Day 26: Finding a Friend

So this post will be much shorter than it deserves.  I was able to meet a friend from Harvard this evening and prioritized catching up and socializing than being back at a reasonable hour.  Apologies for the brevity!

Ethan and I had a busy day walking around London.  We started by heading from our hotel to the Imperial War Museum.  The collection there is pretty amazing and affecting.  Highlights were the Lord Ashcroft Gallery that displayed the medals and stories of those who have won the Victory Cross or the George Cross and the Holocaust exhibit.  Both were moving for the extreme bravery and spirit shown by British soldier and by all peoples victimized by the Nazi powers.

After a long visit in the museum, we headed across the Thames and through Westminster again.  This time we spotted the Jewel Tower, one of the few medieval buildings from the Palace of Westminster to survive the fire.

We went into St. James's Park, making our way towards Buckingham Palace.  We were both surprised to see pelicans swimming in the park lake.  They were presents from the Russian ambassador in 1664.  This spurred a tradition of giving exotic and unusual waterfowl as diplomatic gifts and this is reflected in the fowl found in St. James's Park.

We walked up to Victoria Memorial at the end of the Mall and just before Buckingham Palace.  The massive monument was unveiled in 1911 and completed in 1924.  The main features are a statue of Queen Victoria, as Queen Empress, in Carrara marble and a gilded bronze winged Victory standing over the queen.

Although we had missed the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham, we did happen to see a changing of the sentries on duty.  It was pretty fascinating to watch the rigid formality of the process.  A commander led four replacements out and relieved the sentries two at at time, before leading them back in.  All done in perfect unison.

The guards who act as sentries at Buckingham Palace (and as protection to the royal family and residences) are known as the Queen's Guard.

The Queen's Colour was flying over Buckingham Palace, signaling that Queen Elizabeth II is currently in residence at the palace.  Were she not there, no flag would fly.  It would also affect the number of sentries outside Buckingham.

Using a self timer on my camera, Ethan and I were able to get our first picture together in London, with the Victoria Memorial and Buckingham Palace in the background.

From Buckingham Palace, we walked through Piccadilly Circus and towards Trafalgar Square.  We stopped in St. James's Church, Piccadilly.  There was a small market of wares outside and a beautiful organ inside.  The church also allows homeless people to sleep in some of the pews during the day, which seems a lovely continuation of Christian charity.

We ended our busy day in the National Portrait Gallery.  Sadly, many of the rooms of the museum were shut due to some sort of construction or something.  We're hoping that the closures were just for today and we might be able to revisit and see some of the pieces we missed (especially the Caravaggios).

Here are three personal highlights from what we saw today:

A 15th century depiction of St. George slaying the dragon by Paolo Uccello.  I love this image because it reminds me of my childhood and I remember seeing it when I visited London fourteen or fifteen years ago.

The museum had a wonderful collection of paintings by Peter Paul Rubens.  The painting below depicts the myth of Samson and Delilah.  I love the drama of the men about to come through the door in the top right corner.

Finally, a piece by El Greco, a Greek painter whose career was based in Spain.  In seventh grade, I did a research project and presentation on El Greco and have loved his work ever since.  The painting shows St. Jerome as a cardinal.

We were unable to see much of the museum and exhaustion in our feet might have sped our exit.  We headed out through Trafalgar Square, stopping to look at the large monument dedicated to Admiral Horatio Nelson.

We went back to our hotel and out for a bit of a disappointing dinner.  But the night was greatly improved with another drink and dessert.  From there we reached the highlight of the day, meeting with a classmate of mine (and fellow classicist) for a drink (or two) and having a lovely evening.

Fun Fact #26: The gun shown in the first picture is a 1914 15-inch gun.  Each gun weighs around 100 tons and could shoot a 1,938 pound shell 16.25 miles.  Sounds like a pretty terrifying sight.

Day 24: Meandering Through Museums

Somehow, Ethan and I were both convinced that yesterday was our last day in Bath and that we'd be headed to London this morning.  We're not sure how we both got so convinced of this, but we were happy to have another day in Bath.  We used it to explore some of the various museums in the city.

