Travel Advice for England

Warning: Unless you're planning a trip to England in the near future, this post will be of limited interest. Often, when we're traveling I think to myself, I should warn people about this, or tell them about that. So here's my list of travel advice for visiting England, based on my travels here this past year.

On the positive side, if you have an unlocked smart phone, once you get here you can purchase prepaid SIM cards for both calls and data very inexpensively. They're sold everywhere - grocery stores, train stations, high street, malls. Just bring your phone with you so you buy the correct size.

On the negative side, do not expect internet connection to be anything like what you're used to from other countries. We won't have even crossed outside the border of Cambridge before our phones will lose connection with the internet. Have all your information for the day available offline, because you will not be able to count on accessing it wherever you go.

Related to above, have paper maps with you, because you can't count on having access to GPS through your phone. Many, many times we've been driving in the countryside and my husband needs to know what road to take while I'm telling him to hold on - the internet won't connect.

Everyone in the UK has a chip & pin debit/credit card. Most banks in the US don't issue them on a regular basis, but many will give you one if you request it. Do yourself a favor and get a chip & pin card before you come to the UK. The farther you get from big cities, the less likely it is that businesses will know what to do with, or even have the equipment to process, your US-style credit card. The other option, of course, is just carrying lots and lots of cash around, but I personally like to avoid cash when possible.

When I moved here I brought my flip-flops and sent my umbrella and raincoat on the slow boat, you know, because it was June. On another trip I packed light spring clothes because it was April. Both decisions were just silly. You can get any weather, any time of the year. Pack accordingly.

Do you have kids who consider being thirsty an emergency that needs to be dealt with immediately? Then definitely bring your own water bottles. Public drinking fountains are rarely available in the UK (at least in comparison to the US).

The tipping system is completely different here. Here's what we've figured out. Places where you prepay for your food, like pubs and cafes, people rarely tip. In restaurants, the standard tip is lower than the US, around 10-12 percent. But if you're paying for your meal with a credit card or your chip & pin card, know that the machines will rarely have that feature standard in the US where it asks you how much tip you'd like to add. You either need to have cash for your tip or ask your waiter to add the tip amount in ahead of time.

In the US, it's standard to be given your bill at the end of the meal. Here, it's considered rude to rush a customer by giving them the check unrequested. I've wondered how long one would have to sit in a restaurant politely waiting for the waiter to bring you your check if you didn't ever ask for it. When they start to sweep and put up the chairs? When the lights are being turned off? I've never had the patience and or nerve to test that out. Anyway, don't sit demurely waiting for your bill to arrive at the end of a meal. If you're ready to leave, request your bill (not the check).

On long road trips in the US, my kids will often ask for a treat at the rest area. Since they will have had nothing but fast food all day, I'll say something like, "Ok, but only if it's healthy." Ha! Generally the closest thing you can find to health food in a US rest stop is a bruised banana and maybe some Corn Nuts (corn is a vegetable, right?). Anyway, it was lovely to discover that England has Real Food at rest stops. There is usually an M&S or Little Waitrose (kind of like a small Trader Joes?) with things like a stocked fruit and vegetable section and fresh soups and sandwiches (not scary ones like you'd find at 7-11). OK, we still sometimes end up with something like a bag of chips and a Diet Coke, but it's refreshing that healthy is available.

If you are only traveling with adults, England is full of beautiful country inns and bed and breakfasts. But traveling with kids, I don't like this option as, one, I'd have to buy two rooms, and two, my kids are not impressed with quaint. They like wi-fi, t.v.s, modern bathrooms and a bed of their own. So we've found that Premier Inn is a great hotel chain here that has all the amenities my kids enjoy. The rooms come with a queen bed (although a UK queen is more like a US double) and two twin beds and the chain is moderately priced. I'm generally willing to give up charm to keep my kids happy on vacations. We've also had good luck with renting apartments through agencies like Airbnb, Holidaycottages.co.uk, and Skyecottage.co.uk.

Almost all of England is on the same school holiday schedule, so it's good to be aware of it. For instance, this year the kids don't get out of school until near the end of July. So if you were planning a summer trip to England in June or early July, you could find more availability and better prices. Also, any place remotely family friendly will be less crowded.

Depending on your trip, it can be worth it to purchase discount travel cards or memberships. If you're doing a lot of travel by train, for thirty pounds you can buy a Friends & Family Railcard, a Two Together Railcard, or a Senior Railcard, offering enough savings on train tickets to possibly pay for itself in one or two journeys. English Heritage is an organization that runs a number of historical sites. They offer a overseas visitor card for 50 pounds for a family. If you were visiting just Stonehenge and Dover Castle and bought the tickets individually, it would cost over 80 pounds.

Know that car rentals will almost always be manuals. If you're uncomfortable with stick shifts, particularly operating one with your left hand, you can specially request an automatic, but will pay considerably more. I've heard the recommendation, and think it's good advice, if you're flying into London, consider going without a car in London, travel to your next destination by train, and then rent a car from there. That way your introduction to driving on the left won't be in city traffic.

