First week of my 2015 trip back to the homeland consisted of cramming in as much time as possible with mums and dad, brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, nieces and cousins of my family's combined European clans.
No short order. Pit-stops in pubs, cafes and farm shop restaurants made for happy little excursions outside of the various abodes on our family tour.
The Tobie Norris, in historic Stamford, Lincolnshire, located just a few miles from my parents' home, dates back to 1280. Steep staircases, wobbly floors, rustic antiques, velvet covered seating, best of British pub food and real ales made for one of my favorite watering holes in the region.
If you're traveling the UK and headed north from London to York, make Stamford a stop in your itinerary. Frequently named as one of the best places to live in Britain, this beautiful, Georgian market town is well worth an overnight (with time for a visit to Elizabethan era Burghley House).
Following Lincolnshire and Cambridgeshire, a couple of nights' stay in the capital called for a boat ride on the river with my sister and nieces and a visit to the Tower of London. Not to be confused with London Bridge (photographed from the Tower), tours of the fortress Tower that houses the Crown Jewels never fail to enthrall — highlight this time was my four-year-old niece surprising me with her impromptu recital from memory of the correct order and names of Henry VIII's six wives, as we walked in. My sister is a teacher and a history buff, but still . . .
Yoemen of the Guard and Tower staff live within the compound of this 1,000 year old royal fortress, today. Lovely in summertime, but I'd imagine it a bit spooky as digs on a cold, dark, winters night. The tower is said to be haunted, not surprisingly, Anne Boleyn, for one.
Two blue chairs — a modern reminder of everyday life on a rooftop in the tower's contemporary living quarters.
Further south in our family's roadmap of England, my sister-in-law and brother-in-law's home territory takes in sleepy and remote Sussex countryside. Sleepy today, but not in its storied past. Their village home is positioned on a hedgerow-flanked lane between the historic towns of Battle and Hastings. 1066 land.
After a bloody battle lasting over nine hours from dawn until dusk, October 14th, 1066, William of Normandy defeated King Harold of England on a battlefield 8 miles from Hastings — the Battle of Hastings, one of the best-known and most decisive events in England's history, the victory of William, Duke of Normandy and the death of Harold, King of England, were crucial to the success of the Norman Conquest.
The battlefield, devoid of modern development, owes its survival to the founding by King William ‘the Conqueror’ of the Benedictine Battle Abbey on the site as penance for the bloodshed and to commemorate his victory. Much of the battlefield became part of the abbey's great park, which formed the nucleus of a country estate after the suppression of the abbey in 1538.
The seaside town of Hastings itself was popularized recently in the States, as location of World War II detective drama, Foyle's War.
Fresh Fish and Chips on the seashore were order of the day during our brief visit. Hastings is home to a charming old town center, full of independent book shops, cafes, pubs, antique stores and art galleries and is enjoying a regentrification boost as British holiday makers and weekenders look to explore more of the country's rich heritage.
I love a farm shop. English farm shops are especially good at serving up a cream tea or full English breakfast, complete with china cups and saucers.
This was my first visit to Rye, an exquisite old town in East Sussex, home of BBC's Mapp and Lucia a few miles inland from the coast. Its gorgeous, old Mermaid Inn (where we stopped for a glass of Pimms on its tiny terrace) was built for a visit by Queen Elizabeth I and still presides on a cobblestone street in the center of town.