We went first to Holburne Museum, which is very close to our hotel.  The museum is built in the Sydney Gardens, a favored walking spot of Jane Austen when she lived in Bath, and was later adapted to house the eclectic collection of William Holburne.  The collection now includes a collection of British painting, ceramics from Britain and abroad, silver work, including many silver spoons, art and furniture from the Low Countries, and a variety of other pieces collected from around the world.

Ethan, being a harpist, was drawn by this single-action pedal harp from the 1700s.  The harp was built by famous French piano and harp maker, Sébastian Érard.  The pianoforte behind the harp is one of a handful of Schnatz instruments left and sports bone and ivory keys.  Haydn said of Schnatz pianofortes: "...everything is better expressed on a Schnantz."

While a rather prolific collected, William Holburne made a few mistakes over the years.  This includes a "Roman" ewer discovered by the Prince of Sicily in the 1800s.  A few hints that it was a fake: 1. There was no Prince of Sicily at the time; 2. The most likely candidate for who might have been this so called "prince" was only ten at the time of the "discovery"; and 3. The ewer doesn't look Roman...at all.  William got swindled.

Though there was a large collection of silver spoons, one was easily the most interesting.  This spoon was a combination of a spoon, a fork, a pen, a toothpick, and an ear-pick.  The toothpick and ear-pick portions are lost, but the bowl of the spoon could be removed to create a fork and the finial of the spoon could be removed to reveal the pen.  A pretty swanky multitool!

Here is a photo Ethan took and edited today!  A view from Holburne Museum, looking down Pulteney Road towards the center of Bath.

We headed from the Holburne into Bath Center and visited St. John the Evangelist, a Roman Catholic church.  The church was damaged by a bomb in World War II, as part of the Baedeker Blitz which targeted culturally and historic cities in England.  Six people died (although we've seen different numbers) in the church, including the parish priest of the church.  The church was rebuilt in the same Gothic style.

We then headed to a store I spotted in my wanderings yesterday, Wool.  I have been hoping to find local, British wool while in in the U.K., but have been sadly unable to.  Even in Chester, which was a once a center of the British wool trade, I couldn't find any locally sourced yarn.  However, Wool had quite a few options from around the U.K.  Ethan and I both got some new yarn, and I finally got British wool yarn (it's from Leicester!).

After getting cream tea for our lunch, we decided to head to the museum at the Royal Crescent.  Our tickets were half-price, since the BBC was filming a cooking show in the house's kitchen.  All the other rooms were accessible, so it was quite a deal!

They had a special exhibit on dollhouses from the 18th and 19th centuries.  Sadly, photography was not allowed, but the houses were extremely impressive.  They were full miniature Georgian manor houses, full of dolls, furniture, mirrors, paintings, and even china food!

We then explored the house which is meant to represent how it looked when it was occupied by Henry Sandford at the end of the 18th century.  The house contains many of his pet interests, including astronomical equipment (Ethan tests out his telescope), scientific inventions, like a machine designed to create a spark, and curiosities from around the world. 

This pistol-looking device was used to light lamps in the parlour of the house.  It would use the spark from the flint to ignite the wick.

This snake bone necklace is in Sandford's cabinet of curiosities.  The other curiosities included things like poison darts, fulgurites, arrowheads and a tomahawk from Northern America, a dog tooth purse, and more.

On the second floor of the house were the ladies quarters.  There was a "withdrawing" room for the women to go to after the main meal of the day.  It was set up for an after dinner tea and contained a harpsichord as well.  While the men stayed in the dining room, drinking and smoking, the women would have a quieter evening over their tea.

The other room on the second floor was the Lady's Bedroom.  The room was dominated by features to help the lady get dressed and keep her comfortable while in the many layers of clothes and wigs.  The lady of the house would have had a dedicated makeup table, holding tools to curl her hair and a wig stand for more elaborate hair pieces.  We also saw a big scratcher, as lice were apparently quite the problem in 18th century Bath.

