Category: England

“You’d think this town would have more excitement, wouldn’t you, like fireworks or something.”    Derek – London Day 1

“London grows on you.”   Derek – London Day 3

“London’s Fun.”    Derek – London Day 5

On Days One and Two, London did seem surprisingly tame – it lacks the sirens of Edinburgh and the brashness of Brighton. Everyone is polite and helpful. If they think we’re idiots, they have the courtesy not to show it.

The brilliant museums in London hold enough information to overwhelm on the moment of entering. On different days we explored the Natural History Museum, National Gallery, British Museum and Science Museum. I think the ideal approach for these museums would be in 20-minute relaxed blocks every few days for hundreds of years, but we went for the look around until your head explodes option.

London’s large. Here’s how we relaxed between museums:

• Sailed on a sedate cruise to Greenwich to see the Royal Observatory (where time begins and ends).
• Looked at lots of armour and crown jewels in the Tower of London. The Tower wasn’t on my bucket list – too much tragedy and betrayal – but visiting it has helped me to fill in a few more dots of the historical picture building in my head.
• Successfully navigated the underground.
• Sat at the front of a double-decker bus to view London from the air and see the terrified faces of the drivers as we narrowly avoided collisions.
• Saw the memorials at Westminster Abbey. We were pleased to see David Livingstone remembered for his work toward abolishing the slave trade in Africa. Left with the heavy feeling I usually experience at funerals and was grateful to reach the sunshine.
• Trawled through the Churchill War Rooms to learn about London during WWII and the eloquent, driven and brilliant Winston Churchill. It certainly seems credible that without his vision and the hope with which he inspired a nation, WWII would have had a vastly different outcome. The large memorial to Winston Churchill at Westminster Abbey is fitting.
• Took a dislike to Harrods within seconds of entering, deepened by the sight of £20 small pies and £10 cupcakes – I understand that quality has a price but even without tasting these, I know it’s a name that’s being paid for here. We were probably out within two minutes of entering.
• Saw the views across the Thames from Tower Bridge and London Bridge
• Attended the Sunday morning service at Holy Trinity Brompton (where the Alpha course originated). The speaker was easy to listen to, and I appreciated the message. Decided my preference is not to have smoke machines at church.
• Went to a service at St Pauls Cathedral and heard a Christian message of hope in Jesus’s death and resurrection. This time it was incense, processions and robes rather than smoke and cool moves. I wonder if the tradition of incense comes from the need to camouflage the musty smell of a centuries old mausoleum? I enjoyed hearing congregational singing along with the choir and powerful organ, and the structured prayer and readings.
• Saw London from the heights of the 306m Shard – it was included in our well-used London Pass
• Walked in the sunshine through Kensington Gardens, Hyde Park and St James Park
• Joined the throngs outside Buckingham Palace and Kensington Palace. I don’t think anyone was home.
• Sat on the open top of the Hop-on-Hop-Off Buses through the streets of London
• Gazed upon the lions in Trafalgar Square by night
• Queued (and queued)

It would be easy to spend a long time in London. I’m glad we saw it in sunshine.

We arrived in York on a Sunday and visited York Minster Cathedral for their evensong service. The cathedral is a gothic building dating from the 13^th century. We enjoyed hearing the organ and impressive boys choir, and during the message we learnt an unexpected amount about the history of York, Shakespeare, Britten, Arden, and Greek Drama. There was a context – it was about being authentic people.

During our tour of York North Moors, we visited Whitby, spent time in the ruins of the haunting Whitby Abbey, travelled by steam train to Hogsmeade Station, and visited Aidensfield (fictional town in the T.V. series Heartbeat). The moors are also the home of non-fictional veterinarian James Herriot. However, the producers considered Yorkshire Dales to be a prettier area to film, so the challenges faced by James Herriot were not among the rolling green hills shown in the TV show but in a starker land, less photogenic for the purposes of television.

We’re leaving York tomorrow and heading for London. Dreading it slightly – the crowds of Edinburgh were overwhelming and I am sure London will be challenging. York, however, was great fun. We wandered the cobbled streets, did a tour to the North York Moors (which would have been better shrouded in mist at the end of spring with the heather in full-bloom, but were still lovely), went to the Viking Museum (glad we got a discount – Lonely Planet have something to answer for regarding this recommendation) and, most happily for Derek, spent a few hours in the largest Railway Museum in the world. The Railway Museum was extensive, and I don’t think that there could possibly be any train or model train, or any historical detail regarding any train, that is omitted from the museum. Nevertheless, I enjoyed it too.

Walking in the Lakes District was surprisingly quiet and lonely after Northern Wales. The world heritage listed Lakes District is vast and I guess everyone spreads out. Internet access was rare, and I did a lot of pondering here, as we walked over fields and hills, past cows, sheep, and flowing streams.

My observation skills are honed on such walks. I now know at least one cow in a herd stays awake to keep watch, and some sheep have horns and look a lot like goats. I considered how I’m prone to google the questions that pop up into my head and thereby limit my wondering. Is it that although we now know more, we wonder and understand less?

