We finally reach the United Kingdom! During this episode we catch up with Amanda’s old housemate Andrew, and he takes us down to his local pub as well as his local Tesco – Britain’s third largest in fact, and just behind his house! We also catch up with friends from Australia while exploring Camden Market, and our good friend Matt takes us sight-seeing in London.
Also, DICK TURPIN.
The weather was still miserable for our last couple of days in the Lakes and we realised that, with only a few days til we were off to Iceland, we really needed to sort out the last major leg of our trip – the 6 weeks in the USA. So we holed up in a cosy B&B just a block back from the main street in Windermere.
We did get out a little bit – we did a 5km walk from our place to Orrest Head, the first walk Alfred Wainwright (who is famous for promoting the Lake District as a walking destination) did in the area. It is a short walk uphill from the middle of Windermere to a hill top from which you can see almost the whole length of Lake Windermere and many rolling hills and patchworked fields. Photos do not do it justice at all.
The path up the hill was gorgeous – all moss and gnarled tree trunks.
We then walked down to the lake and along the bank, through a forest that looked very Robin-Hood-ish and back to the B&B.
The rest of our stay was spent in bed working on our trip. Exciting stuff! I do feel better now that we’ve at least got our New York accommodation booked – and through Airbnb, for the first time. I’ve tried to book with them before but had difficulty finding places that are free for the dates we wanted, or just not hearing back from property owners. This time we’ve managed to score a room in Greenwich Village for $80 a night and sharing with a guy who gets great reviews as a host. We have also, coincidentally, planned our NY stay during Halloween and have been told that Greenwich is where the best action will be… fingers crossed!
During our breakfasts at the B&B we met a lovely family from the US who gave us some great advice on visiting theme parks and their teenage daughter even offered to accompany Luke and I to Magic Mountain, which is right near their home, so Luke wouldn’t have to go on everything by himself – what with me being the world’s biggest chicken when it comes to any ride more energetic than a ferris wheel.
Travel really does impress on you the generosity and kindness of people everywhere – it seems that everyone we meet has a word of advice or an offer or meeting up with us somewhere or a helping hand. I do hope that we have many opportunities to return all this good karma when we can.
Howgill Fells, a view along our route when we left the Lakes.
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!
Honiston Pass.
Tell me you wouldn’t follow this path.
Since we were in the area after having spent Sunday afternoon with Andrew’s parents, I called in at my uncle and aunt’s place, who live in Dedham with their two girls. I must say, it is an absolutely beautiful part of the country and a great place to raise a family. I stayed with them for a couple of days while everybody else headed back to Cambridge.
The evening I arrived we had a BBQ dinner (though I couldn’t eat very much after the amazing lunch we had been served at Andrew’s parents place), toasted marshmallows on the remains of the coals, then Mark and I headed down to the local pub for a pint and a catch up. We walked back to his house via the Essex Way, which is a public footpath / trail through both public and private property. One minute you’ll be walking through a farming area, the next around the side of a privately owned home. Although chilly walking through the fields, it was really lovely, and I must have seen a hundred rabbits bounding around. It was at this point I knew I had to bring Amanda back here so we could do this walk, but even better was still to come the next day.
View from Flatford looking back towards Dedham. You can see Dedham church in the distance.
There are several famous paintings by John Constable which are of the Dedham and Flatford area. My grandmother owns a print of one of these called The Haywain, and when I learned that Mark now lives in the area where it was painted, I decided I’d like to go and see the spot which inspired the art – to walk around in a painting, basically.
Around to the left is where Constable would have stood to paint The Haywain.
The area in which Constable painted, called the Dedham Vale, is now officially recognised as an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, and as such is protected from ‘unsympathetic development’ to preserve the natural landscape.
Looking back towards Dedham over the River Stour.
We were fortunate enough to have brilliant weather – the best I’ve experienced in England so far. We walked through wide green fields along the River Stour, trying not to scare the cows while we watched people navigating their hired boats down the river. We crossed the river and headed for Flatford, but not before stopping for a quick game of Pooh Sticks (came in second-last). Being as it was a bank holiday and fantastic weather, the area was full of families and couples out enjoying the sunshine and scenery.
The bridge to Flatford Mill, behind which lies the Haywain.
After visiting Flatford Mill, the area where Constable painted several of his most famous works, we walked back along the Suffolk side of the river. This path led past some very fluffy sheep and up on to a hill overlooking the valley. The hill was full of yellow flowers and dandelions. I’ve got some nice footage of the day which I will put up eventually.
Exceedingly green fields full of flowers and dandelions – one of England’s best features!
I just hope when we go back to do some more walks we get the same weather! 🙂
Here Comes The Planet 