A few pictures while I have time and availability to upload:

Alex & John at Big Ben
A polite arrest: Notice the protestors and the police are very friendly and polite as they cite these people standing in front of # 10 Downing st.


My idea of an artsy picture


Big Ben & London Eye in Background (on the left, over the building)


Going to St. Martins in the Field for a concert

August 21 and 22, 2006 End of the trip

A visit to the Courtauld Gallery

We left at 10 this morning for a visit to the Courtauld Gallery. We had meant to go a couple of days ago, but then discovered that Monday mornings it’s free. Of course, everyone knows that there’s nothing I like more than a freebie.

It’s quite a wonderful gallery as it turns out, and has quite a large collection, all of it collected between 1923 and 29. They have a big collection of Impressionists as well as representations of every other era of art back to medieval times. It even includes a small collection of modern art and a huge tryptich by Kokoschka from 1950 and some Kandinskis. The original collector became quite a proponent of Pisarro when most other people didn’t.

This museum also had a harpsichord described as “either Austrian or southern German inside, an Italian outer case and Flemish painted design.” It also said the harpsichord was probably made for a member of the Hapsburg court because it was very large. It had only 60 keys, F-f five octaves, with no low F#. Although, perhaps in the 17th century that was considered large.

The museum also had a spinet made by Arnold Dolmetsch and decorated by Fry.

The rest of the day we simply wandered around like dumb tourists, gawked at the buildings, watched other tourists trying to make guards laugh (I thought this one soldier looked like such a child, but in fact he was a woman. But still a child, I’d say. Maybe 18).

As we walked past Westminster Catherdral, we noticed a sign that said Sung Evensong was every night at 5 p.m. It was 5 to 5, so we hurried to the entrance and made it just in time. It was quite beautiful. At the end, they announced that because their choir was on vacation, the evensong was being sung this night by the choir of St. James church in Los Angeles. What a hoot! They are really good, though. Then they mentioned that today is the 160th anniversary of Mexico ceding California to the United States as a result of the Mexican American war – or was it that today was the day that war started? Anyway, they also mentioned California’s problems with immigration in the prayers and prayed for the Senate and Assembly of California, but not for the Governor, if I heard them right. No point in that?

We topped off our day by taking a walk along the new river walk on the south side of the Thames The London skyline really looks different from the last time we were here. Imagine that. I would have liked to have gone on the London Eye, but that’s one of those things John would not have any fun on at all. You’re basically in a glass bubble for 30 minutes and 420 feet off the ground.

We have walked over the Blackfriars bridge, the Waterloo bridge, the Golden Jubilee Bridge, the Millenium footbridge and the Westminster bridge.

Tuesday was a kickback day. Just wandered wherever we wanted, except for a wonderful noontime pedalharp concert at St. Martins in the Fields. All contemporary music. All fabulous.

August 18, 19,20 London & Standen

A nice relaxing couple of days in London. We’ve been taking it a bit easy for the past couple of days. Plus, I think I may be able to upload some pictures tonight, depending on the power outlet at the place where I can actually get on the wi-fi.

Yesterday we had a good time doing touristy things. We started out with a trip to Baker Street to visit the Harpsichord Shop (run by the Early Music Shoppe) only to find out that it has gone out of business. They still have three shelves of harpsichord music at the Early Music Shoppe, however, so I had a relatively good time. Dropped a goodly amount of money, too. We went to Trafalgar Square and Covent Garden, and went through the Tate Britain and the Tate Modern, which has, duh, modern art. They do have one room of Impressionist art, no doubt to give people a break from urinals and Brillo boxes masquerading as art.

View from the bridge. Pretty fabulous clouds, right? We also walked across the Jubilee bridge, the Millenium bridge, and some other bridge I don’t know the name of. Went up to St. Paul’s, though it was closed, it’s still quite impressive, even from the outside. I'd like to go on the London Eye, but I doubt that John will be interested. You'd kind of have to like heights for that one.

So our relaxing day wasn’t all that relaxing, since we walked a few miles, I’d say. Finally had some fish and chips. I didn’t like it very much, but it was okay.

