Fowlers' Wee Castle

We all got up early, showered, had breakfast and packed up.  We cleaned up the camper and left our campgrounds feeling efficient!  The rental was due to be turned in by 9:30 and we were there at 9:20.  Bobbie was ready for us and after giving her “baby” the once-over drove us to the train station where we caught a train to London Waterloo.  We had accumulated too much stuff by this time to take the “underground” or the “tube” so we got a taxi.  Taxi’s here are small with no “boot.” so we crammed all our luggage and selves into one with great difficulty and went to the John Howard Hotel.  Our rooms are quite nice.  The sitting room is well furnished with flowered chintz drapes, hardwood and carpet floors and crystal chandeliers.  There is a small kitchen raised a bit off the floor and tiled and two bedrooms.  The chandeliers in the bedrooms are fake candles with bright gold filigree – quite a change from our camper!

The stage at the Globe Theatre - note the runway in front!

After unloading and cleaning up a bit we took another taxi to the Globe Theatre to see “Merry Wives of Windsor.  It was excellent.

Musicians playing period instruments

Musicians dressed in period costumes played viols, sackbuts and lutes.

This lutist is a bit dark, but is so like paintings of the time I had to include it!

Good singing and excellent acting made the play more like a musical than the Shakespeare plays we are apt to see in the US. But it was cold!  The seats have a roof but are open to a large courtyard where the groundlings stand. It was drizzling part of the time and people are not allowed to use umbrellas so many of the standees had plastic pink raincoats that you could buy at a concession stand.  The bits of drizzle and a cold wind made everyone shiver!

Kirk, Cate and Bill trying to be merry with the Merry Wives of Windsor

I wore all my green raingear including the pants, two sweaters and was still cold.

Audience endures the blustery weather

Another taxi brought us back to the John Howard and dinner at the restaurant in the basement below the hotel.   It was very good and not terribly expensive – I had vegetables marinated in lemon and grilled.  Others had breast of chicken in a vermouth sauce with tomato and lettuce and bread and butter pudding for dessert.  Yum!

We’re all now relaxing in great comfort with lots of room, grateful to be out of the cramped caravan and into sophisticated London!

This morning we took the double-decker Park and Ride into Bath.  It is by far the easiest way to get into one of these British Isle towns.  We got to the Roman Baths, run by the Heritage Trust.

The Roman Baths in Bath!

They have done many of the sites we’ve been to and do an excellent job running the archeological sites in a way that lets you see a lot and maintains the integrity of the site.  We picked up headphones on the way in and spent about 2-1/2 hours touring the huge complex.

Down under - examples of how things were engineered. Raised floor rested on pillars to allow floors to be heated!

The intricacies of the engineering that went into the pools, water circulation and heating to say nothing of the walls, windows and large high ceilings (roofs) is amazing.  The even used hollow bricks in the ceiling for both insulation and to lighten the load!

Model of how it looked for the Romans

We took the bus back to our caravan park and drove out about noon to Stonehenge.  We were again in a park run by the National Heritage Trust.  We each got a set of headphones – which is nice because you get explanations when you want them and don’t have to strain to hear a docent.

Stonehenge with Bunny and Kirk!

We took lots of pictures.  The weather, which had been predicted to be rainy, cooperated and was only partly cloudy.

Bunny "sitting" on a picture of how Stonehenge looked completed.

As it looks now! Notice a few people on the right.

Back to the caravan for a quick lunch and drive to a campground near Southampton.  We are now there and busily packing up and cleaning the camper so we can turn it in at 9:30 and get a train to London.  Unfortunately it will be quite a hassle – we already had too much stuff when we got here and now have more!

Supper tonight will be everything we have left – quite a mix and match!

Leaving our camping site we took a water taxi to Stratford on Avon.  It is a small boat that carries seven passengers.  Actually – when we took it there were six people and two collies.

Two very loved Collies

Those dogs were so loved by their owners that the people’s faces just glowed every time the dogs gave them a little attention.  The ride was lovely with interesting homes and gardens on one side and farms on the others.

The water taxi

We were accompanied to Stratford by elegant swans and ducks of dubious heritage.

Rows of house barges lined up at dock in Stratford on Avon

We walked down the main street to find Shakespeare birthplace.  The town was over run by busloads of people and to go inside you had to join them and go through a long audio-visual tour and pay 18 pounds.  So we skipped it and satisfied ourselves with seeing the outside.

Shakespeare had a rather impressive home! Kirk and Cate rest their weary travel legs!

We bought Will (Fowler) a tee shirt, a demitasse spoon for me and stopped for a snack.  I had a frozen mocha and an apricot croissant – delicious!  We sat at a little table and chairs at the sidewalk café and watched the tourists go by – There are many Japanese!  We took the water taxi back to our campground and stopped to get advice from the people who run the campground.  They were very helpful and recommended another campground for us near Bath.  So on we went!

We drove through Bath and with some difficulty found a caravan park.  It is on the canal and has facilities for people who live on barges or are taking a trip on one.  It is an interesting combination and one I haven’t seen before.  We cleaned up and took a bus from a park and ride bus stop not far from the campground.  For three pounds we could get a round trip ticket to Bath.  On the bus a rather well dressed and proper looking gentleman said “Excuse me, I presume you are foreigners? There is an Even-song at the Bath Abbey at 5:15.  Perhaps you would enjoy it?”

Bath Cathedral

He gave us directions and we found the abbey and did a quick tour of it before Even-song.  It was magnificent!  The church is magnificent   with high long clear windows on the sides – flying buttresses, lacy ceilings and tombs decorated with supine statues.

Inside Bath Cathedral

The service was full of medieval pageantry, cassocks, robes, and a tall baton carrier. A wonderful boy’s choir was dressed in cassocks and surplice with ruffled collars.  There was a men’s choir with robes and various colored hoods hanging down their backs.  The music was excellent with a huge organ that played some loud and good music, Gregorian chant and prayers and readings done as if they were a Shakespearean oration.  A great show! – and to think we were being prayerful at the same time!   We saw our benefactor there afterward, thanked him and told him how much we had enjoyed it!

Flowers in Bath, Bill on left!

After “church” we walked around a bit and ended up in a local bar.  We had shrimp and chips and beef pie and other English fare.  Some of us had a beer but I ordered a Pimms Cup.  It wasn’t as good as the one at Goodwood – but good enough!

Not many people on these elegant streets - just Cate and ?

We caught the bus back to our camper where we now sit, writing, downloading today’s pictures and reading our books.  Tomorrow – the pump room and Roman baths and on to Stonehenge!

Warwick Castle

Four very happy clean people had a very good time at Warwick Castle.  Showers and clean clothes gave us all the feeling of aristocracy so we went on a country visit.  I was greeted at the door by a maid who asked my sir name and then led us to a very elegant drawing room where we were greeted by Lady Warwick dressed in Victorian attire.  The maid announced “ Lord and Lady Fowler and their butler and maid.” (Kirk and Cate) I was so astounded, not expecting this sort of thing at all, that I shook hands with “Lady Warwick as she welcomed us to the castle and said she hoped we enjoyed our visit and would join us shortly in the dining room!  I should have responded in kind but was too astonished to reply.  My fellow travelers just grinned.

Too bad we already had dinner plans!

All through the lovely decorated rooms there were very life like wax figures mixed with actors and actresses to interact with you as though you were a welcome guest.

Bill at tea with the Duchess

One of the characters was a “lady” who had the reputation of a flirt, and was sitting up in bed in one of the very fancy bedrooms.  She gave Bill such a teasing that he blushed!  There were dungeons and kitchens, great halls and gardens.

