England 2017

Friday, September 22, 2017 London, England My last day here. The plan was to see Westminster Abbey and Big Ben and sort of walk around the Westminster area. As you will see, it was finally a sunny day. No photographs were allowed in the Abbey, so this will have to do: Like the others, it's stunning inside. More amazing are the people buried or commemorated there: Edward the Confessor (next to last king before the Normans) King Edward I, Henry I, Henry III, Richard II, Henry VII, Elizabeth I, Mary I (known as bloody Mary), Oliver Cromwell (unexpected), Mary Queen of Scots, Isaac Newton, James Clerk Maxwell, Shakespeare, and on and on and on. There was a memorial to FDR in one corner. There's a statue of Abraham Lincoln outside. It was first completed in 1065, the year before the Norman Conquest. This is where kings and queens have been crowned since then. The keep the coronation chair, used since 1301, there. Outside is a hustle and...

Thursday, September 21, 2017 London, England Today was a travel day, sort of. I wanted to make sure how to get to the airport on Saturday and which terminal I needed to go to. Everybody said it's about an hour by the Underground and the online information about my flight said I needed to go to terminal 3. It turns out both were wrong. It took a little over an hour and a half to get there. When I got to terminal 3, the board said Ibera Airlines checking was in terminal 5. After getting to Terminal 5, I found where to check in. The evening before, I was talking to the barista in the hotel coffee shop, a young lady from Romania, and she said her favorite place to go in London was the National Art Gallery. My guide book highly recommended it, so that's where I spent the afternoon. It was well worth it. The Leicester (pronounced lester) Square underground station is on the edge of the theatre district. You pop out among all these tiny the...

Wenesday, September 20, 2017 London, England So I had my second day out and, boy are my feet tired (again)! I spent the entire day – 7 hours in the British Museum, mostly on my feet, and probablyonly saw ¼ of it. The place is huge and full of stuff – and people. A bit about traveling around. I was advised to get an Oyster card and an app for the Underground (that's what they call their subway system here). The Oyster card is like a prepaid credit card that works in the main public transport systems here – Underground, trains and buses. For the Underground, you just put it against the turnstile on the way in and on the way out. You can top it up in any station at a ticket machine. It works great. I got an app for the phone that lets me put a starting and ending point in and it gives me the routes to take and which stations to change at. It's all very convenient. Now about the museum. It's huge! And crowded! Full of schoolkids and tou...

Tuesday, September 19, 2017 London, England So I had my first day out and, boy are my feet tired! I spent the entire day – 7 hours in the Tower of London, mostly on my feet. This is basically a castle in he middle of London. It was started by William the Conquerer around about 1070, on the site of an old Roman fortress on the banks of the Thames River. It was added to over the next few centuries, but was generally in the form it is today by the end of Henry VIII in the early 1500s. Some pictures: Traitor's Gate. This was a water entrance to the castle from the river that was later used to bring prisoners in. It was added in the late 1200's. The entrance where they keep the Crown Jewels. No photographs were alowed inside, so this will have to do. These 2 guys keep marching back and forth. Notice the rifles (with bayonets fixed) – I think they are serious. The jewels exhibit is really good. The White Tower. This is ...

Monday, September 18, 2017 London, England I made it to London and my hotel with a minimum of fuss. The train was on time and my guidebook gave great information about using the Underground – London's subway system. The hotel sits right on top of one of the Underground stations, making moving about easy. It's also right cross the street from the Tower of London. This picture was taken 100 feet from the hotel entrance: That's the Tower. It's really a midieval castle in the middle of London. I'm planning to take tomorrow to tour it. I'm also just a 5 minute walk from the Tower Bridge over the Thames River: Here's the river from the center of the bridge: The hotel is incredibly high-tech. They have an iPad to control the lights, curtains, blinds, TV and the heating and AC. The internet is the best I've seen on the trip - fast and no password or anything. They serve food all day, so I don't have to hu...

Sunday, September 17, 2017 York, England My last day in York. Today I saw a castle, museum and a cathedral. First was a walk along the wall to Clifford's Tower. York is one city who's old midieval wall still exists: Today, you can walk along the top of it for about 3 miles. I stayed on the ground, though, and followed it to, what today is known as, Clifford's Tower: This is what remains of a 13 th century castle. It started at a Norman motte and bailey fort, like Warwick Castle. It was a wooden fort on a mound with an enclosing palisade. The palisade is gone and the wooden fort was rebuilt of stone in the 1200's. Next, it was off to the Yorkshire Museum where they have an exhibit of viking artifacts. York was in the part of England that was conquered by vikings in the 900s. By 1000, it was the capital of viking England. It seems that anywhere you dig, you find viking stuff. One of the best was this helmet: ...

