Onto Scotland

May 19:  Today was another travel day.  We moved from London to Glasgow, meeting up with six of our trekking team.  We started the trip by dragging our luggage from Horsley Court, Westminster to the Pimlico Underground Station.  After watching one train stop and proceed onward completely full, I shoved my way into the next one, creating enough of a space behind me for Betsy to stand in.  We rode the five stops to Euston Station.  The masses disembarked at Oxford Station, we are quessing it was rush hour for retailers.

We had about an hour wait at Eustion Station before boarding our direct train to Glasgow Central.  We had coffee and snacks on the inside terrace of the station, with a good view of the electronic train departure board (the display showing the various trains, destinations and platforms).  As we were leaving the terrace area, we saw that we could have waited in a first class lounge.

We boarded our train and had a nice ride north.  We had several courses of food and offers of drinks and sat opposite of a retired Scottish couple returning home to Ayr. We got some local information on restaurants and places to visits. They were interested in what we thought of Trump, a common subject from everyone we talk with.  We were more interested in talking about the UK and its political events. 

We arrived into Glasgow and dragged our luggage to the Orchid (120 Clyde St).  Leslie and Dennis had arrived an hour before.  Their flight in from Iceland was delayed by about 4 hours, but they enjoyed their time in the business class lounge.  We were just looking over our "penthouse" when the buzzer sounded.  Jan and Ron had arrived from 4 days of sightseeing in Edinburgh.  Not much later, Kathy and Mark arrived from 3 or 4 days on Arran Island.

We walked out for groceries, getting breakfast supplies, returned to the apartment for happy hour, and then went out to find dinner.  We walked down Argyll St,  a mostly pedestrian street getting wet and not finding any restaurants. We decided to go Marks and Spencer for take away.  Betsy assembled chef salads with shrimp and smoked salmon for all except Leslie and Dennis, who had run out of steam and retired.

Theatre NIghts

May 17-18:  Major sightseeing over, but we attended two theatre performances.  On Tuesday, it was a quiet day getting prepared for our next leg of the journey.  We had an early supper in, and then walked over to the South Bank, National Theatre, expecting to meet the Third Rail Theatre Group (Carolyn and Betsy).  It turned out the show, while produced by the National Theatre had shifted to the Wyndham Theatre, near Leicester Square, West End.  In panic, hailed a cab, and rode through dense traffic to the theatre.  Carolyn and Betsy were outside waiting for us, but no one could find the 2 tickets for us.  The group organizer worked with the theatre staff to figure out which tickets stubs were not being used and just before showtime, we got seated in row C.  The show was called People, Places and Things, which are the triggers for addicts to relapse.  The plot was about a young actress trying to conquer her demons and her "support group" of other addicts.  It was well performed and the set was clever.  I bought ice cream in a little paper cup at intermission, a very nice tradition in British theatre.

Wednesday morning, which was wet, we watched the annual opening of Parliament, the Queen's speech to the assembled House of Lords and Commons and the accompanying pomp and circumstance.  The hoopla was occurring not far from our flat but we decided to stay in and had a better view on TV.   There was grand parade from Buckingham Palace to Westminster with carriages for the Queen and Prince Charles (and their consorts), Horse Guards and infantry, all in bright costumes.  We got a view inside Parliament, seeing the handling of the Ceremonial Crown and other symbols of state (including the 'Cap of Maintenance' and State Sword).  Protocol was strict and formal, except for the members of Parliament, who laughed and talked among themselves.  The Queen read the speech, which is written by the government.  The  Conservatives seemed to be fighting among themselves over "BREXIT" (Britain's referendum to leave the EU), so there was not much substance.

That afternoon, we did a brief visit to the Tate Britain and enjoyed a 50-minute guided tour of selected pieces of modern art from the last 100 years.  We also viewed most of the Turner collection.

Mid-afternoon, we traveled to the Mentone Hotel to drop off some our of luggage for storage.  We will returning to this hotel on June 30th.

