July 31st
We met some interesting characters in Cardiff at the Red Dragon Centre. This guy thought he was a Judoon storm-trooper.
And here was my social gaff of the day, I thought this guy was into punk cabaret, but it turns out that he's into clockwork punk cabaret. My bad.
No need for introductions here.
Who'd have thought it--a cyberman into French maid fantasy play?
(The lady in question obviously failed to take St Cuthbert's advice about having a spare head.)
Tuesday 31 July 2007
Bath to Cardiff Bay
Oops. Posted out of order. (Edit: should be back in chronological order now.)
July 30th
"I get knocked down, but I get up again"
--Chumbawumba
I can imagine how Homer would say it:
"Bath house goes up; bath house goes down; bath house goes up..."
Looking between the two pillars on the right of the picture made me wonder if Salvador Dali had visited. Just a touch of pareidolia. Nothing to worship here. Move along.
Bath was fun. We particularly enjoyed the Bizarre Bath walking tour yesterday evening. The comedian/magician/tour guide (in that order) gave us an alternative way of looking at Bath's architecture and history.
Then on to sunny Cardiff. Cardiff Bay is a real treat.
Outside the Cardiff Millennium Centre in Roald Dahl Plass.
July 30th
"I get knocked down, but I get up again"
--Chumbawumba
I can imagine how Homer would say it:
"Bath house goes up; bath house goes down; bath house goes up..."
Looking between the two pillars on the right of the picture made me wonder if Salvador Dali had visited. Just a touch of pareidolia. Nothing to worship here. Move along.
Bath was fun. We particularly enjoyed the Bizarre Bath walking tour yesterday evening. The comedian/magician/tour guide (in that order) gave us an alternative way of looking at Bath's architecture and history.
Then on to sunny Cardiff. Cardiff Bay is a real treat.
Outside the Cardiff Millennium Centre in Roald Dahl Plass.
Stonehenge to Bath
July 29th
We left Oxford and headed south to Stonehenge. Woo. Let's get all mystical.
Why did the denizens of Salisbury plain build this huge structure? Why did they invest so much effort in transporting stones, shaping them, and raising them in awe inspiring geometrical patterns?
We proceeded to Bath.
Why did the denizens of Bath build this huge structure? Why did they invest so much effort in transporting stones, shaping them, and raising them in awe inspiring geometrical patterns?
Why?
Because they could.
We left Oxford and headed south to Stonehenge. Woo. Let's get all mystical.
Why did the denizens of Salisbury plain build this huge structure? Why did they invest so much effort in transporting stones, shaping them, and raising them in awe inspiring geometrical patterns?
We proceeded to Bath.
Why did the denizens of Bath build this huge structure? Why did they invest so much effort in transporting stones, shaping them, and raising them in awe inspiring geometrical patterns?
Why?
Because they could.
Oxford
Blenheim
(I'm actually in Cardiff now in a very civilized pub: The Halfway. They have wifi. I have beer. Time to catch up with posting photos.)
July 27th
Blenheim Palace. Note the clear blue skies. They're following us. Really. Each time we drive to another dreary drenched destination, the English weather decides to put on a good impersonation of summer.
This place has a thousand windows, and they had to black them all out during the war.
Long necks are elegant, but sometimes one can have too much of a good thing.
Her neck is a foot and a half,
Which at parties is great for a laugh.
She can twist it with ease
Through three-sixty degrees,
But she can't find a suitable scarf.
A manmade lake in what used to be a deep ravine.
And manmade cascades. Capability was a busy bloke.
This is the Italian garden. No access for us plebs, probably because it's adjacent to the wing where the old duke lives.
The roses were looking a little under the weather. No matter what the sun was doing to convince us of summer, the battered petals still bore witness to the days of pelting rain.
Hello Oxford!
No, Oxford isn't really like this. We had to go exploring in the suburbs to find a low lying riverside plane that still had floodwaters on it. Most of Oxford was high and dry.
July 27th
Blenheim Palace. Note the clear blue skies. They're following us. Really. Each time we drive to another dreary drenched destination, the English weather decides to put on a good impersonation of summer.
This place has a thousand windows, and they had to black them all out during the war.
Long necks are elegant, but sometimes one can have too much of a good thing.
Her neck is a foot and a half,
Which at parties is great for a laugh.
She can twist it with ease
Through three-sixty degrees,
But she can't find a suitable scarf.
A manmade lake in what used to be a deep ravine.
And manmade cascades. Capability was a busy bloke.
This is the Italian garden. No access for us plebs, probably because it's adjacent to the wing where the old duke lives.
The roses were looking a little under the weather. No matter what the sun was doing to convince us of summer, the battered petals still bore witness to the days of pelting rain.
