Again i've not been updating the blog for a little while, so i apologise for that. I do have a fairly good reason - the last couple of days have been fairly packed with doings.
There are four days (including today), but i'll leave out day 3 as it pretty much can be summed up as "Then he rested". I also might have to make this a bit briefer than it deserves if someone else needs to use this internet terminal (only one in the hotel).
Day 1:
We started off by catching the Metro (subway) over to the Eiffel Tower. At first i was quite intimidated by the complexity of the Metro, as it has a vast number of different lines and places you can end up, but after a bit of use it has turned out to be quite simple once you're used to it.
The Eiffel Tower was even more impressive up close than it was from the back of a bus - i took a lot more photographs but i still doubt that any of them will come close to conveying its size and presence. We didn't climb up it, as the lines to do so were staggeringly long, but we did have lunch underneath it on a park bench, which was nice except for being pestered by gypsies and wandered past by police with sub-machine guns - a fairly standard presence throughout Paris.
After lunch we wandered about a kilometre or so up to the Hotel D'Invalides, which was the hospital for injured soldiers in Napoleon's era. It is noteworthy for a number of reasons, but the most obvious is the enormous domed church which is built into it, which houses Napleon's own tomb. We visited the tomb (helpful tourist tip: if you're in Paris and planning to see a number of monuments purchase a museum pass beforehand as it will save money and, more importantly, help you avoid a number of large queues) which was spectacularly ornate. It also houses the tombs for a number of other notable French military figures.
In the Hotel D'Invalides there are also a number of museums. We visited two of them - the World War Museum and the Charles De Gaulle Museum.
The World War Museum was well done, if unexceptional. Probably its most interesting element was that it began its display from 1870 rather than the beginning of the 20th century as most museums simplifiy it to. This is fairly representative of the French view on this, i guess, since that was when their 'German problems' really started.
The surprising highlight of the D'Invalides exhibits was the De Gaulle museum. Unfortunately i don't know much about him, and most of the exhibits were in French, but it was incredibly sophisticated. The display is very new, having only been opened by the French president this February, and the technology and design used is all first rate and incredibly dazzling. The entire place is decorated by an almost holographic light display of De Gaulle which decorates the walls, and you can access information using a number of computer terminals which are controlled simply by gestures. It's quite difficult to describe accurately, but imagine something like Minority Report, where Tom Cruise manipulates a computer using only gestures.
The final visit for the day was the Musèe Rodin. This was a smallish museum devoted entirely to the famous sculptor Rodin. The museum was laid out in an absolutely beautiful way - half the works were displayed in a fairly normal way inside a house, but the other half were distributed throughout a lovely garden that surrounded the house - it was a beautiful, incredibly peaceful way to look at all those incredible works. His two most famous works (which we saw) are The Thinker and The Kiss.
Then we caught the Metro back to our apartment, had a fairly dud dinner (oddly enough, France has been the weak spot for our dining this holiday) and watched the football. The European Cup has been on all week, and we've all been following it closely (and trying not to laugh too much at how poorly France has done).
Day 2:
If day 1 was wonderful then day 2 was incredible. This was the day that we had booked for a World War 1 battlefield tour.
We started off very early and caught the train out to the city of Lille, which is in the north-east of France. We got out there by about seven thirty in the morning and somehow managed to link up with our tour group without falling asleep. We were meeting up with them at one of the two Lille railway stations, and it turned out that other people were also suffering sleep deprivation - there was an accident on a packed escalator which stopped the people at the top from exiting. As people continued coming up from below they began to pile up into one another and some fell over. It was fairly dramatic for a brief moment, and i pulled one woman from out of it, but thankfully someone figured out how to stop the escalator (the stop button being in a completely different place to Australian ones).
After that dramatic little interlude we set off in a small bus for the battlefields. There were 14 of us in the group, and most of the others were Australians, with the others being a Canadian couple.
We drove up the motorway, which meant that we got to our first stop within 45 minutes: the Villez Brettonux memorial to fallen and missing Australian soldiers. The memorial was designed in a a very similar way to the memorial that I had visited for Allied soldiers in Thailand - it turns out that there is a single organisation which coordinates all Allied war cemeteries the world over. This one was larger and a little more ornate, as this was a far more significant spot and represented a far larger loss of life on both sides.
One of the extra details to this memorial was a wall engraved with the names of all those Australians killed or missing during the conflict. We found the name of my great-great-uncle Desmond Webber, who was killed at Pozieres. It was a very strange experience, to reflect upon a family member of mine being born over a hundred years ago, shipping off to that place only to die at an age six years younger than I am now. He couldn't have been too bad, either - he was a sergeant when he died, at age 20.
