The Schmidts come to visit!

Love this classic photo of the phone booth and Big Ben!

Chris’ parents Scott and Theresa broke away from their extraordinarily busy lives running their store and helping take care of our little nephew to come visit us. Being retired Army they had traveled pretty extensively in their younger years only to calm and get settled in Tennessee where they’ve now lived for 16 years. They must’ve gotten rid of their travel bug because we had to coax them to get their passports when we moved here! They’ve been threatening to come for a year so we were really excited when they booked tickets for this spring.  A 25 year traveling hiatus didn’t stop them from some incredibly ambitious trip planning. We tend to Go! See! Do! more than most and after seeing how both sets of our parents travel it makes total sense… it must be wired into our genes. We had initially planned to take it easy when they first arrived but weather problems made them a day and a half late. It was a terrible, stressful way to start the trip and Chris and I were incredibly impressed with their ability to dive right in when they did finally make it here. In the early stages of planning, their idea was just to come visit us here in the UK. Then it turned to “we’d like to go to Italy while we’re in Europe”, then to “well, we’re only a couple hours from Paris so maybe we can sneak in an overnight”, to “well, is there anything you two (meaning us) haven’t done in the UK that you want to do?” which led to plans for an overnight in Wales. Let the adventure begin!

They arrived in great spirits and we went straight to London for a day of sight-seeing. I swear, no one believes us that the weather has been AWFUL for months when the sun suddenly comes out for visitors. That said, I’m very thankful the weather made liars out of us again! There literally weren’t any clouds in the sky while we were in London.

Squinting in the sun... what pleasant discomfort!

London Town.

Parliament building and the London Eye.

We’ll never get bored of going into London because there’s always something to try or do. We went up in the London Eye for the first time, getting a unique view of the city. 

130m above London in the Eye.

We love visitors partly because they motivate us to go to new places. We’ve wanted to explore Wales for a while and used Chris’ parents as an excuse to plan a trip there. Since most people who come to visit want to see Stonehenge we took the long route to Wales, also stopping in Oxford on the way for wonderful Katherine to play tour-guide for her gorgeous University.

Tour guide Katherine showing off  her beloved Oxford.

Sheldonian Theater, Oxford.

From the weird rocks of Stonehenge we drove the few hours to the Gower Peninsula in Wales, stopping on the way for a quick visit (and a quick pint) at Tintern Abbey and Anchor Pub.

Just a bit more of a drive had us in the Gower Penninsula late that evening. We had found a pub on tripadvisor called the Greyhound with such great reviews that we drove out of our way to eat there and weren’t disappointed. The beer is brewed on site and the ingredients are locally sourced. From there we crashed at a brand new Travelodge (best $45 room you’ll ever get) to ready ourselves for the next day’s ramble. 

Theresa at Stonehenge.

In the Wye Valley to see Tintern Abbey and enjoy some cider and ale.

Tintern Abbey seems to pop out of nowhere!

 

The next morning we drove to Rhossili Bay right at the tip of the Gower Peninsula. The (30 foot!!) tide was out when we arrived, so we were able to see the impressive beach in its entirety. The clouds rolled in throughout the morning and it certainly wasn’t warm but we were thankful that the rain held out for our couple hours of walking. The walk itself was gorgeous – I’d highly recommend it.

Chris, Theresa, and Scott on a cliff overlooking Rhossili Bay.

Looking out into the ocean.

Eery emains of a shipwreck, now buried in the sand.

Rhossili Village

Welsh language isn't even close to English!

Baa baa ___ sheep.

Standing on the rocks at the tide line.

Chris' parents writing a little message to David and Wyatt.

 

Hi Wyatt and David from Wales!

 

Scott and Theresa left for Paris the morning after we returned from Wales.  “We’ll sleep on the train!”  They seemed to have a great time and returned full of stories and photos the next evening. 
 

We enjoyed a couple relaxing days at home before heading to Venice. I laughed when Chris' dad did the same exact thing Benson did when he first got here: sharpen my knives. I have to get better at that! The weather continued to surprise us, so after a walk around Brampton in the morning we went into Cambridge for a lazy afternoon. We arrived right around lunch time so headed straight to the Eagle Pub (of Watson and Crick fame) to finally get Scott an order of fish and chips! We meandered around, stopping on one of the little foot-bridges over the River Cam to watch some people punting (that is, propelling flat-bottomed wooden boats down the river with a pole.) Chris was willing to give it a try even after seeing one girl fall in so we rented a boat for the hour. Theresa had it right when she said the day was perfect except for a missing glass of bubbly as Chris (somewhat expertly) propelled us along. I took a short turn as well and consider it a huge victory I didn’t end up fully submerged!

Brampton!

 

The Eagle in Cambridge.

Chris and mom in front of Kings College.

What could possibly go wrong?

Enjoying a punt (bunt? pant?) down the River Cam.

Whoops!

 

The UK part of their trip was a whirlwind, wasn’t it?!  We caught our collective breath and then the four of us flew to Venice on Friday where we’d spend a couple nights before they headed off to Rome for the last bit of their adventure.