Day 3 Picking up Austin and birthday dinner- (Sept. 18)

Best Birthday Ever!!! Oh yes, somehow I managed to plan our trip to England so that I could celebrate my birthday abroad! We love to plan our vacations for the Fall months as the weather is usually pretty nice and there aren't so many tourists. It just so happens that my birthday is in Sept. and our anniversary in Oct., so oftentimes I get to celebrate one of these specials days away from home.

We left the hotel pretty early in the morning to head back to Heathrow to pick up our youngest son, Austin. Austin was at a concert in Ohio with some friends when we left for England, so he flew out from Columbus on Monday night, arriving on Tuesday morning around 11:00am.

3rd largest airport in the world

The drive back to the airport wasn't too bad, considering that were on the motorway most of the time.

Here's some interesting factoids about driving on a UK motorway:

They use MPH rather than Kilometers
On and off ramps are called slip roads
Pass on the right
Speed limit signs are digital and can be changed for conditions
There are speed cameras EVERYWHERE!
"Give Way" means Yield

rush hour on the M1

We picked up Austin (who was very tired) and headed back to Rutland Water. After a break at the hotel we headed over to the village of Langham for birthday dinner.

Langham is a quaint little village about two miles from Oakham. This village was once considered a hamlet of Oakham. It was largely a Royal properly, given by successive kings to various favored families, including Thomas Cromwell by King Henry VIII. Like many English villages, Langham is home to a parish church, and of course a pub.

We heard that the food at The Wheatsheaf Pub was really good so it was the perfect spot for my birthday dinner. In 2016, The Wheatsheaf beat out 100 other bakers and butchers to claim the title of "Best Overall Small Producer" at the British Pie awards in Melton Mowbray. So, of course, Eric and Austin ordered the Steak and Ale Pie. I had checked out the menu online before making our reservation so I knew that they had vegetarian options.

Wanting to be a little adventurous in my food choice, I opted for the halloumi burger. I have never heard of halloumi, but according to google (how did we ever make choices without it??), it is quite the thing in the UK. You will find halloumi burgers, halloumi on salads, halloumi fries, halloumi kabobs, the list goes on and on.

So what exactly is halloumi you might be asking? Well, according to wikipedia, "it is a semi-hard unripened , brined cheese made from a mixture of goat's and sheep's milk and sometimes cow's milk. It has a high melting point so it can easily be fried or grilled" . It was kind of similar to mozzarella but not as soft. All I can say is DELICIOUS! When will we get halloumi in the US???

Halloumi burger, yum!!

Since it was my birthday, I just HAD to get dessert :) I decided on a Baileys torte- a malted milk cheesecake, with baileys soft center. Topped with chocolate shortbread balls and chocolate ganache. Served with cream (that means delicious clotted cream ice cream). They had me at ganache! It was an excellent ending to a wonderful meal. The Wheatsheaf has a warm, friendly and inviting atmosphere and certainly lived up to our expectations for a great meal. We had an amazing server who spent quite a bit of time chit chatting with us about our travels (I was definitely getting the feeling that they don't get a lot of Americans in that part of the country). Once again I felt like all that I had heard about Brits not being very friendly was just a myth. 

The Wheatsheaf in Langham

interior of the Wheatsheaf pub

 We rolled our full bellies back to the room for a good night's sleep in preparation for a big day on Wednesday as we would be heading to Madresfield Court, ancestral home of the Ligon (Lygon) family.