The Rest Of Our Off-Boat English Adventure, 2018

We were away from Abracadabra for five months in 2018 (June – October). Five months is a lot for one blog post -- particularly because concise summary (a) is not a Team Arnold/Andrews core competency and (b) can be really, really dry and boring. So here is a post about our other-than-Hadrian's Wall Path walk time in England. Two weeks and a wee bit. With pictures.

Windermere in England's Lake District
High On The Charm Scale

At the end of this post we have included a here’s-where-we-went-and-what-we-did-there list for the majority of the rest of our five-months away from Abracadabra. This summary will be helpful for our aging memories and may be easily ignored by anyone who finds it really, really dry and boring. You’re welcome.

London

This is out of chronological order, but Bryce has decided that London is now his favorite city in the world (sorry Rome . . . ) and as Team Arnold/Andrews' Chief Financial Officer has allocated the entire amount of our vast future theoretical lottery winnings to the purchase of a flat in London.  So, we start there.

               Walking Around

We rented an apartment in Camden Town and learned that we are either too old or don’t drink enough (or both) for Camden Town at night. We will not invest our lottery winnings there. But it’s worth a walk-through during the day.

Camden Town

Don't Actually Recall What Was Sold In This Store - ?

Less Artistic,
But A More Effective Advertisement

We thought even more charming walking areas were Little Venice and the Regent’s Canal.  

Canal Neighbors

And You Think Your Marina Is Crowded?

Passing Canal Tours - We Walked Instead

The Canal & River Trust has managed to make many of London’s canal towpaths walking and bicycling friendly. There are guided walks, maps for self-guided walkers/bicycle riders or one can just wander around and enjoy the scenery as we did. Unfortunately we found the Puppet Theater Barge was dark. 

When the weather’s good, London’s many parks offer great people watching and picnicking. We walked through Regent’s Park and Primrose Hill (another potential site to invest our lottery winnings) and on another day provisioned a picnic from Harrods’ Food Hall (how touristy is that?) which we ate in Hyde Park.

An "Easy Does It' Rose

A Speaker's Corner Speaker:
Most We Heard Were Sharing Religious Beliefs
(We Were Hoping For Brexit Views)

Horseback Riding in Hyde Park

Lunch Juggling
(They Rent Chairs - But Not Tables!)

               Otherwise Getting Around

We purchased Oyster Travelcards (refillable pay-as-you-go plastic transit card) and primarily traveled by Tube. The subway system is old but efficient and got us everywhere we wanted to go (or close). This was how we learned to travel on our last trip to London in 2017. But on this trip we also explored the bus system where the Oyster Travelcards worked as well. We learned a couple of routes and used them as an inexpensive hop-on-hop-off bus -- double decker and all. Okay, it's a lot more confusing than the tourist bus and doesn't include tour information -- but then it doesn't have mistimed tour information either! We enjoyed putting the city into above-ground perspective and felt very clever whenever we ended up where we were trying to go (or close).

Travel Tip: We purchased one-day Oyster Travelcards and just topped them up using a credit card whenever we ran out of transit credit. That gave us flexibility to use public transit only when we wanted to (vs. say, buying a 3-day pass or 6-day pass, etc.). Don't forget that the initial cost of an Oyster Travelcard and up to 10 pounds of money remaining loaded on the card is refundable at most tube stations. See the London Travel Pass website.

               Museums

Museum fatigue, both mental and physical, is a serious danger in London. But the National Gallery is definitely worth a day. 

Mr. and Mrs. Andrews (Not Us)
(Gainsborough -- National Gallery)

An aside about museum pictures: We get that the Internet is home to countless pictures of museum treasures which are better than any we can take. We also get that the Selfie Generation believes a travel picture without a leaping, hand signing or mugging human is a waste of digital space. But still -- we take pictures of things that strike our fancy and feel no need to jump, sign or mug in front of them. 