We inspected a number of the battlefields in that area, and it really helped give a solid feeling for what a bitter, horrifying battle of attrition World War I was. We were standing on what would have been the Allied front line trenches at the start of the war, and less than a mile away we could see a village which was their first objective for the war. It took them more than a year to make that distance, and at the cost of over fifty thousand dead. You can't really appreciate the full horror of attrition war until you see the places and distances it is waged over.
One of the other highlights of the day was the Thiepval Memorial, which is the British memorial for their missing, and only their missing, soldiers from the conflict. It is a brick and marble structure which has each soldier's name engraved in its walls - and as a result, it is huge. Like the Eiffel Tower, but in a more sombering way, it is something which you can only appreciate the scale of if you see it in person.
Our trip back to Paris was relatively uneventful, except that when we got back to Lille to catch our train we went to the wrong train station and found it was shut down completely by police and firefighters. As soon as we realised we were at the wrong station we ran across to the other one, but as we left the first one we heard an explosion, so we assume there was an evacuation because of a suspect package. Fun.
Anyway, we got home safely, watched more football, etc.
Yesterday was a fairly dull day really. Read books, went for a walk, ate at another crappy restaurant. Nothing terribly interesting.
Day 4, aka Today
There was only one major thing about today, but it was fairly major - The Louvre. As the biggest, most famous art gallery in the world we were nervous about how long we might have to line up to get in. The answer was no time at all - our museum passes which we bought a few days ago let us skip all that malarkey, which probably saved us an hour or so.
At times the Louvre reminds you that it used to be a palace - there are some incredibly elaborate ceilings in places - but for the most part it is surprisingly modern in its setup. They have used skylights in a number of places, which is quite nice as it makes it less claustraphobic.
We headed first of all to see the Mona Lisa, mainly because it is the main attraction and we wanted to tick it off the list. While it was very popular we had no problem getting to view it. It is certainly a wonderful painting, but i don't think i would count it as a particular favourite. Still, i can see why people would want to stand and examine it for hours on end.
We spent about 3 hours after that walking about, and got to see a number of important works, including the Venus de Milo. I would definitely recommend The Louvre, but i would recommend research and planning before visiting, as it is so huge that it is easy to get distracted and end up missing a lot of the important works without a plan.
There's a fairly solid chance that this will be my last post before i get back to Australia. It's taken me half the day to write this blog entry because i've had to hop on and off the computer so often, and it's now midnight here. We will be jumping on our plane about seven tomorrow evening, and from there it is going to be a fairly horrible 32 hour or so ordeal until we get back to Canberra. So i suspect my first order of business upon getting back will either be sleep or coffee depending upon the time.
Hope all is well back home, and be seeing you all soon.
Patrick
Monday, June 16, 2008
Thursday, June 12, 2008
Paris from the back of a bus
My opinion of Paris has jumped up a number of notches. I still find it utterly overwhelming, but in a far more pleasant way now that i`m a little more used to it.
We went for a walk yesterday up towards Le Palais de Justice, and along the way we ran into a reasonably sized demonstration outside the police HQ. We got chatting with a couple of the demonstrators and learned that it was about granting working permits to people who don`t currently have them, which explained the predominantly African makeup of the demonstrators. We moved on, although dad (ever the provocatéur) just had to take a few pictures of the heavily armed police observing. He remains, for the moment, unshot.
Our next big stop was the famous Notre Dame cathedral, which is massive - it dwarfs even the largest of the English cathedrals. The interior was very Catholic - dark and ornate. Unsurprisingly it was extremely crowded - they must get tens of thousands of tourists through there every day. Just after leaving the cathedral somone in a hunchback costume scared my Mum by jumping out and yelling Boo, which i found hilarious but she wasn`t so keen on.
After we had lunch we caught a tourist bus, which took us around the various monuments and tourist attractions of Paris. All of them were very beautiful, and a few were breathtaking, but two stood out even beyond that - the Arc de Triomph and the Eiffel Tower.
Both of these monuments were spectacular because in each case i thought i knew what i was getting, but they both turned out to be so much larger than i had imagined. The Arc also had the benefit of being the centrepiece of the most chaotic and murderous traffic system i have ever encountered, but the Eiffel Tower was mindblowing. I can`t really put it into words, except to just re-emphasise that the thing is about ten times bigger than i had imagined it, and it just dominates the skyline in a truly impressive way.
Today we`ve been doing more touring. It`s been very nice, but not as spectacular as yesterday. Only two things of particular note:
1) Saw the Moulin Rouge building
2) Walked down the Rue de Saint Denis and only realised half way down it that all the women hanging around the place were prostitutes (bit slow on the uptake). I guess i was surprised by 2 things - how old they all were, and how there were hardly any African women amongst them, which was something i expected more of.
