Family & Friends, Food & Drink, Travel Adventures August 16, 2023August 16, 2023

UK Day 11: Carousels, high tea and couture at Kensington Palace and a trip to Harrods

I’m not sure how I sold Amir on today’s itinerary because it involves a lot of “girlie” stuff. Fortunately he’s a pretty cosmopolitan guy and also willing to humor me (thanks babe!).

Me and #1LittleSister on her first carousel ride

We had reservations for high tea at Kensington Palace at 12:30, so we left the house a bit early knowing we wanted to spend time in the gardens at Kensington. We knew about the lovely Princess Diana Memorial playground, but we didn’t know we could also expect a carousel and a Disney car ride.

We snagged the LEGO JEEP and Mickey Firetruck

The carousel spun surprisingly fast with a noticiable centripetal force. By the time I thought better of letting #1LittleSister ride on her own, we were already spinning. Fortunately I could reach out from my horse and steady her leg. We all survived – she loved it.

We knew a few of us were too young to appreciate tea and couture, so we made a plan for Amir and I to attend tea with #1BigSister while Liza picnicked in the gardens with the other two. Later on, Amir and Liza swapped places, and Liza and I took #1BigSister into tour Kensington Palace and see the couture exhibit.

Sweet treats, scones with clotted cream and jam, finger sandwiches

The menu included options for a grown-up tower or a children’s tower. In theory each tower serves one person, but in reality Amir and I split one which was plenty.

Tier 1: Dark chocolate peanut butter button truffle, white chocolate and orange graham crumble, raspberry poof

Tier 2: Orange zest scones with strawberry jam and clotted cream

Tier 3: Cucumber, Egg Salad, Coronation Chicken and Lox Finger Sandwiches

We ordered Earl Grey Black tea, and she ordered Red Velvet fruit tea. When the “children’s tower” arrived, I admit I was a bit jealous. Anything served with candy floss (AKA cotton candy) is super fun and unique.

Tier 1: Blueberry frosted cupcake with rainbow sprinkles, chocolate chip cookie bar,
Tier 2: orange zest scone in a bed of candy floss,
Tier 3: puzzle piece finger sandwiches

We topped the meal off with two glasses of Prosecco and called it a wrap. We needed to get back to Liza to make the swap ahead of the Palace tour. On our way back, we peeked into the Diana reflecting pool. There’s a statue of Diana commissioned in 2021 by her sons, and placed here as Diana spent hours walking these paths and chatting with the gardners.

Statue of Diana overlooking the reflecting pool

When we walked back to meet Liza, she and the kids were enjoying the pirate ship inside the Princess Diana Memorial playground. The area may be one of the largest play areas I’ve ever seen. Made entirely of wood and not plastic, it’s a beautiful compliment to the natural surroundings.

We had thought we’d signed up for a Downton Abbey type tour of Kensington Palace, but we were delighted to find a special exhibition entitled “Crown to Couture,” featuring gowns from the Victorian age juxtaposed with avant-garde Met Gala gowns from the last five years.

In addition to the couture exhibit, we were also able to see parts of the palace. Of particular interest were Queen Victoria’s bassinet and childhood toys. They also have a room with all of her jewels encased for viewing.

I’m not sure Amir would have appreciated this exhibit as much as we did, but I know he enjoyed his time in the park with the kids. Leaving Kensington Palace we stopped by a food stand where I grabbed a PIMMs cup for me and a bucket of strawberries and cream for the kids. When we arrived to the gardens, Amir had everyone in the grass, shoes off, eating snacks and playing fetch with a King Charles Spaniel from the next blanket over.

We walked from Kensington Gardens to Harrods with the intention of looking at the toys but barely made it into the building when we found ourselves immersed in chocolate and whipping out the ApplePay.

After buying chocolate figs, chocolate bark and various truffles, we extricated ourselves from the sweets only to land in the to-go food area, ordering four Thai dishes and three kinds of fresh pasta with sauces. Clearly we’d made the mistake of going to the store hungry.

The dish ware from tea at Kensington is available for purchase

Exhausted after battling the infinite requests for toys from the 4th floor of Harrods, Amir read my mind and snagged a black cab for the ride home rather than taking the tube. Part of me thinks he just wanted to rush home and eat the amazing food we bought, but either way, I was on board with both tired and hungry.

Tomorrow Liza is taking the day off, so we think we’ll head out to Kew Garden in the west. There’s space for the kids to run around and some shade for us adults. We’ll see how we feel when we wake up.

