Wednesday, October 11, 2017

In the UK

I attended a conference at Warwick University in England near the end of September. England is nearly on the opposite side of the world from Melbourne. To get there, you fly 14 hours to somewhere in Asia, spend a few hours in an airport, then fly 9 more hours to England. It is a very very long trip, especially if you are in economy class.

I was in economy class. My university won't pay for better seats.

But I knew the flight would be painful, so to maximise benefit to pain, I stayed three weeks.

They were three lovely weeks, early in autumn. It was nice to get a hint of autumn as we transition into spring in Australia.

Those weeks, weather in Melbourne and England was pretty much the same. There was some rain, some clouds, some sunshine. Temperatures hovered around the same maximums and the same minimums. Because the visit straddled the equinox, even the amount of daylight was about the same.

But even though the weather and the daylight were similar, I could tell I was not in Australia, because first, the accents were all different.

Second, the landscape was much greener and English-ier. Look at all those English-looking trees in the photo below. That does not look Australian.


And third, there were English ruins dating back to the 1600s or earlier. Kenilworth Castle is such a ruin. I visited Kenilworth on my first weekend, less than two days after that very long plane flight.

According to the tourist info provided, the castle was left in ruins after the English Civil War, to limit the amount of property of the monarchy. Now that the queen doesn't own the castle, you can walk all over it. Provided you pay your entrance fee. And so I did.

The gardens were lovely. They kept parakeets.

And here is a picture of me looking somewhat perplexed. Or perhaps that is my jet-lag face. In any case, I can offer it as proof that I was in England.


More pictures coming later.

No comments: