Welcome to Bill and Aline's Web Log

London Free List

2006-06-09T18:52:00.000+01:00

Bill writes: We often think of what we could be doing in London. And the main way we usually decided what to do when we were there--which we aren't now, but wish we were--was to look at the London Free List.

Here's what's available tomorrow. I present it unedited and without comment:

Sheep and Wool Fair

E1, Spitalfields City Farm. Free

EVENTS ON SPITALFIELDS CITY FARM for LONDON SUSTAINABILITY WEEKS

Weaver Street E1 5HJ (off Brick Lane & Buxton Street)
Shoreditch Tube
Tel 020 7247 8762

www.spitalfieldscityfarm.org

SHEEP & WOOL FAIR

Sunday 4 June 06
12noon – 4pm
Admission Free

A family day celebrating the role of sheep in all our lives – from the knitted sweater we wear to the carpet we walk on. Visitors will be able to meet our friendly sheep and observe traditional crafts such as sheep shearing and the spinning of wool. There will be a BIG KNIT-IN with the Cast Off Knitting Club, a display about Sheep and Wool History, workshops in felt making, animal mask-making and face-painting, stalls with woolly items, refreshments with sheep biscuits and chocolate droppings and World Café discussions on sustainability. Highlights of the day include Sheep Racing, Guess the Weight of the Fleece, Best Shepherd and Shepherdess of Spitalfields Fancy Dress Contest and the opportunity to feed the animals and meet our new “Teddy Bear” sheep (rare breed Southdowns) and have your photo taken! Bhaamy music will be played by The Lost Marbles String Band.

Patience. Vaincra. Lichtervelde.

2006-05-26T20:21:00.000+01:00

Bill writes: We're continuing to adjust to life back in California. What I've come to realize is that most things in the Bay Area are not only proudly modern, but often relentlessly futuristic--iPod this and cellfuel that; who has the best laptop; how's the debate on stem cell research going; if we voted the sci-fi movie actor Arnold Schwarzenegger out, could we vote the sci-fi cartoon character George Jetson in? It seems that here in Silicon Valley we grudgingly accept the fact that we're in the chronological center of a country that spans seven times zones, but that three hours is about the maximum that we're willing to look in either direction. And that's just to get an early peek at how our biogen stocks are trading this morning in the East Coast and whether we should offload them on our in-laws in Hawaii before they wake up.

I once complimented one of our friends in London that they "have so much history." His reply was, "We have too much history." They dig up a basement for the new Guild Hall building, and--oops--they've got a roman amphitheater on their hands into the bargain. It's everywhere--the sixty horses that trotted their cavalry down the street outside our flat, guards with beaver hats on their heads and swords by their sides, a 2,000 year old roman wall butting up against the patio at the hotel. Clay pipes once filled with tabacco from the Jamestown colony, medieval floor tiles, and tudor beer jugs compete with the oyster shells and shiny pebbles you can scoop up by the handful along the Thames.

As a temporary inhabitant, we of course loved it. I think for some Londoners, it's like the air they breathe, while to others, it's like the Thames itself, threatening to flood them out with the rising tide.

So where am I going with all this? European history is, if not cheap, then certainly affordable. It's the modern stuff that's going to cost you. We wanted a remembrance of our stay here, and decided we'd look for a painting. We went to various art shows in London, and soon realized that (a) most modern art is derivative; and (b) it derived from something we didn't like in the first place. We really didn't want something that was a poor copy by someone who was influenced by someone who worked in a style patterned after Mondrian. Hmm, colored circles instead of squares. How innovative.

So we ended up going the other direction. A week or two before we left England, we went to a large and well-vetted antiques and art show near Sotheby's in the Hammersmith area.

One of the sellers had a late tudor era portrait that we really liked and that was about the same price as the three generations-removed not-quite-Mondrians we'd become so unfond of. We bought it, had it held for us until we got back to California, and then had it boxed and shipped out to us, where it has since arrived. This is her:

I find myself thinking about her a lot. What kind of woman was she, with her deepset brown eyes (which, like the portraits in "The Haunted Mansion" in Disneyland, follow you as you walk around the room), sharp falcon nose, a prim mouth that I have yet to decide is either amused or "tisk tisk-ing" me, all offset by a pair of delicate and tentative hands.

Here's what I've been able to find out. The painting was done by someone in the circle of Michiel Jansz van Mierevelt (1567-1641), a very successful portrait artist born in Delft, and was completed, as the painting conveniently notes, in 1592. The text at the top reads "Patience. Vaincra. Lichtervelde." alongside a coat of arms. From a little Googling, we now know that this painting is likely associated with the Lords of Lichtervelde, a small municipality in West Flanders in Belgium with about 8,000 inhabitants. The motto "Patience. Vaincra." is old French for "Patience conquers (vanquishes)." When this painting was made, Queen Elizabeth was still on the throne and Sir Francis Drake had recently turned back the Spanish Armada. It would be seven more years until the birth of Oliver Cromwell, but only five until the tomato was introduced into England.

Too much history. But any timeline that includes in a ten-year period the defeat of the Spanish Armada and the introduction of the tomato (thereby precluding Spanish omelets but making possible the BLT) had to be some decade.

I've Seen Sunny Days That I Thought Would Never End

2006-04-19T00:53:00.000+01:00

Bill writes: After 417 straight days of rain (after which Noah would have said, "Screw this, I'm moving to Reno), there was finally a break in the weather on Monday. Since Aline has to report to work Wednesday, I let her pick where we should go (sort of like the condemned's last meal). So we climbed down off the roof, loaded up the Beetle, and headed down to Capitola. Now this is how California is supposed to look.

After a few hours of laying face up on the beach, we needed a change, so we drove down to Santa Cruz to lay face down on the beach, and then tried our luck at not losing lunch on the Giant Dipper.

Today, the weather was equally nice. We had to bring Grommet up to RadioCat in San Mateo for his radioactive iodine treatment and three days of isolation until his litterbox stops glowing.

After dropping him off at the kitty linear accelerator, we crossed over into Half Moon Bay for another lunch picnic at another beach and to put the finishing touches on my Mister Lobsterface(R) sunburn. (I didn't have much use for sunscreen the past year, and sorta kinda forgot one's face turns into cheddar cheese sandwich filling in the California sunshine.) Everyone was out, including horses big.

And horses small.

We had the requisite wonderful California beach time, and six hours later wended ("wendt?") our weary way home.

Weather or Not We'll Stay

2006-04-08T02:54:00.000+01:00

Bill writes: Apparently, we've returned to the wrong country. I could have sworn we had bought two tickets for San Francisco, but somehow they've dumped us into a newly cleared rainforest in South America. That would explain the combination of spanish-named streets like the El Camino, coupled with 34 inches of rain per day.

Here is a picture from our last day in England--you know, the place where it's supposed to rain a lot.

Let me direct your attention first to the cloudless blue sky, and then to the gentleman on the right wearing shorts due to the warm, sunny day.

Here is a picture from our front doorstep today (the furthest it was safe to travel without a personal floatation device).

You can just make out the houseboat beyond the bend in the river that used to be our street. There are no people. That's because they're either hidden behind sandbags or they've already sailed away.

Can someone explain how it is we're gone for a year and a new ice age has begun?

All I know is that someone better pony up with the right California weather damn fast or we're headed back to sunny old England.

Grommet Comes Clean

2006-04-05T05:50:00.000+01:00

Bill writes: Since Earthlink still still doesn't have our internet working, this is just a quickie post using a neighbor's access. And since the email we have gotten has mostly been asking about Grommet, this is about him. (He gets most of the fan mail anyways.)

He's doing fine, saw the vet today, got x-rayed and tested, and looks good for getting his kitty treatment in two weeks. For those of you who asked, he's adjusted to California just fine. He quickly recognized all his favorite spots and settled right in.

Good Grommet:

No-so-good Grommet:

Since he'd already had to see the vet today, I didn't have the heart to put him on Spin cycle.

The Melancholy Event

2006-03-30T06:03:00.000+01:00

Bill writes: Sorry we haven't posted in a while--things have been kinda hectic. To make a long and very complicated story shorter and slightly less complicated, the vet Grommet had been using left and another took over Grommet's case. He had a different take on things. So on Monday the 13th he called us and basically gave us two options if we wanted him to sign Grommet's "Fit to Fly" certificate that would allow him to fly home with us:

1. Put Grommet in for treatment in London, which would mean 30 days quarrantine in a small cage in the cat hospital, plus another few weeks before he was settled down with us enough to fly back to the US. This would also require us extending our trip by six weeks and finding another flat to live in, me staying in London while Aline got back to work, etc.

2. Flying home that week.

So we picked option number 2 and flew home three days later.

Which is our way of saying we're back home in Sunnyvale. We're all safe and sound after a fairly uneventful trip (even if Customs in San Francisco said they didn't necessarily have to give our cat back to us because my airline ticket said "William Baeck" and my driver's license said "William Leo Baeck"--so we might not be the same person. I suppose it had something to do with HOMELAND SECURITY and smuggling in cats of mass destruction.

Well, anyways, just wanted to post this quick note. And don't worry, we still have some London experiences we need to post, so we'll continue updating the blog for a while. Plus, now we can add things like how confused we are by American culture since we've been gone. (Like why are $10 bills colored differently than when we left, why are tip jars sprouting up everywhere for Take Out food, and what's with the new nickel with only half of Jefferson's head on it? Couldn't he sit still to have his portrait done without dashing off midway through?)

In the meantime, some friends have asked what it felt like to leave London. It felt like this:

I Want my Cat TV!

2006-03-10T11:30:00.000Z

Bill writes: At home, Grommet has always liked watching videos designed for cats, so we picked up a cat DVD at the vet's. Every morning he sits in front of the DVD player until we put the DVD in. Here he's puzzling out how the TV turned into a turtle aquarium, a birdcage, and a fishbowl (where the fish is puzzling him out, too).

Westminster Cathedral

2006-03-10T11:27:00.000Z

Bill writes: It was a bit cold and snowy last week and Aline was home with the flu, so I went off on my dull round of trying to make it to every library in London. I think I've just about done it--well at least for Westminster. Anyways, on the way to one near Victoria station, I passed the Westminster Cathedral. This is NOT the Abbey, this is a catholic church built in 1895. It looks like it was designed with the same sensibility that lead to the Brighton Pavillion. The sort of over the top, moorish, layered effect is striking, even though it is now sadly sandwiched between two modern buildings with no sympathy for the design of the cathedral.

Inside, unfortunately, the most notable thing about it is the lack of light. I don't know if it's due to the nearby buildings blocking the sunshine, but the interior is quite dark.

But on the way out, I noticed an elevator leading to the top of the campaneile. For three quid, the elevator attendant takes you to the top, some 300 feet up, and lets you walk around to your heart's content. From this bell tower, there's a fine view of the city. After I was up there for a while, a couple of older ladies came up, too. They were on their big day out from the countryside--taking in the musical "Billy Elliot" playing across the road and seeing this cathedral as their big "sight" for their sightseeing that day.

Medical Museums

2006-03-10T11:26:00.000Z

Bill writes: During a cold or two that Aline has had over what is turning into London's endless winter, I found myself going to smallish museums that I knew she wouldn't be interested in, and so wouldn't mind missing.

England is a nation of collectors. This is particularly evident in museums founded by the medical professions. Each association (in itself evidence of the need to collect, in this case themselves rather than things) have permanent exhibits within their respective headquarters. By putting their history in glass cases, they offer the public (and themselves) evidence of their lineage and longstanding importance to the nation.

The Hunterian Collection

2006-03-10T11:22:00.000Z

Bill writes: First up was the Hunterian Collection housed in the Royal College of Surgeons building, a fine and imposing structure that by its greek columns shows you right off that this is a profession that can trace its ancestry right back to Hippocrates.

The Hunterian Collection was put together by the surgeon John Hunter who collected specimens of plants, animals, and people, producing many thousands of preparations during the 1700's which were then purchased by the government in 1799. The present collection consists mainly of several enormous rooms filled with what are politely termed "medical preparations." In actuality, it represents thousands of jars and boxes filled with diseased body parts. Although a hugely important collection from a medical and teaching standpoint, its curiosities range from the fascinating to the freak show. With endless rows of tumours, deformities, and injuries, it is a catalog of the pain nature inflicts on the human body. In the end, it is difficult to recommend the Hunterian Collection, as it is a museum consisting mainly of things you'd rather not know.

Photographs weren't allowed, but you can read and see more of it here.

http://www.rcseng.ac.uk/museums/history

http://www.rcseng.ac.uk/museums/history/collections.html

The British Dental Association Museum

2006-03-10T11:20:00.000Z

Bill writes: The British Dental Association has a small collection of artefacts from the history of modern dentistry in the UK. I went there partly because Aline was home with a cold. But partly I was curious to find out why, to put it gently, the contents of an english smile often display a certain carefree individuality, and why it was occasionaly I'm reminded of the tiny library in our flat, its two shelves holding books of various sizes, their brown and green leather covers canted at random angles.

The museum does not get many visitors, judging by the kindly reception I received. The lone attendant took my coat and walked me around, rightfully proud of the collection. And I have to say, though tiny compared to the Hunterian, it was a wonderful antidote to it as well. Far from being frightening, the Dental Association's museum was frankly charming, making dentistry seem like a warm victorian pleasure. (Though I'm certain it wasn't.) For instance, there's this inviting chair.

And this almost magical looking dental drill from 1864.

And who'd have guessed they had dental floss in 1818?

At the end, I did ask the curator if she'd heard the story I'd always heard about a need for so many false teeth for brits that was largely due to the lack of fresh milk during the second world war. She'd never heard of this, so my dental quest goes on.

The Association of Anaesthetists of Great Britain and Ireland Museum

2006-03-10T11:18:00.000Z

Bill writes: The third medical museum I went to was the one belonging to the Assocation of Anaesthetists of Great Britain and Ireland. As with the Hunterian Collection, this too was started with the collection of an individual--Charles King (1888-1965). It has items ranging from 1774 to the 1990s.

I'm still deciding whether these three museums were uplifting or depressing. Uplifting in people's attempts to alleviate suffering, and depressing that there was is so much suffering. Somebody pass the ether, please.

Cafe Blogging

2006-03-07T13:53:00.000Z

Bill: We've found two cafes not to far away that provide free wireless internet access. So we've bundled up our laptops and are blogging away from Vickie's and now Roma's. Ahh, heating and hot mint tea. Much better than the garden.

Albertropolis

2006-03-07T13:30:00.000Z

Bill writes: We saw this building on our "Albertropolis" walk through London with our class last Tuesday. I was fond of this building across from the Albert Hall. By the way, I had a friend named Albert Hall in high school. Just thought I'd put that in.

And here is the Albert Memorial, of which there is no Victorian memorial more over-the-top. If you look closely near the white base of the memorial on the right hand side, you can see a fellow cleaning the monument. He's doing it with a kitchen dish sponge. I will never, ever complain about doing the washing up after dinner again.

We also went to the British Museum, which is a grand building inside.

and out.

And I thought this new building across from the Royal College of London was clever. Not enough money for a nice design, so they put in reflective glass and simply reflected the original tower from the college.

Coventry – the City

2006-03-07T13:28:00.000Z

Aline writes: Coventry Cathedral is not the only church in Coventry – there are several other notable churches, as well as church ruins from Saxon times. For example, The Holy Trinity Church stands close to the cathedral – the first mention of this church is in 1113. It’s quite nice inside, but the most amazing thing is the medieval Doom painting (from the 1430’s), up on the arch near the roof. It was rediscovered in the 1800’s, and was restored in 2002. It’s quite far away, so this is the best picture we could get. Click on it to see a bigger version.

There are also excavations of a major Saxon church, and an undercroft of a Benedictine priory where they have found some bookbinding materials. This church was probably destroyed during the dissolution of the monasteries during the 16th century. Henry VIII has a lot to answer for!

Earl Leofric and his wife Lady Godiva founded this priory church sometime around 1020. Yes, she of the famous naked ride. There is a statue of her in the town square.

And lest you think that Coventry is all churches, here is a little toy museum we visited. This was typical of little English museums. It was in a small historic building (this is the gatehouse to an old religious site), informal (the door was unlocked with no attendant – we turned on the lights and looked around. When we got upstairs, a man peeked his head around a curtain and asked us to turn of the lights when we were done), and eclectic. Ah, childhood memories!

Coventry also has a street of medieval building undestroyed by the bombing. Here is one nice example.

Finally there was a beautiful medieval guildhouse just up the street from the cathedral.

Here is the inner courtyard.

And we ate lunch in the undercroft.

Bill adds: While Aline went to an art museum, I went to the British Automotive Museum. Before the war, Coventry was home to numerous automobile manufacturers. The museum houses many examples of these, from old cars like these.

To new ones like one of the land speed record holders.

But my favorite part of the museum held a collection of bicycles. The earliest was this Hobby Horse (yes, that's where we get the phrase from) invented by a German forester named Baron Von Drais in 1818. It was used by wealthy people to parade in parks with. To operate it, you sat on the saddle to the left, draped your chest over the long padded bar, and steered with the the little wooden bar in the middle. As it had no pedals and chain connecting to either wagon wheel, you simply scooted with a skating motion. With practice you could move at nearly the same speed as if you were walking. Yes, well, perhaps this was used by wealthy people whose ancestors had married each other's cousins. And now I know why there's such an implication of the ridiculous about riding one's hobby horse.

Coventry – the Cathedral

2006-03-07T13:14:00.000Z

Aline writes: We went on a day trip to Coventry, primarily to see the cathedral. And boy was it worth it! But Coventry has more than a spectacular cathedral: it also has toys, medieval houses, Saxon ruins, and the best Medieval Doom painting in Europe.

But first, the cathedral.

On the night of Thursday, November 14, 1940, a German air raid devastated the city of Coventry, destroying the cathedral in the process. It was the only English city to lose its cathedral in the Second World War. The morning after the raid, the city vowed to rebuild it. But what makes it unique is that the cathedral was not rebuilt as a replica, which we saw so often in Germany; rather the cathedral ruins were allowed to stand and a new modern cathedral was built next to it, and in fact is linked to it both spatially and architecturally. It may be the most moving religious site I have been to.

Here you can see the old cathedral ruins on the right, and the corner of the new cathedral on the left. They are linked with a walkway in between them. It’s so big you can’t get everything in one picture!

The fabulous sculpture of Saint Michael and the Devil by Sir Jacob Epstein is on the outside of the new cathedral and depicts the final winning of good over evil.

These pictures from the inside of the old cathedral speak for themselves. There are even shards of stained glass still in the windows frames.

On the altar, the cathedral’s stonemason tied two of the charred medieval roof timbers found in the rubble and erected it as a cross. Together with the words Father Forgive inscribed behind it, it makes for a powerful and moving image.

The new cathedral, designed by Sir Basil Spence, stands alongside the ruins. On first seeing the ruins, he says “I was deeply moved. I saw the old cathedral as standing clearly for the Sacrifice, one side of the Christian Faith, and I knew my task was to design a new one which would stand for the triumph of the Resurrection…”

It is unabashedly modern but somehow sympathetic to the site. For example, the west screen merges images of saints and angels who look over the cathedral ruins, which you can clearly see through the window.

This picture shows the Tapestry designed by Graham Sutherland.

The new cathedral is filled with fabulous stained glass, such as this Baptistry window that represents the light of God breaking into the world.

The cathedral alone was worth the trip, but there is so much more! See the next post for more on Coventry.

Unexpected London: Dog Taxis

2006-03-07T13:13:00.000Z

Bill writes: There must be a special dogs-only taxi service in London. While this may look like a jolly little scene, there's actually something quite sinister about it. The cab was fully up on the sidewalk, and there was no driver to be seen anywhere. The dogs also seemed suspiciously well fed.

Unexpected London: Dry Cleaners for Sexual Change

2006-03-07T13:10:00.000Z

Bill writes: I'm not even sure what to say about this, except it shows something marvelous about british culture's inability to acknowledge a grand double entendre. Where's Ronnie Barker now that we need him? Oh, right.

A Man and his Puppet Daughter

2006-03-07T13:07:00.000Z

Aline writes: as I have mentioned in earlier posts, we have been seeing lots of plays the last few months. The highlight for me is probably the one I saw several weeks ago, a new play done on the Fringe (off-off Broadway equivalent). Named Imogen, it was about a man who has lost his daughter and can't let go of her. It had so much – a life-size doll puppet with two visible puppeteers, reprenting the lead charater's daughter Imogen, carrying on quite normal conversations with her. It was really beautifully done - very moving and wonderfully acted. The puppeteers were visible, but the puppet was totally convincing in its movements, even with 2 people standing behind it. There were moments of incredible beauty – such as a dream scene where he floats with the aid of the puppeteers, and it really did seem as if he was floating. If you ever have an opportunity to see it, do! The lead actor was really fabulous - and he would have to be to pull it off. I still think about it almost every day. The closest experience I can compare it to is the Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci given in Berkeley a few years ago, for those of you lucky enough to have seen that!

"My friends are my estate"

2006-03-07T11:16:00.000Z

"My friends are my estate."
- Emily Dickinson

Aline writes: We’ve had more company – what friends to come visit us in the damp English winter! First my friend from Ohio, Laura, and her boyfriend Randy came to visit for a whirlwind long weekend. We spent some time at the National Gallery, and here you see us at eating in the Chop House in the Cheshire Cheese pub on Fleet Street, eating in the same place as Dr. Johnson, James Boswell, Voltaire, Thackeray, and of course Charles Dickens.

Then my brother Kevin and his girlfriend Jackie visited us for a quick visit (must be that cold English weather!). It was fun hanging out together. We spent a day visiting the yummy Borough market, taking a long walk from the market on the South Bank though the City of London to Covent Garden. Then dinner and the Royal Shakepeare Conpany production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which was fabulous. By the end, we were all exhausted, as you can see here by our posture and expressions as we wait for the tube to take us home. I think Kevin was realizing how early he had to get up the next morning to catch his plane...

Medieval English

2006-03-07T11:14:00.000Z

Aline writes: We went and saw a fascinating talk at the Museum of London on the English language in London in medieval times. The lecturer was from Cambridge, and she talked about documents written in the 1300 and 1400's, and how they combined English and Norman French, or English and Latin. Documents were actually written in this combination language, where the nouns might be English, but the word order, prepositions, and gender might be Norman French. This was apparently done so the widest number of people could understand these commercial documents. English wasn't used in a standard way until the late 1500's/1600's, and wasn’t widely understood either. So the documents are almost primers for the language, where in one line the clerk might use the French word for "stone" and the next line might use the English word for "stone". Who knew?

The World of Jeeves and Wooster

2006-03-07T11:12:00.000Z

Aline writes: Thanks to our friend Josephine we had the chance to eat in a London club. Josephine, one of our classmates in our London history class, invited us to join her for lunch when our class met around St. James, also known as “clubland.” Her club is called the Over-Seas League. It’s located right near the Ritz hotel, and not only has a private garden terrace but it backs onto the lovely Green Park. It has a café and a restaurant; we had a nice lunch in the café, typical English food. It was just how you might imagine a club to be (especially if you watch Jeeves and Wooster like we do.) Lots of dark wood, comfy chairs, men in suits, and a reading room with a beautiful view over Green Park, wing chairs, all the daily newspapers, and drinks service. It also has hotel rooms so that members who don’t live in London can stay there, as well as reciprocal agreements with other clubs around the world. It’s a whole little community I didn’t know anything about.

Josephine pointed out that this is a very modest club – some are very exclusive and expensive and have multi-year waiting lists. But even to join this one you have to be recommended by a current club member and have a recommendation by some upstanding member of the community like a judge. I guess that lets us out.

Oh, Rochester!

2006-03-07T11:10:00.001Z

Bill writes: In late January we took the train to Rochester. Known mostly for its connections to Charles Dickens, it is an old cathedral and castle town as well. I'd visited there on my own during my last sabbaticals back in 2001. The city has changed a bit from my last trip there. There's a big casino going up on the edge of town and a "Fairies and Trolls" fetish wear store as you enter Rochester. Things seem to be sliding downhill there, and this was confirmed by the sad fact that the Dickens Centre has permanently closed. This was a sort of Disney "Hall of Presidents" version of Dickens life and characters recreated in his old house. By peeking through the back garden (we've gotten very good at trespassing since we've been here), we could just make out his cottage that was moved there from nearby Gads Hill.

There is a museum nearby that does house some of the items related to Dickens. Also fascinating to me was material they collected related to French prisoners of war during the Napoleonic Wars. Prisoners were kept for long periods in converted cargo ships anchored off shore in the river under terrible conditions.

The land-based French prisoners were far luckier. Because they were artistic and industrious (and to keep from going insane), they would carve items out of bone. Some of these items were simple things like sets of dice, letter openers, and combs. But gradually the prisoners began making more intricate carvings, including little mechanical devices which they would then sell to the prison wardens for sale to the public, earning the prisoners money for better scraps of food. Eventually, with the help of French officers in the prisons, this was organized into a full industry, with proper workshops and tools, and even craft shops set up in towns like Leek and Staffordshire that sold their goods directly to the public. Here's a sample ship that they carved.

Although Dicken's house is closed, fortunately they've left the cathedral in place and it remains open to the public. The cathedral was founded by Bishop Justus in 604 AD at the request of Augustine, and was added on to over the years. The best view, I think, is from a window in the castle across the road.

Inside, some of the treasures of the cathedral are the wonderfully preserved romanesque arches, a magnificent pipe organ, and part of a 13th Century wall painting illustrating a wheel of fortune--one of the finest medieval wall paintings in England.

There is even some very old graffiti, testifying to its long use.

Below the cathedral lies its large undercroft.

Afterwards, we went to the castle. Built in the late 11th Century by Gundolf, Bishop of Rochester, King John laid seige to it in the 13th Century. It was rebuilt inthe 14th Century. Yet it suffered further attacks over the years, was used as a quarry for building material in the 17th Century, became a park in the 19th Century, until is was finally preserved for the public by English Heritage in the 20th. (Speaking of seiges, the last entrance to the Castle was at 3:45 and we arrived at 3:48. At first they didn't want to let us in, but after some pleading they relented, the gates were opened, and the castle was ours.)

Inside, it's a ruin--just the stone shell that survived the attack. The hall, state apartments, musician's gallery, etc. are all gone.

The one constant in anyone who looks at castles, is this sight of the poorly lit steps. Not exactly warmly beckoning, and it would have been even less attractive without the safety rail (which not all castle ruins thoughtfully provide).

Still, by following the stone steps from level to level, you can explore most of the castle, and even get to the top. England, being a less litigious country, assumes visitors to famous sites have a little common sense and won't automatically hurl themselves off the battlements. Hence, you'll notice that there isn't very much in the way of a guard rail along the castle rim, 120 above the town.

By the time we left the castle, it was later afternoon and growing dark, and we'd both grown cold. As for myself, after a day walking outdoors through the cold, whipping winds blowing off the river Medway, my nose had gradually turned from pink to red, and my arches had changed from concave to convex, making it difficult for me to stand in one place without rocking backwards and forwards, so that I'd taken on the appearance of a child's socker-bopper blowup clown. Fortunately, before any passing schoolchildren got the wrong idea about me, I recalled a nice tea shop across from the cathedral when I'd been here several years earlier, and knowing Aline's fondness for a good cream tea, was able to track it down fairly easily. One cheery thing to notice is that outside of London, meals (and teas) are often half the price they are in London.

From tea, it was off to the railway station, and so to home and central heat once again.

Marlowe lives again at the Rose theatre!

