lillibet | Entries tagged with england

The highlight of last week (ok, besides the season premiere of _Buffy: The
Vampire Slayer_) was the opportunity to attend the press reception for the
new Darwin Centre at the Natural History Museum. Our guest--Sian
Gramates--had arranged for passes for the two of us through a friend who
writes for Science magazine, so I got to represent Science (it was on my
name badge and everything) as we explored the public areas, listened to a
couple of presentations and took a guided tour of the back rooms. The
centre's primary function is to provide storage for the 22 million items of
the museum's "Spirit Collection," specimens--mainly animal--stored in
alcohol. Vast as the collection is--it occupies 25 kilometres of
shelving--the new building is only the first phase of the centre. A second,
larger building will be constructed next door to store the Botany and
Entomology Collections--6 million plant specimens and 28 million bugs. We
had a great time talking to the bug guy, seeing a barracuda recently caught
by a fishing trawler off the coast of Cornwall, and getting close enough to
a real coelacanth that we could have touched it! For more information--I've
already gone on too long about it, but it's a very, very cool place--check
out their website at www.nhm.ac.uk/darwincentre/.

We thought the trip to Cornwall would be our last major excursion here
in England, but when we realized we didn't have any plans for this weekend,
we thought we should take advantage of our remaining time to check off a few
more items on our list of things we had hoped to see.

On Friday afternoon we picked up a car and headed southwest to Chawton, a
picturesque little village southeast of England. There we visited Chawton
Cottage where Jane Austen spent the last years of her short life. It's a
lovely place, set in beautiful gardens. The rooms are decorated in the
style of her period (early 19th century) and include several pieces of
furniture known to have been in the house at that time. Perhaps the most
touching is the tiny little table on which Jane liked to write. The room
had a creaky door, which was left that way at her request, so she would have
warning when someone was entering and could hide her manuscript. She never
admitted to authorship of her works during her lifetime. There were many
interesting tidbits of information--perhaps the most touching was the
original letter written by Cassandra to Jane's favorite niece, describing
Jane's death and her feelings on the occasion. It was also interesting to
see the exhibits of typical clothing of the era and items relating to other
members of her family.

After completing that pilgrimage, we went back up the road to the nearby
market town of Alton, where I had booked us a room at the Alton Grange
Hotel. We had a nap in our lovely room and then went down to dinner at
Truffles, their highly recommended restaurant. After an amuse bouche of
Lebanese style eggplant in pastry cups and Japanese style tuna tempura,
Jason enjoyed a starter of aubergine (eggplant) tempura layered with a salad
of asparagus and green grapes, while I had the smoked haddock on a bed of
spinach with a poached egg and creamy mustard sauce. For mains, Jason
ordered the caramelized fillet of beef with honey roasted root vegetables
and wild mushrooms, while I took the breast of Barbary duck in a red wine
demi-glace. I didn't much care for my duck, but Jason thought it plenty
tasty, so we switched plates halfway through the meal. For dessert we
shared a plum claufoutis (plums baked into a tarte-like thing) with roasted
almond ice cream.

Back in our rooms I was happy to relax in their deep tub before a very
pleasant night's sleep. In the morning our adorable young French waiter
from the previous evening served us a tasty English breakfast before we
headed on our way.

Our first stop was in Winchester. We visited the cathedral, largely built
in the 11th century, when Winchester was still an important city. It's a
beautiful church, with several interesting elements, including the site of
the tomb of St. Swithin, the Lady Chapel rebuilt by Elizabeth of York in the
16th century in honor of the birth of her son in Winchester, a series of
stained glass windows designed by Edward Burne-Jones, and the grave of Jane
Austen. Her stone, in one of the aisles of the church, doesn't mention her
literary endeavors, but on the wall nearby is a plaque and a memorial
window in her honor. As we wandered around the church, we were very pleased
to have the choir rehearsing in the background, lending ambience to our
visit.

After a stop in their excellent gift shop (I saw a plaque with a saying I
really liked: Yesterday is history, tomorrow is mystery, today is a
gift--that's why it's called the present!), we strolled around the grounds
and spent a few minutes in the garden planted on the site of the former
monastery that was destroyed during Henry VIII's Dissolution. Then we
wandered up the High Street, past the 16th-century market cross, to the
Westgate--formerly one of the main gates in the city wall--where we visited
the room above the gate with it's elaborate Tudor ceiling, which was
transplanted from a nearby college. The gate is quite close to the site of
Winchester Castle, established by William the Conqueror, elaborated and
inhabited by many monarchs, eventually turned into army barracks and sold to
the city. What remains today are a few ruins and the Great Hall. That is
in the tourist guides mainly because of the Round Table which decorates one
of its walls. Believed for centuries to be the top of King Arthur's famed
table, it has been dated to the 13th century. Weighing 1.4 tons and painted
in Tudor times, it is still an impressive piece of work. At the opposite
end of the hall are steel gates erected in honor of the wedding of Charles
and Diana in 1981.

Leaving the hall, we returned to our car and headed on down the road to the
area that has been known as the New Forest since William the Conqueror
brought it under Forest Law (essentailly, claimed it for the Crown) in
1079. It consists of 145 square miles of forest, heath and bogs, including
the largest expanse of primeval oak forest remaining in England. After a
stop at the main Visitor Centre in Lyndhurst, we went up to an area known as
Bolderwood where there are waymarked paths. We picked the two-mile route
and enjoyed our walk, especially when we saw a young buck with a beautiful
rack of antlers and a large group of fawns being fed near one of the
platforms erected for visitors to view the deer without disturbing them. We
drove on across the heath, marvelling at the ponies that stand so fearlessly
near the roads. About 5,000 animals--ponies, cows and pigs--are pastured in
the forest by Commoners, according to Rights set down by law over the last
thousand years and administered by Verderers, Agisters and Foresters.

Back on the highway, we decided to make Portsmouth our next stop. There we
visited the Historic Dockyards. It was late in the day, but we were able to
see a couple of very interesting vessels. The first was the remaining half
of the hull of the Mary Rose, flagship of Henry VIII, sunk during battle in
1545. The remnant was raised from the seabed in 1982 and placed in a
purpose-built hall where it is showered twenty-four hours a day with
propylene glycol to replace the water in the timbers so they can dry out the
hull without it cracking. After seeing that we took a tour of the HMS
Victory, Admiral Nelson's flagship during the Battle of Trafalgar. Our
guide was a Sri Lankan navy man who enjoyed telling tales of the rigor of
19th-century naval life. It's an enormous vessel and there were lots of
stories to tell, so the tour took about an hour. By the time we were
finished, the dockyards were closing for the evening, so we headed on toward
Arundel through some very heavy traffic, the experience of which was
softened by a glorious sunset.

I had tried to book a room at Byass House in Arundel by email and got mail
back saying that they didn't have any room, but there was a room available
at Surrey House just down the block. That turned out to really be a private
home, but a very lovely one. Our bed for the night was a full four-poster
with a top and a gorgeous bath. The owner, Sylvia, had offered to make a
reservation for us at an excellent new restaurant, but warned that we might
not get in, as they only have seven tables.

Having eaten so well the night before, we were quite happy with the thought
of Chinese, but when we arrived and learned that we did have a table booked
at Duke's, it didn't seem polite to turn it down and we were glad we didn't.
I started with a langoustine bisque that was light and lovely, followed by
an amazing sliced chumpsteak of lamb over a bed of spinach, in a red-wine
demi-glace with rosti potatoes, carmelized onions and a mixture of eggplant
and roasted tomatoes that was divine. Jason started with the herbed goats
cheese on a bed of greens with sun-dried tomatoes, peppers, olives,
artichoke hearts and the toasted hazelnuts that he felt really added a
special touch to the dish. His main was two small fillets of red mullet
with langoustines in a tomato-y sauce with a touch of curry to it and a
couple of boiled new potatoes. He was disappointed in the potatoes, but
everything else was delicious and we traded many bites back and forth. We
were very impressed with how confident the chef's hand seemed, how perfectly
the complex flavors meshed, and we were quite surprised to learn from Sylvia
that he is only about 24. For dessert, Jason chose the coconut creme brulee,
which he enjoyed, but I found more custardy than I like. I chose the cheese
plate--slices of four different cheeses with grapes, celery and water
crackers--and enjoyed that very much. The restaurant is a family affair and
we had a pleasant chat with the owner's father, Mac, who lived in Sausalito
for a while, but was born and raised in Arundel--quite a character he was.

