Climbin' Peaks

A day filled with picnic in the boot, walking up peaks, stepping in mud, dodging sheep poop, and running from sheep. That pretty much sums up our adventure on Saturday. It took about an hour to get to these peaks and we decided to go to one called the Dark Peak. It was beautiful, and we're excited to try a few more areas in the future.

Our fun-filled day started with a yummy picnic in the boot (i.e. trunk) of our car. Sandwiches, pretzels, Dr. Pepper, & cookies. We were ready to hit the off-road trails after that!

We walked around on a road for a while, until my wonderful husband had the brilliant idea of going off-path. I was on board at first, and quickly began to panic as I felt my whole body sway from one side to the other. I was for sure I was going to be tumbling down the peak at any moment. We would get moving quickly, then we would run into mini-rivers of water/mud. Jeff flawlessly went through them, not me. I managed to step in the deepest part of the mud. My shoe has recovered nicely after Jeff grabbed some grass (carefully, might I add: sheep poop everywhere!) and began to clean me up. We continued on and eventually made it to the top of the peak. 

 The sheep were staring us down...

We made it passed the mud and it finally started to flatten out (hints my smile at that point!). The picture on the right was the small "path" we took to get to the top of the peak. 

Doesn't look too bad at this point, and my sock surprisingly survived! 

Once we made it to the top, we explored and went up higher on some larger peaks. Our legs were hurting as we made it to the top of a few of them.

 

 We made it to the top of all three of those peaks you see! 

We turned back and decided to take another route back down, so we headed to the top of the tallest peak we saw (thinking the path would lead close to our car). The views were beautiful, as you can see so we stopped to take it all in and then found a grassy path to take back down to the bottom. 

 

Behind me is the top of the last peak we "climbed". 

 

 Great day in the Peak District!

Also, Happy UK Mother's Day to all the mums out there, especially our own! We love you!

FYI: DST happened over here now. Indy friends & family we're back to a 5 hour difference. 

It is Called a What?!

As I am slowly learning the new foods here in the UK, I stumbled upon this online and thought I would share. I feel this would have been nice to know before I came over here. I've looked like a goober a few times asking for certain items in the grocery store and them looking at me as if I am speaking a different language.

A few more funny named foods, which I am sure these would only be funny to friends in the states:

• Welsh Rabbit: Grilled cheese without the bread on top and added ale, mustard, or Worcestershire sauce
• Bubble & Squeak: Mashed potatoes and vegetables cooked golden on the stove (hub)
• Cullen Stink: Smoked haddock and potato
• Stargazy Pie: Fish heads (with the eyes) in a pasty crust. Are you gagging like I am?
• Singing Hinnies: Cake or a scone
• Spotted Dick: Cake with raisins
• Angels on Horseback: Oysters wrapped in bacon and grilled
• Jam Roly Poly or Dead Man's Arm: Cake filled with jam. As you probably guessed, red jam!
• Love in Disguise: Stuffed calf's heart. Ew. Vomit. Sick. Gross. 
• Toad in a Hole: Sausages in a pastry casserole

Now, I dare you to look up a couple of these pictures, especially the Stargazy Pie. 

Our FIRST Visitor

Hooray! We were so excited to have Jeff's dad come and visit us this past week. We are so blessed that he will be able to visit a lot for work while we are living on the other side of the pond. We were able to have dinner with him a couple of nights, have him over to our place, and see him one last time before he left at work.  He also was super sweet and brought us some goodies from home. These products might not look too exciting, but we can't find them over here...so they mean the world to us! Come on, you know you don't want me to live with Jeff if he doesn't have soap. Gross.

Our dinners were great and filled with many stories. We were able to try a Cuban restaurant we had not been to in Derby yet. It was excellent. In Nottingham, we were able to enjoy a restaurant just down the street from our place that we normally just go to get drinks. It had amazing food. Hopefully we were able to show his dad England has more to offer than just fish & chips and curry.

 

 

 

Thanks, Greg for making our week so special!

