I have really enjoyed sorting through my pictures and writing captions, more for me than for anybody else. It is amazing how quickly it is possible to forget why I took a picture of that particular door, or tree or even a church. After all, we did see more than a few interesting churches along the way. I have written captions for most of my pictures, and couldn't resist gathering more information by using Google to find good sources, then cutting and pasting information into the captions. I am sure it is way more information than most casual viewers would want to be bothered with. But I will be able to go back and use the captions to trigger my memory.

It took me about a week to get over the combination of jet lag and just plain being tired from the busy pace. Gloria keeps pointing out to me that every week in London is like that for her. It is a mixed blessing, after all. For me, I wanted to be totally sure that I didn't waste a minute of my precious 11 days. I think that Gloria's program is planned with the same kind of thinking. They have 12 weeks, and by the end of that she will have been on many day and weekend trips, visited most of the major sites in London, seen several dozen plays, dance shows and concerts.

I was able to see enough to have a good overview of London and the other places I visited, but that is really just the beginning. Now I could go back for many more visits to begin more indepth exploration of so many places that I just saw in passing as the tour bus went by. It would be fun to live there for months at at time, as the director of Gloria's program does. Every few years she spends several months sharing what she knows and loves of London with different groups of students.

So after the week of recovering from jet lag, I had one day of feeling back to a more normal energy level, then had the bad fortune to develop a dreadful cold. This has been a particularly bad fall, so many people at work and in the local schools are sick. Some schools have actually had to close. I am part of a team of three, and we all got similar symptoms at the same time. My boss was hit harder, and was actually in the hospital with pneumonia, hopefully now on the mend and on his way home.

It worked out well that this Thanksgiving will be a smaller, quieter affair, just a few people at our house. It is just right, had it been a big celebration, it would have been hard to get ready. I am beginning to feel better, I did go to work yesterday. But I am glad to have this long weekend, even though there are quite a few activities.

Looking back.......

I have been gradually loading pictures to Facebook, and as I look at them and add captions it allows me to reflect on the trip and the places we saw. It was truly the trip of a lifetime for me. I got to see and do far more than I might have expected. It was non-stop and tiring, but I loved every minute of the trip.

My family background is very much mixed, 1/4 Irish, 1/4 German, 1/4 is a 50/50 mix of Welsh and English. The last 1/4 was in Virginia by the late 1600's, and as a result is a complete mix of English, Welsh, Scots, Irish, Dutch....... So if there is a predominant strain, it would be some Celtic combination. Because of that, I looked forward greatly to seeing England, Wales and Scotland so that I could get some sense of where I came from. What I didn't anticipate was how strongly drawn I would feel to these places, and that there would be a feeling of 'homecoming'.

Unlike most travelers, I found that the food was familiar and enjoyable. I could eat fish and chips every day or two forever I think. Mushy vegetables bother me not at all. And London in particular has every ethnic choice imaginable. In Swansea, we found one of the best Thai restaurants I have encountered. The shortbread cookies in Scotland were great, especially the ones from the Elephant Cafe (in elephant shape of course). I almost stopped drinking coffee while I was there, I loved every cup of tea. I had a cold for a few days, and found the tea to be an incredibly comforting, reviving drink. I looked forward to my morning tea and toast, especially the days at the Pickwick in London. I found the people of London to be remarkably friendly and welcoming. Perhaps there was an element of reflecting back the joy that I was feeling, but everywhere I went I found people helpful and friendly.

As I watched some of the videos in the Cabinet War Rooms, I was particularly struck by the faces of the women who were speaking - they looked so like me and my Grandmother and my Aunt Shirlee...

I liked seeing all of the places I have read about for so many years. And I was amazed to find that most of them looked like I had imagined. So often when we visit a place we have read about and seen pictures of for years, we find that it looks different from what we expect. It is smaller, dirtier, the view is blocked by something that was cleverly concealed by the camera work. That just didn't happen in this case. And places that I did not have a preconceived vision of, like Covent Garden for example, turned out to be delightful in so many ways. I am now listening to a book called 'Her Fearful Symmetry' which is set in London, and am experiencing extreme pleasure for the London details that are embedded in the book.

I am so grateful to Gloria for creating this opportunity for me, to her and Krista for their patience in traveling with me as I took hundreds of pictures and dragged my too-big bag around train and tube stations, and to my husband for encouraging me to make the trip.

Return to real life

I arrived safely back in Chicago Wednesday afternoon after an uneventful, nearly 9 hours flying time, trip. The weather was good and the flight was smooth, unlike the trip to the UK, which had some white-knuckle spells. Yesterday, we flew over the southern tip of Greenland. As we approached Greenland, we were able to see the ice floes in the ocean, it was a pretty spectacular sight. The movie selection was pretty poor. I watched The Time Traveler's Wife and after that decided it was more entertaining to watch the map than the other choices.

Today we had to get up early for Jovito's annual visit to the UIC medical center where he is participating in a research study. We were there until around 2PM. After we got home, I decided it was a good day to take it easy and do little to nothing. Tomorrow I hope to begin sorting through and labeling pictures from the trip and finish up my trip journal.

In looking back over the 11 days, I would say that I saw and experienced far more than I could have anticipated. We plunged in immediately after getting off the plane and really didn't stop at all. We were able to do a mix, that included lots of historical sites, a mix of museums, some interesting contemporary sites, train travel that gave us the chance to really see a good part of England, Wales and the southern part of Scotland, some literary sites, the beach along Swansea Bay, a lot of street performers, a mix of religious sites ranging from medieval to Georgian and a play. We experienced a variety of cuisines and spent lots of time walking. I would estimate that the least distance we covered on foot in one day was around 3 miles, the most was probably 7 - 8 miles. I learned an unbelievable amount about the history, culture, industry and people of all three countries.

There was time to get a real feel for what the city of London is like since we spent the most time there. I expected to love the history, but I was surprised at how beautiful a city it is, and how large and how densely populated it is. I was not there long enough to get over my sense of awe at how the contemporary exists surrounded by history. I am sure that with enough time, one gets used to walking by places that have been in existence for hundreds of years or more. I wasn't there for enough time for that to happen to me. I found myself still constantly surprised as I took in views that included a 1,000 year old abbey, skyscrapers, double decker busses and the London Eye, or an abbey from 1,400 AD, Roman Baths from 400 AD, a street performer on a unicycle juggling flaming torches and Ben and Jerry's. Living in Chicago where 150 years old constitutes a hugely historic building prepared me very poorly for walking among this kind of history.

I also got a real sense, especially from the Cabinet War Rooms, of how much more World War II (and World War I for that matter) touched England than it did the US. The bombing was a fact of life in London and other towns and the war touched so many people. The geographic proximity made it so very real.

Every place that we visited is worthy of longer visits, there is so much to see that we were unable to get to. But still, we got at least a taste of each place, and I am so very glad that we made the effort to cram it all in. I wouldn't have missed minute of the trip.

I intend to start to post some pictures over the weekend.

Last Post from London

The boiler in the hotel is out, and it has turned chillier outside, so it is pretty cold in here. In fact, my room is only a little warmer than outside. I am down in the common room where it is a little warmer, but I need to head up to bed soon. I have a comforter and three extra blankets, I slept under all of them last night and I was toasty warm. Hope tonight is the same.

I have packed and gotten my boarding pass, my car is ordered for the morning. I will be sorry to say goodbye to Gloria and to London, but look forward to seeing Jovito and being in my comfy house.

It was a nice last day, I used the morning to pack and relax a little, then we went to the Museum of Natural History in the afternoon. It is a good museum, hard to believe it is free. It is in an incredibly lovely old building, and the exhibits are a bit different from the Field Museum. They are both good museums, but with somewhat different points of view. We spent most of the time in the dinosaur exhibit and learned some new things from it.

I will try to post more about it later, but now it is time to go get ready for bed in my frosty room.

Spending the day in London

I had today to do whatever I chose in London on my own with just the aid of Gloria's map book and tube guide. I got up early, although not intentionally. It turned out to be another lovely London day, very sunny, although somewhat more chilly than the last few days. We have seen little of the rainy weather that London is famous for, although there may be some tonight we hear. After tea and toast, I found my way to Westminster Abbey, arriving just a few minutes after they opened. I don't think I can even begin to describe the feeling of visiting this place, some of which has been in existence for 1,000 years. It is large and lovely and ancient; but the words don't touch the experience of being in the place where so many heads of state have been crowned, where Winston Churchill, Princess Diana and so very many others have been buried. I saw the tombs of Elizabeth I, Mary Queen of Scots, Richard II, Lady Margaret Beaufort and many other royalty. Also the graves of Handel, Lord Byron, Dylan Thomas, Gerald Manley Hopkins and many other writers. I was in the Chapter House which if I remember correctly was built in 1039, and walked around the cloisters.

