Chester and Family

Footpath between hedges, with stile and arrow

"Hanging the light" project

An easy train ride took us to Chester, and Abi met us at the train station. Then it was just a ten-minute walk to their cute apartment in Houle, a neighborhood just across the bridge from the City Centre. We had a delightful time there. Chester is another one of those cities with a wall all the way around that you can walk. The first afternoon there we enjoyed that walk with Abi, while John was still at work. We had lunch at a coffee shop near the wall, and I finally had my cheese and chutney sandwich.

At the Fox in Ysceilfiog, John's hometown

We had a traditional dinner that first night at Old Harker's Pub, of course preceded by some good cask ale. I had steak pie with nice flaky crust, and David had lamb shoulder. And of course, "pudding", which seems to cover all desserts, as well as the flaky pastry they call Yorkshire pudding. (I am just trying to make excuses for the pounds I have added while on vacation. As David says, "There is more of me to love.") We have eaten very well on this trip. We have also walked and hiked a lot, but it does not undo all the fine eating. I have talked about the "full English breakfast." There is also the Irish and Welsh versions, which add black pudding (a type of sausage made with some unusual animal products). I am sure they were designed to keep the farmers going till tea time, in the cold, wet weather. We still eat lunch after these big breakfasts!

Abi and John are creating a cozy apartment. They had just bought a sofa bed, so they were ready to receive their first overnight guests. They had good coffee for us, and a comfortable bed, so they were great hosts. Of course, David had to help with a project the very first morning. Then John took  us to the Welsh village he grew up in, about 30 minutes away, Ysceilfiog (pronounced us-KAY-viog). What a wonderful day in the country! We met up with his father, Paul, and took a hike in the country, down one of the glorious footpaths. Of course, we ended the hike with a real ale at the village pub, the Fox.

Then we went to a pet cemetery for Welsh Tea near Holywell. This included Welsh Rarebit, Coronation Chicken sandwiches, scone with clotted cream and jam, and Bara Brith, all piled onto three-tier china trays. Amazing food. After we stuffed ourselves, we strolled through the cemetery, truly amazed at the fancy tombstones and flowers for the beloved pets.

Back in Chester, we rested a bit before we walked through the High Street in Chester, and went to one of the oldest pubs in Chester, the The Brewery Tap Ale House, where we had cask ale from the Ironbridge Brewery and Northgate Ale. Then of course, more amazing food at a Turkish restaurant near Abi and John's apartment. After dinner, David and I played backgammon on the magnetic set we bought for traveling, and also taught Abi and John to play. Besides playing backgammon, we have read some good books during our travels. The next day we headed to Warwick on the train.

Three Days in Wales

Our touring days slowed down a bit when we went to Wales. We chose not to go to London, because we wanted to slow down our pace. So we took a nice train ride a short distance into Wales, to Conwy. Conwy is a castle town, built by Edward I, with the town walls that you can walk along, and a castle with many walls intact, and four towers that you can climb.  We found a nice B&B a few minutes'  walk outside the town, and settled in for three days. The first day we hung out at the B&B till 2:00 in the afternoon, sitting in the sun. Then we found fish 'n' chips on the quay, and toured the castle and town walls. You can walk the walls all the way around the town, and one of the towers on the wall is even higher than the castle tower. The views of the countryside and the river are stunning.

We ended every day in Conwy at the Albion Ale House. This is where we learned about CAMRA, the campaign for Real Ale. We also learned about cask Ales, and "pulling" from

 the cask. Now, mind you we are not drinking our way across England, but we have ended the day with a pint of real ale every day, tasting the wares of the local brewery.  The bartenders at the Albion were very good about giving us a taste of several ales before we selected a pint.

Our second day in Conwy was very full. We hiked up Conwy mountain, and had a beautiful view of the coastline and the town.  Pictures cannot do it any justice, I am afraid.

Gorse and heather, and hillsides beyond

Fortunately, we met up with some 8 or 9 other hikers, who had a leader. (Our book of hiking trails had confused us a bit when it started mentioning

One of the stiles on our hike

critch-cratches.) The hikers were from Liverpool, and the leader was from the National Ramblers Association, a group dedicated to increasing the numbers of hikers. They led us on some footpaths that we would never have found without them, and had some interesting conversation along the way. It was about a five-mile hike that lasted about 4 hours. The number of public footpaths is amazing, and the hillsides were full of gorse and bracken, which looks like ferns.

