LONDON

HAMPSTEAD HEATH

On Monday, July 30th, our very last possible day to journey about London, we went to Hampstead Heath, in North London.  It's the highest point in London, and is known as the "lungs of London" because of the clean air! The Heath is a beautiful, quiet wooded area.  Remarkable because  we reached it by walking just a few blocks from our underground stop in the busy district of Camden.    This is the view when we reached the top (it's called Kite Hill). 

Hampstead Heath is 792 acres of woodlands and dells -- in the middle of the city.

                                                          

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In this view from the top, the faint tower, furthest to the right on the sky line, is at Crystal Park, in Sydenham where we live. 

Going home, we took a train from the edge of the heath through a tunnel to the far edge of Hampstead, where we caught the tube back to London Bridge. 

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We found this street sign as we walked along a quaint litle alley toward the Heath -- appropriate for the last day of our London Adventure.   Here's to new endings and new beginnings!

GETTING AROUND IN LONDON

"Sydenham, this is Sydenham.  The train now standing on Platform 1 is for London Bridge, calling at Forest Hill, Honor Oak Park, Brockly, New Cross Gate, and London Bridge, where this train terminates."

That's the message on the speaker whenever we go to the depot (about four blocks from our flat).  If we happen to miss that train, we only  have to wait 10 minutes for the next one.  This is the direction we usually travel. London Bridge is the oldest station in London, and is centrally located. We can also get on the train on Platform 2 and go to Victoria Station, on the western side of London-- there are a few more stops that way. The in-city trains are all electric, the rails are welded, and the trains seldom sound their horns (there are no track level crossings for cars or people). It is a very fast and quiet way to travel, except for the incessant use of cell phones by passengers!

  "Mind the Gap".  This sign is at one of the train platforms at  London Bridge but it is best known for the announcement at many Tube stops on the Underground. (It is correct to say either Tube or Underground, but not subways--the latter are under-street passageways that can be complex at some intersections)

When we're going further than the area around the train station,  we pop on a LONG escalator and go down two or three flights to get on the underground.

These pictures are of the Jubilee Tube Line.

There are 12 underground and at least 10 above ground train lines in the city. Maps and route plans are available on the internet, so that you can enter your start and end destinations the night before and print out your own individual travel plan for the day.

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The distinctive underground sign (like on this building in Hampstead) makes it easy to find your station when you're ready to go home from wherever you've spent the day (not always the same station where you got off).

When you get back to London Bridge station after your journey on the tube, you have to check the reader board to see which platform your train will be on.  Because the trains run so frequently, they don't have regular platform stops at the large stations.  Here are a bunch of people at rush hour checking to see where to go next. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

There are other ways to get around in London without a car.

Buses are great for errands or outings in nearby districts -- and for scenic tours.  One day early in our stay, we  hopped on one just to see those five districts where our usual train stops.  You don't see the most interesting parts of an area from a train station, but can get a great overview from the bus, as you go down the high streets and some of the residential areas.

A bus will arrive at any stop every 8 to 12 minutes during the day, and night buses run every 30 minutes.  You could go all over London just by transferring on the bus.  It's cheaper just to buy a bus pass, so lots of people do that -- but of course it would take much much longer.

          You can go a lot of places along The River Thames via a boat.  There are regularly scheduled boats and several docks on the river, all part of the Transport For London System. We went to Kew Gardens on one and came back by bus/underground/train.  And took a shorter hop from Greenwich to the Thames Barrier and back.

The Docklands Light Railway runs on the eastern side of the city.    It is an elevated computer controlled system that runs without a driver--you can sit in the front seats at the windshield.  It moves a lot of people fairly quickly from the edge of downtown, throughout the Docklands, crosses the river to Greenwich, and continues to the SE side near us.  It has proven to be so successful that plans for future expansion of the Tube will also be above ground.  It reminds of a model railroad layout, with all the trains switching around without engineers.      

HAMPTON COURT PALACE AND GARDENS

We almost waited too long to go to see this castle and world famous gardens.  The day we'd planned to go, the rising river caused the Thames Cruise Boat to cancel trips.  But a couple of trains got us there just fine.  (It was from the road next to the castle that we took those two pictures of the high river.)  And, after all, it turned out to be a lovely day.

The castle, which was first the home to Henry VIII, is magnificent inside and out, but our favorite  parts of the tour were where we learned about how the working people and servants who supported it lived and worked.  Also, the sixty acres of formal gardens really make Hampton Court a must-see.  We are glad we didn't miss it.   

Good old Henry took over a courtier's country home and transformed it into a magnificent palace.  It was his summer home.  A chapel dating from this era is still in use (for anyone now).  Self-guided tours take you there and into the Tudor-era royal rooms, public and private.

