SOME INTERESTING TIDBITS AND FINAL THOUGHTS :)

It is now Saturday, August 24th and we are somewhere over the North Atlantic Ocean as I write this final post about the Griswolds’ European Vacation.  Here are a few tidbits of information I made notes about along the way....

It seemed like the “loo” or “toilet” was always either upstairs or downstairs...

The toilets were all tankless...

It takes an engineer to figure out how to take a shower...

They served up “imported” hot sauce... :) 

At 13 pounds per pack and a conversion rate of $1.21 dollars to a pound cigarettes were $15.73 per pack 😳

Four drivers are better than one...😬😬😬😬 (Five including Julie, our GPS!) 

The maintenance man has a box of bandaids instead of duct tape in his pocket...

There are 10,000 roundabouts in the United Kingdon 😳🤪 (I looked this one up!) 

Almost every vehicle here is a Mercedes, Audi, Jaguar, Peugot, or a BMW.  We have not seen a single Ford F-150 or Chevy Silverado on the “carriageway” a/k/a highway.  

In Ireland they had seafood chowder at EVERY pub and the “soup of the day” was ALWAYS vegetable at EVERY pub.  CTM said, “Every pub served some kind of meat shoved in a pie with mashed potatoes and peas and a JUG of gravy!”  But very YUMMO!!!! 

There are neither air conditioning nor ceiling fans in Ireland or England....PANIC!!!!!  But, it turned out to be fine 🥶

There is NO table service in England in any of the pubs.  Every table has a number.  You place your order for food and beverage, pay for it, give them the number of your table, and they deliver the food.  

One last trip to the Toilet before boarding our plane to Dallas.  Of course it was DOWNSTAIRS!!!

We had a SUPERCALIFRAGILISTICEXPIALIDOCIOUS time!  We  saw lots of really really really old but very cool stuff.  We drank a LOT of beer, ate a LOT, and laughed until our sides hurt!  Since we only occasionally had internet many thanks to Tom for being our built in Google/Encyclopedia.  We want to thank Tom and Carol for including us in this GREAT adventure!!!  It was finally time to say goodbye and for hugs and a few tears.  😢 

“Don’t be dismayed at goodbyes. A farewell is necessary before you can meet again. And meeting again, after moments or lifetimes, is certain for those who are friends.”  Richard Bach 

So...here’s “until me met again!”  🍻🥂 😘🤗 (Oh, and my one final queen wave!!! 👑). Cheerio!!

Catch you on the flip flop...

CJM 

PLANES, TRAINS, AND AUTOMOBILES :)

Friday was our last full day in England :(  That being said, we left Bourton-On-The-Water bright and early and made our way to Oxford where we would return the Jag.   Only one more white knuckle/death grip ride to go...PHEW!!!!   We owe Carol a big thanks for all of her prayers so that we were able to return the jag without so much as a scratch! 

We took a train from Oxford to Paddington Station in London.  

We hit a couple of pubs near Hyde Park before CTM and I headed off to our hotel at Heathrow for an early to bed for an early to rise...

Tom and Carol stayed and met Ian for one last dinner and for hugs before heading back to South Dakota.  Ian brought Svetlana (SP?) to dinner.  Now, I actually thought Svetlana was Ian’s imaginary friend as Ian talked about her a lot but we never saw her. Dang!!!  I know Ian really hated that I wasn’t there to grill Svetlana and to get all kinds of family photos for the blog 😉😍

Catch you on the flip flop...

CJM. 

A LOW KEY DAY OF REST...YOU BE THE JUDGE!

We decided Thursday should be a day of rest or a “down” day since it was our last day in the Cotswolds at Bourton-On-The-Water or Bourbon and Water  as I liked to call it. (You will see why in the next paragraph!)  It was a very cool little village so we chose to spend the day walking around, shopping, and touring the local brewery...SURPRISE SURPRISE!!!! 

The Dial Inn...our home away from home while in the Cotswolds...

The Dial Inn is a sweet little B & B housed in a 320 year old building😳. Not surprising since I saw a huge prehistoric spider in our bathroom the first morning.  🕷 That Mother Goose rhyme, you know about Little Miss Muffett and the curds and whey, keeps running through my head 😱.  

A couple of more pics of Bourbon and Water...oops I mean Bourton-On-The Water... (I am sure the Bourbon and Water is some sort of Freudian slip that has to do with Little Miss Muffett and that whole spider incident!)  I am pretty sure the local building supply store must have had a sale on tan brick :) 

Carol and I decided to do a little shopping so we deposited the Grumpy Old Men on the park bench so we wouldn’t lose them and off we went. 