Sunday:


Standen, a National Trust property
Today we decided to make the big trip to Standen. It involves an underground, a train, and a taxi or a two-mile walk. We could have walked, but we definitely would have gotten lost, and it was raining by the time we got to East Grinstead, where Standen is. Standen is a house built for a family with 7 children in the village of East Grinstead (which is also the birthplace of L. Ron Hubbard.) This family, the Beale family, was obviously quite wealthy, but you get the feeling of a very happy family in this house. The house was designed by the architect Phillip Webb, who was loosely associated with Morris and Company. Like a number of architects practicing at this time, Webb wanted to have a good deal of input into the decoration of the house, as well as the outsides. Apparently the family was amenable to this idea. There are Morris & Co. wallpapers throughout the house, furniture designed by Morris & Co. and tiles and other ceramic works by De Morgan, who was famous in his time both for his tiles and as an author. Also, there were wall hangings by Burne-Jones, art by Burne Jones, Rosetti and Ford Madox Brown.

The house has some lovely gardens, but in my opinion, nothing so nice as Hidcote. Though, it’s a National Trust property, and they aren’t exactly rolling in money so most of the money goes into keeping the house from falling down.

We’ve made it a short day today. Tomorrow we get to see the Hermitage (Russian) collection at the Courtland gallery, and maybe go over to Paddington Station to get tickets for the Express to Heathrow on Wednesday when we come home. .

The only shopping we have done has been to look through what’s available at the Museum shops on this trip. It’s very freeing to know you can’t bring anything home that can’t be put into your suitcase. So, my friends, you don’t have to clear off any shelf space for szchatkas on this trip.

Since I'm now in a place where I can upload, here's the Ashbee piano we saw at the Cheltenham museum, and the wardrobe painted by Burne Jones and installed in Red House that is now in the Ashmolean museum.

A couple of days in London
August 18, 2006
William Morris Day in London II
One of the big things we wanted to do in London on this trip was to visit William Morris’ Red House. This house has only been open to the public since 2003. It’s about 30 miles out of London, I guess, in the town of Bexleyheath. You can only go there on a guided tour and you have to book ahead. Well, we tried several times yesterday, whenever we found a useable phone box, but never got an answer. Today I had to call four times, left a message once, and finally got through at about 10:30. We were lucky enough that we could actually get a place on the 12:30 tour, but it involved a subway ride & transfer, buying a ticket on the rail line in an unfamiliar station, and get on the right train. Turned out the train didn’t leave every fifteen minutes, but every half hour. And we missed the one we wanted to be on by about 10 seconds.
Anyway, we made it, followed by a British couple who had also just barely made it, but who had the foresight to call from the station and say they were going to be late.
What a tour. This house was built by William Morris, on a plan devised by himself and the architect Phillip Webb. He built it at a spot where pilgrims going to Canterbury could stop. It had a well in front which actually included a pump inside the house. Morris and Janey lived in this house for only 5 years – both their daughters were born there. Unfortunately, the demands of his business meant they had to go to London and sold the house, -- they had purchased the land and built the house for about 5000 pounds—for 1500 pounds. I can’t imagine how disappointing this must have been to Morris.
Some of the nifty features of the house: A dining room fresco by Burne-Jones which would be priceless if it could be removed from the house, but fortunately can’t. Morris had the ceilings and some walls lightly imprinted with a grid pattern made with nails on a square board, so that the grid marks could be used for later decorating projects. Later he and Janey did hand-painted designs on the ceiling. Morris’ study was a room to die for, with wonderful light and airiness and a view of Croyden Valley in the distance. Made you think you’d love to paint, just to paint in this room.
Our guide for this was obviously a true lover of Morris and the A&C movement – moreso than any guide we’ve ever had on any of these other places.
That was the high point of my day. This afternoon we went to the Tate Britain, which was really good – as good as the Tate St. Ives was dull. They have quite a nice collection of British painters, and some good representatives of the Pre-Raphaelites.
We had a good Indian dinner, which we’ve been looking forward to, at a restaurant right across the street from our hotel. I had lamb biryani which was deliciously unlike any I’ve had in the U.S. John had Tandoori chicken which was pretty much like it would have been in the U.S.
The news, besides the ever-present terrorism story today, is that the deputy p.m. called Bush’s mid-east peace plan “crap” in a meeting, and also said he was a cowboy. The British act like they’re shocked. Why? Because this guy actually told the truth?

