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Right.
This morning we ate our weight in breakfast. When they say all you can eat, that means eat all of the crumpets right? Of course it does. While the children and Mr. Jenner went back to the room, I went up the hill to M&S because I being the brilliant sort, somehow forgot to pack the rest of my bras in the rush to get things done. Yeah. That isn't going to work. Thankfully I bought some of the exact same ones I already own because I know they fit, and they aren't expensive. And M&S was open at 8am on a Saturday. I also bought Senor Onion some more swimming shorts because MOMMY forgot those too.
I had a quick walk around looking at all the interesting architecture and then it was back to the hotel. We got ourselves out the door, and then looked around other parts of Shrewsbury (spying a family of swans, being total druids about some tree, and so on.) and then went off to Wroxeter. (what a great name.) We got to see some pretty fantastic Roman ruins. There was an immense wall that was part of a public bath. You could make out some things and get up close to quite a bit. Senor Onion with his amazing reading skills could read the assorted signs. You could see where the entrance once was, where there were under floor heating, different rooms for different activities, and a market near the side. This bath-house was so fancy that it had a very rare thing in Roman Britain: an outdoor pool. Living it up in Shropshire.
We looked in the gift shop where the kids spent a bit of their pocket money that their Nanny had given them. They each bought these Roman coins. Gold for gold! We looked through the tiny museum to see what else had been dug up over the years, and the kids got to play around with pounding oats into flour. It was mostly fun for them to make noise. We walked across the road to the recreation of a Roman townhouse. In those days people would rent out spare rooms to businesses. Did you know that the Romans were hip sorts who had these fastfood places to eat at? They did. You could come in, get yourself some fancy pulses or meat pies to go. Ye olde Roman chippy shoppe.
The view in the area was flipping gorgeous. You would almost want to move there. We had our fill of history and set off for the open road. Or at least the M6. Sometimes the traffic found us, sometimes we found the traffic. We got through it. An interesting aspect of the M6 are some of the service stations which are built OVER the motorway, so you can sit and eat and watch the traffic build up. There was one service station near Liverpool? I can't remember, anyways, it looked a bit like an old air traffic control tower circa 1972. I sort of wanted to stop to see if everyone wandering around there was stuck in a timewarp to match the building. But no, I had places to go. We drove and drove and drooooooooooove. Then we came near the Western Dales. We didn't take photos because I was driving and the camera was in the trunk, but holy mary mother of God. It was so beautiful. I said to Mr. Jenner, "well fuck almighty, we need to go here sometime, because this is too much." It was majestic and overwhelming. Like you wanted to cry because nature is so amazing and humbling. I don't know... I was kind of tired at this point. We drove until we made it Carlisle. YEAH near the borders. Slight amusing moment. We show up and we thought, "hrm funny map said it was on the left..." Turned out we were at the wrong chain. The one we had made a reservation at was two miles down the road. This chain OWNS this town or something. So we made it to the right place and of course the reception person was chatty and lovely and Northern and OMG what is it about you Northerners you turn me into a chatty cheerful person. Like I want to take every single one of you to my home for tea so we can chat some more. We got to our room, had a cup of tea, breathed, and said, "well then... that was fun."
We had had notions of maybe seeing something else but we knew our limits. It will be there tomorrow. Because this is England and The British hoard stuff until it becomes historical or worth something. Where they hide things on this small island? In attics. Or in the ground. Both good places for keeping things. Eventually we went out to dinner. It took a bit of effort to figure out the roads because you know... England, they keep their roads like it is 1200. Sometimes I think Doug Stanhope is right about the roads in England and how Hitler was trying to do everyone a favour. (I kid... I kid... a little...)
We found parking. We walked around. Damn, the Industrial revolution definitely left its mark on this place. Obviously it isn't a super hard-core factory place like it was say 100 some years ago, but you see all these Victorian details that show what it once was. Interesting and beautiful and a little ugly because of what man likes to do when given the tool of progress. "Let's try and murder things a little because of money and status and desire."
We went and had Italian food tonight. (this was my find tonight when looking for something family-friendly.) We arrived early enough that they could seat us without a reservation, and the service was again so freaking friendly that if this had been America I would have tipped 30 percent. The kids being tired and slightly contrary people decided to pick at their dinner. Mr. Jenner and I inhaled the antipasti platter and then ate carbs. Oh carbs. He had lasagne and I had spaghetti puttanesca. It wasn't the best, but it wasn't half bad. Plus I was hungry. GIVE ME MORE OF YOUR FINE WHORE SPAGHETTI. We were fed and watered and walked around a bit afterwards. We did our best to get lost again as we made our way out of the city center but made it back. Put children to bed (Senor Onion read Tintin to Miss Biscuit. It was pretty delightful to listen to.) Eventually they went to sleep. Sometimes you just have to turn off the lights and play some Bach.
Another good day. So much beauty and silliness.
Tomorrow is a serious as fuck long day of driving. I hope we can stop and take pictures here and there. This island... Christ it is a beautiful weird and wonderful place.