Here are a few we took at the British Museum:

Close-up Of A Maya Royal
Performing His Blood-Letting Duty

19th Century Aleut Coat and Cap Made From Sea
Mammal Intestines. The Design
Is Based On A Russian Military Coat and Cap.
(Artists Will Use What Is Available) 

Haida Totem Detail 

Only Known Writing By A Roman Woman In Britain -
A Birthday Party Invitation Found at Vindolanda
At Vindolanda We Saw A Copy

Travel Tip: The museums in London were crowded. But our trip to the Louvre adjusted our definition of crowded. Enjoy the relative calm of the London museums.

Rosetta Stone and Fans

               Theater and Music

Going To The Theater is Molly’s number one reason to love London. This trip we saw:

• Wicked – classic West End Big Musical. Unfortunately, for the price: Meh. Not improved by the kid who managed to drown out Glenda The Belting Witch (a coup!) by crumpling junk food packages behind our heads.

• Exit the King -- a National Theater production. Well paced, well acted and excitingly staged but theater of the absurd sure feels old school. Deep Meaning Summary: This wackiness is to show that even powerful and wealthy humans are afraid of and avoid acknowledging the inevitability of death. Ahhhh – really?

• The Humans – a visiting New York production at the Hampstead Theater. We had read the play was sold out but one rainy morning we stopped in to see if there was a chance of buying returned tickets for the matinee. Jackpot. Depressing as hell, but flawlessly acted and directed. May your family Thanksgiving dinners never be so bad.

We Did Not Visit The New Harry Potter Production --
This Picture Was Taken For A Potter-Fan Niece

Bryce’s favorite cultural outing is a live music performance. At Wigmore Hall we heard students and instructors from the annual International Musician’s Seminar which had recently concluded at Prussia Cove in Cornwall (IMS – Prussia Cove). The performers’ post-master class energy was wonderful and Wigmore Hall helped us appreciate what knowledgeable people mean when they say a performance space has good acoustics. [Bryce's family tree includes Wigmores but we did not get a family discount.]

We also attended Choral Evensong at Saint Martin In The Fields, which was a lovely way to wind down after a busy day of touristing. Fortunately the clergy anticipated tourists among the congregants and we were given ample instruction on when to sit and stand.

               SNAFU

We accepted the obvious . . . quirks . . . of our vacation rental in Camden Town: tiny windows unlike the lovely full-length windows in the booking site photos; cabinet doors sagging on hinges; and the improperly balanced clothes washer with a dangerous sounding spin cycle (the people below us were probably less accepting of that). But when, on night two, the upstairs neighbors’ shower dripped through our bathroom ceiling, we complained. The property manager promised a fix and indeed the bathroom ceiling was completely repainted when we got home on night three. Sadly, about midnight, it became clear the leak had not been fixed – only rerouted. A late-night shower upstairs sent water dripping along the wall behind our bed. We pulled the bed away from the wall and spent the night tossing, turning and wondering how to get our money back when we left to find another apartment.

But the story has a happy ending: Booking.com very quickly and pleasantly arranged for an apartment in Belsize Park at no additional cost to us. Belsize Park is a very attractive and quiet area and, though the apartment had a few stylistic quirks (an after-thought loft with several twin beds shoved together – we could have sublet space to a family of five!) it was clean, everything worked, the ceiling didn’t leak and the bed was comfortable enough. We may spend our lottery winnings in Belsize Park. Until then, we will be renting through Booking.com!

Northern England

               Lake District

Our first stop in England was Manchester which has a super easy train connection to Windermere in the Lake District. We were off our flight from Toronto, onto the train, and into our Windermere hotel in a little over three hours – including time for a coffee, an ATM visit and the purchase of European SIM cards for our phones. Logistics Officer Andrews felt very clever about this.

 Out Of The Night - YYZ to MAN

We had read that Windermere is in the “busy” part of the Lake District but chose it because we weren’t planning to engage in much tourist activity there. Our plan was to find a place to spend three nights recovering from jet lag before we began our Hadrian’s Wall Path walk. But it turns out that because the flight from Toronto was only five hours, we had very little jet lag. Brilliant (as they say in England)!

A Charming Photo Stop With Tourists

One day we purchased combined boat / walking tickets to circumnavigate Lake Windermere. We were told that the lake is the largest natural lake in England. It’s size (5.6 square miles) won’t impress anyone familiar with, say, Lake Ontario or Lake Tahoe, but it certainly makes it easier to walk a sizeable portion of the length of the lake. 

