Travels in England with Uncle Tom and Tamara

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We received a letter from Uncle Tom asking if he could visit us. This was an unexpected surprise. With a new baby we wondered if he knew what he was getting into; especially since Tamara had colic since birth three months earlier, and cried non-stop from 4:30 pm to 4:30 am. But we asked him to come on over. He would fly into Brussels, and visit England with us, then take off by himself to visit his WWII base in Exeter, before flying home from London.

26 April 1986 Saturday. He was due to arrive in Brussels at 7:10 am. However, the airport was socked in so they diverted his flight to London, where they sat on the ground for a couple hours. The flight returned to Brussels, with the fog still in place, but the pilot decided to land anyway. So after a five hour delay, we welcomed Uncle Tom to Brussels. We didn't give him much time to recouperate. We had time to show him some of the highlights of the Grand Place in central Brussels. Just off the square, we had a great late lunch of moules and frites at our favorite restaurant, Vincents. We let him turn in early that evening.

27 April 1986 Sunday. We drove to the tulip extravaganza which is Keukenhof in the Netherlands. After seeing the tulips for a few hours, we drove around the countryside before returning to Overijse.

28 April 1986 Monday. We drove to Brugges and walked around for an hour or so and then continued on to Calais where we caught the ferry to Dover. We drove along the coast through Hythe, across the Romney Marshes to Old Romney and Rye. We stopped along the way so that Linda could feed Tamara while Uncle Tom and I visited some old churches and pubs for an occasional pint.

We arrived in Rye and walked all around the ancient town, one of the Cinque Ports. By the time we completed our tour we were ready for supper. Tamara wasn’t cooperating during the meal so we took turns taking her outside and rocking her. The most effective motion was the dipsy doodle, which involved holding her on her tummy across our folded arms and then making a dropping motion, like a roller coaster, which made her catch her breath and stop crying.

We stayed that night and the next in the Old Post House B&B in Stone on Oxney. If nothing else, when I find a nice place to stay I keep coming back!

29 April 1986 Tuesday. Today we toured the Kent countryside, a cathedral and many castles. We drove the country lanes north through Tenterden and Biddenden to Smarden, where we got out to walk around and visit the old church. At Charing we followed the Canterbury Road to Canterbury, imaging that this was the route that Chaucer's pilgrims took in Canterbury Tales. In Canterbury, we walked around the town, but spent most of our time at Canterbury Cathedral. We sat and listened to the choir practicing; their voices acsending to heaven.

Next we headed west to Leeds Castle, probably my favorite castle in England. It was originally a Norman castle sited on a lake. Henry VIII expanded it considerably, and it is more lake a palace than a fortress. We toured the grounds and the castle.

We then headed south to Sissinghurst Castle and its famous gardens that were in full bloom with spring flowers. After a walk around we continued south to Bodiam Castle, one of the last to be built with a moat and verticle walls; as gunpowder was about to make usch castles obsolete. The walls are intact, but the interior is pretty much wasted. We climbed the ramparts and explored the towers. By then it was late afternoon, so we went full circle, returning to the Old Post House B&B in Stone on Oxney, where we had dinner at the Ferryman's Pub. They couldn't produce a birthday cake for Linda...poor planning on my part.

30 April 1986 Wednesday. The next day we meandered through the Sussex countryside to Battle to see where the Battle of Hastings was fought. We walked the field where the Saxons stood on the high ground as the Normans under William (who would soon be the Conqueror) marched towards them. All was peaceful today.

We continued west to the beach resort town of Eastbourne. As with all such resorts, they had a pier where the vacationer had access to various forms of entertainment. Although the weather was great, we weren't much for swimming on the rocky beach. So we continued to Beachy Head with its white cliffs similar to Dover. We watched as there was a sheep dog competition.

Next was another seaside resort; Brighton was very popular in the 19th century, and a hangout for royalty and high society. The glass pavilion was being restored, so we didn't spend much time there. So it was on to Alfriston, the port used by pirates and Moonrakers (on the night of the full moon the inhabitants of the village, wishing to appear crazy, would go into the streets to rake up the moonbeams).

We then headed inland to Petworth. We toured the grounds designed by Capability Brown, who was the premier landscape architect of the day, and then the mansion which had a very impressive art collection, including Gainsboroughs and Titian and other Italian Renaissance painters.

We stayed that night in a B&B in Midhurst. Linda stayed with Tamara while Uncle Tom and I ate dinner. We took her dinner which she ate in her room.

1 May 1986 Thursday. We drove west to Winchester, the focal point of which is its cathedral, which we toured. Then it was a few miles further west to Salisbury Cathedral, which has the highest steeple of any cathedral in England, and was completed in just 38 years and so is of one one architectural style. We toured this cathedral too. Fortunately Tamara was only three months old so she couldn;t complain about having to tour another cathedral.

We turned north across the Salisbury Plain and soon saw a circle of stones on the horizon...Stonehenge. There was open access to the stones at the time, so we took full advantage by walking all over the site. Following along that theme we next visited Avebury. We followed the long row of stones to the town which was surrounded by a neolithic circular earth mound and ditch. In the middle was the village and another circle of stones. That did it for neolithic stuff, so we headed west to Castle Combe, which isn't a castle at all, but a quaint village voted as the most beautiful village several times. This is where the original "Dr. Dolittle" movie was filmed. We walked from the car park down into the village to the bridge over the stgream at the other end, and then walked back.

We then drove north to the heart of the Cotswolds, to the quintessential gold colored stone town of Chipping Campden. We checked into the Seymore House Hotel, where Mom and Dad, my sister Carol, and Linda and I had stayed during our tour of England and Scotland in 1980. We walked to a nearby restaurant for dinner, with each of us taking turns with Tamara.

2 May 1986 Friday. We checked out of our hotel and drove to Stratford upon Avon to check out William Shakespeares birthplace. It was still there, so after a brief visit we continued north to Warwick Castle, turned into a tourist destination with a knight in shinning armor mounted on a steed, and with every room decorated with original furnishings. This would be the furthest point we would travel on this trip.

We turned southeast towards London, passing through many quaint Cotswold towns and stopping at Woodstock to tour Blenheim Palace, the domain of the Duke of Marlborough, the victor at the battle of Blenheim in Germany. This was also the birthplace of Sir Winston Churchill. We took the full tour of this sprawling palace and grounds.

From there we drove into London and checked into a hotel on the north side of Hyde Park near the Lancaster Gate tube station.

3 May 1986 Saturday. We walked through Hyde Park to Marble Arch where the Around London double decker tour buses made their circular tour of the major sights of London. So for the enxt three hours we had a guided tour of every place that is important in London...sure beats walking all that way, which is usually the way we saw London. The tour lasted the morning, so we had lunch and did some shopping along Oxford Street and then down Regent Street, where we stopped at Hamleys, a really neat toystore. I looked for Dinkey cars that I had grown up with, but they didn't sell them anymore. We bought Tamara some toys instead.

4 May 1986 Sunday. We said our farewells to Uncle Tom, and headed to Dover where we caught the ferry to Calais and then drove home to Overijse.

Years later we learned that one of the major reasons that Uncle Tom wanted to visit England with us was that he had been contacted by his war time son, Paul, who he had not known before. They met for the first time. So I learned that I have another cousin! We met him and his wife in 2006 when they visited my Mom and sister Judy in Texas.

Unfortunately, I only have a video of this trip...no pictures.

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