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: