UK Photos

I've just been back through this year's blog posts, in an attempt to form some sort of end-of-year summary, and I have realised that I never posted UK photos, although they were promised. This blog jumped from me wandering Kennilworth castle in September, to me back in Melbourne wondering if I had turned off the stove in October. There were no photos from all the spring-break-ness in between, although there was a brief post after the stove in which I showed what our Oxford house looked like.

So I'm writing now. I'm doing it. I'm posting the photos.

To remind you where they are coming from: In September this year, I spent a week in Coventry at a conference, then moved to Oxford for two weeks where Tim and Jonathan joined me in the little house whose pictures I already did post. We had a lovely week and a half together in England, before Tim and Jonathan flew home to get ready to go back to school and I stayed to clean up the rental house before turning in the keys.

Here are some things that we did.

We went to Blenheim Palace. The palace is the home of the Duke of Marlborough. They let us little people pay money to view the grounds, which helps to pay for upkeep. It's a good deal. The grounds are amazingly lovely, just outside of the Oxford city centre. Here is a picture of the entry way.

And the palace itself.

 They have their own little railway line, which you can take out to the pleasure gardens....

 ... where there is a hedge maze.

 Another view of the palace, from the side with the sweeping lawn.

 And the Harry Potter tree across the lake.

 The lake.

 This is all the same property, just outside of Oxford.

 Do you see how this sort of residence might need some upkeep?

In any case, we enjoyed our visit. For the cost of entry, we could become year long members. So I have a year pass to Blenheim Palace.

The next day we went to London. One of my favourite places in the world is the Tower of London. Jonathan didn't remember the Tower of London, so we had to take the whole family back again. We spent the whole day, and we enjoyed it as much as the last time, several years ago.

Here are Tim and Jonathan in front of the Tower of London. Jonathan is wearing a USA shirt. Tim is wearing an Australian shirt. I don't know what shirt I was wearing, but don't we look international?

Ok brief interlude. In the Tube station in London, there were signs telling you to stand on the right. That was such a surprise to me that I took a photo. In Australia, which is another country where people drive on the left, everyone stands on the left in the train stations. But in London, the signs tell you to stand on the right. How bizarre!

Tim and Jonathan in front of the Tower bridge.

 Oh, I took a photo of Big Ben while we were in the neighbourhood.

 Here is a raven at the Tower of London.

 And here is the traitor's gate leading out to the Thames.

 Another Tower photo. This one probably should have come first, but I seem to be uploading these somewhat at random, and since I'm three months late in posting the photos I'm not going to sort them around again.

In any case, if you find yourself in the UK, I strongly recommend a visit to the Tower of London.

Ok. Moving on.

We were staying in Oxford, so naturally I took several photos of Oxford. There are garden photos, including the Christ Church gardens.

 The River Cherwell.

 The Oxford University Parks.

 The River Thames.

 And Port Meadow...

 ... where there are cows.

The other fun and long weekend adventure that we took was a trip to Salisbury. Our other very favourite thing to do in the UK is to visit the Salisbury Cathedral, and take a tower tour. Back in 2001, Tim and I took our first tour of the Salisbury Cathedral tower. I think we walked in, and they were just organising a tour, so we paid about three pounds to join along, and it was Amazing! So this year, we booked well in advance, and planned carefully, and paid about ten pounds per person. And it was still Amazing! I strongly recommend it.

The reason it is so amazing is that you get to see the medieval architecture up close and personally. The cathedral was not designed to have a tower. The tower was added later. And for the past 700 years they have been trying not to let it fall down.

This is a picture of the medieval town of Salisbury.

And here is the cathedral, horizontal view.

 Cathedral, vertical view.

 Inside, looking out at the courtyard.

 Some of the lovely windows.

 And then we climbed up.

 And up again. This is inside the roof.

The next is looking out over the inside of the cathedral, from the height of the clerestory windows. I always want to be up at the height of the clerestory windows when I go into a cathedral. I picture a choir of monks up there singing, with the best views. It turns out there really isn't much up there. Definitely no monks. But still the best views.

 Between the ceiling and the roof are lots and lots of solid oak beams.

 You get a good view of stained glass windows from the tower tour.

 Supports to hold it together.

 Bell.

 And the view from the tower is amazing!

 This is what it looks like inside the very top of the tower.

Another view across England.

Selfie. It's kind of scary to turn your back to that steep drop to take a selfie. Hence the thumb in the corner. I wasn't going to try to fix that and take another.

We stayed for Evensong, which was beginning just as we climbed down. And then we took a picture of the outside at dusk as we were leaving.

Still one of my favourite places in the UK.

But what do you do, you ask, while waiting for your afternoon tower tour? Is there anything to see near Salisbury, in the morning, for example?

Why yes. Yes there is. You can take a bus from the Salisbury train station to Stonehenge.

There it is on the hill.

 Tim and Jonathan, listening to their Stonehenge audio tour.

 Some stones.

In a henge.

 You can wander around the burial mounds near Stonehenge as well.

 Or drive around the little English roads nearby.

England really is a nice place to visit.

Wow, you say. There are indeed a lot of photos here. Did you do anything else? Do you have other photos?

Well, I was working the two weeks, but Tim and Jonathan did a few fun things like take a cruise down the River Thames, visit the natural history and art museums, and the history of science museum. I don't have any photos of any of that. I do have photos of one more adventure: We all took a bus outside the city to see the arboretum.

 Here is Tim, contemplating the wind-swept field.

 And Jonathan, resting at that field.

 Some trees, I guess. It was an arboretum.

 We liked the many-pointed leaves on this Japanese maple tree.

I don't remember why they were reaching up in this photo. Maybe to show you how tall the tree is? It is tall.

And finally one more lovely picture of a flower

Ok. I will finish with three final photos. In England, the mailboxes are labeled with the symbol of the king or queen who was reigning when the box was installed. So you can figure out how long the box has been there by looking at the symbols. And collect them all!

This one is from king Edward the VII, who reigned from 1901 to 1910.

This one is more modern: from Queen Elizabeth the II, who is currently reigning and has been reigning since the 1950s.

And this one is from Queen Victoria, who reigned 1837 to 1901. That means it is a very old post box. Mail is still collected on Saturdays at 11.30am, however. 

The end. I am up to date on England photos from September and early October.