Snow, snow and more snow!

Our backyard

As you may know, the UK was hit hard with snow and cold temperatures over in December and early January. It was the coldest consistent three weeks in 100 years or something and more snow than they have had in 30 years. We enjoyed this initially- playing in the snow, building snowmen (below is a photo of Linnea and Aaron with the neighborhood girls), sledding (sledging as they say here). Meade's school and the pre-school had several snow days, which is of course very unusal for here. They were fun, but I think we all were getting a little restless. One can only play, run, walk in sub-zero weather for so long.
As of earlier this week, the snow has all finally melted and the white replaced with green, which I must say is a welcome change.

Paris for New Years (with no kids!)

When we told Linnea and Aaron that we were going to Paris, France for a few days, Aaron responded, "Oh, you are going to eat a lot of baguettes mama!" And that we did, as, wow is Paris expensive! (much more so than England even).

Meade's parents took care of the kids for three nights, giving us this fantastic opportunity to spend time together in this incredible city. Our idea to spend new year's there was not very original; the city was crawling with tourists, busier even than summer we were told. We stayed in the lively Latin Quarter at a basic little hotel. Our tiny alleyway was packed full of Latin/French restaurants all competing for tourists over the best menu of the day and endless kebab shops that Meade at at daily. We spent a lot of time walking the streets. We also climbed 1/3 of the way up the Eiffel Tower, visited the Musee d'Orsay, the Louvre, and sat in cafes eating pain au chocolat and drinking cafe au lait (my favorite thing to do in Paris I think).

We spent New Year's eve with some friends of ours, Tammy and Chris. We enjoyed a decadent meal of fondue, rocklette and champagne, which was stupendous. We then headed over to Champs de Elysses amidst tens of thousands of people and then the Eiffel Tower for the count down to midnight accompanied by a light show on the tower. It was a fun and very memorable night.

Travels up north

The snow here in England started a few days before we (our family along with Meade's parents, Barb and Don) left on our trip to Scotland- there was still some snow and ice, but not too bad. In a rented van, we drove up to Buxton, a picturesque, small town in the Peak District National Park, which we thought would be about half way to Edinburgh.

As we left Buxton, unfortunately, another storm hit and we drove much of the the 250 miles to Edinburgh in a white-out snow storm. What we did not know at the time was that our sat nav took us the most direct route, which twice meant twice missing the motorway to take windy two-lane roads that were suitable only for scenic drives in good weather with a 4 x 4. It took us 9 hours to get there, but we made it. The kids were incredible troopers through it all. Toward the end of the journey, we told the kids we would be stopping for dinner (or tea as they say here). Aaron emphatically said "We are not having dinner, we are going to our Scotland house (all the more funny in his newly acquired accent).

Edinburgh, as you may know, is a supremely quaint, picturesque, petite city that is bathed in history. Walking along the ancient, winding cobblestone streets with Edinburgh castle looming over the city and countless, gorgeous historical buildings around every corner, one feels as though they have been transported back to another time. This was all more fairy tale-like carpeted with snow.

We stayed right on the "royal mile" in a little apartment just a block or two from the Edinburgh Castle. To get there, we had to climb up 5 flights of a stone, spiraling staircase that probably was over 500 years old. We visited a Christmas fair, the castle, the Scotland museum (see photos above of Aaron and Linnea dressed as traditional Scotts of days past), Arthur's seat (where we had a fantastic snowball fight) and enjoyed just walking the streets. Since Don and Barb were more than happy to stay in at night, each night, Meade and I went out to explore the pubs. There are more pubs per capita in Edinburgh than anywhere in the world, and they are loads of fun. We spent Christmas in Edinburgh. Most everything was closed, so we cooked in and had a mello, nice time. We then headed to York for a night.

York is a medieval city in Northern England. At its heart is the immense minster, thought to be one of the most beautiful Gothic cathedrals in the world. Our main purpose in visiting was to go to the National Railway Museum. Aaron has this "Big Book of Trains," which is based on this museum, and we always thought it would be great to take him there, as he is very into trains and this book. He was beyond excited, almost frantic in his quest to see and do everything- a real Bullet train, Mallard train, etc. It was too much for him to take it all in. We also visited the minster and explored the town. From there, we headed back home.