After a pleasant night in our lovely bed, we ate the full breakfast Sylvia
prepared for us and then drove up and parked our car near the pedestrian
entrance to the castle. It didn't open until noon, so we had a couple of
hours to wait. We peeked into the cathedral--a very lovely place--but they
were just starting mass, so we walked on. Arundel Park (the grounds
attached to the castle) are open to the public, so we walked there. The
family raises race horses, apparently, and we passed some of them out for
their morning exercise. We walked down the road that passes straight
through the middle of the park, passing only a very few other people. At
one point there is a small castle--perhaps a lookout tower from ages past,
or merely a folly--looking out over the valley beyond. When it came time to
turn back, we decided to take the bridle path instead, since it led through
the woods and the sun was beginning to get a bit hot. That was a lovely
trail and we saw a group of pheasants bobbling their way across the path and
into the underbrush. We got back to the castle gate with some time to spare
still, but our feet were ready for a break, so we sat on a pleasant shaded
bench and read until the gates opened.

Arundel Castle is the home of the Dukes of Norfolk, who have been the senior
Roman Catholic family in the UK since the 16th century split with Rome and
have included two cardinals and a saint in their family tree. The castle
was acquired by marriage along with the title of Earl of Arundel. The 17th
Duke of Norfolk died in June, so his son is now the reigning duke. The
castle was founded in the 11th century by one of William the Conqueror's
chief supporters and the Norman keep still stands. A group of medieval
re-enacters were preparing for a swordfighting exhibition in the keep as we
were climbing around it to enjoy the view. The castle was seriously damaged
by Cromwell's army in the 17th century, but repaired in the 18th century and
largely redecorated in the 19th. The family returned to live in the castle
about ten years ago and additional changes were made then, including a
lovely staircase made of oak and cedar from trees uprooted on the grounds of
the castle in the Great Storm of 1987. The State Rooms were lovely and
impressive, especially the Great Hall, with it's wooden cathedral ceiling
and the lovely Regency-period library. We spent just about an hour going
through all of those and were on the road just after one.

We made great time to Leeds Castle, about ninety miles away to the
northeast, near Maidstone. Leeds Castle was founded shortly after the
Conquest on an island in the River Len, near a fortified mill. Given to
Edward I, it remained in royal hands until the 16th century, when it passed
into private ownership. It was purchased in 1926 by the Hon. Olive, Lady
Baillie, eldest daughter of Almeric Paget Lord Queenborough and the American
heiress, Pauline Whitney. She restored and renovated the entire castle and
it passed to a foundation on her death in 1974. It has been used as a
conference center, most famously for talks between the foreign ministers of
Israel, Egypt and the U.S. during the preparation for the Camp David
agreement in 1978.

In addition to the castle--considered to be possibly the loveliest in
England--the Park is a treat all its own. We enjoyed a visit to the
extensive Aviary, which houses the descendants of Lady Baillie's collection
of exotic birds, and the Maze. Built of 2400 yew plants, it is the most
intricate and challenging of the garden mazes we have visited and it took us
quite some time to work our way to the center. The mound there allows
visitors to overlook the entire maze before descending into the grotto, with
its Green Man fountain, which leads through a corridor to the outside. We
didn't have time to visit the greenhouses, the vineyard, or any of the
several other gardens, but were delighted with the many lovely prospects the
grounds have to offer.

After all our walking, we were very happy to be able to catch a ride back to
the main entrance on the trams provided. We picked up gas at the service
station near the entrance to the motorway and decided to give a ride to the
young man hitching there. He had come from Prague, where he'd spent the
summer working in a youth hostel, and was headed home to his sister in
Manchester to pick up his mail and touch base before heading to Southeast
Asia to work there for the winter. We had feared traffic would be a mess,
but Jason mapped us a route through Greenwich that had us into London in
less than an hour. We dropped off our passenger at a tube station and
headed home, which took us another whole hour, due to construction
hold-ups.

We had a pizza and checked our email and then Jason loaded up the car with
computers and went up to Cambridge to swap machines with the office there.
I talked to various folk as I went through the mail and messages and fell
asleep before Jason got home. This morning I returned the car and he went
off to meet with the British C++ folks in preparation for the meeting in
Santa Cruz later this month.

So now I guess it's time to do some more packing. The removers come for our
things one week from today. It is unbelievable that our time here is over,
but when I look back on everything we've managed to do in two years, it's
equally hard to believe it hasn't been longer.

It's our second wedding anniversary and we're having a quiet day at home
after a fun weekend out and about. On the one hand, it's very hard to
believe that it's been two years already, but on the other hand, we fit so
comfortably that it's hard to believe it hasn't been a decade, at least.

Jason's parents spent the week touring around western England and Wales,
while Jason and I both had very productive weeks. A representative from the
removal company came to assess the volume of stuff we have and someone from
the realtor's office came to look over the state of the flat, so it begins
to feel like we'll be moving soon. I even packed a couple of boxes, mostly
to assuage my feeling that I should be doing something--the removers will do
most of our packing for us.

On Friday evening Jason and I caught a train from Waterloo out to Exeter,
where Trish & Steve picked us up. We spent the night in a B&B they'd found
there and headed out the next morning to explore Cornwall. Our first stop
was at Tintagel, the dramatic headland where legend has it that King Arthur
was born. That seems highly unlikely, but human construction has been
discovered dating back about 2000 years and some of the walls of the
medieval castle built by Richard, Earl of Cornwall, are still standing.
Jason, Steve and I climbed all around the site, enjoying the stunning
views. Trish had forgotten her inhalers and her asthma had been bad earlier
in the week, so she didn't want to risk the steep climb and strolled
around the more level sections on the mainland while we went over to the
island.

Leaving there we went on to St. Ives, a lovely beach town. We met no men
with sacks, but we did find the Tate St. Ives, a nifty modern art gallery
exhibiting works by Naum Gabo, Barbara Hepworth and other artists who worked
in the area. There were special exhibits of the work of Richard Long and
Kosh Ito, which were cool. The building has some wonderful views of the
beach and after watching from the museum's rooftop cafe, we strolled down to
put our toes in the water.

Trudging back up the hill to our car, we continued on out to Land's End at
the very tip of Cornwall. Sadly, the National Trust was outbid for the land
when last it came on the market and whoever bought it put a terribly cheesy
commercial themepark up. Fortunately, it was completely closed up for the
season. So we could park for free and stroll out to watch the sun making
dramatic effects over the lighthouse just off shore. It was amazingly still
there--I expect headlands to be extremely windy, but it was completely
calm. Sadly, this also meant that the bugs were swarming, so we decided not
to stay through the sunset.

We drove on into Penzance and finally found a B&B with rooms available--nice
rooms and quite cheap, so we felt very lucky. We wandered down the
Promenade along the ocean until we found a pub that seemed promising--the
Dolphin Inn, I believe--and had a good, simple seafood dinner in a nice
cozy ambience.

