England with Cori - 2005

London, Netherlands, Cambridge, Edinburgh, Stonehenge

Blog by Mavis

I saved this blog from 2005 when Cori and I went to Europe for 3 weeks. My camera broke near the end of this trip so pictures are mostly ones that I found on the web—such as it was back then.

Thursday, February 3

Friday, February 4

2nd blog today. I bought a coat at lunch. It's a nice tan suede-like material with black lining. It has removable quilted lining so it can be warmer or lighter. I think it'll be good for the trip.

Yesterday at the book store I told one of the guys who works there I was going to London and he said, "For the Cream concert?" I said, "No, because I like Jane Austen. I'm not that cool, I'm afraid."

Saturday, February 5

Last night I kept waking up so I was reading a lot. My Rick Steves book was in my backpack and I didn't feel like getting it so I started reading the Lonely Planet England book. I read the history of England part. They have a very condensed version of the history of England. Too bad my sister Jan can't come with us; she knows all that history so well. Someday we sisters plan to go to England. Anyway, the history in the Lonely Planet book is written rather amusingly. Here are two quotes I liked:

When the Hundred Years' War finally ground to a halt in 1453, you'd have thought things would be calm for a while. But no.

AND

William was married to James' own daughter Mary, but it didn't seem to stop him doing the dirty on his father-in-law.

Tuesday, February 8

I just booked tickets for Macbeth by the Royal Shakespeare Company Friday 4th March, 7:30 pm. Also booked tickets for The Hollow Crown on Saturday at 2:30 in Stratford-Upon-Avon. Woo-hoo!!

Last night I discovered that there is a "Georgette Heyer Walk" in Bath. I definitely want to do that. Rick Steves' book said there was a literature festival in Bath and when I looked it up there was a link to this tour guide who does these walks. There's also a Jane Austen Walk but I think I'll go for the Georgette Heyer one for this time.

Thursday, February 10

Well, I've really been trying to do my homework. Tomorrow I meet with the travel agent I've been working with. I put a bunch of things on a calendar to try to map out when we'll do at least the "must see" stuff in the Rick Steves' book. At lunch today I was reading about Stonehenge and Bath. If it seems reasonable I think we'll try to go to Cambridge as another day trip, too. I read about the Cotswolds and those sounded great, too, but I think it'd just be too much to try to add that in. We'll just have to go back some day.

Monday, February 14

Haven't done much else as far as planning lately but my son Zach told me he wants "some Dutch stuff" from Holland. He said he wanted a Dutch hat and he didn't know what else. He asked, "Can't you just look up Dutch stuff on the web?" I didn't think googling "Dutch stuff" would get me too far so I googled "Netherlands". He liked the flag so I'll look for a flag for him. Maybe I can get him a flag from Friesland, too, if I see it, and one from England and Scotland.

Tuesday, February 15

I met today with my travel agent, Nellwyn Doornbos. It really made me feel like the trip is real. We were looking at a list of things we'll be doing and talking about trips to & from the airport, to Edinburgh, Bath & Stonehenge, etc. It's pretty soon! Woo hoo!

Thursday, February 24

Less than a week. I'm going to post my itinerary but I'm too tired tonight. I'll do it later.

Yesterday when I came in to work I had a voicemail message. When I checked it was from my daughter Cori. All she said was, in a whispery voice, "MOM, we leave in a week!" That was it. I love it!

She also wrote an email saying that during the weekend at one point she took out her suitcase and just looked at it. Crazy, but it makes her happy just to look at it and think about the trip. I can totally relate. Every time I think of it I break into a big grin.

Not excited, are we?????

Sunday, February 27

Tomorrow's the day!!!! Here's our itinerary, as far as booked or reserved things:

Mon., Feb. 28, 4:45 pm, Lv San Francisco
Tues., Mar. 1, 10:30 am, Arr London Heathrow
Fri., Mar. 4, 7:30 pm, Macbeth @ Albery Theatre, London
Sat., Mar. 5, 2:30 pm, The Hollow Crown @ The Royal Shakespeare Theatre, Stratford-Upon-Avon
Sun., Mar. 6, 10:00 am, Lv London Heathrow
Sun, Mar. 6, 12:25 pm, Arr Amsterdam
Thurs., Mar. 10, 10:25 am, Lv Amsterdam
Thurs., Mar. 10, 10:50 am, Arr London Heathrow
Sat., Mar. 12, 7:30 pm, Sing-A-Long Sound of Music @ Broadway Theatre, Catford
Mon., Mar. 14, Leave London on BritRail to Edinburgh, Scotland
Wed., Mar. 16, Return on BritRail from Scotland
Thurs., Mar. 17, Tour of Stonehenge, Salisbury & Bath

I have lists and books full of things we want to do, but these are the scheduled events, so far.

Cori is driving in from San Diego today and I'll be packing. I can't believe tomorrow's really the day!

Tuesday, March 1

We're in London! Cori and I just took a half hour walk after eating lunch/dinner in a pub called The Rat and Parrot. I had a beef pot pie that I think Randy would have liked. Cori had fish & chips.

Our flight was fine. Now we're very tired and heading back to our room. It's raining a lot so besides tired we're wet, but as Cori says, "That makes it more real." Tomorrow we hope to take a hop-on hop-off bus and get better orientated.

Wednesday, March 2

Our first day in London went well. We walked a little ways to a bus stop and got on "The Big Bus" Hop-on, Hop-off. We got a nice tour of London and its buildings and sites. The guide was Scottish and took care to point out anything related to Scotland.

There was one building that he told us to look at and see if we could guess what it was built to resemble. I guessed correctly -- a ship. So I won the prize -- nothing! :) We hopped off at one point to have some lunch. Two times people told us where a place was and we couldn't find it. But we found a decent spot and had a bite, then hopped back on until St. Paul's Cathedral.

That was very beautiful and interesting. I liked the grave of Florence Nightingale. When I was a girl and went through a streak of reading biographies I read about her and also Clara Barton. This also was the church where Prince Charles and Di were married and the site for many British "jubiliees." The graves of Admiral Nelson and the Duke of Wellington are there, too. Basically you can't walk without walking on someone's grave. There are 520 steps up to the dome which is supposed to have a great view, but we decided not to do that since we'll go on the London Eye for the view another time -- which doesn't require so much stair climbing!

We hopped back on to go to the London Tower but by then it was almost 4:00 and the guide said you really need 2 - 3 hours for the Tower so we'll go there tomorrow. We finished with a boat ride down the Thames.

Then we took the tube back to the hotel. We liked the tube; when you wait it's inside and warm. When we waited outside for the buses it was quite cold and rainy. I knew there'd probably be rain but I didn't expect it to be quite this cold. I hope that since we'll be here 3 weeks it won't be this cold the whole time.

Right now Cori is napping and I'm writing this from the hotel lobby, which is convenient. More later.

Scenes from the bus and the river tour

London Eye

London Tower

Tower Bridge

Thursday, March 3

Today was a great day - a very touristy day. The first great thing was when I woke up and looked out the window I saw blue sky! Hooray! It was clear all day. Chilly but not unbearable and the sun made it easy to take.

In the morning we took the tube to Buckingham Palace to see the changing of the guard. We're quite proud of ourselves for understanding the tube now. We asked for help the first day but after that we've been able to figure out what we need to do and where to go and even make changes between lines. It's a great system.

The changing of the guard was fun. We got there quite early and I took a lot of pictures. The guards did all their marching and playing behind the gates so that was a little hard to see from where we stood, but they did march out and there were carriages and horses and trumpets and all that in the street in front of the palace. The sun shining on all the gold on the gates was pretty.

After that, we went to the Tower of London. We spent hours there. There's so much to see. We got an audio tour and followed those directions to hear all about the various buildings and prisoners who'd lived -- and died -- there. I hadn't realized that Sir Walter Raleigh was there. He actually had his family living with him and even wrote a book while there, but in the end he was still executed. I took a picture of Cori in the tower window where Lady Jane Grey had been.

One very impressive part of the tour was the Crown Jewels. They're amazing. There's a scepter -- or maybe it's a sword or something else, I can't remember -- with the largest diamond in the world. All the stones were incredible, and the carving. The display was in a glass cabinet with a moving sidewalk on both sides. We went around both sides twice. It's nice not to be dealing with huge crowds. Cori's favorite crown was "Queen Victoria's Small Diamond Crown". Imagine having "just a small crown" made for yourself.

After that we went back to Buckingham Palace hoping to see some Dutch paintings being exhibited there but we were too late. We'll do that tomorrow, probably. Instead, we went to Harrod's. Cori found a very cute top she could actually afford. And we ended the day by having cream tea there. Mmmm, scones with clotted cream and jam. Can't get much better than that.

Tomorrow we'll be going to Macbeth. It's in London and I think we should be able to find it from the directions now that we know the underground. Saturday is a play in Stratford-Upon-Avon. That I'll have to find out how to get to.

We noticed some Britishisms:

Exit = Way Out

Yield = Give Way

To go = To take away

My venti, nonfat, no whip mocha at Starbucks (yes, we've gone to Starbucks in London) is a venti, skinny milk, no cream.

It's fun to hear the little kids with their British accents, too. One boy got into his subway seat quick so no one would pinch it. :)

Friday, March 4

Today is not over yet but I thought I'd blog now rather than later. This morning it was very cold again. The headlines yesterday were about how cold it is, so unusual for this time of year, blah, blah, blah. Just our luck that the one time we come to London it's setting records for cold. Today they're saying it's supposed to end tonight, though. We've been able to pretty much ignore it and have fun anyway.

Today we first took the tube to Victoria Station where we had been told we should go about getting a train ticket to Stratford-Upon-Avon for tomorrow, when we have tickets to a play there. It took a bit of wandering and searching but we finally found the place and bought the ticket. The stupid thing was they said we had to get a timetable, to know what time we would leave, from the station we would leave from, which they said was Paddington Station. So we went there to find that out and discovered we actually need to go to Marylebone Station. However, this ticket agent was able to tell us the train would leave at 8:54 am so now we know.

We went back to Buckingham Palace to see the Dutch Master's Paintings in the Queen's Gallery there. We both really enjoyed that. There was an audio explanation of many of the paintings and it was also fun to see the beautiful rooms in the palace. The ceilings were different in each one, and very pretty with arches and carving and sometimes skylight windows.

There were several paintings by artists we recognized such as Rembrandt and Vermeer and also a few by Jan Steen. His name is familiar to me because Grandma Grace Kok used to say sometimes that her house was like a Jan Steen -- his pictures show messy houses. :) One of his paintings had an audio explanation and the speaker said that Steen often made plays on words in his paintings. In that one he showed a woman putting on her stocking and there was a chamber pot nearby. I guess there's some saying about putting on a stocking in haste causing a hole and there's also something about a chamber pot and by putting the two close to each other he was showing that she was a lascivious (sp??) woman. Cori really liked the paintings with sailboats and water. They are very pretty. And I love the skies in so many of the paintings.

We looked around at the shop afterward and I was very tempted to buy a tea cup and saucer in the "Queen's China" pattern. It's kind of expensive so I'm thinking about it. We can always go back.

We had lunch in a pub and then went to Regent Street where we thought we might do some shopping. There are lots of stores that looked like they'd be fun to go in but after wandering around Liberty Dept. Store we really didn't have much time left. We came back to the hotel and Cori is taking a nap for an hour while I blog.

Tonight we go to Macbeth at the Albery Theatre. We have directions and I think we shouldn't have trouble finding it. The theatre said it's just a 2 minute walk from the tube station. The tube is sure great.

More tomorrow.

Saturday, March 5

Here I am again. Tomorrow we leave for the Netherlands so I thought I'd blog one last time before then. We'll be back in 4 days.

First, before I forget, Cori asked me to say hi to her friends -- Krikke, Jess, Elyse & Kristin if you're reading this Cori says she WILL write but she just hasn't gotten to it yet. She's suffering more from jet lag than I am. She's very tired when we get back to the hotel.

To begin with where I left off, last night Macbeth was absolutely wonderful. The theatre was fun and the actors were great and the whole thing was terrific. If Ray is reading this he might be interested to hear that one of the main characters, the Prince who becomes the King at the end, was an Indian actor. I can't remember his name; I'll have to look it up.

