Last Day in Conwy

I have to play some catch up as I have not blogged since Conwy. I could have blogged last night but I was too tired.

Oct 7th

We toured Plas Mawr a restored Elizabethan Home and the Conwy Castle today.

Conwy is a walled town. It was walled in by Edward the 1^st because he had just had a battle to subdue the Welsh. They had acknowledged the English as sovereigns during his father’s reign, but when he came onto the throne they refused to submit. So he waged war against them, chasing them into a stronghold in Snowdonia. In order to cut the leaders off and maintain his hold on the land he had a series of great castles and walled towns built. They were so well built, at great expense, they required only 30 soldiers per castle to garrison them. This was in about 1280. The castle is now in a state of disrepair as it was last used in 1640. It used to have a glowing white plaster finish and many of the beams are gone that roofed the halls.Me at the Castle
It is still huge and impressive.

The Plas Mawr was built in 1580 and has been restored at great expense. We were alone for our tour from 930-1100. All the plaster work has been restored. The women represented the master’s idea of Greek statuary he had seen. The severed heads of Englishmen were part of his heraldic crest. The house was very large as he was a wealthy man who wanted to impress visitors with his importance.

Me at the Plas Mar

Me with the severed head.

North Wales

Yesterday we drove up to Conwy to Bryn Bed and Breakfast on the edge of the castle wall. I took a picture from the door. This is what we see out our window.This is the same garden at Sunrise.

A hillside covered with slate slag heaps. They may not look great but they don't pollute.At a tour of a slate mine we watched a demo of slate splitting.Me next to the huge water wheel that powered the mine shops.A river otter carved in a dead log on a nature trail on our way back to Conwy after a great circle through the mountain park of Snowdonia.

October 4

We drove around the Cotswolds on back roads. William liked the one lane roads best. Then he just had to remember to stay to the left when another car came. We only hit a stone gutter once and just with the tire. It is hard to judge where you are to the left on the very narrow two lane roads.

The Market Hall in Chipping Campden has fish scale stone shingles on the roof. It was built as a covered market for women and girls to sell poultry, produce and crafts in 1627 by the local lord of the manor.

We walked in the streets and saw some lovely red hydrangeas. All the homes are either old or ancient and built of honey colored sandstone from a quarry in the hills that we drove past.

We walked through a sheep pasture while on the public footpath in Chipping Campden. The sheep did not approach or try to lick.

We bought a beer at a bar that offered free internet, but the signal was so weak we were unable to connect. We picnicked here in Chipping Campden

St James Church has been build and rebuilt since the 12^th century and is on the site of a Norman Chapel.

I liked these walls outside the church.

William is in the stocks at Stow-on-the-Wold.

This is the back door of the church in Stow-on-the-Wold flanked by two ancient yew trees that is thought to have been the inspiration for Tolkein’s gate to Moria.

We bought ½ hour internet time at the youth hostel in Stow-on-the-Wold as we needed to check email. William’s email address was lost when we unthinkingly cancelled our DSL. He has started a new Yahoo address and has sent it to a few people. My hotmail is more portable and permanent. Good thing that is where all the bills are sent. We have been anxious to check email as we have had trouble with the boxes we were sending to Belgium. They were returned after we left. The post office refused them saying that the international 20 lb flat rate applied only to some tiny (size of 2 reams of paper) boxes that you could pick up at the post office. Bill read the regulations on line to say that boxes of other than the PO size were OK, they just had to be under 20 lb. Such a much.

Licked by a Calf

This is a series of pictures where the calves in Batsford Park came up and licked me as we were walking back. We were on the public path and had walked part of the way and then returned and they followed us. One came close and licked my pant leg. They were very friendly and followed us all the way to the community garden where they could not get through the path gate.

Don't lick the pants!!
We ate that night in a Bangladeshi restaurant. Spicy and tasty.

Still Oct 3

In Moreton-in-Marsh we passed an Edward the 7th post box. We have seen other post boxes on walks and they are all labeled with the name of the monarch at the time of the setting up of the box. We have seen a Victoria and a George the 6th.This sign was in the St David’s Churchyard in Moreton-in-Marsh.This crypt looked like a dumpster, again in St David’s Churchyard in Moreton-in-Marsh.We thought that we need to build a wall like this in the front of the house on Brock to keep the school kids off.

