Day Out Grantchester

I'm still crazy about the location for our rental here in Cambridge, partly because of its proximity to so many places. In less than a mile in one direction, I'm in the center of the old Cambridge downtown, with its beautiful colleges, buildings and shops - handy and charming! In less than a mile in another direction, I'm at an American-style big box store strip mall. Not at all charming, but sometimes quite handy! And then in less than a mile two other directions, I'm in meadows with grazing cows and sheep, river paths and beautiful countryside. Very, very charming!

It's about a two mile bike ride from our home to the village of Grantchester. I enjoyed it so much the other week with my girls, that we went again today so Mike could see it too.

Grantchester is a cute little village with country homes and of course, an old church complete with aging cemetery.

Along the way from Cambridge to Grantchester, we passed an assortment of wildlife, including ponies, swans, ducks, sheep and cows.

It's such a beautiful bike path and countryside. You can also sometimes see the River Cam, with the occasional punt or canoe passing by.

Besides that the ride and town are nice all on their own, this outing has the extra bonus of having The Orchard Tea Gardens at the end. Isn't it a lovely place to hang out on a summer afternoon? You can see us enjoying a healthy snack of Pringles, cake and Diet Coke, but it also has more traditional English choices like scones, cream tea, and soup. As a side note, the garden was a gathering spot for a famous group of friends, including Maynard Keynes, Virginia Woolf and E.M. Forster.

The girls were a little bit tired on the way back, perhaps one girl more than the other, but we had plenty of time for rest breaks. Little layabouts in the sun - isn't that what summer is for?

Taking Your Cat To England

You'd be forgiven if, when observing my daughter with our cat, you assumed that we'd brought the cat home sometime in the last week. Several times a day I hear exclamations like, "I LOVE you Kitty!," or "You're the best kitty EVER!". Also, "Mom! Come and look at Kitty! She's being soooo CUTE!" Usually then she's doing something amazing like taking a nap on the couch. My daughter even has a blog devoted to our cat.

So anyway, when we first made plans to come to England, we knew it was essential for my daughter's happiness to bring our cat along too. I really stressed about this. I couldn't imagine taking our cat on a 12 hour flight, with additional hours for getting to and from the airport, all cooped up in her cat carrier was going to be good for her. It seemed much less traumatic for our cat to find some nice person to leave her with for a year. But my daughter's happiness trumped my cat's, so I started researching how to get her here.

At first it seemed easy. The UK no longer requires any quarantine period for cats when entering the country from the US. I looked into United Airlines and saw that, while they don't allow cats in carriers under your seat for international flights, they did allow you to check them as baggage in an approved carrier where they then kept the carriers in climate-controlled baggage areas. Their policies also required a microchip, which she already had, a rabies shot and a health certificate from her vet. Easy enough. I stopped worrying.

Then a few months before we were to leave, I started looking into the matter again, and it seemed like everything had changed. United no longer allowed pets as checked baggage. They only allowed them as cargo, which was much more expensive and much more complicated. I spent a lot of time calling various airlines and government agencies trying to get definitive answers on what the process was. It seemed like I got different answers from every person, with many people seeming to wonder why I expected them to know this information. Then I called our vet back to set up our cat's health certificate appointment, only to have the receptionist there tell me that our cat didn't have the right microchip. She'd need to have a new one put in, wait months, get a new rabies shot, etc. This about 6 weeks before we were supposed to leave. Augh!

That is when I broke down and called Pet Express. They are a pet transport company who, for a fee I first thought outrageous and finally decided was worth every penny for the ease and peace of mind of talking to people who knew what they were doing, will help arrange all necessary paperwork, tell you what appointments are needed, pick up your cat from your house, board her, bring her to the airport and check her into her flight, pick her up from customs and take her to your new home.

They took most of the stress out of the process. I still reserved a little stress thinking about how sad for our cat to not have food for so long on her flight, customs processing and transport time. It just seemed horribly traumatic for her. The day of her pickup, she was none too happy to be getting in her carrier. But it was really nice to not have her there for final packing and getting my family to the airport with our mountains of luggage. Then when she was delivered to our house, mewing to get out of her carrier, she was initially very thirsty, but not even interested in her food for a good hour. She spent time looking around our new house, then plopped down in our laps for petting, and seemed her usual, delightful self.  She seems perfectly happy in our new home in England.

