Cars are smaller, no doubt about it. There are some minivans, but they are less common. The weird thing is that there are very few minivans that have sliding doors. Even though you need them more than ever in England because the parking spaces are so narrow. Parking our compact car was even a challenge getting out the door when between 2 cars. This may be what forces me to not gain weight while I'm overseas.
So Toyota has a nice offer for us Americans that are moving to the area...they allow us to rent new cars on a month by month basis. We went over to the dealership and chose a Verso, which is similar to a Corolla but has a taller body. It has 2, 3rd row seats, but they're kind of puny and you have to climb over the 2nd row to get to them, ha! Unfortunately, Toyota doesn't sell minivans in Derby, though I'm not sure I want to be driving that big of a vehicle in the city anyway. We're going to try out this Verso, and if it doesn't work out, we may try to lease a Ford MiniVan.
Let's be clear, driving in the UKwas a challenge for us. Especially when we first arrived off the plane with very little sleep! But within a few days we were feeling pretty comfortable, and then had a couple near catastrophic accidents to make us realize that we really can't relax at all when driving!
Our experience driving in the insane "Circle-town" that Malta has become, really prepared us well for driving in the UK. Circles are everywhere in the UK, they just go the other direction...hee, hee. We found that making right turns was the hardest thing to do, and of course the easiest was making left turns. The circles weren't too bad, but the arrangement of intersections that were not circles could be confusing sometimes. One of the things that I struggled with is that there are no double yellow lines. All lines are white and very few are solid lines. Pretty much all roads have a dashed white line in the middle, whether both lanes are going the same direction or opposing. This can be a little confusing when you are turning onto a road...is it a one way? Which way do I go?
The roads are a lot narrower in the UK, especially in cities. Therefore since parking is allowed on most streets, cars will usually park with one side of the cars tires up on the curb. It's a little funny. But one thing that bothered Sean was that cars will actually cross over to the other side of the road to park, that means that the parked car is facing oncoming traffic. So if you turn onto a road, you may find a parked car facing you head on, and for a split second you may think that you're about to have a head on collision!
We found that in general the drivers in Derby were less agressive than in the states. Yes, they do zip along quickly and stop quickly in their tiny little cars. But there seems to be less tailgating and less road-rage, more patience than we've experienced in the US. People seem to be more forgiving...so far.
We took some video of us driving, just for fun. You might find it entertaining! This first one is a short clip of city driving which includes a right hand turn and a roundabout.
Here's me driving in the country.
Here's an example of how you have to pass parked cars on the road.
On our way back from Chatsworth we visited the small village of Edensor (pronounced Enzor). This small village is within the Chatsworth grounds. It's really interesting that the village used to be closer to the house, but when the 4th Duke of Devonshire chose to recreate the landscape of the property, he wanted to move the village so that it wouldn't be within view of the house. Since many of the villagers were reluctant to move, he built them new homes on the other side of the River Dewent in the new village....must be nice. This Duke totally recreated the landscape, moving earth, planting trees, changed the course of the river, taking 8 years to complete in the mid-1700s.
All of these stone homes were so cute, nestled together on a hill, with beautiful gardens surrounding them. As you enter the village, the first thing you see is the village chapel. The homes then circle around a beautiful meadow in the center of town, actually above the level of most of the houses. We climbed a staircase between 2 of the houses to get up into the meadow. There we found a few sheep grazing and a beautiful view of the village rooftops.
On Saturday Sean and I visited Chatsworth, an amazing house and garden situated in the Peak District, about 30 minutes away from Mickleover. In my mind I'll always think of this place as "Pemberley" from Pride and Prejudice. This is actually where they filmed portions of the movie in 2005. This place is so breathtaking, I was actually moved to tears at times, both within the house and especially outside in the gardens.
Chatsworth house has a very long and interesting history. It is the current home of the 12th Duke and Duchess of Devonshire, but was originally purchased by Sir William Cavendish by the persuasion of his wife Bess of Hardwick in 1549. The home stayed in the Cavendish family all of these years, undergoing many renovations and expansions over the centuries as each Earl and eventually Duke chose to leave their mark on the estate.
I took so many photos at Chatsworth it's so hard to just share a few. The home is filled with works of art collected by the inhabitants of the home, many of which appeared in the Pride & Prejudice film. Here is one of my favorites, the marble Veiled Vestal Virgin.
One of the most beautiful rooms was the Dining room, which is still used on special occasions.
The gardens outside were so grand and large that there is no way that a picture from a simple camera like mine can capture their beauty. This is one of the views of Chatsworth house from outside in the garden. Below you will also find a picture of Sean near a tunnel of rocks in the garden and the Cascade waterfall as well. The Cascade and it's Temple were finished in1711 and were the crowning point of the 1st Duke's garden.
This will definitely be a place that I will take visitors to the UK. I can't wait to show it off to all my family.
So far, I like the food in the UK. Of course there a few things that I don't really care for, but I am pleased with the variety of things that we've been able to try. An interesting thing about food in UK is that there are very few preservatives. Though this may require me to shop more frequently for food, it so far seems to make the food taste much better. Also, we've found that dairy and bread products also taste much better. While this also may be a result of fewer preservatives, we've been told that the dairy products are likely better due to the fact that the cows are only grass fed here, instead of corn-fed in the US. This also makes the beef taste different as well. I could notice a difference in a hamburger that I had the other day.
A few words about restaurants. We haven't eaten in a "restaurant" yet. We've only eaten in pubs. Pretty much all pubs serve food in the UK and their much more casual than a restaurant, and usually more affordabble as well. When you go into a pub, you usually seat yourself and order your food and drinks at the bar. You don't have a waitress/server, though someone from the kitchen or bar will bring your food to you when your food is ready and also clear your table. You don't have to pay a tip in a pub either, another thing making the meal more affordable. So far most meals are 5-7 pounds which is about $7-$10 for really good quality food.
Another interesting thing about UK food is that most Pubs have at least one Indian dish on their menu. These are referred to as "Curry" dishes. The one that I tried a couple days ago was fantastic, though I would imagine that some Pubs have better curry than others. Since Sean, Mia and I all love Indian food, this is really awesome. I told Mia, who is also known as the "Macaroni and Cheese Conoseur", that she will have to become the "Curry Conoseur"...she can try a different curry wherever we go out to eat.
It took us a couple of days to fully recover from the jet lag. By Friday we were both feeling pretty good. On Thursday and Friday we went house-hunting with our amazing realtor Beverly. She has been amazing! We were so fortunate to have her to guide us around. We saw about 9 homes and I would say that half of them would have worked nicely for us. So it was a very difficult decision. We narrowed it down to 3 homes, two in a town called Mickleover and 1 in a newer, more upscale community called Allestree. The 2 Mickleover homes were very similar...nicely kept house, nice land lord, small yard. The Allestree house was much larger and newly renovated...it actually hadn't been completed yet. After lots of thinking Friday afternoon and meeting the current renter of one of the Mickleover homes, we decided to choose the Whistlestop, Mickleover home. It happens to be almost completely furnished for us which will make the transition into the home much easier, and likely sooner than either of the other 2 homes. So here's a picture of the outside of the house:
This is a 5-bedroom house, with all the bedrooms upstairs. We are excited to have lots of room for visitors. It has a large eat-in kitchen that stretches the back side of the house on the first floor. Also on the first floor is a living room, dining room and small office. The only drawback is that the yard is really small, which is pretty standard for Micklover homes. The house is on a dead end street with several families in the neighborhood. It's a short walk or drive to downtown Mickleover where there is a 24 hour supermarket, bank and several shops. It's a short 10 minute drive to the schools that we expect the children to attend and there may be a possibility of them riding the bus to and from school.
Here are some pictures of the kitchen where I expect to spend a lot of my time. One of the interesting things about kitchens in the UK is that they have small refrigerators...imagine something a little bigger than your college dorm room size! Yes, I know it seems crazy especially for a family of our size. We are hoping to negotiate with the landlord to get a second refrigerator for the garage.
This home is a short walk or drive from downtown Micklover, where there is a 24-hour grocery store (similar to a Walmart but smaller), a bank, and several private shops. It will definitely be an adjustment for us, living in more of a city-like environment, but that's all part of the adventure!
So we arrived in Derby, UK on Thursday morning after a very challenging trip. Fortunately, all of our difficulties were on the American side, so everything has been very pleasant since arriving in the UK. Sean was brave enough to be the first to drive from the Birmingham airport to Mickleover in Derbyshire where our hotel is. He did amazingly well....only 1 person honked at us during our first full day!
So here's a little info about Derby, UK. Derby, pronounced "Darby" is a small city smack-dab in the middle of Great Britian, which includes England, Scotland and Wales. I would say that it is similar to Albany, maybe a little bit smaller, with suburbs all around. These suburbs however, still feel like city living to us. Outside the suburbs however are acres and acres of beautiful farm land. Derby is near the "Peak District" which and amazing National Park that contains some of the most breathtaking natural scenery and some amazing historical sites.
