On the Move in England
May. 6th, 2002 11:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lillibetOn Wednesday morning, Jason's second cousin, Kit Furey, arrived with her
son, Austen. They spent the afternoon at the British Museum and then
wandering around the Leicester Square area. In the evening I made tarragon
chicken with mushrooms anad broccoli and we had a pleasant time getting to
know one another before jet lag set in.
On Thursday Austen had what the Brits call "a bit of a lie-in," so they
didn't get out of the house until noon. They'd wanted to get to Harrod's
and ended up spending the whole afternoon there, just making it back here in
time to head about again. We met Jason--who'd gone down to the new London
office to work for the day--at Brown's and had a nice meal of pies and
puddings and then raced across Covent Garden to see _The Lion King_ at the
Lyceum. The show was very good, especially the masks/costumes/puppets used
to portray the various animals.
On Friday Jason and I spent the day at home while Kit & Austen took an all
day bus tour of London that included visits to Westminster Abbey and the
Tower, pub lunch and a boatride down the Thames.
We all managed to be up early on Saturday morning and headed out by 8:30am.
There was a huge line at the Europcar rental office near Victoria and it
turned out that the only automatic they had available was a minivan. I
agreed to that before realizing it was a Kia :( Compared to all the little
cars I've been driving, it was HUGE, but it was a relief not to have to deal
with a manual transmission.
We drove straight out to Stonehenge, with very light traffic except for the
mile before the henge. It is really nifty to be inching along the highway
and see the henge perched up on the hill. We grabbed sandwiches and some
soup at the snack bar before heading up there. They've done a really nice
job of siting the road and support building (ticket booth, snack bar, gift
shop) such that once you go through the tunnel over to the henge, all of
that is invisible and only the windswept plain meets the gaze.
Stonehenge was smaller than I had imagined it, but still lovely and
mysterious. Visitors are kept about fifty feet back from the stones by a
low rope, so while it's not permitted to actually wander among the stones,
the view isn't blocked and it feels close. We listened to the audio guide
and strolled around for about an hour.
Our next stop was Old Sarum, the area's original cathedral town. It was
founded by the Romans and was a thriving place until various factors
precipitated the decision to move the cathedral about a mile down the river
and the whole town moved with it. We wandered among the ruins of the
cathedral and castle--mainly low stone walls--for a while, enjoying the
lovely day.
We drove on into Salisbury, parked the car, and walked along a lovely stream
admiring the baby ducks and other waterfowl. We poked our heads into
St. Thomas' church to admire the medieval "doom" painting of Christ sitting
in judgment with the blessed rising from their graves on his right and the
damned being fed to hellbeasts on his left. It was painted in 1470 and then
whitewashed over during the Reformation and restored in 1893.
From there we walked on to Salisbury Cathedral with its enormous spire
visible for miles around. A service was in progress as we arrived, so we
walked around the cloister to the chapterhouse, which has a lovely vaulted
ceiling and medieval carvings, as well as one of the four extant copies of
the Magna Carta. By the time we finished up there and looked in the shop,
the service was ending and we were able to visit the church. It's a lovely
gothic edifice with the canonical soaring columns. The east end of the nave
is decorated by two very differently beautiful windows--the higher one done
in 1781 in enamel on clear glass, depicting Moses and the serpent, and the
lower one, in Trinity Chapel, done by Gabriel Loire of Chartres in rich
blues, dedicated to prisoners of conscience throughout the world.
Leaving the cathedral, we walked back through the town, picked up the car
and dropped Kit & Austen at the train station to catch the next train to
Bath. We headed in the opposite direction and made it to Brighton by 7pm.
We parked and walked down the main street, along the water, until we found
rooms at the Royal Albion Hotel. Dropping off our bags, we went back out to
wandered through the section of town known as "The Lanes"--little streets,
largely pedestrianized, with shops and restaurants--until we were seduced by
a sign promsing "the best burgers you've ever tasted." Having had several
disappointing hamburgers here in England, we were dubious, but they were
truly delicious. Maybe they weren't the very best we've ever had, but
certainly the best since leaving California. It turned out that the
restaurant--Tootsies--is part of a chain and there are a couple in London
that we will have to check out.