In case anyone is thinking of taking their cat from the US to the UK, here is what I learned:

Air New Zealand doesn't take pets from the US to the UK
British Airways will take your pet, but only if you use a pet transport company
United Airlines is the only airline I looked into that allows you to arrange transport yourself

Pets need to be microchipped. It might officially say somewhere that it needs to be an international microchip, but as long as the microchip is a name brand recognized by your vet, you don't need to install a new one.

At least 21 days before you leave the US, but after the microchip implantation, your cat needs a rabies shot.

Within a week of transport, you need a health certificate from your vet. Make sure you vet has this paperwork - it's about 5 pages. Your vet also needs to be USDA accredited. Also, you need the original vet-signed copy of the Certificate of Vaccination. Pet Express wanted me to make sure that everything was signed in blue ink. I'm not sure if that's important or not, but they thought it was.

After you get your health certificate, you need to express mail it or drive it to a USDA Veterinary Services office for a Federal Endorsement stamp. This website has the relevant information:
http://www.aphis.usda.gov/regulations/vs/iregs/animals/animal_faq.shtml#six

You also need to fill out a C5 customs form for the UK. It is found here: http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/forms/c5.pdf

In addition to an Airway Bill and other paperwork from the airline, you also need to arrange clearance in the UK. There are separate charges for their services. It's about $100 more expensive to clear your pet on a weekend than a weekday. Their contact info is:
www.pbs-int.co.uk or www.shipyourpet.com

Your pet also needs to be transported in a IATA approved carrier. I bought mine from www.dryfur.com. They had extensive information about all the rules, including size, labeling, and food containers, in addition to guaranteeing that their carriers are IATA approved.

As you can see, there is a lot of rules, appointments and paperwork involved when transporting your cat to England. If possible, limit the stress and use a pet transport company. We did, and are enjoying having our happy and healthy cat here with us.

Day Out East Sussex

After our Dover Castle expedition, we winded our way through the countryside to see the Seven Sisters - an area I'd heard was prettier and easier to access than the cliffs of Dover. At an intersection I saw a sign and shouted for Mike to pull over immediately. Three miles off our path was Bodiam Castle, which I'd read was a film location for Monty Python and the Holy Grail (the "Swamp Castle", or the scene with the line, "Let's not bicker about who killed who..."). Did he want to pull off and see it? A definite yes!

 It was a very quick detour, because I didn't want to run out of light for exploring the Seven Sisters, but very worth the time. Such a castley castle. Turrets? Check. Moat? Check. There's beautiful grounds for picnicing, and a pretty path around the whole castle that doesn't take much time. I've heard the views from the top of the castle are very pretty too, but we had places to be.

 We accessed the Seven Sisters area via Birling Gap, which I highly recommend. Wow was this area beautiful. I could spend a week there, just soaking in the scenery and walking around.

 Besides the beautiful white cliffs, the area is full of rolling hills, picturesque farms and little villages.

Here's from the beach. Our pictures don't quite capture the beauty and grandness of being there. Unfortunately, as this trip was planned for a Saturday in July at the last minute, we weren't able to find a place to spend the night in the immediate area. We headed up to East Grinstead, where we were well-situated for our adventures for the next day.

This next part of our weekend was all about me. We were near Hartfield and the Ashdown Forrest, AKA, A. A. Milne and Winnie the Pooh country. One of my disappointments of parenthood has been that I was unable to force my children to love those books as much as I did. But I did love them, we were nearby, so we were off to explore the "Hundred Acre Wood."

 First stop was the Pooh Corner shop to get a map. Old houses were not built for people Mike's size!

This picture isn't the best example, but I find the roads somewhat terrifying. Luckily, I was not driving. They are generally too narrow for two cars to pass each other, yet they'll be two-way streets. Bicyclists are everywhere, the roads are twisty, and there's absolutely no shoulder. Then the speed limit was 40 miles per hour. Trust me, with the narrowness, the twisty-ness, the bicyclists and the speed I felt like I was out driving with  Mr. Toad.

