Another week has flown right by! After the beautiful weather last weekend, we were sent right back into cold and rain, and even a snow and hail storm.
The kids have been really busy every day after school with their activities. Brooklyn and Ryan have at least one, if not two, activities every day and it seems like all four of us don’t make it home together until 7pm these days. We are right back to the busy level we had back in the US and loving it.
We STILL do not have internet, it is so annoying! It takes such effort to even check email, let alone watch TV. I am counting down the days until my phone has data again, or the internet is fixed. The company still has no idea when that is going to happen.
On Wednesday, Ryan was supposed to have a baseball scrimmage against the local German team, but sadly the snow and hail that afternoon meant the game was cancelled. He still looks pretty good in his new uniform though!
Ryan’s game being cancelled meant that we could all send off Brooklyn on a trip to the UK on Wednesday night. The softball and baseball teams met after school that evening and boarded a bus bound for England so they could play against the two UK high school teams. It was still snowing as they left and ironically, it looked like they were heading to better weather there.
The bus traveled for about six hours until they got to Belgium around 2am. There, they needed to completely unload their bus, as the one they departed the school on was too tall for the Channel Ferry. They got reloaded onto the second bus and continued their journey. Unfortunately, the bus swap meant that they missed their ferry time and had to wait for another. They finally made it to England as the sun was coming up over the Channel and they got a great view of the White Cliffs of Dover.
Due to the changes in labor laws due to Brexit, they needed to wait for a new bus driver as their drivers did not have the correct visas to drive in the UK. They finally continued along their drive, arriving in Alconbury at about 5pm, making the total journey time 22 hours! They had originally hoped to arrive by 10am, have breakfast and take a nap. But, the late arrival meant they had to jump right into practice for the games the following day. Needless to say, the team and the coaches were exhausted. So, after practice they had an early dinner and early bedtime, sleeping in sleeping bags on the school’s gymnasium floor.
On Friday morning, the teams did some long-distance school work and then took a fieldtrip to the American Air Museum. In the afternoon, the team matched up against Alconbury High School and won both games of the double header. When the games were over, the team packed up and moved on to Lakenheath High School for dinner and another overnight, this time sleeping in classrooms.
On Friday, I took the afternoon off and flew to the UK on RyanAir from Karlsruhe Airport. RyanAir is a super-low cost airline that has a small hub about an hour’s drive from where we live. We have not had the opportunity to fly with them yet as their flight schedule never seems to match up with where we want to go, but it worked out perfectly for this trip. RyanAir flies into a London airport, Stansted, that is wayyyyy outside of town towards the East, which was perfect for where I was traveling. The flight was quick and uneventful, but it took me quite a bit of time to pick up my rental car upon arrival, so I missed both games on Friday afternoon.
I made the short drive from Stansted to Cambridge, where I was staying. Fortunately, transitioning to driving on the left hand side of the road, from the right hand side of the car, wasn’t that difficult, despite having a manual vehicle. Your brain really does just make the flip.
After I got checked into my hotel, I joined some other softball parents for a Cambridge pub crawl, where we ended up checking out some of the best pubs and restaurants in the college town.
Cambridge is a cool little city with great vibes, most likely due to its college town status. One of the greatest university systems in the world is here, but its also humble and low-key as opposed to Oxford where the student population seemed a bit snobbier. The city is great for biking and walking and has the beautiful Cam River flowing through it. Add in lots of charming pubs and restaurants, and Cambridge gets an A+ from me!
Saturday morning, we got up early and made the one hour drive from Cambridge to Lakenheath for that day’s double header. It was so windy and cold; the first game even had to be stopped for a time due to hail and sideways rain. Stuttgart kept their spirits up and still came out victorious in both games, increasing their win streak to 8 games! All of the parents were so proud of the sportsmanship and spirit the team kept the whole weekend despite being so tired, and the weather being so bad!
After the games, the players got cleaned up, packed up their things, and started the long journey back to Stuttgart. I said goodbye to Brooklyn, who was heading back to Stuttgart that night, and went back to the hotel for a quick nap.
When I got up, the rain had left and the sun was shining so I took a long walk around Cambridge before dinner at the hotel restaurant and an early bedtime for me.
On Sunday, I woke up early to take another walk around Cambridge and take more pictures.
When I was done with my walk, I checked out of the hotel and drove out to King’s Lynn in Norfolk to tour Sandringham House. Sandringham is the royal family’s country retreat and where they famously spend Christmas. It was a pretty, one and a half hour drive and extremely rural. I mean, there is really nothing out in Norfolk. There are many big farms, but not even a lot of towns.
The land for Sandringham was purchased by Queen Victoria and given to her heir, later Edward VII and his wife, Princess Alexandra. Alexandra mostly designed the Renaissance Revival house by herself, drawing inspiration from Italian villas she and Edward visited. The house was designed to be narrow and have floor to ceiling windows so that outdoor light can fill each room. The home has mostly been kept as she designed it, with even most of the furniture remaining.
The tour of the house itself was fairly short as it is a surprisingly small house, and of course, no photos were allowed inside. Each room had its own docent that explained each room’s use. Since the home is mostly used by the Royal Family during the holidays, they explained where each of the Christmas trees goes, where presents are opened, etc. The house is decorated with pictures of its famous family throughout. It was really cool to see a picture of them all sitting on a particular couch, set right next to that couch, and so on.
Some of my favorite tidbits about the house are that the ballroom is now mostly used as a movie theater. Mismatched chairs are dragged in and a projector projects movies onto the far large wall. Queen Elizabeth was also a keen puzzler and had a huge felt-covered table where there was always a puzzle in the works. Visitors were welcome to work on the puzzle as well.
After I toured the house, I took a walk down to the stables, where they had an exhibition on the Sandringham Fire Department (Sandringham is so secluded, it needed its own fire department), and the Royal’s Car Collection. There was cafe there and after a coffee, I walked around the remaining portions of the gardens. On thing that I found really surprising is that Sandringham House is circled by a main road. Although is cannot be seen from any angles of the house due to trees and hedges, I could clearly hear cars driving by at almost all times. I was really surprised that they put up with the accompanying noise!
I exited the gardens and walked up to St. Mary’s Church, which is the church the royals walk to each Christmas morning. The walk is actually much shorter than is seems from pictures and videos posted online. Unfortunately, the Sunday service had just ended so the church was not yet open to the public and I was unable to see inside. I was able to take a few pictures from the outside before leaving.
After I left Sandringham, I did a short driving tour around the local area, driving through Anmer where Will and Kate’s country house is, and Houghton, the neighboring town. Again, it was just so rural. Just fields and fields and fields. Most of the roads were only one lane and I almost never came across another car. I do wonder why the Royal Family loves it so much out there; I didn’t find there was much to look at but I am sure they enjoy being in the middle of nowhere and out of the goldfish bowl.
On the way back, I made a quick stop in the town of Ely. I parked, took a look inside its famous cathedral, and did a quick walk around town before continuing my drive back to Stansted.
After my day of driving, I finally made it back to the rental car company to return my car. All seemed to be going well until the service agent “found” a small scratch on the back bumper. I know I didn’t hit anything and while the agent said it was probably caused by a shopping cart, the location below doesn’t make sense as there were further protruding parts of the car. Additionally, the scratch wasn’t fresh as no paint pieces were hanging off. I really do think I was scammed by the car company who probably continually charges customers for the same scratch. I was so mad but there was nothing to be done but pay the 350 GBP. I am still disputing the charge with the credit card company.
After I made it to the airport, I found my flight was delayed so I had a chance to grab a drink in a super pretty restaurant in the airport. Stansted Airport has definitely improved since I last flew through there 15+ years ago.
Finally, it was time to board my flight back home. I landed at around 11pm in Germany, and got home shortly after midnight. Luckily for Brooklyn, her journey home was not as long as the journey to the UK. They departed about 6pm on Saturday and were home by 1pm on Sunday afternoon; this journey only being 17 hours.
Matt and Ryan also had a great weekend! Sadly, Ryan’s Saturday baseball game was also cancelled due to bad weather, but they had fun relaxing around the house, playing Xbox, and having a steak and crawfish dinner.
Gilcrests Abroad 