2006-03-07T11:10:00.000Z

Aline writes: We’ve been seeing a lot of plays since we have been staying in London over the last few months. One of the most interesting was a compilation of Marlowe’s plays in the Rose, London's first Elizabethan theatre. Right now the Rose site is a half dug-out archaeological excavation, and they are trying to raise money to fully excavate it. It was discovered in the 1980's when they demolished a building and found the remains under the basement. It's just around the corner from the new Globe and the old bear gardens site.

It was an interesting place to see a play – there was a wooden deck with folding seats, set at the edge of a big pit that has water in it to protect the Rose foundation timbers until they can be excavated. So the players had to work around the edge of the pond on very uneven bare dirt. Of course there was no heating, so we watched with our coats, hats, scarves, and gloves on. The play itself was put together by a Marlowe scholar – called A Devilish Exercise, it was comprised of parts of Dr. Faustus, who appears as a character and watches parts of other Marlowe plays such as Dido, Queen of Carthage; Tamburlaine; and Edward II. And of course the staging was quite innovative, as it would have to be given what they had to work with. It was very moving to hear the actual words spoken in the same place that they were 400 years ago. Needless to see, the first thing we did afterwards was go get something hot to drink!

The Big Smoke No Longer

2006-03-07T11:09:00.000Z

Aline writes: After almost a year of putting up with smoky restaurants, pubs, exhibit halls, etc., Parliament has passed a bill that will ban smoking in all public places in 2007. Yippee! I can’t wait to come back and not have to hang my coat outside because it reeks of smoke. This was seen as quite a slap in the face to Tony Blair, who championed a compromise bill that would allow smoking in pubs that don’t serve food (needless to say, pubs simply threatened to stop serving food). The MPs instead passed a much stronger bill that doesn’t allow the exception. We are doing our part by telling everyone we know how well it works in California, and countering that same tired argument about how it will send pubs out of business (remember those arguments?). I look forward to breathing deeply in the near future!

Winter Blogging in the Garden

2006-03-05T13:10:00.000Z

Bill writes: Our internet connection speed has dropped from 2MB/sec T1 lines at work, to 500KB/sec DSL in Sunnyvale, to 50KB/sec in our flat, and now with poor reception (perhaps due to the poor conductivity of the dry winter air) to 0.1KB/sec. This means it can take half an hour to load a page and literally days to upload a single blog posting. So I went down to our communal garden, walking along the back of the buildings with my laptop open, hoping to catch some stray wireless internet access from a neighboring flat.

Success!

It's a sunny 37 degrees fahrenheit here and I'm thinking of Jack London and "To Build a Fire" and hoping this blog goes up before frostbite sets in. Well, before my fingertips blacken, here goes...

Royal Tunbridge Wells

2006-03-05T13:05:00.000Z

Bill writes: In early January we went to Royal Tunbridge Wells. This is a spa town in the heart of the Kentish countryside about an hour outside of London by train. It was popular with the Beau Nashe set during Georgian times (the 1740s), and still retains much of its original elegance to this day.

Our first stop was the Church of King Charles the Martyr, completed in 1678, where one of the parishioners walked us round and explained its history to us. For instance, it was created by subscription, in which various members of the church donated to its construction and their names were then listed in a scroll, which is still on the church wall. One of the subscribers whose signature appears is the omnipresent Samuel Pepys, he of the famous diary. We find his mark everywhere in we travel through London and outlying cities--he remarked on everything, usually having a sharp observation on local happenings, which always seemed to occur either on his way to or his way from an assignation with some woman other than his wife.

By far the best known landmark in the city is the Pantilles. These are a set of shops along a long, curving street. At one end is the Chalybeate Springs, the waters of which were known for their curative powers. This is what brought people to the city beginning in 1606, and over time, the Pantilles grew up along it.

After going through the Pantilles, we walked through the parks and town, inevitably winding up at the coffee shop. Just for those who are into hot chocolate drinks, this is Aline's coffee mocha. It was a do-it-yourself kit, with (clockwise from the top), a jug of melted dark chocolate, coffee, and hot milk.

The Blitz Experience

2006-03-05T13:04:00.000Z

Bill writes: The Blitz is still a recent part of London's two millenium-long memory. Just Tuesday I had tea after class and was talking with my classmate Ann, who had to be moved to the countryside because of the Blitz during the war. As a little girl, she (like many London children) said goodbye to her parents and was moved from one city that was bombed to another, traveling by coach and crisscrossing the countryside to avoid the strafing runs of the Luftwaffe. In her case, she ended up on a farm, cared for by strangers, a childless couple who lived in the country, and who had no running water or indoor plumbing.

London has an interactive museum called Britain at War, and it has a lot of artefacts from the Blitz, such as this child's and adult's gas mask. The former was made to look "fun" and "colorful" so the kiddies wouldn't mind wearing it.

Construction Time

2006-03-05T13:02:00.000Z

Bill writes: Although generally unremarked, this ranks well up in the "1000 Things that Make Britain a Great Nation" list. Even the manliest of men knows to take time out of his busy day felling trees, driving tanks through distant parts of the Empire, or in this case, simply doing construction work, for a nice cup of tea.

Duck Tours

2006-03-05T12:58:00.000Z

Bill writes: There are several competing bus tours of London.Two of them are the traditional double-decker buses (though with open tops) that you've probably seen before, at least in movies. But one of the more unusual bus tours is the Duck Tours. The bus they use is an amphibious vehicle from WWII. They have a fleet of eight buses, each named after a heroine from Shakespeare's plays; this one was the Cleopatra. (The guide noted that none was named Ophelia.)

It was a fairly tight squeeze inside, and rather cold, as it was in the 30's or so and the "windows" such as they are, are plastic sheets that flapped in the breeze.

We had a very cockney tour guide, which was a an added dimension, once we were able to sort out her fairly obscure Michael Caine impersonations and rhyming slang.

We visited all the usual sites--the palace, some of the parks, and the like. But what makes the Duck Tour special is that we made our way down to the south bank of the Thames, and then into the Thames, for a unique view of places like the Houses of Parliament. Just before we got to the water, the driver stopped, got off, and a boat captain replaced him for this part of the voyage.

This is what we look like to people on shore.

After a spin around the Thame, it was back up onto land and time for lunch at the Lettuce and Snail. Not an appetizing name for a restaurant, but the food is excellent there.

We're still here

2006-03-01T19:49:00.000Z

Aline writes: We are having major problems with our wireless network, so we apologize for the lack of blog postings! A quick update:

We've been on day trips to Rochester, Tunbridge Wells, and Salisbury.

We've had visitors such as Laura (my friend from Ohio), and my brother Kevin.

We've been to several plays, most recently the RSC production of A Midsummer Night's Dream

Grommet had an adverse reaction to his medication to control his hyperthyroidism, but gradually his ears are getting less pink :-(.

We still don't know when we are coming home - still figuring out when Grommet will be fit to fly.

Stay tuned for more postings. If our network doesn't straighten out, we will resort to an internet cafe in the near future!

Lunch at the Banqueting House

2006-02-21T12:07:00.000Z

Bill writes: Last week we had lunch at the Royal Banqueting House. Designed by the man with the best name in british history--Inigo Jones--this building was finished in 1622 for performing court masques for James I as well as state functions such as official banquets. Impressively, the masques themselves often featured sets and costumes by Jones and text by Ben Johnson.

The building is one of the finest in England and one of Jones' greatest designs (along with parts of Greenwich and Covent Garden). The interior is based on a double-cube and the ceiling is adorned with a series of paintings by Rubens, commissioned by Jame's son Charles I to show the greatness of Jame's reign. Unfortunately, soon after the paintings were installed in 1636, King James realized that the torches used to provide the lighting for masques would blacken the expensive paintings, and no further performances were held there.

On an even darker note, in 1649 Charles I was convicted of treason and led out of one of the top floor windows of this building and onto a specially constructed balcony, where he was publicly executed by beheading.

By contrast, on the day we visited there was no masque (and fortunately no executions either), but there was a nice buffet followed by the Penny Merriments, who performed 16th and 17th Century songs and broadsides in period costumes (including this horse outfit) and using period instruments.

Afterwards, we walked through the courtyard of the Old Admiralty Building and the Horse Guards Parade.

And then had a spot of tea in St. James Park. The weather, as you can see, has been pretty grey lately. I think that just as Eskimoes have 50 words for snow, Londoner's must have an equal number for the shades of grey that make up their February landscape.

The Bear Gardens

2006-02-19T16:18:00.000Z

Bill writes: Somehow I think the Bear Gardens, where they had bear-baiting on the lawless south side of the Thames in Shakespeare's day, used to be a lot scarier than this. And I for one am glad of it.

Hidden London: Lunch and Flamingoes

2006-02-19T13:00:00.000Z

Bill writes: Aline took me to lunch yesterday at Babylon, a very nice restaurant at the top of this quite large and imposing building.

Lunch was great, but what Aline really wanted to show me was the rooftop garden of this building. Work is going on to renovate it, but we found a back entrance and let ourselves out to the garden. Or actually three gardens. Since 1928, the top of this building has had a series of large gardens.

The Tudor one is currently closed for renovation. However, we were able to sneak around to the back for a look at the spanish garden. It's a sort of mini-Alhambra, with a large courtyard, fountains, a covered walking gallery, and palm-trees.

But the marvels don't end there. Going around the corner, you come on the woodland garden, with streams, ponds, glens, and full-size trees all planted in the five feet of soil built on top of the roof. Not only are there ducks and mallards living in the ponds, but a pair of male flamingoes are there as well. They were brought here to the garden 20 years ago, and have lived on this rooftop contentedly ever since. It turns out that flamingoes are comfortable in weather down to around 15 degrees fahrenheit. So they were doing a lot better than we were.

Certainly not the sort of thing you expect in the center of London, but there you go.

Tower Bridge

2006-02-19T11:32:00.000Z

Bill writes: After lunch yesterday we toured Tower Bridge, pretty much everyone's favorite bridge in London. Passing by Dead Man's Hole (where corpses from the Tower and surrounding areas were retrieved for storage below stairs), we went on into the bridge.

The bridge was built back in the 1880s, and is an amazing architectural achievement. Up until the 1970's it still used the original coal-fired engines to move each side of the 2,000 tons of roadway from horizontal to vertical in 60 seconds.

You can go to the top level of the bridge, the old pedestrian walkway, where one can get a nice view of the city. That's the HMS Belfast in the foreground and St. Paul's in the background on the right.

And you can see that the bridge is right next to the Tower.

A special exhibition on the Blitz was going on, and they had an "air-raid warden" talking about the problems of guarding the bridge during the German air raids. The main reason the bridge survived is that the Luftwaffe used it for a marker during the raids, as it was visible even during the blackouts. In turn, the wardens perched high on the bridge during the raids, and used wireless sets to inform the fire brigades where the fires from the bombs were located. What's astounding is the level of bombing that occured. Beginning on "Black Saturday," September 7 1940, 348 German bombers escorted by 617 fighters attacked London. It's hard to imagine, but according to the website I visited, this represented a 20-mile-wide swath of aircraft filling some 800 square miles of sky. At one point, the fires were so bright that people on Shaftesbury Avenue over 7 miles away could read their newspapers by the firelight on the docks. With barges of sugar and rum from dockside warehouses ablaze, even the Thames itself was on fire. And this was only the beginning, because the bombings continued for another 57 nights in a row. Absolutely astounding that anything survived. And yet, the bridge and St. Pauls did survive.

By contrast, by the time we left, it was dark, but the bridge was calm and lovely in the night.

Green Nuclear Meltdown

2006-02-19T10:44:00.000Z

Bill writes: Well it seems that London's eccentrics are a theme this week. And these members of the Green party are no exception. We were walking with our class when we noticed a hubbub going on, as men and women in nuclear-logo'ed cleansuits pulled up alongside a pair of officers. The cleansuit folks donned masks and pulled out a series of beeping equipment as they swept the officers.

But then they noticed us, and headed over to our little group.

Uh-oh, I thought. However, I noticed that all their equipment looked a bit low-tech when seen up close. David, our most outspoken classmate, went over and quizzed them about it, fearless of his potential radioactivity. Turns out they were some kind of protest group.

But even after reading their literature/broadside, I'm pretty much as in the dark as ever. Even with the bright glow of the nuclear phosphorescents.

My Admiration for this Man Knows No Bounds

2006-02-17T21:34:00.000Z

Bill writes: I don't know his name, and all his other deeds, if any, are lost to history. But he has my complete respect for utter obstinancy in the face of encroaching commercial interests. See that large building across the street? Look about two-thirds down on the right and spot the small white shop that splits the building into two parts.

The story is that the owner of that little shop refused to sell out when his neighbors on either side did to make way for a block-long store that was being planned. He refused all offers, saying that his shop was his and he was staying put and so was it. So the new building was constructed around him and his, and remains as you see it to this day. London's greatest monument to the little guy who said "No."

A Couple of Ding Dongs

2006-02-15T21:32:00.000Z

Bill writes: Our class on the history of London took us to the East End yesterday. We spent a great day learning about Spitalfields and the Whitechapel area. One of the highlights for us was finding a connection with American history. Here is the Whitechapel Bell Foundry, the foundry for Big Ben. Our eastender classmate was kind enough to point out that this was also where the Liberty Bell was first cast in 1752. Because I refrained from mentioning that the bell's workmanship left something to be desired, he agreed to take a photo of us in front of the shop. Notice the date above the door. This shop has been operating continously since the early days of Queen Elizabeth's reign. Not the current Queen Elizabeth--the first one.

It’s Not Just Grommet Watching Birds!

2006-02-15T21:17:00.000Z

Aline writes: We figured Grommet spends so much time at the window, there must be something in it! So a few weeks ago we participated in the Big Garden BirdWatch. This event is put on by the RSPB (which I assume stands for the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds), and 2006 is the 26th year it has been held. The instructions were simple: on either January 28th or 29th you spend one hour observing and recording the most number of birds of each type you see at one time (to prevent double-counting). It was pretty cold, so we watched from our window with binoculars. My favorite newspaper, The Independent, ran a 4-page color section of the most common birds and how to recognize them, so that made our bird identification a lot easier. This is what we saw:

2 carrion crows
1 feral pigeon
1 wood pigeon
2 gulls
1 blackbird
2 wrens
10 magpies

The results will be announced next month; last year, over 400,000 people participated. The results helps them monitor what species are increasing and decreasing, especially because some European birds winter in England. It really made me more aware of what kinds of birds are in our garden – I can see why bird watching is so popular!