Today we went to Stratford-Upon-Avon. We had tickets to a play at 2:30. I'd somehow hoped we'd be able to do a bus tour plus the play but by the time the train arrived it was lunch time and by the time lunch was done we needed to go to the play and when that was done we needed to catch the train again.

Actually, we missed the train and that was a real bummer. We discovered the trains are definitely more difficult to understand than the underground. And people were not extremely helpful. The guy at the Stratford station told us we could take the next train and change at Birmingham. We noticed there were 3 Birmingham stations and we had to ask him which one. Then when we got there we somehow either got things wrong or were told something wrong and ended up not catching the next train to London. We waited about an hour to get the next one, and that one was late and had a platform change besides, which was all rather stress-making. However, we made it.

The play we went to see in Stratford-Upon-Avon was great! It was The Hollow Crown and there were just 4 actors and a singer - sort of like a troubadour, actually. Three men and one woman (and the singer was a man). The woman was the actor who played Harriet Vane in Lord Peter Wimsey and I hadn't realized it was the same actor but she also played Fanny in Sense & Sensibility. Two of the men looked familiar, too, but I'm not sure where I've seen them. Anyway, they told different stories or read letters or poems or songs about the kings and queens from way back until Elizabeth. It was great, quite funny in many places. Both Cori and I said that when the singer sang it would make us think of Monty Python. :)

Last night I talked to Sandra, who we'll be visiting in Holland. She remarked, too, that the weather is so unusual. Today wasn't as bad, it didn't rain on us anyway, just cold. Anyway, we're looking forward to going to the Netherlands tomorrow. I'll write more when we get back!

Sunday, March 6

Today we are in the Netherlands. We arrived yesterday around 11 am. Sandra and her little girl Joy were at the airport waiting for us. Joy is almost 3 and her son Ruben is almost 1. We went to Sandra's house for tea with Mark and then she brought us to the "summer house" in her parents' house's back yard. Mark, who's a chef, brought us a delicious casserole for dinner and then afterward we walked to town and had a drink at a pub there.

It's quite cold here with some snow on the ground. This is a beach town, right by the ocean. It would be fun to be here in the summer. We'll have to come back someday. It must be warming up a bit, though, because today there's quite a bit less snow on the ground.

In England we were using British pounds; now we needed to get some Euros. It's strange to feel like a kindergartner with money. In England when the clerk says that something is, say, 3 pounds, 54 pence, I know it'll take me an embarrassing amount of time to count the coins out because I have to read each one to see what's what. I keep using bills and getting change when I'm sure I have the change. The lowest paper bill is 5 pounds. Once a clerk told me to just pour the coins out and he would make it fine. I really felt like a dummy then.

British coins

British pound

Dutch Euro

Here in Holland people quickly switch to English so it's not difficult to communicate. Last night the bartender asked Cori if she was Swedish.

Sandra will be here soon and we'll take a walk and have breakfast with her. Then Sandra has to work so Cori and I hope to take a bus to Leiden. Yesterday Cori saw her first windmill. Sandra told Joy to tell Cori when she saw the "molen." We're thinking we'll learn some Dutch from Joy since she speaks simple sentences. :)

Monday, March 7

Today was a good day. We had breakfast with Sandra. Then we took a walk on the beach. It's a really nice beach. I can see why Sandra and Mark want to live here. It's so nice to be able to just walk to it. There's a pretty lighthouse near the beach and lots of hotels and restaurants.

After that Sandra went off to work and we got on the bus to Leiden. There is a shopping street there, a narrow street with no cars, with lots of nice stores. The exchange rate is better here (Euros instead of Pounds) so it made it more fun to shop. Cori found two very cute pair of pants that were long enough! And she also bought a cute jacket/coat that looks great on her. I bought a brown blouse and a purse. Many of the stores we went to were little shops just there, but one went to was H & M, which Cori had been hoping to find because she liked their clothes but it's only available in Chicago and New York in "the states,"

After our shopping we walked to a cathedral in Leiden called "Pieterskerk" but it was all closed up. Then we went to a "Pannekoekenhaus" (I think that's how it's spelled -- a Pancake House) for a Dutch pancake dinner. I'd had them when my sister Jan and I visited our parents in Holland years ago. Dutch pancakes are thin and big -- they take up the whole dinner plate. They don't taste like a crepe or Swedish pancakes but they're thin like that, not like American pancakes. You can get them with sweet stuff on them such as apples or ice cream or you can get them with meat or cheese or whatever. I got one with ham and mushrooms and Cori got one called the "farmer's pancake" which had bacon, onions, mushrooms and cheese, sort of like a pizza pancake.

There was a big canister of syrup (stroep) on each table with a long wooden spoon sticking out of it that you dipped in and drizzled syrup from. Cori thought it was weird to put syrup on pancakes that didn't have sweet stuff on them but once she tried it she liked it. The syrup is not like American, either, it's not maple, just sweet. I don't know what it's made from really. Each table also had powdered and brown sugar. Zack would have liked the powdered sugar.

There was a big "molen" (windmill) museum in Leiden, too, but by the time we walked to it it looked like it was closed. I took some pictures of it and also of the streets and canals. The city has lots of old buildings and skinny streets with bridges over the canals. Cori noticed the Dutch fronts of the buildings which reminded her of Lynden (Washington, where my parents, brother & sister live), only, as she said, these are real. :) Also LOTS of bikes and cyclists!

"molen"

A bike parking lot! Leiden.

Dutch canal

My favorite picture of Cori - in Holland

Noordewijk lighthouse

Wednesday, March 9

Well, I am rewriting this blog because I had it almost all written and then I deleted it all because I can't read Dutch! I meant to undo my last step, so I pressed the undo icon, it asked a question in Dutch and when I said Ja my entire blog disappeared! The perils of not knowing other languages.

Anyway, we had a good day yesterday. Sandra, the kids, Cori & I went to Madurodam and the city of Delft. Madurodam is a park with miniature buildings of the Netherlands -- miniature Den Haag, Schiphol airport, castles, cathedrals, etc. It's cute but it was a little cold for us. It was fun to walk around with the kids, though.

Then we went to Delft. We first had lunch there and then went through "Nieuwe Kerk" and "Oude Kerk" -- new church, built in the 1300's and old church, built in the 1200's. Both were beautiful. The chandeliers in the Nieuwe Kerk were impressive and we also saw the lid of the underground vault where the Dutch kings, queens and family are buried.

