Today will probably consist of preparing to return to Denver plus our going away event, whatever that may encompass, at Patara, the Thai restaurant we will be visiting for the sixth time on Sunday evening.  Friday and Saturday did not consist of anything worthy of much comment other than our recommendation to include them on your potential activities when you are here.  They were light days with Friday being a little rainy and cool and our activities only consisting of some walking and a visit to The Courtauld Gallery (www.courtauld.ac.uk).  Courtauld is "one of the finest small museums in the world" according to their literature and contains a very fine collection of Impressionist paintings and other work dating to the early Renaissance.  I prefer the smaller galleries so it was a good find for my gallery attention span.  On Friday evening we joined Gail Hammond and Jacquie Martinez for dinner here in London after getting together in York last weekend.  Gail and Jacquie are Brits who I work with in Belize for the Maya Research Program.  Jacquie just finished her Masters in Archaeology and is on the hunt for employment and Gail begins her PhD. work next week.

In 1966 the song “Winchester Cathedral” that included those meaningless lyrics shot to number 1 on the popular music charts.  That means more people were buying that song on a 45 rpm piece of vinyl and playing it on their VPMs, the most advanced retail audio technology of the time, than any other piece of music.  As a teen, I thought it was a stupid song then and in hindsight, it really was stupid.  On Thursday we hopped a train to the lovely city of Winchester to find that Winchester Cathedral was being bastardized once again.

One of our guide books states that “Though Winchester is a busy country town, crowds are never a problem and you can enjoy a visit any time of year.”  That should have been footnoted to say “Except on September 23, 2010.”  You can imagine our chagrin to get to the Cathedral only to find thousands of people lined up to the “it takes 3 hours from here” sign.  Turns out some television show called the “Antique Roadshow” was there taping an episode.  Cathedral closed!  No big deal.  The place only dates to 1079 and has the longest nave of any church in Europe and we just paid for an hour train ride to get here.

Konnie, somehow noticing that I was a bit annoyed by this first negative surprise of the trip, jumped in to find other lovely sights.  And Winchester is lovely.  As with any city here that played an important role in British history, the buildings and architecture are beautiful.  There is a tiny bit of Roman ruin remaining.  The River Itchen is perfectly clear, home to beautiful birds and is showcased with a lovely walkway along its side and, to no one’s surprise at this point, beautiful flowers.  King Alfred the Great who made Winchester the capital is featured.  And there are twelfth century gatehouses and Winchester College.

Then came Wolvesey Castle (Old Bishop’s Palace).  These are the ruins (and I love ruins) of a 12th century Anglo-Saxon Palace. Wolvesey has been an important residence of the wealthy and powerful
Bishops of Winchester since Anglo-Saxon times.  The extensive surviving ruins of the palace date
largely from the 12th-century work of Bishop Henry of Blois. The last great occasion here was in 1554, when Queen Mary and Philip of Spain held their wedding breakfast in the East Hall, a mere 222 years before our Declaration of Independence.  Okay, so this place made the trip worthwhile.

After completing our tour which included passing the house where Jane Austen died (“This is a private residence.  Do not knock on the door.”  Then perhaps you should remove that giant sign from the side of your home?) and a stop at a charming bookstore, we found ourselves returning to the City Centre past, yes, the back door of the Cathedral.  Now here is this nice lady in a Cathedral uniform asking people if they would just like to see the Cathedral.  With the admonition to Konnie that “you just can’t have anything old valued in there,” Konnie offered to leave me outside but the lady said that she would trust Konnie and that I could go in also.  We didn’t have full access but did manage a few shots while avoiding (also a prohibition) including any pictures of the thousands of people who had wasted their day there with the crap from their attics to see what it isn’t worth.

A return train ride to London and off to Zayna, the Pakistani/Northern Indian restaurant we found on Monday.  It too is outstanding.  With three days remaining we are starting to bemoan how much we are going to miss the excellent ethnic food we have enjoyed here.

Oh yes, and many thanks again to the little old lady at the back door.

But we couldn’t resist returning to another London performance of “Phantom of the Opera.”  We think there is something special about seeing it here where it was first performed in 1986 in the very intimate Her Majesty’s Theatre (there are only 17 rows on the first level) which dates to 1897.  I am fortunate to have seen it three times here now with the first time being in 1990.  Konnie and I then saw it together here with her daughter Chelsea and my niece Emily in 2001.

After the show a long stroll home from Piccadilly Circus through St. James’ Park and past Buckingham Palace on the warmest day of the visit so far and that was it for Tuesday.  An enormous lunch at a Lebanese restaurant on the way to the theatre (we did not know that when we ordered) kept us out of any restaurant tonight.