Hello Oxford!
No, Oxford isn't really like this. We had to go exploring in the suburbs to find a low lying riverside plane that still had floodwaters on it. Most of Oxford was high and dry.
Thursday 26 July 2007
Stratford
July 26th
This morning we deliberately drove into the rainy parts. We headed for Stratford upon Avon. There were sections of the motorway where visibility was low due to spray, but we didn't encounter any standing water on the way.
In Stratford we saw evidence of the recent flooding--some of the shops by the river/canals were closed (and looking freshly cleaned out inside). It pelted down around the end of lunch time, so we stayed in the restaurant for a coffee and chatted with a German couple. The weather cleared as the afternoon progressed. We took a tourist bus trip around the town. There was one spot with a few centimetres of water on the road and footpath.
Here's what the footpath and nature strip looked like:
In the evening after dinner we walked around some gardens near Cox's Yard. By then the sky was clear. Will was happy.
The prince was mulling it over. (He'd taken notes from St Cuthbert--never go anywhere without a spare head.)
And Lady M was still trying to get clean after the flood.
BTW: Sigga's just posted a photo of Nikita helping us to plan our travels.
This morning we deliberately drove into the rainy parts. We headed for Stratford upon Avon. There were sections of the motorway where visibility was low due to spray, but we didn't encounter any standing water on the way.
In Stratford we saw evidence of the recent flooding--some of the shops by the river/canals were closed (and looking freshly cleaned out inside). It pelted down around the end of lunch time, so we stayed in the restaurant for a coffee and chatted with a German couple. The weather cleared as the afternoon progressed. We took a tourist bus trip around the town. There was one spot with a few centimetres of water on the road and footpath.
Here's what the footpath and nature strip looked like:
In the evening after dinner we walked around some gardens near Cox's Yard. By then the sky was clear. Will was happy.
The prince was mulling it over. (He'd taken notes from St Cuthbert--never go anywhere without a spare head.)
And Lady M was still trying to get clean after the flood.
BTW: Sigga's just posted a photo of Nikita helping us to plan our travels.
York
Wednesday 25 July 2007
Durham
July 24th
It's getting old. It's had extensive transplants, metal pins and braces in its joints, and wooden splints to stop its legs from bowing out and collapsing under its own weight. Durham Castle is still standing, but doesn't do much to inspire confidence. The black stair was particularly impressive--a flying staircase anchored around the walls of a square cavity and designed to need no internal pillars. It started sagging in the middle soon after construction. Even with the pillars that have been added, it still slopes disconcertingly to the centre.
The castle now serves as student accommodation, hotel and tourist magnet.
Durham Cathedral is magnificent, an amazing edifice, staggeringly extravagant, an endless expensive exercise against inexorable erosion. It's humbling to think that so much money and effort has been put into this structure just for my sake, so that I can wander around its echoing chambers, looking at its wooden organ pipes that I could fit a thigh into, gazing at its ancient and modern stained glass depictions of spurious mythology, bemused by (and later on being enlightened about) St Cuthbert's spare head.
It's getting old. It's had extensive transplants, metal pins and braces in its joints, and wooden splints to stop its legs from bowing out and collapsing under its own weight. Durham Castle is still standing, but doesn't do much to inspire confidence. The black stair was particularly impressive--a flying staircase anchored around the walls of a square cavity and designed to need no internal pillars. It started sagging in the middle soon after construction. Even with the pillars that have been added, it still slopes disconcertingly to the centre.
The castle now serves as student accommodation, hotel and tourist magnet.
Durham Cathedral is magnificent, an amazing edifice, staggeringly extravagant, an endless expensive exercise against inexorable erosion. It's humbling to think that so much money and effort has been put into this structure just for my sake, so that I can wander around its echoing chambers, looking at its wooden organ pipes that I could fit a thigh into, gazing at its ancient and modern stained glass depictions of spurious mythology, bemused by (and later on being enlightened about) St Cuthbert's spare head.
"Why shouldn't things be largely absurd, futile, and transitory? They are so, and we are so, and they and we go very well together."
-George Santayana
Tuesday 24 July 2007
Berwick
July 23rd
Berwick on Tweed has a wonderful collection of beautiful old buildings. There were some exceptions. I name this house Fuglygate.
Rest in peace in Berwick.
Look who's wandered into the main street. Looks like a baby gull, but it's much bigger than the gulls we're used to.
Wifi is not so prevalent in small B&Bs, so I'm relying on coffeeshop wifi. That's half an hour access per regular coffee. The longer I stay on, the faster I can type. :)
We're in a B&B in Durham now. After booking in, we decided to stay for an extra day. Loading, driving to a new town (with little sight-seeing excursions on the way), finding a new place to stay, unloading... is biased too heavily toward the mechanics of travel and not enough on discovering England (and is leaving no time for polite niceties like getting our laundry done). York will wait for us. (Other parts of England and Wales have decided to get washed away before we can get to them.)
