Travels in History

Sunday in London

We took the train to London on Sunday, with the idea that we would start by going to the British Museum first, and then just wing it.

The train was fast and comfortable, a great way to travel, I wish it were cheeper!

We came in at Kings Cross, and decided to walk to the British Museum. We got to see a bit of London on the way. Alex took photos. (I know, I know, I took photos too, but with three cameras, he takes way more than I do.)

This is in Russell Square.

One of the things that struck us right away was the new scheme for renting bikes in London.

These stands are everywhere! The system has only been working for a few months, and on a Sunday it was hard to see how much use it gets, but I love the idea. The rental rate is cheep, free for members for the first 30 minutes, for example. There is a lot of winging online about how much this cost the taxpayers to set up, and what a silly idea it is, but honestly, I think it is brilliant, and I hope it works. 

The British Museum and BBC Radio 4 have teamed up for a radio show/book/exhibit telling the story of the history of the world in 100 objects. Rather than gathering the objects together, however, they are spread out all over the museum, in the places they would normally be. There is a leaflet to tell you where they all are, and they each have a new explanation. The book is HUGE, and costs a lot, so I didn't get it, but the radio shows, which were on last year, can all be downloaded as podcasts. It is an interesting idea, I wonder if students would pick similar objects if set the exercise in a world history class?

I love wandering up to a case and finding something I have read about hundreds of times, but never actually seen. This is the Wedgewood Anti-Slavery Society plaque. Thousands were sold.

Here I am with a large statue of Sekhmet. We noticed much more of the Egyptian collection having just finished reading Rick Riordan's Red Pyramid to the children.

Alex with the copy of the Rosetta Stone (they don't let you that close to the real thing).

 

Cleopatria's Needle is also an important part of the Red Pyramid, and we stumbled on it without really meaning to as we walked around.  

One of the great things about London is the layers of history. This is an ancient monument, given to Britain as part of empire and war, and it shows damage to the base from bombs dropped by the Germans in the Battle of Britain.

Panorama (thanks Photoshop!)

The light was really beautiful.

We couldn't resist the Future photo with Alex, especially because it was at the Korean Cultural Center.

In Trafalgar Square we noticed a new item, or at least we were sure we had never seen it. It is called "Nelson's Ship in a Bottle" by Yinka Shonibare. I read about it today, and it is new. The idea is to rotate what goes on this "Fourth Plinth" which stood empty for a long time. 

We went into the National Gallery for a little while, and when we came out it was dark.

We took the tube back to Kings Cross and caught a rather crowded train back to Cambridge. A good day out.

Saturday Outing to Ely

We took the train to Ely (about 15 miles) today to see the Cathedral and the town. It was cold (very cold!) and cloudy, but a nice day for an outing. The train was nice and warm after riding out bikes to the station. There is a HUGE bike parking area, and it is full.

There was a notice inside the station that says they put green tags (you can see one in this photo) on bikes they think are abandoned and remove them and donate them to charity a month later!

Alex had the good camera, and started taking photos right away. I am sure the best ones are up on flicker already.

We were much too cold for ice cream, but we liked the look of this one. We had gotten a leisurely start, so it was time for lunch when we arrived. We had lunch at a place called the Coffee Mill. Ironically we didn't have any coffee.

We wandered around a bit. The Saturday market sold all manner of things, from musical instruments to old books, crafts, and of course some food. 

We got tickets for the Cathedral, the Stained Glass Museum, and the Octagon Tour. I had been to the Cathedral before, but not up in the Octagon. It was amazing.

We had a guide and five other people with us. The stairs up to the first level were not a problem, just a standard spiral stone staircase. But as we got higher and higher the stairs got narrower and narrower.

View of the Octagon from the floor of the Cathedral.

Up on the lower roof level, walking across to the next staircase.

looking up at the Octagon.

The door to the stairs is very small. But we all made it in without hitting our heads.

The Octagon is supported by these huge wooden beams.

That is Alex across the Octagon taking photos.

Alex took this photo of me. The good camera is better than my pocket camera!

Alex took more photos. No surprise.

The view from the Octagon down to the Cathedral floor.

Then we climbed even higher, to the roof of the Octagon. The roof is made of wood, incased in lead. Only the outer part is stone.

There were fantastic views, even on a cloudy day.

We are way up in the air!

Alex took more photos. The big lights in this photo light up the octagon at night. They are a recent gift from the Friends of Ely Cathedral.

We asked one of the other people on the tour to take a photo of us. We look cold, we are cold.

What must it look like on a clear day?

Going down was a challenge. Notice the handrail is that rope.

Alex coming out of the tiny staircase door.

Another part of the lower staircase.

We spent some time in the Cathedral, then had some coffee and went on to the Stained Glass Museum. It is inside the Cathedral, but I don't have photos because they don't allow photography inside. 

Then we went outside, and looked in at the visitor information which is in the Oliver Cromwell House. We were too late in the day for the tour, we will have to save it for another trip.

These lovely folks stand outside the building.

This cannon was captured by the British from the Russians in the Crimean War and given to Ely by Queen Victoria as a memorial to those from Ely who fought in that war.

Then we went back to the shops, and went to a fantastic bookstore. Seriously, if you are in Ely, you should visit Topping and Company Booksellers. They have a branch in Bath too.

We caught a train back to Cambridge and bought some ready to heat and eat Chinese food at Sainsbury's.

Cambridge University Botanical Garden (last Tuesday)

I said I would post about going to the Cambridge University Botanical Garden, so here are a few photos and notes from last Tuesday.

Our guide, June, talking to us about Hobson's culvert which brought clean drinking water into the city in the early 17th century. He is also the Hobson of "Hobson's choice" which is really no choice at all.

 '

The garden is, of course, lovely, if a bit bare in the winter.

The first bulbs, snowdrops, are up, at least in a few warm places.

In the garden we had an Australian guide who knew a lot about the garden. She kept telling us we have to come back every week to see it all change.

There was great color in the winter garden.

Walk into the City Centre

This is the walk we take to get just about anywhere, so I took photos as I went in this afternoon.

The view after turning left out of our house on Alpha Road.

Turn right on Chesterton Road (and cross the street, remembering to look the other way!)

The intersection of Chesterton Road and Castile St. (to the right), it is Magdalene St. for a block to the left, then it becomes Bridge St. (over the bridge) then Sidney St, outside Sidney Sussex College, then St. Andrews St., then Regent St., then Hills Road. Why do streets change name SO often here?

The building across from where I am standing is the Kettle's Yard Folk Museum. I have not been in yet, but have it on the list of things to do soon.

Cars, bikes, and pedestrians here. It is exciting, but they do all seem to work it out.

Past the Pickerel -- which claims to be the oldest pub in Cambridge. We were there a few nights ago, and I remember it from my previous trip to Cambridge and our pub scavenger hunt.

At some times of day there are bikes parked all along this fence.

 Over the Cam. Not much punting going on in January.

Past a row of shops and restaurants.

Into the area of town where cars are restricted. The sign says "Except pedal cycles and authorized buses and taxis" and "Rising Bollards." 

All kinds of shops are reminding shoppers that Valentine's Day is coming soon, and we should all buy stuff. In this case, jewelry.

Here is the corner of Jesus Lane. When I was here in 2007 I stayed at Westcott House, which is a bit up to the left, past Sidney Sussex College.

Bikes parked on both sides of the street. The store on the right at the end of the block is Sainsbury's where we do most of our grocery shopping. 

Bookstores, in this case Waterstones, want us to remember Valentine's Day.

Corner of Market Street. If I were going to the Market Square, the Starbucks, or any number of other places, I would have turned right here, but I continued along Sidney Street today.

It took me less than 15 minutes to get there from our house.

 

Cambridge Newcomers and Visiting Scholars Group

I found this group on Facebook, and went along this morning to the weekly coffee to see what was going on. Since this is Robert Burns' birthday, they had a mini Burns Night celebration, with bagpipes and the haggis and the all important toast to the haggis, etc.  You might think this was going too far, but Burns is important here. Did Google have the Burns doodle in the US? The UK site had this:

(Source: http://www.google.co.uk/)

We sang "Old Lang Syne" too.

This is not the first Burns supper I have been to. We had one in the hall dinning room in Aberdeen when I was doing my junior study abroad there. Since I was only there a semester, and I started the second week in January, this was early in my time there, and I really had no idea what was going on. This time it seemed perfectly normal to me. We also learned a bit about Australia Day, which is tomorrow, from one of the ex-pat Aussies.

The group is interesting. It is almost all women, the spouses of men who are here to study or work at the university. The organizers, as far as I can tell, are wives of senior college officials, and they do this as volunteers. Most of the younger people there were Asian, as far as I could tell mostly Chinese. The most important thing the group does for many newcomers, probably, is a weekly language conversation/practice time earlier on Tuesday mornings. There were women from a variety of other places.  I met several other Americans, and some who have been here for years, and help organize the group themselves. I also met a few women from New Zealand and Australia. 

The groups is also a social club, and I have signed up for several tours and outings they have scheduled during the Lent term. I went on the first of those this afternoon, a walk though the Botanical Garden, but that will be another post, probably tomorrow.

Shaun the Sheep

My kids love the silly short British cartoon Shaun the Sheep, so I couldn't resist taking a photo of the stuffed Shaun in a gift shop window.

Sunday Bike Ride

Alex's friends from work have loaned me a bike, and so today we went off exploring. Or, specifically, we headed out to the American Cemetery, a ride of about 2 1/2 miles from town.

Riding on the left is not hard when there are plenty of bikes, and very few cars, as through the city centre. Watch out for all the pedestrians though.

Riding out on the bike path we both tend to drift back to riding on the right side. But with so few people out there, it did not matter often.

We stopped to take a photo of a thatched house, and Alex took a photo of me too.

So of course I took a photo of him.

The Cemetery is beautiful, a fitting monument to Americans, mostly in the Air Force, who died fighting World War II. 

There is a small visitor center, with a few displays about the cemetery, and the Americans who served here.  

This display is about the process of asking families if they wanted their loved ones to be buried permanently in the American Cemetery or have the bodies returned to the US. The same debate happened after World War I. Teddy Roosevelt argued for the importance of American cemeteries around the world as memorials to the brave service of Americans. The only one really lobbing for the return of the bodies was the American Funeral Directors Association. (Just a little self interest there!) They took out ads in American newspapers saying that it would dishonor those lives to leave them on foreign soil. After both World War I and World War II Americans repatriated 61% of the bodies, according to this display. 

The wall commemorates those missing in action, presumed dead. Because of the nature of the work done by the Air Force, most who died were never recovered. They are named here on the wall.

Windows in the memorial chapel include State Seals. 

We parked our bikes in the lot. Notice the CCTV security camera. Bike theft in Cambridge, like in any big biking area, is apparently an issue, we have been warned.

The bike trail was mostly well marked.

It was also a walking trail.

The view from the bridge as we crossed the Cam back into the City Centre.  We had coffee to warm up and then read for a while, until the bookstore cafe closed. It was a lovely day.

 

First Day in Cambridge

Just a few shots from our morning walk around. 

Even with the coat and scarf and gloves Alex is still cold.

 

Jesus Green

Narrow Boats on the Cam

Our front door.

The view out the kitchen window.

Alex has gone to the lab, and I am unpacking and getting sorted out. I'll go out and meet him later.

At SFO

The Cambridge adventure begins slowly. My flight was scheduled to depart at 7:00, but now they are saying 9:00. What is another two hours?

I'm reading a book about food in world history. Interesting, but it is making me hungry. I'll blog about it later when I have gotten further into the argument. It would make a good topic for global week next year if we continue that theme.

The gate area is starting to fill up, but mist people seem to have taken the two hour delay to eat dinner or wander around shopping.

I did do a little shopping. I got the January Scientific American with Alex's article. It looks great!

One of the things I'm looking forward to about the next few months is the ability I will have to let my reading range all over the place. Of course there is a fine line between wide ranging and chaotically distracted. I plan to explore that line.

Waiting and To-Do Lists

In some ways, I have been thinking about the Cambridge trip and my sabbatical as one in the same thing. I know that the trip is only part of the work I will do on sabbatical, but since it is the first thing, and such a big thing, in my mind they merged together.

But my sabbatical started on Tuesday, and I am not leaving until next Wednesday, and my mind is stuck in a kind of limbo, and at the same time very busy.  I have a to-do list that is three pages long, and full of things that are almost all logistical, not intellectual or even, mostly, interesting, just necessary in order for life to move on, especially the children's lives, while Alex and I are not here.

All of which is to say that the reflective part of sabbatical is going to have to wait for the paperwork, shopping, organizing, cleaning, sorting, calendering, packing, and parenting parts of my list to get a little shorter.

I'll start a new list once I get to Cambridge. It will have very different things on it.