Southern Coast

Today is a dreary, cold, rainy English day. Ugh, I've opted not to walk around in the rain. Yesterday was much different weather. At least for the portion of the day that I was outside the weather couldn't have been better. The day did not start out well. I had planned a 9 AM departure, but my traveling companions apparently enjoyed Friday night. So my 9 AM exit didn't happen until 10 AM. No worries, we still had a whole day ahead of us. With my National Trust guide book in hand we were set. BNThat was until an accident on the M5 (interstate) blocked traffic for an hour. Instead of getting down to the southern coast by 11 AM we didn't make it until closer to 1 PM. I have to say that many of the National Trust sites are well signed and easy to find. Many are hidden treasures simply because you can't find them! We drove past where I wanted to go see the cliffs at Burton Bradstock (in the picture). I knew this only because we came to the next town so I knew that we had passed. I did see a street sign that said "Cliff Road" tucked away. So we turned around (I do that a lot it seems) and headed back. We did drive back passed Hive Beach (this is important later). I found the road and headed up the hill. This is one of the English roads that is a two way road, but only one car at a time can fit on the road. We got to the top of the hill and parked along side the road (there was no parking lot, only cars parked along side road). As we walked over to the edge of the cliff (and yes, there is nothing stopping you from walking up to the edge of the cliff, there is a sign that suggests you might not want ot get to close to the edge). It was an amazing view looking down the edge of the cliff. We walked along a path that is part of the Jurassic Coast a 95 mile long trail. At the end of the trail there is a path that takes you down to the beach below. You guessed we found ourselves at Hive Beach. Walking along the base of the cliffs was equally impressive. We spent an hour or so walking along the various trails and taking pictures. At one point there was a guy attached to a parachute by a sling that he was sitting in. He was gliding along the cliffs with no apparent power, just the wind. It looked very cool.

At several points during this drive I had to stop going up a hill and get started again with the standard transmission. That was pretty exciting. By the time we left the cliffs it was about 2:30 PM and we had not eaten lunch yet. What we learned very quickly is that most restaurants/pubs don't serve food all day. We ended up eating at some greasy spoon diner next to a gas station. The food was alright, but being on the southern coast I was really hoping for fresh seafood (not frozed fish and chips). The trip back to Bristol was smooth, by now it was after 4:30 and most of the various National Trust sites close by 5 PM. I did get to see the Wellington Monument off in the distance. It's a 175 foot tall oblisique built on top of a hill.

One difference between the English motorway system and the American interstate system is the rest stops. In the US, most of the rest stops are simply bathrooms with information and maybe vending machines. The English motorway system has what are called "Services". These stops off the motorway have full restaurants, stores, petrol stations and some have hotels. It is very nice to be able to stop just off the motorway to get fuel rather than try to guess at an exit. The exits off the motorways in no way resemble the American system of the majority of exits having fast food chains and gas stations.

Oxford and Blenheim Palace

Yesterday, after much urging from my family, I decided to go to Oxford. It turns out that Blenheim Palace was just a few miles north of Oxford so it also made sense to stop by and check out the birth place of Winston Churchill. Blenheim Palace is certainly in my top 10 of things to see while I travel to England (Canterbury Cathedral and Cambridge are as well, but they are on the opposite side of the country).

Looking at the map it looked like an easy trip; M4 from Bristol to the A34 north to Oxford. As it turns out it was just that easy. What I hadn't really planned for was where to go once I got to Oxford. It took a while, but I eventually started to see the "Tourist Information" signs. I managed to locate a parking garage (paid for 2 hours, because I still wanted to go to Blenheim Palace) and then started following the signs. In spite of diligently following the signs I almost managed to walk right past the tourist information centre. I just happened to look right and see it. Armed with a map that included a self guided tour I set off on foot to explore Oxford. They did offer an array of basic and specialized tours, but I was on a tight schedule. First stop was the Martyr's Memorial, a monument to three Protestant Bishops who were burned at the stake by the Roman Catholic Queen Mary. Heading back the direction I just came from I came to St Michael at the North Gate Church. This tower attached to this church is the oldest structure standing n Oxford. You can climb up the tower and get a great view of the city. As an added bonus for 20p you can watch the old clock mechanism operate and ring some bells!

Walking down Cornmarket street I walked passed Christ Church College. I'm sure it's a fine college, but it was also used in the filming of the Harry Potter series. I did not have time to tour through the college. I walked further on and found myself at Radcliffe Camera (pictured above). The word camera comes from the Latin word for "room" or "chamber". It was originally built as a science library, but today house many other subjects and is a reading room. Unfortunately it is not open to the public. Next to the Radcliffe Camera is the Bodleian Library (one of the oldest in Europe and second largest in Britain). I was definitely bummed that I did not allow enough time to visit this library. The current exhibits are on the making of the King James Bible and the Gough Map, the first road map of England created in the 1360's.

That was really all I had time to see in Oxford, but I definitely need to find time to go back and stay longer.

Leaving Oxford behind I drove north about 10 miles to Blenheim Palace. The palace is famous for two reasons; the 1st Duke of Marlborough and the birth of Winston Churchill. John Churchill, the 1st Duke of Marlborough, is best known for defeating the French forces of Louis XIV under General Tallard at the Battle of Blenheim in Germany. It was the first time that Louis XIV's forces had been defeated. The Duke of Marlborough went on to win every engagement that he was involved in and is considered one of England's greatest generals. Because of the victory at Blenheim, the Queen gave the Duke of Marlborough the land on which Blenhiem Palace sits and the money to build a palace. Blenheim Palace is one of only a few residences in England that are called palaces but don't belong to the royal family. It is still the the home of the 11th Duke of Marlborough. Ooh, I forgot to mention that when I was in the Tourist Information Center in Oxford I bought my ticket to gain entry into Blenheim Palace (for 16 GBP instead of 19 GBP) they told me to stop in and have it upgraded to an annual pass. I thought nothing of it at the time. When I did show up at the ticket office at Blenheim Palace they did upgrade my day pass to an annual pass at no extra cost. I even got my picture taken and printed on a card that I can bring back any time in the next 12 months.

Blenhiem Palace is quite stunning, although you only get to tour the first floor. There was a triathlon going on that was using the grounds of the palace so there were very large crowds on the grounds. The main square was taken up with the gear of the athletes and it was very difficult to walk down to Victory Tower on the north end of the grounds so I skipped that this time (I can go back because I have an annual pass). The landscaping on the grounds were designed by "Capability" Brown. Lancelot "Capability" Brown also designed the grounds at Cardiff Castle which I visited last month. The grounds were expansive, over 2000 acres, and very impressive, but the palace dominates the landscape.

While the 1st Duke of Marlborough and his wife are buried in the chapel at the palace, Winston Churchill is buried at a church just off the south end of the property. I asked the young lady at the gift shop how to get there and she directed me to "turn right at the exit and then go until you see a pub on the right hand side. You have to park at the pub because there is no parking at the church". I parked at the pub and had a pint of Guinness (I couldn't just use their parking space) and walked the short distance to the church. Churchill's burial site is rather nondescript. The interesting bit were the plastic poppies that were left by a Danish group and the small bottle of gin. Nearby there is a bench that was dedicated by a group of Danish Freedom Fighters from WWII honoring Churchill. Next to Churchill is the grave of Consuelo Vanderbilt, the wife of the 9th Duke of Marlborough and member of the American Vanderbilt family. She, and her dowry, were instrumental in many of the improvements that were made in the palace. This means that both Winston Churchill's mother and Aunt were American.

After leaving Blenheim Palace I decided to try and locate White Horse Hill of Uffington (not Effingham). The journey involved the normal pointing the car in the general direction and looking for signs. After driving down many small English roads I finally came upon signs for White Horse Hill. It was impossible to get a complete picture of the horse from the ground, but I did get several shots. When I climbed up to the top of the hill, I realized that you can basically walk right up to the horse, the only thing keeping people off the horse is a sign asking them not to walk on it. The horse was built about 3000 years ago by digging a series of trenches to form the shape and then filling them in with blocks of chalk. There are seven more chalk horses in the area, but all created in the 18th and 19th centuries. As they are not sign posted, I did not attempt to find them.

All in all it was a very interesting day. Today is rain, rain and more rain. I decided not to spend another day traipsing about in the cold English rain. The next trip will probably be an overnight trip due to the distances that I have planned.

Memorial Day Weekend

No matter how diligent I am when I pack for these trips it seems that I forget something about every 3rd or 4th trip; tooth brush, work socks, belt, ... So when I get to the hotel I play a game called "What did Tony forget this time?" When I got to the hotel this time I was feeling pretty good because I didn't seem to have forgotten anything, I had my power cords, power converter, my socks, the right number of t-shirts. However, I did forget something. Since I am doing this blog and can attach pictures you can play the home game of "What did Tony forget this time?" Any thoughts? If you're thinking that it looks windy, cold and wet you would be correct! This picture was taken at the top of the Pennard Cliffs on the southern coast of Wales on the Gower Peninsula). The trip to the cliffs was quite the adventure. In order to navigate when driving in the UK I use a low tech combination of no GPS and maps that aren't really detailed. In general, if I think I need to go south west I point the car south west and see if that works out. Eventually I get to my destination. This trip was no different I headed over to south Wales on the M4 from Bristol, England. Driving passed Cardiff (been there, done that) I continued south to the exit for Swansea. At that point the maps weren't much help, so I kept heading south. We passed through many small towns (including one called Mumbles, that was having a festival). The drive from Mumbles on turned into very small, winding roads up steep hills as we climbed to the top (keep in mind that I'm driving a manual transmission). It really was an experience driving up hill, shifting with my left hand passing vehicles that couldn't have been more than a few inches away as they were coming toward me! Finally finding the Pennard Cliffs, I stepped out into the cold, wet Welch air. The receipt from joining the National Trust got me free parking. I walked down toward the cliffs, the rain and wind were almost as impressive as the cliffs. The cliffs were well worth the drive to see them. I climbed down to the beach, at one point is was like reverse wall climbing the surface at one point was obviously man made, but while it had some texture to it the rain made it slick. So I had to look for larger rocks sticking out from the surface to step on order to not slip and fall. On the way back to Bristol I stopped at a pub in a small Welch town for lunch. The drive back was much less eventful because I took a much easier route and did not have to deal with the small, winding roads, it was also less fun!