August 17

William Morris Day in London

We’re back at a hotel that gives us breakfast. It’s pretty pathetic for English breakfast, but fine for me. And John’s just happy to get fed. Not even anything good enough to take to stave off hunger pangs later in the day, though.

We were up bright and early this morning. We’re sleeping in a double bed, so John says I’m taking my half out of the middle. I told him that for four days in that damn car he’s been yelling at me to keep away from the side, so I am.

The terrorist plot dominates the news here. One of the big things is that most of the alleged terrorists seem to be in the area of Walthamstow. So we went there today. Not on the terrorism tour, but because that’s where the William Morris gallery is. This is the house that WM lived in as a child, apparently after his father died and the family was in somewhat reduced circumstances. Most of us should have such reduced circumstances. The place is a palace. Large, spacious, and probably at that time way out in the country. The area behind the house is a large park, and it was part of the grounds in Morris’ time.

They have quite a collection of Morris memorabilia as well as that of other members of “the group” and stuff done by Morris and Co. There’s another settle, one of those large sofas with a back that comes up a couple of feet over someone’s head. There’s a similar one in Kelmscott house. I’ve never noticed one of these before, except in pictures of places Morris designed, but I don’t think they are furniture his workshop produced. I think they must have been somewhat common at the time. Perhaps to keep out drafts?

For most of the time we were there, we were the only people in the gallery (it’s not exactly on the tourist path—you’re not going to see any red open top buses going by here), but I behaved myself and didn’t take any pictures, even though there was really nobody there to see if I did or not.

The gallery has a number of cartoons for stained glass by Burne Jones and some by Rosetti. It has quite a few of the patterns of Morris’ textiles, but not a lot of the textiles themselves, except the one he actually wove, sort of a partridge in a pear tree. Upstairs it has a few things by people who worked for Morris & Company, including some designs made after the turn of the century or just before, that look both Art Nouveau and Art Deco at the same time. Also there’s some advertising there because another firm in London owned by someone named Morris, made a certain amount of effort to be confused with Morris & Co., which caused M&C to put out some advertising saying they were the real deal.

By the way, on this trip I’ve found the William Morris I came to see, William Morris the car builder, and William Morris the glassblower at the V&A today. I’d seen # 3 before in SF, he’s the glass blower who does a lot of animal forms.

We spent the afternoon at the V&A which was also free. Take note, Sacramento. Free museums. I was quite disappointed that the music collection has been put away while they set up a new exhibit, but I did see another piano – this one done up to look like a harpsichord by Burne Jones for a wealthy Greek-Englishman named Ionides. The case was all hand-carved and then guilded, in a repeating pattern. Of course, Burne Jones must never have looked at a harpsichord, because all the design was on the outside of the lid, not the inside. And it was a Broadwood piano. I also discovered in a book at the V&A that the Broadwood company made a lot of those clavichord sized pianos, with and without pedals, like the one we saw at Kelmscott.

Tomorrow we’re hoping to go to the Red House, but we’re having trouble getting through on the phone.

August 13-16

A first note: This hotel has wi-fi, but it doesn't work very well more than about 5 feet from the d-link box. I've been very frustrated until i finally realized this. Therefore, it's taking WAY TOO LONG to upload pictures, so I'm not putting any more on until some night when I have loads of time. You'll notice places in the blog where I planned to insert pictures. Sorry.

August 16, 2006 A Visit to Kelmscott Manor

Kelmscott Manor was the place William Morris, his wife Janey, and her sometime lover? Daniel Gabriel Rosetti rented far outside London, in order to escape the possible gossip such an arrangement would have caused in London. Take it from me, even today with plenty of roads, it was a challenge to get there. I think it took us an hour to get there, wondering half the way if we were even going in the right direction. Signs aren’t often enough, and when they do have them, they are directly even with the road you’re going to turn off on, so if you don’t know it’s there, you’re past it before you have a chance. These simple mistakes cause us to yell at each other and cast blame regarding whose fault the problem is, navigator’s or driver’s. Since the driver is ultimately responsible, though, it usually falls to me. Of course, I’m concentrating on not driving into oncoming traffic or snapping the car off on the verge (shoulder.)

