April 7th. Wissant, Boulogne-Sur-MerDieppe, and Rouen

It was a very long and fun day. We've started out at our Hotel du Golf in Calais. The hotel receptionist maintained that we ate our breakfast out of trays on the table. Such incredible obsessive efficiency.

We started our way along the coast in the South direction stopping on the way at a couple of scenic spots to admire the views and check out decaying fortifications. Some were put in place during the first world war but others were put in here by Germans to send rocket shells over to England and to prevent landings by Allied forces. There are lots of war museums along the way. Many feature all sorts of military equipment. Once we got out to see the giant cement structure used to house an enormous cannon. The cannon is gone and the building is only a graffiti covered shell but a scary ugly looking one.

We've stopped at Wissant and Boulogne-Sur-Mer to sample the views and some baked goods. This will not be an easy journey to recover from. Our late lunch/early dinner stop was at Dieppe. It is a beautiful town that has some key elements: beautiful castle on the hill, elaborate churches, views of the channel filled with boats. We had the local specialty - scallops. Based on their appearance they were undergoing some transformation (mating?? :)). Anyhow it reflected very positively on their taste. We also had some lovely herring, smoked salmon, and oysters (Georgia). Dima had his beer out of a giant glass. Even though the waiters did not speak any English they understood our expressive looks and gave us a brand new glass to keep.

The final stop was Rouen, the capital of Normandy. Really really lovely town full of even more elaborate churches that could easily put Notre Dame de Paris to shame. It has great numbers of timbered buildings. Kind of like York to the tenth degree. Very dead looking city too. We walked around late into the evening stopping over at an area of relative light and activity to get a few beers with salami and tea for kids. 

Novotel Hotel is awesome - modern suite rooms with separate areas for kids and business area with a large table to do our work next week. But Internet barely working again. So frustrating!

April 6th. Calais

We took Eurotunnel to Calais on Saturday afternoon. Kids were entertained by driving into the train that was driving though under the channel. The goal was to get situated in Calais and start our exploration down to Normandy on Sunday. We arrived at around 5pm local time. Situated at the Hotel Du Golf – empty-looking abandoned-looking hotel across the beach. There were rows of white storage boxes on the beach. We’ve never seen anything like that. If they were in Yalta or old Sochi they could possibly rented out to house people. But here it looks like most are used to store the beach supplies.

We walked to the center town stopping to wait for boats to pass over the moving bridge. The town was pretty empty on Saturday night. One possible reason for it was because all of them were at the city hall celebrating some event. We saw the tower of the building from far away and were drawn in by its beauty. As we got closer, we saw  the lovely building that went with it. We got inside and started to look for the ticket office. But there was none in sight and everyone was too busy drinking the Champagne.  So we took the elevator to the next floor and the next, walking alone around the magnificent meeting rooms. We could not get as far as the tower but enjoyed the "private" tour with no one to stop us :) When we got back downstairs Dan dared me to join the party :)

We continued our walk but the town is really nothing to write home about. Dmitry found glorious local restaurant for us to have our dinner. It was amazing. Starting from the perfect decor which included tapestry style armchairs, chandeliers and all the works, to the incredibly nice and accommodating waiter to the food itself.. We are not used to such rich foods and so painfully dragged ourselves back to our rooms and lamenting the absence of the functional wifi connection went to sleep.

April 4th. Dima is here!

Dan swiped out Coray & Nikkie for Dmitry at the airport. And our fun life continued just like it was in November. During the day we worked, and during the evening walked around to grab some beer.

We accidentally discovered the coronation stone right across the street next to the police station. 7 Saxon kings were crowned upon that stone and that’s how Kingston derives its name. It’s only been 9 months of us living here. We were actually trying to trace down where swans go in the evenings along the stream that passes our building and came upon the stone on our way. There is a lot of egg laying around and soon we will have some cygnets, ducklings, and other baby birds (my vocabulary pretty much exhausted itself after the first two. 

The week was still somewhat jumbled. On Wed I went to Utrecht for one day business trip. I liked Utrecht – it is small and pretty and the most impressive town I’ve seen to date that gives so much space to cyclers. There is a separate wide 2 lane path on both sides of the street in the center of town. 

A whole column of parents with kids, business men and women, students are moving in both directions in the morning. Hardly anyone seems to be driving or walking. I felt strange to be one of the few people walking. Also, having been used to the fact that in the UK, as pedestrian I am the lowest type of moving creature, cyclers coming from all directions were a bit scary.

Malie Hotel was not that great – the Internet barely worked, which for a business traveler was pretty useless, despite the staff being very nice. I took the UTC cab from Amsterdam airport to Utrech. Going there was 50 euro, coming back was over 100. Rip off and they don’t even take credit cards.

Kids are off for the next few weeks. We are going to go to Normandy next week. See the town/dirve in the morning, work, have dinner and work some more. They better have good working Internet over there.

Since there was no activity on the HR front we told our landlord that we are leaving ourselves. After a string of emails with the landlord and rental agency to find out who will be walking us out we finally ended up back with the landord and no certainty on how it all will end. The agency got to work bringing in candidates, and at first had requested that we would be present, which I told them was ridiculous and so they've stopped communicating. It would be nice if the landlord had got the boiler fixed prior to starting to rent the apartment out again. The next victim will have their hot showers cut out for them, literally. 

March 30. London circuit & a bike ride to Richmond

We got our first batch of spring guests last week - Coray and Nikkie. Dan showed them around on Friday. They saw the Stonehenge and Windsor. They liked it. There is a beautiful new visitor center at the Stonehenge - with a multi-media 3D experience based on some of the theories about its history. It is interesting that they chose not to light the site up at night. You can pass by within 0.2 of a mile of it and not even see it in the dark. At Windsor they got to see George's church and the doll house along with the castle. We really have to come back for return visit. As they were visiting, the queen came over as well - the flag over the castle had changed. They must have just missed her walking around or they would have had all the works :) By the end of the day Dan brought back our guests over-caffeinated and barely alive.

On Thursday Isabella went to a farm with her school. She was waiting for that for a long time. They told kids probably three weeks in advance and since then she asked every when she went to school if today was the day. We asked her what she saw there and she fired off this list: goats, horse, donkeys, ducks, chicken, cows, trampoline, and the playground. It just sounded funny all together.

Isabella is at the pinnacle of her coin scavenging phase (I hope). She keeps thinking of the ways to find more coins and as we walk to school or go to the store religiously checks the old "productive" spots. She just likes the hunt. As soon as she finds something, she hands it over to Georgia, Dan, or myself and continues her search. A few days ago she said she came up with the way to get more coins. She said that she will learn to play a guitar and become a street performer - they get a lot of coins :)

Georgia remains faithful to her plan - to become a painter and teach kids to paint. And  travel around the world as she does. She made beautiful lifelike sculptures from plasticine for the Mother's day.

On Saturday Coray and I went for a run - around the Hampton court palace. He liked it. Later in the day we did our standard walk down the Southwark, to Borough market (oysters, grilled cheese sandwiches & jambon baquettes), and past Tower bridge, Tower (fish and chips), and St. Paul's to Covent garden and Trafalgar square. Then they went on to see Nikkie's friends for dinner and we tried to catch our dinner at Dishoom. Even though half the tables were empty, they said it was booked and the wait was 30 minutes.

We kept going around Soho before settling down at a cramped Japanese with epically rude Israeli girl next to us. Don't remember the name of the restaurant but even though the staff was genuine Japanese, and presentation was good, we probably would not come back there - the food itself was not that thrilling. The main highlight was Isabella throwing the edamami pod across the table, missing the trash plate, and landing it neatly into the girl's handbag. If only it was a piece of fish instead... Kids walked over 36,000 steps on Saturday - no complaints. Very very strong girls.

We got up late on Sunday. And got another hour taken away due to the changing clocks. After breakfast we rode bikes to Richmond. Isabella lasted about a mile on hers before we latched it on to Dan's. In Richmond kids got ice-cream and we walked around the little weekend market before heading back. Georgia did the entire 9 mile circuit on her bike. After lunch kids and I went to do some window shopping. Then they made banana bread for their evening desert. Tanya came in around 5pm and Dan and I headed back to the city to meet up with our guests and try Dishoom again. To hell with the diet. The worst thing is that we barely covered 20% of the menu at this point.

We walked around, came back to Kingston and kept going with the banana cake, beer, Lithuanian salami, and cheddar in no particular order. Pictures later...

March 23. The Southwest 2: Newquay, Port Isaac, Tintagel, & Glastonbury

In the morning we walked around town looking for a place to catch breakfast, stopping at the large and welcoming Costa that was already open at 8am. The city was a very nice infrastructure: waterworld, aquarium, zoo, but it's had better days. Its current reputation is a of a great town for surfers. Even Costa has surfing decorations all over.

