Travels in History

Another Day in London

Alex had another meeting in London, so I went down too and wandered around again. I did not have a precise destination, although I wanted to go to the British Library, and it was a lovely day, mostly, so I walked a good deal again, although I also took the Tube. My Oyster card is getting a workout!

From King's Cross I went into the St. Pancras station, because it has all been re-done, with a new international hotel (well, not new, renovated, the outside is very 19th century). The Eurostar via the Channel Tunnel leaves from here.

Nice big Olympic rings getting ready for 2012.

From there I walked over to the British Library. The old reading room in the British Museum is gone, but this place is very cool, and there is much more space here.

There were students on field trips. These ones were doing some kind of perception drawing/writing exercise where they described what they saw, or drew it, and then they changed places and compared. 

I went to see the treasures exhibit, where I spent most of my time looking at the Magna Carta, which was pretty cool, and then I went to the new Evolving English exhibit, which was fascinating. I liked it so much I bought Henry Hitchings' The Language Wars: A History of Proper English in the shop there, and I have been reading it sense then. It is great, although I really did not need another hardcover book to take home.

I was a bit worried when I came out and it was raining.

This is the main entrance to the library. It was raining quite a bit, but by the time I took the tube a few stops down the line to Covenant Garden the rain had stopped. I wandered around the market there a bit, but it is not as interesting on a Tuesday as on Monday when the antiques market is there, so I moved on to lunch and then toward Trafalgar square.

A little blue sky to highlight Nelson's Column.

I walked past the Horse Guards on Whitehall.

Past the monument to Women of World War II. I like how well the red double decker busses show in photos, particularly on a grey day they brighten up the city.

I ran across a demonstration across from Downing Street. For once all these people were here to support government policy. It is hard to read, but the sign in the middle is thanking Cameron, Obama, and Sarkozy for the No-Fly Zone in Lybia. The Nato countries were meeting in London that day to discuss the policy.

The very tiny famous street.

More of the demonstration.

I walked along toward Big Ben, but instead of going to the river I turned right toward St. James Park.

Plenty of ducks in the park, and you can see the London Eye from there too, which I had not really expected. 

Buckingham Palace looking good in the distance.

Lots of lovely trees and flowers blooming. And lots of tourist groups, most of them Spanish and Italian. I sat for a while writing in the park, and at one point was surrounded by a large group of Italians following a tour guide with a brightly colored umbrella.

I walked up to the palace.

Not a great photo of me, but it shows I am there, still wearing my bright pink scarf, but no coat!

They were setting up grandstands and fencing for the Royal Wedding!

Plenty of activity, but not really a lot of workers. They have almost a month to go, I think they will be finished in plenty of time.

I walked back through Green Park, and then along under the Admiralty Arch.

The rain had stopped, but the sky never got much clearer than this.

I walked down to Embankment and took the District Line to the Tower. I love this archer, made of metal, stationed on guard.

It was almost 6pm by the time I got there, so the Tower was closed, which is why there are no people in these photos. Alex was not sure when his meeting would end, so we had agreed to meet at the Starbucks across from the tower (his meeting was just the other side of Tower Bridge).

I settled down and read about the history of English.

We took the tube to Leicester Square and had dinner at a Chinese place. Another lovely day in London. I am really just beginning to feel that I know my way around parts of the city, and it is almost time to go back to California. But I don't think I'll forget, and we can come back. We will go back one more day with the children and grandma, who arrive on Sunday morning!

Saturday in Oxford

Our first stop of the morning was the Bodleian Library to sign up for a tour. We got on the list for the 10:30 tour and then went over to the University Church of St. Mary the Virgin to climb the tower.

It is a lovely church.

On the way up we got close-up views of some of the carvings.

And then the spires of Oxford spread out around us from the top. Matthew Arnold's line is often quoted for good reason, "“And that city with her dreaming spires, she needs not June for beauty’s heightening”. (Arnold wrote the poem "Thyrsis" in 1865 in honor of a friend who had died young.)

Alex took quite a few photos here too, no surprise. Find his photos on Flickr and a short blog post about our visit to Oxford here.

The space for people to walk at the top of the tower went around all four sides, but it was narrow and people had to go both ways to get back to the stairs, so there was a certain amount of back and forth negotiating who would walk where. I assume they have a limit on the number of people up there at any given time. It is well worth the climb and the small fee.

In the mass of stone buildings, my eyes kept coming back to these brightly painted ones across the High Street from the church.

Me up on the top of the church.

Many of the colleges have sundials we could see from the tower. Pereunt et imputantur, the motto under this one, means "The hours are consumed and will be charged to our account." (and yes, I had to look that one up!)