Lake Windermere Transport

We enjoyed our walk, even if it was a bit soggy.

Bryce Scouting For Robin Hood's Men

We passed on a tour of the Wray Castle – a home built in the 19th Century by a wealthy physician with pretentious taste which was somehow connected to Beatrix Potter.

"Castle" Boat House And Walker Arnold

An Abracadabra connection: This “castle” was used in an episode of PBS’s Poirot which we happened to see just the other evening. It was fun to say – from our boat in Panama -- hey, look, it’s the castle! Thanks to the crew of Cinnamon Teal, our source for Poirot DVDs.

Hercule Poirot Sleuthed Here

We did not see any of the area’s well publicized Beatrix Potter sights even though we have pleasant (though vague) memories of Peter Rabbit. The maritime museum at Bowness that we were looking forward to visiting was closed (since 2004, apparently – we must do a better job researching these short stops!). But we did find a place in Bowness for post-walk soup and a whiskey.

We eventually walked through the Roman fort ruins on the edge of Windermere – after going to the site a couple of times to find it occupied by a local cow gang. There were several signs warning tourists about the dangers of approaching cows too closely. When they were in residence we only looked on from afar.

Roman Fort Guarded By Vicious Cows

We didn’t bother with a rental car, but if we return for a longer period we might accept the challenge of driving on The Wrong Side in order to visit the less touristy part of the Lake District. Not sure if we will make it to the Beatrix Potter sites, even then.

From Windermere we took the train to Carlisle to begin our Hadrian's Wall Path walk. We have heard many complaints about the British Rail system but so far we are fans. At least they have a rail system in Britain! 

                Newcastle Upon Tyne

Following our Hadrian’s Wall Path walk we spent a day in Newcastle Upon Tyne and were much more impressed with the city as a tourist destination than we had expected.

Newcastle's Castle

The banks of the Tyne are a wonderful place to walk and the bridges are impressive – particularly the Gateshead Millennium Bridge (aka “the Blinking Eye”). 

The Tyne - Millennium Bridge To Far Left
(The Bridge Is Raised Up To Let Ships Pass)  

Detail Shot Of The "Blinking" Mechanism -
Though It Rarely Puts On A Show, We Were Told

We toured Newcastle Castle which, as a castle, wasn’t much for very long (in castle years). The stone keep was begun in the last half of the 12th Century, additional buildings were added over the next hundred years, but by Elizabeth 1's reign (some 400 years later) it was referred to as "old and ruinous". By then it was primarily leased for storage, taverns, small shops and otherwise occupied by squatters. The local government had no jurisdiction over the property and it was ignored by its royal landlords and generally sat, festering at the heart of the city. Money - in the form of the new railroads - arrived in the middle of the Industrial Revolution and the castle was mostly demolished. Renovations were undertaken in the early 21st Century using that well-known government financing mechanism: lottery funds! The exhibits at the castle are worth a visit particularly if you are interested in musing about how it has been difficult for various levels of government to work together for a long, long time.  

By serendipity, on our way to catch our bus back to Heddon-On-The-Wall we wandered through the Central Arcade, an Eduardian shopping mall, which is home to some fabulous tile work.

The Central Arcade

Tile Detail

And Another

One day is all we allotted to Newcastle. Our take-away? Don't be afraid to spend a day or even two in Newcastle. [Travel Tip: Bring a snack; our Thai lunch was a mistake. Perhaps this should not have been a surprise.] 

               Scarborough and Whitby

Anticipating that we would be tired after our Hadrian’s Wall Path walk we had tried to arrange a short stay in the charming seaside village of Whitby to relax before traveling on to London. Whitby was full.

So we got an apartment at Scarborough, a nearby seaside town which one friendly Heddon-On-The-Wall taxi driver referred to as a “kiss me quick” resort. Sadly we failed to clarify his interpretation of that phrase, but it seems to mean a not exactly up-scale, working class seaside resort. Which is exactly what Scarborough is.