After dinner we decided to stroll out the Brighton Pier. We made our way
past booths selling various foods and through two areas of games and slot
machines, to the amusment park rides at the end of the pier. We did a VR
rollercoaster ride--not as viscerally thrilling as the real thing, but with
the added fun of jumping gaps in the tracks. Next we tried the Crazy Mouse,
a fairly tame roller coaster, but with single, round cars that spun around
whenever the track had a sharp curve. That was really fun, especially since
it got us a view of the whole pier and sometimes felt like we would be flung
off into the darkness. After that we wandered a bit and got a sugar & lemon
crepe to share. We decided to do one more ride before the promised
fireworks display and ended up watching the show from the Ranger--kind of
like the old pirate ship ride, but instead of stopping at perpendicular, it
swings you all the way around. That was thrilling!
After all that excitement, it was time to return to our hotel, right across
the street from the pier. We took advantage of the large jacuzzi tub and
went to bed. When we woke up before our alarm at 7:15, I thought Jason
should get up to shower, but he insisted on sleeping until the alarm went
off at 8:30. When we got down to breakfast we realized that the alarm clock
had not been reset correctly, so it was an hour earlier than we'd thought.
Jason said "Isn't it good we didn't get up at *six*!"
We checked out after breakfast and took our bags back to the car. Then we
wandered around until the Royal Pavilion opened at ten. It is a bizarre and
beautiful remnant of the Regency age, having been built for the Prince
Regent's lavish seaside entertainments in the 1820's. The outside was
inspired by Indian and Arabic motifs, but the inside was decorated in an
elaborate "chinoiserie" style. It's extreme and ornate and stunning. It
was used by the Prince Regent and his heir, William IV, but Victoria found
it too public and sold it to the town of Brighton for just #50,000 (quite a
bargain, considering it cost more than #700,000 to build), but not before
stripping the place of all its furnishings and fixtures. It was redecorated
a number of times and used by the town in various ways, including as a
hospital during the war. Beginning in the 1950's it was renovated and
refurbished according to the original plans, paintings, inventories and
notes. Many of the original pieces were returned "on permanent loan from
Her Majesty the Queen." There were setbacks, including arson in the music
room--one of the real showpieces of the place--and a hurricane, but today it
is a truly fabulous place.
We had hoped to visit the Brighton Museum of Art & History, newly housed in
the equally fabulous stables in the recently restored gardens, but it
doesn't open until 2pm on Sundays, so we collected our car and went on down
the road. The weather was glorious in the morning, but as we rounded the
southeastern edge of England, clouds rolled in and it began to rain
fitfully. We stopped at a roadside restaurant and pub just past Hastings
for a pleasant lunch--roast lamb with Yorkshire pudding for Jason and a
small sirloin for me--before continuing up the coast to Dover. It's lambing
season--or just past--here in England and the fields along the road were
filled with sheep and hundreds of tiny little lambs!
By the time we arrived in Dover there was serious wind and cold rain, but we
did catch a nice view of the famous white cliffs. We went on up to the
castle and explored the inside areas there. In the keep they had a very
clever exhibit based on the idea that it was the day before the arrival of
Henry VIII on an inspection tour in 1539 and everyone was busily trying to
make the place ready. There were recordings of various craftsmen at work
and at one place in the Watching Room--a large hall--light was shone on a
wall with shadows of people rushing around in preparations. We also visited
the medieval siege tunnels, built after the Great Siege of 1216. The Secret
War Tunnels, used as the English headquarters during the Dunkirk Evacuation,
have only been declassified and opened to the public recently. We were
unable to visit them, as the guided tours were sold out for the rest of the
day by the time we arrived. We started to walk down the hill to the best
lookout spot, but the wind was blowing so hard it hurt the back of my head
and I wasn't looking forward to the climb back up to the parking lot, so we
gave it up and headed home.