Being in the Cotswolds is like being on a movie set. Stone cottages sit amongst rolling green hills, a stone’s throw from flowing streams. There’s no room for cars except on main roads and even these only have sufficient width for one car. We walked through the fields between the villages of Upper Slaughter and Lower Slaughter, so named for the old English term, ‘slough’, meaning ‘wet land’. As on many a walk in England, we had solitude, broken only by two women taking about ten working dogs for a swim in the river.

From our accommodation, we did a long circular day trek along part of the Cotswolds Way. I don’t know where else in the world it’s possible in a single walk to go through fields, forest paths, lush green woods, corn as tall as myself and roads, to pass sleepy cows, 600-year-old stone dwellings, medieval churches, a canal with moving bridges and barges, a lone fisherman standing in a stream catching trout, an old mill in the process of restoration, pick (and eat) wild blackberries growing in the bushes, and say hello to the friendly locals while stopping for refreshments at a pub mid-way.

The Cotswolds seem an old-world, eminently relaxing place to live.

I like the long summer days. In Bath at 8pm, the sun was shining in a blue sky with fluffy white clouds, the birds were singing, and the breeze was gentle. Walking along the cobbled streets alongside old buildings and enclosed gardens, I could easily imagine I was in the era of my favourite novelist, Jane Austen (if it weren’t for the cars).

Passing by the ancient Roman Baths, we found they would be open until 10pm. I was hesitant to pay the entrance fee (about 30 AUD) as it wasn’t covered by our English Heritage passes or National Trust passes. Thankfully, Derek said of course we had to go, and I needed no further convincing.

The Baths were discovered by archaeologists in the late 19th Century and the buildings above the site were then demolished for the excavation. Derek pointed out that Jane Austen would not have known of the Baths’ existence.

The Roman Baths were dedicated to the Roman goddess of healing, Minerva. Interestingly, before the baths were built, the waters were used by the Celtic occupants and dedicated to their own goddess of healing.

Learning about the Roman occupation at the time the baths were built greatly improved my understanding of what life must have been like in Roman occupied Palestine during the life of Jesus and the obstacles faced by the early church. There could have been little tolerance for a new religion which did not have an allegiance to the seemingly invincible Roman empire.

As the evening became balmy, the baths were lit up and the bells of medieval Bath Abbey rang. We left at 10pm after sampling the warm waters (included in the price of admission so how could I refuse?)

The following morning, we woke early for a walk along the river and visited the beautiful Bath Abbey, which dates from the 10th century and is still an active church.

Before leaving Bath, we went to the much-anticipated but sadly disappointing Jane Austen Centre. There was not much I could not have googled had I felt so inclined, and we felt it was more of an opportunity for the tour guides to dress up and play parts. I didn’t even think they were true to their selected characters. Derek and I were also given the opportunity to dress up in period costume and have photoshoots. We declined.

En route to the Cotswolds we stopped to see the standing Stones at Avery. These predate Stonehenge by 1000 years, are more accessible and cover a wider area. There are no restrictions (yet) and sheep roam freely around them. Like Stonehenge, no one is too sure of their purpose.

We stopped here for an hour between Salisbury (base for Stonehenge and Salisbury Cathedral) and Cornwall. I’d have liked to spend longer. The sun was sparkling on the water, and people were swimming and pottering around the rocks. We walked along the wall and around the old buildings. A quiet place, I found it infinitely preferable to Brighton.

Persuasion is my favourite Jane Austen novel, and I take comfort in the knowledge that I am not alone in confusing fiction with reality. Apparently when the poet, Lord Alfred Tennyson was shown historical sites of Lyme Regis by his friends, he replied, “Don’t talk to me of the Duke of Monmouth; show me the exact spot where Louisa Musgrove fell.”

Derek and I compared theories on this but it’s hard to know. The wall has probably changed in 200 years.

Brighton is a great fun place to go to once. There’s loads of action in the evenings with many different types of people on display, having fun, despite the rain. It’s oversized and overpriced and very brash. The Gold Coast pales in comparison. If I wasn’t on a budget I would have bought a giant fairy floss stick and played an arcade game.

Brighton’s Royal Pavilion (built by King George IV as a summer palace) is horrific. The guidebooks did not do justice to its degree of garishness (and this was without going inside). How did the English people end up so refined?

The White Cliffs of Dover exceeded my expectations. Truly white and chalky, there were many people having evening picnics after the heat of the day.

The white cliffs stretch across much of southern England and are magnificent. We did the Seven Sisters cliff-top walk from Birling Gap to Seaford (13km). The day before we arrived, part of Birling Gap collapsed due to dryness from the summer’s drought, and we kept well away from the edge. We had no trouble believing England was in drought at this point – it was hot, and while green compared to Western Australia, it was not the emerald isle. However, the blast of colours was incredible, from the deep blue of the sea, to the light blue of the sky, the white and the orange of the cliffs, and the light green and deep green of the moss on the hills against the black of the rocks.