Got my keyboard working again, so I wanted to get a post up about yesterday’s trip out to Stonehenge, Lacock, and Bath.
Okay. First of all, 3:45 AM is very early to get up, especially on vacation. That said, I made it over to the hotel pick-up point well ahead of 5:00 AM – the pick-up time – so that’s good.
Overall, the trip was fantastic. Our driver and guide seemed to be good friends who worked well together, keeping us informed and entertained and on time. Despite the tyranny of the schedule, they were very flexible and accommodating when they could be, and just generally really good guys.
We made it out to Stonehenge around 8:00 AM – well past the sunrise, but we still had the circle to ourselves1 for an hour, and it was awesome.
At the visitor centre, before you hop on the shuttle bus, there’s a replica neolithic village set up. This is the kind of place the builders of Stonehenge would have lived.Here we are approaching the stones. If you’re on a regular visit, you don’t really get to come much closer than this.We got to go right into the middle of the circle. But no touching. Very strict rule.The stones are really huge. They do a very good job of looming. Look at these guys loom!The circle is incomplete, there’s enough still standing that you can see some of the avenues created.In keeping with these kinds of places, the stones mark an inside and an outside to the space. The outer ring was once made of trilothons like this, forming gateways through which things – people, animals, sunlight – entered.It was kind of heady standing in the middle of the place. The stones are only about 2/3 of their height above ground; the other third is buried so that they don’t fall down. Still, almost 5000 years of time and abuse will knock some down.The fact that there’s still this much of it standing is kind of remarkable.Graffiti on the stones. The deep-cut, straight line is from the Tudor era, so around 400 years old. Most of the rest seem to be later, around Victorian era. But down near the bottom, there are carvings of a dagger and an axe, that date from the early bronze age, so around 3000 – 4000 years old. I’ve messed with the contrast a fair bit on this picture to get the stuff to show up.Frank was kind enough to take a number of pictures of me in the circle. This one gives a really good idea of the scale of the place.Flying all over the stones, perching here and there, where a number of black birds. They were too small for crows or ravens, so I asked one of the security guards what they were. They are jackdaws, relatives of the crows, ravens, rooks, but smaller.
After our hour in the circle, it was back to the coach and on to Lacock for breakfast. We had it in a pub called The George, which was established in 1361, and it was a very welcome meal by that time. I spent the meal chatting with a couple of very nice ladies from the US about The Book of Mormon, which they, too, had seen just a couple of nights before.
Then, we went for bit of a stroll around the village on the way back to the coach.
One of Lacock’s big claims to fame is that they filmed some scenes from Harry Potter here. This, for example, is the house they used for Harry’s parents in the movies.Another claim to fame is Lacock Abbey. The tower on the right end was the subject of the first ever photograph, as the inventor of the process lived here. Also, it’s a very pretty building. Normally, I am told, the tour doesn’t go to the Abbey, but the day was so nice that Frank and Malcolm took us in one end of the grounds just for the photo opportunity.
Back on the coach and on to Bath.
Bath was an important city during the Roman era of Britain. There were hot springs bubbling out of the ground, which the Romans took as a divine gift. They named it Aquae Sulis, and2 blended the idea of the local goddess, Sulis, with their own Minerva. They constructed a temple to Sulis Minerva here, and it became a centre for healing and pilgrimage.
The Victorians saw the long-vanished Roman baths rediscovered and rebuilt, turning the city of Bath into a world-famous spa city, where the rich would travel to take the waters.
This is the square in front of Bath Cathdral, with the Roman Baths on the right. Very busy place, with no scene of a baby-eating bishop anywhere.The door of the cathedral is, I am told, about 700 years old, and it is absolutely beautiful.Going to the Roman Baths these days means visiting a wonderful, very full museum that teaches you all about the lives of the people who lived in Aquae Sulis. I could easily have spent a day here, but I only had about 90 minutes. This bit I thought was very cool: it’s the pieces they’ve been able to find of the Temple of Sulis Minerva pediment, a kind of decorative gable held up by columns above the portico of the temple. Note the male gorgon face on the shield in the centre. Archaeologists are apparently still scratching their heads over that.And, finally, the baths themselves. This is the main bath area, the Great Baths. The water comes out of the ground at the Sacred Spring at about 46C. By this point, it’s cooled enough to be warm but not scalding. Other pools exist closer and farther from the Spring, with different temperatures, but this was the most popular one.