A brief digression: Here are some road signs “soft verge” “no lay by” “kill your speed” and my favorite: An arrow with a square under it. Never did figure out what that one meant.

Anyway, back to Kelmscott. It was only a summer home, because it had no heat and there was significant flooding in the area in the winter. I guess the Thames is tamed now, so flooding doesn’t happen so much, I guess, as there are a number of other houses in the area. The house is a riot of color with tapestries in every room, lots of Rosetti’s art, including Woman in Blue Silk, which is a painting of Janey, charcoal and pencil drawings of the family, and other wonderful embroideries. The house was rented from the family of a man, Turner, who had been a squire of the area, but who preferred to remain in the city. In one room there was a closed up musical instrument which I was assured was a square piano, about the size of a clavichord. Apparently the A&C people really liked Broadwood pianos. They made cabinets for them. Don't know if that was with Broadwood or not. However, the docents had a piece of paper to read from and were not allowed to touch anything or open anything. Check out this website to see some of the things in the house. http://www.arcaid.captureweb.co.uk/feature.asp?JobNo=7500.

Since they didn’t allow pictures inside the house, so you’ll have to wait to see my postcards.

Leaving Kelmscott we went back to Oxford to get rid of the car, thank God! We had used approximately half a tank of gas, driven about 220 miles, and it cost 25 pounds, or about $40 to fill the tank. Yikes. We were lucky enough to find a free parking spot in Oxford and took a quick trip to the Ashmolean museum to check out the Pre-Raphaelites. They also had a nice harpsichord there, and a clavichord, which definitely is what was in Kelmscott.

We managed to get back to the car rental place, turned out I did not do the scratch on the car, when we got out the documents, it was already notated, so I didn’t even have to worry about it. I’ve never been so glad to say goodbye to a car in my life – well, except when we were in Ireland. I hate driving on the left.

Our new hotel in London is in a nice neighborhood, and is pretty nice – nothing special, but clean. There is a sign in the bathroom that says :bathroom has no floor drain. Please keep shower curtain inside tub when showering.” (but there’s no shower curtain. Apparently they hired one of the guys that designs the highway signs.

Tomorrow we will either go to the Morris Gallery, the Red House, or the Victoria and Albert. Perhaps two of the above. Maybe the internet connection will work a bit better tomorrow.

August 15, 2006 On the trail of Arts and Crafts in the Cotswolds

Another day in the Cotswolds, this one with an achievable goal. That goal was to find some of the places famous to the Arts and Crafts movement. Yesterday in Chipping Campdem we saw an advertisement for a walking tour, but couldn’t find any information because everything was closed. So we decided to stop by there today on our way to Cheltenham to see that museum we didn’t find yesterday. It was relatively easy to get back to Chipping Campden, only two wrong turns and a minimum of screaming and shouting. We were quite lucky when we got there. It turns out it wasn’t so much a tour as a book you could buy that was a self-guided tour. In addition, the man at the tourist office was quite knowledgeable about Arts & Crafts and told us to be sure to visit the Silk Mill. This was a “redundant” building in the time of A&C that was taken over by Ashbee as a workshop in which to train people to be craftsmen.

While we were there one of the silversmiths showed us a book that has been there since Ashbee’s time and allowed us to leaf through it, unsupervised. That was actually quite a thrill. It contained what appeared to be original pictures with old-fashioned looking script that told for whom various items had been built at the workshop. The silversmiths are actual physical descendents of the original workers.

After breakfast which consisted of tea, one scone, and clotted cream and jam, we went on to Hidcote, which is a lovely garden in the Arts and Crafts tradition. It’s a large garden, and made up into a variety of “rooms.” There weren’t really a lot of exotic species, but the arrangements were wonderful. A lot of hydrangias, mostly the lace cap variety, quite a number of lilies, some smaller hydrangea types, phlox, etc. Other than the hydrangeas, most of these things were plants I think should be blooming earlier in the year.


