England is a sensory experience. The wind blows strongly and messes with your hair and raindrops wet your face. When you get back inside after a nice walk on Birkrigg Hill, you can still hear the sheep baa. You take off your wellies, sit down with a floral tea cup designed by Emma Bridgewater and let tea with milk warm your tummy. Sticky toffee pudding from Cartmel is melting on your tongue and you feel that you have arrived home. Home, that's Garfield House, where Helen and Rob live with their amazing kids Nell and Hal, and now also with Lia and Ben. The kids tangle up into a nice German-English bundle, a multilingual ogre with four heads. It's hard to disentangle hands and feet at the end of the week, and many monster tears will be cried upon farewell. But let's not talk about sad endings and a car boot filled with bittersweet memories and orange marmelade. Lets mingle with the Polley family, with Nana Linda and Grandpa Graham, their children and grandchildren, their dogs and hens, tortoise and fish. It's just so easy to be part of it all.
England has lots of picturesque places, and the town of Ulverston is certainly one of them. The colourful front of individual shops is a lovely trademark. The owner of Sutton's Bookshop did not exactly look like Will Thacker, but his little store was especially charming. As was his smile, when he sold us a sizable number of Peppa Pig books.
Linda and Graham, Thiemo's adoptive parents.
In the year 2000 Thiemo booked an all-inclusive resort package in the Lake District, where his diploma thesis was supervised by Graham, and his general well-being was supervised by Linda. Thiemo earned two degrees. He became a mechanical engineer and a "Polley".
The name gives it away: The Lake District is famous for its LAKES! ´
The kids dangling their feet above Lake Windermere.
Holding hands on Birkrigg Hill.
Walking the dog on Birkrigg Hill.
Smiling on Birkrigg Hill.
Smiling at the foot of Hoad Hill.
Walking down Hoad Hill.
Photographing sheep on Hoad Hill.
Lia and Nell juggling with eggs.
The British landscape, including the beauty of the Lake District, influenced the illustrations and literature of Beatrix Potter.
Lia posing with famous Peter Rabbit.
A stay in England should always include a visit to a castle.
A majestic, uncanny, and haunted castle. Muncaster Castle.
Muncaster Castle hosts the World Owl Centre, where Jude Law has adopted an owl. Here we are posing with Jude Law's owl, as Jude Law was nowhere to be seen. Boohoot.
Ben with owl Fidget. Mom with fidgety Ben.
Lia with owl Fidget standing very still. Well done.
We travelled by car, by ferry, by train. Not just any train,
with its scenic ride alongside Lake Windermere.
It is not long since we got off the train, the ferry, the car.
We are back home, and the steam of countless beautiful memories is trailing behind us. Our stay was worth every single raindrop.
Rule, Britannia!
