Ely

I wanted to write about Ely because it was so weird. I knew people whose last name was Ely and I'd never thought about it before but Ely is really named after eels.

East Anglia was very swampy until they drained the water, but even then there were marshes and people lived on eels. You would stick a giant spear into the mud and hope you pulled up an eel. Oliver Cromwell's wife, (we visited his house) had a very famous eel recipe that they have put on a bench. Evidently they still eat jellied eels in East London.

The cathedral was beautiful. We happened to be there on Easter Sunday and it was a great service. There is this huge painted ceiling that is gorgeous. It also has an octagonal tower which is unusual. An artist was commissioned, for some Ely anniversary, to do a series of artworks around the town and one of them was this big tall group of 8 eel spears that echoed the 8-sided tower of the cathedral.

The cathedral had a labyrinth at the entry and then a big wall sculpture of a cross. The bottom is wavy and it is supposed to symbolize the path to Christ, but dad thought it also looked like an eel. I'm not sure if that is what the artist intended, but who knows.

St. Etheldreda is (600's) is associated with the area because she started the abbey where the cathedral now stands. She died of a tumor in her throat, but when they exhumed her years later her body had not decayed and the tumor was gone so she became a St. and everyone made pilgrimages to Ely like they did to Canterbury. You wanted somebody cool buried in your cathedral or you tried to acquire somebody's bones or organs or something so that people would come to your town to see the cathedral that housed them. It brought it lots of money to the town and church.

I also included a picture of Dad looking in a bakery. A very common sight.

Paris

We went to Paris for four days during the first week in April. Unfortunately I was sick (stomach flu) for one of the days but I still felt like I saw a lot; mostly stuff I'd never done before.

Going on the Eurostar was amazing. It takes less time to get to Paris that way than to get to Edinburgh on a train. We stayed at an Ibis and it was pretty well-located. The weather was good, which it often hasn't been when I was there, and we gave everybody a 3-day pass and let them loose. As a result we had no group activities and it was nice to have a bit of a break although we did run into bunches of the girls every now then. One time, about 5 of the girls we ran into had just run into Bill Clinton on the Champs Elysses and had their picture taken with him.

First, here are a few shots of Pere La Chaise. Pictures here include Dad next to the kind of tomb he wants to have when he grows up, Oscar Wilde's tomb with lipstick marks all over it, and then my favorite was a guy holding up his own face looking at it.




Another thing we did we've never done before was go to the Orangerie where a building was built for Monet's huge waterlily murals. It's a round bldg. with two circles shaped like an "8" and before you see the mural rooms there a blank, white room you enter, I guess to cleanse your pallet. It is well worth a stop. (We didn't go to the Louvre or D'Orsay this time around.)

Then we went to the Pantheon. Really cool inside with a giant pendulum and a neat crypt. We also went to the Picasso museum. It was fun too. Although they wouldn't let us take pictures I took of pictures in the anterooms of the reflections from the minimalist stained glass window. It was a remarkable effect.

Just before we left, we went clear out to the OTHER arch, the grand arch, La Defense I think. There is no way to describe it's immensity and we were too close to get a long shot, but as you probably know it echos the Arc de Triumphe but super-sized.

From the top of the steps I looked over at a huge sculpture, which from a distance looked liked like a modern mother and child. But when I zoomed and then went closer, it was a huge finger.

Brighton

Brighton is the home of George the IV's garish Pavillion. They won't let you take photos inside, but I've included a shot of the onion domes from the exterior.

We have also been back here with the spring group. After George died, Victoria gave it to the city because she didn't like it and said you couldn't see the sea from the windows - which is true.

Brighton beach and pier is kind of like the boardwalks that we know except the beach is all rocks rather than sand. People still go out and eat and play on the beach. The day we were there the weather changed every 10 minutes. The clouds made for great picture-taking. A couple of weeks ago it was no fun because the sky was clear blue.

End of that trip.

Bodiam Castle

The last trip we took in March was to Battle, Bodiam, and Brighton. We didn't visit them in alphabetical order and started with Bodiam first.

This is one of my favorite castles. It is the actor Robert Hardy's (Cornelius Fudge to you) VERY favorite castle. It is in ruin but looks good from the outside. We have since been back with the spring group and I think it was sunnier the first time.

I learned the little jutty things along the top of the castle are crenelation and you needed a license to "crenelate" because it was an official castle meant to act as a fortress. There is also a picture of the "murder holes". If a warring group made it across the moat then they would pour hot oil through the holes in the ceiling of the entryway.

On a more peaceful note, it was lambing season and I took lots of pictures of mom sheep and baby lambs that were grazing next to the castle.

Miscellanea

This is a bunch of quirky stuff and each has no real connection to the other, but I thought they’d be worth writing about.

Whenever we’ve traveled by train or bus through the countryside over the last few weeks we’ve been lucky enough to see brilliant fields of yellow blossoms. It is oilseed rape, but they make it into canola oil.

When the woman that gives the tube announcements gives info at a station, instead of saying get off here for the British Library, or exit here for Buckingham Palace, she says “Alight here for Royal Albert Hall and the Museums.” It automatically makes me sound graceful.

Queen Elizabeth has two birthdays. One is on April 21st, her real birthday and another is always the 3rd something in June. Don’t know why. Shakespeare’s B-day is April 23rd and that is also St. George’s Day. St. George is the patron saint of England and lots of people go around wearing dragon hats.

The parish church just down the street from us is called St. Mary Abbot’s and I love it. It’s right on the corner of Kensington High street and has a little hidden garden behind. There is always someone inside to greet visitors and they are called Church Watchers. Every now and then I go inside and one of the Watchers explained to me why there are these little pieces of wood that slide out from the pew into the aisle. They were for gentlemen to rest their hats on.

One of my favorite things about our street is that there are a few schools in the neighborhood and everyday a bunch of little girls in their uniforms go down the street. I’m guessing they are headed for Hyde Park. Some of them are carrying hula hoops which seem to be making a comeback here.

When we were in Cambridge with the Stevens we decided to pay the entrance fee to go into Trinity College. Isaac Newton, Francis Bacon, Tennyson and many others belonged to that college. The written guide drew attention to a statue of Henry VIII a ways above the main gate. You wouldn’t notice unless you were told, but a few years ago some students climbed up and took the staff or whatever out of his hand and put in a wooden chair leg instead. I guess it was considered a great prank and so they’ve left it there. See photo.

Like any other big city, there are a lot of interesting people. Especially on the tube. See photo of red girl.

Even though we’ve been here several times, we have never gone across the street from St. Mary Abott’s to the roof gardens. I’ve known they were there but never gone up. A bunch of dept. Stores are underneath and the gardens are on top of six floors. Richard Branson bought them and has turned it into something really wonderful. One can go visit as long as there isn’t a “function” going on. There is a great view, trees, streams, flamingos and ducks.


I went to Berkeley Square the other day just to look around and saw a little yellow car recharging, I guess. See photo.

When we went to Kew Gardens with the last group, we took the girls that won the “clean room” competition to lunch. Sally picked a Michelin-rated restaurant. I don’t think these girls had ever had that kind of a dining experience.

Last but not least, (I’ve got more but this is getting too long), Iggy has a new girlfriend. Her name is Lizzy and she came from the Buckingham Palace gift shop. They make a great bear pair.

Exeter

I know it's been a very long time. I (this is Laura) have actually been to London and back. But I want to catch up on what Mom has sent me for the blog. So here it is:

Exeter is kind of the gateway to Cornwall and it was the furthest we have gone so far. We stayed at a B&B called Raffles with Rick and Sue. When we arrived Rick told us we were going to stay in a “secret room.” He took us upstairs and then down a hallway. He opened a door to another little curvy stairway which took us up to a tiny little room. It was cute and en suite and comfortable for a two-night stay. (Rick makes great scrambled eggs.)

We walked down to the cathedral the next day. Exeter has done a great job modernizing the shopping streets that lead to the cathedral close. The town is surrounded by a Roman wall of which over half is still standing – one of the town’s claims to fame besides the cathedral. Dad and I usually have a routine when visiting cathedral.

We split up for an hour at first and just look at our own pace and then we meet up and make sure that each saw the others favourite things. Some of the quirky misericords jump out at you, a particular sculpture, etc. The cathedral really had a lot going on. Probably the most important was Ghislaine Howard’s Stations of the Cross. She painted them a few years ago and since then they have been touring various cathedrals. They are huge, in black and white, abstract, and very moving. I liked them so much I used them in a fireside talk we had to give and put them into a powerpoint presentation.

I did some research on her and have become a big fan. Another thing I liked was a sculpture of the Mother and Child. I’d seen it online and really had to look for it because it was much smaller than I thought it would be. That didn’t detract from the original impact it had on me. Mary has her legs stretched out, kind of rocking the child. From a certain angle she even looks like a mermaid.

Another neat thing was the “cat hole.” It had been in an old door since the 1500’s. They’ve always had a cat that kept mice out of the north tower. There is a record that shows that the early monks budgeted a penny a week for food for the cat. There were some neat modern sculptures in the chapter house depicting Christ’s life. One thing I keep forgetting is that alot of the stone in and out of the cathedral was painted and there were drawings by some little kids that showed how they would have painted the figures on the exterior west end of the building.

The town has alot of other things to offer – an Almshouse that is very well presented, St. Nicholas’s Priory, and a riverside walk. We went to Eucharist the next day. The choir sang a fun French mass that ranged from bombast to serene Faure-like sections.

Bloomin' England.

Mom and Dad had some time to stroll around and admire the Spring flowers. Here are some picture's mom shot:

Three Crises

Last Saturday, I personally welcomed 40 brand new students to the London Centre for spring term. They seemed a bit tired from the journey, but excited nevertheless to experience London.

I handed each of them £100 to buy a monthly tube pass, gave them a mini-orientation, and guided them out the door to get crackin'! Each student must complete a set of "London Walks" as part of the curriculum; and so the first "walk" is entitled A WALK AROUND THE NEIGHBORHOOD. On this jaunt, they familiarize themselves with Notting Hill Gate, Queensway, and Bayswater Tube Stations, as well as the local environs.

I also had to break it to all our pupils that the dorms' boiler blew out a few days ago, and THERE IS NO HOT WATER! So it's cold showers, unless any student wants to make an appointment with a faculty member where the hot water flows freely in all flats. Tomorrow we have our first shower appointment.

Mom took a picture of the spent boiler to document the occasion. Mom takes pictures of everything. Mom has turned into a picture-taking machine. She is a digital camera diva. When walking with her anywhere, it takes twice as long to get from point A to point B because she takes pictures of anything that she can see through her viewfinder.Even before 24 hours with the new group had passed, we had a crisis here and there.

The crisis HERE was when Lisa Ann locked herself in Dorm #3's bathroom toilet and could not get out because the latch had broken. It just so happened this was 15 minutes before we were all to leave for the Hyde Park Ward. So Mom herded all the other students across Hyde Park to the chapel while I remained with Lisa Ann and took the door apart with a screwdriver, finally springing her from her entrapment.

The crisis THERE was when Kimberlee left her wallet on a chair as she was trying on shoes up at a store on Queensway, and POOF! After 30 seconds it was a goner. She thinks the store clerk is the culprit, but when Kimberlee confronted him, he basically laughed at her.

She came to our door with her sister Caitlyn, and sobbed to Mom for about an hour. Gone are her $200 in cash, the month's tube pass she had just purchased, not to mention her credit cards, driver's license, etc. Aren't big cities FUN? I told her about when I had my wallet lifted in the Newark airport 10 years ago. I think it helped. She's actually a great girl, and will be fine, I'm sure.

Where's Tom?

This game was actually intended for the grandkids, but my mom said anyone is welcome to play. I wonder though if my dad knew what was going on here.

Norwich Castle Museum

Norwich Gardens near hotel

Ely Cathedral

Ely Cromwell Museum

Hatfield House

Exeter Cathedral

(I can't find him)

Where's Becky?

"How I Wish Once Again in the North I Could Be..."

Here is a rather lengthy update from Mom -- I cut it down a bit. I added headings so you can pick and choose to read what you will.

The words in purple are simply to highlight how affected my mother is after being in England for almost 4 months. The editor in me has been correcting all her misspellings and nonsense up until this point, but now I just think it’s funny.

I want to write a general overview about our northern trip because we did so much, it is so beautiful, and has probably been my favourite group trip away from the centre.

Haworth

Our first stop was the Bronte Parsonage. It still amazes me to go there and know that they all lived there, wrote their books there, and rarely left. Each time I go they improve the Parsonage museum. It was March 17 and just happened to be Patrick Bronte’s birthday (their father – who outlived them all!). They had some flowers and a notice otherwise I wouldn’t have known.