After Hidcote, we went off again to brave the aorta of Cheltenham. An aorta is a town that has a bunch of roads going into it, a designation Zoe gave certain towns in Ireland and which we avoided if at all possible. The Cheltenham museum was described as a small museum without much of a collection. Well, maybe not much, but it had some real treasures. This piano, for instance, was designed around a Broadwood piano works and is the most unusual piano I’ve ever seen. Unfortunately, last night I neglected to charge the camera, so this was the only picture there was enough battery left to take. But the lid opens forward and back from the middle.

At the museum we found out there were some Edward Burne Jones at a church in town, so we decided to walk over and see it. It was about 2/3 of a mile back to the car, and the directions were that the church was about the same distance in the other direction. Again, no way I’m getting the car out of the parking lot and driving around in town. So we started walking where we thought we’d been told. Right away, we realized we probably didn’t know where we were so we walked into a Suzuki motorcycle dealership. Believe it or not, this was now 6 p.m. and we hadn’t had anything but the tea and scones all day. I realized I was hungry and couldn’t believe that John wasn’t telling me he was ready to faint. But he was soldiering up quite well. A Snickers bar helped. John had the good luck at the dealership to find a candybar. I had the good luck to meet a guy in there who offered to walk us half way to the church. He was leaving his bike for service and walking home. Not someone I’d usually ask for directions, but he was a very nice guy. When we got to All Saints church, it was closed and the place was totally scaffolded for roof repairs.
It was all locked up, so we walked around the back where some people were watering a garden. The woman was a preschool teacher working on getting her classroom ready for the upcoming term. She told us she couldn’t let us into the church, but after we said we’d come from California, and weren’t going to be here again, and finally she told us she could let us in but she’d have to go with us. It was really quite a fabulous church. The windows were wonderful, but so was the rest of the church. I’m not sure all the windows were actually Burne Jones, and will have to look it up when we visit the V&A.

Tomorrow we go to Kelmscott and then back to Oxford. I hope we’ll be able to find a place to park the car so we can spend some time in oxford. Otherwise, we’ll have to sit around in the train station, because there’s nowhere to check bags. Damn terrorists have screwed up so many things.

August 14, 2006 Driving through the Cotswolds with the directionally impaired


Church tower at Chipping Campden
Today was our first big driving day. Our goal this morning was to go to Bourton on the Water, about 5 miles from our hotel in Stow on the Wold. After the first 20 miles of driving, we finally realized we were on the wrong road. Of course, this 20 miles took about an hour, so it was difficult to tell how far we were going, because at 20 mph and stopping every time oncoming traffic came by, it was hard to figure out.

After a lovely walk about and lunch at Burford, a charming town in its own right, we stopped at Northleach, because I thought it looked interesting from the road. Once we got there, John wanted to go someplace he had read about in the guidebook, which was way behind us. Or north. Or south. Or something. We wanted to go to Cheltenham to see the Arts & Crafts museum there, and I wanted to stop in this town to see the Cotswold museum and perhaps the museum of mechanical instruments. There wasn’t time to do both and go to Cheltenham. So, off we went to Bibury. Or so I thought. But then it turned out that he was directing me to Cheltenham. I, of course, just follow directions. It’s enough work to try to keep the car on one side of the road and not turn off into the wrong lane or into the ditch or into oncoming traffic. If one is going to drive on an alternate side of the road, one should be young when she first undertakes this task. Notice in the following picture, the car still has both mirrors. It does however, have a giant scratch on the left side which I don’t think was there when we got it, and which I’m not aware of having done, but I’m sure I did. Thank god I got the expensive covers everything insurance.



So anyway, after a giant fight, we move on to Cheltenham. Once in Cheltenham, we realize that a. we don’t know the name of the museum, and b. aren’t really sure it’s actually in Cheltenham. I also fail to make a right turn, which ends up with my eventually turning into a bike lane and having to turn the car around in a space that would have been difficult to turn a bike around in. We are now leaving Cheltenham and heading for Evesham. This because we don’t know where or what the museum is, so we decide to leave town. How stupid is that?

We’re not really going to Evesham, though, just in that direction. After about 10 or 20 wrong turns, it appears that we are indeed on the road to Evesham which is also the general direction of Broadway which is described as a town that is a victim Insert Broadway right of its own popularity. Actually there were some nice galleries in Broadway, and it’s very cute, and the sun came out while we were there, and they had an easy to find car park and free restrooms. If that’s a victim, I’m all for it. While we were there, I stopped in at the tourist bureau and found out that the museum was indeed at Cheltenham. But it was now too late to go back there.