– Steph

Family & Friends, Travel Adventures August 15, 2023August 16, 2023

UK Days 9 & 10: London Eye, Tower of London, Tower Bridge & Borough Market

I didn’t have any energy to write last night – not for any particular reason as our day wasn’t grueling… I just wanted to go to bed.

Yesterday we booked tickets for the London Eye. That’s one thing Amir and I didn’t do last time we were here that we knew the kids would love as well. You can buy the tickets online ahead of time. There’s an option for fast track or standard tickets. We opted for standard, and I’m glad because fast track was 60% more and only saved maybe 5 minutes. Do book ahead though because tickets can sell out.

Palace of Westminster from the London Eye

Just before our Eye time, we killed a few minutes at a nice wooden playground just adjacent to the Eye loading area. It was busy but had a variety of play structures for kids of all ages and gates to keep them all in.

The London Eye was worth the money. We were able to get a new perspective and great photos of some of the cities most meaningful landmarks. You can also purchase a private pod with a champagne toast if you are feeling extra fancy or maybe planning a proposal or something equivalent.

After the Eye, we finally stopped by the gates of Buckingham Palace. The flag on top was raised, signaling that Kind Charles was home at the time.

After Buckingham Palace, we stopped by the grocery store to pick up some essentials. We’d eaten a late lunch and just planned on cheese, charcuterie and fruit for a light dinner. We thought we were buying fruit for the rest of the week, but 7 minutes after the groceries hit the countertop, all of the strawberries, blueberries and raspberries were demolished. No one tells you that the expensive part of raising kids isn’t college, but FRUIT.

We started off today taking the tube to Monument Station. It dropped us off right behind the memorial to the fire of London that happened in 1666. The fire spanned three days and destroyed roughly 2/3 of the city. The memorial tower has only a spiral staircase within, but Amir and our two oldest still managed the climb all the way to the top.

Beefeater telling us the history of Tower of London

We had 11:30 reservations for the Tower of London. This is where the Crown Jewels are kept as well as the history of the armory (armor, horses, weapons, you name it). The towers housed prisoners, sometimes for years, and the walls still bear the etchings and desperate words from those same men.

We split up a bit for this journey as Amir and I both came here in 2014, but the kids and Liza had never seen any of it. After Tower of London, our logical next stop was Tower Bridge.

At Tower Bridge, you can actually buy tickets to go inside the bridge and up to the walkway above the pedestrian and traffic span. Your ticket also gets you entrance into the engine rooms to see the motors behind the lifting mechanism for the bridge.

From Tower Bridge we headed in to Borough Market. we were hungry after all that walking. The market was much more crowded that when we went in 2014 – clearly word has gotten out.

Tonight we met up with my cousin Ryan for drinks at Sky Garden, the rooftop bar in the Walkie Talkie building. We were lucky to score a reservation just 48 hours in advance.

Our reservation was for 7:15, which turned out to be the perfect time. We were able to take in the views of all of London both during the daylight as well as sunset and evening.

The place was an interesting mix of clientele. 1/3 aspiring Instagram and TikTok influencers trying to capture amazing shots, 1/3 tourists in backpacks, and 1/3 people like us.

We enjoyed a few extra drinks gratis thanks to an ordering snafu by our waiter. I’m proud of myself for committing to writing tonight after this outing, but I felt I had to since I skipped last night already.

Tomorrow we have tickets for high tea at Kensington Palace as well as a palace tour in the afternoon. We doubt we’ll have much energy after that, so we’re already planning for Indian takeout for dinner tomorrow night. And with that… zzzzzZZZ.

– Steph

Family & Friends, Travel Adventures August 13, 2023August 13, 2023

UK Day 8: London by way of Sherwood Forest

Leaving Crayke Manor was hard, mostly because I fear it might be another decade before seeing those relatives again. Our next stop is London for a week. Amir and I went in 2014 after graduating from medical school, but none of the kids or Liza have been.

We took the foot path down to The Major Oak, one of the great old trees in the UK. It’s thought to be anywhere from 800-1100 years old, with a trunk 36 feet in diameter. That’s a three story building!

At the Major Oak, there’s a court of small tents, each with a kid-friendly activity. Some are free, some like archery just a few pounds. The kids tried both archery and catapulting – they were fast learners.

