Mind the Gap

The One That's a Castle and a Village

2011-10-02T05:05:00.000-07:00

The last place on the itinerary was Corfe Castle. As its name suggests, Corfe Castle is a castle, but it’s also the name of the entire village – which we easily decided was the cutest village we'd ever seen!

The word Corfe means “cutting” or “pass” in Anglo-Saxon and the castle sits atop a steep chalk promontory between the River Wicken and the Byle Brook where the waters have eroded the rock near the Isle of Purbeck. According to legend, in 978, the teenage king Edward (the Martyr) was hunting in the royal forest on the Isle of Purbeck when he was attacked and stabbed to death. The story claims that the stabbing was ordered by Edward’s stepmother, Elfryda, so that her son Ethelred could become king (later known as Ethelred the Unready). In 1001, Edward was recognized as a saint.

Shortly after his victory at Hastings in 1066, William the Conqueror realized the defensive potential of the site and laid the foundations for the castle. Although many Norman castles were built on a man-made “motte” (or mound), the steep hilltop at Corfe is entirely natural. The earliest fortification included a thick stone wall which was unusual at the time, highlighting the importance of Corfe to the Norman defensives.

In 1105, Henry I had the wooden keep replaced with stone. The keep itself stood 21m tall and sat atop a 55m tall hill. Using the latest style of carefully worked stone blocks (from the local Purbeck limestone), the Keep would have taken eight or nine years to build at the rate of 3-4 meters a year. It was one of the largest buildings that had ever been constructed in this part of England.

Corfe was described as “the most secure of all the English castles” during the early medieval period and was able to withstand a long siege (which it did in 1138 and 1139 during the Anarchy period). The Outer Gatehouse originally stood at least twice as high as it does now and was built between 1280 and 1285.

The South-West Gatehouse was built by Henry III around 1250.

By the time King John came to the throne, the Norman keep was old fashioned so John added a new royal residence, known as the “Gloriette” (which means “highly decorated chamber”). The Gloriette was built solely as a luxurious royal residence and given that it was surrounded by highly defended stone walls, and it was separated from the Keep by a courtyard. Remains of the first floor hall and Presence Chamber are visible today.

The Outer Bailey was the work area of the castle where the workshops, stables, storehouses and living accommodations were located. By the mid 13th century the entire outer boundary was a series of stone walled towers, many of which were destroyed during the civil war four centuries later.

Corfe was often used as a state prison perhaps due to its remote location. King Henry I imprisoned his eldest brother Robert here after capturing him in battle in Normandy and the castle was often used as a royal treasury, especially by King John. John also used Corfe to imprison his niece Eleanor (after allegedly killing her brother Arthur in order to secure his own claim to the throne). In 1326, Edward II was imprisoned here after his capture, but there was so much local sympathy for the king that he didn’t stay here long and was eventually moved to Berkeley Castle where he died in 1327.

In 1496, Henry VII granted the castle to his mother, and money was appropriated for the castle’s repair and the castle’s role had gradually changed from that of a royal fortress and residence to a grand country house. It was often used as a residence by the constables of Corfe Castle, who for many years were the Dukes of Somerset.

In 1572 Elizabeth I sold Corfe to one of her favorites, Sir Christopher Hatton and its 500 year history as a royal castle came to an end. During the English Civil War, Corfe Castle was one of the last Royalist strongholds in the south of England and due to a traitor within the castle walls, it eventually fell to Parliamentary troops in 1645. In March 1646, Parliament voted to demolish the castle and within months, the work of the previous six centuries was reduced to rubble.

By the 18th century, the ivy covered walls were considered romantic and the place opened to tourists. In the early 1600s the castle was owned by Charles I’s Lord Chief justice, Sir John Bankes. The castle remained in the Bankes family for three and a half centuries and in 1982, it was given to The National Trust along with three miles of coastline, three nature reserves and adjoining farmland.

And just so you don't think I made that up about the village, here are a few shots to prove it!

The town square outside the entrance to the castle

Corfe Castle is quite small (population around 1500) and so parking is in a lot on the edge of the village (that's where we took the very first picture in the post from). These shots were taken on the way to/from the castle and the entire place looks like this! Cute, huh?

Cheers!

*all information from the guidebook

The One With the Garter

2011-09-22T10:55:00.000-07:00

Within the confines of Windsor Castle is the beautiful St. George’s Chapel, one of the finest examples of the Perpendicular style in the country. Pictures of the insides were not allowed, so those have been scanned from the guidebook.

A church has existed within Windsor for centuries. Henry III dedicated one to Edward the Confessor in the 13th century and part of a wall and a doorway still exist from that early structure. St George represents courage and fidelity along with Christian chivalry and gentleness. He supplanted Edward the Confessor as the patron saint of England following his supposed appearance over the battlefield of Agincourt in 1415.

The current structure was begun in 1475 by Edward IV as the Chapel of the Order of the Garter, a medieval order of chivalry founded in 1348 by Edward III. Perhaps inspired by King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table, the order was to consist of a distinguished band of soldiers who would reflect the ideal of Christian chivalry.

The earliest Order consisted of the Sovereign, The Prince of Wales and 24 members drawn from the fighting nobility. Since then, two other categories of members have been admitted: Sovereigns of other countries and members of the Royal Family other than the monarch and Prince of Wales. The above picture is from the cover of the guidebook and shows the quire.

When the nave was completed in 1506, it was covered the heraldic arms of Knights of the Garter from the late 15th and early 16th centuries.

In the main body of the Quire is one of the finest collections of heraldic art in the world. Above the stall of each knight is a banner, some of which have been passed down through many generations. Below each banner is a crest on top of a helm. A half drawn sword below the helm indicates the readiness of each member to defend his Sovereign and religion.

At the back of each stall is a metal plate that remains after the members death (unlike the banner, crest and helm). Since 1348 there have been approximately 1,000 Knights of the Garter and there are currently over 700 stall plates with the rest being lost or removed. The ones in the above picture date from the medieval period.

Stall plate of the Duke of Norfolk who was executed for treason in 1572

Stall plate of Charles, Prince of Wales

Edward IV and his queen, Elizabeth Woodville are buried in the chapel but the building was not completed for 53 years during the reign of Henry VIII. Henry VIII is also buried here, along with his third wife, Jane Seymour, under a simple marble slab.

One of the chapels most magnificent features is the large stained glass wall (I think it’s too big to be considered a window!) which measures 36 by 29 feet. Of the 75 main windows, 65 date from before 1509.

This 13th century doorway is sometimes used by the Queen and other members of the Royal Family.

The exterior of the church is covered with animals, statutes and emblems and Chip spent quite a bit of time taking pictures of them. Here are a few:

seriously, check out the “heads” in the background (click to enlarge picture)

While he was taking all of those pictures he noticed a crowd of people gathered off to the side of the Chapel. Walking back and forth with military precision, this young guard attracted quite a bit of attention and several pre-teen girls tried to distract him. He was having none of it though and performed his duty as if they weren’t even there. We watched him for a while and didn’t see him even crack a smile. Impressive.

Cheers!

*information on Chapel from the guidebook

The One Inside the Queen's Castle

2011-09-09T11:32:00.000-07:00

The State rooms at Windsor are truly spectacular. Photos are not allowed so the following are scanned from the guidebook. I had a serious crick in my neck from looking up! You’ll see what I mean…

The Grand Staircase is lined with armour and arms and as I walked up the stairs I was totally awed by the size and height of the space.

The ceiling of the Grand Vestibule. The plaster fan vaulted ceiling was completed between 1800 and 1814. The room holds a number of glass cases, originally designed to display some of the thousands of gifts given to Queen Victoria on her Golden Jubilee. They now contain relics and arms largely from the collection of George IV.

The Waterloo Chamber was built as a tribute to the nations success at the Battle of Waterloo in June of 1815 where Napoleon was defeated. The room filled an open court that had existed since the 13th century. The Indian carpet, woven by inmates at Agra prison for Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee, is thought to be the largest seamless carpet in existence and weighs 2 tons. During the 1992 fire it took 50 soldiers to roll it up and move it. The room itself was spared due to the thick medieval walls. The dining room table (when extended to its full length is 175 feet long and seats 162) gives an idea of the scale of the room.

The official “State Apartments” were built between 1675 and 1678 for Charles II and his wife, Catherine of Braganza and have been altered over the years. The King’s Drawing room marked the divide between the public rooms and the King’s private apartments and only the cornice remains from its 17th century appearance.

The King’s bedchamber was used by Charles II for the formal ceremonies of the king rising an going to bed – it is believed he actually slept in an adjacent room. Most of the room’s appearance dates from the reigns of George III and George IV.

The tapestries and painted ceiling of the Queen’s Drawing room were replaced in the 1830s and some of the finest Tudor and Stuart royal portraits in the Royal Collection (including portraits of Henry VIII, Mary I, and Edward VI) hang here.

The ceiling of the King’s Dining Room – a banquet of the gods - was painted by Antonio Verrio in the 1680s.

The Queen’s Ballroom was the principal ballroom in the castle until the completion of the Grand Reception Room and Waterloo Camber in the 1830s. The chandeliers were hung during the reign of Queen Victoria.

St. George’s Hall measures 185 by 30 feet and the ceiling contains the coats of arms of all the Knights of the Garter since its founding in 1348. The hall was seriously damaged in the 1992 fire with the ceiling and roof completely destroyed. The ceiling was reconstructed entirely of green oak using medieval carpentry methods and is the largest timber roof constructed in the 20th century.

At the far end of the hall is the armoured figure of the King’s Campion on horseback. The armour was made for Sir Christopher Hatten in 1585 who later gave it to Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester a favorite of Elizabeth I. The ceremony of the Champion riding into the coronation banquet and issuing a challenge for anyone to deny the new monarch was last held in 1821 for the coronation of King George IV.

The Lantern Lobby was created after the 1992 fire on the former site of a private chapel that had been created for Queen Victoria. This space allows movement between the State and Semi-State apartments. The badge and motto of the Garter are inlaid in British marble on the floor and the red stone that forms the cross is from a small deposit in Derbyshire known as “The Duke’s Red”.

The Lantern Lobby also contains a suit of armour made for Henry VIII at Greenwich around 1540.

The Semi-State Apartments were created for George IV in the 1820s as his private apartments and are now used by The Queen for entertaining. They were severely damaged by the 1992 fire but since this area was undergoing a re-wiring project, most of the contents had been removed. The rooms were largely restored to their original brilliance, including the above Green Drawing Room. The carpet in the room was specifically designed for this room for Queen Victoria around 1850. It was soaked with water during the fire and is now considered too delicate for visitors to walk on.

The Crimson Drawing room is the principle room in this part of the castle and during the fire, the ceiling collapsed and the walls badly burnt. The steel roof structure expanded in the extreme heat and pushed out one of the walls, threating the whole thing with collapse. The restored ceiling incorporates many fragments salvaged from the original. The walls are hung with the state portraits of George IV and Queen Elizabeth that were painted during World War II.

The Octagon Dining Room is a small room used by members of The Queen’s household when they are in residence at Easter. Located in an area of the castle known as the Brunswick Tower, it was also badly damaged during the fire when the internal floors of the tower collapsed and the tower acted as a flue shooting flames 50 feet into the sky. The marble chimneypiece survived and analysis has showed that the fire reached temperatures of 820 degrees Celsius/1500 F!

The Grand Reception room reflects George IV’s love of all things French. It was the site of Edward III’s Great Staircase which formed the heart of the medieval castle. The floor incorporates 14th century ceiling timbers reused from a later renovation. The room was completely restored and re-gilded after the 1992 fire.

The Garter Throne Room is where new Knights and Ladies of the Garter are invested. It was the main Throne Room for Queen Victoria and most of the room (with the exception of the oak wall panels) dates from the 17th and 18th centuries.

All of the rooms contain a number of paintings, artwork, tapestries, sculpture and furniture from the 17th – 19th centuries which must be worth a small (or perhaps not so small) fortune! These pictures really do not do the place justice and it is more than worth the price of admission (about $25).

*all information from the guidebook

Cheers!

The One That Hasn't Changed in 700 Years

2011-08-04T16:17:00.000-07:00

Note: Since we are waiting for our stuff to be delivered from Denver to Charlotte, I haven’t had my scanner in order to scan pictures from the guidebooks on the Windsor Castle state rooms and the inside of St. George’s Chapel. Since I’m tired of waiting, I’m going to go ahead and post about the last couple of places we visited and then come back to Windsor later. There is the trip to Paris to get to after all…

Our last full day started with a drive down to Salisbury, a picturesque medieval town set in the rolling countryside a couple of hours southwest of London and its centerpiece is the cathedral. Salisbury Cathedral is rather unique amongst in English counterparts in that it was built within one century with no substantial later additions. Once again we took advantage of the town’s park and ride and were dropped off within a few blocks of the cathedral.

In 1075, the Archbishop of Canterbury decided that the cathedral for the local diocese should be located in Sarisburia – “Old Sarum”, an ancient hill fort one mile north of the current city center. On this site, the outlines of this early cathedral as well as the castle can still be seen. The cathedral was built and consecrated in 1092. But the area had difficulty getting water and there was no room for growth which led many to move to more desirable land down by the river. By the end of the 12th century, plans were being made to build a new cathedral on land the church already owned along the water.

The foundation was laid in 1220 and a new city laid out around the cathedral close. By 1258, the quire, transepts and nave were completed and the ornate west front a mere seven years later. The result is a cathedral built entirely in the Early English Gothic style. Only three things have been added since it was completed: the tower and spire; some supporting arches and a small chantry church.

The tower and spire were added between 1297 and 1320. At 6500 tons, the added weight caused the central crossing pillars to bend so buttresses were built for support. In 1450, additional supporting arches were built and are one of two examples of the Perpendicular architectural style in the interior. The tower is 224 feet high and the octagonal spire adds an additional 180 feet. Both were extensively restored between 1986 and 1996 and the last 30 feet of the spire was rebuilt around 1950.

The quire is the primary place for prayer and worship and as such is a “church within a church”. Much of the woodwork (on the left side of the above picture) in the back two rows of stalls is original from the 13th century while the canopies above the stalls date from the early 20th century. The total length of the interior is 449 feet.

ceiling of the quire

An organ has existed in the cathedral since at least 1480. The current organ dates from 1876 and has 4,000 pipes. Most cathedrals have a long tradition of choral singing and Salisbury takes theirs very seriously. In 1091, a school was founded for the boys of the choir and Salisbury was the first cathedral to recognize and give girls the same opportunity, founding a girls choir in 1991. The singers are expected to maintain the highest musical standards, learn to play two instruments as well as ordinary school work and therefore, many are boarders. I'm not sure how I managed to not get a picture of the organ.

The Trinity Chapel was the first part of the cathedral built and was completed in 1225. The large window is dedicated to prisoners of conscience – men and women who have suffered for their beliefs and was created in the late 20th century. Beside the window is a candle surrounded by barbed wire, the symbol of Amnesty International. The medieval shrine of Bishop Osmund was destroyed by Henry VIII during the Reformation.

(as in most cathedrals, Salisbury is full of beautiful stained glass)

The Chapter House dates from the mid 13th century and is one of twelve surviving octagonal shaped chapter house buildings and is very similar to one at Westminster Abbey. It’s walls contain a number of medieval friezes depicting scenes from Genesis and Exodus. Salisbury has the honor of housing one of the four (and reputedly the one in the best condition) surviving copies of the Magna Carta. Elias of Dereham was a Canon of Salisbury and present at Runnymede, responsible for distributing many of the original copies. Unfortunately, since the Magna Carta is displayed in the Chapter House, no pictures were allowed.

The Cloisters were completed in 1266 and at 190 feet square with 18 foot wide walls are the largest in England. Due to continued deterioration, a restoration project is currently underway. The space is also used as a small cafe.

One of the more unusual features in the cathedral was a fountain. I probably wouldn't have believed it if someone had told me about it, but there it was, right in the middle of the nave

The history nut in me was excited about a couple of the tombs. The first is that of William Longespee, half brother to King John and Earl of Salisbury. He was present when the cornerstone was laid in 1220 and was the first person to be buried in the cathedral in 1226.

This is the other side of Longespee - love the lions on the shield!

The other is that of Edward Seymour, Earl of Hertford and his wife, Lady Katherine Grey. Katherine was a niece of Henry VIII and younger sister of Lady Jane Grey, who was Queen of England for nine days following the death of Edward VI in 1553. They married without the consent of then queen, Elizabeth I, and were both imprisoned in the Tower of London. Thanks to the visits allowed by the Lieutenant of the Tower, they managed to have two children. The tomb was built in 1675 and is quite ornate. Due to a large sign type thing in the aisle in front of the tomb, it was impossible to get a picture of the entire thing in one shot.