At 5 p.m., they rolled up the sidewalks in Broadway and closed the doors of every shop. No reason to do anything but move on. Following another missed turn, we made it out of Broadway and onto the A44 and headed for Chipping Campden.

This is another town that’s supposed to be very picturesque. Frankly, I can’t see why they call some picturesque and not others. They are all cute and look like Beatrix Potter characters or Alice in Wonderland will show up any minute. I like them all. So, we left Broadway and went to Burton on the Water, where we thought we were going when we left home this morning. B-O-T-W is another picturesque town which had a canal running through it (looks to be about 2 feet deep) and 5 bridges that you can probably see all at once if you’re standing on the first or last one. Insert Burton center Since it was after 5 p.m., the sidewalks were already rolled up, and nothing was open but restaurants. The first one we looked at advertised “surf & turf, strawberries, and a .25L bottle of Ernest & Julio Gallo wine for L9.95. Actually that’s a bargain price for dinner, but we went to another place across the way and I had some really delicious pasta and John had a chicken, ham & leek pie with a crust that you had to keep beating to keep it from floating off the plate.

August 13

Oxford into the Cotswolds

Later note: For some reason, my pictures aren't uploading. Maybe they'll show up in the post, maybe not. They won't be where I want them.

Won’t be posting this tonight, as we’re staying for three nights at a hotel without Wi-fi. The news every day continues to be about people waiting for planes and about the unraveling of the plot of some Pakistanis to blow up planes bound for America. And of course to rag on Tony Blair – pictures every day showing him on the yacht in the Bahamas, seemingly oblivious to the problems at home. And apparently, there are three people who would like his job, and they all seem to think they’re running the country. Yet, he continues to remain mum.

We on the other hand, have been truly ugly Americans today. We called about picking up our car rental this morning, supposed to be at 9 a.m., only to find out that it wasn’t there, and wasn’t expected until noon. We had already ordered a taxi to take us to the car hire place, and were going to have him take us to the train station to wait, because we had to be out of our room, so we couldn’t stay at the B&B either. The B&B owner basically told us to have some balls and go to the car rental agency and be obnoxious. Maybe give us an upgrade, but just get us out of there. This turned out to be a good idea, but only because someone came back with their car early.

We’ve now had the car for 12 hours and I’m amazed to say that both the mirrors are intact, as are those of every other car we passed today. Of course in 12 hours, I think we covered perhaps 25 miles, maybe not that much.

Insert left Blenheim We visited Blenheim palace first thing. It is quite a gorgeous place, has some lovely grounds, but for some reason the grounds closest to the palace have nothing planted on them. They seem to be set up to be convenient as a giant parking lot. Winston Churchill was born here. His father was the younger brother of the heir to the Duke of Marlborough, and his mother Jennie was at a party at the palace when Winston decided it was time to join the world. So he grew up near some quite fantastic wealth, but the wealth his family had came from his mother’s side. I forget who, but she was the daughter of some American robber baron.

Insert right john at blenheim At the sort of bottom of the palace is a chapel with this quite stunning sculpture which looks like the kind of thing George Bush would like to stand in front of to make fatuous statements, though he’d probably want to have the people in the statue dressed better.

It’s still quite cold here, and rained both last night and tonight. We moved on from Blenheim to Morton on Marsh, a charming Cotswold town whose main attraction is that the long main market street is as it was in the 1600s. Well, except that I don’t think every store on the street sold tourist tschakas or real estate or operated tea rooms in the 1600s. Apparently then, it was mostly sheep, wool, and more sheep. The whole area of the Cotswolds is a monument to sheep, from the time when wool was a very desirable commodity, and Cotswold wool was the best of the lot. And then it became desirable, and the whole place just sort of collapsed. But nobody cared whether it was there or not, so nothing got changed. Now everybody wants a piece of it. For me, the best thing of all was a charity shop which had a COAT!! It’s a bit big, but it’s warm and I’ve been freezing. And it’s a charity dedicated to the aged. So I win twice. The owner told us that just last week he had to let all the employees go home because it was over 100 degrees in the shop. I’d have been happy with that today.

