Reunited
Jill's here! And she brought a car!
We're at the Briskers' house right now, so I'm going to give just a quick rundown of the past few days to let you know where we've been and what we've done. From Heathrow we went to Oxford, as the picture above indicates, where Jill used to live.
From there we made our way, with some minor difficulty, to Hillcrest, Main Street, Cleeve Prior, Near Evesham, home of Emma and Tim, friends of Jill's from back in the day. Tim, unfortunately, was out of town, but Emma was a welcoming, hospitable host who spared no expense to see to our comfort and happiness. Plus she has a lovely 400-year-old home that used to be a bakery, so that's nice, too.
The chicken tikka masala at the Balti Hut in Bidford, by the way, is to die for.
While there, Jill and I drove up to Warwick to visit Warwick Castle, which was a little Disneyfied (there was a guy dressed as a dragon...), but still cool. We trudged up 530 steep stone stairs in the rain to see the view from the top of the ramparts, and also went inside to check out the various historical exhibits.
At Emma's recommendation, we visited the little village of Broadway in the Cotswolds, since it was on our way to our next destination, and we didn't regret it. We stopped in for a proper English tea at Tisanes, then checked out Broadway Tower, a Victorian "folly" which was, in a word, breathtaking, and made for some pretty incredible pictures.
Amazing. I still stare at those Broadway Tower pictures.
Enough of that, though, because from Broadway we headed all the way to the Pewsey Vale, on the Salisbury Plain, to see David and Jennifer Brisker, two more of Jill's England friends. She and Dave used to work together when she was here with Xelus, her old company. The Briskers live in a cozy little brick cottage they completely renovated themselves. It's really something what they've done with the place. Our first night here, Dave took us down to the Barge Inn (which, for my money, should've been called the Barge Right Inn), which is apparently crop circle central. The Salisbury Plain is where all the crop circles show up, you know, and from what Dave and Jen have said, the Barge Inn is where the "cereomancers" gather to plot and scheme.
Today, Friday, the 25th, we took a drive out to Glastonbury, the New-Agey alternative mystical energy capital of the world, to see Glastonbury Tor and Glastonbury Abbey. While there, we also visited Chalice Well, purported to be the burial site of the Holy Grail, the spring waters of which are said to have healing powers. Whatever the case, it's a beautiful garden. The tor and its tower, which is all that remains of a church that fell into ruin, were very cool, but it was something like a mile climb up a steep incline to get to the top, which, for us, was a challenge.
Tomorrow we're off to... I don't know where. There's just too much to see. I mean, we drove past Stonehenge today. It's that kind of place. Stay tuned.
We're at the Briskers' house right now, so I'm going to give just a quick rundown of the past few days to let you know where we've been and what we've done. From Heathrow we went to Oxford, as the picture above indicates, where Jill used to live.From there we made our way, with some minor difficulty, to Hillcrest, Main Street, Cleeve Prior, Near Evesham, home of Emma and Tim, friends of Jill's from back in the day. Tim, unfortunately, was out of town, but Emma was a welcoming, hospitable host who spared no expense to see to our comfort and happiness. Plus she has a lovely 400-year-old home that used to be a bakery, so that's nice, too.
The chicken tikka masala at the Balti Hut in Bidford, by the way, is to die for.
While there, Jill and I drove up to Warwick to visit Warwick Castle, which was a little Disneyfied (there was a guy dressed as a dragon...), but still cool. We trudged up 530 steep stone stairs in the rain to see the view from the top of the ramparts, and also went inside to check out the various historical exhibits.
At Emma's recommendation, we visited the little village of Broadway in the Cotswolds, since it was on our way to our next destination, and we didn't regret it. We stopped in for a proper English tea at Tisanes, then checked out Broadway Tower, a Victorian "folly" which was, in a word, breathtaking, and made for some pretty incredible pictures.
Amazing. I still stare at those Broadway Tower pictures.
Enough of that, though, because from Broadway we headed all the way to the Pewsey Vale, on the Salisbury Plain, to see David and Jennifer Brisker, two more of Jill's England friends. She and Dave used to work together when she was here with Xelus, her old company. The Briskers live in a cozy little brick cottage they completely renovated themselves. It's really something what they've done with the place. Our first night here, Dave took us down to the Barge Inn (which, for my money, should've been called the Barge Right Inn), which is apparently crop circle central. The Salisbury Plain is where all the crop circles show up, you know, and from what Dave and Jen have said, the Barge Inn is where the "cereomancers" gather to plot and scheme.
Today, Friday, the 25th, we took a drive out to Glastonbury, the New-Agey alternative mystical energy capital of the world, to see Glastonbury Tor and Glastonbury Abbey. While there, we also visited Chalice Well, purported to be the burial site of the Holy Grail, the spring waters of which are said to have healing powers. Whatever the case, it's a beautiful garden. The tor and its tower, which is all that remains of a church that fell into ruin, were very cool, but it was something like a mile climb up a steep incline to get to the top, which, for us, was a challenge.
Tomorrow we're off to... I don't know where. There's just too much to see. I mean, we drove past Stonehenge today. It's that kind of place. Stay tuned.
1 Comments:
What amazing pictures!! Jill looks great--must have been hard to get the car through security....
Thanks for keeping things updated!
Mom
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