A Weekend in England: Bury's Pubs and Livin' it up in Liverpool

Jon attended a conference in England mid-March and I joined him there for St. Patrick's Day weekend. We were most excited to spend time with our friend Justin, who is a buddy from the Wiesbaden days. He's currently stationed at Leakenheath and lives in the quaint town of Bury St. Edmunds, near Cambridge. Jon and I had only spent time in London before, so we were thrilled to have the opportunity to see different parts of England away from the capital. We spent our first two nights at Justin's place and enjoyed exploring Bury (as the locals call it) and its thriving pub culture.

Justin and Jon exploring the pubs of Church St.

Bury St. Edmunds' town square

Bury has an adorable downtown and is the idyllic English village I had always imagined, but had never had the opportunity to visit. There is a beautiful abbey in the center of town with gorgeous surrounding gardens and a peaceful stream. Though it was only mid-March, the flowers were already in full bloom. 

Abbey and Gardens in Bury St. Edmunds

In addition to the abbey, this small village also has St. Mary's church, which is where Mary Tudor (Henry VIII's sister) is believed to be buried. We enjoyed visiting the churches and walking around the quaint streets before our highlight of the day......

St. Mary's Cathedral in Bury St. Edmunds

....A visit to the Greene King Brewery! In actuality, we had never heard of this brewery prior to our trip to England, but Justin told us a tour there was a must-do, so we made it happen. 

View of Bury St. Edmunds from Brewery rooftop

The tour was extremely well-run and it was quite interesting to learn about the various ales they make and the history of the brewery, which dates back to 1799. It was incredibly interesting to walk around the various areas of the brewery and actually see the process and impressive machinery. 

The tour ended at the Brewery Tap where we were able to sample the many types of beer they make. Our fave was the Abbot Ale. 

On Saturday morning, we caravan-ed with Justin and his girlfriend, Sara, to Liverpool for the Beatles "Magical Mystery Tour." Justin had already planned to do this with his squadron and we were able to tag along. This was not necessarily something on our bucket-list, but I am so glad we decided to take part in this unique experience. 

After dropping off our bags at the hotel, we met up with the rest of his squadron for our Beatles private tour. The tour guide was fantastic and was a wealth of information about the Beatles and their lives in Liverpool. This tour focused on the childhood of the Fab Four and how they met. We were able to see each of their childhood homes and places of significance such as Penny Lane and the Strawberry Fields. 

"Penny Lane is in my ears and in my eyes
There beneath the blue suburban skies"

The lyrics go on to talk about a bank, a barber shop, a fire house and a shelter in the middle of the roundabout, all which really exist within the bustling intersection, where five streets come together.

"Let me take you down, 'cause I'm going to Strawberry Fields.
Nothing is real and nothing to get hung about.
Strawberry Fields forever."

Next, we visited the Strawberry Fields, which is more of an overgrown green area behind John Lennon's childhood home. He would come here to play and explore his imagination, and clearly always held a special place in his heart.

The tour ended in the bustling bar district of Liverpool at the Cavern Club. This was hugely significant as the place where the Beatles frequently played and were discovered by Brian Epstein. Today, they still have many big-name performances, but mostly showcase Beatles cover bands.

The underground Cavern Club

Justin and Jon

And of course we had to take a photo in the iconic British phone booth in the club

After the tour, we enjoyed a group dinner before everyone split up to partake in their own Liverpool nightlife. We had a blast exploring the waterfront where we came across these sheep-banana hybrids. And of course we had to strike a pose.

Justin and Sara

In the Albert Dock district we stumbled upon an amazing Circus-theme bar that was quite, well, Eccentrico!

We couldn't resist taking our picture with the dancers on stilts. I'm only sad we didn't think of these costumes for our Carnaval Circus! Talk about "standing" out!

At the end of the night, we made our way back to the bustling Matthews Street bar district and were amazed by the crowds out in full force to celebrate St. Patrick's Day. I always had heard that it's more of an American holiday, but it has clearly caught on in this part of England as people were going nuts in green. We ended the night grabbing some kebabs and hanging with some leprechauns. An incredible end to an incredible Liverpudlian night!

A Very Clough Skication

The first annual Cloughs-in-Germany ski trip commenced March 8 at Edelweiss Lodge and Resort in Garmisch, nestled in the Bavarian Alps. Though this was my third (Jon's fourth) trip to Edelweiss, it was a first to go there with family and we hope it won't be the last.

