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Thurs AM. 5/25

Got to Hastings on Monday as planned and decided we would freecamp to save some money. We camped in a large and mostly unused parking lot right on the shore. Hastings is still a working fishing port and we camped right by where they brought in the boats and fish. The area has these tall, narrow black buildings called Net Houses where they store and dry the fishing nets. In fact, in the tourist books, that is what is noted regarding Hastings. Once we got settled, I napped for about an hour (I haven't slept well the last couple of nights - Bruce has been sleeping restlessly and kept me awake) - and Bruce walked about town. He returned to tell me of a pub that was playing live Blues music that night and we decided to go. The pub was called The Hastings Arms and the entertainment was Daniel Smith (on keyboards) and Alan Glen (electric guitar & harmonica, also formerly of the Yardbirds). They Rocked!! I mean they were excellent - we bought their CD, and in fact here is their web page: www.hants.org.ukdaniel.smith. Daniel Smith is the star here and he can play the keyboard! We were invited to sit with a couple, Terry and Dierdre Gray, who moved to Hastings from just north of London 6 months ago. They took us to another pub, The Royal Standard, which was maybe a block from where we camped. They invited us to their home for dinner Tuesday evening and we accepted. Pubs close at 11 pm and we all went our separate ways to home and bed. A short note here - the weather has turned decidely ugly. A big storm was due in on Tuesday and arrived on schedule. It had been basically unfriendly weather though for several days now and it only got worse! Tuesday saw us heading to the ancient town of Rye (the bread did not originate there) which was another one of those Cinque Ports (I am sure there were more than five!). Again we are talking quaint, and Rye has the oldest working clock in all of England as well as an inn, The Mermaid Inn, dating back to the 1200's, which is still in business today. There is a walking tour of the city which we took and then headed back to Hastings. On our way back we stopped at a fresh vegetable stand and got some great looking asparagus and at a butcher shop got some assorted pork sausages (bangers). We intend to perfect our own English Breakfasts. We got back in time to find some flowers and a bottle of wine to take to dinner. We called a taxi and were delivered to the Grays. They have a brand new 3-story flat in Hastings. It is very cozy. Four bedrooms, three baths. We had a dinner of chicken quarters, salad, tomatoes, delicious rolls, wine and for dessert, strawberry shortcake with yummy vanilla ice cream. They are very delightful people and we chatted up the evening. They shared with us some places in Britain they thought we should see. This is the sort of experience we both have been hoping to share. We will send them updates of our trip. Around 10:45 we took the taxi back home for our last night in Hastings. Next morning (Wed.) Bruce met a fisherman who invited us into one of the storage sheds with holding tanks for live crab and lobsters. Bruce got to pet one of the larger lobsters and we saw lots of crabs. It was quite fun. Then it was off to Battle. Battle is where the Battle of Hastings actually took place. It is 7 miles inland from Hastings. William the Conqueror built an Abbey here to honor the slain. After we made our English Breakfast in the parking lot (and I fed a squirrel some peanuts), we walked the audio tour of the battlefield and were able to relive that day in 1066. There are now a lot of sheep grazing the battlefield and I gathered wool from bushes and trees where it had snagged. Bruce thought I was nuts, but it's my vacation too!!! That is how the ancients used to gather their wool before they invented fences (or leashes!!). We finished up in Battle and headed for Pevensey Castle, the sight where William landed in Sept., 1066, it was close by. Of course, the rain started up again and it was cold. We walked the castle grounds in the rain with me begging to go back to the car. Finally Bruce relented. It was very interesting, just cold. The Romans originally built a fort at that sight in AD200 and William the Conquorer fortified it when he landed. Also along the coast were these large circular structures built to house cannon in Napoleon's time for defense in case he chose to attack. Some have been converted to houses, and all where a cannon range apart and took 1/2 million bricks to build! Finally, we had had enough and headed for Brighton, where we planned to spend the night. On our way out of Pevensey, we got lost - although how you can get lost on a 27 mile course is beyond me (no, no, there are NO wrong turns!!). While studying the map, I found out that one of the chalk figures that southern England has, was very close by and determined to find it. This particular one is called "The Long Man of Wilmington", but he soon became known to us as "The Walking Dude". Well, finding him was an adventure! We traveled down tiny, tiny lanes with fast trucks coming the other way, Bruce was a nervous wreck, and was about ready to choke me for getting him onto these roads, when suddenly, up jumped the Walking Dude!!!! Gad, he must be a couple hundred feet tall, carved into the downs. The soil had been removed and the underlying chalk showed through to create a drawing of a man with two walking sticks - The Walking Dude! There are a couple other such figures in England, a large horse, and another guy who is a little obscene. We are gonna find 'em all! After our encounter with the Walking Dude, we made our way to Brighton and that traffic snarl and eventually found the one and only campground in the area. Monday is a Bank Holiday and may prove to be crowded for camping, so we already reserved space in London for Friday & Saturday nights, Sunday we will get on their standby list and hope to have a space. Meanwhile, it is Thursday morning in Brighton and I must close this so I can go explore this seaside resort!!

Friday 5/26/00

Brighton is the Coney Island of England!! We did the Brighton Pier with all the arcades and fast food kiosks and we ate fish and chips at a world famous restaurant (forgot the name, but it was pretty good and right across from the pier). Our main purpose for going to Brighton was the Royal Pavilion built by King George IV, son of the king we rebelled against in Revolutionary War. Gives us an idea of the timeline here. The royal Pavilion was of India-Indian design sort of reminds you of the architecture of Taj Mahal, with beautiful flowering gardens outside. Got me interested in the differnt types of plants here. Inside, the decorations of the Pavilion were incredible. Lots of mythical creatures with dragons dominating, huge rooms with ornate, expensive everything from chandeliers to furniture to wall hangings to hand hooked rugs, to handpainted wallpaper and so on, and so on, and so on. We bought a book on it and were in awe. Even more impressive than Versailles' interior, with more furnishings to give a look that someone actually lived here at some point. The Pavilion was our first stop and afterward was Pier and strolling around the town which has a large student and gay population. The weather was blue skies for a change, but still windy and brisk. we returned home via a double-decker bus and sat in upper deck in preparation for London bus experiences. Would someone please send us the rules on Gin Rummy and Crazy 8's- it has been too long and we can't remember how to play!

