Walking With Scholars

After our time in Bath, we headed to a town in between Bath and Oxford, Swindon, to stay for the night.  We ended up having a little extra time, so we went to see the new Hunger Games movie.  We laughed, as we remembered we saw the last movie in England during our time looking for houses last November. We joked as we now need to come back to England to see Part II.  We woke up on Sunday morning to drive a little less than an hour to Oxford.  We walked around the city for a bit enjoying all of the beautiful buildings.

Our weekend of famous authors continued as Oxford was known to house C.S. Lewis (The Chronicles of Narnia, and The Lion, Witch, and the Wardrobe) and J.R. R. Tolkien (The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings). These authors, along with a few others met at the pub, The Eagle and Child (The name of the pub is based on a famous myth).  They used to meet here to discuss literature and writing. Oxford was also known to house Alice Liddell, who inspired Lewis Carroll to write Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. 

 

Up next was a tour of one of Oxford's most famous libraries, Bodleian Library, which many of you will recognize as one of the places Harry Potter was filmed. The Divinity School was the first part of the library tour.  Our tour guide spent literally 30 minutes talking about the ceiling.  Each little piece the architect created had a story behind it.  Although it was beautiful, I think our tour guide might have spent a little too much time telling us about these details. For the Harry Potter fans, this room was used as the hospital in the first two movies.  In real history it was used as a school house that approximately 40 students attended lecture all taught in Latin.

Next on the tour was Duke Humfrey's Library, and no picture were allowed here.  Although, I would click on my link, as it is very impressive.  In Harry Potter, it was used as the Hogwart's Library.  The books were so incredibly old, and some were chained to parts of the desks as they were not allowed to leave the library.

We headed to Radcliffe Camera next, as it was another library in a separate building.  No pictures inside as well.  It was a more modern library, and the inside would be something you would see in a library in the states. Although the outside was pretty impressive, as it was a stand alone cylinder building. Students still use this library and other parts of the Bodleian Library.

Radcliffe Camera

 Not our best selfie, and I hesitated to even put it on the blog.  But hey, you have to have proof that we actually visit these places, right? Behind us is the Tower of the Five Orders, which is special because the detail is on the inside for those people of the university, rather than showing it off to the townspeople (boring old building on the other side facing the city).

We walked around the city, snapping photographs of other beautiful buildings and sights.  

 

The Bridge of Sighs on the left and a beautiful college building within the city. 

I'll end my post with HAPPY CHRISTMAS and HAPPY NEW YEAR as this will be my last post of 2014, as we have travels in our future. Have no fear, 2015 will bring many new adventures, countries, and excitement! Until then.

On to our 2015 adventures...

Don't Touch the Water!

This past weekend, Jeff and I decided to visit a few cities in England.  We left early on Saturday morning to visit the city of Bath.  One major difference that set this city apart from other English cities was the color of the buildings.  All of the buildings were a light tan color, rather than the normal red brick look in other cities.  It was very beautiful.

The view as you're walking into the city centre

Bath is known for the Roman Baths, which are one of the best preserved Roman remains in the world.  The area has over 1 million liters of natural spring water flowing through.  The water's temperature is around 46 degrees Celsius (over 114 degrees Fahrenheit). You are not allowed to drink or even touch the water given it is untreated and you could get incredibly sick.  Guess who touched the water? Jeff...

One of the spots you could see of water still running through the grounds.  They showed this stream of water flowing from one part of the building to another. 

If you look closely you can see the steam above the water.

It was great to walk around with our free audio guides to learn about the history, and see the main area where the Roman's used to bath.  They had many artifacts that were used during that time, ro even things they found in the baths like coins.  One of my favorite things they found were stones from rings that were worn.  Since the water was so warm, the gems would come loose and they found them at the bottom of the baths.  There were so many intricate details that made them quite unique.  Within the grounds, there were many different areas, although the main bath (largest) is in the picture below.

 The main bath

There were other areas inside the buildings that used to hold water, but has dried up since.  We were looking in one area, and Jeff actually spotted a rat. Gross. Although the water was gone in these areas, you could see the remaining steps and even the platforms they used raise the floor to heat it below.

The platforms they used so heat could travel below the floor of the bath. 

Since you were not able to touch the water in the baths, they had a special spot where you could taste the same water, only it was purified. It was warm, so it didn't taste the best to me. 

For any Jane Austen (Pride and Prejudice) fans out there, Bath is where she lived.  I think she used many of the sights in Bath in parts of her novel, although I cannot confirm that fact.  We walked around the city to see the Bath Abbey, which was beautiful although we did not travel inside.  I did make a special note to take a picture of angels climbing Jacob's ladder.

We ended our time in Bath eating at a local pub where Jeff got this cute little pie with a "B" on it.  How perfect!? We went to the Assembly Rooms. This building consisted of 3 main rooms, and were used for the fancy people of the time to have parties and gatherings.  They were currently setting up for some sort of wedding or party, so we weren't able to travel freely from room to room.  The pictures were not too exciting, so please click the link in this paragraph if you'd like to learn more or see pictures.

We ended our time in Bath looking at The Circus, which was pretty hard to photograph given it was in the shape of a circle.  The word "circus" in England can mean multiple roads that join together to form a circle.  We have one right outside our house here in Nottingham, and quite a few on my running route.  After that we went to the Royal Crescent, which was impossible to take a picture of given how large it is. It is a row of houses, a hotel, and a museum.  It was used in many film productions, and is a major attraction in Bath. Just obviously not easy to photograph, unless you're in the sky. 

 The circus

 The best shot I could get of the buildings. I didn't get them all in it, but at least you can see the curve.

On to the next adventure...

Partying Like Santa Claus

We have been really blessed to be invited to a few Christmas parties this holiday season. Although we could not attend them all, we were able to go to a couple.  This past Saturday, we headed over to some friends house where 12 of us celebrated Christmas by having a wonderful dinner and sharing a few presents.  The dinner was fantastic, and pretty much the same foods as we would have in the states.  Although the dessert was my talking piece, Christmas pudding, or as someone told me, figgy pudding.  I bet you can't get the Christmas song out of your head now.  "Now bring us some figgy pudding..."  It was fantastic! Also, they served some other great desserts, but the cheese tray for dessert was right up my alley.  Cheese plates are on dessert menus over here, and I absolutely love that idea as I like to end with something savory rather than sweet.  One other tradition that I know a few people in the States do as well is "Christmas Crackers" or what I would call "poppers".  Before we ate dinner, we grabbed our cracker, crossed our arms, and pulled it with the person next to us. Inside was a crown (as you see in the picture below) and a small gift (a sticker).  It was a great tradition that I would like to start at my Christmas dinners in the future.  So cute!

 The group

Enough about food.

After dinner, we swapped presents which is always a great time!  We all had a name, but instead of just handing that person our present they had to guess based on the present we gave them.  The other "catch" is that all my presents I gave to my Secret Santa had to start with the first letter of my name.  I first put a card in the holiday bag saying "May your Christmas be warm, fulfilling, and drunken.  This was my way to give him some clues on what was left in the bag.  So...I got him a scarf (an American flag one to make it that much better...muahahaha), Starbucks gift card, and a small bottle of Smirnoff (with the booze, candies, and little pint glass).  So needless to say after he opened the scarf...he knew it was me since Jeff opted out of the gift exchange (Scrooge).  The gift I received was from a friend, named Tom, so he knows me well as he got me a great loose leaf tea pot and some tea to enjoy.

My teapot and tea.

We each taught a game to the group as we sat around and enjoyed each others company.  Each couple brought a cocktail to serve the group.  Jeff and I made it simple and fun by bringing some Fireball, which you cannot find over here.  No other ingredients needed! Overall, it was a great night. It was a little sad thinking we would not be able to do this every year with our friends over here as next year we'll be back home in Indiana. Thanks Ben, for sharing your pictures with us all! 

 Large Jenga!

Mustache game, kind of like the post-it note game. You have to guess the person's name you have on your mustache.  Actually harder than you think, especially if you have no idea who the person is, like me! 

Just for the record, Jeff did participate in his work's Secret Santa, although I am pretty sure he did not have a choice.  We decided another round of American gifts, as we see this very fitting. Hey, I mean next year these gifts will have lost their novelty as I'm guessing our American friends would not find as much humor in this.  Let's be honest, Jeff gave me the go-ahead to pick out something American. I tried to buy The Patriot, but the guy at the movie store said it was "discontinued"...whatever that means.  So I bought three Blue Moon beers, as they are from America.  I also picked up a Hershey's bar, Butterfinger, and Baby Ruth candy bars to tie to each of the bottles.  Then I picked up a mustache pint glass to go along with it. I wanted to put a corny title like "You mustache more American beer and candies. Merry Christmas!" But Jeff wasn't as keen on this idea. Do you get it..."You MUST HAVE more American beer and candies. Merry Christmas!" Yes? No?


A few days later we went to Jeff's work Christmas party at a pub in Derby. It was nice because many of our same friends were there, so I knew people, which was nice. It was nice hanging out with the wives, and catching up, just us girls.  As the boys were off doing their own thing.  We ate, they gave out awards, and we had a few pints.  The awards were interesting from a non engineer's point of view.  A lot of acronyms were thrown around, so I had no idea what they were talking about.  As if it was a different language!  It was still fun, as everyone was laughing.  Jeff won the "Demonstrating a Lack of British Stamina and Shameless Promotion of American Exports (aka Taylor Swift's music).  Great night overall, and was glad we were able to go [Sorry, failed at taking any pictures].



Onto the next adventure...

Ostrich Burger [No Typo Here]

Jeff came home early on Friday for an appointment, so we decided to take advantage of his extra time.  We went down to the city centre to enjoy the Nottingham Christmas Market, or should I say the Nottingham Winter Wonderland.  Although it was not as large as the Birmingham Christmas Market, I personally thought it was cuter. I might be bias. I'm sure you have seen pictures in many posts of this same area, as many things happen here almost weekly. 

One of the entrances

  The side part of the Market. The first little building is where I got my yummy lunch!

Although it didn't take very long, we walked around the little buildings.  I, stopped in and looked around.  A lot of ornaments, scarves, hats, handmade desserts, Christmas jumpers (sweaters) and little trinkets.  Since we went down for lunch, I grabbed a pork & stuffing roll.  It was fantastic, and something we could mimic with Thanksgiving or even Christmas leftovers. Yum! Jeff was the brave one, and as you can expect from the blog title...he tried ostrich [insert gag sound].  This stand, which we saw at the Robin Hood Beer & Cider Festival, had kangaroo and in the past zebra and many other exotic animals. Watching Jeff order his burger, made me like my pork sandwich a little less just thinking he was going to dive into it in a second. No food was wasted, no worries. Jeff ate it and described the taste as a bland hamburger. I don't think he was too impressed.

 I tell you what... Leftover turkey & leftover stuffing all on a roll is the way to go. Let me know if you try it on the 26th!

Although he did not "heart" his ostrich burger...least he was brave enough to try it.  Also, sidenote: notice the little kids in the background in their bright yellow gear. All children on field trips have to wear this so their adult can easily find them. I know my teacher friends agree with me...great idea!

We grabbed some chips (fries) and watched the minimal amount of ice skaters on the rink in the middle of the market.  There were some adorable little kids learning how to ice skate with a parent, and other people just enjoying the beautiful day.

Ice skating rink and the beautiful Christmas tree

Onto the next adventure...

What Would Vinny Do?

If you're confused about the title of the post, bear with me...

Our friend, Scott, continued on with Jeff and I to the Netherlands to visit Amsterdam.  We got in a little later than expected on Friday, and decided to check out the Van Gogh Museum first, as it is open late on Fridays.  Although, I was not allowed to take any pictures...it was amazing inside.  Many of his most famous paintings that I studied in high school and college were located here, like his famous self portraits.  This leads us to "What Would Vinny Do?" as we stared at the paintings for so long...we thought Scott started to look like him! I wish I would have taken a close-up of Scott not smiling so you could compare it to this. It probably isn't as funny to you all, especially if you've never met Scott...but it had us laughing for quite some time.  So after this, when deciding what to do we used Scott...I mean Vincent Van Gogh as our inspiration and the next thing you know, collectively we would all say,  "What would Vinny do?" Is this funny to anyone but us? Too much of an inside joke to share? Oh well.

Near the Van Gogh Museum.

We woke up on Saturday to grab some yummy pastries, although Jeff accidentally got one with jelly in the middle, so he was pretty disappointed.  We walked through a little bit of the Red Light District, which was pretty interesting to say the least. Without going into too much detail for those that do not want to read about this type of area, it was pretty tame in the daytime and only saw specialty shops and "coffee" shops.  At night was a different story though...{Research at your own risk}

We enjoyed walking around the city, as it was a very liveable city.  Although the transportation hazards were a different story.  It was pretty comical walking around at first avoiding the trams, cars, and especially the bikes.  It seemed like the bikes ruled the streets in Amsterdam.  As I was complaining about them, in mid-sentence I almost got smashed by one of them. Insane.

 Just a few of the bikes of Amsterdam

The canals were awesome, and reminded us of Venice...although definitely not as warm! We got lost around the city, as all the buildings and canals look alike. I finally got my bearings, and became the Momma Duck navigating the two guys around the city.  We made it to the Anne Frank House, although the line was insane...so we thought we would try it later in the night (since it was open late on Saturdays).  So fail #1...

 Canals!

 Humoring me with a photo...can you tell it is chilly?

 I think this was one of the most European city "feels" that we've been besides Prague.

We grabbed some lunch at a fantastic burger shop and then grabbed a pint at a great little pub on the canal. It had great views, and you could tell the place would be really busy as it was basically in/on the canal.

 Somehow this is the only picture of the three of us.

The little pub had a little lean to it...kind of like the tea shop we visited in Windsor.

We rushed back towards the hotel to go to Vondel Park before the sun started to set, as it does around 4:00.  We were able to hang out there for a while before heading to another museum, the Rijksmuesum which was a modern art museum.  Fail #2 came when closed in 20 minutes. So needless to say, we didn't visit that museum.

Next on the list was the Museum of Bags and Purses.  And before you start thinking poorly of me for dragging two "grown" men through this museum, all I wanted was a picture outside of it.  If you know me, you know my LOVE for bags and purses. Ahhh.... Anyway, it was almost comical as they were shutting their door right when we were taking our pictures, so you could call this Fail #3.

Now, we decided to go back through the Red Light District at night, which was quite the sight. Enough said about that, as I'll keep it PG.  We went towards the Anne Frank House/Museum, as the last entry was at 8:30.  Well, we got there at 8:26, and they didn't let us in...Fail #4.  So we headed to a restaurant to have a nice meal and a few pints.   We wandered around the city a little more, trying to soak up as much Amsterdam as we could.  We ended our night shortly after, as Scott was flying out fairly early the next morning.

 We got a lot of views of the canals at night since it gets dark so early

One of my goals was to put my feet in these giant wooden shoes...I found one better, one big enough to put my whole body in!

Jeff and I had a few extra hours in Amsterdam before we flew back to Nottingham, so we woke up early to get in line for the Anne Frank House/Museum.  Note to those reading this in hopes to travel to Amsterdam...moral of the story, get tickets ahead of time to save yourself the hassle.  We only stood in line for ~20 minutes.  No pictures inside! It was amazing, and really moving.  The museum was done nicely as there were videos of those that knew Anne, like her father and a friend in the concentration camps.  We were able to walk through their hiding places, and see the rooms, just as they were left when the Nazis raided the house.  The stairs were extremely steep, and reminded me of The Fault in our Stars, if anyone has read/saw that will know what I'm talking about.  One thing about the experience in the house was that no one was talking.  Everyone was taking in the story, memorabilia, experience of being in such a powerful place in history.  When we visit churches, they are never that quite. Pretty intense.

 Anne Frank's House

Close Up!

Afterwards, we headed back to the hotel to checkout, then head to the Heineken Experience, which was awesome.  We visited the Guiness Storehouse back in February of this year, which was a completely different experience.  Not only did I prefer the taste of Heineken better, but the "experience" was much more entertaining.  We were able to learn about the history of the company, how it was made, and my favorite a virtual ride on the process of how their beer is made.  It moved us through as if we were the ingredients and we experienced: bubbles, water, heat, and of course "pop" in the bottling experience. Very cool. We had a tasting experience, and were given two "free" pints at the end of our tour. Jeff was wearing his St. Louis, Cardinals hat, and a man came up to him from St. Louis (Living in England for about a month), and ended up knowing one of his uncles (Mark, that's you!). Pretty small world!

 Photo props!

 Inside the factory...lovin' the Christmas decor!

 You can't see the horses, but there were a few in there!

 Taste testing! Once the foam at the top is gone...the beer is flat & done. Good fact to know!

I end, with a selfie

Jeff and I hustled to the train station so we could get to the airport in time.  We were cutting it close, but made it safely. Never thought I'd say this, but we were glad to be back in the UK weather.

Onto the next adventure...


 

A {Silly & Early} Happy Holidays from the Us in the UK

Update: Video is no longer available. Sorry! 

Debated on whether to hold off on this until Christmas to wish all of my Us in the UK followers a Happy Holiday, but I thought I would send it out earlier so you could all enjoy it before the video goes away (After New Years, just an FYI). Maybe you'll be lucky enough to get something similar on December 25th! And just a friendly reminder, videos do not tend to work on mobile/tablet devices...so to see this video you'll need to login to a real computer. :)

So Happy Holidays from Us in the UK.

***Make your own Elf at elfyourself.com





Onto the next adventure...

Adding Another American to the East Midlands

It was crazy to start this post as this past week was the week in 2013 we came over here to look at houses. Now we are quickly entering our year mark...so crazy how time flies!? (Posts: First trip to Derby and First trip to Nottingham).  The Nottingham post was crazy to look at, as a tourist I took a picture of the church we now look out our windows everyday to see! And now the Christmas Market is up, and the other sites I walk by daily. Who knew that something so foreign at one time, could feel so much like home now?

Onto Scott's Visit:

Our friend, Scott, visited us this week in Nottingham after our adventure in London.  Scott was stuck with hanging out with me during the day, exploring Nottingham and surrounding areas.  We spent Monday exploring Nottingham.  I took him around the city, stopped at Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem (the oldest inn in England), which is a must for all of our visitors.  We went to the Capital One Arena, where the Nottingham Panthers play ice hockey (Jeff and I's visit here).  We stopped in a local place, called the Pudding Pantry, where I have been meaning to go recently for a cup of tea and coffee.

Great day for some of my favorite British foods and brews

Tuesday, we headed to Derby to see the town and visit Jeff at work.  Afterwards the boys played squash, while I ran a few miles. We all headed out to dinner later that night at Nando's, which is a place all around England, but they have the best chicken! Wednesday was a busy day for Scott and I as we headed to the Nottingham Castle and then to a few breweries around town.  Part of the castle was closed, but we were able to see a few of the great spots, like some war memorabilia and old items that belonged in the castle or during that time period.  It was a little foggy that day, so we didn't have the best views of Nottingham, but we made do! The breweries were great, although we didn't take a tour or anything.  Both places we went screamed "English pub", so at least he was able to get a good feel of the local culture and meet some new people. We headed out for a nice dinner at one of our favorite Indian restaurants, Memsab, which is about a 5 minute walk from our house.  Everyone enjoyed their meals!

 The one good thing about visiting the castle in the winter is that you can ACTUALLY see the castle! Hooray for no leaves!

 The first stop on our mini-pub tour!

Look who finally stopped working to join us for some fun?!

Thursday, we went out to the Galleries of Justice Museum, which I love going to.  It is where the old prisoners were held after convicted.  This building is where all of the hangings took place in the city.  You are given a convict number...which I got the same one...theft of a cow.  Scott and I both enjoyed the people in our group, as they were quite funny.  I think Scott really enjoyed it, as it was very informative and interesting.  Chances are, if you come visit me, I'll take you here as well! ha!

Thanks to Scott for being a trooper and playing along with my photo games!

And since Thursday, was Thanksgiving, we (well, I) made a big meal for the three of us to enjoy.  It was a challenge finding some of the "normal" American ingredients to make all of our favorite holiday foods...but everything seemed to turn out alright. Phew!

We ended up having:

• Chicken & Stuffing dish
• Green bean casserole
• Corn
• Rolls
• Salad
• Mashed Potatoes
• Gravy
• Mulled wine (warm wine with spices)

I know what you're all thinking if you're from the States...where is the PUMPKIN PIE? And if you know Jeff at all, he has to have pumpkin pie during Thanksgiving. Grandma, I know you're reading this thinking..."Jeff normally has his own pie every year, and now he didn't get any?"   Unfortunately, that's the case. I found pumpkin in a can, but couldn't find the necessary spices to actually make the pie. I ended up making pumpkin brownies and cheesecake, which were both good.  We had a great time sitting around the table celebrating the holiday...despite our lack of Thanksgiving desserts. I guess next year we'll just eat twice as many pieces of pie! #watchout2015Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving Dinner! Lots to be Thankful for after the amazing year we have had!

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving Day (Well, my American friends/family)!  We thought about you during this first round of holiday festivities, and we will continue thinking about you throughout the month. 

Onto the next adventure...