'Not Just Jordan' Journeys to the UK and beyond: Chalfont St.Giles

The White Hart Inn

We had a bit of a problem finding an inn with an available room. Although most school breaks are notorious for filling up vacation spots, I didn't imagine the winter half-term break to be the most popular for traveling. It became apparent that perhaps the trouble was our desired accomodations; one room with two beds larger than a twin. In the US, this is pretty standard hotel fare. In the UK, it seems to be unusual. Chuck jokingly told one man that the children could sleep on the floor or even in the wash closet (restroom) and we think he was appalled at the thought. Oh well. Finally, we found someplace with an available room with two king size beds! It is important to point out that in the UK, king sized beds are equal to US queen sized beds, UK queen sized beds are equal to US double beds, and they don't seem to call any beds a double. But king or queen, I was thrilled!

The girls in front of the Inn's garden, in a tunnel through a bush!

Chuck and the girls on the way into our room

And then we got there. Hmm, two twin size beds. We checked with the front desk and discovered that the twin beds could zip together, forming one king sized bed. Hmm, not quite the same as two king sized beds, but they had put a cot in the room, free of charge. We gave up, luckily we are fine with squishing together a bit.

Sophia hopped on the cot and opened her book...what a surprise.

I was not, however, fine with being really, really cold. Throughout the bed ordeal, I realized that I had been in the room about 20 minutes with the heat turned way up, my jacket and scarf on, Tessa sitting on my lap half the time, and was still freezing! We fiddled with the heater a bit more, had a cup of hot tea, and decided to go over to the pub while the room warmed up.

Tessa tested the beds, and cuddled with her toys for warmth

Thankfully, the pub was warm and the food was wonderful. Don't ask me how the steak and kidney pie tasted, or the lamb and haggis something-or-other. However, the asparagus and artichoke wellingtons were fabulous and the broad bean, courgette, and asparagus risotto was scrumptious. Chuckolate enjoyed a Guinness and shared a Grazing Platter (olives, cheese, sundried tomatoes, bread, and dipping sauces) with the girls and then had the fish and chips. Sophia ordered the bangers and mash (sausages and mashed potatoes), but substituted chips (fries) for the mash. Tessa just ate some of everyone else's food and was quite content. The girls chose mango sorbet for dessert and Chuckolate shared my bitter chocolate tart with some sort of sweet, yummy cream. I decided that people that don't like British food just don't know where to go or what to order.

This is the back of the pub and the garden.

Of course, the room hadn't heated up at all so they brought us a space heater, which didn't warm the room much, so we spent most of the night all cuddled in the bed together, with four comforters piled on top of us. Around 2am, I woke up to Sophia crawling down to the cot because it was quite warm in that bed! In the morning we went back to the pub for breakfast, though none of us were brave enough to order the kippers! Small, fried fish are not my idea of breakfast...sorry. The breakfast bar of cereal, pastries, and fruit was fine.

Chuck, walking in front of our room

Sophia, hiding in the tunnel through the bush

Happy sisters...they must have just eaten breakfast!

I'm not sure what Sophia was doing in this picture.

Goodbye favorite tunnel through a bush!

After the girls played in the garden a little, we packed up and headed to the town centre. Our waitress had told us where to find a duck pond in town, so we brought our leftover toast and shared it with the ducks. It really was a cute little village, even though day two was just as wet and foggy as day one!