OUR VISIT TO THE UK - 2012

This is the other part of our blog to the UK - the section dealing with the King's College Reunion and visits to relative and friends.  You can read about our walking on the Cardigan Coast and the Southern Lake District from the menu at the top of this page.

Our trip began using the local airline for the short flight to Vancouver Airport where we connected with the Air Transat flight to Gatwick Airport.  Air Transat is a Canadian airline that costs a little less than the main carriers.  It is a little more cramped than Air Canada would have been but that isn't  real problem because the price was right.  

Just before we left home we purchased an iPad2 which proved to be very useful in allowing us to check things as we went along and kept us in touch with the world.  The photo below, taken with the iPad  shows the Air Transat Airbus 330 at Vancouver Airport. 

You can see a larger version of any photograph by simply clicking the mouse once on the image. Another click off the image returns you to the text

At Gatwick we collected a series of rail tickets we had purchased online some weeks earlier.  If you buy them many weeks ahead you can save quite a bit.  In all we collected tickets for six different trains at about 50% the regular cost.  

We collected a rental vehicle and drove to Stourport to see Don and Jean.  We were going to stay at a B and B just around the corner from where they live which was very convenient. 

We had arrived just before the time of the QE2 Diamond Jubilee.  There were many flags and decorations around and Jean gave us a little present that was typically English to celebrate the event, a pork pie and a bottle of HP sauce!  They took us out to a very lovely meal at a local pub.  Pub meals are the big thing in the UK.

To celebrate the Diamond Jubilee

We had time the next morning to walk along the tow path of the local canal on the way to Kidderminster.  Canal boat holidays are very popular and we saw a number on the canal as well as a whole host in the canal basin in Stourport.

We only stayed the one night and the next afternoon we drove to Stratford-upon-Avon where we were to join a few King's College London fellow grad students for the weekend.  This group had been meeting  on a regular basis over the last few years and one of us, Robin, had joined them for an evening meal on London a few years ago when we happened to be in the UK.  This time we were both able to spend the three days together with our friends, partners and wives.

After a pleasant meal that evening, the next day saw us take a boat trip up the River Avon in a pleasure craft hired for our group alone.  We meandered up and back for about an hour in lovely sunshine.

On the River Avon

Our intrepid leader - John Griffith, living in Newark

The bridge at Stratford-upon-Avon

The Shakespeare Theatre

Plenty of swans and tourists

John Raitt - living in Logan, Utah

That evening we all had a meal in the restaurant at the theatre and then went to see the Shakespeare play Richard III.  The stage at the theatre runs out into the audience and we happened to be in the front row at one side. So we were always close to the action.  And action there was as we witnessed a great battle scene, swords flying.  It all looked very dangerous from our viewpoint.  By the time it all ended were feeling as exhausted as the actors who had given their all.  A great evening all round.

For our last day together we went to the National Trust stately home at Charlcote Park where there is lovely house and gardens. 

Charlecote House

The magnificent dining room

A fine row of chimneys

Lunch at Charlecote Park

Our more humble dining table

We left the group and drove the short distance to Balsall Common to see niece Valerie and Paul and their two youngsters,  Ella and Toby.  Nephew Chris and partner Pauline were there as well.  The visit was timely as far as Paul was concerned because he has been building his own aircraft and that day he needed extra help to fit the wings.  The plane had been in the garage but was now nearing completion (!) and more space was required.  The photo below shows the plane coming together 

The proud aviator

 Now with the wings in place

Toby

Ella

Pauline, Ruth, Valerie and Toby

   

We stayed at a nearby B and B - Camp Farm.

   

The next day we gave the rental car back at Birmingham International Airport and took the first of our train trips to Aberystwyth.  All very convenient as the Arriva Wales train started out from the station at the airport and ran right through to Aberystwyth where we started our walking on the Cardigan Coastal path.  That blog can be accessed from the menu at the top of this blog.

