England – May 2017 June 27, 2017
Posted by freda in Uncategorized.3 comments
Don’s responsibilities on the Advisory Board for MSX International took us to London this year for their annual meeting. The meetings were actually outside of London, but I tagged along anyway, and “hung out” in London while Don worked. Yup, life is okay. 🙂
We went two days before the meetings so as to have a little London time together, arriving early afternoon on Sunday, May 14th. After getting to the hotel – Xenia, a Marriott Autograph Collection, boutique-style hotel, on Cromwell Rd in the Kensington area, which we really liked for it’s smaller size and lovely staff, though we had to shuffle around each other in the tiny room (but that’s London, for you!) – we unpacked, showered, and then headed out for a wake-up walk through Kensington Park. I title these pictures “Sunday Afternoon in the Park With Don”…. 😉
We left the park through the Albert Gate, by the Albert Memorial, an ornate monument, designed by George Gilbert Scott, to commemorate the death of Prince Albert, Queen Victoria’s husband, who died of typhoid fever at the age of 42.
We walked back to the hotel, changed, and then took the underground to meet up with young friends Rob and Allison. Rob is Nico’s best friend from university, and Allison and Lucas were in Creative Writing together. Rob has been living in London for several years, where he is a Magic & Psychology Consultant & Speaker. Allison is writing a book. We met at their favourite tiki bar at Trader Vic’s.
We enjoyed a couple of cocktails, some delicious appetizers, and a great deal of conversation, and then we moved on to the Library Bar in the Lanesborough Hotel for a few more cocktails and small plates. A perfect first evening in London.
We’ve been to London several times, and so we try to do something ‘new-to-us’ each visit. We started our day by touring the Churchill War Rooms Museum, the historic underground bunker which was the British government’s command centre throughout WWII, as well as a museum exploring the life of Winston Churchill. Fascinating!
After spending a few hours touring this very worthwhile museum, we headed out for lunch. Fortuitously, The Red Lion was very close to the museum. Lunch was excellent!
After lunch, we plugged in our downloaded walking tour podcast by Rick Steves, of the Westminster City Centre, and went walking and listening. I know I’ve talked about these podcasts before (previous blogs), but I just have to emphasize again how great they are for overviews and details easily missed. Even though we’ve been several times to London, we still learned new things, and were reminded of details forgotten… Here are a few pictures we took along the way…
After our walk, we tubed it back to our hotel to change and then tubed it to meet up with Diane, (friend who now lives in Spain), who arranged to come to London for business to coincide with our time there. We had a delicious dinner at Villandry St. James’s, and then walked a block to the Royal Haymarket Theatre, where we had tickets to see “The Goat, or Who is Sylvia?” by Edward Albee, starring Damien Lewis and Sophie Okonedo. Having watched, and enjoyed, Lewis in both Homeland and Billions, it was great to see him on stage, in something completely different.
The next morning, Don left early to join the MSX International team, who were meeting for 3 days at Tylney Hall, in Rotherwick, Hampshire, about an hour west of London, and I stayed on in London while he was gone. Don’s room there was *much* bigger than our room in London, and the location was lovely. But, there would have been nothing for me to do, and London is FULL of great things to do.
I set off on foot along Cromwell Road …
and into the beautiful Victoria & Albert museum..
…where I discovered they had just opened a special exhibit on Pink Floyd, and because I was a ‘single,’ I could get into the next opening of the timed-entry exhibit. 🙂 I spent two hours in the very excellent show!
From the V&A, I tubed to the St. Pancras/Kings Cross station to go to the British Library’s special exhibit on the Russian Revolution. As Russia is part of our next trip, it was a fortuitous chance to learn a little in preparation, in a lovely setting…. No pictures.
And then, last stop for the day, one of my favourite book shops, and the oldest in the city: Hatchard’s…
And then I tubed back to our hotel, quite exhausted, to have a very nice dinner, and a couple of glasses of wine, in the hotel dining room.
I woke up Wednesday to cloudy skies and rain in the forecast – a perfect day for the National Gallery, the beautiful art museum in Trafalgar Square. I’ve been there a few times, but with over 2,300 paintings in its collection, it’s impossible to see it all in one visit. Here’s a selection of paintings I saw that struck me…but not all of them – I don’t want to bore you… 😉
I didn’t know this myth – love the explanation for the Milky Way – “According to myth, the infant Heracles was brought to Hera by his half-sister Athena, who later played an important role as a goddess of protection. Hera nursed Heracles out of pity, but he suckled so strongly that he caused Hera pain, and she pushed him away. Her milk sprayed across the heavens and there formed the Milky Way. With divine milk, Heracles acquired supernatural powers.” (from Wikipedia)
The object on the floor between the two men in The Ambassadors is an example of anamorphosis – it’s a skull, which becomes obvious when looking at it from the side, as captured below…
The National Gallery has several of van Gogh’s painting, like his wonderful Sunflowers, but I wasn’t aware of this one:
My favourite painting at this gallery was on loan, sadly… If you’ve never seen The Execution of Lady Jane Grey, by Paul Delaroche, it’s extraordinarily moving. However, my favourite for sentimental reasons *was* there:
Exiting the gallery, it had stopped raining and Trafalgar Square was getting busy..
From the National Gallery, I walked up Charing Cross Road, past the theatre showing the new Harry Potter play,
to Foyles book store…
…where I browsed (and bought), and then back to the underground to the hotel to change, before heading out to meet Diane at her hotel on the south side. She and I had a fantastic dinner at a little Spanish tapas place called The Port House, where we shared a variety of tapas, while enjoying a lovely Spanish wine, and then right next door to the Adelphi Theatre to see the rollicking-fun show, Kinky Boots. A perfect London evening!
On Thursday I had a ticket to see the special exhibit, The Radical Eye, at the Tate Modern, a sampling of Elton John’s collection of photography – not photos he has taken but, rather, famous photography he has collected over the years. It was an excellent exhibit, which of course didn’t allow photos.
Back down on the ground, I walked along the south bank…
From here I walked to the Wallace Collection, a collection of paintings, furniture, arms, armor, and porcelain housed in a stunning old townhouse. I’d been here before, but this time I wanted to see, in particular, the painting entitled A Dance to the Music of Time by Nicolas Poussin because last year I read the 12-part series of novels by Anthony Powell named after this painting. But first, a much-needed cuppa in the beautiful courtyard…
The painting turned out to be much smaller than I expected, but I’m glad I saw it..
You wander through ornate room after ornate room full of paintings, furniture, porcelain..
and then downstairs to the collection of arms and armory…the collection is huge; my boys would love it! This is just a tiny sample.
From here I walked to another favourite bookstore, Daunt Books. It’s mostly a travel book shop, organized by countries and regions so that, if you’re interested in traveling to Russia, you go to the section on Russia, and you will find: guide books; non-fiction about the country; and fiction by local authors, as well as authors from other places writing stories that take place in the country. A reader/traveler’s paradise!! I mention Russia, in particular, because (as mentioned previously) that’s our next destination and so I was looking for (and found a few 😉 ) appropriate-to-our-trip books!
And after a lovely time in this store, I walked to meet Diane and two of her friends at Jikoni, an Indian-fusion restaurant, where we had excellent food and drink and a great time.
And thus ends the London portion of our trip. The next morning, Friday, Don left his meeting location, picked up a rental car, picked me up, and we were off for three nights in the Cotswolds. On our way to the Cotswolds village of Chipping Campden, which was to be our ‘home base,’ we stopped to tour Blenheim Palace, which is the Duke of Marlborough’s home – the largest in England – and still lived in. John Churchill, first duke of Marlborough, defeated Louis XIV’s French forces at the Battle of Blenheim, in 1704. This pivotal event marked a turning point in the centuries-long struggle between the English and the French, and some historians claim that if not for this victory, we’d all be speaking French today. A thankful Queen Anne rewarded Churchill by building him this nice home. Eleven dukes of Marlborough later, the palace is as impressive as ever. In 1874, a later John Churchill’s American daughter-in-law, Jennie Jerome, gave birth at Blenheim to another historic baby in that line, and named him Winston. (from Rick Steves)
Exiting the palace..
We visited the worthwhile Winston Churchill exhibit on the site, a display of letters, paintings and other artifacts of Churchill, who was born here.
We grabbed lunch in the cafeteria, and tried a new cider…
..and then we were off to Chipping Campden, in the Cotswolds, to check into the Noel Arms Hotel.
Says Rick Steves: The Cotswold Hills are dotted with enchanting villages. As with many fairy-tale regions of Europe, the present-day beauty of the Cotswolds was the result of an economic disaster. Wool was a huge industry in medieval England, and the Cotswold sheep grew the best wool. The region prospered. Wool money built fine towns and houses. With the rise of cotton and the Industrial Revolution, the woolen industry collapsed. The wealthy Cotswold towns fell into a depressed time warp; the home of impoverished nobility because gracefully dilapidated. Today, appreciated by throngs of 21st-century Romantics, the Cotswolds are enjoying new prosperity.
Rick Steves has a walking tour of Chipping Campden, so once we settled in, we set out to get our bearings, explore the town, and follow the beginning of the walk while searching out a dinner spot. We started at Campden’s most famous monument – the Market Hall. It was built in 1627 by the 17th-century Lord of the Manor, Sir Baptist Hicks. Back then, it was an elegant shopping hall for the townsfolk who’d come here to buy their produce. Today, the hall, which is rarely used, stands as a testimony to the importance of trade to medieval Chipping Campden.
