Saturday morning we got up and cooked breakfast. The bacon strips are bigger than what we have. Free range eggs and meat seem to be pretty big here. So I cooked the bacon, free range eggs, and toast from the bread (small tin is what they call it) I got at the bakery. It was pretty good, but the bacon was real salty. I don’t know if they sell low sodium but we will check next time. I might try getting some from the butcher next time.
We found out from our neighbor David that we only get rubbish (garbage) pick up every two weeks…..that makes for some pretty ripe diapers (sorry TMI). The recycling gets picked up one Friday and then the rubbish on the next Friday and so on. One more thing I am thankful for in the US.
Here is a funny story…..I thought the only appliance in the house that I knew how to work was the dishwasher. Well I was wrong. Friday evening running the dishwasher we noticed a light that indicated that the dishwasher needed “Salt.” We looked and looked to find out where you would put salt in a dishwasher. Well we finally found it. When we went to the grocery store on Saturday we looked and looked for dishwasher salt and sure enough they had it. I can’t say I ever put salt in my dishwasher before, but I guess they have hard water and there is not a water softener for the whole house. I also found out that I was putting laundry detergent in the dishwasher. So today I am going to try again to find dishwasher soap.
After breakfast we went to a fort called Fort Nelson. It was about 20 minutes away. Our GPS took us down a one lane, two way street with curves. Talk about scary! They drive so fast around here. Every so often they had these pull offs to let cars by, but the cars we came across was going too fast to see them until they were almost on you. We were so glad to get off that road. This fort sat on a hill and you could see the ocean from its location. We learned at the ticket counter that stroller’s are called pushchairs here. We walked around the grounds and explored a tunnel where they brought ammunition for the cannons up through. They also had a museum that showed what life was like back then. I was amazed at the amounts and kinds of cannon’s they had. In the middle of the fort they had a display of many cannons and guns used through the various wars from the 1400’s all the way through Desert Storm. They had a super gun from that war. We all had a great time there.
The next stop was going to be the historic dockyard in Portsmouth, but we couldn’t figure out how to get there right away and stumbled across a castle called Portchester Castle. It was quite a find. Once you crossed what used to be the moat into the grounds, there was a huge grassy area where people were picnicking and kids were catching crabs in small water area. There was also a church, cemetery and tea room. This is a great place to spend an afternoon just relaxing. I think we might go back and bring a lunch. The main tower of the castle was open for tours, but we did not go. On Sunday we bought a pass that would allow us to go back free of charge, so we will go back to tour and bring a blanket and lunch. This was a Roman castle built in about 280AD. It sat on the water overlooking Portsmouth (we could see where we were originally tried to go). This castle was the most impressive and best preserved Roman Saxon castle. It is the only one in Northern Europe whose walls are at their original height.
After touring the castle, we were back on our original trail of going to the dockyard. We did figure out how to get there and parked in a parking garage. After taking the elevator we ended up in a huge outdoor shopping mall. We found a store for cell phones and got a pay as you go phone for over here because neither of our US phones work here. Then we tried to find the ships we were looking for. The first ship was called the “Warrior” and it was the cutting edge of technology going from wood to iron and sail to steam built in 1860. It was impressive looking. We did not go on it because it was getting late and there were still things down there we wanted to see.
The next ship was called the Victory. This ship was the most impressive because of all the cannons, huge masts, ropes and just the design. This was Lord Nelson’s ship used in a battle in 1805. As we sat there admiring this ship, I couldn’t help to think about how many men it took just to raise the sail’s, not to mention get the cannons ready for battle. We didn’t have time for the 40 min tour, but this ship was the highlight for me.
There was so much to do at the Portsmouth harbor we will certainly go back. You could take harbor tours, take the ferry, go up Spinnaker Tower, go through the Royal Navy Museum and so much more. At least we know how to get back there.
We had to find a grocery store to get some food for the week so we headed out of town and came across a store called Tesco. It really was like a Wal-Mart. Here is a sign outside of the store. Can anyone explain what the sign means?....We thought they were open 24 hours and went on Sunday at 6pm but they were closed.
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We are having problems finding baby food. I was just starting to transition Paul to stage 2 baby foods when we left. We brought some food with us, but that is running out. It seems like they start their babies on several ingredient food from the beginning (stage 1). I bought one called sweet potato bake and tried to feed it to Paul last night. It was so thick, so we thinned it out and tried again, but he just kept gagging and eventually threw it up. I might have to start making my own while I am here. Tonight we are going to a different grocery store to see if they have anything different.
When we got home on Saturday night, we tried to find a church to attend in the morning. We found several but couldn’t get the worship times for any of them. This coming week we are going to drive by a few and see what time they start services on Sunday.
Sunday we got up and headed for Stonehenge. It was about an hour away from our house. This was on the top of our list of things to see while we were here so we wanted to make sure we get the top things done. I told John that I wasn’t ready to deal with going to London yet. The driving here is a big challenge and stressful. Some of the rotaries (roundabouts) get kind of scary and London is out of our league right now. Although I must say John is doing great driving….I haven’t got the guts to try yet. I might try to bus this week.
As we approached Stonehenge it was an impressive view. Those huge rocks jutting out of the ground and then a ring of people surrounding it, just popped out of the green countryside. You can’t wander through the rocks anymore. You have to stay on a path around the rocks. We parked and when to get our tickets. I was feeding Paul his lunch of apples/bananas while John stood in line to get our tickets. Thankfully we did not plan to go there next weekend. It would have been so crowded and backed up because of Summer Solstice. They have passes called English Heritage passes which allow you to see hundred of sights in the country for one price. John got us those tickets and the book with over 250 pages of things to see. As we entered Stonehenge you are allowed to take a device in your language that is an audio tour on the grounds. We found that to be really neat. As you walk around the rocks it tells you the history and facts about the exhibit. We sat down on the grass and let Paul play on a blanket while we listened to some of the recording. It was the nicest day at that point since we have been here, but the weather did change later and we had to put our jackets on and wrap Paul in a blanket. It is amazing how the rocks got to that particular location since they were from two different areas of the country and a wonder why they would go to so much trouble. They are not sure what they are there for, but some guess for a calendar of some type. It seems they could have made one smaller scale. They think it would have taken 600 people to move one of the large stones.
The last place we ventured for the day was another castle/fort. It was called Old Sarum and was built in 500 BC by the Romans, the Saxons and the Normans. There wasn’t much left of this fortress, but the grounds it was on was beautiful and the view was breathtaking. There was a large outer circle of trees and a hill as the first line of defense. After a grassy meadow there was a deep moat as their second line of defense. Everything here is so green and beautiful. After a full weekend we headed home to cook dinner and take a stroll in the town square. We were in bed early getting ready for another week in the UK.
Have a great week everyone!
Wow, you had a full weekend:) I feel for the rubbish man!
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