Different Decade. Different Century.

Jeff and I enjoyed a "lazy" weekend. After our trip to Rome and our lovely visitor [That post to come soon], we were pretty tired and still recovering from the trip. We grabbed some Domino's, watched some Dexter, and hung around our flat. On Saturday we went to our local library to sign up for library cards. They looked as us pretty funny when we brought mail to prove our address. If only we could have read their minds...I'm sure they thought we were crazy. We also have a higher appreciation for our amazing libraries back in the States. We were in awe thinking about the Indianapolis Central Library, not only because it is beautiful, but how many book options available. We weren't overly impressed with the facility and book selection. Of the 9 books I was looking for, I only found 1. I guess one is better than none! Jeff said the facility reminded him of his hometown library...when he was a kid. If that gives you any idea of what we're talking about. Decade: 90's.

Yesterday was an odd day. We looked out our window to see massive lines of people outside of the Nottingham Playhouse. We immediately thought we were missing out on an event we needed to be a part of. Little did we know, it was "Em Con" aka "Gen Con". It was insane how many people were standing in line, definitely hundreds. Most of which were in some sort of costume. Not sure if you can truly tell in the picture below, but I tried! The cars from transformers were outside the playhouse, and we were able to see them later on once everyone was gone.

  

Later in the day, we ventured out to Hardwick Hall which was only about 20-30 minutes away. This was a great afternoon trip to see a beautiful mansion built in the late 1500's. We were able to listen to an extremely boring speech from this lady. We were hoping to learn about the features and uses of the house, instead we were given a long lecture on who lived in the house. Names were brought up that we "should know" according to the speaker. Twenty-five minutes later we were able to explore the house and gardens. I really enjoyed this visit because the rooms were still set up as if someone lived there. All ~9 bedrooms still had the beds with the canopies above them. Each room was decorated extremely well, ritzy, and posh (Here's your newest English vocabulary word...use it!) The dining room was my favorite. I just can't imagine having dinner parties like this, or at all.

  

And you just can't forget the sheep...they are everywhere! We pulled over as we were driving out of the estate and this sheep was super close to the road. Within the field there were hundreds of sheep, including the babies! So cute.

Watch out world...Jeff has started Tweeting about our adventures!

When in Rome...

A.M.A.Z.I.N.G

We had such a great time in Rome, despite our super sore legs and feet. Don't expect a map from this trip on our route traveled as we were lost the majority of our time there. We were able to see so much during our four day trip and walk all over the majority of the city. So...get ready for a long post!

Day 1: We arrived in Rome late on Wednesday evening/Early Thursday morning. We made it to bed after 2am because of our long travels (waiting 30-40 minutes on the plane because of "ice" on the wing). Although we were tired, we woke up fairly early to see the town. We were very blessed with an amazing view from the rooftop of our hotel. Jeff and I were the only ones who would brave the birds and eat breakfast out there every morning. It was gorgeous.

 

 

We explored the city and ended up randomly walking right into the Pantheon in just a short distance from our hotel. The Pantheon was built in 118 AD. Pretty amazing how beautiful and well built it is despite the age of the building.

 

The Roman Forum and Palatine Hill were next our adventure. We were there for about 3+ hours just walking around the ruins and of course following our audio guide. Jeff loves the audio guides. I think he would have been content with getting one at each of the places we visited. This area was beautiful, and you truly could have spent all day there. We only got through about half of the audio guide spots before we had to head out to meet a friend for lunch. Jeff has a pledge brother (from his fraternity) that is in the seminary in Rome, so we were very excited to see him and catch up.

 

 

 After lunch we decide to see the Colosseum. We were a little too late for the full tour, so we decide to skip the audio guide/tours altogether and explore ourselves. I was really excited to go inside because my last visit to Rome (when I studied abroad) I didn't have enough time to really explore.

 

 

We stopped in a few of the 900 churches in Rome. Each one was so incredibly beautiful. It was just really hard to believe that they had the resources to create the artwork, sculptures, and architecture of the buildings back then. Dinner was amazing as we loaded up on giant pizzas and wine.