And then3, it was time to head back. We were back in London around 5:00 PM, and I headed back to the hotel for some dinner and an early bed.
That was my last night in London. I need to go back at some point, because there is so much I didn’t get to: Buckingham Palace, the British Museum, Westminster Abbey, the Houses of Parliament, St. Paul’s Cathedral, Temple Church, SoHo, Chruchill’s War Bunkers, so many other museums and libraries…
I don’t regret my choices of what I did go and see, though. I had a fantastic time. Well, maybe I would have picked a different day to go to Avebury, one that wasn’t quite so cold and windy and wet. But still.
One last closing note on London: I am in awe of the London Underground. I was a little bit intimidated by it at first, but it is so well organized and labeled that it made getting around very simple. And fast. Really, if you’re going to London, get yourself an Oyster Card and take the tube. So fast and easy.
But now, I’m in Oxford, and need to go hunt up some food. Tonight, I have a Ghost Walk, which I am looking forward to. The sky’s bright and clear right now, so I’m hoping it doesn’t turn as wet as the Ripper Walk did.
Not that rain’s gonna stop me.
That is, me, Frank the guide, Malcolm the driver, 29 other tourists, and two security guards to make sure we didn’t touch the stones. [↩]
Today was my first trip outside of London on this vacation. I took the train to Swindon and the bus to Avebury. There’s a stone circle there, the largest in western Europe, and you get to walk right in amongst the stones. Of course, it started raining while I was out there, and really picked up when I started walking the ridge trail.
That, along with the fact that the trail was closed at a couple of places for erosion control, and I didn’t get to see as much of it as I might have liked. But it was still very cool. The site’s almost 5000 years old, and being among the stones – able to go up and touch them – was awesome.
I got a few pictures.
The Red Lion is the pub in Avebury. It brags that it is the only pub in the world that exists within a stone circle. Nice folks.These stones, part of one of the two inner circles, sit in a sheep pasture. The only concession to the stone circle is a very new, moderately high-tech gate, and a sign saying to keep dogs on a leash.This is the smallest of the stone circles, in the same field.One of the big stones.Another big stone.A row of stones.These concrete markers have been set up to show where missing stones – most demolished and used a building materials by the locals over the centuries – once stood.These two huge slabs bracket the ridge path entrance.This trail runs along a ridge that has turned out to be part of an earthworks fortification. The path is clay and limestone, and got really slippery in the rain. Because of erosion repair, it only ran about a quarter of the way around the circle, and I couldn’t get to the point where the Kennet Avenue led off to the Long Kennet tomb. I was sad.Along the trail, however, were these trees with very cool roots all tangled together like a bunch of snakes.I’m not sure what kind of trees those are, but they had a bunch of little heart-shaped charms hanging from the branches. It reminded me of the whitethorns – the faerie trees – in Ireland.
By then, I was soaked. I got the bus back to Swindon, and the train back to London. Now, I’m going to bed, because I’m getting up at 3:45 tomorrow morning for my tour out to Stonehenge.
I started writing this last night, and began falling asleep as the pictures were loading. I couldn’t be bothered to go back and change all the references to “today.” You’ll have to live with it.
Quick update tonight. It’s late and I’m tired((Starting to be a recurring theme, huh?)).
My plan for today was to walk along the riverwalk on the south bank of the Thames, find the giant dead parrot sculpture, see Romeo and Juliet at Shakespeare’s Globe, then make my way to Piccadilly Circus and the Prince of Wales Theatre to see The Book of Mormon. As has become traditional, I started at Tower Hill, and took a stroll across the Tower Bridge to the south bank.