Sherwood Forest was the perfect midway stop between Crayke and London. Trying to do 5 hours straight with everyone in our crew would have been impossible, or at least a recipe for meltdowns and screams from the backseat.

We arrived to our AirBnB in London right around 6:30pm. It was a smooth checkin process, and the place is nice with plenty of square footage, especially for a big city.

There is one odd thing – for as nice as the place is, the owners most definitely still live here. Roughly 90% of the cabinets and closets are “taped off” and used by the owners’ items. If you break the seal, the sticker changes colors and you get fined £50 ($63) per sticker. Anyone who has ever had kids knows that a 1.5 and 3 year old just LOVE peeking into cabinets and drawers. As the lady said “per seal” I just saw dollar bills floating up up and away. When I pushed back, she backed down and said to just let them know if the kids break one on accident and we won’t be charged. Phew.

Still, there’s not much space left for our things, and the blue stickers everywhere somewhat cheapen what is otherwise a beautiful home. There’s also a pair of the dad’s running shoes tucked to the side in the hallway, and family photos everywhere. We feel a bit like we are invading their space. I’ve just never had this experience before, especially at this price point.

The location here is spectacular- in Chelsea, surrounded by the Egyptian and Spanish embassies… Amir said we are close to where parliament meets up, so it’s a very cosmopolitan and diverse area. It’s also perfectly situated next to a tube station (deliberate on our part), as we plan to take the tube all over the city this week.

We ordered Vietnamese via Uber Eats tonight as we just didn’t have the energy to head to the grocery store, and the kids were too far gone to risk eating out. It was delicious and a great way to refill with fresh veggies to offset all those pies from last week.

Amir has just informed me that we may not have hot water on two of the three floors, so in only one bathroom… not sure how that is going to go. We are contemplating changing places. No hot water to shower might be a deal breaker.

– Steph

Family & Friends, Food & Drink, Travel Adventures August 12, 2023August 13, 2023

UK Days 6 & 7: Arrival at Crayke Manor and celebrations with family

Today’s post is combined as I was just too spent last night to make it happen. When the sun came up yesterday, the first thing we did was explore the grounds here at Crayke Manor. We arrived the night before after dark , so we hadn’t been able to take in much of the scenery. I made a little virtual tour of the manor which you can check out here.

We had an hour before the local cafe was set to open for breakfast, so we turned left instead of right and quickly found some new friends. Two small horses greeted us with neighs but were disappointed to find we had empty hands instead of apples. Across from the horse pen was a small farm with fresh eggs for sale using an honor box for payments.

There were stables in the back of the farm house with a more majestic horse and an odd collection of Invacars, Britain’s 3-wheel solution to helping disabled citizens get around. The program existed in the 1970s as a government-sponsored aid to the disabled where they could get a 3-wheeled car for free. Rumor is they discontinued the program due to safety issues with the cars. Bright side though was if you did flip it over it was light enough you could flip it right back.

Throughout the day, Amir’s relatives began to arrive. Uncles, Aunties – cousins twice (maybe three times) removed. Amir was born in London and moved to the US at age 5, but with the exception of his nuclear family, all the other Brits are still here in England. When we got married almost 10 years ago, it was difficult and expensive for any of the relatives across the pond to make the trip. I met a few when Amir and I traveled to England in June 2014 after graduating medical school. That was nearly a decade ago.

Since everyone was arriving at different time on Friday, we were quite sure no one would want to be burdened with cooking. Amir found an amazing private Chef online – Shaun “The Cook in the North” – who drove three hours to the house and whipped us up 12 courses of Spanish tapas for all 15 of us. He comes to you with ingredients, kitchen tools, dishes and everything. He cooks, and almost most importantly cleans up, too. So you have NOTHING to do – except maybe decide red vs white.

Shaun – The Cook in the North

We sat 12 of us to a round table, outdoors, under a miraculously rain-free English sky. We passed dishes randomly at first, quickly realizing we needed to go clockwise to keep some semblance of sanity.

Auntie Linda reads #1LittleSister a story

Shaun was still cleaning up the kitchen when I had to throw in the towel and head to bed… at 10pm I’d been up since 6am… I was exhausted and maybe a little tipsy. Our plans for the next morning were nebulous, but I knew I could count on the kids waking up from 6:30-7:30 at the latest.

Crayke Day 7

#1LittleSister let me sleep until 7:00 this morning. And by some stroke of travel luck, she’s been falling back asleep on my chest for another thirty minutes after I pull her from the crib.

