The North

On our way north to Scotland, we stopped in York, England. This walled city is rich in 2000 years of history, but we focused on the Viking Invasion that occurred in 866 AD and the subsequent lifestyle that prevailed in the city until 1066, the year of the Norman Invasion. Somewhere along the Spendlove line, a little Viking blood entered the family. I remember my grandpa, being playful, making it known on occasion that we are Vikings, full of aggression, manliness and honor. As a result, I have always been curious about these brutal invaders. During our medieval studies in Utah, we studied these early attackers. We learned that they were the most feared of the middle age barbarians. They would go into psychotic killing rampages, enhanced by drugs, and that their concept of heaven was a series of drunken feasts and battles to the death, only obtained by death in battle on earth. They killed innocent villages and often targeted monks. The Vikings directly led to the era of knights in armor, protecting their lord from the killings and pillages. Although, after our studies, I wasn't sure that I wanted to claim any Viking blood, we spent the morning in York at the Jorvik Viking Center learning about our distant ancestors. We took an Epcot-esque ride through a Viking Village and then spent time in the museum learning about their way of life.   

 In the afternoon we headed up to Scotland, with a stop at Hadrian's Wall. The remains of this ancient stone barrier are what is left of the wall that the Emperor Hadrian built to protect the Roman Empire from northern barbarians.  This was a must-see site on the agenda. In learning about the area, it seemed so remote, barren and isolated, which intrigued me. In addition, we had studied the Roman Empire and had been to Rome, the capitol of what seemed to be the world for many. It was interesting to point out how far north the Romans had come. It seemed so foreign to picture Roman Soldiers protecting the Empire up in this frigid English region.

 We could not keep Sophia away from the fluffy sheep and baby lambs.

 This day was frigid! We bought Jonathan a hat in the gift shop, sympathetic to his signature buzz cut.

 Jenny, being a nurse, posed for a photo in the ancient hospital.

 All throughout Europe, Ezra took on different super hero characters in his play. If we caught him at the right moment, we could find him sneaking like a spy around turns, shimming across streets and even doing karate moves on imaginary villains. I will be sad when this fun stage is over.

 Jenny and the kids raced over these stone blocks that once were used in the storehouse of the soldiers, timing themselves to see who could earn the better time.

Driving up North turned out to be so memorable. It was amazing to think that we were only about half way up the British Isles, yet we already felt that the area was a bit remote and untamed.

Thached Roofs, Bleating Sheep, Harry Potter and the Worlds Best Minds

In planning our time in the area surrounding London, we had to choose wisely.
There is so much to do and of course we couldn't fit it all in. A day spent in the
Cotswolds and at Oxford was recommended, which turned out to be a perfect day
trip. We first arrived at the prestigious Oxford campus and immediately fell in love.
The buildings are as quaint as can be and the air is thick with academia. It was so
fun to photograph intricate stone facades, roof lines with bell towers, steeples and
English chimneys, bridges linking one ancient center of learning to another and
hidden English gardens tucked between.  Teaching began here in 1096, creating
the second oldest university in the world and the oldest in the English speaking
world. (The oldest in the world is in Bologna, which we were going to see, but
at the last minute we decided to spend another day in Tuscany.) We wandered
this old campus trying to soak in a little intellectualism. By the way, did you
know that at Oxford students still wear their academic gowns, like what we see
at graduation here but with more color, when taking tests, interacting with university
officials and while eating in the dining hall? We thought that was pretty cool.

(I think that I would be so happy studying in this library. Unfortunately outsiders are not permitted in, so I will never know what it must be like sit within the walls that house the world's greatest books, read by a thousand years of the worlds most prominent thinkers.)

One of my very favorite parts of traveling is happening upon some little place or experience that is not expected but turns out to be most memorable. While perusing the travel book on our way to Oxford, Jenny pointed out that the dining room that was used in the filming of the Harry Potter movies is in the university's Christ Church College. By searching for this spot that is so familiar to my children, we were exposed to the inside of the University as well as more beautiful grounds and buildings. When we finally ducked into the right dining hall, my kids almost expected to see candles floating in the air or a sorting ceremony taking place.

The staircase that was in the movie was located just outside of the great hall. Although Oxford will be remembered by all of us as a great place of thinking, it was fun to add a little Harry Potter connection for the children.

We left Oxford and headed further north to the Cotswolds. This region was high on my list and I couldn't wait to explore villages with names like Bourton-on-the-Water and Stow-on-the-Wold. I imagined whimsical cottages with thatched roofs and sheep grazing on green rolling hills, enclosed by stone walls. Unfortunately it was pouring rain when we arrived, but we still found the charming villages that we were in search of.

Of course I loved the cottages and sheep, but my favorite part of our exploration were the little paths that linked the villages together because in my mind, any hiking or walking makes for a perfect day. Despite the rain, we found a path that took us behind cottages, along a stone wall covered with ivy, through a sunny field of flowers and past the freshest lambs that were bleating for their mothers milk. (Annelise wondered aloud how the mother sheep could tell which ones were their babies. I wondered aloud back if the sheep were looking at us wondering how I knew that my six children, hovering around my feet and hanging off my hip, belonged to me rather than to the English women tending their gardens nearby. Could we mix up our children and would be care if we did, we wondered if the sheep were wondering, just like we were wondering about them?)

 

We have become playground connoisseurs during our three months in Europe. The kids can spot a good time from great distances, especially if it involves a swing, zip line or climbing structure. For me, it is so fun to photograph such happy faces.

We finished our walk sad to leave the area, especially since our walk and other activities were somewhat limited due to the rain, but content only because I had already started mentally planning a trip back to this region for a longer stay in the future.

Twist of Fate

London was one of the first places that I worked on accommodations. Several times, I thought I found a great place, but for different reasons, our lodgings didn't work out. Finally I found the Marriott in Twickenham. It was a bit of a train ride into the city, but Marriotts always seemed to work out great, so I decided it was worth the sacrifice. I knew when I booked the hotel, they mentioned something about being near a rugby stadium, but I had no idea what we were in for. In fact, unbeknownst to me, I had just chosen what would be a highlight of the trip for Jonathan. We arrived at the hotel to find a huge rugby statue in front of the entrance doors. England's National Rugby Team's arena was literally attached to our hotel. Rather than looking out onto the street, our windows looked right onto the back of the stadium and the entire hotel, including the art work in our rooms followed a rugby theme. The International Rugby Museum was across the street and attached to the stadium was a great rugby store with all sorts of apparel. Steve played rugby all through high school, in college and on mens' leagues after we were married. Jonathan has fallen in love with rugby too, and couldn't be happier. He had a hundred questions about the area and the game that was played there. I wish that I had the answers. The only problem was that it made us all miss Steve. We knew that he would have loved staying here, especially to share it with Jonathan.   

The highlight of the stay was when we were checking out. The Royal Navy Rugby Team had arrived and was in the lobby checking in. They had a huge game the next day playing their rivals, the Royal Air Force. Of course we were sad that we wouldn't be there, but Jonathan did get to talk to the players and have his picture taken with them. We were all on cloud nine as we headed out of town.