Once we finished shopping we decided to walk to the Cotswold Brewery for a cold one.  According to Google Maps it was .7 of a mile...a short 15 minute walk.  That would have been all well and good but somewhere along the way we took a wrong turn.  Here we are walking along the two lane highway with NO shoulders with traffic whizzing by within inches...

We finally met a man on the walking path.  Carol and I thought it was a good idea to ask directions (since we are not men 😬). He indicated that we had taken a wrong turn at the stop light and needed to go back the way we came. 

 After several more minutes of walking...

“Do you ladies know that it is STILL the length of three football fields back to the stop light?” 

After continuing PAST the stop light we finally found the sign.  I tried to get CTM and Tom to go stand by the sign for a photo op but Tom reminded me again that even though there is only one kind of poisonous snake in England that more than likely there was one curled up under that sign 🐍

Off we headed up the dirt road.  It soon became obvious there was NO brewery anywhere down that road.  We soon saw a couple of young ladies on horses.  Carol and I decided to ask directions (since (again) we are not men 😬). Oh, yes, they knew exactly where it was!  They pointed across a rather large horse pasture and said we needed to go back the way we came and walk around that large horse pasture to the other side and up to the top of the hill.  Now that we could see the light at the end of the tunnel and a beer in our near future our pace quickened! 🏃‍♂️🏃‍♂️🏃‍♀️🏃‍♀️. 

Geez!!!  Why didn’t we see this tiny black keg with a tiny red directional arrow covered in brush sooner?

Eureka!  Now where is the tasting room?  

It became quickly evident that there was NO tasting room and that it was time to go...NOW!!!! 🐕

We finally did run into a brewery worker that said it was only a manufacturing facility with no tasting room.  He told us that the only place we could actually have a pint of their beer was at the only two pubs we had not been in yet.  One of them was a short 200 steps from our B & B!  So 4.72 miles later on our day of rest or “down” day we finally had a Cotswold Brew Co brew 🍺🍺

Catch you on the flip flop...

CJM 

CAPTAIN MORGAN A/K/A LORD MORGAN OF PONTIAC :)

Before we came on our trip CTM did some research and was convinced that his ancestors came from Wales.  That being said, on Wednesday, we loaded up and headed toward Cardiff, a port city in southern Wales.  We made a stop at what I would call a rest area along the way.  However, I must say it was the fanciest most elaborate rest area I have ever seen!  It actually had a market complete with a butcher shop 😳

After grabbing some snacks and coffee we were soon back on the carriageway heading to Cardiff.  Little did we know that “heading to Cardiff” was only a ruse concocted by the Deerings.  Before reaching Cardiff they said they needed to make a quick stop in Newport.  Little did we know that they were taking us to Tredegar House, home to the Morgan family in Wales for over 500 years!!  The Morgan family in Wales was one of the most powerful and influential families in the area.  Holy Moly...I am married to Lord Morgan of Pontiac!  

Lord Morgan at Tredegar House...

A little history of The Morgan family... (The left side is in Welsh and the right side is obviously in English.) 

There was mention at some point that the Morgan men seemed to always “marry well!”  I wanted to say, “WELL DUH!” :) A few more pics of the interior...

When is Charlie coming to visit us in Pontiac? 

Hey, Lord Morgan, I want my bathroom to look like this in my next house...

And how about a fireplace like this?

A pic of a very very very very very distant cousin who was a bit of an eccentric scoundrel...

Larry, you are going to have to build a bigger stable if you are going to keep up with the Morgans 😎

Where do we go to claim our interest in this property?  

Cousin Godfrey Morgan, 1st Vicount Tredegar buried his beloved horse, Sir Briggs, in the courtyard outside of the house...

I think Lord Morgan of Pontiac is going to need to step up a bit and do a little work on our pet cemetery over the hill from our house if we are going to keep up with his cousins! 

Catch you on the flip flop...

CJM. 

SIR WINSTON CHURCHILL

On Tuesday we loaded up  and headed to Blenheim...the family home of Winston Churchill.  It is a “palace” and NOT a “castle” we were told.  It is the principal residence of the Duke of Marlborough.  Geez!  No wonder his house is so big when a pack of cigarettes over here is 13 pounds...😉

Wow!  The janitor needs a really big key ring for all of his keys here...

Some photos inside Blenheim Palace... Yep...looks like a palace to me!!!!  

A cradle similar to the one Jabet and Caldwell slept in when they were babies...

A letter from “The Don”...

A proclamation  signed by President John F. Kennedy granting Sir Winston honorary citizenship in the U.S.....

A few more self explanatory photos...

And finally a selfie with one of the 30 clocks in the palace...

After touring the palace off we went on a wild goose chase to find the cemetery where Sir Winston was buried.  Bingo...

St. Martin’s Church at the cemetery...

The wild goose chase was over...where’s the closest pub? 

Catch you on the flip flop...

CJM