This was all on Sunday. On Saturday I visited Tyntesfield and the Cheddar Gorge. The Cheddar Gorge was impressive, and again involved me driving a stick, sitting on the right side of the car shifting with my left hand and trying to navigate driving up a mountain. When I got to the top I walked farther up a path to get a good picture from the top of the gorge. It was quite the climb to get to the top; part of my exercise plan for getting ready for Paris!

Tyntesfield was very impressive. The estate was bought by a family back in the early 19th century that had made their initial fortune trading guano, yes... guano. They then added onto what was a traditional Victorian style with a Gothic style addition. The combination was very interesting as you walked through the house. I was lucky, the house had just been opened after undergoing major renovations and roof work. What was very interesting was that the last resident lived in the house until his death in 2001 (when the National Trust purchased the house). Portions of the house had been kept as they were at the end of his life, so there is a room with a television (not HD) and throughout portions of the house are modern books. Portions of the house are still closed off as the National Trust continues to work on cataloguing all of the items. There is also an attached church that was used by the family. When it was being built there was dispute with the local Bishop over the consecration of the church due to the cocern over loss of income to the local churhc. The Bishop complained to the Bishop of Bath and Wells and was able to keep the church from being consecrated. That means that while they can hold religous services in the church they can't hold weddings, burials or baptisms in the church. The guy that spent all the money and effort to build the church died just after it's completion and couldn't be buried in the church, he is buried at the church in town.

Today I visited Laycock Abbey. Most of the places I visit I've never heard of, but this one has several locations within the building that have been used during the filming of a series of movies (includinng 3 of the Harry Potter movies), so it did hold some special meaning. The weather was the same it's been all weekend, cold and rainy. Not a good Midwestern rain, just a constant drizzle that eventually leaves you chilled to the bone. I also walked through the village of Laycock which probably hasn't changed much in the past couple of hundred years. It was very cool, they had a game set up for kids where they had to locate about 50 different figures hiding throughout the town and decode what they represented. For example, there was a pair of red slippers and a broom that represented the Wizard of Oz.

I also visited Dyrham Park. An old estate that includes several hundred acres of land for deer. The couple hundred deer just walk around and allow people to get pretty close for pictures. I'll probably be going back to this house just due to the close location to Bristol and it is not far off the M4 which I drive from London to Bristol. It would definitely be a great place to spend a couple hours walking around the house and gardens. One thing to mention is that due to the wet weather they asked us to wear little blue booties over our shoes to protect the carpets (yes I got a picture).

As you can tell it was a busy weekend! This weekend I haven't completely decided where I am going, but I'll let you know when I get back!

It starts again

Given how much I travel to England I thought it might be fun to give a running account of my adventures and misadventures (i.e. Stonehenge at night!). This trip did not start out very well. As usual, I fly from Indy to London through Chicago, giving myself plenty of time in Chicago (2 1/2 hours). There were thunderstorms in the midwest that caused my flight to leave Indy late; although they were nice enough to go ahead and let us board the plane so we could sit on the tarmac for 90 minutes. No worries, I still had plenty of layover in Chicago because my connecting flight was in the same terminal at Ohare. We landed in Chicago and were promptly moved off to side to park on the tarmac to sit and wait for a gate. When we finally got a gate we sat and waited for another 30 minutes for ground personel to let us off the plane. After all this waiting I missed the connecting flight! American Airlines was very good and automatically booked my on the next available flight (2 hours later). We boarded that flight on schedule and promptly sat at the gate for over an hour (not sure because I fell asleep) while a thunderstorm went through. So, after all this I ended up arriving in London about 4 hours after I had planned. As I waited for my suitcase I thought through the rest of the trip; pick up the rental car, drive the 90 minutes or so west to Bristol, check in to the hotel, grab a quick shower and head to work. Because of all of the delays I would only be at work for an hour or two. On a positive note, my suitcase is easier to spot now that I have army green duct tape on the corners due to rips (I've gone through 3 suitcases since I've had this job). It easy to see the wear and tear that all of the travel has done to my suticase; harder to see the wear and tear on me (although the waistline is a good place to start :-) ).

I picked up the rental car only to discover that it is a manual transmission. Not a huge deal because I have driven a manual transmission in the past; but sitting on the left side of the car and shifting with my right hand. It really is a cruel prank to play on a brain that has already been through so much and quite frankly isn't as young as it used to be. Fortunately, I made it to the hotel with no problem.

I've spent some time the last couple of days trying to decide where to go this weekend. I'll most likely stay in the south west of England. I'm sure the siteseeing will involve visiting some castles, stately manors and hopefully some scenery. Options include the Hay-on-Wye book festival, the RAF museum in Yeoville, Oxford is a short drive, etc...

Stay tuned...