York and Pock

We're enjoying a quiet New Year's Eve in our flat so I thought I would take the time to update our blog with pictures from our trip to York. It's been a busy week travelling and sightseeing with Sheila, who is likely somewhere over the Atlantic right now. We had a smooth train journey to York and it amazes me that we got almost to the top of England in just 2 hours on the train - - that wouldn't get you halfway between Ottawa and Toronto! It's a small country packed with history. We got into York on Monday evening and were lucky to catch the bus directly into Pocklington (a small town about 20 minutes outside York) where Keith has family that we were fortunate to stay with. The weather was not very cooperative, and the fog prevented us from seeing much of the infamous Yorkshire countryside, but Keith and I got to spend about a day and a half in York and really enjoyed it.

We managed to see a few of the famous sites in York: Clifford Tower and the York Castle Museum which houses a great display on the 18th century prison in the basement (where Dick Turpin, the famous highwayman, was imprisoned). We ambled through the Shambles, a very old and picturesque shopping street which has some buildings that date from the 14th century! We also spent several hours wandering through York Minster which is an enormous and beautiful Gothic cathedral, the largest in Europe. It is an incredible building, all the more so because I wasn't expecting it to be so huge! It also has a great museum in the basement that explains about the site which has been occupied for centuries -- the earliest known building was a Roman basilica, then a Norman church followed by the present medieval cathedral. All these layers of history are visible in the basement of the church which is at the street level that existed during Roman times.

The following day we had planned to go to the Jorvik Viking centre but alas it had been flooded by a burst water pipe. After wondering what we should do with ourselves for four or five hours before our train back to London, we happily discovered two small museums that otherwise we would not have even known about. The first was a tiny museum underneath a pub. A Roman bath was discovered beneath the building in the 1920's when the owners were trying to put in a basement. It is barely more than one room but you can see the remains of different hot and cold pools from the time York was known as Eboracum, and my favourite part were several tiles that had the imprint of Roman sandals that had been impressed into the wet clay nearly two thousand years ago (I also liked the dress-up centre, as you can see here). The second museum nearby was Barley Hall, a medieval townhouse refitted to look like it was in the 15th century when it was owned by a wealthy businessman and politician in the town. On the second floor was a great display on diseases and medicine from the 15th century called Plague, Poverty and Prayer - it's interesting to read about public health issues and the limited responses available so long ago. All I can say is woe unto those who got sick. They even had live leeches in a bottle! And you could make your own nosegay to ward off "bad air" (which they believed caused disease). It was great!

Another highlight of our visit was seeing Pocklington (or 'Pock' as it is known locally). We were lucky to find that All Saints' Church in the centre of town was open, and there was a very friendly local man inside who provided lots of information on the building. Parts of it date from the 1100's! Keith's grandparents were married there during the war.

We had a wonderful trip and hope to maybe go back again in a different season to see more of York and the surrounding countryside.

Holiday sightseeing...

Sheila (Keith's mum) made it on time to London on Christmas morning (despite our worries about delays due to the snow). After some waiting her luggage decided to join us on Boxing Day evening (it had decided to take a little vacation from us in Detroit). We had a nice day of opening presents on Christmas day and spent Boxing Day at the sales in Uxbridge, while Keith wisely opted out to relax at home with his new books. We are off to Yorkshire this afternoon for a few days to visit Keith and Sheila's family.

Before it gets too late I thought I should post a few pictures of our travels from last week when Keith and I were on holiday. We managed to get downtown three times, around last minute Christmas shopping and my homework. The first trip was to Camden Town which I already covered in an earlier post. Later that week we went to Westminster Abbey which we had not actually gone into yet! It is a fabulous place to visit. It seems like every famous person in Britain is buried and/or memorialized there. We found two pieces of Canadiana - one was General Wolfe's large memorial (although I think he is actually buried elsewhere) complete with a carving of the Battle of the Plains of Abraham. The second was a memorial to John Franklin, the Arctic explorer who died with his crew trying to map the Northwest Passage. We also enjoyed seeing all of the memorials to composers - Handel, Purcell, John Blow, Vaughan Williams, Elgar... also Poet's Corner, Mary Queen of Scots' crypt, the burials of so many other ancient Kings and Queens... What an amazing place. I have been reading a funny and pithy history of Britain and so I was very pleased to be able to actually place many of the famous people whose memorials I was seeing (and in some cases, standing on).

