British Museum status: CHARM INTACT

On Monday 6^th I treated myself to a day in London. There is so much to see in London that I wouldn’t have been able to fit all of it into the weekend I was going to be there. So I jumped on the train and arrived in a slightly miserable London Euston and started to explore the big smoke.

First destination was St Pancras International. This is the train station for the Eurostar which heads across Europe. It is also the location of the St Pancras International Champagne Bar, Matthew’s second home (if he could afford it). The bar isn’t as impressive as I was expecting but still very cool as the seats are arranged like an old train coach with little booths and the actual Eurostar trains come up right next to you. The station is built underneath a giant arching roof top that seems to stretch on forever and at one end is the well-known 3 storey statue of a couple kissing.

After sending a photo of where I was to Matthew so that he felt a little jealous, I headed out to see King’s Cross station (purely because of Monopoly) then on to the British Library. The library is huge and shaped somewhat like a super tanker as the architect wanted it to be “floating on a sea of knowledge”…righto then. The King’s Library is an exclusive collection that is suspended over several stories and sits in the middle of the building under lock and key.

The big ticket item for me at the library was the original Magna Carta. This was the document that relinquished a lot of the crown’s powers to the barons. It has a rocky history starting in about 1215 where it was ratified then Pope Innocent III gave a Papal Bull outlawing the document only 10 weeks after being ratified. Then it was introduced again but modified and so on. Only four copies were ever made and the Library has two.  Absolute highlight of my day. Also on display were a number of Da Vinci’s drawings, Beethoven’s tuning fork which he later gave to Gustav Holst, early draft of the Messiah and Jane Austen’s writing desk.  Lots of cool stuff.

After the library I headed to the British Museum which, despite popular opinion, hasn’t lost its charm! The building is amazing with a giant frosted sunroof in the middle. I only dropped in for an hour or so but still managed to see the Rosetta Stone (only knew of it because of a Matthew Reilly book series), part of the Sphinx’s beard, the statue of Ramesses the Great and the oldest item in the library, a primitive cutting stone…it just looked like a rock to me.

After my quick dash into the museum I started wandering the streets of London…safe I know! I ended up in a lovely part of town called West End, a.k.a. THEATRELAND! I walked around trying to think if I had enough money to see everything. I’m still counting my pennies. Right next door was Covent Garden markets. I was expecting to be blown away by the talent of performers and atmosphere of the place but I really wasn’t. Perhaps it was because it was a miserable  rainy Monday and the first day back at school for the country…but I wasn’t all that impressed. I left hoping that my next trip would be better!

King's Library

Magna Carta 1225

Magna Carta 1215

da Vinci's drawings

St Pancras International

Statue of couple at St Pancras

St Pancras Champagne Bar

British Museum

Apparantly the oldest piece in the museum's collection...just looks like a rock to me

Rosetta Stone...explains how to read hyieroglyphics

Royal Opera House

Covent Gardens

Entertainers in the markets

Statue in West End

Heaven

Friday 3^rd I was in heaven…also known as Oxford. The town is basically sandstone and pretentiousness…so basically UQ (except Oxford actually has a reason to be pretentious).

The place is amazing. So much history too it and an interesting one as well.

Hairspray is currently playing there as well.

I booked myself in for a walking tour of the city which would take me around a few of the colleges and significant landmarks. Whilst waiting for the tour to start I did a little bit of exploring myself! The buildings are incredible and the feel of the place is so very unique. There was an exhibition on at the university’s library about John Aubrey, who founded the Royal Society of London, and his contributions to science. Very interesting stuff.The tour started and our group was off on our way. The first stop was in the centre of town where a cross mosaic is tiled into the middle of the street. This is the spot where Archbishop of Canterbury Thomas Cranmer was burned along with two others.

Interestingly, the creator of motor company MG was an original benefactor to Oxford and created the first postgraduate college.

Oxford University is made up of 38 colleges. The colleges provide 50% of the teaching, the uni provides the other 50% and sets the exams. The oldest college, Trinity College, was formed in 1258.

To add to the snobbery that is Oxford, college kids don’t mix with the town kids! Furthermore, Oxford is considered to be ‘up’. So students would say, “When I was UP last year” It’s all part of the superiority complex that runs through the town.

The colleges are spread across the whole town of Oxford and most are built in the same fashion, a grass quadrangle surrounded by buildings on all sides. The grass is sacred, only tutors can cross the grass. Each college prides itself on how good their grass looks…weird!