thanking you in advance—

B&P

Mon, 5/29/00

London town! We had an easy trip up from Brighton - raining of course, - and, thanks to one of our travel books, easily navigated to the Crystal Palace campgrounds where we had 2 nights reservation. This last weekend was a bank holiday, meaning Monday was off, plus there is a 2-week school holiday for the kids. We aren't sure if that is going to play into our plans or not. Saturday we had our first day in London and it was a busy one. Caught a bus into Parliament Square where Bruce got his first view (and my 3rd) of Big Ben, an impressive site! We walked towards Westminster Abbey and paid 5 pounds each to tour one of the most fascinating abbeys in the the world.
We got to see the tombs of Queen Elizabeth I and Mary, Queen of Scots, Poets' Corner with Chaucer's and Hardy's tombs and tributes to Shakespeare, Jane Austin, the Bronte sisters and many other literary figures, the Coronation chair which has been used for every coronation since the 1200's when Edward Longshanks (of Brave Heart infamy) had it built to house the Scottish royal stone which he stole in hopes of breaking Scottish unity (sorta). It wasn't given back til this last century!! For a coronation throne, it was VERY plain. There were so many interesting sites in Westminster we could have stayed longer but for the crowds which eventually drove us out. We took the audio tour, a good value, we have been using them regularly at the historical sites we've visited. Then we began walking - up to St. James Park, along the Queen's walk past Clarence House where the Queen Mother lives, to Picadilly Street and the Ritz Hotel, down Picadilly to the Hard Rock cafe, which had a long line to get in so we didn't, to the Wellington Monument, down Constitution Hill to Buckingham Palace and the magnificent Queen Victoria Monument out in front of the Palace. From there we walked past the Royal Mewes (stables to us common folk) to the Westminster Cathedral, the major Roman Catholic church in London,(remember your history here; Henry VIII dissolved the catholic church in 1500's and it was centuries before Catholics could worship openly in England) completed in 1906. Lovely structure with red and white striped brickwork and a relief from the ancient architecture of most churches in London. Then on to Victoria Station, a major transporation hub in London and fascinating big building, where we jumped the tube (subway) to Nottinghill Gate and the Portobello St. market. It was close to 3pm and the market was closing up for the day, but we could still taste the hustle and bustle as shown in the movie "Nottinghill". We bought some cherries and fresh bread there. From Nottinghill we took the tube to Covent Gardens, an area of pricey shops, where we stopped for a "pot of tea" and watched the street entertainers perform classical music (Pacabel's Canon in D major among others). By now is was 7pm and we had made a full day of it. We were tired and cold, it was another rainy day - (we have at least learned that this is unusually wet and cold - thank heavens, we were getting discouraged - was this typical English weather??) so we jumped the tube back to Parliament Square where we connected with bus #3 and rode home. We thought we were going to have leave Crystal Palace on Sunday so made plans to spend Sunday relocating and recovering from Saturday. As it turned out, there were several cancellations at the campgrounds (possible because of abominable weather??) and we didn't have to leave after all. However we still took the day off to rest after Saturday, which wore us both out. Instead we washed our sleeping bags and did a little grocery shopping. Boy, laundry in Europe is expensive!! To do one regular load of laundry costs about $3.50 American, and then you have to dry it! Anyone who knows Bruceknows how he does laundry, and we have really had to learn to wear our clothes more than once before washing - or we would be broke!!! Now-a-days, everything is worn 3 times before it makes the dirty clothes bag!!! (Our socks stand up!!! - just kidding). by the way, we did finally get bleach and soaked our gray "whites". Now they are cream colored, so we are heading back to white whites! Monday was day 2 of London. First on our agenda was to be the Imperial War Museum, a great museum I visited with my parents 5 years ago, that I really wanted Bruce to see. We packed up sandwiches and headed out at 8:30 am. The museum did not open until 10 and cost 5.5 pounds each to get it. That is $9 each, we saw that at 4:30 there is free entry so we decided to save some money and come back then. Caught the tube at Lambeth North and took it to Chelsea and the Royal Military Hospital where 400 retirees live and were supposed to have a parade on May 29 dressed in their uniforms and scarlett capes. Well, our information was wrong, it was the next week, so instead we walked the streets of Chelsea towards Sloane Square. Very fashionable area, and we could tell it was an expensive area to live in as well. Beautiful brick buildings lined the streets. We walked up Sloane St. to Knightsbridge where Harrods, the famous department store is and of course had to go in. WOW, no wonder that store is famous! It was structurally impressive, and claims to have everything a person could want (although we will bet it doesn't have J LeRoys BBQ Sauce!!). We bought a tin of candies with Harrods name on it just so we could say we bought something there! We continued our walkabout and passed the Victoria and Albert Museum which still had chunks out of the buildings from bomb blasts in the Blitz of London in WWII. This is supposed to be a MUST museum for visitors, but we only have so much museum energy in us and it is being used for others, so we continued on until we reached Kensington Gardens and the Albert Memorial, built by Queen Victoria in memory of her dead husband, and across from it, the Royal Albert Hall (How many holes does it take to fill Albert Hall??). Both were neat to see, again having heard of them in some manner for years. We strolled Kensington Gardens up to Kensington Palace, where Princess Diana lived, and where Princess Margaret still lives. then we took the tube to Chiswick to visit Chiswick House, on our English Heritage membership list, but got lost so we returned to London and Picadilly Circus with it's neon signs, statue of Eros and tons of tourists. There Bruce watched the buskers and I went into Virgin records and bought a couple of CD'sat give-away cost (one being the Blues Brothers, which we had lost). Then back on the tube to Trafalgar Square and into more tourists, who were watching a movie being made. Watch for it in the future, it's called Enigma. Actors were dressed in 1940's costumes, interesting but wreaked havoc on the square. There are 4 lions at the base of Nelson's column, made from captured French cannon in the Napoleonic wars. These lions are massive! I've been wondering how many cannon it took to build these guys, surely more than four! By now it was almost 4:30 and so we headed to the Imperial War Museum. We were both dog tired, so thankfully this was almost the end of our day. The Imperial War Museum is awesome. It has hanging from a ceiling, a Sopwith Camel from WWI, a Spitfire, a Mustang and a German plane from WWII as well as a couple of the missals used in the Blitz on London. There are tanks of different kinds and the smallest boat used in "Miracle of Dunkirk". There are interactive displays, one on code breaking where we learned of the German Enigma code (could the movie being shot in Trafalgar Square be about this Enigma???). There are extensive displays on WWI and WWII explaining the history of both wars as well as all conflicts since WWII. An uncensored movie taken by the British of Bergen Belsen, the concentration camp, at liberation is so moving it made me cry at man's inhumanity to man. This museum was a must-see for my dad when we went to London 5 years ago and at first I had no interest in it, now I wanted to share it with Bruce who was, thankfully, really impressed by it too. He thought, and I agreed, that all world leaders should be made to tour it, just so they could hopefully learn not to repeat the past. We finally headed home on good old bus #3 for a light dinner of soup and salad, then bed (yeah!!). We have received a couple of requests on further information of the Amsterdam Red Light District so I will take the time here to repeat the note sent to one of our friends: The redlight district.... It is an area near a canal, but what isn't?, that has buildings with little rooms with picture windows facing the street. The girls, most of whom were beautiful, were SCANTILY dressed in fancy bras and thongs. They pose in their windows for potential customers and when they are engaged, the curtains are closed and they go to work. I don't know how they get any work done with so many tourists, male and female, gawking at them. I saw a couple of curtains closed, but I would think men would be a little embarrassed to strike a deal with so many witnesses!! I guess there is also an area for Gays and transvestites, but we didn't see them. We will be returning to Amsterdam, or at least Holland, and will report accordingly. One last thought for today; England, and London in particular, is quite expensive. If ever you visit here, do keep that in mind and prepare accordingly. This is the historical ancestor of our country and as such has so much to see. In my opinion a trip abroad would not be complete without visiting Great Britain, but be prepared to spend more on everything from food to souvenirs to gas to accomodations. We will exceed our budget for the next couple of months, but I wouldn't miss this for anything. Til next time (and it won't be long, we aren't done with London yet...)

B&P

We purposefully got off to a late start on Tuesday, slept in til 9:00 - unheard of! - had a leisurely English Breakfast courtesy of Brucie-baby; bacon, eggs, new Jersey potatoes & fried tomatoes. Have we talked about English bacon? English bacon is not that puny, fatty, find-a-little-meat-if-you-are-lucky strip of pig, English bacon is like slabs of Canadian bacon with some fat attached - it is sublime and I am not even a bacon fan! After breakfast, I worked on the diary & Bruce did a little grocery shopping. then we headed into town. Today's destination; British Museum and the night lights of London, we figured to be home late, hence our late departure. First on our list however, was the phone store - we are trying to have access, Europe-wide, to home via cell phone. So far we are failing. Evidently (at least in England, where we can talk the language) there are no phones that are on a pay-as-you-go basis that we can use throughout Europe to call USA and vice-versa. Remember, we are homeless so we can't be billed. That causes some extra complications that we haven't worked out yet. Well, we had purchased a phone in Canterbury on the understanding that we COULD use it as we needed it, but now we have to return the phone because that isn't the case. After completing that exercise, we walked the very busy streets of downtown London to the British Museum. It was later than we would have preferred for museum going (4pm), but remembering yesterday's Imperial War Museum hours, we thought we could get into the British Museum for free and have a quick look around. Well, lo and behold, the British Museum is free admission, but closes at 5PM. Well, scratch that off today's list to be moved to Wednesday. We changed directions and searched out an internet cafe to post the diary and check email. We found a great deal of 1 pound for 40 minutes (we had been paying up to 5 pounds for 1 hour) so I set to work cleaning up the web page, and posting emails. While I was busy, Bruce found a pub across the street and had a beer. While there, he struck up a conversation with a fellow who was leading a tour group around. He offered Bruce theater tickets for the evening. Bruce came and got me and we got to see the London Theatre production of "La Cava", a brand new musical, at the Victoria Theatre. And for FREE! How unexpected! And all because Bruce is a nice guy!! The theater was intimate with 3 levels of seating including the box seats which were ornate but tastefully decorated. We had excellent seats about 8 rows behind the live orchestra. The sets were elaborate, the singing good, the story was a little strange -a love story involving King Rodric, last Gothic king of Spain, at time of Moorish conquest of Spain. It opened May 15 and the press show was to be June 1, so I have no idea what the reviews will be (and probably never will know, having no access to news) so if anyone hears anything, write and let us know! The theater let out at 10 PM, we dashed to the tube for a quick look at night-time Picadilly Circus and then to Trafalger Square before finding our bus #3 for a trip home at midnight. Very different evening from what we planned (is that called spontaneity?) and more fun.