The only part of the inside tours where you're allowed to take pictures is in the reconstructed Tudor kitchens and other work areas.  There are great stories about how many "support persons" the royal court needed  -- several hundred  -- and about how the food was ordered and prepared.  Anyone could show up at the castle, and assuming they were reasonably well dressed, could request to "say hello" to their ruler.  They could also stay for dinner, mostly meat and bread, but the records show that they did buy a lot veggies also. The different European kings tried to outdo each other with their hospitality. This castle fed as many as one thousand people each day.   Food historians actually cook in the same way they did back then. You can smell food cooking.  The picture of the pies show how they baked a lot of meat and vegetable dishes--the shells were simply flour and water paste, and were discarded after the food was removed. The huge boiling pots looked almost like the ones in today's institutional kitchens, except these were heated by wood fire underneath. They also had six huge fireplaces with several spits placed before each one--it was very warm with only one fire going--it must have been almost unbearable with all of them roaring away.

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After the Tudor era, sometime in the 1600s, the royals of the time, King William III and Mary II, commissioned Christopher Wren to design a remodel of the palace.   But the plan was only partly completed (the queen died of smallpox and the king lost interest in the project).  So half the palace remains Tudor and the other half all that elegant baroque style of the Georgian era, that's so pleasant to look at (since somebody else has to dust).  So you really get to see two palaces for the price of one, assuming your feet hold out.     The gardens were actually put in during this time.  Earlier, the land was mostly used for hunting.

Art works from the times are displayed and there are furnished public and private rooms of the royals, with the self-guided audio tour giving you some good stories. 

Again -- you can't take very many pictures of the castle insides, but (if you are us) you can make up for it in the beautiful gardens.  We took a land-train around the periphery and then walked until we couldn't any more.  There's a pretty cool maze, where we managed not to get lost, and the Guinness-certified largest vine in the world -- a grapevine.  (There are gardeners just to take care of it.)

Here are some garden pictures:

                                                                                           

GLOBE THEATRE

We went to the Globe Theatre on Bankside.  It was opened ten years ago and stands near where the original sixteenth century Globe Theater was, here in London's Southwark district.

The original Globe which was built in 1576 and rebuilt  in 1613 after a fire (during a performance when a cannon ignited the thatched roof).  It was demolished after the Puritan Administration closed all the theatres in 1642.  We saw the original site -- it was demolished then to make room for tenements; now there are nicer apartments there.

                                                      

The design and the techniques used in building the new Globe were accurate to the original.  Green oak was cut according to the practice then; oak laths and staves support lime plaster mixed according to original recipes.  The roof is made of reed thatch, based on samples found in excavation of the original theatre.                               

It was interesting to learn that an American director and producer, Sam Wanamaker, initiated the rebuilding project after his first visit to London in 1949.  It took a long time to get the funding and finish the project.  It's under a trust now and does all kinds of educational theatre activities as well as its performances.

We saw  Shakespeare's comedy "Love's Labor's Lost".  It was easy to imagine, in these surroundings, how it would have been for people at the original theatre to enjoy such a performance.  It's a little bit raucous and it's funny.   

  Here are pictures of the musicians who played before the play started and in intermission.    The people standing around the stage have cheap tickets -- but by standing, they are closer to the action, just like the "groundlings" were in Shakespeare's time.   We chose the second level though -- we had a great view -- and we could sit down.

ARE YOU BEING SERVED?

We visited Harrod's, England's most famous and most elegant department store, on Knightsbridge near Piccadilly Circus.  A little bit different from our usual shopping experience.

It's an enormous (full square block) eight-story Victorian Building that looks -- inside and out -- like no other department store we've ever seen.  It has doormen at each entrance and three-hundred departments.

The food area is lushly lighted and decorated.  Everything looks wonderful.  There are rooms for vegetables, fish, meat, fruit, sweets, coffee and tea..... It's a very upscale grocery shopping area in the middle of an upscale department store.  Places to eat are scattered all about.  They include a coffee bar (we had a latte), tea shop, sushi bar, lunch counter (definitely not Woolworth's), wine cellar, and a chocolate room. 

Everything is beautiful in there -- a shopper's Disneyland. 

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We browsed a bit in the housewares section and were actually asked "Are you being served?".  Wish we could blog the posh British accent.   

And then, of course, we had to visit the toy department.

DOCKLANDS

Docklands is the section of the city from Tower Bridege to Woolwich. Up till about 1986, both sides of the river were lined with docks and warehouses.  There are very few docks, now, and none in use.  This view is from the River Thames.   

The 2012 Olympics will be held in this area and preparations are already underway.

These scenes are from West India Dock on the Isle of Dogs.  (The Tudors used to keep their hunting dogs here.)  This dock is where banana and sugar boats used to come in and unload for the city.    The area has totally changed now and it is the most modern looking district of London.  Glass office skyscrapers house many of Britian's top banking and insurance firms and such.  The new City Airport is nearby; it is the fastest way to fly in and out of London.  So of course, the area is a haven for yuppies, with many modern and expensive high-rise flats.

We went on a Sunday afternoon and  the restaurants were busy with early afternoon brunch crowds.  Docklands Light Railway is a fast and convenient way to get there.  You can see the train above the waterway here.

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This floating pedestrian bridge connects the waterfront area and its restaurants and bars to an office and shopping complex.