This is the top of the tomb

The Alter of St. Margaret of Scotland (wife of Malcolm III; cannonized in 1250). The front piece dates from the 17th century and is believed to be from Spain or perhaps Italy and is considered one of the treasures of the cathedral.

close up of some of the statutes on the front of the cathedral

another view of the fountain and the nave

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Cheers!

*all information from the guidebook and signs inside the cathedral

The One With the Queen

2011-06-23T16:00:00.000-07:00

After leaving Kenilworth, lunch was McDonalds in the car (the only time we ate fast food during our whole trip) and it was a good thing we did since there was a big accident on the motorway going to London which meant we arrived at our next destination – Windsor Castle – later than planned. But maybe it wasn’t totally a bad thing since by the time we arrived the day had turned cloudy and cool and there weren’t that many people there.

Founded by William the Conqueror at the end of the eleventh century, Windsor has been the home of thirtynine monarchs and is the oldest royal residence in the British Isles to have remained in continuous use.

Located on a site 100 feet above the Thames River, building for the castle began around 1070 and was completed by 1086 and the original “footprint” of the castle has not changed since. Although first walled in timber, in the late twelfth century Henry II began to replace the outer fortifications with stone and in 1170, the original Norman keep was rebuilt as The Round Tower.

During the reign of Edward III (1327-77), Windsor was transformed from a military fortification to a Gothic palace, reflecting his ideal of a Christian, chivalric monarch. Fifty thousand pounds were spent rebuilding Windsor, including royal apartments which remained virtually unchanged for 300 years.

When the English Civil War broke out and royal palaces were commandeered by Parliamentary forces, troops were order to “take some especial care” of Windsor. It frequently served as headquarters for Oliver Cromwell and as a prison for royalist officers, as well as for the king who was buried in St. George’s Chapel following his execution in 1649.

With the restoration of the monarchy, Charles II reinstated Windsor as a royal palace and over the next eleven years, the palace was modernized with the grandest baroque State Apartments in England – England’s own “Versailles”. The State Apartments will be covered in a separate post with pictures from the guidebook.

Over the next hundred years or so, successive monarchs preferred the palaces at Hampton Court and Kensington and it wasn’t until the reign of George III (r.1760-1820) that Windsor again became the focus of the court. In the early 1800’s, the external facades were restored and a large staircase to the State Apartments built (the plaster ceiling still exists).

When George IV came to throne in 1820, he continued the gothic transformation of the castle and sought to also create comfortable royal apartments. Keeping in mind the symbolic importance of Windsor, the intent was to give the structure an imposing “castle-like” appearance. In addition to the extensive exterior changes, a new suite of rooms was added and furnished in the latest French Empire style combined with antiques. His improvements cost 300,000 pounds.

Windsor’s golden age was during the reign of Queen Victoria (r1837-1901) as the queen spent the majority of her time here and it was used for family and state occasions. Queen Victoria opened the State Apartments up regularly to the public in 1848 with 60,000 visitors each year.

For most of the 20th century, Windsor remained relatively unchanged (except for the addition of modern amenities (electric lighting, central heating and bathrooms), even surviving the bombing raids of WWII unharmed. But 50 years later in 1992, a fire broke out in the Queen’s private chapel and quickly spread. The ceilings of St. George’s Hall and the Grand Reception Room were destroyed and several rooms were completely gutted. Two hundred firefighters worked for 15 hours and damage was confined to one corner of the castle. Fortunately, many of the rooms were empty due to electrical work that was going on at the time – otherwise many valuable works of art and the contents of the Library would have been destroyed.
Restoration work began immediately and took five years to complete at a cost of 37 million pounds. Most of the funds came from the admission proceeds as well as admissions to Buckingham Palace which was opened to the public for the first time in 1993.

The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh spend most of their private weekends at Windsor and whenever Her Majesty is in residence, the Royal Standard, rather than the Union flag, is flown on the Round Tower. This fact proved to be an important one for our visit:

Below is the Round Tower before we went into St. George’s Chapel:

And this was the Round Tower when we came out of St. George's Chapel:

The Queen was in the house – somewhere…

Which might explain the appearance of a small group of these fine looking gentlemen at the gate. They looked rather amused when Chip asked if he could take their picture.

We didn’t see Her Majesty, but we did some people rolling suitcases behind them so they must have been some of the lucky people invited to stay for the weekend. Apparently my invitation had gotten lost...

*all information is from the guidebook

Cheers!

The One With the Abdication and the Favorite

2011-04-19T11:51:00.000-07:00

After Edinburgh, we headed back south for the last couple of days of our trip. Our first stop was Kenilworth Castle. Set on the outskirts of a small village like town, Kenilworth has been a royal castle for most of its history and many of the buildings have been unaltered since the time of Elizabeth I.

The castle is situated on top of a slight hill with a staircase leading to the Norman keep which dates from the 1120s when the first castle was established by Geoffrey de Clinton, the royal chamberlain. The castle was garrisoned for Henry II during the rebellion of his sons in 1173-74. About the same time, de Clinton died and the castle was determined to be of strategic importance – so the king took control of it.

In 1244, the custody of Kenilworth was given to Simon de Montfort. Over the next 300 years, the castle was the site of one of the few full-scale medieval sieges on English soil and the place where Edward II was forced to abdicate his throne. Through a restored arched doorway, is a loggia with a number of arches that was installed about 1569 and may have framed a small courtyard leading to the castle’s interior.

Initially, the great tower (with its 14 foot thick walls) was probably the main residence of the castle with a great hall on the upper floor. It is believed that the large arched windows were modifications made by Henry II, a fact significant due to the size of the windows which would be considered large for the time period. The Elizabethan grids would have been added later

The castle was later turned into a palace by John of Gaunt, son of Edward III, who built the great hall, a large kitchen and a number of apartments between 1373 and 1380. According to the guidebook, these surviving buildings are the finest survival of an English royal palace of the late Middle Ages.

The kitchen would have most likely been timber framed and so virtually nothing remains except for the hearths of three large fireplaces which were capable of providing food for several hundred people. It measured 66 feet by 28 feet and contained a fourth fireplace, a bread oven and the later addition of a furnace/built in cauldron for boiling meat. In the above picture, the Great Tower is in the background and the kitchen would have been in the foreground.

Directly behind the kitchen is the “Strong Tower”, possibly so named for a remarkable feature – all of the floors were vaulted in stone. The cellars were larders. What little remains of the tower is accessed by a couple of wooden staircases and contains a suite of lodgings, possibly for the steward.

The second floor of the tower provides beautiful panoramic views of the castle and the surrounding land. In 1563, Elizabeth I granted Kenilworth to her favorite courtier, Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, and one of it’s most well known associations is with the 19 day party he threw for his queen in 1575.

The Great Hall was the only part of the castle that Robert Dudley did not alter during his renovations 200 years after it was built. The large windows are notable for their height and delicacy and are the best surviving example of the early Perpendicular style in a domestic building. The hall was also exceptional for having six fireplaces, three along one wall which was at the cutting edge of architecture for the time. Also notable is the large bay window (on the right side of the picture). Although an earlier hall likely existed on the site, Gaunt replaced most of it and the roof remained the widest of any royal hall in medieval and Tudor England with the exception of one at Westminster.

The State Apartments were accessed by a central oriel, and were built for John of Gaunt as were a number of the chambers although Leicester made several renovations in 1570-71. The door of the central oriel is unusual for the time period as it provided a direct link from the courtyard to the heart of the private chambers. On the ground floor (which was below the living quarters) was a store room, a number of latrines, and a small kitchen.

A large four story tower added in 1571 by Robert Dudley is known as Leicester’s Building and was added specifically to provide private accommodations for Queen Elizabeth.

Following the civil war in the mid 1600s, the castle’s fortifications were dismantled and the castle came into the possession of Laurence Hyde (brother in law of James II) whose descendant, Thomas Villiers, became the first earl of Clarendon in 1776. Kenilworth continued to be owned by the earls of Clarendon for more than 150 years but fell into a romantic, ivy covered ruin.

In August 1817, 30 tons of stone crashed from the north west turret of the great tower, leading to effort to halt the buildings deterioration (and the removal of the ivy). When the Earl could no longer keep up with the costs of maintaining the property, it was bought by a local motor industry magnate, Sir John Siddeley (created as first Earl of Kenilworth) in 1937. His son gave the castle to the town of Kenilworth in 1958 and for the last 25 years, it has been managed by the English Heritage Trust.

Another of the additions made by Dudley was an elaborate garden intended for the queen’s use. Due to a written account of the garden made by a household official at the time, English Heritage was able to recreate the garden around 2005-2006– the first such recreation done on this scale.

*all information from the guidebook

The One With the Queen's House

2011-03-06T17:56:00.000-08:00

At the end of the Royal Mile is The Palace of Holyroodhouse. Having served as a royal resident for more than 500 years, it is currently the official residence of the Queen in Scotland. Since she is only in residence once a year during the summer, the rest of the year the Palace is open to visitors. The Palace is a quadrangle set around a central courtyard. Pictures of the inside were not allowed, but I have scanned some of the pictures from the guide book. (The above picture is a scanned postcard)

The origins of the Palace begin with the founding of an Augustinian abbey in 1128 by David I below an old volcanic mound known as Arthur’s Seat. The name may come form one of two sources: King David’s vision of a stag with a cross or “rood” between its antlers or from a fragment of the True Cross which had been brought to Scotland by David’s mother, Margaret.

From early on, the abbey contained rooms that were used by the king. By the time Edinburgh became the capitol of Scotland in the 15th century, the royal family preferred the abbey to the castle and James IV eventually decided to convert the royal lodgings into a palace. This may have been prompted by his upcoming marriage to Margaret Tudor, daughter of Henry VII. Although nothing survives of this early building, it appears it was of similar design and location to the present palace.

In 1528 James V began work on a rectangular tower with rounded corners. This is the oldest part of the palace still in existence. Subsequent Stuart monarchs resided in the Palace and over the courts of a number of years various improvements took place. But following the execution of Charles I in 1649, the Lord Protector Cromwell sought to impose Parliamentary control over Scotland and the Palace, used as barracks for Cromwell’s troops, was badly damaged by fire and poorly repaired.

When the monarchy was restored in 1660, Holyroodhouse again became a royal palace and Charles II took particular interest in the renovation effort and tried to keep costs to a minimum. A second tower was added to the front (to balance the one added by James V) and the current central entrance added with the Royal Arms of Scotland (used before 1603) above the door.

Following the Act of Union in 1707, the palace provided apartments for some of the Scottish nobility and the palace gradually fell into disrepair. As the romantic fascination with Mary Queen of Scots grew towards the end of the 18th century, the palace became a tourist attraction with servants running a profitable side business giving tours. Refurbishment of the interior on a small scale was done in 1822 when George IV visited (the first reigning monarch to visit Scotland since Charles I in 1633). Although he did not stay at the palace, he was given a private tour and indicated that the apartments of Mary, Queen of Scots (on the second floor of James V tower) should be preserved as they were.

The real renovation of the palace began under Queen Victoria and her frequent visits to the Palace ensured its future and also caused the public to want to visit, an endeavor that has been undertaken since 1854. During the early 20th century the Palace was recognized as the Sovereign’s official residence in Scotland

The Queen’s Gallery (above) was opened in 2002 to celebrate the Queen’s Golden Jubilee. Created out of the shell of a couple of buildings from the 1840s, it showcases changing exhibitions of art.

Converted into a reception room (from the Queen’s Guard Chamber) in 1800, it became a dining room towards the end of Queen Victoria’s reign and is still used as such today by the Queen and other members of the Royal Family.

Originally the King’s Guard Chamber, the now Throne Room was heavily renovated in 1822 when it was turned into the King’s Great Drawing Room for the visit of George IV. Further renovations were made 100 years later and the thrones of George V and Queen Mary added.

close up of thrones

The Morning Drawing Room. Orignally Charles II's Privy Chamber, today the Queen uses the room for private audiences. The tapestries, which tell the story of the hunting goddess, Diana, were purchased for Charles II and are absolutely stunning (as are all of the ones in the Palace).

Charles II's Bedchamber. The most lavishly decorated room in the Palace has beautiful plasterwork and decorative wood carvings. From 1850 until his death in 1861, the room was used as Prince Albert's dressing room.

Close up of the "State Bed". This was not actually the King's bed but was made for the Hereditary Keeper of the Palace in 1684. The damask on the headboard, cornice and canopy is original; the curtains and bedcover were replaced in 1976.

Ceiling painting in the King's Bedchamber (Hercules admitted to Olympus by Jacob de Wet, c. 1675).

If you look carefully at the ceiling painting (in about the 1:00 position), you'll spot these two little dogs peering over the edge. I don't know if they are King Charles spaniels or not but the dog person in me couldn't resist!

The Great Gallery is the largest room and is decorated with portraits of real and legendary kings of Scotland. They were painted by Jacob de Wet between 1684 and 1686. 111 portraits were commissioned and in 1746, following the Jacobites victory at Falkirk, government troops were housed at the palace and badly damaged many of the portraits, especially the portrait of Mary, Queen of Scots. By 1826, 96 of the portraits had been repaired.

Mary, Queen of Scots bedchamber. On the second floor of the James V Tower, these rooms were occupied by his daughter Mary from 1560 until 1567. It was in the small turret room just off the bedchamber that the murder of her secretary, David Rizzio took place while he dined with the Queen. The place where the murder took place is marked, but I didn't see any blood stains...

Detail of the oak ceiling in the bechamber - it dates from the mid 16th century.

Mary Queen of Scots Outer Chamber where Mary received visitors. Today, it houses an extensive display of Stuart and Jacobite treasures including the Darnley Jewel and some embroidery attributed to Mary, creating during her years of captivity in England.

After touring the palace rooms, we were on our way out when we noticed a small sign that said "Abbey" with an arrow pointing to one side. Although we were wanting to get on the road (we had a 4 hour drive to our hotel for the night), we decided we would take a quick peek at whatever it was. Boy were we glad we did.

(this is what we saw when we came around the corner)

Tucked behind one side of the Palace are the ruins of the Abbey Church of Holyrood. Although a simiple church probably existed here as early as 1128, much of the existing structure was built from 1195 to 1230. The abbey was badly damaged in 1544 and the eastern part was demolished in 1570.

In 1633, the east end was remodelled for the coronation of Charles I to include a large tracery window. Fifty five years later, the abbey was damaged when it was ransacked by a mob.

In 1758 an effort to strengthen the roof of the Abbey Church by placing stone slabs over the vaulting actually led to the roofs collapse 10 years later. During the early 20^th century, funds were allocated for the re-roofing and restoration of the abbey but due to concern that the restoration would damage the historical structure, the abbey has remained a romantic ruin.

In this simple vault are the remains of James II, James V and his first wife Madeleine of Valois, and possibly David II and Henry, Lord Darnley (for the last two the guidebook is a little unclear, although that were at least at one time buried here). After the Reformation, a number of raids took place which disrupted the royal burial sites and in 1898 Queen Victoria ordered that all of the remains be collected and buried in one place.

At some point Chip decided to spend some time and take pictures of the large fountain in front of the Palace. Installed in 1859 it contains a number of interesting and whimsical figures. I've included a few below:

Since the Palace is at the bottom of the Royal Mile hill, we decided to take a cab back to the hotel - it was probably the best 5 pounds we spent!!

*All information from the guidebook

Cheers!

The One with the Guy in a Kilt

2011-02-18T18:46:00.000-08:00

After the castle, next on the itinerary was The Palace at Holyroodhouse – a walk down the heart of the “old city” via a collection of streets known as “The Royal Mile”. With the castle perched on one of the highest points in the city, the walk was all downhill (thank goodness)!!

Longer than a mile by 107 yards, the area was laid out by David I in the early 12th century and included an open air market and several large timber houses. Most of the houses were burned in 1544 by the English and by the 1590s had been replaced by stone structures. By 1645, 70,000 people were living in the area with serious overcrowding and the accompanying problems regarding sanitation. Two hundred years later a serious modernization effort took place with new buildings and gardens built.

Cannonball House - named for the cannonball embedded halfway up the wall (to the right - the wall without the door). One story for how it got there is that it was fired from the castle in 1745 and aimed at Holyrood Palace where Bonnie Prince Charles was staying during his attempt to regain the British throne. A more plausible explanation is that it was put there deliberately by engineers to mark the precise height above sea level of the Comiston fresh springs (seven miles to the north) which provided Edinburgh with its first piped water supply in the 1620s.

Dominating the skyline of the Royal mile is a large gothic looking structure that was built in the 1840s. It was originally built for the General Assembly of the House of Scotland. The octagonall spire is the tallest in Edinburgh at 240 feet.

In 1999, the building was converted to "The Hub" - a food court/cafe/banquet and event facility.

St. Giles Cathedral - named after a 6th century Frenchman who became the patron saint of cripples.

All along the mile were a number of gaps (called a "close") between buildings.

At one point we were approached by a man in a kilt asking for donations for a charity (I don’t remember which charity it was). Chip told him we would give him a donation if we could take his picture. At first I don't think he thought we were serious, but silly tourists that we are, we were dead serious.

On the right is the Scottish Parliament Building which opened in 2004. Somehow I expected something a little more traditional in nature. (it's only the edge of the building, but you can definately tell it's not traditional!!)

Although not a part of the Royal Mile, I wanted to include a couple of other pictures. These are actually on Princes Street (which is on the “back” side of the castle and part of “new” town).

Our hotel - the Hilton Caledonian. Built in 1903 by the Caledonian Railway Company, this historic building was just the place to celebrate our anniversary. Our Hilton Honors status got us an upgraded room which was huge (as large as a suite but without the walls) and very comfy!

Across the street from the hotel (below the "castle on the rock") is a pretty little church - St. Johns. On our way to the castle we went in to have a quick look around.

Built in 1818, St. John's is a Scottish Episcopalian church and although much smaller than the large cathedrals we had been to, the overall design and craftsmanship seemed the same.

*information from the Hilton, St. John's and Royal Mile Websites

Cheers!

The One with the Hordes

2011-01-26T18:29:00.000-08:00

After Bamburgh it was time to head north to Edinburgh, about an hour and a half drive along the coast. Since this was the day of our actual anniversary, we splurged on a great hotel across the street from the castle (unfortunately we didn’t have a view of the castle from our room).

The next morning was grey and cool as we headed to the castle. Once again, we had to climb a big, steep hill to get there. Why, oh why are castles always on top of a big hill?!! castle in Edinburgh sits on top of this huge volcanic rock projecting from the ground – 134 meters above sea level! I made the comment to Chip that it couldn’t have been easy to get stuff way up there in order to build it. As we walked along the base of the hill towards what we hoped was the entrance, we passed a couple of charter buses parked along the side of the road (just on the other side of this curve). But I wasn’t too concerned – after all, the castle looked huge. How crowded could it be?

A castle/fortress has existed here since at least around 600 when it was known as Din Eidyn, “the stronghold of the Eidyn”. In 638, the local tribe and their king, Mynyddog the Magnificent, were beaten by the invading Angles and the rock was renamed Edinburgh.

Around 843, the Picts and Scots living north of the Forth and Clyde united to become one nation – Scotland. – and in 1018, Malcolm II defeated the Angles/English, freeing his country. In 1093, a “Castle of Maidens” is recorded as existing on the site and was likely built mostly of wood. In November of that year, King Malcolm III was in Northumberland fighting while his queen, Margaret, remained at the castle. Upon hearing that both her husband and son had been killed near Alnwick, Margaret become ill and died.

During the reign of David I (1142-53), Edinburgh became a major royal fortress and during the 13th century the wooden structure was replaced with stone. But despite its seemingly impenetrable location, the castle fell to the English king Edward I in 1296.

It took 18 years for the Scots to win their castle back. An attack led by Sir Thomas Randolph, nephew of the Scots king Robert the Bruce, caught the English off guard and shortly afterwards, Robert ordered the castle to be dismantled so that the English would be unable to use it. The above picture is of a plaque that commemorates the event. Three months later, Bruce defeated the English at Bannockburn.

For the next twenty years, the castle remained in ruins but when Robert the Bruce died in 1329, war broke out again and in 1335 the English were once again in control. Not content with English rule, in 1341 a group led by Sir William Douglas tricked the guards and took back the castle. Bruce’s son David (II) rebuilt the castle.

(the Scottish Royal Arms which has been the emblem of Scotland for 800 years)

In the mid 15th century, James III made the castle his permanent residence and rebuilt much of the interior. The castle served as not only a royal residence but also held the state archives and the royal artillery and was used as a prison. But given the castle’s perch on the top of a rock, the Stewart monarchs quickly decided that Holyrood Abbey made more sense as a residence. By the time of the Protestant Reformation, the Abbey had become the Palace of Holyrood and Edinburgh castle was only used if the royal family was in danger or for formal occasions.

(bust of Mary Queen of Scots in one of the Royal Palace Rooms)

Perhaps the castle’s most famous resident was Mary, Queen of Scots. A niece of Henry VIII, her reign ended in 1567 when she was forced to abdicate in favor of her infant son James VI. Although she managed to escape from Scotland, she ended up the prisoner of her cousin, Elizabeth I in England. Mary still had her supporters though and in 1571 they took control of the castle in a siege that lasted over a year. The Lang (long) siege as it was known finally ended when Elizabeth I lent the regency government 20 heavy guns and they managed to bring down much of the east side of the castle as well as cutting off the castle’s water supply. The badly damaged palace went unused by royalty for more than 42 years until James VI ordered its reconstruction to celebrate his 50th anniversary as king.

The last reigning sovereign to stay in the castle was Charles I who slept there the night before his Scottish coronation in 1633. Much of what remains today was built for the army in the 17th century when the castle became a garrison fortress. Many of the medieval building were demolished and other structures were converted for army uses. The only room not affected was the Crown Room which was sealed up in 1707 following the Treaty of Union between Scotland and England.

(the Visitor/Information Center)

Throughout the first half of the 18th century, a number of rebellions took place which included efforts to retake the castle. The last one was in 1745. More than 100 years after it was sealed, the Crown Room was opened in 1818 by Sir Walter Scott and inside he found the Honours of Scotland. They were put on display and the castle became a visitor attraction.

The Gatehouse was built in 1888 with the intention of making the castle look more formidable.

On the left of the arch is a bronze statute of King Robert the Bruce

To the right is one of William Wallace. These were added in 1929 to mark the 600th anniversary of Bruce’s death.

The Lang Stairs is a steep flight of 70 steps and was the main way up to the castle in medieval times. Above the stairs was once the Constable’s Tower which was destroyed during the Lang siege.

Rather than going up the stairs (especially after climbing the hill to get up here!), we opted for the cobblestone road that was added during the 17th century to aid in the movement of heavy artillery in and out of the castle.

The Argyle Battery is opposite the Lang Stairs and was built in the 1730s. The guns, on loan from the Royal Armouries, are cast-iron, muzzle-loading 18 pounders made around 1810. From this area we saw some spectacular views of the city.

In the middle of the castle grounds is the oldest building not only within the castle walls but in all of Edinburgh – St. Margaret’s Chapel. Built around 1130 by David I and dedicated to his mother Margaret, it served as a private chapel for the royal family.

The chapel is small and very quaint and it is still used for christenings and weddings.

The stained glass windows of St. Margaret and William Wallace (as well as a few others) were added in 1922. Margaret was canonized in 1250.

Mons Meg was a gift to James II in 1457. A six ton siege gun, it was built in the Belgian town of Mons and fired gunstones with a range of almost 2 miles and that weighed 330 pounds! Considered on the leading edge of technology for the time, the gun was soon put into action against the English in 1460 at the siege of Roxburgh Castle where James II was killed. It took more than 100 men to move the gun at a rate of three miles per day. It was taken out of service around 1550 and then used as a saluting gun for events like royal weddings and birthdays. Its last firing was on October 14 1681 (we were there on October 14!!).

Down in a little walled off area below Mons Meg is The Dog Cemetary. Since the 1840’s, regimental mascots and dogs of officers have been buried here.

The Half Moon Battery is a large curved wall that gives the castle a distinct look. It was built after the Lang Siege over the ruins of David’s Tower which was destroyed during the siege.

One of the most impressive buildings is the Scottish National War Memorial. Originally the site of a medieval church, it was converted to a munitions store in the 1530’s before being demolished two centuries later and replaced by a barracks building. In 1923, with the army gone, the barracks was transformed into the Scottish National War Memorial.

Originally developed to honor the dead of WWI, it now also includes those killed during WWII as well as subsequent military campaigns. No pictures were allowed inside so the above is scanned from the guide book. The inside is absolutely beautiful and reminded me of a cathedral – lots of stained glass, arches, and sculptures. You can see more of the inside at the memorial's web site.

The Royal Palace was the royal residence and was originally built in the 1430’s. The structure that exists today dates from the late 15th century. It is within this residence that James VI of Scotland and I of England was born in 1566.

On the first floor of the Royal Palace is the Crown Room which holds the Honours of Scotland – the Crown, Sceptre and Sword of State. No pictures were allowed so I scanned a couple of pages from the guide book (the picture above is the hilt of the Sword of State). The oldest crown jewels in the British Isles, they were made in Scotland and Italy and first used together for the coronation of Mary, Queen of Scots in 1543. From 1651 to 1660 they were buried to keep Oliver Cromwell from getting his hands on them and as indicated previously, they were locked up from 1707 until 1818. During the Second World War, the Honours were hidden in a privy in David’s Tower to prevent them from falling into enemy hands in case of an invasion.

Also within the Crown Room is the Stone of Destiny. For centuries the stone served as the seat on which the kings of Scotland were enthroned at Scone. In 1296, Edward I of England removed the stone and had it taken to Westminster Abbey where it was enclosed within England’s Coronation Chair. Since then, it has been used in the coronation ceremonies of most of England’s monarchs and from 1714 all of the sovereigns of Great Britain. In 1996 it was returned to Scotland and will only leave when there is a coronation at Westminster Abbey.

The Great Hall was completed in 1511 but was rarely used for its intended purpose. When the castle was captured by Cromwell in 1650, the hall was converted into military barracks and used as such for 230 years. In 1886, work began to restore the hall and most of what is seen is a recreation with the exception of the ceiling which is the medieval original.

The stone corbels supporting the main trusses are decorated with Renaissance sculptures and are the oldest surviving in Britain. Due to the dark conditions of the ceiling, it was hard to get a good picture of some of the sculptures which include IR4 (for James IV), the crowned Royal Arms, Scottish thistles and the “Maid of Norway”. The above picture is from the guide book - pictures of a few of the sculptures are on either side of the picture.

Some of the stained glass windows in the Great Hall

more stained glass

(view of the city from the castle)

Remember those buses I mentioned? Well, it seems all of those people came together in this part of the castle at the same time we did. The rooms in the Royal Palace were so crowded that it was hard to take pictures without all of the cool stuff being blocked by people. The worst part? These were some of the rudest people I have ever run across – they were literally running into people and pushing them out of their way. Even when we were in London the year before and visited places like The Tower, Hampton Court and St. Pauls, we didn’t see this many tourists. By the time we made it out of there we decided we’d had enough. So, off for some lunch and then a walk down The Royal Mile.

Here are a few more views of the city:

*Information from the Guide book

Cheers!

The One By the Sea

2011-01-10T12:42:00.000-08:00

After a tasty lunch in Alnwick, we drove about 15 miles to the north east to Bamburgh Castle. Sitting on top of a cliff 150 feet above sea level, Bamburgh overlooks a small village on one side and the North Sea on the other. Despite the free parking spots along the road, we followed the “car park” signs up a steep hill and gladly paid the 2 pounds to park in the lot. I was in no mood to climb up another steep hill and the mist coming off of the water made the air damp and chilly. But we couldn’t wait to explore the massive fortress in front of us. The picture above was taken from the car park so this wasn't the hill we were bypassing!

view of the North Sea from the car park

The cliff we were bypassing was more like this one!

Once the home of the Kings of Northumbria, a castle has existed here for over 1400 years.

From the mid 5^th century until the coming of the Vikings three centuries later, Bebbenburgh (as it was then known) passed through the hands of a number of Anglo Saxon kings. In 867, Ecgberht I was appointed the first sub-king of Northumbria under the Danes. For anyone who has read Bernard Cornwell’s Saxon Series, this is the site of the main character’s (Uhtred) family home.

Following William I’s conquest of England in 1066, and recognizing Northumbria’s importance as a buffer against the Scots, Bamburgh was given to Waltheof, an Anglo Saxon Earl. William then married him to his niece Judith in order to further secure his loyalty. This plan didn’t turn out so well when Waltheof joined other earls in 1075 in a rebellion which was easily crushed. During the reign of William Rufus the Earl of Northumbria, Robert de Mowbray, was forced to yield the castle and Bamburgh become the property of the crown. With the continuing threat from the Scots, the castle’s fortifications were modernized and strengthened. Over the next 350 years the castle would see the likes of Alnwick's Henry “Hotspur” Percy (as its commander) and Piers Gaveston, Scotland’s David the Bruce and the Welsh princes captured during the conquest of Wales (all as prisoners).

During the Wars of the Roses, King Henry VI was forced to seek refuge at the castle. In 1464, the castle was captured by the Yorkist Richard Neville and it has the distinction of being the first English castle to fall to cannon fire. Following the Wars of the Roses, although Bamburgh remained the property of the king and was kept for strategic purposes, it was largely neglected for the next 230 years.

After being the property of kings for over 1,000 years, the castle was given to Sir Claudius Forster by James I in 1610 which put the castle into private ownership for the first time. By the end of the century the castle was uninhabitable and the direct line of the family ended in 1701. What was left of the estate passed to a sister Dorothy and her son Thomas. Dorothy was married to a wealthy man named Lord Nathaniel Crewe who bought back the bankrupted estate. Following his death without an heir in 1722, his will established a charitable trust that is still in existence today.

In 1894, the property was purchased by the 1^st Lord Armstrong who set out to restore and rebuild the castle. Armstrong was an inventor and loved engineering. His company built ships and would eventually become Vickers-Armstrong. The castle remains the Armstrong family home.

The Gatehouse was built during the 12th century.

Started in 1164, The Keep is the oldest surviving part of the castle. The front walls are eleven feet thick while the other walls are nine. If you look closely at the door, it is "bottle shaped" which was intended to allow knights on horseback to enter the keep at fast speeds without dismounting.

Inside the Keep is the Armoury which contains a collection of arms and armour, including pikes and muskets issued to the local militia in anticipation of an invasion of Napoleon.

Nuremberg Suit of Armour - 1580

Also within the Keep is a well that dates back to Anglo Saxon times which goes down through 145 feet of solid rock.

The interior of the castle is made up of a number of rooms decorated with many artifacts and antiques. Pictures were allowed but not with a flash so some of these are a little dark and/or blurry but hopefully they give you an idea.

The King's Great Hall was built during the Victorian Era on the site of the earlier medieval one. The ceiling is carved teak from Thailand (then called Siam) and the king of Siam was a good friend of Lord Armstrong.

This area is called the "cross hall". The large windows let in a lot of light and provide beautiful views. Unfortunately it also provided "backlit" conditions for pictures and so many of the ones we took were just too dark.

Love this staircase!

In a small alcove that leads to a long hallway is a pair of velvet chairs used by Lord and Lady Armstrong during the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953.

This is a wooden model of the castle - it is extremely detailed.

The Neville Tower, named for Richard Neville who was responsible for the cannon siege during the Wars of the Roses. The current tower was rebuilt on the medieval foundations.

Bamburgh is rated as one of the top seven Anglo Saxon archaeological sites in the world. The above shows the excavation site. Among it’s finds are a herringbone patterned welded sword found in 1960 believed to be the only one of its kind in the world (from between 650 and 850) and a stone chair fragment believed to be the arm of the throne of the Kings of Northumbria (unfortunately this was not on display during our visit due to a special exhibit that was being created).

St. Oswald's Gate - At the far end of the property this dates from Anglo Saxon times and was the earliest entrance to the castle (it is completely opposite of the current/medieval entrance).

Like its neighbor Alnwick, Bamburgh castle has been featured in many movies, including Becket (1964), Mary, Queen of Scots (1971), Macbeth (1972) and Elizabeth (1998).

I know this post has gone a little long, but I have to include a few shots of the gorgeous North Sea views and the cute little village of Bamburgh. There are a number of small islands off the coast but they were difficult to see due to the mist and clouds. Some of them are reachable by car during low tide.

The Neville Tower is to the left side of the picture.

To the left is a windmill built in the 18th century and used to ground corn that was sold to the local townspeople for reasonable prices during a rough economic period.

*information from the guidebook

Cheers!

