October 31 - Leaving England

Our whirlwind trip to England is over and we are now back in Canada. On many days of our travels, it really was like stepping back into the pages of history. The good part about many of those steps is that they were free.

I think that what we enjoyed most about our UK trip were the walks in the countryside. There seem to be so many public pathways with such easy access. I found the walks through and beside open fields fairly easy going. Forested areas with the accompanying tree roots and branches were a little more difficult.  On one day we made a tenuous beginning on St. Michael’s Way, an extension of the pilgrimage to Santiago in Spain. I’m not sure if we were at the beginning or the end of the trek and where the earlier pilgrims crossed the sea to the European mainland.

There were lots of churches scattered around the hamlets, villages and towns and we often stopped to look around, sometimes venturing inside the buildings and sometimes just wandering around the adjacent cemetery. Lyle would read the dates on the older headstones. The very old ones were usually located right beside the walls of the church and mostly the markings on these were obliterated by age and weather.

I have included two pictures with this post. Both were taken in Chipping Campden but they are fairly typical of the churches we saw in other areas.

The first picture shows the steeple of St. Paul’s Anglican Church. The tall steeples and high buildings were truly an architectural feat for their day and age. 

St. Paul's Anglican Church

The second picture looks out over some of the gravestones to the field beyond where a flock of sheep are grazing. It is fairly typical of the peace and tranquility we encountered in our explorations and it is one of my favourite pictures.

Sheep graving beyond some gravestones

On the night before our flight back to Canada, we stayed in London. It was a Sunday and so we caught the train into the city to attend the organ recital and evening prayer service at Westminster Abbey. The organ was both thunderous and magnificent. Although the church service was attended mostly by tourists, it was an eerie feeling to be sitting in a building with such a sacred and historic past. As Lyle commented, our pew was only feet away from the resting place of the remains of Sir Isaac Newton.

It was a perfect way to finish our travels and with All Saints Day just around the corner, a fitting time to be writing this post.

October 30 - Pictures from Cornwall (Part 3)

St. Michael’s Mount is a small rocky island off the coast of Cornwall. Part of its fascination is its history. It began as a monastery, but in subsequent years acted as a fort, and today is part private home and part castle open for public viewing.

The other fascination of St. Michael’s Mount is its location. It is an island but at low tide it is connected to the mainland by a cobblestone causeway. When the tide is high, visitors to the Mount must approach the rocky island by boat.  We took both routes.

When we arrived at Marazion, the small town on the mainland, the tide was high and we took the boat shuttle to the island. When we left the castle we walked across the causeway which in some places was still wet and slippery from the receding waters at low tide. For me, the incoming and outgoing tides were just as interesting as the self-guided tour around the stone fort and castle.

There are three pictures with this post. The first was taken from the mainland at high tide and shows St. Michael’s Mount from a distance. It is definitely an island surrounded by water.

St. Michael's Mount

The second picture was taken from the Mount looking back to the land. It is low tide and there are people walking across the causeway.

Causeway connecting to St. Michael's Mount

The third picture is my favourite. It shows a stretch of sand leading up to a tall rock ledge. This same spot is where we caught the boat in the morning when the sand was covered with the water of the high tide.  In the picture I am standing high and dry on the sand where just a few hours previously the water would have covered my head. 

Sue at rock ledge during low tide

October 27 - Pictures From Cornwall (Part 2)

There are many reminders of the past in England and we came across several of these ancient sites in our travels around the Cornwall peninsula.  Some of these sites pose more questions about the past than they do provide answers.

There are three pictures with this post. The first shows me standing beside a partial stone structure from an ancient village near Chysauster.  We were amazed at the size of the stone boulders that had been put together in the construction of the buildings. The second picture is a broader view of the stone remnants and some of the surrounding countryside. How did the people of two thousand years ago move these stones into place?  Why did the ancient Celts choose this particular isolated hill as the site for the village?  What was the significance of the circular design of both the village and its houses?  Why after two or three hundred years did the inhabitants abandon their village, and where did they go when they left?

Sue with partial stone structure

Sue at ancient village near Chysauter

The third picture is of the Merry Maidens. The picture shows the circular area of nineteen large stones. (It is possible there were originally twenty stones as there is one large gap in the ring.)  Legend has it that an angry god changed the maidens into stone because they were dancing on the Sabbath.  Of course, the question remains, is there any truth behind the legend.  There is no written documentation to answer the question – only speculation. 

Sue with Merry Maidens

October 26 - Pictures from Cornwall (Part 1)

As we drove back from Lands End on the southwest corner of England, we inadvertently found ourselves on the road directly through the village of Mousehole.  There was no turning back.  The street was extremely narrow and we simply had to follow our noses until we reached the other side.  At one point there was a delivery truck coming from the other direction.  We needed to pull over so far to our left that we actually ran over someone’s front step!
 

There are three pictures with this post.  The first one shows me in front of the signpost at Lands End.  It was certainly a windswept and isolated point of land.

Sue at Land's End

The second picture shows Lyle standing in the middle of the main street through Mousehole.  The houses are built with the fronts flush with the street itself.  When we reached the other side of town, we parked the car and walked back.  Lyle read a sign that announced the maximum width of any vehicle passing through was six feet six inches.  We could certainly understand that caution.

 

Lyle at Mousehole

The last picture shows the small Mousehole harbour at low tide.  It shows the boats stranded on the sand, but you can see the high water mark on the harbour walls.

Mousehole harbour at low tide

October 25 - The Cotswolds

One of our excursions from London was to the Cotswolds, an area of green fields, rolling hillsides and quaint villages. We chose to stay at Honeybourne, which is one of the lesser known of these. To get there, we took the train from London to Oxford and then rented a car. The drive was confusing to say the least and thank goodness for the GPS that we decided to rent along with the car. I can’t see to read directions and Lyle shouldn’t be taking his eyes off the road to see them either. There were many, many turns to different roads from Oxford to Honeybourne.