But, of course, there’s always some shots from the streets…

Monday was a quiet day as we walked a good part of the day taking care of some errands and visiting the lovely Kensington Gardens.  This city has an absolutely amazing amount of green space with enormous gardens that have to be quite costly to maintain.  We stumbled upon a great Pakistani/North Indian restaurant in the Marble Arch area called Zayna for lunch.

In the evening we took the Underground to an area called Hampstead on the north side of the city where we met Keith and Katerina Sedgwick for dinner at Fratelli la Bufala.  An interesting Italian restaurant where most of the meats and meat sauces contain buffalo.  Anyway, Keith is a Blue Badge London Tourguide (http://www.touristguides.org.uk/profile?id=353) who shows the KEEP students the highlights of London during their visits here and we are grateful for his service.  We have experienced Keith’s tour and know that he makes the students’ London stop special.

I try to keep the camera out (although I forgot to get it out at the restaurant for a group shot) and here are some shots from the day.

On Friday afternoon we headed to the King’s Cross station to catch the train to York which is 195 miles north of London.  York is described as one of the most historic cities in England and one of the best preserved medieval cities in Europe.  It began as a Roman fort and over the subsequent centuries was controlled by the Saxons and then taken over by the Vikings in 866.  The enormous York Minister, the largest Gothic structure north of the Alps, dominates the city, 800 year old walls and gateways which include parts of the original Roman fortifications are still in place and some medieval buildings also still remain.

Upon arrival we set ourselves up at The Grange Hotel and then walked into the city centre to get our bearings for our full day on Saturday, participate in the Food Festival that was taking place and do some nebbing.  We started Saturday at The Minster which is over 500 feet long and about 250 feet wide (and 250 years to build) and houses the largest collection of medieval stained glass in Britain.  Think of its enormous size and then picture about every section having a massive section of stained glass.  Some of the glass dates to the late 12th century.  It turned out to be wise to begin here because we spent several hours on the sight.  The crypt has a wonderful history display including remains of the original Roman fortification, Viking, Norman and medieval carvings as well as tangible evidence of the history of the earliest chapel on the sight dating to about 1220.

The rest of our day took us to the Yorkshire Museum Gardens, many medieval ruins that remain in great condition including St. Mary’s Abbey, Clifford’s Tower, the Shambles with its timber framed buildings and Holy Trinity Church.  The small Holy Trinity Church is a must see with its founding in the first half of the 12th century, its architecture from the 13th and 14th centuries, its pewboxes from the 17th and 18th centuries and its stained glass from the late 15th century.

On Saturday night we had dinner with Jacquie Martinez and Gail Hammond who I have worked with for the last three seasons during my time working on Mayan ruins in Belize.  Jacquie just finished her Master’s studies in York and Gail begins her PhD studies in London this month.  Our thanks to Jacquie for her recommendations of sights to visit in York.  We will connect with them again this Friday in London where I am sure they will take one more shot at convincing Konnie to join us in jungle of Belize.  Good luck with that one ladies.

Back to London on Sunday afternoon.  Too many pictures (again) but York is a great visit.

Picture labels to come later.

According to Wikipedia, Mews is a chiefly British term formerly describing a row of stables, usually with carriage houses below and living quarters above, built around a paved yard or court, or along a street, behind large city houses, such as those of London, during the 17th and 18th centuries. The word may also refer to the lane, alley or back street onto which such stables open. It is sometimes applied to rows or groups of garages or, more broadly, to a narrow passage or a confined place. Today most mews stables have been converted into dwellings, some greatly modernized and considered highly desirable residences.

So we are staying in a small townhouse in Eaton Mews.  Back here in the stable section there is a significant amount of construction going on.  It reminds me of the scrape offs and rehabbing of old properties in Denver during the boom time.  Here, because everything is connected, they go in and demolish the entire guts and start over but have to leave the walls standing.  Ours is old and a bit worn and needs to be redone.  But the remodels we have been able to see into look very nice.  And the “large city houses” referred to above which are on the streetside of our building look like very lovely homes.

And a couple of mews(ings) from London…

They have clearly forgiven the Germans here for the relentless bombings of London in 1940 and that whole 1939-1945 war thing (we have seen that reference on plaques rather than WWII).  German cars dominate and expensive ones to boot.  On one block near us the other night I counted six Porsches (is that the plural of Porsche or is it like deer?) and because I couldn’t multi-task at the time I was unable to count the Mercedes and BMWs on that same block but they too were numerous.  Other fancy cars are also common in this area including Rolls Royce, Aston Martin, Bentley, Jaguar, Ferrari and Maserati.

As mentioned earlier, things here are very expensive.  Perhaps that is why we seldom hear an American accent on this visit.  But there are two exceptions of note for us.  Coffee.  Even after the exchange rate this works out to be less expensive here than in New York or Steamboat Springs.  And theater tickets are much less expensive than comparable seats in New York.

