First impression of England

In all of the novels that I've read about the English countryside, I never quite expected what has met us in Todmorden, a town about an hour from Manchester. Although the novels of Austen and the Brontes all depict these quaint villages and farming communities, I never really grasped the expansiveness of it all. Here, as far as the eye can see is field and stone fence, steep hills and sheep. The buildings are all made of stone with slate roofs. We have been here four days, and we've gone on four hikes into the hills. The kids took us exploring up to a very high point at which we could spy into the town and stare off into the miles and miles of hills and farms. While the children were in school on Friday, the adults and Nate went for a tour of Bronte country, the Brontes lived and wrote not far from here, and went to find the elusive gravesite of Sylvia Plath. Nate was not very impressed with the literary excursions, which doesn't bode well for several other planned stops, but we shall see what happens.

The highlight night has been last nights pub stroll. The Griffins arranged for a sitter, so we could all enjoy ourselves in an adult setting. It was great fun, and the English pub is really an interesting phenomenon. Basically, there is a moving party all night. You stop at one place, have a pint or two with your mates, and then move to another pub. You don't do this just once but all night long. We were ahead of the pack for each time we entered a pub it was empty, but by the time we left it was filled. However, there were two disappointments I found. First, the only American beer offered was Budweiser. No wonder everyone over here thinks that Americans have no taste in beer! Second, it wasn't as English as I expected. There was discoteque/club/house music blaring, and it was quite loud. Perhaps that's all pubs everywhere, but in my mind it was a quite little place where people went to chat. Besides that, we had a great time, and we stumbled home in the dark walking along the canal -- surprisingly, nobody fell in.

We've made one change to our plans. We are extending our stay in Tod for one more day so that we can save some serious cash on the train to London. If we were to leave today, it would have cost us £145 (about $250). If we travel Monday, it will cost us £45 total (about $80). It was an easy decision to give up a day of site-seeing.

Well, that's it for now. I'm still trying to work out my observations about the English and England. I'm not one who can quickly articulate what I'm feeling. I'm getting some serious vibes, but I can't quite put my finger on them.

Cheers!