The One With the Wizard and the Duchess

2010-12-23T09:26:00.000-08:00

One of the things we really liked about this trip was that many of the places we visited aren’t that well known and so there weren’t that many people there. Alnwick Castle is one such place although the exterior of the castle may be recognizable to many since it was used for many of the scenes in the first two Harry Potter movies. It is the second largest inhabited castle in England and has been the home of the Percy family for more than 700 years.

Situated on a hill overlooking the River Aln, the castle occupies land claimed by both England and Scotland in the years following the Norman Conquest in 1066. Within the pre-conquest Saxon kingdom, the land had been part of the earldom of Northumbria. In 1093, the King of Scotland, Malcolm Canmore (son of Duncan who defeated Macbeth) was killed just north of the castle across the river. In 1174, another Scottish King, William the Lion, was captured to the west of the castle during an attempted siege. Alnwick Castle was built by a Norman magnate named Eustace in the early part of the 12^th century. Having gained favor in the service of Henry I, he married an heiress named Yves de Vescy. The Vescy name was adopted by their descendents.

During the medieval period Alnwick was subject to numerous raids by the Scots, the most substantial one in 1448. The castle was also a focus in the Wars of the Roses and changed hands five times from 1462 to 1464, finally ending up in Yorkist hands.

In the 1660s, the English Civil War brought considerable destruction to the surrounding town outside the castle walls and troops were lodge within the castle itself. In 1750, the Percy lands were divided and their estates in Northumberland were separated from those in other parts of the country. The heiress of the Northumberland piece was Elizabeth Seymour, a descendant of the Percys. With her husband Hugh, they became the first Duke and Duchess of Northumberland in 1760 and they focused their attention on restoring the castle at Alnwick which had been long neglected and was in a state of disrepair.

During the restoration much of the castle was repurposed and a number of “modern” amenities were added, turning the medieval fortress into a gothic palace. Above the middle gateway and octagon towers are carved figures that were added during the medieval period. On other towers are ones from the 18^th century.

close up of figures on top of one of the towers

The mid 19^th century saw another restoration by the fourth duke who did away with most of the gothic plasterwork interiors and shored up some of the castle’s structural weaknesses. A new square tower was added and was adorned with a sitting lion holding the Percy banner.

Close up of lion with banner

Much of the castle that exists today was built in the first half of the 14^th century, shortly after the castle was acquired by Henry Percy in 1309. The Percy family has a lengthy history in England and can trace its beginnings to William de Percy who came to England with William the Conqueror. In the mid 12^th century, the Percy heiress, Agnes, married Jocelin of Louvain, brother in law of Henry I. After the Percy family bought the castle, a number of large towers were added as were semi-circular towers to the keep and a pair of octagonal towers to the keep’s gatehouse. At the top of the gatehouse towers are the heraldic shields of the Percys.

tribute to Alnwick’s favorite son – Henry “Hotspur” Percy

The Barbican, one of the castle’s most distinctive features, was completed in 1475 and the “fetterlock” badge of the fourth earl was placed about its gateway. This picture is from the inside looking out.

After going through the gate we came to the courtyard and couldn’t help but notice a car sitting in the middle of the drive. Chip said something about the car spoiling the mood of the place and that he couldn’t believe they just let it sit there. It did seem rather out of place. Grumbling that we couldn’t get a decent shot of the courtyard without the car in it, we went into the castle’s state rooms. Since pictures were not allowed inside the castle, all of the interior pictures are from the guidebook.

The current interiors are the work of the Fourth Duke and the Roman architect Luigi Canina from the mid 1800s. The first room is the Guard Chambers. Impressively decked out with a large collection of pistols, powder flasks, swords and pikes, it is a tribute to the Percy Tenantry Volunteers (1798-1814), raised at the time when England feared an invasion by Napoleon. In another part of the castle (in the Constable’s Tower) is an exhibit of the Volunteers, based on real individuals from historical documents.

Once we got to the top of a large marble staircase (picture is from the top looking down), we started talking with one of the staff guides who were on the floor and he mentioned that the castle was still used as the residence of the Duke and Duchess of Northumberland and that if we looked out of the window we could see the Duchesses car as she had just returned from running errands. It was the same car we had seen on our way in – we kind of laughed to ourselves that we were complaining about the owner of the castle parking her car in front of her own house!

This was my favorite room in the castle – now this is a library!! During the late 16^th century, the Ninth Earl had built up one of the finest personal Renaissance libraries in England and subsequent generations contributed to the library’s collection.

The Saloon was the first room to be completely restored and includes a number of paintings of various generations of earls.

The Drawing Room was designed to complement The Saloon and both have silk wall coverings as well as lots of gold and bling.

This is a closeup of the ceiling of the Drawing Room - it is quite spectacular!

The Dining Room is very green and is lit by two candelabra that come down through traps doors in the ceiling.

The Chapel was added in the mid 19^th century, replacing the earlier medieval one which was located elsewhere on the grounds.

The castle features a tie-in with its movie history with a “dragons and knights” children’s area. Since we were there on a weekday, there were few children...

Or perhaps they were eaten by the dragon…

Alnwick, like most castles, sits on top of a hill with the town on one side and the River Aln on the other. The surrounding land is very pretty – and full of sheep!

The Percy estate contains over 100,000 acres of land which includes more than 100 tenanted farms.

One of the things we learned while chatting with some of the castle’s tour guides is that unlike many other historic places that utilize volunteers, Alnwick’s staff are paid employees. The estate is one of the largest employers in the area with more than 300 employees.

bridge over the River Aln

The town of Alnwick is quaint with lots of medieval looking buildings and shops.

It's definitely a place worth visiting!

Cheers!

*all information from the guidebook

The One With the Steep Climb

2010-12-03T11:41:00.000-08:00

So now it’s Tuesday morning and jet lag finally caught up with us – not to mention the non-stop “go-go-go” for the past three days. We decided to sleep in a few extra hours and have a good breakfast. We got lost trying to get out of Nottingham – the exit of the parking garage was not on the same street as the entrance and - big surprise- there was no “block” to go around in order to turn around. That set us back an extra half hour.

The day was cloudy, but fortunately, it wasn’t raining and the temperature was still pleasant. On the way to Lincoln, we drove through the edge of “Sherwood Forest” and if we weren’t running late, we probably would have stopped for a few pictures. As we got closer to Lincoln, we could see the cathedral from several miles away since it is perched on top of a big hill, (according to the guidebook it can be seen from up to 30 miles away) which once we found a place to park in the town, we had to climb! Part of said hill is above. By the time we got to the top my legs were burning!

Following his victory at Hastings in 1066, William the Conqueror set up a northern stronghold in the old Roman city of Lindum Colonia – current day Lincoln. As was usually the case, a cathedral was built in addition to a castle (above) with the cathedral being completed around 1092.

Fifty years later –during the civil war between King Stephen and Empress Matilda, the cathedral was heavily damaged by fire. The Bishop at the time, Alexander the Magnificent, was well connected and widely traveled; factors which may have contributed to Lincoln having the first major church building with a stone ceiling as well as intricate carvings around the main door.

In 1185, the cathedral was virtually destroyed by an earthquake – only the west front and towers remained. Rebuilding in the new “gothic” style began almost immediately, overseen by the new bishop, Hugh of Avalon. In 1215, the Bishop of Lincoln was one of the signatories of the Magna Carta and Lincoln Cathedral holds one of the four remaining copies of the documents which is usually on display at the castle.

Following Hugh’s death in 1200, a number of miracles were reported at his tomb in the cathedral and twenty years later he was declared a saint. By mid-century, the number of pilgrims to the tomb resulted in the church being enlarged (a new “Angel Choir”) to accommodate the growing crowds and St. Hugh’s tomb.

As the reports of miracles increased, so did the pilgrims – and the money flowing into the church. In the early 14^th century, the central tower was raised to its current height as were the western towers and wooden spires covered with lead were added. For nearly two hundred years, Lincoln Cathedral was the tallest building in the world, until the spire on the central tower collapsed in 1548.

Lincoln’s cathedral did not escape damage during the reformation and many of the cathedrals treasures (including St. Hugh’s body) were removed. Without the pilgrims, the cathedral’s income dropped – especially during the Civil War years from 1640-1648)- and building fell into disrepair.

With the restoration of the monarchy in 1660, repairs were made but the costs for maintaining the building were considerable and over the next couple of centuries the church struggled financially. By 1726 the weight of the western tower and spires were causing it to lean and nearly 100 years later they were permanently removed for safety reasons. Structurally the cathedral has remained the same ever since.

The three great arches of the west front are all that remain from the first cathedral from 1092. Above the doors are a number of figures showing the torments of the damned in Hell and the joys of the blessed in Heaven and scenes from the Old Testament. Currently work is being done by the cathedrals stonemasons to restore them.

The nave is one of the lightest and most spacious in England and is an example of the pointed arches of gothic architecture, built during the Early English/Gothic style (c1190-1250). The Cathedral can seat a total of about 4,000 people and on some occasions, like on Christmas Eve, it is standing room only!

The choir screen was damaged when the central tower collapsed in 1237 and was subsequently rebuilt. Its floral motif was likely originally painted and full of color. Although we hoped to get a great shot of this without the people in front it, they do give a sense of how big this really is!

The cathedral has two beautiful “rose windows”, both made in 1220s. Most of the glass in the Dean’s Eye window (large round window above) is original and in 1990 it underwent a 16 year restoration project. The Cathedral has over 700 windows with 140 of them containing stained glass.

The Bishop’s eye was reconstructed in the 14^th century.

The gorgeously carved choir stalls in St. Hugh’s Choir were installed in the 14^th century.

The Sanctuary contains the High Alter which was restored in 1769 (the original having been a victim of the Reformation).

In a rather unremarkable niche to the right of the alter is the equally unremarkable tomb of Katherine Swynford. One of her daughters, Joan, is buried beside her (the tombs have been placed end to end - Katherine's is the higher one).

The long time mistress (and later wife) on John of Gaunt (son of Edward I), Katherine is the subject of a classic book from the 50’s by Anya Seton (appropriately entitled Katherine). She is also an ancestress of Henry VIII and the other Tudor monarchs. I was expecting something a little more elaborate.

Beyond the sanctuary is Eleanor of Castille’s visceral tomb. The wife of Edward I, when she died in 1290 near Lincoln the king had her internal organs buried here. Her body was then taken to London and at each stop along the way, the king ordered a cross to be built (the most famous of which is Charing Cross). Her tomb from Westminster Abbey was replicated here in 1890 to mark the 600^th anniversary of her death.

The Great East Window dates from 1855 and shows scenes from the life of Christ along with Old Testament stories.

Built in the 1330s, the Chapter House has ten sides. The stained glass windows date from the late 19^th century and show pictures of the history of the Cathedral. The person in the blue sweater looking up is me!

As with Canterbury, the sheer number of things to look was overwhelming and I’m sure there are things we missed. A bit of trivia: parts of the movie The Da Vinci Code were filmed here after filmmakers were denied access to Westminster Abbey.

The ceiling of the small entryway.

I couldn't find anything in the guidebook which indicates exactly what is in this window, but it looks like a depiction of some kings.

More stained glass

Figures of kings above the main door

Another ceiling shot

another stained glass window

After a couple of hours, we decided to have lunch and walk around the town a little bit. With the Cathedral up on top of the hill, the town around it has several steep climbs – one of them had a sign indicating a 12% grade!

Unfortunately, the lunch service was a little slow and as we left Lincoln and got back on the highway, I had a sinking feeling we weren’t going to make it to York. I was right. But as Chip said, there’s always next time!

*all information is from the Guide book

Cheers!

The One About Driving

2010-11-27T11:20:00.000-08:00

1500. That’s how many miles we drove during our 10 day trip.

The number of mistakes we made during the rental car process - two.

During our trip last year, we rented a car and drove from London to Wales for a few days. Driving in England wasn’t too bad ( well, easy for me to say since I didn’t do any of the driving!!) so Chip didn’t seem to have any qualms about driving around the country. Since he was going to be doing the driving again, I let him get the rental car so he could get what he wanted. Even though last year he had made the comment that if we ever did this again he was going to get a car with an automatic transmission (rather than the manual that we had), he decided against it. That was mistake number one.

We talked about getting a navigation system, but we had bought one of those very detailed road atlases (The UK in 80 pages) and I had my binder full of maps and directions from mapquest. I didn’t figure we needed it. If you’ve been reading the posts of our trip so far, then you already know that this was mistake number two. Big mistake.

See, it’s not just that the English drive on the left side of the road - so everything in the car is on the “wrong” side and driving a stick with your left hand is probably like trying to brush your teeth or eat with a spoon left-handed. It’s more that the English way of directing traffic from place to place and controlling the flow of traffic is not like anything we’ve ever seen before.

Roundabouts: The English loooooove roundabouts (or someone in their transportation department does). In the US, roundabouts have only really started catching on in the last 5 years or so and they seem to pop up in strange places. In England, almost every intersection is controlled by a roundabout – including intersections with major highways as well as the entrance and exit ramps. Some of the roundabouts included traffic lights, but we saw very few intersections in the familiar “two intersecting lines” layout. Most of the roundabouts were two lanes wide; some were three.

Signs: With the exception of the major highways (like our interstates) where two or more of them join up and then separate, the English apparently do not believe in overhead road signage. All of the signs are along the side of the road. As we discovered, this then makes it possible in at least two situations where you can’t see the sign at all: if a big truck decides to pass you in the left lane and blocks the sign; or if the trees around the signs are overgrown and the leaves/branches cover all or part of the sign. In order to navigate through the roundabouts it was imperative that you know what lane to be in when you enter it and which “exit” the road you want is on as it is virtually impossible to switch lanes. And by the time you realize it, it’s too late.

To try and make it easier, I would count on the sign which exit we needed and then try to count to the corresponding exit and tell Chip which way to go. This mostly meant that I pointed and said “go that way”. Sometimes though the sign for roundabout had as many as 8 lines protruding from it and it was hard to tell from the sign which “number” exit we needed since the road numbers would run together and some of the lines were a lot shorter than others. Were those roads or something else? You never knew until you were going around the roundabout and by then, it was too late. Of course the one nice thing about a roundabout is that if you miss your turn you can just keep going around until you come to it again. That is of course if you realize you missed your turn before you somehow found yourself forced into taking a road that you definitely did not want to be on.

The signs also give you no sense of direction – as in north, south, east or west. Instead, they tell you which town it goes to. So, it’s not enough to know that you need to go south. You have to know what town is on the way to where you want to go because there were generally two exits for each road – one going the way you want to go and one going towards a town in the opposite direction. Whenever we were in the car the atlas was glued to my lap. Usually I had a couple of seconds to determine which town on the sign we were heading towards and then figure out which lane and exit we needed. It was crazy and it was probably the 20 years of marriage that kept us from killing each other in the process.

Need gas or hungry? Don’t figure there will be a gas station or a place to get something to eat at the next exit or in the next town. Along the motorways (interstates) there are strategically placed exits with “services”. This is a large gas station and a large building with several restaurants inside (as well as bathrooms - similar to a mall food court) and they were usually about 25-40 miles apart.

View Larger Map Driving Directions

Straight vs. curvy: The English countryside is beautiful with lots of hills and more often than not, the roads follow the contour of the land. As a result, it seemed as though there were very few straight roads. And definitely no “grid” system. This means if you make a wrong turn you can’t just “go around the block”. Even in the cities this was the case. We got dreadfully lost in Nottingham as well as in Bradford/Leeds.

Street Signs. Not many to be seen, especially in towns/cities. The ones that they did have were mostly on the sides of buildings and often hard to see/read and they aren’t at every intersection. Usually we would have to drive for several blocks to even know what street we were on and then finding the right intersecting street was often a game of trial and error. If you look at the upper right of the above picture you can see an example of a street sign (white sign to the right of the bay window).

Road Signs. Especially speed limit signs. Virtually non-existant. The first time we saw a sign indicating the “regular” speed limit was when we crossed the border into Scotland – halfway through the trip. I guess people are just expected to “know” what the speed limit is and then if the speed limit varies from the usual (like going through a town ) there is a sign to tell you what the lower speed limit is.
We had no clue what several of the signs meant:

This is a "no stopping" sign. The first time we saw it Chip about slammed on the brakes, afraid it meant you couldn't go that way.

This is a "national speed limit" sign. Of course, you then need to know what the national speed limits are (see above).

We saw lots of these:

So far, we haven’t heard anything from government officials about Chip getting speeding tickets. We're keeping our fingers crossed...

And then, there was this sign that we saw frequently in rural areas that made us laugh:

underneath the sign it said "elderly people". Can you even image what the AARP would do if we put signs up like this in the US??
So, what is the lesson from all of this??

1. Get an automatic

2. Get a GPS system

3. Look up road signs and speed limits before you go.

Cheers!

The One With A Favorite of the King

2010-11-21T13:22:00.000-08:00

One of the three of my “must sees” on this trip was Leeds Castle, a well-known Tudor residence (reportedly a favorite of Henry VIII’s) as well as being on the Travel Channels top 10 list of castles in the UK. Since it was just a few miles from our hotel, our original plan was to go our first day, but since that didn’t happen, we decided to skip Ely Cathedral and see Leeds Castle instead.

Although situated right off of the M20 highway, Leeds Castle sits well back from the road and when we first pulled into the car park I thought we were lost – again. I didn’t see anything that looked remotely like a castle anywhere. Exiting the visitor center, we still didn’t see anything other than a pretty wooded area and a number of peacocks pecking around on the pavement for food. A small sign pointing to a path near the trees claimed to be the way to the castle. Uh-huh.

The path led us through a beautiful lightly wooded area winding along the River Len.

With natural looking landscaping and huge weeping willow trees, it is very peaceful. Still no sign of a castle though...

Finally, after about 15 minutes of walking we could see the castle but it took another 5 or 10 minutes walk to get there. If the grounds looked anything like this in the 1500’s , it’s easy to see why Henry VIII visited it so often! I"m sure it would have offered a wonderful, relaxing get-away from the city.

One of the most visited historic buildings in Britain, Leeds dates back more than 1100 years ago to 855 when the property was known as “Esledes” (derived from the old English word for slope or hillside). At some point it come into the possession of the Saxon royal family and in the years right before the Norman Conquest, King Edward the Confessor granted the estate to the powerful Godwin family – the family of Harold II (who was defeated at Hastings).

The first stone fortifications were built in 1119 by the de Crevecoeur family who had been given the land by William I. Work continued on the building over the next 150 years or so and in 1278 the castle was sold to pay the owners debts. It was bought by Queen Eleanor of Castile (wife of Edward I) and the castle became part of the queen’s “dower” (personal property to be kept after the king’s death). In that tradition, the castle was also owned by Queen Isabella (Edward II), Anne of Bohemia (Richard II), Joan of Navarre (Henry IV – she was imprisoned at Leeds for a period of time on charges of plotting her stepson’s death and witchcraft), and Catherine de Valois (Henry V).

door of the gatehouse

In the early 16th century, Henry VIII ordered major renovations to the castle and transformed it from a fortress to a royal palace. In 1552, after 300 years of royal ownership, the castle was granted to Sir Anthony St. Leger for a yearly rental of 10 pounds as a reward for putting down an uprising in Ireland.

Over the next couple of centuries the castle would change ownership numerous times and would even house prisoners of war during the 1660’s (who managed to set fire to their prison, causing major damage that would not be repaired for nearly 200 years). In 1822, Fiennes Wykeham Martin (who had inherited the castle) learned that the many parts of the castle were virtually in ruins and/or in danger of collapsing. So he decided to tear it down and replace it with the Tudor style structure that still exists. Known as the “New Castle’, it was completed in 1823.

One hundred years later, the family had to sell the castle in order to pay death taxes. It was bought by a wealthy Anglo-American heiress, later known as Lady Baillie. During the 1930s, Lady Baillie transformed a portion of the castle to a medieval style layout with the upper floor of the “new castle” decked out in an art-deco and later French style that remains today. The house became known for its lavish parties and during WWII, the “new castle” was used as a hospital and rehabilitation center. In 1974, the castle and park passed to a charitable trust.

The entrance to the castle is through a gatehouse that belonged to the original 12th century building and was enlarged by Edward I in the 1280s.

Edward I also created the Barbican (now in ruins) which provided protection for the castle mill and dam.

The Maiden’s Tower is a separate structure that was reconstructed during the work ordered by Henry VIII and was used to accommodate the queen’s ladies in waiting. Originally known as the Square Tower, it was renamed in the 19th century when the Martins learned that in the late 14th century a religious female recluse was kept prisoner there during the reign of Richard II. It is now used for conferences.

A portion of the castle known as the “Gloriette” (the smaller building in the back of the above picture) was built for Eleanor of Castile on the site of the original Norman keep. It is connected to the main castle by a bridge (at one time it was a drawbridge) and the corridor is a collection of weapons and amour. After being seriously damaged in the 17th century, it was renovated during the 1920’s and new floors, ceiling beams and doors were installed. Since then, the castle Foundation has worked to re-create a series of medieval rooms.

The Queen’s Room depicts a royal bedchamber from the early 15th century and was inspired by a French illuminated manuscript. The walls and bed hangings use an “HC” monogram which represents the marriage of Henry V and Catherine of Valois in 1420. We couldn't get a good picture of it without that silly sign in the way. I would have moved it, but I was afraid an alarm or something would go off!!

Next to the Queen’s Room is the Queen’s Bathroom, also reconstructed from manuscript illustrations.

16th century mable busts of the Tudor monarchs in the Queen’s Gallery.

Created for the visit of Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon in May 1520, the Banqueting Hall is the largest room in the castle and contains a number of paintings, including:

Richard II

Henry VIII

Edward VI

and this very interesting collague of the Tudor/Stuart monarchs

We had a rather mixed reaction to Leeds – the grounds are certainly beautiful and the castle itself creates a pretty picture. But the inside was too “new” and modern looking, especially Lady Baillie’s rooms in the new castle. I know it was necessary in order to preserve the castle, but it felt a little contrived and it didn't really feel or look much like a castle. There were two rooms of Lady Bailiie's though that I particularly liked:

Lady Baillie’s Dressing Room and bathroom created in the late 1920’s. This is her shoe closet - I want a closet like this!

The library was created in 1938.

When we left Leeds, it was time to say goodbye to the beautiful Kent countryside and head north.

*all information from the guidebook

Cheers!

The One With the Troublesome Priest

2010-11-14T12:13:00.000-08:00

The next day looked like another beautiful blue-sky day and so we were off to Canterbury.

Although a cathedral/church has likely existed in Canterbury since the early 7th century, the impressive structure that is there today was started after a fire destroyed the earlier church in 1070. A hundred years later, fire once again forced reconstruction, resulting in much of the English Gothic style that was to influence the building of cathedrals all over the country.

Although the Christ Church Gate is the entrance point into the Cathedral area, it was the last major piece of work completed before the Reformation (in 1521) and is one of the earliest examples of late Gothic with Renaissance features.

Close up of the shields/crests above the archway

Much of Canterbury’s appeal in the last 800 years stems from the martyrdom and canonization of its most famous archbishop – Saint Thomas Beckett. An intelligent man with a great deal of administrative skill, Beckett became Chancellor of the Realm shortly after Henry II came to the throne in 1154. The two men became good friends and when the Archbishop died, Beckett was chosen by the king as his replacement. But their friendship quickly soured as the two had different ideas as to the relative power and authority of the church and the state.

Their quarrel reached a crisis in 1170 when it was obvious that neither side was going to back down. In a fit of his infamous rage, the king asked “who will rid me of this low-born (or turbulent) priest?” (or something along those lines - accounts differ as to actual words said). Four of the king’s knights took this as an order, went to Canterbury and killed Beckett inside of the cathedral.

The site where Thomas Beckett was killed (if you click on the image to enlarge it, the swords are tipped in red)

St. Thomas’s shrine was completed in 1220 and the resulting pilgrimages to the site provided revenue throughout much of the Middle Ages. Sadly, the shrine was destroyed in 1538 – another victim of Henry VIII’s dissolving of the monasteries. A candle burns there now.

During the 14th century a second period of building and embellishing the cathedral started. A new nave was started in 1377 and today, it is one of the most impressive surviving examples of early Perpendicular Gothic. It took 28 years to complete. The brown objects that you see are rows of chairs - it helps give a sense of the massive space.

Everywhere you look inside the cathedral there is something to see – even the ceilings (above is one of the ceilings)! Virtually every possible surface has some kind of decoration, memorial or monument. There is literally so much going on that there is no way you could catch it all. It’s rather overwhelming to try and decide what to look at first and by the time we were done, my neck ached from looking up!

The tomb of Edward the Black Prince who died in 1376

closeup of the Black Prince's tomb - Chip had to hold the camera up over his head (and the iron gate) so the angle is a little strange)

Above the Prince's tomb hang replicas of his surcoat, helmet and gauntlets. The originals are on display in a case but I couldn’t get a good picture of them so these are the replicas. (It was quite dark in this part of the cathedral).

Henry IV and his second wife Joan of Navarre. (The king died in 1413; his wife in 1437). The tomb was paneled in on both ends so it wasn't possible to get a good full length shot of the effigys)

In addition to the side panels, there is a canopy covering the tomb - this is the underneath side

One of the most beautiful things in the cathedral (as in most cathedrals) is the stained glass. I love stained glass, especially when the sunlight is coming in through the window. For a better view, click on the image to enlarge.

Fortunately for me, Chip knows how much I love it and he put his super zoom lens to good use to try and get some pictures. Due to the low lighting conditions, some of them are a little blurry, but I think you can still see what fabulous works of art they are.

Although many stained glass windows throughout the country were destroyed during the 16th century Reformation, Canterbury was luckier than most and a lot of work is done cleaning and restoring the glass.

This window is from the early 1480s and features Edward IV, his wife, Elizabeth Woodville and their children.

Window from south west transept. Some of the panels are from the late 12th century.

the ceiling over St. Thomas's Shrine

I love the colors in this one - the sun was shining in through the window which makes it look really vibrant. On the far left is a depiction of William II (Rufus) and on the far right is one of his brother, Henry I.

font and font cover from the early 17th century. It was hidden from the Puritans and reassembled in 1660.

The town surrounding the cathedral is quite charming with lots of shops, restaurants and cobblestone streets.

Tip if you go: Canterbury has a great park and ride system. For 2.5 pounds, up to 6 occupants in a car can catch a ride on a double decker bus that drops you off a few blocks from the Cathedral. I highly recommend it as some of the town is pedestrian only and there didn’t seem to be a lot of parking.

shot of the part of the town wall (taken from the top deck of the park and ride bus on our way back to the lot)

A view of traffic in town (also from the top of the bus). Chip was more than happy to let someone else drive for a change!

*All information from the guidebook

Cheers!

The One Where England Gets a New King

2010-11-05T10:28:00.000-07:00

After our pleasant morning at Bodiam we were off to something a little bit different – a re-enactment of the Battle of Hastings of 1066. This is an annual event that’s held over the weekend closest to the anniversary of the battle – October 14 - and since we happened to be in the neighborhood, we thought we would check it out. Having never been to anything like this before we had no clue what to expect . But the weather was gorgeous and we figured if it was lame, we could always leave. Chip was looking forward to taking pictures and trying out a new zoom lens he bought a few weeks before the trip. He got a little carried away – he took over 500 pictures!!

Interestingly enough, the Battle of Hastings didn’t happen at Hastings at all, but on a site about 6 miles northwest of the city. Following his victory, William of Normandy (later known as William the Conqueror) built an abbey on the site and a town grew up around it. Appropriately, the town is called Battle. After almost 950 years, the battlefield remains largely the same except for the area where the buildings were constructed.

After parking in a makeshift grassy car park behind the battlefield, a fairly long walk brought us to the battlefield. It was like a fair – there were food and drink booths and a medieval atmosphere with tents selling various items, people cooking over fires and all decked out in (what looked to me anyway) authentic looking clothes. We’ve never seen anything like it!

All of the different designs and colors of the shields was amazing

Getting ready for battle

After grabbing a couple of hamburgers (their line was the shortest), we decided to stake out a place down towards the “end” of the field where there were very few people. We knew it probably wasn’t the ideal spot, but there wouldn’t be anyone in front of us and there was room to spread out a little.

(The English. King Harold is to the far left of the picture in the long red tunic with his back turned)

At 3:00 the event started. It was a little bit like a sporting event with an announcer to introduce the “teams” and main “players” as well as to provide a description as to what was going on. Sometimes the announcer made it sound like a WWW event and I kept expecting to hear, “Let’s get ready to rumble!”

(The Normans, along with Bretons and French. Duke William is on the black horse. Unfortunately we were behind the Norman force so mostly, we saw their backs!)

The road to Hastings had its beginnings when King Edward the Confessor died in 1066 childless. In an era where hereditary succession was not necessarily the rule, and with Edward’s closest relative barely a teenager, the king chose his brother in law, Harold of Wessex, to be his successor. Harold was also the most powerful noble in the country and head of the royal army.

But there were two other claimants to the throne: Harold Hardrada of Norway (who based his claim on a treaty made between his father and the King of England at that time, Harthacnut) and William of Normandy (whose claim was based on being a distant – and illegitimate – cousin of King Edwards). Everyone probably knew it was just a matter of time before someone came to stake their claim.

(the English "shield wall"; if you look closely slightly right of the middle of the picture you can see an arrow shot by the Normans)

To make matters worse, Harold had a very jealous brother, Tostig, who decided to join forces with Harold Hardrada. In mid- September 1066, the pair launched an invasion of England, landing at York. Harold and his army went north and on September 25, the pair was defeated. Unfortunately for Harold, it was at this time that William of Normandy made his move, crossing the channel and landing on England’s southern coast. Harold gathered his army and marched south to meet the new challenger.

It is estimated that the armies numbered between 5,000 and 7,000 men each. Although each was well armed, the Normans held one distinct advantage – the use of cavalry. The English fought on foot.

Harold and his men were along the high ridge (where the buildings are now and where we were standing when we took this) with William’s army below. Although most battles of this era were over within an hour, the battle at Hastings lasted close to nine hours.

Towards the end, Harold was hit by an arrow that went through his eye, killing him. Tired, and with their king dead, the English fled. William the Conqueror was crowned King of England on Christmas day.

Watching the battle was interesting. Although the announcer was explaining what was going on, sometimes it was hard to hear and/or understand what he was saying. It was obvious that some of the guys were really getting into it!

After the battle was over, we decided to walk up the hill and take a look around the abbey and wait for traffic to clear out a little.

William built a large Benedictine abbey on the northern part of the battlefield and due to his generosity it became one of the richest monasteries in England.

The church was situated so that that the high alter could be placed on the spot where Harold had been killed. A plaque marks the spot now.

The buildings that remain today are largely from the 13th century, including the large gatehouse with defensive features which would be useful in the event of a French attack. . Sadly in the 1530’s it was disbanded during the Dissolving of the Monasteries by Henry VIII who gave the property to his friend, Sir Anthony Browne. Browne demolished many of the buildings including the church and turned the abbot’s lodging into his private residence.

In 1721 the estate was sold to Sir Thomas Webster whose family owned it for more than 100 years. During this time much of the land was sold off (to pay gambling debts) and the buildings were neglected. The estate was sold again in the 1850’s to the 4th Duke of Cleveland who restored much of the property and used it as a residence. The Webster family bought Battle Abbey back in the late 1800’s. After WWI, the house was leased to Battle Abbey School which continues to occupy the building (pictured above) today – what a great place to go to school!!

During WWII, the abbey was used to house troops and in 1944, troops from Battle participated in the D-Day invasion of Normandy – nearly 900 years after William of Normandy crossed the channel to England. What comes around goes around...On February 3, 1943, the gatehouse was nearly a victim of German bombs when one landed nearby. Fortunately only minor damage was inflicted. In 1976 the abbey was once again put up for sale and was bought by the government with the aid of the donations of a small group of Americans who wanted to commemorate the bicentennial celebration of American independence.

*All information is from the Guidebook.

Cheers!

The One With the Fairytale

2010-11-01T16:27:00.000-07:00

When I think about a “fairytale castle”, I envision round turrets, a moat with a bridge, beautiful countryside and an atmosphere that screams romance. When I saw a picture of Bodiam Castle, I knew I wanted to go check it out!

Fortunately the day turned out to be sunny with a clear blue sky.

Started in 1385, Bodiam is one of the more “recent” traditional castles. It was built by Sir Edward Dalyngrigge who had built up quite a fortune from the wars with France during the later part of the 14th century. As the wars continued, he received permission to build the castle as part of the defense against a French invasion from the south. Even though the castle had a defensive purpose, it was also intended to provide a comfortable residence and its defensive structure is a simple one.

Although the Gatehouse was well fortified with a series of portcullises and gates, the walls of the castle were not. There are no arrow loops and the windows were built as windows and were glazed. As part of the inner defense, the upper wall walk does not go all the way around – only two lengths of the wall are accessible from any one tower. This had the advantage of being able to isolate various parts of the castle in the event of an attack.