There's a lot of really good pubs, country inns, Indian food restaurants and fish and chip shops in England. However, they're not universally good, so doing a little research will improve your English eating experience. If you've tired of the above fare, and are looking for something safe and easy, these are the chain restaurants that we like in England. Nando's (Portuguese grilled chicken), Gourmet Burger Kitchen, Pret-a-Manger (breakfast foods, sandwiches, soups), Jamie Oliver/Jamie's (he owns a number of restaurants throughout England which we've had good luck at), Le Pain Quotidien (casual French), and Wildwood (pizza).

Anniversary

This last week we celebrated our one year anniversary of being in England. After I convinced my children that admitting there are things they like about England is in no way a sign of disloyalty to America, we each came up with a list of three things we like about living in England. Mine I won't share, as it will just be a repeat of things I'm always mentioning in this blog. Here's what the rest of the family came up with:

Mike:
Convenient to visiting different parts of the world
Living in a city
Beautiful countryside

Anya:
Checking off locations from her Monopoly English Heritage game
Kids are friendlier
The buildings are made of bricks

Camille:
Crumpets and scones and really good salted butter
School (she likes her teachers and classes)
English accents

Sometimes it's hard to be away, but it was nice to take a moment to think about what we love about our temporary home.

May Bumps

I was told one of the big events of the year in Cambridge is May Bumps - somewhat mysteriously scheduled in June. Mike and I decided we must go and see what all the fuss is about. Rowing is the sport of Cambridge. The River Cam isn't wide enough for large side-by-side races, so they race in another style.

There's a real old-school, college atmosphere to the day. The alumni are all out to support in their college jackets and sweaters.Cambridge University is made up of over 30 colleges many of whom compete in the rowing event.

The teams start in a vertical line, spaced about one and half boat lengths apart. The goal is to catch-up and bump the team in front of you. Or at the very least, not get bumped by the team behind you. Once you've bumped or been bumped, you pull off to the side of the river to make space for the other teams. This team is wearing riverside foliage in their shirts, because they've managed to bump the team in front of them in their race. They're holding a flag, because over the course of the four day Bumps, they've bumped a team in every race they were in. There's a complicated system of placing that I won't explain, mostly because I don't understand it.

This cottage has nothing to do with May Bumps, except that we passed it on our way and I thought it was cute. I get easily distracted at sporting events.

We didn't have someone explain the event before we went, and you can only see a small section of the river from one place, leaving us a little confused at the time. It was a fun atmosphere anyway. College groups have tents and alumni events set up along the river, friends and families have picnics set up. Most people looked pretty settled in for the day.

I realize it's a little silly that I grew up in Seattle - also a big rowing community - and never attended a single event, yet I'm here in Cambridge for one year and make it a priority to get to an event. Some of it is the pressure of wanting to experience as much as possible in one year, and the rest is the joy of living within walking distance. Cut out commute, traffic and parking hassles, and most events become much more enticing.

Cars

I'm in a post-vacation state of lack of ambition for doing anything blog post worthy as of late. I haven't even been able to work up the ambition to go to a movie this week. What sounds even better is sitting around my yard and reading books. I'm not going to post any selfies of me out in the yard reading a book. One, not interesting, and two, I'd rather not reveal the state of my yard.

Instead, I'll post some car pictures we've taken over the last year. These all fit my image of what people in Europe drive, even though in reality, it's generally more compacts and very small minivans/station wagons they call "people movers."

I'm not even sure what these cars are, but I can picture someone from an Agatha Christie or Mary Stewart novel driving around in one.

 Love the old Minis, that really are mini.

 Sadly, I've only seen people driving around in chauffeured Rolls Royces in wedding scenarios.

 If I were a single person in a European city I'd happily drive this cheerful yellow car around.

Classic MGs.

 If you're parking a car in front of a half-timbered medieval cottage, you can't go wrong with a Morgan.

 I know the 2CV is French, but it fits my idea of a proper car for English village driving.

Loved all these little Fiats we saw in Italy. Half the cars you see in Italy really are tiny, tiny Fiats or tiny, tiny Smart cars. Italian men are not afraid of driving small cars. They also have the world's smallest trucks, which only have three tires. We wished we could borrow one for a family picture.

Now that I've given you an unrealistic, romantic vision of driving in England, don't come and become disillusioned when all you see are Fords, Vauxhalls & Volkswagens.

Rained Out

This weekend was Cambridge's Strawberry Fair and Parade. We planned on going to the parade and then maybe going out to the countryside for a little outing. Right when the parade was scheduled to start though, it started to POUR. It hasn't rained so heavily for such a sustained amount of time for months. 

Here is the busy parade route. We passed only one person who looked like he was waiting for the parade to begin. He declared, "I'm an eternal optimist!"

All we experienced of the parade was seeing this group of performers huddled under a tree, waiting for the rain to clear.

