Last weekend, Jacob went off with his boyscout troop on a Camporee, so with one less to complain, Steve and I decided we could handle dragging the other two on a sightseeing adventure with a pub walk! Oddly, the children are not as taken by pubs as Steve and I are. I guess that is why the drinking age is younger here since the culture revolves around the pub.
After a morning of soccer, we cajoled Cameron into changing in the car and we set off straight away to Great Missenden, Buckinhampshire. Our destination was the Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre. It was a great choice as Jacob may have actually found it to be too childish for him; although there were other families with teenagers coming through. The museum helped to show in photos and stories the life of Roald Dahl. He had spent his grown up life in Great Missenden doing all of his writing there. As you walk down the High Street you can use a pamphlet guide from the museum that tells you about storefronts and gas pumps and a library that inspired the descriptions in his books. The Story Centre is set out to inspire creative writing.
These gas pumps were described in Danny Champion of the World.
(notice they are BP pumps!)
This is Roald Dahl's chair that he sat in to write every day for over 30 years!
I sat in it too, hoping for some creativity to rub off as I have signed up for National Novel Writer's Month and will attempt to write 50,000 words in November.
Katie is creating a story in pictures.
Cameron added his own worm to the Peach!
We actually spent more time in the museum than we had expected because Katie and Cameron were thoroughly engaged. But we had to usher them out because Steve and I also wanted to get in a Pub Walk. I had found a circular route in a book I had picked up years ago that goes around Great Missenden. When I glanced quickly at the distance I remembered seeing that it was 4 miles. I did not register the other 3/4 of a mile printed next to the 4. We can't really explain how long a mile is to the kids because anything that is longer than a 10 minute walk is too long for them. But they started out on the walk with a positive attitude!
The walk started at the end of the High Street and turned past the church where Roald Dahl was buried. We actually did not see the cemetery which was a strike against me as I had told Katie we would. But we hurried forward through two subways (tunnels under the road, not NYC transportation vehicles) and up a very steep hill. Through a kissing gate and we were on our way into the woods. One thing noted earlier in the pamphlet of Dahl sights around town was that the woods surrounding Missenden inspired his writing as well and as we entered this forest Katie commented that it was just like in the book The Minpins. She didn't even know to look for a connection but could see it right away.
This is "The Old House" and is just off the High Street at the start of the walk.
I like the look of it.
I had to give some perspective on the size of these doors by standing next to one!
The forest Katie thought was part of The Minpins.
After walking through fields, up hills, under huge power lines where we could hear the electricity as it passed through the transformers above, through more forests, along the edges of ploughed lands, over more stiles, someone asked me how far we had gone. I dilligently opened to the drawing of the area included in the book after all the written descriptions of the route and studiously determined from left turns and field markings that we must be just over half way! Katie and Cameron rolled their eyes and grumbled. I slipped on my perkiest voice and pointed out that it would take longer to get back to the car if we turned around than if we just continued on. There was no point now in looking back, just in getting excited for the next turn. They were not so convinced but agreed to carry on.
Saying hello to Katie!
It really is very pretty!
We passed through several fields of animals and several fields with plenty of cow patties to beware of. Cameron had a rhyme about the poo, but I can't remember it now. It kept them laughing! We came upon a field of horses and sheep. The horses all came over to say hello. Most likely many people before had treats for them and they were begging. The sheep all scattered. None was able to follow us over the stile and onto a street. Up the street and back into the woods, the question came again: "How much farther?!" I asserted them that it couldn't be too bad since we were already past the half way point, but I pulled out the map to show them where we were. Having just crossed a street we had a chance to catch some street signs and that helped us to map our location a little better, but, oops! I had been wrong before! I had overestimated where we were! We were only just now just past half way. Then I checked the beginning of the walk to reread the background of the walk and then noticed my error with regard to the length of the walk. There was some more grumbling from the wee ones. Katie was holding it together better than Cameron.
"Cameron," I soothed, "if you don't complain for the rest of the walk, I will let you play wii for two hours tomorrow. But for each time you whine, I will deduct fifteen minutes."
"OK," he said and he never complained once from that point until we arrived at the pub! He even talked about spreading out the time between Sunday and Monday. I was rewarded with a pleasant country walk and Cameron was rewarded with his favorite game time.
Finally, at just about five o'clock, we were back on the edge of town and entering the cemetery behind the church where we started. As tired as we were, we still went over and found the marker for Mr. Dahl. It wasn't hard to find as many people had left things by the grave and there are the giant footprints of the BFG to help you along the way.
Steve and I felt very deserving of the pints we downed at the pub and Katie and Cameron relaxed with their sparkling lemonades. They didn't even mind that we stayed until the kitchen opened at 6pm so we could stay for dinner. They had a great kids menu with pizza and pasta which was better than icing on a cake. We can't wait to get out into the countryside again.
A Laura Ingalls moment - remember the opening to the TV show?
Cameron and I relaxing at the pub
Steve and Katie
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