In the morning we made it up and out--delayed by a full English breakfast,
of course--in order to get to The Eden Project before the crowds got too
bad. I recommend checking out their website (www.edenproject.com). It's a
project built into an abandoned clay pit that encompasses outdoor plots full
of plantings, as well as two huge biomes. We took the tour through the Warm
Temperate Biome that features the plants of the Mediterranean Region and
California, as well as the very distinct Fynbus area of South Africa. From
there we walked across the "Link" to the Humid Tropics Biome, which includes
plants from Malaysia, South America, West Africa and others. We got to see
many of the plants spices come from as well as rubber trees, cocoa plants,
coffee trees, cola nuts, etc. The biome lived up to its name and was
extremely humid and tropical, so we were glad to finally leave the dome and
return to the lovely, sunny-but-cool English day. We wandered for a bit
through the outside plots of various plants including lavendar, hemp, tea
and sunflowers. Eventually we found a table outside the Link and had a nice
lunch before making our way back out of the pit to the Visitor Center and
the gift shop. The place is well set up to accommodate the hordes of
visitors they get, with shuttle busses running continuously between the
Visitor Center and the many parking lots, each named for a fruit--our car
was in Plum 1.

Leaving Eden we drove east along the coast for a bit--I slept through most
of this part--and then turned north to cross the Dartmoor National Park.
Around the midpoint we pulled into a car park, where we were greeted by
several wild ponies looking for handouts. There was a small peak over the
road, so we climbed up to what was perhaps the ruins of a hillfort and
looked out all around us at the rolling hillsides dotted with sheep and cows
and ponies. It was a gorgeous day.

Back in the car, we went on to Exeter, where we returned the room key Jason
had accidentally brought along on our journey and had a quick meal at ASK,
one of the many national pizza/pasta chains here. It was about 8:30pm by
the time we had finished, but Steve felt up to the drive, so we headed back
to London, rather than find a place for the night. There was little
traffic and we made it in just under four hours, with two short stops.

Today is pretty quiet. Steve and I went to return the car first thing this
morning and then he and Trish went off to see Kew Gardens perhaps. We will
all meet up this evening at YMing, where Jo will join us for dinner.

I just can't believe how quickly this month is going!

I spent most of last week working on various projects and cleaning the
house. We did get out to see _About a Boy_, which we both enjoyed very
much. They had changed a lot of the details from the book, but really stuck
to the point and sense of it very well and Hugh Grant did a great job with
the lead role.

Our washing machine having decided once again to stop spinning the week
before, I had scheduled a tech to come look at it on Monday. He didn't
actually make it until Wednesday, which was a bit frustrating, and then
announced that it needed a new motor and timer and together with his time
that would cost two hundred quid. A quick call to the property manager
revealed that a new one would cost much less than that and he promised to
get on it right away. He called back in a few hours to say that the shop
wouldn't deliver until Saturday morning, would that be okay. When we said
no, he wrangled with them a bit and they agreed to do it first thing on
Friday morning, instead. They came through on their promise and the new
machine was installed and working by ten in the morning, so I was able to
have clean sheets for our next guest, after all.

Andrew Rose arrived on Friday evening. He's from New York City and is a
friend of a friend from California. Andrew is an artist and art historian,
who had been teaching in Spain for six weeks, followed by a week in Paris
and then a week in London on his own before his family arrive from L.A. this
Saturday. He's a fun, talkative, interesting person and we had a lovely
dinner together at YMing, which never fails to impress our guests. The head
waiter there has taken a personal interest in us and started lecturing us on
what to order and in what order to eat it, which is kind of fun.

On Saturday morning, Jason and I took the train up to York. Along the way,
our train came to a stop at one point and after a few minutes it was
explained that some kids had thrown stones at the front of the train and
shattered the outer layer of the windscreen. We proceeded at a reduced pace
to Peterborough, where we were able to switch to a different train and
continue our journey. Throughout the first part of the trip the many
children in the car had been very noisy and when we settled ourselves in the
new train, another family had taken the seats across from us, so we fled
into the next car, which had open seats and was much quieter.

We arrived in York about an hour late, around 12:30pm. We grabbed lunch at
a Pizza Express located on the ground floor of what we theorize was formerly
a grand hotel, on the banks of the River Ouse. We continued through the old
town and out the Monkbar (one of the gates in the wall that surrounds the
old town) to find our hotel--the Monkbar, as it happens--just around the
corner. We checked in and found our room to be very pleasant, with a
gorgeous four-poster bed.

Leaving our bags, we headed back into town towards the Jorvik Viking Centre.
Archeologists have unearthed a significant amount of material from the
Viking period of the town's history and the centre's exhibits about that
time are divided into four parts. First there is a fairly cheesy "time
travel" motion-movie bit that shows a couple proceeding back in time, their
clothing changing at each stop along the way. After that visitors are
loaded into cars--like the ones at the Haunted Mansion in Disneyworld--and
taken through a reconstruction of a section of the Viking town, complete
with riverfront, streets, shops, houses and backyards--complete with a man
straining in an outhouse. The lack of oxygen in the soil here has preserved
a remarkable amount of material for study. At the end of the ride is a
small exhibition hall explaining various aspects of Viking life in more
detail, with a young man in a reasonable facsimile of the clothing of a
Viking craftsman striking coins for the kids.

The last section is a bit difficult to describe in words. In a darker
hall, there were several glass cases displaying artifacts of the Vikings.
Each one was split on the diagonal by a two-way mirror. In front of the
mirror in each case was a collection of artifacts, artfully arranged on
black plinths and spot-lit. Every 20 seconds, the lights behind the mirror
would come on to reveal a scene in which this particular category of items
(toys, cooking implements, tools of various trades) might have been used,
with the reflections of the items fitting perfectly into the scene. This
was one of the most interesting forms of display we had ever seen.

Leaving the centre, we headed across town to the York Castle Museum. What
remains today of York Castle is Clifford's Tower (on the mound where William
the Conqueror first built a keep in 1068), the former Female Prison,
Debtors Prison, and the Court of Assizes. The former two
buildings--constructed in the 18th century--now house the museum. This was
based on the collection of a Dr. John Kirk, who wanted to chronicle the
changing face of domestic life that he saw around him at the turn of the
20th century. From this kernel, the museum has expanded to include two
reconstructions of street scenes--one Victorian, the other Edwardian,
several period rooms (a Victorian parlor, a 17th century dining hall, a
1950's front room, etc.), a collection of arms & armor,
historical/sociological exhibits about the impact of the Civil War and World
War II on York, collections of clothing and household goods over the past
300 years, a running water mill moved from elsewhere in the county, prison
cells and an exercise yard from the functioning era of the Debtors Prison.
It goes on and on and it's all remarkably interesting and well-presented.

After a few hours there, we climbed up to the top of Clifford's
Tower--or the shell thereof--to look out over the surrounding town. It is a
strange shape, like a four-leaf clover, leading to the local nickname, "The
Mince Pie," for its resemblance to a high meat pie.

By the time we were done there, we were beat, so we went back to the hotel
for a nap. Heading out again around seven, we walked the walls of the town
until they closed at dusk, then found our way along the River Foss and back
through the center of town until we found the restaurant we'd picked
earlier, The Limehouse. Jason chose the goat cheese salad, the fillet steak
with mushrooms and onions in a red wine sauce, and the "brandy snap basket
with pimms syllabub and strawberries," a concoction of crispy cookies, cream
and fruit, soaked in three different kinds of alcohol. My picks were the
scallops with garlic confit wrapped in filo; the pastry case filled with
fish, scallops, mussels and prawns in a dill cream sauce; and a couple of
scoops of vanilla and cinammon ice creams, with a glass of muscat to wash it
down. We agreed later that while it was an acceptable meal, each of the
dishes had fallen somewhat short of its potential mark, lacking the
finishing touch that would have made it great.