The Radcliffe Camera.

We asked one of the other tourists to take a photo of both of us together.

We came back down and went right to the library for our tour. We had been in the Divinity School building when we were here with the kids last time, since it is the Infirmary in the Harry Potter movies. 

Beautiful views out the windows. Once we went upstairs to Duke Humfrey's Library we could not take photos. It was fantastic to see it, and the bits of the collection that are there. They are having the same book storage problems as all big depository libraries, and they are building a giant storage space in Swindon to hold most of the books.

The construction in the square of the library. Doesn't it look like the statue has a bath towel on?

Once again I found myself drawn to places that are important in Gaudy Night. This is where the final scene takes place.

We walked around for the rest of the afternoon, having lunch at a place that claims to be the oldest coffee house in England, which is across the street from a place that makes the same claim.

Alex with a classic history of science moment, Boyle and Hooke.

We walked down to Magdalen Bridge to "send our love to London" (also a Sayers phrase).

At the end of the day we had coffee at Blackwells, and I bought another book (because I really need more books) and then we went back to the EuroPub to get our suitcase and catch the coach back to Cambridge. No trouble with any of that, although it confirmed for me that the train is just a better way to travel.

Next time.

 

Friday in Oxford

Alex had his conference at the Said School on Friday, so I set off to tour Oxford.

I know these signs are literal, but I feel like some of my sabbatical research shows that this is part of the problem. Historians need to engage with the public more, we have things to contribute, and the building should be open to the public. But look what has happened when we try. The case of William Cronin's blog Scholar Citizen should inspire us to be more engaged in public debate, not less. 

 

The most beautiful parts of Oxford are for the college fellows, not for tourists. But I love the views through the doors when they are open. Of course many colleges do let visitors in, for a small fee, at certain times, which is, really, as it should be, since the colleges should be for teaching and learning.

I decided I wanted to get the wider view of Oxford, and maybe walk just a little bit less than I normally do, so I paid for the on-and-off bus tour (very touristy). At first, I had the bus all to myself, with my little red headset and the English-language recording on channel 1. After we got to the train station a live guide got on, and other tourists started to arrive too. The view was great from the top, and the guide was interesting. Sometimes it was harder to take good photos, the rails got in the way, and we moved quickly when there was no traffic. But well worth the price.

We went past the Eagle and Child. These photos from the tour will probably be out of order. I had two cameras, and the time stamps on both of them are a bit off, so if you know the tour well, please just ignore the order and go with it!

I love the reflections in the window, but what is with the shirt with the panda packing heat?

Across the river. Lots of signs of spring.

Building the expansion of the Said Business School next to the rail station.

Bus tour with more people. We went by the Mitre.

We had excellent views of some of Oxfords famous gargoyles. 

The sun came out, and it was almost warm. I was not wearing a coat!

After I had been around the tour more than once, I got off and went to enquire about tours at the Bodleian Library for Saturday. It was complicated, and I was not sure we wanted the long tour I could reserve for the next day, so in the end I decided we would just turn up and take what we could get on Saturday. I don't think the "silence please" can be respected by the construction crew.

The sunlight makes wonderful reflections.

After dinner Alex and I took a long walk, and experimented with nightime photography. 

To Oxford (the other place)

Spring is really beginning to be visible, not just in the bulbs, which are beautiful, but in the green everywhere.

I took this on my way to knitting/craft group on Thursday morning.

Janet showed us how to make this lovely rippled scarf. I will try it once my fingerless mits are done. 

Alex had a lunch meeting, so we did not set off for Oxford until later in the afternoon. We took the bus (coach) because it was much cheeper. I don't like it as much as the train, but for that kind of money, and in this case the time is about the same, it does make sense.  And our hotel was right at the bus station!

This is the view out our window at the EuroPub. Not the greatest place, and part of the hall smelled very strange, but we could not have a better location, and our room was fine.

Oxford and Cambridge have a lovely little rivalry, but I think as visitors we can enjoy both. I do think Cambridge is a more livable place, Oxford is bigger and more crowded. But we are not to live here, just visit for the weekend.

The view from our table at the Eagle and Child, the pub famous for meetings of the Inklings. We had a nice dinner. It was quiet, for a pub, because they don't play loud music. The people at the table next to us found that disturbing, I rather liked it.

Photos of writers at the pub, including CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien.

We walked around quite a bit, and ended up at the Miter for coffee.

I always think of the Miter as where Lord Peter Whimsey stays in Gaudy Night. I know he is not real, but Sayers makes Oxford feel real in that book, it is certainly as much a character in the story as anything else, and she has Peter stay at the Miter.

