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September 5, 2016. Next adventures in England

LOCATION:  Oxford, England

WEATHER:  Mostly cloudy. Highs in 60s

I took the dogs (still in Whitchurch) for a walk.  Lots of their dog friends were in the park, so they nicely got worn out playing.

We packed up, said goodbye to the dogs, and left about 1:00.  The homeowners weren't home yet, so one of their friends kindly took us to the bus station.

We arrived in Oxford, and got settled in the youth hostel.  It is a family room with 3 sets of bunk beds. Really quite nice.  Completely full with mostly international guests.  

We picked up Alexis and Graham who arrived by train from London.  We introduced them to a pub we like here.  Nice evening for sitting outdoors.

NOTE:  New blog address...www.reidsontheroad2.blogspot.com

September 4, 2016. Last full day in Whitchurch

LOCATION:  Housesitting in Whitchurch, Buckinghamshire, England

WEATHER:  Mostly cloudy. Highs about 60

I took a long walk with the dogs in the park.  It was like a doggie play date.  Two sets of dogs were there being walked with their owners.  The dogs played and played.  One female dog is in season, so I had to keep one of our dogs away because, as the English endearingly explain..."he still has his bits".  

We are trying to finish our England stay by making sure we have eaten traditional foods.  Today we had a scotch egg for lunch.

We dabbed on a little spicy English mustard which added great flavor.

In the afternoon, we walked to our local pub for the last time.  We chatted with some local guys who were deciding between having another pint or mowing the yard.

Our daughter arrived safely in London and is staying with our former exchange student.

DINNER:  Fish pie, another British favorite dish.  I used a can of smoked mackaral as the bottom layer, then mashed potatoes, topped with a little cheese.  

September 3, 2016. Indoor activities on a rainy day

LOCATION:  Housesitting in Whitchurch, Buckinghamshire, England

WEATHER:  Cloudy in AM, Rain in PM

The weather forecast was for rain, so I took the dogs for a long walk in the morning.  Happily, we encountered another dog walker with one of our dogs' friends.  They played together and worked off their energy.

It did rain most of the day.  The dogs seemed to understand this and rested quite a bit.  In a break from the rain, we got in a second hike.

We did rainy day things.....read books and watched some BBC shows including "Miranda" featuring the actress Chumley from "Call the Midwife".  Highly recommend.  

For lunch, I warmed up the faggot we had bought at the butcher shop.  I looked it up on google.  It is a  sausage ball-type thing made of pork shoulder and liver, all the leftover bits of the pig I think.  This is what it looks like, even though my google search of "faggot pictures" resulted in an amazing other bunch of photos!, 

We made some future travel arrangements.  On George's bucket list are the French islands off the coast of Newfoundland named: St Pierre and Miquelon.  

One would think this is Canada, but it is actually a part of France.  They speak French there, use euros as currency, and apparently have great French restaurants.  It will be an adventure.    We bought tickets to go there later this fall.  Our next travel plans are coming together.....

This week:  Canal trip with daughter Alexis and her friend

Late September:  Ireland 

Then 3 weeks in Nova Scotia visiting 2 sets of friends.  One couple we knew when we lived in Gainesville, Florida, and another couple we met traveling in our Airstream.

Then, 3 days in St Pierre and Miquelon.  

Then early October to visit daughter Meredith and her husband in Detroit

Then mid-October back to Rochester, Minnesota where we used to live.  

From there, our plans are not definite, except for  3 future housesitting assignments.....

**Late November/December in Portland, Oregon

**Christmas in San Muguel de Allende, Mexico  

**February/March in Lake Norman, North Carolina

This around-the-world trip started with the month of February in New Zealand, 4 months in Australia, and now  2 1/2 months in England.  

DINNER:  Pasta using some courgettes from the garden and sausage we bought at the butcher shop in Thame.  

 

September 2, 2016. More Vicar....

After strolling around the village, we stopped at the Dibley/Turnville pub for lunch.  Very cozy.

As we were getting seated, the couple next to us invited us to join them.  They are from a nearby town, and had come here, to one  of their favorite villages and pubs, to celebrate the wife's birthday.  It was lovely chatting with them.  Luck #3.....When we got ready to call the taxi to pick us up, they insisted on giving us a ride to Thame,  their town, where we could pick up the bus back home.  

They suggested that we check out the regionally famous butcher shop in Thame,  and one of the many pubs.  We had 20 minutes before our bus, so bought some goodies at the butchers, and split a pint in the Birdcage, the town's  oldest pub.  Built in the 1300s, it is supposedly haunted.    