Although the entire facility is crowded with tourists, it is still easy to see the centuries of worshipers, the pagaents and rituals that have been enacted there. It is far larger and more ornate than I imagined it, it simply goes on and on with many small chapels and hallways. Every area is lined with memorials and tombs and graves, truly this is a place that reminds us that we are surrounded by 'so great a cloud of witnesses'. In some ways it was almost too much to be surrounded by all of that history, I wonder if one ever gets accustomed to it.

After leaving Westminster Abbey, I took tube to the Moorgate stop, which is at London Wall and Moorgate Roads. I was later told that it was the site of the Moor Gate in the wall around the original city of London. From there I walked to the Wesley Chapel, which was built by John Wesley. The house in which he lived for about the last 10 years of his life is on the site. It is a lovely old church, far different from Westminster Abbey. It is a simpler and really quite lovely Georgian church. The picture is at the top of this blog, to the left of Westminster Abbey. There is quite a contrast in the buildings and in the sites in general.

When I first arrived, there was only one other visitor in the chapel, he followed me in, possibly a stalker since he had followed me up City Road, into and out of Eat and on up the road, then into the chapel. But he left after a few minutes so perhaps I misjudged him. Or possibly John Wesley scared him off. I visited the Museum of Methodism in the crypts under the chapel, and the docent asked me if I had time to watch a 20 minute video.... so I sat on a pew that was rescued from the original Foundry Chapel and watched an interesting video about John Wesley and the building of the Chapel, then looked around the museum. Another docent took me through John Wesley's house and gave me a lovely tour. I was the only guest on the tour, so it was very interactive. I then visited Wesley's grave, which is behind the chapel.

After that I walked around a bit, then took the tube back to the hotel. I had seen a stall with some nice scarves for sale near the Russell Square tube stop, so I stopped there and treated myself to three scarves.

Gloria will be back from class in a while and we will have dinner together then I am going to the theatre with her and her group. I am hoping that my cough will abate just long enough for the play. I did catch a cold and have periods of a nasty tickly cough. I am going to get a cup of tea, it seems to quell the cough for long periods. And any excuse for a cup of tea is fine with me.

Rainy Sunday in London

Today was a little quieter day. When we woke up it was pouring rain, which made it easy to sleep a little late, but we did have to get up to get Krista off to her flight back to the states. We took a car to Paddington Station and saw her safely on the Heathrow Express. She should be well on her way by now, her flight left around 3:20. Gloria and I took the tube to Westminster and went to the Cabinet War Rooms. This is the underground bunker where Churchill and his War Cabinet worked along with other key leaders, during World War II. It has been preserved as a very interesting and well done museum, and includes a great Churchill museum as well. I had just read several books on Churchill, as well as a biography of FDR that dealt heavily with the war years. I found this to be a really interesting museum.

Then we had lunch at The Red Lion, a traditional old London pub right across from Parliament. The history in the menu indicated that this pub goes back many years (to the 1400's, although not in the current building) and was an inspiration for Dickens.

We had fish and chips, which is about the 4th time this week. I have really enjoyed indulging my British taste in food, with fish and chips, steak pie and a sort of shephard's pie made with smoked salmon. On the whole though the food is probably not a reason to come here. The history, the interesting bustling city yes. The food, not so much.

Gloria has classes all day tomorrow so she is catching up on some homework and letting me use her computer while she does the reading part. I can see that she is close to the end of her play, so my computer time will shortly come to an end.

I am back at Pickwick Hall, where Gloria and her program are housed. It is a decent hostel with a very friendly staff. I have a small single room which overlooks Bedford Place. It is a little chilly and I am just thinking about turning on some heat, but afraid of getting it overheated.

Tomorrow I plan to visit Westminster Abbey and the Wesley Chapel, and to take my time about it. I will need to meet up with Gloria late afternoon for dinner, then we are going to a play in the evening. It will be good to hae a day with a little more relaxed pace as the last week has been a whirlwind of activity.