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The old boats and sculptures in front of the new buildings are a nice contrast and visual of how the area has changed.  There are still a few working boats docked at the wharf, but they are used as restaurants and meeting places.   

   

Few of the old buildings survived the WWII  bombing.  The Docklands Museum is next to this one.

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From West India Dock, we took the DLR to LImehouse, an older part of Docklands.  We stopped at Island Gardens Park for a last look at Greenwich, which is directly across the river.  

We had planned to walk to the Grapes Pub for dinner.  It is a pub frequented by Charles Dickens and is the model for the one he describes in "Our Mutual Friend."   It was no longer serving food by the time we got there, though, so after looking around, we walked on and ate at a very good Italian Restaurant in Mosaic Square before hopping on our train for home. 

SCENES FROM THE NEIGHBORHOOD

Penge is the next district to Sydenham, just a few blocks from our flat.  We found our favorite Indian Restaurant, Tamarind, there early in our stay, because they left a flyer on the doorstop;  later, we decided to explore the town a bit more and took a walking tour. 

These cottages (there are 164)  were built in 1866 by the "Metropolitan Association for Improving the Dwellings of the Industrious Classes".  They're privately owned now, but it It's listed status gives it a a charming story-book look, like a real version of a child's block village.   

Penge was the most heavily bombed part of London during the Blitz because a major rail transportation tunnel lies within it.  So a lot of it is relatively new -- not many pre-Victorian buildings survived.  Thus, the high street is all kind of blah 50s architecture. 

In addition to the cottages for industrious people, there is also a lovely old building built in 1848 as an almshouse.  It was built at the request of Queen Adelaide in memory of her husband William IV as a "Royal Naval Asylum."   It provided residences for twelve widows or orphan daughters of naval officers.  That building is now privately owned flats.  I don't know if I'd want to live there -- sounds like a good candidate for a haunted house.   

This is Gipsy Hill.  This district is two stops west of us, on the loop toward Victoria Station.  We found a favorite restaurant here too.  The kind we like, great food and informal atmosphere.  It was a good place to stop on the way home from London.  The trouble is that the rail station is at the bottom of that hill and the restaurant is at the top.  Nice view though -- and a good excuse to eat, in order to recover your strength.

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Every block of every district in London has a greengrocer.  These are little hole-in-the-wall shops displaying their wares outside.  Mostly they are run by immigrants and the produce varies depending on which country.  This one in Sydenham is called "Istanbul".  Others in Sydenham are Pakistani, Indian, Halal (we looked it up -- it's the Arabian version of Kosher), Caribbean, and Iraqi.   Every block also has an "off-license" shop -- meaning you can buy beer and wine to take home, and what is called a pound store or cheap store (of course, like our dollar stores, but smaller and more crowded) and just as useful for certain necessities.    We've also found a good barber shop, a beauty shop, and a small supermarket right on our own high street.  The most fun about our high street, or any other, is that they are so lively and vibrant -- there are always people.  We found a couple of malls (called centers) in two of the larger districts nearby, so they exist and with a lot of the same stores there are in any mall anywhere in America, but they haven't killed the high (main) streets, like they pretty much have there. 

PUBS

You can't stay in England for three months and not say anything about pubs.  They're such a big part of the culture.  There's one on every block in every district and village.  British pubs  (at least in the daytime) are friendly places where people could (and presumably do) hang out all day long.  The ones we've stopped in have had comfortable sofas in odd corners, a patio or courtyard outside, and an atmosphere that (except for the booze) seems  more like a coffee-house than a tavern.

The two pictured are more or less at the end of Sydenham's six-block High Street, with five others at various spots between.    We've only tried a couple here in town, though.   

There has been a pub on the site pictured above, The Greyhound, since 1713 and part of the present building dates from the 18th Century.   

We went into the Prince Alfred here because we liked the name.  Same with a pub in Penge called The Crooked Billet, when we were thirsty in the middle of our walking tour.

Pub names are just wonderful. Here are a few favorites in nearby districts.  Alas, they are favorites in name only -- so many pubs, so little time:  Copperfield's, Little Dorrit, Goose on the Green, Fox and Firkin, Hare and Billet, Jolly Farmer, The George, London and Rye, The Two Halfs, The Golden Lion; and The Barrow and Banker.

Most of them have a pub sign with the appropriate picture in a terra-cotta like material.  Historically, the picture signs told people who couldn't read what the building was. Many started as inns or gathering places for certain activities (besides drinking).  Thus, the Greyhound was the meeting place for local hunting groups.   

So, if you had enough time and the right constitution (neither of which we do) you could do a pub crawl all around London and call it a historical study.   The pubs have a wide range of beers--it's hard to pick a favorite, because the next pub will have entirely different beers (exept for Guinness-they all have that, but we've yet to see anyone drinking it).

Yes, this is a picture of a menu.  In English pubs, you order and pick up your own drinks at the bar.