We walked around the beach a bit until the high tide sent us going back up on the cliff where the town is situated. There was a rescue boat running an exercise in high waves. They were practicing doing various maneuvers going into the waves and turning a sharp angles. It was about 7 degrees Celsius in the morning, not terribly heart-warming to watch them. But I guess they have to train for rescue even in colder conditions.


We were still hoping to catch a bit more of the beach so detoured to Port Isaac hoping it will provide nice access. It does have a bit of a beach for boats but not for shell picking. To get to Port Isaac you have to pass a small ford. They have a large ruler sticking up from the water to mark the water level so you could decide whether or not to go in.

It was one of the nicest port towns we've ever been to. It is perched on the surrounding hill. Truly tiny streets with interesting names. Each house is unique. You can tell that each individual street and sign and wall are being loved. No pictures online or those that we took today do any justice to this beautiful gem of a town at all. It is a bit out of the way and not marked in our guide, which could explain unspoilt natural beauty and the lack of tourists.

Much inspired, we got back on our way to the legendary Tintagel castle - as legend has it, the birth castle to king Arthur. I've been wanting to go there for a very long time. It is beautiful and scenic - parts of it clinging to the cliffs on the mainland and others on the neighboring island reachable by the foot bridge-stairs.

It was nice to imagine ladies of the castle taking an afternoon stroll along the edge of the cliff watching out into the sea, and knights settling down for the evening feast in the giant main hall, now reduced to some portions of the wall as more and more parts of this fragile slate fortress continue to slide off into the sea. We got our fill of romantic ruins and headed to town to Arthur café for lunch. Another one to recommend :)

Two hours later we got to Glastonbury. Arthur's legend continued there - he is supposedly buried there with queen Guinevere. The town and the surrounding area had gone through being the center of pagan Celtic religions to Christianity and nowadays back to pagan. On the way to the Glastonbury Tor - 140m high natural grass covered hill that is supposedly hiding the Isle of Avalon, we've stopped at the peace garden housing the Chalice Well.


Truth be told, we were not prepared for this place being the Western version of the Wailing wall. Brightly garbed pilgrims having a moment of contemplation did not lend themselves to us feeling relaxed and one with the universe. Part of it had to do with prior priming at the wall - where Dan got duped by one of the followers. The other part was a pink-colored (I guess, it was still about 7 degrees Centigrade) naked guy that kept appearing on the hill nearly. Maybe he was connecting with the universe too.

Dan, Georgia, and I drank some of the metallic tasting holy water, Isabella refused... and headed for the Tor. Note the lovely sculpture of mother. You can put various things in the multiple storage cavities, including the one on the head.

The views from the mountain were beautiful. So much green. The day was very clear and we could see very far out. We had to hold on to the kids not to lose them to the wind :)

Back in town we walked over to the Glastonbury Abbey marveling the new paganist look of the town on the way. Chakra aligning shop, followed by the crystal heaven, followed by the hippy clothing supply store, natural foods, yoga, and back again. There were practically no tourists left in town, at least, most those who were out on the streets were dressed the part.


Glastonbury Abbey must have been one of the most impressive set of building of the12-13th century time period. Now it is reduced to a handful of ruins. Nevertheless it is awe-inspiring. Just like it did in Lithuania, as Christianity took hold of this region it very visibly transformed much of pagan imagery into Christian leaving a lot of ancient motifs behind. We really liked it.

2.5 hours later almost everyone is back home and asleep. I know I have almost 10 days worth of pictures to upload... will have to do it tomorrow.

March 22. The Southwest 1: Exeter, Falmouth, Pendennis Castle, Lizard Point, St. Michael’s Mount, Penzance, St. Ives & Newquay

Long day today. Kids were up before 6am.. why does it always happen on the weekend? iPad to the rescue. We had a very nice breakfast at the hotel – freshly baked croissants piping hot. Isabella tried hers with honey, jam, and marmalade.

We had a big agenda for the day and Exeter was only the base to start our exploration but we figured since everything will be closed until 10am anyway we have a bit of time to explore. We walked over to Exeter Cathedral. Before we really made a decision to come in, the automatic doors opened and we somehow were ushered inside and past the ticket booth.