After we had completed our four days on the path we took the bus to near Carnarfon to see Nephew Dan and Ceri and their two children, Osian and Megan.  They live with her parents in the tiny village of       Rhostryfan.  We had a nice meal with them and were able to see the house that they are renovating in the village by the local school.  This is a long term project is seems!  We also made a short trip into Carnarfon to see the castle and the local sights.

Carnarfon Castle

   

Dan and Megan

 Osian and Megan

 Megan  

Osian

    Megan, Dan, Ruth, Ceri and Osian

Megan and Dan (an iPad2 photo)

Welsh decorations for the Jubilee -  no Union Jacks!

We stayed at a nearby B and B where each room was named after famous race track, we were in Ascot. 

The next day Dan kindly took us to Bangor Railway station so we could catch the train to Crewe and on to Derby where we were going to stay with Anthony and Carol over the Jubilee Bank holiday.  There is a regular Bank holiday on the Monday but the Queen had declared an extra day on the Tuesday.  We arranged our times so that we didn't travel on the Monday or the Tuesday and on the Sunday afternoon when we arrived we were able to see on TV the grand flotilla of boats that were going to travel on the River Thames from Hammersmith to Tower Bridge.  If you managed to see any of that activity you might remember that the weather was dreadful, rain, rain and more rain with a resolute Queen standing at the front of the Royal Barge waving to the crowd as if her life depended on it - she is a tough old bird.  It was a real shame because the Monday and Tuesday were quite pleasant.

On the Monday we had a day out in the Derbyshire Dales.

Taking a little break

   

Arch under the railway - HDR again  

HDR is useful if you have a photo with a large range of contrast, too large for the camera to handle.  You take three exposures, one under-exposed, one over-exposed and one in between.  You then use special software to combine the three images into one.  There are two more examples on the Walking Blog.

   

A Derbyshire Farm

To prove we were there together

   

Anthony enjoying a foxglove

We collected another rental vehicle in Derby and drove North up M1 and A1(M) to Gosforth in the Lake District travelling up Wensleydale, as mentioned in the walking blog.

After our time there we came back South from the Kendal area through Skipton to Haworth, in Bronte Country.

This allowed us to visit with one of our godchildren, Penny.  Fortunately for us she had arranged for her mother, Hilary to be there as well, so we had a good visit and a nice lunch as well.

Ruth, Penny and Hilary

We left  Haworth after lunch as we had another call to make near Sheffield, another Godchild, Simon Webb.  We arrived in the late afternoon to find the whole family there, Simon, Sheilagh
and their three children Duncan, Elizabeth and Abigail.  They had just arrived back from Hay-on-Wye where they had been attending a book festival.  Shelagh cooked us a lovely dinner, very kind seeing that they had only just arrived home. We had a very nice visit before we had to leave to get to our B and B in Bakewell.

This turned out to be probably our nicest stay.  It was like an old style B and B where you felt part of the family with breakfast in the kitchen.  The house was located by a stream just away from the town centre.  Really pleasant.

We had a bit of time to spare in the morning and we walked into the town, it was busy as it was market day.  We found a number of bakery shops with genuine Bakewell puddings and Bakewell tarts.

It was time to drive the car back to Derby and catch the train to Reading where we had one more visit to make - Annie Cowan (nee Berwick), Stu and children, Thomas and Dan.  This was just a whistle stop was we got off one train, found a place to have a quick dinner together before getting back to the station to link up with Stu who met us on the platform as he had just arrived back from working in London.

We caught the train to Gatwick Airport, for our last evening in the UK.

We stayed at the Yotel Hotel which is situated right in the airport.  It is a little unusual as it has very small rooms, like a small cruise ship stateroom but it was very well designed and had all you need for a night.  It was very clean and had a really excellent bathroom.  Free tea and coffee, WiFi and flat screen TV. 

 

Inside the room at Yotel

The bed slides down when you need it

Another advantage of Yotel is that you can go and check in early and then come back to the room until it was time to go. Highly recommended and the price is very reasonable.  So much easier than a comparable cost B and B away from the airport with all the problems of getting there and back.

So it was back with Air Transat to Vancouver direct and the little plane to Comox Airport, always fun.

We had a great three weeks away.

ATHENS

September saw us travelling to Greece. The principal reason was to spend two weeks walking on two Greek Islands - Naxos and Tinos. We left early to catch the Central Mountain Air flight to Vancouver where we connected with an Air Canada Calgary flight. Lufthansa then took us to Frankfurt where we connected with another Lufthansa flight to Athens. We arrived just after mid day having travelled a total of 20 hours.

Our time on the islands was going to be spent doing self guided walks. We had found out about this on the web with Walking Plus. An English couple had set up the organization to provide both guided and self guided walks on the islands of Naxos, Tinos and Amorgos. In the self guided version, they arrange accommodation, take the luggage from the start of a day's walk to the finish and provide detailed walking notes and maps. This meant that one only had to carry a small back pack on the walk. This worked out very well.

You can see a larger version of any photograph by simply clicking the mouse once on the image. Another click off the photograph returns you to the text.

As you are probably aware Greece has been having all manners of problems, strikes and riots being the most newsworthy. These issues affected us to some degree but we always managed to work around the disruptions. Athens Airport had been greatly upgraded a while ago at the time of the Olympic Games and is quite a show piece. In connection with that a new rail link was developed that gets you to the centre of Athens in quick time. The new line links to the city Metro system and we were able to get fairly close to our hotel. We were left with a short taxi ride. We had read about Athens taxis and had a bit of trouble with the taxi we chose. The drivers are a little reluctant to switch on the meter and that was true in our case. However, we prevailed and got the meter running. The other trick they play is to take a long way round and we think that happened to us but we did reach the Hotel Moka eventually. We had booked this hotel on the advice of Trip Advisor. The reviews were good, the only reservation people mentioned was that it was located in a red light district that could be off putting. We had no trouble from that aspect and the hotel was well priced and the staff helpful.

We had two things to accomplish that day, first to buy bus tickets to take us to Delphi and the second to collect ferry tickets to get us to Naxos. We had became aware that the next day the buses, metro and taxis were all going on strike. So we arranged to spend that day looking around Athens on strike day as we could do all we wanted by walking and visit Delphi the day after when we could get the local bus to the bus terminal. Having successfully bought the bus tickets, we found the ferry office and collected the ferry tickets which we had ordered online. We were now close to the Parliament building where the famous guards with pom-pom shoes protect the building.


On our way to the ferry office we came across some people setting up balloons in a city square. We weren't quite sure what the objective was.

Later we passed by again and think the balloons were a sort of art exhibit.

Up early the next day we started out on our Athens tour. We had some guided tour notes from Walking Plus which were going to take us on a circuit around the Acropolis. Three diversions were available, up to the Acropolis itself, into the New Acropolis Museum and into the Ancient Agora.

On our way to our starting point on the circuit we came across a covered market with all kinds of meat, fish, vegetables and fruit.

A fine display of sausages.

Rabbit is a feature of the Greek menu


As is octopus


And there were many different fishes for sale

You should be able to follow the circuit if you enlarge the map

Our tour started at the Monastiraki Metro station. It is very common in Athens to see ancient buildings side by side with modern buildings. Outside the Metro station was the Pantanassa Church.

Pantanassa Church that belonged to the monastery (monastiraki), thought to have been built in the 10th Century AD.

Our circuit took us anti-clockwise around the Rock of the Acropolis. We got an early view as we progressed. The crowd of people you can see in the photo were at the entry to the Acropolis and were nearly all cruise ship passengers who we were to run into a little later on. There must have been a number of ships in port that day.

Our first view of the Acropolis, quite a sight


There are a number of hills in the Athens area, the most prominent is Lykavittos Hill, reaching 910 feet above the City.

A view of the Acropolis and Lykavittos Hill,


The monument to Caius Julius Antiochus Philapappus on Filopappos Hill south of the Acropolis, with a tourist. Built in AD 114 -116


A decorative feature on a path on Filopappos Hill


Thought to be Socrates Prison on Filopappos Hill (perhaps)

We broke away from the circuit we were following to visit the New Acropolis Museum. Officially opened in mid-2009, this is a magnificent place. Packed with ancient sculptures and many other items, it provides a very complete understanding of the buildings and structures on the Acropolis that can be seen directly above the Museum through large glass windows. Much is made of the frieze that ran around an interior building inside the Parthenon and, rather pointedly, there is an empty room awaiting the return of the "marbles" that were "stolen" and sold to the British Museum by Lord Elgin. It is quite obvious that the Greeks remain very upset. It was lunch time by now and we ate at the very pleasant restaurant on an upper floor, again with the view of the Acropolis unmissable through the windows. We ordered tomato soup and a salad. It was quite a shock to take the first spoonful of cold soup when you expect it to be hot.

The new Acropolis Museum (no photographs inside)

We deviated away again from our circuit to go up to the Acropolis to see the Parthenon and associated buildings. We caught up with the large crowd of cruise ship passengers. As you will have seen earlier it is quite a climb on to the top on the rock. In many ways it resembles a building site because there is a large amount of reconstruction going on.

The Parthenon on the Acropolis


A detail of the East Pediment


A "to prove one of us was there" photographs


Another view of the Parthenon


The Erechtheion (built 437 - 432 BC), situated on the most sacred site of the Acropolis. It is said to be where Poseidon left his trident in a rock and Athena's olive tree sprouted, in their battle for possession of the City.

The Porch of the Caryatids on the Erechtheion. These statues of women were used in place of columns are, in fact, copies. Four of the originals can be seen in the New Acropolis Museum.


The New Acropolis Museum and the Theatre of Dionysos from the Acropolis.


The Temple of Olympian Zeus. Building started in the 6th Century BC and was finished 650 years later. It was larger than the Parthenon.


The Kallimarmaro Stadium from the Acropolis. Built in 330 BC for the Panathenaic Games, it later fell into disuse. It was restored in 1895 in time for the first of the modern Olympic Games in 1896. In 2004 it hosted the finish of the Olympic Marathon and the Archery Competition

The Parliament Buildings from the Acropolis



The Temple of Hephaestus in the Ancient Agora (qv) from the Acropolis. It is the best preserved temple in Greece


The partly restored Herodes Atticus Theatre below the Acropolis, a modern pop group had been rehearsing that day


The Dionysus Theatre which was the site of Classical Greece's drama competitions, where the tragedies and comedies by the great playwrights (Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides) were first performed

We came down off the Acropolis to continue our circuit reaching the region under the north face of the Acropolos. Here we arrived at the Roman Agora built in the first Century AD. An agora was an open "place of assembly" where citizens would gather for military duty or to hear statements of the ruling king or council. Later, the Agora also served as a marketplace where merchants kept stalls or shops to sell their goods. The term Agoraphobia stems from the word agora. It is a defined as a morbid fear of having a panic attack in a situation that is perceived to be difficult (or embarrassing) from which to escape (due to the crowds).

The main feature is the Tower of the Winds. This is an octagonal tower built in the 6th Century BC and it has the personification of the winds on each side. Inside there was a water clock run by a stream from the Acropolis.

The Tower of Winds in the Roman Agora

The North West wind, Skiron.

A pomegranate tree behind the Tower of Winds

We had now reached the point on the circuit where we had started earlier. Here is situated the Ancient Agora. It was Athen's marketplace, founded in the 6th Century BC, and was the heart of the city for 1200 years. It was the centre of all civic activities including politics, commerce, philosophy, religion, arts and athletics. It was the place where Socrates addressed his public and where St. Paul preached.

The reconstructed Middle Stoa (market place), containing a covered walkway and rows of columns.

Inside the Middle Stoa

A featured sculpture, one of many

This Byzantine Church was built in the 11th Century AD over the the ruins of the Nymphaion, an elaborate 2nd Century AD fountain house.

Our last view of the Acropolis from the Ancient Agora.

By now it was getting late so we had a meal and got ourselves ready for the next day, a visit to Delphi.