Tuesday 1st April: Return to London, Abbey Road and Sherlock Holmes

After another home-style breakfast, I took some pictures out front of Carol's cottage just before she gave us a lift to the train station in Banbury.

Carol and Evie

There we boarded a direct line to Marleybone Sation in London, close to another main station, Paddington, where we had booked a hotel online, The Norfolk Towers located right on a square named, yes, Norfolk Square.  We took a short taxi ride to the front door and checked in but were too early to get right in. We checked our bags and walked a block to a nice restaurant and had lunch. 

The first room they gave us was on the ground floor right under scaffolding at the window and very dark, so we asked to change.  They sent us upstairs to another room which faced into a small courtyard but was very tiny with barely room in the bathroom to turn around so they sent us to a THIRD room; this was back downstairs on the first floor and was a huge upgrade!  Large bed, spacious bathroom, nice little desk, and a small fridge! That's nice for a little milk and a cold drink, so we're very happy with this one to the side of the scaffolding so you can see some sky and get some light in!  The hotel was, like so many others in London, being renovated

Norfolk Towers Hotel

The hotel lobby

web image of hotel entrance

Map of area of Norfolk Tower

I had a little lie down while Evie made some calls and put everything in its place.  She was not feeling so well and seems to be developing a cold and bad cough.

This hotel is only a couple of blocks from Paddington and not far at all from our first hotel in Bayswater; maybe a ten minute walk.  You may not be able to make out details in the map here but the big green area at the bottom is Hyde Park, and the yellow road on the northern edge is Bayswater Road. The green rectangle at the far right corner of the park is Marble Arch, where the famous "speaker's corner" is; traditionally on Sunday mornings, people come out and are free to speak their piece, however, it was closed for renovation while we were there. Our first hotel on Inverness Terrace would be just a couple blocks west of the left side of this map.

Norfolk Square park. All buildings on both sides seem to have nothing but hotels and hostels

We went out and bought the next week on our Oyster card, giving us free reign on the buses trains and underground.  We then made use of it by jumping on a bus to Abbey Road Studios, not too far away. Even though it was after 6pm by the time we got there, lots of people were still trying to get the mandatory picture walking the crosswalk. It's a very busy intersection and everything stops for the crazy tourists trying to get in stride for the Beatles walk.  I took a couple pictures of the front of the most famous recording studio in the world, Abbey Road. passed on the over $100 for the tour of the facility and had Evie take a picture of me walking across. It was was too much trouble to try and perfect it, especially since I didn't have 3 other guys to do it properly!

Abbey Road studio one entrance

The famous crosswalk on Abbey Road

We jumped on another bus, and in a few minutes found ourselves on Baker Street, site of the fabled office of Sherlock Holmes.  We weren't sure exactly where it was but by walking a block, discovered the museum, with the famously fictitious address, 221B Baker Street.

The Sherlock Holmes musuem

Knocking for Sherlock. He wasn't in.

The museum was closed, since we were so late, and although we both knocked on Sherlock's door, he wasn't in, so we set off down the road in search of somewhere to eat.

Didn't really find anything there that we were interested in, so we jumped on the Bakerloo tube line back to Paddington, just a couple of quick stops, where there are hundreds of options.  We chose another pub, for its soup this time and I had a sandwich and a pint of a local brew on tap that turned out to be not a beer but cider.  I didn't like it much but drank it anyway.

Street view at night across from Norfolk Square park

Walked past Norfolk Square, which is lined on both sides with long, continuous buildings divided up into dozens of small hotels, some looking fairly nice, some looking like crash pads for young travelers with minimal needs.

We threw ourselves onto the glorious bed, two doubles together, and got a good night's sleep with plenty of room to turn over!

Monday 31st March: Blenheim Palace, Woodstock, Sturdy House Dinner

This is the end of our tour around the Cotswolds and really had a wonderful time with all the relatives and friends; we really thought Carole's cottage charming, albeit quite small for such tall people   We had a nice breakfast of cereal and toast with milk and coffee, then Carol drove us out to Blenheim Palace (pronounced Blen-im) not too far distant.

