1.12.2010

The Weekend That Shouldn't Have Happened

Wow, well yet again, it's been a while since I've posted a blog. But just so you all know, I have been working on a few blog posts so there will be plenty to come! I started writing this one over a month ago, so I guess I'll begin there...

The holiday season is an easy benchmark to step back and reflect on the previous year. I’ve been fortunate enough to spend the past year in Europe taking advantage of the opportunity I have been given. I’ve been in London for 19 months now and it’s beginning to feel like more of a home than a vacation. Regardless, it’s always important to take advantage of your surroundings instead of take it for granted. This last month has been an excellent time to explore what London has to offer. With that said, Nat and I planned to take a weekend break to Brugge before we went our separate ways for Christmas. Unfortunately, Eurostar (the train provider for all trains through the chunnel to Europe) had a different plan...

Pics Here: http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/bribergey/Wales?feat=directlink

Amidst the constant barrage of mince pies and holiday parties, Nat and I spent some time in London during the past month exploring the Christmas festivities. Our stops included the lively Borough Market, a Cologne-style Christmas market on the Southbank, Trafalgar Square, Leicester Square, and the classy shopping district of Oxford Street. I could write a separate blog just about these, but have decided to focus this blog on the final weekend I spent in the UK during 2009.

To top the excitement we all had after our final Friday in the office, Nat and I had planned a 3 day trip to Belgium to see the sights of Brugge and Belgium. We hoped to explore the Christmas Markets and feast on endless amounts of chocolate, waffles, beer, and Brussel Sprouts. Unfortunately, for the first time in it's existence, Eurostar shut down for 4 days due to a number of trains that got stuck in the tunnel under the English Channel. Apparently the final cause was that the extreme contrast of the bitter cold above ground and the warmer temperatures in the chunnel caused an engineering malfunction, which at one point trapped a train and it's passengers in the tunnel for over 10 hours without food, water or decent air. Luckily we weren't on that train, but regardless we found out our trip was canceled only hours before we were supposed to leave. Therefore, we had three entire days to kill before I left for the States and Nat left for Wales to meet her family.

Nat's family rents a house in Wales for a week each Christmas so they all have a nice large place to spend some time together outside of London. Although Nat wasn't planning on arriving until Christmas Eve, her family was leaving the Sunday before. So we decided to do the same and stay for one night before heading back to London to catch my flight. Nat and I left Sunday morning and took a slight detour on our way through what's called the Cotswolds.

The Cotswolds is a large area of small, quaint villages. When you think of classic and traditional England, this is what you have in mind. Villages full of thatched roofs, small one-laned roads winding through the rolling countryside, and friendly people having an afternoon stroll. Getting out in the "wild" is a bit different in England than it would be in Colorado or Oregon, but it doesn't mean it's any worse. Here, it means that you wind through a country lane for 10 minutes before you run in to the next village, which may only consist of a few houses and a small stream. It means seeing sheep grazing on a hillside and a red telephone booth sitting in a turnout on the road. It means waving at the drivers who stop to make room on the road and smoking chimneys filling the cold air with winter. It's a really nice area to see and every turn brings in a new sight to see.

We made our way through a few villages highlighted in a book I had, and wound our way through the countryside between each of them, eventually making our way to the Welsh border and towards the house Nat's family had rented. We eventually made our way through a one-laned dirt track to the house after dark, and I was immediately impressed by the old, stone house that looked like it could have stood centuries ago. I didn't realize how amazing it was until the next morning. Surprisingly, we woke up to a few inches of snow which covered the countryside and the large valley that sat in full view in front of the house. There was a small, ancient church that incorporated itself into the view as if it were built for that purpose. The house itself was amazing; a large two story house framed and sided entirely with stone. We spent the morning walking around the small-laned roads and visiting the church and it's small grounds which is open at all times. It was really something to be in the true Welsh countryside where a church hundreds of years old is left open and neighbors wheel around gravel to shovel on the snowy roads. It's as if traditions from ages ago are still practiced today.

Since Nat and I had to head back to London, we left later that morning, picked up some food in the nearby town, and headed toward Brecon Beacons National Park nearby. I had read about the park in some of my hiking magazines and have been wanting to check it out for quite a while. Unfortunately, the daylight quickly slipped by us and the conditions in the "mountains" were very snowy, but we did get out and walk around the highest trailhead in the area. Although it was foggy and snowy, I was very impressed by the ruggedness and size of the beacons as they rise from the valleys below. Some of the pictures are quite impressive!

After dark we finally headed back to London, and what a journey it was! What should have been a drive under three hours took nearly 8 due to the snow along the way. To make matters worse, we tried our luck off of the motorway and soon learned it was a complete mistake. We passed roads that were impassable and traffic even worse than what was on the motorway. An hour later, we joined the highway only one exit past where we got off. We eventually made it in to London and my flight left the next morning for the States, although it was delayed.

We have rebooked our trip to Brugge for Valentines weekend, so stay tuned to hear about that!