Act XIV- Gene and Time Visit Part II

 

 When I left-off in my last post, we had just said good-bye to my sister and her husband and sent them off for a few child-unfettered days of UK tourism. While they were away the boys and I spent the lazy days, enjoying their mid-term break. Since the British do not celebrate Columbus Day (rightly) or Thanksgiving (wrongly) they are able to roll their Autumn time-off into one long week. In our copious free-time we visited the library and the computing museum, made Halloween decorations, and spent many an hour at the soccer pitch.

  We were also able to cross another U.K. Must-See off our list- attending a real English football game- Cambridge United vs. Manchester United. So a few qualifiers before you football fans fall out of your seat thinking we saw Manchester United play. These were actually the junior teams of each organization meaning that the teams are comprised of teenagers with aspirations of someday being on the main team. We got the tickets for free from the boys' school and sat in the family friendly crowd. Still we feel pretty good about crossing the line off our list though as we had an absolutely fabulous time. The teams were pretty evenly matched which made for a really exciting game. In the end Cambridge prevailed for the home-town crowd and pulled off a 2-1 victory.

  On Thursday, we once again rented a car (Kurt really has the left-handed driving and shifting down.It is impressive) and drove up to North Wales to meet up with Gene and Tim in stunning Conwy. Our string of sunny days was unfortunately broken that day but it did not make our first destination, Conwy Castle any less impressive. One of Edward I's (grandson of King John of Magna Carta/Robin Hood fame and great grandson of Eleanor of Aquitaine and Henry II) many building projects meant to serve as a visual aid for any Welsh that continued to think of themselves as a sovereign nation was begun in 1283 and finished in 1289. This hulking castle sits on a small rocky peninsula of the Conwy River right before its junction with the Irish Sea. It sports eight massive towers, four of which are topped with smaller towers that stretch even higher into the sky. Most of the tracery is unfortunately gone and the castle is visibly eroded from centuries of Welsh rainstorms and yet it is easy to feel dwarfed by the might of the place. Hundreds of years later Edward's message is still very evident.

Gene and Tim on the wall, admiring Conwy Castle at a distance

 In addition to the castle, the king who was known as the Hammer of the Scots, also walled the entire town of Conwy as part of his building campaign. Today it is heralded as the most complete exampled of medieval city walls and the still-sturdy wall-walk is open to tourists (as long as they you handle the scant number of safety measures put in place to keep you from toppling off). Before dinner we braved the wall, marveled at its stunning views of the surrounding area and the clever construction of the many village buildings which incorporated the wall into their own structures.
   After our rampart adventure we had a cozy dinner at The Erskine Arms Pub and headed to Deganwy, a neighboring town where Gene had secured a vacation rental house for us. Like many a vacation rental the owner sent us a code for a lock box wherein we were to find the key to the place. After each of us tried the given code in turn we determined that there was no way all four of us could be misunderstanding the mechanics of the lock box and we tried to contact the owner. For a good 30 to 40 minutes we called all the phone numbers we could find that were associated with the locked rental house before us but got nothing but answering services. Deciding that there were cozier places to wait for a phone call we all hoped back in our rental cars and went in search of a pub. On the way the owner finally returned our call with the excuse that he had been that"off with the faries" or "out with the ferrets" (We were not sure at the time- turns out it was ferrets! Of course Kurt and Tim quickly enfolded this phrase into their lexicon for meaning "out for a drink") when we had called. We related our trouble with the code to which he asked what code we were using. When we gave it he chuckled "No, that won't work," as if we had pulled some random number from the air. He went on to apologize and admit that he gave us the code for the place across the street which he apparently also owns. Correct code in hand we returned to the house and settled in to enjoy the Prosecco and treats the owner had left (He was actually a very nice guy and we all forgave him pretty readily).
 

  On Friday, the weather continued to be a little finicky so we searched the fine itinerary my sister had compiled for somewhat indoor activities. How about a lovely steam-train ride through Snowdonia National Park complete with tea and Welsh cakes? Perfect! The train took off from the tiny town of Blaenau Ffestiniog, which is often called "the town that roofed the world" for the slate mining operation that dominates the huge hills abutting the town. While waiting for the train we got to talking with the super friendly train engineers who let us take pictures of the boys in the engine room and showed them the huge coal furnaces that would be pumping us along the tracks. When the engineers asked us where we were from I hazarded just saying Gettysburg to which one of them replied "Oh I have been there!" I love my famous town.
 