Kew Gardens

I'm a little behind on the blogging. Last week Alex was to give a talk in London, so we went early and took the tube out to Kew Gardens. I think the last time I was there was 1980, but I had good memories of it, and spring is upon us, so what better than the botanical gardens?

Not exactly a sunny day, but a few bits of blue sky showed through.

The one place I really wanted to go back was the Marianne North Gallery. I liked it so much then that I bought a book of her work. And it did not disappoint, but we were not allowed to take photos inside. So visit the official site for more information about this intrepid traveler and artist. Or borrow that old book, or the newer one I got about her art and her life.

A flock of chickens enjoys the space around the gallery.

 The fake "Roman" wall is aging nicely. 

Most of the trees have not come out yet, but there are a few early ones flowering.

Alex took lots of great photos, look for them on Flickr.

In the greenhouses there were things blooming!

And I remembered to get out my iPhone to take a few Hipstamatic shots.

We did not have enough time to go all the places we wanted, but we made it though the Temperate House and had a good wander around before it was time to set off across London to Alex's talk.

We got off at Angel and walked to the City University London. I was struck by the re-use of buildings here. This Starbucks is certainly in a building that was built to be something else!

Most students were on their way home by the time we arrived.

Her is Alex setting up for his talk. He put up links to the Prezi here. The talk went well, there was some interesting discussion, and then we came back to Cambridge via King's Cross.

 

Saturday in Bath

We had one more day in Bath before returning to Cambridge. It was much more crowded in the City Centre! I guess plenty of people come in for the day, and for the weekend. Once we were a little away from the center things were fine.

The view from our basement room. Notice the nice bright sunlight!

The light is terrible in this photo, but I loved this shop. It has tourist stuff, postcards, etc, on the left, but the right side is all dollhouse stuff.  I would never have left this store when I was a kid!

This store is on Walcot Street. I love the idea that since Jane Austen's day there has probably been a ladies hat store somewhere in the area!

We went to Topping and Company on Friday, but I did not take a photo. It really is an outstanding bookshop!

Our first stop of the morning was the Jane Austen Center.

They have taken a house on Gay Street, much like one Jane Austen lived in when she was in Bath, and turned it into a museum.  

There is not much information about Austen in the really interesting bits of her life, since most of what we knows comes from her letters to her sister, and in the times she was with her sister there are, of course, no letters.

Alex has already blogged about the museum, and his summary is brilliant, so I will quote it, rather than write my own (once the academic, always the academic):

 We spent part of the morning at the Jane Austen Centre, a house converted into a museum for Jane Austen fans. Though these days, it's really devoted to that version of Jane Austen that's filtered through the movies; so much so that Austen herself (as well as all her other characters) are in danger of being upstaged by Mr. Darcy-- in particular the Colin Firth version of Mr. Darcy. Actually, most of the museum is about Austen and Bath in her time; it's more the gift shop that has turned into the House of Firth. (The "I [Heart] Mr Darcy" bumper stickers and tote bags) nearly sent my wife over the edge.)

Bath's relationship to Jane Austen is emblematic of the mix of honest and commercialism that at their best English historical sites manage to strike. The message can be reduced to, "Jane Austen reluctantly came to his city with her elderly parents, and over the next five years, endured the loss of her beloved father, the decline of her family's status, constant marginalization in a city obsessed with wealth and fashion, and a creative drought that represents an incalculable loss given her short life. Don't forget to visit the gift shop!"

For the rest of Alex' account of our days in Bath, click here. 

One of the best things was a copy of Emma Thompson's acceptance at the Golden Globes for the Sense and Sensibility screenplay. There is video on Youtube here. Go watch it. Really, it is better than anything I will write here. 

The fellow greeting people at the front door really did do a good Mr. Bennet act, but the frozen mannequin rather spoiled his lively act.

Jane Austen often sent her characters to the Assembly Rooms, and so that was our next stop. The Assembly Rooms are the same ones Jane would have been too, and they are fantastic.

There was a couple there discussing using the rooms for their wedding. That is going to be a nice reception!

While we were not quite dressed for the occasion, we enjoyed looking around.

Our next stop was the Fashion Museum in the basement of the Assembly Rooms. I remember visiting it when it was called the Costume Museum (I think that was the 1980 trip) and I liked it then. Now that it is the Fashion Museum, I am not so impressed. They had an exhibit of wedding dresses (celebrating the Royal Wedding this year). Some of them were very strange, and there was no analysis, just names and dates.

The 19th century room, "behind the scenes" was more interesting, because it was about how fashions changed by decade, and about how they store and conserve the costumes. But men apparently did not have fashion through most of the century, there was only one male costume and a few men's hats and shoes.

