Our trip began in the Cotswolds. A gorgeous part of England that takes your breath away. We loved it. I totally forgot to take pictures of our English breakfasts, but every day at our B&B's we would get a fabulous breakfast of fried egg, sauteed mushrooms, tomato, bacon (which looks like ham and it's so yummy), and a banger (sausage). And for some reason that wasn't enough for me so I also ate yogurt, fruit, cereal and tea. Hmm... tea.
This is Brandon in Bourton-on-the-Water (name of the city) among the Cotswolds. We did not need a coat after this day. Which you would think is a good thing but it wasn't. More than a few people decided to skip the deodorant.
Bacon Butties! This is a sandwich consisting of bread, bacon and sauce. You can have red or brown and if you ask me they're both good. We found a little gourmet shop that sold all sorts of fun things. We also bought olives to eat with lunch and Italian Lemon Soda. The Cotswolds had the best food. The freshest and least pretentious.
While in the country we went to Oxfordshire to Blenheim Palace. This is incidentally where Winston Churchill was born. Blenheim was constructed for the 1st Duke of Marlborough, England is on its 9th and the family still lives there. Churchill was the current Duke's god-father. And we saw some jousting so that was fun.
Lunch at Blenheim. Pea soup, mineral water from the Blenheim springs, and bread. And really great cake.
This place is huge. Probably the size of Versailles but it actually looks like someone can live there. Not so much gold all over the place.
On to Bath! It was about 2 hours from Chipping Campden to Bath. We of course got lost a ton (here we are in Chippenham), but that was really half the fun because we made discoveries like this one! Lidl was the store Brandon did his shopping at during his mission and was so stoked to find it. So we stopped and grabbed lunch here. Groceries are very inexpensive in England, which was really surprising.
These are Mexicanos. We have yet to find out what they are. I suspect they are chicken tenders and they came with dipping sauce. I asked a lady what they were but she didn't know either. "We're going to risk it and see," she said. People in England were really really sweet.
Roman baths! Which is where Bath got its name. This is such a beautiful city. It looks like the same architect designed it all and it's all built with a stone native to the Cotswolds. It makes brick look really ugly.
Best fish and chips ever. I mean ever. The fish was fresh and flaky, the chips were crisp. It was so good. We got the tip from a kid in Starbucks.
Our B&B told us to try this one pub down the lane, which ended up being more hazardous than we had anticipated because it was pitch black when we were walking home we realized this town didn't believe in street lamps. Anyway, the food had a lot of promise but it didn't deliver. Sad. However, what you are seeing is called Eaton's Mess. It's strawberries, meringue, and whipped cream. It was so good. Light and sweet and fluffy.
On to London!
On our way to London we decided to stop at Stonehenge. At first I was skeptical, but I'm really glad we went, it was totally worth it. The audio guide was great and I loved every minute of it. This is one of many pictures I took. It's just so amazing.
Our second stop in London was Harrod's (our first was the Victoria & Albert Museum). Harrod's was... extreme. I felt guilty just being there, but I bore it well. Harrod's had an annex across the street that served food and this is where Yo Sushi! was. It's a conveyor belt sushi place which was fun. The food wasn't very good, but it was fun. I felt chic.
While in London we did a ton of stuff. Museums included: Victoria and Albert, British Museum, National Gallery, Museum of Natural History, Tate Modern. Then: Tower of London, Westminster Abbey (we actually went for a type of choir service and it was amazing), Parliament, Buckingham, Speaker's Corner (where Pres. Hinckley would preach as a missionary), St. Paul's (where Diana was married). Hype Park, Kensington Gardens, West End and other stuff I can't remember. For full picture details we'll email you an Ofoto thing. We also happened on a few political demonstrations and a PG Wodehouse picnic on our way to the British Museum, which is lucky because I LOVE PG Wodehouse. Love him. Everyone was dressed in period costume.
This was one of my favorite afternoons. To the left there is live 1930's music and everything. There were even newt drawings.
Spam is food, right? Sort of? Anyway, this was great. It was so hot in that theater, it made me think of Phoenix, it was still a really funny show. The real comedy however, was when we were buying the tickets and Brandon, without knowing it, slipped into an English accent. When he saw I was looking at him with a, "What the crap?" kind of look, he goes, "What?" It was embarrassing.
I don't often order salads because I don't get full on them, but enough was enough. I had had so much grease that by this day I just wanted some grass. So we went to a nice-ish place and I got a Ceasar and it was quite good and welcome. Brandon got ham that came with super spicy mustard, it was almost like wasabi. All in all a good meal. And later...
Cheese platter!!! Brandon and I can't ever resist the cheese plate on a menu. These were quite nice, the stars were: English cheddar (why can't all cheddar be this good?_ Stilton (i think my new favorite blue), and something like Brie but a little stiffer, native to England, whose name I can't remember, curses! Life was so good right then.
I had one purpose and one purpose only for going to the Tower of London. The crown jewels. They were amazing, we saw a diamond the size of a golf ball. There is even a royal salt shaker that is insane. I thought this one big tub was the coronation bath, but it turned out to be the royal punch bowl.
To me there are three levels of restaurants. From top to bottom they are: 1. Amazing 2. Alright, I'll eat there again. 3. "I want to burn this place." This was an "I want to burn this place," type of place. Just thinking about it makes me angry. Everything was awful. When we were done we walked across the street and had dinner again.
Thankfully our last meal in London was a good one. For breakfast we had ham (with mini gherkins!) great sourdough, fruit, and I had a soft-boiled egg (my favorite kind). Then we went to the Tate Modern.
All in all, England was amazing. At first glance it seems stuffy and boring, but you cannot meet nicer people surrounded by such amazing history. On the way to the V&A Museum we saw holes on the wall and then read a plaque that informed us that those were from German airplanes during WWII. Then while we were lost looking for the British Museum, we happened upon one of Charles Dickens' homes, we got lost amongst the most beautiful villages. Everywhere you turned was a more interesting surprise. Yes, the food wasn't mind-blowing, but the country and its people more than made up for it.
