The Fens

What are the Fens?
- The Fens are grasslands that are in East Anglia, UK. We were told that the Fens used to be the place where England attached to the mainland.  As the country began to separate part was left under the water.  The people of the area discovered that the land was very fertile so they began to pump the water into deeply dug ditches.  Eventually the ditches lead out into water ways that drained the whole area and they planted lots and lots of Rye!

The Fens ditches now run along side of the road and can be up to 40 ft deep. Makes for very dangerous roads in the winter! People also can be founded boating down the water ways. Basically the Fens are swamp land but without a lot of animals. Very interesting...

Castle Rising Castle

once upon a time... there was a castle in Kings Lynn, UK.  It was a state of the art castle in it's time. Great time and energy was put into building the defenses for this amazing castle to protect everyone inside. It was passed down from 2 different families and eventually landed into the Royal families land stash. 


During that time there was a Queen.  She was a little upset that her husband, the King, "preferred the company of men" (the tours words, not mine) so she found comfort in the arms of another. His rival in fact! The Queen and King had 1 child who was too young to know about his parents drama. The Queen sided with her lover and together they over threw the King. It's said that the Queens lover ordered the Kings murder and then together took over power of the country. They were in power for a couple months until the Child as a teenager took over being King.


The new King took revenge and killed the lover.  But he loved his mother so much that he couldn't end her life. Instead he sent her to live in Castle Rising Castle. About 2.5 hours away from London and power. The Queen was sad at first but discovered her love for the country side and the closeness of the water. She spent her remaining 30 years in the castle where her son sent her many gifts and visited often. She was the most famous person that lived in the castle.

True story of Edward II, Queen Isabella and Edward III

The End!

Mike's Car List...

Many know that Mike loves Cars!  He loves driving them and I'm pretty sure that in a previous life he may have been a race car driver. He's got great reflexes and just loves the mechanics of these machines. So I thought it would be fun to list the cars that he has owned. (Since he keeps forgetting) We will be adding another in the next week too.

From Most recent to Oldest

Fiat Panda
Lexus IS 200 Sport

Land Rover Discovery II

Ford Escort

Jeep Wranger (by marriage)

Ford Explorer

Toyota 4 runner

Honda Accord

Oldsmobile Cutless Sierra

1971 Chevy Nova

Most have a bucket list of things they would like to do before they die but I'm pretty sure that Mike has a list of cars that he would like to drive/own before he dies.





Things I've learned!

There are many many differences between American and British!  

Let's talk...
Laid off = made redundant
Fag = Cigarette
Faggot = Meatballs
Lory = Truck
Hedge = Bushes
Sedan = Saloon

Car keys don't look like keys. And some house keys look like old skeleton keys.

All dog signs that we've seen so far are all Scotty dogs!

How about drinking and driving???

It is legal for a 5 year old in their own house under parent supervision to drink a beer. 

Legal age to purchase alcohol is 18.

If you are 16 or 17 with a legal guardian you are allowed 1 alcoholic beverage at dinner.

In a bar or pub they do not seat you or take your order. You look at your table number and order at the bar. 

Blood alcohol level must not be above .08 - just like home!

It is legal to have 1 beer and drive. It is illegal to have more.

It is illegal to have car keys on your person and be drunk. They will arrest you!

It is illegal to be drunk and sleep in your car. They will arrest you!

It is illegal to eat, drink (alcohol or not), use a handheld cell phone while driving.

Other:

In the UK you do not have the right to bear arms! No guns! No knives more than 3 inches! 

It is illegal to have a baseball bat in your car past baseball season.

It is illegal to have a real handcuffs, a baton or taser. 

Interesting....

Stonehenge

Things on my see before I die list... Stonehenge.  And now that's a big check off the long list!

I've always wanted to see this prehistoric site. Built during the same time as Egypt's pyramids, in phases between 3000 and 1000 BC, this site was really important to the people of the area.  There are multiple theories for why Stonehenge was built. As a circle it is remarkably accurate as a celestial calender. But there have also been many discoveries of burial sites around the monument.  In fact there are large mounds surrounding the monument that may have been separate smaller sites.  There have also been a lot of archaeological finds that indicate that lots of parties have been around the space. Most likely these parties were to celebrate the summer solstice. Lots of animals bones, pottery, etc.