Because of the damage to the St David’s School from the 7/20/07 flood, they are using portakabins and portaloos.

William really liked the signs outside of old folks homes.

October 3

On the 3^rd of October we are here in Moreton-in-Marsh. I am glad to be out in the country although we did enjoy Bath. Some of the Georgian history I left out of my last post was about the ladies make-up. The high born women wore heavy white clown make-up that contained lots of lead and mercury. They shaved off their eyebrows and glued on strips of mouse fur. The make-up gave them facial blemishes which they covered with glued on patches in decorative shapes such as hearts (beauty marks). Also on the make-up table in the Georgian house we toured was a wig scratcher. The ladies had their hair done up with wigs into elaborate powdered hairdos that they left in place for at least six weeks. So of course their heads would itch. Remember the Robert Burns poem with the wee mousie escaping from the lady’swig in church. It seems that what I thought were caricatures of the age were not far off reality.

Driving on the left side of the road was a challenge with many round-abouts and a challenge in remembering which way to look and which side of the road to turn into on a turn. It has been like one big amusement ride. The countryside is looks like all small farms, as I think most of the large manor farms have been sold off into small farms. Sort of the opposite of the farms in the USA, where small farms have been bought up by large farming corporations.

Our first stop was at Bourton-on-the-water. Although we are slightly past high tourist season, the touristing has been off some because of the huge flood and rains here this summer. On the 20^th of July this year there was a huge flood. There had been rain for two months and the water just rose. In this town there are canalized streams which we walked along. Think big NID ditches in town prettified. In the background of the garden picture you can see things that look like mushroom shaped garden sculptures. These items were formerly used as barn foundation posts. The shape kept rats and mice from climbing into the barn to eat the animal’s grain.

See me at the edge of a canal. Wm on a bridge over the canal. Another pretty canal picture.

We ate a lunch in Bourton-on-the-water that we had brought along. In the Georgian House Museum Shop I had bought a jar of chutney and we had that, some farm cheddar, pull-apart bread, an apple cut up, and a beer. The other items we had bought in a supermarket we saw along the way.

A Walk Through Bath

Queen Street with sign boards like in Harry Potter.

A Georgian Garden

The night soil door has been blocked up. It was a small door in the back wall where the maid would set out the bucket with the contents of the various house commodes for the night soil man to pick up in his cart. He would then take the night soil to be dumped, probably in the river.The Royal Crescent in Bath is a long curved arch of Georgian Homes.William and I both did the walking tour for 1/2 hour until he had to leave to go pick up the rental car. The car hire said it was in Bath, but it was really about 10 miles out of town so he had to take 2 buses to get there. We met up later in the Pump House Restaurant for a nice lunch.After lunch we walked up to the Royal Crescent again and toured Number One Royal Crescent. The last owner of the house deeded it and a sum of money to the Historical Society to maintain it as a museum. Did you know that small dogs were used in wheels to churn butter and to turn the meat on the spit? I had never heard of this but apparently it was a common practice in Georgian England and continued into the early 1940's in some rural areas in Wales. We had arrived at the house at three and took all the way until closing time at five to finish the tour, taking our own sweet time as we prefer. There were docents and information in each room and I had also purchased a small guide book for two pounds. In the shop at the end I got a small jar of tomato onion chutney as we will be picnicking some as we head into the Cotswolds. We then walked into the Royal Victoria Park, through the botanical gardens and round and round paths in the mist.

Yak Yeti Yak

A great Nepalese restaurant in a sub-basement just over the Pulteney bridge over the Avon. I had vegetarian and Wm had meat. Very similar to Indian food. My main dish was Aloo Talam, a combo of fermented bamboo shoots, potatoes and black eyed peas in a spicy sauce with plain yogurt on the side. Wm had a spicy pork dish. All came with papadom, rice, dal, chutney and a spinach watercress dish. Hungry yet? Yak Yak.

Rain and Bad Luck

It has rained all day here in Bath. We went for a walk. Stopped first at the Fashion Museum and took our time. They had some modern fashions of skaters and noted that hoodies have become thought of as a fashion of a criminal element?