Early morning today - lots to do, and boy, we would have liked to stay in bed - still tired from yesterday! We may have to move on tomorrow, our pitch (as they call the camp spaces) is paid only through Wednesday night and we don't know if we can get more nights, so we must try to see what is highest on our priority list. First thing was finish up the phone dilemma -- return it and get our money back (no difficulties there) then on to the British Museum. Thirty years ago, I went to the British Museum and I have wanted to return since. Then I saw the Rosetta Stone, in fact that is my major memory of the museum, today I planned to see lots more. Well, I wasn't disappointed, they have on display collections from all over the world; Prehistoric Europe, Greece, Egypt, Africa, China, North America, in fact the museum is for foreign collections, very little is British. The Greek world alone, to me, was worth seeing. A Lord Elgin saved the Parthenon Sculptures from further destruction by purchasing and moving them to England. These were the statues and friezes along the top of the exterior of the Parthenon in Athens. They were displayed in a specially constructed room that really showed them to great advantage. Then there were lots of
the black Greek pottery with red or white colored scenes that we saw in our history books. It is amazing to me to see that this stuff survived 4-5000 years, buried then dug up and in beautiful shape. The statues held up less well than did the pottery! Of course I saw the Rosetta Stone again, now it was encased in a protective glass shield. This is a museum of objects, not one of paintings, and I would place it right behind the Louvre in the list of awe-inspiring museums I have seen. After about 3 hours overview of the museum, we decided we must move on. Tower of London is a site I have somehow missed on my last 2 visits to London and I had no intention of missing it this time! Tower of London is expensive, 11 pounds per person ($17.50 each), but I think it is a necessity. Here, William the Conqueror made his statement to the people of England "I am here to stay!" by building the White Tower, the original building of the London Tower. Here, Anne Bolyn was beheaded, as well as Katherine Howard, wives #2 & 5 of Henry VIII. Here, Sir Thomas More was imprisoned before his execution, here, Elizabeth I was imprisoned by her sister Mary. This is where the British crown jewels are, and where 6 crows are always in residence because of the legend that if ever the crows left London Tower, the tower and the monarchy would crumble. There is a whole lot of history tied up in this place. We took the included tour with a Beefeater as our guide and he gave us even more history lessons than what I just gave you! It was fascinating and well worth my 30-year wait. Bruce, who is not the history buff I am, enjoyed it too. We saw the Crown Jewels, which include 2 crowns, 3 swords, 1 scepter, a pair of golden spurs (?), 2 cuff bracelets, the ring of state, gold cloth coronation robes, and many other jewel-encrusted pieces. In the White Tower we saw the Domesday Book, an inventory taken for William the Conq. in 1078 (I think) that detailed what each farm and town in England had on it, from livestock to equipment to crops. Scared hell out of the Anglo-Saxons, which is how it got it's name. Pretty cool, huh? We stayed at the Tower til it closed and then walked the Tower Bridge, a beautiful Victorian draw bridge so close to the London Tower you could almost throw a rock from bridge to tower. Then it was onto the Tube with the rest of London trying to head home (bad timing) and home to a great BBQ dinner of chicken thighs, zuchinni/mushrooms/cheese and a killer salad! (We were hungry). We followed a couple, somewhat older than us, into camp and discovered they were the Californians in a VW camper very similar to ours. They have been doing this very kind of camping we are, for several years for a few months each year. I can't wait to pump them for information and ideas!

Thursday 6/1/00

We will be staying at the Crystal Palace camping until Saturday. So we didn't have to move. Hurray! we really aren't done with London but we were going to be if we had to move. Today though, is a rest day. We did no more all day than write this, grocery shop and nap. Aaaaahhhhh, feels good! Actually, after dinner (BBQ steak, asparagus with Hellman's mayonnaise and a killer salad) we walked the parkgrounds of the Crystal Palace. There is supposed to be maze somewhere on the grounds and I remember somewhere reading about the "Monsters" left over from the exhibition of 1881 that the Crystal Palace was built for. These monsters where the first try at recreating the Dinosaurs, whose bones had just been beginning to be found. Well, we haven't succeeded in finding the maze yet, but we did find the prehistoric monsters. They were awesome! Big statues of reptile-ly looking creatures that don't bear any resemblance to the dinosaurs as we now know them! They are in a watery setting with gorgeous plants and bushes and trees all around. I HAVE to go back with the camera to take photos. I was thinking how the kids of today, with their interest in dinosaurs, would flip out to see these when these two kids came running down the path around the monster island without even a glance! So much for romantic thoughts about today's children!! Tomorrow is St Paul's Cathedral and anything else we think of, then on Saturday it is off to the Somerset area in the west.

Tuesday, 6/6/00 – Somerset

We spent one last day in London, Friday, making a light day of it again. In the morning I (Peg), got up and, camera in hand, went back to the dinosaur island in Crystal Palace Park and got my photos. It was about 8:00 am and I was by myself, walking a strange park in a foreign country, and you know what, while I kept myself aware of my surroundings, I didn't feel concerned for my safety at all! In fact, I was talking with a man who was fishing for carp in the dinosaur lake, and we compared U.S. to England and decided England was much safer than home. On my way back to our campsite, I stopped and talked with the American couple we had met a couple of days ago. They are retired Army and have been camping Europe in their VW bus(s) for about 20 years!!!!! Boy, did they have information/knowledge to share! They have been just about everywhere and done more than we will ever get to do. And they know the ropes! They suggested we ignore Italy after July 15 because prices double - we aren't planning to hit there til September so prices will lower by then, they advised us not to miss Czechoslovakia/Hungary/Poland, suggested we pass on Egypt, at least driving there in our van, and to spend the winter in Australia when we ran out of warmth. We had a fascinating couple of hours with them before we went into London. We finally got on bus #3 for our last day in London. Agenda: St. Paul's cathedral and Phantom of the Opera! We dressed up (I in my Portland dress with Judy Lee's black jacket, Bruce in his dress shirt and slacks) for the theater. St Paul's is big. Built by Christopher Wren (who rebuilt half of London, I think, after the big fire of 1666) it is the one where Princess Diana married Charles. Has a large dome patterned after the Vatican and is supposed to be one of the prettiest churches in England although all the big ones we have seen are mighty pretty. We got there just when they closed the doors for sightseeing, to get ready for Evensong services and a concert featuring Verdi's Requiem. Being dressed up allowed us to attend Evensong - a service that we don't know anything about - but it got us into the church for a quick look-see. We had been advised to make the climb up the dome for brilliant (our new buzzword) views of London, but were unable to do so. The interior of the church WAS beautiful - but we didn't get to really tour it like we would have liked to. Maybe when we come back after Ireland. We left St. Paul's and headed for the theater district. Jumped the Tube to Picadilly Circus and it's madness, watched the buskers as we walked to Her Majesty's Theater only to find out the performance was sold out (even after all these years!). We got into the standby line and waited for 45 minutes for cancellations only to be told the available tickets were 35 pounds each. Since that alone was more than our daily budget, we passed!! Nuts, we both thought it would be fun to see in the original theater it was created for. Maybe we will get it next time through too. We just won't eat for 2 days!! So instead we walked London for a final evening and eventually made our way back to bus # 3 and home. We won't miss bus #3, we were getting old waiting for the damn thing - every time we needed to get on it, we waited a minimum of 30 minutes. We would watch other buses at that stop return 3 times before #3 would show up! Saturday we were on the move. Destination: Somerset area and a much needed vacation from our vacation. Let's face it, we were hiding out. London just wore us out, our feet hurt; our whole bodies hurt, we needed to take a break. Getting out of the London area only took us 2 hours - god, what a mess. We took too small of roads, thanks to Peggy the navigator, and got caught in traffic we couldn't escape. Oh well. We finally broke clear and took the A3 southwest towards Portsmouth on the coast in the theory of visiting the Isle of Wight. There is a royal residence there we thought we would visit since it was free due to our membership in the English Heritage. Only problem was, to get there was another expensive ferry ride. One day cost 38 pounds and 5 days was 59 pounds. So we would have to spend $55-$80 plus gas to see a free house!! We passed. New destination: Salisbury. We found a campground - finally we are back to cheaper accommodations at $15/night - and set up camp. Next morning (Sunday) we went into town. Salisbury is a town that moved, lock, stock, and barrel, in 1220 from it's original location, Old Sarum, who's ruins are about 1 mile away. A cathedral was built with the tallest spire in England - and it can be seen from quite a ways away. I was enchanted 5 years ago and found myself to still be. Once again, there were church services that prevented us from really exploring the interior of the church itself, thankfully I have been there before, otherwise lightening may have struck us due to my insistence of watching services once again. We did go to the chapterhouse which had some fantastic medieval carvings depicting stories out of the old testament AND one of only 4 remaining copies of the Magna Carta. Bruce sneaked a photo of it and it will be on the web page. This trip, I had the opportunity to visit the town of Salisbury, and we both thought it was a very pretty town. While there, we did a little shopping; we have been looking for something we could use to expand our boundaries and found a 12x12 blue and white striped awning, - matches Queenie. Now we have a front porch and we can put some stuff outside and not feel so cramped. Next we need some sidewalls for windbreaks/privacy and we will be set. We were very excited to find this: I'm talking jump up and down excited!! (It's those little things in life anymore that send us, free hot water & TP in bathrooms, cheap campgrounds...) In the tourist info bureau at Salisbury we found a brochure on a driving tour for the White Horses of Wiltshire. Remember "Walking Dude?" Here was chapter two. There are 6 horses carved into the hillsides throughout the Wiltshire area and we were going to try to see them all. We followed the tour and got 3 of them, missed a fourth and finally ran out of time and energy. We needed to get to our camping site which was not close to the horses. In fact, by the time we found our site it was 8ish, I was exhausted, my back ached and all I wanted was to get out of the car seat and into my bed. I was so tired I was about one step away from crying. I got the depressions and wanted to go home (what home?), thankfully I kept my mouth shut and didn't share all this with Bruce who would have rightfully kicked me in the butt for whining. Monday morning, life shone more brightly. We set up Queenie's front porch and admired it, then went into the town of Charde for grocery shopping.  From there we found a hardware store and got some much needed little supplies, collapsible crates - very popular over here, in 2 colorful sizes, a large one for our pantry and a small one for our breakfast stuff; bunjies, an outdoor mat, that sort of stuff. Upon return to camp, Bruce went for a walk and returned with tales of a charming village and church and a pub for us to visit. We hopped into Queenie (he also told of a hill he walked down then hitch-hiked his way up) and set off for this wonderous site. Across from the A3 - a whole 100 yds away, was the (steep) hill/street he walked down and, off to the right, a narrow lane with tall hedges on each side, which led to the church. I find it so interesting that Bruce is fascinated with all these old churches and their spires and bell towers. Five years ago I was in exactly the same spot he is now - I remember ooohing and ahhhing over every spire I saw, and there are ALOT of them - now Bruce is pointing them out. When we finally reached the church, we were stopped by a herd of cows walking their way home for milking! About 30 of them walking right through the village with the farmer following up from behind. Now that is something I don't see in California! The church was highlighted by the setting sun with it's cross shining like a new penny! (Unfortunately, I was distracted by the cows.) We executed a skillful u-turn (these are narrow streets) and headed out to the village which was a charming as Bruce had said. We found the pub, a 17 Century one, called the Candlelight Inn and met our neighbors from the campground, Gerald and Doreen, from Norfolk. We discovered the bowling lane (skittles) together and decided to try and play it. This whole thing reminded me of Rip Van Winkle and the bowling dwarves. The pins were probably as old as the pub, and the 3 balls, which are wooden and about 5 inches in diameter, had flat spots on them! We were delighted! None of us did very well, although I was worst, but we laughed and laughed! Around 10pm we left for home. Tuesday, today, we literally did nothing. It felt great and I am recovering my energy and enthusiasm. Bruce cooked a killer breakfast again, he is getting very good at these English breakfasts, and, since we have nothing we have to do, he is enjoying cooking and clean up! I can't yet say I am enjoying the domestic chores, but I do my share. Tomorrow we actually have a day trip planned and on Thursday we will continue our trip down to Cornwall where we will spend Bruce's birthday (Saturday). Over and out for now.