After caravan-ing down to Garmisch from Ramstein the night before, we woke to an overcast and foggy day in the mountains. We all headed to the ski lodge and up the mountain where we spent some time together on the beginner slopes before Jon, Neil, Sybil and I headed farther up the mountain. The visibility continued to get worse and worse as the day went on, but we managed to get  back in the swing of skiiing, despite the slushy conditions. 

Thankfully, that night we received a good six inches of snow, which improved the conditions immensely. The visibility still wasn't great in the morning, but at least by the afternoon we were seeing pockets of sunshine and it completely cleared up by the end of the day. Jon and I spent the morning skiiing together and met up with Neil and Sybil that afternoon. Although I know Jon has fun skiing with me, I don't think it compares to the time he gets to spend with his brother.

Neil as King Ski!

The third day was absolutely perfect with sunshine and a clear blue sky. We spent most of our time skiing at the top of the Kreuzeck and Osterfelderkopf mountains for these amazing views. 

After 2.5 days of skiing our bodies were feeling the mega-soreness and we decided to spend our final afternoon visiting the Ettal Monastery and the quaint town of Oberammergau. 

The Flying Monolith (minus Mark)

Although there's never really any need to leave the Edelweiss Resort with their restaurants, hot tub, pool and other fabulous facilities, we decided to venture out and spend our final night eating at a traditional Bavarian restaurant in downtown Garmisch. Jon and I had been here previously on our squadron ski trips and in addition to being famous for their slap-dance and live music dinner entertainment, they are also famous for their 3-liter beers. Of course, Jon and Neil had to partake in this. 

So happy with their 3-liter beers.

All in all, it was an unforgettable, fabulous skication that, best of all, we were able to enjoy with family. I can't wait to hopefully do it again next year. Aufwiedersehen Edelweiss! Bis zum nächsten Jahr!

Come One, Come All to the Circus of Carnaval!

Vibrant colors, extravagant costumes, marching bands and endless parades and pagentry are common not only in a circus, but also during Carnaval. For this reason, we decided to make this year's Carnaval circus-themed, when thinking about our costumes. It's hard to believe that this is our 6th season of Carnaval/Fasching, and yet we still do not fully understand all the inside jokes, traditions and nuances surrounding this wacky festival. For many Limburgers, it is the most important and special time of year as months of work go into the costumes, parades and party-planning revolving around this holiday leading up to Ash Wednesday. 

Marching Band in the Sittard Markt

We began Carnaval weekend by attending a village parade in Germany with friends Friday night. We had a spectacular time watching the mostly teenage-run floats, pulled by tractors, roll through the village, each with a different theme. Some of our friends took part in the circus-themed extravaganza and came dressed as various animals (lions, elephants, tigers), which allowed my costume to be more authentic as I was a lion tamer/ring mistress. 

A Whip-less Lion Tamer

Jon had aspirations to be a circus stuntman and saw this as an excuse to finally buy an Evel Knievel costume. He enjoyed performing "stunts" throughout the weekend. 

Jon, I mean Evel, and his co-worker, Arnie

On Sunday, we gathered a large group of friends together to take part in Sittard's Grote Optocht (large parade). We had so much fun with our group last year, and we wanted to re-create this day with even more people. 

Jeff as the Ring Master - quite a job with this circus crew!

Group of Circus Ladies 

In addition to friends, we also had Neil, Emily, Sybil, Shannon and Cassie come up from Ramstein for the weekend to experience Carnaval. They managed to pull costumes together in a day and looked fantastic as an organ-grinder, dancing monkey, fortune-teller, lion and tiger. We feel so blessed to have them close by and to be able to share these special and unique experiences with over the next year.

The Clough Family Circus

The Lion Tamer with Shannon and Cassie

This was an especially unique Carnaval for Jon as he was asked by our neighbors to be in the parade with their group. They urgently needed an additional person at the last minute, as someone in their group got sick. He was so honored to be asked to be a part of this highly selective event and jumped at the opportunity. Although we weren't able to hang out with him during the parade-viewing, his missed presence was worth it when we finally saw him in the parade line-up, leading his group with the enthusiasm only Jon can muster. 

Jon and the 'Marotte Sirk' group, with three monkeys

Apparently I'm not the only one who thinks Jon's smile is fantastically contagious, because he was one of 12 photos featured on the online newspaper the next day. 

