Europe Recap– the Sandberg’s and Northern UK

So kind of the whole point of Kyle and I visiting Europe was to see our awesome friends the Sandberg’s. Kyle and Ryan met as little pre-K hooligans in joy school, grew up together and have been peculiarly close ever since.

Ryan married an intelligent and adventurous Mexican beauty who, after internships and such in places like DC and Houston, got accepted into an International Law Master’s degree program at Durham University in northern England.

Cue us. At the first of the year, Kyle and I decided to take the opportunity to visit them.

After a few days of London, me and my man had the Sandberg’s on the mind and we just couldn’t get up to the cute little village of Chester-le-Street fast enough.

You know that excitement and anticipation of waiting to pick someone up at the airport (I’m thinking missionary)? Well it was the same here. It was sooo fun to see Ryan and Gabby waiting for us on the platform. It was a happy reunion.

After unpacking our things and settling in, washing our clothes and changing into Ryan and Gabby clothes (Ryan’s clothes for Kyle and Gabby’s for me – cause we were weary travelers with stinky, moldy backpacks full of clothes), we trailed out to the river to feed the ducks.

Ryan obviously has a knack for this…

And so do I.

Swans are big, scary birds. When this swan started stalking Ryan down for more bread, all visions of the grace and beauty of swans left me.

More of the city was explored following the terrifying swans. Lumley castle, local markets, churches, parks and carnivals. I have no idea why I don’t have photos of those things. Psh.

Up to this point in my Europe recap I don’t believe I’ve mentioned that so far in our trip, it had rained every.single.day. This next day was probably the wettest so far.

Made for really foggy windows on the bus.

We traveled way far north to Newcastle where a group of silly Brits has their own UK version of Jersey Shore. It’s called Jeorgie Shore. That’s not why we wanted to visit here. Just a pointless fact I wanted to make sure you knew.

Now Newcastle is a large city. With a river going through it. And lots of super old cathedrals and shops, castles and bridges.

I’m noticing just now that Kyle and I are still wearing Ryan & Gabby’s clothes. Their dryer was on the fritz so I had to hang all our clothes up around the house to dry. Did you know that England is a wet, humid place? Our clothes didn’t dry till we got to Spain!

To get out of the rain for a bit, we stopped by the St. Nicholas Church. I heard live organ playing as soon as we entered the huge wooden doors. I decided to get snoopy and find the organ loft. The organ master was just finishing his last piece as I stuck my nose in. After a friendly conversation of small talk and dropping the hint that I play the organ, his face lit up and he asked while motioning to the organ bench, (you have to read this in your head in an English accent) “Would ya like ta have a go?”

I almost peed my pants right then and there. And that is no joke. I was like a giddy little girl. My fingers were trembling as I slid onto the bench. Vincent gave me a 5 minute mini lesson on the stops and pedals (“If ya wont to sownd depressed ond down, do this (many stop and button changes ensue). “O if ya wont to sownd a lit.le mo lively, try this…” Side note: the accents of the Englishmen in this area were so much more Scottish influenced. We were only a few kilometers from the Scotland border, so it only makes sense. We even stopped at a coffee shop just to sit and listen to the locals speak.

So… Vincent offered me an old English hymn book. I let it fall open to a random hymn which I wish I could remember the name of. Vincent said, “Ah thot is a lovely one!” So I started to play.

This was the highlight of the whole Europe thing for me. Playing the organ in an ancient old cathedral was indescribable. The sound from the pipes I think shook my soul knowing it was ME making that sound!

 

Durham was the next place we explored.

This was the most charming town to visit.

Kyle and I are on one of many bridges around the city. Durham cathedral is in the back.

This is where Ryan and Gabby got their nicknames ‘the smurf’ and ‘TMNT,’ for obvious reasons.

Oh this building looks familiar to you? Maybe you’ve seen it in Harry Potter. Parts of the series were filmed here at Durham cathedral. Including quiditch scenes shot in the courtyard.

This was a pretty incredible cathedral. You think after visiting a few cathedrals, one becomes to be just like the next. That is usually the case but not for Durham. I will never forget it.

Gabby studies at the University just down the hill from the cathedral. She compared it to feeling like she was studying under the watch of God. That is the kind of feeling in Durham, especially the cathedral. How lucky is she?!

Lucky for us the Olympic torch was making it’s way through Durham the very day we were visiting. The town was all a bustle as people poured in from the outskirts and rural areas of the northern UK.

We made our way to the cricket field where the pre torch celebration was happening. Ice cold limited time Olympic cokes were being handed out. I don’t know why they were so cold. We were ice cold to start out with!

Kyle met some policemen and traded patches. We were surprised to find that British police don’t have guns on them.

We went all out and pretended like we were British for this event. We waved flags and sang along to the British pop songs. In our American accents. This crazy getup Ryan and Gabby are sporting landed them an interview on a local radio station. It took everything Ryan had in him to not yell at the end of his interview “Go team USA!”

The sun finally came out on our bus ride home. Perfect ending to such an unforgettable day.

We ordered the best pizza in the world that night from an Iranian family owned pizza bar. Ryan had been talking it up the whole time. So our expectations were high. But, happily, they were exceeded. That was some darn good pizza!

My Aunt Cheri is the Kennington family history guru. Before taking this trip, I called her up to ask her about family stories, sites, places, etc. She was quick to tell me that it is no coincidence that we were staying in Chester-le-Street/Durham area as those are the old stomping grounds of the family! I can’t express enough how neat it was to imagine my family, generations before me, living their lives in the very places I was visiting. I encourage anyone that has the desire to make it a point to visit the place of your family sometime in your life. There is nothing like it.

We were leaving the next morning for Spain and our clothes were still wet. Kyle had the brilliant idea to iron dry at least our jeans so they were wearable. He is so clever.

We flew to Spain out of Manchester. We spent and good part of the day seeing the city. It was such a fun place. Great family atmosphere. At this point, Ryan had an intense craving for a good ol’ hamburger. So Burger King it was. That will be my favorite memory from Manchester – the Burger King.

This was the last chance I gave Kyle to complete the challenge I gave him every morning we woke up while in England. Every morning I’d say, “This is the day you will speak only in a British accent.” And he would. For about 5 minutes. About that time his accent slowly started to sound a little more Navajo or Hispanic. It cracked me up how we struggled so hard to speak with the accent. It’s funny how when in a foreign situation we naturally revert to anything we know foreign. I remember when it used to be Russian for me.

We could not hide our excitement to see what Spain was all about!