Friday, 6/9/00

On Wednesday, we did our planned day trip. The weather finally, was beautiful - clear sunny skies about 70o - very good considering what we have been dealing with and also considering we are only about 10 miles from the coast. We jumped in Queenie and headed for said coast. In our cyber-directory we had found a cybercafe in Ottery St. Mary's, a small village on the way to Sidmouth on the coast. The way there was along small, picturesque roads with the ever present hedges. Have I mentioned how beautiful England is? One of our books says Britain is one of the prettiest islands in the world and I am convinced of that. We have been driving along the roads all over southern England and everywhere, we are oohing and aaahing at the landscape. Anyhow, we got the cyberneting done with and continued on to Sidmouth which is a beach resort that all the old folks flock to. (Of course I keep forgetting it is the old folks and us who have the time to go to beach resorts during the middle of the week). It is also a working fishing port with wonderful looking FRESH fish for sale. One of the things I am having a ball with is word origination over here. Sidmouth (pronounced sidmuth) comes from "mouth of the Sid river" - sidmouth, we can take many names we see literally, and I am forever commenting to Bruce on that. (At times he says something like, "you just figured that out?" like Sidmouth example). In Sidmouth we found our windbreak for Queenie's awning, that will be on the website soon too. After a couple of hours browsing around the town, we headed back to camp.  We had a date with Gerald and Doreen for dinner at a local pub, The Green Dragon, and wanted to get back. Heading back to camp is always a circuituous path and we made a detour to Sheppy's Cider Farm to bring home a crock of cider. This "Scrumpy" cider is famous in the Somerset area, and used to be used in part as wages for farmhands in years past. It is 8% alcohol - "apple juice with a kick" and this particular farm is even in our tourist book and on our map! Gerald, and Doreen had gone to a different cider farm and shared theirs with us, we wanted to return the favor. We made it back to camp (this whole excursion was about 60 miles - things are a little close together around here, nice on gas costs!), took down the awning down since we were heading for Cornwall tomorrow, and got ready for dinner. We four got to The Green Dragon at 6:00pm - too early, they weren't open yet, but they opened for us. The cook served us a beer and we played pool (remember those yellow and red cue balls we saw weeks ago in Whitstable?) on a scaled down table with smaller balls than the state's pool games. Gerald and I against Bruce and Doreen. Weird to play a Lilliputian version of the game. I lost - scratching on the 8-ball! Dinner was: Lamb's liver and bacon with potatoes smothered in a wine sauce for Bruce and Doreen, Gerald and I had the Turkey and leeks casserole, both specials of the night and very, very good! They were served with a glass of wine and cooked carrots, cauliflower and red cabbage as veggies. The pub was decorated with a lot of very clever large wood carvings done by the owner and - 10' tall columns of people standing on each other's shoulders, benches decorated with different things. Outside were more carvings and a bench where we took a photo of the 4 of us. Then it was back to their caravan for conversation and some "Scrumpy". Next day (Wed) we left for Cornwall, a pretty straight-forward drive, for us, meaning we didn't really stop for sights although we did do some side road drive-abouts. Found our campground just outside Truro, a pretty little cathedral town 3 miles from coast, and set up camp. Cost at this camping site a mere $10/nite including electric and hot water.

Thursday 6/8/00

It rained all day, we slept and played cards

Friday 6/9/00

Bruce slept til 11, Peggy read and watched him sleep! The weather was improving, by afternoon it cleared up. We headed into town to find another cybercafe and then go see a movie. Some of the cybercafes we've visited just drive me crazy - I don't mind paying the money they charge when they have decent equipment for use, this one was $1.50 US/10 minutes and I think the computers were not even pentiums, the connection wasn't the fastest either. We managed to get it done in 30 minutes but could have finished up in 20 if they had decent equipment. Oh well, I am spoiled and have to remember I'm not at home anymore. We then browsed thru Truro and it's lovely new (120 year old) cathedral. We ate a famous Cornish Pastie - a pastry with meat, mashed potatoes & onions all sealed in a crust and really boring! Everyone was eating them too. I was willing to feed the pigeons mine, but Bruce stepped and finished it off. We went to the movies and saw "Gladiator" and I continued my private affair with Russell Crowe which began in a B movie I saw him in on HBO a couple of years before The Insider came out. I am really glad we went because the reconstruction of ancient Rome will be fun for us to compare to when we get to Rome. Tomorrow is Bruce's birthday - everyone wish him well - we plan to go to the equivalent of a county fair to celebrate his birthday. We will tell about that in the next installment.

Saturday, 6/10/00 - Bruce's Birthday!!!

Today we celebrated Bruce's birthday by going to the Royal Cornwall Show, a premier agricultural show. It is kind of like a state fair, but seems to have retained its purpose; farming. It was a 3-day fair, in California it would have run for at least a week, a lot of work was put into setting up this gigantic event. There were booths on better livestock feed, fertilizers, farming equipment, irrigation means, waste control, and some booths I am not at all familiar with. Then there were the booths that I am SO familiar with - crafts, food, and that miracle what-ever-is-the-latest-product to catch your eye at fairs. All of the various automobiles were represented with car lots where you could see and buy new ones if you desired. Instead of rodeos, they had horse jumping; dog shows like mini-Westminster Dog Show; sheep shearing techniques - did you know all those different kinds of sheep represent different types of wool? And that it takes different amounts of time to shear different types of sheep? We didn't. We saw exhibitions of Cavies (Guinea Pigs), Carrier Pigeons (a biggie), rabbits, caged birds, chickens, rare breed livestock, as well as the expected pigs, sheep, goats, cows and horses. There were acres and acres of exhibitions as well as a midway unlike the ones we have experienced in our state/county fairs. The rides were; a 100+ year old carousel, a 100+ hit-the-bell-with-the-sledgehammer (I don't know what you call it), a 100+ year old tall, really neat circular slide - looked like a lighthouse with the slide on the outside, a (new) virtual roller coaster and a few rides we recognize everywhere. The midway was not a big part of the fair though. And the food section was small in comparison to the rest of the fair and without the variety we are accustomed to. It was still expensive though - that doesn't seem to matter where in the world you are at. The weather, which started out blue skied and mild, turned cooler and cooler until I finally began seriously looking for a middle-weight coat to purchase. I needed one, I had packed a sweater, a light-weight water proof jacket, a TELOCITY VEST, and a very heavy wool coat (for winter) when I prepared for Europe, but I didn't bring a medium jacket. It was Bruce's birthday and I got the present!!! We spent all day there and had a very good time. Finally, around 5pm we headed for home and a birthday dinner of BBQ chicken thighs, zucchini, salad, rolls and peaches for dessert.

