Transportation in England - Part 2 - now the fun starts!

I loved the Underground. It is easy, efficient and fun to use. The people who work there are super helpful and with our Oyster pass, we were set. We’d use our handy map and the guides on the walls and on the tubes to help us. I think we only had to get off and and try again once. 

You enter the station, slap your oyster pass on the yellow button, move through the opening gate and look up to follow the signs for the Circle Line, the District Line, the Jubilee Line…. Then decide if you are going east or west (or north or south) and follow those signs. The escalators are steep and loooonnng. Occasionally you go down one, turn a corner and down another. One time there was a bottleneck and we decided to try the stairs up until we saw the sign that said "Do not use the stairs unless in emergency. They are fifteen stories high!" Okay, now we know!

We also took trains to and from Gatwick and the DLR - an overground railway - from Canary Wharf. These systems all meld at places along the line and you just walk down long tunnels from one to the other following the signs. Occasional congestion dissipates as people move along different paths. 

Going Down....

Newer underground cars go on forever

DLR in Canary Wharf

Victoria Station

Transportation in England - part 1.

The roads in the countryside can be absolutely nerve-wracking. They are really too narrow for two cars but that isn’t the worst problem. The problem for us was the speed limit. 60 mph! That is about 100 km.The turns and hills mean the possibility of meeting someone was a constant threat. There was rarely a place to pull over and the sides of the road were often rough or there were bushes or occasionally stone walls on the perimeter. 

Round abouts are everywhere. Every little country road which joins a larger road does so with a round about. Signs and our GPS told us which exit to use. We learned to count out loud. "Okay, that’s one, that’s two, turn turn!!" Everything calmed down as time went on but we both started preferring the big motorways.

No Kidding!

This one has lines!

Not just narrow roads but parking!

I'm kidding.

Two last stops and it is all over

Our last day was rainy and cool. We packed our bags and left them with the hotel then got back on the underground to Somerset House. I spent an hour in the Courtauld Gallery. They have a small but superior collection of western painting. It was quiet and I spent time alone in some rooms with the most incredible masterpieces.
We then travelled to the Victoria and Albert Museum where we wound our way through 2,000 years of decorative arts. I could spend a lifetime here - each room was more incredible than the last. After a couple of hours, we headed back to our hotel and picked up our bags.
Then back to Victoria Station to catch the train and travel to our overnight hotel at Gatwick. We are staying at the airport in a room that resembles a stateroom on a ship. It is small, silent and comfortable and we can see the tower out the window down the hall. We just have to take the elevator down and we are at our departure gate. A really great way to end our trip.

Closeup of Van Gogh's self portrait

Tapestries at the V&A

Day two - pictures

Entrance hall of Natural History Museum

Westminster Abbey

Entrance to #10 Downing Street

Day two - the Establishment and Billy Elliot

Started with a walk down Whitehall passing Scotland Yard, #10 Downing (behind serious barriers and police with big guns), cabinet offices and ministry of defence. There are barriers of one kind and another all the way down the street. But also crazy tourists who are not phased by any of it, doing selfies with grim-faced police as a background. Our walk caught the end of the changing of the horse guards. Fun to see some pageantry in this tradition-infused city.
We ended up at the Palace of Westminster - the Houses of Parliament. The Queen was there yesterday to open the new session. Our shortened time in London meant no attempt to get inside. Across the street is the stunning Westminster Abbey where we spent over two hours. Jeremy Irons led us around (via audio tape) and he did a brilliant job. Amazing to work your way around the truly incredible church with sky-scraper gothic ceilings and 3000 tombs. A combination of supreme beauty and reminders of the sinister realities of political and royal lives.
To continue the day of tradition, we made our way (via underground) to Buckingham Palace. The iconic black cabs were lining the streets leading up to the palace and soon we saw a many-block-long line up of ladies in best dresses, heels and great hats alongside men in suits. Turns out there is a garden party with citizens who had applied lined up to go in to have tea with the queen.
Back to the underground to go to Drury Lane to buy same-day tickets for Billy Elliot. We were muddled when we got out of the underground and Bill asked a pedi-cab driver for directions. He offered to take us to the theatre and we jumped in. Turns out it was the wrong theatre (my fault) so our enterprising driver ran into theatre, got the details we needed and took us on a winding and exciting ride through Soho, China Town and Piccadilly Circus on our way to another underground station to head to the theatre at Victoria Station. It was a wild ride and we knew we weren't taking the most direct route but decided that the trip was worth it!
We bought tickets then back on the underground to quickly visit the Natural History Museum for a short tour before a quick supper and the theatre. Billy Elliot was a fun production with a wonderful young dancer in the lead role. I loved it.

