A Sun-Filled Week in…England?

What kind of vacation have you really had if you haven’t filed a police report and visited the local hospital?

As has become a semi-regular tradition, we flew to England to join our group of Cheltenham friends at a holiday home they’d booked for the weekend.

Saturday traditionally includes a long walk in the countryside, through fields of cows, horses, and sheep. We were staying on the eastern edge of the Cotswolds, near Lechlade-on-Thames, so our walk was along the River Thames.

We stopped for a picnic lunch along the river, then returned to our rental property for tea and biscuits, followed by a soak in the wood-fired hot tub.

The next day, we walked to a pub for a traditional Sunday afternoon Roast, which turned out to be more excitement than we’d bargained for.

Before we left the pub, Ray went to the ‘loo’ and had to pass a woman who had two large dogs. Dogs are very common in English pubs – we had one with our group – but Ray didn’t like the look of the Rottweiler, and wasn’t confident the woman could control it. Sure enough, as he walked past, the Rottweiler lunged forward and bit his arm.

When our gang heard the commotion, they swung into action, getting the dog owner’s info, talking to witnesses, administering first aid (the bite broke the skin on both sides of his arm, but wasn’t deep), informing the pub owner, calling the police, arranging a car to take us to the nearest Minor Injuries Unit, and giving hugs. It was comforting to have all the decisions made for us.

At the hospital, Ros, the doctor in our group, went in with Ray to make sure the right questions were asked. Given the location of the bite, antibiotics were deemed unnecessary, but they gave the wound a good cleaning to prevent infection (England is rabies-free, so that wasn’t a concern). We were in and out of the hospital in less than half an hour.

The dog owner was very apologetic, but she downplayed the seriousness of having a dog that lunges at someone without warning or provocation. This was a 100-pound dog and it could have been a child. Everyone agreed the incident needed to be reported. The police said it’s likely the owner will be required to keep the dog muzzled in public.

On the plus side, since the group organizes these holidays about once a year, they sometimes have trouble keeping them straight, e.g., “Was that the one where the dog ate the birthday cake?” This will now be “the one where Ray got bit at the pub”.

You don’t get a group of 14 people together without having a real mix of personalities, but underlying our differences is such genuine affection for each other, and that’s what keeps Ray and I coming back every few years. Friendships like that are worth holding on to.

The second part of our trip was a visit to our long-time friends Ric and Susan, who recently moved to England from Cobourg, Ontario. They moved to the UK in part because one of their daughters and two of their grandchildren live there. We’ve known Erica since she was little, so it was also great to see her again and meet her partner and their two young children.

We explored the charming village of Histon, where Ric and Susan now live, then went to the local pub for dinner. The next day, Erica drove us into Cambridge, a city steeped in academic history.

Ric was unfortunately sick during our visit, so Ray joined Erica, Susan and I in Cambridge, then walked back to Histon along the River Cam, checking out the canal boats along the way.

After having lunch in Cambridge, the ladies drove to Anglesey Abbey, a National Trust site, and wandered through the gardens soaking up the sunshine. We finished up with tea and cakes and I got to cuddle baby Ben.

Our journey back to Canada took 17 hours from the time we left our Airbnb until we arrived at my sister’s place. It involved travelling by foot, bus, train, tube, plane, shuttle, and car (no delays, that’s just how long it took). That’s a long way to travel for a week, but we saw Ray’s mom on our way there and Karen and Tom on our way back, so we connected with a lot of people within that time. It was worth it, but we’re both a bit exhausted now that we’re home.

England had its sunniest March since 1910, and April seems on track to follow suit. We had nothing but blue skies and sunshine for our entire trip, but returned to grey, cold and rainy days.

Nick, meanwhile, spent his week skiing in Whistler with Megan and her family.

Juno spent the week at Camp Barber with her BFF Daisy.