Kirk playing cards with the Duke of Warwick

Kirk took a picture of Cate and I with Henry VIII!  We saw a catapult (trebuchet) and how it worked with men running in a squirrel cage to lift the throwing mechanism

The trebouchet

– a falconer with his trained hawks and falcons,

The falconer and student bird!

climbed the battlements and towers

Battlements and towers - we climbed them all!

and visited the beautiful formal gardens and conservatory.  A topiary garden in front of the conservatory was particularly interesting.

...A bird or two in the bush.

There was an heirloom rose garden still blooming whose scent you could smell as you approached!

The Conservatory

Cate admiring flowers in the town of Warwick. Bill lagging behind. We mailed a card to old friend Jim Warwick from here!

In the late afternoon we drove to Stratford on Avon.  While Cate and I went to get some groceries, Kirk and Bill stopped in a pub for a beer.  We met them there and the pint and a sit down felt really good!

We’re back at the same holiday park.  Tomorrow we’ll take a boat taxi into Stratford on Avon and see what there is to see and meet old Shakey and take the water taxi back.   We plan to leave for Bath and Stonehenge in the afternoon.

We finally got ourselves organized enough to leave Goodwood around ten and then tried to follow GPS instructions again.  Shouldn’t have – we ended up on tiny roads as it seems that is what it prefers!  At one point we followed a tank through tiny towns and even smaller roads – The driver was learning to drive it – a sign in the back said “Student Driver – CAUTION.”  Just our luck!

Along the locks

Cate got out the guide book and from the small maps in the back got us to the main “carriage ways” and to Newberry Berkshire.  Kirk has a client who lives there.  He, Brian Reece and his wife Lynne live in a 450 year old house!

Brian and Lynne's home

It was remodeled from a master weavers home and his three helper weavers cottages all built in a row.  It is now a duplex.  Some of the old beams are so low you have to duck to get from room to room – and they aren’t straight.  Made from rather crooked trees I guess.

Ancient, low, crooked beams.

They have a large courtyard filled with lovely bright colored flowers.  We had been looking for a Laundromat and when they suggested we use their washer and dryer we took them up on their offer.  We then took a walk along the canal on which they live, walked over a “turn bridge” to a nice bar and had lunch on the patio.

The turn bridge

We were near the locks so we could watch the barges open and close the locks and go through the narrow canal.  The locks are all hand operated and each barge has to have a couple of people to turn the cranks to open and close them and to operate the little bridges that go over the canal.  It was fun to watch and we saw a number of cruising barges maneuver through the locks.

A river-canal house barge on it's way through the lock

From Newberry we headed to Stratford on Avon and found a holiday park at which Brian had made reservations for us.

Our camping site on the River Avon

Kirk took care of some business over the phone and internet and we went shopping to get towels and aspirin – Places of business large or small won’t take, or make quite a fuss about taking, any currency but their own!  They wouldn’t take our Irish or Scottish bills so Bill stopped at a bank to change them  – they wouldn’t do it – said it was foreign currency and we’d have to go to a post office.  It is really weird when they are all pounds stirling but won’t take any but their own.  We were luckier with the towels – none came with the camper – so now we can shower.  Hurrrah!

The race track

We slept late (8:30) and woke to the sound of Ferrari’s racing around the track.  We dressed more warmly today but still our men wore jackets and ties.  There were still many very dressed people today – no one in jeans and shirts.  We Americans can’t match the British for class warfare!  In the US people dress down, not up.  Too bad.  We are enjoying people watching.

British Petroleum on it's way!

People awaiting transport from campground via tractor pulled wagon

We did much of the same things today as we did yesterday but wandered the parking lot a bit longer – imagine acres of fancy cars, old and new.  The result is more and more pictures.

One of over 1000!

I found one with a rabbit hood ornament.  Too bad it is not Bunny’s car!

Bunny and her wish

We watched more races, did a little shopping.  There wasn’t much we were interested in purchasing but I did have a really good Pimms’ Cup.  I haven’t seen them in the U.S.   We got back to our camper about five.  We’ll leave tomorrow and head towards  Stratford on Avon and see if we can find Shakespeare’s ghost!

