Whirling through Swindon

We were up early this morning... yes a bright sunny morning as well. Kay suggested we have a short day and take the train to Swindon and make the visit to Moonraker's and have lunch there. My Swindon road map has a bus schedule in it so I made note that the #17 bus went all the way up to where Moonraker's corner is and we could take the bus rather than a taxi. We agreed and off we went.

We made it to the train station via the Reading bus in time to make the 10:57 train including a fresh coffee hit for the ride to Swindon. It's only two stops away and about a 25 minute ride. Once in Swindon, we were out of the train station in a flash, found the bus station for #17 right at the station and within 5 minutes we were off in the direction of Cricklaid Rd.

Now, I hope you remember my story about the first trip to Swindon and the discovery of the Swindon desire for a rotary at every possible corner because the car trip was one thing... the bus quite another. These massive busses move around the rotarys so fast, it's like riding a tilt-a-whirl in traffic or maybe more like the Mad Hatter's Teacup ride. I try not to look at the rotary transit at all-- there's little time for it actually since one has to work to keep one's behind in the seat during the clockwise sweep through the rotary and rapid whipping turns just to get to the Cricklaid straight-away. I'm navigating, so I have to keep the map of the bus route visible and track the stops and also keep the book in my hand through the bus' swipe at the rotary. I knew the double rotary was imminent from the map and held tight as we swooped through one and then on to the second where we blasted out onto Cricklaid Rd. with a hard left, shaped like the number 7, and were off the rotary. Geezzz, I thought... no wonder we were exhausted when we drove though here the first time.

A few stops later, I could see the edge of The Moonraker's building and we were off at the corner stop. This gave us another view of the double, figure 8, rotary at this corner. (see previous story for birdseye view) I still can't figure it out. You can see a little bit of it in the first video below.

Traffic was zipping every direction and I finally noticed a crosswalk to our left, about 40 feet or so away from the rotary chaos. Smart move I thought since, any pedestrian caught in the corner chaos might not survive the multi-corner transit. The safety of the crosswalk directed us right onto The Moonraker's parking lot with a short walk to the door.

Kay got to the bar area first to ask about lunch and we were told that they stopped serving lunch about two months ago in response to the smoking ban in restaurants. I told my story about Mom telling me to check this place out since it was popular when we lived near here in 1953 and could I take some photos. No objections were expressed and they made some lunch recommendations up the road and down the hill. Check out the video below.

We walked back to the southbound side of the road to the #17 bus stop jumped on for the downhill run and looked for the lunch recommendations. We looked but the bus goes so fast it's hard to read every storefront for the pub name mentioned at Moonraker's so we opted for taking the bus back to the train station where we had noticed a couple of pubs on the corner earlier. Our whirling tour of Swindon continued back through town and then out to the eastern suburbs then back to the center of town where we finally whipped into the train station again. Our pubs were still there and we were starved. GW looked like the best of the two and we entered into the lunch chaos for burgers and beer. The world stopped moving for at least a few minutes and the lunch crowd gradually subsided to a calmness where we sipped our ale in peace before we set back out for Reading and home. Now, I wish I would have taken a video of the bus ride. No wonder Kay takes Bonine before we leave. You might need some to watch the Swindon bus video. It was a fun day anyway. Hope you enjoy the short videos Mom!

mt

Bath Spa

Our day out today included a train trip to Bath to see the Roman Baths and Bath Abbey. Just to get a feel for things we often like to take the City Tour Hop On- Hop Off bus around the city. It certainly helps to get to know what the people of the city are proud of and wht the most interesting things are to see. First and formost, the people of Bath are very proud of the Georgian Architecture in their city. The city has been named a World Heritage City because of the large number of Georgian bulidings in the town and there are restrictions for new construction that include the use of the architecture and the Bath sandstone found in the hills nearby. Bath has also been home to historic writers, such as Jane Austin, artists such as Gainsborough and architects and designers John Wood and Goodridge- the Georgian specialists of course!


