Long Crendon Manor

At the end of last week we were able to break free from the boring old Premier Inn hotel and stay at a bed and breakfast. We had never been to a B&B before so we didn't have any expectations. After four nights at this place I know that if we had any, the Long Crendon Manor would have exceeded them considerably! Several TV shows and movies have been filmed at this place! We have since added Little Dorrit to our iTunes wish list but do not wish to see The Woman in Black any time soon. EEP!

A manor is more than just a house--we learned that this one has stables, barns, a main [large] house, a gatehouse, and acres of land. Sue told us the story of how her family acquired it in 1974 when she was 15 years old... she and her dad were house hunting while her mum was at work. The manor was the first one they looked at and decided they wanted it, so that's what they bought! It was in sad shape and only cost them £143,000 at the time, but Sue admitted that it is still a work in progress. I'd say they've done a very good job so far! :)

For more interesting reading on what a Manor did back in the day ("the day" = 12th Century) wikipedia is great. Learn about lords, serfs, cottars, etc. :)

Anyway, enough talk... you gotta see this place!

Breakfast was served in the Dining Room

These lovely animals made breakfast possible. :)

The St. Bernard named Coco "like Chanel, not The Clown".

The back gardens

The back patio was covered in grape vines full of plump and read-to-eat grapes. I didn't even think to try one. The were so beautiful!

I took so many photos with the SLR camera my sister sold us before we moved. This was the first excursion we were able to take with it in tow. You can see many more of them here with a bit of extra annotation. :)

Sue and Tim, the lovely people who run the whole place.  Also, the girls.

Sue and Tim got to meet Daniel Radcliffe while they shot The Woman in Black and apparently he is a really nice guy (although quite short--only 5'5"!). If you ever find yourself in Long Crendon in Buckinghamshire (which, according to Sue, is the center of the universe), you must stay at the Manor. Sue has one of the best senses of humor you'll ever encounter and she and her husband keep such a lovely and well-kept property that you would not regret one single pound spent to stay there.

Expensive errand-running

It's our second weekend here in the great county of Buckinghamshire (also known as Bucks) and we are starting to have experiences worth blogging about! I was beginning to get worried about this for a while, guys. I mean, who lives in England for over a week and doesn't have any good stories to share in a blog for pete's sake?? Well, we do, and part of it is because I don't like to live out of a suitcase in a boring hotel and wake up to walk down a busy and smelly street to work every day.

Well, despite my tendencies of crabbiness we have been pushing forward and chiseling away at our big To-Do list:
- Find a place to live
- Buy a car
- Experience the Rail
- Experience the Tube
- Get to London, already!

I am pleased to inform you all that we can cross off two things off that list! Yesterday we bought a car and today we took the Chiltern Rail into Marylebone Station in London*.

*Does not count as "going to London" because we didn't even walk 30 yards past the rail station. We have to do more than that in order to cross it off the list!

Anyway... the car! Bryant test drove a Honda Accord yesterday and we bought it! It has British specs! This is the first thing we have done since arriving that actually feels like we are here to stay and we aren't just visiting.

So weird being on the right side!

The guy who sold it to us called it a "boring, reliable car." Perfect! :)

We are so excited about this little car. Unfortunately, in GB you absolutely must have car insurance in order for it to be driven on the road. We are geting insurance through GEICO international sales, and wouldn't you know it, they close at 5PM on Fridays. I got my quote request in to their office at 4:30 to the agent and even though she stayed late to get my quote to me (5:30), we had left the office by then and didn't get the payment information processed. We will have to wait through the weekend and, did I mention that Monday is a US Holiday? It's Columbus day. So now the poor little Honda has been quarantined to the hotel parking lot until Tuesday. :(

Once we get everything taken care of with the insurance it will be really nice to be able to drive around and tour the neighbourhoods. That will help with the house hunting, too! Bryant has toured 3 homes and on Monday I will be able to join him on a tour of a different place. Even though we couldn't go for a joy ride today we took the bus to the city centre in High Wycombe for lunch at Zizzi's Italian and thought we could bum around on public transit. After lunch we walked to the rail station and bought a ticket to and from the Marylebone station. I don't know if you knew this, but in Minneapolis, a light rail ticket costs $2.25 for two hours, you can use it on any bus and take it to any stop you like (and it's only $1.75 for non peak hours). Here, even on non-peak hours it cost us £16,50 for just one person on one train, so £33 = $51.33. AH!