We picnicked on the train and enjoyed the gorgeous views as the sun started to break through the rain clouds, tossing rainbows here and there in the rolling hills. The ride was about an hour and took us to another adorable Welsh town, Porthmadog, situated on another ocean inlet. The periodic rain kept us wandering in and out of the gift shops near the train station but everyone seemed pretty happy with the excursion nonetheless.

  Saturday we had set aside for another Edward I castle tour, Caernarfon, as it was advertising special kids Halloween activities. This castle is just as impressive and imposing as Conwy, but several periods of restoration, most recently one in the early 1900s has left it in a bit better shape without so much of that eroded look. It has a striped pattern to the stonework that is reported to have been influence by Roman architecture. In the last hundred years or so this castle became the traditional investiture site for the Prince of Wales as the first English Prince of Wales, Edward II, was born here. So far just Charles and his great uncle have had their ceremony's here but I'm sure plans are in the works for Wills as soon as...well... God Save the Queen!

The Halloween activities were not as pervasive on the castle grounds as maybe the kids and us were hoping for but they did get to do some archery and sword fighting, try on some chain mail, and eat a giant chocolate lollipop in the shape of a demons head. Leif was dressed in his Harry Potter costume and looks perfect in all the pictures amid the giant chess set.
 The numerous winding staircases of the wall walks and towers and the smattering of exhibits kept us all busy for a few hours until we all got hungry. We had planned to picnic on the castle grounds with some things we had gotten at the Welsh Food Center (was more like a 'World Food Center' as there is apparently not that much unique Welsh foods to fill an entire store) that morning but the wind was pretty cold so we tucked into a small local dinner where most of the customers and waitstaff were speaking in Welsh. The food was good and fortified our traveling party for the next task- a hike through the Welsh countryside.
 
 Thanks to the National Trust, Gene and Tim had come up with a list of good hikes near where we were staying and we selected one between the towns of Craflwyn and Beddgelert. The drive to the trail head took us past Snowdon, the highest mountain in Wales and England, and we got the chance to marvel at its snowy peak from the comfort of our warm rental car. When I say 'we' I really just mean me as Kurt was having to contend with narrow winding roads hemmed in by dry stack stone walls and the runners from whatever marathon just happened to be going on that day and the boys really didn't care

The hiking trail was just what I am always looking for in a nature hike- a fairy wonderland surrounded by an elven paradise. The already beautiful Welsh scenery was exceptional under the sun's low golden light, with its sprightly waterfalls, bright green moss-covered rocks, and curly branched oak trees. There were so many times that I had to double check to make sure that I was not actually just in one of my lucid lord-of-the-rings-willow-princess-bride-panfantasy daydreams (This does happen to other people too, right?). I think we all filled up the memories of our phones taking picture after picture of the path and the panoramic view of the summit. Ir was hard to leave the place but the high hills around us swallowed up the sunlight pretty quickly and we just made it back on the road as it got dark.
  That night Kurt and Tim made us some delicious Welsh Rarebit (toast with melted cheese and mustard) for dinner and, inspired by the fantastic hike we had all just enjoyed, we plotted how to squeeze in more time in Welsh nature before our drive back to Cambridge.
 
  The hike we landed on, Ogwen Valley, turned out to be just as magnificent as the one we had just taken though, as the totally inadequate car park will attest, much more crowded. Somehow we managed to find spots for both rental cars (Kurt pulling off another impressive parallel parking feat) and set out for the boulder paved trail. The ascent was a gentle uphill slope leading past one impressive mountain lake to another. These two lakes claim, as at least one other Welsh lake does, to be the lake of legend where King Arthur received Excalibur from the Lady of the Lake ("Strange women lying in ponds, distributing swords, is no basis for a system of government.") We did not witness any sword-based king-making but could imagine from the majestic setting why ancient peoples would have assumed those kinds of things to be possible in this place. 

 The end of our hike heralded the end of the vacation for the Buehrer-Andresen crowd (The Buehrer-Pritchard crowd had two more days) and so after warming up with some tea at the visitor center we sadly bid goodbye to Gene and Tim. It was really nice to spend some time with family after being away from home for so long. Hopefully it will tide me over until December (or at least November when Sam and Lars come to visit. ) 

  Next weekend we will reprise our time with the Alfonso-Reinbolds as we host them here in Cambridge. Eight people in a house with one toilet- what could go wrong?