And... of course the Roman baths and Bath Abbey. They are acutally right next to each other in the town center. The Romans founded the hot spring spa around the year 60 CE after the local pagans let them in on their little secret of the warm waters. The Romans, recognizing a good thing when they saw it, began constrution of a series of buildings and pool enclosures for separating the men from the women and the elite from the poor. The spa was used for several centuries and fell into disrepair after the Romans left (5 th century). The town of Bath expanded and built additional pools and covered over the old broken Roman buildings where they remained hidden until a house that was built on top of the main pool began leaking. The foundation of the house was explored and I can only imagine their surprise when the ancient walkway and pool was uncovered. Eventually, the area was reclaimed and restored to showcase the spa and the remnants of the Roman buildings and the many artifacts.



The lovely thing about the main pool is that one can walk where the Romans walked on the now very worn stones that surround the warm waters that flow from the underground spring. There is a wonderful museum that winds through the spa areas that tells the story and history of the site with views of exposed Roman walls, rooms and plumbing sturcture. The museum houses artifacts from the period including objects thrown into the Sacred Spring as offerings to the goddess Minerva. These include more than 12,000 Roman coins which is the largest collection of ancient votive coins in Britain.



The baths are no longer used because of the lead pipes that bring the water to the pool and bacteria that grow in the pools. Still they are beautiful and interesting.



mt

State of the Journey

I took the day off today and just posted photos to the blog and got some editing done on some more photos. I made a date with Marcia for seeing Harry Potter in his homeland and having a pizza afterward. This involved a drive to the Oracle Mall.

Driving in the UK has given me a sense of solidarity with the elderly and otherwise challenged drivers who just set their course and everybody better get out of the way. It is a bit of a hairy ride for Marcia, but I am finding it empowering. There is an occasional honk, but most everybody just gets out of my way. Knock wood!

Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince was wonderful in his homeland. We had just visited the route the first black streak (you gotta see the movie) takes from Westminster to Trafalgar Square, so that was familiar. I have done the Millenium Bridge and will be sure that Marcia gets there before we leave, so that was fun to see too. Marcia says that some scenes were filmed at Winchester, and of course, that was our visit just a couple of days ago. Even the little children here speak like Harry. It was also fun to see the previews for the new Eddie Murphy movie in American English and knowing that the young audience was having to listen as I have to do when they are speaking.

Our upscale pizza and wine bar was filled up, so we had to opt for the Italian restaurant next door. They don't get many stars from us, but the pasta dish I had was quite good. Room temp Pino Grigio is not my fave, however.

I have been a busy somebody this past week. Yesterday I took a trip to Oxford for the afternoon visiting Christ Church and the Botanical Gardens. I also stopped into Blackwells ordinance survey department for a nice roadmap book and guide book for Ireland. Of course I got the books first so I could tote them around all day.

The day before that, Marcia and I enjoyed Winchester Cathedral. What both of these days has taught us is that you can get a cab from the train station without any problem, but getting a cab to the train station may involve as much walking as to the train station so why bother. I'm not sure we can improve on this, but we will try. Tomorrow we are headed for Bath.

Sunday we went to Windsor. It might just be our last palace for awhile. It is all about power and wealth, and that just gets boring after a few visits. We might have done our last cathedral for awhile as well. The little chidren's voices are as uplifting as the cathedral ceiling, but cathedrals too are also all about wealth and power in addition to the glory of God and it is time for a change. I would have liked to have seen St Andrews in Windsor as so many people I recognize are buried there-like Charles I who lost his head when Grandaddy Sir Isaac Pennington ran the Tower. I saw a portrait of Charles' wife in Windsor castle and asked the palace person what happened to her after Charles lost his head. He said that she became a widow, and he thought this very amusing, but he didn't really know. I suppose she must have gone into exile, probably to France.

So, we are going to see the baths at Bath, and have talked about Roman ruins at Chichester. We can see from our Ireland guides that we will be within short driving distance of a wildlife scanctuary in our next home, and that there is good birding there. That could be fun. We also have the Tower of London on our agenda-a bit of the downside of high life along with the crown jewels.