Crossing the Tower Bridge. For a fee, you can go up inside one of the two towers, and cross on the elevated walkway between them. That seemed like far too many stairs to me today.This is taken on the Tower Bridge, looking back at the north bank. I just love the mix of the old and new buildings in the picture.This is the view of the south bank, which is all glass, it seems. The rounded building is City Hall, and you can see the Shard behind it.
Okay. The parrot story. One of the reasons I was walking this way to get to Shakespeare’s Globe was that I had read this story a couple of months ago. I thought it would be very cool to get a picture of the giant parrot, perhaps even a picture of me with the giant parrot. Unfortunately, I hadn’t looked closely at the date of the article.
This is where the parrot used to be. Now, it has ceased to be. It is an ex-ex-parrot.HMS Belfast was docked on this bank as a museum.If I had had a little more time, I would have taken the tour.
Then I made it to Shakespeare’s Globe1, and saw Romeo and Juliet.
Now, I’ve said before that Romeo and Juliet isn’t one of my favourite plays. That said, this production was amazing. They did some remarkable things with the staging, the music, and the switching of roles2. Benvolio was not, as is often the case, a crap actor – the actor playing him was also Friar Lawrence, and showed how Benvolio can be an amazing character.
While all the actors were fantastic, I have to single out the woman who played Juliet. It was pretty much the first performance I have seen where Juliet had a perfect mix of spoiled and naive, and really felt like an overly-romantic thirteen-year-old. Just wonderful.
After that, it was time to start heading to Piccadilly Circus, so I decided to walk across the Jubilee footbridge.
I passed through Hay’s Lane, which is a cool little mall. I have no idea what the violent metal sculpture is supposed to be.Here’s the Jubilee footbridge over the Thames. You can’t see much of the bridge itself, but that’s the dome of St. Paul rising ahead of me.
From across the footbridge, it was a quick tube ride to Piccadilly Circus. I picked up my tickets, and had my first sit-down dinner in the UK. I went to a place called Scotch Steak House. The food was okay, and the decor was not bad, and the prices were pretty high, but the service was out of this world. My waiter seemed to be everywhere, doing everything, always happy and friendly and helpful.
The Book of Mormon was amazing. It was a much deeper show, talking about truth and belief and right and wrong, and also about colonialism and inclusion. Because it’s by the South Park folks, it also had a lot of toilet humour, which worked, as it always seems to in their hands. If you know something about the LDS church, the humour is extra biting, because you realize that some of the insane stuff said on stage is not made up. Even if you don’t know, though, it’s a funny, funny show. I was laughing so hard I was crying at a couple of points.
On my way back to the tube station, I snapped this picture.
These are the Horses of Helios. They’re kinda cool.
Then it was home and bed. And now, I’m heading off to Paddington station to catch a train to Swindon and a bus to Avebury to see the stone circle there.
Again. I may or may not have bought more DVDs of their performances. If I did, I probably had a good reason to do so. [↩]
By which I mean one actor playing multiple roles. [↩]
I got a bit of a slow start this morning, being very tired from the combination of jetlag and an obscene number of stairs yesterday. When I finally hauled myself out of bed, took some time getting dressed and ready for the day, then took the tube back to the Tower of London.
Why there? Mainly because it’s only one tube stop from my closest tube station1, and the sightseeing bus stops there, and that’s where I got off the tour yesterday. So, I got to ride the rest of the tour and, incidentally, find out where the theatre is for seeing The Book of Mormon tomorrow night.
I got off the bus around Picadilly Circus, with the intention of catching the red tour from the sightseeing company2. I managed to do that, though it took getting lost and finally making my way back to Trafalgar Square. When I got on the red tour, I found that it was the same as the yellow tour, but without a live guide – all commentary was on a recording, and I, not realizing that, neglected to get a set of headphones to listen to it.