Hopping on the motorway, we were able to zoom right along and made it back
to the house in under two hours. Today I'm planning to get to the grocery
store for a big run before we return the car. We're preparing to welcome
Jason's former co-worker, Benjamin, and his girlfriend, Abigail, on Friday,
so it's time to get the house back in shape for guests. And then next week
we'll be heading for Boston.
son, Austen. They spent the afternoon at the British Museum and then
wandering around the Leicester Square area. In the evening I made tarragon
chicken with mushrooms anad broccoli and we had a pleasant time getting to
know one another before jet lag set in.
On Thursday Austen had what the Brits call "a bit of a lie-in," so they
didn't get out of the house until noon. They'd wanted to get to Harrod's
and ended up spending the whole afternoon there, just making it back here in
time to head about again. We met Jason--who'd gone down to the new London
office to work for the day--at Brown's and had a nice meal of pies and
puddings and then raced across Covent Garden to see _The Lion King_ at the
Lyceum. The show was very good, especially the masks/costumes/puppets used
to portray the various animals.
On Friday Jason and I spent the day at home while Kit & Austen took an all
day bus tour of London that included visits to Westminster Abbey and the
Tower, pub lunch and a boatride down the Thames.
We all managed to be up early on Saturday morning and headed out by 8:30am.
There was a huge line at the Europcar rental office near Victoria and it
turned out that the only automatic they had available was a minivan. I
agreed to that before realizing it was a Kia :( Compared to all the little
cars I've been driving, it was HUGE, but it was a relief not to have to deal
with a manual transmission.
We drove straight out to Stonehenge, with very light traffic except for the
mile before the henge. It is really nifty to be inching along the highway
and see the henge perched up on the hill. We grabbed sandwiches and some
soup at the snack bar before heading up there. They've done a really nice
job of siting the road and support building (ticket booth, snack bar, gift
shop) such that once you go through the tunnel over to the henge, all of
that is invisible and only the windswept plain meets the gaze.
Stonehenge was smaller than I had imagined it, but still lovely and
mysterious. Visitors are kept about fifty feet back from the stones by a
low rope, so while it's not permitted to actually wander among the stones,
the view isn't blocked and it feels close. We listened to the audio guide
and strolled around for about an hour.
Our next stop was Old Sarum, the area's original cathedral town. It was
founded by the Romans and was a thriving place until various factors
precipitated the decision to move the cathedral about a mile down the river
and the whole town moved with it. We wandered among the ruins of the
cathedral and castle--mainly low stone walls--for a while, enjoying the
lovely day.
We drove on into Salisbury, parked the car, and walked along a lovely stream
admiring the baby ducks and other waterfowl. We poked our heads into
St. Thomas' church to admire the medieval "doom" painting of Christ sitting
in judgment with the blessed rising from their graves on his right and the
damned being fed to hellbeasts on his left. It was painted in 1470 and then
whitewashed over during the Reformation and restored in 1893.
From there we walked on to Salisbury Cathedral with its enormous spire
visible for miles around. A service was in progress as we arrived, so we
walked around the cloister to the chapterhouse, which has a lovely vaulted
ceiling and medieval carvings, as well as one of the four extant copies of
the Magna Carta. By the time we finished up there and looked in the shop,
the service was ending and we were able to visit the church. It's a lovely
gothic edifice with the canonical soaring columns. The east end of the nave
is decorated by two very differently beautiful windows--the higher one done
in 1781 in enamel on clear glass, depicting Moses and the serpent, and the
lower one, in Trinity Chapel, done by Gabriel Loire of Chartres in rich
blues, dedicated to prisoners of conscience throughout the world.
Leaving the cathedral, we walked back through the town, picked up the car
and dropped Kit & Austen at the train station to catch the next train to
Bath. We headed in the opposite direction and made it to Brighton by 7pm.
We parked and walked down the main street, along the water, until we found
rooms at the Royal Albion Hotel. Dropping off our bags, we went back out to
wandered through the section of town known as "The Lanes"--little streets,
largely pedestrianized, with shops and restaurants--until we were seduced by
a sign promsing "the best burgers you've ever tasted." Having had several
disappointing hamburgers here in England, we were dubious, but they were
truly delicious. Maybe they weren't the very best we've ever had, but
certainly the best since leaving California. It turned out that the
restaurant--Tootsies--is part of a chain and there are a couple in London
that we will have to check out.