My kids indulged me by being good sports and finding sticks to play Pooh Sticks off Pooh Bridge. This was a little thrill for me.

"They walked on, thinking of This and That, and by-and-by they came to an enchanted place on the very top of the forest …..  Sitting there they could see the whole world spread out until it reached the sky, and whatever there was all the world over was with them."

The Enchanted Place is, once again, much more enchanting than it comes across in the pictures. I'm so happy my family indulged me in seeing these places. We had a marvelous weekend. I can highly recommend East Sussex and Dover Castle. I hope you all are spending time in your own enchanted places.

Day Out Dover Castle

This weekend we spent two days at Dover Castle and East Sussex. It was such a nice trip - the kind that makes me so thankful to be here in England. I loved it so much that I'm having a hard time weeding out pictures. I just can't help taking up two posts to talk about our weekend. 

First we drove down to Dover, about a two hour drive from Cambridge. Dover Castle is, I think, about the perfect castle to visit with kids. It has a bit of everything.

A throne room that you're welcome to try out. My girls aren't that fond of tours, and appreciated being able to run around and entertain themselves. 

Interactive areas that show some of the work involved in running a castle. ("Boil, boil, toil and trouble, cauldron burn...")

Furnished areas. (Did you know that in the time of Henry II that beds were so expensive that only the richest of the rich had them? And then you had to take them with you? If you decided to visit your castle in the next county you would take your bed with you. All the other nobility slept in a common room together on mats on the floor.)

 Twisting, stone staircases.

 Castle-life brought to life. They had some actors appropriately dressed and roaming around the castle acting their parts ("Get back to work!" "Thank you, my lord." etc.) Here they're training some children on how to defend the castle.

Secret passageways, including tunnels they used for war operations during World War II. There's a nice multi-media tour talking about the war and the evacuation of Dunkirk (managed from Dover Castle). My kids, who as previously stated hate tours, said about the tour, "It was awesome!", and "It was kind of cool."

 Beautiful grounds.

 Beautiful vistas.

And nice picnic spots. 

And, obviously, any England outing is made better by a Harry Potter tie-in. Camille found a bag of "Sherbert Lemons" to buy. She informs me that they are both Professor Dumbledore's favorite treat, and were a password for getting into the headmaster's office at one point. Who could pass up such an opportunity?

Dover Castle is definitely worth a visit on a trip to England. We spent a good three hours or more visiting, and could have spent longer since we skipped the World War II Underground Tunnel Hospital Tour. Didn't want to push my luck with the kids. The one thing we didn't see in Dover was the white cliffs of Dover. I'd heard they were hard to see from Dover itself, unless you're out at sea. To see the white cliffs we went to East Sussex.

Day Out Little Chesterford

Or rather, Day Out Little Chesterford Science Research Park. That's on everyone's must-see list for England, right? That's where Mike works, and as his company was having their annual family picnic, off we went. And I'm glad we did! Besides that it was fun to see where my husband spends his days, and that it's a beautiful location, the picnic was fun as well. I was a little bit worried as we first arrived. Mike's company in San Diego goes all out for their family events - games, prizes, expensive entertainments. Once they had a carnival theme, where they had every imaginable carnival game your parents won't let you play, because they're a waste of money, all for free and with prizes. Another year they rented a place with a wave machine, swimming pool, and amusement park rides. Anyway, this was an old-school picnic. Croquet, bouncy house, puppet show (which my kids thought they were way too old for), and mostly just food and talking. I wasn't sure if it was something my kids would really appreciate, but we all ended up having a nice day out.

I wish I got some better pictures of approaching the research park. I knew it was in the country, but I was expecting big buildings and parking lots and lots of cement grouped together right off the road. Instead you're driving through the countryside, pull down a curvy lane, then behind some trees pops his building. The other buildings are all scattered around the park so that you don't really see them. It's just a different style than anyplace he's worked in the U.S.

 First, Mike had to show off the video in his company's lobby, which features a certain handsome and prestigious gentleman.

