Okay so as this process goes along we'll try and update periodically on what we've done so far :c) It may take a while, but we'll eventually catch up :c)
So our reservations for the base were messed up and so after a week on base we were sent to stay in this little Bed and Breakfast place in a town called Thetford which is at least probably 30 minutes away. Well I think there may have been a bit of jet lag and emotion setting in, because of course we had an emotional meltdown on the Sunday (about 9 days after we arrived) when we got to this place and the room was about the size of Levi's room in North Carolina. Needless to say there was a queen bed, table, TV and bathroom (thankfully) :c) Well we looked at each other and just thought, "seriously we have to keep a toddler in here with barely enough room to put all of our bags" (because of course at this point we still had all of our bags that we'd been living out of for the past 2 months). We also didn't know if we would be able to rent the house we had hoped to, our household shipment was supposed to only arrive in 6 weeks and they had told us they had lost our unaccompanied baggage shipment. So we were slightly overwhelmed with all the negative news coming our way. Well the following night the fire alarm went off twice (once at about 2:30am and then again at about 4am)...needless to say we were not off to a good start. Oh, and yes, someone was smoking in the stairwell to set off the alarm. Well it being a B&B we did of course get some excellent English breakfasts each morning so that was great. After our first 2 nights things got better and started to fall into place. We found out that the rental house would be available to us on Friday, then found out that they had managed to get our household shipment through customs and it should be there by Friday and they could deliver a microwave, fridge and washer dryer to our house on Friday as well. So as things fell into place we relaxed a bit more :c)
Here's a picture of The Bell Inn where we stayed. (I tried to upload the front of it, but I couldn't so this is the side)
Oh, and so back to the Sunday of the meltdown...we decided to take a relaxing rejuvenating walk around Thetford, which was beautiful. We were struck by the amount of history that lies in a simple town and can't wait to explore more towns and cities. So here are pictures of our walk.
This bridge has markings left from WWII tanks that drove over, but because the roads are too small they made indentations in the wall. I'm sure we'll see this a lot, but thought this was neat.
Then further on our walk we came across Castle Hill. Now this has some history dating back to 500BC (craziness). Well it's the tallest medieval earthwork in Britain. Yes that tiny thing on there is a man...just to scale it for you.
So of course we walked to the top of it and here's the view down one side. Just a little taste of Thetford.
As you walk away from it you see the the mounds surrounding it. It used to have an Iron Age fort and a Norman Castle on it (obviously not at the same time), but no remains are left. It seems the mounds surrounding it made for great defense during battle.
We continued on a path to what is a bird preservation area or something of that nature. Basically a beautiful area of greenery and bird wildlife. Here of course were some ducks for Levi :c)
No. We didn't leave Levi behind. He's asleep on Greg's back. But just wanted to give you an idea of the greenery. :c)
We like to call this the "anti-obesity/anti-pregnant people" gate. It basically swings one way, you have to cram to the middle part and then swing the gate the other way to walk through. Let's just say fortunately I could still fit through. ;c)
So this is at the little area across form the hotel. They had quite a few swans. Didn't know it's illegal to kill swans in England. Apparently, only the queen can eat them. At least that's what our Cambridge punting guide told us...will have to Wikipedia that information and see if it's true. :c)
Levi and Greg eating dinner at the Bell Inn.
That was pretty much our first day visiting Thetford in pictures :c) I'll see if I can't post about some other days as the time passes. We're still unpacking, trying to find space for everything and counting down for the next 3.5 weeks before we have internet access hooked up at our house. Yay. So we'll see how it goes.
Oh, and for the history buffs out there Thomas Paine was born in Thetford :c)