Berwick on Tweed has a wonderful collection of beautiful old buildings. There were some exceptions. I name this house Fuglygate.
Rest in peace in Berwick.
Look who's wandered into the main street. Looks like a baby gull, but it's much bigger than the gulls we're used to.
Wifi is not so prevalent in small B&Bs, so I'm relying on coffeeshop wifi. That's half an hour access per regular coffee. The longer I stay on, the faster I can type. :)
We're in a B&B in Durham now. After booking in, we decided to stay for an extra day. Loading, driving to a new town (with little sight-seeing excursions on the way), finding a new place to stay, unloading... is biased too heavily toward the mechanics of travel and not enough on discovering England (and is leaving no time for polite niceties like getting our laundry done). York will wait for us. (Other parts of England and Wales have decided to get washed away before we can get to them.)
Goodbye Scotland
July 22nd
Today we had a scrumptious lunch at the Grain Store in Edinburgh with Sigga and Margaret. Of course, that was just an excuse to get to meet the famous Nikita at Sigga's place. We were given an official inspection by Nikita and granted permission to remain in her presence.
I would have taken a picture, but I doubt I could have done her justice. (See the Nikita Set for photos of Nikita.)
We drove to Berwick on Tweed late in the afternoon and found a B&B. It's very picturesque here. Here's the Royal Border Railway Viaduct with a few rain clouds approaching. (They were polite enough to rain on Berwick and move along while we were in a restaurant, eating.)
Ground floor: Guild Hall (butter market at rear)
First floor: Jail (amenities and food were poor but the view was great)
Top floor: Lighthouse
Today we had a scrumptious lunch at the Grain Store in Edinburgh with Sigga and Margaret. Of course, that was just an excuse to get to meet the famous Nikita at Sigga's place. We were given an official inspection by Nikita and granted permission to remain in her presence.
I would have taken a picture, but I doubt I could have done her justice. (See the Nikita Set for photos of Nikita.)
We drove to Berwick on Tweed late in the afternoon and found a B&B. It's very picturesque here. Here's the Royal Border Railway Viaduct with a few rain clouds approaching. (They were polite enough to rain on Berwick and move along while we were in a restaurant, eating.)
Ground floor: Guild Hall (butter market at rear)
First floor: Jail (amenities and food were poor but the view was great)
Top floor: Lighthouse
Sunday 22 July 2007
Haggis Day 8
Saturday 21 July 2007
Haggis Day 7
Haggis Day 6
July 19th
On the islands of Harris and Lewis people used to live in black houses--blackened by burning peat.
Nobody lives in them anymore. We were entertained by a lady churning butter and a man pedaling a tweed loom.
It's a watch tower; it's a fort; it's a home; it's a visible status symbol; it's a broch. A man's home is his castle.
On the islands of Harris and Lewis people used to live in black houses--blackened by burning peat.
Nobody lives in them anymore. We were entertained by a lady churning butter and a man pedaling a tweed loom.
It's a watch tower; it's a fort; it's a home; it's a visible status symbol; it's a broch. A man's home is his castle.
Haggis Day 5
July 18th
Today was a bus-free day, a shopping day, a do-nothing much day. Why not dress up to the nines?
This is Cathedral Cave, about the furthest point on our two hour bounce around the rocks and islands near Ullapool. Our transport was an eight-seater* rigid inflatable boat - sort of like an air mattress with twin outboards (*not so much eight seats as eight padded vaulting horses to grip between your knees).
Today was a bus-free day, a shopping day, a do-nothing much day. Why not dress up to the nines?
This is Cathedral Cave, about the furthest point on our two hour bounce around the rocks and islands near Ullapool. Our transport was an eight-seater* rigid inflatable boat - sort of like an air mattress with twin outboards (*not so much eight seats as eight padded vaulting horses to grip between your knees).
Haggis Day 4
July 17th
We travelled across the north coast of Scotland and started down the west coast, stopping briefly at Smoo Cave.
Noise of waterfall in cave not included.
Clan Arrr! left its mark outside the cave:
Although we weren't the first to do so.
We've now installed ourselves at Ullapool ready for a bus-free day. Very picturesque seaside village. Good fish and chips.
We travelled across the north coast of Scotland and started down the west coast, stopping briefly at Smoo Cave.
Noise of waterfall in cave not included.
Clan Arrr! left its mark outside the cave:
Although we weren't the first to do so.
We've now installed ourselves at Ullapool ready for a bus-free day. Very picturesque seaside village. Good fish and chips.
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