First day in London - Pictures

The combination of old and new as you walk along the South Bank

The Tate Modern - housed in a former power station

The Eye - one of the first things you seen when coming out of Waterloo Station on the South Bank

Bill made friends immediately

The iconic view from the South Bank

High Tea in Chertsey

Our trip to London from the Cotswolds took a day but that was because we stopped for a fabulous visit at the Case House. We were treated to High Tea in the afternoon after a tour of the garden. Too bad you have to have connections to get in.

A day in London but no internet

Two nights ago, we had sheep outside our window. The last two nights we've been surrounded by high rises with the Eye and the Shard in the distance. We are staying in Canary Wharf, the resurrected Docklands on the Thames. 

Canary Wharf

Looking out bedroom window in the cotswolds

Well that was a pretty good day!

We started at the Shipston-on-Stour Wool Fair (Sheeps' town on the river Stour). We heard about it yesterday and thought it would be the perfect ending for our time in the Cotswolds. Heritage sheep were on display - the most exotic, long-haired sheep you've ever seen. The fleeces are sold around the world. The wool looks like dreadlocks hanging off the sheep but once shorn and cleaned, is soft, lustrous and precious.
Next, back to Stratford on Avon for a lovely boat ride down the Avon. Bill rowed, I reclined. Not a bad way to spend an afternoon.
Then coffee and people watching on the high street while Bill crammed for the evening. We bought a children's version of Merchant of Venice to prepare ourselves and then were treated to a Royal Shakespeare Company production that evening.
Its now late, we're tired and happy and setting off tomorrow to spend the afternoon with the Cases in Chertsey. We're looking forward to a long-overdue visit.
After that, we return our car at Gatwick, catch a train and head for London. Next entry in a day or so.....

Stratford upon Avon

By the time we reached Stratford upon Avon, the rain had stopped. We did the whole Shakespeare package today - started with his mother Mary Arden's farm -  a working Tudor farm that featured sheep shearing, a blacksmith at work, and lots of activities for families. Next was Anne Hathaway's cottage, where Shakespeare, 18, wooed the 26 year-old Anne. Then into the centre of town for his birthplace. Since this is a bank holiday that leads into half term for schools, we were warned about big crowds. Our plan was to move in the opposite direction of the crowds - start out of town first, then come into town - seemed to work except for one bus-load of people who stampeded through the birthplace - we decided to just step out of the way and let them rush through. By the time we were through the house, everything was closing but we walked to Holy Trinity Church just in case. We were in time for the bells for the 6:00 service but too late to get into the church to see Shakespeare's grave. The town is filled with tudor style buildings - different from the Cotswold towns we've become familiar with. Still amazing to think of the age of many of the houses - in amazing shape although some of the half-timber exteriors show distinct sagging.

Anne Hathaway's Cottage

Shakespeare's birthplace

Shakespeare's daughter;s house

From Lower Slaughter to Upper Slaughter

After our visit to Hidcote Gardens, we drove to Upper Slaughter and hiked to Lower Slaughter. It helps to know that these beautiful Cotswold towns' names are Old English for muddy. We passed a few people on the trail but for the most part had English meadows to ourselves. The towns are well-preserved wool towns. The mill and water wheel might be one of the most photographed spots in the Cotswolds. You can see why.

Hidcote Manor Garden

Manor Farm

Along with other similarities in villages in the Cotswolds, most have a manor farm. We are staying at the Manor Farm of Weston sub-edge, a town just outside Chipping Campden. Lucy, our host, looks after the B&B, her husband does the farming - all 800 acres of arable land with charolais cattle and sheep. Our bedroom window looks out on one of their fields of sheep. 