The second jaunt we took the day before Christmas Eve was to the Museum of London near Barbican station. From the station there is an above-street-level walkway that leads you directly to the museum without having to deal with any traffic. Along the way we discovered these remains of a tree, and as I always stop to read the placque (just in case) found that it was dedicated to Mendelssohn as he used to spend time in the area (when it was less cit-y and more park-y I suppose) to get inspiration for his music, including A Midsummer Night's Dream. The Museum of London is dedicated to London's history. Actually the Museum in Docklands which we visited earlier is the other half of the Museum of London. There are lots of interesting things to see, such as a reconstruction of Roman-era Londinium, Oliver Cromwell's death mask, a display on London's Great Fire of 1666 and a recreation of a Victorian shopping area (which didn't have the lifelike smell of the Sailortown in the Museum in Docklands, but we managed to make do). The museum was also quite empty as I imagine most people in the city who were on holiday already were still shopping. A great day out, as they like to say here.

Well, Sheila and Keith should be home soon and then we are going to open our new-found presents. I'll update the blog when we are back from Yorkshire later in the week!

Uxbridge Xmas

It's Christmas Eve! Although it doesn't really feel quite like Christmas here, even though we have a tree (inflatable), Christmas cards, and a pile of presents. It's strange being away from all of our family at this time of year. We are planning to spend lots of time on skype tomorrow saying hello to everyone.

Here's some pictures of our decorated flat and me this evening at my Betty-Crocker-best. One of Keith's colleagues got him a chocolate-decorating kit but he kindly let me play with it. (Although we have both participated in eating it since this picture was taken).

Camden Market

We made the trek out to Camden Market today, which is just a bit north of central London. Getting downtown is quite a journey for us, particularly when some of the tube lines aren't running. We caught a bus from the university campus up to West Ruislip which takes about 20 minutes, then the Central tube line all the way down to Tottenham Court Road which is about 40 minutes! Then another short subway ride north to Camden Town. Whew! It was a nice day, not particularly sunny but bright from the snow and not too cold (probably hovering around -1 or -2 ... just enough to keep the snow in place). Camden Market is a very eclectic shopping area, with lots of outdoor stalls. One interesting area was originally a horse stable in around 1850, now full of little shops selling antiques and vintage clothing. There are all kinds of statues of horses around, and most are lifesize except for this rather overwhelming example that I'm standing with in this picture!

Our holidays have now started - Keith has two weeks off and I have three. I have some homework to finsih, but we are looking forward to doing some more sightseeing this week. We are also looking forward to seeing Keith's mum on Saturday (Christmas)!

Winter wonderland!

As you might have heard on the news, there has been quite a heavy snow fall in Europe today. We certainly felt it in Uxbridge this time! It looks like about 5-7cm fell in this neighbourhood (just a guess based on the amount of snow sitting atop fences and windows). It was enough to slow traffic to a crawl and make it quite an effort to walk around (especially with no snow plows!) I finally broke down and bought some very cheap boots. With any luck I won't need to wear them much because I don't think they're going to last very long! And because of the snow, what would normally be likely one of the busiest shopping days of the year (the Saturday before Christmas) was pretty relaxing!

Music to get us into the festive spirit!

Last night we went downtown to hear a Christmas concert at St-Martin-in-the-Fields, sung by the English Baroque Choir with brass. We arrived at Trafalgar Square to the sight of a huge Christmas tree towering over the fountains, and a small outdoor stage with a silent choir doing sign language to pre-recorded Christmas songs. Since I bought the tickets to our concert so late the only seats that were left were those with no view of the performance area - a novel concept for us. It turns out all it means is that St-Martin-in-the-Fields has very high-backed pews in the upper level, meaning that unless you are abnormally tall there is no way to see over them to the pulpit below. But the concert was fun nonetheless with lots of familiar choral pieces - Victoria's O Magnum Mysterium, Bach's Jauchzet Frohlocket with the always slightly demented sounding (to me anyway) brass accompaniment, and Sweelinck's Hodie Christus Natus Est. There were also sing-along carols with the audience, which I sang along to with some gusto despite not having shelled out the 1.50 to buy a program with the words (this seems to be an English concert and show tradition - programs are always extra). At one point we were ready to jump into sing along to O Little Town of Bethlehem when we realized that the tune they were singing was absolutely nothing like the one we are familiar with. I thought about how remarkable it is that in some ways our traditions in Canada are so similar - the same verses to songs like God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen and Hark the Herald Angels Sing, yet other (we thought) familiar pieces are totally different.

On a weather-related note, there is no snow here in London at the moment and the weather has warmed up quite a bit so it's not feeling much like Christmas time from that perspective. We are both looking forward to a bit of a holiday, and next week is our last week of work/school. Hard to believe - time has really flown by.

First snow fall

No blogs in a month and then 2 in as many days! I must be feeling guilty or something.

I just wanted to make a note that we have had our first dusting of snow here in Uxbridge. I don't think it's going to stay around long but it is pretty... Here's a picture from this morning from our window.

November flew by

I just realized I haven't updated the blog in weeks! We've been busy the past few weekends...

We went to a scary play two weekends ago - The Woman in Black - which has been playing nonstop in London since 1989! It was very spoooky (but I am a wimp about these kinds of things. Keith watched it stoically). The movie version from the early 1990s scared me silly when I was a kid so I prepared myself by watching the scary bits on youtube over and over again. The play was still scary though, especially the second act. Although it's all done with sound effects, lighting and only 2 actors on the stage (or are there 3? dun dun dun....) it is amazing that they can get an audience to scream out loud! We also bought tickets for War Horse in January (as a reward for finishing my two essays, due earlier that week). It's supposed to be fantastic (done with life-size horse puppets) so I am really looking forward to that.


What else did we do?... a few weekends ago we went out to the Museum in Docklands (part of the Museum of London found all over the city) in East London. The day was very cold and rainy so it was a great day to spend indoors learning about history. Keith was excited because one of the talking heads in the museum's video displays was the English actor Tony Robinson who hosts his favourite tv show Time Team (and is also known as the dimwitted Baldrick from Blackadder). The museum covers the history of the Docklands area from Roman times when it was the centre of trade to the present day, including the heavy bombing of the area during WWII and its rebuilding as a financial centre during the 1980s. My favourite part of the museum was Sailortown, a recreation of the Docklands area in the shady 19th century. It was complete with the strong scent of urine which certainly added a sense of realism. We weren't sure if this was an effect added by the museum staff or added by the museum patrons taking advantage of the darkened lighting to relieve themselves. Either way it was spooky (if smelly) fun.


We also attended a Remembrance Sunday service with some of the kids in Keith's school. It was held at the cenitaph in Uxbridge. It was very special to be part of a Remembrance Day parade in England, as both of our grandfathers served in WWII.


This past Saturday was our "uncultured" break - we went to the mall. One thing we saw which I am sure would never be found in Canada was a giant indoor snow globe - people were lining up to play and cavort in the plastic "snow"! If you put that in a mall in Canada people you would have to pay people to go into it.

Mini-break in Cardiff

Last week was the half-term holiday for school kids, so we took the opportunity to take a mini-break to Cardiff (or Caerdydd in Welsh). My approach to identifying Cardiff as our destination of choice was very simple: I googled a map of the UK, looked around at cities that seemed not too far from London and were relatively largeish and (most importantly) I had already heard of, and said, "ooh Cardiff. How do you like the sound of that?" Keith said it sounded good to him. This is why we're married.

We took the bus from downtown London (which required a bit of backtracking westwards) and in about 3 hours were in the city centre. Cardiff is a lovely Ottawa-sized city, the capital of Wales. Although my selection of this destination was pretty random, it was a great choice for a short holiday. Our super-budget hotel was ideally located between downtown Cardiff (to the north) and Cardiff Bay (on the Bristol Channel to the south) about 15 minutes walking distance from each.

When we arrived in Cardiff we passed by some North American-sounding tourists in the midst of asking each other the age-old question: What language do the Welsh speak? One really interesting aspect of Cardiff (and another reason why it reminded us of Ottawa) is its bilingualism. All the English-Welsh signs were interesting to look at and try to pronounce (we had more success with the English parts). Our hotel tv also had an all-Welsh channel that made for some fascinating (if mindless, on our part) listening.