After a good night's sleep in our lovely bed, we started the next day with
breakfast at the hotel's buffet. We checked out, leaving our bags, and
heading along the town walls in the opposite direction from the one we'd
chosen the night before. That brought us around behind lovely gardens and
over to the York City Art Gallery. This was a better collection than we'd
expected. It included paintings from 1300-2000, a small collection of
studio pottery, and "Mechatronic Circus," a special exhibit consisting of
various scultures animated by sewing machines and other small motors.

From there we went through the former grounds of St. Mary's Abbey to the
Yorkshire Museum. This combines the functions of a science and local
history museum rolled into one, with exhibits about flight and the local
aquatic dinosaurs from the period when York was covered by a warm salty sea,
as well as displays of the artifacts and explanations of the events and
trends making up the complex history of the area. These included items
associated with the Brigantes, the Romans, the Britons, the Anglo-Saxons,
the Vikings, and the Normans, ending with a section detailing the history of
St. Mary's Abbey and including a spot where visitors can stand to look out
at the ruins of the abbey church.

Our last stop before lunch was the hall of the Merchant Adventurers Guild.
This is a gorgeous medieval building with interesting history about the
organization of traders who monopolized imports into York from the 14th to
19th centuries.

Then we tried to get lunch. We stopped at a Greek taverna, ordered food and
drinks, were brought our drinks, and then ignored completely for 30
minutes. At that point we asked if there were a problem and were told "is
coming soon." After another ten minutes, we said we'd like to pay for our
drinks and leave and the owner came out to our table, yelled at us, made
offensive remarks about our nationality and ordered us to leave his
restaurant and never return. Happy to oblige, we went on our way, the day's
mood somewhat soured.

We picked up Cornish pasties and ate them in a pretty little square as rain
began to spit down on us. We headed up to the Minster Area and went through
the Treasurer's House. Originally built for the Treasurer of the Minster,
the house was sold off after the post was discontinued during the
Dissolution. As the last holder of that office wrote, as all the treasure
was gone, there was no further need for a treasurer. The house was
massively renovated during the first part of the 20th century and the
National Trust now own and maintain it. There was a concert of Elizabethan
madrigals being performed in the gardens and we sat and listened to them
until the rain grew heavy enough to drive the singers indoors.

We took a brief detour into a nearby shopping street, where I had seen a
couple of dresses I was interested in trying. I started to have a very bad
headache, that was not improved either by retail therapy or the
administration of Advil, which we found at a nearby drug-store. Nonetheless
we headed over to the York Minster. We wandered around there for a while,
examining the nave and the chapter house. We went down into the crypt,
where there is an exhibit concerning the previous occupants of the site--a
Roman fortress, a Norman cathedral, etc. Sadly, my head was steadily
worsening and I needed to get outside, so we did not explore that area fully
and skipped climbing the tower.

Instead, we headed back to the hotel to use their facilities and sit for a
bit in a comfortable atmosphere. Jason found some decongestants for me and
my head slowly began to improve. We collected our bags and had a cab take
us down to the station. We were in time to catch the train before the one
we'd planned to take, but that one was very crowded and without reserved
seats, we couldn't be sure of sitting together. So we waited for the later
train and found our reserved seats. Instead of children, this time we were
kept awake by two girls gabbing on their cell-phones for almost the entire
trip, despite requests from other passengers to keep it down.

By the time we arrived back in London, my head was entirely better. We made
it home, had some pizza and watched a bit more of _Mansfield Park_ before
Andrew got home. We chatted with him for a bit and then I talked to my
parents, who were visiting my sisters in Boston for the weekend.

So that was our weekend in York. It went a bit sour just at the end, but
overall we had a lovely time and would recommend the place for a brief
visit.

We've been so delightfully busy for the past ten days that I haven't had a
chance to write. Beckie was here and we had a wonderful visit with her and
did so many wonderful things that it's hard to know where to start.

She arrived on the morning of Sunday 28 July. I let her take a nap for a
bit--like all our guests, she said she wasn't really tired and then fell
right to sleep. I woke her up again for a lunch of grilled lamb bits with
pita bread (the Brits spell it "pitta," by the way) and Greek salad. After
lunch Beckie accompanied me on a quick run to Sainsbury's. It was a very
warm day, so we thought we'd go to a movie, but the cinema's air
conditioning was on the fritz and it was too hot to contemplate being
trapped in an airless room for two hours. So we wandered through Piccadilly
Circus and then came home, thus rescuing Jason from having to make dinner.

We had a huge day on Monday, starting with the London Walks highlights tour
of the British Museum. Our guide, Tom, showed us the Great Court, the
Rosetta Stone and a few other Egyptian artifacts, the Parthenon Marbles, the
Assyrian lion hunt frieze, a couple of exhibits from Sumeria and Ur, and the
Lindow man (buried in a bog ~2000 years, possibly a ritual sacrifice).
Beckie felt like some of the choices were odd, but I thought he did a
reasonable job of hitting the things people come to the museum to see.

After a quick lunch--cold salmon with lime mayo and pasta salad, yum!--and
quick visits to the reading room in the center of the Great Court and a
couple of other artifacts, we hit the BBC Shop near Oxford Circus, then gave
our feet a break by hopping in a cab down to the National Gallery. I did my
own version of a highlights tour there, showing B. some of my favorites in
the medieval section, the Rembrandt room and the Impressionists. By the
time we finished there, it was almost time to meet Jason. We wandered
slowly through Leicester Square, picking up our show tickets on the way, and
made it to YMing only a few minutes before Jason arrived.

We had our standard delicious YMing meal--hot&sour soup, fried dumplings,
shredded duck with winter green, Tibetan garlic lamb, and chicken with fresh
mango--with the addition of a new starter, fried scallops with mashed prawn
stuffing. Then we went to see _Taboo!_, the musical based on the early
years in the life of Boy George and written by him. It's staged in The
Venue, a space in the crypt of a church on the edges of Leicester Square.
Until three weeks before the show opened, it was a nightclub and retains a
lot of that feeling. The show was conceived by George and he wrote the
music. They found a very convincing look-alike to play him and an excellent
cast with very good voices--even the bartender had a serious set of pipes
and got to wail on "Church of the Poison Mind." It was all kind of sad and
funny--a couple of the cast members spent interludes hassling the audience.
One of the guys came over and told Jason he looked familiar and asked him to
bow his head, then said "Nope, never seen you before in my life!" The
language and concepts were pretty adult. The woman next to us had her
ten-year-old with her and gave B. a couple of helpless "I didn't know!"
looks. The paper we picked up a couple of days later said that Rosie
O'Donnell is trying to bring the show to New York and I think it could do
well off-Broadway.

After wearing ourselves out on Monday, we had a pretty quiet day on Tuesday.
In the morning we went up to my clinic, so Beckie could discuss her strange
itching with one of the doctors--she didn't have a clue, but the
antihistimines recommended by the pharmacist the previous day started to
kick in and calm down B.'s skin. We got to work on dinner fairly
early--somehow it always seems that if I give myself more time to cook I
just increase the complexity and attention to detail to fill up the time
until our guests arrived. In addition to Beckie and us, we had Barbara and
Philip, Jo Guthrie and Beckie's former boss, Kelly, who has spent the last
six months here in London. Everyone arrived bearing champagne and Beckie
did a great job of keeping people in the living room, occupied with
introductions and snacking on dips and munchies while Jason helped me in the
kitchen. We had moved the table out onto the deck, because the kitchen was
too hot for dining, but just as we started to set out the salads, a huge
thunderstorm began to pour down on us. I quickly changed the plan and
served dinner in the living room, instead. I had made a nifty salad of
peaches, prosciutto and greens, with toasted almond flakes and balsamic
vinaigrette that came out very well for a first try. Our main course was my
chicken isabel stand-by, which seems to always impress. For dinner I served
honey ice cream with fresh fruit and cookies. The group seemed to meld
quite well and we had a nice time, before shooing everyone away around
eleven, so we could pack and sleep for an early start the next morning.