Upstairs, the only room open to the public was the Gentleman's Bedroom.  Henry Sandford was somewhat of an invalid in his later years and spent most of his time in his bedroom.  It had a commanding view of the rest of the Royal Crescent.  The staffer in the room theorized that Sandford was quite the gossip and probably had his telescope in his room, spying on his neighbors.  He liked to write into the local papers about the raucous parties hosted in the house across the Crescent from his.

Down the servant's back staircase, we came to the humbler rooms of the house.  We were able to peak into the kitchen, despite the filming, and saw the office where the housekeeper ran the house.  Other rooms included the Servants' Hall and the Wine Vault (which was sadly not accessible to the public).  Both Ethan and I were surprised by how neat the museum was.

We then headed back to our hotel to try to escape the weather, as it was beginning to turn a bit sour.  We had a quite afternoon knitting and watching some tv (and watching the clouds roll in and out of Bath).  Now it's off for our last meal in Bath!

Fun Fact #23: In the Servants' Hall there was quite a strange contraption.  Apparently, they used a dog-powered wheel to turn the spit over the fire.  I thought it was a joke at first, but apparently, the servants would put a dog in the wheel up above the floor and through a series of ropes and pulleys, it turned the spit over the fire.  I really hope they gave the dog a fair share of that meat!

Day 21: Reuniting with Ethan

Today was all about travel and reuniting.  I left my hotel in Cardiff after a lovely stay and headed to the train station.  I had misread and thought I was aiming to be on a train at 11:00, but it was actually at 11:30.  This was no problem, as I knew I would beat Ethan to Bath.  But I was excited to hear that he had landed safely and we texted as he made it through immigration, to Paddington Station, and on the train to Bath.

At around 1:30 we were finally back together in Bath, after a long month apart.  We headed to our hotel, which is on a quite residential street a few blocks away from the historic center of Bath.  We took a short break before venturing back out to find some food.

We headed towards the center, where the cathedral is visible from most every street.  The cathedral was closed for the day, as it was being used for some graduation events for the University of Bath.  I think this is for the best, allowing us to visit the cathedral when we are both better rested.

Just next door to the cathedral are the Roman baths, which I cannot wait to see.  I got a few peaks of the building surrounding the Roman site and it is gorgeous.  I'm very excited to see how the baths are preserved in this 19th century center.  I think it will be a fascinating mixture of Roman ruins and Victorian re-imagination of the past. 

As we had missed lunch, we decided to go for a proper afternoon tea.  We shared a pot of Earl Grey tea and many delicious treats.  These included scones with clotted cream and strawberry jam, a lemon meringue tart, a lemon poppyseed cake, a strawberry and cream tart, a brownie, and an assortment of finger sandwiches.

Even though we were both quite hungry, we couldn't finish the tray of delights.  It was a lovely way to spend an hour or so, though.  We were right in the middle of Bath and were able to catch up over good food and good tea.

We wandered around the center a bit more, stumbling upon some odd sights.  A man, some sort of street performer, was putting pigeons on to people.  Both Ethan and I were extremely confused by this.  Why would you want pigeons on you?  Doesn't that just seem like a recipe to be covered in bird poop?  And why would you trust this man to put crazy birds on you?  Just so many questions.

We walked by the Victoria Art Gallery,  an art museum dedicated to Queen Victoria in honor of her diamond jubilee.  The museum is known for its collection of British oil paintings from the 17th century to present.  We may stop in and see them for ourselves in the coming days!

We then headed back to our hotel, exploring Henrietta Park on the way back to our hotel.  I had noticed the ruins of a chapel from our hotel window so we crossed the street and went to St. Mary's Churchyard.  The churchyard dates from the 1800s as a parish church and graveyard.  The graveyard quickly filled to capacity and the parish church was torn down and a new church, St. John's, was built.  A mortuary chapel, used for funerals and baptisms, was built in the churchyard, but also fell out of activity.

The site was left in neglect for many years, and only really begun to be preserved in the early 2000s.  Now it is a quiet place to walk through.  They have put out little signs of graves that are of interest, although Ethan and I didn't understand the significance of any of these.  The on pictured labeled a slab of stone as "A mystery!"  I think they might have been stretching at some points.

We had another little break in the hotel (Ethan took an accidental nap) before heading out to dinner.  After investigating some of Bath's culinary scene, we settled on an Italian restaurant just off the Pulteney Bridge.  I feel like maybe I shouldn't have taken Ethan to an Italian restaurant on his first night in England, but too late now!  Now, we're back in the hotel, getting ready for bed.  Have to say I'm awfully impressed Ethan is still up at 11:20 pm!  Time for sleep now though!

Fun Fact #21: Bath has been known for it's natural hot springs for over 2,000 years.  The hot springs were used both as curative and religious places by native peoples, utilized by the Roman invaders, and by basically all those who have lived in Bath.  The spa had a major heyday in the Georgian era, influencing the design and architecture of the city.  Today, you can still have a relaxing day in the baths, but sadly not the Roman ones.

Day 19: Turning to the Sylvan Wye

Today I went on tour of some amazing sites outside of Cardiff.  When doing research for this trip, my mother stumbled upon a company called See Wales Tours that runs trips from Cardiff, including one title Romans and Ruins.  The itinerary was a visit to the Roman amphitheater, baths, and museum in Caerleon, the Roman town in Caerwent, Tintern Abbey in Wye Valley, and Raglan Castle.

I met the group outside the National Museum Cardiff at 9:00 and we were soon heading out of Cardiff.  Our first stop was the the amphitheater at Caerleon.  Unlike the two other amphitheaters I've seen on this trip, the whole circumference of the Caerleon theater is excavated.  This made it a really striking sight.  The ground level is about twelve to fifteen feet higher than in Roman times, so though the theater looks very low today, it would have been a very imposing fixture on the banks of the River Usk.  

One of the amphitheater's main features was a shrine to Nemesis, the goddess of divine retribution.  There was a very similar shrine in the amphitheater at Chester, as Nemesis was closely connected to gladiatorial competitions.  The amphitheater at Caerleon is slightly smaller than the one in Chester, seating around 6,000 people.

From the amphitheater, we headed to the bath complex.  The complex was much larger than what is shown today.  Today, platforms take you around the full extent of the natatio (an open air swimming pool), part of the apodyteria (warmed changing rooms), and a small portion of the frigidarium (the cold room).

The lightly in the museum hosting the bath remains was not particularly conducive to photography, so I haven't included any photos.  That being said, the lighting did some very cool effects.  A project played videos of swimmers doing laps in the natatio, accompanied with the sounds of splashing and cannonballs, and red light played over the hypocaust that would have heated the apodyteria.  It was a sort of lovely effect, breathing some life into the ruins.  I think it's especially great with the large number of school trips we saw visiting the site.

The museum at Caerleon had a lot of great items, but I was surprised that it might not have been quite as extensive as the museum in Newport.  Still, I got see lovely collections of local and imported pottery, large inscribed stones, coins from throughout the occupation of Britain, and, of course, Roman military paraphernalia.

Caerleon was home to a Roman fort, built by the Legio II Augusta.  The first fort was built around the mid-70s CE and was occupied until the Legio II Augusta left Britain in around 290 CE.  Evidence left behind by the army included spearheads, like the bronze one seen above, arrow heads, a helmet, axe heads, and everything else needed to wage war and house an army.  It was also nice to see some artifacts from the Roman cavalry, which are not very commonly seen in Britain.  These artifacts probably came from a cavalry attachment to the legion.  One piece that they had seems to have been a nailed on horse shoe, but I've heard conflicting stories about when these were invented and came into use.  I'll have to investigate more!

The museum also had plenty of artifacts from the everyday life in a Roman town.  A great detail the exhibit included was a model of a Roman loaf of bread.  It's wonderful because it shows how Roman bakers marketed themselves.  With a stamp bearing his name, the baker imprinted the loaves of bread, so every bite reminded the buyer who had baked the delicious bread and maybe tipped off a few passersby as well!

The museum had a fair number of Roman inscriptions, ranging from commemorations of temple renovation to funerary markers for Roman veterans.  Now I have to feel bad for Julia Senica (maybe Seneca) and whomever paid for her tombstone to be engraved.  I don't think they did a very good job.  But it probably suggests that Julia Senica was from a rather poor family who could not afford one of the better engravers, and instead ended up with something that looks like my handwriting.

