ENGLAND: August 2015
England in August is becoming a
habit. One I enjoy immensely: seeing a
friend in Essex, friends in the Peak district, and visiting London.
My friend Carol, after deciding
that her beautiful house in a lonely area of Cumbria was too desolate for her
lifestyle, bough a semi-detached in West Cliff by the Sea, and I was invited to
inspect.
It was still under renovation when
I visited but house layout and location is just lovely.
It will have museum quality charm when Carol
is done.
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| Work in progress |
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| Second reception: also work in progress |
Besides being a great piece of
property, the house is located just an hour by train from London, so it is
convenient to all the wonderful cultural activities that Carol enjoys.
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| Me on the local seaside carousel and amusement park |
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| Carol is an 'easy rider' too. |
Next I was off again to one of my
favorite haunts, the Peak District and my good friends Mark and Sarah.
They have a charming little semi-attached
home in Beeston a suburb of Nottingham.
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| Country village church |
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| Lunch in a village pub |
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| Entry to guess where? |
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| Forest directions sign |
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| Wee house in the forest. |
Every time I visit, they take me on delightful adventures (see past blog
entries) and this year it was again an enjoyable afternoon with lunch at a
country pub then a charming walk through Sherwood Forest. On my last night there, Matthew, Sarah’s son,
Sarah, Mark and I walked over to this amazing local, The Victoria Hotel Pub
that has a wonderful drinks cellar and serves outstanding dinners in a traditionally
beautiful English Pub setting.
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| Statue of Robin Hood proposing to Maid Marian |
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| The three of us under Robin's Old Oak |
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| Mark's mother and me during my annual visit |
After three brilliant days I was
off to London, my favorite city. Hotels
have become prohibitively expensive. The
alternatives are hostels. I’m a little
too old to bunk in with six or 12 others in a room. However I have found the
perfect alternative: university rooms.com.
Vacant university dorm rooms are great housing for the international
visitor. You retort, ‘Ugh! I remember the old days. Shabby accommodations with baths down the
hall.’ Not so today. There are all kinds of prices through out the
city university system of rooms, ranging from around $65 US a night (a really
cheap sleep in London – though some still do have the shared bath) to as high
as two or three hundred for a two bedroom suit just off Kensington Gardens (a
prime location).
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| View from my room |
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| My room |
I opt for Princes Gate, part of the
Imperial College on Exhibition Road.
This year for $99 US a night, I
got a private room and bath, WIFI for my whole stay for 5 pounds, free full
breakfast every morning, and daily use of their gym, health center and
pool. Princes Gate rooms are clean and
modern with a very helpful staff, daily room service, and a great location. Just down from Albert Hall, two blocks to
Kensington Gardens, a few feet from the V&A, and across the street from the
Museum of Natural History, the Science Museum, lots of little restaurants in
the area, and the South Kensington Tube Street (other than the fact that there
is no lift - thinking of luggage - at the SKTS station), the location is
perfect.
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| New Tesala car |
This year the summer was about
‘shoes’. There were shoes exhibits at
the Design Museum, the Materials Museum and the definitive Shoe Exhibit was at
the V&A. Wow!
I learned more about shoes than I
ever knew I wanted to know and it was all fascinating.
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| Every year there are interesting cars in the museum display |
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| BMW front |
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| BMW back |
The Design Museum is a must see for
me every year. The last few summers my timing has been superb, in that I have
seen their display of the year’s new inventions including the ones that received that year's awards.
Besides the inventions,
the Camper Shoe Company, which I had never heard of, located in Majorca and
mainland Spain, had an interesting presentation of the history of their company
and their shoes.
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| Camper shoes |
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| Protocell Footwear |
As for the Materials Museum, I was
highly disappointed, and I probably won’t waste my time again.
I also hit the jackpot with London
theatre tickets this year. Have you ever
heard of the a British musical group of the 6os, The KINKS? There is now a West End musical play about
their rise in the music world. I had
never heard of them but I bought a matinee ticket and had a great
afternoon. The show was mediocre, but
the enthusiastic crowd made up the fun.
It was an almost all-British audience and they got right down into the
music. They clapped to the tunes, stood
dancing at their seats and cheered when an extremely famous song from their
youth was preformed. All in all it was
lots of fun. Of course I was not
surprised by the enthusiasm among the West End theatre crowd, which is often
standard behavior among British audiences and I love it.
But I really hit the Jackpot when I
went to the box office of the Theatre where ‘The Book of Mormons; was playing
and found a reasonably priced seat available in the stalls on my last night in
London. I swept it up and to my joy when
I arrived found it was a great seat.
Audiences either love or hate this musical, after all, it was written by
the ‘South Park Boys’, so it is rude.
But it is also fun, and if one has a liberal sense of humor, you will
absolutely love the play. I enjoyed it
so much I will see it again if I can get a ticket during my next visit to
London.
NOTE: Instead of purchasing theatre tickets at the
half-price sale booths in Leicester Square, go directly to the theatre where
the play is showing. If they have any last minute tickets available, you will have a better selection and they will cost less.
Just saying!
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This is the first time Buckingham
Palace was opened during one of my London visits, so I went on line and got a
ticket.
I was guided through various
rooms observing the Queen’s massive art collection, the room where she greets
guests, the throne room, and the most interesting, the dinning room, where
the table was set for a state dinner.
Of
course, the Queen spends the month of August at Balmorall Castle in Scotland. Therefore, the table setting was just a mock-up for the tourists.
No picture-taking is allowed in the palace, so the interior pictures I
have are from post cards. Non-the-less it does give readers some idea of the
palace interior.
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Changing of the Guard at the entry to Buckingham
Palace |
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| Looking through the trees to the lake in the Queen's backyard |
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| A palace staircase |
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| A room used to greet guests |
Thinking there was a show about the
history of Liberty fabrics, I went to the Liberty Fabric store, which is
located in a beautiful Tudor Building.
Unfortunately, I was a week early. Also, I discovered that the company
must have sold out, and now has very few fabrics. Rather, the store is full of lots
of cosmetics as well as high priced knick-knacks and stationary products. It does have a great hand made carpet
department on the top floor, but these rugs are also outrageously expensive.
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| Liberty store's beautiful tudor facade |
I also made my annual stop at Harrods toy
department, which has shrunk a bit it but still has great bears. I bought a Kitty for my grandson, which was a
hit during my visit for his birthday. (Sorry I didn't take a photo of the stuffed Kitty.)
NEXT: Sarah and Mark join me for a London Bank weekend.