We drove the 5 miles from Morton on Marsh to Stow on the Wold at the breakneck speed of about 45 mph, with John screaming in the passenger seat from time to time about not running into curbs and such, but without incident. Our hotel, which looked quite glamourous on the internet is just so-so, and of course doesn’t have internet access, so I feel quite deprived.

We went back to Stow on the Wold tonight for dinner. Sat for a bit in a pub where I know Agatha Raisin, one of my favorite fictional characters, would have felt quite at home, and which was quite cheery and cosy. Insert left small friendly pub stow The picture doesn’t do it justice because I didn’t use flash, but I still like the feeling. Then the bartender told us to stand behind the bar and he’d take our picture. This bar is decorated with money – paper and coins, glued all over everywhere. I guess you can decorate with money..

August 12 Penzance to Oxford

Today is a day spent on the train. Luckily, we bought tickets before we left home as the train was very crowded. Not so bad when we got on in Penzance, but later so many people joined the train that they were standing in the luggage area, which is already full of luggage, meaning people have to have large bags on their laps at their seats.

England may be a country of shopkeepers, but it is also a land of what appears to be small faremers. A lovely patchwork of neat fields surrounded by hedges, with small numbers of cows, looking like the alleged happy cows of California. In Penzance, of the subtropical climate, the fields are green and quite golden. The towns are houses that from the train seem more or less identical, small and tall, usually joined to at least one neighbor’s house, usually of a dove grey or sandy stone and with white trim. Some of the rail stations seem to have gone in more for what I would call Victorian ornamentation and are often of red brick.

Once we reached Plymouth, we were out of Cornwall and into Devon. The look of the place changes slightly, and also a good number of people got off the train so it was not quite so crowded. The trees between the fields are taller in Devon, perhaps Devon isn’t a subtropical climate?

We had to change trains in London to get to Oxford, and our train was delayed, but we finally made it to Oxford. We had a bit of difficulty finding our hotel , couldn’t understand the bus driver about the fare, then seemed like we got up too soon to get off the bus – excuse me, alight – and got told to sit down. I think the bus driver hoped he’d never see us again. And of course, then we decided to go the wrong way when we got off the bus, no doubt because I chose the direction.

After checking in at the Tilbury Lodge, we decided to take a bit of time to explore Oxford, since we leave tomorrow morning and I’m not driving a car into Oxford if I can avoid it.

Took the bus back to town, though we could easily have walked, had we known the direction, and walked to the Magdalen Bridge near the Magdalen College (pronounced Maudlin). These boats are apparently available for hire, either with or without a rower (poler?) a guy who stands up to move the boat along, anyway.

Then we went up to check out the William Morris garage. With all my research on Morris, I didn’t know he had a workshop in Oxford, but of course he did study at Oxford. Imagine how foolish we felt when we found it was another William Morris – the one the Morris car is named after.

Then we checked out the Bridge of Sighs, John thought he’d help hold it up, as it’s quite old and could fall at any time.

Continuing our trek, we came to yet another very old building. Housing a Nokia shop. The old and the new mix quite comfortably in Oxford.
And of course, the very polite British way of telling someone not to park their bikes there.



Notice today, I finally figured out how to get the pictures more or less where I want them.

As I was going to St. Ives, I met a man with seven wives ... Well, we got there and didn't meet anyone with seven wives, in fact, we didn't even see a Mormon church there. It was a rather gray day, supposed to warm up later in the afternoon.

St Ives is an artist colony in Cornwall. They must be dedicated to their art, because they surely don't come here for the weather. In fact, when the Brits go to the beach, they are showing the stoicism that allowed them to live through the Blitz. A trip which has me wearing a long sleeved shirt and a sweater over it, and longing for a coat, has them wearing swimsuits and paddling around lazily in the water -- which is definitely as cold as the Pacific in Northern California.




The town is charming, but filled with tourists. Most of the art is very modern, and if there are professionals making a living at it, they aren't showing their work in the shops in St. Ives. The town is very old, there's a market building in the center of town with the date of 1490 on it. There's also a nice war memorial, which uses lots of the kind of plants that show off Cornwall's vaunted sub-tropical climate.