To my disappointment, we missed the barracks in Caerleon and headed out.  This disappointment continued as our next destination was announced as Tintern Abbey in the Wye Valley, rather than Caerwent, the other Roman site I was planning on visiting.  But I had planned an extra day in the Cardiff area if something like this occurred, and I was soon distracted by the beauty of the Wye Valley.

I think I quite literally lost my breath when I first saw Tintern Abbey from the van.  Huge, open stone arches in the middle of the beautiful valley landscape.  I was struck by the immense scale of the ruins and the haunting skeleton of the buildings.

Wandering through the abbey, I was pretty overwhelmed; I wanted to capture everything, but almost didn't know how to start.  Though the ruins are extensive, the most beautiful portion (in my opinion, and I suspect many others) is the ruined church.  The building in ruins today dates from the 13th century, although the abbey was founded in the 12th century.

Tintern Abbey was home to Cistercian Monks, who are also known as White Monks because of the color of their cucculas, robes worn over a habit.  Cistercians, like most monks it seems, rejected opulence and lived austere lives, so they did not dye their robes, leaving them the off-white color of a sheep.  Our tour guide, Adrian, did have a great point though: how could you live in such a magnificent, beautiful place, and not find it opulent?

Responding to a request from my mother, I had Adrian and some fellow travelers take photos of me throughout the day.

Like almost all abbeys and monasteries in the British Isles, the Dissolution destroyed any chance of Tintern's survival.  The abbeys valuables were sent to the crown, the about and monks were paid and sent off, and the lead from the abbey roof was sold, leading to the quick demise of the buildings.  Over the centuries, the abbey lay vacant and was slowly reused to building homes and farms around the area.

Tintern Abbey has inspired a great deal of amazing art, from painting to poetry.  J.M.W. Turner painted the ruins in 1795 and writers, such as Alfred, Lord Tennyson and Allen Ginsberg were inspired by visits.  Perhaps most notably, and the inspiration of this post's title, was William Wordsworth's poem "Lines written a few miles above Tintern Abbey."  I recommend rereading it, as it is a beautiful, classic English Romantic poem.

Also, if, for any reason, you are traveling to Wales, make sure you go to Tintern Abbey.  I can't express, and I don't think my photos can either, how beautiful and fascinating it was.

After having lunch at the Tintern Abbey Mill Craft Center, we headed out of the Wye Valley and towards Raglan Castle.  Raglan Castle is one of the youngest castles in Wales, being built in the mid-1400s.  The castle has a wonderful main gateway, called the White Gate.  It would have been a dominating sight from throughout the countryside.

I've also been struck by the Welsh countryside throughout my trip.  It often reminds me of the Tuscan hills, especially the farmland around Raglan Castle.  I feel like this view from a window in the castle could easily be looking at the Italian countryside.

There is also a Norman style motte and keep built next to the castle.  Apparently I was feeling a bit masochistic, and decided to climb to the top of the keep.  It gave great views of the main castle and the countryside.  I have lots of great facts about the castle, but to be completely honest I'm too tired right now decide which to share.  So ask me another time!

After our Raglan Castle, we made our way back to Cardiff, fighting through some traffic, but getting back to Cardiff Castle in about forty-five minutes.  I then had a quiet evening, dominated by processing and editing my 500+ photos from the day!  A pretty amazing day, especially for one of my final ones in Wales!

Fun Fact #19: Did you know that both garderobes and wardrobes are derived from medieval toilets?  A garderobe was a small hole, providing an exit for detritus from the castle.  This detritus included human waste, as castle residents would go to the bathroom by these holes and then it would be washed out.  Now, you would be very right to ask how clothes got combined with toilets.  Folks in medieval times theorized that the garderobes smelled so badly that it would pretty much scare off anything.  So, if they hung there clothes near the garderobes, all the fleas and lice that bothered them would scurry out of their garments.  I wonder how this worked.  It seems like all the smell might just attract more bugs...  Either way, I'm sure we're all very happy that garderobes and wardrobes are sonly for clothes now!