And the 20th century was all about fancy designers and the "dress of the year." There were a few men's outfits, but the exhibit was high on crazy fashion and low on analysis and historical context. Sigh.

This is a very big hat.

We were past ready for lunch, so we stopped at the Pig and Fiddle, and it was even warm enough to eat outside, with the heat lamps they had going, which was good, since there were no tables inside.

We wandered away from the crowds, and did some window shopping on Walcot Street, and back into the center to see if we could get in to Sally Lunn's for the traditional Sally Lunn Bun, but there was a big line, so we walked about a block to a lovely tea place in a hotel, where there were plenty of empty tables and we could enjoy our tea and scones in peace.  Then we split up, me for some shops, and Alex to take more photos. He puts them up on Flickr, his page is here.

 We met up at a bookshop before heading back to the hotel to collect our bag. We walked across the river to see the city from the other side.

Plenty to take pictures of here.

The Bath Abbey in the distance from across the River Avon.

Alex even put the camera down from his face so I could take his photo.

And he posed again, this time with the Pultenay Bridge as a background.

We found our seats on the very full train to London (with some very loud Rugby players sitting just behind us) and then made the Tube journey from Paddington to King's Cross in time to buy dinner at the Upper Crust, our favorite sandwich place at King's Cross, and hop on the 18:06 for Cambridge. Our bikes were waiting for us at the station, and we rode home. The bag basically fits in my bike basket, but as it had gotten a bit more full (one big heavy book, and a few other things) it was a bit harder to ride. We went slowly, and I got off to go over curbs, and it all worked fine. What a lovely weekend.

The Roman Baths

We headed right for the Roman Baths when we got back to Bath, but of course we couldn't resist this house on Pierrepoint Street.

There are things like this all over the place, and I am getting more used to looking out for them.

Alex took photos of the other Nelson sign on the house.

I'm glad we could see the Baths in the sunlight. They are a monument to Roman building, but also a real statement about Victorian values and sense of history. This is not what the top would have looked like in Roman days, they built a large covered building. But the Victorians finished it there way.

The view of the Abbey over the Victorian statues of Romans. Many layers of history here.

Even going in late there were plenty of people there. Most of them had the recorded tour, but we skipped that.

Alex standing by the baths. There are plenty of signs reminding us not to go in, and not to trip on the uneven pavement.

I wonder if I have a photo of me standing in this same place in the 1980s.

We left the Baths around 5:30, so most things were closed.

We did some window shopping. These cupcakes stood out, even with the shop closed.

We had dinner at the Crystal Palace, a nice pub, with good food.

 

Bristol

We had a proper English breakfast in our hotel before setting out into the rain.

Hard to complain about a breakfast view like this.

And the toast came properly cooled in a toast rack.

Another good Persuasion reference, anyone remember who lived in Laura Place? We go through Laura Place to get into the city centre from our hotel.

We caught the 9:36 to get to Bristol for Alex's talk. The rain did not stop, and Bristol is great, but in a gritty industrial way. We walked from the train station to the harbor area, which is all redeveloped since the port shut down in the 1970s. Christy, this would feel very much like Hafencity!

In Queen's Square (named for Queen Anne, but with a statue of William III in the center) we saw this plaque. Not much explanation for Kosciuszko's visit.  Then we saw this one, on the same house.

And it turns out they are connected.

Of course I need a photo of myself there.

And here is the entire house. Although it was not this house, but rather a house on this site, where the Americans established their consulate. And it was there that Kosciuszko came to visit his friends from his time fighting in the American Revolution. All history is world history. And that seems even more more true on some days!

This gets my vote for the most subtile marker for a bike lane.

Pero's bridge, named for a slave brought to Bristol. The city made plenty of money on the slave trade and the tobacco trade.

It turned out that the Pervasive Media Studio is in the building on the right, but we did not know that when we were walking around in the rain. I like the juxtaposition of the Cathedral, the 19th century industrial building, and the new @Bristol (a science museum/center).

The Planetarium is a popular school trip destination.

After walking around a bit, getting wetter and wetter, and then getting some directions, we found the door. When we were buzzed in we found a spiral staircase, and loud music started playing. It is some kind of art project.

 

Here is Alex giving the beginning of his talk. He blogs about the talk here. It was well received, there was some lively discussion afterward.

We were there quite a while, and when we emerged back outside the sun was shining.  

Back in Queen's Square. We walked back to the station the way we had come, since we wanted to get back to Bath in time to see the Roman Baths before they closed. Of course there are plenty of cool things to see in Bristol, but that will have to wait for another trip.

The sunlight changes everything. We bought some sandwiches to go and kept going toward the station.

The Bristol train station is an amazing bit of Victorian building. The station opened as the western terminus of the Great Western Railway in 1840 (built by Brunel, like just about everything in Bristol). This photo shows the main entrance built in the 1870s expansion of the station.

We caught the 13:51 back to Bath.

Bath

We caught the 11:45 to King's Cross (with not that much time to spare), and were off to Bath. I was a bit late getting out of craft group, and I had not really thought about how long it would take on our bikes to get to the station.  But we made it, and had seats on the express, so that was what mattered.

 We caught the Hammersmith line to Paddington with plenty of time to spare.

It really is a lovely station. We wandered a bit, buying sandwiches, and looking into the London 2012 Olympics shop while we waited for them to post a platform number.  We had seats reserved on this train, which was probably a good thing, it was mostly full.

Alex got right to work. The reason for our trip is a talk he is giving on Friday in Bristol, so this is a working trip, as well as sightseeing.

The sun was out when we arrived, and Bath really is lovely.

This is the Pulteney Bridge, with shops right across it. We went across it to get to our hotel, which is not too far down Great Pulteney Street.

A nice place, even if our room is in the basement (under the dinning room, as we discovered this morning!) We checked in and then went back out right away to walk around while things were still open.

 

We saw these in several parts of the city. They are advertisements for Banana Republic, and they are just a waste of bike racks! I did not see so many full bike racks here, so maybe they are not needed, but it does seem silly.

 We went into the Bath Abbey, which is lovely.

One of the things I love about Bath is how many places I can remember from Jane Austen books. Who else knows who lived here?

 The street itself is not particularly Georgian now, full of regular shops.

The Jane Austen Centre is new, I think, since I was last here. Or maybe I was not such an avid Austen fan then. It was closed by the time we got up the hill, but we have it on our list for Saturday.

The Circus.

The Crescent

Alex had the good camera, check his Flickr stream for more.

The Abbey looked great lit up at night. It is strange to think that the people who built it could never have seen it like this.

We had dinner at a pizza place called the Real Italian Pizza Company. Nice, but a bit empty. Which was fine, since they were training a new member of staff, and that took plenty of explaining.

We ended the evening at the Coeur de Lion, famous for being the smallest pub in Bath.

I downloaded Persuasion for my iPad, and read it for the rest of the evening once we got back to the hotel.

Sunday in Edinburgh

Our hotel from the Scott monument. We had breakfast (included) at the hotel both mornings. It was a buffet, "full Scottish Breakfast" which seems to be about the same as an English Breakfast except there is also Haggis included. Am I missing something?

Not quite the burst of summer flowers I remember form summer in Edinburgh, but there are signs of spring.

The first bulbs up in Princes Gardens.

We liked the post decorations on the stairs.

We went right to the Castle, and spent most of our day there. The Latin above the gate says "Nemo Me Impune Lacessit" translated, "Nobody assails me with impunity," basically don't mess with me!

The rock the Castle stands on is volcanic. It seems to make an excellent foundation.

The roadways within the castle are paved specifically for hauling heavy things up to the top (canon, for example). The two sides are smooth for the cart wheels, the center is rough so the horses' hooves can get a good grip.

There were plenty of other people there, but it was not so crowded that we couldn't get photos without others in them.

This guy seemed to deserve to be in the photo with Alex, since he was all dressed up for the day. The Whisky & Bookshop was just another gift shop, albeit with whisky, something you don't always see in American historical sites.

The views were fantastic, although we were not as high up as on Arthur's Seat.

The view across the city to Arthur's Seat. The Royal Mile goes out toward the left in this photo.

I couldn't resist eating in the Redcoat Cafe. The food was fine, and the view was great.

On the way down from the Castle we saw this guy. He is a history teacher, who visits schools to teach about Scottish history. He stands here to raise money for Leukemia research. I don't think he runs marathons in this outfit, or at least I hope not.

So of course I donated and had my picture taken! Go Team! 

His work in schools comes from the Battle of Prestonpans (1745) Historic Trust if you want to learn more about it.

We did a little more shopping (Heathergems!) and took a last wander down part of the Royal Mile, then we went back to the hotel, collected our suitcases, and headed for Waverley Station.

The train ride home was nice, on-time, we got good seats, and we had plenty to read with us.

Alex working on the train.

 I kept thinking the light would go quickly, so I would watch the view until then. I got lots of great views, but it took a while for the sun to set. Which was great.

And a few of my photos from the train came out (most were just a blur).

We were home around nine, and after a few minutes searching in the dark for our bikes we found them and rode home from the station.

A wonderful weekend break.