Days 149-155, Black Forest English Immersion

Today is November 15, Saturday, Day 156, and we are in Ulm, Germany, but more about that tomorrow.

We returned to Munich last night by bus after spending a week in a delightful hotel in the middle of nowhere in the Black Forest. This was the venue for the English Immersion course for 16 German speaking people who wanted to be in an intensive English speaking environment. The students ranged in age from their early twenties to their mid fifties with the hopes of improving their English for business, personal, and educational purposes.

Russ and I volunteered to be part of the Anglo speaking contingent who came from the USA, Canada, England, Ireland, and South Africa. In exchange for our lovely accommodations, full board, and pool, sauna, and hot tub amenities, we (students and Anglos) spent nearly 15 hours a day working with the students. There were fifteen Anglos, so most of the experience was one on one, but some of the sessions were presentations, conference calls, telephones, fun activities, theater, and long walks in the forest while talking, listening, correcting, and laughing with our new German friends. All of the students had to have a basic knowledge of English through their schooling and experience. This course was to help them speak and think in English.

We had a great time, made global friends, and saw tremendous improvement with the students. Yes, we would do it again. If you are interested in a similar experience in Germany or Spain, check out DIVERBO.com

All is Well with the Worrall Travel R's in the Black Forest

Day 147-148 Infidel Lovers in London

Today is 148, November 7,  and we are in the process of saying goodbye to London.  We have had a wonderful time and are now in the Stansted Airport Inn, on the Northeast side of the outer ring of London, and are leaving for Munich tomorrow, November 8.  We will be in Germany for 10 days, then will be flying home to America on November 18. We are excited about coming home, but trying to stay focused on our last days of our Odyssey.  

In Germany, we have volunteered to be English speakers in an English Immersion Language School, DIVERBO, in the Black Forest for a week.  Please don't be looking for blogs or photos as I think we will be very involved and immersed ourselves for the week.  We are looking forward to yet another type of experience.  After our week in the Black Forest, we will return to our 1970-73 home away from home towns in Ulm and Schwabisch Gmund, Germany.  Looking forward to schnitzel and spatzle.

Yesterday, November 6, Day 147

Due to a last minute change in our evening plans, we booked tickets to see the musical Infidel.  It was another rainy day and we spent most of it in the National Gallery, enjoying art from the 16th to the 20th centuries.  During the first part of the day, we walked through Covent Gardens absorbing the beginning of the Christmas Season.  

 In the evening, we made our way to Stratford East and the Theater Royal.  The play is off the main grid, but was absolutely excellent.  Wow!  The acting and songs were terrific, but second to the message that we are people first.  I'm thinking about the plays we have seen, Book of Mormon, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, and Infidel.  Is there a thread here?  Hmm.

So Long London, we have had a blast.

All is Well With the Worrall Travel R's

Day 146 - Poppies in London - Another Travel Reunion

Day 146, November 6, 2016 - Tower of London

Today does not bode well for sunshine.  Nevertheless, 10s of thousands of people queued up to see the commemorative 850,000 ceramic poppies in the moat surrounding the Tower of London.

Each poppy represents the fallen Brits in World War I.  We are always impressed with the strong sense of memorial of the people of he commonwealth, much more so than in America.  Here, almost everyone wears poppies and war loss and gratitude is magnified.  We bought our poppies, and from what we understand all 850,000 poppies have been sold with the proceeds going to veterans projects.  Way cool!

We walked from Tower Bridge

to the Tower of London and back toward Bank Street, enjoying the architecture of both old and new buildings in London.  Once again, we met up with a traveling buddy that we met on our Australian Outback adventure two years ago.  Claudia is a German, working and living in London.  She is lots of fun, and we enjoyed a great meet-up and Vietnamese cuisine at the DaNang Restaurant.

The Three of Us in Darwin 2013 - Roz, Russ, and Claudia

All is Well with the Worrall Travel R's wearing our poppies in London.

Day 145 - Sherlock Holmes and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels

Russ, Roz and Joyce  - Dirty Rotten Scoundrels--the play, not us!

Tuesday, November 5, 2014 - London Calling

We had another great day, strolling all around London, taking in the sites on a beautiful sunny day,

visiting the Sherlock Holmes Museum, "The Man who Never really lived, and will Never really die."  Russ looks quite fetching in both a bowler and deer hunter's hat.

Our day ended on a fun note by meeting up with our Southeast Asia traveling buddy Joyce.

VietNam  2013

Fun Times in South East Asia 

and at the Dirty Rotten Scoundrels

Cheers from London....or is it Cheerio?