In the meantime, we have all of our needs met and we have discovered brioche with raspberry filling at the Waitrose along with Scotch eggs and lovely cheeses. The Alde grocery store has some lovely buttery cheezy twists. Since there is an Alde in Ocala, y'all just check it out. Last nights dinner included some fabulous pappardelle pasta with auburgene and olive pesto, both from Waitrose. Very nice.

We have come to expect tea at 4 daily. This is usually a good stopping time from all our walking, and a little tea and sweet and rest makes it all better before we head on. We shared a shortbread the size of a good slice of pie at Winchester, and I know it was the equivalent of a stick of butter for each of us. Quite good though. Yesterday I had tea in Oxford. I chose the Mango Tango along with an apricot frangiapanni. The little apricot pie thing was sweet enough to ring your fillings and included a slather of cherry jam under the apricots just in case filling ringing was not enough. It did get me to the train station, which is more than I can say for local taxis.

Did I mention our new suitcases from Debenhams? They are smaller than the boxcars we were hauling around, and they turn 360 with little effort. Maybe I'll have Marcia post a video of us twirling them around.

KG

Wonderful Winchester

Winchester is on the site of the ancient capital of Wessex and was developed from the Roman town of Venta Belgarum. Winchester's most famous building, Winchester Cathedral, is one of the largest cathedrals in England, with the longest nave and overall length of any Gothic cathedral in Europe. Take a look at the videos below!



Important events which took place at Winchester Cathedral include:

Funeral of King Harthacanute (1042)
Coronation of Henry the Young King and his queen, Marguerite (1172)
Second coronation of Richard I of England (1194)
Marriage of King Henry IV of England and Joanna of Navarre (1403)
Marriage of Queen Mary I of England and King Philip II of Spain (1554)
Funeral and burial of Jane Austen (1817)
Funeral of Izaak Walton. Walton, who died in 1683, was the author of The Compleat Angler.
In 2005, the building was used as a film set for the The Da Vinci Code with the north transept used as the Vatican.
World famous choirs and musical guests…

And Loch Fyne, a seafood restaurant http://www.lochfyne.com/Restaurants.aspx, where we had a wonderful dinner after a day at the cathedral. Kay had fish and I actually had the best steak I’ve had since we’ve been here!!

mt

Adventure after Adventure

The adventures are happening so fast that I hardly have time to write about them, much less post photos.

I have started posting photos from my Wednesday trip to Kew Gardens. I think it was Wednesday. Anyway, I covered the whole garden and got lots of photographs. British garden design is quite different from Asian garden design. There was one little Japanese garden and a Japanese Minka house in a bamboo garden that was nice. My favourite were the water gardens and the palm and Temperate houses.

Marcia stayed home on Wednesday. She's the smart one.

Thursday Mark took us to Blenheim Palace. This is the only country house that is known as a Palace. It belongs to the Spencer-Churchill family. John Churchill was a brilliant military commander who won a decisive battle at Blenheim against, you guessed it, the French. Queen Anne, the last of the Stuarts granted him the estate and Parliament voted him great sums of money to build the Palace, and quite the grand thing it is. John's wife became a great friend of the Queen and was quite the political maneuvering thing. She eventually got her bossy self in deep do-do when she told the Queen to "be quiet". She and John had to take a vacation on the continent till Queen Anne died. When they came home and requested more funds from Parliament to finish the Palace, they were denied, and had to use their own money. Ouch!

One of the later Earls of Marlborough (the formal name of the Spencer-Churchill heir) solved his financial worries by marrying a Vanderbilt heiress. Neither of them was particularly interested in each other, but they produced two sons and basically went their own way. The Vanderbilt's were interested in a title and the Churchill's were interested in cash.

Winston is a close cousin of the Earl. He was also born in the Palace. He is celebrated in the West wing of the Palace.

