Rest for the Weary at Upper Hill Farm

After that whirlwind week of travel, we were really ready for some down time. I was so glad that Darren had arranged for a couple days off. As soon as he was done with work on Friday, we were headed for Paddington Station to catch a train out of the city. And yes, it is chock full of Paddington Bear paraphernalia. I was a bit shocked by the train fare. This train cost almost as much as the one from Paris to London, and it's a commuter train!

Our destination was a 18th century stone farmhouse outside of Cheltenham in the Cotswolds. It actually took a ton of work to find a bed and breakfast that would allow Grant. Much easier to find accommodations for say, a Great Dane. Oh well, we were delighted with Beechfield House at Upper Hill Farm. Paul and Helen had a sweet room for us, fixed us fabulous full English breakfasts, introduced us to Percy, the friendly neighborhood pheasant, drove us down to the local pub for dinner, and even washed some laundry. Ahhhhhh. It was so nice to rest.

By some sweet miracle, our room had a little closed off hallway between us and the bathroom. Perfect for sticking our baby at night! Hurrah! I hadn't quite anticipated how difficult it would be to always share just one room with a baby who sleeps 12 hours at night. You can't really do anything but hide your laptop under the covers and try not to make any noise. It's been especially difficult when Darren needs to get to work, and Grant wants to sleep until 9 or 10. I'm still not sure how to improve this, other than spending way more money on the hotels.

While I had wanted to stay in a smaller town, I think it was good that we ended up where we did, close enough to the train station for our hosts to pick us up. You pretty much have to drive in such a rural area. I had been envisioning peaceful, pleasant drives along meandering country roads, with hedgerows and pastoral views. The scenery was right, but the drivers are crazy! We expected the challenge of adjusting to driving on the left side of the road. But we didn't anticipate one-lane roads with two-way traffic, curves and hedges blocking the view (no one considered sight distance in designing these roads!), and crazy speeds! When our host first picked us up from the station, I thought it was just her driving. But she turns out to be a conservative driver! The method is to drive really fast, then slam on the brakes and swerve into the brush when another car needs to pass. Wow.

We couldn't rent a car on Saturday or Sunday because I hadn't made arrangements in advance, and while I pretended to be regretful to our hosts, I was so relieved! We really didn't need the stress of trying to drive those first couple of days. We got a little hungry, but it was worth it. The countryside right around the house was beautiful, with lots of trails. And that was all the sightseeing we were up for.

I wish I had taken a picture of our "full English breakfast". It includes thick bacon, sausage, fried egg, black pudding, baked beans, mushrooms, tomatoes, hashbrowns and toast. It was awesome, and yes, enormous. Most breakfast sausages don't sit well with me, but this was great. Good thing we planned to do a lot of walking!

Paul gave us a ride to church, which was only four miles away, and we really enjoyed the ward. There are quite a few American ex-pats, apparently there is a software company and something government related in the area. It was a nice, big, friendly congregation with a lot of variety of people.