11 Sept 2014

Thursday, 11 Sept 2014

Change of plans. The past two days have been long, especially with Michael doing all the driving (He does not want to navigate). We had planned to go the Wales and make a couple of stops. One at on outdoor museum and Tintern Abbey. We decided we had seen enough ruined abbeys and we wanted a shorter day. So instead of going to Cardiff, we went to Caerphilly to see the castle. Yes, it’s in ruins, but it is quite extensive and you can wander around it – both inside and out. You can climb spiral staircases in the tower, walk on the battlements, see the eating implements that would have been used when the castle was built in 1271. A lot of it was built in just 3 years in response to political and military threats.

As you can see, the castle is surrounded by water. The Earl figured out that water defenses were the way to go after the siege of Kenilworth failed.

Everyone feeds the birds that hang out in the lakes. There are a pair of swans and the cygnets have not lost their cygnet plumage in favor of the adult white.

So we did the castle, had a nice lunch in Caerphilly and set off for Chipping Camden and Ebington, the location of our next stay. We spent most of the day on 6-lane highways, which helped the driving a lot. But the directions to the farm on their web site were different, depending on whether you were coming from London, or the southwest (us).  We stumbled around Chipping Campden a little, then decided to follow the Tom Tom to Ebington and that worked.

We’re up under the eaves at the top of the house, which dates to the 14^th century! homefarm

Very nice dinner at the local pub, the Ebington Arms, which is within walking distance. I should have taken a picture of my sea bass with pearly barley, king oyster mushroom and tiny clams. Michael has the fish and chips. Even better than Killarney. Local beers, too. 

Wednesday 10 September

Wednesday, 10 September

We set of at 10 for Avebury. For some reason the Tom Tom app on theiPad sent us on a bunch of back roads – 4 digit numbers. No center line and about 1.5 cars wide. Very nerve-wracking for the driver – Michael.  It may be the fastest route for a British driver. Not so sure about us.

Avebury is the home of another stone circle (two) and henge. No where near as crowded as Stonehenge. You can walk among the stones, which are in a natural state rather than shaped. The circle is huge, compared with Stonhenge and the henge (“moat”) is much deeper. You can walk on top of the barrow most of the way around. The town of Avebury is partly within the circle.

At one point the good Christians of Avebury were concerned about the pagan stones in their midst and knocked them down and buried them. Most have been dug up and reset. There are concrete markers where the stones are missing. As you can see, these stones are shorter than the sarcens at Stonehenge and do not have lintels. They are set about 30’ apart.

Stone circle at Avebury

Henge at Avebury

Second stone circle at Avebury

After lunch at the Red Lion (we need to eat at a Swan and a Lamb somewhere on this trip), we made our way to Glastonbury, home of the ruins of Glastonbury Abbey. The Abbey was the victim of Henry VIII’s vendetta against the Catholic Church. Wells Cathedral, 6 miles down the road, was built at the same time and still stands. But the Wells Cathedral was not owned by the Church.

Glastonbury is an interesting town. Like Yellow springs on steroids and then some. Lots of small shops selling everything from crystals to ice cream. The Abbey was interesting. They are still doing restoration work. Based on the archaeology, they have determined that this was the earliest Christian church in England. Parts of the structure date to 580. There is also the legend that King Arthur and Guinevere are buried here. Three early English kings are definitely buried here. This picture is of the Lady Chapel at the west end. The whole church was huge.

Lady Chapel Glastonbury Abbey

Glastonbury Abbey 

Having chatted with a couple of the docents, we headed off to Wells and another cathedral. Wells is where the bishop went from Bath, which is why Wells has a cathedral and Bath has an abbey. No bishop – it’s not a cathedral.

The Wells Cathedral is huge. Unfortunately, the eastern end is no longer open to the public. But you can still see the scissor vaulting at the transept – very unusual.

Wells Cathedral facing east - note the "scissors" supports 

Scissors Supports

Wells Cathedral West Face

At the end of a long day, we headed back to Bath – on wider roads than this morning. Tomorrow we are off to the Cotswolds (Chipping Campden) by way of south Wales. I did get to see some sheep today. English roads have no shoulders and the laybys are not in the most scenic places. You need some scenic overlooks, people.

England 2014

Sept 2014 Trip to England

Monday 8 Sept 2014

Plane landed early. We managed to get through customs and immigration quickly and pick up our luggage. Interesting hand drier UI in the washroom. There is one at each sink. Stick your hands under the mirror. There is an icon, but it was fun to watch people try to figure it out. No phone so no picture.

We were planning to take the Rail Coach to Reading and train from there to Bath. Elisa gave us great directions from Terminal 5, but we came into 3. No worries, we were directed to the central bus station where we were just in time to catch the next bus to Reading. Free WiFi on the “coach” – Whoo hoo!. Got to Reading in time to catch the 9:59 train to Bath with 10 minutes to spare. No WiFi on the train, tho’.

We got to Bath just after 11. We found a nice little café across from the station to have a late breakfast – eggs and English muffins. Also got directions to the Apple store (really?? In Bath?) to find out where to get SIM cards – just around the corner. 15L for 2 GB data, 200 min and 2000 texts for a month. Not bad. Don’t lose the US SIM – taped to the folder.

Cab to the B&B. The room is very nice. Light and airy, and we can open the windows. Michael took a snooze while I fixed a knitting mistake. We’re off to see the Royal Crescent and the Roman Baths. And the Abby.

It’s been a while since we’ve traveled somewhere where there are a lot of tourists. Tour buses everywhere. The royal Crescent is at the top of Victoria Park. Very hard to get a picture with out doing a panorama.