For almost 300 years, the castle passed through various branches of Dalyngrigge’s family and following the English Civil War in the 1640’s, the castle was ordered partially dismantled. A hundred years later, the ivy covered castle was “discovered” by those looking for reminders of England’s medieval past. In 1829 it was bought by John Fuller who began some early renovations in an effort to preserve the ruins, a project that was further advanced by Lord Curzon who purchased the property in 1916 and left it to the National Trust upon his death.

Part of the beauty of Bodiam is its symmetry – each corner has a round tower and each side contains a square one, with the exception of the twin-towered gatehouse which provides access to the castle.

The Gatehouse is three stories high and above the gate is a carving of Sir Dalyngrigge’s crest (a tilting helm surmounted by a unicorn’s head). Below the window are three coats of arms representing Sir Dalyngrigge and his family.

Unlike the exterior of the castle which has remained largely intact, the interior is in ruins and about all that is left are doorways, fireplaces and windows.

All of the staircases looked like this. Often the steps are uneven and of differing heights - it would be very easy to fall up or down these!

close up of small turret on top of one of the round towers

It is believed that these arches connected the Great Hall with the kitchen, buttery and pantry.

a small window in one of the basement storerooms

Chip took this picture from the top of one of the towers - I think it's really cool! It would have been better if those people weren't standing in the middle of it, but it probably would have been rude to yell down and tell them to move...

I took this one on the first floor. I like the way the sun makes it looks like there is a light on.

Someone left the lights on!

View of one of the towers from inside the castle.

Another view of the inside of the castle taken from the back/Postern tower.

View from the top of the castle. At the right of the picture is the bridge that leads up to the Gatehouse.

Since I"m not the photographer in the family, I was pretty pleased with myself on this one!

The surrounding countryside is really quite pretty.

One of the things we found interesting was when we left the castle (around 11:30 or so) this hill had several couples and families who were just enjoying the nice day with a picnic. You can go into the grounds (for a couple of pounds for parking) without buying a ticket for the castle.

Cheers!

The One With the Girl Who Would be Queen

2010-10-29T09:16:00.000-07:00

After leaving Arundel we headed north to Hever Castle. Turns out this was easier said than done. It seems Hever is a teeny, tiny little village kind of in the middle of nowhere and since we were not coming from the highway to the north, but rather from the south, there were very few signs to help point the way and supplement my directions from mapquest. So it ended up taking us a little longer to get there than expected (this will become a common theme...).

By the time we arrived at mid-afternoon, the sun had decided to disappear and there was a bit of a chill in the air. I’m sure the house and gardens would have looked much better with a pretty blue sky, but at least it wasn’t raining! Pictures of the inside of the house were not allowed so I’ve scanned some from the guidebook (all pictures of the outside and the gardens are ones we took).

Hever owes its status as a place to visit largely due to it being the home of Anne Boleyn before her marriage to Henry VIII. While a pretty enough house from the outside, in the grand scheme of things, it is neither grand nor much of a castle but appears to be a modest sized country house. However, much of what exists today is due to the American William Waldorf Astor who restored the property in the early 1900s and furnished it with many antiques from the 17th and 18th centuries as well as a number of paintings and tapestries.

The original defensive castle was built on the site in 1270 by William de Hever. In 1505 it passed into the possession of Thomas Bullen who had married Elizabeth Howard, eldest daughter of the Duke of Norfolk (who owned Arundel from our visit that morning) and a section in the Tudor architectural style was added (above). In 1540 the house was given to Henry VIII’s fourth wife, Anne of Cleves as part of their divorce settlement. In the years following her death in 1557, Hever passed through a number of different owners and gradually fell into disrepair. In 1903, Astor invested a great deal of money and time to restore the castle as well as adding the “Astor” wing and creating a magnificent garden.

The Gatehouse is the oldest part of the castle and the front portcullis is reputed to be one of the oldest working ones in the country. The drawbridge was restored by Astor and can still be raised.

The Inner Hall was originally the house’s kitchen and included a large fireplace and well. Today, it is largely covered in Italian walnut and on the walls are portraits of Henry VII, Henry VIII and Edward VI as well as ones of Anne and her sister Mary. The mantle includes a replica of a clock that was Henry VIII’s wedding gift to Anne Boleyn.

During the designing and construction of the rooms, Astor insisted that his workmen use, to the extent possible, the same materials and tools that Tudor craftsmen would have used in the 1500s. They were not even allowed to use straight edges and so the work, including the very elaborate ceilings, was done by eye. Truly impressive!!

The Dining Hall is still used today for private and corporate events. At the top edge of the fireplace is the Bullen coat of arms and along the back wall are paintings of Henry V and the Black Prince (both from the early 19th century). The room also contains a large tapestry (not in the picture) that dates from 1540. When you leave the room there is a marker on the door that shows the level of floodwater from a huge storm in 1968. Much of the ground floor was either severely damaged or destroyed when 5 inches of rain fell in 16 hours and the nearby river flooded causing water to rise to more than 4 feet in the house and village. It took four years for the walls and floors to dry out enough for renovations work to begin!

The Entrance Hall was added by Thomas Bullen and some of the original timbers remain over the doorway. The hall includes a 15th century suit of amour and a large walnut choir stall from 1480s Italy.

On the upper floor, the first room is a small bedroom that is thought to be that of Anne as a child. I did manage to snap this shot through the open window of the room. The room includes a portrait of Anne.

In an adjacent room is a number of tapestries (including one depicting the marriage of Henry’s sister Mary Rose to Louis XII of France in 1514 (along the left wall) and two illuminated prayer books that belonged to Anne (which include her signature and are kept in the wooden display cases).

(detail of prayer books)

(detail of tapestry - many of the tapestries we saw during our trip are very large and must have taken hundreds of hours to make if not more!)

The largest bedchamber in the house was restored by the Astor family to be fit for a king (and is called King Henry VIII’s Bedchamber although it's not known for sure if he slept there are not). The beautiful bed is from 1540. The ceiling is the oldest in the castle (1462) and the paneling is from 1565 with the exception of a piece over the fireplace (below) which commemorates Henry’s two wives who lived at Hever.

Also upstairs is the Long Gallery which is more than 93 feet long. The gallery contains an impressive collection of Tudor portraits.

During the restoration of the castle, Astor also had built a 100 room wing in the style of a Tudor village and added elaborate gardens and a lake. Today the wing can be rented for corporate events, conferences, weddings etc and includes 21 bedrooms. The work was carried out by a force of over 1500 people!

Gardens

By the time we came out of the castle it was really starting to cool off and we almost decided to skip the gardens – we were glad we didn’t! Laid out between 1904 and 1908, the gardens comprise 125 acres (with more than 4,000 plants) along with a 38 acre lake. The garden includes classical and natural landscapes and a number of ponds and waterfalls. Additional pictures of the gardens are below:

Loggia and Piazza that front the lake

fountain on the back side of the piazza inspired by the Trevi fountain in Rome

view of the lake from inside Piazza

By the time we finished up in the gardens it was almost closing time and we headed back to our hotel for a nice long soak in the hot tub! After all the walking and climbing up and down at Arundel, my legs were killing me!!

*All information is from the Guidebook

The One With the "Old" and the "New"

2010-10-26T15:56:00.000-07:00

After a decent night’s sleep, the next morning we headed out for Arundel Castle. After a pretty drive through the country of about an hour we saw the castle perched up on a hill above a small town. Long the home of the Dukes of Norfolk, Arundel is still an “inhabited” castle and the home of the current Duke and Duchess and their children.

The current structure is a Norman Castle (with a Keep, Gatehouse, Barbican and wall - picture below) combined with a large Victorian country house (in the 19th century Gothic Revival style).

After William the Conqueror won the English throne in 1066, he rewarded his supporters with land provided they built defensive castles on them. A large part of Sussex was given to his relative, Roger de Montgomery who had looked after William’s Norman interests. Built four miles from the coast, Arundel formed part of a line of fortresses designed to prevent future invasions across the channel. Looked pretty impressive to me!

In 1068, de Montgomery started construction on an earth and wood fortification that would later be replaced with masonry, starting with the gatehouse in 1070. Over the next 100 years, the walls would rebuilt using Sussex flintwork which you can still see on the walls.

this is a closeup of how several of the walls look

Although the battlements and turrets were restored in the 19th century, most of the walls are original. When de Montgomery’s son Robert rebelled against King Henry I, his lands (including Arundel) were confiscated and in 1138 the castle was granted as her dower to Queen Adelize of Louvain (Henry I’s widow). She later married William d’Aubigny (d’Albini) who became the Earl of Sussex and who replaced the original wood tower with ashlar stone brought over from Normandy.

Following the deaths of Adeliza and William, the castle reverted to the Crown under Henry II but was later returned to Williams’ son and the castle passed through the female line, the Fitzalan Earls of Arundel. In the late 14th century, the Barbican was added to the outside of the gatehouse and is currently the best preserved part of the medieval building along with the Beaumont/Bevis Tower.

The Barbican

Beaumont/Bevis Tower

When the 12th Fitzalan earl died without an heir in 1580, (his son having pre-deceased him) the castle passed to his grandson Philip Howard (his mother Mary Fitzalan had married the 4th Duke of Norfolk). The Dukes of Norfolk have owned the castle ever since.

During the English Civil War in 1644, the castle was partially demolished on the south and southwest sides. In 1708, the 8th Duke of Norfolk repaired the south end and added a plain red brick Georgian front. During these years, the castle was used only occasionally. Starting in the late 18th century until about 1900, various renovations and additions were made to the castle and it was one of the first houses in England with an electric light. The Victorian Gothic house played a part in the WWII when it was occupied by British, American and Commonwealth troops.

In 1975, the 17th Duke, Miles, began a massive restoration project of the entire castle and although the castle had not been used as a residence in many years, in 1987 the 18th (and present Duke) decided to move his family into the castle and make it their home. Since then, the interior of the house has been restored and decorated in the Victorian style and an impressive garden has been added. The estate includes a large park which is open every day (free of charge) and the farmland surrounding the castle is very picturesque.

The Gatehouse Tower is the oldest part of the castle and dates from around 1070. The entrance archway is original and inside is an accurate Victorian re-creation of the portcullis mechanism.

The first floor apartments have been known as “Queen Matilda’s Room” since the 18th century after the daughter of Henry I who may have stayed her with her step-mother Adeliza. The two arched Norman windows are original.

Up 131 steps, the Keep is 59 feet by 67 feet and is 30 feet high and was built in 1138 by William d’Albini.

Some of the late 14th century fireplaces can still be seen.

Up a narrow staircase is a wall walk with some gorgeous views of the town and surrounding countryside.

Also in this area are the castle’s well (which is over 100 feet deep and goes down to the water table below) and and a small chapel - St. Martin’s Chapel. The two arched windows are also originals.

The “house” portion of the castle contains a number of “state rooms” that are open to the public. Since pictures are not permitted, I’ve scanned some of the pictures from the guide book.

These rooms display many of the family’s collection of antiques, including furniture, armor and weapons (a few pieces are from the 15th century), artwork and tapestries.

The collection also includes some pieces that belonged to Mary Queen of Scots (the 4th Duke of Norfolk was beheaded by Elizabeth I in 1572 when his betrothal to Mary was seen as a threat to the throne) and includes the gold and enamel rosary beads carried by Mary at her execution (above - bequeathed to the Countess of Arundel, wife of Philip Howard), a gold cross, pearl necklace and Mary’s prayer book.

The family Chapel was built in the late 19th century and is very impressive with beautiful Victorian carved moldings and stained glass windows. This picture really does not do it justice - I thought it was simply breathtaking.

Also impressive is the Baron’s Hall. At 133 feet in length and 50 feet in height, it was built during the late Victorian era.

The Dining Room is in what was the medieval chapel – the conversion was done around 1795. What a great place to have dinner!

The castle includes a large number of guest bedrooms which include a small dressing room/bathroom many with original Victorian fixtures. On the main floor is a suite of rooms added in the 1790s and were refurbished in 1846 for a visit by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. I would be afraid to sleep in one of theses rooms for fear I would break something or spill something on the carpet!

No country house would be complete without a library and Arundel’s is 122 feet long and of carved Honduran mahogany. The furniture dates from the 1846 visit by Queen Victoria. The library contains over ten thousand books, collected by the 9th and 11th Dukes and contains numerous volumes and materials relating to Catholic history.

The Fitzalan Chapel

(This is the entrance to the chapel). Founded in 1380 as a collegiate chapel served by secular priests, it was returned to the family during the reign of Henry VIII when the college was dissolved. In an unusual case in the late 1800’s, a court determined that the chapel did not form part of the parish church but was instead an independent structure. It has therefore remained Catholic. Damaged during the English Civil War in 1643-44 and sadly neglected after that, the original timber roof collapsed in the late 1700’s and the chapel was gradually restored over the next 100 years. The chapel still serves as the burial place of the Dukes of Norfolk and many of their tombs are elaborate pieces of art, as is the beautiful stained glass window.

the chapel ceiling

The Gardens

Comprising over 30 acres, the grounds at Arundel have undergone extensive renovations over the last 20 years under the current duchess.

Chip has always enjoyed landscaping so he is fine with looking around at gardens (and taking lots of pictures!)

One of the more unusual aspects is a rockwork “mountain” planted with palms and ferns with a version of “Oberon’s Palace” sitting on top (it is to the left of the cathedral in this picture).

Inside the palace is a crown fountain which I thought was a lot of fun!!

The day started off kind of cloudy and humid, but by late morning, the sun came out and the temperature was in the low 60’s. After exploring the inside of the castle, we walked around much of the outside through what must have been the moat.

It provided some great views of the castle from slightly different angles and I was surprised that we were the only ones out there!
Here are some additional pictures:

I just love this one with the fall colors

from underneath the old bridge

another entrance from across another bridge; flanked by the Howard lion and the Fitzalan horse

turrets – what’s not to love?!!

I love shots like this!

Having eaten a large English breakfast, we weren’t really that hungry at lunchtime so we went to the castle’s café and took a break with drinks and desert before we headed out.

Cheers!

*all information is from the castle guidebook

The One Where We Decide to Go Back

2010-10-24T11:34:00.000-07:00

About 10 days ago Chip and I celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary. Earlier in the year we talked about going on a trip and after considering the Caribbean, Hawaii and a cruise, we decided what we really wanted to do was to go back to England. So we started making plans. Then… our daughter cancelled her fall wedding, moved out to Colorado with us and enrolled in a private college. With private tuition to pay along with the unexpected cost of adding another person back into the house, we considered not going anywhere at all. But after a few weeks we changed our minds – after all you only have one 20th anniversary – the trip was back on.

Last year our short trip was mostly confined to London and a couple of days in southeastern Wales. We decided we would go for 10 days this year, rent a car and drive around the countryside to a bunch of places we (ok, mostly I) wanted to visit. I got several travel books from the library and started putting together “the list”. The first draft was pretty long – about 50 places!! I had three that were “must go to”: Windsor Castle, Edinburgh Castle and Leeds Castle. Everything else would be chosen based on location along a rough “route up to Edinburgh and back south again" and proximity to various Hilton hotels where we would be using up all of our Hilton Honors points (free rooms!!). This is the map I created to help with the process:

By the time I was finished a couple of weeks later, I had put together an ambitious list:

Leeds Castle
Arundel Castle
Hever Castle
Bodiam Castle
Battle of Hastings re-enactment
Canturbury Cathedral
Ely Cathedral
Lincoln Cathedral
York Cathedral
Alnwick Castle
Bamburgh Castle
Edinburgh Castle
Palace of Holyroodhouse (the Queen’s palace in Scotland)
Kenilworth
Windsor Castle
Salisbury Cathedral
Corfe Castle

I spent the two weeks before the trip putting together a basic plan of where we would be each day, printing out maps, directions and visitor information (all of which went into a binder) and worrying if Brittany and Tanzy would be OK at home by themselves. Finally, it was time to go!

Or maybe not. Earlier this year Chip bought a digital SLR camera (bear with me, there is a point to this story). We’ve had a small “point and shoot” type for a few years but he really wanted one that would allow him more options with lenses, settings etc. During the spring and summer, he would often go up to the mountains and spend an afternoon hiking and taking pictures. In an effort to be “prepared”, he bought a small knife to carry with him for emergencies (like if he got his foot tangled up in something and needed to cut himself free). Has anyone guessed how this is relevant yet??