I wasn’t brave enough to revisit the shower this morning. Yesterday when I took a shower I struggled to figure out which dials did what, and wasn’t even sure what I was seeing. When I initially turned the water on, a geyser shot up from the tub where the water should have been draining out. I was quite sure I’d wrecked the plumbing for the whole house. But it turns out I just had it in “douche” mode instead of shower, and that was exactly as it was supposed to be.

This afternoon we dropped Liza off in York to take some time off and explore. The rest of us headed to the York Birds of Prey Center. There we were up close with hawks, owls, eagles and falcons. Of course the skies opened up for the first time on our trip and drenched us. But we still caught some new sights and had a great outing.

Making friends at the Birds of Prey Center

Back at the house today we all relaxed, enjoyed some beer and wine, and geared up for a casual dinner. Michael made an amazing bolognese, accented by dessert by Linda. We were introduced to Colin the Caterpillar, which is apparently the standard cake/dessert that every English child grows up with.

#1LittleSister attacking Colin the Caterpillar

Just before sitting down for dinner, the adults all enjoyed a champagne toast. Wine has been flowing freely tonight, so I’m quite sure Amir (my editor) will send me many edits in the morning. By all accounts this has been an amazing weekend reuniting and getting to know many relatives here in England. Tomorrow we are of to London for the week.

– Steph

Family & Friends, Travel Adventures August 10, 2023August 10, 2023

UK Day 5: Traveling to Crayke by way of Vindolanda and Hadrian’s Wall

Checkout from our AirBnB was 10am, but our rental car was not ready until noon. Have no fear though – moving anywhere with three under 6 naturally eats up two extra hours in time.

Today we traveled from Edinburgh, Scotland, to Crayke, England (near York) which straight shot is a 4 hour drive. We decided to breakup the trip with a visit to Vindolanda and Hadrian’s Wall.

Vindolanda was an auxiliary fort built (and rebuilt) by the Romans who occupied it from 85 AD to 370 AD. At any given time there were 500-1000 troops station there who came from as far as France and North Africa. The fort was abandoned around 410 AD as The Roman Empire declined.

The first known account of Vindolanda after it was abandoned was a mention of the site in the book Britannia, published in 1586. Modern excavations began in the 1930s and continue to this day. It’s estimated that only 25% of the site is unearthed, and that the teams will need to dig for another 150 years at their current rate.

After Vindolanda, we jumped back in the van and drove just a half mile up the hill to Steel Rigg, one of the many access points to Hadrian’s Wall. Just a short walk from the car park (AKA parking lot), you enter a wooden gate and are immediately greeted by sheep. And rams. So many sheep.

#1LittleSister was thrilled at the chance to see real sheep up close. Her favorite activity right now is an iPhone game for littles called Peekaboo Farm. You tap on the barn door and it opens to reveal a farm friend who makes its noise and then they say the name. “Bahhh SHEEEP!”

Hadrian’s Wall spans down the hill from the sheep and up a steep incline to another hill across a ravine. The wall spans a total of 73 miles across the whole of Northern England. We were just seeing a small portion of it. Visiting Hadrian’s Wall has been a bucket list item for Amir since the day I met him. We tried to squeeze it in when we were last in England in 2014 but couldn’t make it happen.

There was no way we could all make that climb with the two youngest in tow, so he embarked on a solo sojourn. The cliffs are so tall that they dwarfed him in size. I’d lost sight of him until I realized he was the small spec at the very top waving vigorously like the wacky waving inflatable flailing arm man.

This wall was inspiration for The Wall in Game of Thrones

Tonight we’re finishing the back half of the drive to our house in Crayke. This drive has given me more time than usual to write, but I’m a little bummed we’ll arrive after dark and will have to wait until the morning to explore the grounds here. Tomorrow we plan to spend the whole day at home, welcoming some of Amir’s English relatives and soaking in the atmosphere of our new temporary home.

– Steph

TeamLouka

UK Day 11: Carousels, high tea and couture at Kensington Palace and a trip to Harrods

UK Days 9 & 10: London Eye, Tower of London, Tower Bridge & Borough Market

UK Day 8: London by way of Sherwood Forest

UK Days 6 & 7: Arrival at Crayke Manor and celebrations with family

UK Day 5: Traveling to Crayke by way of Vindolanda and Hadrian’s Wall

Emergency Medicine, art, travel, food and life.

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