After walking around in the pouring rain for fifteen or twenty minutes, we decided we'd had enough festivities for the day and traded in our outing ambitious for a weekend of movies (we saw Maleficent and all liked it), reading and going out to dinner. Funny thing though, maybe a half hour or so after we gave up, we could hear the rain had stopped and the parade went on. Then by the afternoon, it turned out beautifully sunny and warm and stayed that way the rest of the weekend. But by that time we'd mentally cashed out and couldn't get ourselves in the outing mindset again. So we enjoyed our lazy weekend, but I'm feeling a little bit guilty about wasting one and a half beautiful, summery days in England.

Amalfi Coast

Rome, Pompeii, and hanging out in the sunshine in a little Italian town were all well and good. What I'd really planned this vacation around though, was seeing the Amalfi Coast. Our last full day in Italy we did one of the boat tours that run from Sorrento. It was worth the wait.

The first part of the tour left Sorrento and headed to take us by the island of Capri. Such beautiful coastline. Staying in Capri and taking boats out everyday to take in all the cliffs and caves and coves would be a just lovely vacation.

Off the coast of Capri, the boat stopped to let us swim. I was set on doing it, more out of not missing a chance to swim in the Mediterranean than anticipating it being enjoyable. I'm a wimp when it comes to needing everything to be just right when it comes to swimming. But the water was surprisingly perfect! We all loved our quick swim and wished we could have had more time. 

I overcame my horror of posting a photo of myself in a bathing suit because I was so amused at seeing how ghostly white we all are after living in England for a year. Not a lot of tanning opportunities in Cambridge.

From Capri we headed over to the Amalfi Coast. The first "major" town we passed was Positano. Positano has one road, and all the rest of the town is so steep it's just stairs. We could have got off here, but we elected not to so we wouldn't miss the rest of the trip. Plus Anya was not impressed the idea of a town consisting almost entirely of stairs.

See the little stone bridge on the side of the cliff? There's a road that goes along the Amalfi Coast that's supposed to be a dramatically beautiful drive. After reading about southern Italian driving, I'd ruled out renting a car for this trip though. And I'm glad I did after our taxi ride in Rome - weaving in and out of lanes, high speeds, passing a few more cars moments before an exit, driving down roads and tramways clearly marked "no cars." Not for the faint of heart. The other option is taking a public bus that runs along the road between Sorrento and Positano and Amalfi. It's supposed to be one of the world's most beautiful bus rides, but with the possibility of not getting a view seat and even more possibly being car sick the whole way, I'm glad we chose the boat option.

The last town along our tour was Amalfi. 

The boat let us out at Amalfi for a quick hour and a half tour. It was just enough time for lunch, some gelato and a quick stroll through town. Does anybody else like the movie To Catch a Thief? Amalfi's beach (upper right photo) looked straight out of the movie to me. Even though the movie takes place in France.

What a glorious day we had. Don't you love it when things live up to your built-up expectations?

Pompeii and Vesuvius

I chose our vacation destination in part due to our ability to take the kids to see the Coliseum and Pompeii. They'd both read about it and possibly seen documentaries or studied it in school. My kids were excited to see Pompeii. Even so, I wasn't sure how the day would go. Sometimes they get someplace they want to go, take a quick look around, and start wondering when we're leaving. I wasn't sure if a bunch of ruins would catch their attention, but it really did. We all wandered for a good three hours or more, completely fascinated by the beauty, details and history of this city.

See how excited and amazed Anya is? I'm sure this shot was completely candid ;)

 Many of the buildings are just ruins, but some still have their original frescoes.

 The remains of a temple.

 One of the amphitheaters of Pompeii.

These little rooms are thought to have been barracks for the gladiators.

This is the courtyard of the bath house. The rooms surrounding it are changing rooms and different temperature baths, some for men and some for women.

 Looking down what was once a residential street of Pompeii.

When they were doing the excavation, plaster was poured into the empty spaces to get an idea of what had been there. Now there are rather dramatic models of people and animals from Pompeii who died overcome by the ash. This person was covering his face. 

Much of the artwork from Pompeii has been transferred to museums, but there's still some examples of statues, mosaics and frescoes.

Anya was keen to see the House of the Tragic Poet, famous for this dog mosaic with the warning Cave Canem - Beware of Dog. The area was covered by glass so you can't see the detail in our picture.

From the same train stop as Pompeii, you can take a tour bus to Vesuvius.

See that little road and huge bus? It's a two-way road with plenty of tour bus traffic. Each time we rounded a tight corner or passed another bus with what looked like about an inch of room Mike and I would hold our breath and hope for the best.

 The girls seemed blissfully unaware of what a nerve-wracking ride it was.

 Looking down into the caldera.

There's no lava to see, but you can see places where steam is escaping from the volcano. 

The climb from the parking lot is steep, but short - maybe only a twenty minute walk. It was well worth the effort to see such a perfect example of an active volcano, the same one that did such damage two thousand years ago.

Our day at Pompeii and Vesuvius was quite a highlight, I'm sure one of the top things my girls will remember from our travels this year. It's also easy to do from Sorrento or Vico Equense. The train that runs through the towns goes right to Pompeii, and the site is just steps away from the station.