Jan 19th. A Peek @ the Peak Region

From yesterday's wall walk 

As we drove back to Kingston we had made a detour at the Peak Region, an area of beautiful natural sights. We were hoping to break up a long ride home and get an idea of one of the most popular and busy areas of the country. Once we got on the local roads we saw miles of moss-covered ancient looking stone fences covering equally lush green fields, with mountains and valleys, just like the guide described. There were many cyclers on the road. Granted it was a great weather, but if this is what this place looks like during the low season it is definitely a no-go late in spring - it will be swamped.


We've stopped at Carleton, a picturesque stone village beneath the ruins of Perival castle. It is famous for its extensive network of caves. We grabbed an early lunch and headed out to the first cave, the Peak Cavern a.k.a the Devil's Arse. Read up on the history of the cave, it is interesting. Our guide, Max, told fascinating stories about the cave as well... For several hundreds of years ropers lived there, making ropes for the nearly lead mines. They lived in awful conditions.. one of their tiny stone huts inside the cave was reproduced there.. The bathroom was right there on the spot, everywhere.. The smell of the cave could be felt inside the village, some distance away. We initially thought that it was the reason the cave was named this way. However there was another explanation.

Several times a year the cave floods. When that happens water mixed with air with some ungodly discharges from the deep underground generates sounds and corresponding smells that explain the original name. They did change the name for the sake of impressing princess Victoria who came to visit.

There was first a rope making demonstration at the beginning of the tour. Dan was awarded the final product for his assistance in the process. He and Georgia were very proud. Then we went on to see the cave. It is the largest natural cave in the UK that is accessible by a simple walk. The cave is located right below the Castle. There are estimated 15 more miles of underground cave networks that are still undiscovered in the levels below.

During our tour several groups of cavers had emerged at the far end of the cave. The guide explained that there are several caving outfits in town and they can take people down to the lower levels that require technical gear. It was clear that he is a caver too and really loves it.

His main story line was about the rich folks who came over for the tour of the cave (remember the bit about the bathroom in the beginning?) in their finery. Ropers happily took them around along the slippery walkways in nearly complete darkness and dragged the faint-hearted ladies in a coffin-life contraption through the claustrophobic narrow muddy tunnel in the back section. Roper's kids delivered the final touch by coming out from the overhead tunnel toward the end and making special sounds (or maybe not just sounds). Dante who attended one such tour said that "children just added to the horror of it." I guess in the absence of the horror movies, people have to make do with that they had to bring a little adrenaline into their lives.

Next we had a pleasant walk to the next cave, Speedwell. Speedwell cave used to be a lead mine. Now they have an interesting attraction - you go down 100+ stairs, get in a boat and it takes you for a ride along one of the mine shafts. This one is much nicer than what poor ladies had to endure in the last cave but still not for claustrophobic. At the end, there is a large cave as well but it is not as impressive as the first Devil's Arse.

There is extensive network of other caves there as well - with lots of pictures of cavers, but none are easily accessible. In contrast to the first older guide, this one, with his braces, was chock full of simple, mostly crude, jokes. At first it was kind of annoying, but toward the end, our amazement grew with the sheer quantity of them. As such he was an attraction in itself.

We decided to leave the other caves for the future trips here and walked back to the castle and village along the muddy wet grass of the mountain. We wandered around the village and stopped at the Rose cottage to try the local desserts - the famous Bakewell tart. Very nice.

Getting out of the Peak region took some time and ultimately our ride back was not made shorter by the detour. We still loved it here and will be coming back.

Kids were bored sick on the way back, they quarreled constantly, even iPad did not help. At least it seems that variety of the reasons for arguing has expanded quite a bit. Made us proud somewhat that they can express themselves so well. Isabella discovered that she can gets parents really excited by claiming she is going to be sick. Now that we are back home... we should do it again :)

Jan 18th. Relaxing in York

Today was a great day. We spent most of it leisurely yet systematically wandering through the streets of York, enjoying the sites, and paying homage to the fine eating establishments this town has to offer.