Photo featured in the online Limburgs Dagblad

 During the three hours of parade-viewing, we saw sunny weather turn cloudy, start snowing, turn to rain and eventually stop and get cloudy again. It was the most bizarre afternoon, but it separated the hard core Carnaval-goers from the fair-weather Carnaval-goers.

  

 Not long after Jon's group passed by, we moved our party posse from our street-viewing location to the market square where the parade ended. Eventually, we met up with Jon and visited our favorite (and packed) local bar before calling it a day and heading back to the house. Here, the party continued on with burgers, snacks and dancing before the circus finally disbanded.

On Monday, we woke to gorgeous sunny skies and spent most of the day outside with the girls. That afternoon we threw on silly hats to view our neighborhood parade that goes right in front of our house. It's not much of a parade, consisting of only about 10 cars/floats, but there was a band and candy, so the girls seemed happy. 

It was yet another, fantastic Carnaval season and it's hard to believe that next year will be our last. I'm not sure how we'll top the Carnaval Circus, but I have no doubt we'll try!

Svenskt Bröllop Part II: Richard Getting Married

Within five months, Jon and I have been fortunate enough to attend not one, but two weddings in Sweden of dear friends I met while working at Baylor. Since 2005, we have had several reunions throughout Europe and we were so honored to be invited to Maria's wedding in September and Richard's wedding in January. What are the chances that these two friends from the same semester at Baylor would be getting married within one year?! The weekend after I returned from my month-long visit to Texas, we trekked to the winter wonderland of Sweden in January. Though I had visited several times before in summer and fall, this was my first winter visit. A beautiful snow-white ground cover, frozen lakes with ice skaters, and beautiful traditional wooden houses in the white haze of snowfall presented an idyllic picture of Sweden in winter. 

Outside the church where the wedding took place

Our first night was spent in Stockholm with the newly married Maria and Jaokob. We had a fantastic evening out on the town complete with a delicious dinner, karaoke and bar-hopping. Stockholm is truly a remarkable city and I'm so fortunate we are able to experience it with a local perspective. The following day, we trekked to the suburbs of the city to stay at Maria's dad's house, near the wedding location. After dropping our bags, we made our way to a beautiful country church built in the 1200s. Richard and Sofie's wedding only had 40 guests, and we were so very honored to be included in their guest list.

The wedding church

The newly-wedded couple, Richard and Sofie

It was such a beautiful setting for a wedding and after the short ceremony, we made our way to the reception where we enjoyed a champagne reception, fantastic dinner, coffee and dessert and later dancing. The Swedes sure know how to do it up right! One aspect of the Swedish wedding tradition I absolutely adore is the dinner program at each person's seat, which provides commentary about each guest. As you can imagine, it takes a great deal of time to write a short paragraph about each guest, but the effort is worth it when the guests can learn a little bit more about each other and it is a great conversation starter. Another wonderful tradition is that couples do not sit next to one another, in order to encourage conversation with other dinner guests. We had so much fun meeting all the other Swedes there and once again, being the only Americans (or foreigners for that matter). These are experiences we will definitely never forget!

Jon, Richard and Jakob

The Texas Crew: Jakob, Maria, Richard and the Cloughs

Just like Maria and Jakob's wedding, Richard also included a Texas element as an homage to his time there. He had arranged to import Lone Star Beer and had several Texas references in his dinner program. Our wedding gifts to Richard were Texas-themed and even included a Texas passport so he could re-enter the Lone Star State more easily. 

A Texas Cheers

The next morning, Maria's dad and stepmom took us out to a lovely Sunday brunch at a neighborhood restaurant along the archipelago. Pictures cannot capture the beauty of the muddled sun in its last effort to produce rays before the snowfall started. The brunch was absolutely superb, but the company was the highlight of the day. Maria's family is so incredibly kind and I was so glad for the opportunity to spend more time with them and get to know them better. Maria and I have always had a special bond and just as it was so meaningful for her to spend time with my family in Texas, I was so happy to be able to spend time with hers. 

A Sunday brunch view

The Lilliestierna Crew

Post-brunch walk home in the snow

On our way to the airport that afternoon, we managed to do some sight-seeing at royal grounds where we saw the palace for foreign visitors and a beautiful church. It was a perfect Sunday afternoon with children sledding down hillsides, people walking and skiing through the countryside, and me spending time with my Swedish "family." I feel so blessed to have these incredible friendships with both Maria and Richard. What I thought would be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, has somehow happened twice and I am elated to have witnessed the union of not only one Swedish couple, but two. Until my next visit.......