Sunday, 6/11

Today we went to Eden. The Eden Project, to be exact. It is a dream this one fellow had that has developed into reality. He is a conservationist who saw what is happening to the rain forests throughout the world and dreamed of a way to preserve the plants for the future. The reality is a place still in the process of creation, in Cornwall, with 2 sets of massive conservatories called biomes (hexagonal domes)that are the largest ever constructed. It is situated in a former china clay pit and when they are done with it, it will be an incredible one-of-a-kind place. It is supposed to house 80,000 different plants. It has already captured 2 Guinness World Records; the highest and largest mass-by-volume free standing structure in the world. It is so impressive, Bruce and I walked around with our mouths hanging open. It is supposed to be completed by May, 2001 and we hope to return to see it finished. If this has sparked your interest at all, you can see more about it at; www.edenproject.com. I mentioned the clay pit where Eden is situated; Cornwall is the only one of 2 areas in the entire world where porcelain clay of good enough quality and quantity to be called china is, the other place is China. Just think, if they had discovered this a little earlier, we could possibly be eating off Cornwall, not China!! Ha-ha??. After we finished up with Eden, we took off in search of King Arthur. Cornwall and Somerset are the areas of the legends of Arthur and when I was here 5 years ago I dragged Mom & Dad to a few spots of Arthurian legend, now it is Bruce's turn. I was in search of Tristan's Stone, purportedly the stone marking Tristan's grave. This is the Tristan of Tristan and Iseult and King Mark love triangle that is a part of Sir Thomas Mallory's "Il Morte de Arthur". It was originally placed at Castle Dore, King Mark's domocile, but had been moved to somewhere in Fowey, and we were bound and determined to find it. What an adventure! We saw more incredible landscaping than we had before today! We drove down narrow one-car wide lanes that went through tunnels of trees and hedges and made us think of elves and fairies and we could understand how those myths began! We found a 12th century church that replaced a much earlier church named for a saint who knew King Mark and wrote of him. We knew by then that we were close to Castle Dore, an added bonus since we had had no clue where it lay in Cornwall. Finally we were directed to the castle, or all that was left of it, some earthworks that outlined the outer perimeters of the place. It was at the top of a hill - a hillfort - overlooking the river Fowey, perfect site to defend and a stunning view too! A plaque marked the spot and also told how to find Tristan's stone. Off we drove to the spot where we took photos (of course). This stone is really a tall pillar that has his name carved on it and names him as Mark's son, rather than nephew as the story relates. The inscription on the rock is 1,500 years old! When I first became interested in King Arthur, he was pretty much considered a myth, but archeological evidence, now believes he was a historical person, and so many of the characters in the stories of him may well have been real people too. Here was evidence that the Tristan/Iseult story may well have been based in fact!! I was excited. Finishing up our day, we saw a Tex/Mex restaurant, Pepe's (shared with Alan's Diner) and stopped in for a birthday dinner for Bruce. Unfortunately, Alan's Diner didn't turn into Pepe's til 6pm, it was only 4:20 pm and we chose not to wait. We thought it would be a riot to be served Mexican with British accents! We tried to stop at one of the superstores so we could. buy taco ingredients but they are closed on Sundays - what a peculiar thing! We went home and went Italian; raviolis, salad and some more of those peaches at 9 pence a can (13.5 cents)!!

Monday, 6/12

Today, after a light breakfast of fruit, cereal, toast, coffee and cocoa, I began our drive on the Penwith Tour. This tour passes through a spectacular, remote Cornish landscape, dotted with relics of the tin mining industry, picturesque fishing villages and many prehistoric remains. Do I sound like a tour guide? I took that directly out of the tour book. But it does sum up what we saw. This area is the furtherest southwest corner of England. It contains Lands End, Penzance, and St. Michael's Mount. It is a 31 mile loop that took us all day. We believe the British miles are longer than American ones. How can 31 miles take all day? We stopped maybe a total of 1-1/2 hours, so how come it took us 6-1/2 hours? This happens all the time around here, no wonder we can't get out of England!! We saw a church which had a pew with a mermaid on it commemorating a village legend of the mermaid who lured the squire's son to her watery lair. We found several Bronze age (3-4000 years ago) stone monuments and rock walls, we saw beautiful fishing villages that flowed down to crystal blue seas, all by traversing narrow (very) roads that were not heavily traveled – thank the gods! We got to Penzance (remember Pirates of Penzance?) and in the harbor is St. Michael's Mount, an isle that looks almost exactly like Mont St Michel off Britanny in France. Very romantic, unfortunately also very misty so photo ops were at a minimum. One of the stone monuments we saw is 2 ancient menhirs, 20 feet apart with a circular holed stone in between. Cornish folk crawled through the stone to cure infertility and rickets and whatever ailed them. We did too and felt much better - although I do hope I don't get pregnant! The monument is called Men-an-Tol and has been around for 3,000 years and counting. To find it, we had to walk a long dirt path past fields marked with 3000 year old rock walls and over a hedge via a stone stile, all in a mystical mist that kept us from seeing further than 50 feet. It was almost like Men-an-Tol wanted to be sure we were deserving of it, we hope we were. As we drove through the day, we kept coming across stone Celtic Crosses mounted on the sides of the road - we don't know why, but are sure there is a story here. The landscaping was varied and quickly changed. From rocky wind swept moors, to lush green valleys all within a mile of each other - very striking. Somewhere early in the day, my driving got to Bruce, he doesn't seem to appreciate gawking and driving at the same time, nor does he like to play ricochet off the dashboard because I was panicking over oncoming cars in single lane circumstances and hitting my brakes to give them right of way. So, at Men-an-Tol I turned over the keys and everything was smooth after that. We came home around 4:30 and packed up our awning and windbreak in preparation for leaving tomorrow to go search for Arthur and see Glastonbury, Bath and Bristol areas. Still heading to Ireland, honest!

Tuesday 6/13

We broke camp and headed out for Tintagel, the historic birthplace of Arthur, and Camelford, the historic site of the death of Arthur. The weather was supposed to clear out today, ha, ha. As we left, the ceiling lowered and it began to rain. I will say one thing though, it is not cold, it looks cold and it is cool, but I can go out into the weather with long pants and a T-shirt on and be OK for short periods, I would get pretty wet, but not frozen. Tintagel was about 36 miles from our campground at Blackwater, and Camelford is about 30 miles away. We headed for Camelford first, since it was the closest. You remember Camelot? Well one of the place names of possible origination of Camelot is the river Camel, Camelot is supposedly placed elsewhere but who knows how it got it's name. The river Camel, and specifically the location of Camelford is where Arthur is supposed to have had his last battle, facing his son Mordred, who had betrayed him. This was the battle of Camlann, and Slaughterbridge was the site we were searching for. A book I read, while researching our European trip, talked about serendipitous experiences - to expect them because they would happen. Bruce made a left turn in Camelford onto an non-descript road and we drove right onto Slaughterbridge in about a mile. We found Castle Dore in Fowey in the same "lucky" manner. We had no idea where what we were looking for was, and both times we almost stubbed our toes on the sites. An added bonus today was a newly opened to the public site of Arthurian interest; the Arthur Stone, a stone with carvings on it dating back to the Battle of Camlann time frame. It's existence has been known for at least 450 years, but was on private land. The carvings say in Latin, "here lies Linius, son of Ma..." and the rest can't be read. It is exciting to the scholastic community because of it's location and dating, perhaps this was a contemporary of Arthur. The site only opened a year ago, and we got to trudge through the woodlands and wonder at the landscape. Alfred, Lord Tennyson, the English poet, saw the stone and Slaughterbridge and it helped inspire him to write "Idylls of the King" his famous poem about Arthur. Having completed our photos and tour - I had to climb a fence and trespass on a field to get a proper shot of Slaughterbridge - we drove off to Tintagel. Now if that isn't a place to inspire legends and myths!! Right at the end of a rocky point a couple of hundred feet above a vengeful Atlantic Ocean. The ocean crashes onto the shear cliffs and is slowly eroding the very promontory that housed the castle where Arthur was born. If Arthur ever existed that is. What a dramatic place! To climb to it is an experience - steep, uneven steps, wet from mist, take you across a natural bridge that one day will fall into the sea. You can walk around a several acre site filled with foundations of a hundred-odd old buildings, some dating back 2000 years. We wandered and wandered and wore our legs out climbing the steep steps. When we were done we paid a reasonable pound apiece for a ride back up the steep hill to the town to wander some more. There is an old building that is now the post office and also a designated historical building, but cost 5 pounds for the 2 of us to go in, so we decided we could see enough from the outside (it wasn't English Heritage, although Tintagel was). Most of the shops were filled with Arthurian brick-brack or named The Arthur this or Merlin that, but still and all, we both enjoyed browsing the shops. It was late afternoon when we decided we should head on out and search for our freecamp site for the night. We aren't too good at freecamping yet. I don't know if we just don't know how to find a decent site or if England is not conducive to free camping, but both times we have ended up in parking lots in cities/towns. Not
exactly what I envision when I think freecamping. I see us setting up in a lovely glen, or by a picturesque lake and enjoying the solitude for an evening or 2. We are going to have to practice a bit, I think, to get that right. We ended up in Barnstaple, on the northern coast of Cornwall, on a street just outside a parking lot for a Lumberjack" type store. Bruce just knew a cop would tell us to move around 2 in the morning and didn't sleep well at all, anticipating an event that never happened.

