-----Original Message-----
From: Becky Alexander [mailto:becky@aswdev.com]
Sent: Tuesday, June 28, 2011 4:50 AM
To: judy@taylorroth.com; Joyce; Steve Taylor
Subject: Thoughts
We're hanging out in the hotel for a few hours. The rental car place will
pick us up around 12:30, and we'll start our explorations then.
Things we will not miss about England:
Toilets that don't flush. Everywhere we've gone, we have found that the
toilets take three or four tries to flush. Once they do, they go with a bang
and several gallons of water.
No sheets. At all four places we've stayed, there are sheets on the bottom
of the bed, and a comforter in a cover that is easily removed to be washed.
It's perfectly comfortable and sanitary, but I sleep hot, often with only a
sheet as a cover, and don't have that option here.
No washcloths. All four places we've stayed have had towels but no
washcloths. Hard to wash my face.
Wifi is not as easy to find here, and you must often pay for it. The free
wifi in most places is restricted to people with British Telecom accounts.
Things we will miss:
Stone walls and hedgerows dividing fields. SO much prettier than barbed wire
fences. And sheep dotting so many of the fields. Very picturesque.
Scottish highland cattle. Fuzzy cows. They are very reddish, with very long
hair. We only saw them in northern Scotland, but they were really cool
looking. They also had extra-shaggy sheep
Kettles in all of our accomodations. There is always an electric kettle,
tea, coffee, sugar & cream provided. I've gone through a lot of tea here!
However, I haven't seen iced tea on a menu the entire trip!
Green. It's so green and lush here. Especially in Scotland, which had fields
of a color I didn't know occurred in nature! Add to this fields of
wildflowers, and lots of gorgeous flowers along the roads and rail lines.
Public transit that works. The tube system was a wonderfully efficient way
to get around London. Once you figure out how it works, you can get within a
few blocks of anywhere. I also like the attitude that walking several blocks
is a perfectly acceptable way to get around. Between the willingness to walk
and the public transport, there are way fewer cars than at home. For
instance, we are in a hotel right on the "ring road" around Oxford. We are
sitting here with the windows open and very little traffic noise. In both
Yorkshire and Perth, we could hear no traffic noise at all from our
lodgings.
The people. I've heard the people here are "quiet and reserved". Not so. I
can't tell you how many people have struck up conversations with us on the
train, in a store, etc. I don't know if it's because we're foreigners or
what, but people LOVE to chat about our holiday, and tell us which of their
family members have been to which state. Also, people go out of their way
to help. There was the guy (not a tube worker) who went out of his way in
the Baker Street tube station on our first day in London who led us around
to a men's room and then to our connecting tube line when he noticed us
looking lost. The woman who overheard us talking to the kids about finding a
bus to Alnwick Castle, and came over to explain that the busses only ran
once an hour and one had just left, but the taxis are right there and cost
the same as the bus fare. Then the taxi driver there who knew the train
schedule and came back to the castle to fetch us in time to catch our train.
The girl in the car rental office in Perth who told us about the strange
things she has seen in Loch Ness.
The architecture. Almost all buildings are stone or brick. Even newer ones
are built to last. Many of the old buildings have lots of character.
Surprisingly, even the new buildings in London have a lot of character.
There are almost no square brick prison-looking buildings.
Overall it's been a great trip and the kids have travelled well. Teigan and
Conner, being less adventurous eaters, will be happy to get back to their
normal diets. Brian and Taylor have had the stomach flu for the last week,
and have gone through a lot of immodium. I think Brian and I would love to
keep exploring here, but are ready to get the kids back home.
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