Sandra said that they close the church all up to prepare for days for funerals and weddings and everything. The lid of the vault is so heavy they bring a truck in to lift it. Sandra had seen it on TV. a few times because several family members died recently - the old queen Juliana, her husband and another family member.

In the Oude Kerk we really enjoyed the stained glass windows because we could figure out what they were picturing. There was one with a bunch of the parables and others with many other recognizable scenes - Moses and the 10 commandments, Jesus and the moneychangers, Jonah and the whale, and so on.

The city of Delft is a fun place to visit. There's a big central square between the two churches and little cobblestone streets, bridges and canals. We found quite a few souvenirs and gifts to bring home.

I'm going to see if I can find a few pictures of Delft. In case you didn't figure it out, I'm cheating with my pictures. I'm using things I find from googling. I don't have a digital camera but I am taking tons of photos that I will show to anyone who'll let me when I get home.

Today Sandra, Cori and I are going to go to Amsterdam. That should be fun.

Here is a link to Dave Barry's website. My sister Jan sent it to me because he's also traveling in London. Some pretty funny photos: http://weblog.herald.com/column/davebarry/

Cori and Joy

Sandra and Reuben

Joy

Nieuwe Kerk outside

Nieuwe Kerk inside

Oude Kerk outside

One of the windows at Oude Kerk

Thursday, March 10

So here I am again with 2 days' worth of blogging to do. Yesterday we spent the whole day in Amsterdam with Sandra. It was absolutely fantastic.

First we took the train to Amsterdam. It was great having Sandra to tell us where to go with us not having to do any figuring out -- or trying to. When we got off the train we got an "I Am..sterdam" card. You can get them for 24 - 48 - or more hours and they give free rides on the trams, entrance to the sites, etc. We used it for several tram rides and also entrance to the Van Gogh museum and a canal boat ride.

We went on the canal boat ride first. It was quite clear and there were even some blue skies so we figured it'd be a good thing to do first. It was very cool. I took tons of pictures of the houses crowded along the canals with their varied Dutch fronts, Dutch shutters, doors, etc. They're all quite narrow because, I think, they used to tax people according to the width of their house so they built tall narrow ones. All the houses have pulleys up at the top to use for moving furniture and other large items in -- nothing can go up the narrow twisty staircases.

After the ride we went to the Van Gogh Museum. We had to make a choice of one museum because that's all we had time for. I hated to miss the Rijksmuseum but we were in Holland and it seemed appropriate to choose the Van Gogh Museum. It was great. Cori loves his paintings, too, so we all enjoyed it.

Then we had a drink and then dinner. We went to a Thai restaurant that we happened upon and the food was delicious. After dinner we took a walk through the red light district. I hadn't been there before but I knew what to expect. Cori was quite surprised at seeing these women standing in the windows. She thought it was unbelievable. Sad, too, really.

After that it was getting late and we headed home, our last night in the Netherlands. Our visit to Holland was a highlight. It was so fun to be with Sandra and so nice to stay in her folks' summer house, get up in the morning, make tea and breakfast. Both Cori and I really loved the Dutch tea; we bought a bunch to bring home.

This morning Sandra took us to the airport. We arrived in London around noon / 11 am (11 in London, noon in Holland). We had to go through customs and all that again, but the lines weren't as long as when we first arrived in London. We met a young woman in the line who'd recently returned from 50 weeks in Iraq, in the Army. She was from Oklahoma and grew up in a Navy family - her father and brothers are all Navy. But she went Army because they pay for school before going rather than after. She actually said Iraq wasn't too bad and she'd "do it again if they asked." Amazing. She said their team only lost one person and "he was killed by a direct hit which was good....I mean it sucks that he passed away but at least if you have to go that's the way to go."

Friday, March 11

I was cut off yesterday because I ran out of coins for the computer and neither the reception nor the bar at the hotel had any coins.

So, to start where I left off, yesterday we came back to the hotel and after putting our stuff away and all we decided to go to the Cabinet War Rooms. These are rooms down in the basement of the government building that were secret during WWII and used by Winston Churchill and others who were leading the war. It was a really interesting tour. The rooms were in this sort of rabbit warren of hallways and rooms, some were meeting rooms, some bedrooms or dining rooms, some map rooms, phone rooms, typing rooms. It was excellent. I took some pictures of the offices so I can show those of you in office furniture some of the office setups down there -- definitely not the great Herman Miller stuff we sit in and sell!

Besides an audio tour of the rooms, which were set up exactly as they had been the last day of the war (often with the original furniture), there was also a Churchill Museum that just opened in February. It, too, was excellent. There was so much there we couldn't get to it all. There was a lot of interactive stuff, such as how Churchill wrote his speeches, a huge display where you chose dates from his entire lifetime and read about events that happened on those dates, photos and pieces of his speeches. It was great. I so wished Randy was with us for all this; I know he'd have really liked it. And he could have told us a lot more about things with all the knowledge he's already got.

Here's a link to a site about it: http://cwr.iwm.org.uk/server/show/nav.00f

The map on the far wall shows where the troops are with the count of soldiers indicated on each little square. The narrative included a person who told about how sad it was to have to erase the totals and replace it with smaller numbers when soldiers were killed in the battles. The green phone in the foreground is a special, "scramble" phone that prevented people being able to eavesdrop on the conversations.

Saturday, March 12

Today was a good day, too. We had a kind of leisurely morning. I sewed buttons on both my and Cori's coat this morning with a needle and thread I'd gotten from Sandra. We both have new coats and the buttons were falling off.

After breakfast, we headed out to the British Museum. After walking around a while there I admitted to Cori that I can't really get too excited about ancient historical stuff -- statues from pyramids, mummies, etc. Cori agreed and we were both glad the museum is free. We did walk through several floors and saw interesting things. The most interesting to me was the Rosetta Stone. There was one extremely old mummy in the fetal position that was pretty impressive, too.

After that, we got on the tube to go to the Globe Theatre to take a tour there. We read which stop to get off on in my Rick Steves' book. But when we got off at the London Bridge stop we looked at the map we got from the hotel and it appeared that this stop was way far away from the Globe, marked as #17 on the map. So we went back on the tube to a stop closer and started walking to it. As we walked, we saw a store called Top Shop which is a clothes brand Cori had heard of but never been in. We stopped there and Cori found several cute things that were actually affordable. I also found a bag I really liked.

