Home Sweet Home

We finally arrived back in Ulverston Monday night, after being away since the previous Tuesday. Since we had been traveling so much, we decided to take it easy and hang out around Ulverston on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Tuesday morning, Mumsy and I went to the grocery store first thing as we needed more milk for Mumsy’s tea and the ingredients for Boeuf Borgignone which Mumsy requested I make. In addition, all of our smoothies were gone. In England, they have these fantastic smoothies called “Innocent Fruit” that are pretty much just pulverized fruit. They are glorious. I personally like the Mango and Lemon Grass smoothie as it tasted just like Mango Lassi, but Mumsy and Don didn’t so they watered it down!

After a trip to the grocery store, I took Mumsy and DOn to my favorite little restaurant in Ulverston – Hot Mango Cafe. Only open for breakfast and lunch, the cafe serves food all locally grown. The owners even own the farm that produces all the bacon and other pork products on the menu. While the regular menu is quite good, I love the specials that they have. This time, I got a BBLT – Bacon, Brie, Lettuce(Rocket in this case) and Tomato Chutney– served at just the right temperature where the Brie was gooey and the ciabatta roll perfectly warm. To be honest, I have no idea what Mumsy and Don had because I was too focused on the gloriousness that was my sandwich. Hot Mango Cafe also has really great tea and desserts so Mumsy and I split a pot of tea and we all got desserts. I got Millionaire shortbread, which I had never heard of before but it was everywhere in the UK. Basically, its shortbread with a layer of caramel and a layer of chocolate. Very delicious. Joy of Baking has a pretty good recipe, which I’ve included below.

SHORTBREAD:

3/4 cup (1 1/2 stick) (170 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature

1/4 cup (50 grams) granulated white sugar

1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups (210 grams) all purpose flour

1/8 teaspoon salt

CARAMEL FILLING:

1 - 14 ounce (396 grams) can Dulce de Leche or sweetened condensed milk

CHOCOLATE TOPPING:

6 ounces (170 grams) semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolate, cut into pieces

1 teaspoon unsalted butter

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and place rack in center of oven. Grease with butter (or use a cooking spray) a 9 x 9 inch (23 x 23 cm) pan.

FOR SHORTBREAD: In the bowl of your electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the vanilla extract. Add the flour and salt and beat until the dough just comes together. Press onto the bottom of your greased pan and bake for about 20 minutes, or until pale golden in color. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack to cool while you make the filling.

FOR CARAMEL FILLING: If using Dulce de Leche then simply warm the caramel in the microwave or in a heatproof bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water. If using sweetened condensed milk, pour the milk into a heatproof bowl and place the bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Cover and cook, over low heat, stirring occasionally, for 60 to 90 minutes or until the milk has thickened and has turned a caramel color. Remove from heat and beat until smooth. Pour the caramel over the baked shortbread and leave to set.

Note: You can also do this step in a microwave oven. Place the sweetened condensed milk in a large microwaveable bowl and cook on medium power for about 4 minutes, stirring halfway through baking time. Reduce the powder to medium-low and continue to cook for another 8 to 12 minutes, or until the milk has thicken and has turned a light caramel color. Remove from microwave and beat until smooth.

FOR TOPPING: Melt the chocolate and butter either in the microwave oven or in a heatproof bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water. Pour the melted chocolate evenly over the caramel and leave to set. Cut the shortbread into pieces using a sharp knife.

Store the shortbread in the refrigerator to keep the chocolate nice and firm.

Yield: 16 - 2 inch (5 cm) squares

The next day, Mumsy and Don went down the Canal Path again so Don could take pictures. I decided to opt out as my knees were rebelling against all the rainy UK weather. However, I did join them for a jaunt up Hoad Hill after lunch.

Hoad Hill is a big hill right near Kevin’s flat that has a monument to Sir John Barrow, a local naval officer who traveled extensively through China a nd South Africa, and wrote many naval history books, including one about the seizure of the HMS Bounty. Normally, visitors to the top of the Hoad can climb up the monument to Sir Barrow, but currently, the monument is being restored. However, we totally lucked out and got a beautiful sunny day, so the view was quite lovely from the top of the hill.

Day at the Museum

Monday brought our last day in London. We decided to start the morning off with a visit to the Dali exhibit down that I had seen down near the Eye of London.

“I have Dalinian thought: the one thing the world will never have enough of is the outrageous.”

Salvador Dali is one of the best know artist in the surrealist movement of the 20th century. He’s also what Kevin calls “one wierd dude”. One of his most famous themes is the use of melting clocks to symbolize the irrelevance of time. However, he may be the most famous for his flamboyant mustache, something that people in the annual NYC mustache competition should take note of. Dali not only created surrealist images on canvas, but surrealist objects where he combined something ordinary with something completely bizarre.

