By the way...

I forgot to mention how strange it is to switch between US style cars and driving to UK style cars and driving, but I did it. It was a bit frightening at first but then I decided it was really a fantastic experience. It took nearly the entire two weeks before I got used to it enough to walk to the correct side of the car whether I was driving or not. And then when I got back to the states I kept heading for the passenger side, thinking I was going to drive. But it only took a few days to get back to the US driving mindset.

Avebury vs Stonehenge

The B&B in which we stayed in the Lake District happened to have this coffee table book that compared famous/historical sites with lesser-known but similar sites throughout the world. One evening before bed as I was flipping through it I came across a comparison between Avebury and Stonehenge. I had never even heard of Avebury before. Mr X and I were planning on visiting Stonehenge in a day or two anyway. So naturally I was intrigued. The book went on to declare the Avebury stones the winner due to:

1) Far fewer crowds.

2) It's FREE. (Stonehenge would have cost us over $25 or something.)

3) You can actually walk in and around the stones whereas at Stonehenge you are restricted to a walking path that circles the prehistoric monument.

4) You can actually touch the stones at Avebury.

As it turns out Avebury is not particular far from Stonehenge. So Mr X and I decided to see them both to determine the credibility of this book.

First up, Avebury:



Mr X really liked this photo. I'm sure you can see why.



Next, Stonehenge:

(Note: We opted not to pay since we'd already seen Avebury and all paying got you anyway was a crowded tour along a roped off path. The path would have gotten us much closer than the view from outside the fences but the outside-the-fence view afforded us a great picture of the entire site.)

The verdict? We agreed that since they are so close to each other, people should go ahead and see both. Stonehenge is more visually impressive both in the size of the stones and the structure that remains. But Avebury is large in the number of stones and the ground it covers, but it's very nice to be able to walk so close and touch the stones. Oh and that free part is a definite plus.

A Proper Afternoon Tea

I decided that Mr X and I HAD to have a "proper" afternoon tea before our UK trip came to a close. In Bradford-on-Avon I found the perfect place. The Bridge. Isn't it lovely looking? The only thing they do at this place is tea service.

Mr X and I had indulged in several "cream teas" but never the full afternoon tea. This includes the typical cream tea (two biscuits with clotted cream and preserves with your tea of choice) but it also comes with an assortment of finger sandwiches and small nibbles of various types of pastries. All of it is arranged on tiered stand as pictured below. We had a late breakfast that day and skipping lunch in favor of this extravagant tea time. It was lovely! Mr X is so sweet to indulge my silly whims, don't you think?

UK: Bath

While in Bradford-on-Avon Mr X and I caught a local train to Bath. Of course we wanted to see the famed Roman Baths but we also decided to acutally have a dip in some baths in Bath as well.

So we spend a long and relaxing evening at the Thermae Bath Spa. It was fantastic, we even had dinner there in our bath robes. They had the best saunas in which I have ever been. There is also a pool on the top of the building which overlooks the whole city. It's beautiful.



This was the sauna room. There were four rooms with different aromas: sandalwood, eucalyptus, lavender and frankincense. There was a cold shower downpour in the middle of the four saunas.



This was the rooftop bath.

After our soaking sessions Mr X and I wandered the city streets for a while before heading back on the train. Another wonderful day.

Jane Austen spent several years living in Bath though she didn't write much during her time there. I was hoping to geek out in the Jane Austen Center but it closed too early and we didn't make it. Maybe next time.

A Comparison of Breakfasts

Most everywhere we went in England, Mr X and I had the option of The Full English Breakfast. Mr X tried it once and never opted for it again. He prefers a more carb-y breakfast. I prefer a more meaty breakfast so I actually didn't mind it and usually opted for it rather than fruit and muesli with toast preserves, which was what Mr X usually had.

So what is the Full English?

Eggs: Scrambled, fried or poached

Pork sausages

A couple of slices of bacon (but in England bacon is what we Americans would refer to as ham.)

Baked beans

Roasted or fried tomatoes

Roasted or sauteed mushrooms

Toast

Roasted potatoes or hash browns

It's a BIG breakfast. I usually didn't eat it all, skipping the beans and mushrooms often.

The Full English Breakfast. (Photo found online.)

I found breakfast in the UK to be very different from the typical morning fare in France: coffee (or hot chocolate in my case) and a croissant. Italian and Spanish breakfasts tend to be similar to the French breakfast.

A common French breakfast. (Photo found online.)

The German breakfast is quite hearty like the English, but in very different ways. It's a cold breakfast of an array of sliced meats and cheeses with a rather extensive bread basket as well as other bread toppings such as butters, jams, nutella-like spreads, etc. It usually comes with a soft-boiled egg, which I like. Swiss, Austrian and Czech breakfasts tend to be very similar to German breakfasts.

Mr X and had several discussions about the various types of breakfasts we've enjoyed over the years. I suppose that due to our American upbringing we both prefer a heartier breakfast.

Mr X's favorites, in order of preference:
1) German
2) French
3) American
4) English (I guess the cooked tomatoes, mushrooms and baked beans really put him off.)

Mine:
1) American
2) German
3) English
4) French (Although hot chocolate and croissants are delicious, I prefer my breakfasts less sweet and more filling. I was always hungry about 2 hours later and so I inevitably failed to withstand temptation when passing creperies or patisseries.)