Act XIII-Gene and Tim Visit Part I

This past weekend saw our second round of overseas visitors- my lovely sister, Gena (who may be referred to as Gene at other points in this post) and her lovely husband, Tim. The weather was once again spectacular and it seemed our guests had as much fun as we did.

The night before Gene and Tim arrived however the boys got a little taste of Halloween here in the land where the holiday originated. Their school held what was dubbed the "Halloween Disco", a fun little dance party with costumes, candy, hot dogs, and "unlimited squash". Squash I have come to find out refers to juice concentrate that is watered down for consumption at large gatherings. When I asked the boys for a review they said "Yeah it was great." I think that was also their review of the larger event which they seemed to think was fun but that the music was too loud (they are definitely my children). Fulfilling my vision for their time here in England, they opted to dress as Hogwarts students complete with Gryffindor robes and wands. The ride home after the party through the swirling fog of the Coldham Common pastures was like something out of a children's Halloween special. It didn't help that the cows who usually inhabit these fields had been rounded up that very morning and taken away. The boys speculated that the fog was the ghosts of our cow friends. I am holding out hope that the cows just went to their winter quarters in a cozy barn in Duxford.

  Gene and Tim arrived amid bright sunlight and clear blue skies around noon on Friday. We all had a quick lunch near the train station and then Kurt took them on a town/college tour while I picked up the kids from school. We met up again at Bedouin a North African restaurant with fabulous decor that we had been planning to try for a while now. Not only is the restaurant covered in beautiful tile-work but it is hung with colorful fabric in a way that makes it feel as though you are in a plush tent belonging to some generous nomads in the Sahara. Also the food was amazing. But even though I had seen the sign upon the numerous occasions that I have passed by the place, we forgot that it was cash only and so, having planned to pay for our guests, we ended up having to borrow money from them. Epic hosting fail. 
  Thanks to the afternoon college tour, we found out about a choral concert by the Sixteen

Christophers going on at St. Johns College that evening. Kurt graciously sent me (though his ears are no doubt more trained to appreciate such things) and our guests while he stayed home with the kids. The tickets ranged in price depending on where you wanted to sit in the nave of St. John's Chapel. Being thrifty we opted for seats in the narthex but right before the concert started one of the organizers invited us to move up to any of the open seats in the rear nave. Although it probably would not have mattered where we sat for the concert was absolutely beautiful with its swirl of perfect voices and the lofty and softly lit setting. The theme of the program was "Sacred and Profane" and included a mix of both religious and secular English Choral works. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience and I am determined to seek out similar events when we get home. 
 

On Saturday we all hopped on our bicycles and peddled our guests to one of out favorite spots, the Orchard Tea Garden in Grantchester (for those counting this is our 4th time there) When Gene and Tim first began to plan their trip Tim requested a few Pink Floyd-related sights here in Cambridgeshire owing to the fact that several of the band's founding members grew up here. The bike to the tea garden took us through Grantchester Meadows which happens to be the name of a Pink Floyd song off one of their more obscure albums, UmmaGumma. Not only did we get to check-mark this on our list but, as always, the tea and scones were delicious. Also the kids got to help with the apple cider demonstration that was going on. With the help of the cider guy they gathered apples from the orchard, milled them, and pressed them into the best apple cider that I have ever tasted. We bought the half liter and have been enjoying it since.
  On the way home the Grantchester cows gave us a chuckle as they blockaded the path in only the second cow-related traffic jam I have ever been a part of.

 

Back in Cambridge, we were able to double check-mark our Pink Floyd mission by grabbing a pint at The Anchor, a pub where the group played their first show. The pub is tucked cozily and conveniently beside the river and the punt rental place and so we enjoyed our drinks while waiting our turn for the returning punts. We could not quite figure out where Floyd would have been set up to play in the place but it was fun to speculate all the same

  When we finally got on the river it was crowded owing to the beautiful weather and the graduation weekend (we never figured out why graduations were being held now when it is mid-term)but we were still able to have a lovely punt down the Cam, being hit by only three other inexperienced punters while we enjoyed our cans of Pimms. Tim even took a turn at the rudder, doing a fabulous job and earning the tell-tale soaked sleeves of a successful punter. The ending got a little rushed as the smaller bladders on the boat apparently reached capacity rather suddenly but I think everyone still had a good time.

