You guessed it! Marty and I are on another English adventure having landed in Edinburgh this morning from a red eye flight out of Newark. We might not have red eyes, but we certainly have droopy eyelids, and we are both looking forward to a good night's sleep!
But just a quick update from our first day here on British soil....
We landed about half an hour later than expected, but the car rental van was pulling into the lot just as we were wheeling our cases, so that was perfect planning!
The complete process always seems to take longer than what I would expect, but we had a delightful employee who went out of his way to be certain that all the i's were dotted and t's crossed before we headed out on our merry way. It was about an hour and a half later than I had anticipated, but I hadn't planned on covering a lot of ground on this first day as I had anticipated that we would be lagging.
Marty drove about an hour and a half to a small, quaint village called Etal.
How charming is that?
There is a lovely castle ruins that still stands there. It was build in the late 12th century and it came under siege during the Battle of Flodden. But, before I explore the castle history and grounds, let me begin by saying that we headed to the Lavender Tea Rooms, which was a delight. And....we even chose the lavender scone as our treat.
They were tender and delicately flavored with lavender. A real treat. (Of course, the fact that we had nothing to eat yet today might have influenced our excitement regarding their taste.)
And, as if this wasn't exciting enough, the tea room doubles as a post office! Believe me, I've had some real challenges finding available post offices in the past so this was like winning the lottery!
When the clerk warned me that the price had risen significantly, and told me that it would cost me £3.20 for ONE post card, I thought that I might just have to win the lottery to continue this habit of mailing post cards to each of the grandkids from our adventures. But, I succumbed and purchased six. After all, I enjoy sending them and I sure do hope they continue to get excited receiving them!
After I had the golden goods safely secured, we headed down the walk to the castle ruins.
The oldest part of the ruins that still survives is this tower which stands from the late 12th century. The different colored stones about 2/3 of the way up are a result from the height being raised in the mid 1300's. Structures were added to defend against the Scottish raids, as this part of England is quite close to the border of Scotland. The castle was captured in 1513 during the battle of Flodden, but returned to the English after the Scots loss the battle. With no need of the castle in the late 17th century, the grounds were abandoned. The buildings that were saved are now under the care of English Heritage in order to preserve the history.
The castle grounds are part of the Ford Etal estate which covers a large piece of ground. Just a few hundred yards from the castle is a miniature train station.
The track runs from Etal to Heatherslaw and takes about 25 minutes to make the journey.
Of course, how could we pass on this opportunity? We hopped into one of the closed compartments
and Binky, our engine, began the trip to the next station.
There's a clever little turn around track, where the engine can be switched around, then backed up and re-attached to the rest of the train so that it always runs forward. There's one at each station, so this miniature train only travels along this short route. But it makes the trip several times daily!
The views along the way were quite lovely and we saw plenty of sheep and two blue herons along the short journey.
Funny story about the weather. We began with it bright and sunny as it appears in the above photo. Once Binky began the journey to the next station,
the rain began pelleting down, making it impossible to photograph through the glass. On the return journey, we chose to sit in an open car, which has glass only on one side. The engineer questioned our decision as he was concerned we would get drenched. But after we headed out of the Heatherslaw station, the rain slowly diminished and by the time we returned to Etal, it had stopped entirely. Believe me, we were VERY lucky as we would most certainly have been soaked to the bone had the timing been just a bit different.
Grey clouds were lurking, so we headed in the car to the nearby village of Ford, which, like Etal, consists of only a few houses. One of particular interests is Lady Waterford Hall.
The building that you see was once the Ford School house, built in 1861, under the direction of Lady Waterford Hall. She was widowed at the age of 41, and moved to Ford, where she lived the rest of her days improving the village for the benefit of the local community.
The woman's history was fascinating as she was well acquainted with Queen Victoria and I found it quite interesting to learn of the accomplishments of this woman after her husband's passing.
Walking through the doors, one's gaze is immediately captured by the painted murals that adorn the upper walls inside the school house hall.
Lady Waterford was quite the artist, and she spent 21 years of her life, beginning in 1861, drawing, designing, creating, and painting these amazing pieces of art. Each one of them is a reflection from a passage in the Old Testament of the Bible.
You can see the recreation of a classroom that includes a wooden desk, abacus, and chalk board, to mention just a few.
Lady Waterford also painted prints for published children's books. Some of her works are preserved behind glass in the school room building.
One item that seemed a bit out of place is this elephant head. He apparently was a prize in a Chinese Auction but was left behind. Guess he stays until someone claims him.
Down the street from the school stands an erected angel statue. Lady Waterford had this placed near the entrance to Waterford Castle, in memory of her late husband.
By now we were feeling the strain of a night flight, so we headed to our hotel which was about 30 minutes away. It's called the Tempus, and it's actually an interesting venue. We are in a Pole Barn room. I can't really say what that's supposed to mean. But it is obviously a new construction and we have our own private patio that we could sit out on.....if it wasn't pouring. And, there is a lovely restaurant on the grounds. I had pre-booked, so we checked in, changed, and walked over to to have dinner in the Orangery. We enjoyed it so much, that we have booked for tomorrow as well.
But for now, it's nite-nite time.
Thanks for following along!
Until next time....
No comments:
Post a Comment