Saturday, September 16, 2017 York, England More driving and sightseeing. This time some really old stuff. First, it was Hadrian's Wall. It was begun in 122 A.D. This section, Birdoswald Fort was one of 16 forts along the wall. This is the best preserved of any along the wall, along with the longest section of the wall still in existence. While I was there, the lady at the front desk recommended I go see Lanercost Priory. It was just a few miles up the road, so I went. It's a 12 th century priory (like a monastery) that is partially ruined. It was started in 1169 by Robert de Vaux, who was given the land by Henry II after finally taking this land from Scotland in 1157 as part of the Norman Conquest. He built it order to secure his family's future in the afterlife. The idea was that prayers would be said on their behalf forever. That sorta didn't work out. This was always a contested area – King Edward I, nicknamed L...

Friday, September 15, 2017 Keswick, England My last day in the Lake District. The plan was to take a drive through a nearby valley to another lake, but halfway through the valley, the road is closed due to construction. Since this was going to be a loop drive, ending in town, I went the other way. But before I got to the closure, it looks like this: All farms and sheep and hills. The other side is similar, until you get to a pass. There, it's all grass and heather and a really steep road: I mean really really steep. This is the sign at the top of the pass warning you: When you get to the other side, there's a nice lake and the usual rural English countryside scenery: One interesting thing I found. At one point, I climbed on a rock to see about a picture and noticed all kinds of initials carved in the rock – with dates. Then I saw this one: Yeah, it says 1833. Everything here is old. Even the gra...

Thursday, September 14, 2017 Keswick, England Yesterday was all rainy, but today was dry. It was cool and a bit breezy, but dry. I started the day by driving a bit out of town to see another standing stone circle – Castlerigg: You drive through farmland to get there and it's in the middle of a farmer's sheep pasture. The sheep eye you as you walk around it, but they leave you alone. The town is on the edge of a good sized lake: Then, after getting back to the hotel and walking downtown for lunch, I took a ride around the lake on a boat. I sat inside because it was chilly and windy. And it seems the most popular activity in the area is hiking. The boat will let you off at any of 6 spots around the lake and you can catch another back to town later. Fully ¼ of the stores in town are outdoor shops with hiking and camping gear. Lots of people with small day packs, hiking boots, and goretex jackets. They would fit right ...

Wednesday, September 13, 2017 Keswick, England I'm in the far north of England in an area called the Lake District. It's a large national park with lots of little towns dotting the landscape. It's all mountainy with lots of lakes, hence the name. Today was just driving. It took about 6 hours to get here – mostly via Interstate-like highways. Part of the time was spent being lost, however, trying to get out of Ironbridge. I made a wrong turn and ended up on a road that was just wide enough for my car. The GPS seemed to think it would lead me to the main highway I needed. But, instead of a junction, the little track I was on passed about 40 feet over the highway. I turned around and, finally found my way out. The town here is pretty much Victorian - from the 1800s. It was all mining and slate quarries and sheep farming until the Victorians got all interested in nature and the outdoors. Then, it became a tourist town on a lake. The hotel I'...

Tuesday, September 12, 2017 Ironbridge Gorge More driving and a bit of sightseeing. This time, it was Warwick Castle. Started in the 1068, it was still in use as a residence until the middle 1900s. It's supposed to be one of the best examples of an English castle in existence. But, the owners, being strapped for money and no way to maintain it, sold the castle toTussauds,of wax museum fame. It's now a big entertainment conglomerate. Basically, they disneyfied the castle – putting in all kinds of kids attractions, shops and shows. It's also expensive. I parked, bought a general ticket, a guide book, and ate lunch – 48 pounds – about $67. But, it's still a castle: It started as a motte-and-bailey. Thats a wooden fort on a hill surrounded by a wooden palisade. The hill is still there and provides a good view of the castle courtyard: While the outside looks like a mideval castle, the inside is all Victorian from the late 1800s. ...

Monday, September 11, 2017 Chipping Campden I'm smack in the middle of the Cotswolds. That's an area that looks like what people think England looks like. Little old villages surrounded by farmland. This is no different. It was wool country until cotton killed it in the 1800s. Now it's tourist country. But, except for the cars, it still looks like it stepped out of the 1500s: All around it is farmland with public trails:

Sunday, September 10, 2017 Chipping Campden Today was driving and sightseeing. First was Stonehenge. It's only about 10 miles outside Salisbury. You can't drive straight to it, you have to park about a mile away and either walk or take a free bus. I took the bus. At first, I was a bit surprised at how small it is. I expected larger. But it's still really cool. You can't go in it, but the path takes you only 20 or 30 feet away, so you're close enough: And it's not like you are alone with it, either. There were 3 or 4 busloads of people all around it. But, still, it's Stonehenge! Next was Blenheim Palace. Considered one of the best country palaces in England. It was built in the early 1700s by an ancestor of Winston Churchill, the first duke of Marlborough. The land and money to build it was given to him as a reward for winning the battleof Blenheim, which stopped the expansionist moves by...