We started the day by walking all around town in search of breakfast. At 8am on Saturday there were three choices: Nero coffee, Costa coffee, and Betty's Café accidentally found by Dan. Wow! Turns out it is one of the most popular coffee shops in town with the great décor and food to match. Kids had pancakes... lightly salted & stacked between the layers of fresh cream and warm raspberry syrup with raspberries and pickled pears. After we left the line stretched all the way outside.

Then we did a pleasant walk along the river to the racecourse. There was a coin and stamp show going on. Everyone was very friendly. Kids enjoyed looking at stamps with the queen's image on it. There is an interesting story about her having to pose for hours in order for first official state image to be created for the first time. Painters had asked her to switch the royal crowns, moved them higher or lower on her forehead until she finally looked "royal enough" for that final image to be created. We saw interesting collections of British war medals, and ancient arms.

There was a booth by a Dave Greenhaugh who is one of UK only experts on the medieval coinage production. He struck a few coins for the girls. He told Dan a story of the local metal-detector club who found one of his coins and declared the ancient find of the month seemingly unaware of the year struck in the back of it.

We walked back to town the long way - on top of the city wall. Kids started getting hungry again. We decided to forage on our supplies. Georgia got a banana and I peeled a clementine for Isabella. She held on to it for a while, maybe enjoying the feel of it in her hand. Then she accidentally dropped it and we all watched it roll, ever so slowly to the edge of the wall and beyond. She cried so bitterly as if was the last one on earth. We consoled her and tried to offer alternatives. It's the precious moments like that stay with you for a really long time.

We went to Yak and Yeti near the Cathedral for lunch. Lovely Nepalese place. The waitress was hesitant about giving Georgia her Anapurna chicken because it is spicy, but Georgia went at it like it was a bowl of rice. It is interesting how different Isabella is in her eating habits. Rice was all she was willing to experiment with.

Next we finally able to get into one of largest UK cathedrals, and even get up on the tower, a feat hitherto unachievable. I must say though that both attractions are overrated. It is true that cathedral is very large. And it the second example of the church with organ up in the middle. But other than that, it is not that memorable.

Georgia and I went upstairs to see the views. Dan stayed with Isabella because only kids aged 8 and up are allowed on account of "stairs being too high and kids changing their mind." Well those stairs were no different than countless others our kids had climbed previously. What they should do is to ask adults to be dead sure that they want to do it prior to selling them tickets. They gather groups of people every 45 minutes and then everyone enters sequentially, in a long line. One half of the group decided to stay back after a few rounds and so had to reverse on a narrow staircase. The other had to take a breathing break every 10 steps or so. In that context 45 minutes totally made sense.



We contemplated going to the second main attraction in town: the multi-media Viking experience next but after the cathedral proved to be so anti-climactic decided to go to St. Mary's abbey ruins instead. That was very enjoyable. Kids climbed possible every column base for a picture.

There were some picturesque geese in the river. They looked like a proper household variety with white bellies and light gray backs and wings. Kids threw a few cookie pieces their way and we kept on walking. All of a sudden, geese, one by one, started coming up the little staircase that led from the water. They waddled to us and quaked expectantly. Both kids and adults were excited and frightened. We gave them the rest of the cookies and hoped that they would latch on to another group of tourists passing by. But they just waited for a bit and waddled back to the staircase.


We continued our walk covering even the smallest of streets until setting down one last time at the Royal Oak. Equally recommended :) At this point kids were walking for nearly 10 hours. They turned on the iPad and tuned out all the outside stimuli. Dan and I relaxed sipping the Old Peculiar.

Heading back South tomorrow. 