Finally, I have a contest-oriented project on this trip. I have a picture of a puppy. At various points I am taking pictures of the puppy in interesting places. If I'm lucky, I'll find one that Purina likes and win a trip anywhere in the world -- and hopefully, won't have to take a puppy with me.

Here's the puppy at St. Ives -- not that I have a scarf on. This is because the wind is blowing about 50 miles per hour and I'm hoping not to look like a wild woman.

Today is our first full day in Penzance. We borrowed bikes from our B&B and rode out to Michael Mount, which is a twin to Mont Saint Michel across the channel. It's not that far. We got about 2/3 of the way out there, and John got a flat tire. So we had to walk the bikes all the way back to the B&B and get another one. What a pain in the ass. However, it was truly a wonderful experience when we finally got there. I felt the bike riding was a bit harrowing, due to the fact that there were portions where we had to ride on the road and there were no bike lanes.

But it's worth it, to walk across this large stretch of wet sand to get to the monastery, which is no longer a monastery but owned by a wealthy family, though still open to the public.

In the afternoon we took the bus to Mousehole, called Mowzel. It's a charming little town a few miles up the road with a charming little port. Between here and Mousehole is another town named Newlyn, which appeared to be more interesting. Apparently they have a thriving fishing industry there, about to be replaced by a marina for rich people, judging from the signs.

While they may not have gelato in Cornwall, they do have Cornwall ice cream. It is delicious. Seems to be a big deal. I think it might be straight buterfat, but I could be wrong.

At the end of the day, we found out about the big terrorism plot uncovered in Britain. Why do these things always happen when we are overseas? I can only say that, just like 9/11, I'm sure most of the shouting will be over by the time we return, so I'm not going to worry about it.

We arrived in London not well rested, but at least having been ableto sleep a bit on the plane. Virgin Air has a choice of about 15 movies and a bunch of TV shows. They don’t edit the movies, either. A really good one I saw was Down in the Valley.

We took the Heathrow Express to Paddington, a wonderful, clean train, a bit pricey, even for second class at about $24 each, but arrived easily. Could have taken the tube for about $6, but it would have taken anhour, and this took 15 minutes.

We were easily able to rcollect our tickets from the vending machine, which we had purchased in the US a month ago. At this point, I realized that I did not get the Royal Oak pass into the papers I brought. The Royal Oak is a US card that gets you into all the National Trust properties, and I paid $80 for it before we left home. That’s a major disappointment. I wandered out of the station and found a Mailboxes Etc., where they told me that getting it here right away by UPS would cost about $60!! Not worth it, obviously. I’ve decided to call Lynda & Mishelle tonight and see if they can go find the thing and just mail it to us in the Cotswolds, but now I can’t find the mailing address of our hotel there. I’ve been too cheap to hook up to the internet for $2 for 12 minutes, since I think our hotel tonight has free service.

I love the signs here. On the long trip to Penzance there are many stops. In the station we just passed the sign says, “Alight here for bus connections.” The word alight seems to me such a delicate word, like something a butterfly would do, not a beleagured tourist with a backpack the size and shape of a laundry basket and a suitcase suitable for a small body.

We arrived at Penzance sometime after 8:30. It was a brisk walk to our hotel which is a charming B&B with a lovely hostess. Someone who actually likes her job, unlike so many we’ve dealt with recently. Sleep becons.

Preparing to leave

As usual, we're trying to get ready to leave, and I have left far too many things to the last minute, like, say, packing.

We drive to the City tomorrow for our plane, and I took the ancient Toyota in to get a simple fan fixed. Should have been done by noon. As of 2 p.m., it had become a much more complex job, and the extra necessary parts still hadn't arrived. They promise it will be ready by tomorrow morning's departure time.

This will be my first trip taking a bunch of electronic toys. I wonder if it will be any more efficient than going to internet cafes.

Our trip is built around a sort of pilgrimage to the Arts & Crafts movement, with particular emphasis on places William Morris decorated or lived. Mostly we'll be in the Cotswolds and London. We're also taking a side trip to St. Ives just for the name, and Penzance to see if there are any pirates around.