| Where do hurricanes go after they die? I have to confess that that is a question that hasn't bothered me much, but this last week it has become relevant to our lives. Hurricanes that wander up the east coast of the US and then out to sea, can go to the UK. Rarely do they remain hurricanes all the way but they do bring heavy rain and lots of wind. The last major, east coast, hurricane hit here this last week. Dumped heavy rain in Ireland (dampened the Ryder?s Cup) but here it just blew. Damaged some trees and stirred up some dust. We've been trying to get to a boot sale (flea market) since we arrived, and finally, Saturday we headed out for one. Nancy's allergies were at their peak and when the bus was late, we took that as an omen to cancel the whole thing and just go home. Walking home, I spotted something I didn't expect to see - water skiing on the floating harbor! They actually have a Bristol Water Ski Club that owns the boat in the picture. |
| Week Ending 24 September |
| Sunday was the infamous Bristol Half Marathon. Over 10,000 runners turned out for the race and Hotwells Road was on the "home stretch" to the finish line. We were able to sit comfortably in our flat and watch the racers trudge by. We've been going through our list of things we'd like to do in the UK and tried to pick the ones we still could squeeze in. We picked one last trip to London. Monday morning we picked up the London Flyer at Clifton Triangle at 7:45 and were at the Speakers Corner of Hyde Park by 10:30. Monday's goal was the British Museum. From the Marble Arch (Speaker's Corner) to the Museum is a straight shot about half an hour by bus down Oxford Street. I had been amazed at the bus traffic in downtown Bristol, but Oxford Street is in an entirely different league. All of the traffic is either buses or taxis and loads of people - wall to wall. But we made it without incident. We visited the British Museum in 1988 arriving about 20 minutes before closing and could only pick one thing to see. We picked the Rosetta Stone. We were able to walk right up to the stone and touch it. We were so impressed. This time we had a whole day. We signed up for an introductory tour and went to the café for breakfast. The tour not only impressed the heck out of us, it gave us an entirely different perspective on world history. The displays at the Museum made the Roman and Greek civilizations seem like current events. |
| The British Museum had collected and displayed impressive artifacts from several civilizations that were ancient before Rome and even Greece had been thought of: the Assyrians, the Egyptians, the Chinese, the Minoans and more. The Assyrians had written language before 2000 BC. Egypt is believed to have it's history back as far as 10,000 BC (the last Ice Age) and the Xia Dynasty is said to date back to 2,000 BC. The museum has real pieces of all of this and more. The British Museum is a "hands on" overview of history (ancient and old) and you can't help but be impressed by man's achievements over time. By the same token you can't help but be appalled by the vandalism done to the Greek and Roman artifacts in the name of religion. Taking the prohibition against idolatry to heart both the Christians and Moslems defaced and destroyed much that was precious. (Nancy note: The above statement is entirely Jerry's opinion.) Not all of the displays were ancient. There was an outstanding exhibit on the arts of the North American Indians with a lot of stuff on the Pacific Northwest including totem poles and masks. Cool stuff but not painted. |
| Before we could leave the British Museum, we had to check out the Rosetta Stone. The Stone hasn't changed since out last visit but the display has. The Stone is now enclosed in a glass case, but a copy is available in an adjacent room and the copy can be touched. And, we forgot to look at the 4th copy of the Magna Carta that is supposed to be in the British Museum. That would have meant we saw all 4 remaining copies in the world - we were bummed when we remembered that fact. Since we were just a ten minute walk to Covent Garden we just had to do a quick peek. The Garden is pure "eye candy" for an intrepid shopper like Nancy. We did get out of the Garden having only purchased one ice cream cone to share. And, a little book for Evan. The trip back to the Marble Arch and the tour bus was a rerun of the chaos of the morning's bus trip. We even had time for a quick cup of tea at the Speaker's Corner before the bus ride home. Many of the Travel Coach companies are having trouble getting drivers and couriers. So, there has been no food or liquids on our last couple of Coach trips. We got Bristol and a few minutes after getting off the bus, it started to rain and we walked down the hill with our umbrellas up - we now know why the British always carry an umbrella. Trying to get all our stuff back to California has been one of Nancy's worries. She has schemed, plotted and planned but was still unhappy with the information that she had. So, Wednesday she went straight to the "horses mouth." She hopped the bus to Temple Meads and then the "Airport Flyer," to talk to the people at the counter at Continental Airlines while people were checking in for that day's flight. She came home happy. We did buy another suitcase, though. Thursday we went to Stratford-upon-Avon to meet with William Shakespeare. It's very difficult to get there from here by public transportation. The coach system is impossible without an overnight stay, but we could do it by train. To get there by train required taking Virgin Trains to Birmingham, and transferring to Central Trains to get from Birmingham to Stratford-upon-Avon. The trip could be done in three hours. The Central Train is ancient and terminates at Stratford. The tickets for this trip can be ordered on-line, but the tickets themselves have to be picked up at the train station. This is easy, there is an assortment of "Fast Ticket" machines and all that is required is that you insert your debit card and type in your reservation number. What wasn't expected was the number of pieces of paper the machine spewed forth. For each leg of the journey, to and fro, and for each train company each of us got three different tickets for a total of twenty-four tickets. One ticket was for the ride, one ticket was for the reserved seat and one ticket was a dummy receipt, all done four times. Ironically, there were no reserved seats on the Central Train. |
