London Day 4

Today we went to St. Paul's Cathedral, the first Anglican church that was established after the English Reformation. (That is when King Henry VIII decided to be the head of the church so that he could divorce and remarry!) There has been a church on this site since the year AD 604, so most likely it was first a Catholic Church. It has been burned or otherwise destroyed and rebuilt 4 or 5 times. The current building was designed by Christopher Wren back in 1675. Some of the famous people who are buried here include the architect, Christopher Wren, Admiral Nelson, and the Duke of Wellington. John Donne, the poet, was Dean of St. Paul's in 1621. Today the building is still amazing. We toured the main cathedral floor, where there was a service underway. The clergy here carry on as if nothing is unusual even though dozens of tourists are wandering around looking up and listening to their audio guides. We toured the crypt, below the main floor, where more people are buried, and today they have a cafe with tables and chairs sitting right on top of the graves! We stopped there for a rest ourselves.



It's a good thing we took a break because we decided to go ahead and climb up into the Dome, to see how far we could go before passing out. There are three levels: you can climb up 257 steps to the whispering gallery. We tried it out, and it is true. Garold stood on the opposite side and I could hear him! Then if you dare you can climb another 119 steps to the Stone Gallery and have a pretty awesome view of the city.



We climbed the final 152 steps, all the way to the top of the dome, to the Golden Gallery, where we were rewarded with the most totally awesome view, 365 feet above the Cathedral Floor.



After we climbed down the 528 steps we took a bus ride down to the Tower of London to catch a boat ride on the Thames. We sailed under the Tower Bridge down to Westminster Abbey and back again. Our tour guides were two young men with distinctive cockney accents and a wry sense of humor. As they pointed out the buildings along the bank of the Thames, they told us that the Tate Modern was one of the few free attractions in London, and if you decide to visit you will see why it is free! Ha!



After the boat tour we went in search of the oldest pub in London, the Cheshire Cheese. There was a very small bar and a restaurant at the street level, and down 2 or 3 levels below the street there was another bar and additional seating. We went down to the lowest level and ordered our dinner: Steak and ale pie (for me) and Chicken and mushroom pie (for Garold) plus the ever present chips (french fries) and English peas. It was pretty good and reasonably priced at about 5 pounds each.

London, Days 1-3

We left Durham on our way to the coast, hoping to stay in a B & B in Whitby. But alas it was not to be. It turns out Brits love to go to the country or the seashore for holidays, and it turns out they are getting some extra "bank holidays" this month. Possibly due to the Royal Wedding that is coming up. At any rate all of the B & B's in Whitby were booked, so we kept driving on toward London, thinking we would certainly find a place to stay by the time we got to Pickering. Luckily we found Netherby House, just outside Whitby and on the edge of the moors. It is a big old house that was once owned by a doctor who also performed surgery there, and his patients would then convalesce in one of the four bedrooms. There is a garden in the back, and this fantastic view:



It is now a great B & B that also serves dinner! We were pretty tired (being tourists in Durham then driving all over Whitby looking for a place to stay) and were beginning to feel a little bit like this couple looks:



After a great dinner, a good night's sleep and Egg Benedict for breakfast, we were ready to set out again, to cross the moors and find London. It turns out that moors are just hills with heather (and not much else) growing on them. This time of year the heather is brown. The host at Netherby House told us that in August they bloom purple. It must be a beautiful sight.
We finally made it to London and took the tubes out to Southfields where we had an apartment reserved. We stopped by the public library to use the Internet (we've been deprived for the past few days), then got ourselves checked in. It is a small studio apartment but it has a washer/dryer combination so we are ecstatic! The first night we rode the tube down to the British Library to see the British Treasures room. They have some original scores from Beethoven and Schubert, a first folio from Shakespeare, and a 4th century New Testament. And they have one of the four existing copies of the Magna Carta! Originally signed by King John in 1215, it was an attempt by the feudal barons to limit the power of the king. One of its most memorable declarations is that "no free man shall be taken or imprisoned...but by lawful judgement of his Peers, or by the Law of the Land." It also has language that is reflected in our habeus corpus and Bill of Rights.
The next day we went back into the city to tour the Globe Theater, This is of course not the original, which was destroyed by fire in 1613 when they fired a wad from a real cannon for special effects, nor is it even the 2nd Globe, which went to ruins. It is the 3rd, built by American actor Sam Wanamaker in the 1950's, with charitable donations from all over the world. It is as close to the original as they could make it, including a thatch roof (don't worry...this time they installed a sprinkler system). We toured the theater in the afternoon and returned in the evening to see a production of "All's Well That Ends Well." It was the story of a young man who tries to escape matrimony by placing conditions upon the marriage that he is certain cannot be met. But of course the lady is in love and so she is determined and manages to find a way to meet his conditions. It was by far the best performance of Shakespeare that I've ever seen. Sitting on the wooden bench in the open air for over two hours (we could have stood for only 5 pounds) was not as bad as it may sound. We rented cusions to sit on and were allowed to take food and drinks into the theater. For a souvenir I bought a replica of the folio of King Lear for 12.50 pounds.



Before showtime we had time to tour the Tate Modern Museum of Art, which was right next door. We are not huge fans of modern art, but we saw some pieces that we liked, such as this one (Picasso's Three Dancers):



The next day we decided to take it easy and buy tour bus tickets. The first tour guide we had told us he had been to Snellville, as an exchange student, in 1981-82! He went to Snellville Middle School. What a small world it is. We rode the bus around the city for more than 2 hours! Here's a view of the big Ferris Wheel:



Finally we hopped of for a closer look at Buckingham Palace. Today there were lots of people, and we spotted someone from Her Majesty's Secret Service outside keeping an eye on the crowd. The Queen is currently in residence, since she will no doubt be attending the wedding at Westminster Abbey tomorrow morning at 11:00 AM.

Durham

From Northumbria and Hadrian's Wall we travelled on to Durham. Along the way we drove past field after field of beautiful yellow blooms. Someone told us this was rapeseed, which is used to make canola oil and animal fodder.
We arrived after the Tourist Information Center had closed, so we decided to stay at the Marriott. It was a treat to have a bathroom big enough to turn around in! And two flat screen TV's! Parking in Durham is hard to find, so we were delighted when they said we could leave our car in their parking lot while we toured the city.



On Easter Sunday we toured Durham Cathedral where the remains of St. Cuthbert are located, along with many other artifacts from early Christianity. They even had a first edition of the King James translation of the Bible. This is the same King James from Scotland, who was the son of Mary Queen of Scots and who was crowned King of England when Elizabeth I died.



The remains of St. Cuthbert are located here. The coffin that was carved from wood for him in 1670 (he was disenterred and reburied in Durham when he was declared a saint)is actually on display inside the cathedral. He is said to be holding the head of St. Oswald, who was once the King of Northumbria.



We also toured Durham Castle, where today students at Durham University reside. The kitchen that was built there in 1832 still cooks 3 meals a day for about 300 students. The dining hall looks just like the one in the movie Oliver.



It was a beautiful day. We took a lot of photos.

Hadrian's Wall

On Saturday we drove to Northumberland to see Hadrian's Wall. We spent the night in an old farmhouse called "Green Carts." The lady who lives here also rents space to campers and this evening there were at least half a dozen tents pitched in her fields.

The Roman Emperor Hadrian built this wall to help control the unruly Brits. At intervals along the wall they built forts, where the soldiers, along with their families, lived. The stone foundations of the buildings are all that remain today.



The wall stretched all the way across the country, from coast to coast.



Garold came a long way to see this wall. There is a hiking path along the wall. On this weekend we saw lots of hikers out exploring.



I wonder what Hadrian would think if he knew that now there are only sheep to guard his wall?