That evening we grabbed dinner at our local, the Cambridge Blue, allowing Gene and Tim to experience its charming cemetery entrance and fabulous savory pies. After that we rushed to a party that was being thrown by one of the grad students that Kurt works with, Diana. When the invitation came for this even we tried to turn it down knowing that our guests would be here but Diana would not hear of it and extended the invitation to Gene and Tim as well. The kids and I did not stay long as the party was pretty late into the evening. The boys get a little squirrely at that time of night and after Diana gave Leif a huge glass of cherry juice and sent him out over the light colored carpet of the living room I could not quite relax. 

  In the morning we went back to Pembroke College to allow this round of guests to experience their beautiful campus and tasty brunch. I meant to have the kids wear their Hogwarts robes but we forgot.
 

After brunch we peddled to the Cambridge Botanical Gardens for the Apple Festival that fortuitously happened to be going on when my garden-loving sister and plant biologist in-law were in town. We got distracted early on by a kids tree hunt which was fun but meant that by the time we made it to the apple tasting tent the slow moving line was stretched across the length of the main lawn. So we skipped the apple tasting to tour the greenhouses and gardens. Luckily Gene and Tim did not seem too disappointed.

On Monday our guests took off on some of their own adventures but we will be meeting up with them later in the week up on Conwy, North Wales. Check back to see how Round Two of our Tim and Gena adventure goes.

Act XII- My Love, my Lovely

Hi everyone!

Our rain cover- yes the boys love it

Sorry for the long gap again. After Hanna and Nana left we settled back into our work routine with very little deviation. But enough time has passed now that we do have a few things to tell you about.
 First off though I want to tell you about a trend here in England that I would love to start in the US: the use of "My Love" or "My Lovely" in place of Ma'am or Miss. I know that I probably shouldn't in this #MeToo era but I really enjoy being called "My Love" by complete strangers. It just puts the whole interaction in a warm light for me and I am immediately charmed by whoever is speaking. I must say it worked to the school and school council's advantage when they were giving us the run-around over the boys' enrollment. My annoyance was always completely deflated when they would call me "my Lovely". This could all stem from my love of Jane Austen and the formal society she describes with its fast intimacies and terrible politeness. I  really like the duality of it. So when the construction worker who placed traffic cones right in my path, closing the road that I was planning to use and forcing me into a 3-block detour, said "Sorry, my Love," I was totally cool with it.


Speaking of Jane Austen! On the recommendation of our director/actor friend Chris, last night Kurt and I attended an improvised performance by the group Austentatious. This four-time "Sell Out Show" Edinburgh Fringe Festival Winner, is now a touring show where the troupe improvises a "lost" Jane Austen novel every night beginning with a title suggested by the audience. The cast of three men and women arrive on stage in full Regency era clothing with a handful of props which they use to craft a two hour comedic plot right on the spot. It was a pretty great show with moments of comic genius but I am guessing that it was not the group's finest performance. The problem was, for whatever reason, they went with a pretty convoluted title suggestion from the audience- "M.I.A" Perhaps it was a reference that we were missing or they just ran out of time picking a title but it did not seem to lend itself well to crafting a coherent improvised Jane Austen title. Still there were some very funny moments and it is obvious that the actors have been diligent in their study of Austen's true works and improv. And of course the costumes were fantastic. Watch out, Chris! I am going to be pushing for a Regency Era show for next season :)

 

Our only other big adventure these last few weeks was lovely visit to nearby Wimpole Hall, a 17th Century country estate first built by the Chicheley family. Though the property, which includes a working farm and a 3,000 acre park in addition to the grand house and stables, has had many owners over the years the most famous was probably Rudyard Kipling's daughter, who upon her death turned the estate over to the National Trust. Now it serves as a really enjoyable day out with the kids with plenty of opportunity to picnic and play while gathering some of the history of these types of manor-houses. We took a taxi out there (the roads are not wide enough to bike there safely) and met up with Naomi and Sam and their adorable kids. Naomi, who, if you will remember from previous posts, spent much of her childhood in Cambridge, told us stories of her visits to the place as a child and tips on what to see and do while all the kids tumbled about the grounds and farm.

