Michelle's Trip Across the Pond - Part 1 (London, York, Farm)

Michelle Mudge is officially our very first across-the-pond guest!  Our parents live next door to each other, and although we’ve never physically been neighbors we act and feel like family.  Michelle’s dad is a pilot so, in the most fantastic of perks ever in history, she flies for free.  A couple weeks ago we promised her a fun, although likely chilly spring break and she took us up on the offer to come visit.  As a complete coincidence, Chris’ cousin Tracy who lives in Chicago and her friend Diana were starting a two-week Italy trip at the same time.  Chris and I had already purchased tickets to Florence to meet them, so Michelle hitched on to that adventure as well and so got a sort of two-for-one spring break adventure to England and Italy!  So much happened during her time here that I’m splitting this blog into at least two. 

Michelle will probably cringe, but I have to brag on her for a couple minutes.  She’s a junior at Chapel Hill which happens to be my alma mater.  She was a diver there until a back injury forced her to retire.  I find this amazing: at a time in their lives, she and her dad were both ranked #1 in the state in diving and her brother and sister were both #1 in the state in tennis. Her poor mom is super talented but they give her grief about being the only one not in that club!  Michelle is now an intern with the strength and conditioning coach for UNC men’s basketball and UNC diving.   She’s on first-name basis with all the people we see on TV and it was actually confusing to watch the Carolina game with her because she doesn’t refer to the players as Zeller or Henson, etc… it’s ‘Z or Tyler’ and ‘John’.  Poor girl, we absolutely drilled her with questions about the guys and the team!  We got to the gym a couple times while she was here and Chris tried to soak up all of Michelle’s weight-training knowledge.  After a particularly tough workout, Chris couldn’t laugh/cough/sneeze/sit up for about three days because his abs hurt so much.  I poked him in the stomach anytime I got the chance J.

The first day Michelle was here we took it easy and went for a little walk with Bailey along the River Ouse that runs near the house.  As is typical here, the sky was brooding and the wind was chilly, so we didn’t stay out too long. 

The next day we went into London to do some sight-seeing.  There’s no way to experience all of London in a week, let alone a day, so we chose a little circuit of sights that Michelle absolutely wanted to see.  We started at the famous Trafalgar Square and stepped into the (completely free) National Gallery to see Van Gogh’s Sunflowers and an impressive quantity (18 – I looked it up) of Monet paintings. The National Gallery houses one of the greatest collections of art in the world and we could’ve spent ages there if we had more time!   

Michelle in Trafalgar Square, with the National Gallery in the background.

Michelle and me in Trafalgar Square.

Michelle gives this a sense of scale!

From there we walked to Big Ben and then into Westminster Abbey.  I’ve never been into Westminster and can say it was hands-down my favorite part of this London excursion.  The building itself is spectacular, inside and out. We couldn’t take pictures in the church, so I added a few from the internet.  The Abbey is where coronations have taken place since about AD 1050 and the latest Royal Wedding happened there just recently.  It’s also the final resting place of Britain’s monarchs.  It’s a great honor to be buried there and underfoot are tiles marking graves of a variety of other important and influential historical figures! Charles Dickens, Geoffrey Chaucer, Charles Darwin (so interesting that he’s buried in a church), Isaac Newton, and Charlie Chaplin are just a few examples.   We spent a good hour inside but again, could’ve spent three times that if time had allowed.  I’d say it’s a ‘must-see’ for anyone going to London.

Michelle with Big Ben (which officially is the bell in the clock tower) in the background.

Queen Elizabeth the 1st (picture taken from http://www.westminster-abbey.org/)

Inside Westminster Abbey

Westminster Abbey (photo taken from http://www.westminster-abbey.org/)

From Westminster we walked through St. James’s Park to see Buckingham Palace, and from there headed by subway to the London Bridge.  We walked from there to the Tower of London, a castle in central London that seems so strangely out of place surrounded by the more modern buildings of the city! Interesting tidbits: it holds the Crown Jewels and King Henry VIII’s second wife Queen Anne Boleyn and fifth wife Catherine Howard were both beheaded there.  Yikes.  The Tower Bridge is a London icon.  It crosses the River Thames (that’s pronounced ‘temz’, not ‘thaymes’ although in retrospect it would’ve been a ton funnier to let Michelle go with her pronunciation…) alongside the castle. At one point in all this wandering we found ourselves mistakenly going down a stone staircase that led directly into the Thames – as in, the bottom stairs were underwater.  It provided one of about a hundred laughs from the day!

Buckingham Palace, London

The Tower Bridge.

London wore us out and the next day was cold and rainy so we spent the majority of our time sleeping, cooking, and running errands on base.  Oh, and I think this is the day Michelle killed Chris’ abs at the gym. 

The next day, Michelle and I took a train a couple hours north to the medieval town of York while Chris slaved away at work.  What a charming town!  It is surrounded by a medieval wall, upon which you can walk and within which are the narrow, convoluted, cobbled roads of the town.  We stumbled upon a free tour within five minutes of getting off the train and learned all about the towns tumultuous beginnings.  A super-condensed history: in AD 71 the Romans conquered the Brigante tribe who had been living peacefully in the area.  It was these Romans who started building the walls (parts of which still remain and are incorporated into the medieval wall!)  After the Roman Empire collapsed the Anglo-Saxans took over in about AD 300, then the Vikings conquered in AD 866, then various English royalty took over afterwards and the place has been relatively peaceful since.  All that learning made us hungry and since no trip to England is complete without fish & chips we stopped at a little restaurant for that and a meat pie.  We even got ‘mushy peas’… it is hard to get more British than that.  After lunch we walked the rest of the city walls and admired the York Minster.  It’s the largest medieval cathedral in all of Northern Europe and is stunning from the outside!  I’ve heard it has amazing stained glass inside but was unfortunately closed while we were in York.  We had time to grab a couple half-pints of locally brewed beer and pear cider at an ancient looking pub before having to catch our train home.  All-in-all it was a nice day that would’ve been even nicer with warmer temperatures or a little sun.  Ahh, England. 

York Minster

The saying goes that in York, "gate means street, bar means a gate, and a pub is a bar".  This is one of the 'bars' through the city walls.

Eveything is soooo old.

Michelle standing on the city walls.

Clifford's Tower, part of York Castle.

We meant to take it easy on Friday in preparation for the Italy Adventure but instead ended up having a full day of working on the farm in the morning (http://www.south-farm.co.uk/), and going to the gym and planting onions in my garden in the afternoon.  Not a typical spring break, but she got to pet some piggies, wash some veggies for the kitchen (the farm is part of a wedding venue), plant some things, and learned a ton about how vegetables grow!  As an aside, I have to say that Michelle was such an easy guest to feed – she didn’t shy away from any of the weird food I put in front of her! We exposed her to sloe gin and all sorts of fun vegetables like green garlic, celeriac, fennel, different cabbages, and parsnips.  

Washing celeriac for the kitchen.

Me weeding the garlic.

Michelle learned how to plant onions!

Saturday morning the three of us took off to Italy to experience Florence, Cinque Terre, and Pisa… but that will be in Part 2 of Michelle's Trip Across the Pond!