Day 18: Getting a Cuppa

Today my plan was to explore more of Cardiff center and visit the National Museum Cardiff.  I walked into the center of the city and headed over the civic areas.

The 194 foot clock tower of City Hall looks out over the whole city center.  Each clock face on the tower is 12 feet in diameter.

I had heard that there was a beautiful hall, open to the public in the City Hall so I went in to investigate.  I had to fight my way through a sea of Cardiff graduates and their families.  It seemed that the building was used to pick up caps, gowns, and hoods (and then later dropping them off).  It is also gorgeous, inside and out, so everyone wanted to take a picture next to some marble fixture.  I went up to the second floor and into the Marble Hall.  Here there are statues of famous figures from Welsh history.  The first one I walked up to happened to be the only woman, and the one that would interest me the most.  The statue depicts Boudica, a British tribal leader who lead a successful revolt against the Romans in 60 or 61 CE.  Although not actually Welsh, she is a representative of the British spirit and independence.

The National Museum is right next-door to City Hall, so I went in, hoping to find some Roman artifacts from around Wales.  Instead, I found a single piece of Roman art, which I understood to be from Rome herself.  That being said the Jenkins Vase is a gorgeous piece, depicting the story of Paris and Helen.  Other figures on the vase include Muses, like Polyhymnia show in thought above.

Though disappointed by the lack of research related pieces in the museum, I wandered through the other exhibits.  The museum has a great collection of art from around Europe, but with a lovely focus on Welsh and Welsh-inspired art.  A large portion of the museum is dedicated to Welsh ceramic arts.

It was very fun for me to see artistic depictions of some of the places I've been since coming to Wales.  Unsurprisingly, Caernarfon Castle is an extremely popular subject.  Can't say I saw that sort of Tuscan sky over the Castle while I was there though.  Other highlights to see were a depiction of South Stack on Holy Island and a view of the entrance of Cardiff Bay in the 1800s.

The art collection spans all eras of art since the 16th century, including French Impressionism.  I was excited to see La Parisienne by Pierre-Auguste Renoir.  It's such a beautiful painting, depicting French actress Henriette Henriot.  I was surprised to see it Wales, having no idea I would find such a famous French painting here!

The other portion of the National Museum is dedicated to natural history.  I (perhaps sadly) have much less patience for exhibits about rocks, minerals, and animals.  I think it has something to do with the language being designed to be accessible for young children.  I strolled rather quickly through the exhibits, just stopping to more closely examining things that caught my eye, like this beautiful piece of malachite.

This picture is mostly for my boyfriend, who adores foxes.  But they are truly beautiful animals and it was great to be able to see one in detail, especially since it could not run away!

Another image I had to include was this photo of an aye-aye's hand.  If you've never seen (or don't remember) what an aye-aye looks like, go Google it now.  The long middle fingers of this lemur are specially adapted for reaching into tunnels dug by bugs in trees and pulling out the insects.  Pretty terrifying, if you ask me.

After the museum visit, I explored the parish church of St. John the Baptist and then decided to have my first afternoon tea since coming to the U.K.  I went to Pettigrew Tea Rooms, a spot I had heard on a Buzzfeed list titled "16 Places All Tea Lovers Must Visit Before They Die."  I didn't get the full afternoon tea (which is quite a lot of food), but instead went for a classic cream tea.  This provided me with a lovely lavender tea, two schools, strawberry preserve, and clotted cream.  I was joined at my table by a French woman, who I assume now lives in Wales, and her Welsh friend, as the place had very limited seating.  We shared pleasant small talk about my research and travels and their experiences traveling Wales and abroad.

After finishing my tea, and waiting for a light rain to stop, I headed back to my hotel to have a relaxing evening.

Fun Fact #18: According to my tour on the sightseeing bus, the National Museum Cardiff has the largest collection of Impressionist (maybe French Impressionist) art outside of Paris, with works by Renoir, Monet, Manet, Rodin, Cezanne, Morisot, Degas, and others.