Thetford Forest

Thetford Forrest is about 20 mins from our house and luckily very easy to find. A few weeks ago the wives club asked me to come along and let the kids play. They have a  really nice play ground area, trails for walking and biking, a restaurant, bike shop and something called High Lodge Go Ape. It's an obstacle course in the trees. You can even rent seaways if you don't want to walk the trails.

In the winter they light up a bunch of these trees and they say it's very pretty.

This is the kids obstacle course, I think the adults had a harder time than the kids.

Even Sydney gave it a go.

I regret wearing this shirt, there are little black bugs that look like fleas that were attracted to my shirt and I was covered in them.

We had a great time and the food in the restaurant was really tasty. Planning a trip back to do the obstacle course and Go Ape!

Moving military style

Our things finally arrived and as expected some things were damaged. The movers arrived on a Saturday and my house became a mess in about 4 hours. I wanted to start unpacking the boxes so  they could take some of the trash with them but after an hour of unpacking I ran out of space to move and I gave up.

This crate was missing half the door and I'm sure that some things probably fell out and they were thrown back in. It's hard to say who opened it.

One of my kitchen chairs- busted maybe wood glue can put it back together.

 

This is the mess I was left with after the movers left. The whole house was a disaster but the kitchen was the worse.

Over and over again I kept finding things that I asked the movers to put in storage and I guess they ignored me, because it's here. Now I either have to give it away or find somewhere or some way to store it all.

The living room is awful, I did manage to make a path so that we could walk.

I have a lot of work ahead of me and hopefully in a few days I can post the after photos.
 Who am I kidding? Maybe in a month I can post the after photos.

First trip to Cambridge, UK

Cambridge is only about 30 mins from my front door and I suspect that we will be going a lot. This past week we went for the first time.  There are so many stores, pubs and historic buildings that my eyes didn't know where to look first. Cambridge has a market right in the center of town and it has so many things for sale. There was jewelry, music, homemade soaps, crafts, food, and flowers. 

We decided to go punting and by we, I mean me. It's a very touristy thing to do but I wanted to sit in the boat and let someone else do all the work. And we got the best guy, our guide was a New Orleans Saints fan.  He went to New Orleans after Katrina and fell in love with the food and Saints football. Of course he knew were from the because Mick wears either LSU or Saints T-shirts or baseball hats everyday of his life. He was a real cutie! and so were a lot of the other cute guys punting. Haha!!

So he explained a lot about the different colleges, and the history of the city and punting all while talking football whenever he got the chance.

 

 

This was  our guide! And my forehead

 

 

 

More cute guides! come on girls, don't you want to come to Cambridge?

 

 

 Cambridge has 31 colleges, and they are all old. Some are very small and some are large. One of the largest and most famous is Kings College. This is the side that faces the water and I can't wait to come back and take a tour inside, and walk the grounds outside. Maybe sit under a tree like this guy and read a book.

These are one of the many bridges across the River Cam and many just connect 1 side of a college to the other.

 

 This is part of St John's college and in the fall this Virginia Creeper Ivy turns red!. I have to come back for that. This Saturday there were so many people just relaxing on the lawns, and taking in sun and having picnics it made me jealous that I didn't grow up in a place like this.

 

 

 

This is the market, as mentioned in past post; most villages have market day. Cambridge has one every day.

 

 

 

This booth smelled so good, and it was hard to resist.

 

I didn't get the best picture here but those little barrels are full of olives, each different a flavor or spice.

 

Cambridge is very bike friendly, there are bike trails, and paths everywhere. Probably because all the students need a way to get around and parking is hard to find.

 

 

 

 

 

This is the front part of King's College

 

 

I have a such a crush on doors here. Yes doors! they are so large and wooded and old. Maybe before we leave I can find an old door to bring back with me.

 

 

 

 

Life in Britain so far...

So, I've been in England about a month and even though I joined a lot forums, and Facebook pages to get as much information as I could about England before coming, there was still a lot I didn't know. I figured I'd share some of those things. And as I learn more I will add on.

Taxes:

The Brits have a lot of taxes that I didn't know about, like TV tax. That's right!  there is a TV tax for every TV that you own. Our rental agent is helping us with the paperwork and I will have to pay this tax yearly. I'm not sure how much it is yet but I will have to post that later.

There is a road tax some states in the US have these, it's like property taxes that you pay yearly, however the money doesn't go to the actual roads. I will never again complain about the roads in US again.

There is a Council Tax it's like property taxes back home, luckily for now we are exempt from that tax.

There is a congestion tax that you pay to drive in London. And you better pay that tax before you drive in London or else one of the many camera's on the roadway will catch you.

I heard that there is a window screen tax but I think that may be a myth not really sure about that one yet.

I will say that for all the taxes they have some of it does go back into the community. They have very nice parks every village big or small has at least a park and a community building.

Our little community has a great park, bike and walking trails, tennis courts, and soccer fields; or should I say football fields.  A community building that offers workout classes, dance classes and can be rented out for functions.

 

 

Here's some pictures of the park near our home.

 

The roads are probably the worst I have ever driven on. They're narrow and winding only a few of them are wide enough for large vehicles. The national speed limit is 60mph and the only other speed limits are 30 in towns and 70 on the interstate or carriageway as they are called here.

 love how some of the roads look like there are houses on them

 Everyone that has never traveled to England, told us the food was terrible and that we would hate it so much. Well I have tried the traditional fish and chips they were less than stellar, but the food here is great!

It's true fish and chips are what the country is known for and it's kept many poor folk from going hungry. But there are a lot of other tasty foods to try and so far everywhere we have been has been great. 

Fish and chips from a small diner in Newmarket

Cottage pie OKA shepherds pie from a pub near Bury The cheese on this was so good.

So although we may not know everything we have found some good and some bad, it's a great adventure so far and I can't wait to see more of this beautiful country. Oh yeah, the internet sucks!

London, I love thee

This Saturday we went to London for the first time. I can already tell that we are going to keep coming back again and again, London has so much history and it's such a beautiful city.

We took the Big Tour Bus.. so that we could see the whole city from the double decker point of view. We were able to get off and on the bus as much as we wanted the whole day. Next time we will be coming on our own (gotta figure out that whole Tube thing). But here are some of the pictures we took and I wish I could remember everything I learned, but we've decided that the next trip we'll explore certain sections of the city. So there will be a lot more post of London in the future.

Our bus tour started on Baker St. This is a famous street because Sherlock Holmes lived on Baker Street, 221B to be exact. That statue in this picture is of Sherlock Holmes.  Putting this on the list of things to get better pictures of.

This is All Souls it's a church in London and the BBC building is right next to it. I've seen this building on TV before, it's been in the background when during British journalist reports.

 



This is Oxford Street, If you want to do some shopping... this is your street. Late in the afternoon there were so many people here that our bus was redirected.

I love the taxi's

Shaftesbury Memorial Fountain in Piccadilly Circus.

 

This is her majesty's theater 

Trafalgar square, I hope to be here on New Years eve.

 

Hope to come next time and get on the lions at the square

Admiralty Arch- This is really just a walkway and driveway between the Mall and the Trafalgar Square. It's so beautiful in person. There is supposedly a nose in the wall, well more like a protrusion in the shape of a human nose but it's about 7 feet high. It's rumored to be Napoleon's Nose. I'll have to try and find it next time we go.

 



Big Ben.. It always makes me think of National European Vacation with Chevy Chase trying to get to it from a roundabout.

 



 

 

So blessed that my kids are able to travel with us and see the world. My kids will never be able to say that we didn't do anything with them, or take them anywhere.

The London Eye is massive and it only travels at about 1 mph. It cost approximately $30 to ride. And the wait is about an hour long. The tour guide said the London Eye makes about £100,000 a day.

This is tower Bridge and it's located near Tower of London. We took a ferry on the Thames River

That is the Tower of London and we didn't have to time to go in this time. But we are going to buy tickets and come back. This is where King Henry VIII had some of his wives killed.

Westminster Abbey is massive, look at how little the people look at the bottom. We were in a hurry to get back on our tour bus and make our way back that I had to take this picture as we were walking by.