Jan 17th. Mozart's magic and other things

Another busy week with occasional vomit. On Sunday Dan and I were planning to drive to Brussels to work from our BE office a couple of days. The day started out nice. We went to Starbucks for breakfast stopping over at different coffee shops along the way to pick up other tidbits to suit everyone's taste. We were talking about the Lion King show that we saw last night. Later in the morning we had planned to visit a nearby farm with a petting zoo. However, when we got home, Isabella dived head first onto the floor when trying to get out of her jacket. We all learned that chin bleeds as much as forehead.

When she quieted down, Isabella fell asleep on Dan's shoulder. Georgia and I went for a walk along the river. It was a beautiful day - lots of cyclers and kids around. Dan and Isabella woke up towards lunch and we all went to Yo Sushi that recently opened up in the mall. Very very overpriced but we miss sushi so much. When we come back to US, I am going to make a massive order of sashimi from Catalina Ops, hopefully it will not result in another Irene.

Arrived to Brussels and walked around town in the evening. They still have the Christmas tree up in the main old town square. Together with lovely buildings in the center it looked beautiful. Dan took me to a restaurant he found last time, I think it is called something like "Fin De Clecl." It is a off center. Beautiful tall-ceilinged room with a rambling mix of tables and weird modern art paintings around the walls. Only local clientele. We had awesome chocolate mousse and crème brulle with grog.

Incidentally, this time around we've stayed at Best Western in the Grote Market area. Something must have died there and hotel tried to cover their tracks with some sweet smelling substance. Yak! And the Internet does not work. Ibis and Accord next door were much better.

In the morning we connected with Danielle and headed out to the office. I may have written about it before.. the office is shaped like number "8," with long lineup of motivational posters along the way. I am assuming they are there to help orient you on where you are on the number eight. The motivations are all in French. For all I know they could be de-motivations. It is funny how all the instructional signs in the bathroom and break room are in English, while most of the team speaks French/Dutch. "Don't forget to remove the signs of activity in the toilet bowl."

Tanya called us in the morning to say that Georgia was sick at night but felt better in the morning and so went to school. Then I got a call from school midday saying that she is feeling sick and needs to be picked up. They told me that she told them about being sick @ night and so gave me a screaming about sending a sick kid to school. At that point I did not know if we have to jump in the car and drive home ASAP. Then Tanya called and Georgia explained she was not feeling great and arranged to be picked up in advance. It is nice that she is taking charge of things like that but it would be more comforting to be in the loop, in advance :)

After all that excitement, I started feeling nauseous too. By the time we went to the wondrous In't Spinnekopke on 1 Place Jardin Aux Fleurs recommended by a co-worker, the mere sight of those rich sauces filled me with despicable disgust. That being said, the place is amazing. Highly highly recommended. Lovely typical Belgian décor. Waiter hovered around us like a mother hen. The food looked and (must have tasted) awesome. Those tender pieces of kidneys beckoned from the glistening pools of butter cream with islets of bacon. Poor Dan, he ate both our appetizers and main dishes, and drank his beer and my wine as the waiter kept peering from around the corner to ensure that the food and drink were getting its due. In the end I recovered enough to pick slightly at the desert. Now, a few days later, how I wish I ate all that food!!

Back home, on Tuesday night, excitement had continued, but in a good way. Tanya, Georgia and I went to Rose Theatre for the "Magical Mozart Evening by the Candlelight." The music was magical all right. The stage was decorated with flickering electric candles and performers were dressed in period clothing and wore wigs. They did a mix of instrumental and aria pieces. One of the singers was particularly good. She did the challenging aria of the Queen of the Night flawlessly. So memorable. Georgia really liked it. My only criticism is that when there are 4+ musicians playing they really need a conductor. Otherwise it becomes an exercise in trying to all play at the same time, which, by definition, is a little lacking.

Then, at night it was Isabella's turn. Poor thing, she had it worse than Georgia a few days ago and it continued well into the next day. What do we have now? Wednesday? Nothing eventful. Thursday, our downstairs neighbor, Anastasia and her little daughter Emily, came over for dinner. It was very nice to have them over. We have a few things in common, like the boiler and kid manufacturing processes.