Tomorrow we may be seeing either the Louvre or another art gallery, and on Saturday we are catching a train up to a battlefield tour.
We went for a walk yesterday up towards Le Palais de Justice, and along the way we ran into a reasonably sized demonstration outside the police HQ. We got chatting with a couple of the demonstrators and learned that it was about granting working permits to people who don`t currently have them, which explained the predominantly African makeup of the demonstrators. We moved on, although dad (ever the provocatéur) just had to take a few pictures of the heavily armed police observing. He remains, for the moment, unshot.
Our next big stop was the famous Notre Dame cathedral, which is massive - it dwarfs even the largest of the English cathedrals. The interior was very Catholic - dark and ornate. Unsurprisingly it was extremely crowded - they must get tens of thousands of tourists through there every day. Just after leaving the cathedral somone in a hunchback costume scared my Mum by jumping out and yelling Boo, which i found hilarious but she wasn`t so keen on.
After we had lunch we caught a tourist bus, which took us around the various monuments and tourist attractions of Paris. All of them were very beautiful, and a few were breathtaking, but two stood out even beyond that - the Arc de Triomph and the Eiffel Tower.
Both of these monuments were spectacular because in each case i thought i knew what i was getting, but they both turned out to be so much larger than i had imagined. The Arc also had the benefit of being the centrepiece of the most chaotic and murderous traffic system i have ever encountered, but the Eiffel Tower was mindblowing. I can`t really put it into words, except to just re-emphasise that the thing is about ten times bigger than i had imagined it, and it just dominates the skyline in a truly impressive way.
Today we`ve been doing more touring. It`s been very nice, but not as spectacular as yesterday. Only two things of particular note:
1) Saw the Moulin Rouge building
2) Walked down the Rue de Saint Denis and only realised half way down it that all the women hanging around the place were prostitutes (bit slow on the uptake). I guess i was surprised by 2 things - how old they all were, and how there were hardly any African women amongst them, which was something i expected more of.
Tomorrow we may be seeing either the Louvre or another art gallery, and on Saturday we are catching a train up to a battlefield tour.
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Bonjour!
Well, we made it to Paris, and in an even more startling piece of luck we actually made it to the apartments we had booked.
Just a little note: i am typing on a french style keyboard, and they are a bit different from English language ones. As a result my touchtyping skills are nil and i might make some errors beyond the usual.
The train trip to Paris was very pleasant: a nice final viewing of the English countryside. It took about 2 hours.
Unfortunately things were not so great when we got to the Paris railway station: dad was almost bowled over by a rude frenchwoman who then had the gall to yell at him. We had to wait for more than an hour before we got out of the station, and this all while it was over 30° and the station a greenhouse.
Paris traffic is brutal: we caught a cab, and as far as i can tell driving here is less about car skill than it is about intimidating your fellow drivers. The most impressive feat our cabdriver managed was to win a game of chicken with a bus. I do not know how the bus driver felt, but i know that i briefly felt terror.
Not too much more to report: i am tired (and still suffering this bloody cold). Perhaps later or tomorrow we will do some exploring, but for the moment i need a snooze.
Just a little note: i am typing on a french style keyboard, and they are a bit different from English language ones. As a result my touchtyping skills are nil and i might make some errors beyond the usual.
The train trip to Paris was very pleasant: a nice final viewing of the English countryside. It took about 2 hours.
Unfortunately things were not so great when we got to the Paris railway station: dad was almost bowled over by a rude frenchwoman who then had the gall to yell at him. We had to wait for more than an hour before we got out of the station, and this all while it was over 30° and the station a greenhouse.
Paris traffic is brutal: we caught a cab, and as far as i can tell driving here is less about car skill than it is about intimidating your fellow drivers. The most impressive feat our cabdriver managed was to win a game of chicken with a bus. I do not know how the bus driver felt, but i know that i briefly felt terror.
Not too much more to report: i am tired (and still suffering this bloody cold). Perhaps later or tomorrow we will do some exploring, but for the moment i need a snooze.
Monday, June 9, 2008
Last day in London
Just a quick update before we set off for Paris tomorrow.
Today was quite a full day due to packing and repacking and trying to get rid of a lot of crap we've accumulated during the trip. We were reasonably successful, but the real test will be tomorrow when we have to cart it all on to the Chunnel train.
