The wedding was, in my opinion, fabulous! Yes it snowed, and I didn't get a slush drink from the machine but otherwise it was an amazing day. Almost everything went off without a hitch and we had one fun wedding, and we are grateful to everyone who celebrated with us. Here is my preview shot from our bridal shoot with our amazing photographer, Meghan Maxwell.
After brunch with our families, we packed up and headed out on our journey of a lifetime :)
The flight was long, but Air Transat far exceeded our expectations. Leg room was decent, movies were free and for 7$ I purchased a blanket, pillow, eye mask, ear phones, ear plugs and socks :) so I was actually warm on the flight. The food was decent and they fed us twice on the flight. We landed in Manchester and with some assistance from Google made our way from the airport to the metro station and then to our hotel.
We booked through an Easy Jet hotel sale at the IBIS Manchester Charles Street. Now this was not a 4 star hotel, but we were very pleased. The staff was friendly and helpful, the food was yummy and the room was cute and functional.
The downside to our whole stay in Manchester was that the dreaded stomach virus that our family had been passing around for nearly a week caught up to Lyle a few hours after we arrived. Needless to say we didn't see much (or any) of Manchester, but we slept lots and Lyle got good use of the POD style bathroom he liked so much.
We left Manchester by train the next day and headed to Stratford-Upon-Avon. I love trains :) I have fallen in love with the English countryside and enjoyed my time watching it roll by. Stratford was a lovely little town. When we got in we wandered for a bit trying to find the B&B we were booked at, eventually making the mile or so journey there without collapsing under our packs. The B&B is the Heron Lodge Guest house, just a short distance outside the town centre. We booked one of the smaller rooms in the house, but found it sufficient for our needs and the hosts were fabulous! David was a trained chef and breakfast was outstanding, I may miss that over the next few weeks while we are in self-catering apartments.
Our first evening in Stratford we went to dinner at a little Italian restaurant called Bella Italia, it was quaint and the food was good and reasonably priced. That night we attended the play, "Comedy of Errors" which was well executed and an enjoyable time.
Wednesday was our only full day in Stratford and we took full advantage of it. We spent the day touring the Shakespeare sights: his birthplace, his grave, and the homes of his two daughters as well as the excavation site of one of his former homes.
We had lunch/supper late in the afternoon due to our enormous breakfast. We ate at a pub near the river called Pen and Parchment. They had a 2 entrée for 10 pound deal and we took advantage of that. I had a fish and spinach Florentine and Lyle had a ham steak. They had banoffee tart on the dessert menu and I was excited through the whole meal for this. When Lyle went to order dessert they informed him that they were out.... I was sad, but then the cook decided he would run to the store to get the missing ingredient! Seriously, who does that? Anywho... the banoffee was amazing.
After dinner we went to a butterfly farm, they had 1500 butterflies it was a cool place. After that we wandered for a bit and then went to see, "King John" which was interesting. The script was historical and interesting the interpretation was bizarre. English history with a dirty dancing/ my best friends wedding soundtrack...
So that is the summary of our first few days :)
I will try to blog regularly to keep you all up to date
love you all,
Lyle and Heather
Sounds awesome! Glad Lyle's feeling better.
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