer the shortest route, even if you go through a creepy underground tunnel like thing...
The hotel was very nice, a
Hilton DoubleTree. I would love to stay there again! Instead of a crappy TV, there was a iMac, which was both your TV and a very nice computer. Of course, I am a Mac person. I went to type on it, only to realize the keyboard was laid out differently! Sure, the letters were in the same place, but the Shift and Enter were different sizes, as well as no #! How was I going to tweet?! I know, the problems of living in the first world!
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| British Mac Keyboard Layout |
We explored Leeds, met up with my mom's cousin, a super nice lady. We went to a cemetery that has special significance to my family. It was very different than any cemetery in the USA....there was something lacking; gravestones! Instead, they had plaques that lined the curbing, and above the plaque in the grass, families could have a vase on a spike that holds flowers. The plaques only stay for 25 years unless the family renews them. I was upset by this, as I think it should be forever. I was told it was due to a sheer space issue. England is a very old, high populated physically small country.
The next day we took a train to York. York was my favorite desination we went to on the entire trip. It was a perfect old city. It reminded me a bit of Portsmouth, NH, just larger, with more stuff. Very historic and beautiful.
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| Inside view of the museum |
The first stop was the National Railway Museum. I was very excited to go here as I love almost anything transportation related (except actually flying in the airplane!). It was a very well laid out museum. Lots and lots of train engines on display as well as very interestingly informative displays. Definately not a boring museum! They even had the Royal train cars.
When we left the museum, we went downtown. (Why does the Lady Antebellum song pop in my head on writing that sentence?). What a perfect place. It was designed to be a walking city, ok, well I guess when the city was developed they hardly had horse and cart, much less cars! Anyways, it made a perfect destination.
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| The Shambles |
My favorite area was
the Shambles. When my mom mentioned it for some reason I was thinking ancient building ruins, no idea why, that was just my weird thought process. With that in my mind, I was not overly excited to visit. But then I saw what the Shambles was.....an absolutely perfect little shopping area. The stores were very nice....everything from tacky souvenirs to specialty shops, such as my favorite
The Cat Gallery. If you know me in person, you know I am a crazy cat lady, so this shop was right up my alley.
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| http://www.thecatgallery.co.uk |
The next time I go, I will be doing the cat scavenger hunt from the York Glass shop.
York was the most exhausted I had been in a long time. We spent the entire day on our feet, which once again, if you know me, is not something I do on a regular basis! It was probably a good thing, as the majority of the food I consumed was not healthy by any means!
The next day we headed back to Bristol to my Aunt's for some much needed rest and relaxation. It was a welcome break from the past few hectic days. I'm so glad my mom is so excellent at trip planning!
We visited the city of Bristol. It was a very nice city. Not too big, but not tiny. Once again it was an amazing mix of new and old. My Aunt and Uncle gave us a tour. My favorite place was this gorgeous suspension bridge. I do not recall the name of it, but it was beautiful.
Sunday we headed to Gloucester. We were meeting my Grandpa for lunch as it was Father's Day. It was so nice to spend more time with him. He is such a nice person, and freaking awesome. Did I mention he drives a Porsche Carrera S, as a daily driver, and he is 90 years old? Yup, definitely the coolest Grandpa ever. He has finally downgraded from a Ducati 999 to a Suzuki GSXR to a 125cc Honda scooter, but just within the past couple years....Crazy!
After lunch we went to the outlets. Didn't find anything special other than the Cadbury outlet, but it was still a good time. There were American brands like Gap. It was amazing how the prices in pounds were the same as you would expect in dollars, but you need to remember it took $1.69 or so to buy 1 pound, so things were nearly twice the price as they are in America.
The rest of the day was spent relaxing and spending time with my Aunt and Uncle as the next day we went back into hectic tourist mode in London.
London was amazing. It is so much more enjoyable than Boston or NYC. It's cleaner. The people are nicer. There is so much more history. The first day we took a sightseeing double decker bus tour. It was a way to see all the sites while staying seated. The only downside was the fact that I am partially deaf and wear hearing aids, which does not work for headphone audio tours. Luckily the first bus we rode had a live tour guide. We could have waited later for another bus after we went on the river cruise. with a live guide, but that section wasn't as exciting.
We did the stereotypical tourist thing. Lots of photos of the main attractions. I had gone on the London Eye in 2000, so we didn't do that again, nor could I as I am terrified of heights. In 2000 I was only 15, so it wasn't as bad.
Partway though the bus tour, we got off the bus and went to the Thames river shoreline to board a sightseeing river cruise. It was a great way to really see the sights along the waterfront.
As most people did the boat tour the opposite direction, it was relatively quiet and we got a good seat.
It was amazing listening to some of the ages of the buildings that were pointed out. We saw a structure called Cleopatra's Needle that was 3000 years old. That is just not a number i can wrap my head around. That was 1000 BC! It is so strange to think of something being around before Jesus, yet still standing. Insanity. There was a pub that was around when Shakespeare was alive. I can kinda deal with the 200ish years old of the historic buildings in NH....you get much past that and it is too much to think about. In York, we went to a Viking museum....there was an actual dig from a Viking village that was there. The history surrounds you when you are in London and everywhere else in the UK.
After another exhausting day, we met up with my other uncle. It was awesome. I now know where I got my collecting of automobiles from....he has several cars and even more motorcycles. I was excited to know he even rides a Piaggio scooter! Scooters are the ideal transport in London. I would not want to drive a car, plus they have extra taxes if you drive into the city. Motorcycles can filter up through traffic as well, so you don't get stuck in the same traffic jams. He was awesome to talk to.
The next day was our last in the UK. We did more London tourist stuff. I got to see the Royal Mews, which is where the Royal horses and carriages are kept. Unfortunately, most of the horses were away at Ascot. It was still very cool learning about the history.
After the Mews we went to Westminster Abbey. I was surprised by what was inside. All I was expecting was a grand church like place...but it was full of tombs of Kings and Queens and many other people. It was amazing to think how it was made back before any of today's technology. It was all carved by hand, transported by horses, built by hand. It was some amazing architecture. And to think of the coronations and weddings and history that happened inside those walls. Awesome.
Then came the place I was looking forward to most; the
London Transport Museum. It was even more fascinating than I imagined. It went from the days of horse and car to the modern machinery that is carving out under London expanding the Underground subway system. Of course, the buses were what I was there for. They did not disappoint. There were the original electric trolley like buses, the traditional Routemaster double deckers and even a modern bus that had been cut to become a display.
Although the buses were my main interest, I was excited to learn about how the Underground was made. Before I came to the museum, that was one of the questions in my mind. How did they dig underneath an existing city all those years ago? The answer was by hand. Literally. Men used tools and manually chiseled and dug out the tunnels. Now, a huge machine bores though the Earth like nothing, leaving a concrete tube in its wake. Amazing. It used to be run with steam engines, and now with electricity. There were cool simulators that put you in charge of the subway car. Wow, that was confusing! I'll be sticking with buses!
After the museum, we went to Oxford Street shopping. I finished off the rest of the money I brought with me. Then it was dinner time. We had to be up early to be on the first bus to the airport.
Did I mention that I love HP sauce and in the UK it is as common a condiment as ketchup is in the USA? I think I ate the total of an entire bottle in the week I spent there. I used to make fun of my hubby and his love for ketchup...well that had nothing on my addiction to HP sauce!
It was an amazing trip. I am so glad I got to go with my mom. I learned a lot about her life before she met my dad, and got to do so many fun things. I cannot wait to go back and have even more amazing experiences.