Back home, I took the dogs for a good walk.  One of their puppy friends was out, too, so they released a lot of energy playing together.  Luck #4..... Just as we finished our walk, the sky opened up and it poured.  

DINNER:  Pizza

Final lucky bit of the day......  The final episode of Vicar of Dibley  (which I hadn't seen before) was on BBC.  We watched it, recognizing many of the scenes we had seen just a few hours ago.  What a great day!

September 2, 2016. The Vicar of Dibley trip!!

LOCATION:  Housesitting in Whitchurch, Buckinghamshire, England

WEATHER:  Mostly cloudy.  Cooler. Highs in 60s

This was a lucky day, all around.......

One of my dreams while in England has been to visit the village where one of my favorite BBC shows, The Vicar of Dibley, takes place.  It is a very remote village, Turville, not on a bus or train line. I researched it as best as I could, but when I asked people where Turville is, no one had heard  of it.  I found out there is a pub there (of course), so I contacted them to confirm how to get there.

The first leg was to Aylesbury, the bus hub around here.  Luck #1 .......We were running a bit late and arrived at the Whitchurch bus stop one minute after the listed departure time.  Luckily, the bus was running a minute late, too, so we hopped on just as it pulled up.

Luck #2.....In Aylesbury, our second bus was just getting ready to leave.  We boarded with a bunch of older locals.     When we tried to pay, the driver just ushered us on.  I think he assumed that we were with the other British seniors, who ride the buses free.

The bus travelled through beautiful countryside, just like the scenes from the tv show, arriving in High Wycombe, the closest we could get to Turville by local transport.  We hailed a cab.  The driver wasn't 100% sure where Turville is, even though it is only about 8 miles away.  He did figure it out, and took us there.  

Turville looks just like Dibley.  It IS Dibley!  Our first view was the church, called St. Barnabus in the show.

 

Next to the church is the Vicar's cottage.

We walked into the church, seeing familiar scenes....

It is smaller than it looks on tv.  This is where the Vicar preaches...

The village is comprised of the church, a pub, and about 20 houses.  

It is all so impossibly quaint.

See next post for more Dibley!  

September 1, 2016. A day at the fair!

ILOCATION:  Housesitting in Whitchurch, Buckinghamshire, England

WEATHER:  Beautiful.  Sunny. Highs in 70s

We are lucky to be here for the annual Bucks County Fair.  It is a huge fair about 3 miles from here.  We, along with about 22,000 Britons, attended this fair which is similar to an American county fair, but with some twists.

There were lots of food booths, retail shops, farm machinery sales, and children's rides.  Our favorite part was watching the animals.  The young horse jumpers cleared the high fences.

I've never seen such huge cows.

We watched the cows being judged.

Lots of cows, and cow poo.....

Then, cute children showing their calves...

We watched the sheepdogs herding geese, and the dancing sheep.  George talked with a thatcher, a professional thatch roof-maker.

We decided to walk home.  Halfway back, we walked into a village even smaller than our Whitchurch, and stumbled upon this pub.  Again, the pub is the only business in town.  The village is comprised of houses, a very nice central village green, and this pub.  What an idyllic place to live!

We returned home, hot and tired.  In the evening, after relaxing and exercising the dogs, we walked back into Whitchurch to "our" pub where there was a band playing.  The pub was capitalizing on all the traffic passing through after the fair.  We listened to the band in the outdoor patio, then ate dinner there, a nice seafood lasagne dish.  

August 31, 2016. Reunion in Oxford with friends

LOCATION:  Housesitting in Whitchurch, Buckinghamshire , England

WEATHER:  Mostly sunny.  Little PM rain. Highs around 70

We had a great day today in Oxford, meeting up with friends from New Zealand who are traveling through England.  We hiked along the canals, and had lunch in one of the pubs we had previously discovered.

We met our friend Ken about 40 years ago when we were living in Japan.  George and I got married in Japan, then Ken officiated the marriage in the American Embassy.  Ken later was transferred to several other countries, then met his lovely Kiwi wife Lynette, and has been living in New Zealand.  We visited them in Auckland in February when we started this trip.

We sat outside in the pub's beautiful garden and chatted.  It was a perfect day.

Then, the bus ride back to Aylesbury through cute towns like this one.  We like to sit on the upper deck  so we can enjoy the views.

We stopped in Alyesbury to get our Visa bill mixup from yesterday's lunch restaurant corrected.  I won't bore you with the details, but it was a fiasco.  

It started to rain in Aylesbury while the sun was still shining, producing this glorious double rainbow.

Back home, the dogs were ecstatic to see us.  George took them for a long walk.

DINNER:  Beans and rice with chorizo and cilantro, called coriander here.