“Happy Birthday”, Croughton Style.

A week after our move, Robert’s birthday was coming up. Usually, if he is lucky, he gets a day off ON his birthday (nice perk, eh?). We were excited since we could use that day to actually get something done in our new house. But about a month before the move, we found out that Robert is needed to go to RAF Croughton to help out at the dental clinic there since they were short-staffed. Originally, he was asked to go there during the first week of August, but that’s when we were going to Scotland; then he was asked to go during the second week of August, but that was the week we were moving (and the boss was nice enough to let him off the hook); the only other option was to go there after we moved but that would mean Robert was going to be away on his birthday.  We decided that it would be fun to join him on the night before his birthday and celebrate the following day with him.

This is where the two bases are—RAF Alconbury and RAF Croughton. It’s about an hour and a half drive, but Robert stayed at the other base because it was easier.

So the night before Robert’s birthday, we met up at the half-way point, at Ikea in Milton Keynes, bought a big set of drawers and some meatballs. That night we all squished into Robert’s “hotel” room where the boys slept on the couch in the “living room” and Katya slept on the floor. It was still fun (despite the weird bright green light on the ceiling!haha).

The following morning, Robert somehow managed to get a few hours off so we were able to spend some time with him! He got his presents of course, and the most surprising one was the new Ipad. It was a true surprise for him since he knows my opinion about all the “gadgets” and things that create more disciplinary actions for our kids…sigh. But, nevertheless, he was very-very excited!

That morning, we also drove to a nearby town, 20 min away, to see our very good friend’s mother, who is Scottish. She lives alone and has not been back to the states for over four years now. We had met her a couple of times when she had come to visit her family in Minnesota (that’s where our friends live), so it was nice to chat with her, even for such a short time.

After lunch, Robert had to go back to work, but the kids and I drove to Blenheim Palace, the birthplace of Winston Churchill. Blenheim Palace was a gift from Queen Anne to John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough following his famous victory at the Battle of Blenheim in 1704.

This time, we decided not to go inside the Palace because we simply did not have enough time…plus I did not want to wonder through all the state rooms with three kids (who really wanted to just run around)…and it was expensive. Instead, we choose to visit the garden part of the property. It was huge! The playground was fun, but the maze was the biggest hit.

Butterfly house was small, but we did see some pretty butterflies, although in this picture, it seems that the boys are looking for fish in the pond and not for butterflies.

“Ready, set, JUMP!” attempts.

It’s an enormous palace, so I really hope we come back here again. It’s located only 8 miles from Oxford.

We drove back to RAF Croughton and met up with Robert for dinner.

We went to a charming village of Deddington, with intention to eat at The Crown & Tuns, but since it didn’t open till six, we walked around high street, pass the church and the cemetary.

The restaurant was worth the wait! Holy cow—the BEST British pies I have ever tasted!

Some tiny hedgehogs joined us for dinner as well.

We all loved that place and if we are ever in the area,  it will be a definite place for dinner!

Of course, we could not finish Robert’s birthday without something sweet! My wonderful friend, Mallory, the official cupcake lady around here, made Robert these delicious  cupcakes that we all could enjoy!

Happy Birthday, sweetie, hope it was a fun one! We love you very much!

We Have Moved!

We have been in our house for exactly two weeks at the time I am writing this blog post.  There is no internet at the new house—still! And we won’t get it until Sept. 3rd (one more week) because that’s how things are done in the UK—takes three weeks for someone to come around and flip the switch, but whatever;). We are borrowing our neighbor’s wi-fi, so we are able to use internet in a certain spot in our living room.

Our house is not crooked. It’s the picture:).

So far, that is the only negative to our house that I can find. Everything else turned out so much better than I anticipated. All that lack of space not that noticeable, and the fact that we now will have to have our desktop and office desk in our living room is going to be okay. Alex got the biggest room this time because has the biggest bed that becomes our guest bed if we have visitors. Katya got a room that is very cozy and is just the perfect size. Mark got a closet. Well, not a closet, but a tiny room where we can only fit a single bed, a dresser and a armchair (we still read books with him in the evenings).

We also had to buy a few pieces of furniture—like a big dresser (from IKEA) for Robert’s clothes since the closet in our room is not big enough for both of our hanging and folded clothes. We also got some night stands for the kids and still looking for a bookshelf for Alex’s room to hold a million of our picture albums (kids love them!).

The yard is just the right size, although Mark thinks it’s too small. We have a great apple tree in the back that the kids have been shaking to get some more apples down. It is beautiful in the backyard as we have a big old oak tree and a squirrel name Icy (or Icee? or Isee?).  