So, the three of us took the guided tour and then had a bit of lunch and Mark and I toured the gardens. The views were fantastic-like paintings you have seen of the idyllic English countryside. I could photograph the outside but not inside.

When done with Blenheim we got a backroad tour back to the Reading area and tea at Mark's apartment. I even got to see the Bobby helmet, which I will show you later.

He also took us to a proper Pub where we had dinner. The Bull is located in Sonning, a pretty upscale area outside of Reading. Behind The Bull is a little church surrounded by cemetery, so you know I was happy taking a tour.

It was a full day for us, and we were pretty tired afterward. I got a good night and a half of sleep, but was still tired the next morning. However, I wanted to get to Camden Market to find a tablecloth, so I just did the trip to London anyway. I took my time and rested on the train. I was sure to have a little container of fresh squeezed Spanish orange juice.

I love Camden Market even though my fondness is pretty much nostalgic. It is full of crap and vintage clothing crap, but I could be sure to find my tablecloths and did. Second Saturday will have a new look when we get back.

I came home early from Paddington Station where I have always gotten an express train. However, I can tell you that Paddington also runs a chugger. I discovered the station we will take to Windsor Castle, but otherwise the trip was an extended rest period. I came home and crashed for a couple of hours.

Today's plan is to drive to the Oracle Mall. We know the way but it will be Saturday traffic and probably a challenge finding a parking place. Our mission is to take our stuff to Mail Boxes Etc. to send home, and to buy Marcia a new suitcase. The handle broke on hers making it a big drag to carry around.

We also discovered the Waitrose on our trip with Mark. Waitrose is an upscale supermarket, so it is on our list of things to do after the Mall. I'm sure you will get a full report.

We have passed the middle date of our time here though I have tried to not count the days. When we first started planning this trip, we had ideas of going to Paris and lots of places on the east coast. Once we got here, we realized that we have more than we can reasonably do with just short day trips in the area. Of course, one could spend a year in London and not do everything one would like to. We will soon try to get to Windsor and Bath and Hampton Court. We have our flight set from Heathrow to Dublin and arrangements with our hosts there. We think we will save the London Eye for when we come back. We have a couple of days on our own before we fly out, so we are thinking of a hotel in London for those few days. The prime time to do the Eye is at dusk, so having a hotel in London will be an assert for us.

We have done remarkably no planning for Ireland. Will tackle that when we get there.

KG

Seed Sculptures at Kew Gardens

KG

Stones and Ivory at the BM

I was going for the mosaic, but couldn't resist getting the family in as well. They sorta have the BM look. There is so much to see that even when one narrows it down, there is so much to see.

I'll be tackling that pile of broken pots as soon as I can get to them.

KG

Art Deco and Teapots for Aunt Alva

KG

BM blog for Ed

citole-early guitar, so the ID card reads.

KG

More from the BM

Moving on through time and Britain.

These tools...




















and these tools make me think of Pat.






































Don't show this to Marcia.


















Here is the God Mercury in goblet form.
























Ivory belt buckle. Some things change and some things don't.





















Gold collar.















































Reminds me of baby dishes where the parent encourages the child to eat it all gone in order to see the face.



















































Could be contemporary. Some things don't change.






















This animal bone was used for carving practice. I also loved the game pieces above it. Little sheep.


















KG

The Big BM (British Museum)

Empty Cage blogophiles will recall my love of reflections. This one is on Tottingham Road just past the underground.




MDT and the Big BM.


MDT and the BM Caesar salad.



My little bites of India and mango lassi.














After lunch, I went on to check in on the ways of my ancestors. These little toadstool houses were quite sweet for the ironage ancestors.

To my surprise, this tankard is about the same size as my very own insulated plastic tankard.

Stone age chipper and shredders.

Apparently my ancestors have always eaten animal drippings. This meat hook suspended over the cooking pot would have saved every bit. After experiencing the damp cold here, I can see that animal fat would have come in quite handy for sustaining oneself.

Prototype for Husquavara helmet.

I know I must have had a pair of earrings like this in the late 70's.

Armband.

KG