Then, Dan's mom called to say that she broke her arm when walking our dog. And the roller coaster with my sister. Everyone, please be well!!

A few more things. We were driving, and Dan noticed a guy drop his box of cigarettes on the ground. Dan stopped, rolled down the window and shouted to the guy that he dropped his cigarettes. The guy shouted back "Nah, it was empty, I threw it." Seriously?? I know it does happen everywhere but this was slightly unsettling.

Construction crews are back breaking the cement "quick fixes" before Christmas. Nice to see!

Read an interesting article in one of the local papers. It described disproportionately higher abortion rates of girl fetuses vs. boy fetuses in ethnic neighborhoods. And correspondingly higher births of boys vs. girls. It appeared that in those neighborhoods families chose to abort following discovering baby's gender during the ultrasound. The article discussed various approaches to address this. One of the suggestions was to not tell gender to mother even if it is known. Great!! Then again, US is not much better on the same topic. Everyone loves to get into business of women making decisions about their bodies.

Tonight we are going to York for a weekend. Will write more when we are back.

Jan. 11. Major and minor miracles around Kingston

Adjusting 2 timezone change

The water levels continued to climb but the river did not breach our building's garage. A few cars parked along the Richmond walk did not fare as well. Isabella got very worried when we walked along the river on Wednesday evening. She did not want to go back home but because she was afraid it will get flooded too. We are having it much better than folks at home who have to deal with single digits in Fahrenheit. Even Niagara Falls froze over.
All the stores around are having a 30-40-50-70% sale. Even the store with clothing for full-figured women. That's what I call a minor miracle. Elaborate fabrics and designs and draw us close to the windows making us wonder how all these beautiful garments will look but we've never seen anyone inside. The sale did not seem spur fat women into action.

All the mentions of Christmas are taken down and work has resumed on the abandoned road construction sites in the old town. It seems that the first thing construction crews did was to dig up the original work that admittedly was put together hastily, with many cobblestone areas held together by cement.



On Wednesday we got back our lost duffel bag. That was the major miracle. We monitored the status of it on United website... For days it said something to the effect: "We are tracing where it is, come back later." No one ever picked up the phone for the hotline. I've sent emails to TSA, Newark Airport Police and Lost luggage email addresses expressing my bewilderment that 1 out of 4 identical duffel bags would get lost. They were actually good at responding within one business day, and suggesting to check United website. Then on Wednesday I got a call from Newark TSA. The guy said they had nothing to do with it and I have to keep on waiting. I went back to United and the message said something like: "There is no record like that on our system." We feared the worst and while waiting for 45 minutes on the United lost luggage hotline studied the claim processing.. it is painful, and not recommended. Finally, having learned about the same exciting bit on news about the airline for about like 100 times, we got a human being on the phone. He said they found the bag and are arranging a drop off. Then I got a call on my cell phone from a very lost delivery guy. Eventually he made it over to Kingston. He and another guy were driving around England in a sedan filled with bags and suitcases and with an archaic TomTom to guide them. Amazing!

On Thursday I had to do a long drive to visit a potential client. For months I had found the ways to put off the joy of driving by myself but on that day I was sort of cornered. In retrospect it really was not a big deal. It was my birthday, and I survived doing something not terribly comfortable... I hope to have more days like this one in the coming year and years to come. One of the best ways to grow :) In the evening we went out with kids for desert. They had a frozen yogurt with fixings from the new booth that opened up at the mall. Dan got us some delicacies from Paul. Short of having friends and relatives close by it was a great day.

On Friday we worked from London and visited Westminster Abbey for lunch. We thought it was pretty awesome that the church had stood there for almost 1000 years. Many British royals and famous scientists/statesmen are buried there. If you assume 20 years per each new generation (probably true until our generation came around), that's 50 generations of people. Most of us can hardly remember what happened 4 generations ago. The church is probably even more enjoyable to a history buff. We liked the earliest gravestones of  the kings like Edward the confessor. They are so old that they look almost primeval. The chapter house where monks gathered was pretty interesting too. Some of the surviving frescos had incredible colors.

