Thursday, August 30, 2007

Final week in England





Our last week in England I was a single mom, as Brett was off on a business trip in Boston. I survived the week just fine, at least everyone here speaks English and I felt very comfortable in Swindon. I really could live here if the cost of living was not so high. The people I met at church were very friendly and supportive while we were here.
On Wednesday the kids and I went to the Cotswold water park with a friend from church. It was a neat park with lots of little lakes. People were sailing, and waterskiing and canoeing. There was a little beach area for little kids to play in too. The water was much too cold for the girls but there were many kids playing in the water. There was also a playground and we had a little picnic lunch. It was a fun afternoon. (Sorry I forgot the camera so don’t have a single picture)
On Thursday the kids and I went exploring and found a little Cotswold town called Bibury. This was a cool town. It was very very old and there were old stone houses everywhere. A beautiful stream runs through the town and the water was very clear so you could see the fish swimming. We brought bread to feed the ducks and the fish and the ducks would actually fight over the bread. We went to a trout farm while we were there and got to feed them. The girls really enjoyed watching them. Then we went on a little hike through the forest. We love the outdoors especially when the weather is beautiful! (oops forgot the camera again!-Brett is usually the picture taker in the family)
Friday we did a lot of packing up and cleaning to get ready to leave. The kids and I found a Mcdonalds (Brett refuses to eat it while not in America so we took advantage while he was gone) and had a picnic at Lydiard Park (the coolest playground in England)
The major accomplishment for the week-Addy is potty trained! We started her on Monday and she has been in underwear since. She has done great!
Saturday morning we had to leave bright and early to go pick up Brett at the airport. We were all excited to see him! Then we headed into London to do a little sight seeing. We took the kids on the London Eye, a gigantic ferris wheel that moves very slowly and you can get a 360 degree view of London. It was very busy and had to wait in a very long line. This was not a Lego Land ride but the kids still had fun. We walked around the touristy part of town and saw Big Ben and had a picnic lunch at the park. The kids liked the street performers and the people pretending to be statues. London is a huge city with so many people and lots of walking! I don’t think I would enjoy the big city lifestyle at least not with small children.
Sunday we were all packed up and ready to go to France. We managed to make it to church and then headed to the airport. The flight was only an hour thank goodness, the kids were pretty tired. When we arrived in Paris we picked up a car- we did a short term lease because we are going to be driving all over Europe now. We got a Peugeot 407SW it barely fits all our luggage but going to the van would have cost a lot more! We now have to get used to driving on the right side of the road again and having the steering wheel on the right. We managed to find our way to our apartment in Croissy sur Seine that night. It’s a nice town right across the street from the Seine River.

1 comment:

Whitny said...

I am so completely jealous now. Swinden. That is where all the books of my favorite modern author bases his books. Jasper Fforde. There is some pretty strange billboards there I hear. I would love to go there just to be close to .... Oh I don't know they are just books. But they are so cool. Did you see anything about Jasper there? He wrote Thursday Next books.