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| St Editha's Church in Tamworth |
I hadn’t realized that our trip to the UK coincided with the Olympics until a few weeks before we left. I tried to get tickets to a gymnastics event (what else?) and re-arrange my travels to make it but it wasn’t to be. At least I was in London while the Olympics were on, even if I was only passing through.
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| Milly in the Castle Grounds, I loved this growing up! |
I decided to take Amelia with me to farewell our rellies before we go home and given my track record of panic attacks while driving in unfamiliar territory and in particular on exceptionally speedy motorways, I opted for the train! We left home at 7am, Maciek drove us to the train station where we hopped on the train for the two hour journey to Munich. Amelia had been so excited leading up to the trip and travelling on the trains so I was surprised when she complained she was bored, literally after 5 minutes! Little did she know the hours of boredom ahead of her! This time I made sure we got off at the correct station, and we boarded our plane with no problem (apart from Amelia being beeped at through security, poor thing, wonder if it was that 5 cent coin she swallowed last year?!) Waiting for the plane to take off I noticed passengers leaving another Easyjet next to ours, and the last ones to alight were a huge family of Jewish people, dressed to the nine’s in their traditional black outfits with the top hats and the curly bits of hair hanging past their ears, all the little girls dressed identically. They had loads of cabin luggage, proper little black suitcases round and rectangular, and they were rushing back and forth from the stairs to the shuttle bus to get every family member and every piece of luggage aboard! It was like a scene from a movie! I wonder where they were heading dressed up like that, and how comfortable would they have been on the flight?
Milly was entertained thanks to a Leapster leant by my friend Sam, but when we landed at Stansted there were huge queues at passport control, which had me worried because I hadn’t left much time to get the connecting train. After 20 minutes of trying to explain to Milly what a passport was and why everyone needed one even babies, we made it to our train just in time. Off in London, on the tube, off again, and back on to a long distance train, with one hiccup about our pre-paid tickets, we finally made it into Birmingham. Last leg to Nanny P’s was a bus, we had an hour to wait, but met a nice couple at the bus stop and it was so lovely to be able to have a conversation with someone! I loved being able to just walk up to porters on the platforms and ask for directions or help and not have any language barrier! We arrived at Nanny P’s at 6pm, so a long day of travelling, lugging that suitcase from platform to platform and up and down carriages, all the while making sure Amelia was still with me and she hadn’t dropped her teddy! But there was a lovely dinner waiting for us, a nice cup of English tea and lots of goodies!
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| Tea anyone? |
Nanny P can’t walk far so we spent the next day tottering around the corner to the shops, and over the road to the pub for a carvery dinner, and had a visit from cousin Warren, Caron and Emily. And I bought some Special Edition Mr Kiplings! Yum! Next morning we were off again to Tamworth, and Nanny saw us off in a taxi to the train station (hooray no bus!). I felt very sad saying goodbye, knowing it might be a long time till I see her again, and Amelia must have known because she kept silent (very bizarre!!) all the way which was half an hour and let me have a little cry to myself!
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| Brooke and Caitlin getting fit! |
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| Squirrels by the River Anker |
This train was only a 15 minute journey and we were met at the other end by Uncle Stephen and Aunty Karen (or Uncle Septic and Aunty Seaweed as some of our closer family members know them, but we won’t go into that!!) Amelia got her long awaited LaLaLoopsy doll as an early birthday present from Toys R Us (Wow! An actual TOY SHOP!), thanks to Steve and Karen, and we met up with cousins in the castle grounds and spent some time at the park until it started to rain (unusual for Britain at this time of year?) and visited Nanny and Grandad (Grandad Sharp, named by Amelia when she was nearly 2 due to his stubble, and so then Nanny became Nanny Smooth!) the same Nanny and Grandad who I called Nanny and Grandad Scamp when I was little (after their little dog!) I bet they’ve forgotten what their real names are! The next day we headed into town for a wander around the ‘old part’ and the castle. It was a beautiful day, until it started raining (very strange?), and then it was off to the train station again, for the long trip down to the ‘seaside’ in Torquay.
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| Daisy and Milly |
This time we had a long stretch before we had to change and Amelia was happy with her Leapster and colouring in and I actually got to READ A BOOK! The journey from Exeter into Paignton was beautiful; the sea and the cliffs and seaside villages, the sun shining. My cousin met us at the station but unfortunately her little girl Daisy had been ill, and was sitting in the car with a bucket under her chin, poor thing! She was ill all night and most of the next day but woke on Monday bright and eager to play! And that’s what Milly and Daisy did for the next 3 days from morning till night! It was great for Amelia to be able to interact properly and they got along so well, apart from the few little squabbles, and reminded me and Lyndsey so much of ourselves when we were younger. One tall and blonde and the other short and dark! We organized a picnic in the park on the seafront as it was a warm sunny day but as soon as we arrived the sky turned grey and the rain began to fall (weird?) so we carried our massive picnic basket back to the car and visited Kents Cavern (caves) instead. The tour guide was funny and I was in my element with stories of the stone age and fossils and bones! I took the opportunity to enjoy a Devonshire Tea in the café, although I was told I was doing it the Cornish way, with the cream and jam the wrong way round! Tuesday was pouring of rain (can’t get my head around that?) so a good day for shopping. Didn’t know what to do with myself it’s been so long! And Wednesday we finally got our picnic on the beach and even made it to the cinema to see The Lorax (recommend!)
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| Watching cartoons |
Loved being surrounded by my own language again and being able to chat to random people here and there. There was a point in the cinema where I was in the queue and trying to work out in my head how to ask for the price of a medium popcorn, and then I realized I didn’t have to, it was English! Amelia had a brilliant time playing normally and being herself. I had brilliant 8 or 9 hour sleeps in Aunty Val’s bed without Noah around to wake us up in the middle of a good dream! And I even got to watch all the gymnastics events with English commentary thanks to Aunty Val and Uncle Len and their TiVo!
Thanks everyone for putting us up and putting up with us! I hope it's not too long till we see you again. And a special thanks to Uncle Len for pretending to be the Scooby Doo Monster chasing the girls up the stairs and causing ear piercing screams, from which I am still suffering partial deafness!
Another long journey back to Austria but we’d both missed Maciek and Noah and couldn’t wait for cuddles, and the other big surprise! Babcia and Dziadek had arrived!
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| One for you Daryl, I think your Anchor looks a bit less dodgy! |
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