Monday, September 3, continued

Our favorite place in all of England, and the most beautiful and peaceful.

There used to be a swampy area behind the temple when Brent was there.

Look at it now!

And nice places for temple missionaries to stay.

Much cheaper than anywhere else in England, and even more beautiful.

Does this face say, "happy" or what?

A mission to England temple?  Definitely on our short list.

Monday September 3, 2012

 We left the motel about 8:00 AM.  We went to a place called East Grinstead, Sussex, England.  This town was important to Lynn and me because it is where Ann Botting (Lynn's great, great, great grandmother and my great, great grandmother) was born 28 January 1827. 

East Grinstead Catholic Church

 We had hoped that our grandmother would help us find her parents' graves.  But we only found a church and looked at the graves there.   We did find a Walker name....

but no Bottings.  
It was kind of disappointing, but what we really wanted was to be in the place where some of our ancestors were born.

Interestingly, while I was looking I had the impression, "This place holds no good memories and that is why I left with my husband and went to America."



Richard Taylor would have been the Vicar when Ann was born, but we don't know if their family belonged to any church.

We had thought about looking up Richard Taylor but concluded he was probably just as dead as Ann Botting.

I saw this pretty girl walking along and thought, "She must look a lot like Ann Botting,"
so I took a picture.  She sure is a beautiful girl.

 It was in East Grinstead at the Sackville College that the Christmas carol, "Good King Wenceslas" was composed by John Mason Neale.

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The next place was....guess.  Another Abby? Cathedral? Castle?  

Nope.  The most precious place in all of England:

The House of the Lord--the London Temple.  

(I guess I may be mistaken.  There is another temple in Preston, England.)

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After this beautiful place we went to find a motel near where we would be turning in our car. The motel was called Liongate.  Not our most fun place to stay.  They said our room was on the first floor but it was actually on the third floor.  Several places where we stayed were managed by people with ancestry from India.  Maybe they count from the top as the first floor and the ground floor is the third floor.  It was a long haul to the top with our bags. 

We had to take a picture of the key.  
A skeleton key in a world where cards and number punch have replaced the key.

We went to dinner at a place recommended by our Indian friend--an Italian restaurant.  It is interesting that we had better luck with Italian restaurants being gluten free than other place.  One comment we received at two restaurants when we asked about Gluten Free food was, 
"We don't serve free food here."

Brent wanted to sit by the open window.  Have we mentioned that they don't have screens on the windows in England because there are practically no bugs?!  Such was the case here.

Saturday, Sept 1 thru Sunday, Sept 2

 Derek and Ruth took us to meet a couple of their Scooter buddies and have breakfast.

They have a lot of fun on their scooters and meet together often.

Derek and Ruth and their friends let us sit on their scooters for pictures.

Oh, that wasn't the scooter, but it's almost as small.  It's one of Europe's new Smart Cars.

Gets great gas mileage and costs less to park because it takes less space.

Derek and Ruth at their apartment just before leaving for breakfast.

Here are the other scooters.

I'd rather ride this way!

Full English breakfast at Carlo's, minus toast and tea.  And, yes, Brent had ice cream for dessert.

Then on to Salisbury to see the cathedral.  There was quite a traffic jam getting into Salisbury.

But the cathedral wasn't crowded, even though there was a wedding there that day.

Pretty huge!

Some interesting facts about the cathedral:

Salisbury Cathedral visitor information website says, "Salisbury is unique amongst medieval English cathedrals having been built in just 38 years (1220 - 1258) in a single architectural style, early English Gothic. The tower and spire (Britain’s tallest) were added about 50 years later."  

Wikipedia says, "Whilst the spire is the cathedral's most impressive feature, it has also proved to be troublesome. Together with the tower, it added 6,397 tons (6,500 tonnes) to the weight of the building. Without the addition of buttresses, bracing arches and anchor irons over the succeeding centuries, it would have . . . fallen down; instead, Salisbury remains the tallest church spire in the UK. To this day the large supporting pillars at the corners of the spire are seen to bend inwards under the stress. The addition of reinforcing tie beams above the crossing, designed by Christopher Wren in 1668, arrested further deformation.^[7] The beams were hidden by a false ceiling, installed below the lantern stage of the tower."  (large numbers added)

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After taking in the cathedral, we did a little farmers' market shopping, again.

Notice the crooked face of this building.  It's its insignia.

 And, of course, the local entertainers.

Lynn bought a scarf (with music staves printed on it) 

and grabbed a Wiltshire pasty and a custard tart.

Brent got some fruit and ate his tarts we had previously purchased 

at England's Walmart counterpart, Sainsbury's.

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Of course we had to go to Stonehenge.

 From his missionary days, we have a picture of Brent actually leaning on the rocks.

But by then we were feeling cheap, and there wasn't really anything more to see with the additional tourist charge, so we settled for a picture outside the fence 

(taken by a fellow tourist who apparently didn't realize we wanted a picture with Stonehenge).

 

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Hate to admit it, but all the touristing had left us with tired feet, etc., etc., etc., 

so after leaving Stonehenge we looked for the closest motel we could find

and holed up there.

It ended up being in Andover.  It was actually the most "American"ish motel we stayed in--

Premier Inn.  That's where Lynn got to have her first taste of Sticky Toffee Pudding.

It's not like Yorkshire Pudding--more savory instead of sweet--more like hot fudge pudding, 

only not chocolate, but with warm chocolate/toffee sauce and hot custard.

There was a choice of pouring cream, ice cream, or custard.  

I chose the custard because it seemed more authentic.  

It was scruuuuumptious!

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Sunday was just a nice, relaxing day.  Went to church in Basingstoke, 30 min away,

read and discussed a little from Articles of Faith by James E. Talmage,

relaxed, and ate leftovers.

Just enjoyed being together.