Wed. 6/14/00

We woke around 6:30, were on the road by 7 am and in Glastonbury by 10:30 (after making a side trip to Sheppy's for a fill-up on my Scrumpy cider bottle!!). We chose the second of 2 available campsites because it is about 1/2 mile from town center and we can walk to and from town. We were getting tired of setting up and taking down Queenie's top to get to towns. We spent the day washing our clothes, ourselves - I still like my showers - and cleaning up Queenie then we treated ourselves to TACOS for dinner as our reward (and for Bruce's belated birthday dinner). We found all the ingredients at the supermarket and were in hog heaven. They were wonderful! Tomorrow: Glastonbury and the Tor.

Mon, 6/19/00

Well, here is an update of the last 4 days. They have been pretty casual for us, but when I think of all we have done, we once again crammed a lot into a short time.
Thursday, 6/15/00
We walked into town, our primary reason for picking the location we did, and got our first view of Glastonbury. This is a unique town, having been a religious center for much longer than Christianity has been around. Right now, it's incarnation is that of a new age religious center, in other words, all the loonies congregate here. Sorry if I offended anyone, but that is how Bruce and I read it. The stores specialize in crystals and their properties, ley lines, and all the new age stuff. People walk around looking like they are out of Haight Ashbury circa 1966 only with a lot more piercings, dyed hairs and tattoos. They are referring to their past lives and trips in this, their present lives. And yet, we felt at home in the actual confines of the town. How do I explain this; we are not the type of loony we just described (I know some of you think we are loonies - just not this type), yet the basic vibes this area gives off is very comforting, lending credence to the religious history of this area. This is the area of the Isle of Avalon, the Celtic otherworld, or at least a Celtic religious center. This is where legend tells us Christianity first arrived in Great Britain, in 40-60AD with Joseph of Aramethia's (horribly misspelled) arrival at Wirral Hill and planting his staff in the ground to produce the Holy Thorn tree. The descendant of this tree is almost right across the street from our campground! This is where the Chalice Spring with its "miraculous" healing waters bubbles to the surface. This is where the Tor of Arthurian Legend and Christian history is. This is an area of great historical significance. This is an area that bears respect. I came for Arthurian reasons, but I touched on the whole experience in the four days we were here. We walked up the Tor the morning of our first day's visit. It is the highest point in the area, at 528 feet above sea level. The 360 degree views were spectacular with a compass showing us what was out there. We saw the city of Wells, 5 miles off to the northeast, the King's Canal, which is the original waterworks that helps drain the lowlands. The tower of St. Michael's is all that is left of a church that is on the top of the Tor. It collapsed in an earthquake in early 13th century (800 years ago!). We walked down the front of the Tor and at the base is the Chalice Well. Another legend has it that St. Joseph of Aramethia hid the chalice from the Last Supper in the spring from which the well is derived. This is the Holy Grail of King Arthur legend. The water is supposed to have cured a large number of pilgrims who came to Glastonbury in the 1700's. I don't know about that, but the water has a lot of iron in it and the springbed and fountains in the manicured gardens are stained red. I filled a bottle of the water straight from the fountain. We walked into the chalice garden for our lunch and looking across the valley saw the Holy Thorn Tree on Wirral Hill. A shoot from this original tree grows in Glastonbury Abby. We finished our day with with an early afternoon return walk through town and then back to camp.
Friday, 6/16
We went to the city of Wells. Wells is the smallest city in England. We don't understand the differences between villages, hamlets, boroughs, towns and cities. We don't know why Wells is a city and Glastonbury isn't. We wonder if a city must have a cathedral to qualify for "city" status. Wells does, Glastonbury doesn't. We thought it had to do with population, but now we don't know. Wells is pretty quaint - are you tired of hearing that yet? It has a beautiful cathedral and an exquisite Bishop's Palace. Well's cathedral has a front edifice containing 300 statues ranging from kings and bishops to angels, the disciples and Jesus himself. Every 15 minutes an astronomical clock inside has a jousting contest between mechanical knights that does not end until one is downed! The cathedral was nice, but really the Bishop's palace was splendid! A moat surrounds the Bishop's Palace and has mute swans in it who have been trained to ring a bell when they want to be fed. We tried our second Cornish Pasty in Wells and I liked it better than the one in Cornwall. Bruce and I have decided our most commonly used word is "WOW". We have said that adjective more than any other in the last 7 weeks. Everywhere we see "Wow" inspiring sights; from Hobbit hedgerow tunnels of greenery we drive through, to giant chalk figures, to delightful thatched cottages, to soaring church spires, we are in an almost constant state of awe at the beauty of this country. At Wells we went shopping at the Lidl store (I love that store, it has provided Queenie with more camping necessities than can be believed) and almost finished up with our necessities. Finishing up at Wells, we headed for the town of Street and the Clark Village factory stores!! I needed to get some sort of summer shoes, my Rockports were confining my feet too much and I didn't want to wear out my Zeetas which doubled as dress shoes. We went into the Clark factory shoe store where I found my "Mary Magdalene" (vs. Jesus) sandals and Bruce found a good medium weight waterproof jacket. Just happens to be same brand as the one I got for his birthday!! And of course, the purchasing of a coat finally broke the weather!!

Saturday, 6/17/00

The weather was finally gorgeous, and you know what? Those darn English started complaining about that! "It's too hot" or "I hate the sun". Here Bruce and I finally got to put on shorts and they are complaining! We hit all of 86 degrees, right as we heard San Francisco was hitting 103??? Don't think we want to be home right now, thank you. We returned to Glastonbury to see the Abbey. From the 900's to 1539, Glastonbury was home to one of the greatest abbeys in England. In 1539 Henry VIII dissolved the abbeys and took all their riches and sent the monks home. He then proceeded to destroy the abbeys. There are ruins of abbeys all over England. Glastonbury is one of the prettier ruins. It is on 37 acres of land in the middle of the town. Supposedly King Arthur and Guinivere were buried there and their grave was found in the 1100's. Don't believe it though. The Glastonbury monks were capable of pulling off hoaxes that would bring them vast amounts of money and this tale was one of them. I took photos of the sites though, since it is a part of my quest. The Abbey was our only stop this day, we went home early on the theory of returning that night to the Tor for early Solstice celebrations. People had been coming into Glastonbury in droves, we assumed to celebrate the solstice, since they had that "look" and we wanted to watch. Now we know the solstice was not until Wednesday, but these were phony hippies anyway, they had to work on Wednesday, so they had to fit the solstice in on their schedule. We headed for the Tor around 9 PM and were greatly dissapointed. Nothing was happening at the Tor except a gorgeous golden full moon and a crazy American couple laughing for all it was worth at life and it's absurdities! After laughing ourselves silly over just dumb stuff, we walked back home and to bed.

Sunday. 6/18

Finally we are going to see the Uffington White Horse. This is the chalk horse we originally wanted to see back when we left Stonehenge and did the White Horse tour. Then, we ran out of time and energy, today we were fresh. And it was a good thing, the Uffington White Horse was quite a ways away from Glastonbury. This is the oldest of the white chalk horses, reputed to be up to 3000 years old, the oldest of the other horses was only 250 years or so. The weather was holding, sunny and warm as we once again drove through the beautiful English countryside. The Uffington Horse in on a hillside at an angle hard to see from the road, and whereas we can walk up to it, it is hard to see from that perspective as well. We took the best photos we could, but you will have to take our word for it that you are looking at a horse when you see them. At the base the horse hill was a good sized mound with a white chalk area scoured out of the grassy top. Once again legend raises it's head; this was supposed to be where St. George slew the Dragon, the Dragon's blood permeated the mound and never again would grass grow at that spot. I love how we just keep stumbling across these places with stories I have heard of since I was little! I swear, EVERYWHERE you go in England has a history. With 2000 years of recorded history and five to seven thousand years of archeological occupation in an area the size of New York state, something WAS happening everywhere! We left the White Horse with the intentions of searching out the Cerne Abbas but it was 3-ish in the afternoon and we decided instead to call it quits and went home. I took a nap and Bruce when with a young couple from the camping site, David and Denise, to a local cider farm, Wilkins Cider Farm. This is the cider farm we were told to visit back at Five Acres camping site (site of the skittles game) by a fellow who turned out to be Roger Wilkin's son. Large oak barrels full of cider, ranging from sweet to dry, are here and guests/customers can actually help themselves to glasses of it! I think there is probably an unwritten code that says you stay and try, you buy, but that seems only fair to me. At any rate, Bruce said people were sampling (or just plain drinking!) then leaving with gallon or 1/2 gallon jugs of the stuff. They make 30,000 gallons a year, this is a single, private farm mind you. They also make and sell delicious cheeses, vegetables and other farm produce. In the states, we can buy apple juice or apple cider in the stores, but I never could understand the difference - well, in England there is a distinct difference - like 6% alcohol. And very tasty! I have gone thru about 2 gallons myself of this stuff and I am going to miss it once we leave Somerset area which is the only place true "Scrumpy" cider is made. Fresh cider is the best, but only has about a 2 week shelf life, so we can't store it up (not that we have room anyways). We joined David and Denise at their campsite (pitch) for cider and
munchies and made a fun evening of it.