Then we walked across Regent Park to the neighbor called Swiss Cottage.  We had dinner in the Swiss Cottage Pub and then went to the Hampstead Theatre for a play called Lawrence after Arabia.  The plot recounted T.E. Lawrence's struggle with his fame just after the WWI and the Arab Revolt.  The cast included a number of actors who we had seen on British TV in the States, including Geraldine James (A Jewel in the Crown).

Hampton Court Palace

May 16:  A day at Hampton Court , the Tudor palace of Henry VIII, with his six wives, and three offspring (who all became kings or queens, however briefly; Elizabeth I being the last and the best known).  The palace has also more modern sections constructed for the Stuart kings and the Hanover (or Georgian) kings, so it is quite a mishmash of architectural history.

The 'Base Court' with 'wine' fountain

The 'Base Court in the other direction

The Great Room Ceiling

The actors, who told the stories of the Court

We arrived in time to watch a troupe of actors that guided us around among the large rooms known as Henry VIII's Apartments.  The players were quite good and gave a strong sense of the fraught court intrigues arising from Henry's passion to obtain a male heir.  The bit of the story we got was the painful effort to divorce the virtuous Catherine (wife #1 and mother of Mary) and become engaged to the vixenish Anne Boleyn.  We attended another performance in the Great Hall by the same actors where they reenacted a visit by Shakespeare and the King's Company, who were rehearsing Hamlet.  King James I was part of the audience and had to get into the action, by being curious about "the play within a play."

We toured the rooms telling the Young Henry VIII story, followed by King William III's apartments.  William, a Dutchman, married Mary, who was of royal English blood.  He added an immense new wing on the Palace which faced southeastward to the river, around 1699, in the baroque style.  Each room connected to the next, and access to each successive room was based on a person's status.  The design was by Christopher Wren, a famous architect whose work is spread around London.  King William also had a very nice, formal "Privy Garden" planted on this side.   He also gave Grinling Gibbons, the most renowned wood craver of the time, commissions to make highly detailed mirror and picture surrounds and the like.

The Guard Room "decorations"

The Privy Garden - planted for William III and Mary 

Wood craving by G. Gibbons

We returned to the 16th century and Henry VIII, spending some more time in his apartments.  The first was the Great Hall, the largest room in the Palace, with a wonderful 'hammer-beam' roof that was originally painted in blue, red and gold.  Six of nine 'Abraham' tapestries hang on the walls.  These tapestries were commissioned by Henry and depict the life of biblical Abraham.  Henry collected tapestries and owned more than 2000 of them.

Closeup of a tapestry

One of the 9 large priceless tapestries

The progression of rooms is similar in layout to King William's (he got the idea from Henry) where the rooms get smaller, more lavishly decorated, and more exclusive to the King and his closest advisors.  We saw the chapel, where no photographs are allowed, that is richly appointed with a blue and gold ceiling, a golden pipe organ (from Queen Anne's era), and a replica of the crown used by Henry and succeeding monarchs.  The crown weighs 3.5 pounds and has real pearls, sapphires and gold.  The docent said it is one of the most expensive reproductions every made.

We then toured the kitchens, where food for more than 600 people was prepared daily.  The audio guide described each store room and kitchen, and described it as a "factory."  It was arranged for easy delivery of goods, specialized preparation areas, cool storage, and administration/bookkeeping.

Out back, we strolled through the Great Fountain Garden, with its large pool and sculpted trees.  Beyond the fence in the home park (or hunting grounds), there is a long canal, 2 large herds of fallow deer, and 20,000 lime trees planted to form a 'goose foot' pattern. There are more gardens on the north side of the palace, including rose beds, the kitchen garden, a natural or wilderness area, a maze, and a children's play area, which are open to the public.