So Bill does that and I grab the table -- and  (in this case only) take a picture whilst waiting.  The Three Tuns was a nice place where we ate after touring Windsor.  The pub keeper was very interested in America and later she came over to our table and we had a great conversation. 

I snapped the picture because of the neat name -- it's a crossword clue that I've never seen used anywhere else until now -- and because of what it told about the history of the area. 

THE FLOOD

The floods in England are really bad.  Paper says more than a million people have been affected--loss of houses, no electricity, no drinking water.  Now the livestock is starting to hurt--no clean water for the animals--dairy cows here use more than 1 million liters of water per day.  Field crops are ruined, food prices are predicted to go sky high, military has been called out to control the people trying to buy everything in the markets.  No visible effects here yet. 

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We went to Hampton Castle yesterday.  It's about 20 miles upstream from London. 

We wanted to take the boat, but they weren't running that far (have to use two locks to get there) so we took the train.  The river is high, the fixed docks along the banks look to be under several feet of water. 

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We took pics of a pub on the bank that has all its decks under water.  We had a beer in the pub next to it and noticed that they have sandbags ready to put across the door.  If it gets that high, It will probably get into the castle as well.

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Predictions are that London will be ok from the flood water which is expected in 2-3 days. But, methinks 'tis time to get out of here. Good thing the plane tickets are secured.

WINDSOR CASTLE

This is Windsor Castle, the largest and oldest occupied castle in the world, and Queen Elizabeth's favorite residence.  It dates from 1080 and was William the Conquerer's first castle.

(Notice, if you click to enlarge the fourth picture, that even the Queen is not far away from the noise of airplanes flying over--the castle is under Heathrow's flight path.)

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This is a "loophole" or arrow slot. These slots are V shapes on the inside of the castle, allowing a wide field of fire for the archers.

   

There is a self-guided tour of the lavishly decorated State Apartments and an extensive art gallery, with several original Leonardo da Vinci sketches among other artworks the Royal Family owns. 

These views of the servant's quarters behind the Castle, now used as offices and homes for people who work there, are good examples of REAL half timber construction, not the copies found in the States.

 

This garden seemed to belong to people who lived there, rather than a formal part of the public tour.

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Windsor is in Berkshire, so for this journey, we were technically out of greater London.  But it's only 30 miles from the city center and an easy trip.

Here is Eton College, across the River Thames from Windsor, and a view of the town of Windsor from the castle grounds.

 

               

THAMES BARRIER -- and WOOLICH

Here are a couple of other visits to the borough of Greenwich.

This picture is taken from one of the Greenwich short-hop boats as we are we approaching the famous Thames Barrier.

The Barrier: http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/regions/thames/323150/335688/341764/

 

Woolich is the district where we went to see the bike race early in July.  It's about 10 miles from Greenwich and on the river across from the Docklands area.  The Royal Arsenal, where all of the cannons and  arms for the British Army were made over the years, was located here.

                                                              

The Arsenal Buildings, which once housed smithies and armourers shops are now opened as a museum.  The sundial on the gate to Dial Square dates from 1764.

Most of the workers were women. Thousands of them were employed here right up to the 1970's.

Woolich was also home to one of England's major Pro Football Clubs, the Arsenal, which started here in 1889.   The name is still the same, but the team is no longer in Woolich.

 

PONTEFRACT, YORKSHIRE

Last week, we went to Pontefract to visit friends for a few days.  We have kept in touch with John and Rose Place since we met them years ago.  They are fellow RVers (or caravaners, as they are called in the UK).  We first met at Granite Lake Park in Clarkston and they came to see us in Springfield on a subsequent trip to the States.   

We took the National Express from Victoria Station to Wakefield, about 8 miles from their home.  When John picked us up at the station, it was the first time we'd been in a private car since the end of April.

John and Rose treated us like royalty!  They were excellent hosts and tour guides and we got to see a little bit of Yorkshire.  The best thing was visiting with these lovely people.

This is their home (note the caravan on the side yard) and the beautiful view from their kitchen and dining room windows.  Yorkshire has had terrible rains this summer, but you can see that we lucked out with weather.

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We went to visit the Pontefract Castle ruins. The Castle is gone, but the grounds remain property of the Queen, with a Conservation Committee caring for it, and working on archaeological excavation.

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The painting on the right, which is in the adjoining museum,  was made in the early 17th Century. The castle was first started at the end of the 1080s, following the Norman Conquest.  Among other uses, it was a temporary home for Kings, a cell for important prisoners, and the site of a few executions.   During the (British) Civil War, it was held for the King and, in fact, was the last Royalist stronghold .  It was under at least three full attacks before it was surrendered in 1649.  Whenever the castle was under siege, the town and townspeople suffered peripheral damage and it is said they were very happy to have the castle demolished, as it was following its surrender.

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We toured this grand mansion called Nostell Priory.  The land was a 12th Century Augustinian Priory.   On the same site now is a "stately home" built in 1733 for a Sir Richard Winn.  It has been owned by the same family ever since.  A few years ago, to escape death taxes, the family gave it to the public and can use only a part of it privately.  (They live somewhere else now and use their private rooms for special occasions only.)  The rooms are as they were when in use, and the furnishings still actually belong to the family.  They include valuable paintings and about 300 or so pieces of Chippendale furniture.

