Bluebells

I'm getting to the end of my springtime in England checklist. I wanted to see snowdrops, wild daffodils, fields of baby lambs and a bluebell wood. The first three I've done, so last weekend it was time to find a bluebell wood.

England is one of the few places in the world where native bluebells grow wild in the woods.

I thought maybe this would require a roadtrip. Luckily though, bluebell woods are found all over the country, including Cambridgeshire. We stopped by Waresley & Gransden Woods, about fifteen minutes outside of Cambridge.

Individually, I think bluebells are a pretty little flower. They're something special when there's a whole woodland carpet of them.

Bluebells were once considered a fairy flower. If a child went alone into the woods and picked one, the fairies would take them and they'd never be seen again. Just as well then that our kids opted to stay home.

Some enterprising person had set up this honor stand just outside the bluebell wood. Unfortunately, all the eggs were gone by the time we walked by.

Bluebells are not around for long. All the spring flowers have been ahead of schedule after this warm winter, so I'm so happy I didn't miss them.

Spring Babies

One thing that I think is different between the US and England is that here in England there seems to be a closer connection between city life and farm life. I've mentioned before that I live in the central part of Cambridge, yet I can ride my bike for less than five minutes and see grazing cows. So we always seem to be encountering spring babies without even trying.

The path Anya and I take to her school borders a little stream where lives the cutest little family of ducks. There's eleven little babies. I wish my pictures were better so you could see how dang cute these little ducklings are. At the beginning of this week they swam in a tight little cluster right next to their mama, and already by today I see them individually off on their own adventures. Anya and I are loving checking out these ducks this week.

Last weekend we were out walking on an estate near London where we found these little babies. We've never seen anything like these birds. Cross breed of a duck and goose perhaps? The babies' bodies look like little goslings, but their beaks look like ducks.

I didn't mention before that a highlight of our northern trip was watching all the baby lambs everywhere. Watching them leaping around just doesn't get old. By the way, most of the farmers seem to mark their lambs with bright blue or red paint. Don't they realize how much better our pictures would look without the markings?

It's kind of hard getting a close-up photo of a lamb. They run away when you get close. Camille pointed out to me that that must be the reason behind the word "sheepish."

This isn't a baby, obviously, but another sign of spring is the return of the pheasants. It strikes me as such an only in England experience that Mike rides through a field of pheasants on his commute to work everyday. You know how in period English films the men are out proving how manly they are by going out and shooting pheasants? Ha! After spending time with pheasants I'm not the least bit impressed. They have to be one of the stupidest birds around. They're so slow to get out of the way of people, bikes or cars that I'm convinced I could catch one if I tried.

Oh, how I love spring in England!

The North

The last part of our vacation we stayed in the town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, which is right on the border between Northumberland and Scotland. 

Just to the south of Berwick is Holy Island. You can drive onto the island at low tide. There's signs everywhere to check the tide tables, because at high tide the road disappears. It's a lovely place, and quiet despite the tourists, partly due to a no outsider cars on the island rule (there's a parking lot for tourists right as you enter the island).

There's a rather small castle on the island that was converted into a vacation home in the early 1900s that I mentioned in an earlier post. It's the most cosy castle we've seen, full of smallish rooms decorated in an arts and craft style. But it's the seaside location surrounded by beaches and grazing sheep that really makes it special. Holy Island also has abbey ruins you can visit and a few shops and restaurants.

One day we took an hour train ride up to Edinburgh for the day. At the time, my girls claimed it was their favorite European city. They loved the Scottish accent, the bagpipe players, and the kilts - both the ones people wore for show and the ones men wore for everyday wear.

Have I mentioned lately that we're Harry Potter fans? JK Rowling wrote the first Harry Potter books in cafes around Edinburgh. We visited one, the Elephant House. 

The kids were pretty good about walking around Edinburgh, except that it's a steep walk from the train station to the main part of town. Luckily, Anya's got her dad wrapped around her finger.

Edinburgh Castle

There's a beautiful park below Edinburgh Castle called Castle Street Gardens where we had a nice picnic, did some walking and tried out the zip line in the children's park (well, Anya did anyway). 

We spent some time window shopping and getting a little culture, courtesy of Sir Walter Scott. 

As we were only in Edinburgh for little more than half a day, I'm sure we missed out on many must-see sights and things to do. We enjoyed our wanderings around the streets of Edinburgh, even with our limited time.

Our last day of vacation we decided we couldn't resist driving up to stand on the border between England and Scotland and also seeing a little bit more of the Scotland coast we'd admired from the train the day before.

