Scotland and England, June 2007
We were first in Edinburgh and saw the castle on a dark, rainy, windy day - much in keeping with the feeling of dour Scotland. People are lovely there. It's so much fun traveling with Julia - she sees everything so new and fresh and asks questions and is interested in lots of things, so keeps us grownups on our toes. She particularly loved seeing the 21-gun salute in honor of Her Majesty's birthday, as well as the kilt-clad marching band that played, among other things, the Star Wars theme music.Edinburgh Castle itself is not much to see inside, just a few rooms and only one furnished - it's really the construction and fortifications on that promontory overlooking the city proper that are awe-inspiring. We spent a fair amount of time walking through the old city, up and down some of the small staircases from one street to another through blocks of buildings, and visited an old merchant's house where we got a good sense of how people lived in the 15th and 16th centuries. I found an Internet cafe where I could send some e-mails, and Julia got to ride her first double-decker bus. We then took a taxi back from where the bus left us, with the fold-down jump seat, on which Miss J jumped (until we told her it disturbed the cab driver!).
We went from Edinburgh to Pitlochry, a town at the beginning of the Highlands that was only really developed in Victorian times. After Victoria married Albert, he so loved the Highlands that they bought Balmoral. But he wanted it to be more like his beloved Black Forest in Germany so planted lots of trees. So how much did he really love the Highlands? Anyway, the gentry and peerage thought "if Scotland's good enough for the Queen, it's good enough for us" and so Pitlochry is full of Victorian architecture, including the B&B we stayed in. The town now caters very much to tourists, especially climbers and walkers and motorcyclists who love the windy roads. We went to a Highland concert staged specifically for tourists, but it was so much fun listening to the bagpipes and watching the Scottish dancers. Julia especially was enthralled by the dancers.
One day, we traveled up to Braemar through the Cairngorm Mountains - they have the skiing areas and the worse weather in Britain, so the British army trains there for cold weather duty. It's stunningly beautiful. Very spare with low vegetation like purple heather and some yellow witches' broom - and lots of sheep dotting the hillsides. It reminded me a bit of Montana in its spareness and the road and a winding stream/river running along a valley floor between two very high mountain ranges - just very different coloration. This is dark green while Montana is tawny.
Julia got sick on the windy roads, and threw up twice, so the next day, she and Alana took the train from Pitlochry to Berwick-upon-Tweed, and we then went to Lindisfarne. It's an island reachable only by a causeway during low tide - we just made it in time to get across on dry land. Julia and I went for a long hike around the island.
After Lindisfarne, we went to York where we were until this morning. York is a wonderful historic city - worth a trip if you like history. It has one of Europe's oldest extant city walls that still goes almost all the way around the city. Zizzi restaurant was wonderful Italian food in a very modern space - kid-friendly as were the pubs we visited. We took a double-decker bus tour in the drizzle and later went back to see the old fort that was the original fortification when William the Conqueror was placing outposts throughout the country after the Battle of Hastings. The tower is on a man-made hill composed of the dirt dug up to make the motte (moat). York Castle was much less architecturally interesting, as they've made it in to a museum that takes you on a trip through time with special focus on the 18th and 19th centuries (at least what we saw).
York Cathedral was quite beautiful, of Norman times. Going into the crypt, there is a fantastic self-guided tour of how this cathedral building was built upon the old Saxon church site which was in turn constructed at the site of the original Roman fort and encampment. There is a still-working Roman sewer under the cathedral, and rocks that supported the Roman fortification continue to support the cathedral.
Other highlights of York were the Railway Museum (free admission) and the 6 pound ferris wheel ride. The wheel was really high and sturdy, with cars like ski gondola cars, sealed all around and with seats on both sides. Alana's fear of heights came on her (as it did at the tower), but she got used to it partly because the view was incredible. York has two rivers through it and one can see that clearly from the wheel's top elevation. There had been flooding in the north before we arrived in York and we saw very muddy walkways along the river esplanade as we made our way from the Railway Museum back to our hotel. We also passed the ruins of St. Margaret's Abbey, something not marked on any maps but that we just happened upon after walking through gardens and past an Elizabethan era Bishop's House.
