Towns and other points of interest
|
Date |
Town |
Comments |
|
Sept 3 |
Tardebigge Alvechurch With Croxfords |
Visited
Tardebigge locks on the Worcester & Birmingham canal system.
There were many locks in a very short length. No boats were going through. We then went to Alvechurch where there is
a canal boat marina and rental place.
Several canal boats were tied up at the docks, and a bright
yellow one made its way downstream while we were there. |
|
Sept 4 |
Worcester With Croxfords. |
Cathedral
town on River Severn; saw the tops of the twin towers of the cathedral. Royal Worcester China Works here. Toured
the factory. Very interesting.
£5 |
|
Sept 4 Wednesday |
Bourton-on-the-Waters With Croxfords. |
Small
tourist town in the Cotswold Hills.
Very pretty. Windrush River flows through town – only
15’ – 20’ wide, a foot or so deep, fairly swift flowing. Bird park and maze. Interesting shops and stores. |
|
Sept 5 Thursday |
Windsor |
Parry
Davies took us here after picking us up from the Croxfords.
On the Thames west of London.
Had lunch in pub beneath the outer walls of Windsor Castle,
then walked up to the castle. Immense!
Did not have time for tour.
Windsor train station converted to many little shops and stores. |
|
Sept 5 Thursday |
Eton |
Part
of Windsor as we just walked along a quaint old street and came upon
the Eton School. Had a look at the exterior. |
|
Sept 5 Thursday |
Luton |
About
30 miles north of London; home of the Parry & Elaine Davies, with
whom we stayed for three nights.
Both teachers, Parry now retired, Elaine has 1 year to go.
Both are Welsh. |
|
Sept 6 Friday |
Aldbury |
Parry,
Lois & I went to Aldbury via country roads; southwest of Luton,
15 miles. Old, very picturesque and charming. There is a village square (actually a triangle)
with village pond and stocks dating back many, many years. A pub, store, several old houses and a Norman-style
church hundreds of years old. This
village often used a setting for murder mysteries on TV. The hill area near Aldbury is a National
Trust Forest. There is an
old manor house on the property and in direct view of it through the
woods – about 1 km away – is a monument of some sort.
Many walking trails in the forest.
Had lunch in the pub. |
|
Sept 6 Friday |
Woburn |
Quick
stop here. Small “down-town” area with a few stores.
There is a lovely old Norman church here that we visited.
Some girls were decorating for a wedding next day. Then went to see Woburn Abbey but got mixed up in roads so didn’t
see it. Guess we were ready
to head for home anyway. |
|
Sept 7 Saturday |
Cambridge |
Home
of University of Cambridge. The
Davies took us there. Very
old town. Parked on Chesterton Lane and walked into
University area via Magdelene St/Bridge.
Snooped around in the open-air farmers’ market, then walked
for a couple of hours through the various colleges. Had lunch at the Eagle Pub, a favourite haunt of USAF and RAF
during WW II. After lunch
did some more walking – saw The Backs (back of King’s College, Clare,
Trinity Hall), the Mathematical Bridge, The Cloisters, and numerous
other features. Lots of punts on the River Cam. |
London
to Plymouth - Sept 8 to Sept 11
|
Sept 8 Sunday |
London |
Arrived
from Luton by taxi, train, and tube.
Parry & Elaine accompanied us right to the hotel – Regent
Palace - which is across the
street from Piccadilly Tube Station.
They left for home after we got checked in.
Lois & I did a walking tour which included Chinatown, meal
at Mister Au’s Chinese food buffet, Leicester Square, Covent Gardens
and the market there, Trafalgar Square which includes St Martin-in-the-Fields
(had a look inside the church), Nelson Monument, National Gallery,
the back to hotel via Haymarket Street.
On our return to London after the bus tour we didn’t see anything
except the Pizza Place for supper with a group from the tour and later
I went to Tower Records and got some CD’s. |
|
Sept 9 Monday |
London |
First
stop was St Paul’s Cathedral. Raining
on the way there. £5 each
to tour. Toured the main floor
of the cathedral, then walked the 259 steps – spiral staircase – to
the Whispering Gallery. Lois
stayed there while I went up 119 steps to the Stone Gallery, which
was outside the dome. Then climbed 150 more steps to the outdoor
Golden Gallery. At this time
it was misty and visibility was limited, but a great view of London. I had left the camera with Lois as I thought
I would be indoors and no photography allowed. Went back down to where she was and back
up to Stone Gallery with camera, and took some pictures from there. 1311 steps total. We
then went to the crypt and saw many tombs of famous and not so famous. When we left St Paul’s it was raining again.
Walked down Cheapside to St Mary-le-Bow church, as this is
the church in which my Holder ancestor was baptized around 1700 before
immigrating to America. Took a bus to Oxford Circus.
It was really raining and we were a bit damp. Walked down Regent St to Picadilly and hotel.
Soaked by the time we got there.
Hung clothes everywhere and turned heat on.