Plate Nappies

2006-02-10T21:36:00.000Z

Bill writes: I need some help from British restaurant-goers here. When you take delivery of a meal in a low- to middle-range restaurant, it's odds-on that it will be delivered on a napkin on a plate. See illustrative photograph below.

You'll find them under sandwiches, under cakes, under bowls of soup. What's its purpose? British plate-napkins are a mystery to me, like bidets. I don't know what I'm supposed to do with them. I'm afraid to use them, and even more afraid to leave them alone. The thing is, look at that napkin. The sandwich was great, I'll grant that. It was a tuna melt. But that means the filling melted right out of the sandwich and onto the napkin. In the case of a cake, the frosting is all over the napkin. Bowl of soup? Soup stuff. You get the idea. So should I use the napkin? Is it there to wipe my face with (or more accurately to transfer tuna melt/cake frosting/soup from the plate to my face with)? Is it to keep the plate separate from the food, like some kind of low-tech thermal insulation? Or is it to make certain that tiny, wet, sticky, torn bits of blue paper from the napkin leech onto my tuna melt sandwich, thereby ensuring I'm getting a bit of color fibre into my diet?

As my friend Barbara would ask, "What's the deal with that?"

Grommet Says, “Me? Ow!”

2006-02-10T19:44:00.000Z

Aline writes: you may have wondered why we have been so quiet lately. Unfortunately, Grommet was diagnosed with hyperthyroidism 4 weeks ago during a routine exam. The vets (yes, he has his own specialist—a cardiologist) also found some heart problems, hopefully due to the hyperthyroidism (if so, the damage will be reversed once the hyperthyroidism is controlled). So he has been going to the vet a lot (poor thing), and we have been worrying a lot (poor things), and devising sneaky ways of giving him his daily meds. We are all doing better – Grommet has had no side effects from the meds, and we are gradually getting back to normal. He still has some vet appts in his future, but don’t tell him that :-) More posts to follow… we have a lot to catch up on!

Are YOU Looking at ME?

2006-01-28T21:35:00.000Z

Aline writes: It sometimes hits me how much I have adapted to life in the Big Smoke. For example, we went to Tunbridge Wells a few weeks ago, which is a short train ride from London. As soon as we walked out of the train station onto the High Street, I noticed that people seemed to be staring at me. Of course I asked Bill if I had anything in my teeth, but he assured me that I did not look unusually freaky. When I whispered to him that I thought people were staring, he confirmed my worst fears as we walked down the street. But what I finally realized is that people weren’t actually staring more than usual from a U.S. point of view, but only when compared to London behavior. People just don’t make eye contact when you walk down the streets in London. And this is especially true on the tube, where avoiding eye contact is mandatory behavior. It’s even documented in a hilarious website about tube rules.

This led me to my own little experiment on the tube: last week I rode the Bakerloo line with my iPod headphones in (a required accessory). It was during rush hour so all seats were taken. The woman across from me averted her eyes as expected. For 3 stops, I closed my eyes the majority of the time, only occasionally opening them. The 12 times I opened my eyes, the woman across from me was indeed looking at me every single time, but she managed to immediately avert her eyes on eye contact. Maybe my game was kind of mean, but I was fascinated by the results. It’s not that people don’t want to look at each other, but rather it’s a survival technique to deal with being crammed tightly in with total strangers in a metal casket hurling under the earth. It reminds me of Grommet when he hides his head under a blanket – even though his whole body shows, he assumes that no one can see him because he can’t see anyone. Stick in some headphones and don’t look at anyone – presto, you are alone!

More evidence on my adoption of tube etiquette? A few days ago Bill and I took 2 available seats on a tube train, but were separated by one person (as often happens). The woman actually offered to change seats with us so we could sit together. Let me make this clear: she spoke to us. This is the first time in nine months that anyone has ever spoken to me on a tube train, and let me tell you, was I surprised! It was actually quite shocking. I’m starting to wonder if I will seem incredibly anti-social when I get home. I’m sure all of you will let me know ☺

Whales...in London?

2006-01-20T19:53:00.000Z

Aline writes: The big news here is a whale that has strayed into the Thames. Unfortunately, this seems to be more serious than Humphrey's foray into the SF Bay (remember that?). Since the Thames is tidal, there is a big chance that he will beach himself. Plus he is a bottle-nose whale who usually feeds at four times the depth of the Thames at high tide. Like the SF Bay, the Thames is fresh water, which will cause problems for him if he stays in more than several days. But it seems like the biggest danger is that no one here seems to have any idea how to rescue a whale, and they don't have the equipment needed to safely rescue him. So keep your fingers crossed - I wish they would call the Marine Mammal folks in SF to get advice!

Check out the pictures at the BBC.

Update: Well, they tried using a barge to move the whale back to the sea, but it died before it reached the drop-off point. So sad... :-(

Hidden London: The Memorial in Postman's Park

2006-01-18T22:05:00.000Z

Bill writes: Hidden away in a tiny park tucked between King Edward Street, Little Britain, and Angel Street lies a most unusual memorial. The park, called "Postman's Park" because of its lunchtime use by workers from the old General Post Office, was turned into a memorial by the Victorian painter George Watts. A social radical, Watts wrote to the London Times in 1887, suggesting that a park be created as a memorial to those who had died attempting to save others. When the Times turned down his suggestion, he proceeded to create the memorial himself. The result is a row of covered benches set into a wall 50 feet in length. Along this wall are a series of Doulton tiles, each detailing a heroic act of lifesaving. What makes the tiles particularly affecting to read is that many of the tiles describe the actions of young children, many of whom died trying to rescue others.

The Californian Mudlarks

2006-01-13T16:21:00.000Z

Bill writes: London Walks is an outfit here that presents a series of 2-hour long walks throughout London, for a mere 5 pounds a walk. One walk in particular sounded especially interesting, as we'd heard about it from our teacher Molly in our London Class--archeological beachcombing along the Thames. This is something that's gone on for many years, and those who do it are called "mudlarks."

So last week, Aline and I went to Tower Hill station, just outside the Tower of London. The weather was in the low 30's, not exactly the kind of beach weather we were used to, but on we went. The person leading the walk had been an archeologist with the Museum of London, so we were in good hands.

We walked past the Tower and the ice skaters.

We headed west along the Thames for a block and then, just behind Custom House, we all walked down past the pier to the narrow foreshore of the north bank of the Thames. (Now you can see why they're called mudlarks. Fortunately we found a very nice dry part of the shore.) Custom House is a good site, as products went through there for centuries and were often confiscated and dumped behind the building into the Thames. Plus, there was a Roman palace nearby, accounting for the roman remains found on the foreshore.

For thousands of years, junk has been tossed onto this spot or washed up on it as the river flowed past. Material setted down into the soft mud, was covered, and years or centuries later would be uncovered. This pattern has repeated itself for millenia, and about every two weeks material is uncovered, moves down the banks with the tides, and empties into the river.

Because of the action of the water against the rock, you can only find fragments and shards. Yet it's amazing the amount and variety of material that is laying exposed along the shore, particularly as you learn how to sort out the modern junk from the ancient. For instance, medieval bricks lay next to victorian ones. As you can see in the photo, one of the most common finds are the clay pipes, dating from around the beginning of the 1600's. The white pipes are the clay stems and the brick with the hole in the center is a medieval clay roof tile (the hole is where the tile was pegged to the roof).

Here is the result of a less than two hour's worth of mudlarking over two days:

In order to get some remaining bits and pieces identified, I made an appointment with Faye Simpson, an archeologist at the Museum of London. She was extremely kind to spend a half hour with us going over the remainder of our finds, and consulting with her colleagues as needed before describing the material to us. She then took photographs so that she could add our material to the museum's online database. She has a dream job--half her time at the Museum of London as an archeologist and the other half at the British Museum. And she loves her work. It's good to know such people exist.

Here's a sampling of what we found, arranged in chronological order.

It's especially wonderful knowing that these are handmade artifacts, for instance, knowing that the long indentation along the roman brick where it bends into a ninety degree angle was created by the brickmaker running his finger down the brick before he fired it. It's a tactile reminder of the past.

Celebrating 12th Night

2006-01-12T22:15:00.000Z

Aline writes: I bet you didn’t know that the traditional celebration of 12th Night (6 January) was once bigger than Christmas. This was one of the many interesting tidbits I learned at the celebration of 12th Night at the Geffrye Museum. You can see the crowd beginning to gather in the garden to celebrate the traditional ending of the Christmas season and the visit of the Magi to the baby Jesus.

The celebration began with a brass band

You can see that there was a good size crowd, even though it was pretty chilly outside.

We all had a nice cup of mulled wine and a piece of 12th Night cake (a kind of fruitcake).
I took a picture of the goodies before I dug in

But the 12th Night cake isn’t just something yummy to eat. One tradition of 12th Night is the crowning of a king and queen for the night, who then run the household. The boy or man who finds the bean hidden in the cake becomes the king, and the girl or woman who finds a pea becomes the queen. We had a king and queen for our celebration, chosen by finding a gold or silver coin (much easier than trying to find a bean or a pea in a fruitcake!) Here they are with the announcer. You can see their laurel wreath crowns. We all curtseyed to the queen and bowed to the king.

Then lots of Christmas Carol singing, a favorite English pastime (by this point, I even know the alternate tune to Away in the Manger.) And, of course, it seems that at every English celebration there is always either a fire or fireworks. 12th Night is a traditional time to burn the holly and ivy that have been used as decorations, so it was a bonfire this time. As you can see, it burns really brightly!

I really love having an actual end to the Christmas season, where you take down the decorations and burn them. It's so satisfying somehow!

Ghosts of Christmases Past…

2006-01-11T22:56:00.000Z

Aline writes: I went to a wonderful Christmas exhibit at the Geffrye Museum last week. Our loyal readers may remember that the Geffrye Museum has a series of rooms showing English furnishings over the last several hundred years. For Christmas, they decorated each period room with Christmas decorations appropriate to the time, which made for a fascinating display. I learned a lot about Christmas customs – here are a few examples:

In early Tudor times, holly and mistletoe were prominently displayed with citrus fruits. The confectionaries were quite elaborate, in the shapes of all sorts of funny things. See the close-up for an example – sweets in the shape of bacon and eggs!

This next photo shows a recreation of Samuel Pepys’ Christmas dinner in 1662, recorded in his famous diary. It consisted of a “mess of brave plum porridge and a roasted pullet… and I sent for a mince-pie abroad, my wife not being well enough.” The decorations are modest, since it had not been that long since the Puritans (during the Civil War) had banned all Christmas celebrations.

In the mid 1700’s, the influence of Dutch customs came to England: on St. Nicholas’ Day, December 6, children left out their clogs filled with straw as fodder for St. Nicholas’ horse, which would then be exchanged for presents and sweets.

By the late Georgian period, Christmas had fallen out of favor, but the middle-class used it to throw elegant parties. This room is set up for a whist party, and the greenery in the room is limited to laurel, reflecting the value that the master of the house placed on classical traditions.

In the mid 1850’s we can see many of the traditions that we still have today. A Christmas tree dominates the room, with the children’s presents below it. It was probably Prince Albert’s enthusiasm for the Christmas tree tradition that made it so popular in England during Victorian times (it had been a tradition in Germany since the 16th century.)

I thought the most interesting thing is how Christmas decorations and celebrations had fallen in and out of favor over the years!

New Year’s, or, Will We Ever Stop Feasting?

2006-01-11T00:00:00.000Z

Aline writes: We also had a wonderful New Year’s. We spent New Year’s Eve at home – a 24-hour tube strike meant it was too difficult for us to get down to the Thames. So we had a lovely feast of British food at home from the Borough Market in London: vegetarian pate made with Stilton and Guinness, savory pies from Pieminister with ale chutney, and another Christmas pudding, although we didn’t like this one as well as the one served at Christmas dinner. British television is lots of fun over Christmas – full of movies, mysteries, and dramas. They have been running a new production of Bleak House for the past few months – 15 episodes! - and although we were enthralled, we missed a few episodes. But we lucked out - they ran the whole series on New Year’s Eve, from 7-12, so that was our entertainment. As it ended a few minutes before midnight, we climbed up to our roof terrace and were able to see an amazing array of fireworks at midnight – I counted at least 12 major displays visible by turning around 360 degrees on our roof. I have probably seen more fireworks in this year in London than in the rest of my life – they love fireworks here! The display at the London Eye was spectacular, even on television.

On New Year’s Day, we went to a party at a friend’s house who we met in our London Retrospective class. Our host lives in a semi-detached house in the outskirts of London, which are apparently incredibly common here. In fact, she advised me ahead of time that they “lived in squalor,” (typical English self-deprecation) and not to expect too much. What surprised me is that walking into her house was like walking into a copy of Bill’s cousins’ house, which is also a “semi” on the outskirts of London. Apparently they are all built on the same plan. I think her warning reflected a view of Americans – that we all live in big splendid houses. She has obviously never visited anyone in the Bay Area ☺.

Anyway, we were invited to come at noon, for what we assumed would be Sunday lunch. It was a delightful party. They must have served 3 courses of appetizers, including hot morsels like egg rolls and cheese tarts, plus nuts, cheese biscuits, crackers with cream cheese and pickles, etc. And, of course, champagne. Then about 2:30 we started on lunch, with seafood pie (with mashed potatoes on top) and a chestnut and bean casserole for the multiple vegetarians in the group. All was delicious. But it doesn’t end there. Oh no. Then a cheese course. And the first dessert course: another delicious Christmas pudding (flaming!) with brandy sauce. And if that wasn’t enough, another dessert course, pecan pie (just like home!). We rolled back to the lounge (living room) for coffee and (gasp!) candy. By this time it was about 5:30, and it took us another 1.5 hours to be able to get up from the couch to leave.