Then we continued walking and found a bookstore we decided to check out. As I walked to the "H" section, I saw a whole bunch of Georgette Heyer books. I loved it! They were really nice looking with new covers that are really pretty and it seemed like all her romances were there, not just the few that have been reprinted and I've found in US bookstores. I could hardly contain myself; I wanted to buy them all. I have a bunch of them, in fact, several copies of many, that my sister kindly let me keep, but to see all these nice new ones. When I chose a few and went to buy them I told the clerk excitedly how great it was to find them all and "Look how pretty they are" and so on. Cori said the clerk looked at her while I was talking and smiled, and Cori kind of rolled her eyes. They're published by Arrow books. I may have to try to buy more online later. :)

After the bookstore adventure we walked on to try to find the Globe Theatre. It seemed not to be where the map indicated so we asked in a restaurant if they knew where it was. They told us it WAS near the London Bridge stop we'd gone to first. It turns out there's a blue coloured (notice British spelling :) ) 17 and a red coloured one so there were two #17's and we'd been walking toward the wrong one. It had seemed weird that Rick Steves had steered us wrong; and it turned out he hadn't.

By then, though, it was late afternoon and we wanted to attend Evensong at Westminster so we went there instead. We shopped in the Abbey Bookshop for a little while before the service started and got a couple CDs with hymns. Then we went to Evensong. I think that service is one of my favourite things of England so far. It was awesome. We sat in these wooden seats where there are high backs and arms and a bunch of carved arches between each seat, with an angled table for the Psalms book and Order of Worship in front of you that has a cushioned kneeling stool underneath. The priests and the choir filed in at the beginning of the service. Our pews/seats sat in 3 rows facing each other across a wide aisle. The choir (of men and boys in robes with high white collars) sat half on one side, half on the other, also facing each other. They sang most of the service. It was so beautiful. Sometimes they sang in unison, sometimes one side would sing, then the other.

There was no accompaniment (spelling??). One person would hum a beginning note and then they'd sing. There were many parts. You really heard the voices as an instrument. And the acoustics with the high arched ceilings and all were just incredible. When they'd finish a note, it would continue for a minute, like when you hold the pedal down on a piano. Cori said when they started to sing it brought tears to her eyes; mine, too. Sometimes there was a cantor who the choir would answer.

There were two lessons - a new and old testament - and some responsive reading by those of us in the congregation. At several places the Order of Worship instructed us to kneel. Both Cori and I realized how uncomfortable we are when we kneel. Poor Cori's back really suffered. After a while we sat rather than kneeled, as did many others. It was interesting that one of the prayers, right in the Order of Worship, was for the royal family. The priest prayed for the Queen, her husband and Prince Charles of Wales by name. He also prayed for Parliament which has been having long discussions about some laws - late into the early morning hours.

Westminster Abbey. We sat in the back row on the left side near the foreground of the picture. The choir sat facing each other a few feet to the left of us.

Which reminds me...yesterday Cori and I were on the tube and a man ran on at the last minute right before the door closed. Just to be friendly, I said, "You made it," and he started to talk with us, asking where we were from and all. He mentioned he was a member of Parliament and I said that I'd heard on the news about a long argument going on in Parliament. He said he was in the House of Lords. So we met a Lord! We were kicking ourselves later that we didn't ask his name. He was very friendly. He told us he lived in a village outside of London where "not much changes from one century to the next and that's the way we like it."

To continue, after the Evensong service we went back to the Leicester stop where most of the theatres are. We'd heard there are places there where you can buy discount tickets so we went to see if we could find something for a musical. We were interested in going to Mary Poppins but that's sold out all the time and has no discounts available. There is the possibility of a half price ticket for Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Coat next Friday. The guy told us to come in the morning to see if we could get something so we hope to do that.

We decided then to come on back to the hotel, drop off our stuff and find a place nearby to eat. There are lots of pubs and restaurants of all ethnicities right on the street by the hotel. It's in a very good location with two tube stops close by. It's nice having two nearby because sometimes it makes it easier to go to one or the other because they’re on two different lines. It reduces the times we have to change.

As we were waiting for the train at one point, with our several bags of clothes, books and other purchases, Cori said, "This is the best Christmas ever." :)

Sunday, March 13

So, I have some making up to do. It's been a couple days now since I've written.

First, I forgot about a couple more things we did the day we went to the Cabinet War Rooms. After we got out of the war rooms, we walked around St. James Park. (On the tube the announcement pronounces it "Sint Jameses Pahk".) It was quite a nice day and the sun was getting ready to set so there was pink in the sky. Spring is just beginning; there were a few buds here and there and quite a lot of daffodils. There are a lot of birds in this park. There were both white and black swans swimming around, various ducks and some kind of bird that goes in the water but its feet are not webbed - more like chicken feet - and it's black with a red beak. Also a pretty brown and white one with sort of spiked head feathers.

After that walk we went on the London Eye. It looks like a huge ferris wheel against the skyline. I guess Virgin Air sponsored it for some kind of exhibition and it was supposed to be temporary but it's become so popular they're thinking of keeping it more permanently. It has these round things completely see-through with a bench in the middle you can sit in and it gives you a beautiful view of the city as you go around. It moves very slowly, takes a half hour to go all the way around.

About 15 people go into each round thing and you stand there looking at the view and taking pictures. It was just sunset as we got on and the view was great. I took a ton of pictures, probably too many. It'll be like, "Here is Big Ben as we were going up; here it is at the top; here it is as we were going down." :)

So that catches me up on that day. Now yesterday our planned event was the "Sing-A-Long-Sound of Music" at 7:30 pm.

In the morning we decided to go to the Shakespeare Globe for a tour. It was a great building and good tour. The tour guide was very enthusiastic about the theatre; you could tell she loves it. They've tried to reproduce very closely what the original Globe was like.

There's room for the "groundlings" who stand for the whole play in front of the stage, and wooden seating around the edges. It's a round building in the shape of an "O" with no roof in the middle, thatched roof over the seating on the edge. How great it would be to see a play there. They only show plays during the high tourist season. Some day I hope to come back for a play. The actors wear the Elizabethan clothing; they don't call it costumes. The stage is all painted with columns that look marble (although everything's wood) and beautiful "sky" paintings of the zodiac, clouds, sun & moon. There's the trap door where ghosts come out and the Romeo and Juliet balcony.