Carol wasn't feeling too well, so she dropped us at the gate and promised to come pick us up when we were done.

This is an enormous estate and one of England's largest houses. The palace balances the intricacies of delicate detail with ambitious architecture on the grandest scale and is the birthplace of Winston Churchill.  It was begun relatively recently as far as these things go, in 1704, after the Duke of Marlborough led an army against the French under Louis 13th who, a century before Napoleon, was trying to conquer all of Europe in what is known as the War of Spanish Succession; this is far too complicated to attempt to explain.  His army met the French at a small town in Bavaria named Blentheim and through superior tactics won a decisive victory there. As reward, Queen Anne gave the Duke the ruined Royal Manor and a park with funds to build a monument there to the battle's success  Over the centuries, the successive Dukes of Marlborough added to the buildings, landscape and architectural attributes and many of the Duchesses, while maintaining luxurious lifestyles, built schools and almshouses and had great concerns for the welfare of the poor and needy living under their auspices.

Blenheim Palace's entrance court

Considerably sized down to a small area in the palace, it remains the residence of the current Duke, an inherited title; however, the palace and Title no longer produce revenues.  The palace was named a  UNESCO World Heritage site and is now opened to the public, a tour costing about $30 a ticket; the landscapes and gardens are some of the most beautiful in England.  There has always been farming associated with the estate which continues today and the neighboring village of Woodstock has a thriving tourist industry associated with the palace.

The grounds are exquisitely beautiful with expansive grassy lawns that goes into the distance; there are many landscaped areas with stands of daffodils and tulips, including a nice "secret garden", with all the plants and trees labeled like an arboretum.  There is a huge lake in the midst of the estate; a waterfall at the end of a one mile hike through a man made forest and another area served by a miniature train with a playground for kids, not yet open for the season.

A little of the huge lawn that surrounds the palatial estate

We toured the great mansion, notable for a surfeit of paintings of family members down the centuries and enormous tapestries hanging on the walls with woven pictures depicting several famous battles and some showing life around the palace. 

There was a nice cafe overlooking the Italian Gardens, carefully cultured gardens with incredible fountains; we had a very nice meal, another butternut squash soup for Evie and a baguette sandwich for me with tea and coffee.

Only one of the many halls

Gardens at one side

There was an exhibit on the first world war, partially because young Winnie served in it (that's Winston Churchill), but also because one of the great halls was turned into a hospital ward.  There was much history of Winston, with pictures of him in uniform back in the 1890's, through the first war and then of course, his greatest hours during the second.  They played some snippets of his great speeches, including the best: "We shall fight on the shores and beaches...we will NEVER surrender!" That one still brings me near tears to hear, used to great effect on a song by Supertramp, which might have appalled him, yet helped immortalize his words for another generation.

Daffodils galore near the Secret Garden

Small part of lake that skirts part of the grounds on the walk to Woodstock

After much walking and fairly saturated in the convoluted history of Blenheim, including the Duke of Marlborough's marriage to an American heiress in the 1890's whose wealth financially saved their bacon at the time, we finally left the palace grounds and made the short walk to the renaissance era town of Woodstock!

We were done in by the time we walked through the big entrance gate and into the town square and fell into seats at an ancient pub, built in the late 1400's, where we had some tea and a pint. The name Woodstock is Old English in origin, meaning a "clearing in the woods" in what was once, a thousand years ago, a Royal Woods. The town was here as early as 1080 AD and used to be famous for making gloves; however, these days, tourism is its main attraction.   Most British TV fans know that Inspector Morse resided here and much of that long running series was filmed in and around the Woodstock area.

The Star Inn, where we rested

Inside the pub

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City Hall across from the pub, with children playing soccer in front

View of picturesque Woodstock

On the busy main street

Pharmacy in old building

It took Carole only about a half hour to kindly come and pick us back up, giving me some time to walk a couple of blocks and take some pictures of this very picturesque village.

