Weekend in Kent

With the amazing weather we've been having here, it only seemed appropriate to head out to the country for weekend. Works out perfectly b/c my frien Fiona from DC is in town! She's on holiday visiting her parents here for the month. So I slept in Saturday morn and then headed out the Kent to meet up with her and her family.

We spent the afternoon at Dover Castle. Very nice. I feel like I've seen a lot of castles so they're losing their appeal, but they're still cool and this one is especially neat b/c of its location. It overlooks the British Channel and on a clear day you can see France. The history of the castle is immense. From Henry the XIII to Winston Churchill.

Under the castle and through the gorgeous white cliffs is a whole network of tunnels. These were used during WWII. We went on a tour and the tid bits we learned were pretty cool.

From there, it was some ice cream and then back to Fiona's parents to relax. That's the one nice thing about the country; you can really enjoy just taking it all in. We were productive though, ha, ha, "translating" some recipes Fiona wants to share with the rest of the crew in the US. You'd be amazing how different something as simple as a recipe and weights and measures can be from country to country.

Sunday morning we spent on a wonderful hike with the dogs. I love their dogs. Great animals and a lot of fun. Took some pictures of the English Bluebells (flowers) and some other neat vegatation and country themes.

For lunch, we went to a pub in the village that Fiona's parents will soon be moving to. It was a traditional English pub with at traditional English Sunday feast. I had roast beef with Yorkshire pudding. I never knew what that was before, but actually its just an interesting type of breadroll, made of a batter similar to pancake mix, in a cup shape, meant for capturing gravy. Its like a bready condiment.

From there, it was a brief driving tour of Dover University (where Fiona's dad works) before racing off to the train station to head home. The weekends always go by immensely too fast. Fiona's parents are simply delightful and I was so thankful to have had the time with them, albeit short. Fiona jokes and warns that's hardly the last time I'll see them. In fact, its been made clear that I now know I have surrogate parents here in the UK. That's actually kinda neat; never know in a far away land when you'll neat a place to get away and feel that parental care.

Sunday night of course was church. I was running extremely late getting back to the city so I had to bring my suitcase with me (no time to go home first). Though its small, it was a bit of a workout lugging it all through London! Holy Trinity Brompton is such a neat place. It just refreshes me. There's no doubt the spirit of God is in that place.

I arrived home around 9 or so, in time to grab some grub, catch up with my roomie, and then attempt to sleep. Unfortunately, in spite of my fatigue, still struggling with sleep.

It was simply delightful weekend. Seems like a good pattern. One weekend out of town, the next in town. Found out Sunday that Lori Smith will be venturing to the UK for a visit. I'm so excited! My first visitor! We're planning on here being ehre three days and then we're going to go to Paris for 2 or 3 days. Who's next?