The landscape is so beautiful, even without leaves on the trees. I had arranged to take the DVD (the newest one) of Jane Eyre for everyone to watch on the coach. Fortunately they all got into it and by the time we got to Haworth they had a better grasp of what it was all about. It’s a long video and so we continued to watch it as we went to Bolton Castle. The castle is up in the Yorkshire Dales and so as we watched the movie we saw the landscape firsthand.

Even though it was early, there were some lambs. There had been a notice in the papers about pregnant women and lambing season. They are advised not to get near the lambs or their mothers because some sort of germ causes problems with the pregnancy and birth.

Bolton Castle & Fountains Abbey

Bolton Castle is where Mary Queen of Scots was held for a few months on her way down to England. It has a great view of the countryside. They opened the castle just for us because it was so early in the season. The sun was shining and it was warm enough to relax and enjoy ourselves. There was a little church adjacent to the castle called St. Oswald’s. I bought the booklet inside (honour system- put a pound in the box). It said this church was one of the last churches to implement public apologies. I’m going to quote to get it right.

“An interesting reference to an old traditional custom is made by Ella Pontefract and Marie Harley in 1936. It reads: Probably one of the last instances of public apology took place here. A woman had slandered another, and the apology was demanded by the whole village. During the service she had to walk up and down the aisle, and at theend of it make her apology, which she did in rhyme.” Ah, those were the days.Having spent the night in the Ibis in Leeds (a luxury compared to the hostels coming up) we went to Fountains Abbey. It was kind of misty which makes it all the more ethereal. The abbey was destroyed by Henry the VIII’s men and left in ruins. It’s so majestic against the green lawns that I can’t imagine it any other way.

York

From there we went to York. We just let everybody loose. Of course we “did” the Minster. There was a choir and orchestra rehearsing Zadok the Priest which was very exciting – love that piece. It’s sung at the coronation of every monarch. Dad and I then went and had tea in Betty’s Tea Shop. Kind of a tradition. We wandered a bit and then went to the hostel. We actually had a TV (no bathroom) and watched the tragic news about Natasha Richardson.

Durham

The next morning we left for Durham. Again we were rushing and our guide Roz at the cathedral wasn’t rushing with us and so Dad and Jess had to keep prodding her. It’s a magnificent cathedral but the girl’s have lost their enthusiasm for cathedrals. The first time we went to one at the beginning of the trip they were ooh-ing and ah-ing and snapping pictures left and right. Dave Shuler said to one of them, remember how you feel right now and try and keep that up through the trip. Human nature being such as it is, they weren’t able to muster up the energy to find the same excitement. Dad and I love all of the unique features and quirky stuff about each one we visit and we understand that not everyone feels that way. Especially 20-year olds.

Hadrian’s Wall & Lucy’s

From there we went to Chester’s Fort to see the remnants of Hadrian’s Wall. The construction of that wall is an amazing feat and it is really something to see what is left. It’s not just the wall but the “stations” – almost like little cities – that were built along the wall every several miles. We also stopped at a place called “Once Brewed” to see an especially long portion of the wall itself. The drive down into Ambleside in the Lake District was absolutely gorgeous. The sun was setting and it was really magical.

Although the Youth Hostel was horrible and our room was about as big as our clothes closet back home, we were right on Lake Windermere which made up for everything. Dad and I opted out of dinner and walked into Ambleside – about a mile- and found the restaurant that we loved that last time we were there – Lucy’s. It’s very good food - Lucy runs a cookery school. The menu is different everyday so she prints up a sheet that begins by talking about the weather and the news. She welcomes by name anyone who has booked a table and it’s really fun and personal. We went back to the hostel and tried to sleep through the girls out on the dock dropping each other into the freezing water.

Lake District

The next day we spent driving around the Lake District. First we went to Dove’s Cottage – Wordsworth’s home. It’s a great little place but when Terri said she was going to walk into Grasmere with Julie and Jaivri I went with them. It was only a 10 minute walk and Grasmere is even more quaint and picturesque than Ambleside. There is a Wordsworth daffodil walk near the cemetery where is buried and since its daffodil season it was in full bloom.