On the way back to her little cottage, we stopped at an old road house called "The Sturdy House" for dinner.  I had a beef stew, Evie had chicken and Carol a hearty portion of liver and onions!  There we multiple suits of armour standing sentry and the required pub attached but also a playground for the kids alongside.

The Sturdy House

Sitting after dinner at the road house

We got back "home" to Carole's at around 8pm and I lay down and finished the SciFi novel given to me by Andrew, Evie's cousin, and wrote a bit in the blog while the girls chatted it up before heading to bed.

Sunday 30th March: Aunty Phyllis' 95th Birthday, Bye to Bristol, Kings Sutton

Evie has scheduled a birthday gathering for her Aunty Phil as it was her 95th birthday this week! After some pictures in the garden, all five of us piled into the Andrew's Citroen for the trip across town to the house she has lived in since 1943 or so.

Andrew, Phyllis, John, Evie and I with self timer on camera

We were greeted there by Evie's God sister, Caroline and her mother Joan, and taken in to her sweet little home which Evie had lived in from aged three to five years old.

Auntie Phyl's house in Bristol--since 1943!

Aunty Phil was in considerable pain from lumbago and sciatica; at 95 years old, she lives alone in a two story house with an incredibly narrow staircase which she still manages to negotiate up and down.  We had some light sandwiches and a nice cake that Joan made and iced herself; very professional looking indeed.  Evie reminisced with them for about two hours and we of course shot a couple of group photos for posterity.

Cousin Phyllis, Joan, Aunty Phil and Evie seated, Cousin Andrew and Godchild Carolyn standing

Aunty Phyl's Birthday Cake

Temple Meads station

We then had to say our goodbye's and set off for the train station again for the trip to Banbury and the village of Kings Sutton to visit her old friend Carole.Evie's cousin-family droppedt us at Temple Meads station with lots of hugs and kisses.

"Meads" is a derivation of an old English word meaning "meadow" and refers to the wetland meadow alongside the River Avon that was part of the local Temple (church) parish. The temple was gutted during the Blitz in WW2.

We parted on time for Reading, changed trains, and were in Banbury in about 2 hours. It was so good to see Carole again who picked us up and drove us into the nearby village of King's Sutton (we looked it up on Wikipedia, and "Sutton" means "south estate").

Next leg of journey to Banbury and King's Sutton

Carol, like Evelyn, also married an USAF serviceman and had lived in the states for 33 plus years returning home to England four years ago where she is renting a "cottage";  her's is the middle house in a long building of about ten of them; this is called a terraced home.  It's quite narrow, with two floors and fairly steep stairs.

Carol's cottage is third entry down on outskirts of King's Sutton

She cooked us a very nice meal of chicken and veggies and I retired early and finished the book ("2064") before falling asleep a couple of hours later.  Evie stayed up catching up with Carole and all the news.  

Saturday 29th March: Bath; More of Bristol: Clifton Suspension Bridge

After a nice breakfast of cereal with raisins and banana and the requisite toast, again with peanut butter, Andrew drove us to the nearby town of Bath.  The weather cleared by the time we got there, only about a half hour's drive and he dropped us right in front of the house of Jane Austen, complete with life-like statue in front and period clothed gentleman greeter.  We took pictures with him, then proceeded a couple of blocks to the center of town.

Jane Austen's home in Bath

Bath is the site of a hot spring, used by the early Celtic population and the site of a Roman development dating to around 50AD; it was used for several hundred years before the fall of the Roman empire and resurrected after the Norman conquest (1066). It has been continuously occupied since.  The site of the actual bath fell into ruins but was built up again in the Victorian era (late 19th century). They offer a tour of the site but since the front of the building is completely covered with scaffolding due to a makeover, we did not take it.  Bath Abbey was adjacent to the Roman baths on one side of the central square.

