Mom and Dad Visit Part 1: London and UK

The toughest part of living abroad is being apart from those you love. I don't like thinking about how long it's been since I've seen various members of my family or good friends. It makes me sad. Blogs, Skype and email are great, but it's not the same as being face to face. We really appreciate the effort and sacrifice family and friends make to come see us, so we were especially excited when my parents decided to make a visit this summer. It was their third trip together to Europe, second to see us. With two and a half weeks together we had plenty of time at home together and time to show them a few things around England they hadn't seen on previous trips.


Playing Scrabble at home






In Canterbury. Their first weekend here we took them on a weekend-long Charles Dickens tour through Dickens country in Kent. I basically replicated the trip I took with my literature class last autumn.
















Canterbury Cathedral


















Broadstairs


























































Dover








View over to France








Rochester










You know, for when you get a sweet tooth while you're gettin' a belly ring


The house that inspired Mrs. Havisham's Satis House








Cooling to visit the gravest that inspired the opening scene with Pip in Great Expectations


Signing the church registry, we were the only souls at the church


















The grave where Dickens would picnic




I wasn't able to get my parents inside Dickens' Gad's Hill Place house, but we did still stop by for a peek


In Portsmouth at the Dickens birthplace museum.


This is the room where he was born






And the lounge chair where he died.






Mom and Dad had spent a lot of time in London before, so we only spent one day touring the town.
















Best burgers in the UK to date




At Jane Austen's house in Chawton, also a trip I had taken with my literature course a few years ago. So nice to be able to show all these places to my parents, and my Brit-lit loving mom.












At the grand cathedral in Winchester