The Denver airport was packed (recession? What recession?) and after about half an hour we made it to the front of the security line. I went through security first and while waiting for my stuff to come down the conveyor belt I noticed the TSA worker had stopped the belt with Chip’s bags inside. Then he motioned for a few other workers to come over and they are all standing there looking at the screen and pointing. Chip asked me if there were any liquids in the bag he was taking as a carry-on (that I had packed with clothes) and I shrugged my shoulders and said not that I could remember. So what does TSA pull out of Chip’s camera bag?? That’s right, his emergency knife.

My wonderfully planned trip to England suddenly flashed before my eyes and I realized we probably woouldn't be making our flight as we are interrogated for hours about the knife (remember – there was a travel advisory at the time for Europe). Thankfully that didn’t happen as TSA kindly offered to confiscate the knife and added that this kind of thing “happens all the time here”. Crisis averted.

Given our previous pleasant experience on British Airways, we booked a flight with them again. Did I mention the airport was busy? Unlike our trip last year, our flight this time was full – packed. So much for getting some amount of real sleep on the overnight flight. We grumbled to ourselves and tried to make the best of it.

Since we left Denver about 40 minutes late, we got to Heathrow late and had to circle around for a while. We had to wait in a line forever at customs and by the time we got the car and got on the road I knew there was no way we were going to make it to Leeds Castle that afternoon as planned. Something was already going to have to give in the itinerary, but it wouldn’t be Leeds!!

After managing to miss the turn for our hotel (wouldn’t be the first time that happened but more about that later…) we found it half an hour later. We decided to go into town for dinner and the concierge suggested some kind of “mall” that had a variety of restaurants and gave us directions. Instead of making it to the suggested place, we turned down a side road (not entirely intentionally, parked and walked a few blocks to a pub patronized by locals - The Druid Inn. We really like those kind of places rather than the ones in the “tourist” areas and after a hamburger and chips, we called it a night and hoped to get a good night's sleep.

Cheers!

Cheers!

2009-07-26T06:14:00.000-07:00

(Tower Bridge in London)

After our visit to Caerphilly Castle, it was sadly time to go back to London and head home. Our flight was at 3:45pm and as had been the case with most of our driving experience in England, it was easier said then done – we missed the entrance to the highway twice and had to go quite a ways in order to turn around. This put us behind on our already tight schedule but Chip said the worst thing that would happen is we would have to spend another night in London!

After stopping for gas and picking up food at Burger King (the fries did taste different and there was no iced tea!) we made it back to the car rental place about an hour and a half before our flight. I’ve always read to give yourself two hours for international flights and Heathrow’s website indicated that if you weren’t through security 35 minutes before your flight they could stop you from getting on the plan. Even though I might now have minded staying another night, I was a little nervous about making it on time.

Fortunately, one of the busiest airports in the world wasn’t busy at all and there were virtually no passengers at the British Airways counter and only about 10 people in front of us at the security checkpoint. Darn our luck! The plane was only about a third of the way full so we were able to stretch out a little but since I didn’t sleep on the way home, the 9 hour flight was really long. I did some reading and watched Young Victoria, which I thought was very good.

At one point during the flight Chip told me to look out the window and I saw a bunch of white stuff below us. I thought maybe it was ice in the ocean, but a check of the flight path (displayed on the little TV screen) showed that we were over Iceland! Very cool! (no pun intended) I had heard about flights in the northwestern United States flying close to the North Pole due to the circumference of the earth being smaller, but it hadn’t crossed my mind that transatlantic flights would do the same thing. But sure enough, after Iceland we flew over Greenland and down through Canada to get to Denver. Unfortunately, Chip’s camera was packed in our luggage and the battery on our digital one was still dead.

Although the trip was originally my idea and Chip just went along because I didn’t want to go by myself, he had a really good time and wants to go back. There is so much history and so many old castles and cathedrals to explore that I think we could easily spend a month there!

Since most of the places we visited were historical in nature, I thought I would share some of my favorite historical fiction books that inspired our trip:

Southeast Wales – English author Elizabeth Chadwick has written some fascinating novels about William Marshall and his family. The Greatest Knight and The Scarlet Lion. In addition, her most recent book, The Time of Singing is about Roger Bigod. Unfortunately, they are currently only available in the UK, but you can order them from The Book Depository (they have free worldwide shipping). The Greatest Knight is being published in the US in September and can be ordered from Amazon.

The Tudor Period – The Lady in the Tower by Jean Plaidy and The Concubine by Norah Lofts are both about Anne Boleyn (Henry VIII’s second wife) and have recently been republished (available from Amazon and in some bookstores). I recently read a great book on Catherine Howard (his fifth wife), The King’s Rose by Alisa Libby, also available via Amazon. Surprisingly, there are few fiction books written from Henry’s point of view, but one that I would suggest is The Autobiography of Henry VIII by Margaret George. I would also recommend Innocent Traitor by Alison Weir (Lady Jane Grey, also executed at the Tower) and for Elizabeth I, the best book is Legacy by Susan Kay (currently out of print but scheduled for reissue this fall).

William the Conqueror – Although told mostly from the viewpoint of Britain’s conquered King, Harold II, Helen Hollick’s novel Harold the King is by far my favorite. Currently only available in the UK.

One of my absolute favorite authors is Sharon Kay Penman: The Sunne in Splendour (Wars of the Roses, Richard III); her Welsh Trilogy set during the reigns of King John, Henry III and Edward I (Here Be Dragons, Falls the Shadow and The Reckoning); and her trilogy on Eleanor of Aquitaine and Henry II (When Christ and His Saints Slept, Time and Chance and Devil’s Brood). All are available from Amazon and in some bookstores.

Well, I hope your enjoyed reading about our trip to London. I recently discovered a site devoted to Anne Boleyn and the gal that runs it has organized a tour built around Anne's life - including staying at Hever Castle (Anne's childhood home which was restored during the early 20th century by William Waldorf Astor). Even though I was just there and have already seen a couple of the places that are included, I would love to go...

I decided to go ahead and keep up the blog so watch this space for pictures from some of our other vacations.

Cheers!

Daphne

Caerphilly Castle

2009-07-04T18:04:00.000-07:00

Note: Due to my digital camera battery being dead, these pictures were taken with film (which may have been old) on a cloudy, misty day. As a result, the quality may not be the greatest.

After our quick picture taking visit to Cardiff Tuesday morning, it was off to Caerphilly Castle seven miles to the north. Set partially up on a small hill overlooking the town, Caerphilly Castle is the largest castle in Wales and when built, was an architectural achievement combined with an outstanding defensive structure which included two lakes. It is a prime example of the concentric – or “wall within a wall” construction. Caerphilly was built between 1268 to 1271 by the leading noble of the area – “Red” Gilbert de Clare, earl of Gloucester and Hertford and lord of Glamorgan – in response to the political and military threat posed by Prince Llywelyn ap Gruffudd of Gwynedd. Within 10 years with the Welsh prince defeated, the castle was no longer a front line defense and was shortly remodeled into a lavish venue for entertaining.

After the death of Red Gilbert’s son (another Gilbert) in 1314, Caerphilly and a vast portion of the de Clare estates went to Eleanor de Clare (niece of Edward II) and her husband, Hugh Despenser the younger. Hugh and his father (Hugh the elder) were favorites of then King Edward II. Given favors, land and titles the Despensers quickly became unpopular with the barons and eventually one of the barons (Roger Mortimer) joined up with Queen Isabella to force Hugh and the king out of power. causing them to flee London. For a few days, the pair took refuge within Caerphilly and when forced to move on, left a large part of the royal treasure at the castle. The castle subsequently belonged to Eleanor and Hugh’s son (a third Hugh), Richard Beauchamp and Richard Neville, “the Kingmaker” Earl of Warwick. By the time Henry Tudor (VII) came to throne in 1485, Caerphilly Castle had fallen into partial decay. The deterioration of the castle continued until 1776 when the Bute family acquired the castle and like their work at Cardiff, the family began major restoration during the 1800’s. The castle was turned over to the state in 1950.

The Outer Main Gatehouse is in remarkably good condition and was used as a prison as late as 1539. The gate towers are square at the base but the fronts become half octagons as they rise three floors. Inside are spiral staircases leading to the roof which has a great view of the central “island” (as seen in the below picture).

The south dam platform (which runs to the south of the main gatehouse) and according to the guidebook has been called “one of the most dramatic examples of medieval architecture in Britain.”

At the end of the wall near the south gate tower are four reconstructions of medieval siege weapons (or “engines of war”). The stone structure in the lower right corner of the picture are the remains of a watermill used for grinding corn and was powered by the water from the south lake. One of the small towers contains a guardroom where two stone benches cover latrines that emptied directly into the outer moat. Guess the moat would not be a good place for swimming!

Caerphilly’s most notable feature may be its “leaning tower”, the southeast tower of the inner ward. The three story tower has split, possibly due to ground subsidence and leans at a 10 degree angle. Despite the fact that it looks like it’s about to fall over, the outside of the tower remains undamaged and is original to the castle. The split goes all the way to the ground and you could literally walk right into it and look up. One of the things that really amazed us especially in Wales was the access at the places we visited. Although there were some areas that were closed to the public, those that were open were totally accessible – there were no rope barriers, no bars over the glassless windows, tiny spiral staircases with uneven stone steps (most with no handrails) and very few warning signs. Chip and I commented several times that in the US, OSHA would never allow such a thing! We though it was wonderful that apparently the lawyers in Wales haven’t made such access imprudent and apparently, the government figures that when you are walking around stone ruins that are hundreds of years old most people are smart enough to know to be careful and watch your step. Duh! Come to think of it, I don’t remember seeing any signs in restaurants warning you that your coffee or tea might be hot either.

The East Gatehouse was completed by 1271. This picture is of the back of the gatehouse which is almost all original. The front of the gatehouse was completely rebuilt in the 1930’s. Unfortunately, the inside of the gatehouse is not open to the public.

One of the building within the Inner Ward is the immense Great Hall. Unfortunately our picture didn’t turn out so this one is from the guidebook. The Great hall was constructed in the early 14th century at the time of Hugh Despenser the younger. During the restoration done by the Bute family in the 1870’s, the roof was replaced, and more recently, the windows have been reglazed and the stonework refaced. Looking at the table at the end of the room gives you an idea of its size and scale. At the top of the stone columns along the wall (from which the wooden beams that support the ceiling rise) are three carved heads. Some of the heads have beards and crowns and strongly resemble that on the tomb effigy of Edward II in Gloucester Cathedral. Others depict younger men with longer hair and one column contains three women wearing kerchiefs and jeweled circlets. The hall can be rented out for weddings – how cool would that be!

Some additional pictures:

Closeup of main gate

I’m not exactly sure what part of the castle this is from, but it may be one of the sections that held private apartments.

Drawbridge (built in modern times) over the outer moat, leading to the outer gate

Well, sadly this was the last place we visited. The next post will be a wrap up and some final thoughts of our trip.

Cheers!
Daphne

Cardiff Castle or Dead Camera Batteries at the Worst Time

2009-06-28T14:47:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks before we left for London I realized that I couldn't find the battery charger to our digital camera. A new one from Sony was $60 (!) so I ordered one from ebay. Fortunately it arrived a couple of days before we left and I charged up the battery so it would be fully charged. Or so I thought.

On our last night in London (after visiting Hampton Court), I noticed the battery was getting low and, using the electrical adaptor we had bought, I charged the battery. Or so I thought. During our visits to Tintern Abbey and Chepstow Castle, I realized the battery wasn't charged any more than it had been the night before and was going down fast. I figured I put the battery in the charger backwards since it doesn't indicate which way it goes in (a situation my dad calls "operator error). After Chepstow our plan was to drive to Cardiff, check into our hotel and then visit Cardiff Castle which was conveniently located right across the street from the htoel. I figured I could charge the battery up long enough to last through our visit to the castle. Wrong.

By this time the battery was completely dead and no matter what I tried, it was obvious that the charger I bought was not working. Ordinarily this would have been about the time I was silently thanking Chip for bringing along his SLR film camera (with the super zoom lenses!). Unfortunately, his camera batteries had decided to die the day before. With the castle set to close in an hour and a half and the convenience store two doors down from the hotel closed, we developed a plan B: we would go to the castle as planned and in the morning, try to find a disposable camera and take a few quick pictures before we headed to Caerphilly. The next morning, I could not believe that we could not find a disposable camera! We did however luck out in that the convenience store had batteries for Chip's old camera. Go figure. This is my long way of saying that due to our time schedule that day (our flight left at 3:45 pm), we unfortunately have very few pictures of the impressive Cardiff Castle.

Cardiff Castle is located at the lower point of the Taft River near the mouth of the Bristol Channel. At the time of the Roman invasion in 43 A.D., the area was inhabited by a local tribe known as the Silures. From archaeological excavations during the 1970's, it appears that 4 different Roman forts were built on this site, the last one built of stone rather than wood in the 4th century. With the fall of the Roman Empire, the city that had sprung up around the fort remained and eventually became the capital of Wales.

In 1888, the remains of the Roman fort were discovered when the 3rd Marquess of Bute decided to build a new tower on the east bank and to extend the grounds. Lord Bute abandoned his plans for the new tower and instead decided to reconstruct the Roman walls on their original foundations. Some parts of the original wall are still visible and are outlined in red sandstone.

After the Normans conquered England, their King, William the Conqueror, moved on to south east Wales and founded a castle in Cardiff in 1081. The stone keep that is currently on the site (it is in the first picture) was built in 1135 by Robert the Consul, probably in response to a Welsh uprising. At one point it was the prison of Robert Curthouse after his failed rebellion against his brother, Henry I. Over the next 200 years the castle was owned by the de Clares, the Despensers and the Beauchamps and at some point the keep was linked by a wall to the Black Tower that was constructed at the gate (just to the right of the gate in this picture). The keep is 12 sided and built of blue limestone. There are 100 steps up to the top and once inside, it is much larger than it appears, although it is apparently smaller than it once was. I am really disappointed that we did not have time to go back up into the keep to take pictures.

In 1404 the twon and the castle were attacked by the Welsh hero Owain Glyndwr and both were severely damaged. After the defeat of the Welsh, the castle was repaired and a new residential building was constructed by Richard Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick. For nearly 400 years the castle changed hands numerous times with some owners making improvements and additions to the residential structure. But it was the arrival of the 1st Marquess of Bute in 1766 that completely transformed the castle into much of what is seen today. Over the next 30 years, the family would use their immense fortune from coal mining to radically change its appearance - including demolishing several ancient Roman and Norman structures for which the family was strongly criticized.

During the Victorian era, the 3rd Marquess of Bute, employing the talens fo the architect William Bruges, turned the residential portion of the castle into an extravagant mix of stained glass, painted murals, gilding and sculpture. No pictures were allowed inside the building, so I've included some scanned pictures from the guidebook to give you an idea of what's inside. In my opinion, this is truly an example of sensory overload - every conceivable surface in every room is covered with something. Much of it elicits the "oh-my-god-my-jaw-just-hit-the-floor" response, but I imagine living here would give me a headache!

The book lover in me absolutely LOVED this library! Created from the medieval great hall, there were lots of old books, which included old law books.

In one of the towers is a private sitting room used by Lady Bute. The room is called the Chaucer Room for the murals and stained glass that illustrate his stories. The stained glass windows illustrate The Canterbury Tales and were made around 1880. To the left of this pictures is a close up of one of the windows (click on the picture for a larger image).

The Banqueting Hall is the largest room in the castle and is in the oldest part of the building. Murals on the walls tell the story of the medieval castle

The Clock Tower was built in 1869-74 and was intended to provide a series of rooms for Lord Bute before his marriage.

The castle remained in the Bute family until 1947 when it was presented as a gift to the City of Cardiff. The castle was home to the National College of Music and Drama for 25 years before being opened to the public in 1974. It remains one of Wales' most popular tourist attractions.

When we first came in through the castle gates, I noticed these red Welsh Dragons and told Chip that I wanted a picture of one. As we got closer to it, we saw this:

If you look carefully at the picture above, you can see the duck there. She didn't seem too disturbed by our presence though.

Information is from the castle guidebook. You can find out more information at their website.

Cheers!
Daphne

Chepstow Castle

2009-06-19T14:59:00.000-07:00

Once we got to the town of Chepstow, we weren’t really sure where the castle was but I told Chip to go to the center of town and it should be nearby – after all, how hard could it be to find a castle!? There were a few signs pointing us in the general direction and as we drove through the narrow streets we talked about how cool the town was with all the medieval looking buildings. After parking the car, we went in search of the castle. About 100 feet from the parking lot we started going over a bridge. Chip was walking ahead of me and as he got about a quarter of the way over he started laughing. I asked him what was so funny and he said I would see when I got there. This is what we saw:

from the direction we had just come from.