We entered the Abbey past a small assembly of anti-drone protesters and gazed at its magnificence. They started construction of this one in 1140 in phases that weren't completed until the mid 1400's with another recent addition in the 1880's. The Bristol Cathedral is largely in the Norman style which has several unique features that we didn't study very carefully (I did take a few quick snaps) before returning to the street.

Bristol Cathedral central nave

Ceiling detail

Bath abbey - street view

Bath Abbeyl with street performer and Roman Baths behind scaffolding to right

The town square was for pedestrians only and featured a very good Spanish guitar player, fully amped, and several of the stationary figures, or living statues. One was a likeness of Jane Austen or maybe just a Victorian woman.  She was painted in a bronze color and standing on some pedestal under her skirts so she was about 7 feet tall, holding a flower and assuming a difficult pose.

The golden guy pouring an endless glass of water

The Jane Austen living statue

On the next block was another man, all painted gold, holding a one legged pose without moving, pouring a glass of water from a bottle, seemingly without ever emptying the it. There was a violin player with full electronics, doing loops and playbacks so he sounded like a small orchestra.  John told us later that the city council selects the street musicians carefully and allows them an hour in each spot, so they rotate around the several blocks of the ancient downtown.  There were plenty of shops and restaurants, and a produce market.  Bath was bustling with tourists from all corners of the world (you could hear them talking and try to pick out the languages; we heard French, German, some Eastern European, some Chinese and Japanese and a wisp of Spanish from Spain. 

We passed a spot advertising a fundraising CD and record sale, so I HAD to go in, of course, while Evie went in a little corner cafe.  I wound up spending 20 pounds on three classics, not the best of deals, but hard to find (the Who's Quadraphenia, Ogden's Nut gone Flake by the Small Faces, and Greatest hits of Hermans' Hermits).

We had a nice lunch of soup for her, panini for me with fries and then walked around across the street to the River Avon and enjoyed the view. There was a lovely park right at a curve in the river.  The banks are all walled in through the city, and there is a constructed water fall with a building on a bridge.

Park at river's edge

Over the river towards the southeast

The Pulteney Bridge

Pulteney Bridge crosses the River Avon in Bath, It was completed by 1774, and connected the city with the newly built Georgian town of Bathwick. Designed by Robert Adam in a Palladian style, it is one of only four bridges in the world with shops across its full span on both sides. It has been designated as a Grade I listed building.


Another tourist volunteered to take our picture at this spot, and actually got above us a bit and got a really good one.

Evie and I in Bath with the Pulteney Bridge as background

We wandered into a covered market with many stalls under a big dome where we encountered Prince Harry who graciously allowed Evie to have a picture with him!!

Public market

Evie and Prince Harry

We then walked several blocks out to the bus station, right next to the train station, and took a bus back to Bristol (11 pounds for both of us).

It was a scenic drive on the upper deck, through more green and rolling hills, with plenty of sheep and cows grazing. We arrived at a very busy Temple Meads station in Bristol with a good view of it at second floor level from the bus.

Temple Meade station in Bristol, from upper deck of bus

The bus wound its way into downtown and we missed out stop; the bus continued for a long way to the main bus station and we had to walk a mile all the way back to the dockside!  We jumped on a water taxi when we got there to take us to the site of the USS Great Britain, the first iron hulled steamship, built right here in Bristol around 1850 I believe.

The ship is a star attraction; It was the largest ship in the world at the time, ran aground in Ireland on its maiden voyage, was repaired, then ran passengers to Australia for something like 50 years, before it wound up abandoned in the Falklands for a long time, and finally returned sometime in the 1970's to Bristol and restored completely in recent years. It is part of the long legacy of ship building for Bristol. But darned if we didn't get there too late for the tour, and besides, the great dining room was being used for a wedding, so we would only have had a  partial tour anyway.

Here's a link to a 13 minute you tube tour of the ship: USS Great Britain Tour

Web image of USS Great Britain's stern

 We settled for lunch at the attached cafe, and jumped on the water taxi back to the quay.

