Author Archives: Miss Penny Black

Camping in Yorkshire

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After leaving Mum in London to catch her flight back the next day, Luke and I returned to Cambridge to pick up our tarp and then head up to Yorkshire to see a bit of the dales.

Over the last week we’ve amassed a sizeable amount of camping equipment. We’ve got a magical tent that springs into shape when you take it out of the bag, 3 tent poles (possibly the last 3 tent poles in Cambridgeshire), rope, a groundsheet/mesh thing, a pile of cooking equipment… all the things we’d usually take to a festival. We loaded it all into Van Failen and headed for a campsite at Aysgarth. I’d looked up a bunch of campsites and this one looked particularly good because it was attached to a pub.

The sun came out as we got off the motorway and headed through the increasingly lovely Yorkshire countryside. We arrived at the campground with several hours of daylight left (the sky only gets completely dark around 11pm now) and chose a spot.

There were rabbits everywhere – little baby ones particularly. It was charming, although I can’t imagine how irritating it must be to try to grow anything there. We set up our tent but didn’t bother with the tarp because the sky was clear.

In the morning we woke to the sound of rain and I was quite surprised that a £50 tent wasn’t letting all the water in. We did end up putting the tarp up though – it’s 8 x 4 metres in size, quite huge really. It covers the van, the tent and leaves enough room for chairs and cooking in between. Not a single other campsite had a tarp, which surprised me. I would’ve thought that, with all the rain that happens here, everyone would be putting up shelter but no one did. It’s like the way shops here have no awnings out the front to stand under if it’s raining despite the fact that it rains more here than almost anywhere on earth.

We went for a 12 km walk yesterday after visiting the information centre down the road and picking up a pamphlet with some maps. The walk started off in fields of sheep and buttercups (which kept reminding me of The Princess Bride) then through a grey stone village before climbing up through more paddocks to the top of a dale where we walked along the ridge and across a short stretch of moor before heading down the other side.

Luke spotted 3 little creatures that I have since discovered were baby weasels. For some reason I’ve always thought of weasels as nasty creatures (I’m blaming Wind in the Willows here) but these were so cute I’ve completely changed my mind and now I want at least a bucketful as pets. Really, do click on the link, they’re adorable!

We also saw a cow and her calf and the calf must’ve been less than an hour old- it was wet and the afterbirth was still attached to its mother – interesting and yet a trifle icky at the same time.

As you’ve probably noticed, there are no photos to go with this post. I didn’t take my camera out of sheer laziness and am now regretting it. I was also in a pretty rotten mood yesterday, for various reasons, so didn’t feel like carrying it. I felt better by the time we got back to the pub but I was incredibly tired and slept for several hours in the afternoon, woke up to make chilli for dinner then pretty much went straight back to sleep.

Upon waking up this morning I realised I’ve got a bit of a cold and so we’ve ended up booking a hotel for tonight with the added advantage that I can update the blog a bit.

After a breakfast of golden syrup dumplings (must remember to make these at festivals – perfect camp food!) we spent today driving from Asygarth to Kendal, where Luke bought some hiking boots, then to Ambleside, where we had lunch and bought a book of walks, then on to the Britannia pub. The pub’s lovely and I’ve slept half the afternoon away. I had an amazing steak and ale pie and planned a couple of walks for tomorrow if I feel better. This time with my camera!

Castle Howard and Hampton Court

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In the last few weeks I’ve visited two stately homes, Castle Howard near York and Hampton Court in London.

Mum and I stopped in at Castle Howard on our way back down to Cambridge after two days in Edinburgh. We arrived quite late in the afternoon – in fact 15 minutes before their last entry time to the inside of the house. We bought our tickets and raced up the driveway to see an extremely imposing sight.

Castle Howard is interesting on a number of levels. I’d been reading about its history in Bill Bryson’s book, At Home, as it was built to the design of a man named Sir John Vanbrugh who was commissoned by the Earl of Carlisle around 300 years ago. It is one of the largest private homes in the UK. The most astonishing thing about Sir John is that, prior to Castle Howard, he’d never designed a building before and was in no respects an architect. In fact he was a playwright and the wikipedia article on his life is quite interesting.

The Howard family still live in the enormous building (I think there are over 200 rooms), in one wing, and some of the rest is open to the public, although as with Schonbrunn Palace in Vienna, not quite enough of it to feel that you’ve had value for money.

Some books from the castle library – the one on the left is dated 1644.

Part of the interior of the building was damaged by fire in the 40’s and the process of rebuilding is happening very slowly. You can go into the burnt-out rooms and they are currently being used to display photographs of Brideshead Revisited, both versions of which were filmed here.

The most outstanding features of the castle interior are the frescos, painted by Giovanni Antonio Pelligrini. In the main entrance hall and some of the unburnt rooms every surface but the floor is covered in completely over the top baroque artwork – flowing capes, naked women, battles and gods. It’s hard to imagine living with that kind of excitement going on around you day and night. In the unpainted rooms there’s hardly less visual excitement with sky blue and gold fabric papering the walls, covering the chairs… it really highlighted how much tastes change over the centuries. If you decorated a house with even half the colour now people would look at you as though you were mad. Then again, if you hired a writer to design your multi-million dollar mansion you probably would be mad.

The ceiling of the entrance hall.

One of the drawing rooms.

One of my favourite features of the tour was very small – a little display board devoted to the William Morris wallpapers one of the Lady Howards had used to decorate parts of the castle. I love the Art and Crafts Movement and it’s the first time I’ve seen some of these iconic prints in the flesh.

Mum and I both quite enjoyed Castle Howard but if I went back I’d definitely take a picnic and make the most of the huge lawns and outdoor views of the building rather than rush through.

Oh, it’s also worth noting that it’s not, in any way, a castle.

A sign in the garden… tee hee!

…ooo000ooo…

On to Hampton Court.

For Mum’s last day in the UK Luke and I took her to Hampton Court. As with many of the things we’ve done, I had pretty much no idea what to expect before we got there. For some reason I expected something a little like Castle Howard but it was completely different.

The Clock Courtyard. The fountain is designed to run with wine on special occasions.

The core differences come down to two factors – age and use. Hampton Court is a mostly medieval building rather than renaissance, created primarily in the time of Henry the 8th and made of (rather ugly) brick. It is nowhere near as imposing or grand (in my opinion) as Castle Howard. It has always been used to entertain rather than as a primarily private residence. Most of the main building is apartments for royal guests to use. Even before it was bought and expanded on by the church it was a waypoint between the two main royal residences.

There was an exhibition on while we were there – ‘Secrets of the Royal Bedchamber’, which, disappointingly, was nowhere near as salacious as you might hope and mainly revolved around the fact that the royals would often receive guests in their bedrooms. *yawn*.

The two things I found most interesting about the place were the tennis courts – definitely go see them if you visit and read the panels along the wall. You can watch ‘Real Tennis’ (ie the original version of the game) being played by a few of the 500 current members and learn about the ridiculous wagers Victorians made over the game (one man won a match from the back of a donkey). The other thing I enjoyed seeing was the world’s oldest and largest grapevine. Planted in the 18th century and still producing about 1000 bunches of eating grapes per year, it is an astonishing sight.

My tip for visitors to Hampton Court is to pass on a piece of my mum’s advice – make a meeting time and place when you arrive (if you’re with a group) because the place is a warren and, unlike most other similar buildings, there’s not one set route to follow. I lost Mum within 5 minutes and then Luke later on. We managed to meet up but then lost each other again. Having a meeting place also means that if one person wants to walk quickly while someone else wants to dawdle at a snail’s pace *cough*Luke*cough*, you can do what you like.

(Edit: Hey! I went as quickly as the audio guide allowed me to go. Amanda thought it was boring and didn’t follow it. I enjoyed it – it was a bit like a radio play, set during the time of Henry’s wedding to Anne Boleyn.)

The scope and variety in the rose garden was staggering. The scent was divine.

After Hampton Court we drove Mum back to her hotel in Heathrow and stayed to have dinner at the pub across the road before saying goodbye. It’s been a really great month of traveling around with her and I miss her a little already – which is funny because I only see my parents for about a week out of every year, and even then I’m probably not in the same room for most of that time, so I’ve spent more time with Mum this month than in the last decade. When we drove away a whole bunch of things occurred to me that I would’ve liked to talk about with her.

I’ll just have to wait til Christmas.

Thanks for coming, Mum – and hi to the ladies at your hairdresser’s who I know will be reading this!

The Harry Potter Studio Tour plus our very first prize giveaway!

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Firstly, a plug for two blogs that are not only about travel and exotic places but are also well written and full of lovely photos; www.followtheopenroad.wordpress.com and www.lucasthenomad.com. Over the next couple of months the three of us will be crossing paths and traveling together and it’s going to turn into whatever the blog equivalent of cross pollination is. Or something. While that doesn’t, on the surface, sound exciting, trust me. It’ll be awesome to get in now on the ground level and bond with some extremely likeable characters.
Anyhoo, on to our latest adventure…
…ooo000ooo…
In preparation for visiting the Warner Bros Studios in Watford, north of London, I’d watched all but the first of the Harry Potter movies within the last 2 months. I hadn’t seen them before – I’d been unimpressed with the first movie but as I’d been told the studio tour was well worth doing (thanks for the tip, Linda!) Luke and I spent some of our quiet days between playing tourist watching them on his laptop.
I’m glad we did.

Diagon Alley

The tour was terrific, well, except for the first part, where you spend half an hour in line with eleventy-billion other people. You can’t just turn up to the studio – in fact you can’t get into the carpark without a ticket. We had booked for the 1:30 session. My tip for people thinking of going is to set your date several months in advance and book the first session (10am) or book any time in the day and turn up first thing. They don’t seem to mind letting people in early but it’s probably be better to be organised.
After a long wait in the queue we were ushered into a plain room in a large group and had a guide speak to us and show us a short introductory film while we stood up, then it was into a theatre to sit down and watch a longer film (not much longer) before entering Hogwarts main hall. I imagine they do this to space out groups but it’s also a good introduction and builds some excitement for what you’re about to see.
After the dining hall where some costumes are displayed, there are two large studios full of well-signed displays of props, movie displays, many costumes, latex masks, all kinds of things – in fact just about everything. You can stand in front of the house on Privet Drive, walk through the wooden covered bridge that is part of Hogwarts… the collection includes pretty much everything you could want to see. My favourite part was the cardboard sculptures of all the buildings and the conceptual art paintings. And of course the giant model of Hogwarts that was used for many of the CG shots.

Set schematics. There was a whole room just devoted to these.

Mum and I took about 2 and a half hours to go through, Luke a bit less than 4 but he had paid extra for the audio visual guide and so had more to listen to.
There were lots of interesting bits of info – boards with photos describing the animals used in the films and the fact that each of the staff had their names inscribed on the end of a box in Olivander’s Wand Shop. There were 17,000 boxes altogether in the shop and each had its own unique, hand made label.
The first and last thing we did was look in the gift shop. There was quite a range of merchandise… in fact it was probably the most extensive merch store I’ve ever seen. It was funny to overhear people talking about buying wands for display in their lounge rooms. I’m not sure I’d ever achieve that level of fandom about anything.
I bought a packet of every flavoured beans for my nephews and some chocolate bees. Mum will take them back for me, although I wish I could be there to see their faces when they try the dirt and earwax flavours.
Speaking of Mum, she had only read one of the books and seen none of the movies and still said it was a great day out. She really enjoyed watching the interviews with the directors and what each had tried to bring out in their movie/s.

This model of Buckbeak breathed and moved a little.

So our verdict was that although nearly 30 pounds seems a bit pricey, you get a lot for your money and it’s definitely worth seeing if you’re even mildly interested in the films… or even if you’re just interested in films in general. Luke paid extra for the guide – you got the hand held device plus a guide book to keep (which he forgot to pick up when we left) and it’s probably worth getting if you’re a big fan.
All in all a good day.
Also – I bought 5 postcards and have no idea who to send them to. If you’re a Harry Potter fan leave a note and I’ll send one to the first five replies (you might have to email me your address to a1lenon at yahoo dot com). It may also be worth noting that there’s a series of Dr Who stamps available here in the UK right now so if you want a particular doctor on your postcard I’ll see what I can do.
Now we’re off camping for a week so I’ll post said cards (should anyone be interested) when we get back to civilisation.

Edinburgh

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Mum and I had a fantastic day in Edinburgh. I spent a few weeks here at the very end of 1999 (god… writing a date that begins with ’19’ makes me feel like a grandma) and I remember Edinburgh fondly, albeit as a place of freezing winds and icy footpaths.
We’ve had a much better time of it this trip and started the day with glorious sunshine and only a bit of a breeze. It’s funny, but I don’t feel the need to constantly comment on the weather when I’m at home. A sunny day is lovely but not unexpected. In the UK I almost feel that if I constantly praise the sun for coming out it’ll reward my attention with more of its presence.
I slept in til 8:15 after a late night visiting with Nikki and Leigh and dropping my washing over to their place at about 11pm. You know people love you when they’ll wash your mother’s underpants for you rather than be at the pub with their friends (athough being at the pub with friends did happen).
Mum and I had decided to go see the Queen’s yacht, Britannia, the next morning. We caught the bus down to Leith and found our way to the entrance in a shopping centre.
Lining up, we were surrounded on all sides by pensioners who’d just come off a bus. The was quite a big queue but it moved quickly and we read all the displays in the entrance corridor before being passed audio guide sticks that were big enough to bludgeon a man to death with.

See what I mean?

The tour was great. Really great. The ship was fantastic, you got to go into almost all of it. The audio tour was well done and contained the kind of interesting minutae that people want to know. One example was the games the crew played. The officers had a toy wombat that had been given to them by a female staff member and they had been told to look after it. So they would throw into an overhead fan and play ‘wombat tennis’… or it might have been cricket. Either way it was funny to imagine a bunch of officers doing something Christopher Brew did in my year 7 classroom with a duster (and smashed a window).

In the officers’ dining room there were pigeon holes for them to keep their napkins in. Mum said it was so they didn’t have to wash them as often. I like to think it was because they wrapped up their leftovers in them and then kept them until later.

There were other interesting facts, such as learning that on state occasions the dining table (with 56 places) took 3 hours to set, that every item of silver onboard was polished every day and there was a narwhal tusk in the dining room.
There were two things about the boat and its history that really stood out to me. One was the truly understated nature of the appointments. The boat was not particularly fancy in a chandeliers-and-velvet kind of way. Everything was for a purpose and the family’s sunroom had furniture that was identical in some parts to chairs we’d had in our own home. It was obviously comfortable for the royal family but in many ways it was a floating version of a beach house you’d see on any Australian coast. Cupboards of board games, a record player, nothing too fancy. In fact the Queen said of the boat that ‘It was the one place where I can truly relax’.  And yet, when you looked at the details, it was a work of art. There is not a single rivet showing on the outside of the ship. It has very clean lines and the colour was chosen by the Queen She stipulated the single gold stripe around the hull. The main lounge is really quite plain but always had fresh flowers – donated by host countries, or picked from the Windsor Castle gardens when at home.
The second thing about the boat was the way it was loved and cared for and the royal family were loved and cared for. It seems that anyone who worked with and for the Royals was devoted to them. They socialised with the crew – and not just the officers – and were adored in return. There were photos of the family in the various crew mess rooms and they were often signed personally. The level of respect shown for the Queen, and the fact that this was her special retreat is nowhere more evident than in the golden rule aboard – be quiet. All commands were issued quietly, often on noticeboards or by hand signals and no one ever shouted.
The ship was in immaculate condition and obviously always had been. In fact Eisennhower, when shown the shiny engine room, said something along the lines of ‘That’s a nice showroom, now show me the real thing’.
When you first get on you learn that the boat had a crew of 220 and that seemed insanely large. By the time you get off you think ‘how did they manage?!’
Mum and I both agreed that it was a brilliant way to spend half a day and if you’re in Edinburgh spend the 12 pounds it costs and go see the ship. It’s worth it!
There’s two things I have to add to today’s tale.
One was that, one our way back from seeing the ship, Mum spotted a betting shop (my family all love to gamble on horses… and anything else) and wanted to go in and have one bet because the Derby was being run at Epsom. We picked a horse each and put on a small sum. Unbelievably, since I rarely gamble because I always lose, I picked the winner! The odds were 1-7. Score!

Mum tells the man “You’ll be in my daughter’s blog!” Prepare for internet fame, man-behind-the-counter!

Move over Bill Gates.

This worthy sum was used to pay for our final treat of the day, dinner with Leigh and Nikki at Kizmot Indian restaurant. I’d found it on Tripadvisor (Edinburgh’s #1 rated restaurant, in fact) and they listed chocolate naan as a speciality. I am not one to resist the presentation of chocolate in a new and interesting manner and so I tried it and I can say it’s pretty good, especially with chicken pasanda, which is also quite sweet. Kizmot was super friendly, a little quirky and all the dishes were tasty.

The ultra wide lens does weird things to my mum. I promise she isn’t really shaped like the Scottish guy in the Austin Powers movies.

Helensburgh, SW Scotland.

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Leaving the Lake District was saddening but we had family to visit in Helenburg, which I kept pronouncing Helens-bur-g (not with the ‘burg’ like the one in Edin-breh) until I realised my mistake. Pronunciation is a really tricky thing in the UK. Leicester is ‘Lester’, Worcester is ‘wooster’… I can’t think of any other examples but leave a comment if you can think of a good one.

Mum and I made a quick detour on our way north to visit Gretna Green. Probably not a noteworthy place to many these days, Gretna Green is right on the border of England and Scotland and for a long time it was the place to go if you were English, underage and wanting to be married in a hurry and without parental permission.  My main reason for wanting to go was that it’s mentioned in almost every Georgette Heyer novel and I had to take a photo of it to show my friend and fellow Heyer-phile, Charmaine.

Possibly the least inviting place I could imagine getting married.

At least 20,000 people don’t agree with me.

Sadly nearly everything looks fairly new and there’s big roads and trucks and non of it looks much like the setting for a thrilling romance scene. Disappointed, Mum and I hit the road again.

We’d been trying to get Mum’s cousin Angela or her husband Rick on the phone since that morning but had no luck so we thought we’d just drive to Helensburg and see what there was to do. Initially we didn’t find much. Despite being by the sea Helensburg has an ugly pier, lots of road works and barely any charm. We had lunch at a cafe and then drove to our hotel a bit out of town.

The lady at the front desk was from Sydney. She said she’d bring her jar of Vegemite so I could have some on my toast in the morning, which was very thoughtful, and we had a laugh about how, while they allegedly speak English, Scottish people are pretty much incomprehensible. Unlike Australians, obviously.

Mum and I found a pamphlet in the lobby on open gardens in the area and spent a very pleasant afternoon admiring rhododendrons, azaleas and the last of the spring bulbs. There were some magnificent examples to be seen and I’ll take pity on you and only post a couple of photos.

Amazing azalea!

In the evening I went for a walk along the pebble beach in front of the hotel and walked out along the spit to see a magnificent view of the Scottish highlands bathed in afternoon sunlight. We’d had a brilliant day’s weather – a fellow at the farm shop we visited said it was the nicest day he’d had in 3 years. We really have had some pretty spectacular luck with the weather so far. Nearly all the rain has been on our driving days and sun on the sightseeing ones.

The following morning we went to look at another house and garden before heading around the bay to see our family. On the way we passed some nuclear missile storage facilities, which was a bit unexpected.

We arrived early and found Angela at home. Rick arrived back shortly later (it was his last day of working as an Anglican minister before retirement) and we sat down to look at some old photos. I wish I could put some of them up here. There were two that really stood out to me, one of my grandparents on their wedding day and one of Grandpa in his youth. He’d sent that picture as a postcard to his Aunt and so there is a stamp and message on the back. The photo is of him sitting in some grass and not even looking at the camera. It’s such an unusual photo for the time  – 1936 is the postmark.

Angela, Rick, Mum and I went to a lovely restaurant for lunch and I felt like we had a very good catch up, despite being a bit short on time.

Delicious dessert.

Angela has lost some of her hearing in the last ten years and I could tell it must be difficult for her but in every other way she and Rick are almost the same as I remember them from my last visit – incredibly warm, caring and friendly people.

Family!