But of course, it wasn’t just about the food. The company was really splendid – a variety of people of all ages. Interesting things I found at this party: no one talked about work – we discussed London, travel, books, movies, and politics – but not work. Also, after all that amazing food, not one person complimented the cook or mentioned the food at all. I was amazed, but perhaps it is a cultural convention. I of course privately told her how delicious everything was, since I couldn’t resist years of my own cultural conventions! We didn’t get home until after 8:00 – it was a wonderful way to spend the day, and to begin the New Year!

Christmas Day Lunch

2006-01-10T23:47:00.000Z

Aline writes: as you can see from our earlier Merry Christmas picture, we had a delightful Christmas meal at a local restaurant. Since all public transportation is shut down on Christmas, we needed to find a restaurant that was open and within walking distance. A wonderful restaurant just down the street, the Formosa Dining Room, fit the bill. They served Christmas lunch until 4:00 – lunch seems to be the traditional holiday meal here, probably related to the traditional Sunday lunch everyone seems to eat. As you can see from the picture, the restaurant is on the ground floor of a lovely old Victorian building.

So we had a delicious meal off the Christmas set menu. I chose to celebrate with cider, while Bill opted for beer since the dining room is attached to a great pub, the Prince Alfred. We popped our Christmas crackers and put on our paper crowns. We got quite nice prizes in them: playing cards for me, and a mini-screwdriver set for Bill. Our meal started with a pear sorbet, and then we had a watercress, Stilton, and walnut salad. For our “mains”, I had sea bass with greens and gnocchi, while Bill had a traditional turkey meal with stuffing, roasted potatoes and the ubiquitous brussel sprouts (England’s favorite winter veg). Then we opted for Christmas pudding. It was a yummy steamed pudding with dried fruit and nuts. We resisted the mince pies at the end, and went for a nice chilly walk along the Regent’s Canal afterwards to recover. And then home – and no dishes to do!

But we did do more than eat on Christmas - as you saw earlier, Grommet played in his own way with the Christmas tree while we were out, and we exchanged our Christmas stockings and had fun playing with our presents (the rules for our stocking stuffers - they have to be small, edible, readable, and/or disposable.) It was a great relaxing day.

Christmas Eve, or Carols by Candlelight

2006-01-10T23:41:00.000Z

Aline writes: We celebrated Christmas Eve by attending Carols by Candlelight at the Royal Albert Hall. The Royal Albert hall is an amazing space – we were lucky enough to have fabulous seats that actually swiveled around to face the stage!

As you can see, it was a jolly affair, as all the performers were dressed in 18th century dress, and we all had Santa hats.

It was a wonderful mixture of classical music and sing-along Christmas carols. And this brings up something I have been astounded at – did you know that even though we share many of the same Christmas carols with the English, we don’t always use the same tune? I have attended several sing-along Christmas carol events in the last month, and when I open my mouth to sing – I then realize that everyone else is singing a different tune. For example, Away in the Manager here has a tune that sounds like a Shaker hymn. Fortunately by the time we got to the Royal Albert Hall, I had already embarrassed myself at enough other venues such as Trafalgar Square so that I was prepared to let others start and then follow along. I wonder how this happened?

It was a splendid festive evening, since despite the fancy dress and wigs, the conductor kept up a steady patter of truly bad puns and jokes. But the fun didn’t end there! As you can see from the picture below, we managed to spread cheer throughout London after the concert too. I hope you all had as merry a Christmas Eve as we did!

Christmas Scenes: Hampstead Heath

2005-12-28T19:20:00.000Z

Bill writes: As that old cooped-up-in-the city feeling has been stealing up on us again lately, we took the Underground this afternoon to Hampstead for a long walk round the heath.

First up is a bit of literary history we encountered on our approach to the heath. Here is the house responsible for the most evil character in Bond lore. I'll give you a hint: "Do you expect me to talk?" "No, Mr. Bond. I expect you to die." Ian Fleming hated this house, its architecture, and the architect who designed it. The house is at Number 2 Willow Road, located just before the heath, and housed the modernist architect Erno Goldfinger. Fleming so despised the architect's work that he named his new villain Auric Goldfinger.

Inside the heath, there was still snow on the ground, but the sky was clear, and everyone was either out for a walk to the top of Parliament hill.

Or flying a kite (or three) once they'd reached the top.

And here is why there there will always be an England, and a quintessentially British wit. All along the path were benches, invariably memorialized with plenty of sentiment for departed family members. Then there was this one (which you may want to click to enlarge).

Christmas Scenes: Regent's Park

2005-12-27T22:53:00.000Z

Bill writes: As it had snowed, we took a walk through Regent's Park this afternoon. The bandstand showed some powder.

The fountain was frozen over.

And the roses, well, I suppose they'll keep their secrets under the snow for now.

A White After-Christmas

2005-12-27T22:49:00.000Z

Bill writes: We woke up to the first snow of London this year, with our communal garden showing a white dusting.

Merry Christmas and Happy Chanukkah!

2005-12-25T18:07:00.000Z

Merry Christmas and Happy Channukah from Bill and Aline.

And from Grommet, may all your holiday wishes come true.

Christmas Scenes: Piccadilly Circus & Leicester Square

2005-12-23T22:14:00.001Z

Bill writes: We were out finishing up our shopping today on Piccadilly Street. To get there, we took the Tube to Piccadilly Circus.

Then we went walking along Piccadilly Street, where I noticed this handyman's truck. The strange thing is, if you look closely (click the picture to blow it up), you can just make out where the exhaust pipe was blowing bubbles. Just as strange is that the door of the truck says that he's "The Singing Handyman," so the driver had loudspeakers connected to some kind of a karaoke system and a headset, where he sang hits like "Hooked on a Feeling" as he drove down the street.

From there it was off through the theatre district and Leicester Square, where they've set up a little carnival.

It's a PoundLand Christmas, Carole

2005-12-22T20:43:00.000Z

Bill writes: Thanks to Carole, the nice lady who helped us at PoundLand, we were able to buy all of our decorations for the Christmas tree and the flat for 8 quid. (I think the Scrooge in me must have been coming out during the holidays.)

And here was the resulting tree:

But all was not as it seemed, for hiding in a forgotten shadow of the tree was the Cat of Christmas Yet To Come.

Are these the shadows of the things that Will be, or are they shadows of things that May be, only?

No, Spirit! Oh no, no!

Cruising on the Rhine: Other Interesting Sights

2005-12-20T22:15:00.000Z

Aline writes: You might think that Germany is all food and churches, and you would be right! No, just kidding. There were many other fascinating things, as you can see below. For our final installment on our Germany cruise, here is a miscellany of various sights.

Roman Ruins
Since we have seen so much evidence of the Romans in Britain, it was fun to look for them in Germany too. We found them in Cologne, in these remains of the original city wall,

and also in the small town of Boppard, where monastery walls were built on top of the roman city walls.

Eberbach Monastery
This monastery was home to the Cistercian monks in the 12th century, where they built an enormous church, made wine, etc. This first picture is the monk's dormitory - windows with no glass. Brrrr.

This is where the movie The Name of the Rose was filmed for you movie buffs.

Heidelberg Castle
Built between the 13th and 17th centuries, Heidelberg castle is now mostly in ruins due to the 30 Years’ War. We had fun tromping around on the ice - it was quite treacherous for us Californians.

The view of Heidelberg from the castle was very nice.

Statue of Wilhelm I
In Koblenz, this statue of Wilhelm I is at the junction of the Rhine and Mosel rivers. Thanks to Allied bombs, it was destroyed during WWII; in fact, there are pictures of it hanging upside down where it was left for almost a year (according to our guide, to make a point to the Germans). The statue mysteriously disappeared, and was replaced with a copy in 1993. The rumor was that the original statue was stolen by an enterprising German salvage yard.

In fact, the original head was found in a local salvage yard and put in the town museum.

Siegfried’s Mechanical Music Museum
This was a fabulous collection of mechanical instruments, including this instrument that actually plays violins as well as the other instruments needed for an orchestra. According to our guide, these were developed so that music hall owners wouldn’t have to pay an orchestra.

This was beautiful, especially when the figures move to the music.

This one was just creepy.

Cruising on the Rhine: Churches

2005-12-20T20:28:00.000Z

Aline writes: The highlight of our Germany trip was, for me, the churches. Since we’ve been in England and have seen so many churches, I find myself drawn to the Norman ones, such as the Templar church in London. There is something about the wonderful roundness of the arches and the architecture. What I didn’t know is that there are lots of Romanesque churches in Germany, as well as many other lovely churches from other eras. I hope you enjoy the photos below

The Frankfurt Dom has some beautiful medieval memorials

Also a wonderful medieval sculpture of the last supper.

The cathedral in Mainz was a huge structure with a nice cloister.

The most interesting feature was underneath – in the last 50 years they discovered an underground chamber that is a homage to Christ’s resting place in Jerusalem. You can just catch a glimpse of this here.

And for something completely different, this baroque interiour of another Mainz church was really pretty

Our final city, Cologne, turned into a marathon church-visiting day for us. After a walking tour of the City in the morning we visited the Cologne Cathedral. It may be the most remarkable and awe-inspiring church I have ever visited. Pictures cannot do justice to the scale of it – it seems impossible that human hands built it. But here are a few anyway ☺

We spent the rest of our day in Cologne walking around the city visiting various churches. Only the cathedral was left standing after WWII; the rest of the churches we visited were rebuilt, some almost completely. One of our favorites was St Pantaleon, a former Benedictine Monastery. It has an amazing late-Gothic choir screen.

But my personal favorite was St. Gereon.

Considered by some to be the most unusual church in Germany. It has a small oval section that was built in the 4th century on the graves of martyrs, that was then enclosed with a four-story structure in the 13th century, as well as a long traditional nave.

Cruising on the Rhine: Frankfurt and on the Boat

2005-12-17T22:05:00.000Z

Aline writes: Our trip down the Rhine began with our flight to Frankfurt, where our river ship was moored. It was wonderful to be able to fly to Germany in less than 1.5 hours! We seemed to be the only ones on our cruise (all Americans) that didn’t have jet lag problems.

We flew into Frankfurt one day early to give us a chance to do some sightseeing. Our hotel window gave us a lovely view of the very cold weather – snow!

We comforted ourselves with a visit to one of the famous apple-wine taverns for dinner.

It was like being at a huge party since the tavern had communal seating. The apple-wine was delicious, dry like French hard cider, and it went beautifully with what Bill claims are the best sausages he has ever eaten.

We spent the next day wandering around Frankfurt to the cathedral, the streets, and of course, the Christmas market, which pretty much takes up the whole center of town. These fellows sang some very nice songs at the market.

We picked our hotel to be quite close to the ship, and so were able to walk from our hotel. Here is our first view of our weeklong home. Isn’t it long and low?

Our cabin was on the top floor. I wish we had taken a picture of our cabin, as the cabins were very comfortable with a huge window where you could watch the castles going down the Rhine. It was especially nice as all cabins had an outside window with no walkway outside, so you had a lot of privacy. Here are some typical sights going down the Rhine.

The Rhine was quite low, as you can see in this picture. In fact, there was a rumor that we only had 5 feet beyond the minimum needed for our keel, and that cruises after us were cancelled due to the low water. All I know is the gangplanks were very steep due to the low water!

Since we had never been on a cruise, we didn’t know what to expect, but they did provide some entertainment, such as the last night’s Captain’s dinner where they had a baked Alaska parade, seen below. Other entertainment included a truly terrible lounge singer, and an interesting glass blower, as well as a crew talent show. Kind of surreal, actually.

We met some very nice people, especially these two couples that we palled around with.

The man to my left was my favorite buddy, Ken. He is a farmer from Iowa, and I think I was the first person he had ever met who didn’t eat meat. He was alternatively fascinated and horrified. He did tell me that schnitzel wasn’t meat – I believe he thought that if he could get me to eat a bite I would be cured ☺. But he and his wife Karen (to his left) were very sweet, and it was really fun to get to know someone that wasn’t in the computer industry. Although our common ground was indeed QuickBooks, which he uses to run his business. Even in Germany, there is no escape.

The other couple is Judi and Larry from Texas, and it turns out that we even had an acquaintance in common. All in all we quite enjoyed the cruise: we met lots of nice people, but there was also plenty of time to ourselves. We hardly ever got on a bus – our boat would dock, and we usually took a 2-hour walking tour of the town with a local guide, with lots of free time to explore afterwards. It was a great way to see lots of things in a country that we had never visited before.

Christmas Scenes: Trafalgar Square

2005-12-17T18:52:00.000Z

Bill writes: After the panto the other night, we dropped by Trafalgar Square, where people meet for caroling every night now. The square always looks lovely at night, and in the clear cold Christmas nights, particularly so.

Not far from Charing Cross, the square is always a meeting place for people, where shows, music events, booths, art installations, and the like can be found year round. Even Nelson's Column becomes part of the event.

This night the caroling took place under the traditional Norwegian Christmas Tree. Since 1947, a Norwegian spruce has been donated annually from Oslo, the capital of Norway as thanks for Britain's support during World War II.

Sir Ian McKellen: He’s Got Legs and He Knows How to Use Them…(Sorry ZZ!)

2005-12-17T16:42:00.000Z

Aline writes: Perhaps only in British pantomime would you get to see the greatest living Shakespearean actor hamming it up while cross-dressing in fabulous outfits like curlers and fur, as Wonder-Woman/Britannia, and as a Carol Channing look-alike. Yes, it’s Aladdin at the Old Vic theatre, a classic British pantomime. For those of you unfamiliar with pantos, they are a Christmas tradition, musical plays based on a fairy tale with cross-dressing roles and audience participation. When we saw Aladdin a few days ago at a matinee the audience was filled with children who knew exactly what to do. Hissing at the villain is encouraged, and by making as much noise as possible when anyone comes near the lamp, the audience helps guard the lamp from the evil magician (not that it works in the end of course.) It was a thoroughly enchanting experience. It warms my heart that camp (normally only seen at this level in the American theatre at Beach Blanket Babylon), cross-dressing, and a gay marriage between 2 policeman characters is considered suitable for children here. In fact, it has been suggested that it is by seeing these pantos at a young impressionable age that makes Britishers love the theatre so much as adults. In any case, it is a tradition that has been developing over hundreds of years and shows no signs of diminishing, thank goodness!

We couldn’t take any pictures during the play, but these pictures of some show posters give you a good idea of how wonderful Sir Ian looks. And what great legs he has. If only you could see him in action!

Christmas Scenes: Covent Garden

2005-12-15T22:56:00.000Z

Bill writes: Covent Garden has lots of little shops which are great for Christmas shopping.

There are even a few rides up for kids and adventurous adults.

And this man wearing the biggest fur coat I've ever seen. He looks like he swallowed a bear, just.

Cruising on the Rhine: The Christmas Markets

2005-12-15T12:01:00.000Z

Bill writes: From late November through early December we took a river cruise along the Rhine in Germany. We visited cities including Frankfurt, Mainz, Heidleberg, Rudesheim, Cologne, and Boppard. One of the reasons we picked this time of year for this trip is that the Christmas markets had just opened in towns big and little all through the country. The markets were similar in all the towns. They included numerous stalls selling handmade Christmas gifts, such as ornaments and jewelry, wooly things to keep warm while visiting the Christmas fairs, and of course German food.

For instance, here is a typical Christmas market in Frankfurt.

Some markets had a life-size version of those candle-driven mechanisms where little wooden angels and things go round and round.

And what food and drink! Fried potatoes with applesauce. Fried sausages. In fact, fried everything. Here is a booth for deep fried camembert cheese.

Even entire booths for candy canes.

And of course sausages everywhere.

I'd like you to especially note the man with the cap who's eating a sausage in the left background. His name is Rudie Shenkmann. According to the record books, he is the only German national to have normal cholesterol levels. Scientists remain baffled.

Aline's personal highlight was finding this hot chocolate booth. I helped her navigate the place with my small knowledge of German. After asking the woman behind the counter for a cup of hot chocolate for Aline, the woman turned to Aline and uttered the words that will forever endear Germany to my wife: "mit Bailey's?" If you look closely, you can see Aline giving the thumb's up sign.

While the markets were fascinating during the day, some of the settings looked even better at night. Here is a final picture, of the fair in front of the Cologne Catherdral.

Thanksgiving Part II

2005-12-15T10:51:00.000Z

Bill writes: A few people have written asking how our Thanksgiving dinner at the restaurant turned out. Very well, thanks. Although the woman with whom I made the dinner reservations repeatedly said that they would absolutely, positively have mashed potatoes with the turkey (as it was a requirement for me), you guessed it--when our dinner arrived, no mash.

However, the dessert more than made up for it. I had the best pumpkin pie ever, and Aline had a slice of the world's pecaniest pecan pie. It was all pecans, all the way down to about 1/4-inch from the bottom crust, where there was a narrow layer of filling. However, eating it turned into a culinary Project Mohole. Here is the photographic evidence.

Laura and Mary Visit

2005-12-12T18:10:00.000Z

Bill writes: A few weeks ago, Laura wrote to say she and Mary had some free time and frequent flier miles, and now here they are! They have been all over London, and we've had a blast with them: drinks in the pub, shopping in the Borough Market, drinks in another pub, playing Backgammon with Aline, fish and chips, the Cabinet War Rooms and Churchill Museum, drinks at the pub and dinner above the pub, and scary amounts of chocolate.

Here are Mary and Laura playing backgammon in a match refereed by Grommet.

And here we are having fish and chips.

We're Back

2005-12-05T17:48:00.000Z

Bill writes: We're back, and I think Grommet's pleased. We'll post about the Rhine sometime after he finishes his nap.

Out of Town Nov. 26 to Dec. 5

2005-11-25T21:30:00.000Z

Bill writes: Just a note that we'll be out of town Saturday, November 26 until Monday, December 5. If Grommet lets us.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2005-11-24T13:38:00.000Z

Bill writes: Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

We found that it isn't easy tracking down a place to have Thanksgiving dinner in London. We found several that said they did American-style Thanksgiving--but it was going be things like salmon for the main dish and tarts or flan for dessert. Or if the menu said "Turkey with all the trimmings!" the trimmings were inevitably something very british, like boiled miniature potatoes and leeks. C'mon!

Well, we finally found one restaurant, called Villandry, that we hope will do it proper, with mashed potatoes for the turkey and pumpkin pie for dessert. Just as nature intended.

We're keeping our fingers crossed!

The First Capital of England

2005-11-18T23:50:00.000Z

Aline writes: On Wednesday Bill and I visited Winchester. It has many claims to fame: as the fifth-largest Roman town in Britain, as the first capital of England where many Saxon kings are buried, and as William the Conqueror’s seat of government. It was a wonderful town to visit, and it has something from every period of history, plus it is a vibrant modern town. This town is one of many that we have visited over the years thanks to our bible, Daytrips London, which we have been working our way through for over 20 years. Thanks to our favorite tour book, we knew what rail station to start from, how long it would take to get there, had a walking tour map and descriptions of places of historical interest. Just a small plug in case anyone is planning to come over here!

Anyway, we began at the Westgate, one of two remaining medieval gatehouses, built in the 12th century. Be sure and spot the fellow walking though it to get an idea of the scale.

Just around the corner is the Great Hall, the only remaining part of Winchester castle, built at William the Conqueror’s behest. It’s imposing from the outside

But amazing from the inside. Many important events took place here, including Sir Walter Raleigh being sentenced to death. As you can see, it has a fabulous roof.

Also inside it is what used to be considered King Arthur’s round table. It has now been dated to the 13th century, so it’s too late for King Arthur, but it’s a beautiful and fascinating object nonetheless. It’s inscribed with “This is the round table of Arthur with 24 of his named knights.”

But for me the highlight was Winchester Cathedral.

I have always wanted to visit it since I heard Graham Nash sing, “I'm flying in Winchester cathedral / Sunlight pouring through the break of day” on the “No Nukes” record I had as a teenager (I know at least Eric remembers it). But it surpassed all my expectations. Begun in 1079, there was a purity about this cathedral that most others I have visited don’t have (this especially struck me after the chaos of Westminster Abbey that I saw a few weeks ago). It may be that with the longest nave in England, and with a screen that was perforated so you could really see the whole length, it felt like a cohesive whole.

Or it may be that the simple unadorned Norman section, reminiscent of the Templar church in London, evoked a beauty all its own, including the wonderful medieval paintings that have been uncovered.

Or maybe it was because it not only houses the bones of many early Saxon kings and the site of the shrine of St. Swithun (that end of the cathedral was trampled by so many medieval pilgrims that, in conjunction with the high water table, the floor visibly tilts down and was only saved by a diver who managed to dive down and repair the pylons under the crypt), but also the grave of Jane Austen.

Even the crypt was beautiful, adorned by a single modern statue of a figure that holds a cup of water, which fills up during the winter when the crypt floods since the Winchester water table is so high.

In any case I was completely enchanted.

And it doesn’t end there! Next to the cathedral is the city museum, that has a wonderful little collection of roman archeological finds, including whole mosaic floors, and statuary and paintings (shown in pics below) from the old Minster, which dated from the 8th century and was torn down when the new cathedral was built.

The second medieval city gate, the kingsgate, isn’t quite as grand, but as you can see by my shivering self in the picture, it is imposing enough! And check out my first ever winter hat from Marks and Spencer. ☺

Like many other English towns, it still has a wonderful market cross within its pedestrianized downtown, which is also charming.

As you can tell, I really loved this town!

The Lord Mayor's Show

2005-11-18T20:33:00.000Z

Bill writes: Every year, the city of London gets a new Lord Mayor, an office that has existed since 1189. This is not the mayor of London (currently Ken Livingston), but the Lord Mayor of the City of London, the inner square mile of ancient Londinium. For one year, he is the head of the Corporation of London. During that year, he (there's only been one female Lord Mayor) leads an incredibly busy life, presiding over many hundreds of civic and financial and charitable duties in London and overseas. Within the city limits, he holds the second highest office in the nation, above that of the Prime Minister, and second only to the Queen.

David Brewer is the new Lord Mayor, and was sworn in on November 12th. This involves a complex ceremony and includes two parades as he processes in a State Coach that dates from 1757, proceeded by some 150 groups and floats.

To give you an idea of the procession, here are some photos of it. It ranges from military bands, to funky small town floats, to Pearly Kings, to sumptuous carriages. The Lord Mayor is in the final photos in his golden carriage.

Gwyneth Paltrow, Eel Pie, and I

2005-11-15T21:11:00.000Z

Bill writes: Today I had my London class, which was in Greenwich this week. Got into town an hour before lunch so I went here for lunch.

I think I know why each of the dishes is served with liquor. I mean it would take that, wouldn't it? A lot. Well, as it turned out, they were out of eel, as they only serve it Thursdays through Sundays and today was Tuesday. Just my luck.

For class, we went into the Painted Hall. However, we had to sneak round quietly, as they were filming. I was suprised they let us in at all, but as we were mostly a well-behaved bunch (this is Britain, after all), they let us stay while they lit and shot a few scenes. Here they're getting ready.

And here they're filming (NAME DROP WARNING! NAME DROP WARNING!) Gwyneth Paltrow (who is that blurry brownhaired person in the center at the back).

I almost ended up in the scene as they were rounding up several extras to come in as we were leaving, but it would have been rude to ditch my class for a pathetic grasp at fame. (Though I was ready for my closeup, Mr. DeMille. Plus, all the extras got free food at the catering truck after. Probably eel.)

After class, I also almost managed to walk through a take as I was crossing through between buildings. Luckily I saw them and stopped in time, and as the security guard was thankful I didn't mess things up for her, she and I struck up a conversation and she let me stay around and watch them filming (NAME DROP WARNING!) Martin Freeman from "The Office" as he rode off in a Ferrari with a bunch of guys in the back. Mr. Freeman is the one on the right.

Granada, Spain. Part 2.

2005-11-14T09:33:00.000Z

Bill writes: The Alhambra sits on top of a mountain overlooking Granada. The name "Alhambra," "the red one," derives from the color of the palaces when seen from the city.

Once we entered the Alhambra, the first thing we encountered were the gardens of the Generalife. The Alhambra is filled with gardens. The gardens and the weather reminded me of California--looked like it could have been in some garden in San Jose.

The entrance at the other end of the Alhambra, the 9th Century fortress of La Alcazaba, is blocked by an enormous door. The ramp leading up to it was designed to hold off attackers, as was the door. It was designed to impress and intimidate. You can see how immense it is by noticing Aline at the bottom of it.

Most of the buildings were built by a succession of medieval Arab kings. However, the newest building was erected for King Charles V. He and the missus wanted a palace in the Alhambra, so they tore down an existing moorish one and built their own, based on the circle and the square. From the outside, it's a big square.

While from the inside, it's a big circle.

But the great palaces--there are several within the Alhambra--are where the real interest and beauty lies. Everything is symmetrical, everything is delicate, and sturdy, and balanced, and open--to the sky and to views of water. Perhaps the most immediately striking thing, though, is the carvings. The walls are inscribed with text from the Koran as well as with geometric shapes.

And this extends to the ceilings as well.

Entire walls are covered with this incising.

As well as arches.

And not even the ceilings escape the intricate designs.

Along with the incised designs, the other features you find throughout are water and symmetry.

We also went on a night tour, and you can see the difference between how the same building looked during the day and at night.

Another feature is that there are views everywhere, views of the city, views for the women to view the men in the court, and views of the omnipresent water.

Not suprisingly, we had a wonderful time. Though, the Alhambra has an emotional overwhelming effect like stepping inside the Louvre, and then stepping inside the paintings inside the Louvre.

Granada, Spain. Part 1

2005-11-13T22:43:00.000Z

Aline writes: In September we went to Granada, Spain. Located in the south of Spain, Granada was wonderfully dry and hot, reminding me of beautiful California weather from the moment we got out of the plane. And it’s not only the weather that reminded me of our home; the valley around Granada is also reminiscent as you can see in this picture.

Of course the crown jewel of Granada is the Alhambra, where we spent much of our time. But Granada is more than the Alhambra, as you can see below!

One of the most interesting sections of Granada is the old Moorish area called the Albayzín. The Arabs living here between the 12th and 15th centuries protected their privacy with the narrow streets, high walls, private courtyards, and large squares. It’s quite hilly, as you can see from the pictures.

I really loved it, as it was a wonderful combination of historic decay and yet still a vital living neighborhood.

And it has a spectacular view of the Alhambra, both from the bottom of the hills

and from San Nicolás Square, where we stopped for tapas.

Within the Albayzín is the remains of one of the old Moorish baths, the Banuelo, seen here.

We saw the Capilla Real (Royal Chapel) where Ferdinand and Isabella are buried (this really brought my school days back to me: “In 1492 Columbus sailed the ocean blue…,”and the cathedral, but no pictures were allowed. I liked the Royal Chapel best, since it was more intimate and historically more interesting. It also had a nice crypt, and I love a good crypt!

Another beautiful 14th century Moorish building, the Corral del Carbon, is one of the oldest buildings in the city, and was used first as a lodging house, and then later as a Christian theatre.

We also went for a city tour, as Granada has a lot to offer besides the Alhambra. Here is the bullring

And some of the beautiful buildings downtown.

Finally, there were lots of cats in Granada, all looking quite healthy. Here is Grommet’s doppelganger in the Alhambra – you could almost swear it was him!

Even the guards cuddled the cats. We ate dinner one night at the Alhambra, and I fed some of my fish secretly to a posse of cats who hovered around our outdoor table.

Speaking of the food, we had some delicious meals: spanish tortilla, fried fish, gazpacho, and yummy sherry. But I have to say it was hard as a non-meat eater - there were limited choices which got a little monotonous after 4 days. The best meals we had were in little cafes/bars.

Finally, I'll leave it to Bill to describe the indescribable - the fabulous Alhambra!

Saddest Sight I Know

2005-11-09T18:38:00.000Z

Bill writes: The only food I miss from home is Laura Scudder's Nutty Peanut Butter. It's only peanuts and salt, and is impossible to get over here. The closest I've been able to find is organic peanut butters carried in various stores here. But, so that they can make it so that you needn't refrigerate it, they add palm oil, which gives it a slightly sweet and milky aftertaste. My one and only jar of Laura Scudder's finally gave out a couple of weeks ago. I figured that would be the last of it and took a memorial photo. (Yeah, it was a low and lonely point in my life.)

Well, just when I thought I should give up the flat, pack, and move back to the states to pick up another jar, this is what arrived in the mail from our friends Karen and Larry.

So thank you so much, guys, you saved the trip for me!

What I’ve learned about the British from Television.

2005-11-08T18:43:00.000Z

Aline writes: Due to a long horrible bout of bronchitis last week, I have had lots of time to watch television. I thought I would share what I have observed from all those hours (really I am just trying to keep my mind from completely turning to mush.) We have satellite tv, which gives us hundreds of channels with almost nothing on, just like home. But when you are sick, well, who’s picky? My completely unscientific analysis based on gross generalizations is as follows ☺:

The British love mysteries. I mean, there is a constant stream of Miss Marple, Poirot, Sherlock Homes, Dalziel, Cadfael, Morse, etc.. This was great for me, as I am a huge British mystery fan. Even if I have seen them over and over.

The British are obsessed by auctions. There are 4 or 5 auction shows on, where contestants find treasures in their attics, find treasures at a boot sale, find treasures at their friend’s houses and then auction the items off to win prizes or make money. I found these oddly compelling, although that may be due to the amount of medication I was taking.

The British are proud and interested in their history. There are programs on every day about Henry VIII, Elizabeth I, What the Romans Gave to Us, archeology shows, and more than I can name. Many of these shows use reenactments, but I love them, as I never get tired of history.

The British love to travel. Well, there are seemingly hundreds of travel shows, most involving visiting and/or moving to warmer climes. Now that it is getting dark at 4:00 pm here, I am starting to understand why.

The British are big Star Trek fans. There is some form of Star Trek on almost every hour during the day. Choose your poison: next generation, voyager, deep space nine, or enterprise. I opt for the first three. There doesn’t seem to be any classic on – perhaps Captain Kirk is too much of a cowboy for the British.

The British are keeping the mini-series alive. This seems to be a format not used much in the US anymore, but we are currently watching multiple British mini-series: Bleak House, Egypt, and Rocket Man to name the 3 current ones. It seems like shows often use this format; for example, the latest creation from Ricky Gervais, Extras, had 6 episodes this year. I like this flexible format, since it seems like it maintains quality better than the infinite episode sitcoms in the US. And it means that the series actually has an ending.

The British watch American sitcoms/programs. There is a constant stream of Friends, Seinfeld, The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, Mash, The King of Queens, Will & Grace, etc. Needless to say, I don’t look at these, as I didn’t need to move 5,000 miles to watch these shows!

I am happy to report that I am getting better, and so my TV watching is back down to a reasonable level. It’s a good thing, because I felt all those brain cells that flourished in my MLA classes shrinking up…

Reflections on the gift of time

2005-11-07T19:48:00.000Z

Aline writes: when Bill and I decided to take a year off and move to London, I expected many rewards: exotic travel, new sights, culture changes. But the biggest benefit of the past six months has been the most unexpected: the gift of time. This struck me even in the first few weeks, with the sudden luxury of following my own natural sleeping schedule (mine is approximately 1am-9am). But the ultimate luxury is being able to wake up each day and spontaneously decide what to do: picnic in the garden, travel to another country, go to a museum, draw, play with my cat, read all day, or something new. When I am sick, there is no obligation to go to work and meet my responsibilities. And when I am out and about in London, there is no pressure to get back home and do the laundry or meet the plumber or get some work/schoolwork done. I can stay out as late as I want, go do whatever I want, whenever I want. This summer in London reminded me so much of the summers when I was young before I took all those jobs babysitting and petsitting, when the unstructured time made the afternoons seem so long. But as an adult, it is an indulgence I don’ t take for granted, but one that I often reflect on and wonder at. I know it won’t last forever, but it may be the best gift of this year.

The Gherkin

2005-11-07T19:37:00.000Z

Bill writes: The newest landmark in the London skyline is the building at 30 St. Mary Axe. Opened in May 2004, and known officially as the Swiss Re building for its main occupants, it is know universally here as "The Gherkin," at least in polite company. It's massive and massively anti-Bauhaus.

Almost all the pictures of it are taken from across the Thames, to display it as part of the London skyline. I thought I'd show instead how it dominates its local neighborhood, like a wholly alien ship that just landed in old London.

What a country! (for Eric)

2005-11-07T18:24:00.000Z

Aline writes: Codeine cough syrup. Over the counter. Need I say more?

They don’t call London "The Big Smoke" for nothing…

2005-11-06T22:55:00.000Z

Aline writes: Now that it has turned colder, it seems that everyone in London is smoking. Or maybe it’s just that we were eating outside all the time during the summer and so didn’t notice it. It really struck home last week when we had coffee with our classmates, and it seemed that everyone in the coffee house was chain-smoking. It inspired a lively debate among our classmates, since there is currently pending legislation to ban smoking in restaurants. Whether smoking gets banned in pubs, though, is still being discussed. There was support for banning it everywhere from some of our classmates, while others thought the pubs would lose business (I remember this debate in Ca when it went non-smoking). There seemed to be little concern about individual rights. In any case, Bill and I already have two coffee houses near our flat that are non-smoking, so you’ll know where to find us this winter!

PS They really do call London The Big Smoke – a nickname I was unaware of until this year. The nickname seems to be from the prevelance of London fog/smog (in 1952 for a period of 5 days in December the smog in London was so bad it killed between 4,000-12,000 people.) But the nickname is also used as a point of pride in smoking.

Bonfire Night

2005-11-06T15:38:00.000Z

Bill writes: Last night was Bonfire Night. From about 5 pm till 1 am, it sounded like the Blitz all over London. Climbing up to the roof of our flat, we could see over the city, and the glow of bonfires as well as fireworks were evident throughout London. Below are a few pictures from the bonfire and fireworks in our communal garden.

Aline adds: Look carefully at the first picture, and you can see the "Guy" in a chair near the top. He has a balloon head. I have to admit, it was slightly creepy to watch an effigy burn, especially as the many youngsters were dancing around and yelling things like, "when is his head going to go?" and "look he's burning!"

Penny for the Guy?

2005-11-04T18:37:00.000Z

Bill writes:

Remember, remember the fifth of November,
Gunpowder, treason and plot,
We see no reason,
Why gunpowder treason,
Should ever be forgot!

Tomorrow is November 5th, and that means Guy Fawkes Day. The folks around here will celebrate with bonfires and fireworks, celebrating Guy Fawkes unsuccessful attempt to blow up both Houses of Parliament on November 5th, 1605. It started when Londoners joyfully lit bonfires to celebrate that their King was still alive and the attempted assassin captured. Later on, fireworks were added and effigies of Guy burned on the bonfires.

Here's the wood piled in our communal garden directly below our window. The post in the center is where they'll place Guy for burning. (Sometimes I feel like just below the surface of the most consciously civilized city on earth lives the Beltane Wickerman.)

In anticipation of the day, children earn money for fireworks (or sweets) by dressing up a life-size effigy of Fawkes and carting him around the city, asking passerby, "Penny for the Guy?" Here's the one near my Maida Vale Station. (And yes, of course I donated.)

Can't wait til tomorrow.

Aline adds: For you poetry lovers, here is the full text of the little ditty - you usually don't see the second stanza because it is so un-pc, but I have included it because of historical interest.

Remember, remember the fifth of November,
gunpowder, treason and plot,
I see no reason why gunpowder treason
should ever be forgot.
Guy Fawkes, Guy Fawkes,
'twas his intent
to blow up the King and the Parliament.
Three score barrels of powder below,
Poor old England to overthrow:
By God's providence he was catch'd
With a dark lantern and burning match.
Holloa boys, holloa boys, make the bells ring.
Holloa boys, holloa boys, God save the King!
Hip hip hoorah!

A penny loaf to feed the Pope.
A farthing o' cheese to choke him.
A pint of beer to rinse it down.
A faggot of sticks to burn him.
Burn him in a tub of tar.
Burn him like a blazing star.
Burn his body from his head.
Then we'll say ol' Pope is dead.
Hip hip hoorah!
Hip hip hoorah!

Bill adds: Hey, Aline...please tell me this is something you looked up and not something you used to sing while skipping rope as a little girl. Otherwise, you and I need to talk. Real soon.

Cakes and St. Bride's

2005-11-01T18:38:00.000Z

Bill writes: Today our London class went around Fleet Street, looking at the history of printing there. Aline was out with a cold, but I was able to go and see the sights. First off was St. Dunstan's Church, where William Tyndale (of the Tyndale Bible) preached. John Donne was rector here as well as Dean of St. Paul's Cathedral. Izaak Walton of The Compleat Angler fame held the posts of scavenger, questman (pigeon shooter) and sidesman, while across the street at "The Devil's" pub was the Apollo Club, whose members numbered William Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, Jonathan Swift, Oliver Goldsmith and Dr. Samuel Johnson. Oh yes, and in 1667, John Milton found a publisher here for Paradise Lost.

It also houses three of the oldest statues in London, of pre-Roman King Lud and his sons.

Among a lot of places, we stopped at Samuel Johnson's house. It now has a memorial to his cat, Hodge, who was his companion during the seven long years Johnson toiled on his Dictionary.

Lastly, we visited St. Bride's church, designed by Christopher Wren. An enterprising local baker, noting the church's fortuitous name, designed a wedding caked based on the spire of the church. This was the origin of the tiered wedding cake we're all familiar with.

I spy with my little eye…

2005-10-31T22:56:00.000Z

Aline writes: Well, a not so little eye! Kevin and I went on the London Eye while he was here (leaving Bill safely on the ground – it’s no place for someone who doesn’t like heights!) It was really enjoyable – it doesn’t actually stop for you to get on, but it runs so slowly that it is pretty easy to hop onboard. Each carriage seems to hold about 20 people, and it takes about 30 minutes to make a full circuit.

One of my favorite things was the brochure I bought – quite cleverly designed so that when you look North, West, South, and East, you can match the landmarks on the card with the view, since the directions were also labeled inside the carriage.

Looking at the view made me sympathize with Prince Charles and his campaign against ugly modern architecture - look at what surrounds St Paul's for example.

And it reminds me that London really does hold 7 million people!

The views were spectacular – but pardon the speckles as there were raindrops on the windows, and the darkness of the photos as the sun was setting!

But as you can see, London really is spectacularly beautiful city.

Pagans are alive and well here in London

2005-10-31T21:42:00.000Z

Aline writes: Last week was the October Plenty Festival in London, a harvest fair with a wonderful pagan procession and entertainments. We went with my brother Kevin.

The parade gathered outside of Shakespeare Globe, and we all processed down to London’s Borough market (see earlier blog for details) together.

In the procession was the Berry Man (an Autumn version of the Green man)

and the Corn Queen, mentioned in 16th C literature.

The company performed many songs, comprised of many colorful charaters

They also performed a wonderful short 16th C German play, The Calf Hatching, which was hilarious. The plot? A doltish husband, a scolding wife. His fault the cow dies. How to get a new one before the shrew gets home? Hmm, sitting on that big piece of cheese and clucking like a hen should hatch a new calf. (Well, this is from the same country that brought you the Ring cycle).

The result? He’s accussed of being possessed, since he will only cluck like a hen. But all’s well that ends well, in a way that's much too complicated to describe, but it was very entertaining.

Then we had a picnic by the Thames. Yum.

Dirty Fingernails

2005-10-31T21:34:00.000Z

Aline writes: Well, with our big beautiful communal garden, you wouldn’t think I would still have a hankering to garden, but there is something about digging your fingers into the soil that nothing else can replace. Or maybe it was pumpkin envy, watching the pumpkins grow out in our communal garden. But I was unwilling to offend some unwritten rules of British behavior by digging in our communal garden ☺

But perhaps the real impetus was an ad on the tube from beddingplants.com – 70 plants for 9.99. How could I go wrong?

But getting started was a little like the banana muffin saga – I had to gather all the ingredients. By combing through all the cupboards, I unearthed several pots. On the roof, I found a little trowel and fork. I then mail ordered my little perennials – pansies that are supposed to bloom in the winter even here. They came in this cute little container – little plugs of pansies.

But the dirt – how to get the dirt? Remember, no car! By chance a few months ago, I found a local nursery only 5 blocks away in the middle of a residential neighborhood. For those of you who garden in the south bay, it reminded me of Yamagami’s in Cupertino. So I tricked Bill into going over there with me to “look” at the dirt – of course, we ended up buying 3 big bags, and he carried 2 home at once. Then up the 4 flights of stairs. Whew. What a sweetie!

I enjoyed planting the little pansy plugs last weekend. Don’t they look sweet?

I checked them yesterday and they are doing well, except that some enterprising bird had pulled out several of the plugs, but they were easily replaced. I will post a pic later when I get some blooms! One good thing – it rains regularly, so I don’t need to water them!

He ain’t heavy, he’s my brother…

2005-10-31T21:30:00.000Z

Aline writes: we have had a wonderful October, with 3 different sets of visitors from home. It was wonderful to see familiar faces, catch up, and tag along on sightseeing trips.

