Hamburg

Our first stop during our week long German holiday was Hamburg. We arrived into the city without a problem but once we were at the main train station, we waited for quite some time in anticipation of catching a bus to the part of town where our hotel was located. After a while, we realized no buses were stopping at our bus stop and then we figured out that the bus route was not in progress that day due to a street festival taking place between the train station and the location of our hotel! We ended up wheeling all of our luggage the few miles down the road (and through the entire street festival!) to our hotel....

After we deposited our luggage at our hotel, we went back to enjoy the street festival.

The festival included pretzels as big as our heads!

And of course great Germany "street" food for snacking...

The mushrooms caught our eye...

As well as the sausages - of course the first of MANY to come...

So, we dug into the mushrooms covered in aioli sauce. A pretty tasty snack for the travelers who had just arrived!

Cris, Craig, and Scott perched on a table enjoying our street food snacks.

After a snack, we went out exploring Hamburg. It was a neat city with water in the main part of town, making it quite picturesque.

A main street in the central town area - located on the "Inner Alster".

The Hamburg Rathaus - the impressive city hall or town hall - which is the seat of government of Hamburg.

My handsome husband outside the Rathaus area, in the main city centre.

We enjoyed dinner outside on this dock, a nice little restaurant on the Lake Binnenalster.

We passed a nice sunset on our walk home that evening back to the hotel.

Cris, Craig, and Scott (sporting the pink Vera bag yet again!) at the Hamburg Central Train Station as we were waiting to leave for our train to Berlin.

!

The impressive central station in Hamburg. The German train stations are really top notch!

Charlecote Park

While Scott's parents were with us at our house (post Germany) having some additional down time before they went on to Scotland, I went with them for an afternoon at a nearby National Trust property - Charlecote Park. Luckily the rain held out for us for while we toured the property and grounds.

Charlecote Park is a grand 16th century country house in a deer park on the banks of the River Avon. It has been home to the Lucy Family since the 15th century and the grounds feature a beautiful formal garden, woodland walk, and great parkland which has a herd of deer that have been in the park since Tudor times. Charlecote Park was built in 1558 by Sir Thomas Lucy and Queen Elizabeth I stayed in the room that is now the drawing room

The entrance to the property is this gate and this fence runs all the way around the property. The fence is uneven in nature on purpose, as it apparently confuses the deer so they cannot escape over it.

The main house at Charlecote Park. (Unfortunately it was closed on the day we visited so we did not get to tour the inside).

Craig & Cris in front of the "gate house" on the property.

The beautiful formal garden with the river Avon just below it.

The ugliest sheep we have yet to see! These Portugese sheep are roaming all over the property (but not near the house where most of the tourists go). Not only are there sheep wandering around on property, but there are quite a few deer. Charlecote Park covers 185 acres, so there is a lot of room for the animals to wander. Historical stories recount that William Shakespeare poached deer in the park as a young man - but apparently it wasn't a deer park at that time.

Across the street, near the parking lot for the property, is a lovely nursery and garden centre that the National Trust runs. It featured many beautiful flowers, vegetables and plants of all kinds. We enjoyed wandering around the nursery area looking at all of the flowers in bloom, to see what various kinds were on offer. The prices at this nursery were super reasonable as well - a great find for a planting or gardening addict!

World Cup Fever

English football fans are....well, dare I say they are a bit fanatical?

So, with the World Cup starting, English pride is everywhere in this country. The flag of St. George is flying high in every pub, barber shop, grocery store and more. Take a walk down a high street and you will see a sea of promotional windows featuring various red crosses on white backgrounds, showcasing the flag of St. George.

The paraphanial is being sold in all shapes and sizes, including ever-popular car window flags.

All along the motorway and in town, cars are zipping by with these English flags flying out of their windows. I have not been able to take a photo of a car in action, but today in the parking lot I did snap a photo of a car with a windsock hanging on the side of it. All of these car window flags are quite a sight - one I cannot imagine is the same in the US but it surely adds to the excitement for the world cup tournament.

We are headed to a world cup party tonight and it will be a divided crowd of Brits and Amereicans....we will be cheering "GO USA!!!!!"

Summing up Germany

We are back from a week's vacation in Germany and full blog posts of our time there will follow. In the meantime, there are three elements to sum up our time there.

Number 1: Rain. 

Rain, rain and more rain was the unfortunate weather theme during our time in Germany....

Number 2: Beer.

Beer is king in Germany. Steins of beer at every stop. Hence Germany being the home to Oktoberfest.

Number 3: Sausage. 

While the sausage was delicious, there can be too much of a good thing. Scott & I have decided we may have to politely decline any summer bbq invitations that involve bratwurts. 

Traditional Afternoon Tea

Scott's parents have arrived in England for a visit for the next month. They spent a few days in London first and then they arrived in our little town a few days later. The day they arrived was my mother-in-law's birthday and so to celebrate we went to a traditional afternoon tea to celebrate her birthday (a day late). We went to a lovely hotel with magnificent grounds called Coombe Abbey. Originally a 12th Century Cistercian Abbey nestling in England's historic heartland in Warwickshire, the Coombe Abbey Hotel has been restored and it is set within 500 acres of breathtaking parkland. It was a lovely way to spend a beautiful afternoon in England! 