In the pictures you can see a large red spot around the windows between the two colums on the left.  This was caused by a massive fire in those rooms. John ran the Pontefract fire department, and was called out the night this happened.  He said when he arrived, the servants were carrying out the paintings and Chippendales, stacking them on the lawn.  John put 10 engines on the fire, and saved the building with only three rooms destroyed (they have been restored).

There are over 300 acres of parkland (once the family lawn).  The present Lord uses the former stable buildings as his offices (for charities he runs, and to manage the 2000 acres of surrounding farmland that the family still owns).  There is also a tearoom and a small restaurant with tables in the former horse stalls.   

  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Those are just a couple of the things we did during our visit.  We got to tour the historic market town of Pontefract.  They have a very nice public market going on Wednesdays, one of the days we were there.  We visited the Anglican Church, which is old and beautiful, ate lots of wonderful meals and good conversation, and in general had a lovely time.  This is us in the Place's backyard.    We truly enjoyed ourselves.                

Harry Potter

Here we are taking turns trying to get our luggage-rack through the hidden door to Hogwart's Academy. 

(You have to pretend this is a steam train.  But it is taken at the right station.)

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The pictures above are taken at the King's Cross train station, which was used in the Harry Potter Movies.  (And is featured in the final book, at least in the British version.) Of course, the door is a photo-op, which probably the Transit Authority put in because of all the goofy American tourists asking where it was.  Still, when we heard of it, we could not resist. 

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The next two pictures are also inside the station (near Platform 9 3/4). 

It would have been nice to photograph the outside of King's Cross, which was also used in the HP movies.  But it is currently undergoing a major renovation/remodeling and the picture would pretty much have been of scaffolding.  The station is one of the older ones in London.

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I reserved a copy of "Harry and the Deathly Hollows" the first time I visited our local bookshop here in Sydenham.  Didn't want to wait until we were back home, because that would have made me the only reader of the series in the world not to have read it before the reviews told all.   

When we have visited the shop before (to stock up on paperbacks) it's a pretty quiet little place.  But on Saturday night there was a line of people all the way up to the corner and beyond.   It was kind of funny because the bookstore is directly across the street from one of the local pubs -- a noisy place on Saturday night, with people milling around inside and out.   Britain has very recently instituted a no-indoor-smoking policy, so there are always people outside of the pubs.  Most of the bar patrons couldn't seem to figure out what was going on across the street (and maybe vice versa).

Here's Dobby the Elf distributing the book to a customer.

                                                                               

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The last picture looks kind of like I'm pouring my wine into the book bag.  It's a trick of the camera -- the book is fine.    We both thought it was nice of the store to provide wine and goodies.  The kids (what, this was a kid's occasion?) got punch and cookies.

Saturday was gray and showery all day and we had decided to stay in anyway, because we've just returned from a trip to Yorkshire and needed some recovery time.   It was a perfect day to read this London-based book. 

GOING TO BATH

Last week we traveled by fast train to Bath, a journey of about an hour and a half from downtown London.  The town, which is a World Heritage Site, lies on the Avon River -- this is a view of town and river and the beautiful Pulteney Bridge. 

This is the Abbey, taken from the Roman baths.  Over 2,000 years ago, the Romans channeled these hot sulfurous waters and built the pool buildings.  A millenium earlier, Celtic tribes used the site -- archeologists have excavated m any of their remains. 

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The springs were used by prehistoric people as long as 7500 years ago.  (It's interesting to think that prehistoric sandals dating from around that same time were discovered by UO archaeologists in a cave in eastern Oregon.) 

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These pictures are from our tour of the Roman Baths:

Picture Roman ladies and gentlemen lounging about the hot pools.  (Picture their slaves keeping the pools clean and in working order.)

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This is the water source to the Baths.

A remnant of the Roman mosaic tile floor in one of the soaking pools.

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These are parts of the Roman Temple of the goddess Sulis Minerva.  The Temple was near the site of the Abbey and the Baths.  The museum is a part of the Roman Baths tour.  Copies of this image of the goddess are used as the symbol of the City of Bath.

The sacrificial altar and a pediment from the Temple.

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Bath today is still an enchanting place.  Most of its buildings are of the famous cream-colored Bath Stone.  It's an easily carvable limestone that dates from the Jurassic erea.

 

   

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These pictures are of the Royal Crescent, around Circus Park.  The buildings were designed as elegant town homes by the architects John Wood Sr and Jr.  They were built from 1754 to 1769 and are still used as townhouses.  And they still seem elegant.  The units are built in a semi-circle around a pretty park. They are listed, which means no additions or changes are allowed.