As we walked to the globe, we went through a big open-air market, most of which was under the bridges. There were tons of booths with fresh food - cheese, bread, sausages, oil & vinegar, wine, fruit, veggies, everything. We decided to buy bread, cheese, sausage and wine to take back to the room for lunch. We did and it was great.

Then we walked to the Portobello Road market. That one is just like the one you see on the movie "Notting Hill" with lots of shops on the road and booths on the street with nearly everything you can think of - antiques, clothes, jewelry, food, etc. It was very fun looking around for good deals.

After that we needed to go to the train station to catch a train to Catford Bridge and then go to Broadway Theatre for the "Sing-A-Long-Sound of Music." We were both rather nervous about going on the trains again, and rightly so. They really are quite difficult to navigate. I'd gotten directions about what station to go to and that wasn't a problem but then we bought a "return" ticket (which is what they call a round trip or 2-way ticket) to Catford Bridge. They said the next train to Catford would be at platform 1, 2 or 3. They don't seem to know the platform until the train is practically there. So everyone stands watching these boards that change as one train leaves. In this case were watching 1, 2 or 3 and we saw our train show up on the board for platform 1 but it didn't actually SAY it was on #1 so we didn't think we better go there 'til we knew for sure after our experience before with the last minute platform change.

As we waited we heard an announcement that sounded as if it were about our train but it was hard to hear with all the noise and the accent of the announcer. Finally we understood that it seemed to be saying our train would no longer start at this station where we were but was going to start at the London Bridge station and we had to get on the train to get to London Bridge immediately. We ran in to look at the screen and saw that platform 2's train was going there and we quick hopped on that. Then at the London Bridge station we did successfully get on the train we needed to get to Catford.

THEN we got off at the station I'd gotten in my directions but didn't know which way to the theatre. However, there were 3 girls dressed up in skirts and scarves out of "curtain-y" material (a reference to the play clothes Maria makes for the children in the movie) so we followed them and got to the theatre.

The thing is for this sing-a-long it's like they do for "Rocky Horror Picture Show" where people come dressed up and recite the movie. In this case they show the words to all the songs and everyone sings along. People were dressed up as kids in play clothes, nuns - lots of nuns -, the puppets, the lonely goatherd and its goat, and so on.

Before showing the movie a guy got up to "train" us all on when to sing or do other things. We each got a "goodie bag" for the "magic moments" in the movie. One item was a piece of drapery and when Maria flopped on her chair in disgust after the Captain says she can't make play clothes we were to all hold up the piece of material and yell "Behind you! Behind you!" There were several things like that and also a confetti "popper" for the magic moment when Maria and the Captain kissed. We were instructed, too, to bark "Rolf, rolf, rolf" whenever Rolf came on, hiss for the countess, boo at the Nazi's, and say "Ahhhh" for cute little Gretel.

Also before the show the announcer had everyone who'd dressed up come on stage to be applauded and rewards for the ones who got the most applause. One of the cutest groups was a mother and father and a bunch of kids who marched up as the father whistled. The announcer asked each of the kids their names and they all knew -- Liesl, Brigitta, Gretel, etc. They got a lot of applause.

Then they showed the movie and we all did our stuff - booing, hissing, singing, applauding, yelling at the appropriate magic moments and so on. Really ridiculous but fun.

After that we walked back to the train station and discovered we'd missed the last train back to London. Great! We are NOT lucky with trains. Fortunately another couple who'd been to the movie came up to the schedule and remarked they'd done the same thing. We walked with them to the bus stops nearby and they knew which one to stand at to get back to London. As long as we can get to a tube station we're okay. A bus came to Victoria Station and we made it home. The bus drivers are not so friendly here, or at least there, it seemed. As we ran up to check the first bus station we saw the bus we needed drive up and waved at it. He just pointed to the stop and continued - it was not the right stop, that was just about 6 feet further. Disgusting.

Which reminds me, today while crossing a road we heard London's version of road rage from a driver. He shook his fist out the window, yelled a guttural "Oooy, oooy," and then "Wanker!" several times. :)

Today was Sunday and we'd not really planned anything special. We wanted a more relaxing day and we needed to do some laundry. There's a laundromat just down the block so we went there after waking up, then got some breakfast. We kind of felt like eggs for breakfast. The hotel serves just rolls, jam and tea/coffee/hot chocolate. They have a menu for a full breakfast but I don't trust them for preparing good food. We're not impressed with their food - I knew it'd be continental breakfast so I expected just rolls and jam, but they seem to only buy new rolls about every 3 days. Usually the rolls are quite hard and dry. I spoke with our travel agent today and she said that's normal out here. Anyway, most restaurants seem not to be open for breakfast. We found one that said it was but when we sat down and looked at the menu, no eggs, just pastries. So we looked a little more then gave up and went to MacDonalds. Seems terrible to do that in London. After giving up and accepting that we did discover another place that has a full breakfast so if we decide to splurge once more before leaving now we know where to go.

After laundry and breakfast we went to the National Gallery. It's free and near Westminster Cathedral where we wanted to go to Evensong again -- for Sunday. It's pretty impressive what you can see there for free. Lots of masterpieces and a big beautiful building. We wandered around a bit there and enjoyed the art. Cori said she was kind of "museumed out" but she was a good sport about it still.

Then we stood in Trafalgar Square a while and enjoyed the Irish atmosphere. They had the fountains running green water and a bunch of Irish musicians on a big stage with 3 screens. Lots of Irish people in green scarves and hats drinking Guinness, waving Irish flags, all in honor of St. Patrick's.

When we got hungry for dinner we went to an Italian restaurant we walked by. The food there was great and it was a fun, Italian atmosphere. They were playing music like you'd hear on Godfather, and Frank Sinatra-like stuff, and the waiters and everyone were speaking Italian to each other. If Sandra Rudloff reads this blog she will know what I mean when I say that it reminded me of a certain fun night we had together in Chicago one time. ; ) Anyway, we enjoyed our dinner and then came back to the room to pack for Scotland.

