(Tom)
Trying to catch up so here are various small adventures we've had over the past few weeks.
We start this web page around the beginning of October, when my parents came to visit. They actually arrived in England on October 1st, and stayed with our friends (and my sister's in-laws), the Mosses. They live in Surbiton, just south of London. I stopped by on the day they arrived because by chance I had a meeting nearby. A nice reunion and a nice dinner by Frances (thanks!).
It was of course mid-week, so I went off to work, leaving my parents to hang out with the Mosses and also with cousin Margot (see pictures from the Aug. 23 report). That took them to Friday, when I came and picked them up at Margot's in north London. Off to Oxford for the weekend. We started with a nice dinner out Friday night (chinese) and then Saturday took the opentop bus tour of Oxford. Nice lunch at a Lebanese restaurant recommended by Rich Weiss and a visit to the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford (recommended because it is not too big and has a little bit of everything). It is an 'Art and Archeology' museum and is free to the public. As a matter of fact, it is Britain's oldest public museum (as the website says). It might be Toby's favorite non-children's museum ever. Dinner was at our place and we even managed an attempt at playing bridge - I have decided that it is not my game! (Toby, on the other hand, was partnered with dad and won both rounds that we played. So she's hooked!)
Sunday took us to the Cotswolds, the lovely region just west of Oxford. Rolling hills, quaint villages...you get the idea. This is also where Amy and Kevin and Kevin's clan took a holiday in June (see Jun. 20 report). We stopped in Burford, a really pretty village only about 25 minutes away, where we strolled around and had tea. Nice shops. On to Bibury, where my parents had been some 40 years ago. The same, but different - much more crowded and touristy. A few pics below.
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Sunday night we saw a concert by a singer-songwriter named Kate Rusby. Her heavy northern English accent made it somewhat hard to understand - Toby and I had the advantage over my parents since our ears are a little more tuned to the accent. Kate sings many traditional (Irish) and traditional sounding songs. She has a great sense of humor and her personality is cute as a button. Very enjoyable concert, and our first time inside the Apollo Theatre in Oxford (nice theatre). Toby had to work since it was month end, but I took Monday off and set off on an adventure with my folks to Greenwich. First to pick up Frances Moss, then on the train to London and a boatride down the Thames to Greenwich. The Cutty Sark, that famous ship, lives here (see drawing below). It's a beautiful clipper ship - so beautiful that I sat there and drew the picture you see below. A nice lunch at a pub in Greenwich and on to Royal Observatory. I was thrilled to be there having read the book 'Longitude' about the quest to measure longitude for sailors. Fascinating topic - I won't bore you but click here if you want to learn more. Suffice it to say, this is where the line that separates the eastern and western hemisphere goes through - you can stand straddling the two hemispheres! Very cool (I guess working for a mapping software company helps make that cool).
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Anyway a really nice visit with the folks.
The following weekend, we took a quick trip to Dublin. Why not? Chris Smither was playing outside of Dublin on Saturday night, and I had to be there for work on Monday and Tuesday. We flew in Saturday morning and drove to the small town where Chris was playing (Ballymore Eustace), had lunch, met up with Chris and also Kris Delmhorst, who was opening for Chris and hung out. We had a pub dinner before the show, which started at 9:30 p.m. Or, was supposed to start at 9:30, but it was more like 10:15 and it didn't end until about 1:30 a.m. Toby and I helped sell CD's. Great show, and fun to watch the Irish folks drink a lot of Guinness - makes them a happy lot. I wouldn't even try to keep up! After breakfast the next day we were off to Dublin. It was a rainy day, so we took a tour of the Guinness Factory first, complete with a complimentary pint at the end of the tour and then a quick bus tour and walk around the town. You get the free pint of Guinness at a bar above the brewery with 360 degrees of floor to ceiling glass windows. Great views of Dublin. Toby flew home that night, I stayed on for work. Seems like a great city, we will hopefully go back. I actually went back the following week as well, but only for another two days and no siteseeing on that trip.
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Our latest visitors were Toby's cousins, Sally and Roddy, from New York. They make a pilgrimmage to England a few times a year to buy antiques for their antique business. We met them in London for a lovely dinner. Some photos below.
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The last part of this report is our visit last Saturday to Windsor Castle. This is one of the many residences of the queen, apparently her favorite. She wasn't there this past weekend, so we didn't have tea with her as we had hoped to. Oh well. As far as castles go, it's really beautiful and seemed very livable - we took the tour including Queen Mary's dolls' house, a picture gallery and many of the rooms used by the queen when she is there. It wouldn't be so bad to live there as long as you had enough staff and didn't have to pay the heating bills! St. George's Chapel is a beautiful gothic cathedral (sorry - no pics allowed inside). The queen mum was buried there last April and we went to pay our respects. We went with Sharon (Toby's boss) and her husband Steve - glad they drove, since they knew where to go and where to park! A fun day out.
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Phew. I think that means we're all caught up!
Bits & Bobs:
And there you have it for this report.
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