We walked down hill towards the Roman Baths and the Abby. Michael was feeling the effects of a lack of sleep + jet lag, but hung in there. Like the Crescent, the Circus is a street with houses built in a crescent. There are 3 of them, creating a circle, with a park in the middle

The Circus

In the late 1700s and early 1800s Bath was a spa. People came to drink the waters for their health. I’m sure no one knew there were Roman baths buried under the Pump Room. If you are a fan of Jane Austen, you know she lived in Bath for several years. If you are a fan of Georgette Heyer, you know about the Assembly Rooms and the Pump Room. They are still here and you can visit them.

Bath Chimneys.

I had no idea the Roman baths were so extensive. I’m thinking military outpost, but no, the entire complex is much larger  than I expected. Not surprisingly, the baths are way below the current ground level, and excavations are still underway. Part of the complex lies under the Abby.

The Roman Baths – the Main Baths

The Bath Abby is next to the baths. It used to be a Cathedral, but the Bishop moved the Wells. Without a bishop, the church cannot be a cathedral. The vaulting is very unusual. Unlike the Gothic vaulting, this is fluted. I have never seen anything quite like it.

Fluted vaults at Bath Abby.

Michael is dragging so we found the information center and a brochure on restuarants. There is a Moroccan place a couple of blocks away.  The food is very good and we grab a cab back to the B&B. We are asleep by 8 PM.

Tuesday 9 September

Stonehenge is on the itinerary for today, but first we have to pick up the car. We have not driven on the left since 1995 when we went to New Zealand. And that was mainly back roads. This should be interesting. The car is new – a Renault “Captur”. Bright blue. At least we can find it in a parking lot. It’s a diesel, which is good. Diesel prices are cheaper.

We set off for Salisbury and the cathedral. The plan is is to have lunch there and get to Stonehenge by 2:30 – 3:00. The roads are narrow and we’re driving a lot slower than the speed limit. But we get to Salibury by noon,find a parking lot, and do the short walk to the cathedral. The spire is the tallest one in Britain. It was added after the cathedral was built. The weight has caused the columns to bend and the spire is now leaning out of plumb.

The guides are super – clearly they love what they do. We could have spent more time listening to all they had to share, but we had the 2:30 time at Stonehenge. The cathedral is huge. There are 2 transepts. Not all built at the same time. The stained glass was removed at one point as they tried to get more light into the cathedral. They were able to salvage some of it and create new windows at the west and.

Salisbury Cathedral.

Salisbury Cathedral towards the altar.

As you can see, the vaulting is quite different from Bath Abby.

Vaulted ceiling at Salisbury.

They have a very nice restaurant (refectory) at the Cathedral. Here the view through the glass ceiling.

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View from the refectory.

Off to Stonehenge. The British are not that impressed with the place. They miss being able to walk among the stone, but with 1M visitors a year, that’s impossible. The new visitor’s center is great and the new paths should get you closer than the current temporary ones. It’s still a cool place. Warm, sunny afternoon. Very un-English.

We walked the whole circuit and took lots of pictures. It’s hard to choose just one. Every angle is different.

One thing they do at the visitor center is show a 360 deg video from inside the circle, so you get some sense of what it’s like.

Off to Avebury and Wells today. 

Bhutan wrap up

We got home Friday night to a dark house. Based on my TIVO recordings, we lost power about the first of October. Needless to say, the refrigerator and the freezer stank to high heaven. We called DP&L about the outage and went to a hotel for the night. Saturday the power had been restored and we spent the day cleaning out the fridge and freezer.

I really enjoyed the trip. It was a bit rough on Michael between the steamy weather in Bangkok and the bout of tourista, but he also found it interesting.

Bhutan is a small country with only 700,000 people. There are no cities as we know them. They are trying to balance development with maintaining their traditions, which is not easy. New buildings have to use the traditional structure and decorations. People who work with the pubic have to wear traditional dress. But there are satellite dishes on houses in even rural areas. Houses in towns are heated with electricity. People in in rural areas where electricity may not be reliable are allowed to cut down 2 trees per year for heating. They are proud of the fact that 70% of the country is forested. Protecting the environment is one of the goals for Gross National Happiness.

The biggest export is hydroelectric power, which they sell to India. They have 5-6 more hydro projects in the works. The heavy trucks are tearing up the roads as they bring construction materials from India and from quarries in the mountains. Buckwheat is another export.

In 2010 they had 40,000 tourists - more than 5000 more than anticipated. Considering the population of 700,000, this is a lot. They have some control over the number of people from outside in that there are only 3 flights in and out a day and a visa is required. One article in the Druk Air magazine talked about how only guests of the royal family were originally allowed into the country. Gradually, they started allowing others in, but at a high cost - $200 per day. But this rate has not kept up with inflation (it goes to $250 a day next year)  and now there are a lot more people arriving. And these people have expectations about hotels, restaurants, etc that are bound to change the atmosphere. There are no McD's or KFCs, but you have to wonder how long that will last. You can get Lay's potato chips and Coke.

I am also still struggling with the photography issue. Those of you who followed last year's trip may remember my quandary about photographing people. I like to capture an image as a memory for me and to share with others. But I still have trouble with that feeling that I am treating these people like an exhibit - like animals in the zoo. Dick had an interesting analogy. Imagine yourself working in your garden and a group of aliens lands in a spaceship and the leader asks if they can watch you and take photographs. They hang around for 20-30 minutes, clicking away, then hop back into the spaceship and take off. While these people have certainly seen tourist buses before, it still feels intrusive to me. Many of the kids seemed to enjoy having their pictures taken and asked to have prints sent to them.

I took more pictures than usual. I played around more with exposures and composition. I'm going to have to sit down and filter, process and create albums before I can share more of them. And there were still photos that I would have liked to have taken given more time, better light, etc.

I hope you enjoyed following the trip.