The colleges have been home to some famous people: C.S. Lewis, Steven Hawkins, John Wesley, Michael Palin. Bill Clinton attended Oxford for a while and his accommodation was based in the Red Light District…why am I not surprised.

One of the biggest colleges is Christ Church College, which was the inspiration for Harry Potter’s eating hall. Alice in Wonderland also happened here as one of the tutors wrote about the adventures he had with a friend of his (Alice). The Harry Potter Library is also based on the main library at Oxford and several sets were based on the Divinity School.

Outside the Museum of Natural Science (part of the uni) are several dozen sculpted heads which cry real tears when Oxford loses the annual boat race against Cambridge, “the other place” as they call it.

The Oxford library receives a copy of every book published in the United Kingdom. It has over 8.5 million books and 130 miles of bookshelves. That’s a lot of reading. Plus the Oxford University Press publishes a number of things each year.

The whole day was great and right up my alley. There is an overkill of tweed though. There were 20yr old guys riding bikes dressed in tweed hats and jackets. Clearly all that knowledge brings on advanced aging. I would have blended in if only I had of remembered my tweed cap!

One day I will get an honorary doctorate from the place and my life will be complete…

History Faculty

Bodleian Library

Christ Church College quadrangle

Mosaic cross in town centre where the Archibishop of Cantebury was burnt

Some of the heads that cry

Oxford Brogues - only 21 pairs in the world...don't know who would buy them!

The grass in Jesus College

Me outside one of the main buildings

Trinity College

Because, unlike some other Robin Hoods, I can speak with an English accent.

Robin Hood: I lost. I lost? Wait a second, I'm not supposed to lose. Let me see the script

On Tuesday 30th I braved the streets of Nottingham, home of England's beloved Robin Hood. The town is quite large and separated into a number of zones: Castle, Royal, Victoria, Lace Market and Broadmarsh.

The Castle Zone is obviously the area where the Nottingham Castle lies. A wooden fortification was built in 1068 by William the Conqueror and upgraded a number of times. Like a number of other castles in the country it was built by William the Conqueror in the first few years of his reign. It was destroyed during the Civil War of 1651 and was left a ruin for ten years. It became a ducal mansion but was destroyed again in 1831. It sat in derelict for 40 years until it was restored into the Nottingham Castle Museum and became the first municipal museum and art gallery outside of London.

Like the rest of the town, it rides on its claim to fame through Robin Hood and had established a Robin Hood: The Movie experience in the grounds to take you through some highlights from Mel Gibson's film. Underneath the castle is a large number of caves that have been dug into the sandstone cliffs. As Nottingham was the poorest area in England at one point many people built their homes into the walls of the cliffs and dug out their rooms as a cheaper alternative to accommodation.

Around the back of the Castle it the Trip To Jerusalem Inn established in 1189AD and possibly the oldest inn in the country.

The Royal Zone houses the Theatre Royal built in 1865 and currently showing Joseph and the Amazing Technicolour Dreamcoat: the version that ran the 'Any Dream Will Do' reality show on TV to find Joseph.

The Lace Market Zone relates to Nottingham's once thriving lace manufacturing industry. Most of the 130 factories from the 18th century are now specialist shops and designer restaurants. Also in the area is the Galleries of Justice Museum which is on the old sight of the Sheriff of Nottingham's courthouse. It was a place for public hangings, a courtroom, a dungeon and prison. Underneath the courtroom is a series of cells. Under the cells is a series of caves. Under the caves is a series of pits where people were thrown and forgotten about. They have oubliettes down there which are pits shaped like a bottle: a small hole at the top that drops a long way to a wide base at the bottom. If the fall didn't kill you then it was a miserable death. They believe Robin Hood was actually in one of the cells at one time (but it is all folk law!).

Interestingly, you had to pay to go to jail. 2 shillings a week got you a cell. 7 shillings a week for your food, women and drink. A lot of people were sent to Australia from Nottingham. The jail was shut down at one stage because it was the cruelest in England and not suitable for detention.

There are plenty more stories from the Gallery (obviously the highlight of my trip to Nottingham) but no one would find them interesting. I still have to return one day because I have paid for a ticket into the caves underneath the town...and I only have 12 months to use it!!