Turns out the Eight Bells pub is popular, so we couldn’t eat there. We made a reservation for the following night, and set off to find an alternate place for dinner. Turns out all of Chipping Campden is busy on a Friday night, but we finally got lucky at The King’s Hotel and had an excellent meal. After dinner a night cap in our hotel bar, and then to bed.
The next morning we set out to explore more of Chipping Campden, including a stop in at the Tourist Info to pick up a detailed map of the area for later when we set out exploring further afield. The day was overcast, but that took nothing away from the quaint and lovely beauty.
Following Rick Steves’ advice, we turned down a lane leading to an old Industrial-Age silk mill, in existence since 1790. Today it houses the handicraft workers guild and some interesting history. In 1902, Charles Robert Ashbee (1863-1942) revitalized this sleepy hamlet of 2,500 by bringing a troupe of London artisans and their families (160 people in all) to town. Ashbee was a leader in the romantic Arts and Crafts movement – craftspeople repulsed by the Industrial Revolution who idealized the handmade crafts and preindustrial ways. Ashbee’s idealistic craftsmen’s guild lasted only until 1908, when most of his men grew bored with their small-town, back-to-nature ideals. Today, the only shop surviving from the originals is that of silversmith David Hart. His grandfather came to town with Ashbee, and the workshop is an amazing time warp – little has changed since 1902. Hart is a gracious man as well as a fine silversmith, and he, his son William, and nephew Julian welcome browsers. They are proud that everything they make is “one-off.”
We bought a silver bracelet for me and silver cuff links for Don, pooling the last of our cash (they didn’t accept credit cards) to make the purchase. Kindly, Mr. Hart returned our last 5 pounds to us (a discount!) so we wouldn’t be penniless.
It was time for a scenic drive. Armed with the map, and google maps (SO helpful!), we set off along narrow, curvy, picturesque roads to our first stop: Chastleton House, just past Moreton-in-Marsh. (I *love* the names of the towns here.) According to a sign on the property: Chastleton House is the Jacobean home of the Jones family. Built from 1607-12 and almost unchanged for over 400 years. Proud poverty has preserved the house much as it would have looked then. Dust, cobwebs and rambling roses add to a feel of ‘romantic neglect.’ It’s so authentic, it was used as the location for the Seymour home in the BBC series “Wolf Hall.” Docents are scattered throughout the house, which is a fascinating place!
And because we’re in sheep country, here’s a field of sheep we saw as we left Chastleton…
From Chastleton House we drove to Stow-on-the-Wold. We had a great pub lunch at The Bell at Stow…
and then followed Rick Steves’ little walk around town. The Market Square has a long history: Stow was born in pre-Roman times; it’s where three trade routes crossed at a high point in the region (altitude: 800 feet). This square was the site of an Iron Age fort, and then a Roman garrison town. This main square hosted an international fair starting in 1107, and people came from as far away as Italy for the wool fleeces. With as many as 20,000 sheep sold in a single day, this square was a thriving scene.
At the back of the town’s church, is a door flanked by two ancient yew trees. While many view it as the Christian “Behold, I stand at the door and knock,” door, J.R.R. Tolkien fans see something quite different. Tolkien hiked the Cotswolds, and had a passion for sketching evocative trees such as this. Lord of the Ring enthusiasts are convinced this must be the inspiration for the door into Moria.
Next stop on our scenic route: Upper Slaughter…
…and then Lower Slaughter…
Our last stop of the day was at Bourton-on-the-Water, the so-called “Venice of the Cotswolds” with several canals. We had a quick walk around, before heading back ‘home.’
On Sunday, our last day in the Cotswolds,we started by finishing our walking tour around Chipping Campden…
The Green Dragons house has a sundial over the door, and decorative black cast-iron fixtures (originally in the stables) that once held hay and functioned much like salad bowls for horses. Fine-cut stones define the door, but “rubble stones” make up the rest of the wall. The pink stones are the same limestone but have been heated.
In 1367 William Grevel built what’s considered Campden’s first stone house. It also has a sundial high above the window...
…and then we followed the scenic route in the opposite direction from the day before, our first stop being at the Broadway Tower, before stopping in the town of Broadway. The Broadway Tower is a “folly” – a whimsical or extravagant structure built to serve as a conversation piece, lend interest to a view, commemorate a person or event, etc.: found especially in England in the 18th century (dictionary definition).
Before getting to Broadway, we came to the much smaller and picturesque village of Snowshill, population 164, (Rick Steves calls it “another nearly edible little bundle of cuteness), which is basically a road that loops around the church and back out again, and of course has a pub…
On to Broadway, which does, indeed, have a “broad way” running through the centre of town… much broader than any other village we visited…
Next stop, Stanton:
While we meandered around the church, the bells were being rung, beautifully, in practise. Here’s a 30-second video, which I can’t seem to turn right-side up…
From Stanton to Stanway…
Between Stanton and Stanway, a thatched cricket pavilion, originally built for Peter Pan author, J.M. Barrie in 1930…
And just past Stanway and Stanton, Hailes Church and Abbey – a Norman church and abbey ruins. Richard, Earl of Cornwall (and younger brother of Henry III) founded the abbey after surviving a shipwreck, but it was his son Edmund who turned it into a pilgrimage site after buying a vial of holy blood and bringing the relic to Hailes around 1270. Thanks to Henry VIII’s dissolution of the monasteries in the 16th century, not much remains of the abbey. However, the church – which predates the abbey by about a century – houses some of its original tiles and medieval stained glass, as well as cave-like surviving murals… (Rick Steves)
Time to head ‘home.’ We had dinner at Bistro on the Square, where they featured Cotswold gins …
Back at our hotel, there was a folk band performing in our bar – a perfect last night in Chipping Campden!
The next morning we were up early to head to Oxford for our last day in England. We found our hotel, and the car park recommended, checked in to the Vanbrugh House Hotel…
and then set off on foot to explore the town. Oxford, founded in the 7th century and home to the oldest university in the English-speaking world, originated as a simple trade crossroads at an ox ford, a convenient place for Anglo-Saxons to cross the river with their oxen. The University was established in 1167, and its graduates include 26 British prime ministers, more than 60 Nobel Prize winners, and even 11 saints, as well as an amazing number of literary greats. It was never bombed in WWII so retains the rich heritage of its original honey-coloured Cotswold limestone buildings. (Rick Steves)
We booked a tour of the Bodleian Library for a little later in the day, and carried on…
After lunch we toured Christ Church College, Oxford’s dominant college. It was founded by Henry VIII’s chancellor, Cardinal Thomas Wolsey, in 1524 on the site of an abbey dissolved by the king. The buildings survived the tumult of the Reformation because the abbey and its cathedral served as part of the king’s new Church of England. It still has a close connection to the royal family, and a long list of esteemed alumni. *And* scenes from the Harry Potter movies were filmed here!! 😉
According to tradition, every night at 21:05 the bell clangs out 101 times – each chime calling the curfew for the 101 students who first boarded here. This gives the students 4 1/2 minutes to get from the pub through the gate by the last ring. Why not on the hour? When the tradition began, time zones had yet to be standardized – and since Oxford was 60 miles, or 5 minutes of longitude west of Greenwich, clocks here were set five minutes earlier. That means 21:05 Greenwich Mean Time was 21:00 on the dot Oxford time. Even though the UK standardized its time zone in the 1850s, Christ Church College has insisted on keeping Oxford time. (And that explains why the White Rabbit in Alice in Wonderland is always late.) (Rick Steves)
It was now time to head to the famous Great Hall…after first climbing The (famous) Hall Staircase…and because we remembered about “Oxford Time,” we beat the crowds by 5 minutes and were almost at the front of the line as it re-opened after lunch. 😀
The Great Hall is where the academic community eat all their meals, and it is closed to tourists during those meal times. The hall is the largest pre-Victorian college Hall in Oxford and seats up to 300 people. It has a Gothic, hammer-beam ceiling and portraits of esteemed alumni line the walls, including the primary sponsor of the college – Henry VIII. The Harry Potter movies were never actually filmed in the hall, but the movie’s dining hall was based on this grand place, and if you’ve seen the movies, it’s truly like walking into that movie, except this real hall has only three long rows of tables, not four. Very cool!!
It was now time to tour Bodleian Library. You can’t take pictures inside, so click on the images link I attached to see this splendid place. Bodleian Library is the main research library of the University of Oxford, and is one of the oldest libraries in Europe. With over 12 million items, it is the second-largest library in Britain, after the British Library. It is one of six libraries that is legally required to receive one of every book published in Britain. (wikipedia) Because it is a research library, none of the books can be checked out, even by royalty, as we learned on our tour.
After the library tour, we went to the Church of St. Mary the Virgin, to climb the steep, winding staircase in the tower, for a view over the city… I don’t like heights, and am not fond of steep winding staircases, but the view really is spectacular…
Back down on the ground, we walked to Blackwell’s book store, one of the world’s largest bookstores, holding some three miles of bookshelves. :O
That evening we had a lovely dinner out at a little French Bistro recommended by the hotel staff, and a last cider in a bar on the way back to the hotel. The next day we drove back to London, returned the car, and flew home after our perfect little get-away.