Bret's first trip abroad!

B Wise in front of the Parliament Building on a rainy day in London.

 

Bret is one of my first and dearest friends from optometry school.  We once spent all our time studying but since graduating, Bret now just uses me and Chris as an excuse to travel!  In the past years we’ve met in Little Rock, Kansas City, Tucson, and Mooresville (where he walked my grandma down the aisle at our wedding).

Bret knew some of what he wanted to see on his trip: the Dover cliffs, Liverpool, and a quick trip to Rome… the rest was up to us.   He arrived on an overnight flight, sleeping for only a couple hours (6’6” doesn’t fit well on a plane) but was chipper and awake on our drive straight from the airport to Dover.  The drive seemed short with all the chatting and catching up.  Bret wanted to see Dover’s white cliffs and the impressive castle atop them.  Chris and I had only passed through the city once (to catch the ferry to France) and were glad for the excuse to spend some more time there.  Our first stop was the Dover Castle and even more impressively, its new Secret Wartime Tunnels exhibit.   The Castle was built around the 1200’s and the tunnels, dug fifteen meters into the chalk cliff, were added in the 1800’s to house up to two thousand troops during the Napoleanic wars. The tunnels fell into disuse for more than a century before being expanded in the 2^nd World War when they were used as an air raid shelter, hospital, and command center.  The war wasn’t going well for the Allies in 1941 when Admiral Ramsay crafted Operation Dynamo in the tunnels and rescued more than 300,000 British and French soldiers from Dunkirk as they were pushed to the coast by Hitler's army.  The Wartime Tunnels exhibit was creative and entertaining, exactly what a jet-lagged visitor needs to stay awake during their first day of sightseeing!

 

The entrance to Dover Castle.

 

The day was so clear that we could actually see France 22 miles off in the distance.

 

After exploring the castle we took a trail along the cliff-top and were blessed with sunshine and some good views.  Dover itself is, we’ll say, lacking charm.  The hike along the top of the 100+ meter white cliffs was pleasant but slightly overshadowed by the huge, noisy port below.  Live and learn… next time I’d go to the Seven Sisters or other chalk cliffs instead.

Me and Chris at the cliffs.

Bret and Chris near the edge of the Dover cliffs.

The very next day, Chris, Bret and I all hopped a train to London.  Chris was meeting our friend Vic to go to  a Premier League game at West Ham, so Bret and I rode with him to Liverpool Street and explored a new (for us) area of London.  The guys shopped a bit for clothes and bought a feta- and spinach- filled croissant (that they talked about for days).  We sat down for a good lunch, then Chris left for the game and Bret and I wandered around some indoor/outdoor markets selling ANYTHING you could think of.  We kept wandering, farther and farther away from our planned route and into the heart of the labyrinth of market stalls, the most memorable of which was a huge hall filled with maybe fifty food stalls. Each represented a nation and was decorated with flags and playing traditional music.  The smells were incredible and didn’t mix into a nasty jumble but seemed to respect each stall’s 'air space'.  Every few steps we'd be hit with another reason we shouldn't have eaten lunch fifteen minutes before!  People of the stall's ethnicity were  actively cooking and serving heaping plates of incredible looking traditional food for £5.  Bret’s eyes widened as we passed the Ethiopian, Korean, Turkish, Mexican, Israeli, Moroccan, and Italian stalls… just to name a few.  Our 'great' lunch suddenly seemed REALLY lame.

Food market near Liverpool St., London

We tore ourselves away from the food before justifying a second lunch and made our way out of the markets through a business district and all the way to the Tower of London and Tower Bridge.  I’d never taken a Beefeater (aka Yeoman Warder) tour of the Tower of London and was pleasantly surprised at how funny and informative our guide was.  We meandered around for a while, snapped a photo of the Tower Bridge, and then started our way back to King’s Cross with a quick detour to St. Paul’s Cathedral.

Bret inside the Tower of London, with the Tower Bridge in the background.

Our guide.  Mom, do you recognize him?  We had our photo with him last year :)

Me and Bret in front of St. Paul's Cathedral in London.

Front door of St. Paul's Cathedral, London.

Bret and I made it back to Kings Cross just a couple minutes after Chris, so we all rode the train back home together.  I swear, Chris and Bret can chat like two old men. Between basketball (Bret played at Wichita State), stocks (what are you buying these days?), and business they talked the whole way back, letting me grab a nap.   We were famished from a day’s worth of walking and really enjoyed the Yorkshire pudding and beef roast I threw together for dinner. 

On Monday, poor Chris had to work, so Bret and I took care of some planning work for the rest of the trip and then made our way to Cambridge for the afternoon.  Bret said “this is the England I expected and pictured.”  Cambridge really is just a gorgeous and quaint town with its amazing university, wonderful gardens, and good shops.  We ate fish & chips at (yes, predictably) the Eagle Pub, again where Watson and Crick declared to the world they had figured out the double-helix structure of DNA.  From there we went to Kings College Chapel to have a look around and wandered through a few other shops. As much as I would’ve loved to see Bret fall into the River Cam, he declined a chance to try his hand at punting and we made it dry and happy back to base around five to run some errands (aka: grab some wine) and get back home just as Chris got home from work. 

Clare College gardens, Cambridge University.

Inside Kings College Chapel, Cambridge.

Chris took a couple days off work and on Tuesday we drove to the Peak district to do a hike that Katherine and I enjoyed last summer.  The weather held out for a while but then the fog rolled in and the last hour or so of walking didn’t offer any of the views we hoped for.  Bailey didn’t care one bit that it was foggy, she was so happy to not have been left at home!   

Bret, Chris, and Bailey at the start of the hike.

9 years old and still running circles around us!

The Roaches (Rocks), Peak District, England.

Love this!  Bret, me, Chris, and Bailey in the Peak District, England.

I promise, the views are amazing...

From the hike we drove to Liverpool to drop Bret off on a couple-day adventure by himself.  He did some Beatles-related activities, wandered through a few art galleries, and retuned with lots of stories. We were proud of the travel virgin getting around a new city and managing to make his way by train back to us!    

Friday was a total washout of a day.  We dropped Bailey off to be boarded and went to my favorite farm shop (Johnsons in Old Hurst), then went to base where I showed Bret the eye lane I have managed to get completely set up in the new clinic.   (I’m days away from being able to see patients!)  We were in and out of the car all morning and it cracked me up see Bret walk to the wrong side of the car at least half the time.  The whole afternoon was spent driving to Gatwick (thank you Chris for being the world's best driver), catching a flight to Rome, and getting settled in to our hotel.  We had a great long weekend in Rome which will be its own entry.  

Upon returning from Rome, Bret had one last day with us before flying home.  He and I headed to London to see a few things we had missed the first time around.   It absolutely poured the entire time we were there which made (as it does) everything a little less pretty and fun.  That said, we managed to catch a glimpse of Buckingham Palace through a sea of umbrellas, spent a great hour in the National Gallery, ate Pret sandwiches for lunch, and snapped some rainy photos of Big Ben and the Parliament Building. Bret spent an hour or so wandering through Westminster Abbey, “it’s basically a big crypt”, and then said “can we go?”  Haha, YES.  London just doesn’t compare to a warm house and dry clothes!  It's great to have those friends that can walk into your home after years apart and be able to chat for ten days straight.  We really had a great visit with Bret and are so glad he was able to make a trip out here!   

Bret in front of the Parliament Buildings on a rainy day in London.

Bret with Big Ben in rainy London.