Honeybourne is near to Chipping Campden, once known as a bustling market town, and we spent the good part of an afternoon here.  The stone remnants of the old market place still stand in the centre of High Street. We looked for a marker to give us some idea of just how old the building was but without success. Perhaps everything is just so old that markers and plaques become redundant.

I was quite fascinated by the short narrow doorframes on some of the older buildings. Lyle took several pictures of the doors. I was wishing that we had thought to do this in Cornwall as well. There the doors were painted in all the colours of the rainbow – blue, green, orange, purple. None of the next door neighbours had an identically coloured door to the other.

We also came across a stone arch – again quite short and narrow – leading to the Ernest Chinese Wilson Memorial Garden.  Wilson was a botanist and an intrepid explorer. The distances this man covered in the days when travel was difficult – I’m talking about the late 1800’s and early 1900’s – were quite extraordinary. Basically he travelled the world, especially in remote areas of China, looking for different plant species. Many of these he brought back to England. In the final chapter of his life, he was still involved with travel, but became ill while in the United States and for a reason that wasn’t explained in the printed biography, his remains were brought back to Montreal for burial.

I liked the Cotswolds and there is a lot of history surrounding the various villages. There are also interesting walks across the fields and along public pathways connecting these villages. I did find the area a little claustrophobic but that might be because I didn’t really know where we were. It would be easy for me to become lost without specific landmarks. Nevertheless, I’m glad that we took the time to visit and I can certainly understand the appeal that the area has for so many people.

 

There are three pictures with this post. The first shows one of the older buildings along the main street of Chipping Campden. The second picture shows me standing beside one of the older doors and the last picture shows me standing in front of the arch to the Wilson Memorial Gardens.

 

Sue in front of old building in Chipping Campden

Sue in front of an old door

Sue in front of an arch at Wilson Memorial Gardens

October 23 - Greenwich

It was a warm day in London when we walked from Victoria Station towards the Thames, so when we saw the tour boats moored beside the river, it was an easy decision to take the short cruise to Greenwich. We sat on the upper deck and I was glad that we had the sunscreen lotion along. I quite enjoyed the commentary and Lyle described some of the more interesting sights for me. I was able to see the Tower Bridge as we sailed beneath it.

It was an interesting day weather wise as well. When we clambered out over the gangway at Greenwich the clouds had begun to form and within minutes we had umbrellas up. I had my raincoat along as well. I much prefer using a raincoat to an umbrella. I find that holding the umbrella in one hand and my cane in the other is both awkward and tiring. By the time we reached Observatory Hill, the rain was coming down in buckets.

Greenwich is an interesting place to visit. We wandered around the observatory and finally made our way outside to where a thick white line marked the division of zero degrees longitude. Actually recent satellite information has determined that the line is not quite accurate and should be another few inches away from its current position. However, the painted meridian made for a good tourist attraction and along with others, who had come for the same reason, I stood with one foot in the east and the other in the west as Lyle took my picture.

There are two pictures with this post. The first is a shot of the Tower Bridge, and the second is of me standing over the Greenwich Meridian Line. 

Tower Bridge in the distance

 

Sue at Greenwich Meridian Line

October 22 - London Theatre

Lyle and I both enjoy live theatre – any live theatre really, but especially musicals. In that way, being in London was perfect for us. The city has a plethora of theatres offering live entertainment and we managed to squeeze in three separate performances in our short stay there.

The first show we saw was Billy Elliot.  Because the play is set in the UK, and in spite of having seen it once before in Sydney Australia, we knew that to see it in London was a must. Even on the second time around, the show didn’t disappoint. The youngster who played Billy did an exceptional job as did the rest of the cast.

The second show we saw was Matilda, The Musical. We didn’t have tickets for this ahead of time and were prepared to sit wherever seating was available. I was thrilled when a helpful box office staffer found us two seats in the front row, so close that our knees knocked against the side of the stage. Lyle wasn’t quite as excited with the seating arrangement as I was but it was the best seat in the house for me.

I enjoyed the production and the young actors were very talented. However, although I am a Roald Dahl fan, (he is the author of books for children), Matilda is not my favourite book and that did influence my feelings about the show a bit. It was a weeknight when we went to the performance and I was surprised at how many young children were in the audience.   I wondered how many of them had read the novel and how much of the humour they understood. It seemed to me that much of it was directed towards an adult audience.

The last show we saw was Wicked. We didn’t know much about this musical ahead of time. My only information was that it was the story of the witches from the Wizard of Oz before Dorothy arrived on the scene. Also our daughter and son-in-law had seen the Calgary performance and liked it, so off we went. It turned out to be our favourite of the three.

The acting and singing were brilliant and I liked the story line.  The stage setting was great. I think that it really helped that the show was in a permanent setting and so the lighting and stage sets could be more elaborate. The Apollo Theatre was truly a magnificent old building.  If nothing else, just being inside the theatre was an experience.   

We enjoyed all three shows, but Wicked definitely received a thumbs up from us.  

 As a postscript, I must write that, because of the age of the buildings, the toilets in each theatre were awkward and tricky to get to. There were steps and narrow entrances. I think that the washroom facilities had been added as a bit of a modern afterthought.

Finally, the box office staff at each theatre when we purchased our tickets were extremely helpful in finding the best seats for us at the best possible price. I have a better chance of seeing the stage when I sit slightly to the right of it and of course, closer to the front is the best for me. The staff were great in trying to accommodate my vision needs. Should we ever get the opportunity to go to London on a future trip, I know that we would plan on including theatre performances in our itinerary.