England/Ireland trip 2014 - Post #1

Did you know Andy is 1/2 English, and 1/2 olde English/Welsh/etc? The Bayless family has been in the USA since the USA started to be the USA. My Mum, however, moved from London, England to Utah to go to BYU when she was 18/19 years old. My aunts (pronounce the "u" please, they are not insects) and all my cousins still live in England. I had met a few of my cousins when I was a little kid and my Aunts, Glyn and Mon, have been to the USA. One cousin, Sarah, is in the US a few times per year for work and always manages to stop by Utah. During one of her recent trips she really got us thinking and Melissa and I decided it was about time to go and meet the rest of my family. 

Remember the photo of passports a few posts back?  Well, my passport expired a year or two ago and Melissa hadn't ever been outside the US, so we both sent in at the same time. Then we purchased our flight tickets, while awaiting the passports.  That really solidified everything. A word of advice; if you are having trouble committing to that big trip, just buy your tickets because then you have to go.

We were gone 2 weeks so we'll have a few different posts and lots of pictures on here. We use this blog as our family history record now, so if it seems overly detailed, just look at the pretty pictures.

 

March 6th, 2014 we boarded the plane in SLC and headed to JFK. From there it was ~5.5 hours to London/March 7th 2014. Melissa tried so hard to sleep, but it didn't work out very well (sorry "hunny", I shouldn't have fidgeted). She ended up getting a little sleep the last hour or so, she seems pretty happy to be in England though.

We were met at the airport by, "the shorter, older version of" my Mum (aka Auntie Monica, her words not mine). It is just amazing that from the first moment together, family is family.  We would eventually spend time with 24 of my extended family members, nearly the total of my family in England.

We went straight from the airport to Auntie Glyn and Uncle Brendan's house. They live in a 1926 two story house (the first of 4 attached homes in a little row). Our bedroom looked over the back garden. The UK suffered a very wet Winter 2013/14, and had extensive flooding during the months before our trip.  We were blessed though, the rain stopped the night before we arrived and returned the day after we left.  Some of the areas we visited had been under water a few weeks before we arrived.

 

This is the view of the garden from our room.

To try to adjust to the new time zone we spent our first few hours in London chatting with Glynis, Brendan and Monica. We then ate lunch and took a 2 hour nap (we had been up for over 24 hours with only a few minutes sleep). Melissa struggled with jetlag for the first 2 days. 

 

 After we awoke we took a walk with Uncle Brendan around the neighborhood. They live on Boston Manor Rd, named for the large house below. The family who owned the house lost it (inheritance taxes) in the 1970's to the government. As government property the grounds have been converted to a community park and the house is used for period film making.

Boston Manor House, Boston Manor Rd, Brentford, UK

The River Brent. The river borders the back of the Manor's gardens. We walked the bank and viewed old boat houses, current river barges (people live on the river fulltime), and new 1.5m£ flats over looking the river.

 

House boats and flats

 

After our walk Auntie Glyn took us for a drive.  My Mum grew up in this same area (Ealing) so we saw the houses they lived in as children, her primary school, and a park they visited (Bunny Park).

One house.

Another house

The crocuses and daffodils were in bloom all over the country, which was just wonderful.  If anyone ever tells you England is "always dreary, cold and gray," we have the pictures to prove otherwise.

 

The sun setting over Bunny Park.

 

March 8th, 2014.

As a trial by fire we went out, on the Underground, alone. Boston Manor station is less than a 2 minute walk from Auntie Glyn's. Our first destination would be Borough Market, an outdoor weekend market/paradise for foodies. We had explicit instructions to take the Piccadilly line to Green Park and change to the Jubilee line to London Bridge Station. At Green Park the Jubilee line was closed and we had to figure out our own reroute... and from that moment on, we were locals.

 

Here comes our first solo choice on the reroute, it turned out fine.

With the reroute we ended up on the opposite side of the River Thames to Borough Market. Here we are near the middle of the Thames on the Millennium Bridge. Famous locations in the photo include: London Bridge, Tower Bridge and The Shard (coming out of my head).

The market was large, crowded and fun.  It wanders around through allies, street corners and under overpasses. Borough Market is one of the largest and oldest food markets in London, running since 1014 or 1276 (depending who you ask).

Fresh hare anyone, not a drop of head blood lost.

 

We walked from the park, across the Thames and past the Golden Hinde

And crossed over the London Bridge at some point in our wanderings.

The Tower of London (it's shorter than you'd think).

This was Melissa's favorite place in London.  It was big and old and a castle, Melissa's expectation of England. 

The White Tower was bright and beautiful and surrounded by ravens. "If the Tower of London ravens are lost or fly away, the Crown will fall and Britain with it." So, they are kept in cages at night... but they are still impressive birds.

This is Sir Wirebottom, Melissa thought he was kind of cute.

Looking at the Tower Bridge from the Tower of London ramparts.

A number of these long spiral staircases started to wear on Melissa's knee

I found a crossbow, I think it was left behind from the last major French invasion.

A guard, they are required to wear the long gray overcoat from November 1st to April 1st. He was probably pretty warm.

 

Guard inspection at the Tower...

The giant's and the dwarf's armor, part of the court entertainment.

 

Melissa's kind of armor.

 

This "Garderobe" (toilet) is one of the six original in the White Tower, it opens to the exterior of the building where the waste just dropped three stories to the ground.

Awesome dragon made of fake gold and jewels, and tens of thousands of dollars in centuries old muskets and flintlock pistols. 

Melissa's favorite historical spot in London.

That evening we had a family dinner. My Aunts, all my cousins, their spouses and children came to Teresa and Guy's house for the evening.  Teresa's house is huge, by London standards, but even at her place you can't seat 24 for dinner all at once.

It was so much fun. The food was excellent (these women are all of Adams/Abrahm decent after-all) and the conversation was wonderful.  It just amazes me how comfortable it is to spend time with family even when you haven't seen each other in decades, if ever.

 

A modern recreation of my famous 4th birthday hedgehog cake, thank you Gillian! One of 5 desserts this evening.