We did not want to risk driving out on Saturday since some areas are still flooded and the roads may be closed. Instead we headed back to London hoping to visit the Bank of England museum. It was recommended as a good place for kids to visit. Isabella was looking forward to holding a giant gold bar. On the way we could not resist a detour to the Green market. Dan and Georgia were craving grilled cheese sandwich. I decided to try some jambon. After a short search we located that, and a French banquette, fresh mozzarella, and a handful of oysters. I'll keep within the bounds of propriety and will not provide any further commentary on the food.

The museum was closed. It is in general closed on the weekends (who would care such matters on the weekend anyway) and was in particular closed from January 1 through March, which you only find out by walking up to it. Unrelented we decided to go to the Transport Museum next. On the way we passed by the theater playing the Lion King musical. We dropped in just in case and fortunately they had some great tickets still available. So we saw the Lion King.

We were all mesmerized. It was magical. Isabella was concerned about Mufasa and was very relieved when she saw him well and back on stage when the actors all came out at the end of performance. Georgia really enjoyed it. I don't think that the Lion King cannot boast the same caliber musical pieces as Chicago & Phantom (for all our scant experience) but the visuals were second to none we've seen so far.

Back home everyone was barely awake to grab dinner and head over to sleep. I'll try to put out a posting because tomorrow night we are going to the Belgium office for a few days and I don't get another chance.

Jan. 6th, 2014. To the US and back

Happy New Year! Here is what happened since I left of in the middle of last December... There was a mad-dash of the final week at schools, where both schools were having the final parties, get-togethers and celebrations.

The high point was on Thursday the 18th at Georgia's school. Kids got busy peeling potatoes the moment they arrived.. then at 10am, parents came over to pick up the dirty intermediate product to replace it with the final roast potatoes at noon. I naively assumed that potatoes take 20 minutes to roast regardless of their size and quantity. And so for the remaining of time before noon both Dan and I resembled the residents of Hell's Kitchen: trying to alternately nuke and broil the damn stubborn bunch before wrapping the half burned and half raw final product into towels and driving to school. Miraculously no one was hurt, we were on time, and potatoes somehow finished cooking themselves by the time we got there.

In the 20th we took a flight home to US. We had an extensive social and business program planned to catch up with multiple friends, relatives, co-workers and associates all while celebrating Christmas, New Years, birthdays, and more.. We were able accomplish most of those things while dealing with fantastical quantity of mishaps: from both of our cars no-starting on day one, to 75% flu hit ratio, to our New Year's getaway retreat upstate becoming unavailable, to airline losing 1/4 of our luggage upon arrival back to the UK. The best thing is that we got to see everyone, including my sister who we have not seen in over a year.

It was endearing to go back to our temperamental boiler. At least there is something consistent in this world. Yesterday it sprouted a brown leak but I think it was happy to see us. Speaking of the leaks, there were storms and surges in England for some time we were out.

We arrived to find numerous portions of the roads around closed. Thames water levels are higher than we have ever seen. A portion of the mooring walk downstairs is flooded. The swans had given up trying to navigate the streaming muddy river in a dignified manner and now just whirl in all directions. Debris watching provides for hours quiet reflection.

Yesterday morning we unpacked and slept most of the day... And then went to our favorite gourmet burger place for dinner. They are the nicest people in town... They have taken upon themselves a personal challenge to find the food that Isabella would eat. So yesterday they had tried again with a banana milkshake. But to no avail. There are still items left on the menu so we will continue helping them with their quest :)

Having left the US when the thermometer was barely breaking the double digits in Fahrenheit, we are basking in the 53 degree sun here... Our calendar is empty through mid-Feb because no one wanted to risk toughing it out here in winter.. it is not so bad. Come visit!!

Need to retrieve the photos from the camera... Soon...

Jan 1. Back home for the holidays