London Eye and Hampton Court Palace

Monday, June 17

 

The London Eye was very busy over the weekend, so I was hoping that it would be easier to get on early on a weekday.  This turned out to be the case and it only took us ten minutes to walk there and then another ten minutes for us to collect our prepaid tickets and board one of the capsules.  It really benefits from its location just across the Thames from the Houses of Parliament.  It's now a London experience not to be missed, but given the expense I probably wouldn't be very inclined to do it again.  The included "4D Experience" was fun too.  It's a short 3D movie about the London Eye where a little simulated rain and snow falls on you while you watch, thus making it 4D.

Afterwards we popped over to the nearby Waterloo Station to catch the 12:06 train to Hampton Court.  The trip took 30 minutes and it was great to get out of the hustle and bustle of central London.  The Palace sits next to the Thames about a five minute walk from the train station and was mostly built in the Tudor era (1500s).  We had a quick bite at the Orangery Café before going into the Palace (Marnie is displaying her ginger beer below).

 

This was at least my third time there but it was probably the most enjoyable because of the audio guide that is now included with the admission.  The Palace is sometimes referred to as the British Versailles, although on a more modest scale, and it has many connections to Henry VIII who was the first of many monarchs to live there, ending with George II in the early 1800s.  William and Mary added a newer section and developed the gardens with the help of Capability Brown, Britain's most famous landscape architect.  We watched two guys playing tennis on the indoor Tudor tennis court (more like racket ball with a net) and Marnie tackled the maze by herself as I had done it before and wanted to take some photos of the gardens.

 

 

We caught the 6:24 back to Waterloo Station and grabbed a few dinner provisions from the grocery store in the station.  We also stopped at the local convenience store to replenish our supply of Bailey's Irish Cream which we've indulged in before every dinner.  We are innocents abroad, when we arrived the flat had some Baileys already in it and we started drinking it without any idea how addictive it would be.  It's like opium addiction, which I believe the Brits also bear some responsibility for.

 

Tonight's "telly" consisted of "Airport", a behind the scenes look at Heathrow, and a travel show on India with the focus on food hosted by a British chef.  I suppose we should be getting out seeing plays in the evening but each day we're out touring so much that we have nothing left in the tank by evening.

Windsor Castle

Tuesday, June 18

 

We've been rained on a bit but far less than we'd expected given the forecasts and today was no different.  I got Marnie up early today because it seemed a safe bet that we'd get rain by mid-afternoon but there was no rain and we ended the day walking along the Thames in sunshine.

But before that we took the 9:28 train to Windsor to see the castle.  After we sat down in our seats three Americans took the seats across from us and we had a nice chat.  They were a couple a bit older than us from Portland and their daughter who had a job in London and was taking them to see Windsor Castle also.  We saw them again three hours later when we coincidentally took the same train back to London.

Windsor is a beautiful town but unfortunately it has a constant stream of jet planes making their final approaches to Heathrow overhead.  Still, we enjoyed the Castle [360°] and arrived just in time to see the changing of the guard at 11:00.  St. George's Chapel [360°] is magnificent and rivals any Cathedral for beauty.  Unfortunately the public couldn't see the State Apartments because the Queen was in residence that day.  The picture below is in the same spot where I took a picture of my parents nearly 30 years ago when they came to visit me.

 

 

After the castle we knocked around Windsor for over an hour and talked to a man who was walking his two Papillion dogs.  We sat with them briefly and a little later did the same with a woman and her two dogs and we realized how well behaved the dogs of Britain typically are.  A real effort is made by the Brits to train them so that they can be taken out in public without being a problem.

I guess you could say the same for little boys.  On the train back we found a peaceful spot only to have three mothers and their five boys join us in the surrounding seats.  They were apparently returning from Legoland and for most of the way back to London the mothers were in a battle to keep the boys, probably between the ages of 5 and 10, from being a nuisance to other passengers.  It was kinda entertaining but I really wished I could have just been able to doze.

Marnie picked up a curry from the M&S in Waterloo for her dinner and I got a chicken and mushroom pie from the Pieminster at Gabriel's Wharf that was delicious.  We only had our dinners after a nap which then gave us the energy to take our stroll along the river bank afterwards.

Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Palace and the British Museum

Wednesday, June 19

 

Today was our last day in London and we had ambitious plans, but all that was thrown-off a bit by a mystery that occurred with the #9 bus.  We had taken it before to get to Knightsbridge but for some reason that particular #9 terminated at Hyde Park Corner which left us a mile short of the Royal Albert Hall [360°].  We weren't the only passengers that were perplexed and afterwards we saw several other #9s passing us as we walked that remaining mile to the Royal Albert Hall.  We went to Kensington Palace afterwards but that only left us 30 minutes for the British Museum once the #10 bus had navigated the dense traffic on Oxford Street.  Fortunately, we had both previously been to the British Museum but we had also wanted to go to the Tate Modern.  Had we taken the underground rather than either bus it might have made a difference and we really should have gone to the Tate Modern earlier in the week since it was only a ten minute walk from the flat.

 

Anyway, we had 45 minutes before the 1:00 tour of the Royal Albert Hall so we had a nice lunch at the cafe inside it.  Our tour guide sounded like Eric Idle and we were lucky enough to be there while they were rehearsing that night's performance of Swan Lake.  The tour may have only allowed for us to sit and watch the rehersal for ten minutes but it was nice to see something being performed.  Here's a couple of interesting facts:  1) for decades there were serious problems acoustically in the RAH until they finally eliminated the echo in the late 1960s.  2) they had an amazing range of events beyond music and dance including tennis, basketball, sumo wrestling, boxing and even an Olympic marathon in 1908.  3) the financing to build it was partly through the sale of seat licenses of 999 years where the holder has the right to attend all events for no additional charge, although that recently has been cut back to 75% of the events.

Afterwards it was a short walk to Kensington Palace which isn't that impressive on the outside but has many spectacular rooms in it.  There’s lots of history on Victoria and Albert as well as the Stuart and Hanover monarchs beginning around 1680.  More recently a good number of the current royals have lived there including Charles and Diane.

 

We got to the British Museum in time to see only the new roof on the inner courtyard, a few mummies and the Rosetta Stone.  Actually I don't think we'd want to have a whole lot more time as I had probably been there at least three times before.  It's kinda like the Louvre -- at some point you just give up ever trying to see everything.
 

 

We walked to Covent Gardens where we browsed briefly and then went to Sagar again for an Indian meal.  We again caught the RV1 almost right outside the restaurant door and it dropped us off at the bus stop right at the door to our flat.  Our mission to see London had been a success even if we hadn't quite seen everything we had identified.  We'll just save those things we missed for the next time we're in town.

Bradford on Avon via Newbury

Thursday, June 20

Our landlord, David, showed up about 9:30 very apologetic about being early but it was no problem as we were just 15 minutes from being out the door anyway.  I talked with him while Marnie finished dressing and discovered that he is a very interesting guy.  We had noticed that there were dozens of travel guides in the flat; many were on London for the benefit of guests but some obviously were not including a couple on Cuba.  I told him about how we spent a week there and he had actually been there riding his bike for two months after he retired in 1990.  This was during the "Special Period" when Cuba was no longer receiving aid from the Soviets and Cubans struggled just to stay fed.  David said that as a tourist he also found it difficult to get enough to eat.  We let David know what a wonderful flat he had and how we hoped to come back to enjoy it again someday.

We got to Waterloo Station about 10:00 and added enough funds to our Oyster cards to be sure they would cover the Tube trip to Heathrow where we would pick-up our rental car.  Once again we saw people all dressed up to go to Royal Ascot for the horse races -- men in top hats and tails and women in fine dresses and distinctive hats.  Most of the hats that the women wore were very small as they seemed to be young and not yet wealthy.  I suppose the women who can afford the more elaborate hats can also afford to travel by car to Ascot Racecourse.

The train took just over an hour to reach Terminal 4 where we caught a shuttle at 11:30 to the Budget rental lot.  It wasn't very busy at the desk but it took an hour before we actually drove off partly because Budget was washing the only available automatic.  I made the adjustment to left hand drive quickly in the Hyundai i30 which is called the Elantra GT in the States and which I had been recently admiring back home.

We took the M4 to Reading and then the A33 to Basingstoke so that we could visit my old flat inChineham. 

I would have liked to have also gotten into Basingstoke but time really didn't permit that.  We drove to RAF Greenham Common, which took a bit longer than I remembered, but there was very little at the former base that is still recognizable from the 80’s.  It was converted into a business park 20 years ago and so much has been torn down since I was last there in '94.  If there is a way to get to the landing strip area then it must be from some other entrance, perhaps on the north side.  I did recognize what little was left of Building 303, the hanger under my squadron's control, but they had nearly finished demolishing it.  We would have liked to have visited nearby Highclere Castle but it isn’t open to the public the entire month presumably for filming episodes of “Downton Abbey”.