We have a garage where we will most likely be only storing extra stuff like Christmas decorations and bikes. The good thing about moving to "base owned housing” is that we are allowed to send some furniture or any stuff to storage, although we won’t see it until we move out of here since it will be in the states. So we have some things we have decided to send to storage, such as a box of some framed pictures, our Japanese table and a few more decorative items.

We love our neighborhood. I mean, that was the main reason we moved—so the kids could play and  ride their bikes next to our house. It’s amazing what a difference that makes! We have learned our lesson. People are so friendly here. In the evenings, we can just sit out and have “street parties” where people just chat, snack and drink, and that’s exactly what we have been missing—feeling like we are part of a community.

We have nine houses on our street, and probably 25 children! Because most of the people on the street are higher ranking officers’ families, their children are older as well—only one kid is younger than Mark. We have a good mix of teenagers and mostly kids ages 9-13. Most kids go to the base school, so the bus comes to our street at 7:45 and drops the kids off at 3:27.  Katya is going to be going to the base school, so I’ll have to rush home to be here right after I get the boys from the village school.

The neighborhood is also regularly patrolled by these British Police guys who are responsible for US Forces off base.

Oh yes, so the name of our village is Brampton. It’s a good size village with High Street (main street) that has pretty much the same standard British village things—Post Office, Fish and Chips place, Chinese Takeaway, Co-op shop for quick grocery trips, hair place, gift shop and a butcher. I am sure there is more, but for now, that’s what we have seen.

Brampton is connected to Huntingdon, which is a bigger town. It has a lot of jogging and biking trails. When you get out there on your bike, that’s when you realize again that you are in the middle of the countryside. The cows love Alex.

And the best part of our house is our Fun House mirror on the door of our master bedroom! Who doesn’t want a crooked mirror?

Obviously, maintenance people are going to be coming soon to replace it, but it makes us wonder how come people before us never replaced it.

So, now that we are moved and are located even closer to the train station (and the train that takes you to London), come visit us! But let us know ASAP, as our two year schedule is filling up fast!

Hadrian’s Wall

Happy Columbus Day to you today!  Robert and Katya are home, but the boys are at school, since only Americans celebrate Columbus-hehehe.

Back to August for a moment…On our way back from Scotland, we made a short detour from the straight route, passing Glasgow and turning off at Carlisle towards Hexham (that’s point B).

The area west of Newcastle-Upon-Tyne is the general area where in AD122, Emperor Hadrian ordered to build the 118-km long Hadrian’s Wall. It marked the northernmost border of the Roman province of Brittania. It was meant to protect from the “barbarians” from the North.

Hexham is the sight of an ancient Roman fort—Housesteads Fort, built on a steep slope.

Kids just wanted to run around, I think they were pretty done with sightseeing of any kind of ruins.

Mark was doing some yoga moves.

And Robert was jus taking pictures of the bathroom.  This is a communal latrine. You can see on the picture explaining how it was set up centuries ago.

Robert’s dream is to go on a Hadrian’s Wall hike someday and cross England from one sea to another. It would be fun, right? (and hard).

Well, that is it for now (I know…this post was lacking any depth-haha). We have so much to explore in Great Britain still!

Cheers,

Lyana.

Scotland: Glencoe and Loch Lomond

We do realize that spending five full days in Scotland is not enough to see even half of what it has to offer. The area is so beautiful!

If we had driven straight from the house in the Highlands to our home, it would have taken us nine hours. So to break up the drive, our plan was to stay in the area of Loch Lomond and Glasgow.

On the way there, the route I planned took us trough Glencoe, meaning “Valley of Weeping”.

I think this was my favorite place out of the ones we visited, besides the view from our house. The scenery was simply spectacular.

This is the place where a few movies were filmed as well, including Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. This is where a set for Hagrid’s hut was built. Some of the other movies you might have heard of are Highlander, starring Sean Connery & Christopher Lambert, Monty Python and the Search for the Holy Grail (beware when crossing the bridge to the Lost Valley!) and Rob Roy, starring Liam Neeson.

Historically, this is a very gloomy place. In 1892, a few years after William, Prince of Orange, took the throne in England, and after the Jacobite uprising (when Scottish Highlanders did not want to accept the new English king as their ruler),  Glencoe Massacre happened. Basically, the king sent his people to Glencoe area to convince them to pledge allegiance to the new monarchs. The Clan MacDonald hosted them for ten days or something like that, and then the servants of the king attacked their hosts early in the morning, killing thirty eight members of the clan, plus forty women and children froze to death after their homes were burnt (it was February in Scotland). So, as you see, a very sad story surrounds this place.

I felt guilty for smiling for this picture.

Not really.The place was so beautiful that it was hard not to smile.

We did not have much time to hike around there, so a few of us just jumped out too take a few pictures. These are so much better than pictures we take while riding in the car-haha.

The boys immediately were drawn to the water.

See? One minute it’s cloudy, and a moment later the sun is out.