We didn't get out of the house quite as early as we had hoped and picking up
the rental car took forever, but we were on the road shortly after ten. We
got a Mitsubishi jeep and having an automatic made London driving much
easier. Beckie was very impressed with my left-side driving. We got up to
Nottingham by 12:30, checked into the Royal Moat House and then headed out
to see the town. Frankly, there's not a whole lot to see.

We had lunch at Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem, which bills itself as the oldest
pub in the UK, founded in the 12th century to serve pilgrims. That's at the
base of "Nottingham Castle," which we walked up to see after a tasty pub
lunch. On the way we passed a statue of Robin Hood, with some of his
legendary companions surrounding him.

Founded by the Normans in the 11th century, the castle was expanded,
rebuilt, abandoned and finally destroyed in the 17th century. The Dukes of
Newcastle razed the site and built a modern mansion there, but did not make
much use of it, and it was destroyed by fire in the 19th century. It has
now been renovated for use as a museum, but their collection is not of much
interest. The grounds are lovely, planted with gorgeous beds of roses and
other flowers, but as the board just inside the old gates says, "Where's the
castle?"

We took a van tour that proposed to show us the highlights of Nottingham,
but apart from what we had already seen, these were few and generally
unexciting. We saw the city hall, called The Council House, and The Park, a
tony development largely built in the 19th century and technically a
separate entity from the city. That was about it.

We went back to the hotel to nap--the rain seemed to be sapping us of all
our energy, although it was nice to have a break from the heat. Our timing
was good, as Beckie's assistant, Jan, called just as she walked in the room
for help on a work issue. After a refreshing bit of sleep, we strolled over
to the east side of town--like all of industrial England, Nottingham's burst
of construction and development is drawn like a thin veil over the grinding
down of the 80's on all of industrial England. The new ice centre shines
like a beacon and the area immediately surrounding it shows a greater depth
of new prosperity. The centre was built with money from the National
Lottery and with the public support of local heroes, Torville & Dean. The
complex includes two Olympic-sized rinks, as well as off-ice training and
educational facilities, which are intended to become an naitonal and
international centre for ice sports--hockey, sledge hockey and speed
skating, as well as free skating and ice dance.

The show this evening was "An International Skating Gala in the Presence of
Her Majesty the Queen," folding together a Golden Jubilee event with the
official opening of the centre and the plaza in front of it. There was a
fairly long queue when we arrived, but it moved quickly through the security
checkpoint. Our seats, although fairly high up, provided an excellent view
and the event-planners had arranged for the Nottingham Philharmonic to
entertain us with numbers including "Swan Lake," "Star Wars" and the "Harry
Potter Suite." We all had to be in our seats by 7pm for security reasons,
but the 45-minute wait gave us a chance to read our programs and watch Kurt
Browning clowning around on ice with the emcee.

Finally the emcee said "Ladies and gentlemen, please be upstanding for the
queen," and we all rose while she entered in a gorgeous red dress to a
fanfare and the audience sang "God Save the Queen." The Lord Mayor welcomed
her and she spoke, officially opening the centre and thanking all of us for
being there to help celebrate her Golden Jubilee. I'm not sure why it was
so much more thrilling to hear her speak over the P.A. system than on TV,
but it really was exciting to feel that she was speaking to us.

The show was loads of fun. Emcee'd by Torville & Dean, it included numbers
by local skaters and synchronized skating team and the current British
National Champions, as well as international stars: Steven Cousins, Sasha
Cohen, Kurt Browning, Kristi Yamaguchi, Ilia Kulik, Anissina & Peizerat, and
Berezhnaya & Sikharulidze. Jason's favorite program was Sasha Cohen's
routine with a rhythm gymnastics ribbon--it is a very cool piece. My
personal favorite was a number choreographed by Christopher Dean for some of
the hockey players and speed skaters--that's something we're unlikely ever
to see again. At the end, Christopher Dean thanked the Queen for her first
fifty years and lead us all in three cheers for her. Then she descended to
the ice to speak with some of the skaters before heading off to a
reception. They held us in the arena for about ten minutes, giving her time
to get through the halls, then released us. We went out and stood at the
barricades on the street to watch her drive by in her Rolls, before heading
back to the hotel for an entirely passable dinner in the dining room there.
Beckie had a duck salad and chicken grilled with parma ham, while Jason
tried their goat cheese bruschetta and Thai green chicken curry, and I had a
prawn cocktail and better-than-average ribeye steak. By the time we were
through with that, we were all exhausted and went straight up to bed.

After a substantial breakfast at the hotel buffet, we dropped Jason at the
train station to head directly back to London, while we set off for
Althorp. Just west of Northampton, the Spencer family estate is down a
series of tinier and tinier roads through small villages and large fields of
grazing sheep. We arrived just as the gates opened and were welcomed by a
very friendly supervisor with a lovely baritone. He encouraged us to take
the tram up to the stable block, so we hopped on and he explained that this
is a prototype electric vehicle that "His Lordship" was essentially testing
this season to see if it is worth the #250,000 it would cost to buy. B. was
initially puzzled as to who "His Lordship" might be, but eventually caught
on that he meant Charles, 9th Earl Spencer, the brother of Diana and our
host.

The estate has been set up very well for the 2000 visitors who flock there
each day during the brief open season. The tram took us up a tree-lined
drive through the fields on either side to the stable block. Looking like a
mansion anywhere else, this building of rich, honey colored stone contains a
cafe--with tables set in the former horse-stalls--and shop, as well as a
five part exhibition about the life of Princess Diana. The different
sections give information about 1) her ancestry and childhood, complete with
home movies shot by her father, 2) the wedding, including her wedding dress,
3) her dresses, 4) her funeral (including the handwritten text of her
brother's initial statement to the press and his eulogy--very interesting
what he crossed out, mostly regarding Dodi--and the handwritten music and
lyrics of "Goodbye England's Rose") and a selection of the more than 150,000
condolence books that have poured in from all over the world, and 5) The
Diana, Princess of Wales, Memorial Fund. We found the exhibits less
maudlin and bitter than they might have been, with less hagiography and more
emphasis on what a very human person she was. Having to walk out into the
courtyard to get between sections also kept the sadness from building up and
even B. didn't get more than misty-eyed in the process.

From there we walked up to the main house, a typical country manor, with
amazing rooms and furniture and art, including works by Van Dyck, Titian,
Rubens, Lely and Gainsborough. My favorite room was the library, a
wonderfully light room with built-in shelves running the more than 100 foot
length of the room. It was good to see not only antique volumes, but recent
novels and non-fiction works on the shelves and tables. It is a gorgeous
house, but very obviously a place where people still live.

Continuing on the visitors' route, we strolled through the park to the
"Round Oval Lake." Eavesdropping on other visitors, we found we were not
the only ones to wonder what a "Square Oval" might be like. It began to
pour down on us, but we were suitably equipped and the weather seemed
appropriate to the mood of the place. Diana is buried on an island in the
middle of the small, man-made lake, without any marker visible from the
shore. At the far side of the lake is a memorial in the form of a small
Grecian temple with a silhouette of the deceased and plaques displaying
quotations from her and her brother on the interior wall. Flowers left by
visitors are collected and dried and their petals added to a pile in the
"funeral" section of the exhibits.

We stopped back at the stable block to visit the shop, which has only a few,
very tasteful souvenirs to choose from. The cafe had a rather long line, so
we headed back to our car and went on down the road to a motorway rest area
before stopping to grab a sandwich.

We spent the afternoon in Oxford, looking up old haunts from the summer that
Beckie spent there with my parents in 1967. With no map, sketchy clues from
my father, and the help of a gentleman bicyclist, we managed to find the
house where they lived, the street where they shopped each day for food, the
duckpond that is B's primary memory of the place, the college where my
father was studying, and the church they attended. It was a busy day in
town and there were lots of busses for me to dodge, but the sun had emerged
and we had fun piecing it all together.

