A soft landing in Newark, England

After walking the Camino de Santiago, Chris and I felt drained both physically and emotionally.  I didn’t even feel like writing which was a sure sign of fatigue on my part.  (My apologies for such a long absence on the blog!)  We spent the first two weeks after the Camino enjoying some much needed rest and relaxation in Newark, England which is located in the East Midlands area, about an hour and half by train, north west of London.  Colin and Lynne, my niece Catherine’s in-laws, welcomed us warmly into their cozy, comfortable home and spent the first few days of our stay taking care of all our needs. Just to clarify, the photo to the left is not a photo of their house.

Each day we spent a few hours exploring the local attractions, visiting places like Wimpole Estate and Belton House, both of which are National Trust properties.   These are beautiful estates that have been donated to the National Trust and are cared for primarily by a large workforce of volunteer. The homes are huge, surrounded by gorgeous gardens, and offer a glimpse of what life would have been like for the privileged class in days by gone.  Interestingly, Prince Charles and Lady Diana considered buying Belton House (photo to the right) but in the end it was deemed unsuitable because the grounds were too difficult to secure.

The market town of Newark boasts the ruins of a castle
along the Trent river.

When we heard the Olympic Torch would be passing right by the house, we joined a large throng of flag-waving, patriotic neighbours of all ages who lined both sides of the street to catch a glimpse of the torch.  I don’t recall this kind of zeal when the torch for the 2010 Olympic Games passed through the streets of Ottawa, but that may have had more to do with the cold, wintry weather in the middle of December.  After watching the torch go by, Colin and Lynne invited some of their neighbours over for tea.  It was great to meet them and we really appreciated their offers to help us out during our visit.

Colin and Lynne have been so kind and nurturing towards us – not only have they generously given us the use of their house for five weeks, but they have also provided us with a car, and some much needed driving lessons for Chris. It is a challenge to get used to driving on the other side of the road…..all I’m going to say is that Chris has done remarkably well and we have the cleanest windshield in all of Britain (the windshield wipers are located where the blinkers would be in a Canadian car).

After a few days, Colin and Lynne departed for Canada where they are spending five weeks visiting their son Mark and his wife Catherine (my niece – now you see the connection!) Alone in the house, Chris and I proceeded to make ourselves at home.  We didn’t even leave the house for the first couple of days as we ate up all the lovely leftovers and raided Lynne’s pantry (which we’ll replenish before we leave, of course).  We just needed some down time and that’s what we had.  We then spent the better part of the next week getting caught up on the photos for our Camino blog entries and I did some website maintenance as well.  Each day we walked into the pretty town centre to pick up whatever we needed and perhaps stop for a coffee as well.  It was a very relaxing week however it rained every single day.  Now and then the sun would peak out and offer false hope that the rain was over.  In fact, the entire two weeks in England were wet, dreary and downright cold.

By the second week, we were ready to explore a little further afar and so we did some day trips into neighbouring towns of Lincoln and Nottingham – yes, famous for Robinhood and his merry men.  Sadly, there isn’t much left of Sherwood Forest these days but it is still a popular tourist attraction. I must admit, these excursions were a little nerve racking as we worked together to get us safely to our destination – Chris did the driving and I did the navigating.  Just when we figured we had mastered the roundabout, we came upon one that was multi-laned with traffic lights – now that threw us for a bit of a loop but we got through it safely – it helped that all the lights were green when we went through.

A selection of local beers that Colin thought Chris might enjoy.

After two weeks of rest and relaxation in England, Chris and I boarded a high speed train  to Paris for one week to celebrate my 50th birthday.