The road from Glencoe to Loch Lomond is infamous in Scotland. It’s windy and so-so narrow. It took a long time to go over mountain passes, but we enjoyed the view along the way.

We were behind this caravan for ages. In this particular instance, both vehicles had to stop, turn in their mirrors and pass. The caravan still scratched its side on the truck’s mirror.  In fact, it was almost funny how many side view mirrors we found broken on that road!

We stopped over at the Loch Lomond coast to let the kids run around.

It’s another beautiful and famous lake in the Trossachs National Park.  This loch is the largest body of freshwater in mainland Britain.

Mark IS jumping in this picture.

And I had to look carefully to see if Mark is standing or jumping funny here.

Now that’s a proper jump.

Within fifteen minutes, most kids were soaked although the water was freezing. Some brave soles a few yards away from us were actually swimming. Brrr…

From the lake we found our way to Braeholm in Helensburgh. It is place we spent our last night in Scotland. Braeholm is run by Aggie Westons, the Royal Naval charity which has been serving the naval service since 1876. It’s a place where sailors come to spend a few days to relax. It’s also open to other branches of the military, and apparently even visiting forces like us.

We had a huge Indian dinner that night (most dishes were sadly too spicy though). We won’t talk about how long it took us to find that place right in the middle of the city centre.

That’s the place.

After a good night rest we were ready for our final six-hour drive home!

Lyana.

Scotland: Isle Of Skye

On Day 2 of our stay in the magnificent house, we decided to take a road trip to the Isle of Skye, the second largest island in Scotland.

It would have taken us three hours to reach Portree, the main city of Skye, so we decided that for the kids’ sake, we should drive inland to Elgol area, on the south side of the island, just to get a taste of what it’s like there.

The route from Drumnadrochit (our house) to the island took us first along the Loch Ness and then through the beautiful valleys west of Ft. Augustus.

I am used now to the fact that pictures do not express fully beauty of the scenery…

A stop at Eilean Donan was a must! 

A few kilometers before you cross the bridge to the Isle of Skye, you can stop at this beautiful place. It is considered to be the most photographed castle in Scotland. It was here that a few movies you might remember were filmed—“Highlander”, “Entrapment” with Sean Connery, James Bond’s “The World Is Not Enough” and “Elizabeth: The Golden Age”.

We did not go inside the castle, but let the kids play for almost an hour on the shores of the lake surrounding this place.

Just trying to squeeze in a few more pictures of the castle (I think this was the most photographed castle by the Watsons as well).

Ha! Look whom I found--Robert and Merrill, our photographers!

Yeah…this is what most of our family pictures look like. At least one of the kids decides to act funny (or look down). Oh well, it was still a cool place and we needed to capture that.

And here comes the second part of our journey.

After crossing the Big Big Bridge, we arrived at the Isle of Skye.

For some reason, the signs had to remind us about driving on the left side of the road. We are not sure why, but maybe some ferries come from further north in Europe, don’t know. Here is a sample of Gaelic for you though.

As we turned off the main road that dissects the island, we headed for Elgol, a tiny village in the middle of nothing. The cows and sheep were everywhere. And this particular cow was just fond of the “Passing Place” sign.

The road we were on, became a one and a half lane road….and then a one lane road. It was quite brave of us to be driving our big American minivans there.

After about 30 minutes of SLOW driving and looping around the lake in search of a picnic spot, we finally found a great place.

Somehow, simultaneously, 70% of our group decided that they need to use the restroom. Yeah, seriously. What restroom in the middle of the Isle of Skye wilderness? It had become almost comical when Robert had to go over to the grove of trees a little further from where we based our picnic and establish a fresh air bathroom—with toilet paper holder and even a log to give you a bit more comfort.  Yes, that experience was unforgettable.

We set out on a short hike, just to let the kids run around a bit.

Beauty was all around us.

And it was incredible how quickly the weather was changing—it was sunny one moment and five minutes later gray clouds were showing their face behind the mountain, then sunny again, and a drizzle moments later. 

After a quick hike, we headed towards the tiny village of Elgol. I am not sure how people living here survive driving such narrow, twisty and mountainous roads. All I do know that they have a beautiful scenery to enjoy every season of the year.

On the way back to the main road, we stopped by one of the lakes, just so that Alex could get his fix of “exploring” wearing his wellies.

We braved the wind as well.

 

Our kids could have stayed there for hours, actually. They love all this yucky gross spongy stuff.

This stuff was just weird:).

Here are our lonely minivans, very comfortable, but a bit too big for driving on Scottish rural roads.

Driving back did not take very long—maybe because I was driving. Everyone had a great time, and we were sad this was our last day in the area. That’s the end of Day 5 in Scotland.

Feumaidh mi ruith (“I must run” in Gaelic).

Lyana.