After dinner we decided to stroll out the Brighton Pier. We made our way
past booths selling various foods and through two areas of games and slot
machines, to the amusment park rides at the end of the pier. We did a VR
rollercoaster ride--not as viscerally thrilling as the real thing, but with
the added fun of jumping gaps in the tracks. Next we tried the Crazy Mouse,
a fairly tame roller coaster, but with single, round cars that spun around
whenever the track had a sharp curve. That was really fun, especially since
it got us a view of the whole pier and sometimes felt like we would be flung
off into the darkness. After that we wandered a bit and got a sugar & lemon
crepe to share. We decided to do one more ride before the promised
fireworks display and ended up watching the show from the Ranger--kind of
like the old pirate ship ride, but instead of stopping at perpendicular, it
swings you all the way around. That was thrilling!
After all that excitement, it was time to return to our hotel, right across
the street from the pier. We took advantage of the large jacuzzi tub and
went to bed. When we woke up before our alarm at 7:15, I thought Jason
should get up to shower, but he insisted on sleeping until the alarm went
off at 8:30. When we got down to breakfast we realized that the alarm clock
had not been reset correctly, so it was an hour earlier than we'd thought.
Jason said "Isn't it good we didn't get up at *six*!"
We checked out after breakfast and took our bags back to the car. Then we
wandered around until the Royal Pavilion opened at ten. It is a bizarre and
beautiful remnant of the Regency age, having been built for the Prince
Regent's lavish seaside entertainments in the 1820's. The outside was
inspired by Indian and Arabic motifs, but the inside was decorated in an
elaborate "chinoiserie" style. It's extreme and ornate and stunning. It
was used by the Prince Regent and his heir, William IV, but Victoria found
it too public and sold it to the town of Brighton for just #50,000 (quite a
bargain, considering it cost more than #700,000 to build), but not before
stripping the place of all its furnishings and fixtures. It was redecorated
a number of times and used by the town in various ways, including as a
hospital during the war. Beginning in the 1950's it was renovated and
refurbished according to the original plans, paintings, inventories and
notes. Many of the original pieces were returned "on permanent loan from
Her Majesty the Queen." There were setbacks, including arson in the music
room--one of the real showpieces of the place--and a hurricane, but today it
is a truly fabulous place.
We had hoped to visit the Brighton Museum of Art & History, newly housed in
the equally fabulous stables in the recently restored gardens, but it
doesn't open until 2pm on Sundays, so we collected our car and went on down
the road. The weather was glorious in the morning, but as we rounded the
southeastern edge of England, clouds rolled in and it began to rain
fitfully. We stopped at a roadside restaurant and pub just past Hastings
for a pleasant lunch--roast lamb with Yorkshire pudding for Jason and a
small sirloin for me--before continuing up the coast to Dover. It's lambing
season--or just past--here in England and the fields along the road were
filled with sheep and hundreds of tiny little lambs!
By the time we arrived in Dover there was serious wind and cold rain, but we
did catch a nice view of the famous white cliffs. We went on up to the
castle and explored the inside areas there. In the keep they had a very
clever exhibit based on the idea that it was the day before the arrival of
Henry VIII on an inspection tour in 1539 and everyone was busily trying to
make the place ready. There were recordings of various craftsmen at work
and at one place in the Watching Room--a large hall--light was shone on a
wall with shadows of people rushing around in preparations. We also visited
the medieval siege tunnels, built after the Great Siege of 1216. The Secret
War Tunnels, used as the English headquarters during the Dunkirk Evacuation,
have only been declassified and opened to the public recently. We were
unable to visit them, as the guided tours were sold out for the rest of the
day by the time we arrived. We started to walk down the hill to the best
lookout spot, but the wind was blowing so hard it hurt the back of my head
and I wasn't looking forward to the climb back up to the parking lot, so we
gave it up and headed home.
Hopping on the motorway, we were able to zoom right along and made it back
to the house in under two hours. Today I'm planning to get to the grocery
store for a big run before we return the car. We're preparing to welcome
Jason's former co-worker, Benjamin, and his girlfriend, Abigail, on Friday,
so it's time to get the house back in shape for guests. And then next week
we'll be heading for Boston.