UK: The Cotswolds

After exploring the Lake District, Mr X and I headed south to the Cotswolds. We'd heard that there were some incredibly beautiful English villages there. We stayed just south of the Cotswolds District in a small town called Bradford-on-Avon. It's very close to Bath as well, which is why we selected this particular place. We actually stayed just outside of town in a converted old dairy barn, on somebody's farm-turned-B&B. It was perfectly charming. We woke up to the sound of roosters crowing, chickens bak-bakking and goats ...uhm... making goat sounds. We walked through the fields to get to town for some exploring. Here are some pictures:

On one of our days we drove into the Cotswolds in search of the famed and picturesque villages. So off for Bibury we set. Here are a few photos of this adorable old English town.

A Delicious Detour

On our way from the Lake District down to the Cotswolds Mr X and I took a detour in order to visit Cadbury World. I'd heard that they give out lots of free treats during the tour. And I also heard that their factory shop was fantastic. I was not disappointed. Check out the site if you are interested to see how extensive the tour is (very).

Our loot from the store. Most of this is now in my belly. And on my thighs.

Rhubarb Cake

This is how I used the Rhubarb from my CSA share this week:

(This photo was scavenged from the interweb. It's pretty much what mine looked like. Except imagine it sitting on a blue plate.)

This is where I found the recipe:

http://smittenkitchen.com/2012/05/rhubarb-snacking-cake



I liked it better than Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie, which I think can sometimes have an overly mushy texture.

I substituted splenda for the sugar - not because I was necessarily trying to cut out sugar but pretty much because the splenda happened to be closer to where I was working in the kitchen than the sugar. Yup, pure laziness at work there.

Lake Windermere

On our second day in the Lake District Mr X and I hopped on a boat tour. It took us from our quaint little village of Ambleside to a castle on the opposite side of the lake. We toured the castle and then did a short 4 mile hike south to another boat dock where we caught another boat to the very southern end of the lake. After dinking around in that town and teasing the swans we caught our last boat ride back up to Ambleside. It was a beautiful partially sunny day and we had a wonderful time.

A view of Lake Windermere.

Mr X making friends on the boat.

A view of the castle we toured.

Me, goofing around in the "nursery" room of the castle.

Apparently Beatrix Potter was responsible for the beautiful forest on the west side of Lake Windermere. She planted and cared for the trees in their infancy.

  

Spring flowers were in bloom everywhere. It was lovely.

This was the beginning of the 4 mile hike/walk we took from the castle to the next boat dock.

My First CSA Experience

I convinced Mr X to let us join a CSA this year. I just got my first "veggie share" yesterday evening. I was a bit nervous for a few reasons:

1) I paid up front for shares for the rest of the year so I would have been incredibly upset had the share turned out to be disappointing. I wasn't disappointed at all.

2) I wasn't sure how much a single "share" was. The information I read through said it was enough for 1-2 people for a week. I didn't know if that was more 1 person or more 2 people. It was 2 people.

3) I was concerned that the produce might be wilted or in less than stellar condition. My concerns were unfounded.

4) I was concerned that the veggies would be ho-hum, nothing special. Not the case.

5) I was concered that the veggies would be too strange and unusual and I wouldn't be able to use them. Wrong again.

This is what my small share contained this week:

Garlic scapes, several spinach bunches, green leaf romaine, flat-leaf parsley, curly parsley (which I diced and froze), cilantro, rhubarb, green onions, heirloom Mexican Red beans (which I froze for future use as well), farm-made sauerkraut.

(These photos aren't mine. Just ones I found on the interweb to add some visual effect to this post. Plus they are pretty much right on anyway.)

I also signed up for a dozen free-range eggs each week.

So I figured I should start using my veggies right away so I included some of them in dinner. I used the romaine lettuce to make a garden salad.

I sauted some of the garlic scapes (which I hadn't even heard of before) and I used the rest to make a compound butter for our steaks. (I did some research on these online and found those two ideas.) They are very garlic-y but not quite as potent as regular garlic bulbs. When sauteed the flavor changes quite a bit and they taste similar to asparagus. Very garlicy asparagus. And yes, they are as crazy curly as the photo below depicts. I liked them a lot.

I made potatoes dauphinoise just because I had potatoes on-hand that I needed to use up.

Mr X also agreed to let me purchase part of a grass-fed cow this summer. It is a lot of meat. So I used my first steak from our cow tonight.This particular steak was called a delmonico cut steak. I seasoned it with salt and pepper only because I was planning on using the garlic scape compound butter with it. (Butter, lemon juice, finely diced garlic scapes, thyme.)

Rocky Mountain High

Last Thursday evening Mr X and I attended a John Denver Tribute concert at Red Rocks Amphitheater in Morrison Colorado. It was great. Mr X is a huge John Denver fan. While I quite like a lot of his songs I'm nowhere near the fan Mr X is. I've been wanting to attend a concert at Red Rocks since the first time I saw the venue and this was a great opportunity.

This is a view of Red Rocks from inside the venue.

  

This is an aerial shot.

I saw this shot online and was joking with a coworker that this might be what it looks like for our concert because we'd been having severe thunderstorms all day. Turns out I wasn't far off - although the rain stayed off our backs we did end up having a delightful light show in the distance while we watched/listened to the concert. It was spectacular.