Arcades and Chip Shops

A Fun Fair - Closed

In Case You Are Interested In Hiring A Fun Fair Operator,
The Richmonds Are Members Of The Showman's Guild

On our wander of the arcade/closed fun fair area we came across a RNLI (Royal National Lifeboat Institution) life saving station that was open for touring. The RNLI is a charitable organization that performs maritime life-saving functions for the U.K. and Republic of Ireland. The U.K. and Ireland have no U.S. Coast Guard equivalent. The RNLI is impressively equipped. 

How To Launch A Rescue Vessel In An
Area With A Huge Tidal Range? Cat Tracks. 

The organization also provides educational services, flood rescue services and lifeguards at beaches. If you are sailing in U.K or Irish waters you might want to learn more about the RNLI or even donate to them. See:  https://rnli.org/what-we-do.

We spent quite a bit of our time hanging out at our lovely apartment in the North Bay area of Scarborough which is slightly less "kiss me quick" than the South Bay (where the fun fair / arcade area is located). We enjoyed our few days of being Scarborough residents, though we wouldn't suggest anyone go there for the food. Even the pubs and the Indian restaurants – meh.

The North Bay: Our Apartment Was In One Of The
Small Residential Hotels To The Left

We visited Anne Bronte’s grave, though we had to look her up on Wikipedia to find out what 
she wrote. We bought tea and cookies from the nice ladies operating a fundraising tea shop at St. Mary's Church.

St. Mary's Church

We also visited our initial destination – Whitby. We took the public bus to Whitby and learned a lot about what several locals thought of Brexit (in favor) and about Londoners (not much). In Whitby we ate good fish and okay chips and, thus fortified, joined the parade of tourists trekking up the 199 Steps to Whitby Abbey.

We Took The 199 Count On Faith

We avoided the Dracula related tours (the Abbey ruins apparently feature in the story) and rented the audio guide which focused on the pre-Stoker history of the Abbey. E.g.: The Abbey was founded by a woman (Hilde, in 627) as a religious community for both monks and nuns. The history of the abbey is very interesting; see: English Heritage Site. It is a beautiful place to visit and a pleasant day. 

The Abbey (Ruins)

Travel Tip: English Heritage offers a short-term membership for tourists which can be a great savings and, even more important for us, an incentive to visit a lot of places we might not otherwise have made time for because, well, we didn't have to pay an entrance fee!  We bought a membership at our first English Heritage site (we don't think it can be purchased in advance).

               In sum, 

That’s what we saw and did in Northern England. This visit and our walk along Hadrian’s Wall Path gave us a good sense of the area – enough to know that it would be worth returning.  Maybe we will see you there?


Next Post: Paris. Until then:

Our High-Speed Summary of The Rest of Our Five Months (Except Paris, Which Gets Its Own Post Because, Well, It's Paris)

In more-or-less consecutive order:

• Sacramento / eight weeks +/- catching up with friends; house-sitting – lucky us!; taking care of, fortunately, routine medical stuff; checking in on our house and tenant family; walking in local parks; and taking water aerobics at a city pool.

• Tahoe/ Donner / two +/- weeks in a VRBO off-season ski condo walking ski trails; visiting with friends (locals and visitors); and learning some Donner Family history lessons (one: money not only can’t buy happiness, sometimes it can’t even buy food!). 

• SoCal / a few days visiting Our Brothers and  Bravo the dog. 

• Washington State / three weeks on a driving tour to enjoy friends and fabulous water views in Edmonds, Port Townsend and Anacortes; see friends in their new home in Lacey; endure shocking Seattle traffic; eat lots of salmon (yum); tour marinas and discuss (etc etc etc) whether Abracadabra could be happy there.

• British Colombia, Canada / a week and a bit visiting cruising friends we last saw in Mexico; sharing a lovely vacation rental in Peachland with friends from Spokane before being forced back to Washington by BC forest-fire smoke (hack!); and having more long talks about whether Abracadabra could be happy in The North.

• Ontario, Canada / a week with family and friends, taking lovely village walks and a quick dip in Jack Lake.

Bob Explaining Life To Bryce In Peachland

Forest Fire Effects In Peachland
Down Right Creepy