This is a picture from the inner circle through the line of the summer solstice to the Heel Stone.  If it was sunny your would be able to see the solstice here. Today you can't just go into the Inner circle. There are special tours at the end of the day that allow you to go in with supervision. Since the late 80's they have stopped allowing people to just to walk around freely.  Mainly because people would take pieces of the stones or graffiti the stones.

Stonehenge is a special place to many people. Some believe that there is great energy in the inner circle and all I can tell you is that once we entered we were smiling! We went on a wet and rainy day. We were completely water logged and pretty miserable but once walking into the magnificence of the stones and taking steps back into history it was all smiles.  It is an amazing place and was definitely worth every moment!

Bury St. Edmonds

Bury St. Edmond is on my list of places to live. It's a cool little town with 2 brewery's and lots of charm. The biggest part of the town is this Cathedral. Before this Cathedral was here there was an old Abby.  The story goes that King Edmond (600ish) was martyred for being Christian. And after that the Abby was built. It was huge! But it was taken apart by Henry VIII's decision to no longer follow the Catholic church. (The town still says they will never forgive him for tearing down the Abby - that's a long grudge). And now the Abby stands in ruins behind the new Cathedral (new by meaning 1700's).

 There are also these awesome Gardens behind the Cathedral and a little bird sanctuary.  It was pretty neat and really old.

In addition to the Cathedral we hit our first English pub! It was awesome. Since I'm pregnant I got to get a soup rather than a beer. The food is bland but they have the best spicy mustard ever! So there are ways to spice things up.

Other than that fun trip we are having trouble on the base getting our Id's. It's been really tough since we really can't leave the hotel. No food shopping, bank setting up, no hospital visits, no post office, nothing.  The ID is the golden ticket and we can't leave the base or use the amenities without it. It's really hard to be trapped and feel like an alien all at the same time.  And with all that said there is a limited tour to Stonehenge tomorrow that we paid non-refundable tickets for and the next tour isn't for several months. So we are breaking free! And gonna take our chances with the authorities to go to the inner circle.  Should be fun!

Junket

Junket means: an excursion for the purpose of pleasure at public or company expense.


Monday we arrived in the UK!  Today is Wednesday.  
Since being in the UK we have had some pretty good luck weather wise. The first day was rainy but over all it has been sunny with puffy clouds. Beautiful days!!! And really long days! The sun comes up early and sets late. I didn't realize that we are higher in latitude by being here. It's really strange.

Mike's First Beer!

The Plane ride: was really fun! Lots of entertainment. So much so that Katie ended up watching 3 movies rather than sleeping at all. This kinda set her back on the whole time difference. It's taken a couple days to work that out.


The Hotel: we are on the base hotel which is nice. But our sponsors hotel room is way better. Apparently if you have kids you get a better room.


Being in Suffolk: So far we both like Suffolk.  It's country like and really old. Way older than anything in the US. Which Katie finds really interesting. We haven't been able to leave the base since we are still waiting on ID's and paperwork to go through. So we haven't seen much of it yet but so far so good. Interesting thing is they us US $ on base and the GBP off base. 


Driving: driving on the left side is tricky!  Mike passed his written driving test with a 90.  He is smart!  Katie failed with a 72.  She gets to retake the test next week.  There are all kinds of different signs and lines (queues).  There are 4 types of roadways in the UK. Country roads, single carriageways, double carriageways and motorways. Motorways are our US highways.  Everything else is just a road. There are tons and tons of roundabouts! And mini roundabouts!  And multiple mini roundabouts put together! The thing that Katie couldn't believe was that it is legal to pass a school bus when it's unloading kids but has to be done with caution.


Yoga: So far Katie attended 1 yoga class on base. It was a vinyasa flow class. She liked the teacher and was able to get some contacts to start to find some classes around the towns near the base and to find some teaching gigs too.


In general we are just waiting to get our ID's since after that we will be able to get everything done. We have a list of things we are waiting to do like banking, hospital visit, buying a car, finding a rental place, etc.  It's a slow go but we are making due.
More to come!