Are you even allowed to celebrate Thanksgiving in the UK?

Thanksgiving–America’s quintessential holiday. As ex-pats living in the UK, we knew that our Thanksgiving celebrations would be different, and not just because we are 3,000 miles away from our families. 

So, in order to come to terms with the glaring absence of our families, and to embrace our temporary home, we decided to go all out and rent a castle for a Friendsgiving. When in the UK, right?

Thanks to a friend, and his ability and love of researching travel opportunities, we found Thornmead Castle, which would become our home for the weekend. We celebrated Thanksgiving a little early over Veteran’s day weekend since others already had travel plans for the actual holiday, which ended up working out nicely.

Brian, Asher, and I decided to make a little trip out of it. Brian took the opportunity to complete a training class at another base called Mildenhall so that we could hit the road early and work to see other sights before meeting the others in Weston-super-mare at the castle. Although, it became clear after he booked the training that Mildenhall wasn’t exactly “on the way” to where we were headed, but we made due and were able to check out some local sights.

Our first stop on this mini-get-away was in Oxford. After Brian finished his training, we drove the hour and a half to Oxford just in time for dinner. Now, I know I’ve written about the Brit’s inability to make a good burger. Seriously, they really are not very good. Your first warning should be that they never ask how you want it cooked. Brian and I have ordered a few burgers over here, but we quickly realized that we should just give up and let it go. But, when looking for a quick place to grab a bite so that we could get little man down at a reasonable hour, a restaurant called C.R.A.F.T. Burger in Oxford popped up and they were on the way in to the city. They advertised themselves as “American-Style” burgers, and they also paired their burgers with beers. Sounds like our kind of place, huh? So we said, alright, we’ll give it one more go.

The conclusion? These burgers were actually delicious and might be the only place in the United Kingdom that you should ever order a burger. Brian got the Oxford Bleu burger which came with gorgonzola,  their house Mayo, a Cajun relish, some caramelised onions, tomato & rocket (a.k.a. arugula). I ordered the Sergeant Pepper which came with cheddar cheese, deep fried onion strips (like a cross between blooming onion and French’s Onion), a peppercorn sauce, their house mayo, Tomato & Lettuce. Both were quite tasty (we split them, which is what we usually do!). We got Asher some Chicken goujons (so chicken tenders) and he seemed to enjoy them as well! Anywho, no regrets about that meal. You can tell I miss burgers when I dedicate a whole paragraph to them, huh?!?

We checked into the hotel for the night, and waited to tour the university until the morning. Now, don’t get me wrong, I was interested in exploring the prestigious Oxford Colleges and Universities, but I was more excited to see the inspiration for much of Hogwarts’ School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Sorry, not sorry. Many places in Oxford serve as the inspiration or the actual places where scenes from Harry Potter were filmed. So, of course, that was the main motivation for our visit. But HP aside, Oxford truly is a spectacle to see with beautiful architecture and landscaping, let alone the rich history. 

A brief note on the University itself. Oxford University is made up of 38 different colleges, so most students belong to both a college within the university as well as Oxford University itself. So, when visiting, you go from college to college, which comprise all of Oxford University. It’s like HP with the individual houses, but they all make up Hogwarts (except a bit different because if you attend one college most of your classes are only with those in your college, but you get my point). The University was started in the 13th century and has educated some of the world’s greatest minds. 

So, it was a daunting place to visit in that you had to pick and choose what you wanted to see, or you’d be there forever! So what better way than to use Harry Potter as a guide. The first place we visited was the Bodleian Library, which cost a small fee.  The Divinity Hall of this library was built in the 13th century and is one of the oldest functioning halls on the campus. It is called Divinity because its original purpose was the study of Theology and this is where the classes were taught and the exams were taken. There were many carvings in the gothic build which are religious in nature, but today is used as part of the libraries. It is clearly recognizable to HP fans as the infirmary at Hogwarts which can be seen sporadically throughout the films. Right above this hall is a library called Duke Humphries Library, which is very much so a functioning library, that was also used in Harry Potter as the restricted section. Unfortunately, because it was a functioning library, children weren’t allowed in, thus we did not go in! 