One of the highlights of our trip was a visit to Cardiff Castle - - like many historic sites in the UK the site has been in use as a fort or castle for 2000 years (originally by the Romans) but the current buildings date from 1000AD and the late 19th century (a wealthy local family moved in to the castle grounds and added some fantastical buildings to live in, in the gothic revival style). We also visited the National Museum Cardiff (or Amgueddfa Genedlaethol Caerdydd in Welsh) which houses historic information about the geological and early history of Wales as well as an art gallery on the second floor. There are some very interesting exhibits about the early people of Wales including lots of archeological findings - arrowheads, pots and jewelry - and some paintings and portraiture by Welsh artists of the 18th and 19th centuries. We also went to a fantastic concert held at St. David's Hall (or Neuadd Dewi Sant) in the centre of town, played by the Orchestra of the Welsh National Opera - Rachmaninov's Isle of the Dead, Ravel's piano concerto in G, and Stravinsky's Firebird Suite were fantastic.

We finished our trip on Saturday with a walk down to Cardiff Bay and a waterbus tour across the bay. A barrage built about 10 years ago has created a freshwater lake and has also resulted in the increasing worth of waterfront property - there were many new condos all along the waterfront and this has hopefully brought greater prosperity to the city.

We would love to go back to Wales in the future and see more of the countryside. Perhaps when we are a bit braver about driving in the UK we will!

Windy Windsor

This marks the second weekend in a row where we have cursed the inadequacy of our outerwear to contend with the damp English weather! Today we decided to "get out of town" and go to Windsor for the day. Rain early this morning gave way to a beautiful sunny day (or so we thought) which unfortunately later gave way again to more rain and cold wind. So far I am finding the weather here to be about as cold as we would get in Ottawa at this time of year - but it remains to be seen what the actual winter will be like - perhaps it will stay about this temperature all season. But so far I have not felt much like a hardy Canuck.

The trip to Windsor was very quick and convenient - about half an hour altogether including a short bus ride and two train trips of about 6 minutes apiece. (On the way back we made the mistake of taking the wrong train - it went straight downtown with no stops so we had to backtrack to make it home! But at least now we have truly experienced the national rail service). My favourite part of Windsor Castle was St. George's Chapel - a beautiful church built in the 15th century in the Gothic style (lots of flying buttresses). Many famous heads of state are buried here, including Henry VIII and Charles I, as well as the Queen Mum and George VI. The Queen herself was in residence today as well and the castle staff were in the state rooms preparing for an official visit on Tuesday so we got to see some of them drying dishes in one of the dining rooms. It was too cold to walk to Eton or to the huge park that's in the city, but we may go back again to the town as it's so close by.

First frost

Sigh. This morning I woke up to the first frost we have experienced here. I guess it was bound to happen sooner or later. I had always figured (as a proud and weather-beaten Canadian) that any English winter could not possibly be as harsh as one in Ottawa. But it has been pretty cold the last few days! And now the first frost is upon us. Last weekend in a moment of weakness we bought a hat and scarf. In our defense by the time we got out of the store we (and the outside world) had both warmed up considerably. And an unexpected downpour had added to the damp and cold permeating our bones. Nevertheless, it seems we will have to pick up some winter wear, and sooner rather than later. English weather 1, Clare & Keith 0.
I will do an update on that trip downtown (to the delightfully-named Spitalfields area in East London) in the next few days.

Just an addendum to this morning's note - thankfully the frost melted in the morning sun and it is quite mild today again. Weather 0, Clare & Keith 1 haha

Thanksgiving in Covent Garden

Happy Canadian Thanksgiving! I hope everyone is enjoying a delicious meal this weekend. We have had to forgo our usual turkey-stuffing-cranberry-sauce fare since Thanksgiving doesn't seem to have made it to this side of the pond (at least not in the Uxbridge area). However, last night we went out for a very tasty meal at an Indian restaurant, and although it isn't quite the same (especially as a party of 2 instead of 12 or 14) it was pretty nice. It just doesn't really feel like Thanksgiving here - I think because there were none of the usual seasonal reminders (flyers advertising inexpensive turkeys, abundant bags of cranberries festooning the grocery store, or the annual request to "bring buns" to the cottage feast). So we wish all of our families a happy Thanksgiving and say that we are with you in spirit.

Most of Saturday we spent quarantined at home because Keith unfortunately has come down with a cold. However we did manage to get out to the aforementioned Indian restaurant and had a nice jaunt along one of the canals in the area - a narrow waterway with about two dozen small barges (like little floating caravans) along the path. We will have to take some pictures of the canals here to share at some point.

Today with Keith feeling better and me going stir crazy we ventured downtown. True to English form, the weather started out cool and gloomy in the morning but became sunny and warm by the time we re-emerged from the tube system. We made our way through the crowds to Covent Garden. It was bustling this afternoon with lots of people enjoying the beautiful weather and a bit of shopping. We enjoyed the handicrafts, both beautiful (framed prints, wood sculpture, handmade jewellry) and... less beautiful (beer bottles repurposed into wine glasses).

The London Transport Museum is also beside the market, which was one of the museums on Keith's to-do list. Although the musem was a bit more geared toward kids than adults, the exhibits on the evolution of the London underground and what was in place before the tube were very interesting, especially since we have been using the system so much in the last few weeks. Many of the stations have remained the same for 100 years and it was interesting to learn that suburbanite commuting has been a fixture of London reality for just as long!

And Keith liked playing with the choo-choos.

Where the banshees live and they do live well

For those of you who are fans of the movie Spinal Tap, and have memorized the songs and dialogue (come on, I'm sure this applies to many people), you will immediately know what the title of this blog entry means ... We went to Stonehenge on Saturday! Keith and I got ready for our trek as any good students of history would, by watching Youtube videos of the Stonehenge scene in Spinal Tap and giggling. Keith protests that he has also read a Bernard Cornwell novel called Stonehenge - so I guess you could say we were well-prepared, at least artistically speaking, for the trip.

We took the tube downtown to Trafalgar Square and managed to book tickets on the "Stonehenge express" tour bus about 45 minutes before it left. The ride itself was quite exciting, since the bus seemed like it was about a foot wider than the lane we were driving in (particularly as we veered around downtown picking up other passengers from their hotels). The driver's skill in estimating how close he was to clocking pedestrians in the head with his rearview mirrors was exceptional. We sat in the very front seat so we had a good view of the potential carnage. They could probably make a good video game out of the experience - London Bus Driver: Brace for Impact.

The ride to Stonehenge was about 1.5 hours. It was nice to get out of the city and see some countryside. I am continually amazed by how much sheep-filled terrain there actually is in England, considering how small it is and how many people live there. There were some particularly dedicated sheep grazing beside the highway, so I guess they do have to pack them in where they can.

As we rounded a bend in the road and came up a hill, we came upon Stonehenge. It seems to be in the middle of - well, not exactly nowhere, but between two highways, surrounded by (again) grazing sheep. Like many of the famous things we have seen this year, Stonehenge wasn't quite as we expected - it was a little smaller, a little less imposing (though obviously not as un-imposing as the 18" Stonehenge in Spinal Tap...) Still, there is something very compelling about the stones - the fact that people were so driven to create this structure. For me, what was perhaps more compelling than the stones themselves were the ancient burial mounds - small hills (barrows) of earth that dot Salisbury Plain and make the area around Stonehenge look bit like a gigantic golf course. But once you notice these barrows you realize that you are standing in an area that is basically an ancient graveyard – a place that was considered sacred by people very long ago, their motives and beliefs already well forgotten by the Middle Ages – people who could not have imagined the impossibility of people from all over the world standing in that spot, dressed in jeans and taking digital pictures with their cell phones. And there is something very captivating about that.

We would like to go back to Stonehenge, maybe in the spring to see it in a different light and to walk to some of the barrows and other ancient monuments in the area. Perhaps by the spring we will be brave (and coordinated) enough to drive there ourselves.

A mean time in Greenwich

Ahoy! Hard to believe it's been a week already since our last entry. This past week flew by - Keith hard at work and me finally having to go to some school-related activities. Today we had the adventure of buying a printer in Uxbridge - each store we went to only had one or two printers to choose from - not one or two models, but literally one or two printers for sale. As someone who hails from the land of the box store this was mind-boggling.

Yesterday we went east to Greenwich and it was well worth the trip (more than 2 hours from our neighbourhood in the far west end of London!) Our guide book says that Greenwich has retained the feeling of a smaller town because it was only connected to London via the DLR (Docklands Light Rail - basically the tube) in 1999. It is a lovely spot to spend the day. We took the tube downtown then hopped on a Thames Clipper ship - one of the many companies that speeds Londonites and tourists down the river. It took us about an hour to get from Bank Pier (near the London Eye) to Greenwich Pier. It was a fantastic way to see the city - both the parts we've already explored west of the Tower of London, and then further east.

Greenwich is very picturesque - lovely old buildings, cute artsy shops - and also quite busy - it seems to be a popular tourist spot even on the brisk day we chose to visit. We went over to the Greenwich Market which has been around since the 18th century and got some fresh Thai food (lots of little stalls selling food from all over - everything looked good - and a welcome change from the ubiquitous triangle sandwiches which are all over London - I have been eating an egg salad (or egg mayo, as they say) sandwich at least once every two days since arriving here). We carried our steaming food over to Greenwich Park, which is the oldest royal park in London and fills the middle of town.

If you look closely at the treeline on the right of this photo you can see the tower and red ball that drops at 13:00 each day to mark Greenwich Mean Time.

After eating our lunch quickly in the park (the weather could still be considered mild as long as we were moving and in the sun), we walked up a steep hill to the Royal Observatory which is in the middle of the park. From the top there is a beautiful view of Greenwich and over to London. At the top there is also a mysterious statue of Gen. James Wolfe - we seem to have followed him from Cape Breton into the UK.

There are two buildings on the top of the hill - one on astronomy housed in the newer observatory from the late 19th century and another on the meridian that's located in the original Royal Observatory built way back in 1675. Lots of displays about time, and trying to solve the problem of longitude. We tried our best to understand the exhibits on the solar system. There was a huge line up to stand on the "official" meridian line and be in the east and west at once but we discovered that the line also extends inside a nice warm building so we stood on that instead. However, Keith says he is loyal to the previous meridian, about 6 metres to the right. I was happy to finally put some context to the CBC radio beeps that marked Greenwich Mean Time each morning.

We also went to the National Maritime Museum which has exhibits on the history of sea exploration, some stuff on the Franklin expedition and the outfit that Lord Nelson wore when he was shot (complete with bloodstained socks and bullet hole in the shoulder). On our way back we took the tube which goes right through the Docklands area - all the little inlets of water are still there, surrounded by huge skyscrapers that could easily be in downtown Toronto - much different looking than older downtown London. We're looking forward to an excursion to the Museum of London in Docklands at some point.

Hanging out in central London

Today we took a bit of a break from sightseeing and spent the day relaxing and getting groceries. Luckily this gives me a bit of a chance to catch up on the blog writing, so I will try to remember our trip downtown last weekend when we went to St James's Park and said hello to the Queen at Buckingham Palace (at least that's how Keith remembers it).

The rail service (pardon me, tube line) on the two lines that come out to Uxbridge were both under construction last weekend, so we took a bus kindly provided by the London transit authority as a rail replacement service to another tube station further east of us, called West Ruislip (pronounced Rice-lip - they don't seem to be hooked on phonics here in the UK). Heading downtown, we got out at Westminster near Big Ben, picked up sandwiches and picnicked in St James's Park. The gardens in the park are gorgeous, but I think the birds were the most entertaining part of the walk. They are so pushy - people aren't supposed to feed them but some bring bread anyway. The greylag geese (which are now my favourite geese - sorry Canada geese, I have to go with my gut) are particularly pushy, remarking on every incident of inequitable bread distribution with tenacious quacking and pushing the other (smaller) bird species out of the way. They remind us of a few dogs we know.


Left - doesn't this expression look familiar to dog owners everywhere?

Right - they are so lovely and plump and orange, don't you think? They look like what a child would draw if you told them to draw a goose.

Walking through St James's Park, you come upon Buckingham Palace. The flag was up, which means the Queen was in but no amount of peeking through the gates gave us a glimpse. We had to settle for taking pictures of the Canada gates on one side of the traffic circle, to the left of South Africa – just one of several decorative gate posts.