Dali’s Lobster Telephone

While some of his more famous works were not at the exhibit, they did have an extensive collection of his illustrations for various literary works, which was neat to see all together.

After we got our fill of the bizarre, we headed to the Natural History museum. The place is probably one of the most impressive museums architecturally that I have ever been to. Inside, it was a standard Natural History museum, but it did have an excellent gemstone exhibit. Plus, its free.

We headed home on the train. Since it was not Sunday, the trip was painless. Overall, London was great fun but the hustle and bustle got to me after awhile. Ulverston is much more relaxed and laid back.

Mumsy’s Idea of Heaven

Sunday morning arrived and brought with it uncharacteristically nice weather for the UK. Since it was so nice, we decided to take advantage of it and head to Hyde Park. Once a dangerous place home to Jack the Ripper, the park is home to a beautiful rose garden, lake, and miles of biking/walking trails. A large oasis in the hustle of bustle of London. The day we decided to visit coincided with a 5K Women’s Charity Race, which was neat to watch as thousands and thousands of women ran through the park.

First stop, since we were with Mumsy was the bathroom (or toilet/loo in the UK). After that, we took a stroll through the rose garden. It would have been gloriously beautiful in prime flower season. Most of the flowers were slightly past their prime, but it was still beautiful.

After the Rose Garden, we headed down to the lake to partake in another of Mumsy’s favorite pastimes – tea and shortbread intake.

Mumsy is over the legal limit (tea wise)

Does anyone know what type of flower this is? Mumsy ordered me to take a photo for ID purposes.

Magpie – Kevin says you have to salute them. Why? I have no idea.

After we had our fill of Hyde Park, we headed up to Picadilly Circus to walk around a bit. Kevin and I then decided to walk up Regent Street to Oxford Street (where all the designer shops are). Along the way, we spotted the restaurant shown below. Its owned by the people that make Cailin and I’s beloved Peri Peri Sauce. Too bad we already ate!

We rounded out our night by meeting a childhood friend of Kevin’s from Warren at the Embankment station for drinks and dinner. Heather brought us to Gordon’s Wine Bar, the oldest Wine Bar in London opened in 1890. We settled in the cave like basement for a bottle of of Andes Peak Carmenere. Its too bad we aren’t going to London with the Felty’s when they come for Thanksgiving because I know they would love it.

I stole these off their website. I forgot to take pictures because I was too busy drinking my tasty wine.

After drinks, it was off for a walk through china town to a glorious Thai restaurant. It was great to hang out with someone who had lived in the city for over 4 years, because we were able to visit places that Kevin and I would have never found by ourselves.

Off With Her Head

Saturday morning started out bright and sunny, and the 4 of us set out to visit my most anticipated site – the Tower Of London. Back when I was in high school and visited London, the tower was closed for renovations and thus we could not visit. In addition, all of the Tubes were heavily advertising a special exhibit in honor of the 500th anniversary of the beginning of the reign of my favorite monarch, Henry VIII.

At Kevin’s wonderful suggestion, we started our visit off with a 1 hour tour from one of the Yeoman Warder (commonly called Beefeaters) as he told a bit about the history of key buildings. I highly recommend the (free) tour to any visitors of the Tower as you can obtain tons of really interesting information without looking like an idiot as you wander around with those stupid headset tours. On a side note, Mumsy was incredibly anxious to figure out why they were called Beefeaters. I did a little research online and while there was no specific reason, one of the most common hypothesis was that they were rationed quite a bit of meat in order to keep them in their top physical form and enable them to properly guard the Crown Jewels and any prisoners being held there. At a time when meat was a luxury, this could have set them apart from other people and given them their nickname.

The first building on the site that is now know as the Tower of London was the White Tower, built by William the Conqueror in 1078. This tower was added to over time until two concentric rings surrounded by a (now filled in) moat existed.

While the architectural history of buildings always fascinates me, the part that most excited me was the fact that a ton of really crucial events in history occured on the very spot. It was here in 1483 that the sons of Edward IV disappeared, murdered by a still unknown person. My favorite monarch had 1/3 of his wives (Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard) beheaded, along with the mother of his advisary Reginald Pole. After his death, a relative of his 2nd wife Anne Boleyn laid claim to the throne and was later executed here for her father’s scheming attempts to overthrow the current monarch. The last execution to take place at the tower occured in 1941 during WWII.

Entering the Tower

Tower from Tower Bridge

The Inner Courtyard

The Tower Ravens – they’ve had at least 6 ravens for centuries. Legend has it that if the ravens leave, the White Tower, London, and the entire monarchy will fall.

The Henry VIII exhibit was well worth the crowd – a collection of all his different suits of armor. They even had a nice information card with each suit of armor giving his weight, waist and chest measurements so you could track his rapidly increasing obesity as he got older and his jousting wound festered more and more, preventing him from moving and exercising. As with everything good in London – NO PICTURES. But once again – a few canned images.

