This is a journal of the vacation to England and Spain that Gwen, Stan, Momma Shirley and Poppa Lanny took. The whole reason we went on this trip was for the magical meet-up in London with Karey and Quinn for his graduation from the Royal Academy of Music. We will never forget the pomp and circumstance in Marylebone that cemented his accomplishment in our minds.
We wished that Karey and Quinn could head up north with us, but Quinn was headed for Norway, and Karey was headed for home to work on her humanitarian work that beckoned.
The whole journey was unforgettable. We ended on such a high note in northern England (O, Jerusalem!) it was hard to come home. If it weren't for family back home in Utah they would gladly have stayed on forever.
Time is a relative thing. In Barcelona it was 'early' if we showed up at a restaurant just before 8PM. Most restaurants weren't even open until 8 when they would finally lift up the metal grate on the storefront to let in hungry customers.
Somehow Spain didn’t
get the memo that robes and slippers are our normal attire at eight in the evening. So, in Barcelona we often ate out in the city around 10PM.
Cumbria was a different and delightful story all together. One afternoon in a village in the Lake District of northern England (Grasmere,
to be exact) we asked an older gentleman near Dove Cottage (where we were buying tickets to see said cottage) [1],
“Until what time do the stores stay open in the village? We’d like to see that yarn store
over there.”
He replied in a very thick northern England accent,
“Ay, it’s the
busy season so they’ll be oopen ‘til very late; I think they stay oopen at least ‘til 5
now.”
Five? Ay. That's living.
