London in the Sun

Our second trip to London was much more pleasant that the first.  Although it began with a field trip with the Study in England group, for the next three days we were on our own.

The field trip included a visit to Parliament, hosted by Lord Falkner who is the Lord who represents Worcester in Parliament as well as a trip to Kensal Green cemetery.  Of the two, Parliament was the most interesting and had the most gold.  The buildings themselves are most spectacular in the perpendicular Gothic style with many windows, spires and gargoyles.

The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the  legislative body in the UK, British Crown dependencies and British overseas territories.  Parliament alone possesses ultimate power over all other political bodies in the UK and its territories. At its head is the Sovereign, Queen Elizabeth II, whose official title is "Elizabeth the second, by the Grace of God of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland". 


The people who work in this building are members of an upper house, House of Lords and a lower house, the House of Commons.  The Queen is the third component of the legislature but she is only allowed to go there once a year. The House of Lords includes two different types of members: the Lords Spiritual, who are bishops of the  Church of England and the Lords Temporal who are appointed by the Sovereign on advice of the Prime Minister.  The House of Commons is a democratically elected chamber with elections to it held at least every five years.


Our tour allowed us to see the striking difference between the two houses.  The House of Lords  is quite opulent with red velvet and lot's of gold. It also has the throne where the Sovereign sits for her annual "state of the empire" visit and a special bench where the bishops sit.  The House of Commons, where the Sovereign is not allowed to enter, is much more austere, decked out in green and oak - no gold.  These Brits sure love their class system and pomp!

After our tour, Anne and I jumped on the Metro to find our hotel. No time to take a nap or eat a proper dinner, just hopped back on the Metro to the Thames where we walked across the bridge to the Southbank Centre.  We  had learned that there was a Women of the World Festival going on to celebrate International Women's Day and that the Friday night event was hosted by Annie Lennox and featured Katy B, Jess Mills and Emeli Sande (rising young female artists in Britain).  The whole theme of the evening event was an affirmation of feminist political power and equality.  One word: Fantastic. Watch the highlight:
 

Our hotel was right across the street from Hyde Park which was so much more lovely than the last time we visited.  The snow had melted, the flowers were in bloom and the ducks were having babies. Everyone seemed to be enjoying the weather. We spent time there on two days, even had breakfast one morning beside the lake. Lovely.
The roller skater below was amazing also!

We took the Metro over to Leicester square and got some tickets to see Tyne Daly in Master Class that evening and headed out to spend the afternoon at the Tower of London and meet a few Beefeaters.  There is so much British history at the Tower, it is mind boggling.It was originally built by William the Conqueror in 1078.  It was white washed by Henry III and has since been called the White Tower.

Persons beheaded inside the Tower include William Hastings, 1st Baron Hastings (1483), Anne Boleyn (1536), Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury (1541), Catherine Howard (1542), Jane Boleyn, Viscountess Rochford (1542), Lady Jane Grey (1554) and Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex (1601) and Thomas More, 1535. Lovely people, the British.

We especially liked the ravens who live on the castle grounds.  Legend has it that if the ravens ever leave, the tower will fall and the empire will fail. I was discouraged that the empire keeps the bird's wings clipped and keep them in cages at night. It seems that the decision to clip their wings is just a bit manipulative and puts little faith in the legend and the monarchy. If they were to just hang the ribcage of a stag on a nearby stump (like we did at home this fall), those ravens would never leave.

We went on a really interesting tour, led by a member of the Yeoman Warders a.k.a. Beefeater.  After that we went to the jewel tower and saw the Crown Jewels. Wow, such opulence.

The next day, we again walked through Hyde Park to see the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace. On the way there we saw the horse procession above. This was very impressive (again, pomp rules!) and very crowded.  It seems to be a scheduled event but no one really knew what the schedule was.  Finally, the guard showed up - in grey uniforms because it is winter - and with a band and an Irish Wolfhound because they were the First Battalion Irish Guards.

It was all much fun but we wanted to see a few more horses and guards so we found the Horse Guards Parade Building where the Horse Guards work.  This is where the soldiers sit on their big horses and guard the Horse Guard Parade Building. This will also be the site of the Beach Volleyball competition at the 2012 Summer Olympics. Just as we were leaving this area we saw a little green sports car go by surrounded by police motorcycles - we are sure it was Kate going off for Sunday tea and we were right there! Really!


Our evening was spent at a delightful dinner with old friends at a great Mid-Eastern restaurant in the Mayfair district. Great food and great fun to catch up on the past 30 years.


In order to not waste any quality tourist time, and since our train didn't leave London until mid-afternoon we spent Monday morning at the National Gallery.  They have paintings on display from the thirteenth to the twentieth century.  We tried to guess which of the paintings in each gallery were the 'featured' ones in the brochure.  Sometimes we guessed right, sometimes not.  We did see paintings by Van Eyck,  Michelangelo, Rembrandt, Monet and Van Gogh and many others.  It was a great time. 


Be sure and check the photos.

Araf (slow) we're going to Cymru (Wales) by car

Are we going to Llanycefn, Llandissillia, Liawhaden, Lampeter, Llanddowror or Llanboidy? Where ever, we have traveled to Wales by car; and back again. Wow!

Wales is a beautiful country and when we told people that we were driving there, we were warned that the roads were narrow and twisty. I thought nothing of it because I learned to drive in Bootjack, California where the roads were narrow and twisty. Let me say, it it really different when driving on the left side of the road and sitting in the right side of the car and having stone walls and/or hedge rows on both sides of a one lane roads with no shoulders. The first day, I only hit the curb 3 times and improved after that. I hit no cars, horses, farm machinery or anything else that I met on the 1.2 lane roads and only got one parking ticket which I believe is given to anyone with a Enterprise Rental sticker on their car.

One of the most interesting thing about Wales is that it is a dual language country in everything that is printed - directional signs, menus, city limit signs, warning signs, etc. Sometimes the Welsh language will be first on a road sign and sometimes not. To add a bit more of a challenge for us single language folks, even the English is difficult to grasp since many of the English words are bastardized versions of the Welsh word and contain many double L's and y's and w's . For instance the English name, Llanddowror is Maes-y-lan in Welsh. As you can see from the list of neighboring towns at the top of this post, it might be easy to get a little lost and confused which we did more than once.

The countryside is strikingly beautiful, quite hilly and has an abundance of cute little lambs, cute little villages and miles and miles of hedgerows and stone walls. I half expected hobbits, unicorns or fairies to jump out of the woods at any time.

Shortly after we entered Wales, we drove through the Brecon Beacon National Park. Much different than National Parks in the USA, most of the land is privately owned but managed and supported by a park authority which includes land owners, communities and visitors. Some is set aside as Sites of Special Scientific Interest, National Nature Reserves and Local Nature Reserves. We didn't see any of the native Welsh ponies that live in the area but saw plenty of sheep and hedgerows (they boast 5,300 kilometers of hedge).

Our first night was in Neath (Welsh: Castell -nedd) which is a town located on the Neath River. Now a port for recreational boating, it was once a busy shipping port. In fact, Lord Nelson (see the 1st London post) is said to have stayed here on his way to join his fleet prior to the Battle of Trafalgar.

Dinner was delightful as we ate giant scallops and they boned the sea bass at the table, which always feels like 'special treatment,' until the entertainment appeared. Suddenly, without warning a man picked up a microphone, turned on his electronic band and back up singers and proceeded to sing an extremely strange combinations of songs. No intro, no hello, no nothing. The selections were as orderly as Karaoke night at any bar in Superior and the voice was just a little bit worse. Oh well, we couldn't hear him in our room and he was gone by morning.

In the morning we had a proper Welsh breakfast consisting of a basic English breakfast (Eggs, sausage, bacon, tomatoes, mushrooms,potatoes and toast) PLUS cockles and laverbread (seaweed). Linda ate the cockles; Anne did not. They are quite salty and a bit chewy as they are a small bivalve, sort of like an oyster but quite small and prepared differently. They are sometimes served with winkles and whelks but the ones served at the hotel were only cockles.

We spent the second day closer to the coast and circumventing big cities and their terrifying round-a-bouts. We wandered around Tenby (Dinbych-y-pysgod) which boasts a sand beach and lovely little harbor with pastel buildings. Of course, there is a 13th century stone wall, a castle and a cathedral.

We then wound along the coast and came upon Manorbier Castle which we did not tour (you can only go to so many castles) and a group of surfers in the Irish Sea. It was a blustery day on the sea but clearly enjoyed by many people and dogs. We did find the Pembroke Castle in the town of Pembrock (Penfro) and toured it quite extensively. It has been partially restored but maintains the flavor and grandeur of an ancient castle. Henry the VII was born here and began the long line of Tudor rulers.

It was in this area that we discovered that the tourist season had not actually begun and that many of the Inns we had read about were not open. Fortunately, we found a McDonald's and used their wireless to find an Inn for the night. We lucked out and found Wolfcastle and although we got there a bit late, we could still have a relaxing dinner and discover the joy of getting up-graded. We ended up in a spacious room with furnished bathrobes and a view of the garden. After another hardy proper English breakfast (no cockles this time), we resumed our adventure.

We traveled from Wolfcastle to Llandovery (Llanymddyfri) and along the way enjoyed Fishguard (Abergwaun) on the river Guaun. This is a traditional herring fishing area and the river delta is at the Irish Sea. The tide was out while we were there which made for a very interesting harbor full of boats sitting on the silty river bottom. It was another windy day and so we opted out of a walk to the sea.

One of the most interesting sites of the trip was seeing the Pentre Ifan Burial Chamber. The 3,500 year old monument is about 8 feet high and about 16 feet long and located just off a narrow lane but about 8 miles from a two lane carriage way. There was no one else at the site when we visited although a few other visitors came as we were leaving. This site has a lot of pictures as well as a link to Google Earth where you can see the stones well off the road. It is near here that some of the stones for Stonehenge were originally quarried.

Our next night was spent in Llandovery (Llanymddyfri) at the Castle Hotel. This was truly an old inn with uneven floors and slightly tilted walls. We were the first guests of the season so they didn't even have their check-in counter set up. However, it was a really nice and friendly place with great food in a quiet little town. By this time, Linda passed on the proper English breakfast and settled for yogurt and fruit. They just don't have enough Tums in the UK.

On our last day, we drove through many miles of countryside and stopped to admire the River Usk and River Tarrell where they converge in Brecon. We watched a heron fishing for a while and then drove along the Northern Border of the Brecon Beacons National Park. It had snowed a bit the night before and so we could see a dusting on the mountain tops.

We lunched in Hay-on-Wye (Y Gelli Gandryll) which is well known for it's over 30 used book stores. While were unable to find any travel books for Spain, we did locate some above average flapjack bars. Mind you, these are not the pancakes that we sometimes call flapjacks in the USA. These are hard core British treats made with and extraordinarily large amount of butter; and made best in Wales.

Also in Hay-onWye, we walked a ways on Offa's Dyke Path (Llwybr ClawddOffa).  This is a hand-dug bank and ditch built in the 8th century by command of King Offa of the ancient Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Mercia.  It was probably intended to divide Mercia from rival kingdoms in what is now Wales, and some sections still form the England/Wales border today.

Our drive through Wales was a lot of fun. It was nice to have a car for a change and enjoy the freedom and confusion that it brought. As you can tell, we had quite a few laughs about the names which we couldn't pronounce - they have different vowels but we don't know what they are. Sadly, we never once heard any one speaking it. If we go back, which we probably will, perhaps we can rectify this.