By the time I figured this out, we were almost back to the Tower of London, so I figured I’d get off there and figure out what to do next. Turns out I was just in time for the 61-gun salute that the Yeoman Warders were firing in honour of the new princess. I stayed for that but, as a late arrival, I only managed to glimpse the guns themselves as I maneuvered around the edge of the crowd. Easy to hear, though. And to smell – huge clouds of smoke drifted over to us every time the guns fired.
That took about twenty minutes, in all, and I still hadn’t figured out what to do. So, I wandered down to the pier, and saw that there was a river bus service that would take me right to Shakespeare’s Globe theatre. I’m heading there tomorrow for Romeo and Juliet, but I thought it would be nice to take a tour today, and wander around the area.
My first view of Shakespeare’s Globe from the Thames.
The tour was awesome, led by an actual cockney named Mick. And he took us into the (mostly) empty Globe to show us the place.
The Globe is a working theatre. They are apparently building the set for Merchant of Venice today.The stage from the pit. This is where the common folk would stand after paying a penny. Shakespeare called them “penny stinkards.” I’m sure you can figure out why.This is the stage as viewed from the middle circle of seats. This is about the best view in the house.
The theatre is constructed in Elizabethan fashion – uncured oak, with lath and plaster between the beams, and a thatched roof. Since the great fire in London, thatched roofs are illegal, but the Globe has special dispensation. Also, a whole lot of sprinklers on the roof.
After a quick stop at the gift shop3, I set out to wander through the area and see what there was to see.
Ship outta nowhere! Walking around the corner, there was a reconstruction of Raleigh’s ship, the Golden Hinde.When I get street directions like, “Keep the Cathedral on your left,” and you have ask , “Which Cathedral,” you know you’re not in Winnipeg anymore. This is Southwark Cathedral.The Shard is a cool, tapered building in London. It’s apparently got shops, a hotel, a casino, and amazing views from the top floor. And you can see it from the same spot I took the picture of Southwark Cathedral. I love the mix of old and new.This very cool statue of the Holy Family sits in the corner of Southwark Cathedral grounds.Crossing London Bridge from the south, you are greeted by a pair of dragons., These signify that you are entering the City of London, or the Square Mile, as it’s called.Just over the bridge is the Monument, commemorating the Great Fire of London in 1666. Apparently, 80% of the buildings in the City of London were destroyed. There are 311 steps in the Monument, and you get a certificate of accomplishment if you climb all the way to the top. I guess I’ll never know for sure.
From Monument Station, it was just two underground stops to my home stop of Aldgate East. I had a bit of dinner and a bit of a rest, and uploaded the day’s pictures. While they were uploading, I went for my evening’s planned excursion: a Jack the Ripper walk.
It started getting overcast, and was beginning to sprinkle a bit of rain as the walk started, so I only got a few pictures. Although, to be fair, most of the actual sites we visited were radically changed from history, so there wasn’t much to photograph. That said, our guide, Phil, did an amazing job of painting the picture for us, and did a magnificent balancing act between humourous fun and dignified respect. I did get a few pics, though.
A lot of the streets we went down looked kind of like this. It’s not that accurate a representation of the streets at the time, but it was still evocative.The Frying Pan public house, where Polly Nichols was seen the night before her death.The Ten Bells, a public house frequented by Annie Chapman and Mary Kelly. For a while, in the 70s and 80s, it was renamed Jack the Ripper, but apparently the tackiness of naming it after a murderer of local woman – and selling keychains and other souvenirs – proved too tacky. Business fell off, and the name was changed back.Christchurch Spitalfields, where many homeless people of the district, would spend the days sleeping in the graveyard., At night, the graveyard was closed, and the unfortunates would have to walk the streets, because the police wouldn’t let them sleep there.Across from Christchurch Spitalfields is the Spitalfields Market. It has nothing really to do with the Ripper, but thought Penny would like to see it.
By this time, the rain was coming down pretty hard, so I put the camera away. We finished the tour, and I came home to post this. Pictures loaded very slowly, so I’m running late again.