                                                          

(Windows were sometimes boarded up because property tax laws were changed in the 1700's to be based upon the number of windows in a residence)

                                                                                                                                  

Sally Lunn's Restaurant, named after a famous Bath resident. (A recipe for Sally Lunn bread is in most basic cookbooks.) We had a lovely dinner here. It is the oldest house in Bath, and was built upon Roman foundations.

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We had such a good time in Bath.  Walked a lot around the beautiful Avon River and the charming town, took a scenic bus tour to get an historical overview, and spent a long time touring the baths and museum.

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Even the Bath rail station is charming.  It was getting dark as we walked there to get on our return train.  And it was very late by the time we got home to Sydenham.  (We had to take a city bus from Paddington Station because it was too late for the local trains.) We were really tired -- but it was really worth it!

                                                 

Regent's Park (from ashore) and The National Gallery

  Our kind of gardening -- these pictures are from lovely Regent's Park.  We strolled around it's flower beds and ponds, then walked on the canal path past the London Zoo and to Camden Town. We saw some of the same landmarks from the water a week or so later when we went on the canal boat.   

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The Park, in the Hampstead borough of central London, is surrounded by some beautiful estates and Georgian homes.     Camden Town, though, on the other end of the park, is a market town that reminded us of a very large ongoing Eugene Saturday Market (same kind of crafts, same kinds of people).   So no pictures -- pretty much anyone reading this will already know what it looks like. 

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                            This is the National Gallery near Trafalgar Square.  It houses one of the largest and best collections of western European paintings.  This was my favorite of the three art galleries we visited.  You could spend days and not see everything.   We spent a whole day and would go back often if we had time. 

The pigeons of Trafalgar Square are famous.  They are one thing about London we personally could do without though.   

Here are pictures of two favorites from the Gallery -- Van Gogh's Sunflowers and Monet's Water Lily Gardens. 

  And a link to see more:  www.nationalgallery.org.uk

THE LOCKS OF REGENT'S CANAL

We are approaching one of the Grand Canal locks.  The locks on this canal are 14 feet wide, allowing some good sized boats to enter. This lock raises/lowers the boat about 8 feet. The canal depth is 3-4 feet.  Most of the locks on the canals, other than the Grand or Regents, are only 7 feet wide.  The famous narrow-boats are all 6 foot 8 inches wide, and up to 65 feet long. I'm not sure I would want to put a 65 foot boat in a lock with only 2 inches clearance on each side!

   

  Entering the lock, we tie the boat loosely to the side.

                 

Bill is closing the lower gate, with instruction from Jenny.  These counter-balanced lower arms are the same as the upstream arms you can see on the picture just above. On these double wide locks, you close one gate, then walk to the other end of the lock, and cross on the gate arms, then close the other arm.  Next step is to take your winch handle (you get one with the permit to use the canals) and crank up the underwater valve on the upstream gate.

The lock fills, you open the top gate, and motor away!  Whole thing takes about 20-30 minutes.  I've seen pictures of a hillside series of over 10 locks up north. Must take most of a day to traverse that hill.

                        

This lock, which we just traversed is one of the most famous ones.  It is in the center of Camden market, which is listed as the third most visited place in London--lots of folks watching to see If I was going to fall in.

   

We had noticed narrow sets of stairs going down from the tow path into the water of the canal. We thought they might be to leave the boats if the water level was down, but found out that they were for horse recovery!!  When the canals were first built, the boats and barges were pulled by a single horse walking along the narrow tow path. Occasionally something would startle the horse, and it would fall into the canal. The boatman could walk his semi-submerged horse to the next stairway, and lead him out.

CRUISING REGENT'S CANAL

This is the canal boat Helix -- we chartered it for a day-trip exploring London's Regent's Canal. Britain's canal navigation system has been in place since Roman times.  The major canals were opened during the reign of George III (1760-1820).  The canals were used for commercial transportation until the age  of the train.  Many of the railroad lines overlie where the canals used to be, but happily some have been left for pleasure use.

It was a beautiful cruise.   There wasn't very much river traffic and for most of the trip the canal is hidden from view of everyone up on the streets and bridges above.   It is something special to be cruising along at a slow pace, enjoying the views and the quiet, while actually being right in the middle of this huge city.

Some people live aboard their boats.  Sometimes in a canal boat facility and sometimes just along the canal-side.  The boats range from small and perfectly made and maintained to actually quite decrepit.                            

                                               

                             

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Here are a few more views as we traveled along the canal: 

Coming out of the thousand yard long tunnel shortly after we started.

Traveling under a bridge

The Pirate's Castle is a youth club that provides boating opportunities for underprivileged kids.   In several places along the canal we could see (up above us) some of the not-so-nice parts of the City -- blocks of Council Flats and run-down areas. 

Passing the London Zoo in Regent's Park.  On the right is the Zoo's aviary.

                              

Moored -- you can see how narrow the canal is.---------------------

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In this picture, we are passing under a gourmet restaurant on the canal.  We didn't need it, because our hosts provided us with our own wonderful three-course dinner aboard the Helix.  This after, earlier in the day, a welcome aboard champagne toast, mid-morning coffee and croissants and a few other snacks here and there -- water travel makes you so hungry!