It was unfortunate because we just wanted to experience the rail and didn't have any plans to go anywhere except pick up an Oyster Card at the Tube station at Marylebone. An Oyster Card is the pay-as-you-go card for the Tube so it was just a fun errand to pick up for a future trip to London.

Just outside the Marylebone (pronounced MAR-la-bone) station

The story of our rail experience continues as we got back on the train and headed to High Wycombe ... We are on the 17:33 train and it was to arrive at Wycombe at 18:19; we were going to walk to the bus station, take the bus to our neighbourhood and walk to the hotel, arriving back home no later than 19:30 (7:30PM). The English pride themselves on having very punctual trains so this really should have happened. While on our train around 17:45 we unexpectedly stopped at a station we were supposed to bypass and the driver made an announcement to that there was a fatality reported at one of the stops along the way. We were told to sit tight while they found out if the fatality was true and it was likely that we would continue as planned, just delayed a bit. We stayed on the train and hung out while we waited; by 18:40 we were told that the train we were on was going to go in reverse back to Marylebone and we should all get out and wait for the next train that was going to High Wycombe. This next train was due to arrive at 19:25 and the status board said it was running on time. By 19:10, however, the status board changed. It said that the next train was on time, but it was now the 20:00 train to arrive next. I mentioned something out loud and all of the other passengers looked up at the board in disbelief... only to see it be updated again and the next train that would be "on time" was the 21:28 (that's 9:28PM)! We were beginning to panic because buses don't just run all night around here on the weekends. It was now dark and we had no idea how to call a cab (missing the iPhone right about now), or how much it would cost for a 14 mile fare. We called a coworker and asked him to come pick us up, and fortunately he agreed to drive out our way to help us out.

It all worked out in the end, and I am sure we would still be at the train station if it wasn't for my coworker's generosity. The super sweet thing is, we spent all evening with them yesterday. He and his wife invited us over for tea after work, bought us dinner and offered to bring us to church with them on Sunday. We owe them big time!!

Our poor, unused return fare card from the rail.

busy!

(I meant to post this yesterday but just as I was wrapping up he internet ran out of time in our room!)

We are here, going day by day with limited internet access. Yes, we are surviving, and no, it's not easy. Boy, were we spoiled with our iPhones back home. Buying wifi access in the room costs £12 ($18) for a day.

We were thinking about going to London yesterday and Hillsong Church today but that didn't work out. We slept in until 10:30 yesterday and took the bus into High Wycombe and today we went to church with a coworker. I am really glad we didn't overdo it and eased into our public transit experience. It's a lot more complicated than we thought! There isn't just one public bus service, there is a rail and the Tube is separate as well. We are just learning how they work so I wouldn't be surprised if we got lost on the way to London (even though my coworkers say its easy). The Underground tends to go under construction on the weekends and a lot of stops are out of service.

After church today, my coworker took us around the neighborhoods of High Wycombe to give us an idea of where we might want to live. We have been house hunting on rightmove.co.uk and for the first time we were able to weed out some of the areas. Mainly, the city centres. We feel like even the small towns are too busy with cars and motorbikes zooming around. I know it will just take some getting used to, but that mixed in with closeness and crammed style (my midwestern American roots showing there) is not comfortable to me. Do we want to be close to a rail station in town or in a more secluded country location?? It has been really hard to narrow down anything and we know the sooner we get into a place, the better.

Today we sent messages to the letting agents to begin going deeper into the process and hopefully we can start touring places this week! :)