A Walk Along the Frome Valley River

The British love their walks. The whole family dons their wellies (rubber boots up to the knee) and heads off with the dog(s) to go for a walk. And there are so many places to walk around here we may never have to go to the same place twice.

On this Sunday morning, we headed off to the Frome Vally trail. Unfortunately, Brian didn't realize what I meant by walk and had on relatively new shoes and socks - big mistake. It's March in England and there is a lot of mud. And lots of muddy dogs and children about. Let's just say we were glad to have rubber floor mats in the car and a hose outside back home.

This is one of the trail heads by Snuff Mills. It's a tended garden and just starting to spring up with flowers. It was overcast and looking like rain when we arrived.

And then things cleared up a bit and the sun poked through.

Five minutes later it was overcast again.

And two minutes after that it was pouring down rain.

Tapering off to a light drizzle.

And then gorgeous sunshine for a little while. And it continued cycling through rain, sun, rain, sun throughout our whole walk, which was only about an hour.

One of the little mud buckets. The dogs were loving it - swimming in the river, splashing through the mud, fetching sticks and chasing each other. It was pretty fun to watch. I was glad I didn't have to give them all a bath later!

Spring has Sprung in Bristol

The days are getting longer, the air is getting warmer and the flowers are blooming - it's spring in Bristol! I started seeing daffodils as early as late January and couldn't believe it. Due to our mild climate, the spring flowers seem to bloom forever. Daffodils from late Jan through April. At this writing, the tulips are just popping through but not too many have bloomed yet - I'm sure they're on their way soon. By Easter the whole countryside will be filled with color! Here are a few pics from our recent walk around the neighborhood.

Bristish Vocabulary Lesson (Food & Drink)

It's been a while since we've had a vocabulary lesson, so here is a list of particularly British food and drink terms. Enjoy!

Bangers & mash: I'm sure you've heard this one. Sausages and mashed potatoes and usually served with onions as well. Yum.

Bubble & Squeak: But I'll bet this one is new. This was originally the name for all the leftover bits of vegetable after Sunday roast and often served the next day fried up for breakfast or lunch. I'm sure that's still the case, but you can also order many meals with bubble & squeak as a side dish. I even saw it packaged up in the grocery store. Typically a bit of onion, carrot, turnip, leeks ...

Tipple: A wee drink - alcoholic. Not a specific drink just a term to refer to drink in general. "We'll have a bit of a tipple before we go to the theatre."

Crumpets vs Pinklets vs Muffins: There are so many version of baked goods, I really can't keep up. Crumpets are sorta like English muffins but thicker and softer. They have holes all the way through and are served slathered in butter. Unless you use a knife and fork, you'll be covered in butter by the time you finish eating one of these. Pinklets are a thinner version of a crumpet - no idea why. And muffins (English muffins) are similar to those back home, but are denser so the holes are smaller. And yes, they also have muffins like Blueberry muffins. Not sure how you would refer to a muffin vs a muffin - they certainly don't call them English muffins here!

Mince: Yummy mix of spices, raisins, dried fruit. Lots and lots of mince pies at Christmas time and then they're gone - no seriously you can't find them anywhere until Christmas again.

Chips vs Crisps: You've probably heard this already but chips are fries and crisps are chips. Not such a problem when you say fries as everyone gets what you mean (especially with our American accents) but ordering chips when you mean crisps can be a problem.

Biscuits: British word for cookies - they really don't use the word cookie unless referring to something American like oreos. Chocolate chip cookies are seen to be an American thing although you can of course find them everywhere here. British biscuits tend to be crisp and crunchy, not soft and gooey like American cookies. Most likely because they are primarily served with tea. Tea and biscuits - yum.

Puddings: As well as I can understand, puddings are a generic term for dessert, but I've also seen menus that will list puddings and then a list of desserts so it might refer to a particular type of dessert - mainly some kind of cake with sauce. Whatever the pure definition, puddings are yum! Now, if you are actually looking for pudding (that creamy goodness you eat with a spoon) you'll probably have to ask for custard here. I have not seen any boxes of Jello instant pudding in the supermarkets, but you can find custard in the dairy aisle.

Pigs in blankets: We've talked about these before, haven't we? My favorite British invention. Cocktail-sized sausages wrapped in bacon. As good and decadent as they sound.

And on that note, I think it's time for tea (which either means an actual cup of tea, afternoon tea with tea, biscuits and sandwiches, or dinner which is sometimes referred to as tea). Are we sure we're all speaking English?

Weekend in Dublin: Natural History Museum

We had a bit of time but were too late for the Castle tour so decided to pop into the Natural History Museum. By the time we got there we had only 15 minutes, but it was free entry on Sunday so we dashed in to get a quick look.

The most impressive. Giant Irish deer, now extinct

A red badger! Had to get a photo of Bucky's cousin.

The mailboxes in Ireland are green (UK they are red)

A final toast to our Dublin weekend - Irish coffee!

Weekend in Dublin: Guinness Storehouse Tour

You can't go to Dublin without hearing about Guinness. The family has contributed a lot to the history and success of the city and nowhere is that more celebrated than the Guinness Storehouse tour. The building itself is shaped like a large Guinness glass and you move from bottom to top exploring the story of Guinness and getting to taste some of the 'black gold'. It was a fun experience and Guinness really does taste better in Ireland.

The ground floor was a huge gift shop - everything you could possibly imagine with a Guinness logo on it. The first floor (photos below) walked through the ingredients of Guinness: water, hops, malted barley, yeast.

The second floor walked us through the brewing process. The tour was completely self guided - a brilliant approach as they could fit twice the people in for each tour. And at $20 a pop, that's a pretty good return on investment for them.

about an hour

The next floor was all about distribution. We saw how the barrels used to be made by hand through an interesting video and also how Guinness developed a revolutionary way to transport to the far reaches of the globe (yep, it's that rattle you hear in the cans that does it - well, and some other scientific explanation). On this floor we also had our first tasting, which was served in tiny cute little Guinness glasses. As pretentious as any wine tasting we've been to!

The next floor was all about their marketing and how it has evolved over time.  Brian and I remember seeing these kinds of 'Guinness is good for you' advertisements in Guinea, West Africa when we were in the Peace Corps.

And the top floor is a panoramic bar where you can get your free pint, which is included with your ticket. Crowded and a bit warm because of the sun, but the Guinness was oh so good.

Don't worry, you get a full pint. They fill to here and then let the glasses rest before they fill them the rest of the way to make sure you get a full pint.

Weekend in Dublin: Castle and Churches

With only a weekend, we didn't have time to tour the castle or any cathedrals, but we did get a few good photos. Enjoy!

Christ Church Cathedral at night

Dublin Castle

Dublin Castle

Dublin Castle

Dublin Castle

Christ Church Cathedral walkway over the road

Christ Church Cathedral

I think this is St. Patrick's Cathedral from the bus window.

We would like to go back and visit some of these spots we didn't have time for. It would also be great to see Dublin in the summer and wander through some of the beautiful parks.

Weekend in Dublin: Kilmainham Goal

One tour we definitely wanted to fit in was the Kilmainham Goal (that's Gaelic for jail and actually pronounced jail). The challenge was there were no tickets left on their website. They did mention that they have a small number of walk up tickets each day, but that you should arrive early as they sell out quickly. So bright and early (for a vacation anyway) we hopped the bus to the jail and were the second ones there. It was a bit chilly to wait, but we were rewarded with tickets on the first walk-in tour. And they did sell out so it was worth the planning ahead.

It's a guided tour which focuses on the history of the goal as well as some of the more famous prisoners - most from the 1916 Easter rebellion when Ireland was working to get rid of British rule. The event left 485 dead and destroyed large areas of Dublin city centre.

This is the outside courtyard where public hangings took place until 1865 (prison was built in 1796). Executions continued in the goal, but not in view of the public.

The goal has now been restored and is a historic landmark and museum of sorts. They run tours almost every hour and it was a busy place even on a random winter Saturday in January.

This prison went through a few upgrades throughout its lifetime, one of which was to give each prisoner his/her own cell. This was one of the first prisons in Europe to adjust its mission from housing prisoners to trying to rehabilitate them. The individual cells, bibles and windows to let light in were all thought to help with this effort.

This hallway is before that renovation and you can get a sense of how small, cramped and dark it was. There was also a belief that air circulating through would reduce sickness and disease so there were open windows along the top which let in a drafty and cold breeze (notice we all still have our coats on!). At this time, there were probably around 4-5 to a cell and during the worst of the potato famine, there could be up to 12! The famine created a huge increase in prisoners as people were purposely trying to get in as it was a way to guarantee regular meals.

This is the newest area of the prison and it might look familiar as it's been used as a movie set quite a few times. The Italian Job (the original one), In the Name of the Father, and U2's song A Celebration to name a few.

Here is one of the cells in this area. Really high ceilings and lots of light.

It was an interesting tour and we were glad we went.