What I learned about England

Our family vacation this year was 2 weeks in England.  Lots of fascinating things to see and do, and lots and lots of lovely English to hear and speak and be mutually understood.
Driving on the left is surprisingly easy to get used to, no problem at all really, though that was in my own car (we took the ferry across), the places I really needed to think were roundabouts and even that wasn't that big of a deal.  Left was the new right (only had to look one way to turn left), though I must say the English sure don't believe in spending money or using space for roads.  We spent almost the entire time in the Western part of England and there are very few freeways there (though they call them motorways of course).  There are some main roads, but even those seemed to be few and far between unless you stick to the larger cities and going directly from one to another.  Those main roads will be a full lane in each direction, often with a passing lane for going up hills and a few other spots on occasion, and at least a bit of a shoulder on the side of the road in most places.  Otherwise you're on these roads, that.... well before I went to England I wouldn't have imagined that such a thing would be considered anything but a country lane, a private drive, or something you see in places that don't have a very well developed infrastructure.  I guess in fact that's what I'm saying, the English haven't prioritised (spelling intentional) their private vehicle infrastructure.  We Americans spent millions in the 50s and spend billions today to expand and maintain our system of freeways.  One can drive from sea to shining sea on one of at least two, but often three or four east-west freeways, there quite a number of north-south routes.  The general rule of thumb in most populated areas is that the freeway will get you within 5 miles of where you want to go, and in suburban areas perhaps 10-20 miles and in rural area perhaps up 50 or in some cases 100 miles, but even then their are high quality highways to cover most of those kinds of distances in the US.  I'm not saying one is better than the other, but the difference is striking.  One could easily say that making the train easier and more convenient for travel is a good thing, but I'm not entirely certain that is the case in many of these places in the England.

So back to these little roads, often there aren't two full lanes, there is no shoulder at all, and there are hedges or a combination of hedges and the road is cut a bit lower than the surrounding land so that you're in what feels like a giant hedge maze.  One can drive for miles and never actually see the countryside around because you're always boxed into these little hedged roads.  The speed limit on these roads is often 40 or 50 mph, but it's almost impossible to drive that fast, often you just inch along at 25 or 30mph, sometimes less.  A trip of 10 miles can take 30 mins or more.  So many times the road was so narrow only one car can drive but irregularly spaced along the way are just slightly wider so as to allow two cars to get through.  The English though are very friendly drivers, and will gladly pull into a little spot and let you pass and wave you on.  Pulling out of some of these smaller roads on slightly larger roads can be difficult as visibility is often low and there were multiple times where someone would stop and flash their lights and let you get through.  It was nice.  The roads were so small at times that I was certain our GPS was taking us the wrong way... but no, that was just the road.

OK enough about roads, how about English food.  I'd heard stories from my uncle, and others who had lived in England years ago (in the 60s) and they described the food as not that great.  I've seen some English cooking shows and it seemed pretty good to me, but actually shopping most days and cooking (we had self-catering cottages) gives you a different feel for a place.  First of all the variety at stores was on par with the US.  So many stores here in NL are small with a limited selection and even in the larger stores the selection is still small.  The English, like so many places have superstores in many places and I admit I loved it. Going to a big Tesco or Sainsbury's was great.  I picked up some shirts at Sainsbury's that were really nice and quite inexpensive, but I digress, I was talking about food. So Pork Pies and Pasties of all kinds.... YUM. Pasties (especially Cornish Pasties) are a kind of meat pie.  Cornish Pasties are beef with potato, those seemed to be the most common but there were others.  The crust was generally doughy and soft.  Pork pies had the feeling of sold big chunks of some kind of pork wrapped up in a crust quite similar to pie crust in the US but without any of the sweetness.  I got the impression that the crust was made with lard which made it flaky, flavorful, and delicious.  Oh and they're both quite cheap, I mean really cheap in some places.  You can pick up a nice big pork pie for a pound, or four little ones, and these are the name brand ones. The pasties 2 for a pound of the cheaper kinds, and even the nice bigger ones at a decent restaurant with chips and such are always less than 5 pounds.  Otherwise fish and chips were delicious, had them almost every other day I think.  I found I prefer the Cod to the Haddock, and of course no malt vinegar for me thanks, though I often got some tartar sauce.
When talking about English cuisine and it's peculiarities one cannot forget about cream, as in clotted and double.  Double cream is like heavy whipping cream but even better.  Heavy cream in the US often has thickeners added to it (like carageenan) and the fat content is around 50-60%, while double cream is around 70-80% fat and has a fairly thick consistency. I really enjoyed double cream with fresh fruit many evenings for dessert.  Next is clotted cream.  Clotted cream is, well it's hard to describe, but it also has a higher fat content and when cold it's as solid as butter, but when approaching or at room temperature it's very spreadable.  It's creamy and just slightly sweet (though there is no added sugar).  It's made by heating milk for a long period of time and letting it cool, giving the top layer a yellowish layer of "clots" what is underneath is the color of regular cream.  Clotted cream makes up an integral part of "cream tea" which is tea (of your choice, rooibos for us) scones (usually two) and then clotted cream, and jam and usually butter too.  This will set you back 5-6 pounds in most places, but it's a really nice little break in the afternoon at... yes you guessed it tea time. I skipped the jam as I'm not eating added sugars, but still it was fun and delicious.  Clotted cream in my experience is best on baked goods/breads and while it was good just with fresh fruit, double cream was much better.
What else? Eating out in most places was pretty cheap compared to NL and less expensive than many other places in Europe, and portions were pretty large.  Sides sometimes included pickles and pickled onions.  Not my favorite, but decent.  When we got a salad it was good, but the variety there isn't as big it seems.  We were pleasantly surprised to find gluten-free options in many places, and that menus usually included calories which was really nice.  England also made me even more appreciative of the fact that I don't drink alcolhol, as that seemed to be very expensive. Oh and on that note, we were gladly served a nice jug of ice water at our table everyplace we asked for it, without charge, sidelong looks or any fuss.  That alone saves a lot compared to NL and many other places that either insist on selling you bottled water, or will charge you something (though not usually much) for tap water.