Kevin and Sarah's Wedding

Friday/ Saturday June 9th

Hello! I am typing this from the living room of our little lodge on the Rutland Waters (which is apparently English for “Lake Rutland”, or possibly “the lake that belongs to Lord Rutland, who is a real person who owns 4 castles.” Seriously.). There are ducks sitting on top of the eight foot hedge next to our lodge, and sheep in the meadow closest to the lake. It is very lovely here, and we’re looking forward to exploring the environ later today.

Our flight here was pretty nice. Dad dropped us off at the airport, where we thanked our lucky stars for the internet check in that allowed us to bypass the GIGANTIC line of people trying to check in with like, 42 bags each. Margaret and Kyle met us to see us off, before we headed for the gate. When we got to the gate, we only had about 10 minutes before they started loading people, and we discovered that over half our flight was continuing to Mumbai, which sort of explains the giant line, and why the guy who checked our bags in kept accidentally saying that he would send them to Mumbai (we have our bags.)
The flight was really full, and there were LOTS of families travelling with kids. We got dinner on the flight, which was pretty good, though Kevin ordered the kosher meal, and while most of it looked human, there was this weird… thing. It looked like a slice of bread, and was served with a carrot and two olives on top, and was cold, wet and spongy when poked. Neither of us ate it. The in- flight entertainment was definitely entertaining, and both of us got a little sleep, though there was a baby a few rows up that kept screaming bloody murder, so that was a little hard.

We made it through customs and so on with NO problems – we barely even had to wait in line, which was great. Getting the rental car had a little hiccup, in that the car we were supposed to get refused to align its own headlights properly, and since it was way too smart for its own good, it refused to stop telling us about it, so we had to get a different one, which is a bit bigger, but oh well. Made it out of the airport and only had to go around 1 roundabout once and a bit. I’ve now got roundabouts totally worked out.
The drive out was very nice, and Kevin and I decided that it looks like California in the spring, crossed with Washington state. It’s got plenty of rolling grass- with- oak-trees (there is a giant oak tree out the window), but then the streets are all lined with trees, and instead of the grass being all brown, everything is green. There are lots of sheep, and a surprising amount of nothing given how small this country is. We went through a few little villages, which were a lot like the villages in Alaska – Gas station, house, house, little store, house – and we’re done.

We are staying at the Barnsdale Hall Hotel, which is really kind of in the middle of nowhere, and has a golf course. When we were first getting checked in and so on, there were people wandering about all dressed up, wearing hats and the whole nine yards, and we had a definite moment of “Heavens, we’re severely underdressed for this place…” but then we figured out that there was a wedding taking place slightly up the hill from us, so that turned out fine. The non- wedding involved people here dress totally normally.

We went into Oakham, the nearby town, to get groceries and to prevent ourselves from falling asleep, because it was like, 6, and we were sleepy. Oakham is pretty close by, and has a Tesco, which is a large chain grocery store. We got some provisions for ourselves (though the store was a little weird. Not sure if that’s all English grocery stores, or if this one was… special. All of the produce is tiny – we got melons that fit in one hand, and pretty much everything is in little plastic containers. Like, potatoes come in little plastic containers. They also did not have broccoli. Who doesn’t have broccoli? Oh, or garlic salt. This was a pretty sizeable grocery store, and their entire spice section was like, a shelf and a half. They did, however, have an entire refrigerator section for cream cakes. Who even knows.) The girl at checkout needed help with my card, because apparently everything over here is chip and pin, and my card does not have a chip, but totally worked once the other girl told her there was a swiper on her screen.
We managed to stay up till 9:30 when we got back, before falling totally asleep. I slept pretty well, though Kevin woke up at 3, and couldn’t fall back asleep till 5 or so (he’s still sleeping) Our plan for today was to take it easy anyway. We’ll probably go for a wander around the lake, and Oakham apparently has a rather huge castle (like you do) so we’ll head that direction later today.