Drinking Tea in England (August Break 2014)

Since today's prompt is "drink" we turn to England again and the British passion for drinking tea. Tea is so good there, that this coffee drinker turned into a tea drinker. Alas, only in England.

We found this little tea shop in York while rambling along the narrow lanes in this medieval town. I liked their display of loose tea leaves in these big glass containers.

Lucky for us, they also had a pot of hot tea outside their shop where anybody could taste the tea. The glass tea pot beautifully featured the golden color of the tea, and the tea light beneath it gave extra warmth - literally.

There is an abundance of tea rooms all over Britain.

The tea, of course, is preferably taken with milk, and it tastes even better if it is accompanied by homemade scones, clotted cream and jam. Sinfully good!!!

If you are a tea drinker, how do you take your tea? Black? With milk? Sugar? Honey? Or perhaps even with Kandis as we do in the North of Germany?

Better Than Its Reputation - British Food (August Break 2014)

I have decided to join in Susannah Conway's August Break again, but a little differently. She has offered an entire list of prompts that we can use or not. I will try to work along those prompts although this might not work for every day. And other than she supposed, I will not take a photo each day but use most of these prompts as an inspiration for telling you more about my trip to Europe.

Today's prompt is "lunch" - so let's talk about British food! We're not starting with lunch but with breakfast.
This is a Scottish breakfast that we had in Edinburgh - with haggis, black pudding, sausage, bacon and fried egg. It was pretty good, I liked both the haggis and the black pudding (blood sausage).

The breakfast in our farmhouse bed and breakfast in the Cotswolds looked like this - fried egg, sausage and bacon like in Scotland, but also baked beans and mushrooms, plus grilled tomatoes (the tomatoes in Scotland weren't grilled).

Both to go with tea, of course, served in a beautiful pot. Oh, that is tea with milk - the only way I can stomach tea (I am not a tea drinker - except on the British Isles).

While in England we often skipped lunch and had a real cream tea instead - sinfully rich! Scones with clotted cream and jam - heavenly!

If you don't like tea there's always the option to have a latte instead.

Which leaves us with dinner. Most of the time we had our dinner in a pub since we really like pub food. You can have traditional fish and chips,

served with beer of course (this is a pint of bitter).

In Scotland the Geek tried Haggis which is so much better than you would think. Haggis is a savory pudding containing sheep's pluck; minced with onion, oatmeal, suet, spices and salt, mixed with stock, and traditionally encased  in the animal's stomach and simmered for approx. three hours. As you can easily see, we had a different version, but it was still Haggis, and most people cringe when they hear of it - probably because they've never tried it. This was the first time that I tried Haggis as well, and I thought it was pretty tasty.

Kaefer had bangers and mash.

while I ordered the Shepherd's Pie.

In England we enjoyed food like steak pie

and seafood platter,

all accompanied by a pint of bitter.

Rinda's Summertime Photography Scavenger Hunt

Just like last year, Rinda organized another photography scavenger hunt this summer. It usually lasts from June 1st to September 23, and she has come up with 21 items we can hunt for during that time (2 items can be substituted). It was a lot of fun, and except for one item I found all of them during my trip to Europe.

So let's start, shall we?

1. A sign welcoming people to your home town

Well, this was the first item I had to substitute, because our town doesn't seem to be very welcoming. What a pity. I have a kite instead - we flew this kite a couple weeks ago on one of our local beaches when friends from Colorado came to visit.

2. A garden gnome

These garden gnomes live in a shop window at the Marché aux Fleurs on the Île de la Cité in Paris.

3. Birds on a wire

When I woke up in our farmhouse bed and breakfast in the Cotswolds I saw these birds sitting on the wire. I have no idea what kind of birds these are, but perhaps some reader from England can help me out?

4. A group of tourists

That was easy! I just had to choose. I decided to feature these tourists in front of Buckingham Palace. Perhaps they hoped to see the Queen - the flag on top of the palace told us she was home. (Perhaps they were hoping for Kate, William and George who do not live here.)

5. A rack of post cards

Again, I could choose. I loved this rack in rainy Edinburgh.

6. An urban street scene

I loved the buses in Edinburgh. Let's rephrase that - I love public transportation.

7. A rural landscape

Is there anything better than the Cotswolds? 

8. A tattoo on a person

I took a picture of this guy and his girlfriend/wife while fastening a lovelock on Pont de l'Archevêché in Paris. Only when I looked at the photos at home did I realize that he has this big tattoo on his arm.

9. A bakery

Cornish pasties are very popular, and I was happy to find a Cornish bakery up in York - quite a way from Cornwall!

10. A photo bomb

Oh my! That is something you can hardly plan for. However, I have a teenage daughter who loves to play photo bomb! And usually when I least expect it (which, I guess, is the point). Kaefer thought it very funny that she jumped right in front of my camera when I wanted to take a picture of Stanway House in the Cotswolds in the beautiful evening light.

11. A horn

York is the place to go for finding horns! When I first read the list I thought that this certainly would be an item I had to substitute, but I found it on our third day in Britain!

12. A mascot

No problem during World Cup in Europe - this one is the mascot of the Dutch national team. Of course it's an orange lion.

13. A sunrise

Didn't happen!!! So I have to substitute it with a bird house - just like the garden gnomes I found these ones at the Marché aux Fleurs in Paris.

14. A parade

Now, this was tricky. I actually didn't see any parade. I witnessed a demonstration in Paris, but does that count? So I had to get creative. Here's the poster for the upcoming Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo in Edinburgh Castle, an annual summer event. I had seen it back in 1988, and it was certainly a lot of fun and a great atmosphere!

15. A juggler

Again, this wasn't easy at all. Instead of a real juggler I took a picture of this guy "juggling" a ball under three pots, changing it all the time. Someone then has to say where the ball is - you have no chance to pick the right one. These guys want to get your money - and they do if someone is stupid enough to "play". You always find them in touristy areas like the Eiffel Tower.

16. A sign in a language other than English

This sign was in front of a café in Hameln, Germany, telling the customers about the rooms in their very old building. The sign is made from wood and the text is burned into the wood.

17. A lamp post

Aren't these ones just wonderful? They are in front of the Louvre in Paris.

18. A water fall

We didn't see any waterfalls during our trip, so I opted for this fountain in Trafalgar Square in London. The water is falling quite nicely.

19. A public garden

This is the Ernest Wilson Memorial Garden in Chipping Campden in the Cotswold. Wilson was a plant collector - a very fitting memorial for him.

20. A bus with a picture painted on its sides

Voilà - sightseeing bus in Edinburgh. Later I saw similar ones in York and London, and even in Paris.

21. A photograph of you with something representing the season

Those are always the most difficult-to-get photos. But here is one, taken by the Geek. Representing the season: I'm wearing a dress, sandals and I'm sitting in front of a fountain in Paris. Yeah, summer!

So here we are - 21 items in almost as many days! It was a lot of fun working on my list - yes, I always carried it with me. Thank you, Rinda, for another great photography scavenger hunt. I hope there will be one next summer!

This Just Feels Wrong!!!

I know that many of you won't agree - after all, this is your daily reality in Australia, New Zealand, Japan and who knows where else - and, of course, in Great Britain. But for us "right drivers" driving on the left side of the road just feels plain wrong.

Well, don't get me wrong. While still living in Germany - when I was young! - I often went to England. Sure, I often took the plane since I frequently went just for a long weekend to see friends, but I also spent several weeks there every year, driving around. At that time I had no problem at all with driving on the left side - after all, I drove in my own little car (a red Peugeot 205) with the steering wheel on the left and the stick shift on the right side. That made things so much easier.

This time, however, we had rented a car to drive from the North (Edinburgh) via York and the Cotswold to the South (London). Of course it was a British car with the steering wheel on the right and the stick shift on the left. Oh my, this was calling for trouble. Someone actually asked us why we hadn't rented an automatic car, but honestly, we are stick drivers through and through.

The motorway was easy to navigate, even while we were driving through one road construction after the other.

Please notice the fancy purple color

Roundabouts are extremely common in Britain, and once you know how to approach them, they aren't a big problem either.

But the country lanes!!! Yes, they are lanes, you hardly can call them roads. They are narrow, often "framed" by hedges and walls... yeah, and they're often one lane "roads".

This is actually a broader road - two lanes.

Who knows what's behind that "hill"

So, I drove along those country lanes - which you have to when traveling in the Cotswolds - with a beating heart and always, constantly on alert. There could be a tractor coming towards me right after that corner. Or a bus behind that hill. Who knows?

However, the Cotswold villages were the worst. How does this look to you:

This is Chipping Campden, one of my favorite places in the Cotswolds. I was driving and I navigated along this road, the "High Street" - huh, a narrow road, with cars parked on both sides and somehow you have to get through there, and then there's a bus... where to go? You can't just disappear. And all of this on the wrong side...!!! Holy cow!

It was a small narrow street like this one where I finally had enough. Honestly, my back was wet from sweating, and this wasn't caused by a hot flash! I just stopped in the middle of the road, got out and said to the Geek that it is his turn now! I didn't feel able to do this anymore, even less finding a parking spot and do parallel parking with the steering wheel on the right side! Jeez!!

Funny though, I didn't even feel embarrassed. I should have! I am a good driver, and I managed to drive in England in my own car without any problem! I think I'm getting really old!!! Ugh!!

Burford High Street