England Prevails!
Erin and I went to England with our friends
Eric and Ana
during the last two weeks of August 2006.
This page contains my log from our trip with some photos
(
see all photos).
Saturday the 12th
Airport Delays. Nothing to do but drink margaritas and wait 8 hours
to fly at midnight.
Sunday the 13th
After staying up all night on the plane we walked around London and
checked into our
hostel.
We then visited
Harods (just to see the £100,000
wrist watches) and the London Eye.
Monday the 14th
Tried on Medieval clothes (this is getting silly) at the
Museum of London.
We then visited the
Southwark
Cathedral and went to the
Bramah Coffe and Tea Museum.
At night we crossed the
Millennium Bridge and saw
Titus Andronicus
at the
Globe.
There were no floor seats and we stood like they did in the old days.
The actors screamed bloody murder and jumped in the crowd; pushing
members of the audience at times. Throw in the play's already
violent content and it was not that different from a hardcore show.
Tuesday the 15th
Spent the morning in the
British Library. We saw original
lyric sheets from the Beatles and Bach's hand-written manuscript
for the
Well-Tempered Clavier.
We also saw a manuscript of
Beowulf
from the early 11th century (written in Old English), a few original
copies of
the
Magna
Carta, and many other great old works.
We then took a train to
Bletchley Park
(and ate some pastys on the way). I was reading
Cryptonomicon
during my visit so it was pretty cool to see the location where part
of the book took place. Below are pictures of a model of
Bombe and the actual
rebuild of
Colossus.
That evening we visited my old house in Cobham. The bottom left
picture below shows the end of the heath from the Oxshot train
station; very close to where my friend Ken used to live.
Wednesday the 16th
We saw the usual London things: changing of the guard (short
version), Tower of London, Tower Bridge. The wooden statues below
are in the White Tower and are named Gin and Beer to represent the
two most important alcoholic beverages of the time. The armor below
belonged to the
Queen's Champion.
Thursday the 17th
Saw Saint Pual's Cathedral.
Went north to Camden Market and saw lots of
goths. I guess
it's convenient to be one when you have lots of castles to pose
in front of. At the British Museum we saw statues from Easter Island
and other ancient religious symbols including mummified cats. We then
hung out in a park with some tamed wild-life.
Friday the 18th
Took a tour of Parliament. Sat in the
House of Lords
and
House of Commons and saw the great hall where William
Wallace was tried. Toured Westminster Abbey. Saw the graves of
Newton, Darwin, et al. Photography was limited at Parliament and the
Abbey. Took a train north to
York and checked into our
hostel.
Saturday the 19th
Took a tour of
York Minster
which was built on top of a Norman cathedral such that
its limestone walls actually surround and contain the old walls. In
certain parts the original black Norman wall was intentionally left
visible. The original Norman cathedral was built on top of a Roman
basilica but does not use any of its structure since the basilica
walls are not on an east-west line (a requirement of cathedrals so
that they are aligned with the rising and setting sun). The basilica
remains can still be seen in the cathedral's crypt.
The stained glass window in the center is from a time when
colored glass was expensive and had to be used sparingly. The stained
glass window on the right is as large as a tennis court. It is bowed
and requires special support. The builders discovered the bend when
the wall was half way up and didn't have the resources to start
over.
These pictures are from the Christmas chapel.
The painting shows Saint Nicholas throwing gold coins into the chimney
so that the father in the picture can have a dowry for his three
daughters (in the bed).
Note that the chairs have (from right to left) three French hens, two
turtle doves, and a partridge in a pear tree.
These statues were carved of the kings. The cathedral is not symmetric
and the continuation on the other side features not seven but eight
statues. The sculptors didn't really know what the kings looked like
and it seems like one sculptor could do fat faces with big beards and
the other could do thin faces with small beards, so they varied this
theme on each of the statues. The gold carving (below the foot of a
statue) shows a cat and mouse living together in harmony.
The red dot at the top of the ceiling of the tower is actually five
feet wide. We climbed the 275 winding steps to the top. Half way up
we walked across the outside top of the nave. Part of the way was
tight and I had to contort to get through. I was told that someone
was once too claustrophobic to go back down and had to be picked up
with a helicopter.
We also visited York Castle (Clifford's Tower).
In addition to the above we walked along the
city walls and saw parts of York which date back to the Romans.
This includes a Roman bath (which is now under a pub) which had a
reproduction
sponge on a
stick.
Monday the 21st
Sunday we took a train to
Stratford-upon-Avon
and settled into the
Virginia Lodge.
Then on Monday we went to
Oxford
and took a tour of the
Bodleian Library.
The five levels of columns for the tower in the second picture from
the left represent five consecutive periods of architecture (starting
with Roman columns at the bottom). The next picture over features a
seat where the king once sat during a special meeting of parliament.
The second set of windows (under the second arch) in this picture
has a yellow glass rectangle. When the sun shines through that
rectangle and onto the podium of the chair in the center, the meeting
will be adjourned for lunch. There is a similar rectangle on another
window for dinner. The two right-most pictures on the bottom second
row show a room of the divinity school (and its ceiling). This room
was rented for the Harry Potter movie and served as
Hogwarts
Sanatorium.
We had dinner at
The Eagle
and Child where J. R. R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis used to meet.
Oxford actually has a street called
Logic Lane!
Tuesday the 22nd
We went to
Kenilworth
Castle.
That evening we saw
Patrick Stewart
in
The
Tempest at the Royal Shakespeare Theatre.
Wednesday the 23rd
Took it easy in Stratford-upon-Avon.
Thursday the 24th
Went to Wales to visit
Hay-on-Wye, a town
full of book stores.
Eric's friend Will was kind enough to drive us through
the windy roads for two and a half hours each way.
Beer
I would like to end this tail on an upbeat and talk about the many
fine ales I enjoyed on this trip. I normally prefer
lagers to
ales, however
I quickly learned that the ales in England are quite different than
what I can get back home. In fact I decided early on that I would
only drink ales on my trip and that I might even
not drink
any more ales when I got back home. A conclusion reached
independently by Eric's friend Tim.
I've come up with list of ten (note that I had two weeks to
conduct this research) beers that I can comfortably recommend to
anyone visiting England:
- Adnams - Bitter
- Old Speckled Hen
- Uley - Pig's Ear
- Bombadier
- Fuller's London Pride
- Neathergate - Umbel Magna
- Centurion's Ghost
- Yorkshire Terrior
- Brakspear Special
-
Hook Norton - Old Hooky
(I never tasted it, but everyone I asked about it smiled and said
it was good.)