We leave tomorrow for 2 days in Scotland so I'm not sure if I'll be able to write until we get back. We expect it will be cold there, according to the TV. reports, but we're looking forward to it. A little nervous about having to get on a train again but I'm sure we'll make it.

Tuesday, March 15

Here we are in Scotland!

We arrived yesterday around 1:00. We successfully got on the right train and had a very enjoyable train ride - about 4-1/2 hours. It was fun to watch the scenery changing from the city streets to the countryside and then the hills and sea in Scotland. The weather was actually good the whole trip.

We had no problem finding our hotel right near to the train station. We settled in there and then went shopping in the stores all up and down the street that the hotel's on. It was too late to do much sightseeing. We had tea at 4 and then pretty much vegged out for the evening in the room.

This morning we got up and went on a hop-on, hop-off bus through the city of Edinburgh. It's an impressive place. Edinburgh Castle is in the center of the city, built right up on the rocks of a craggy hill. We hopped off to take a tour through it. There's too much history to absorb, really. So many kings and queens and battles and all. It's interesting, though, and the castle is big and awesome.

After touring the castle we went to the "Whisky Heritage Center" on the street nearby. They're very proud of their whisky here, as you might imagine. This center's tour starts with a taste of the whisky of the day. Today's was called Rob Roy. They give you a special glass with a smaller opening at the top so you can get a good "nose" of the whisky. They talk about it a little like we talk about our California wines. The tour was kind of hoaky with several dorky films and demo's, but we did learn about how whisky's made and all so it was interesting. We each bought a little sampler of several varieties of whisky that we'll bring home to try. We also thought we'd sample something tonight in a local pub. After all, when in Rome..., right?

Next we hopped on the bus again and went to Holyrood Palace. This serves as the royal palace when the royal family comes to visit Scotland. We learned a lot about Mary Queen of Scots there. One interesting tidbit was that she was nearly 6 feet tall. Just like me! Of course, there was much more interesting information than that. We walked up the winding staircase that several conspirators used as they went to Mary's room where she was with a man they thought was her lover. They dragged him out and stabbed him. Mary escaped that time. She had a tragic life. The tour of the palace was very good. I'm glad we went to it. The last thing on the tour was Holyrood Abbey which is a ruin of the abbey that used to stand there. It's a very romantic site.

Tomorrow we'll take the train back to London and then the next day we'll be going to Stonehenge and Bath. Friday we're going to try to go to another play if we can get discount tickets and then Saturday we're hoping to go to Cambridge for the day.

By the way, I forgot to say in my previous blog that we did attend Evensong again on Sunday. This time there was an organist so we got to hear that beautiful big organ. Also a woman minister gave a very good sermon. They follow a lectionary and have the 1st and 2nd lessons, readings from the old and new testament. I could get into this high church stuff, I think. I really liked it.

Friday, March 18

Back in England. We had no trouble with the train returning, either, and an enjoyable train ride. I took several photos out the window; don't know how they'll turn out but I figured it wouldn't hurt to try.

Once we were home we just ate some supper and went to bed. Yesterday we took our tour bus to Stonehenge, Salisbury and Bath. It was our only scheduled tour like that. It went well but it was kind of strange being with about 40 other Americans like that. The tour guide was good; he's done this for many years and enjoys it.

Stonehenge was impressive even though you couldn't get right in there with the rocks. They have a pathway encircling it that you can walk on and take photos but you can't walk right into the stones. I've been told that some of the other stone circles are impressive and less commercialized but we did really enjoy seeing this. It was a great day for it, too, one of the sunniest so far.

After Stonehenge, we went to Salisbury and toured a medieval cathedral there. It was beautiful. I'd never heard of Salisbury or the cathedral but we enjoyed it. We had lunch there in a pub. We sat with a woman from New Jersey and her two grandsons, one in college and the other in high school. It sounded as if she takes her grandchildren on this trip when they get old enough.

Then we went to Bath. We really enjoyed that. I'd have liked to stay longer. We passed the house where Jane Austen lived but I didn't get a picture and it was too far to walk back to. We walked through the baths and springhouse. The water is hot - about 114 degrees. Some of the building is from Roman times. It was fun to walk around the city, too. The buildings are all made with yellow sandstone from the area so they look different than other places we've been.

The bus ride back to London was about 2-1/2 hours so that was a long day but we got off at a tube stop and went to a jazz club before going to bed. We read about three that were within walking distance of each other in the Soho area of town so we tried all three and were able to get into one - the others were too full and you had to have reservations. It was really fun.

The club we went to had this older black guy who sang and played piano with a group of 3 others - bass, drum, and guitar. He had an ultra-cool way of starting each song. First, we'd hear snapping but you couldn't even see any movement from him, then he'd say rhythmically, "Ah...ah....ah...ah," in a beat like 1-2-3-4, then more staccato, "ah,ah,ah,ah" and they'd start. The jazz clubs stay open late. His set ended at midnight and they were going to play again at 1. But the underground doesn't stay open that late and we were tired so we came back at midnight. A long day, but very fun.

Today we'll be going to see if we can get tickets to a musical and then we think we might go to the Victoria and Albert Museum. Tomorrow, Cambridge.

Saturday, March 19

Yesterday, as planned, we went to Leicester (pronounced "Lester") Square to see if we could get discounted tickets to Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. They had two half-price ones so we bought those.

Since we were close, we walked down Charing Cross Road and went in a few bookstores. They've got great ones there.

One especially was really nice - used books and well laid out and maintained. It was fun browsing. I bought a few books, a Barbara Pym biography written by her sister, and a Pym novel. I also thought I was buying the 5th Harry Potter book in hardcover since we don't have that one, but I screwed up and it was the 4th. Oops. (I did purchase the whole series for my sister earlier, and we've been reading them very carefully to keep them looking new.)

Then we went to the Victoria and Albert Museum - called the V&A by Londoners. It is such an enormous museum there's no way to see it all. We went to the British Galleries from 1500 - 1900 and saw lots of things about the way the British lived during older times. A lot of things reminded me of books I've read -- cravats, fans, crinolines, riding habits, and more. We also looked at a display of designer fashions through the years and that was interesting.