While the entire old city was walkable and much protected from car traffic, the oldest and narrowest street was The Shambles where one could almost literally touch from side to side at street level, and from one house to another at the second and third levels. The city felt good, friendly and welcoming of tourists. There was one incident I witnessed the first night where a few young white men were taunting a long-haired mixed race man, who ignored them. So there are yobbos, for sure.
We stayed at a hotel recently converted from short-let flats. I had the best room for once - a former apartment with a full kitchen and stairway leading to the back garden. Alana, Rick and Julia were on the same floor with me (garden level), so we had a lot of fun going back and forth. My mother and father ended up in the same building one floor up in a fairly nice efficiency room. But Mom was sick much of the time in York and as Dad stayed with her, we four were free to wander on our own.
I took a train from York to Cambridge, where I found that the town was full of students and parents and a big fair and virtually impassable to vehicular traffic. I quickly understood all the bicycles parked at the train station! We stayed at a Holiday Inn quite a bit out of the town proper, and when we tried to go into Cambridge the next day, ended up giving it up because of the ridiculous traffic.
We ended up going to Ely Cathedral which was magical. It lies atop a rise in what used to be fens and still flood in heavy rains, and as you approach, it seems almost to float over the horizon. It reminded me of the approach to Chartres Cathedral - the same flat land and sudden realization that this far-off apparition is a huge edifice dominating the countryside. We were fortunate enough to be there on the feast day of St. Etheldreda, patron saint of Ely who founded the first church at that site and was martyred there. We got a short tour and then got to see and hear the congregants parade from town into the cathedral precincts and have a short celebratory service. While there was a fair amount of damage done to various statuary during the English Reformation, for some reason the Cathedral itself and monastic buildings were preserved. The Lady Chapel in particular was damaged yet its architecture keeps it breathtaking: square in shape, with windows from ceiling to about six feet from the ground, walls and floor of light stone. Pre-Reformation, the windows would have been colored and so the room much darker and perhaps less glorious than it is today in its plain vibrancy.
Finally, on to Reading and old haunts. First, a ploughman's lunch all around at a wonderful little pub we found via highway and byway, where they glued coins on the floor and bar to have a laugh when someone tries to pick it up. Then on southward to the Ring around London and the M4 west. We stayed at the Holiday Inn Express next to the Thames, close by the Reading Rowing Club and a huge colony of swans, geese and other water fowl. Julia was well supplied with bread with which to feed them!
The day Rick had to leave (Sunday), all but Mom went to Windsor Castle, where I got a wheelchair and special access to see the Queen's Dollhouse without waiting in the very long queue. Dad took Rick to the airport and so Alana, Julia and I were left to eat lunch and find our way back to the M4 and Reading. It was a very pleasant day!
Alana and I took Julia in to London, where we rode the London Eye - another spectacular view on a 20 minute ride - crossed the bridge to walk by Parliament, and then desperate to get off our feet, grabbed a taxi to take us to Picadilly Circle where we picked up a suitcase for Alana and the double-decker bus back to Paddington Station, and then back to Reading.
The day before we left, we drove up to see Fenella north of Oxford in her old, cozy double cottage on the tiny village green, and for a short visit to her daughter's home (a shambles but heaven for two cats and two children, and certainly for Julia who jumped on the trampoline almost non-stop). Then the rest of them went to London for dinner with Peter and Renee, while I begged off to stay and rest. Good choice, as they were in traffic for hours!
Finally, we left - it had been about 3 days too long a trip, but we made good use of the time. I managed to get a ticket on Mom and Dad's flight and so arrived back in NJ early enough to get some sleep before having to get up for coaching clients.
posted by julieannerickson @ 5:17 PM
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