1985 trip to England from My Point of View

Windemere

After posting Leah's Travel Diary of London and Leah's Diary of England, I thought I ought to complete the picture with my memories.

In 1985, with lots of frequent flyer miles, we decided to take our 3 daughters (5, 8, 10) to Europe with us.  At that time we had direct flights to London from St. Louis with TWA.  I checked books out of the library and planned our itinerary, but only booked our first few nights in London.  After we landed we went to the Beaver Hotel where we had booked our rooms.  While there were American-style hotels by this time, I wanted the girls to experience European style which meant community bathrooms down the hall. They didn’t seem to mind it and loved the HUGE footed bath tub. For the most part, we went to the Tourist Office and booked rooms through them in B and B's, farms, European hotels.

My mother was not in favor of our taking Leah (5) to Europe.  We'd lost her so frequently in shopping centers that we regularly bought helium balloons for her wrists when we went someplace.  Sometimes having 3 children was a bit more than I could handle (only 2 hands) and Leah liked to "explore".  I'd already lost her at Union Station the day after Thanksgiving---it was PACKED.  And, I'd lost her at Chesterfield Mall.  She appeared only after I was headed up an escalator by Dillards thinking maybe she'd gone upstairs.  

Mom argued, "She's not going to remember any of it."  I countered with, "Maybe not, but she'll sure remember the time we left her behind for 3 weeks."  Our compromise was to sew rings in her pants for me to hook a leash to.  Wouldn't you think I'd use the leash after sewing all of those rings?  I wish I could say we managed to keep track of her, but the truth is we lost her in Stratford-on-Avon.

We were there in early June before other children were out of school.  The tourists were all older adults not families like ours.  We had just left Shakespeare's home, I looked around, and Leah was missing.  We walked up and down the tourist-packed street calling her name "Leah. Leah".  Panic set in!  Dave suggested we back track through the home although I was sure she was wandering somewhere in town .  So, we went back to the home and there she was in a corner of the gift shop calmly reading a book.  As if that wasn't enough of a Morgan spectacle, amid all of the adoring adult Shakespeare fans, Rachel commented, "Who the heck is Shakespeare anyway?"  Was it my imagination, or did the crowd suddenly become silent, pulling away from us as if we had announced we were lepers.  Finally they all went about their adoration of Shakespeare with the occasional shake of heads and mumbles of "Americans!"

Stratford-on Avon

Cobweb Restaurant in Stratford 1500's

We had a pretty typical itinerary in England---London, Stonehenge, King Arthur sites, Hadrian's Wall, York.  There were several places and events, though, which were pretty special (see below for photos).  Our first one was Port Isaac---a quaint village on the coast of Cornwall.  We had a beautiful B and B, Hathaway Cottage and the girls had bunk beds in a house over looking the port.  If you've ever seen Doc Martin, you've seen where we stayed---it's in all of the opening shots up on a hill where his doctor's practice is supposed to be.  We loved Port Isaac so much we decided to stay an extra day rather than going on down the Cornish coast (I sort of regret not seeing that part of Cornwall since that is where my G-g grandparents were from---Poldark country).

Port Isaac Harbor

Our B and B Hathaway Cottage

Port Isaac--Hathaway cottage to the right

Although I'd done some genealogy, I didn't really know where any of my family was from.  But, we did know where Dave's grandmother's family was from.  Dave's ancestor had left Yorkshire---the village was Healaugh and the name of the farm was Park Hall---in the late 1600's.  Having read the James Herriot books, we had a pretty good idea of what the area was like and which farm Dave's family came from.  Other Aldersons are even mentioned in his book---Helen Alderson was James Herriot's wife (I've later found out she was, indeed a distant cousin, DNA with their grandson).  We weren't exactly sure how to get there, but we had maps.  

That area is pretty rugged and the roads----well, let's just say I was pretty sure we were on a pedestrian path.  The area is de-forested so there's a stark beauty about it and the sheep have the right away.  As we were dodging sheep and bumping up the "path", we looked over a valley and I thought we'd gone through a time warp.  We saw a gypsy caravan in their brightly painted wagons being pulled by horses.  We were so stunned that we didn't even take any photos.  

We did eventually make it to the village and found where the family farm was.  The house wasn't the same but the name of the farm was.  We later found out that Aldersons still live on that farm.  We took some photos but didn't bother the residents which I kind of regret---other family members have found them quite welcoming.  It was still thrilling to look over the Swale valley and think of that being the same view that John Alderson had before he decided to come to America. Click here for photos of Yorkshire where the Aldersons lived.

Beatrix Potter's home

Beatrix Potter's home

Viking Museum in York

Dartmoor

Clovelly

Walking to Hadrian's Wall