This morning we ate our weight in breakfast. When they say all you can eat, that means eat all of the crumpets right? Of course it does. While the children and Mr. Jenner went back to the room, I went up the hill to M&S because I being the brilliant sort, somehow forgot to pack the rest of my bras in the rush to get things done. Yeah. That isn't going to work. Thankfully I bought some of the exact same ones I already own because I know they fit, and they aren't expensive. And M&S was open at 8am on a Saturday. I also bought Senor Onion some more swimming shorts because MOMMY forgot those too.
I had a quick walk around looking at all the interesting architecture and then it was back to the hotel. We got ourselves out the door, and then looked around other parts of Shrewsbury (spying a family of swans, being total druids about some tree, and so on.) and then went off to Wroxeter. (what a great name.) We got to see some pretty fantastic Roman ruins. There was an immense wall that was part of a public bath. You could make out some things and get up close to quite a bit. Senor Onion with his amazing reading skills could read the assorted signs. You could see where the entrance once was, where there were under floor heating, different rooms for different activities, and a market near the side. This bath-house was so fancy that it had a very rare thing in Roman Britain: an outdoor pool. Living it up in Shropshire.
We looked in the gift shop where the kids spent a bit of their pocket money that their Nanny had given them. They each bought these Roman coins. Gold for gold! We looked through the tiny museum to see what else had been dug up over the years, and the kids got to play around with pounding oats into flour. It was mostly fun for them to make noise. We walked across the road to the recreation of a Roman townhouse. In those days people would rent out spare rooms to businesses. Did you know that the Romans were hip sorts who had these fastfood places to eat at? They did. You could come in, get yourself some fancy pulses or meat pies to go. Ye olde Roman chippy shoppe.
The view in the area was flipping gorgeous. You would almost want to move there. We had our fill of history and set off for the open road. Or at least the M6. Sometimes the traffic found us, sometimes we found the traffic. We got through it. An interesting aspect of the M6 are some of the service stations which are built OVER the motorway, so you can sit and eat and watch the traffic build up. There was one service station near Liverpool? I can't remember, anyways, it looked a bit like an old air traffic control tower circa 1972. I sort of wanted to stop to see if everyone wandering around there was stuck in a timewarp to match the building. But no, I had places to go. We drove and drove and drooooooooooove. Then we came near the Western Dales. We didn't take photos because I was driving and the camera was in the trunk, but holy mary mother of God. It was so beautiful. I said to Mr. Jenner, "well fuck almighty, we need to go here sometime, because this is too much." It was majestic and overwhelming. Like you wanted to cry because nature is so amazing and humbling. I don't know... I was kind of tired at this point. We drove until we made it Carlisle. YEAH near the borders. Slight amusing moment. We show up and we thought, "hrm funny map said it was on the left..." Turned out we were at the wrong chain. The one we had made a reservation at was two miles down the road. This chain OWNS this town or something. So we made it to the right place and of course the reception person was chatty and lovely and Northern and OMG what is it about you Northerners you turn me into a chatty cheerful person. Like I want to take every single one of you to my home for tea so we can chat some more. We got to our room, had a cup of tea, breathed, and said, "well then... that was fun."
We had had notions of maybe seeing something else but we knew our limits. It will be there tomorrow. Because this is England and The British hoard stuff until it becomes historical or worth something. Where they hide things on this small island? In attics. Or in the ground. Both good places for keeping things. Eventually we went out to dinner. It took a bit of effort to figure out the roads because you know... England, they keep their roads like it is 1200. Sometimes I think Doug Stanhope is right about the roads in England and how Hitler was trying to do everyone a favour. (I kid... I kid... a little...)
We found parking. We walked around. Damn, the Industrial revolution definitely left its mark on this place. Obviously it isn't a super hard-core factory place like it was say 100 some years ago, but you see all these Victorian details that show what it once was. Interesting and beautiful and a little ugly because of what man likes to do when given the tool of progress. "Let's try and murder things a little because of money and status and desire."
We went and had Italian food tonight. (this was my find tonight when looking for something family-friendly.) We arrived early enough that they could seat us without a reservation, and the service was again so freaking friendly that if this had been America I would have tipped 30 percent. The kids being tired and slightly contrary people decided to pick at their dinner. Mr. Jenner and I inhaled the antipasti platter and then ate carbs. Oh carbs. He had lasagne and I had spaghetti puttanesca. It wasn't the best, but it wasn't half bad. Plus I was hungry. GIVE ME MORE OF YOUR FINE WHORE SPAGHETTI. We were fed and watered and walked around a bit afterwards. We did our best to get lost again as we made our way out of the city center but made it back. Put children to bed (Senor Onion read Tintin to Miss Biscuit. It was pretty delightful to listen to.) Eventually they went to sleep. Sometimes you just have to turn off the lights and play some Bach.
Another good day. So much beauty and silliness.
Tomorrow is a serious as fuck long day of driving. I hope we can stop and take pictures here and there. This island... Christ it is a beautiful weird and wonderful place.