Monday, 6/19/00

Cerne Abbas Giant - this will complete our chalk carvings quest. Cerne Abbas is just about one hour south of Glastonbury, near Dorchester (author Thomas Hardy country). We took the larger roads to get down there (think Hwy 70, Marysville to Oroville, Butte County readers) and actually were planning to go to the coast, only 6 miles further south, when we saw the site for Maiden Castle, another one of the prehistoric ruins that kept catching our eye. Maiden Castle was a large, fortified hillfort for a Celtic tribe who were defeated by the Romans in a large battle in 43AD. It was destroyed and the defeated people were relocated to what later became Dorchester. What is left is a pretty large earthen area which is well described with explanation boards at the site. We chose not to walk the hill, we had had a large breakfast and it was sitting poorly on our bellies - in fact we stopped in the parking lot and took a nap! After all, we had our bed with us! A couple of hours later, we got up and gave up the beach idea, it was getting cloudy and breezy (gee, getting back to the familiar English weather) so headed immediately for Cerne Abbas, a whole 6 miles away. Those six miles were great! I had found myself getting numb to the beautiful landscape (Paradise CAN be boring) but getting back on the tiny roads and driving through those tunnels of green, finding thatch-roofed villages with ancient churches, regained their charm for me on this drive. The village of Cerne Abbas was wonderful. We found a pub that looked right out of Tolkien's Hobbit world. Cerne is a river and the village was founded in 987 when an abbot was granted a charter here. The Giant, a 180 ft chalk carving of a naked man sporting a club and a huge erection, is on a hillside just outside the village. Sheep were grazing all over him, he looked pockmarked!! There were remains of an earthen structure just above him that were suspected to be Maypole dancing grounds or something having to do with fertility rites. First written record of the figure was in early 1100's but they suspect it was pre-roman. After photo-ops we continued our drive along the small roads in the direction of home. We stopped at Sherbourne Castle, one of our English Heritage "free" spots for a break. This was once owned by Sir Francis Drake, a favorite of Queen Elizabeth I. He began massive remodeling of the castle, which was originally owned by a very powerful bishop of Salisbury, but soon lost interest and began building "New Sherbourne Castle" which is just across from the old. We took photos of both then continued our drive home. Once home, we cleaned out our refrigerator for dinner and began packing up for our departure on Tuesday. We will be on the road for a while getting to Ireland, so next letter may be a while. Ta-ta!

Surprise of surprises - we got out of England!
Left Glastonbury Tuesday morning after posting our latest diary and answering emails as best as we could. The weather had returned to overcast and rain so we were ready to leave. After a quick stop in Wells for a stock-up from our new favorite store, Lidl, we got on the A39 and headed out. Now, we have been consulting our guide books and very close to Glastonbury - like 15 miles away is Cheddar Gorge. Does that name sound familiar? It should. It is from this area the that cheese originates. Cheddar Gorge is a mini-Grand Canyon. Only 3 miles long, it was formed in the last ice age by rushing waters of melted glacier. Natural caves were formed that had a uniform temperature which is evidently the secret ingredient for English Cheddar Cheese. Well anyway, that was where we headed first. It was well worth the stop. Beautiful tall, sheer cliffs cloaked in greenery made for stunning views. We drove, three times, through the canyon - it was short enough - and also stopped for photos. the cliffs were so high and so close we couldn't even get them completely in our camera's viewfinder. We really liked the Gorge. Of course the town of Cheddar has been turned into quite the tourist trap, and we have so much cheese my train won't leave for a week, so we didn't stop and buy any cheddar cheese. We drove through the Gorge for our last time and corrected our course so we could get to Bath. Once again we found ourselves in beautiful countryside, crossing the top of the Mendips, a mountain range (more like hills to Americans) across the back of the Somerset region. Ever heard of crop art? That is the bizarre designs made in the middle of fields by some mysterious means ranging in theories from sneaky men creating in the middle of the night to UFO's. Well, we got see one. Along the side of the road, somewhere between Cheddar and Bath, there was a series of about 11 circular depressions right in the middle of a wheat field! I have seen documentaries about these things on the Discovery Channel but I never, ever thought I would ever see one! This wasn't real elaborate, but it qualifies as crop art! Mid-afternoon we found Bath. Now Bath, named Aqua Sulis by the Romans, is famous for it's mineral springs which the Romans developed into Roman baths, from which it got it's current name. After the Romans left Britain in 350AD, the baths they build fell into ruins, eventually disappearing under new buildings until the 1700's when they were excavated and rebuilt. You can go into them now (for the ever-present fee) which we did. They are another place I have heard of for years and it was a real thrill to get to see them. They were awesome! And the city of Bath is built completely out of a honey gold stone (I think it was CC&Rs). I am talking 99% of all buildings we saw, and we drove through the city, were of Gerogian architecture and this gold colored stone. It is a really pretty city. Bruce complained that the stone was dirty and you'd think in a city with the name Bath, it would look cleaner. The car exhaust is doing damage to the stone, but they probably can't really clean it without doing more damage. The city also lays claim to an abbey (which survived Henry VIII intact!) that was designed by "Divine Intervention". The abbot believed God spoke to him in dreams and told him how to build the abbey. It is pretty neat. We took photos of the very elaborate front, which has, among other things, a carved depiction of angels climbing Jacob's Ladder. I had only paid for 2 hours in the parking lot so our time was limited. We did some walking around the city, checked our time; 4:30 pm, and decided to make a run for Wales. Bath is maybe 15 miles from Bristol, and just outside of Bristol is the M4 motorway bridge crossing the river Severn into Wales. It didn't take us much longer than an hour to cross over into Wales. WE MADE IT OUT OF ENGLAND! Not far, but at least progress was to be had. I had another stop on the Arthur Trail; Caerleon, a possible site for a historic Camelot. Today, Caerleon is a suburb of Newport, but 2000 years ago it was named Isca and was one of only 3 permanent forts for Roman Legions, the other 2 being York and Chester. It housed 6000 crack Legionaires in a 50 acre enclosure. What is left of that settlement is an amphitheater where soldiers trained and gladiators fought, the only remains of Roman barracks in all of Europe and the baths that were meant to give the Roman soldiers a touch of civilization in barbaric Britain. We free camped at the amphitheater (or at least the road in front of it). Caerleon is an affluent little town and very attractive. We arrived on the night of the third game for England in Euro 2000, the Soccer World Cup. We walked to a little pub by the Roman Baths and watched, with the locals, England lose the game to Romania. A couple of ciders and Guinesses later we snuck out 30 seconds before the end of the game (we hate to see grown men cry). Back at our campsite, Bruce (guard dog) watched cars parking in the public parking lot across the street - it appeared to be a popular dog walking/lover's lane area - while Peg laughed herself to sleep. Wednesday morning at 5:30 AM we awoke to big-time rain/wind. Well, that got us up! The rain stopped, and we toured the amphitheater and barracks, I had a cup of coffee and we headed out. What with the return of lousy weather, we decide to make a run for Ireland via Fishguard, a ferry port on the SW coast of Wales, about 60 miles away. We were on the road by 8 AM. We drove straight through Wales to Fishguard. The weather was not inviting and we are getting pretty tired of it. If we have to continue in inclement weather, we might as well have it in Ireland, then try and get back to the continent. Arrived at Fishguard at 11:30 AM and on a ferry to Ireland by 1:30 PM. The ferry was delayed due to inclement weather on the Irish Sea (gee, surprise!) but by 3:30 we were on our way. Bruce bought me a duty free bottle of Bailey's, so the delay didn't bother me a bit! We got off the ferry at Rosslare, at 7 PM. We actually made it to Ireland! Dublin was 168 KM - we are back to kilometers - north of our landing site and we started north with the intention of free camping somewhere in-between. It was the longest day of the year and it didn't get dark enough to sleep until 11pm so we had plenty of daylight time to find a place! We stopped in Ferns around 8:30, because we saw a castle ruin and went to investigate. Once there, we realized we were tired and camped on a construction site next door to the ruin (we aren't getting much better at free camping yet!). We cooked a quick dinner of salad and raviolis then set out to visit the castle ruin. It was built in 1297 by Maurice Fitzgerald and was besieged by Cromwell's forces in the 1600's. They pretty much ruined it, but inside a round tower was the best preserved circular chapel in all of Ireland – or so said the information plaque. After appropriate oohs and ahhs, we went back to Queenie and Bruce spent his second night guarding over me while I slept like a baby!