Next we went to Christ Church College which provided a great deal of inspiration for HP. Christ Church, while home to the famous Oxford Cathedral, is not a religious college by any means, but its origins were (obviously?). It was founded in the early 14th century by Cardinal Wolsey, who was the advisor to King Henry VIII and its original purpose was to educate young men in hopes that they would work in the church and the state, as they were so deeply connected. Since times have changed, it still works to improve the education for all, but is not grounded in the Christian religion. 

Anywho, there were quite a few places in Christ Church that were used in the films, as well as places that served as inspiration in the HP films. The first pretty basic place used in the films that we saw was the Christ Church stairway. This was used for the entrance into Hogwarts, mostly shown in the first HP film when the first years are waiting on the stairs to enter the Great Hall to be sorted. The second place we saw was the Great Hall. This was more of an inspiration, but it really does resemble the Great Hall in HP. The hall itself is stunning and it’s hard to believe that students eat meals here every day!  The hall clearly demonstrates the Renaissance architecture, with its beautiful woodwork and stained glass windows. Finally in Christ Church, their cloisters are also used in HP when Hermione reveals Harry’s father’s Quidditch trophy to him so that Harry knows he was destined to play himself. 

The final place we stopped in Oxford was the New Hall Cloisters which looked like all other cloisters; however, this was opened up to the courtyard where Harry confronts Malfoy in the 4th film and Malfoy is turned into a ferret. This courtyard also had the tree. Oxford was a beautiful place to visit and was full of rich history, and there was so much more to see, but it was Asher’s nap time so we decided to hit the road!

From Oxford, we drove about an hour and a half to Stonehenge, which mind you, really is in the middle of nowhere. As people who live in the UK, let alone people who travel here, many people say Stonehenge is a must see. Don’t get me wrong, Stonehenge itself is a really fascinating artifact of human intelligence dating back over 5,000 years ago; however, it legitimately is just a bunch of big rocks in the middle of a field (which you could probably see by car driving by!). Am I glad we went? Absolutely. It was interesting to see and not too far out of the way for us; however, I wouldn’t recommend going out of you way to see it, other than maybe on Solstice days because that’s probably fascinating. 

Perhaps the most interesting, and maybe infuriating, aspect of Stonehenge is that it is still arguably a mystery to all of us as to what its original purpose was. The most commonly accepted, and most discussed, is that it was a way of keeping track of time, a calendar for example, by tracking the solstice with the sun’s rays through the rocks. However, after unearthing many bones around the site, it is also believed to be a holy place where people went for prayer and healing, or a place to bury the dead as memorial grounds. However, since it was never documented, we may never know. Needless to say, while the history is interesting and mysterious, it is also amazing to look at how it was built and to think about how people moved those gigantic rocks without modern technology. Obviously it was massively important to them, if only we knew why!

We grabbed a quick bite at the Stonehenge shop before making the two hour trek to Weston-super-mare and our castle, just in time for Asher’s second nap. It’s like it was planned or something!

We arrived second to the castle, behind our friends and their three children. The owners of the castle knew why we were coming and they graciously flew the American Flag from their turret. It was a kind gesture. The castle was quite large, but not Buckingham palace big, thank heavens since it was a bit of a maze upstairs as it was! When you first walked in, you entered an external foyer with all the space in the world for your shoes and jackets, etc. Then, once you entered the main entrance, there was another foyer with a wood-burning fireplace. To the left was a grand room with a snooker table, another fire place, and a large seating area. If you kept walking in, there was another comfortable room that was a library with another fireplace and couches. If you went to the right past the foyer, you could walk straight into the massive dining room, right into two different kitchens (yes, I said two kitchens), or left into another room that was like an office with a small bar. If you went up the stairs and to the left, you were in the bedroom quarters, and if you went up and to the right then you were in the game room, the entrance to the turret, and another area for coffee in the morning. It was pretty large and pretty easy to get lost in the first day. 

