High Tea in Britain

July 28, 2007

All over England

Allie and I met at 7:45 this morning to go to the Victoria Thistle, where we got picked up for today’s excursion. The first place on the agenda, after a scenic drive through Greenwich, was Leeds Castle, which was really neat. It is situated on I don’t even know how many acres of land, and is a really nice castle, one of the newer ones I have seen though. It was occupied by royals until the late 1970s, and is now used as a conference center, so often times the staterooms are in use by people at conferences. There are also several weddings a year held on its grounds. There were three being held the day we were there. The castle is sort of on an island in the middle of this pond. It is cool. There was also a golf course on the grounds, right by the castle. My dad would have loved it. The weather was good again today as well.

After Leeds Castle, we drove to Dover to look at the white cliffs. I thought the white cliffs were really neat, but it was the seaside that I fell in love with. The water was incredibly beautiful for being at a marina, and the beach was so much different than any other I had ever seen before. On a clear day, you are supposed to be able to see Paris from Dover. It was pretty clear the day we went, but apparently not clear enough. I also saw a couple of cruise ships in the port in Dover, and thought about how neat it would be to cruise the British Isles some day. People were swimming in the sea, and not in wetsuits. That was beyond me. Anyway, it was entirely beautiful.

After s short time in Dover, we got on the bus and drove to Canterbury, the place of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, and also home to Canterbury Cathedral, a Cathedral that dates from the 11^th century and is extremely beautiful. We ate lunch in Canterbury (I had packed myself a sandwich), and I sat with Allie in the restaurant Eat to eat. Then we walked to the Cathedral, and went all around the chapel area, down into the crypt, and then in the courtyard. We finished a bit early, and sat on a broken bench with a great view of the Cathedral after that.

Then we boarded the bus again to go to a pub in the English countryside for afternoon tea. This was my first ever High Tea experience, and I can’t wait to do it again. Now our tour guide told us to eat a light lunch, because we would be having a little bit to eat along with our tea. Well I do not know why he told us to eat anything, because each person’s individual plate was filled by four half sandwiches, as well as two entire scones. Luckily the sandwiches had sauces on them that were not to my liking, so I just ate the scones with jam and drank a couple of cups of tea. The scones were sooo good—best I’ve ever had. The whole experience was really neat, and I talked to a couple from the Philippines who live in California now but are in London for three months for the man’s job. His wife said she is staying in a hotel and they have only been here for three weeks so far, but she is already really bored.

When we got back from the trip, I went immediately to St. James Park to attempt to finish Harry Potter. I got so close (25 pages away), but then it was time for me to meet Allie for dinner. We went back and cooked pasta, and while we were eating Rebecca came into the kitchen so we hung out with her for a little while. Rebecca decided she wanted to go on the nest day’s day tour with us, and after trying to book it on my computer, I kicked them out so I could finish Harry Potter. After finishing, I just sat there for awhile. I can’t believe that I am done with that series—it has been a part of my life for so long. I thought that the ending was perfect though, and my respect for J.K. Rowling skyrocketed in the last few chapters.

Oh, the tour today was with Evan Evans. It is who we also used for the tour I will write about in my next entry. They were not bad, but it is really expensive and I would recommend Anderson Tours over them anyway.