We really liked it. Exeter cathedral has a number of cool features lovingly highlighted by the staff and in the guide: a hole in the door leading to the giant astronomical clock – for the cats who took care of church rats in the past. Some really different looking sarcophagi sculptures - one was a completely dried out looking very tall skeleton, the other was a colorful courtly lady playfully lying on the side, with her hand resting on the skull, a trio of effigies of a husband and wife and his nephew lying beneath the two like a lover in hiding.  

After the cathedral we headed our to the Quay - beautiful restored area along the river Exe probably giving the city its name. There were little cute souvenir stores, pretty bridges, and sun shining bright :)

But it was soon time to get started on our journey. We stocked up on some genuine Cornwall pastys (sadly still nowhere even close to kibinai) and headed to the next point: Falmouth. There were more than enough nice sites missed along the way but we had to keep going to reach our final destination in time.

Falmouth

Falmouth is a pretty Southern town with beautiful blue lagoon dotted with ships. It does look a bit like an English Riviera. We walked along the High street and then attracted by the sounds of music and crowds diverted to the main square. There was a kind of sports event going on there. The highlight was a lady dressed in 70s style, playing disco music leading a bunch of similar looking followers in some aerobics exercises. If you were there 30, nay 40 years ago at this point (!!!) it would have probably looked the same... maybe ladies would be younger.

Pendennis Castle

We got back on the main street and then walked along the beach a bit to collect some shells and drove on to Pendennis Castle. As with prior places, it was beautiful. We immediately climbed to the top and watched the surrounding sea and St. Mawes castle across the water. As we started walking down the stairs, Dan was startled by the loud sounds of the battle. One of the rooms downstairs has motion activated sound recording of the battle sounds. There were also several statues posed in the character clothing in the room. They were set up to appear to be loading up and shooting the cannon.

When the shot was fired on the audio, smoke started coming out of the cannon's muzzle. Isabella did not like that bit at all. She rushed us out right into sleet! We all laughed but she did not find this funny either. Fortunately it was over in about a minute and a full rainbow instantly appeared, almost as a make up for any discomfort. This finally appeased Isabella :)

Lizard Point

Our next stop was Lizard point - the Southernmost point of England. The drive resembled a bit our drive to Malin Head last summer. It feels like it was such a long time ago. When we arrived to the village right before the final point we saw that there was a way to drive all the way to the target location so we kept going along the claustrophobic narrow one car lane between the walls of grass covered stone.

There were occasional passing areas to deal with the incoming traffic from the opposite direction. Someone took the pains to remove the "P"s from all of the signs. At last we arrived there and were rewarded with stellar views. There was a way to get down to the beach past some abandoned past-war military building just like in Main Head. It was very windy, but by the time we reached the stone beach the wind has died down.

We were running out of time. From the many options we planned for, we opted for St. Michael's Mount - monastery on a tiny island right off the coast. During the low tide, it is possible to walk over from the mainland. When we arrived we saw people walking along the path. As we descended from the town level and started running toward the island the road was still dry but by the time we reached the middle, waves started splashing over the road portion close to the island. If we were there maybe 30 minutes earlier, we could have made it. It looks beautiful - as it is from the fairy tale.

As a small consolation we started to climb another much smaller rock closer to the mainland. It looked a bit strenuous, but then Dan found some stairs - apparently someone had made, for better watching of St. Michael's Mount.

We only had a few hours of daylight left. After a quick dash through Penzance (no real pirates there, ever!), we drove over to St. Ives, the quintessential English Riviera.

St.Ives

It is probably more quintessential in the summer. It did win over all the others in terms of the number of art shops. All closed regrettably. And most everything else. So we settled down at the Beach restaurant - recommended by Yelp, tripadvisor, and us all :) Fish stew made from the heavy cream with fried bacon and onions and with at least half a dozen kinds of fish will live on our memories for a while :)

The final stop was Newquay to get positioned for our explorations on Sunday. I made reservations at Great Western mistakenly believing it was Best Western. It was not the same thing. But the room was clean, the blankets were real, and there was a view of the ocean in the dark.

March 17-21. Day-to-day things in Kingston

We saw Alicia off on Monday and went back to our busy work schedule. We are returning home to US at the end of June. Interesting bout of unraveling logistics. But I think it will be much easier this time.
The pictures in this post are from Sunday @ Kew Gardens and some home pics during the week.