And speaking of the theater, our third theater visit of the trip took us to the Vaudeville Theatre to see “The Prisoner of Second Avenue” by Neil Simon starring Jeff Goldblum and Mercedes Ruehl.  And boy these theaters are small which is obviously a very nice feature in addition to the lesser than New York prices.

After our third visit to Patara, which we obviously really love, Thursday night was pub night with a visit to The Trafalger.  Off to York for the weekend this afternoon.

We spent about five hours walking about Cambridge which is situated on the River Cam and is about an hour train ride from London’s King’s Cross station and worth both the time and cost to get there and back.  Cambridge, an important town since Roman times, became the gathering place of various religious orders beginning in the 11th century and at the beginning of the 13th century it also became home to various religious scholars who departed Oxford University because of religious disputes.  Wow, religious disputes.  Apparently not a new development.

Anyway, the city center is a fabulous collection of medieval architecture housing the city’s 31 colleges.  The focal point is the Chapel at King’s College which was established by Henry VI in 1441.  I have been fortunate to visit a good number European cathedrals and find them fascinating for the architecture, the length of time (and thus the huge commitment) it took to build them and the amount of humanitarian good that could have been done with the same amount of money.  In any case, the King’s College Chapel interior may be the most striking of those I have seen.  It’s fan vaulted ceiling is absolutely gorgeous and the painstakingly made 26 sets of stained glass windows that took a mere 30 years to install are also beautiful.

So when you get this way, don’t miss Cambridge.  By the way Cambridge City, Indiana near my home town, your name makes absolutely no sense.

The Pope arrives tomorrow and will spend his London time in our neighborhood at Westminster Cathedral and Hyde Park so we will depart for a weekend in York.

Cheers.

What to report for Monday and Tuesday?  Really nothing other than standard tourist stuff so I won’t expound beyond making the following suggestions for inclusion in your visit here.  Over the course of the two days we were to St. Paul’s Cathedral, Pret A Manger, Tower of London, Tower Bridge, various Tube rides with our newly acquired Oyster Cards, dinner in the townhouse (yikes!), Covent Market and Shops, cappuccinos in a variety of places, morning coffee with treats at Patisserie Valerie (home of the best visitor internet service in the city), Sir John Soane Museum (one of the most fascinating places you will ever visit when you go there http://www.soane.org/), the London Silver Vaults (http://www.thesilvervaults.com/), more beautiful old and new buildings and, of course, flowers everywhere.

To date we have had pretty good weather including a perfect day on Sunday.  Cool and cloudy for the most part, misty today but nothing to disrupt getting around and viewing the city.  So far we are happy with our decision to spend extended time here.  Some out of town travel coming up including this weekend in York to see that city and visit with my friends Jacquie and Gail, two professional archaeologists who I work with in Belize.

So too many pictures today from traveling about the city the past two days plus I am also including more of my shots of the differences in our English languages and interesting signage around the city.  It will take awhile to get them all labeled.

“England and America are two countries separated by a common language.”

George Bernard Shaw

Irish dramatist & socialist (1856 – 1950)

I have been trying to capture indications of how true this saying may be.
Some of these do demonstrate merely different English words we use in
the two countries and some are just signs that I thought are just fun or
different from what we generally see. This is Edition 1.

What a gorgeous weekend here.  Saturday was matinee day at the theaters.  We tried out “The 39 Steps” which is a comedic spoof of Alfred Hitchcock’s 1935 movie that was based upon a 1915 novel by John Buchan.  A very unusual and funny production of a Hitchcock mystery thriller and they even figured out a way to include the usual Hitchcock cameo appearance that he always made in his own productions.  Before that it was lunch at the Duke of York Plaza Saturday market.  Dinner at Patara, an outstanding Thai place on Beauchamp Place in Brompton.

Sunday saw us taking the train to Hampton Court Palace which is about 35 minutes outside of the center of London.  The building of Hampton Court was begun by the archbishop of York but taken over by Henry VIII in the early 16th century as one of his many homes.  It’s palatial construction has the fingerprints of numerous royals over the centuries as well as architect Christopher Wren.  And it would not be a royal homestead without fabulous gardens of which it has many.  We returned to Patara on Sunday night and will have to work on not embarrassing ourselves by easily returning there every evening.  It is really excellent.

At Hampton Court Palace there was a German speaking couple and he was going to take her picture in front of one of the gardens.  A German speaking lady rushed over and the nature of the German conversation was revealed when she prepared to take a picture of the couple together.  And just before taking the picture she said to them…”say cheese.”  Ah yes, English.  Still the number one language around the world.