We made it back to London much more quickly than we had expected and I
gloried in my ability to drive all the way home without having to refer to
the map--after almost two years, its nice to have confidence in knowing
where I live! We ordered pizza and watched a BBC version of the Jane Austen
novel, _Northanger Abbey_.

On Friday it was back to the whirl of London. I made poached egg muffins
for breakfast and then Beckie and I returned the car. We hopped on the tube
and went down to South Kensington station. We were early, so we browsed the
shops around the station, finding a couple of wonderful places. We met
another London Walks guide, Helena, at the station and set off on a
highlights tour of the V&A. We made a couple of brief stops for Helena to
explain to us the history of the area around the museum and its development
as a center for culture and education, before entering the museum itself.
With over five million items in their collection and seven miles of gallery
space, Helena had to pick and choose what to show us. She mainly focused on
the new British Galleries, explaining to us at length the history of the
ornate music room saved from the demolition of Norfolk House, the
Macclesfield wine service, a statue of Handel, James II's wedding suit, the
Great Bed of Ware, a 17th century wassail set, the Dacre Beasts--large
carved wooden heraldic beasts, a 13th century embroidered bishop's cope, and
the largest Persian carpet in the world. After the tour Beckie and I took a
break for a drink in the cafe--B. got a free banana--and then I showed her
the Cast Courts, with their amazing centerpiece, a plaster cast of Trajan's
Column from Rome. We wandered through the 20th century galleries, the
silver collection and the jewelry vault before making a quick stop at the
shop and vacating the premises. On our way back to the tube we stopped in
the gardens of the Natural History Museum to see the exhibit of Yann
Arthus-Bertrand's stunning aerial photographs entitled "Earth from the Air."

We took the tube up to Bond Street and made it to Claridge's to meet Jason
for afternoon tea. Beckie seemed very impressed by the decor of this "art
deco jewel" and with their offerings of finger sandwiches, scones and
pastries, all washed down with endless cups of excellent tea. As usual, we
left there rolling--probably a good state in which to go grocery shopping.

Jason walked us to Green Park and then went back to the flat to work, while
we hit Harrods for snacks and souvenirs--Beckie even managed to find the
shrine to Dodi and Diana, with their last shared wineglass and the
engagement ring he had bought for her encased in glass.

On our way back to the flat, the train stopped at Finsbury Park, citing an
incident with the train ahead of us. We left the train, figuring to just
pop upstairs to catch the bus, but the stop there was closed for
construction, so we ended up dragging our tired feet for another four blocks
to the next stop. We made it home, still full from tea, and all read email
for several hours before breaking out the nosherai. We had picked up--hang
on while I get the list--squat lobster tails in brine (I think we'd call
them "rock shrimp"), cornichons (gherkin pickles), buffalo mozzarella with
cherry tomatoes in pesto, spinata calabrese (spicy salami, for Jason),
sliced rare roast beef, a lobster tail with salmon mouse in an avocado, an
enormous scallop shell stuffed with smoked scallops and wrapped in pastry,
crayfish & prawns in mustard-mayonnaise, boeuf bourguignon, smoked duck
breast, three kinds of cheese (Coolea from County Cork, Ireland; Oak-smoked
Cheddar from Somerset; and Caerphilly from Wales) with savory biscuits
described as "ideal with cheese," a baguette, and some florentines (cookies
of nuts and caramel on a chocolate base). We also cracked open some fois
gras, to make the meal complete. We didn't finish it all, but we managed to
sample everything, and mighty tasty, too.

On Saturday the three of us went down to the Palace of Westminster to tour
the Houses of Parliament. This was the first day of their Summer Opening
and they were still working the kinks out, but it was a good visit. Unlike
the last time we tried to go, the House of Lords was open, so we got to see
its neo-Gothic splendor, together with the only slightly less fabulous
robing room and peers' waiting room, as well as the main lobby, the House of
Commons, St. Stephen's Hall and Westminster Hall. Jason left us there,
lured by the thought of a hot salami sandwich at home, so Beckie and I had a
light lunch in their newly opened cafe. We tried to visit St. Margaret's,
the Westminster parish church, next to Westminster Abbey, but it was
inexplicably closed.

We had a nice walk down Whitehall, past Downing Street, the various lovely
government office buildings and the headquarters of the Horse Guards. We
passed through Trafalgar Square and down Northumberland Ave. to the Victoria
Embankment and strolled through the Embankment Gardens to the Savoy. I had
thought the show was at 3pm, so after picking up the tickets (idiotically,
without really looking at them), we explored the Savoy Hotel. We were
passing back by the theatre, thinking to walk along the Strand a bit before
showtime, when the chime sounded in the lobby asking all patrons to take
their seats, as the show would begin in 2 minutes. We dashed inside and
took our seats and _The Mikado_ began.

This was a revival of the production we had seen with Anne & George in
December of 2000. The cast had changed slightly. Poobah was the same, Koko
was not quite as good, but both Nankipoo and Yum-Yum were better than the
earlier version and this meant that the former two did not overshadow the
younger ones, creating a much more level cast. The woman playing Yum-Yum
was actually pretty this time, which helped a great deal.

After that delightful matinee, we strolled across Waterloo Bridge to the
Southbank Bankside complex that includes the National Theatre, National Film
Theatre, Hayward Gallery and Royal Festival Hall. We caught the last few
minutes of a puppet show outside the theatre, then browsed through the
bookstalls in front of the film theatre--protected from the returning rain
by the bridge abutment--until it was time for dinner. We met Jason at The
People's Palace inside the Royal Festival Hall for a repeat engagement of
the exquisite meal we'd had two weeks earlier with Susan & Daniel. I made
Beckie order the spiced herring starter and the chicken breast with bacon
and peas served over mash--she was dubious at first, but agreed that I had
not steered her wrong. Jason tried the the white gazpacho--a serious garlic
experience, with grapes!--and the salmon fillet. I had the carpaccio with
quail's egg again, but switched from the chicken to the veal cutlet, served
with an odd-but-good mixture of barley, chicory and grapes. For dessert
Beckie took the banana & pecan pudding with clotted cream and toffee sauce,
while I had the tarte creme with poached peach and Jason made do with a
glass of sauternes. The funniest moment came when we said no, we weren't
going to a show in the evening and our waiter said "I love you, too!" After
that delightful meal in that lovely atmosphere with a nice view of the
river, we rolled home on the bus that goes from the end of the bridge to
less than a block from our home.

We were expecting Regis & Claudia to arrive around ten-thirty, since their
flight landed around 8:30pm, but Immigration was all backed up and they
didn't make it to the tube until ten-thirty, so it was about midnight by the
time they got here. A glass of water and they were good for bed. Beckie
sacked out on one of our couches and her CPAP machine put her straight to
sleep.

On Sunday morning Beckie and I did a run to Sainsbury's, dropped everything
at home and hopped on the bus to Camden Town. We wandered through the
crafts section of the market and then down the Regent's Canal. Right after
passing through the London Zoo--the canal runs right by the aviary designed
by Lord Snowdon and the ungulate pens--we left the canal and crossed into
Regent's Park. We walked through the playing fields--a bunch of Americans
were playing softball amid the British cricketers and footballers--and the
waterfowl sanctuary to Queen Mary's Rose Gardens and out the George V gate to
Marylebone Road. Just as we passed Madame Tussaud's, with only a block to
go to the Baker Street station, it began to sprinkle, after being dry
through our whole walk. We ducked into the tube down to Oxford Circus,
where we changed from the Bakerloo line to the Victoria and when I sat down
on that train, Jason was right next to me. You just never know where you'll
find your husband!