After initially dismissing all the activities as "babyish", Camille and Mike enjoyed a few rounds of lawn bowling.

 Camille and Anya finally got talked into trying the bouncy house, mostly so I could take their picture. Camille thought it was funny that one of the little girls kept following her around and saying, "You're a BIG girl, aren't you?". With a cute, little girl English accent of course. I'm not yet acclimated enough to be nonchalant about listening to English children speak. I find everything that comes out of their mouths absolutely adorable.

 After eating, we went for a walk around the research park. You may not be able to tell from the picture, but it's very country-ish. Behind the little fence is open fields.

 The whole research park used to be a country home. This is the original home, which is now used by another company. Mike's building is modern looking.

And then to end the picnic, Mike's work had a tug-of-war competition between departments. My girls are not yet too old and mature to be embarrassed about jumping up and down and cheering their dad on. He helped pull his team to victory, so it was a nice way to end our day.

English Food

Do  you like checking out grocery stores in places you visit to compare? So do I! Here's what we've noticed so far about grocery shopping in England.

 Notice anything strange about this picture? They keep the eggs on the pantry shelves. I've heard that people who keep hens don't refrigerate them when using them within a day or two, but I've never seen eggs out of the refrigerated section at the grocery store before. I must admit, I take them home and promptly place them in the fridge. It just feels wrong putting them in the pantry.

 There were some things I had heard rumors I might not be able to find here in England: popcorn, peanut butter, baking powder, American-style bacon. But as you can see (except for the unpictured bacon), I've easily found them all. The popcorn kernels do come in this petite package though, instead of the industrial-sized popcorn I buy at Costco in the states. And if you order something with bacon at a restaurant, it is generally close to what we'd call Canadian bacon. But they do have the American style in the grocery stores.

Things that we haven't been able to find are the exact brands of cereal my girls generally eat for breakfast. They have some American brands, but not all, and even if it's called the same thing, it sometimes doesn't taste the same. Also, we used to eat Carnation Instant Breakfast. I'm sure we shouldn't have been eating it anyway, but it was a way to guarantee that my picky eaters got some calcium. Mike and I like the cheese here at least as well, perhaps better, but Anya won't try it, because the cheddar is not dyed orange. Sigh. Also, coming from San Diego, we miss good tortilla chips and store-bought salsa.

 I went on a grocery store treasure hunt with my girls, asking them to find products they don't see in America. Camille picked out these quail eggs. It's possible they're found in the states, but they're pretty common here.

 Anya decided to take pictures of things that were the same. You can always find Starbucks.

And they have this booth at the mall that sells American products. Why do American-themed sections always feature Fluff? Does anyone know anyone who ever buys or eats that stuff?

 We buy our fruit at the farmer fruit stand. It comes in these bags, with the edges twisted like this, which I find kind of cute.

 Meringues seem to be more popular here than in the states. Another thing that it's possible you can easily find, but I never noticed before.

 Of course they have pre-made cakes in the bakery section of the grocery stores in the states. The thing that seems different here is that they also have pre-made cakes boxed up on the shelves.

All the stores seem very big on selling sandwiches. You can find them at grocery stores, drug stores, and even the dollar store (called "Poundland"). At the beginning of the work day and at lunch time the stores are very crowded with people buying sandwiches.

We haven't been super brave about trying English food so far. I did try some of Mike's fish and chips one day, and have to say I liked it. I generally don't like fish, unless it has absolutely none of what I'd call a "fishy taste". This fish passed the test. It comes with the bone in, so you eat it with a fork. I'm not sure how you eat the ones they supposedly sell wrapped in newspaper off carts on the streets. I haven't actually seen anything like that. We tried English-style stuffing at Mike's work party. I can't even really say what it was. Nothing like American stuffing. Green, with a smoother texture and to me, less flavor. And then we've just tried crumpets. They're good! I guess there's some controversy about how to describe them, but to me they taste less bread-y - less crumb and not as crunchy - as an "English muffin". To me they tasted a little like a pancake, but maybe less sweet, more spongey. Hard to describe, but very tastey!