The traditional afternoon tea was lovely. The cakes and tea sandwiches were delicious! 

My own little pot of English tea. Heaven! 

Cris & Craig at the entrance to the beautiful hotel. 

Beautiful white swans were swimming around the canal area by the entrance to the hotel.

Looks like a secret garden entrance on the hotel grounds....

Leading to the grounds of the hotel leading into the parkland area. 

A view of the Coombe Abbey Hotel. 

Seas of Yellow

England in May looks like a sea of yellow in parts of the countryside. I love driving along the motorway and glimpsing to the side where the sight is an entire field of bright yellow. The yellow flower is rapeseed crop and apparently England produces a lot of this crop - enough to be one of the in the top ten worldwide countries producing this crop. 

Nearing the end of May, the fields of vibrant color are starting to fade a bit but I sure have enjoyed the sea of yellow around us this spring.

A taste of Turkey

On Sunday, we hosted one of Scott's Turkish colleagues for dinner at our house while he was in town for a work meeting. When he arrived at our house, he gave me this box as a hostess gift. 

I wanted to open it and eat the entire box before dinner since it contained baklava from the Turkish establishment I nicknamed "Baklava Heaven" while we were visiting Istanbul! Luckily, I restrained myself and politely served (a few) pieces of the delicious baklava with our dessert. And now all week I have slowly been indulging in this Turkish treat that is probably my most favorite food from our time in Istanbul. And of course Scott's colleague is welcome at our house anytime he brings back more of this heavenly dessert straight from the source!! 

It's Gorgeous...revisited

I recently posted a bit about the meaning of the word GORGEOUS and how it is used over here in England. Today, as I put two boxes of kleenex into my shopping trolley (aka as shopping cart), the different use of this word resurfaced....

How do Kleenex tissues feel gorgeous?

I now am curious to know if anyone has seen such marketing on Kleenex tissue boxes in the US?

Petersham Nurseries

I was in London recently and was able to meet my friend, Lauren, and her mom who was visiting from the US. We had lunch in a what appeared to be a rather strange location (at first) but after visiting Petersham Nurseries, I could see why it is a favorite location of those who live in the area. To get to this nursery, I took the green (district line) tube stop from the city all of the way to the end - the Richmond stop. Then, there is a beautiful walk along the river Thames to get to Petersham Nurseries. It was quite busy and such a pretty sight to see...most definitely worth an afternoon out with the ladies if you are in London or the area and have some time for English gardening inspiration. 

The greenhouses and nurseries are all filled with lots of plants, flowers, gardening treasures and even furniture for sale. 

Inside the nursery, there are two restaurant areas - a more formal restaurant and then the Petersham Cafe. 

We ate outside in the cafe area. It was such a neat mix of mismatched chairs and tables. The food was excellent as well! The cakes were delicious...

Miss Molly joined us for lunch too although I think she enjoyed popping in and out of some of the garden pots the most! 

A Rainy Day in Worcester

Yesterday we had nothing on our agenda, so I wanted to get out and take advantage of our English Heritage passes to see another one of their properties in the region. After I had a meeting for work in the town of Worcester (home and namesake of the famous Worcestershire sauce) a few weeks ago, I thought we should go back there to see what the town has to offer. Unfortunately we did not find the original location of the sauce, but the town was quite picturesque, despite the rainy Saturday on which we visited....

The town of Worcester is home to a rather large cathedral, The Worcester Cathedral, which really is quite a magnificent cathedral. It sits on a bank overlooking the River Severn. This cathedral actually remains free to tour. (although donations are appreciated so we did opt to participate to help keep it free to the public). 

Built between 1084 and 1504, Worcester Cathedral represents every style of English architecture from Norman to Perpendicular Gothic. It is famous for its Norman crypyt and unique chapter house, its unusual Transitional Gothic bays, its fine woodwork and its "exquisite" central tower. For once, we actually did not climb the tower here....thought our legs would appreciate the rest this time around! 

Inside the cathedral are a number of tombs...one of them we found to be most interesting was that of Henry VIII's brother, Arthur Tudor. From our extensive knowledge of English history (or watching the series The Tudors, supplemented with some actual historical reading), we remembered that Arthur Tudor was actually married to Catherine of Aragon before she was married to Henry VIII. Arthur died only a few months into their marriage while they were on their honeymoon, so the marriage was declared null and thus Catherine could marry Arthur's brother, Henry. Talk about keeping it all in the family!

The beautiful East Window of the Cathedral.

Back into the rain....

After touring the cathedral and a late lunch in town, we ventured over to Witley Court just outside the city. Witley Court was once one of the great manor houses of the Midlands, but today it is just a ruin house, as it was destroyed largely in a fire in 1937. Today, there is still a large shell of the manor house but the gardens and fountain have become the focal point for visitors to see. 

From the inside of the remains of the house, looking out onto the back lawn with the great fountain and gardens. 

We walked to the very back of the property, and saw this view of the fountain and the manor house which was beautiful. Every hour this main fountain goes off and puts on a little show for the visitors to watch. 

The lady at the front desk when we arrived kept talking about the flowers at the very back of the garden. They were in full bloom and smelled quite fragrant as well.

One of the side gardens and a smaller fountain.