Two big touristy things today:
1) St Paul's Cathedral. Unfortunately no giant cats stuck their heads out of the dome while we were in the area (for those who don't get it, watch The Goodies). In many ways St Paul's was a fairly conventional cathedral, but its big differentiating point is of course the grand dome, which was installed as part of the rebuilding after the great Fire of London. It was actually possible to climb up into it, which gave a unique view of the rest of the cathedral.
2) Kew Gardens. While this is meant to be the Botanic Gardens of England, it was actually the most disappointing garden of the entire trip. It was very dull, and the grounds stretched on forever, which was not helped by the fact that it was a very hot and sunny day. So the Gardens themselves were a bit of a bust. However, we travelled back to our hotel not by taxi or the underground, but by a boatride up the Thames. That was a good way to see the city (it took a good long while though). It was also interesting from a historical point of view, as there was a plaque on the boat saying that it had taken part in the Dunkirk operation saving thousands of British troops in the Second World War.
We had a delicious Greek dinner, which was a nice way to finish up our British dining experiences. Unfortunately my cold (or at least the nose part of it) seems to have made a bit of a resurgence, which is very irritating as i thought i had pretty much got it under control.
Today was quite a full day due to packing and repacking and trying to get rid of a lot of crap we've accumulated during the trip. We were reasonably successful, but the real test will be tomorrow when we have to cart it all on to the Chunnel train.
Two big touristy things today:
1) St Paul's Cathedral. Unfortunately no giant cats stuck their heads out of the dome while we were in the area (for those who don't get it, watch The Goodies). In many ways St Paul's was a fairly conventional cathedral, but its big differentiating point is of course the grand dome, which was installed as part of the rebuilding after the great Fire of London. It was actually possible to climb up into it, which gave a unique view of the rest of the cathedral.
2) Kew Gardens. While this is meant to be the Botanic Gardens of England, it was actually the most disappointing garden of the entire trip. It was very dull, and the grounds stretched on forever, which was not helped by the fact that it was a very hot and sunny day. So the Gardens themselves were a bit of a bust. However, we travelled back to our hotel not by taxi or the underground, but by a boatride up the Thames. That was a good way to see the city (it took a good long while though). It was also interesting from a historical point of view, as there was a plaque on the boat saying that it had taken part in the Dunkirk operation saving thousands of British troops in the Second World War.
We had a delicious Greek dinner, which was a nice way to finish up our British dining experiences. Unfortunately my cold (or at least the nose part of it) seems to have made a bit of a resurgence, which is very irritating as i thought i had pretty much got it under control.
Sunday, June 8, 2008
Making up for lost time
It has been a long time since my last update (10 days or so?), so obviously we've done a lot since i last reported.
We're now back in London for a couple of days before heading off to Paris on Tuesday.
What have we done in the interim?
Well, we left Scotland the day after my most recent post, and we checked out a coastal castle called Bamburgh which was in the borderlands between England and Scotland and was there pretty much to stop the Scots revolting. It was fairly large and had obviously seen some use over the years, but its best feature was its views out to the sea, which was being whipped up into a glorious menace by high winds.
The day following that we drove across to the Holy Island of Lindisfarne which is cut off from the mainlands by the tides about half the day. Dad misread the tide tables before going off for a walk to see the castle there, and we barely got off the island literally five minutes before the tide was due to cut off the island from the mainland, which would have been fun.
We next went to the town of Alnwick which had two main attractions for us. The first was a fairly large and modern garden that Mum was keen to see. It was alright, but it seemed a bit soulless compared to some of the wonderful gardens we have already seen.
The second attraction was Barter Books, one of the largest second hand bookshops in the world. I really liked the place, but actually only found two books i wanted to buy there. One thing i did like was that they had a large model railway set constructed to run across the top of the shelves throughout the whole store, which gave it a very nice feeling.
Actually managed to catch an episode of the new series of Dr Who that night - part 1 of a 2 parter written by Steven Moffat of 'Blink' fame. Very good so far, and the 2nd part is on tonight.
Our next big event was a day or so later - Castle Howard. This was where the BBC series of Brideshead Revisited, which launched Jeremy Irons to international fame, was filmed. It is a sumptuous mansion with a painted dome that made me think of the Sistine Chapel, and huge grounds to match - but little did we know that Castle Howard would look modest compared to a later house we would visit... (cheap suspense building)
The next day was York, where our main objective was to see Yorkminster Cathedral, which is the largest medieval church in Britain. It was very impressive, and we had a tour guide who made the place seem a lot more interesting then most of the other cathedrals we had visited (i feel like such a pleb for looking down my nose at other cathedrals, but there you go). I also had the good fortune to find a particular book that i had been searching for the entire holiday, so i was very happy with York.
Unfortunately our accomodation that night wasn't very good, so while the day had started well with York i don't think anyone was in the best mood to finish the day.
The next morning at breakfast we met a guy who had stayed there overnight and who was in the middle of trudging from London to Glasgow in order to raise money for charity. Given the weather was one step down from torrential we all felt sorry for him and gave him a bit of money - whether to go towards his charity or help him get accomodation in the future we weren't too fussed.
Cambridge was next - we visited the Kings College hall there, which was about as spectacular as a cathedral and had a famous Rubens painting as its centrepiece. We also visited the Fitzwilliam Museum there which i found a bit boring since a large portion of it was taken up with pottery and other similar art rather than paintings, which was the section i enjoyed. Overall i didn't really get much out of Cambridge.
June 5 was Dad's birthday, and to celebrate we visited Coventry Cathedral, which was something he had dearly wanted to do, and which Mum had been less keen on doing.
The story of Coventry Cathedral is fascinating. It was a fairly regular cathedral (i am such a cathedral snob) until the Second World War. Coventry was an industrial centre, and therefore vital to the British war effort. For this reason Coventry was bombed heavily, and the cathedral was one of the many casualties.
After the war there was a determination to rebuild the cathedral as a symbol of England's recovery. An international competition was held to design the cathedral. Basil Spence, who had served in the war, won with a radical design. He proposed that the ruins of the cathedral be left as a monument, and that a new cathedral be built next to the ruins. His design was modern, controversial and wonderfully symbolic of peace, forgiveness and rebirth. One element of the story which my father loves is regarding the statue which dominates the approach to the cathedral - St Michael's Victory Over The Devil, by Jacob Epstein. The gist of the story is that Spence commissioned Epstein's work because he believed him to be the best talent for the job, but that many conservative church officials complained because the artist was Jewish. The statue went ahead.
The interior of the cathedral is wonderful as well - the entrance contains the most wonderful stain glass window i have ever seen. If i were religious i would say that it made me feel like i was in the presence of God - it was such a superb and ascendant piece of art. In addition, the cathedral reflects its strong working class and industrial links, which makes it uniquely modern amongst all the cathedrals we have visited.
After lunch we visited Stratford-upon-Avon, the birthplace of Shakespeare. Unfortunately we didn't really get too much out of our visit. I have the feeling that because it is such an incredible tourist bait that there hasn't been a proper effort to unify the place and make it engage more with Shakespeare's actual works. So, that was quite disappointing.
The next day was fairly relaxed. We visited a village called Winchcombe where there is a famous pottery shop that my grandfather used to visit every time he was in the UK. Obviously my parents shared that affection, as they spent a long time in the shop and bought a few pieces to have shipped back to Australia. Also in Winchcombe we had lunch at a delightful tea room run by a Japanese family. They obviously have a very good and widespread reputation, as a coach-load of Japanese tourists came in just as we were finishing.
In the afternoon we drove to the village of Bladen which is very near to Oxford, where we were staying. Bladen has a very small church which has a tiny graveyard. In the graveyard is buried, with almost no pomp or circumstance, Winston Churchill. It's lovely that Churchill, who is generally regarded as the greatest Briton of the 20th Century, could be buried so humbly (at his own wishes). You can just imagine the kind of gaudy tribute the Americans would have done for him.
The reason that he is buried in Bladen is that it is where his ancestral home and birthplace, Blenheim Palace, is located. Blenheim Palace puts Castle Howard to shame - it is astonishingly huge even for the upper classes, and the grounds stretch on to ridiculous extent. On the day we visited they were setting up for a triathlon, and the entire triathlon was to be held within the grounds - including swimming through the lake.
We stayed the night at Oxford, and similarly to Cambridge i didn't get a huge amount out of it. We did manage to time it so that our visit coincided with graduations, so the streets were overrun with drunken graduates.
We're now back in London for a couple of days before heading off to Paris on Tuesday.
What have we done in the interim?
Well, we left Scotland the day after my most recent post, and we checked out a coastal castle called Bamburgh which was in the borderlands between England and Scotland and was there pretty much to stop the Scots revolting. It was fairly large and had obviously seen some use over the years, but its best feature was its views out to the sea, which was being whipped up into a glorious menace by high winds.
The day following that we drove across to the Holy Island of Lindisfarne which is cut off from the mainlands by the tides about half the day. Dad misread the tide tables before going off for a walk to see the castle there, and we barely got off the island literally five minutes before the tide was due to cut off the island from the mainland, which would have been fun.
We next went to the town of Alnwick which had two main attractions for us. The first was a fairly large and modern garden that Mum was keen to see. It was alright, but it seemed a bit soulless compared to some of the wonderful gardens we have already seen.
The second attraction was Barter Books, one of the largest second hand bookshops in the world. I really liked the place, but actually only found two books i wanted to buy there. One thing i did like was that they had a large model railway set constructed to run across the top of the shelves throughout the whole store, which gave it a very nice feeling.
Actually managed to catch an episode of the new series of Dr Who that night - part 1 of a 2 parter written by Steven Moffat of 'Blink' fame. Very good so far, and the 2nd part is on tonight.
Our next big event was a day or so later - Castle Howard. This was where the BBC series of Brideshead Revisited, which launched Jeremy Irons to international fame, was filmed. It is a sumptuous mansion with a painted dome that made me think of the Sistine Chapel, and huge grounds to match - but little did we know that Castle Howard would look modest compared to a later house we would visit... (cheap suspense building)
The next day was York, where our main objective was to see Yorkminster Cathedral, which is the largest medieval church in Britain. It was very impressive, and we had a tour guide who made the place seem a lot more interesting then most of the other cathedrals we had visited (i feel like such a pleb for looking down my nose at other cathedrals, but there you go). I also had the good fortune to find a particular book that i had been searching for the entire holiday, so i was very happy with York.
Unfortunately our accomodation that night wasn't very good, so while the day had started well with York i don't think anyone was in the best mood to finish the day.
The next morning at breakfast we met a guy who had stayed there overnight and who was in the middle of trudging from London to Glasgow in order to raise money for charity. Given the weather was one step down from torrential we all felt sorry for him and gave him a bit of money - whether to go towards his charity or help him get accomodation in the future we weren't too fussed.
Cambridge was next - we visited the Kings College hall there, which was about as spectacular as a cathedral and had a famous Rubens painting as its centrepiece. We also visited the Fitzwilliam Museum there which i found a bit boring since a large portion of it was taken up with pottery and other similar art rather than paintings, which was the section i enjoyed. Overall i didn't really get much out of Cambridge.
June 5 was Dad's birthday, and to celebrate we visited Coventry Cathedral, which was something he had dearly wanted to do, and which Mum had been less keen on doing.
The story of Coventry Cathedral is fascinating. It was a fairly regular cathedral (i am such a cathedral snob) until the Second World War. Coventry was an industrial centre, and therefore vital to the British war effort. For this reason Coventry was bombed heavily, and the cathedral was one of the many casualties.
After the war there was a determination to rebuild the cathedral as a symbol of England's recovery. An international competition was held to design the cathedral. Basil Spence, who had served in the war, won with a radical design. He proposed that the ruins of the cathedral be left as a monument, and that a new cathedral be built next to the ruins. His design was modern, controversial and wonderfully symbolic of peace, forgiveness and rebirth. One element of the story which my father loves is regarding the statue which dominates the approach to the cathedral - St Michael's Victory Over The Devil, by Jacob Epstein. The gist of the story is that Spence commissioned Epstein's work because he believed him to be the best talent for the job, but that many conservative church officials complained because the artist was Jewish. The statue went ahead.
The interior of the cathedral is wonderful as well - the entrance contains the most wonderful stain glass window i have ever seen. If i were religious i would say that it made me feel like i was in the presence of God - it was such a superb and ascendant piece of art. In addition, the cathedral reflects its strong working class and industrial links, which makes it uniquely modern amongst all the cathedrals we have visited.
After lunch we visited Stratford-upon-Avon, the birthplace of Shakespeare. Unfortunately we didn't really get too much out of our visit. I have the feeling that because it is such an incredible tourist bait that there hasn't been a proper effort to unify the place and make it engage more with Shakespeare's actual works. So, that was quite disappointing.
The next day was fairly relaxed. We visited a village called Winchcombe where there is a famous pottery shop that my grandfather used to visit every time he was in the UK. Obviously my parents shared that affection, as they spent a long time in the shop and bought a few pieces to have shipped back to Australia. Also in Winchcombe we had lunch at a delightful tea room run by a Japanese family. They obviously have a very good and widespread reputation, as a coach-load of Japanese tourists came in just as we were finishing.
In the afternoon we drove to the village of Bladen which is very near to Oxford, where we were staying. Bladen has a very small church which has a tiny graveyard. In the graveyard is buried, with almost no pomp or circumstance, Winston Churchill. It's lovely that Churchill, who is generally regarded as the greatest Briton of the 20th Century, could be buried so humbly (at his own wishes). You can just imagine the kind of gaudy tribute the Americans would have done for him.
The reason that he is buried in Bladen is that it is where his ancestral home and birthplace, Blenheim Palace, is located. Blenheim Palace puts Castle Howard to shame - it is astonishingly huge even for the upper classes, and the grounds stretch on to ridiculous extent. On the day we visited they were setting up for a triathlon, and the entire triathlon was to be held within the grounds - including swimming through the lake.
We stayed the night at Oxford, and similarly to Cambridge i didn't get a huge amount out of it. We did manage to time it so that our visit coincided with graduations, so the streets were overrun with drunken graduates.
Friday, May 30, 2008
Pardon me, i'm puffed
Sorry if this post is not terribly well constructed - i'm well and truly puffed.
We woke up late this morning - almost 9:00am, which is about 2 hours later than we've been averaging, and which meant that we almost missed the breakfast being served. Not really sure why we slept so long - probably a combination of a nice room with no traffic going past thanks to the road being shut.
This morning we visited the Scottish National Museum, which my parents visited 30 or so years ago and had thoroughly enjoyed. Their expectations on revisiting were most definitely met - it is one of the best art galleries i have ever visited. It has an absolutely superlative collection of artists - Van Gogh, Turner, Monet and Rembrandt amongst others - and it is well set out so that you can view the collection comfortably and without having to spend a full day just to get a proper feel for it (which is an example i feel some of Australia's galleries could profit from imitating). My favourite piece was a self-portrait by Rembrandt during his late 40s/early 50s.
I have to say that the gallery cafe was not as good as the gallery itself. The food was adequate - pre-prepared sandwiches, lentil soup - but the staff either had not been given adequate cutlery and crockery, or they had not washed up any, as people were being served soup in styrofoam cups, and they had run out of pies (an unforgivable error).
The other highlight of the day so far, and the reason that i'm so bloody puffed, was the Walter Scott monument. Now, it might not have been totally obvious from my post about visiting Walter Scott's house, but Scott is one of the truly great and dominant figures in Scottish cultural history. He was a spectacular literary talent, and a fiercely passionate advocate of Scottish history. He can be seen as the primary reason for the reemergence of Scottish pride in their history and national identity after being conquered by the English.
When Scott died, it was proposed that a monument be built in the centre of Edinburgh "...befitting his stature". Well, they well and truly succeeded - the Walter Scott monument could be described as Scotland's Eiffel Tower - even in the modern skyline of Edinburgh it towers, and it is a very popular tourist attraction. You can also climb the monument, which is 61 metres tall and has 300 steps.
I thought this sounded like a grand idea, but Mum (who did it 30 years ago) mentioned that it got a bit tight towards the top of the monument. Undeterred, i paid my 3£ and began the climb.
Mum was not kidding about it being tight. You ascend via a steep spiral staircase which unfortunately does not have handrails, and there are four levels that you can walk around on. I have taken pictures from each of these levels, but as usual i can't upload them. Suffice to say that the view from each level is spectacular, and from the top level it is an unparalled view over all of Edinburgh which simulaneously made my heart soar and my vertigo gently tap me on the shoulder.
Coming back down was a bit problematic - the lack of a handrail meant i sort of had to wedge myself against the wall of the stairs and hang on to the the centre of the spiral. Thankfully noone was coming up the staircase on my way down, or it would have been a bit problematic. At the end i was very puffed - probably a little more than the experience truly warranted, so there's another little reminder to work on my fitness.
We woke up late this morning - almost 9:00am, which is about 2 hours later than we've been averaging, and which meant that we almost missed the breakfast being served. Not really sure why we slept so long - probably a combination of a nice room with no traffic going past thanks to the road being shut.
This morning we visited the Scottish National Museum, which my parents visited 30 or so years ago and had thoroughly enjoyed. Their expectations on revisiting were most definitely met - it is one of the best art galleries i have ever visited. It has an absolutely superlative collection of artists - Van Gogh, Turner, Monet and Rembrandt amongst others - and it is well set out so that you can view the collection comfortably and without having to spend a full day just to get a proper feel for it (which is an example i feel some of Australia's galleries could profit from imitating). My favourite piece was a self-portrait by Rembrandt during his late 40s/early 50s.
I have to say that the gallery cafe was not as good as the gallery itself. The food was adequate - pre-prepared sandwiches, lentil soup - but the staff either had not been given adequate cutlery and crockery, or they had not washed up any, as people were being served soup in styrofoam cups, and they had run out of pies (an unforgivable error).
The other highlight of the day so far, and the reason that i'm so bloody puffed, was the Walter Scott monument. Now, it might not have been totally obvious from my post about visiting Walter Scott's house, but Scott is one of the truly great and dominant figures in Scottish cultural history. He was a spectacular literary talent, and a fiercely passionate advocate of Scottish history. He can be seen as the primary reason for the reemergence of Scottish pride in their history and national identity after being conquered by the English.
When Scott died, it was proposed that a monument be built in the centre of Edinburgh "...befitting his stature". Well, they well and truly succeeded - the Walter Scott monument could be described as Scotland's Eiffel Tower - even in the modern skyline of Edinburgh it towers, and it is a very popular tourist attraction. You can also climb the monument, which is 61 metres tall and has 300 steps.
I thought this sounded like a grand idea, but Mum (who did it 30 years ago) mentioned that it got a bit tight towards the top of the monument. Undeterred, i paid my 3£ and began the climb.
Mum was not kidding about it being tight. You ascend via a steep spiral staircase which unfortunately does not have handrails, and there are four levels that you can walk around on. I have taken pictures from each of these levels, but as usual i can't upload them. Suffice to say that the view from each level is spectacular, and from the top level it is an unparalled view over all of Edinburgh which simulaneously made my heart soar and my vertigo gently tap me on the shoulder.
Coming back down was a bit problematic - the lack of a handrail meant i sort of had to wedge myself against the wall of the stairs and hang on to the the centre of the spiral. Thankfully noone was coming up the staircase on my way down, or it would have been a bit problematic. At the end i was very puffed - probably a little more than the experience truly warranted, so there's another little reminder to work on my fitness.
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Balmoral, Stirling and Edinburgh
Balmoral was a very nice experience. As expected the grounds were very large and very beautiful - it's remarkably peaceful, and set next to the beautiful River Dee. It was raining lightly, which only made the pine trees which dominate the area more beautiful. The castle itself was actually a good deal smaller than i had expected - but i suppose it is only the 'summer residence', and there is still a very large amount of staff housing about the place.
Unexpectedly we did get to look inside the castle, but only the ballroom section. The ballroom had been set out for an exhibition showing a number of art works as well as giving a feeling for the ballroom as it would have been used - including showing off a number of royal ball dresses.
We spent the night at a hotel on the outskirts of Perth, which was a bit of an odd experience. The hotel itself was reasonably classy, and had a beautiful grounds surrounding it, but our room seemed to have a number of problems with it - the TV hadn't been supplied with an aerial plug, and there were no curtains in my bedroom. Luckily they fixed these problems and we had a reasonably good night.
This morning we went through the town of Stirling, which is built around a castle built (and, oddly, destroyed) by Robert the Bruce. The castle was interesting, but so far my favourite castle has been the first one we saw - Harlech Castle in Wales. I think that i just find the ruined and semi-ruined castles more interesting than the ones which have survived in fairly pristine condition.
We've now made it to Edinburgh, and after a slight problem finding our hotel (when we rung to book with them they failed to mention that the entire street they are on is closed for work) we've settled in nicely. I'm not sure how much sightseeing we will be doing here - i know that there are plans to see the castle, which is in walking distance from our hotel, and Mum wants to see an art gallery that she enjoyed last time she was in Scotland, but beyond that i'm not sure what we will be doing here, which is a bit odd since we're here for another 2 days.
Unfortunately all three of us now have colds, but i think we're all getting over them. Dad's doing the best, and Mum's probably feeling about as bad as i did a day or so ago.
Unexpectedly we did get to look inside the castle, but only the ballroom section. The ballroom had been set out for an exhibition showing a number of art works as well as giving a feeling for the ballroom as it would have been used - including showing off a number of royal ball dresses.
We spent the night at a hotel on the outskirts of Perth, which was a bit of an odd experience. The hotel itself was reasonably classy, and had a beautiful grounds surrounding it, but our room seemed to have a number of problems with it - the TV hadn't been supplied with an aerial plug, and there were no curtains in my bedroom. Luckily they fixed these problems and we had a reasonably good night.
This morning we went through the town of Stirling, which is built around a castle built (and, oddly, destroyed) by Robert the Bruce. The castle was interesting, but so far my favourite castle has been the first one we saw - Harlech Castle in Wales. I think that i just find the ruined and semi-ruined castles more interesting than the ones which have survived in fairly pristine condition.
We've now made it to Edinburgh, and after a slight problem finding our hotel (when we rung to book with them they failed to mention that the entire street they are on is closed for work) we've settled in nicely. I'm not sure how much sightseeing we will be doing here - i know that there are plans to see the castle, which is in walking distance from our hotel, and Mum wants to see an art gallery that she enjoyed last time she was in Scotland, but beyond that i'm not sure what we will be doing here, which is a bit odd since we're here for another 2 days.
Unfortunately all three of us now have colds, but i think we're all getting over them. Dad's doing the best, and Mum's probably feeling about as bad as i did a day or so ago.
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