My Bank Holiday Weekend Pt 2: A soggy day in Shrewsbury

I've had a pen-friend named Aline since I was in the 6th grade, she lives in Shrewsbury, a medieval town in Shropshire, not far from the Welch border.  Ellis Peter's Brother Cadfael series (about an 11th  century benedictine monk/detective/herbalist) are set here during the civil war between the Empress Maud and King Stephen, in which Shrewsbury castle played a major role.

Oh, and it is also the hometown of Charles Darwin. His statue seen here in front of their library.

And here is the castle, built from a red stone, the keep itself is small, but the walls are quite high as it is built on a hill and from the top of a tower you get a great view.

See!

Of course as you may have noticed it was raining quite heavily. And continued to do so until I left. My shoes actually squelched by the end.

the curve of the road from the castle into town. Lots of little tudor buildings and alleyways. 

Near the English Bridge (as opposed to the Welch one on the other side of town) there is a garden which has all this cool stonework in it as it is on the side of an old stone carving workshop

random column 

the Abbey-or what's left of it after Henry VIII knocked bits down-where Brother Cadfael was a monk (the TV series with Sir Derek Jacobi were shot i believe in easter Europe in case it doesn't look familiar to you...)

I bought a postcard of St. Winefried, a Welch martyr they had some relics of back in the day

I took a walk along the towns walls

and found the Quarry garden, which alas is sideways!

My Bank Holiday Weekend Pt 1: A sunny day at Hampton Court

Hampton Court Palace, Henry the VIIIth's pleasure palace built up the Themes from London, a huge sprawling brick structure with absolutely massive gardens (and a maze).

You can't take photos inside, alas, but there were some courtyards, this is from a newer, non-Tudor wing.

The back of the Palace

From the side, and a big lavender patch

A huge topiary garden, very manicured and French

and the rose garden, with the palace behind

the river Themes, from the side. Grrr.

"Ooooh, I want to go to Brighton!!"-Lydia Bennett

So, I love the ocean, not necessarily the whole swimming in it bit, but the wind, the sounds, all that is what i love.  Unfortunately because of my summer work schedule I hadn't actually been to the sea for about 5 years or so! 

And since England is an island...so surrounded by sea I figured I might as well rectify that problem here.

Last weekend was sunny so Miss Meghan and I took the train down to Brighton, which is pretty much directly south of London along the southern coastline of England-about an hour by train.

The town is charming, just what a seaside town ought to be, with lots of little shops and streets straight down to the sea. It actually reminded me strongly of Cape May, NJ which was odd.

the sea!! Brighton is a pebble beach so the waters are crystal clear but if you wear loafers, like Meghan, walking along can be a bit difficult.

"Hold on, rock in my shoe" happend a lot.

I wore Converse. Go me.

Behold: Palace Pier, strongly reminded me of Wildwood, NJ.  Lots of rides, children, and the deceptive smell of funnel cakes, which always turned out to be Belgian waffles when located. Very depressing. But we did get some amazingly good ice-cream from a little  shop run by some Swedes! Who knew, my people make kick-ass ice-cream. 

One fun thing was that seagulls would ride the air-currents right above the Pier and occasionally they hovered or swooped right by your head! Well Meghan decided that she needed a picture and so we stood there, for about half an hour by my reckoning, until she finally got a good shot. I just amused myself by taking photos of her getting more and more frustrated, because that is the helpful thing to do.

I got a cool shot though.

Oh, so we were just wandering down the streets and i spotted a gate with flowers behind it out of the corner of my eye. I go "ooo pretties!" and investigate. We found a pavilion! A little bit of India on the south coast. There was even a guy playing a sitar. 

One side note, my purse had been showing wear along the strap, and when we arrived I found that it was literally hanging on by one single thread. Well that is no good, so alas I had to go shopping!

And what did I find? Oh, just the shop of my dreams. Summery seaside dreams! After much deliberating and wringing of hands I chose this gray floral messenger bag, which of course coordinated with all the stuff I had with me. Plus it's oilcloth so I can just wipe it off when I get it dirty-how cool is that!

Our visit ended with Meghan and I feasting on a three course Italian meal for a mere 8 pounds: their house white, prawn cocktail, stuffed manicotti, and an apple tarte. And the bathroom stalls had their own sinks as well as lotion! Best eight pound dinner of all time.

Oh the Navy

Greenwich, located in "greater London" down the Themes towards the sea was once the HQ of the greatest Navy this world has ever seen.  It also has the Royal Obervatory where the Greenwich Prime Meridian is. Tres cool.

Molly, Britany and I went by boat because we are romantics, the weather was glorious, and there is nothing like a cruise down the Themes! You can see cool stuff like where the Pilgrims took off from, the apartment from a Fish Called Wanda, Sir Francis Drake's pirate ship, and lots of other nifty things.

The Royal Naval Academy butts right up to the Themes in all its glory

At low tide you can walk down and play about on the pebbles. But can you see that green algae mark? Yeah that's high tide...

The Themes has one of the most drastic high/low ties shifts in the world, which unfortunately makes the water really murky with all the silt...but they claim its clean.

The mud tried to eat my shoe.

A view through the Royal College to the Queen's House and the Observatory hill beyond.

A beautiful chapel

The Queen's House, designed by The Inigo Jones-an amazing architect who also designed for the theater-it is actually the first building in England that fully and openly acknowledged to be classical. It was started for King James I's wife, but was finished for Charles I's wife.

The view from the top of the hill down onto Greenwich and the City of London on the opposite side of the river. And lots of sunbathers.

Heading back home under the Tower Bridge!

Oooooo

Tower of London

The Globe is the timbre framed building in the middle, with the tower of the Tate Modern on the right (it used to be a power plant)

The Day of Jubilee and the Extended(?) Week of Natural Wonders

My weeks seem to go in themes...museum week..now my flatmate Molly christened this the Week of Natural Wonders and our sojourn to Regent's Park the Day of Jubilee (accounted below). And here it is:

Westminster Abbey-can't take photos inside unfortunately, as it's quite beautiful, but there is a lovely green outside where we paused for photos (L to R, me, Meghan, Molly and Drew).

The green is actually part of the private boys school that is still taught here.

Regent's Park! We had a full week of lovely weather, mid to hight 70s with sun! So Thursday the Ladies of Flat No. 1 and I went out to Regents where we paddle boated/row boated and sat in the grass reading for a few hours.

Regent's has lots of wide paths by the pond here, lots of birds, and dogs running around. We are still amazed at how well behaved all the dogs of London are! 

Lots of trees and there are wee dasies in the grass!

Miss  Molly and Brittany in the row boat, taken while Meghan and I were in the paddle boat!

Meghan reading Love in a Time of Cholera 

Me reading The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (again)

Molly: Mists of Avalon

Brittany: writing postcards (so there)

Friday we took a group trip out to the town of Stratford-Upon-Avon, the hometown of one William Shakespeare, who may or may not have written some of the most classic of the classic plays EVER.

The town is adorable. Tudor buildings all over the place!

Byzantine Shakes??

The ceiling of the church Shakespeare is buried in...

...here.

The river Avon, i know you can't read it but that white boat is-oh yes-an ice cream boat. Suddenly ice cream vans are so blase.

Memorial to the Bard:

"Good night, sweet Prince, 

And flights of angels

Sing thee to thy rest!"

chillin' out, maxin' and relaxin' all cool on the Avon

kinda looking like an ass but that's cool

This Prince of Denmark and I are contemplating many things:

perhaps we will murder his uncle

or not

we haven't decided yet.

So we'll just stand here and talk to Yorick.

who is dead.

Alas!

Ate dinner on the banks of the Avon before seeing the RSC production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, which was the fourth time I've see it, and by far the best production. So good. 

While we were eating dinner-minding our own business- a swan got territorial with a dog. Did you know that swans can hiss?

they do.

You can kinda see the dog and swan in the background...

Brittany is so not okay with the situation

Molly is amused

the swan won.

Had some free time today so Miss Molly, Brittany and I went out to the village of Hampstead, that was long ago swallowed up by London, and has this HUGE park-Hampstead Heath, which is really just green space, where Londoners can climb up to Parliament Hill and get a view out over their city. So we sat under this tree for a while.

rainbow!!

Hampstead Heath is bits of large estates that were bought up to form a public park, one of the estates, Kenwood, has a large mansion that is also open to the public. Oh, has anyone seen the movie Notting Hill? That bit where Julia Robert's character is on location for a Henry James film? Recognize the house? 

There is also a lovely garden of rhododendrons to walk about in

and take photos in!

Is this the end the Week of Natural Wonders?

doubt it.