A Welsh Mule. The Manor Farm greeter. Love the earrings!

Moving up through the Cotswolds

Moving day. Checkin at the Manor Farm is 5:30-6:00 so we had all day to meander our way up to Chipping Campden. 

We stopped into the Cotswold Woolen Weavers studio in Filkins. The weavers no longer work here - they are all now up in Yorkshire but samples of the woollen tweeds are sent down here for sale. It is a shrinking industry. Sheering lambs alone costs more than the wool is worth. But run your hands over the woollen fabrics and you know we are losing something. 

After the weaving studio, we stopped at Chipping Norton and wandered through the town. Nothing special but we are now realizing the common threads of the towns in the Cotswolds. Most have a High Street, a Church Street or Lane and a Sheep Street. Many have a Lamb or Sheep Hotel, all have a huge church with graveyards full of leaning, lichen-covered, centuries-old gravestones. Many have a Red Lion but all have a few pubs on High Street. The buildings are made of the golden Cotswold Stone and have slate roofs. Many have wisteria growing over the door. The streets are narrow unless it is a market town in which case the High Street is wide. The streets are lined with shops and from what we’ve observed, the owners are desperate for hired help. Signs in most windows. But the homes are expensive - what staff could afford to live there? The towns were not built for cars. It is the wild west when it comes to cars and the narrow roads. Parking rules are vague, even to the locals. Most cars seem to disappear over night - lots of "locals" don't actually live in the town but drive from somewhere else. 

Classic Cotswold Sheep

White horse and Oxfordshire

Dragon met his end here - Beautiful Oxfordshire in background. 

Sorry, this is the best that I could do - have to look it up to see the curiously avant-garde outline

Horses eye and head from above

Blenheim

Front Door

Back Door

Secret Garden

Blenheim, iron-age chalk horse, and neolithic stones

We had a busy day. The plan was to spend much of it at Blenheim but we found a morning enough. Very crowded. We found an oasis in the secret garden for a moment's peace. The Duke's apartments were open - Duke and Duchess were away at one of their other homes - probably exhausted after cutting their 2000 acre lawn!

We plugged Uffington White Horse into the GPS and off we went following the most direct route along narrow country lanes that at a speed limit of 60 mph give us our aerobic exercise for the day. We both start breathing again when we arrive! The horse is fun to see but only completely visible from the air. We hiked up the highest hills of Oxfordshire and walked around the chalk outline trying to imagine the whole shape. We met other hikers on the way and were given lots of other ideas for ancient sites around the countryside. The one we could see from there was the place where St George slayed the dragon. You can see the white patch where the dragon's blood was spilled.

Off again, this time even further back in time - to Avebury and the ancient henge. The town is built in the middle of it - We spent time in the museum then wandered amongst the stones along with the sheep. Reminded us of our 1973 visit to Stonehenge when you could lean against those ancient stones - before the fence went up. No fencing possible here - stones crop up on roadsides, in fields and in town.

Dinner of bangers and mash at the Red Lion then back onto the roundabouts! (We estimate, conservatively, that we've been on 75-100 roundabouts since our arrival)

It's moving day tomorrow - we hope to get up to Chipping Campden before the rush. Bank holiday this weekend and everyone's waiting for sun.

Breakfast and internet

While eating an English breakfast, we use our internet time to check emails and bring the blog up to date. After that skimpy start to the day we need scones and devon cream to keep us going!

Oxford

Spent the day in Oxford. We began with a 127-step winding staircase up 13th century bell tower of University Church of St. Mary the Virgin for a 360 degree view of the ancient town. You can clearly see the quadrangles of the colleges - walled enclosures with large wooden doors at street level but beautiful commons and gardens inside. We visited three colleges - Balliol, Exeter and Christ Church. Exams have started so opening times are restricted. 

Stairwell in Bell Tower

Balliol College

Pedestrian friendly

Frightened little Grotesque

View from above

Pictures to accompany downpour

Tricky little signs that lead you in....

First of many stiles

Windrush River

Brief reprieve

Friendly locals

St Oswalds of Widford. Medieval town surrounding church abandoned after Black Death of 1349. Stones of houses removed to be used to build elsewhere.