View through the Great Fountain Garden

3/4 mile long canal within the Home Park

Some of the 20,000 Lime trees planted in the Home Park

The Privy Garden with William's side of the Palace

One of 5 gold leafed gates by the Thames

Beech Arbor

Two tall 'drinks of waters'

The Pond Gardens

We left the palace around 5:00 pm and walked over 5 miles on the Thames Path downstream to Teddington.  We walk around an 'oxbow' section of the river surrounding most of the Hampton Court Home Park.  We passed several small towns and long, thin islands in the river itself.  We crossed the river twice and reached the last lock and weir at Teddington, where the tidal effects reach the furthest.  We had supper at a pub (it was quiz night) and took the train home.

Green Parakeet, escaped from Richmond Park

Saturday on the Thames; Sunday in the Park

May 14-15:  Our day started with an underground ride to Tower Hill, followed by a light rail ride to just opposite Greenwich.  We walked a short way south to a round brick access building and down 100 steps  to a tunnel under the River Thames.

Path under the River Thames

We popped up in Greenwich, right next to the Cutty Sark clipper ship.  We turned downstream and began following the last 5 miles of the Thames Path.  We passed the Royal Naval College, the prime meridian (0.00 degrees East/West - I verified on my GPS), and many wharfs, docks and piers, many abandoned and the others active industrial sites.  The main landmark was the O2 Arena, which has become a famous and successful music venue, probably for rock stars and the like.

O2 Arena

There were a number of interesting sculptures along the path, such as a "Slice of Reality" (the segment of the ship shown below) and an upside-down transmission tower, complete with strings of insulators.

Sculpture by O2 Arena

Another interesting sculpture by O2 Arena

On our way to the end of the Thames Path at the Thames Barrier, we passed under the Emirate's Airline Cable Car, a very high tram over the river, connecting the O2 Arena with new developments on the north bank.

The Thames barrier prevents flooding in London by blocking tidal surges from coming upstream.  The gates have been raised over a 100 times since it became operational in 1982.  Most of the time the gates sit horizontally on their cylindrical sills on the riverbed.  It was interesting reading about the engineering and the construction techniques used to prevent the barriers from being eroded by seawater (a lot of paint is involved).

The Thames Barrier

One segment of the Thames Barrier

How the Thames Barrier works

We caught the light rail and underground back to our flat and had a quiet dinner in.

Our Sunday was also relaxed, with an underground ride to Richmond for a 3-mile walk around the largest Royal park in England.  It is home to a large herd of free-roaming fallow deer and many free-range green parakeets.  We had a view back to downtown London, spotting the Shard, the Gherkin,  and the Cheese Grater.  St. Paul's was probably also visible but dwarfed by the big modern buildings.

Richmond Park - Green Parakeet grooming itself

Fallow Deer in Richmond Park

We walked out of the park and along a short bit of the Thames Path in front of Richmond, a  pleasant and picturesque town, full of people enjoying a sunny Sunday.  We treated ourselves to soft ice cream cones and made our way back to the station.  We had arranged a meet-up with Carolyn Whitney and Betsy Hall, who arrived on Saturday for a week of theatre with the Third Rail Theater Group out of Portland.  We had drinks at a bar, the Craft Beer Company, around the corner from their hotel, and talked up a storm.  They had a reception to attend at 6:00 so we left them back at the hotel, and Betsy and I went to the Rock and Sole Restaurant, the best fish and chips place in London.  We sat outside and had an interesting conversation with a couple from Paris.

Cider and Beer, brewed in London

The Best Fish and Chips Restaurant in London

Fish and Chips, half eaten

We came home via the Embankment and watched the 90th Birthday celebration for the Queen on TV.  performed as the closing ceremonies for the Windsor Royal Horse Show.  It was neat to see on tv some of the performances we saw in person on Thursday when we were at the horse show.

Time Travel

May 10 to 13:  We have been sight-seeing in different historical eras this week - time traveling, if you like - from WWII  at the Churchill War Rooms and Bletchley Park and an exhibit at the Royal Windsor Horse Show, to the Renaissance at a concert in St. Martin's in the Field and the guard change at Buckingham Palace, with a couple of stops in a utopian and dystopian present via the Horse Show and a play at the National Theatre called Suicide.