That evening we took the bus over to Llandudno, a Victorian-era beach resort town, to hear a Welsh male voices choir called Cor y Penrhyn. They sang mostly in Welsh, and it was the kind of singing that almost makes you cry. I cannot describe it adequately, but you can get a rough idea of them on You Tube.

Flowers everywhere, even at the Chippy!

More on Ireland

Next to the Lake (Lough)

Dinner at Ashley Park House

Tim in the Gardens at Ashley Park House
(Photo credits to Ruth)

We took off in a rental car from Cork, (Tim doing all the driving, thank goodness) down narrow lanes with hedges,  and drove towards Nenagh, in Tipperary. Ruth had found an 18th-century country manor on a lake, with fantastic food. We enjoyed a four course dinner that evening, and walks in the evening and the morning around the estate. Check out the website of Ashley Park House, and you can see the Green Room, where David and I stayed.   
The next day we drove to Carlingford on the Cooley Peninsula, where we enjoyed another fantastic dinner at the Ghan House. We also enjoyed some whiskey from the Cooley distillery nearby in a local pub, and let the locals know that we were Cooleys. We visited Dan's Stonewall Cafe, where the proprietor regaled us with the legend of the Cooley bull. He is the man from Tim's last visit that sold him the Cooley Kickhams athletic jerseys.

The view from Cooley mountain

The next day we climbed up into the Cooley mountains. It was a really beautiful seaside town, nestled within old town walls, with a castle ruin to climb around and a long quay along the Belfast Harbor .

At Dan's Stonewall Cafe, with Dan

Three days in Ireland

Idyllic scene from the road

I am getting further behind in my posts, so I need to speed up the process. Let me see if I can summarize a bit. We flew into Cork, Ireland, found our hotel on the bank of the River Lee, and started the evening with a pint of Murphy's Stout. We had a lovely meal with a gang of ethnomusicologists. (Tim and Ruth were there for a conference with these wonderful folks that study music and culture.)

Saturday morning David and I roamed around the town. It is a wonderful place to walk, as the city centre is between two branches of the river. We visited a church, as well as a re-purposed church which is now an art museum. Then we had lunch at a famous vegetarian restaurant, Cafe Paradiso.
It is famous because the chef has written several cookbooks. And it was truly amazing, especially since we have been eating a meat-based diet.

David in front of St. Alban's Irish Anglican Church

Recollection of Portsmouth

My blogging cannot keep up with our travels. When I have internet, I am ready to read for a while, and then pass out. Anyway, today we are in Conwy in Wales, and have decided to slow down the pace a bit.

So we left Winchester with Tim and Ruth and headed for Portsmouth. (It is amazing how many Virginia towns are copied from the British.) They have a historic shipyard there that you can tour (for a fee of $30, of course). There were many ships to tour, so we could not do all of them. David and I spent most of our time on the Victory, a tall sailing vessel (launched 1765)

In front of the Victory (without masts, removed for repair)

that was also a man-o-war, and the flagship for the British Navy. It was a very good tour, including an inspiring rendition by one of the naval officers on board about the killing of Admiral Nelson at the Battle of Trafalgar. After an hour on board, I was ready to leave, tired of bending over. I can't believe all of the sailors of the time were THAT short!

We also toured the exhibit of the Mary Rose, a ship that was preserved down in the silt of the Channel. They are still preserving it in a climate-controlled room. Many artifacts of life on the ship were also preserved. The exhibit on the ship's carpenter got our attention, especially with the dog's skeleton.

Just like Hercules, waiting for his master

We briefly toured the first iron-clad tall ship, the Warrior. But we were running out of time, so we headed on to the boat tour of the harbor. It went all around the harbor, and the captain kept up a patter about all the ships we saw. It was a great day for a ride around the harbor, but I was glad I had my windbreaker and scarf. We drove towards London afterwards, to Southwater, outside of Horsham. We met our hosts for the evening, Joy, David, and son Jonathan at yet another nice pub. There were tables out back where we could enjoy the English countryside, including some sheep, which cover the  countryside in England and Ireland. The meal at the Sir Robert Tichborn was our best pub meal yet.

David took a picture of the rear door. It is very typical, because of two things: the sloping of the building above it, and the height of it, about 5 feet 8 inches. I walked through it with ease, but there were many doors like this in the pubs we visited, with a sign "Mind your head" posted above.