First Jen and her mom, Kathy. came. Unfortunately for us (but not for them), they were on their way to Italy, so we only got them for a few nights. But we got to see Hampton Court Palace and the British Library with Jen – and a wonderful dinner out with Jen and Kathy the night before they left. Here we are in our flat together…

Then my friends Karen and Larry came for two weeks. It was their first trip to London, and they saw a lot. I went to the Tower of London with them, which I hadn’t seen in 2 years. And Karen and I had lots of time to catch up – yak, yak, yak! Here’s a pic I took of them at the Tower…

Finally, last but not least, my brother Kevin came for two weeks. I had a great time accompanying him on museum trips, such as the Edvard Munch exhibit, and we went on the London eye together. Here we all are in our pjs one morning – Grommet misses him already, as Kevin played with him a lot!

It was a little taste of home, very sweet after several months without friends and family. It was also fascinating to see London through other people’s eyes!

Happy Anniversary

2005-10-28T11:28:00.000+01:00

Bill writes: Yesterday was our 21st anniversary. Because the weather had obliged us by turning from 55 degrees, rainy, and gray Wednesday to 75 cloudless degrees on Thursday, we took the boat down the Thames to Greenwich. The London Eye looked like the flywheel of the London Aquarium.

While Tower Bridge was, in the words of our boat captain, "The most wonderful bridge in the world." A Londoner's natural bias, but true nevertheless.

Soon enough, we pulled up to the dock at Greenwich.

We had a nice walk around the town, including a bookshop equivalent to the "Pound Anything" stores--any new book was two pounds. So I got a science book and an nice hardback biography of Inigo Jones. Afterwards, we went up through Greenwich park to the Royal Observatory, where Aline did the requisite straddle across the international dateline.

Then, it was off to dinner at a nice restaurant followed by "Longitude," a play adaptation of the book by Dava Sobel.

Accidental London

2005-10-25T19:56:00.000+01:00

Bill writes: We were wandering down towards the Thames after class today, walking along the river, when we noticed a building on the right. It looked more or less like a modern, glass-fronted hotel, but the sign said "Somerset House." We walked through the building, through a cafe, and out the back door into what the sign described as a courtyard.

It turns out that Somerset House is a renaissance palace, built in the 1500's and remodeled in the late 1700's. This is the courtyard that was hidden by the back door of a small, cafeteria-style cafe:

It was a little like walking through the lobby of the Best Western and finding the Château de Versailles. And if you think I'm exaggerating (which I generally do), look at the courtyard of Versailles.

Click here.

Two Guys

2005-10-24T22:17:00.000+01:00

Bill writes: I always pass this sculpture as I walk along the canals to Paddington Station. Usually he's alone, but this time he had some company.

Fall is Here

2005-10-24T20:48:00.000+01:00

Bill writes: It's October and the charitable eye of London's summer sun has begun to blink. The whole city is moving a bit slower. The summer festivals have ended, the hot days of rowing on the Serpentine and tanning on deck chairs rented by the hour are over, and have been replaced by scenes of padded children bundled by parents trundling them to and from school. The black flowers of London's umbrellas are open to the rain now; it is time to take up port and cigarettes.

London’s Temple Church

2005-10-13T20:24:00.000+01:00

Aline writes: I have long wanted to visit the “Templar” church in London, and on our second try, we actually found it open. It is part of the Temple complex in London, located in the warren of the Middle and Inner Temples, now inhabited primarily by lawyers. You can’t see the church from any street, so you have to know where to look. But I love round churches, and this is a beautiful one.

In the courtyard outside the church, there is a statue of two Templars sharing a horse

The church itself is composed of two parts, the round and the chancel, and was the headquarters of the Knights Templar in England.

The round was built in the 12th century, and was consecrated by the patriarch of Jerusalem, Heraclius, while the chancel was built in the 13th century. Learn more on the fabulous church website, which has several pages on the history of the church.

Here is an inside view from the chancel looking toward the round

And this was taken inside the round

The pictures really don’t do it justice – I found it a serene space that was peaceful and inspiring. And the effigies of the nine knights inside the round, one of them being William the Marshal, Earl of Pembroke, were quite moving.

Finally, this is one example of the different grotesque heads lining the walls of the round

You will just have to visit it yourself!

In Search of the London Stone

2005-10-12T22:46:00.000+01:00

Bill writes: There is an ancient legend regarding the founding of London. After the fall of Troy, Brutus, the great-grandson of Aeneas, liberated a group of Trojans living in poverty in Greece. After sailing from Greece, Brutus and the Trojans wandered, until Brutus one night had a dream. In this vision, the goddess Diana prophesied that he would travel to an island far to the west, where he would build another Troy. There, in the words of Milton, "Kings be born of thee, whose dredded might shall aw the World, and Conquer Nations Bold."

Eventually, he found Albion, where, again according to Milton, "Brutus in a chosen place builds Troia nova (New Troy), chang'd in time to Trinovantum, now London."

Although it may be only a legend, it is possible that one tangible piece of the myth still exists in London: the London Stone, the supposed altar stone of his temple to Diana.

I'd read about this stone and was determined to find it. Unfortunately, it isn't in the British Museum or the Tower of London. After some digging into the documentation, I found that this centerpiece of British mythology is built into the wall of an old bank building across the road from Cannon Street tube station. A thousand people walk past it every hour and never know it's even there. Placed behind glass and iron railings rests this unassuming two-foot stone pillow of oolite limestone.

Although a number of people stopped to watch me taking pictures of the stone, no one I suspect knew of the treasure in the wall, nor the importance of the foundation stone of London history.

Horses - in London!

2005-10-12T21:23:00.000+01:00

Soon after we moved to London, I thought I was dreaming on the morning I awoke to the sound of horses right outside our bedroom window. I couldn’t believe my eyes: dozens of horses, some pulling large grey wagons, trotting down our street just after dawn. That memory has stayed with me all these months, a mystery I couldn’t figure out.

Monday morning, déjà vu! I awoke once again to the sound of horses trotting on pavement. I ran to the window, waking Bill up with one word: “Horses!” He ran for the camera, and we were able to capture the mirage on film. There really are horses in Maida Vale! Well, it turns out they actually live up the road in St. John’s Wood, all 111 of them. They are the King’s Troop Royal Horse Artillery, and as they break in new horses, they apparently take them out for training exercises. It’s like having over 100 horses suddenly trot down Fair Oaks Avenue in Sunnyvale. And not only trot, but they actually stopped for several minutes to load a problematic horse into their bus/trailer, holding up traffic for blocks. Well, I guess when you are the King’s Royal Horses (by the way, what King? Shouldn’t they be the Queen’s?), you can do whatever you want!

This is from our front window

A picture from our roof terrace

A close-up of the cart they pull

And the van they load the misbehaving horses into

Thanks to Bill for leaning out the window and scrambling up on our roof terrace to get some photos before they trotted off….

Ken Livingstone's Big Party

2005-10-08T16:22:00.000+01:00

Aline writes: In mid-September, the Mayor threw a huge party for all of us: The Mayor's Thames Festival. There were 2 full days of activities all along the Thames, including a riverside bazaar with food, arts, and crafts from around the world, Thames treasure hunts for kids, mass choirs, 135,000 mini lightbulbs that lit up the river walkway, and more. But the best was last: the Sunday night parade and fireworks. It’s like a big goodbye to Summer. Boo Hoo – I am cold already! (you laugh, but just ask Bill!)

Here's a big sandcastle in progress...

The night parade had lots of wacky costumes and beautiful illuminated creature floats

I loved these - don't ask me why since I don't eat meat! - Or maybe that is why...

Once the parade made it from Westminster, down the Embankment, over Blackfriars bridge, then down the South Bank, there was a stunning fireworks display

The Houses of Parliament

2005-10-08T13:02:00.000+01:00

Bill writes: Ever since we first came here 20 years ago, and in each trip since then, visiting the Houses of Parliament has been on my list of top things to do. Yet I never have seem to have gotten around to it. Well, there was only a week left, as Parliament opens this week, which means no more tours after that. So we got ourselves some tickets and off we went (well, after passing by the guards with machine guns and going through a security scan).

So for anyone coming to London, I'd say this is one of the top 10 sights to see. If the two houses of parliament make any statement, it's how much gold there is in the House of Lords and how little there is in the House of Commons. Maybe they should have renamed the houses the "Haves" and the "Have Nots" because after visiting the House of Lords, the House of Commons looks like a council estate. I'd have taken photos to show you all, but they'd have machine-gunned me. (I guess they don't want the brits knowing where their tax dollars have gone.)

We couldn't take a picture of anything but the outside of the entrance.

From where you can see the clock tower.

Still, if you want a quick impression of the House of Lords, imagine a bar of gold bullion 50 feet by 80 feet by 40 feet tall, imbedded with benches.

As you move from the HOL to the HOC, there is a distinct change in atmosphere, as paintings, gold, and money evanesce, like dew, silently away. Yet I found visiting the HOC the more moving experience. At the entrance, there is a life-size statue of Winston Churchill, which has been rubbed so often at the foot for luck by members on their way to making an important speech, that his toe is all shiny brass. And inside are the simple green leather benches we've seen so often in movies and in the news. The thought that Churchill gave so many of his great speeches there was really affecting.

Still, in a small spasm of hypocrisy after leaving parliament, we decided to live like a member of the House of Lords for an hour, so it was off to tea at The Woolsey on Piccadilly.

London Open House

2005-10-08T11:19:00.000+01:00

Bill writes: Once a year, London has an open house, a weekend where you can visit buildings normally closed to the public. This year, for instance, there were over 600 buildings involved. Needless to say, it's important to pick and choose the ones you want. I went to Marlborough House along Pall Mall.

This is where various heads of the different british commonwealth states meet, so there were lots of meeting rooms that looked like miniatures of what you see in the U.N. In back, meanwhile, were formal grounds and another view of the building.

I also stopped by the Long Hall in the Parliament building, which has the finest original hammerbeam ceiling in Europe, along with some great statuary high up in the walls.

In addition, I visited the Customs Office and various other buildings (unfortunately, I didn't keep a list and the web site is gone!). Here are just a couple of pictures to give a flavor.

I'll let Aline write about the chapel in the Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children.

Aline writes: Aline writes: Among other buildings, such as several churches, I visited the Royal Courts of Justice – it’s an amazing gothic building as you can see below, but I didn’t take pics inside, so that’s all you get to see. It’s got some beautiful arts and crafts style murals back where the barristers hang out. Their courtrooms are so tiny – I saw the appeals court, and it was much smaller than any US courtroom I’ve seen.

They gave us a little lecture on how things work – how the QC’s (Queen’s Counsels) are seated in seniority order, and how even if there aren’t any senior barristers present, the junior barristers aren’t allowed to sit in the first row, no matter how squished together they are. Then there is the whole standing/bowing thing – the judge bows to the court, the court attendees bow to the judge, etc. And those wigs – made of horsehair, they can last for 100 years and can be bought secondhand. The trails are open to the public, so I might try and attend one sometime.

But the highlight of my open house experience was definitely the Great Ormond Children’s Hospital Chapel. It was a small gem in the middle of a modern hospital – pure Victorian excess of the best kind. It used to be on the second floor, but when they renovated and rebuilt the hospital they moved the whole chapel by boxing around the outside and moving the whole thing down a floor and over several feet. It took two days moving it very, very slowly. It’s still an active chapel, available 24 hours a day for patients, families, and visitors, and there are several services every week. The pews are small, built for children, which is very sweet. As for the rest, the pictures speak for themselves!

The living is easy...

2005-10-07T21:39:00.000+01:00

Summertime and the living is easy,
Fish are jumping…

Aline writes: The English obviously use any excuse to put on yet another Summer Festival (no, I am not really complaining, as I love them all!) – so why not have one to celebrate seafood?. Of course, it had to be by the Thames (at the Hayes Galleria). We stopped by for lunch, and ate a heap of mussels, shrimp, scallops, and unidentified fish pieces hot off the grill.. There were cooking demonstrations, entertainment (see below), and the biggest dish of paella I have ever seen. Londoners certainly know how to celebrate summer in style!

400 years later...

2005-10-07T10:49:00.000+01:00

Aline writes: One of the amazing things about London, is, of course, the history that is all around us. Recently they reenacted Nelson’s Thames funeral procession on the 400th occasion of the Battle of Trafalgar (and Nelson’s death). A flotilla of cutter boats recreated the appearance and order of the original procession. What was surprising was how small the boats were, and how fast they moved (hence the blurry pics, at least, that is our excuse).

The Spitfire Exhibit

2005-10-05T18:46:00.000+01:00

Bill writes: If not for the work of RJ Mitchell, England may have lost the war against Germany. Mitchell was the architect of the Spitfire aircraft, instrumental in winning the air war against the Nazi invasion. The Science Museum has a special exhibition on the development of the Spitfire, and the heroic women and men who played such a vital role in creating and producing these aircraft in great numbers.

Along with displays of the tools, etc. used to build the aircraft, they have a Spitfire Mark 22 on loan from the RAF Museum. This aircraft has been completely disassembled for display on the walls of the Science Museum.

You can see everything from a wind-tunnel model.

To the Rolls-Royce motor.

To the wing assembly flayed and splayed out for view.

Chichester

2005-10-04T22:12:00.000+01:00

Aline writes: we recently spent a few days in Chichester, a classic English market town. It has all you would want: a ruined roman wall, a roman villa outside of town, medieval and Tudor buildings laid out in the classic North, South, East, and West from the original Roman plan (and the streets are conveniently named, yes, you guessed it, North, South, East, and West), a fabulous central market cross from 1501 erected by a local bishop, and a cathedral consecrated in 1108.

We stayed in a charming B&B with 3 rooms, just across the street from the Roman wall.

Here is the fabulous 1501 market cross, a great meeting place as you can see

Here is one of the streets radiating out from it, can’t remember if it is North, South, East, or West.

The Fishbourne Roman villa has many intricate mosaic floors

And a hypocaust (heating system under the floors)

They’ve even found evidence of the garden layout, and recreated this intricate knotted hedge

The cathedral has many charms

Painted Chapel roofs

Medieval sculpture

A Marc Chagall stained glass window

And my favorite, the Arundel tomb, made famous in this Philip Larkin poem.