Trying to remember the highlights for the week. On Wednesday I went to Georgia’s school for the parent teacher conference. Georgia’s teachers shared that she is the “model” student and they could not be happier with her. She is sweet, listens to directions, acts on them thoughtfully; her work is neat and other kids like her. 

Awesome to hear! In a bit of a contrast, at home we are starting to hear the distant echos of the teenage years to come. Georgia is starting to question some of the things we tell her or ask her to do. It is understandable but unexpected and we have to find a way to set the stage for constructive equality-based dialogue with her in the future. The switch from babyshness is happening faster than we thought.

Isabella is on the last cusp of the period when kids say the funniest things. We are trying to remember everything but somehow nothing stays. This week she was talking about the little “chuchelko” monster that eats insects her teachers told her about. I asked her about the features of this creature. Supposedly it is the size of a doll, looks humanoid, wears clothing designed to look like human. I was at a complete loss. Spoke to her teachers about it. At last, using some deductive reasoning and more questioning we derived to the answer that it is a scarecrow.  That’s how she interpreted what teachers told her. Pretty fascinating.

Almost forgot - another major highlight on Thursday - boiler guy came over and we all able to take a bath/shower without having to boil the water in the pots first. Don't know how long it will last this time.. so cautiously dipping our toes in.

On Thursday kids and I went to Benthals after dinner to get a large puzzle and a ship model that we will work on putting together.

And on Friday evening we took a long and slow ride to Exeter to get positioned for our weekend of exploration of the Southwest. There were a few minor accidents on the way. It is exasperating to watch people slow down and waste their time to watch the fender benders. 3.5 hour drive stretched to 5. Will there ever be time when people will stop doing this?

We settled down at a very comfortable Clock Tower Hotel and kids were asleep in their bed before we whooped out our phones for the final catch up on the emails.

March 17th. Hever Castle, Rye and back to Kew

Work week was a blur as usual. We did not even have the time to get out to work from London. Inga had a great time going to London every day. She covered it pretty well, walking to all the key points, and visiting many museums. In the evening our guests had settled down to watch several episodes Shaman2, Russian detective series. At first the acting seemed dismal but as the days progressed we found ourselves turning the screen to the screen that was spewing story of after story complete with the latest slang and tidbits on the realities of life.

One nice break during the week was Georgia and I waking up at 6am and going out on our bikes. It was quiet outside and we enjoyed riding in the park. Later we waited for Costa to open and go everyone fresh croissants and muffins.

We could not decide where to go on Saturday - Stonehenge or Windsor - the de-facto tourist destinations. So instead we went to Hever castle where Anne Boleyn was born. More recently the castle was owned by the Waldorf family.

It is a pretty castle - not really a fortress but more of a manor house. It features a beautiful Italian garden with some 1000 year old statues. Inside the castle even more like a manor - with some modernized looking rooms appearing more like the early 20th century. Just like Leeds, this must have been the luxury in those days,.. and nowadays it is somewhat drab, and uncomfortable looking. Alicia braved the winding staircases.

Our next stop was Rye, surprisingly lovely town set on top of a rock overlooking the sea a few miles away. Most of the winding street seem as they were hundreds of years ago with cobblestone streets, and vines winding around the crooked houses. The guide said it looked like it was "preserved in formaldehyde" and it was true. We climbed up the narrowest ever set of stairs to get to the top of the watch tower. The plaque claimed it was the oldest working tower clock in England. The views were very excellent. Alicia did not join us for the climb but she did do a lot of walking, specially up the steep hill where the town center is located.

We stayed for late lunch and then drove a few miles further South to the sand dunes. There we spent a bit of time wandering around the beach and collecting the shells.

On Sunday we relaxed, Inga did a bit of last minute shopping. It was a warm spring day, 20 degrees Celsius. In the afternoon kids and I took a bus to Kew Garden. We recently got their flier inviting to visit and enjoy magnolias in bloom. And we did. Too early for cherry blossoms but we are planning to go back to see the bluebells.

At night we had dinner @ the Slug. Just like the name suggests. I forgot that we've been there before. Hopefully never again. They seem to offer everything: basic English, Greek, Italian, Indian. But all of it is made from the mixes and cans. We leverage packaged sauces too but at least we don't pre-cook and freeze meat when do it. Yak.

Then we drove Inga to the airport. Very sad. Georgia was crying. Today Alicia is leaving too. It was Isabella's turn to shed some tears. Then, starting with sometime later today, we are guestless for another 2 weeks.