  At the farm we met with some of the estate's gorgeous Shire Horses which you can apparently ride for a hefty fee (we did not) and we attended the pig feeding. When we saw the pig feeding on the farm schedule the innocent bullet point and bubble handwriting gave us no indication of the horror that was to follow. The Wimpole piggery is pretty substantial and for a few minutes we enjoyed marveling at the cute piglets and the enormous sows. But as more and more visitors arrived, the pigs, sensing that the hour was at hand put up such a racket that we had to cover the boys ears to keep them from fleeing the barn in terror. Here is a little clip so you can get the idea. Never have I been so viscerally reminded that while I don't eat mammals on principal, that they may not reciprocate in kind if given the chance.

  After the farm tour went moved on to the manor house. Sam and Naomi's clan, still on a two-year-old's time-frame, had to run through the place pretty quickly but we got to take our time enjoying all the opulently decorated rooms while the boys searched for the 12 metal spiders that were hidden about the place (we missed one). For the first part of the tour, the clock in every room we entered struck 12 indicating that we were following the path of whomever is in charge of winding all the clocks which of course renewed Kurt's determination to become Gettysburg College's official clock winder.
 

Before lunch we said good-bye to our friends as they had to get their daughter to a birthday party. After a quick stroll through the french gardens we had a delicious lunch at one of the cafe's while the kids played on the farm themed playground equipment. It seems every museum/attraction cafe in England serves some form of Victoria Sponge Cake. We have taken it upon ourselves to try a slice whenever we come across one so that we might compile an accurate rating for the area. Wimpole's I am sad to say with its copious amount of jam and lack of cream is at the bottom of our list but we enjoyed our visit nonetheless.

As I write this my sister and her husband are groggily touring London with their next stop being Cambridge. Check back soon to see about our tour of North Wales with Gena and Tim!

 

Act XI Hannah and Nana Weekend

Last week and a bit of this one saw us host our first set of over-sees guests here in Cambridge. The first was Kurt's mother, Dale who had just completed a driving tour of England with our sister-in-law Sam's father, Gary. The second was our Gettysburg neighbor Hannah, who is currently spending the year working as an au pair in Amsterdam. With her work schedule, Hannah has only so many opportunities for travel so when we were planning her trip here it was a bit tricky to find a time for her to visit that didn't overlap with one of our other scheduled visitors. In the end, since Hannah was not opposed to sleeping on the couch, we decided that an overlap with Dale might work out well. Plus we would get to call it "Hannah and Nana Weekend!"
  Dale and Gary arrive on Wednesday, a day earlier than originally expected but that nicely gave us a

chance to catch up with Gary and show him around Cambridge before his flight back to the states. While the boys were in school on Thursday I took Dale and Gary on a whirlwind tour of some of the great little college museums and King's College Chapel before embarking on a lovely lunch at The Eagle Pub, where as you may remember from an earlier post, Watson and Crick announced that they had found "the secret to life" DNA. After dinner that evening at the fabulous Indian restaurant down the street, we all bid Gary farewell, wishing him luck on the drive back to London.

On Friday it was Kurt's turn to take over as tour guide. He and Dale walked around some of the city's shopping areas while I went to meet Hannah at the train station. Since the boys get out of school at 1:30 on Fridays, after getting Hannah settled I had to send her off to meet up with Kurt and Dale on her own while I collected the kiddies. Apparently they found a lovely spot to have an official tea (one of Dale's requested activities) at Patisserie Valerie. Later the kids and I met up with the Kurt and the tourists at Great St. Marys Church, a 15th century parish church just across the road from King's College where, for a price, one can climb the main tower and enjoy a panoramic view of  the city. The weather was brilliant with clear skies and golden sunlight and so our entry fee was well-used. Once again, admission came with kid's activity sheets and amused us with interesting tidbits about the church including the fact that it was fined by Queen Elizabeth I for not ringing the bells when she visited it during her reign. 
 

When Dale first gave us the dates for her visit, she noticed that it would fall somewhat near our anniversary and offered to babysit on a night of our choosing so that we could go out to one of the fancier establishments in town to celebrate. So, setting up her, Hannah and the kids with some vittles and a movie, Kurt and I set out on Friday night to Trinity, a fabulous restaurant cozily situated just near Trinity College. We enjoyed oysters, champagne and uninterrupted conversation from our corner booth with nary a complaint (except for Kurt's irritation with the display windows of the store across the street- in his defense it was a poorly constructed advertisement for the clothing within).  After a bit of a stroll down some of Cambridge's charming streets we headed home to rest up for our next day's adventure.