         

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Alex and Jenny Nunes own the Helix.  Marcus was their hired pilot for the trip.  Alex and Jenny have owned the boat for many years (he is a licensed pilot and a canal historian, she's a gourmet cook).  When they retired, they decided to have a second career with their boat.  They run a maximum of three chartered cruises a week. 

This is inside of the Helix:        

The plate (inside the Helix' cabin) commemerates their trip clear around the London Canal system  -- a 27 hour non-stop trip.   

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We had a great time spending the day on the canal.             

THE TOUR deFRANCE - London

We went to see the Tour de France, which started here in London this year.  It was the first time ever for the race to go through London and the first time it had been in England since 1994.  Opening ceremonies and preliminaries were at Trafalgar Square.  The actual Tour started at Greenwich on Sunday.  This first leg of the race went from Greenwich to the Coast.

To get there, we just walked a couple of blocks and hopped on a local bus to Woolich Village (in the borough of Greenwich).  So we avoided the starting crowds and had a great view, without having to get up at daybreak.

About an hour before the riders were due, there was a parade to entertain the crowds.  The sponsors threw out favors (bottled water, pens, sticky pads) and broadcast advertising messages, mostly in French, but some British and some Australian.  We didn't notice any USA presence at all in the "caravan" (parade).

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The El Diablo float is a tribute to the Race's #1 fan -- a German guy who follows the race  everywhere it goes dressed as a devil.   He is famous in his own right, as the number one sports fan anywhere. 

There was lots of security, but no problems.  We had a nice visit with three British policemen, who were a little bored as the crowd was gathering.  They had fairly easy duty over here in Woolich.  There were thousands and thousands of people at Trafalgar and in Greenwich at the start of the race. 

France even brought some of their own gendarmes with them.   

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We could not believe how quickly the racers sped by.  They were still pretty much in a pack at this early stage of the day.   The mass of riders is called a peloton; they ride like that to cut down on wind resistance. 

                                                                                      

                                                    

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The Australian rider, Robbie McEwen, who won this leg of the race fell later on this same day -- but still got back on and won the day.    After the racers went by, a whole line of cars with extra bikes followed -- apparently, the riders can switch bikes when they need to.

We hadn't expected to see this famous race while we were in Britain.  It was a good day, with absolutely perfect weather.  We also enjoyed walking around Woolwich, which has a very interesting history itself.

RAINVILLE ROAD, LONDON

(Click on thumb nail photos for larger views.)

Geoff wrote that he had come across a reference to Rainville Road, London.  As he said, what are the odds?  Our name's unusual enough that we were intrigued.  (Maybe if it was Smith or Jones, we wouldn't have immediately started to plan the trip.)

It turned out that Rainville Road is located in a very pretty part of West London in the borough of Hammersmith/Fulham.  We had another place we wanted to visit in the area of King's Cross, which was the nearest tube stop, so it made a great day.

And, wow!  "Our" street runs parallel to, and just a building's width away from, The River Thames --  it's east, across the river, from the new Chelsea Stadium.

It's a mixed use street, starting with some stores, a couple of good restaurants and a pub, and a nicely located architectural office.  There's a block of flats -- Rainville Court -- that have views of the river on the back side.   We walked through a little alley pointing to Dorset Wharf to get to the River Side of the street.    In the alley, we saw this little sign.  We're not usually fans of graffiti, but since it was Rainville Road, we thought it was really interesting to see our 9 year old grandson's name right there. 

This one's for you, Ryan:

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Below are some views of the street and river side of Rainville Road.   These flats, according to a fellow we met who lives there, are worth 5-7 hundred thousand pounds. Nice name, nice neighborhood!   

                               

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Sure wish we had more information on the  history of the road's name -- we haven't yet been able to find out anything more about it.  Maybe if we have time, we'll go back to the Borough and see what we can learn.

GREENWICH OBSERVATORY

In Greenwich we visited the Royal Observatory, home of Greenwich Mean Time (GMT).  You can see the telescope dome to the left, and the red time ball that drops at 1:00 PM each day.  Major studies by the astromomers and the development of accurate clocks enabled the establishment of the longitudinal navigational lines around earth.  The lines start here, at the Prime Meridian, where Sallie is standing with one foot in each hemisphere.

By an international agreement  of 1864, this is the official starting point for every new day, month and year.

The Observatory was founded by King Charles II in 1675, and the building designed by Christopher Wren.   The main purpose was to improve navigation.  In 1714, the British Government offered a prize of 20,000 pounds (a fortune for those days) to anyone who could come up with a solution to provide longitude to ships at sea.  Because there was no way for ships to figure out where they were at sea, the nation had experienced many shipwrecks with devastating losses.

The eventual winner of the prize was John Harrison, who designed a marine chronometer that worked.  We visited the Time Galleries, which feature the winning one and other tries by him and others.  There are other historic timepieces and interactive explorations of time in our lives.

 

This is part of the reconstruction of the home of the first Royal Astronomer, John Flamstead, which was a part of the Royal Observatory.  Although made a member of "The Royal Household", Mr Flamstead received only 100 pounds a year for his work and that of his wife, who served as his assistant.  When he died, his wife -- not so surprisingly -- sold most of his belongings. 

Here is a good website for more information about the Observatory and its museums:  http://www.rog.nmm.ac.uk

TWO ADVENTURES THAT WERE NOT PHOTO-OPS

We found this teeny little door with this sign - enlarged here:

Most signs in London are very polite, so this was an anomaly.  Nobody else  was around on the day we found it (the umbrellas might offer a clue to the reason).  The door -- we have no idea what it is really for -- is in one of the many alley-like streets in Southwark, the borough near London Bridge station.

We have quite a few things we don't want to forget, but that we have no pictures of, so this is a good place to throw in a couple.  Very near this little alley is Vinopolis, City of Wine.   We know England's not quite famous for its wine, but this huge visitor center/tasting room was really worth a visit.  It's built in the railway vaults over the site of an ancient Roman Wine Store.    There's a very good self-guided tour of every wine-growing region in the world, with tastings -- you get to pick five or six.  There's even a Bombay Gin room, cocktail included.  Bill ordered a dry martini -- and the bartender was pleased to make it.  Most people were ordering frou-frou pink gin drinks, that were probably beneath his true talent. 

We got in to this and a whole bunch of other attractions for a third of the price by showing our monthly train pass.  They were running a spring special when we first got here and now a summer one.  Such a deal!  (Several things we really wanted to see -- the Tates and the National Gallery and the British Museum -- are free to the public.) 

Here's another day's adventure -- totally unrelated, except that we have no pictures. 

We went to Old Bailey and watched part of an on-going murder trial.  Security was pretty tight -- we went there before the attempted car-bombings, so it might even be more stringent now.    Bags, cameras, phones etc., were not allowed at all -- and there was no place to check bags (as there had been when we went to Parliament).  Fortunately, we  read those rules on the internet before we went.

It was very easy to see the action in the courtroom -- all of the barristers and the judge were wearing the requisite white wigs.  (The defense attorney had stringy greasy looking hair showing under the back of hers -- maybe it's not worth it to shampoo/style  when you have to mess it up with the wig.)  We were quite close enough to watch the jurors' faces and to see and hear the defendant (and her interpreter) as she testified.    The trial involved an Indian woman who was accused of an honor killing of her daughter-in-law.  Her son/the husband was also on trial, but we only saw him under guard in the defendant's box, right underneath where we were sitting.  The guards seemed to have the easiest, or most boring, job ever -- two of them sat there reading paperback novels the whole time we were there.  The potential danger is probably worth something however.

Oddly, given the wigs and all, the trial was a lot less formal than we had expected.  For example, the jury members were allowed to interrupt to ask questions during the testimony. 

For the momemts we were there, we could understand how people get hooked on court-watching as a pastime.   We kind of want to go back, but there are so many other things to do.  (We haven't, so far, been able to find out what has happened in this trial -- it's just one of many many trials that are going on daily.) 

But, in any case,  now when we watch public TV or read Rumpole, we can say we know where it is!

EATING (OR NOT) IN LONDON

These are scenes from the Borough Market, near London Bridge.  It's a fun altrnative to the two supermarkets where we shop and we're close enough to bring food home on the train.  The Market is open Thursday through Sunday and features fresh food directly from the growers.   

    On the right are pictures of Bill shopping in one of the stalls.

                         

           

Can't believe we didn't get pictures of the veggie stands.  They are beautiful and stuff is delicious.  Too busy buying I guess.

Geoff put this comment on the blog earlier (back in the archives now).   It's so appropriate that we're copying it here in case you missed it:  (And adding pictues.)

I'm posting a list of awesome british food that I hope you'll try before your return. Why there aren't British restaurants on every corner I'll never know!
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Black Pudding
Weetabix
Marmite
Scotch Pies
Yorkshire Pudding
Sticky Toffee Pudding
Cornish Pasties
Bubble and Squeak
Haggis                                       
Spotted Dick
Toad In the Hole
Scotch eggs

I'm pretty sure we won't be trying the Black Pudding -- it's featured on a lot of breakfast menus, though.  Weetabix is just a brand of shredded wheat.  Bubble and Squeak is like fried mashed potato cake with cabbage grated in.  It's not too bad -- the little cafe (pronounced KAFF) where we've had breakfast a few times serves it.  It's better than the British hashbrowns.

Pasties are small stuffed meat pies to be eaten out of hand.  The word is pronounced with a short a -- and they taste like a word you'll think of that patsy/pasty rhymes with.    We tried them sort of by mistake and once was enough. 

We're still working on the rest of the list-- or not.  Meanwhile -- London is a cosmopolitan city.  Almost everything we want is available in the supermarkets.  Just like when we travel in the states, there's more of some things and less of others.  They like beans here -- as in canned baked type.  These are served with every breakfast, unless you ask for tomahtoes instead.