We drove to the town of Eyemouth, which is just a few miles over the border. It's not on any must-see sites of Scotland list, but look how pretty! If this randomly picked spot, chosen for convenience is a representative sample, I can see how devoting time to a Scotland trip would be worth your while.

And that concluded our northern tour. It's a beautiful slice of the UK. I'm still feeling a little bit dreamy about having had the opportunity to visit.

Castles, Castles and More Castles

The next part of our trip we went into Northumberland, a castle lovers' dream. Our first stop was Warkworth Castle. It looks over the river Coquet and the village of Warkworth, with the North Sea in view in the distance. My favorite part was all the blooming daffodils surrounding the castle.

We made Warkworth a quick stop, to leave plenty of time for Alnwick Castle. It's home of Harry "Hotspur," famous medieval knight in the times of Henry IV, but to be honest, we were more drawn by its association with Harry Potter. It was used in the first two Harry Potter movies. In honor of its movie ties, they have Harry Potter tours and a Harry Potter magic show, which we thought was very well cast and a lot of fun. The castle itself is still in use by the Duke and Duchess of Northumberland. I'm in love with their library, but unfortunately no cameras are allowed inside.

If you like your castles in ruins overlooking the sea, then Dunstanburgh is the castle for you. There's a beautiful walk approaching the ruins leading through fields, a golf course, and a path overlooking the sea.

We didn't go inside Bamburgh Castle, but instead enjoyed a beautiful walk approaching it along the beach and through the coastal dunes. It's a beautiful beach all by itself. Add the medieval castle in the background and it makes a breathtaking walk. 

Whew. You may have got tired of looking at all these pictures of all these castles, but we sure enjoyed every minute of visiting them.

Along the Way

When Mike mentioned to people at his work that one of the towns we were staying at was Hull, they were quite mystified. Apparently, it was featured prominently in the book Crap Towns. In fact, it took the top spot. I didn't know that when I booked us there. I was more interested in taking advantage of some super bargain hotel rates I found, and this happened to be along the way of our route North. The town has since done some revitalization. The downtown really has some promise, although it is eerily deserted. When we were leaving town and saw this lot, we couldn't resist taking a picture for Mike to share with his colleagues who were skeptical of our vacation choices.

Less than a half an hour's drive from Hull is the town of Beverley, where we found some good places to eat and nice town walks.

Hull does have a really nice aquarium. It would be worth visiting just for that. I had hopes from walking the semi-desereted streets of Hull that we'd have the aquarium to ourselves, but not so. That's where we found all the missing people.

Another day we were in the town of Alnwick. If ever visiting Alnwick, you must visit this used book store. It's in an old train station and features a model train running through the store, an open fire, cosy seating and a huge supply of books.

North Yorkshire

If a vacation day happens, but no one is there to photograph it, does it really count? Sadly, Mike put this to the test on our beautiful day in North Yorkshire, as his camera battery was dead. As you can see, we weren't completely without the ability to take pictures, as we had Camille's point-and-shoot and our camera phones. Still, Mike had to fight off a little dark cloud from ruining his day, imagining all the pictures he'd like to be taking.

Starting in Farndale there is a famous walk that goes along the Dove river where wild daffodils bloom in the spring. We timed it just right to catch the flowers in bloom.

The weather was a little misty and wet, which I decided might have been a blessing - we had the trail to ourselves for much of the time.

Somehow, the stars must have been in perfect alignment, for our girls were completely in the spirit of going for a country walk. These are the sort of fun family times we imagine we should have but generally don't, as either one will want to make sure we are all aware how much she dislikes walking or our girls have flatly refused to come at all. But how fun to have cheerful, enthusiastic girls along!

Misty and foggy Yorkshire. It's simply beautiful driving through the North York Moors National Park.

Cute little Yorkshire village.

And this is quite close to how I imagined the moors from reading my English novels as a girl.

You could really devote a full day, or really weeks, to walking in Yorkshire; however, we didn't want to test our girls' patience. On to our next destination - the seaside town of Whitby.

Whitby has several famous fish and chips shops. I do believe there is a world of difference between the best fish and chips places and the fish and chips you can get on every corner anywhere. We tried out Quayside and really enjoyed them. But Anya stuck with a good ol' American hotdog.

Whitby is filled with cute streets and shops.

 Walking the hill up to Whitby Abbey.

The town of Whitby is featured in the novel Dracula. Can you see why Bram Stoker was inspired by Whitby? Here's a selection from the novel: "Right over the town is the ruin of Whitby Abbey...It is a most nobel ruin, of immense size, and full of beautiful and romantic bits." 

Here's where Mike was really lamenting not having his camera. You'll just have to trust him, that with his proper camera, his photos would be wonderful.

But camera or no camera, we had the most beautiful day in North Yorkshire.