Me in the fashion museum

Wm has had a string of bad luck. He has had trouble with his new Macbook. We passed by a Waterstone's Bookstore in town and he bought a Macbook for Dummies book and a driving atlas. Apparently when he was packing the book into his backpack he dropped the Dummies book and a Rick Steves' Gt Britain book he had with him out on the floor. So later this afternoon when he discovered the Dummies book missing he had to go back to Waterstone's. Thankfully they had both books behind the counter, so that was gook luck.
He has had trouble with SBC Yahoo not recognizing him. As a consequence he has not been able to get his email. He is asked to call SBC. I suppose we will have to, but during a time when there is no wait time. The wait time killed us on some calls to Capital One over pin # problems on their part. Thankfully now they are giving us all the cash advances we want, as much as we want and letting us charge all we want. Now all we have to do is pay for it all with our growing more worthless dollars.

Last stop at Bath

The last stop on the tour was the ancient roman baths at Bath. Again we felt like we had to run through in order to get back to the bus to get our suitcases. We are in a nice bed and breakfast in Bath tonight.

Me at the baths.

On to Salisbury

We were able to take pictures inside this cathedral. There are grave stones on the floor and crypts along the sides. It would be like having church in a graveyard. Chairs are often on the stones.

William outside the cathedral built in 1220 and site of the finest of four surviving original copies of the Magna Carta.

See the old graffiti on the figure's ankle? WB swears it was not him.

One of many gravestones on the floor of the cathedral.

A tomb of a knight.

London to Bath

We took a tour from London to Bath with Golden Tours. So we were up early, breakfasted at the hotel and headed off to the 8:05 pickup at the Hotel Elizabeth around the corner. The first stop was at Stonehenge.We soon discovered why we do not usually take tours. Tours are organized by taking the shortest time people could tour a spot and the longest time and giving you a time about in the middle to do the tour. We discovered that we are outliers on the long side. We felt we had to rush through the tour, not listen to all the audio options and still be about last to the bus. We both learned about the way the stones were put together with a peg like feature on the top fitting into a hole on the top stone. See the peg on top of the stone right above William. It was misty raining most of the time we were at Stonehenge.

London day 4

William with Egyptian Statues

William with Statues from Parthenon

William on the Whispering Walk at St Paul's (you can't see him)

Me in front of St Paul's

We set the alarm and actually got off at a reasonable hour. First we went to the National Museum. I was most impressed with the Egyptian statues and the parts of the Parthenon. We walked until we got tired and decided to save the Chinese terra cotta warriors for when we are in China.

Next we went to St Paul’s Cathedral. Mostly military heroes buried here. Not so much art as the Cathedrals we saw in Europe in ’99. We did see the memorial to Winston Churchill and the burial spots of John Donne and Florence Nightingale. William walked up to the top of the dome. I watched a wedding. Most of the guests and the bridesmaids had feathery hats. I think Camilla has been seen in feathery hats.

We bussed to Trafalgar Square, walked to Piccadilly Circus and dined in a pub to round out the evening.

London day 3

William and me in the observation car at the London Eye

Misty Big Ben

Me and Florence

Me at Westminster Abbey

We got up at our usual bright and early time. NOT. And headed out to the Big Eye, which is the largest observation wheel in the world. We grabbed a London equivalent of an Egg McMuffin to go for the second day in a row. They remembered our order at Mimo’s café. Then we did not eat them until we were waiting for our scheduled time at the Eye at 1230. It was raining and misty so we could not see as far as you usually can.
After the Eye we walked over to the Florence Nightingale Museum. She is very revered in the UK. A group of school children were in the museum learning about her through an interactive plan. I had purchased her book “Notes on Nursing”, published 1860, during some time in nursing school.
We then walked over to Westminster Abbey. The Abbey is a fabulous place. The usual huge pillars, high lattice work and gilt ceilings, tons of statues and quite a few side chapels dedicated to the long dead. Over three thousand people are buried and commemorated there. Some still famous and others faded into the mists of time. All of the Kings, Henrys, Richards, and Georges fade together for me. But I was thrilled to see Elizabeth I and Mary Queen of Scots. Geoffrey Chaucer 1400, Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, Oliver Cromwell were important names I found plus many, many others.
They were having a church service at 5 so we stayed for Sung Eucharist for Eve of St. Michael and All Angels. We heard lovely choir and huge organ music and a short sermon about angels. We rode the bus to Victoria Station area and after discarding two pubs, too noisy, too crowded, too dirty, no service. We found a very nice Italian Restaurant.