Everything dried by next morning. The
rain stopped after lunch so we did walking and photo tour. From Piccadilly walked along Jermyn to St
James Church – beautiful ceilings, stained glass windows. Then past St James Palace – not very spectacular
until seen from a distance. Along
Pall Mall, took a left, crossed the Mall and into St James Park and
along lake to Queen Victoria Memorial and Buckingham Palace – too
late for a tour. On Birdcage
Walk to Anne’s Gate to Tothill which opened into Westminster Abbey
area. Again too late to tour the Abbey so walked
around that area, seeing Rodin’s The Burghers of Calais and exteriors
of the Parliament Buildings, Cabinet War Rooms, Downing Street, Treasury,
etc. and back via Regent St. After
resting went to Leicester Square looking for grocery store. Got some bread and Irish cheddar, and had
supper at the Burger King. Next
morning had breakfast and got on the bus at 7:25 for the start of
the trip. |
|
Sept 10 Tuesday |
Stonehenge Wiltshire 9:50 – 10:42 |
Much
as I imagined it to be from pictures, etc.
The henge is fenced so people cannot touch it, and there is
a fence along the road to keep non-payers from the inner fence. It is possible to walk around all the stones
but on the outside of the fence only.
For a price! The Beaker
People build Stonehenge using stones from up to 20 miles away. The building of it began in 2950 and ended
in 1550 BC. Reckoned to be
1,000,000 man-hours. Association
with Druids didn’t happen until 250 BC.
Associated with Stonehenge are mounds of earth several feet
high and 30 to 40 feet in diameter, called barrows. These are believed to be burial mounds of the people who died
while working on the construction of Stonehenge. There are several visible from the site, and apparently others
along the route taken in bringing the stones from the quarries. |
|
Sept 10 Tuesday |
Salisbury Wiltshire 11:00 – 1:15 |
Cathedral
City. The cathedral stands
alone on several acres of lawn, so its grandeur is very evident. It was begun in 1220 and finished 38 years
later. (Yorkminster took 250 years).
It is the only cathedral that maintained its style throughout
its building. Style is Early English Gothic. The spire is 404 feet high – highest in Britain.
Glastonbury spire was 500 feet, but it is gone.
The spire was built 100 years after the cathedral.
Cost
of tour is £2.50. A very interesting
tour. The Charter Room contains
one of the four remaining copies of the Magna Carta, 1215, signed
by King John. There had been
about 40 copies made. Also
in the cathedral is the oldest working clock in the world, build ca
1386. It was designed to strike the hour, so has no face nor hands.
Had cheese and bread lunch on the grounds and then went to
the farmers’ market in the town. |
|
Sept 10 Tuesday |
Plymouth Devon |
Drove
right to the waterfront. Some
had booked a harbour tour and the rest wandered the waterfront until
the boat returned, then we went to the hotel – the Strathmore. Along the wharf called the Barbican are the
Pilgrim Father Steps from which the Pilgrims left on the Mayflower.
These are not the original as they long ago eroded and were
replaced sometime in the 1800’s. The Royal Citadel, built by Charles II in
1670 is here as well, a huge fort with walls 30 to 40 feet high in
some places, and 20 feet thick in places.
Looking down on the harbour is the area known as the Hoe, where
Sir Francis Drake was bowling when he got news of the Spanish Armada
in 1588. Strathmore Hotel,
nice room. Supper included
– I had cod & chips – not very good.
Went for a walk on the Hoe after supper.
Saw Smeaton’s Tower, which was built in 1882 from the stone
of the original Eddystone lighthouse.
Plymouth was heavily bombed by the Luftwaffe during WW II. |
|
Sept 11 Wednesday |
Cornish
Goldsmiths Cornwall 10:10 – 10:55 |
A
small complex selling gold jewelry, with out-buildings housing museum
of mining, silver jewelry, souvenirs. James Bond’s car from Goldfinger is on display in the Goldsmith’s
building, as are two piles of £1,000,000: one in gold bars, the other in £5 notes. Norm was late and had to wear the “hat”! |
|
Sept 11 Wednesday |
St Michaels Mount, Penzance Cornwall |
Saw
our first palm trees here; saw many more over the next few days. St Michaels is a volcanic neck or sea stack
off shore and accessible by road during low tide. There is a castle on it, a protected harbour,
and farmland. We
drove through Penzance but did not stop; it is located across the
bay from St Michaels. Many
artists have set up shop here during the late 19th century. Sir Humphry Davy, inventor of the miners’ safety lamp among other
things, lived here. |
|
Sept 11 Wednesday |
St Ives Cornwall 12:45 – 3:00 |
This
sea-side town takes its name from St Ia, an Irish saint (female) who
floated over from Ireland on a leaf, landing not far from the town
site. Traffic is very limited in the town so tour
busses and visiting tourists must park above the town and either walk
or take a bus to the town, several hundred feet in elevation below. The walk was on a paved walkway, very steep,
about ½ mile. We walked both
ways. Tried a couple of Cornish
pasties for lunch. Found a
nice little park with benches, and sat with Peter & Shirley Felsch
(Aust) as they too were sampling this local treat.
Then wandered about town, visiting a few shops, walking on
the wharf, along the waterfront, through a tiny winding alley to the
next street above and the old church, then slowly back to the bus. It was a warm day and a slow climb. |