 No visit to Cambridge could be complete without a bit of a punt down the river

Cam. This particular activity was also on Dale's list of requests as was a visit to Grantchester (she too is a fan of the TV series of the same name) so why not put the two of them together?! On Saturday we packed some crackers and brie, activity books for the boys, and rented a punt for the day. Once again the weather was just divine and except for the overly aggressive swans and swarms of stand-up paddle-boarders, we had a lovely punt to Grantchester. Kurt did all the work on this adventure and so we took our time in the little town to give him a rest, stopping for a leisurely tea at The Orchard, touring the grounds of the church and the town's cottage-lined streets. The trickiest bit of the trip was docking the punt; despite The Orchard's position on the Cam it does not have an official dock and the banks are too high to pull the boat ashore. Cleverly Kurt was able to pin the punt to the side of the river using the punting pole, parking that was further shored up by a delightful German couple who "pulled up" next to us in a canoe, out for their own picnic.

  That night, after a hasty dinner at home we scuttled back into the center of the city to hear a free organ concert at King's College Chapel. Dale had wanted to experience an Evensong service sometime during the course of her visit but the timing didn't seem to be on our side. When I saw this event advertised on our tour with Gary I thought it might be a nice alternative, plus I have wanted to hear that enormous instrument played ever since I laid eyes on it. The concert did not disappoint and I think everyone enjoyed the organ's ability to truly rattle their insides on those low notes, most especially Klaus. The Chapel itself was, of course, a beautiful venue and as we listened we could see the sun set through the stained glass and enjoyed the coziness of the candlelight thereafter. England, you are magical.

                                 

 After the concert, Dale and I took the kids home while Kurt and Hannah went to meet up with some of the graduate students from Kurt's lab. Since Hannah plans to go to college someday we considered this something of a college tour for her and so thought it would be nice for her to talk with some grad students while she was here. After putting the kids to bed I joined the crowd and was delighted to meet some of the entertaining members of the Keyser group that I had heard so much about. On the ride home, I was able to convince Hannah to hop in the Bakfiets, another Cambridge experience (Dutch actually) I though she should have. 

 On Sunday morning, thanks to a tip from one of Kurt's co-workers, we got to enjoy brunch in Pembroke College's fine dining hall. The food was nothing extraordinary (aside from the fried brie bites) but was certainly better than anything I got at Penn State and the atmosphere easily allowed the kids to pretend that they were at Hogwarts. The beautiful college grounds were open since the "Freshers" all came to town this week and so we were able to peek into a few buildings including the chapel. Pembroke, founded in 1347, boasts buildings on its campus dating from every century since its inception and, as expected, I loved all of them but the cinder-block monstrosity of our current era. Afterwards, Kurt and guests walked to a few of the other colleges and I took the boys home for some quiet time. 

 Monday, after dropping the kids off at school, Kurt and I escorted our guests to Ely so that they could enjoy the cathedral there that we find so charming. I will admit, being pretty tired from all our weekend adventures, I was tempted to let Kurt handle this on his own again but, in hindsight, that would have become a life-long regret. Without the kids with us (they are too young to be permitted) we were able to take the tower tour of the Cathedral. I still can't believe that the church offers this tour- in 45 minutes the guide takes tourists up the multiple medieval spiraling staircases of its famed 141 foot high "Octagon Tower" lets them prowl around the 700 year old wooden beams, look down upon the nave from the angel doors, and climb all over the lead covered "Lantern" tower. It was amazing a terrifying all at the same time. I couldn't decide which picture to post so here are a gaggle of them and a video.

 
  
                     

 After the cathedral we took Hannah to an official English Pub as was demanded by her father, got her a pint (drinking age here is 18 :) and walked around Ely for a bit. Back in Cambridge I think Kurt took Dale and Hannah to tour even more of the colleges while I picked up the boys from school. All too soon we had to say goodbye to Hannah and put her back on the train to London. Next morning we had to do the same for Dale and thus concluded our wonderful Hannah and Nana Weekend. 

 If you or any of your household are wanting your own weekend with us in Cambridge, contact us soon- places are still available but time is running out :)