 The Galleries of Justice was a really interesting place and given that I was the only person booked into the tour that afternoon I got to have real conversations with the guides...lots of fun!

I didn't venture into Sherwood forest - although there is a several day hiking tour that takes you around the forest in "the footsteps of Robin and his Merry Men". Perhaps another time...

Town centre

City Hall

Caves underneath Galleries of Justice

Opening to Oubliettes

Entrance to another pit where prisoners were thrown and forgotten about

Where many people were hung after public hangings were too much fun for the townspeople

Prisoners leaving their mark on the sandstone walls

Inside the Castle grounds

The ducal mansion (castle) on top of the sandstone cliffs with caves dug in

Fiddly-dee potatoes!

Thursday 2^nd I went into the Rugby town centre for a bit and came home with a HUGE potato…which I ate. That’s about it! Hilary was quite impressed.

On ya bike!

Wednesday the 1^st was a late morning for me. After running around Nottingham all day on Tuesday and the excitement of the steam trains on Monday I was a little bit tired. So I had an epic sleep in!

After doing some laundry and a few chores here and there (Hilary is getting paranoid because things get done by one of us kids and she doesn’t know who to thank because we all deny it!) I decided to go for a bike ride.

Draycote Water is a reservoir about 4 miles from Bilton. It is a well sized reservoir at about 5 miles in circumference. I packed my lunch and hit the road, slowly finding my way there. It was a nice ride with a big hill towards the end to encourage you further. The reservoir entrance is surrounded by a nice big grassy area that is very popular during the summer.

I spent a couple of hours riding around the place and having some lunch as well. I was hunting some wascally wabbits that I scared into the bushes but gave up in the end.

As I was leaving the park gates my handlebars started to come loose from the steering column a little bit. I managed to tighten it (I thought) and continued the long journey very carefully. 5 minutes later and the handlebars came completely free of the bike!

So I started walking my bike the 4 MILES back home…what fun. I stopped at a servo along the way to ask for an Allen Key (there were no IKEAs close by) but they didn’t have anything. So being a somewhat rational person I thought I would ask the car mechanic next door to the servo for an Allen Key. I went in and asked the guy at reception who promptly replied saying, sorry we’re all locked up and everyone’s gone home…interesting when 2 of the 3 garage doors were open with cars sitting half way in and tools lying around in the workshop. And as I walked out the door the other mechanic hopped out of a car and walked into the workshop.

I wasn’t impressed. Needless to say: DON’T EVER BUY A CAR FROM DUNCHURCH MOTORS! EVER!!

The day was worthwhile in the end though…when I finally got home Martin got his segue out and we tore up the backyard for a bit.

Nobody can do it like a steam train...

Monday the 30th was a Bank Holiday so Hilary and I took the opportunity to catch a steam train along the Severn Valley Railway. The Railway was running a theme day given that it was a Bank Holiday of a trip to the seaside. They had ice-cream vendors on the stops, sand castle competitions, donkey rides, beach umbrellas...the only thing missing was the sea. The Severn Valley is possibly the farthest away from the ocean you can get in England! So the illusion had a minor flaw but it was still a great day out.

The line runs from Kidderminster to Bridgnorth through the Severn Valley with a number of stops on the way (a couple of which are on request only). There was a kid about 8-10yrs old in the same carriage as us on the trip down the valley...I think I was more excited about the whole thing than he was. I was reliving my childhood as the 'Erlstroke Manor' pulled us along. The weather was perfect and the journey took just over an hour.

When we arrived at Bridgnorth it was time for a late lunch. Bridgnorth is an interesting town; half is built on top of 100ft sandstone cliffs around what was a castle and the other half is built at the bottom of the cliffs around the River Severn. A fort was built on the top of the cliff in 912AD then turned into a castle in 1101 then blown up during the Civil War in 1646. There is one section of wall still standing at an angle greater than the Leaning Tower of Pisa.

There is a Cliff Railway which ferries people from the Low Town to the High Town and has been operating since 1892!

After lunch at the pub we explored the Low Town before heading back to the station to catch the train back up the valley. To commemorate the day I wore my tweed hat from James and felt very English in the process. A childhood dream come true!

In the meantime, back at home, Martin had completely replaced the ceiling we pulled out a few days earlier and insulated the whole thing...Hilary and I felt a little guilty but had fun regardless!

To prove I wasn't the only one wearing a hat...although he was the driver!

Remaining Castle wall

Cliff Railway