England

( As per above and below: in Oxford education is a serious business)

We are in England at the moment because we promised our apartment in Amsterdam to a friend, before our mission trip to Kenya changed our travel schedule and brought us back to Amsterdam a day or two before his arrival with his two daughters.

(Photos of Oxford's college grounds)

It gave me the opportunity to suggest a driving tour through the UK. Today we take one of our "days of rest", those needed days we have been taking on any trip we have made since the very beginning of our new career, "world travelers", just to keep our sanity.

(Typical British features: cricket - I still don't get it - and curvy country roads)

(also village skylines and gardens - real English life outside the big cities)

This is the program: a few days in central London some days at Chepstow Wales, near Bristol allowing us to see the southern part of the Cotswolds and a bit of South Wales.

(Big medieval castles and row houses right out of a TV show)

We visited the city of Bath, famous for many reasons, but foremost because of its most famous resident Jane Austen.

(Center plaza of Bath and below a magnificent chandelier in the Bath Assembly Rooms - now used for weddings)

We also visited Stonehenge and the lesser known Avebury, a village with the largest circle of stones in the world.

(All the time I was imagining a crowd of worshippers thousands of years ago in a setting that would hopefully have more color, fire and ritual food)

(Avebury is more mysterious: why a circle that has a 460 yard/ 420 meter diameter? - what ceremonies were held here?)

Then we moved up to Derbyshire. About that, London and the stones later in more detail.

(Country vegetation - beauty and artsy)

Tomorrow we drive to Gwydir, a famous little castle in northwest Wales, before returning home to Amsterdam.

(country roads were traffic nightmares to drive and beyond beautiful to experience)

The picture story about this trip will take more than one blog so let me get on with it.

(Whereas Sandee wondered about a topic with Oscar Wilde the Brits were hanging out with an ale in their hands)

About London: we were tourists doing the "must see" things. Despite that, we liked London and we promised each other to return and just visit, sit in a pub, get to a roof terrace and lazily watch the skyline, walk a neighborhood, peek into a church or two.

(Downing Street is blocked off - wonder why?)

In short, the things that make city visits really wonderful: that relaxed way of roaming, turning corners and looking at the rush around you.

(Elizabeth Tower houses Big Ben chiming on the hour)

(Westminster Abbey lower section and impressive windows, creating a lot of natural light in the cathedral)

(Tower Bridge and the battleship HMS Belfast)

The pictures will reveal what we did see this time. By the way, Buckingham Palace and the changing of the guards are missing. And a visit to the London Bridge Story exhibition which included a horror show was done, but not recorded in any photo.

(Modern architectural juggernauts: The Gherkin and the Shard)

(The ugly - in my opinion at least - London Eye and the wonderful London Tower complex)

(Tower Bridge, it was London Bridge that the Brits sold to be transferred to Lake Havasu City in Arizona)

I am ashamed to admit that the only reason we did this tour, on my insistence, was because I needed to get my monies worth out of the purchased London Pass, which provides tourists entrance to all London has to offer, such as Hop On Hop Off, Thames cruise, Westminster Abbey etc etc. You get the drift.

(pictures of Windsor Castle, a nice excursion compliments of London Pass)

The one thing that England made me realize is that stories about the weather are spot on. When it is wet weather it is cold weather. The sun is often a bleak experience and shivering must have been invented by the Brits as a kind of muscle therapy. But when there is a preponderance of blue sky to be experienced, the local population actually smiles at each other once in awhile.

(The Little Venice canal has its own cruise, but as it was too full for us, so we walked the length of the canal with beautiful mansions)

Beer comes by default in pints and unspecified as Ale. Fish and Chips is too often too greasy and portion sizes rival American diner meal sizes. Of course this applies to Pub food only since we did not frequent pricey restaurants. I thus can not comment on the city's new slogan that "London features more famous chefs than any other city in the world"; however I rather doubt it.

(The oldest Marriott in the world, no not Chepstow - the second oldest - this is Breadsall Priory, dating back to 1260)

We relocated to a small town called Chepstow in Southern Wales, because it has a Marriott and I desired to qualify for a platinum status, just because I was offered that level, if I completed a challenge in stays. From there we visited the southern part of the famous Cotswolds, which stretches more southern than I imagined and includes the city of Bath which is quite a distance from Stratford on the Avon.

(Nr 4 brother validated Jane - vague picture 6 - after her death as the author)

We risked a parking ticket and toured a house that had Jane Austen as occupant long ago and listened to a, for me, clarifying story about her life, which illuminated me a lot about the content of her writings, all of which I started somewhere during my life and only one of which I completed, and I am not revealing which one and or why the others were set aside - for another day, maybe.

(Cheddar and its Gorge, seen from the tourbus)

We visited the village of Cheddar, where cheddar cheese has been produced since the 12th century. And just like Gouda cheese, the name has never been patented, so one can also make Cheddar anywhere in the world.

(Cheddar Cave, pictures with limestone formations and stalactites and -mites)

Besides the name the village is a tourist attraction, because it has the largest British gorge (449ft/137m deep) and real nice limestone caves where they found traces of human occupation dating back over 12000 years and a 9000 year old complete human skeleton.

(The first and only National Trust country house where one could touch things and play billiards or crawl in bed, if you take off your shoes)

Our first outing from Chepstow was to Avebury, the largest stone circle in the world, created sometime during the Bronze Age. Like Stonehenge which we visited later that day, the mystery surrounding the stones still remains, despite the many archeological digs and numerous scientific papers written about the people that created these circles. The mere fact that these stones were dragged here from areas that require a few hours of driving today into Wales and then raised and covered with other stones of equal length and weight is as mind boggling as the creation of the pyramids, thousands of years later.

(We visited many a mansion or castle with frozen in time furnishings and stories about Jacobean, Elizabethean or Cromwellian times)

It was in Avebury that we became members of the National Trust, which properties we visited in following weeks, because just like the London Pass, I needed to get value for the money laid out. This and the next blog about this England trip shows therefore National Trust castles, manors and gardens and parts of national parks we visited. Stonehenge and Avebury are also National Trust properties and parking was always free for members. You can not beat that Dutch element out of me.

May the pictures tell a better story. I will continue our trip stories in the next blog.

(Those Belgian tapestry weavers must have been billionaires in their times as the preponderance of wall coverings were full length made to order in Belgium, like the examples here. And as one of the museum employees tells me, they have to go back for cleaning and repair to Belgium as only there can one find the specialists to do so)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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