| We are on a train back to London from Wareham in Dorset. SouthWest trains have free WiFi. We have two more days in UK, our trip is coming to an end.
Yesterday we were in Swanage. The main purpose of the trip to Swanage, most tourists don't visit, there are so many other beautiful places to visit in UK, except to may be hike the Jurassic Coast, but we were there because a little site on the internet told me that my most favorite author of all times Enid Blyton spent her summers here writing the Famous Five and Noddy books getting inpiration from this area.
The little steam train that runs now from Swanage to Corfe Castle, the Corfe Castle which was in ruins, beautiful perfect ruins for DH and JSK to play hide and seek in, the little village that was fairly uniform, the Isle of Purbeck, the freckled, golden haired children, the sandy beaches, the caves, the impressive houses on top of the hills were all inspiration to Enid Blyton as she wrote her books and devised the plots.
When in Bath we saw the children from King Edwards School of 500 years dressed in impeccable uniform of dark grey blazer and trousers which a white ironed shirt underneath, waiting to close their school with a service at Bath Abbey. I realized that when I came to America I was naive enough to to understand the difference between America and England and in fact how they are totally the opposite of each other.
Having read Enid Blyton books I was smitten by the British ways of doing things. I wanted to meet the freckled children, have some ginger ale and sandwiches, wear super formal attire of pencil skirts and blouses, send my kid to boarding school where she would have all kinds of adventures ;--)
Visiting Swanage and Corfe Castle was quite an experience and reminded me one more time that it is more rewarding to visit the less touristy places to get the real feel of the country. Dorset is probably a nice warm vacation place for the locals to get some suntan, as it probably was for Enid!
Corfe Castle is a cute little town most likely built around the same time since all the houses looked similar with slated roof in gray color. There were tony shops, sweet shops with old time candies, tea rooms where we had our first and likely only English tea of orange scone and marmalade with clotted cream with a hot pot of tea. There was a school group at the Castle learning the history of the castle, was lovely to see the kids.
Our stay for the night had a lovely view of the Jurassic coast right from our window. The hosts make a difference in how you experience the place. Swanage hosts were lovely. They had two cats and two dogs. One cat had just given birth to a litter of 4 kittens. JSK has become very bold and asks what she wants, we have to stop her from being disrepectful to the hosts by entering into their rooms without asking if it is okay. Most hosts don't mind and in fact love her though. I have asthma like symptoms due to allergy to cat hair but.. It was worth it ;--) although next time to cat homes to stay. There was a small Ginger pop shop that sold Enid Blyton books which I had to buy for old times sake.
The steam train experience was amazing, the trains are from 50 years ago, chugged along slowly spewing white smoke.
Overall beautiful day!
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