ON THE MOVE

The past week has been a bit of a whirlwind.  Last Thursday, June 26^th, we celebrated Aubrey June’s official 11^th birthday.  We were in London and were wrapping up our adventure there.  Of course, we rested well and ate like royalty at the hotel, and then we gathered all of our stuff and had a lazy stroll through the Museum of Natural History—just minutes away from where we were staying.  There were skeletons of every animal known to humanity, replicas of wooly mammoths, dinos, and things that just make your jaw drop.  It was great, and it was free!  

We caught one more conveyor belt sushi lunch and made out way to retrieve our luggage for a brief taxi ride to South Kensington station to go to King’s Cross to catch a train for Cambridge, our next stop. 

All went well to King’s Cross, and at that station we got to see a little Harry Potter fun: Platform 9 and ¾.  We took some pics, let Will have a field day at the gift shop, and then we made our way to Cambridge, about 40 minutes away.  The ride was fast, but the seats were few—a theme we experienced more fully as we headed to Scotland. 

We arrived to Cambridge rather late in the afternoon, and the countryside was gorgeous (rolling green pastures and hills, a whole lot less concrete, animals here and there, just picturesque).  We settled in to a little B&B on the outskirts of town—too far to walk in—but peaceful and quiet: Silverwood Lodge  It was owned by a man named Arthur who was a bit of a free spirited man of about 70 who did his PhD in the area in computer programming and used the building of the B&B for years to run his business.  He sold it off in 2007 just at the right time and turned the investment into another money maker.  We had a little guest house off the main house and found ourselves able to kick off our shoes and sprawl out a bit.  

There were large hens roaming about the property, and in the large backyard little rabbits would dash across the grass.  The kids had fun watching for them.  It wasn’t quite shaping up to be much of a birthday afternoon for Aubrey.  I had imagined our wandering around Cambridge and doing some punting boats and all that, but we discovered from our gracious host that we were in the community of Water Beach and a few minutes walk away would lead us to the town center and a good pub called The White Horse.

So after a bit of settling in and chilling out, we went for a marvelous walk down a little back road by a rather sketchy looking Indian restaurant called Balywood into Water Beach and found a small village with a green grassy square at the center, not much bigger than a football field.  Since pubs are such family friendly places, we went in and were welcomed very warmly and began to feel like we had stumbled upon a bit of a treasure.  Aubs had her heart set on fish and chips, and this place looked like it could deliver.  We had a lovely waitress who was a school teacher by day and waitress by night, and she just made a fuss over us and Aubrey in particular.  She brought her chocolates and made her feel like a princess.  She introduced the kids to a fun UK drink called “J2O,” which is fruity and fizzy but has less calories than regular sodas.  Score!  I got a rather yummy local ale, Sarah had some wine, and we had a wonderful meal together celebrating the greatest little 11 year old in the world.  The pub had a play ground out back and there were other locals there having a pint, chatting away, kids running about, and it was great.  The food was fantastic as well—fish and chips, Sarah got some sort of mushroom, spinach, and cheese dish, and I got scallops. Yum!  I also got some tiramisu, and that was mighty fine.  We walked back as the sun was setting and we crashed hard that night after Sarah and I took a little time to do some laundry at the B&B.  London was so nice and warm, but our clothes really were ripe. 

The next day, now Friday, June 27^th, was moving day.  We needed to make the trek north to Scotland. We had a lazy breakfast and discovered that our host, Arthur, needed to go to town for the Apple Store, and so he agreed to take us in, let us look around a bit, before we were to catch our train.  Perfect!  We rode with him and learned about his “Brady Bunch” style family.  He is retired, but his wife is still teaching at Cambridge.  They lived near the university, and they had a whole bunch of children scattered about with a 12 year old at home.  Arthur was very in-the-moment, his hair and clothes a mess, but he had the wonderfully warm smile and eagerness to help us see a little of Cambridge.  So we wandered around for about an hour as Arthur did his errand.  I had talked up Cambridge, but the fam had to see it for themselves.  It was amazing—the architecture, in particular.  Will kept saying that he felt like he was in a Harry Potter book. 

  

He and AJ found a fun candy shop, and we got some neat very British treats.  I opted for Lemon Sherberts—this lemony, tart hard candy kind of oblong shaped with a sweet and sour lemony gel like center.  It was spot on.  We saw a bit of King’s College chapel but didn’t go in because the price was high and our time was thin.  We saw people in punting boats, and we discovered that the day we were there was commencement day.  That was cool: we got to see all kinds of academic pomp and circumstance just from afar. Very British, very proper.  

We linked up with Arthur, made our way to the train and had a lovely ride from Cambridge to Peterborogh, about a 40 minutes trip.  We sprawled out with a table to share—perfect.  We got to Peterborogh to catch the fast train for Edinburgh and had a little wait outside.  No problem.  We boarded that train, got our luggage tucked away in the car, and could not find a seat! So for the next 3.5 hours, we squatted, leaned, let the beverage cart by about 8 times, fell asleep, laughed at the military guys near us who were loaded down and in the same boat as we, and toughed it out.  We hit Edinburgh by 5:20 and were ready to get the heck off the train!  Scotland was busy and lovely, and we were hungry and had to pee!  We found a Subway, and Aubrey about began to sing the “Doxology!”  It was cute.  We linked up with Scott just a short walk from the station, and seeing him, giving him a huge hug, was just too good to be true.  The moment we’d all been waiting for had finally arrived.  We were in Scotland and with our host/exchange partner!

Scott took us back to Edinburgh, and we were just blown away by the beauty of the countryside, especially after we crossed the Fourth River with the big red bridge.  We checked into our B&B, met our happy and lovely host Sharon and her husband Bruce, and went just up the hill—not far at all—to the manse.  Scott, Jill, and the girls really rolled out the welcome mat for us.  They live in a lovely place up on the hill that has the most gorgeous views of the mountains and a little of Perth.  The air is crisp and clean and cool, and we had a fun time getting acquainted.  The Burton’s hearts were so heavy—sadly—because of a close friend’s death only a couple of days before.  More about all that in another post.  Aubrey and Sara hit the trampoline in the backyard and became giddy together.  Will did as well, I think.  Scott, Jill, Sarah, and I jumped right in to learning about the manse, hearing about the week, and getting to know one another.  These are the kinds of folk, we felt like, we had known for a long, long time.  Lovely people, and they even got Aubrey a pig for a birthday cake.  So thoughtful! Thank God, we finally made it.  It all seemed so surreal.