Behind the Sir Robert Tichborn Inn

 

Notice the tilt above the door

Stonehenge

Our second day in Winchester we had the morning to lounge about, but we did not! We had a few things to buy, so we headed off to the High Street, and it took most of our morning to find an adapter plug so we could charge all of our devices. There was also a market in the middle of the street. (Evidently it is there 5 days a week.) I saw a merchant selling olives, and my mouth watered, so of course, I had to taste some, and buy a container. Pretty soon I had a loaf of fresh bread, two kinds of cheese, and some apples for a picnic. We were planning a road trip, and I knew we would get hungry...

In front of Salisbury Cathedral

Touring Stonehenge

We drove through the countryside, and saw several small villages. There were thatched roof cottages, and duck ponds, and amazing hedges. They seem to have more hedges than fences. We stopped to watch a man replacing the thatch on a roof.
When we arrived at Stonehenge, it was quite a different set-up than it was 40 years ago, the last time I saw it. The road does not go right by it, and you cannot walk up to it and touch the stones. They have built a visitor center, and charge a pretty penny to ride the tour cars up to the site. They also provide audio tours--a little recording device with different points of interest. But I do think it is very good that the masses of people cannot gradually destroy such an archeological site. They still open the mystical circle of stones to the people on the summer and winter solstice. The most important thing I learned was that it was not made by the Druids. It pre-dates the Druids by two thousand years.

Then off to Old Sarum, a fortress ruin on a hilltop near Salisbury, where we ate our picnic, enhanced by a bottle of mead that Tim bought at Stonehenge. Mead is the fortified wine made from honey, very tasty. Old Sarum has served as a fortress and religious site for more than 4,000 years.

We made our way to Salisbury Cathedral in time for Evensong. We sat in the Nave of the cathedral, and listened to the girls' choir sing the chants and psalms. The dozen girls sounded like angels, even after their summer off. This was their first week back to school and daily singing. Salisbury seems more grand than Winchester, though it is no bigger. But the cathedral spire is visible from many miles away across the Salisbury plain.

We ended the day with another fine pub meal at Three Cups Inn.

English Town and Country Day 1

Christine at the Cathedral Cottage Bed and Breakfast took good care of us. The English Breakfast on our first morning revived us. If you have never had this, it can be reproduced in your own kitchen, but you can't get it at a diner. It starts with a bowl of cereal or muesli. Then you get a poached egg over baked beans, with bacon, sausage, sautéed mushrooms, a grilled half of tomato, and toast with jam. The bacon is more like ham, without all the fat of American bacon. Of course, we asked for hot sauce, and she had it, but she said it was the first time in eight years that anyone had asked for it. I liked this breakfast so much, I had it all three days, despite the cholesterol in the eggs, and the fat in the sausage. I have decided that I am truly on vacation, and should not try to follow a low fat, low salt diet. After all, eating good food is one of the main activities of a vacation, and also the main way to experience a culture.

The room was a small cottage at the back of a lovely garden. Of course, we did not spend much time in it, because we had gallivanting to do, led by Tim and Ruth. The first day we walked through the City Centre of Winchester, and saw all kinds of amazing old buildings. Winchester Cathedral is very impressive, built about 1079, with one of the longest naves in Europe. Alas, their choir was not singing this week, so we skipped the evensong. We also saw several small chapels from the 16th century, tucked amongst the shops, the thousand year old city mill,  and the 13th century Great Hall. It had the Round Table from King Arthur's time hanging on the wall.

Round Table

We did some good eating that day, too. We stopped at a Patisserie for good coffee and lunch, then a lovely pub for some of the local ale. We hiked about a mile out of town to see the lovely gardens and 12th century building of the Hospital of St. Cross. Hospital in this instance means hospice for travelers. They still hand out the Wayfarer's Dole, a piece of bread with a small cup of ale.

Oldest residence in England

Sign in the Pub- The Wykeham Arms

Echinacea in the garden at St. Cross

We ended the day at a pub in the country, the Bush Inn. I ate my first Fish and Chips of the trip. And we learned that a free pub does not mean they are giving it away. It means that it is not owned by one of the breweries. A very full day. 

Jet Setting to England

We have been traveling with Tim and Ruth the last few days, and doing some serious tourist business. So I have been too exhausted to blog when I am finally in my bed at night. We have a few minutes at Gatwick airport right now, so I will try to catch up.

I last left my readers in Germany. We caught a cheap Ryan Air flight to Stanstead Airport outside of London. That evening was probably our most stressful time yet. Immigration lasted over an hour, and got us behind. Then we managed to find our way by train, then Tube, then train again to Winchester, finally after 10:15 at night! Ruth had already booked a B&B for us, and they met us at the station. Our landlady had waited up for us.

Time to go. I am going to post this and add more tomorrow.

Singing in German

Today we head to England. So we are figuring out the logistics of another plane flight, this one on Ryan Air. Yesterday, after several cups of coffee, lounging around in our bathrobes, John and Elizabeth went to a Unitarian discussion group, and David and I went out for lunch and a stroll. We only crossed the platz to an open air restaurant that Elizabeth had recommended for its salads. Then one street over to the Waermer Dom.

I am using David as a guest writer today. 

Carillon bells play a tune in the Marketplatz, outside our window, as I waken.  Church bells already announced the hour as 9 AM.  We are still recovering from jet lag.  Peculiar things happen, like waking at 1 AM and flip-flopping for an hour.  Well, 1 AM is 7 AM where I live most of the time, so the ole body is confused.  Kinda like the ole bod gets knotty joints and the royal physicians shake their heads and call it arthritis, have a nice day, learn to cope.  As dear Pastor Schmick once said long ago, and I think my own Pastor Dad agreed, "Getting old is NOT for the faint of heart!"

The weather has been beautiful for Germany, warm sun, and lots of it.  Ruth said England was to go through a heat wave.  We'll see.

Yesterday we attended a Vespers at the huge Lutheran Church in the Platz, where they have for 10 years been carefully working through all the known Bach Cantatas.     We got there a bit early and worked our way to the 5th row!  They spent the first half hour talking about the music (in German...), with musical examples from the soloists, choir, and orchestra.  Then, the Pastor took over and we had a full blown Vespers Service including homily in German, another half hour.  We sang the hymns best we could.   Then the musicians got back in place, and they sang the Cantata, another half hour.  and THEN, they gave a half hour of speeches, patting each other on the back I guess, patting Johann Sebastian Bach on the back, and generally smiling and talking proudly.  ALL THIS IN GERMAN, meaning I only understood "Bach" and little else.  It's OK.  A Calzone at the local Italian place rounded another fine day ON VACATION!

Second Day in Wiesbaden

Our second day in Germany was as beautiful as the first. Of course we slept in, and had a couple of cups of good coffee before we got moving. When we looked out our window, we saw all the tents of the Saturday market spread out on the plaza below. Fortunately, the market stayed open until after we finally emerged about 1:00.  We had a slice of onion cake from this vegan bakery and produce truck.                  We also sampled some vegan pesto from the same vendor. The amazing thing about this market was all the folks roaming around with a glass of wine! Our lunch came from another vendor: a sliced sausage link and french fries with curry sauce!

After taking our fresh flowers back to the apartment, we got in the car, (parked in a deck under the big plaza, or platz), and went to the Trinkhalle, or the German version of Total Beer. They also have bottled water, juices,wine, and 15 varieties of non-alcoholic beer. David had such a hard time choosing, that we brought home a half case with four different ones. Then we drove to the Rhein River, not far away. We ended up in the village of Eltville, and walked through narrow streets to the river's edge. Now THIS is the way to enjoy a scenic river! There was a wine kiosk where you could buy a soda or a glass of wine, and stroll along the shore. It was only ten euros ($13) for three glasses of wine and a sparkling water.

Back at the apartment, John and Elizabeth made a wonderful dinner, and we tasted our new beers. We took one more stroll through the city before bed, and saw the famous hot springs spewing from a fountain. Bad means bath in German, and this town is famous for the springs. There are even hotels built over them, so people can enjoy them in the basement.  There was also a street fest, and we heard German bands singing American covers in English. And always the chiming of the church bells in the background...

Nurse Jordan is in Europe! So the blog will become a travelogue. This is David and I just after arriving, having a good coffee in the airport, and waiting for our hostess to pick us up. Last night we got on a plane in New York about 8:30 PM, and took a sleeping pill. Ah, the wonders of modern medicine, or "better living through chemistry" as my mother said. We got some sleep on the plane, and it really helped with the jet lag. We got a really good coffee in the airport, and then Elizabeth picked us up.

After lunch we took a long walk through Wiesbaden, the Waermer Domm Park, and

the Kur Park. We rested in a bakery, and had a coffee and pastry in their outside garden. Then we continued our walk. The cathedral here, the Marktkirche, started ringing the bells with wild abandon, and we walked over to see what was happening. Friday night was a celebration of all the churches, and this church had opened up the tower, so we climbed the 180 steps to the first parapet. From the parapet, we could see John and Elizabeth's apartment on the other side of the plaza, as well as two of the five towers of the church.

David relaxed on the window sill after we got back, while Elizabeth cooked us dinner. It was a wonderful first day in Germany!