In fact, see this little silver car sitting in front of the big bush? That’s our car. We had gotten out of the car and didn’t even notice the big stone turret right in front of us! Jeez. We had a good laugh though.

Perched on limestone cliffs overlooking the river Wye, Chepstow Castle was first established in the late 11th century, as a castle in this location is referenced in the 1086 Doomesday Book as being built by William fitz Osbern. After a failed rebellion by William’s son, the land was confiscated by the crown who held it until 1115 when Henry I granted it to Walter fitz Richard of Clare (who was also responsible for the founding of Tintern Abbey). Following his death, the lands became the inheritance of his young daughter Isabel who became the wife of the great William Marshal in 1189.

After passing through the hands of Marshal’s sons, in 1245 Chepstow became the property of William’s eldest daughter Maud and her husband, Hugh Bigod, the third earl of Norfolk. Roger Bigod, the fifth earl of Norfolk, used the castle as his main residence and accounts from the period indicate that he made extensive and lavish improvements. When Roger died in 1306, the land again reverted to the crown and over the next several hundred years it belonged to a variety of monarchs and nobles, including the infamous Hugh Despenser the younger (in 1324), and Charles Somerset, first earl of Worcester (in 1507). Subsequent centuries saw the site used as a fortress, barracks, a prison, a storage facility for guns and other weapons in the 17th century; a nail factory and wine bottles were made here in the 18th century. Also during the late 17th century, parts of the castle, including the upper level of the great tower and most of the internal floors were demolished.

During the late 19th century the overgrown interior of the castle was cleared out, paths laid and some conservation efforts were underway by the Beaufort estate. In 1953 the castle was put under the guardianship of the state.

The Main Gatehouse was built by William Marshall in 1189. Its two large round towers built closely together was a revolutionary design for its time. It is thought to be the oldest twin-towered gatehouse in Britain.

The Great Tower is the oldest building in the castle (built in the late 11th century) and sits about two-thirds of the way back on the grounds. It is 120 feet long by 45 feet wide. If you look closely (or click on the image to make it larger) you can see a small horizontal orange band above the doorway. This is mortar made from reused Roman tiles, likely from the ruins of a Roman town 4 miles away (modern day Caerwent).

Within the tower is the great hall. This is the interior and the four arched stone niches contain fragments of their original 11th century decoration – the oldest surviving secular decoration in Britain. It can be seen best in the 2nd arch from the left – the arch would have been filled with white plaster into which was set a band of pinkish orange plaster made from crushed Roman tiles and over this was strips of white plaster in a criss-cross pattern.

The remains of a beautiful pair of arches remain at one end of the room and were likely added by the sons of William Marshall during the 13th century. In its final form, the tower stood 75 feet high.

At the far end of the castle is the upper bailey (the word “bailey” refers to the defensive wall surrounding a courtyard and can also refer to the courtyard itself), highlighted by Marshal’s Tower. This two story rectangular tower was built in the early 13th century by William Marshal probably as private apartments for his family.

Behind Marshal’s Tower is the Upper Barbican. This was added by William Marshal’s sons as an added defense. The three story tower contains a number of arrow slits.

The lower bailey is also from William Marshall’s time but most of the buildings from that era have been lost. What is seen today are domestic building added by Roger Bigod in the last quarter of the 13th century. This part of the castle included a great hall, the earl’s chamber, a kitchen, cellar and several passageways. Later modifications to the structures were made during the Tudor period as well as the late 17th century.

Marten’s Tower was also added by Roger Bigod in 1288. Complete with private lodgings and a small chapel, it may have been intended for important guests. It was renovated during the Tudor period and later served as a prison for Henry Marten (the tower now carries his name), who was one of the individuals to sign the death warrant for Charles I. The interior is very well preserved due to the roof remaining into the 19th century.

Additional pictures:

an arrowloop

exterior of lower bailey domestic buildings

interior chamber of one of the towers

detail of window in the chapel in Marten Tower

view of the town of Chepstow from the castle

view of the Great Tower and part of the wall separating the middle bailey from the lower bailey

one of the bailey doors. Made of two layers of elm and oak boards, they are clenched together with iron nails. Tree-ring dating has dated the doors to the first half of the 16th century. The three triangular holes are believed to be from the English Civil War and were for muskets.

view of the outlying countryside and the river. It is so beautiful and peaceful.

another view of the Great Tower and the cliffs

Information is from the castle’s guidebook.

Cheers!
Daphne

Tintern Abbey

2009-06-13T20:18:00.000-07:00

Our first stop in Wales was at Tintern Abbey, or the ruins of what is left of it. As we got close to the Welsh border, we noticed a change in the landscape – from relatively flat farmland and pastures to rolling hills. The Abbey is north of the town of Chepstow on a narrow and winding road, made more nerve-wracking since we were driving on the left!

Even though we had been experiencing nice sunny weather, Monday was cooler, somewhat overcast, and quickly turned grey and misty. As we came around the last curve and saw the Abbey nestled in a beautiful green valley, the mist in the air somehow seemed appropriate and gave it an almost otherworldly look

The Abbey was founded in 1131 by the Lord of Chepstow, Walter fitz Richard of Clare (better known as Strongbow) and its early inhabitants were Cistercian monks from France. As the community of monks grew, so did the Abbey and the great gothic church that dominates the site was begun in 1269, patronized by Roger Bigod, fifth earl of Norfolk. The Abbey was surrendered to the crown during the early period of the dissolution of the monasteries under Henry VIII. At that time many of the Abbey’s valuables – silver, glass, timber and lead (from the roof) was either sent directly to the king’s treasury or sold. After that, Tintern was largely forgotten until it was “rediscovered” during the late 18th century by the “Romantic” poets and artists. In 1901 it was purchased by the crown and a massive conservation effort took place over the next 25 years.

When William Marshall became Lord of Chepstow in 1189, he also became a patron of Tintern. According to the guidebook, several members of the Marshall family were buried at Tintern – his wife Isabel and three of his children, Walter, Anselm and Matilda – however I did not see anything on the grounds that indicated such. But admittedly, with the delay at Heathrow, the rain and approaching lunchtime, there were some parts of the grounds we skipped and we didn’t buy the guidebook until after we were done with our visit (I didn’t want it to get wet!).

The west front of the church is just spectacular. The great window above the door is an example of the English Gothic Decorated style of architecture popular at the time. This style is known for its window “tracery” where windows are subdivided by small vertical bars of stone which then branch out and form elaborate motifs at the top of the window. We could only look up and shake our heads in wonder at how such things were created 700 years ago. And wonder even more how they are still standing!

Closeup of the West doors

Through the west doors is the nave – truly one of the most simply beautiful things I saw during the trip. The missing roof only adds to its beauty and the light mist that was falling gave the place a magical feeling (this picture is at the east end of the nave looking back to the west door/window). As originally built however, the space would not have seemed as immense since it was divided into six sections, separated by pairs of columns along the length of the building. Based on surviving fragments, it is believed that the locally quarried red-green sandstone was not visible during the middle ages and was actually white lime-plastered (I think the sand-stone is much prettier!). The floor was covered with decorated and glazed tiles of a red-brown color. The large arch near the forefront of the picture is one of four that surround the “crossing” - the centre of the church where the two sections of the cross intersect.

The central area was divided from the aisles to the north and south by arcades of pointed arches (view is looking down the aisle from the west – you can make out the arches on the left). These aisles served as passageways connecting the two ends of the church.

Along the outside of the aisles were windows. They are slightly different on the north side than those from the south side, probably reflecting a style change during different phases of construction.

At the east end is the presbytery which was likely elevated at least one step up. The high alter would have been here. Here you can see another of the great arches and the large east window. Most of the tracery inside the window was lost, however the center mullion was recreated in 1904-05 from some smaller pieces. According to contemporary accounts the window featured the arms of Roger Bigod.

The cross arms of the church are the north and south transepts. This is the window in the north transept (a similar one existed on the south end). The roof line below the window is that of the monk’s day room and dormitory.

Just north of the church (on the other side of a small open courtyard) are the remnants of the warming house, the only place besides the kitchen and infirmary where a fire was permitted. Part of the vaulted roof survives.

In this area is also the part of the refectory or dining hall. At 84 feet long by 29 feet wide, it is a large room filled with windows like these.

Here are some additional pictures:

The dining hall wall is on the right of the picture.

Closeup of the north window

I just love all of the arches!

This gives you an idea of how massive the pillars are!

Closeup of how the pillars are constructed

More arches!

Across the street from the Abbey is a restaurant is what looks (and smells) to be a very old building. We had a nice lunch and then hit the road to the next stop - Chepstow Castle.

Information regarding the Abbey is from the guidebook.

Cheers!
Daphne

Off to Wales - or Stay to the Left!

2009-06-11T19:51:00.000-07:00

About a week before our trip we made a change to our plans. We really wanted to see some old castles – ones that were still much as they would have been when they were in use and not ones that had been renovated or restored during the last couple of hundred years. It seemed that Wales was the place to go. I investigated taking the train there and using it to get to the places we wanted to go since it appeared there were stations within walking distance of three of the four. Chip thought it would be easier and more flexible to rent a car. (Given our great train adventure to Hampton Court, it was probably good thinking on his part!). So we made arrangements to rent a car at Heathrow (easy to turn back in before our flight) and to stay in Cardiff, the capital.

Monday morning we left the hotel early and took a cab to the airport. Since this was a bank holiday, there was very little traffic. Apparently, cars with a manual transmission are the norm in England and since Chip could drive one he decided not to pay the substantial extra amount for a car that was an automatic. In hindsight, that probably wasn’t the best idea.

Heathrow is the third busiest airport in the world and has 5 terminals and roadways full of roundabout intersections (which had only recently caught on where we live). Fortunately, the car rental place seemed to be at the “edge” of the airport and pretty close to the road we needed to head west towards Wales. Unfortunately, it wasn’t quite that simple.

From the moment we sat in the car everything just felt “wrong”. We were both sitting on the “wrong” side of the car, the rearview mirror was tilted the "wrong" direction and although the gearshift was in the middle like it should have been, it was on the "wrong" side of the driver, meaning Chip would have to use his left hand to change gears (kind of like trying to brush your teeth or eat with a spoon with the "wrong" hand). Even the position of the gears was different and it took a few minutes to get the car into the right gear.

As we left the car lot, we asked the gate attendant how to get to the M4 highway. He made it sound simple – turn right out of the lot and at the roundabout we just had to follow the signs (you can see the junction on the top right hand corner of this map and the car rental place was on Northern Perimeter Road). As soon as we turned out of the lot I reminded Chip to “stay to the left”. It would quickly become our new catch phrase. The feeling of driving on the "wrong" side of the road was somewhat unnerving at first and going into the roundabout from the "wrong" side and in the "wrong" direction was confusing. So we really weren’t that surprised that we missed our turn to the highway and found ourselves headed back into Heathrow (just not in the same direction that we had just come from – that would have been too easy!).

We had hoped to find signs that would lead us back to where we wanted to be. But trying to find and read signs while concentrating on staying on the “right” (left) side of the road made it more difficult. We ended up at a parking garage with only two choices: go into the garage or go through the taxi lane. We picked the taxi lane. What we didn’t know was that taxi lanes at Heathrow are not like the ones we are used to in the states (where you can generally drive around the taxi’s parked in line) and we found ourselves behind two stopped cabs with no way to drive around. The driver in front of us politely explained that there was no way to go through or around them (and any possible way would result in some kind of large fine) and that they could be there for an hour or two. Realizing that there was no one behind us, I quickly got out of the car and ran back down the taxi lane to stop any other cars. Luckily, there were none and Chip was able to back the car all the way back down the lane to the entrance of the garage. One through the garage we spotted signs for the rental car lots and before too long, we had found our way to the M4. We were off to Wales and only about an hour behind schedule!

The drive to our first destination was about two hours. The English countryside along the highway looked much like those in the Midwest United States – fields, cows, some houses and the occasional town. Once on the highway, driving on the “wrong” side of the road was easier and we settled in to enjoy the drive.

Over the course of the next day and a half, I must have said “stay to the left” a hundred times! The four locations we planned to visit were fairly close to each other: Tintern Abbey, Chepstow, Cardiff and Caerphilly castles. But the unfamiliar roads, signage and those blasted roundabouts caused us to invariably end up backtracking because we had missed a turn (or two!) and so it always took longer to get someplace than we had planned.

Fortunately, our adventure of driving in England ended easier than it had begun which was a good thing because we cut it pretty close in returning the car and getting to the terminal for our flight. Once back in Denver, as we turned out of the airport parking lot to head for home, I found myself reminding Chip to “stay to the right!”

Details and pictures of our trip to Wales will be posted over the next several days.

Cheers!
Daphne

London by Night

2009-06-09T19:44:00.000-07:00

One evening we decided to take a bus tour of the city on one of the open air double decker buses. It was a two hour loop and a great way to see some other parts of the city. Low-light nighttime pictures are always tricky (and being on a moving bus certainly doesn’t help!) and unfortunately many of them did not turn out.

We were able to pick up the bus down the street from our hotel at 7:00. This picture was taken shortly after we got on the bus while still on Regent Street. The traffic at that time was still ridiculous and since we were sitting on the top level of the bus, it was very noisy as well.

The billboards from Picadilly Circus. Piccadilly Circus is a busy plaza in the heart of London at the junction of major streets Regent street, Shaftesbury Avenue, Piccadilly and Covent Street. The Circus was created in 1819 by John Nash as part of King George IV's plan to connect Carlton House with Regent’s Park. It reminded me a lot of Times Square in New York City.

Her Majesty’s Theatre. A theatre has existed on this West End site in the St. James district since 1705. It was initially known as Queen's Theatre after Queen Anne and was later changed to the King's Theatre. In 1837 with the accession of Queen Victoria, the name was changed again to Her Majesty's Theatre. The current building is the fourth one to occupy the site.

Parliament and Big Ben. Even though the clock face is slightly blurred, I thought this one turned out pretty good. I’ll have to admit to thinking that the Parliament building is too ornate and gaudy. It is certainly very gothic looking and although interesting, this is an example of having too much of a good thing. The result is, in my opinion, a building that is not very attractive. Below is a picture of it during the day.

In the middle of the 11th century, King Edward the Confessor moved his court to the Palace of Westminster, situated near the Thames. In 1265 a parliament was created with two houses: the Lords and the Commons. After King Henry VIII moved his court to Whitehall Palace in 1530, the House of Lords continued to meet in Westminster. In 1547 the House of Commons also moved here, confirming Westminster as the central seat of government, a position it still holds today.

In 1834 a fire destroyed most of the Palace of Westminster. A competition was organized to create a new building for the two houses of parliament. A design by Sir Charles Barry and his assistant Augustus Welby Pugin was chosen from 97 entries. They created a large but balanced complex in neo gothic style and incorporated the buildings that survived the fire. The whole complex was finished in 1870, more than 30 years after construction started. The tower opposite the Big Ben is the Victoria Tower, built in 1860. The tower contains the records of both the House of Lords and the House of Commons since 1497. During the parliamentary year the Union Flag is hoisted on top of the 98m tall tower.

There is a little blurring at the top, but not totally terrible and the moon above it is a nice touch! Although this structure is commonly referred to as “Big Ben”, the proper name is the “Clock Tower”. Big Ben is actually the clock’s hour bell, which weighs 13.5 tons. The clockface is almost 25 feet in diameter, the hour hand is 9 feet long and the minute hand is 14 feet long. The clock rarely fails, even continuing to chime after part of the House of Commons was destroyed by a bomb in World War II. The rate of the clock is adjusted by adding pennies to the pendulum. Constructed between 1843 and 1858, the Clock Tower is 316 feet high.

OK, this one is totally blurred and after I had downloaded all of the pictures from the trip I almost deleted it. But then I decided it was kind of cool looking with the lights from the London Eye, Parliament and Big Ben creating interesting light patterns.

This is the famed Tower Bridge (as we were going over it) and a more detailed look at one of the towers. Named after its two impressive towers, this Victorian Bridge is now more than 100 years old. Designed by Wolfe Barry and Horace Jones, and completed in 1894, the middle of the bridge can be raised to permit large vessels to pass the Tower Bridge. It used to be raised about 50 times a day, but now it is only raised 4 to 5 times a week. The bridge is 60 meter (197 ft) long and its towers rise to a height of 43 meter.

The Tower of London

Cheers!
Daphne