Europe Day 1: Malvern, England

We’re in the Ol’ Blighty! And it’s great to be back. Thank you SAA for getting us here safely. With all the madness that is air travel these days, I genuinely mean that. I had a great time eating my macaroon, red velvet cupcake and watching Maleficent and Blended (filmed at Sun City with Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore!).

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flowers hanging in a basket off street lampsI still haven’t managed to conquer the art of sleeping upright so I was rather tired when we arrived at Heathrow. But we managed to get our hired car from Europecar (great shuttle service, not so great £250 (that’s over R5000) booking deposit) and head out of the airport. First stop? Staines! (Ya, think Ali G!). Here we encountered our first hanging baskets. England is a bit funny because they’ll build a concrete town or city and then fill it with hanging baskets!

We also had our first pure pork McDonald’s experience. Sorry Muslim friends! You know I love you but England is the land of the hog and everything here is pure bacon and it’s extremely tasty for us who eat macon or smoked turkey all year round in Cape Town!

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We went to 3 Store to get their mobile special (you know an iPhone with no data is useless). £16 gets you a sim card with unlimited data, 300 texts and 300 call minutes for 1 month. WIN! It’s a great deal when you’re travelling and want to turn your iPhone into a hotspot for your tablets or laptops (like I’m doing now).

Poundland TreatsMy friend Emily (who is from England originally) is going to roll her eyes at me because everytime we come to England we love visiting Poundland! Basically it’s like the Crazy Store where everything costs £1. They have so many great deals we can’t help but be sucked in! Listerine? £1. Maltesers £1. Pantene shampoo? £1! After Poundland we headed

After 3 Store we drove about 2.5 hours through the English countryside to Great Malvern. I loved seeing all the different kind of houses and buildings in the small towns of England. There are so many beautiful churches (not that I’ve very religious but I do enjoy beautiful buildings).

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We arrived at the top of a steep Malvern Hill at the Cottage in the Wood which has wonderful views over the English countryside. We have a comfortable double room and are taking in the quintessential English atmosphere. My purpose this trip is to take cognizance of all the typically English things that surround you that you that you kinda take for granted.Cottage in the Wood Malvern

Cottage in a Wood

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IMG_8579.JPGAfter having a much needed 2 hour nap (could have easily have made it 10 hours!) we took a drive past BUSFEST! We noticed a lot of VW busses on the road and thought they were rather funny to be having a small little camping festival in the fields in the valley. Every time we saw a car we’d yell, BUSFEST! We continued to the Severn on Upton and saw another great church and then made our way to Great Malvern to do some snack shopping. Here we eyed out some tasty treats, which I intend to investigate while in England!

We had a snack and then hooked up with my brother and sister in law to join the family at the Walwyn Arms (in the next village) for a pre-wedding dinner. My cousin’s getting married on tomorrow (Sept 6th) so all the cousins and aunties and uncles gathered for a big English dinner.

The Walwyn Arms

Pints and beef roast, pork roast, Yorkshire pudding, gravy, savoy cabbage, red cabbage, carrots and over cooked broccoli. For starter, mushrooms on toast (warm crostini I suppose) and dessert: lemon tart with berry sorbet. Mr Love had sticky toffee pudding and it was THE most delicious English toffee pudding sauce EVER! That meal made bed feel all the better.

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Walwyn Arms Dinner

After being fat and drowsy we made our way back to the Cottage in the Wood to enjoy a great night’s rest. We passed through Ledbury and a number of other small villages which were nice to see.

Quaint English Houses

RANDOM ENGLISH THING 1:

Chicken mayo with stuffing! It was really good too!

Chicken and stuffing sandwich

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