We both woke up at 5:30, tired. Got on the road quickly and headed north. We quickly realized the road map we had was terrible and stopped at a gas station to purchase a Thomas Map type book of Ireland. Much better! Consulting our Ireland guidebook and the maps, we discovered we were close to Glendalough monastic ruins, a Christian site dating back to the late 500's when (St.)Kevin, a member of a ruling Leinster family, forsook his wealth to become a holy man and started the monastery. It was very interesting. Ireland has a few remaining Round Towers, tall needle-like structures used as lookout points and hidey-holes for Viking raiders, and a well preserved one was at Glendalough. There was also a large cemetery which had to have had it's beginnings way back in at least the 1200's if not earlier, just because of the date of the monastery beginnings. Lots of Celtic crosses and lots of Irish names! We even found a James Fitzmaurice, who died in 1948! We wandered around for quite a while, in fact, we arrived in the parking lot and were having breakfast before the information center opened, we beat the tour buses, so we had a peaceful chance to browse around. By the way, we have been talking about England and it's greenery and fairy and elf legends, well, multiply that by a factor of 10 and get an idea of Ireland's landscaping. It is rightfully called the Emerald Isle. You look back off the roads to see lovely glens and lots of trees of varying types and thick undergrowth and it's easy to imagine you saw/heard a leprechaun. We drove along the Wicklow mountain range - about 700 feet above sea level, (Queenie had no trouble climbing that range!) - then dropped down towards the coast and the little resort town of Bray, just south of Dublin. We were thinking of finding the campground there to set up but decided we wanted to get closer in to Dublin to use the bus system for transportation. While at Bray though, I took a little nap and Bruce strolled the beach boardwalk. He returned at the same time I woke up and we proceeded on our way to Dublin. After a little trouble handling the non-marked road system, we found the campground in Clondalkin, a suburb about 30 minutes (in good traffic) from Dublin town center. We paid for 4 nights, set up, showered and fell asleep for a late afternoon nap. Bruce finally felt secure enough to let his guard down and realized just how tired he was. We woke at 8PM(!), ate a very light meal of Stagg chili and rice, went right back to sleep and got up at 8 AM Friday, ready for Dublin.

6/24/00 Dublin

Finished day two of Dublin and must say, this is the first city we have seen in Europe which we are disappointed in. We are seeing lots of inner city growth we assume, it seems to us like it is a city in transition. It is not a particularly clean or attractive city and we haven't yet been able to make sense of it. It is sprawled out, much larger than I expected. Our favorite attractions so far have been Trinity College with it's fabulous Old Library and book of Kells exhibition, various old churches, the hustle and bustle of Grafton Street and Molly Malone's statue. Ireland is supposed to have the youngest population in the world right now, reminds me of us Baby Boomers in the 60's, and they are a happening generation. Young, bustling adults who seem to stride with purpose as they go about the city. I don't know though, I can't find the beat of Dublin. Maybe we are going through a little culture shock, we got used to England, and just maybe we will feel this way each time we first hit a new country, I'm not sure, we'll see in the days and months to come. We have one more day here, and after that we head back to the countryside. (Our account here may seem a little disjointed, we are both trying to figure out our feelings of dissatisfaction). We took the bus into Dublin getting off at city center and just started walking about. We saw Christchurch Cathedral, a lovely, old, (you guessed it...) church with an interactive center called "Dublinia" where for an entrance fee, you could experience the history of the city. We opted to have our photos taken in stocks and another of those silly "stick your head through the hole" painted boards instead. We did a walking tour of the Southeast and Southwest portions of old Dublin suggested by our "Eyewitness" guide book. It covers most of the sites tourists are expecting to see. Trinity College was started in 1592 by England's Queen Elizabeth I to help reeducate the Catholic Irish, but the funny thing is, Catholics were not allowed to attend until 1970!!! It has possession of the Book of Kells, probably one of most richly decorated books still around, it is a copy of the Gospel, the first four books of the Bible. It was copied around 806 AD by Irish monks on vellum (prepared calf skin) and then bound into a book. It has the most intricate designs throughout it. No one was allowed to photograph it, in fact the lighting was so dim it was hard for these old eyes to make out the smaller individual designs on the two open pages displayed. The exhibition telling about the book and how the monks made it, from the preparation of the vellum, to the minerals used for different colored inks, to how the text was written in even lines, to binding the finished manuscript, was excellently done. I now understand much better why books in the middle ages were so valuable, a lot of work was put into their creation. We bought a coloring book of the designs so we could "color on rainy days" (that ought to take only about 2 weeks to complete!).  The exhibition was held in the basement of the Old Library of Trinity College, and upon completion we were directed upstairs to the Long Room, a spectacular 210 foot long room holding 200,000 books!!!! WOW! There were two stories of shelves holding tons and tons of books. I was struck speechless. Just a beautiful room. We took photos, but even if they turn out good, they can't capture the magnificence of this room. Also on display is the oldest harp in Ireland, dating from about 1400's, the type used by harpers (traveling singer/poets/bards). We went through St. Patrick's Cathedral, built at the supposed site where he baptized Irish converts using a spring/well at that location way back in the late 500's. A stone was uncovered in 1901 on the grounds of the cathedral, covering an old well that may be the well of the tradition. There were many monuments to many famous Irish, and a wooden door from the chapterhouse, called the Reconciliation Door because a hole was chopped in it so that one member of a warring clan could put his arm through in a gesture of trust and reconciliation towards a member of another clan who had taken refuge in the cathedral there. Jonathan Swift, the author of "Gulliver's Travels," was Dean at St. Patrick’s and is buried there. A plaque told of how Swift outlived other contemporaries, he believed, because of his personal hygiene techniques(bathing daily) and exercising daily by walking outdoors or climbing stairs indoors on rainy days, and lived to the age of 78. Shades of current thought! Bruce got a look down the front of Molly Malone's dress, she is famous for being a street trader in the traditional song, "Molly Malone." We, of course, had to check out the pubs, and found one to try a "real" Guinness beer. While there we told ourselves that we had to find "The Long Hall" one of the oldest pubs in Dublin, that is supposed to have a fine array of antique clocks (it was in the guide book). As we were talking, we were looking around, trying to find our bearings, and realized we were having our Guinness in The Long Hall. Sure enough, there were the clocks (although not as many as we were led to believe, which is part of why we didn't recognize the place, that and that we really hadn't been looking for it when we arrived). Another one of those serendipitous events! The Guinness really does taste different than that served outside of Ireland. We were told it was because "they" pour it up too quickly, and sure enough, our bartender took about 3-5 minutes to pour up a pint. Long enough for me to go to the "loo" and get back and still wait! This is a country of writers; James Joyce, George Bernard Shaw, Jonathan Swift, Samuel Beckett, and they are commemorated everywhere with statues and plaques. We were walking down the street and a brass plaque set in the sidewalk caught my eye. It was a quote from Joyce's "Ulysses"! I think I can safely say the Irish revere their authors. In a souvenir shop we found this prayer: Prayer For Tourists Heavenly Father look down on your humble Obedient Tourist Servants, whom are doomed to travel this earth, taking Photographs, Mailing Postcards, buying Souvenirs and walking around in drip-dry underwear. Give us this day divine Guidance in the Selection of our Hotels that we many find our Reservations honored, our rooms made up and the hot water running from the faucets. We pray that the Telephones work and the the operator speaks our tongue. Lead us Dear Lord to good inexpensive Restaurants. Where the food is superb, the Waiter’s friendly, and the Wine included in the price. Give us the wisdom to tip correctly in currencies we do not understand. Forgive us our under-tipping out of ignorance and over-tipping out of fear, Make the Natives love us for what we are and not what we can contribute to their Worldly goods. Grant us the Strength to visit the Museums, Cathedrals, Palaces and Castles listed as "musts" in the Guide books, and if perchance we skip an historic Monument to take a nap after lunch have mercy on us for our flesh is week. For Husbands Only: Dear God, keep our wives from Shopping sprees and protect them from Bargains they don't need or Can't afford, Lead them not into Temptation for they know not what they do. For Wives Only: Almighty Father, keep our husbands from looking at foreign women and Comparing them to us, Save them from making fools of themselves, in Cafes, and night-Clubs, Above all forgive them their trespasses for they know exactly what they do. We bought it and it now hangs on our refrigerator door! On our way out of town for the day we stopped at a pub to pee and refresh ourselves - I with an Irish Cream (Bailey's of course) and Bruce with a Guinness, and got to watch the bartender go off on three different customers who brought their children into the bar which was well posted that they were not allowed, he glanced at us, whom he knew to be tourists and said "Welcome to fookin' Ireland, now get out", which I personally feel is the best quote to date: "Welcome to fookin' Ireland" - I love it!! Our last day in Dublin was spent having a very poor lunch at a cafeteria style restaurant, Bruce ordered fish and chips and got a filet of chicken(?) I thought I ordered a meat and vegetable casserole and got mashed potatoes with a meat/minced veggie gravy under it(?) as we walked "North of the Liffy." I think we may have figured out Dublin. There are thousands of British here, the exchange rate is VERY favorable to the Brits right now. I have been noticing that everyone seems to be shopping and that there are plenty of places to shop in, but I finally put together that the Brits are spending their money here, and the Irish are gladly taking it! We finished up our day watching our team, Holland, smear Yugoslavia (6-1)in the quarter finals of the soccer World Cup, GO HOLLAND!!