We enjoyed wine, a play and good times.  

All is Well With the Worrall Travel R's in London

Day 144 - Prime Meridian - Check another One Off the Bucket List

November 3, 2014, Monday, Day - A foot in each hemisphere

When we crossed the zero latitude going across the equator in our sailboat in 2010, we had a little party and listened to Michael Jackson's Thriller.

Crossing the Zero Degree - Equator 2010

Today was almost as thrilling standing legs astride and firmly planted, one in each hemisphere, at the zero degree longitude line.  Yeah, another check off on the old bucket list.  I guess, the next zero mark would be where the zero equatorial latitude line intersects the zero longitude line,  ummm maybe not.

Not Quite As Warm and Tropical

The point at which the equator (0° latitude) and the Prime Meridian (0° longitude) intersect is totally imaginary, but the intersect) is in the Atlantic Ocean, about 380 miles south of Ghana and 670 miles west of Gabon. Not sure I want to invest much more time pursuing the imaginary, but it has been fun, and unlike heaven or hell, we can actually find this on our GPS even though it is imaginary.

While at the Prime Meridian, we visited the National Maritime Museum 

with a wonderful exhibit on the scientific means of finding longitude, and the Cutty Sark.  

We head a terrific day in picturesque Greenwich.

From the imaginary Prime Meridian, we went to the theater to see the imaginative play of the equally imaginative book of the same name, The Book of Mormon.  We enjoyed the play very much.  

All is Well with the Worrall Travel R's enjoying the imaginary in London.

Days 142-143 - Dickens London with Great Expectations, Days 142-143

The Desk where Charles Dickens Penned Great Expectations

Saturday, November 1, 2014 - Arriving in London, Day 142

After a four-five hour drive from Sheffield, we arrived at our AirBnB in Northeastern London near the Manor House Tube line.  We are staying in a nice little flat with our host Ceren from Turkey and her boyfriend Alp.  The flat is an area with a large Turkish population, and on our first night we found a Turkish restaurant and ate adana kebabs and moussaka.  There is an 11 pound daily congestion fee for driving in London, parking is another story.  Our plan is to take public transportation.  Ceren has made arrangements with a neighbor to park our rental car for the week.  Why did we have a rental car?  It was cheaper for 10 days than 5!  They probably would have to pay exorbitant parking fees at the rental car lot, so it's better to have the car out than in...that of course is conjecture on my part, but considering daily parking even in private apartment lots runs 20 pounds a week, it makes sense to me.  

Sunday, November 2, 2014 - Great Expectations - Day 143

Today, we got a late start with not much intent to do anything except get the lay of the land and figure out the underground.  It's raining, so we are looking for as little outdoor walking as possible.

We walk about 10 minutes to the nearest tube station and purchase a five day pass that will allow us unlimited travel in Zones 1 and 2 by subway, and anywhere on the bus.  This, too,  is pricey.  With our senior discounts we each pay 35 pounds, about $50.00, or $10.00 a day.

With our plastic cards in hand, we swipe and enter the underground.

The transportation here is wonderful.  We wait only a few minutes for a train or bus.  The vehicles are everywhere...over 8,500 busses and 535 trains on any given day transporting passengers....mass transit! Can't even imagine the number of those British round-fender Taxis.

We find our way to Trafalgar Square where we find a nice coffee shop with WIFI, and make ticket arrangements for some plays, and catchup on email.  Later in the afternoon when the rain subsides, we check out the locations of the plays we will attend and then make our way to the Charles Dickens Museum

where we re-live the plays we've seen and the novels we have read from this author...Great Expectations, Oliver, Tale of Two Cities, David Copperfield, a Christmas Carole, Pickwick papers. The Museum is the home Dickens lived in while he penned many of these masterpieces.

Hopefully, the sun will come out tomorrow as we have Great Expectations to visit Greenwich and the Zero degree longitude, Prime Meridian, and play The Book of Mormon,

All is Well With the Worrall Travel R's in Dickens London

Days 138-139-140-141 England

For Sale - Worrall Hall!

Tuesday, October 28, 2014 - Day 138.  

Surprise, the sun was shining as we landed at Gatewick Airport on the south side of London.  Maybe this time of the year wouldn't be so bad after all.  After we picked up our car and circled around the airport a couple of times to practice driving on the wrong side of the road, we finally made the correct turns and made our way to the town of Wellingborough about 2 hours North of London where we would be spending the night with Rosemary and her son Chris, SERVAS hosts.  Wellingborough is a bit off the regular tourist route which makes it even more interesting because we are likely to see something that regular tourists usually skip.

The family lives in a classic two story brick house with bay windows on a corner lot with a big English garden in the back of the house.

Our cozy room was upstairs.

 We met our hosts and spent a nice evening with them.  Rosemary fixed an Italian pasta for dinner.  Tomorrow, we will all go to Northampton to visit the Shoe Museum for which http://www.vebra.com/property/11003/25025665 the area is best known....leathers and shoes. 

Wednesday, October 29, 2014, Day 139

Rosemary and Chris arrived home after an appointment in town.  We had prepared some sandwiches for a picnic in Northampton, and when they returned late morning we set off for the Museum.

Yesterday's sun liquified into a grey drizzle so a picnic outdoors was looking a little gloomy. Nevertheless, we took the backpack filled with sandwiches, fruit, cookies, and drinks along with us.  

Chris, Rosemary, and Russ

We enjoyed touring the shoe museum.  It was very interesting looking at how shoes were made, how styles change over time, and seeing famous shoes worn by pop stars, movie stars, and even Jumbo the elephant. 

Looks like a torture device.

Jumbo the Elephant's Shoe

Bet Jumbo's Shoe is More Comfortable. 

There's No Place Like Home

After  our tour, we walked through the market square

 and found a dry bench in the shopping mall where we had our picnic and watched people already shopping for Christmas.  Rosemary, herself, found a bargain...5 holiday wine bags for a pound.  Despite the rain, we had a great day.

We returned to Wellingborough in the late afternoon.  Chris had made haircut appointments for us at the unisex salon where he gets his hair cut.  We hadn't been trimmed up since Vienna nearly two months ago so it was time.  On our walk through the neighborhood to the the salon we kept expecting to run into Hyacinth Bucket and her husband Richard.  When we arrived home, Rosemary had once again prepared a lovely meal.  Later in the evening, we met some of their friends who were invited over for tea.

Thursday, October 30, 2014, Day 140 - Sherwood Forest and Sheffield

In a flash, our visit with the Abrams was over.

Thursday morning, Chris was off to work, and Rosemary was finishing up an essay for a class she was taking, and preparing for an afternoon performance with the local band.  She plays the trombone.  We said our heartfelt goodbyes and continued on our way north with a stop in Sherwood Forest in search of the legendary Robin Hood.  There wasn't much to see here except the forest, some gift shops, a few statues, and a magnificent old Oak tree (1150 years old), where Robin and his merry men purportedly met before robbing the rich.  The tree as you can see in the picture is heavily supported.  

Looking for Robin Hood in Sherwood Forest

There he is!

We arrived at our AirBnB in Sheffield, late in the afternoon; went out for fish and chips, and were sound asleep by 8:30 p.m.  Jet lag from Greece and the change back to standard time was catching up with us.

Friday, October 31, 2014, Day 141 - The Worralls in Worrall

Like salmon returning to the spawning ground, we wanted to see the township of Worrall from where the Worralls spawned.  Many people took the name of this area when jolly old England needed surnames for the tax rolls. Rather than bloodlines that linked the people together, the assortment of people were linked to the town...Robert of Worrall,  Martha of Worrall, etc  The name of Worrall http://www.houseofnames.com/worrall-family-crest has gone through numerous spelling changes over the years, but its origin means "a nook of land where the bog myrtle grows."

On top of a knoll the townships looks over rolling green fields, fertile farmland, and grazing pastureland for sheep.

We were happy to find some geocaches here, called Welcome to Worrall.

We spent the afternoon taking photos, geocaching, having afternoon tea at the nearby private Hillsborough Golf Club.  We dropped into the clubhouse to see what English golf was like and enjoyed a chat and tea with a gentleman who invited us to play golf as his guests (but we had no clubs).  Of course we found the oldest house in Worrall called Worrall Hall which is for sale.  Very tempting.

 It could be a great Bed and Breakfast!  Five Bedrooms.  Only 595,000 pounds.  Click here for more information.

We  finished off the afternoon with beer and beef pie, potato and pea mash and gravy, and drinking local beer at  at the Shoulder of Mutton Pub across the lane from Worrall Hall.

Worrall Hall would be a tempting purchase if it were in the tropics.  I am afraid we would gain tons of weight here eating our way through the grey days.  All in all, it was a fun day.  Eventually, we found our way out of Worrall.

In between all of our travel in Turkey, Greece, and England, we have been listening to John Grisham's, Sycamore Row.  We finished it this evening before returning to our AirBnB.  We always love these books.

Tomorrow, we leave for London for a week.

All is Well With the Worrall Travel R's just down the Road from Worrall, England