Right at the end of the walk there is a tiny gingerbread shop that is very well known. We went in there and bought Grasmere’s own special kind of gingerbread. It’s really flat and is very ginger-y. Almost like a cookie. We bought a bunch of that, stopped in a couple of shops and then figured we’d better get back.

We stopped in Keswick for lunch and to go to the Keswick Museum which claims to be the third "strangest museum in England." Their prize and joy is a 600 year-old petrified cat found in a slate roof. I'm not too sure why we went there but it was fun.

From there we went to the Bowderstone. We’d wanted to go to Castlerigg, a stone circle, but Tony couldn’t get the coach up there. The Bowderstone is a riot. It’s a huge stone that they’ve traced to Scotland that must have come down during the ice age. It’s in a very precarious position, resting on kind of a corner. There is a ladder you can climb to the top. At the base, somebody dug a hole in the dirt that is just barely big enough for you to reach your arm through and “shake hands” with the person on the other side. It was so fun because we’d never been there before. By then the sun had come out and it was a pleasant hike to the stone.

After that we went to Hawkshead. It’s yet another charming village. Wordsworth went to school there as a young boy. People from all over England would send their boys there to be educated. Again, they opened it for us and we had a terrific guide who gave us a real taste of what it would have been like to go there. We all got to sit in the old desks, some from 1500, while we listened. Evidently Fletcher Christian’s (Mutiny on the Bounty) brother was a schoolmaster there. We had a little time to roam and so I went up to the church and the cemetery. Dad was over in the field with the sheep but he kept baa-ing at them and scaring them away.

It had been a wonderful day and we celebrated by going back to Lucy’s.

Preston Temple

Saturday we went down to Preston on the way home. One of the members of the church – Peter Fagg – took us on a tour of the city and its LDS historical sites - the River Ribble, etc. We stopped at the Temple to take pictures, but it got very cold and windy and so we headed back to London and crashed.

As always, wish you were all here with us.

Love,

mom/Becky

Henry VIII and Kirsten Dunst

The travelogue continues with a quick stop at Hampton Court and Wimbledon. Both are in the same neck of the woods so we spent the morning at Hampton Court and then the afternoon at Wimbledon.

Hampton Court has always been one of my favorite places. I love all of the chimneys. Evidently after 500 years they need to be rebuilt and so it is going to cost £20,000 each to preserve them! I think are 241. I also really like the kitchen, but I spent more time in other parts of the palace that I've never visited even though I've been there twice before.

They've really stepped things up to encourage tourists and so Henry VIII and Catherine Parr were strolling the halls before a staged wedding ceremony was held downstairs and we caught a glimpse of them. We also were speaking to guide who was so nice and opened up an out-of-the-way door to show us a hidden staircase that Henry used when he stayed there.

I'd like to go sometime without students and spend the whole day there. There is never enough time to see all of the grounds which they spend so much time on. We always have to go see the grapevine that Capability Brown planted that is hundreds of years old. It's some sort of obligatory ceremonial communion that Dad has to experience each time we go.

Wimbeldon was more fun than I anticipated. We had scheduled a guided tour that was to be 2 hours long! Fortunately our guide was excellent. His name was Andy and he is a blue badge guide that does all kinds of stuff in London. He moved things along and was fun and interesting.

The pictures I'm sending are of him telling us how poorly Kirsten Dunst served the ball in the movie when it was being filmed there. He demonstrated how she had about 20 takes until they finally had something they could use. When we went and sat in Court 1 that was really fun because he told us all about the electronic fences they have up to keep the foxes out and then a hawk called Hamish they bring in to scare away the pigeons - especially in that court. He doesn't attack them or anything. They are just afraid of him and so they stay away. Of course, this is the stuff that would interest me since I'm not what you'd call an aficionado.

They are building a roof over Centre Court which is controversial but necessary I guess and they are building a new Court 2 which is good according to some because I guess it is supposed to be jinxed.

We also went in to the BBC desk which is almost sacrosanct but they let Dad and Jess do a little "commentating" while we took photos. Then we went to the press room where the players are interviewed and the girls each got to take a turn sitting there. It was a fun outing because it was different than what we usually do.

The guided tour did last over an hour and then there is a state of the art interactive museum downstairs. (See hologram of John McEnroe.) So, it was a fun day AND the weather cooperated.

love,

mom/Becky