Then we read and rested a bit until heading out to the theatre. Joseph was great! It's a lot of fun, all singing and dancing. Very colorful, as you might expect. The cast was very enthusiastic and at the end even ran out into the audience to encourage clapping and singing along with the last song.

Now we're getting ready to go to Cambridge. Hope the trains go all right!

Sunday, March 20

Not too much to blog today. We took it easy, slept in (had a "lie in") and then we were going to go on a walking tour but we were late because I misread the time so we decided just to come back to the room and read. I'm still hoping my cold doesn't get worse.

Tomorrow we're planning to go in the morning to Westminster and walk around. We've been there twice for a service but they don't let you walk around and tour it when they're having services. We may also see whether there's a tour of Parliament. Then we'll spend the afternoon packing.

This afternoon we watched a little British TV. Here at the hotel TV. is not much to write home about. We get BBC 1, BBC 2, 3, 4 and 5. A lot is news and shows that seem to be quite soap-opera-like so not much fun to watch. We haven't wanted to watch TV. much anyway so it hasn't been an issue. Today, though, we saw this one program called "Help" and there was one really funny scene.

The show is a bunch of short clips of a psychologist talking with various patients. In this case, he was using hypnotism on this distinguished gray-haired gentleman. He was telling him to do things like breathe in and out, feel his physicalness, and then to "be a gatekeeper" and watch the various emotions come in the gate, "just identify them and let them go." The patient was being quite stupid, saying he could only breathe through one nostril because the "other one was bunged up" and asking if he had a gatekeeper cap. The psychologist kept instructing him to "just feel it, let it go, make no judgments". Then the patient farted. The psychologist made a disgusted face. The patient said, "I felt that....I let it go," then, "Bit hard not to judge, though, it's rather pungent." Cori and I absolutely cracked up, both almost laughing 'til we peed. Bathroom humor, got to love it, don't you? Especially with a British accent.

We had a great day in Cambridge on Saturday. Trains were no problem; we were on one that went straight to Cambridge with no stops and we arrived there around 10:30 am. We took a bus to the city centre and then found the Tourist Information Office where we'd signed up for a walking tour at 1:30. It's always difficult to find places, even when we've asked for directions. The roads are so funny with lots of name changes and then besides streets and roads there are these "Squares" that make things very confusing.

We had a nice lunch while waiting for 1:30 and then went on the 2 hour walking tour. It was great. What an interesting place, and also very pretty with lots of architecture. Their university system is so different. There are all these independent colleges that work independently as far as finances and everything, and people take courses from the university. So you live in a college and go to a university. The colleges are of different sizes and in different areas and buildings. Each of them has rooms for the students and a chapel or church and arranges their one-on-one tutoring with fellowes or senior students or professors. It's very select. The guide said something like 15,000 people apply and only 3,000 are accepted. And you can't try another college if you're not accepted in one unless the reason for your non-acceptance is that the college has no room.

The town seems to be mostly owned by the various colleges so besides living in the buildings within a college square, possibly connected to the cathedral or church, many students live in rooms above the shops in the markets. The college earns money from rents.

The buildings are beautiful and so are the grounds. The River Cam flows through and people punt on it. I read about how we could rent a punt and try it for ourselves but Cori and I agreed there'd be no way we could handle that. We'd probably end up falling in. Quite a few people were punting and it was fun to watch. There were a couple collisions - definite amateurs out there.

Today we have no plans; I've got a tiny bit of a cold and we thought we'd take it easy. I've been taking vitamin C and Echinacea and stuff to try to keep the symptoms small.

Tomorrow is our last day in England. It's been a wonderful trip.

Monday, March 21

My last blog from England. This morning we got up and went to Westminster to actually see the abbey, as I said we planned. We were surprised to find a big queue (line) in front of the abbey! That hadn't happened any other time while we've been here. I guess that's the difference with the tourist season really starting. So we can console ourselves that although we had some cold, wet weather, we never had lines for anything.

Anyway, the line went fairly quickly and we got in about 15 minutes or so. It wasn't raining or too cold so it wasn't a big problem. But we were kind of shuffling through with crowds inside at some parts. In spite of that, we really enjoyed seeing everything. There are over 3000 people buried in that church! Unbelieveable.

We especially had wanted to see Mary Queen of Scots' tomb and Sir Isaac Newton's. We did see both of those. Cori remembered Isaac Newton's being mentioned in the book DaVinci Code. We also enjoyed the Poets' Corner and another place with many memorials for authors such as Jane Austen, the Bronte sisters, W.H. Auden, Kipling, and many others. Not all were buried there; some were memorials rather than tombs.

And the building itself is really beautiful with awesome stained glass, including a gorgeous rose window. At one point, while we were standing in the nave, a priest made an announcement over the loudspeaker asking us all to stand still and observe a moment of silence or prayer. At the end of the minute, he read a short prayer by Jane Austen. I thanked God for our wonderful trip and for keeping us safe here and my family safe at home.

After that, we looked into going to Parliament but you couldn't go there until 2:30 and then it looked as if there'd be a big queue for that, too. So instead we went for lunch and then walked back to Buckingham Palace because I decided to buy a teacup in the Queen's china pattern. I'd really liked it when I saw it when we went to the Dutch Masters exhibit in the Queen's Gallery and after not seeing it anywhere else I decided to go back and get it.

Then we went back to the Italian restaurant we'd gone to before so we could have this great fruit cake dessert that Cori loved when we'd eaten there before. The Italian workers there remembered us! As soon as we walked in they said thanks for coming back and gave us the same table. Maybe because we're so tall -- or because Cori's so beautiful, I always tell her.

Then we came back and packed. Quite a big job that was. By stuffing our suitcases, including an extra one we purchased here, and each having two take-ons besides our purses, we made it. I hope we get through customs and everything all right. I'm a little worried about the weight of the books in one suitcase. It rolls and we'll check it so I'm not worried about moving it around, but I hope we don't exceed some kind of weight limit. We'll see.

Anyway, we've had a terrific time and we're ready to go home now. We're missing our family, including Cori's "urban family" of the girls she lives with. Tonight we'll go to bed pretty early and be ready for the plane ride. Cheers, everyone who's read my blog (they say Cheers here for thanks)!

England with Cori - 2005

London, Netherlands, Cambridge, Edinburgh, Stonehenge

Blog by Mavis

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Petrified Forest & Painted Desert