Last of Living like a Local in the 'burbs of London

This is it, folks, the end of our expat era next month. About 99% of our household goods were loaded onto a sea container and set sail from Portsmouth on November 19 for Texas. The husband has accepted a great new position back at company headquarters in the Lone Star State, so we're moving home and couldn't be happier. Of course, we'll always be grateful for the time we've spent living abroad. As luck would have it, the sophomore finishes her last semester exam on Dec. 14 and the college coed graduates two days later on the 16th. 

 

The husband already bought me a new ride back in the US of A, a fabulously boxy SUV with great visibility. That's very important to me, sitting up high with a commanding view of the road when I'm driving in a sea of big rigs and pick up trucks on the interstate.

Our final hostessing duties as UK residents were for my sister and niece. They came over for a visit right before Thanksgiving. As expected, we hit the highlights in and around London. Our first day in the city included a visit to the Tower of London, followed by a general overview aboard the hop on/hop off bus.

Selfie queens, young and sweet, only 15!

On the cattle call tour bus, we passed by some lovely little churches with nice statuary, as seen below. And beneath that is the famous roundabout from a scene in the Chevy Chase European Vacation movie where he says, "Look, kids, Big Ben and Parliament." Like a lot of the rest of us, he just couldn't get left.

Late September in London Town

While my two Texas friends were visiting, I went into London with them for a second day to do a bit of sightseeing. Some of it was familiar, like the Churchill Museum and Imperial War Rooms, but some of it was refreshingly new to me. We paid a visit to one of the famous Victorian cemeteries that are found around the (then) perimeter of the city. 

Winston's velour onesie jammies - love it!

I find the underground network of public and private rooms amazing, a place where important people and the work they were doing was kept safe during the Blitz.

We enjoyed lunch at a great little local pub, The Bull and Last.

Highgate Cemetery, one of the "Magnificent Seven" cemeteries established around the outskirts of central London in 1839 is home to some of the finest funerary architecture of the Victorian era. The section we toured, the east side, is spectacularly overgrown with trees, shrubs and flowers. It's reputed to be a haven for birds and small animals such as foxes.

The monuments above and below must have been popular vogue back in the day, because I saw them several times as we strolled through the grounds.

I found the ones both above and below to be quite interesting, not the usual cross or angel marking so many of the graves. Beneath the intriguing piano monument is one of the more notable folks buried in East Highgate, Karl Marx.

These final two burials quite poignant, as it's obvious someone is maintaining them. I couldn't locate any information for the person interred in the top pic bordered by tree trunks. However, the one below that is for a little girl named Eunice that died on Dec. 1, 1946. I can't help but wonder if there are any surviving family members for this long lost child that continue to keep the grave so tidy with fresh plantings.

A Day at Blenheim

We've lived in England for a total of four years next month and never made it to Blenheim Palace, seat of the Duke of Marlborough, for a tour. I drove my Texas friends there for a visit in late September and it was just lovely. The home is immense, and the family still resides there.

The interior was as ornate as you would expect in a *home* of this size. 

As always, the aristocracy liked nothing better than a bunch of family portraits, some tapestries and ceiling frescoes to pretty up the place. Above is a lovely likeness of American heiress Consuelo Vanderbilt whose father wielded the family wealth to marry her into a European title during the Gilded Age when loveless marriages were commonplace for the nouveau riche in the US. She produced an heir and a spare, then promptly divorced the duke and married a man of her own choosing. 

Just what every home needs, its own chapel and organ for Sunday services. To God be the glory, indeed.

No doubt my ancestors polished the silver, emptied chamberpots or clipped the hedges a couple centuries ago before they immigrated to the US. The gardens along the wing of the castle fronting the river were beautifully maintained. It was an incredibly verdant setting and very peaceful. It's handy to have a lot of acreage that insulates you from the hoi polloi.