We met up with Regis & Claudia (who had spent the past hour over at
Speaker's Corner, listening to rants) and Carol & Scott, who were passing
through London on their way to a cruise of the Baltic Sea, and saw _Bombay
Dreams_ the Andrew Lloyd Webber conceived-and-produced mixture of Western
musical traditions and Bollywood extravaganza with music, lyrics, book and
choreography by a host of talented folk. The reviews had been quite
negative, but we thought it was fabulous. It's a pretty standard story of a
poor boy becoming a star, finding love, and learning to respect his roots.
The music is wonderful and different, the actors were wonderful, the dancing
and staging were spectacular. I'm listening to the soundtrack right now and
it's fantastic and very danceable. We all thought it was a great show.

After the show we danced over to Olivo singing "Shakalaka Baby" the whole
way and piled into a corner of their small dining room. We had hoped
Barbara might join us, but that didn't work out. We all enjoyed a good meal
of Sardinian delights (more carpaccio and veal for me--other highlights
included cured venison with asparagus, linguine with crab, a couple of
excellent risottos, stuffed swordfish, and grilled lamb) and a chance to
catch up all around the table. Carol & Scott seem to be doing very well and
enjoying married life. She has just gotten excellent scores on the LSATs
and is thinking to go to law school next year, the renovations on their
house are finished, and they weren't singed in the recent Denver-area
fires, so life is good and it was great to see them, if only for an evening.

On Monday I started everybody off with a full English breakfast--complete
with grilled tomatoes, but I skipped the mushrooms and beans--knowing that
we were unlikely to get lunch. The five of us went down to Buckingham
Palace to visit the State Rooms on their first day of the short Summer
Opening, while the Royals are up at Balmoral. There was an enormous line,
but it moved along quite quickly. We bought guide books for the self-guided
tour, which took us in through the Ambassadors' Entrance, around the
Quadrangle courtyard at the center of the palace, and in past the Grand Hall
to the Grand Staircase with its portraits of Victoria's close relatives.
Through the Guard Room and the Green Drawing Room we passed into the Throne
Room with its elaborate gilt ceiling and a Grecian-style frieze depicting
key events in the War of the Roses. From there we went through the picture
gallery, with some lovely works by artists including Rembrandt, Van Dyck,
Canaletto, and Rubens. The State Dining Room is an elaborate fantasy in red
brocade and gilt silver plate, which leads to a series of galleries
connecting to the Ball Supper Room--currently displaying a selection of the
many gifts from foreign heads of state during the Queen's reign--and the
Ballroom, where the organ--originally built for the fabulous music room we
visited at the Royal Pavillion in Brighton--that has not worked for over a
century has finally been restored and was being played publically for the
first time during our visit. From there we passed back through the dining
room to a series of drawing rooms: the Blue, the Bow (now the Music Room),
and the White--where Victoria & Albert's gilt and painted grand piano
reminds visitors of the many concerts enjoyed by them in these rooms.
Through the Ante-Room and down the Minsters' Staircase, we passed through
the Marble Hall, alongside the Grand Hall, and into the Bow Room, where the
Queen Mum's 100th birthday luncheon was held in 2000. Doors lead outside and
down the steps to the garden, where Elizabeth's famous garden parties are
held each summer. The grounds of the palace are quite extensive and after a
brief stop in the shop--during which the thunderstorms began again--we were
lead down the garden path to the exit on the opposite side of the palace
complex from our next stop, the Royal Collection.

We made our way back around three sides of the square to the entrance to the
Queen's Gallery, which has just been reopened as part of the Jubilee
celebrations, after being closed for several years for renovation and
enlargement. The works now exhibited include paintings by Rembrandt,
Vermeer, Cuyp and Van Dyck; nifty and beautiful furnishings; works on paper
by Holbein the Younger, Da Vinci, Michelangelo and Rubens; manuscripts from
the Royal Library; watercolor depictions of rooms in the various royal
palaces through the years, often including views of other works in the
collection, as they were displayed in those rooms at one time; fabulous
jewels--including Queen Mary's usual diadem and the Cullinan
Brooch--porcelain, silver plate, golden boxes, jewelled Indian metalwork and
seventy pieces by Faberge. Sadly, the Nash Gallery was closed, so we did
not get to see the works of art exhibited there, which include paintings by
Reynolds, Gainsborough, Lawrence and Copley; sculpture by Canova; furniture
from France, China and India; as well as the Jubilee portrait of the Queen
by Lucian Freud. The docent outside that door told B. that "there are a
variety of opinions" about that one, but I've only heard one--negative--view
expressed. Jason and I will hope to return to see that and the other works
for ourselves before we leave.

We were running a bit early for dinner, so took our time in the shop, where
I found a book containing the illustrations, translated text and commentary
on the _Padshahnama_ ("King of the World"), the unique official description
of part of the reign of the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan, who controlled much
of Northern India in the mid-17th century and is mainly famous to Westerners
for the construction of the Taj Mahal as a tomb for his favorite wife. Four
illustrations from this manuscript were my favorite pieces on display, so I
am excited by the opportunity to see the other 170 and read the accompanying
text.

Leaving the palace at last, we went back around it to Noura, a very nice,
modern Lebanese restaurant. We were too tired to choose from their list of
over fifty hot and cold meze (small plates, like tapas) and almost as many
mains, so we picked one of their set meals for the whole table. That got us
hoummus, moutabal (their version of babaganoush), tabouli, smoked eggplant
and tomatoes, cheese sticks, spinach dumplings and a variety of lamb ones,
with wonderful fresh pita. That was just for starters and was followed by a
mixed grill and lamb/cracked wheat balls in a yogurt-and-spinach sauce.
When we thought we couldn't eat any more, they brought us a selection of
own-made ice creams (mango, chocolate, pistachio, and rose-water) and a
plate of various baklava-like pastries. It was all delicious and deadly,
with so many little bites that we all ate more than enough before we'd even
realized it. We strolled up to Hyde Park Corner, with a brief detour
through Belgrave Square to see the building housing the new London RedHat
office, where Jason works on Thursdays.

Popping up to Leicester Square, we decided it was cool enough, even without
the air conditioning repaired, to see _Bend It Like Beckham_ at the Odeon
Mezzanine there. I had been trying to get Beckie to see it since she
arrived, so it was great to squeeze it in on her last night. Everyone
enjoyed it and it was fun to see the heroine of _Bombay Dreams_ playing a
BBA bitch from Hounslow. Jason didn't join us, deciding it might be good to
get some work done on a weekday.

In the morning, I managed to just about stagger everyone's schedule
correctly. I had gotten Regis & Claudia 10am tickets to tour the Houses of
Parliament, so they had to be out by nine, giving Jason a chance to shower
and be out by ten to catch his train to Cambridge, leaving Beckie an hour to
shower and be ready to leave at eleven for her flight home. Whew! It was
sad to see her go and the flat felt very strange so empty, but it was a bit
of a relief to have some time to myself. Claudia had clued me in to some
really excellent Spike-focused Buffy fan-fiction available online, so I
spent a lot of the day just reading that.

Wednesday was more of the same, with somewhat more productivity and a chance
to talk to my parents and sisters again. Beckie made it home pretty
smoothly, with the biggest hassle being an hour's wait for her luggage in
Boston. Regis & Claudia spent yesterday exploring London via a
hop-on-hop-off bus tour, followed by pub food and a ride on the Thames.
Today they are taking a tour of Salisbury, Stonehenge and Avesbury, with a
plan to meet for sushi at Mornington Crescent.

On 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.

We had a lovely weekend away here in England, something we've been meaning
to do more often.

On Friday I went down to King's Cross and picked up a rental car. They were
having a weekend deal, such that I had to pick it up that day, even though
we weren't planning to leave until Saturday morning.