The incredible growing King

The tower took over half a day. By the time I was dragged out of there (mentally kicking and screaming) we decided to visit the one thing Kevin really wanted to do – Tower Bridge. Being an engineer, he just had to know how the bridge works. (Ask him for a detailed description. I have no idea how it works other than a counterweight makes it easier for the bridge to swing up.) While I initially groaned, it really was rather neat. You climb the million stairs (okay, not that many, but it was alot) to the top where the exhibit talks about the discarded designs for a bridge to help ease the burden of London Bridge and the design as we see it today. Right away I learned something I hadn’t known before. The straight part of the bridge connecting the two towers at the top was designed to be a walkway for pedestrians so they could still get across when the bridge was up. The exhibit continued across the former pedestrian pathway and down to the inner workings of the bridge. While the bridge is no longer driven by steam, the engine rooms were open and the machinery still in place. I think if my Dad ever came to visit, I would take him there because he would like it as much as Kevin did.

Kevin has to touch EVERYTHING

Still to come – Hyde Park, Ulverston and Windermere (aka the world’s worst luck). I am running very behind on blogging due to the A590 road closure that caused us to not get home until 9 pm tonight.

London Calling

On Friday we had to get up and be on the train to London at the ungodly hour of 4:50 am. Unfortunately all the other trains that day were full so that was the only option. The good part about it was that we arrived in London at 8:30 am and had the whole day to play tourist.

I think the guards got tired of all the idiot tourists bugging them because they are now stationed behind the giant gate and no longer sit out front

First up was a trip to Buckingham Palace. Kevin, and I had been to London recently, and Mumsy not so recently, but none of us had been able to tour the Palace. When the Queen is in residence, the palace is closed to visitors, but the state rooms open for the last month of summer when she is off visiting one of her many other palaces around Europe. No photos were allowed inside the palace, but to get an idea of the sheer opulence of it all, I’ve included a few canned photos.

Apparently, the palace was originally built for the Duke of Buckingham as a townhouse outside the hustle and bustle of London. George III acquired it in 1761 as a house for his wife, Queen Charlotte. It was enlarged in the 19th century by John Nash, an architect famous for his set design which accounts for the theatrical quality to it. When Queen Victoria came to the throne in 1837, it became the official residence of the royal family.

We got to view 19 state rooms out of a total 775 rooms. I’d love to place Hide and Seek in a place that big. However, I’d be afraid to touch anything. I have to say that my favorite part was an exhibit commemorating Queen Elizabeth II’s Commonwealth tour of the 50’s and 60’s. While the footage of her trip and gifts she received were fascinating, the best part for me as an aspiring Vintage Clothing collector were the dresses. We think of the Queen now as a seriously dowdy old lady, but she was really a stylish bird back in the day. Once again, I couldn’t take pictures, but here are some canned images of some of my favorite pieces that any one of the Trifecta would kill to wear.

1961 Evening Gown by Hardy Amies

1967 Evening Gown by Norman Hartnell

1972 Evening Gown by Norman Hartnell

Once we exited the palace, we took a walk through the palace gardens (the largest private gardens in London) where we walked among the plants, water and fat pigeons. Seriously, these things were the fattest pigeons I had ever seen. Apparently, not only the Royals live a cushy life in England.

At this point in the day, we were pretty tired since we had to get up at 3:30 AM, so we decided to retire to the hotel until our High Tea was ready (YUM!). The hotel was running a special to coincide with the palace being open for visitors were High Tea was free, so of course Mumsy decided to stay at this hotel. The high tea included a variety of teas (NOT prepared correctly according to Mumsy but still good), scones with fresh unpasturized clotted cream and homemade jam, and a variety of tea sandwiches (including cucumber sandwiches which really are NOT that good since they taste like cucumbers on crustless bread with butter), and a variety of biscuits.

After we stuffed ourselves silly, we decided to take the Tube down to the Westminster area and check out the sites. Immediately upon exiting the Tube, we were greeted with the sites of Big Ben, Parliment, Westminster Abbey, and the exhibit that Don and I (being afraid of heights) dreaded the most: The London Eye

Situated on the Thames (that’s pronounced Temes. Kevin’s UK friends find the fact that we live in New London on the THames very amusing), the London Eye rotates its guests to a height of 135 meters, affording great views over the Thames. As much as I hate heights (right Cailin?) the experience was awesome and really didn’t bother me that much as we were enclosed quite safely in a ski chalet type bubble.

After our ride, we decided to take some time taking many MANY pictures of Parliment, Westminster and Big Ben before heading back to bed after a long day.

Hey Look Kids, Big Ben!

Old Ironsides in the courtyard of Parliment