Water taxi going past Pero's bridge

Water taxi and apartment complex

Replica of Mayflower era vessel

We called for Andrew to pick us up and sat and people watched while waiting for him. He was a great tour guide and drove us to the famous suspension bridge over the river Avon--and this time we paid the toll and drove over it to a park on the other side. There was a steep hill to get to the vantage point that showed the gorge and bridge, but it was truly worth it to see this view.

View of the Avon Gorge and Clifton suspension bridge.  Note yellow fence for cave access (currently closed)

Clifton Suspension Bridge is a suspension bridge, which opened in 1864, spanning the Avon Gorge and the River Avon, linking Clifton in Bristol to Leigh Woods in North Somerset, England. It was designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel, the bridge is a grade I listed building.

It's a pretty impressive span, an artist was busy painting the scene, and an elderly walker, an old soldier, stopped and gave us quite a bit of the bridge's history as we chatted between all three of us; he even   took our picture after it had clouded up a bit. Weather changes quickly here!

With Cousin Andrew at Avon Gorge

We walked up to the top of the hill overlooking Brunel's amazing bridge, where there was a building that had been an observatory with a cafe and an elevator down to the cave that opens onto the gorge, but, unfortunately, it's now abandoned.

The Observatory

We then worked our way back to the car and off to their home. Phyllis Wagg is Evie's father's cousin; therefore, her second cousin and the only living blood relative in England.  She married John Wagg in the early 50's and had two sons, Andrew and Ian; Andrew lives at home in their beautiful house in a very up-market area not too far from the suspension bridge called Hambrook; Clifton itself has many very attractive Georgian and Victorian homes and some that appear to be stately homes on wide streets.

Andrew, gourmet cook, had put a chicken in the oven along with potatoes and veggies, so we had another lovely dinner with more Apple pie and hot custard though they pulled out the chilled custard from last night for me and it was great!  I have to make it more often!

This time our hosts had set up the futon in the bedroom so that I was made more comfortable and able to sleep soundly.  I read more of the book that I had started while Evie chatted and watched a little British TV, before retiring late.

Friday 28th March: Trip to Bristol and Evie's Cousin's Home

Evie talked with cousins John and Phyllis last night from the hotel, and they told us to come hungry this morning, so we made coffee in the room and waited for their son Andrew to collect us which he did promptly at 10:30 in his fairly new Citroen, one of the many car makes that you almost never see in the States.  He took us on a scenic route drive through Bristol although it poured with rain and the skies were grey and depressing I felt though Evie, being from England and preferring it to sunshine, was overjoyed!! We passed under the famous suspension bridge, and I could see why they needed it.  The Avon river carved a steep gorge here as it approaches the sea and the bridge itself is some 275 feet above high water mark (it's a tidal basin, and the water level changes dramatically with each tide).

The bridge had a tortured construction history.  Construction began in 1831, but politics and economic turmoils stopped work several times until it was finally finished in 1864, 111 years after a bridge at the site was first planned. Because of its height it has become an infamous suicide bridge, like the Golden Gate bridge. My favorite story from reading about it is as follows:

   "In 1885, a 22-year-old woman named Sarah Henley survived a fall from the bridge
    when her billowing skirts acted as a parachute; she subsequently lived into her eighties."

The Clifton Suspension Bridge in a web image I wish I had shot!  Gives a little sense of the height

It took about a half hour to get to their delightful house on the outskirts of Bristol, such a nice home, very spacious and on a quiet street called a Close This one has THREE bathrooms, and spacious ones at that, one with a nice walk-in shower.  John and Phyllis are very sweet,  both in early 80's but quite fit, and their son Andrew, who is in his early 50's still lives with them and has a great career in IT; he does all the cooking and every meal is a gourmet occasion!  All three were very nice, and shortly after arrival, covered the dining table with plates full of cold cuts, cheeses and breads for our lunch.

We had intentions of doing something today, like visiting the nearby town of Bath, but the weather continued to rain so we spent the day talking with them and I took a little nap later in the afternoon. We were in Andrew's room, and I looked at his CD collection: I have a lot of what he had, although I noticed a fairly complete GENESIS collection.  I also discovered that he had several books by Arthur C Clark; 2001, 2010, which I had already read but there was another that I had never been aware of, 2064, and then yet another, 3001.  I sat down and started reading 2064; you may remember the first one, made into a great movie, about the monolith discovered on the moon, and the subsequent trip to Jupiter? This one was about the follow up voyage to Jupiter's moon Europa, so I spent awhile reading that.

Andrew cooked a beautiful dinner of Salmon with lots of baked veggies and a great apple pie with hot custard on top for dessert.  He made so much of the custard that there was plenty left over so I suggested putting it in the fridge so I could have it cold the next day. That was a new one on them since it's always eaten HOT here.

Andrew gave up his bed for us; it was a normal full sized bed with a wooden frame and it turned out was difficult to accommodate both of our lengthy selves so I wound up on the futon that he uses for a couch.

John had a Heating & Air business for 50 or so years  and Phyllis worked as the bookkeeper and office administrator I think until they retired comfortably many years ago.  The have a stunning back yard (referred to as a garden); it looks park-like and an actual gravel driveway for the car so they are not forced to  park on the street like most people have to in England.  Their neighbor across the street has a new Aston Martin!

The back garden from Andrew's bedroom window

John and Phyllis' house named "Haystacks" on the outskirts of Bristol

Getting Around in London

The coolest thing here is the Oyster card, an electronic card that costs 30 pounds, about $45, for a week of unlimited travel on bus and tube (with a few restrictions on area).  Every bus has an electronic reading device at each entrance and all you have to do it touch your card to it and it allows you on so there is never a search for change.  It's L2.20 or so for each trip otherwise; after about 12 trips it has paid for itself.  You can buy "The Oyster" anywhere and we probably got our money's worth by the second day of the week that it's good for.

Most buses are double deckers and with a little luck you can get upstairs and sit in the front row. It provides a great view above the traffic and nearly second floor level for all the buildings. Get on and off as many times as you like.  There are good maps at each stop and the tube maps are everywhere and easy to read and understand.

Just be aware of sudden stops!  We sat at one light for two or three changes while the traffic cleared and the minute the light turned green and the driver started forward an oblivious bike rider whizzed across in front of him and he had to hit the brakes throwing us all forward.  No one hurt on that one but while talking with a friend of Evie's, she explained that she was sitting where there was no handles to grab onto and the same thing happened; she flew across the bus and was injured enough to  equire medical attention.

The tube is great; you seldom have to wait more than a few minutes for a train, and they whizz along at high speed between stations.

We encountered only a few strange people on the underground.  One guy started talking the minute he got on and then spotted a pretty redhead sitting nearby and moved over and started in on her about how much he loved redheads and then got a little too personal about his desires.  She was conversing in Russian with another girlfriend across the aisle and just ignored him but he kept it up until we got off.  There was another woman with her dog and she talked in a loud voice to that dog and sat with him on the floor for the whole time we were on the train.  But mostly people here seem to be very circumspect and do not create problems. There are no panhandlers or apparent homeless people in London or the other towns; several mentally ill men but other than that, the streets are quiet.

Origins of "Spend a Penny"

During our walk to the Crystal Palace with Tracy and Griff, I heard them use the phrase "spend a penny" which I had never heard.  It turns out to be a euphemism for "going to the bathroom"; its origins were right there at the Crystal Palace itself.  When it opened in 1851, they debuted the use of pay toilets the cost was one penny.  Now they have pay toilets in London that are 30p (80 cents) but the phrase still is in use here.  "Excuse me, but I'm going to spend a penny."  This is considered a more polite was of the other euphemism "going to the loo" which is viewed as slightly vulgar.