We drove into Newbury and parked in a car park in front of the building which once had been the B&B where I spent my first seven weeks before I moved into my Chineham flat.  We strolled through the shopping district including the high street that is now mostly pedestrianized and bought some items in the open air market.  We had tapas and cider at a Spanish restaurant called La Tosca at about 3:00.

Afterwards we were back on the road reaching Bradford on Avon (BoA) at 5:15 when our misadventure began with the keys to Lockview Cottage.  I had no trouble getting them out of the key safe but it was quite awhile before we gave up trying to get the keys to unlock the front door.  I called the landlord on a pay phone at the train station and she said that it should work but that it had to be put in the lock very straight before turning.  We trudged back to the flat and tried again without luck and then Marnie went to the nearby Lock Inn Café and tried to reach her again without success.  

Shortly afterwards the barman from the cafe came by and said that our landlord had rang back to say that someone would be sent.  What the barman should have said it that someone COULD be sent because an hour later we called the landlord back to ask when someone would be there.  She apologized for the misunderstanding and said she would call a locksmith right away.  During all of our waiting I noticed that one of the teeth of the skeleton key appeared bent which was probably causing the problem.  When the locksmith arrived he agreed with that diagnosis and cut us a new key.  So we finally got into our flat after three hours.  The cottage was really nicely furnished and, aside from the key fiasco, our week there was a very positive experience.  We got a bit settled and snacked just enough to make a real dinner unnecessary and went to bed.

Hanging Out At Bradford On Avon

Friday, June 21

 

Today started out like so many others with yet another forecast of rain that fails to materialize.  In fact, it was mostly sunny and warm.  I decided to hit Sainsbury's grocery store just after it opened at 7:00 so that we would have something for breakfast as well as some provisions to get us through the weekend. This Sainsbury's is a superstore and only a ten minute walk away from the cottage.  I took the street getting there but it is very near the canal so I used the path along the canal for a pleasant way to get back. 

After breakfast we decided to explore BoA on foot and used the canal path to get to the nearby Tithe Barn which is Britain's largest surviving.  It's about 800 years old and looks like it could easily survive another 800 years.  The wood beams in the inside ceiling form a very intricate and beautiful pattern.  We then explored the nearby artists’ workshops in the old buildings that had been part of the old Barrett Farm before it was turned over to be a park.

BoA is picturesque for many reasons, one is that it has both a canal and the Avon River which run through it.  Crossing the Avon on an old bridge we came upon the town's main church as well as a Saxon church that is around a thousand years old.  We couldn't find a way into the main church but the Saxon church was open and the interior is beautiful in a stark sort of way.  Exploring the high street we came across The Shambles which is a short stretch of small shops on both sides of a narrow walkway.

BoA sits in a river valley and as the town grew into a thriving mill town it's inhabitants built homes going up the hill that were connected by a maze of small streets and narrow walkways.  We climbed our way up that hill and reached a couple of levels of town houses where the small gardens (yards) were separated from the house by the public walkway running right in front of the doors.  The gardens were very colorfully landscaped and we had a couple of cat encounters.  We eventually reached the top where an old chapel (500 years?) is located.

 

After working our way back down the hill we stopped at the Lock Inn Cafe where we had lunch at 2:00 in one of the tiny cabins that sat outside the pub on the canal.   I had a cider and fish and chips, and Marnie had a Pimms and vegetable banti which was a curry dish.  The Pimms was two shots of that fruit liquor with seltzer and slices of a lime and an apple and is popular summertime drink.

 

Below is one of the other places to grab a table at the Lock Inn Cafe, in a former narrow boat.  Our cottage overlooks the canal at this point on the left bank.

Afterwards we hung out at Bradford Lock which is less than a 100 yards from our cottage.  It was fascinating to watch the lock being used and it seemed like we could operated it ourselves after just a few minutes watching.  Many canal boats were vacationers but the one pictured below was apparently a business meeting that was probably doubling as a team building exercise.  We then went back to the cottage at 3:30 for a nap and watched “The Madness of King George” during dinner.