Brian and I ended up taking one of the smaller rooms because it was the closest room to the stairs and allowed our monitor to at least reach the hallway downstairs. How did people take care of babies before monitors!?! The only downside to having that room is the door to the bedroom quarters was pretty loud, so we tried to keep it propped so Asher wouldn’t wake up. Anywho, we planned the weekend ahead of time where different couples would take different meals and we all worked together on the Thanksgiving meal. 

Friday night we all arrived. Our friends prepared chicken pot pies for that meal, which was perfect for all of us as our arrival times were all scattered. Friday was a low key night where we all relaxed in the library room and hung out. Saturday was the day we dedicated for the big meal so that we had leftovers for the following day. We had delicious waffles for breakfast and didn’t really plan lunch since we were planning on eating our meal around 3, but things took longer than expected…

Side note: we purchased our fresh turkey from a local butcher ahead of time and smoked the dark meat before leaving, so all we had to cook was the white meat, but like all holiday meals, it took a bit longer to cook than we thought it would.

Side side note: when I picked up the turkey from the butcher he asked if it was for Thanksgiving to which I responded yes, and then he asked me if Thanksgiving was just a practice Christmas dinner, which I thought was pretty amusing. And somewhat true, plus all of the thankful stuff…

So Saturday we hung around our castle, because why wouldn’t we, and slowly cooked our Thanksgiving meal. Brian enjoyed quite a few games of snooker, and we all enjoyed the beer, wine, and snacks. For dinner, we had all the staples, and then added some Yorkshire pudding because we were in an English castle and it only seemed right. The food was delicious, but more importantly, the company was perfect. Many people warned Brian that it would take roughly six months to settle and feel “at home” over here, and now that we’ve reached that point, I can honestly say it’s true. There have been things that happened at home, both happy and sad, that Brian and I wanted more than anything to be there for, but it isn’t realistic, which can be a bit upsetting. However, sitting around the table with our new friends who we are getting closer to every day, did really stop and make me reflect on how blessed we truly are, to be surrounded by people, both here and at home, who love and support us. (Hey, it’s time to be Thankful, right?)

Needless to say, Saturday night was a night full of food, laughter, and drinking—the epitome of the best kind of holiday festivities. 

On Sunday, we woke up and took our time around the castle. We then decided to meander towards the coast and hike to one of the National Trust’s sites called Brean Down. It is a natural pier, which sits about 320 feet high, giving really pretty coastal views across the Bristol Channel to Wales. On the coast, there are also ruins of an old Palmerston fort, built in the Victorian era (a.k.a. late 1800’s). It was a relatively relaxed hike, perfect for the day after eating so much you could explode.

Sunday evening was our last evening in the castle. If we were smart, we would have just eaten leftovers for dinner; however, we took the opportunity to have a taco night (because just like burgers, Mexican is another cuisine you simply cannot get well-done in England). We had delicious tacos and homemade margs to celebrate our final evening together. It was a repeat of eating, drinking, and laughing from the night before which was exactly what the doctor had ordered for us all!

On Monday, we spent the morning packing up and cleaning the house before heading home. On our way home, we stopped in Stratford-upon-Avon, to visit Shakespeare’s birthplace and to grab a quick lunch on the way home. As an English teacher, it was something I had to do, right? It was pretty cool to stand in the room where the literary genius that is Shakespeare was born, and it was really interesting to learn facts about his leather-making and tavern-owning father as well. I’m glad we made the pit stop to check out the legacy of Shakespeare (aside from his literary works, of course)! 

So there you have it. Our mini-friendsgiving and random UK must-sees in one post! Next up is saying Fröhliche Weihnachten (a.k.a. Merry Christmas) in the German Christmas markets!