Tuesday, May 10th was relatively quiet - we traveled up to Baker Street (no sighting of Mr. Holmes, in fact there is no 221B) so Phil could look for a lightweight monocular.  Instead he bought a pair of good, lightweight binoculars; it is an early birthday present.  We wandered back towards Trafalgar Square, pausing to visit the National Gallery and buy concert tickets at St. Martin's for a Friday evening concert.

On Wednesday, May 11th we set off towards St. James Park and Buckingham Palace to watch the changing of the guards.  It started pouring as we walked and never really let up for the rest of the day - our feet and trouser legs were soon sopping wet.  The guard change was a bit of a let-down, probably because of the foul weather, but the ceremony at Windsor Castle the previous week had been more impressive.  We watched the water fowl in St. James Park, including one brand new baby coot and a couple of gosling batches.

Changing of the Guard in the rain

Our main destination for the day was the Churchill War Rooms underneath Whitehall which was very worthwhile.  The offices were set up in 1938, closed abruptly in 1945, and have been reopened and restored in the last couple of decades as a tourist attraction.  The tour goes past the Cabinet Room, Churchill's office, bed rooms, staff quarters, communications and map rooms, plus the dining room and kitchen.  There was also an extensive exhibit about Winston Churchill's life, starting with the war years, then backtracking to his early life and finishing with his final years.  It is a new museum that opened in 2005.  He really was an astonishing man who nearly went off the rails a number of times in his life but was absolutely essential to winning the war.  The War Rooms give a very realistic sense of the claustrophobia, technology, comradeship and urgency that the English government war leaders experienced.  Among other features, there were rooms showing the communication networks to other key war sites and a sample Enigma machine that provided a preview of our visit to Bletchley Park on Friday.

Churchill's War Room Bedroom/Office

That evening we walked over to the National Theatre on the South Bank.  We had a tapas supper in their Terrace Restaurant and then attended the 7:30 performance of Suicide.  In a nutshell, the main character is having a really bad day-week-year-life? and decides impulsively to kill himself.  The video of this pronouncement goes viral on social media.  The rest of the play is about the people with their own cynical or self-serving objectives who take advantage of him and encourage him to 'top' himself.  The set was very impressive and the production very well done, but the play seemed a little preachy.  The play is very contemporary, with lots of hiphop riffs, and very British, with references (mostly negative) to Maggie Thatcher, council housing, and English social (mental) services.

To our delight, Thursday, May 12th turned out to be a splendid day, both in the weather and our activities.  We caught a train about 10:00 am and rode to Windsor for the Royal Horse Show, which takes place on the Home Park, a meadow just below Windsor Castle and the Thames.  It's a very grand event, with 3 major arenas, food stalls and the classiest vendor displays we have ever seen - fine saddlery, classic woolen jackets, boots, helmets, and even a silver dealer.  This is not your typical street fair.  If you were a horse person (with money), you could buy everything you ever needed without leaving the grounds (and I'm sure they deliver).  Range Rover was there in style, with automatically driven autos that slowly moved around an obstacle course, showing their off-road capabilities.  There were fancy horse vans, too.

One of the many 'shops'

We navigated our way in after the obligatory bag search and grabbed seats in a low grandstand by the Frogmore Arena.  We watched several rounds of jumping, including introductory levels (the bars are lower and fewer) and master levels (potential Olympians).  Phil had fun taking pictures and timing them at the height of the jumps.  Our seats let us look over to an adjacent arena, which was hosting pony and cart parades for disabled youths and various other "judged" events.

Jumping clean

After 2 hours, we got up and walked over to watch the Fijian Band and Dancers, in grass skirts and formal uniform jackets.  We strolled through the shopping arcade and then got Cornish pasties and drinks.  We next moved into the Castle Arena, the largest and grandest venue and watched a number of "acts."  This is where the Queen has a royal enclosure and where "members" have a special seating area.  We saw: 1) the Oman Cavalry and Band - the band was primarily young women on horseback;  2) Range Rover's 'Lance, Sword and Revolver' contest, 3) Youth Club Pony Games, 4) the  2- and 4-Wheel Carriage contest, 5) the Royal Horse Guards Review, and 6) Chilean Horsemen and Dancers.

Oman Cavalry - note the bagpipers

 

Lance contest, after sword and revolver

Royal Horse Guards

Chilean Horse Guard

The revues involved lots of horses and riders trotting around in choreographed maneuvers, with flags and banners and rousing music piped in, though the Omanis had drums and bagpipers on horsebacks. (Note, while we were in Windsor earlier, we had seen buses unloading costumed members of the Omani team; women did not travel with the men.)  The Lance, Sword and Revolver contest was fun - each contestant was expected to thrust a sword at two upright targets, then shoot a revolver at 3 balloons, and finally use a lance to spear a two hanging rings and a peg on the ground.  The rings were about 3 inches in diameter.  All of this was done on horses at running speed and jumping over a couple of low fences, so it took a steady hand to succeed.  The youth pony clubs games involved seven well-organized events - a relay race weaving around poles, flag pick up and place relay, old sock relay (pick-up and place a sock in a hat), 'through the tire' relay (get off the pony and pass a tire over body and return to horseback),' 5-flag retrieval, balloon relay (pop a balloon while riding by), and a sack race (four kids hopping down field in a large sack after dropping off their ponies).  It was great fun.  The Welsh team won over Scotland, England, Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.  The Northern Ireland were unlucky and obviously gaining experience.  To add to the challenge, if a contestant knocked over a pole or missed  an item, they had to return and correct the flaw.

The carriage judging was sponsored by the American Carriage Association.  The Royal Horse Guards and the Chilean reviews were theatrical with traditional music and horsemen riding patterns.   The performance ended at 6:00 pm,  and patrons were asked to leave immediately,  since a birthday party performance began at 7 pm.  Our landlord for the flat we rented in Windsor sings each night in this celebration, culminating in a Sunday night TV broadcast, which we are interested in watching.  (He told us the Wednesday night show had been cancelled, due to the downpour.)

We trained back to London, grabbed dinner at SeaFresh Cafe, an excellent restaurant in the Pimlico neighborhood.  

On Friday, May 13th, forecast to be a warm, sunny day but turned out cool, breezy and cloudy, we went to Bletchley Park.  This is where MI-6 and Naval Intelligence created a Government Code and Cypher School (HQ GC&CS) just before the beginning of WWII.  We had a great tour of the mansion with the main offices, the various huts built quickly in 1939-41, and the buildings built later for more permanent offices for the code breakers.  We had an audio player that went into great depth on how and who worked here.  There was even two rooms full of movie props and settings from the recent film The Imitation Game.  The movie, although presenting the gist of the story, oversimplifies and romanticizes it.  While Alan Turing was an important figure, there were many others who were huge contributors to the code breaking and the building of the BOMBE machine that streamlined the process.  The interactive displays were fabulous and very good at explaining the complexities of making and breaking machine-based cyphers.  Betsy doesn't remember who advised us to visit Bletchley (and told us it was right next to the train station) but it was great advice - so thanks.

The mansion, where it all began

BOMBE machine

ENIGMA

We rode back to London, got an early supper at an Italian cafe near the Mentone Hotel (familiar to those on the Coast to Coast trek), and walked down to Trafalgar Square.  We had tickets for a 7:30 candlelight concert at St. Martin's in the Field, a very nice music venue.  The performance, on period instruments, included:

• Bach, Brandenberg Concerto # 5
• Mozart, Divertimento #3 in F
• Vivaldi, Concerto for Sopranino (high recorder) in C
• Telemann, Concerto for Recorder in C
• Vivaldi, Concerto for Cello in B minor
• Bach, Brandenberg Concerto #4

The musicians on the violins and the recorders were great, but the cello seemed off-key.   Still it was  a pleasant way to spend an evening.

St Martin's in the Field Church

Down river on the Thames Path

May 9:  We had the nearly perfect afternoon break today - drinking English ales at the Captain Kidd Pub while watching the tide flood in on the River Thames, with sunny skies and comfortable breezes.  It would have been even more perfect had the pub not run out of cider during a busy, warm weekend, with no delivery due till Tuesday.  The pub, which is named after the pirate who hanged in the vicinity in 1701, was handsome and comfortable.  We had walked from our flat, past Parliament, and along the Thames Embankment as far as Wapping before pausing for drinks.

They still had Britain's "Best Bitter"

"Oh, to be in England now that spring has come"

Sunday, May 8th, was mostly a relaxing day.  In the summery afternoon, we strolled out to the river and walked along the Thames Path to the Houses of Parliament, then turned toward Westminster Abbey, and circled back around to the flat.  We lazed around until 5:30 pm when we returned to the Abbey for an organ recital, along with a few hundred other people.  There was a short security queue to get in.  We sat in the back half of the cathedral facing the organ pipes, located above the choir loft and a large ornate altar screen that divides the interior space in the middle.  We heard a 25-year old Frenchman, Thomas Ospital, play Bach's Sinfonia from Cantata 29, Faure's Fileuse and Sicilienne from Suite Pelleas et Melisande, and Liszt's Funerailles.  The Bach boomed, the second part of the Faure was familiar, and the Liszt reminded me of silent film accompaniments, which, according to the program notes, Mr. Ospital likes "displaying his improvisational talents" on.

Westminster Abbey

Back to May 9th and our walk on the north side of the Thames Path.

Along the way we noted (by the way, most of the facts cited below are taken from the very excellent guide to the Thames Path):

• Vauxhall Bridge, which opened in 1901 and is known for the bronze statues on each pier that represent the arts and industry.  On the South Bank, there is the MI-6 building, "reminiscent of a Babylonian ziggurat," surprising, given its existence "was not officially acknowledged until 1994."   

MI-6

• Other points of interest on the South Bank in this area included Lambeth Palace (used by the Archbishop of Canterbury), St. Thomas' Hospital, 2 performing arts centers, and the London Eye.
• To complete the spy motif, the north bank office block that  houses MI-5.  

MI-5

• The Embankment Gardens, which are built on recovered land created in the mid-1800's by a civil engineer, Sir Joseph Bazalgette, hired to solve severe water pollution and disease problems in an era when waste was just dumped into the Thames.  He constructed huge sewer tunnels along the riverside, added other tunnels for future train lines, and put parks on top - all brilliant urban engineering that enable the city we see today.



Memorial to Joseph Bazalgette



Memorial to the ending of slavery; behind is Parliament



The Eye of London



Cleopatra's Needle

• Many people eating lunch, jogging, and smoking along the river.
• Somerset House, formerly the place to go for information on births, deaths, and wills, now offices and the home of an art collection (Rubens and Impressionists).
• Construction projects for more offices, housing, and a massive new sewer system.
• The Pool of London where the river is wide enough to handle big ships (including a National Geographic liner that sailed up river just as the tide was turning), Customs Houses, and warehouses - all facilities used when London was a huge and active port.  Now the big container ships dock downriver, and the warehouses have been turned into attractive flats. 

Note, the hoists

• Boat basins that connect with the river by locks, used now by private yachts and narrow boats. 
• The Prospect of Whitby, the oldest pub on the river, dating to 1520.

• Sites like Wapping Old Stairs and Limehouse that we associate with Sherlock Holmes stories.  The various stairs connect the roadside areas with the river - otherwise the river front is solid construction- either wharfs, warehouses, or docks/pathways.  The Metropolitan Marine Police have a floating dock opposite the Captain Kidd Pub.  

When we reached Limehouse we boarded a train, rode back to Victoria Station, and walked to a grocery store.  The weather was beginning to deteriorate, and it apparently poured while we were shopping, so we headed home for  a quiet evening.  BBC this week has been celebrating the 90th birthday of Sir David Attenborough who is still actively producing programs.  We watched his latest program, about bioluminescence, that was enchanting and funny - don't miss it if it comes your way.