Spring has arrived!!! The weather has been gorgeous!! I haven’t really checked the temperature, but it has to be in the 60’s. We all have been taking advantage of it and spending as much time as possible outside. Yesterday Owen and I went for a walk and before we knew, 3 hours had passed. It’s just so beautiful, both the weather and the scenery. When we returned we rounded up some other people and played a game of bocce! It was a good way to spend a Sunday afternoon.
I realized I never told you about our visit with Owen’s family, so I will do that before heading onto Rome. They were soo nice and soo welcoming. It was really nice to be able to meet them and it was also very nice for Owen to spend some time with them. Even though our time was short, I could tell that he was very happy for getting there.
We mostly stayed with his Aunt Carol and Uncle Graham. They did soo much for us! Everything from planning our days, getting train/bus tickets, having pizza ready for us as soon as we got off the train, and doing our laundry! I felt so bad and wanted to help, but they wouldn’t have it any other way. Unfortunately, his Aunt had to work so his Uncle took us around. Our first day there was spent visiting Silverstone & Oxford. Silverstone is a major racetrack in Europe. The Grand Prix is held there along with other events. We lucked out with our tour because the track was supposed to be closed that day. However, Owen’s uncle talked the lady into a tour because that was the only day we would make it. So, we went from no tour to being able to see a Force India car being tested. It was sooo loud and soo fast! This was really neat and it was probably Owen’s favorite thing we did! He found out that he could drive cars for around 90 euro or so, so he is definitely trying to do that. After Silverstone, we headed up to Oxford. This is a major university in England. It was absolutely gorgeous. There are about 20 some colleges within Oxford and they each have their own courtyard, chapel, buildings, dorm, etc. The different colleges is basically equivalent to the majors we choose. All of the buildings were so old and extravagant. It was really pretty.
Racetrack!
F1 car!
Oxford University -- one of the colleges
The next day we visited Strafford upon Avon, the birthplace of William Shakespeare. We took an open bus tour and saw where Shakespeare was born, where he lived, where he died, where his mother lived, where Anne Hathoway lived, where his plays were performed, etc. It was neat because most of the buildings were somewhat new in the town but then there were the famous buildings that were soo old looking! It was neat to see because now I can say I saw Shakespeare’s hometown:) Also, we got a full English breakfast that day! (At a French restaurant!) haha It was really good though. After Strafford, we headed to the Jaguar plant. We got a tour and saw how the SFR is made. It was pretty cool; they took you through every part of the process and we saw real cars being made. Owen loved that they incorporated cars into this trip!
My new car- duH!
Anne Hathoway's house
We then headed up to North Wales! Here we stayed the night with Owen’s Nan, she was so sweet! I met more of his family and they took us out to dinner. They were all so nice and so funny! We spent a good two or three hours at the restaurant just talking; it was nice. The next day, Owen and I headed to Chester for a few hours. It had a lot of shops and old Roman buildings like the Roman amphitheater. We got a little confused with the bus schedule here and had to run to one. While running, I wiped out and made a fool out of myself – hey we made the bus though! Haha
We went back to Owen’s aunts that night because our time there was coming to an end. We had some train troubles and broke down for an hour 2 stops away – ahhh! We were told “welcome to London!” haha Overall, it was a really nice trip around England. Owen was able to see his family and I was able to meet them. They were all so nice and so welcoming and we did A LOT with them!
Well, I’m going to go enjoy the good weather – enjoy the snow you might get tonight:)
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