Day 2: We woke up bright and early to beat the crowds to Vatican City. We had a little mishap preparing for our guided tour as we met in the wrong spot and were 15 minutes late. Luckily, they allowed us to go on the 11:00 tour instead. So we walked around the city for a bit more, grabbed a glass of wine, and then headed into the Vatican Museum. The Vatican Museum was powerful, creative, and stunning. There were paintings and mosaics from the ceiling all the way down to the floor. My favorite part was seeing the Sistine Chapel. I am not one that understands paintings and sculptures, but it almost brought tears to my eyes. It was beautiful as no one was allowed to take pictures or speak while in the chapel. The ceiling, which is normally what people think of was great, but I was in awe of the large painting on the main wall.

 

 

We moved our way into Jeff's favorite part of the trip, St. Peter's Basilica. I think he could have stayed in there for hours. All of the artwork were mosaics, not paintings. By looking at the size of them, it would have taken the artist forever to finish. Along with seeing sculptures, the beautiful altar, and the former Popes' tombs we were able to climb to the top of the basilica to see the beautiful sights of Rome.

 

 

 

 

On a lighter note, we headed to buy me a cheap pair of tennis shoes or as I like to call them..my European shoes. My feet were killing me, and I needed something fresh on my feet. We went to the closest H&M and bought some shoes that I'm pretty sure were identical to one's I had as a kid.

We grabbed a cannoli {Jeff deleted his picture of him and the cannoli...lame!) and a bottle of wine to head to the top of our hotel to watch the sunset over St. Peter's Basilica. Breathtaking. We headed to dinner where we watched people pass in the plaza nearby, talked, and enjoyed every minute of it.

 

 

Day 3: We "romed" around the city for most of the morning. We literally stumbled upon the Spanish Steps. We didn't even know we were on them until our friend described it later, and we realized at that moment we climbed them earlier in the day. I took a really poor picture, just thinking I was taking a picture of something famous...little did I know. I'm pretty embarrassed of the picture below as I am snapping a photo as I am huffing and puffing up a bazillion stairs. 

We quickly went through the Trevi Fountain to snap a few photos. Jeff and I were meeting up with his pledge brother (from his fraternity) to hang out for the rest of the afternoon. Our friend, Tucci, was awesome. He showed us his amazing views of the city, took us to a local restaurant that served American food. It was funny to think the most American food we've had in the last couple months was in Italy. It was very yummy though. The three of us walked around the city where there were not very many tourists. We were so lucky to see another side of Rome. He was so knowledgeable about the city, so we learned so many interesting facts. Of course we stopped at his favorite gelato place where we tasted a few flavors! We were so grateful of our time with him, and hope to see him again in the fall.

 

We ended our night with another wonderful sunset and a great pasta dinner. I could not get enough of the ravioli, pesto, spaghetti, pizzas, and more! So yummy! We ended our night with another cannoli. It made us laugh as we visited the same place for cannolis at least 3-4 times while we were there. The owner laughed at us the last day...as we were becoming regulars. Whoops!

 Day 4: We spent our last day in Rome exploring a few more sights. We went to Castel Sant'Angelo which was really neat. It was an old castle, and I know we both wished we could have spent more time there. Jeff wished for another audio guide tour. {hehe} There was an above ground tunnel built to take the Pope from his residences to the castle if he needed protection. It was awesome to see the old cannons, prison cells, and rooms that still had many of the decorated pieces in them. As always, the views from the top were amazing as well.

 

 

 

We moved on and went to St. Peter's Square where it was filled with tens of thousands of people waiting to hear the 15-20 minute speech from the Pope. We were able to hear his speech, although we only understood the words: Spectucular, Economic, and thank you. So as you can tell, we were there for the experience and to see the pope. There were screens so people could see him close up, but you were still able to see him from the window at the top. It was incredible.  I tried to zoom in so you could see him below.