After dropping the car back at our place, we took the tube into town and had
dinner at Yo Sushi! It was the best we'd ever had there and they even had
hamachi, my favorite, which is very hard to find here.

We strolled down Charing Cross Road, stopping into Blackwell's to buy some
books, and got to the Garrick Theatre just a few minutes before the
curtain. The play was _This Is Our Youth_, a drama about two stoner New
York Jewish kids and this girl they know. The three actors were Anna Paquin
(who won a Best Supporting Oscar for her role in _The Piano_), Jake
Gyllenhaal (who starred in _October Sky_ and _Donnie Darko_), and Hayden
Christensen (who plays Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars Episode II). That was
the real reason I wanted to see the show, to form an opinion of
Christensen's acting ability before seeing him on the big screen. He was
pretty good, although Gyllenhaal's performance was the real stand-out.

On Saturday morning we left the house around nine and drove straight to
Cheddar, arriving around noon. We got some fish & chips and then bought our
Explorer Ticket that covered our admission to most of the sights in town.
We started with a visit to Gough's Cave. Re-discovered in the late 19th
century, the cave held the remains of "Cheddar Man," a 9,000 year-old
skeleton, as well as other bones and artifacts indicating that the cave was
used intermittently by prehistoric humans. It was carved out by an
underground river and had some very lovely rock formations. After that we
walked through the smaller Cox's Cave just down the hill. We decided to
skip the "Crystal Quest" medieval adventure cave and went back to our car
and headed off to Chewton Mendip, trying to find a dairy that offers tours.
We had a lovely drive between the rockfaces at the narrow end of the gorge,
but found that the Chewton Dairy no longer gives tours. So we went back to
the Cheddar Gorge Cheese Factory--a fairly touristy place on the main
street--to see their explanation of how the local cheese is made. This
includes the process called "cheddaring" that involves cutting the drained
curd into blocks and squeezing it to eliminate more of the whey before
milling it and pressing it into "truckles," or wheels. We decided to skip
the cheese store, figuring it was better not to set out on a three-mile hike
with a couple of pounds of cheese in our pockets.

Climbing up the stairs to the rim of the gorge, we set out on the route
around "the largest gorge in England." It was a pretty steep climb, both up
and down, but we got some lovely views of the gorge and of the surrounding
plain. South of the mouth of the gorge is an enormous reservoir that is
circular and raised--it took us a long time to figure out what it must be,
since it most resembles some kind of UFO landing pad when seen from above.

By the time we worked our way around the gorge and back to the main street
running through its center, the sidewalks were rolled up and
everything--including the cheese store--were closed. We picked up our car
again and drove into the center of the village to the Market Cross Hotel
(across from the medieval market cross, appropriately enough). We settled
into our room--small, but lovely, with a very comfy bed--and then went down
for dinner. We had two choices at each course, so we'd ordered one of
each. I ended up with the rich tomato soup with basil, a lovely salmon
steak with hollandaise sauce, and a sweet sponge pudding for dessert. Jason
had the grilled portobello mushroom with tomato and cheese, a very moist
pork chop with apple chutney, and a rich berry summer pudding. The sides
were cheesy mashed potatoes, broccoli with parmesan and carrots with
tarragon. It was all very tasty. We were the only ones having dinner that
evening, despite the hotel being all but full--three separate people stopped
by to check on availability while we were at table, but decided against the
one room available, as it did not have a private bath.

We went back up to our room right after dinner and went right to bed. It
was really nice to just sleep and sleep, without all the usual distractions
that keep us awake too late at home.

In the morning we were treated to one of the best full English breakfasts
we've had, complete with wonderfully creamy local yogurt. Fed up, we headed
out for the day.

Our first destination was Glastonbury and we could see the tor (hill) and
its tower from miles away, across the Somerset Levels. The levels are/were
wetlands and marshes until people drained them extensively, starting in the
11th century and continuing today. Before that, Glastonbury Tor would have
been essentially an island and legend connects it with the fabled island of
Avalon. At one point a grave was uncovered at the abbey that was alleged at
the time to be that of King Arthur. Legend also says that Joseph of
Arimathea came to the area trading for lead and tin and brought the young
Jesus with him (inspiring William Blake's poem, "Jerusalem"). Supposedly
Joseph returned after the crucifixion with the holy grail and built a small
church on the site of the abbey. Some of this legend was certainly enhanced
by St. Dunstan, Abbot of Glastonbury and Archbishop of Canterbury in the
10th century.

We started at the abbey museum, then strolled out around the ruins of the
abbey church. It was an enormous place in its time, but was destroyed after
the Dissolution of the Monasteries under Henry VIII and its buildings used
as a quarry for stones needed for local building projects. Very little
remains today.

Hopping on "The Tor Bus," we were whisked out through the fields surrounding
the town and dropped off at the foot of the path leading up to the top of
the tor, where the 14th-century tower of St. Michael's is all that remains
of the church that once occupied the summit. The wind was very strong and
after a look around at the charming countryside, we headed down the other
side of the hill, back toward town.

Just as we were approaching the bottom, I slipped and skinned my knee pretty
badly. So our first stop back in Glastonbury was the Safeway, where I could
buy band-aids and use their restroom to clean up. That task completed, we
found a nice little cafe for lunch. I had a very comforting bowl of
vegetable soup with a sandwich, while Jason devoured a Cornish pasty.

After lunch we hopped back in the car and went up the road to Wells. As we
arrived, the bells at St. Cuthbert's were playing and we were overtaken by
the post-lunch nap impulse, so we stayed in the car drowsing for about half
an hour. Reinvigorated, we wandered through town to the cathedral complex.
We went inside the cathedral and listened to the beginning of evensong
before deciding to visit the other areas of the complex and return to the
church after services, when more of it would be open to visitors.

The Bishop's Palace is a lovely place. The outer walls are still surrounded
by a moat fed by St. Andrew's Well, from which the city takes its name. The
ruins of the Great Hall are very picturesque. The bishop's chapel and the
formal rooms open to the public are not terribly exciting, but the walk out
around the well is both beautiful and interesting and the view of the
cathedral from the gardens is stunning. The archbishop of Bath & Wells
still lives in part of the palace complex.

We wandered back through the churchyard and gardens, parts of which surround
the ruins of previous chapels on the site. By the time we got back into the
church, the service was just ending and we were able to see the famous
14th-century clock chiming the quarter hour, when four wooden knights emerge
and joust. We continued through the quire and the eastern end of the church
and then up into the stunning chapterhouse, with its gorgeous 14th-century
ribbed ceiling, a predecessor of true fan vaulting.

Leaving the complex, we wandered back to the car and drove over to Bristol
in search of dinner. After strolling across Queen Square--the largest true
square in Europe and somewhat reminiscent of Harvard Yard--we sat by the
harbor to enjoy the sunset for a bit and then found pizza at a place called
"Bed." We got back to Cheddar just before nine and read for a bit before
turning in.

This morning we had another full English breakfast and then got on the
road. We drove through town, hoping to find the cheese store open, but it
wasn't. So we managed to spend the whole weekend in Cheddar without ever
having any of their cheese! :(

The drive back to London was fairly painless, except for some heavy traffic
just past Heathrow. I dropped Jason at home with our stuff so that he could
accept the grocery delivery and drove back over to King's Cross to drop of
the car and tube home.

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lillibet

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Last Outing
On the Move - Cornwall
On the Move - York
On the Move and At Home - Nottingham, Althorp and London with Beckie, et al.
On the Move in England
On the Move - A Weekend in Cheddar

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Walk in the Glow of Each Other's Majestic Presence

Entries tagged with england

Last Outing

On the Move - Cornwall

On the Move - York

On the Move and At Home - Nottingham, Althorp and London with Beckie, et al.

On the Move in England

On the Move - A Weekend in Cheddar