Like a lot of British people, I should start every blog post now centered around the weather. The coldest April in forty years—that’s what this like here this year. We were freezing, wearing hats, gloves and down coats. Okay, weather note done.
On the first day of spring break, we got visitors!! Our great friends from Japan, the Farnsworths drove from Germany to visit England, London and us. We had a great time with them! The kids had a blast too. So great to see old friends.
On one of the days that they were here we drove to Windsor Castle. Who knew it was going to be one of the busiest days of the year to go to the castle??? And who knew that we should have purchased our tickets online????
We stood in the line to get tickets for 2 hours in this freezing weather.
While in line, we saw the change of guard band march by…but that’s all we could see because the ceremony itself was on castle grounds.
After two hours, the kids were pretty much done with sightseeing-haha. We did manage to get audio guides which made the walk inside much more interesting. The kids had a kids’ guide, so that was helpful too. It is truly a beautiful place and we’ll need to visit it some day when it is not that cold.
On Easter Sunday, we, as the privileged owners (renters) of the biggest backyard in the area, hosted an Easter lunch and Easter Egg Hunt. We had eleven families over with an average of three children each. We are lucky to have a large living room/dining room area and a humongous backyard. This is most of the children who participated.
On Monday, April 1st, it was still sooooo cold. We, nevertheless, braved the cold and headed to Audley End House, a beautiful estate house about 40 minutes from us. We were not allowed to take pictures inside. It is so-called Jacobean mansion, built between 1603 and 1604. As always, it is neat to walk through the great hall and reception rooms and see what it used to be like to live in a place like that. One interesting fact about this place is that during the Second World War, Aduley End was a secret training station for Polish soldiers.
The kids had to find Easter Egg signs with letters to find out what the code phrase is to claim their chocolate prize. We walked all over—the gardens, the horse stables, the house and found all the clues.
Here is Erin and I—freezing.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, our friends spent in London, enjoying all the famous sights. They left on Thursday morning, the day before we were leaving on our Wales trip. I do wish they could have stayed longer so we could go to more non-London sights around, but it just did not work well with our schedule.
The moral of the story is: even if you have four kids, you can still come visit us and we’ll find room for you. That way you can be telling your own stories of archaic British toilets at the Watson house, right, Dave?
Lyana.
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