Proper English Holiday

CAMBRIDGE, England

Whew! A whirlwind week of sunshine, sea breezes, rolling hills and not a single skyscraper in sight from Porlock Vale House. The weather was remarkably good, with only one rainy day that turned into a complete napfest. Plenty of walking, a good bit of sightseeing and a few very creative special events! Like the night we were told to dress up in black tie formalwear, and then discovered that our transport was a vintage open-topped double decker bus. The bus took us to a little steam train, where we sat down to a ploughman’s dinner and an onboard murder mystery. There was just as much ham and cheese among the cast as there was on our plates, but it was a terrifically fun evening and a complete surprise to everyone because it had been kept secret the whole time!

Porlock is right across the water from Wales, which you could see most days but especially at night when the city would light up and twinkle at us as the sun was setting around 10 p.m. at night. Although this corner of England is known more for Exmoor park, cream teas, rolling hills and literary connections to Romantic poets and Lorna Doone, a little bit of Wales slipped over as well. The tiny medieval church in town, mentioned in the Wikipedia entry for Polock, was named for St. Dubricius, who turns out to have been a Welsh saint.

Several of us later spent a lovely day at Dunster Castle.

The weather could not have been more perfect, and all the flowers were in full bloom. Of course, no visit to an English castle is complete without a visit to the Crypt…or the Lemon House. And for all you curious kitties out there, here’s Darcy taking photos at the castle – he’s something of an amateur photographer, and this place had postcard shots around every single corner.

Other events of the week included enjoying our very own bouncy castle at the house, jogging with Darcy, yoga on the croquet lawn, long walks through the surrounding hills with new friends, kayaking on Wimbleball Lake, renting out the entire Lynton Cinema for a private showing of Gone Baby Gone and tour of the projection room, and more cream teas than were probably healthy for anyone. Nothing like clotted cream to really make a girl feel like like she’s on holiday!

I’ll be in England for the next several days before returning to New York, and now that I’m back in Cambridge we can all look forward to the regular posting schedule!