In case you got thirsty there was this cider truck...

This is the last full day of our trip.  Rested and filled with a good buffet breakfast at the John Howard we decided the best way to see London in the short time we had was an open topped double-decker bus.  The sun was shinning but it was cold.  We all wore some warm and somewhat dressy clothes – a compromise between what we’d planned to wear at the London Philharmonic concert and keeping warm.

The sight seeing bus and traffic

Riding the bus was a very good plan it turned out.  We hopped on and off seeing what interested us most and took hundreds of photos. – Kirk alone took over 400!  Some of the guides were very good others almost unintelligible and not as informative.  The best was a young black woman who had a master’s degree and was working on her barristers.  She knew history and funny anecdotes, spoke well and will probably be very successful, maybe prime minister some day!  She does the tour bus guide to earn her way while going to school.  It was very interesting to talk to her before we got off.  The traffic was awful – stop and go – and “go” at a crawl.  One of her facts was that 100 years ago, when there were mostly horse and carriages, the average speed was eleven miles an hour.  Guess what it is today?  Eleven miles per hour!

Some old -

Some new - "The egg"

The architecture in London is a hodge-podge of old and new, but all not quite clean.  The Thames runs brown and fast, filled with boats of every size.  We took a tour boat ride that was fun – but abbreviated because of a rowing competition that was part of a triathlon.

London Bridge from our ride on the Thames

We went under a few of the many bridges that cross the Thames, the London Bridge, Tower Bridge, Millennium Bridge, and footbridges.  We also went over most of them so we got a good look at most of the outsides of London buildings.

This huge wheel, The London Eye, has gondola like cars to ride in and the line is still long. Easily seen from most everywhere it is a good place to see most everything - if you have good binoculars!

When we finally got hungry and cold enough we searched out a restaurant about 3:30.  We sat and stayed and drank and ate until 6:30.  We had Pimms Cup, sherry and beer, potato pieces with sweet chili to start, smoked salmon and potato patty under it with vermouth and caper sauce on a bed of greens.  For dessert we had a variety including a chocolate mousse, orange soufflé and a coffee with five different liquors and whipped cream.  All spectacularly good!

We're here!

Thus fortified we walked along the Thames to the Royal Festival Hall.  We had excellent seats  – front row balcony seats right in the middle!

The stage (before they told us we couldn't take pictures!

Hayden Symphony No 63 (La Roxelane) started the program.  It was played on period instruments and the valveless horns had some difficulty getting the notes because of that.  The next piece on the program was very modern but quite accessible, The Flight from Byzantium by Matteo D’Amico, a world premiere.  It had a huge ensemble with many extra non orchestral instruments, choir, four male soloists and a narrator – and an organ.!  The words of the singers were shown above the orchestra and were different from the narrators – a very complex piece of work.  At the end of the performance the composer took his bows with the performers.

When Bill saw the size of the percussion section, he knew he was going to enjoy the performance!

After intermission four male soloists (counter tenor, tenor, baritone and bass) sang some Dufay – Moribus et genere, vergene bella, Lamentatio sanctae matris ecclesiae Constantinopolitanae.  It was  early music almost plain song – lots of fourths, fifths and  octaves, and moving counterpoint.  Quite a contrast from the preceding work – both in size and style.

Lastly Bartok’s Miraculous Mandarin, a weird story of the killing of a mandarin by “street people” with orchestra, choir, and organ.  Interestingly, it was similar in some ways to the Flight from Byzantium minus the narration.  The story was told with text over the orchestra and the music was pictorial and dramatic.

After the concert a walk across the pedestrian bridge and the end of a wonderful trip!

Looking back at the Royal Festival Hall

Since it was late we took a taxi back to the hotel to pack and be ready for an early flight back to the U.S.

THE END