This is the latrine at Houstead's Fort. There were wooden seats around the walls, a narrow trough of water that held "cleaning sponges," and a bowl of water for washing hands. It appeared to have a system of aquaducts that were designed to flush.

Loch Lomond

This morning we took off to see another lake, on the advice of a fellow tourist we met at Loch Ness. He told us that Loch Lomond was beautiful and had lots of cruises so off we went. Along the way we stopped by Scotland's highest peak, Ben Nevis, and rode a cable car half way up - about 2,200 feet. From there we could have hiked up to the summit, at 4,400 feet high, but we decided instead to continue our journey toward Loch Lomond after enjoying the view.



The ride was beautiful! Scotland is full of forests, lakes, streams, and hills.



We were actually travelling through the "highlands."


The weather was superb. The local people called it "hot," but it only got up to about 70 degrees, with clear, beautiful skies.


Along the way we also stopped by a little town called Glen Coe. It was very small, just a couple of streets of houses, but some of them were very old. Their museum was not yet open for the season. So we went on ahead to Loch Lomond, and were rewarded with this view once we arrived:

Loch Ness

After a good night's rest, we were ready to tackle the job of driving in Scotland again. Our hostess gave us one good tip: if you are not sure which road to take at the roundabout, just circle it again. Roundabouts here may have as many as 4 or 5 roads shooting off in different directions, and you will have approximately 5 seconds to look at the sign and decide which one you need to take. God help you if you are in the wrong lane. Yes, some of their roundabouts have 2 or 3 lanes. The lane on the far left is the one you want to be in if you are taking the first left off the roundabout. If you are going straight, you will need to be in the middle or far right lane, and so on.
So we decided to get on the A9 and head toward Inverness. This is a very narrow, at times only one lane, road that goes right down the southern coast of Loch Ness. There are occasionally "passing places" on the side of the road where you can pull over when there is someone coming from the other way and you need to pass. Believe it or not we passed a couple of semi trucks this way! But the scenery was so beautiful it was almost worth the terror. We stopped along the way to have a picnic lunch and enjoy the view.

Loch (Scottish word meaning lake)Ness is a very long narrow lake that runs essentially north-south. Each time we stopped to take in the beauty of the place, we scanned the lake for any unusual creatures.

Here we stopped again and once again could not see any unusual lake creatures.

The water was unusually placid and calm today, so we kept a sharp eye out for anything that might pop up out of the water to look back at us.

Finally! We spotted them! The Loch Ness Mallards!

Stirling Castle

Today we rented a car at the airport in Edinburgh and took off to explore the Scottish country. We did not have a firm plan for where to go first, so we just went where the road took us. It's really a challenge driving in Scotland....on the left side of the road, shifting gears with your left hand, and trying to figure out how to interpret the road signs and navigate the many roundabouts they have here. So this first day we travelled approximately 50 miles altogether, and we ended up in Stirling, where there is another castle!


There is an open (no hand rail) stair case that leads to a catwalk near the top of the wall. There is no guardrail on the catwalk, either. And that is why I am hugging the wall in this photo:

Robert the Bruce once defended this castle against the English king, but when he realized he was outnumbered and the cause was futile, he began to systematically dismantle the castle so that the English could not use it. Strategically Stirling was important for the English who needed it to access their lands in the north. This is the most narrow place in the country, and there are two navigable rivers.
While the castle was occupied by Scottish royalty, they entertained many guests, and prepared a lot of food. They had at least five buildings dedicated to the "grand kitchens." Here are two of them that remain:


They've just hired some new help. He seems to be more animated than the other two guys, so maybe the royal guests won't have to wait too long for their steak pie, haggis and sticky toffee pudding!

When we walked to dinner, we passed right by Wallace's Monument. It is a tower that stands atop a hill overlooking Stirling Bridge. It was here that William Wallace stood in 1297 and directed his men in their successful attack of King Edward's army. Wallace waited until the English were half way across the narrow Stirling Bridge, then ordered his men to attack. After dinner we walked over to the bridge and this is what it looks like today: