Surfing the Inner N8

Below is the third journal entry recording the events of the trip Carolyn and I took to England and France in July of 2006:

Thursday, July 20, 2006 London, England

Today we took the train out to Stratford-upon-Avon, the hometown of William Shakespeare. We took a tour bus which dropped us off at several places. First we went to the house where he was born, which was very cool. The garden there was extremely beautiful–diverse and brightly colored flowers all over the place! Actually the whole town was like that. It’s probably the prettiest and most scenic town I’ve ever seen!

We finally got more cash at the post office there in Stratford-upon-Avon, which gave us a lot more freedom and options. We took the bus to Holy Trinity Church, where Shakespeare and some of his family are buried. It was so neat getting to go there and see that. The church was beautiful and had a ton of artwork in it, much of it many centuries old. There was a sign there commemorating some guy who set a world record last year at the church by playing the pipe organ for over 33 hours.

From there we went a few miles out to the farmhouse where Mary Alden, Shakespeare’s mother, grew up. It was beautiful rolling hills out there–it reminded me of Lancaster County in Pennsylvania, though not as green. The farm was nice, and we saw three pigs (one of them lying in the water trough, the other two licking the water in the cracks in the pen’s cobblestone pavement), ferrets, birds (falcons, eagles, owls), even some dogs lying in what looked like an office. There were also some cool coaches there, probably Victorian. The house itself had been mostly Victorianized (it had been lived in until very recently), but you could still see some of the original roof, wood, and stone from when the house was built in the 1400′s.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that we had turkey baguettes from a shop in town. They were good! I also forgot that before Mary Alden’s house we went to Anne Hathaway’s cottage. It was at least as beautiful as the other places we saw there. The garden was beautiful, the 15th-century cottage was extremely cool (one of the stone floors was the original one from the 15th century). There was a beautiful view of some mountains and a beautiful orchard–it seems the perfect place to live! We got some really tasty and refreshing iced cappuccinos from a little place across the street, where we also saw some baby ducks and a kind of weird-looking bird we’d never seen before.

After the tour, we headed for the 45-minute river cruise. Unfortunately, they had closed. Fortunately, we got a refund. We went to a really beautiful park across the street. There we got some unusual but yummy fruity ice cream. We stopped inside the Royal Shakespeare Theatre which–incredibly–is showing Shakespeare’s complete works between April ’06 to April ’07. Then we took a pleasant little boat ride up and down the river. It was so scenic! We went right by Holy Trinity Church, and it was really neat seeing it from the river. The water was full of ducks, geese, and swans.

I’d heard a legend that Shakespeare was buried 18 feet underground so that no one would ever dig up his remains. Today at his burial site–which, by the way, is actually inside the church toward the river–I asked the attendant there if the legend was true. He replied, “That’s impossible,” and went on to explain that the underground water level from the river was 10 to 12 feet below the surface of the church. From the boat in the river, I could see that this was true.

We stopped at a fish & chips place for carryout (“takeaway,” they call it). The man there obviously didn’t like people, and he charged us 10 pence for a packet of ketchup!

We hurried to the train, and were unsettled when we saw the train sitting on the track and the gate closed and locked! We finally found a way through around the side of the station, and the train doors had already closed! Carolyn found a button to open the door and we made it inside just in time to catch the last train out!

On the way back we dozed, after the loud Italian teenage girls across the aisle disembarked. We made it back here around 9:45–or 2145 as they say here.

Tomorrow, the Tower of London!

Healthwise, today was much better. Less vigorous activity, milder allergies–and a big bottle of water with me at all times.

Below is the second journal entry recording the events of the trip Carolyn and I took to England and France in July of 2006:

Wednesday, July 19, 2006 London, England

This morning we had breakfast again with the opera people, who told us the very interesting story of how they met. There was also a newcomer, a girl from Holland.

Then we took the train to Warwick Castle, which began being built by William the Conqueror in 1068. We toured a medieval English castle! It was incredible, stunning… I can’t even describe it.

This is the tower at Warwick Castle–a thousand close, spirally steps up and down.

We climbed the towers, went down into the dungeon, visited the great hall and state rooms, saw a ton (probably more, literally) of armor, even saw some really sick torture instruments, and some other really cool artifacts like Queen Elizabeth I’s seal, saddle, and handkerchief. The scenery was stunning, and from the towers you could see for miles all around.

Here’s the oldest part of the castle, built by England’s first king, William the Conqueror, nearly a thousand years ago.

We watched an archery demonstration–the guy was really funny–and a catapult being launched (very cool!) and saw a “birds of prey” show with a trained vulture and bald eagle. There was an impressive peacock garden (complete with live peacocks and shrubbery shaped like peacocks). Some wax statues brought the history of the castle to life.

These guys are actually wax figures. They look as real in person as they do in the photo.

They had the “death mask” of Oliver Cromwell and a wax statue of a 23-year-old Winston Churchill.

King William and I differed in our approach to the war with France. Here I am trying to explain to him the advantages of my plan.

We had a tremendous time, even though my allergies suddenly flared up bad and the heat just about killed us.

Tomorrow: Stratford-upon-Avon!

Below is the first journal entry recording the events of the trip Carolyn and I took to England and France in July of 2006:

Tuesday, July 18, 2006 London, England

Yesterday Carolyn and I took British Airways flight 224 to Heathrow Airport in London, England. We landed about 8:20 p.m., but it was another two hours before we got through Customs and took a bus to the Tube station. Then it was about another 45-60 minutes before we got to this Bed & Breakfast.

It is hot. We like the place, but AC seems to be rare in London. Not only that, but the local newspaper headlines are talking about the record-breaking heat in London. Great.

The weirdest thing: We went to sleep around 1:00 a.m., but woke up around three hours later with the sun lighting up the world outside. What’s up with that?

This morning we had breakfast with another couple staying here. They’re opera singers/teachers from Hamburg, Germany. (He’s actually from Galveston and Austin, Texas, but has lived in Germany for the last 20 years.)

Today we took the Tube to the British Museum and the British Library….

This is the front of the British Museum.  Carolyn fulfilled a lifelong dream in going here.  She planned out our trip.  Funny that we went here the first day, huh?

It was incredible! They have a ton of ancient stuff. Very cool. We saw the Rosetta Stone…

The Rosetta Stone, which helped people in our day crack the Hieroglyphics Code.

…the Gutenberg Bible, the Magna Carta, the original handwritten copy of Alice in Wonderland, and that weird-looking stone that contains Sennacherib’s account of Assyria’s dealings with Judah…

Weird as it looks, this is actually King Sennacherib’s notebook.  It’s his written account of his attempted invasion of Jerusalem, as recorded in the Bible in 2 Kings, 2 Chronicles, and Isaiah.  By the way, he lied.

We saw arrowheads from Assyria’s invasion/siege of Lachish, a ton of stuff from the Greek Parthenon, and some B.C./early A.D. Roman busts. We saw statues from ancient Egypt…

Thanks to this ancient statue, I couldn’t get the song “Walk Like An Egyptian” out of my head.

…including a piece of the Sphinx! And a lot of this stuff wasn’t behind cases or anything–it was out in the open, where you could walk up and touch it (if you’re one of those people). We saw mummies that were about 4,000 years old–including cats, dogs, alligators, snakes, eels–even a fish; and one mummy lady wasn’t wrapped in mummy stuff. They had lots of mummies. They had lots of everything. We saw a pile of human hair that was several thousand years old. We saw ancient money, weapons, and church artifacts. We saw bricks inscribed with Nebuchadnezzar’s name. We saw King George III’s enormous library. We saw handwritten lyrics by the Beatles (written on scrap paper, with some lyrics crossed out and replaced by the familiar ones), musical compositions by Beethoven, Bach, and Mozart, and handwritten letters from Isaac Newton and Charles Darwin. We saw pages from Leonardo da Vinci’s notebooks. We saw handwritten copies of Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book and Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre. We saw an original edition of Shakespeare’s First Folio from 1623. We saw a 1,000-year-old copy of Beowulf. (Some of these things were at the British Library.) This is a small fraction of the things we saw! We also saw an original edition of the King James Bible, a Tyndale Bible–that belonged to King Henry VII–and the oldest complete Greek New Testament, from the third or fourth century. Oh yeah–and we saw Handel’s original, handwritten Messiah.

We took a break for lunch at a cafe nearby–very good chicken and cheese sandwiches.

We stopped at the room for a couple minutes and went to a nearby Italian restaurant for dinner.

Tomorrow we’re going to Stratford-upon-Avon, the hometown of William Shakespeare.

In July of last year, Carolyn and I had the opportunity of a lifetime: we spent 8 days in England and 2 in France. Each night, I would lie down in bed completely exhausted and write about the day’s events. The days were scorching, the nights were short, and our adventures physically grueling, but I knew I’d regret it if I didn’t sacrifice an hour or so of sleep each night to write about our trip.

I’d like to share that adventure with you over the next few weeks. Rather than overwhelming you with an entry a day, I’ll spread it out over several weeks, posting one journal entry with pictures (and links to more pictures) every Tuesday until the trip is over. I mean, even the show 24 spreads 24 hours over a whole season! So I’ll post one entry each week (and a last entry with some closing thoughts and observations, written on the plane on the way back).

Since it’s generally a good thing not to have really long blog posts, I thought about summarizing and editing each entry for this space. But then I decided to go authentic and post each day’s journal entry in its entirety, and unedited. I figured if you don’t want to read it all, then you just won’t! And I guess you’ll just get a glimpse of the messier side of my writing.

For each day’s entry I’ll post some pictures from where we went that day, along with some links where you can look at many more of them if you’re interested in seeing more. Carolyn took hundreds of pictures–I don’t remember the exact number, but it was close to a thousand.

I hope you enjoy experiencing our adventure with us! It’ll start off next Tuesday….