A Nurse and A Nerd

Trafalgar Square in the Rain

We went off to London last weekend.

Saturday:

We got up super early (5:50am on a Saturday!) and pulled in our clothes from the line which had been rained on. We trudged our way to the bus station where caught our bus to London and made an attempt to sleep. We arrived at Victoria Station at around 9 and after gathering some maps we made our way to Buckingham Palace. I inquired, but it is not currently for rent. We then made our way through St. James Park to Parliament Square, home of the Parliament building, Big Ben and Westminster Abbey. And, yes Mom we went in to Westminster Abbey, even though it cost us the equivalent of $50. The church itself is ok, but it ain’t got nothin on so many churches in Italy. The neat part was the tombs of Kings, authors and scientists.

Like, I hope it isn't haunted Scoob!

A couple of hours later we quieted our growling bellies and had ourselves a feast at a noodle bar just the other side of the Thames River. We saw some replicas of famous cars Bullitt, KITT and the Mystery Machine from the Movieum movie museum. As were going to make our way to the Tate Modern museum, but we were already nearly exhausted and the Salvador Dali Museum across the street won over in the end. It was a quite awesome choice and I am glad we went. The Tate Modern will have to wait for another day. Once we were done walking all day through 2 museums with backpacks on we decided to walk some more, this time in the rain, and we went to Trafalgar Square. Courtney wanted to take a picture on top of the giant lion statues, but they were too slippery for her due to the rain. We walked back to St. James Park and sheltered from the rain under a large tree and watched a band play before we finally made our way back to the Victoria Bus Station to catch our bus to Stevenage.

Sunday:

Stevenage is a small town to the north of London. It is where our friend Vrinda lives with her Husband George and her little wookie Percy. We did all sorts of reminiscing type of things. We also went on a drive through the beautiful countryside on some roads that would be barely wide enough for one car, let alone two. We also went to a park, got ice creams, watched British comedies on DVD and just hung out.

Monday:

Courtney made her way into London early in the morning to take her manual handling course for her nursing certification. She also visited a hospital she would work at if we end up in London. She also went to her travel nursing agency and met people there in the flesh after a years worth of emails and phone calls. David just did his usual working thing, but this time from someone else’s office. Exciting and exotic. Later that evening David took the Bus back into London where we both had a light dinner at a cafe and then made our way back home to Bournemouth and the comfort of our bed instead of the floor we had been sleeping on.

There was a lot of fuss about what we would do over this Independence Day weekend.  Dave had a three, possibly four day weekend because of the holiday, so we figured it would be a good opportunity to do something big and exciting! Among the ideas were catching some rays in Barcelona, seeing the French riviera from Marseilles, or laying out on the beautiful beaches in Dubrovnik….Unfortunately we waited to long to get good deals on airfare so we had to settle for somewhere a little closer to home.

Cows VS Guidos

We took a ferry to Jersey. Turns out you don’t have to go far away to have a good time.

Friday

We started our day with a leisurely bus ride to Poole where we would catch our Condor Ferry.

The last pub before france

Poole seems to be a very livable town. Courteous too.  As a public service announcement for beer enthusiasts, the “last pub before France” was clearly marked. Our ferry ride was relatively painless and we arrived in St Helier, Jersey in the late afternoon. We checked into our B&B, Bay View Guesthouse (Well, it used to have a bay view, but now there is a luxury condominium going in across the street. They will have to change their name to Condo View in a few months), and headed back into the main part of town to find some dinner.  As in England, most pubs and inexpensive eateries don’t serve food in the evenings or close around 5:00, so we were left with expensive steak houses and French affairs to choose from. Since Jersey is known for it’s seafood and it was looking to be an expensive night anyway, we decided to do it up right! We went to the local fish market restaurant and ate the largest platter of crustaceans that that ocean has to offer. We ate until we were absolutely stuffed. If you were to cut us open you would have seen nothing but mussels. (These are the jokes people!) After cleaning up with all 6 wet wipes and resisting the temptation to slurp down the seafoody broth that remained on our dish, we made our way back to the ranch and drifted off to sleep with visions of calamari rings dancing in our heads.

Saturday

After our big English breakfasts, we headed into town for our day of sightseeing.  First on the agenda was the Jersey War Tunnels. The tunnels were built during World War II to serve as first a munitions store then an underground hospital for the Nazi solders during their occupation of Jersey. The tunnels currently serve as a memorial/museum dedicated to the Jersey locals who died during the war and describing what life was like during the occupation on the Island. Before you enter you are given an ID card of someone who lived during that time. Courtney was given June Sinclair, she died in a concentration camp. Not sure what happened to Dave’s person.  The tunnels were very cold and during the first few exhibits you would hear the sound of a bomb exploding overhead at random intervals.

Next, we went to the La Mare winery for a tour and a tasting. In addition to wine, La Mare makes: chocolates, spreads, apple brandy and Jersey cream liquor (those Jersey cows must be a happy bunch cause that is some good stuff). We picked up a spread called “black butter” that is amazing! We will be sad when it is gone. Luckily, they have a website so if we get really desperate we can always get more. The vineyard is also home  to two spotted miniature ponies named “bubbles” and “fizz”. They had a nice little enclosure in the orchard and seemed content to eat grass all day long.

At the start of the foot path

After La Mare, we decided to do the 2 mile hike along the cliffs that run between the vineyard and one of the many beaches. The views were stunning and the water looked crystal clear. Courtney was fantasizing about scuba diving around some of the coves.  During our hike we picked up runaway. His name was Hardin. This little dog followed us for the whole 2 mile hike. When we reached the end of the trail, Hardin and by proxy us, met a Mom and two kids from Minneapolis (small world) who helped us get the dog back to his owners.

Sunday

We once again ate up a big tasty English breakfast, then headed to the beach for some much needed relaxation after being on our feet all Saturday. We took  a badminton set with us and trash talked mightily about who would kick who’s butt. Truthfully, neither of us could hit the broad side of a barn but that is not the point, and we didn’t get much of a chance to show off our badminton prowess anyway. The first shuttle cock was destroyed after 2 hits when the old rubber tip cracked off and by the time we got the second shuttle cock out to the beach, the wind made playing rather difficult. When David went to hit it, it would either blow directly back at him or get stuck in the loosely strung racket. After David managed to get himself a little sunburn on the back of his ankles (looks slightly like pink socks) we decided to go find some food.

A bit of after dinner reading

There was a French farmers market happening that weekend in one of the main squares, so we headed there for lunch. David had a lovely sausage on a baguette and Courtney had a croque monsieur.  We also found dinner at the market, a trio of French cheeses and an aged pork and garlic sausage.  We left the market with our meat and cheese in hand and went to the Cock and Bottle pub next to the state building. David consumed a very fine local bitter and half of a cask ale (the cask ale was ordered first, but not enough for a full pint, so they gave us a full beer and let us have the half beer for free.) Courtney consumed a crisp cider and we watched the pigeons and gulls in the square. Once our pints were drained we wondered around town and found ourselves some real Jersey ice cream to lick at. We stopped at a local grocery store to grab some grapes, wine and a baguette to complement our cheese and sausage and complete our dinner. We dined leisurely on the front patio of the guest house and read our books.  After dinner we took a walk along the bay at sunset before returning back to the hotel and settling in with a DVD of Alice in Wonderland.

Monday

One last breakfast (we made good use of the second B in B&B), and then we were off, walking into town to catch our ferry back home. This ferry was to be longer then our ferry to Jersey, which David, book in hand, did not mind. Courtney it turns out did mind the extra length (and extra waviness) of the return journey as she decided to experiment with a new fad called seasickness. Eventually, Courtney was able to fall asleep on David although, the Marmot label from his jacket managed to make a perfect imprint on her cheek while she slept….And that is the story of how Courtney became Marmot Face.

Marmot Face...not sure I like the new pet name.

The End.

…or is it?

Yes, yes it is.