 

LaCock Abbey and Malmsbury

Saturday, June 22

 

Like most other days the forecast included a good chance of rain but today it actually did rain, although we were fortunate that the downpour came when we were already inside Lacock Abbey[360°].  It was only about ten miles from the cottage and we arrived just before 11:00.  

There are three stories connected to Lacock, it's formation in 1232 as a nunnery by Ela, Countess of Salisbury, being the first.  The second is how it was remodeled after the Dissolution by its new owner, William Sharington, who purchased it from Henry VIII.  The third is as the home of William Henry Fox Talbot, the pioneer of photography who invented the negative around 1835.  Much of the nunnery survives including the cloisters and the modifications made later by the Tudors and Victorians still managed to preserve much of the earlier bits.  The upper floors were very sumptuously decorated and a 20th century heiress of Fox Talbot wrote a book describing her struggle to preserve the estate that she had unexpectedly inherited.  Afterwards we had lunch at the Lacock Abbey cafe, toured the beautiful town of Lacock and saw the photography historical exhibit at the Fox Talbot Museum.  Lacock had been a very good way to spend nearly five hours.

We then drove about 20 minutes to Malmsbury Abbey which had once been a rival in size to Salisbury Cathedral before lightening caused its central spire to collapse and destroy a large section of the church around 1500.  Then the cloister had to be removed as required during the Dissolution a few decades later and doing so weakened the front of the Abbey causing it to collapse.  What remained of the nave became a rather odd looking church that is uniquely beautiful.  The photos below show the outside and inside of the surviving nave where the crossing would ordinarily have begun; the third image probably best illustrates the original abbey with what survived in white.

The town of Malmsbury was very nice to walk through but we only had paid for an hour of parking so we had little time to really explore it.  We grabbed a few items for dinner from our local Sainsbury's, including some gluten free Yorkshire pudding, and watched the remake of “The Manchurian Candidate” starring Denzel Washington.  

Salisbury Cathedral and Avebury Stone Circle

Sunday, June 23

 

We arrived in Salisbury at 11:30 and walked to the Cathedral [360°] that dominates the town.  This is my favorite cathedral in the South and its spire is the tallest in England at 400 feet.  Today I would see it like I'd never seen it before on the Tower Tour, but first we strolled through the cavernous interior, had lunch in the cafe and viewed one of the four surviving copies of the Magna Carta in the Chapter House.

Our guide on the Tower Tour was so well informed on the construction of Salisbury Cathedral that it made me wonder if he might have been a retired engineer.  After a few minutes on the floor of the nave our group of about twenty climbed a narrow circular staircase to the rafters above the left aisle.  We could see that much of the structural support for the cathedral relies on wood that is already a thousand years old and looks like can easily be good for another thousand.  Going through a passage put us on the rim of the nave and we had a spectacular view that must have been from at least 60 feet above the floor. 

From there we move to the interior of the nave roof and then to the interior of the central tower.  After climbing two wooden spiral staircases we reached the top of the tower where the spire began.  We had about ten minutes each on the outside of the tower on both the east and north sides to see the commanding views from about 200 feet up.  We had gone to the top of St. Paul's Cathedral in London but this tour was much more interesting because you really got into the "bones" of the building which were explained by someone really knowledgeable on the fascinating subject of medieval cathedral construction.

We drove by Stonehenge for a quick look from the car but quickly pressed on to Avebury Stone Circle which we had almost to ourselves when we arrived at 6:30.  Avebury is the largest stone circle and is from the same era as Stonehenge, but the boulders are spread out on a much larger area and are not fenced off from visitors.  The village of Avebury sits partly inside the henge which is the earthwork with banks and ditches nearly 1400 feet across where most of the stones are found.  In addition to the stone circle, Avebury has two "avenues" of stones that radiate out from the circle.

Also found within the circle are grazing sheep who usually run away but two approached us completely fearlessly and nibbled on Marnie's sleeve.

 

After an hour at Avebury we headed back to BoA but stopped briefly in Devizes where the Caen Hill Locks [360°] are located.  This is a series of 16 locks that allow narrow boats using the Kennet Avon Canal to climb a 200 foot hill.  It takes several hours to do that and each lock has a pool where boats park to wait their turn when there is traffic.  It would have been a much more interesting place except that no boats were passing through the locks at such a late hour.

 

We got dinner pulled together quickly at the cottage and watched the first half of the 1994 version of “Frankenstein” before going to bed.  There was still a little light outside and it was nearly ten.