| The trip to Stratford-upon-Avon was straightforward and the town was predictable as a tourist town. We headed for the tourist information center to see what was available. We decided to do the Sightseeing Bus similar to the one we had done in Bristol and Belfast. The sightseeing bus was a big mistake; there really isn't all that much to see (went by Shakespeare's Mother's house); the commentary was a recording and delivered through cheap - throw away - ear phones that weren't synchronized with where you were on the trip; the dying hurricane made so much wind we couldn't keep our eyes open; and most of the trip was open farm land. And, the bus was an old and very noisy one - we were very disappointed after the other ones that had "live" commentaries. After the bus we wandered over to one of the three theatres and bought tickets for that day's matinee, Julius Caesar. We went into the theater café and had a wonderful seafood platter to share. It had some smoked mackerel, prawns, salmon, salmon pate` along with some greens and a selection of breads and butter. Yummy! We've been looking for platters like this the whole trip and haven't seen them. Thought we would get cheese platters in pubs, but not so. Not only was the lunch delicious, but also we looked out over the busy River Avon. |
| The theatre was a real experience. We have seen lots of Shakespeare in live theatre, but I can't remember having seen one of this tragedies. I'm quite familiar with the play, seems we spent a whole year on it in high school or was it junior high school. The theatre itself was great, although the set was quite simple. The acoustics and lighting enviable and the cast did a great job. I don't remember the play being so bloody. By the end of Caesar's death scene there was blood everywhere - the stage, all the players, and of course Julius. Because there was no scene changes the blood on the stage remained and in the final scene where all the conspirators get their comeuppance, there was another bloodbath. Nancy's comment was "how are they going to get everything clean for the evening performance?" |
| Stratford-upon-Avon is a tourist town and on a weekday starts to close down early. So, after the play the town was pretty quiet. So we returned on earlier trains and arrived home earlier than we had expected. Friday was expected to be quiet. We went to the Broadmead shopping center and bought a new suitcase. We had planned to poke around a bit but with this huge suitcase and an unpredicted rainstorm we went back to the flat. By early afternoon, the rain had passed and we had a glorious afternoon, so we grabbed a bus out front and when back for our poking around. The Industrial Museum was closed on Fridays but their little steam train was doing something. |
| On a lark, and because we hadn't, we decided to take the water taxi home - A very pleasant and comfortable journey. Saturday we had planned to take one last stab at attending a Boot Sale.. But, at the last minute Nancy had an epiphany - "We don't have any room to carry any thing home - so, why go?" We did need to purchase one last minute thing. So, we hopped the bus and went back to Broadmead. Next to Broadmead is Corn Street and on Corn Street is a Saturday market called the St. Nicholas Market. This was probably better than a Boot Sale and we had never gotten here either. The Saturday, St. Nicholas Market is sorta of a like a Bazaar, with some fixed shops and itinerant merchants on a variable schedule. |
| The St. Nicholas Market also has some famous artifacts - Nails. The street names of the "old town" described the function of that street. Corn Street was the commodities market for the town. Deals were consummated and money exchanged hands on three brass tables set in the trading square. These tables were called "nails" and the name has crept into our vocabulary in several idioms having to do with trade, i.e., "he nailed the deal." The Nails were brass so that when coins were dropped on them, real coins would ring - fakes would make a dull thud. |
| We got home in the early afternoon. We received a phone call from our friend Trevor. Trevor had issued an open invitation to go out boating on the Floating Harbor aboard Willow one more time. It was a beautiful afternoon and Trevor thought this would be a good time to take the boat out. So we did. Trevor's wife Leslie joined us, or should I say that we joined them. We had a delightful cruise while sharing a nice bottle of wine. We are going to leave Bristol with some great memories. This will be our last letter posted from England. We will report on the rest of the week and the trip home - but the report will be filed from California once we are re-established. What a fantastic adventure this has been! |
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| This figure is hard stone and is Assyrian. This mythical character has the head of a man, the chest and courage of an eagle and the endurance and strength of a lion or a bull. You might notice that the figure has five legs. This was a device by the artist so that the statue would look right from the front or the side at the expense of being funny looking from this angle. |
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