Moved to my new hotel today. It was raining this morning, and I was still kind of tired, so I decided that, instead of walking the 40 minutes or so back to the tube station1, I’d pay for a cab. This was an important lesson: the money I saved by staying farther away than I had intended was eaten by the cost of the cab. I should have just picked a closer, if more expensive, hotel.
I was, of course, way too early to check in. In fact, I arrived in the middle of what seemed to be half of Germany checking out and storing their bags. But they cleared, and I got my bag stored until later, and then I headed off to the tube station in my rain jacket and very fancy hat to get my sightseeing ticket validated.
That happened to be at Trafalgar Square.
Trafalgar Square features Nelson’s Column. It’s really very tall. It is, they tell me, the height of Nelson’s ship. They didn’t tell me which one, though, and I’m too tired tonight to look it up.To put the height into perspective, here’s one of the four lions at the corners, with some kids to provide scale.So, there are three big plinths in Trafalgar Square. Three are filled with regular (kinda boring) statues. The fourth one apparently changes statue every so often. Right now, it’s got a statue of a horse’s skeleton with a stock market ticker. It’s supposed to be a statement about wealth inequality, but I have an innate distrust for the social messages of art commissioned by the government.
After looking around a bit, I found the place I needed and got my ticket validated. Then, I got on the tour. We saw a whole bunch of cool stuff but, as usual, it’s very hard to get a good picture from the top of a moving tour bus. I did get one that I liked.
Here we’ve got the Houses of Parliament, with the Elizabeth Tower, which holds Big Ben, the clock bell.
I got off the bus at the Tower of London, which is one of the main things I wanted to see on this trip. I spent about four hours there, looking at stuff, and I didn’t even get in to see the Crown Jewels – the lineup for that tower was very, very2 long. The Tower is fascinating; it is actually a tiny little village inside the walls. There are about thirty-five Yeoman Warders3 who live in the Tower with their wives and children, plus the Royal Fusiliers who are garrisoned at the headquarters here. In total, there are about 130 people who live on the site.
The entrance to the Tower. You’ll notice that the sky is clearing. Yay!A Yeoman Warder. Each Yeoman Warder must have served at least 22 years in the armed forces, reached the rank of Sergeant Major, and have received the Long Service and Good Conduct medal. According to the Yeoman Warder who led our guided tour, when he applied a year ago, there were 150 applicants for the single opening.
If you go to the Tower, make sure that you take one of the Yeoman Warder guided tours. That’ll show you what you want to spend more time on, and give you a bunch of cool history.
The White Tower is the oldest part of the Tower of London. It’s full of amazing exhibits of arms and armour from throughout the almost 1000 years of the Tower’s existence.Like these sets of armour and barding.Or this dragon built from armour and weapons on the top floor.
There were some other interesting exhibits around, too:
A 24-pound brass cannon, all painted and polished up. Well, except fot eh verdigris on the body of the cannon itself.And this halberdier on the walls.And this recreation of a Tudor-era royal bedroom, in the St. Thomas tower.
Now, despite the bloody reputation of the Tower of London, only six people were ever executed within the Tower grounds. The other 2000 or so were merely imprisoned there, and were marched out an up Tower Hill for their executions.
This memorial marks the spot on Tower Green where those six were executed.
Aside from being a royal residence, and a fortress, and a prison, and the royal mint, the Tower was also, for a time, a royal zoo. They had loads of fun stuff, like lions and elephants and a room full of monkeys running around loose that you could go play with4. There are sculptures of a lot of the animals, seemingly made of chicken wire, around the place.
They even had a polar bear. They shackled a long chain to its leg and let it swim and fish in the Thames. Now, the Thames at that time was filthy and a source of a number of cholera outbreaks, so it’s not that surprising that the bear soon sickened and died.
The only living animals still kept at the tower5 are the Tower ravens. Legend says that if the ravens leave the tower, England will fall. The ravens even have a Yeoman Warder Ravenmaster who looks after them.
But they’re making very sure the ravens don’t leave.
I walked the walls of the Tower, as well, and got some very nice views of London.
Here’s a nice view of the Tower Bridge, all decked out.And here are some interesting buildings in the London Skyline. London’s got some of the neatest modern buildings I’ve ever seen.
Then, seeing as it was almost five, I went and checked into my hotel for real, and spent a couple of hours getting my photo software working and uploading my pictures, before heading back to the Tower of London for the Ceremony of the Keys.
They don’t allow photographs or recordings for the ceremony, and I can understand why. It’s the oldest military tradition of it’s kind in the world, having been conducted every day for about seven hundred years. It was delayed only once, during WWII, when bombs were dropped on the Tower during the ceremony. After the Warders had helped their injured comrades and put out the fire, they continued with the ceremony, and the next day, sent a letter of apology to the king. The king said he understood, and that the Warders were not to blame because it was enemy action, but that he expected the ceremony to never be late again.
It was kind of moving to be present for the tradition, and everyone was nicely quiet and respectful as the situation warranted. At the end, we were told that all the names of attendees at the ceremony had their names recorded in a big, red book, so that they became part of the history of the ceremony. And that’s just cool.
Then, back home to do up this post, and now, because it’s after midnight, to bed.
Lots to see and do tomorrow.
Assuming I could find my way more easily than I had the night before. [↩]
So, the plane last night didn’t take off until almost two hours late. We made up some time in flight, though, and landed only about an hour late. I had managed to sleep through most of the trip – about five and a half hours. Because I was able to sleep, but not for as long as I wanted, I’m tired today, but not exhausted.
I took full advantage the British Air arrivals lounge1 for their showers and free breakfast. I also got a sim card and set up my phone on the 3 network, and bought an Oyster Card for using the Underground.
I’m really glad I took the tube to my hotel. It was long, and somewhat confusing, and tiring hauling my stuff around, but it really brought home the fact that I’m in a different city, in a different country, in a way that I think the faster trains or a cab wouldn’t have. It also showed me that, intimidating though the tube looks to a barbarian like me, it’s really not that difficult to navigate.
I made it to Liverpool Street, my first destination, because there’s a Lush shop there. I picked up my special soap and cream, and then found a pharmacy, where I bought some toiletries, ibuprofen, and travel sickness pills2. I also got my first chance to stick my head into the actual outside in London. I snapped a couple of pictures, but the photo software on this computer isn’t working right. I’m still going to post them, but once I get things straightened out, I’ll probably come back and update them.
**Edit** I got my picture editor working on my computer, so I have updated the pictures.
So, this is a look at the London skyline from within London. It’s taken just outside of Liverpool Street, which is a train and underground station. Also, a mall. You can just see the tip of the Gherkin peeking over the older building in the foreground.This statue is out one of the Liverpool Street Station entries. It’s called the Kindertransport Memorial, and shows children being shipped away from London during the second World War.
Then, it was back on the tube, out to Barking. From the Barking station, I walked to my hotel, navigating via Apple Maps on my phone3. I wound up in the parking lot of a huge Tesco superstore, and decided to give up but, after buying and drinking a very lovely bottle of Fanta4, I was refreshed and found where I had gone wrong reading the map.
So, I made it to my hotel around 5:00, and right at the desk they had a deal for pizza and coke, which I ordered and ate. Now, I’m going to rest up for tomorrow, watch a movie or something, and try to stay awake until 10:00 or so, so that I don’t wake up too early.
I made it!
Okay. I knew Heathrow was very, very big, but they have a high-speed transit train to move people from the arrival gates to the actual Arrivals area within the same terminal. That’s big. [↩]
I found in Ireland that some of the tours – especially the rural ones – made me a little nauseous. Not gonna give in to that. [↩]
This is why I get the new sim card first thing. [↩]
For North American readers: Fanta in Europe is awesome. No, really. For European readers: Fanta in North America is made of fail and sadness. No, really. [↩]
