Cirencester--capital of the Cotswolds

The rains at the end of November produced massive flooding all over England.  Frankly, though it was worse than the first flood in September, it was not as bad as many parts of England.  Still, we didn't anticipate what it was like.

Another place my husband wanted to go was Stratford-upon-Avon.  The day after we arrived in Worcester, Helen took us to Stratford to see a performance of "A Midsummer's Night's Dream".  We walked around by the theater district by the river, but we didn't visit any of the Shakespeare sites.  He asked if we could return on this visit for that purpose.

It was a beautiful Sunday morning, so we were quite optimistic.  We headed out on the road, but no more than ten miles outside of Worcester we were stopped by a sign indicating there was no through passage.  We pulled in to the parking lot of a pub and looked at an atlas for alternative routes to Stratford.  We thought we had a plan, but after winding around teeny, tiny villages, we saw the road was impassable.  A four-wheel vehicle coming from the opposite direction slowed down and told us there was no way our rented Vauxhall would make it through the water, so we ditched the plan to go to Stratford and headed south on the M5.

While we were driving to Stonehenge I had seen signs for Cirencester, a village I had visited about 10 years ago when our two oldest kids were here with me and my sisters.  My memory of that visit was restricted to a little lunch spot and the church which featured the Anne Boleyn Cup.  My sisters and kids will remember my foolish look around the church searching for that cup and coming upon something I thought might be the vessel in question, but was really a plastic cup.  Ah...the stuff of family jokes.

We parked in a public lot and I made the mistake of paying and displaying.  I say "mistake" because I learned later that there's no need to do so on Sundays.  Ah well, the city fathers of Cirencester earned an easy three pounds off me.

We decided to wander about and explore.  Our first objective however, was lunch.   Our first stop was a little shopping area  featuring a statue of a ram.

Sheep and wool seem to be major focal points of the town.  This little shopping area didn't have any open restaurants or cafes, so we kept looking.    We didn't have to walk too far before finding The Fleece.

Three guesses what I ordered...

'twas good!  Warmed scone, clotted cream, and delicious strawberry jam.  I'll miss the cream teas very, very much.

Jim had a lovely salmon salad and a bowl of carrot soup.

Duly sated, we moved down to the church of St. John the Baptist, and guess what...the Anne Boleyn cup was still there!

Anne Boleyn's daughter, Queen Elizabeth, gave the cup to her physician who, in turn, bequeathed it to the church.

There was a baptism scheduled for that afternoon, so we did a quick look around.

This is the Lady Chapel.  The left hand side shows earlier decorations on the wall.

There were some charming gargoyles on the exterior of the church.

This is the tallest yew hedge in Great Britain.  It obscures Cirencester House, home of the Earl of Bathurst.

To the south of the home, is Cirencester Park.  While open to the public during daylight hours, it is private.

The broad ride extends five miles uninterrupted.  This path encourages pet owners to take their dogs of their leads, and prohibits any wheels--bikes, skateboards, etc.

But owners are encouraged to replace the leads as visitors leave the park.  It is a lovely park, bordered by chestnut trees.

The entrance back into town is quite lovely.

We had walked the park briefly as we waited for the Corinium Museum to open.    The guide book I bought reveals that "[t]his is the fourth Museum in Cirencester to bear this name and continues a tradition reaching back over 150 years."  It goes on to note that "Cirencester stands at the junction of three major Roman roads and contains some of the most important archaeological remains from Roman Britain."  The museum covers not only the story of the Cirencester of the Roman era, but also that of "the earliest hunter-gatherers to the canals and railways of the industrial revolution."

There were wonderful mosaics throughout the museum.  This was one of the most interesting, the Hare Mosaic.

Apparently the hare was sacred to the Celts.  It is the logo of the Corinium Museum.  Corinium is the Roman name of Cirencester.

There were some wonderful exhibits.  I particularly liked this one of a Roman garden.

True to form, this museum also featured some creepy mannequins.  This one was extra spooky.

It's supposed to represent a Roman composing a letter home.  Many of the displays reminded me of sites we saw in Israel back in 1999.  This one in particular was familiar.

This was part of the under floor heating system, or hypocaust.  The slice of life scenes were rather engaging.

The mosaic floor represents the seasons.

Some of the other displays had truly disturbing mannequins.

This display focused on child burials.  The faces of these two deserve a closer look.

I thought I saw this guy walking the High Street.

I get the feeling that there must be unending work for archaeologists throughout this country.  Check out this discovery--Mrs. Getty.

This figure is so named because of the riches found in her wooden casket.  One of the remarkable aspects of this figure is that her face was reconstructed from her skull.  So...her face may resemble the actual body.

My favorite displays were these medieval heads.

There were many more wonderful displays, but there's not enough room and time to cover all of what was available.

Long story short--Cirencester is worth a visit.

Stonehenge in the rain

My husband and I are getting to an age where we have started thinking about our "bucket lists".  At the top of our lists is grandchildren, of course--but that's not up to us.  Beyond that, there are a few places we'd like to visit, and experiences we'd like to have. For my husband, one of his top destinations is Stonehenge.  Since Worcester is in the west of England, making a day trip to Stonehenge is absolutely do-able.  After renting (and more importantly DRIVING) a car while my friends from Duluth visited in October, I had the confidence to drive, and I reserved a car for the time when my husband was in town at the end of November.  So... it was off to Stonehenge the Saturday after Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving Thursday had been rainy, but Friday had dawned bright.  We had lovely weather in Birmingham, so I wasn't too worried about travel on Saturday.  Mother Nature, however, had some other ideas.  By the time I picked up the car, it was cloudy, but no precip.  I drove back to the flat, collected my husband and we headed off to the M5.  The first part of our trip saw rather sporadic rain spits, but by the time we got to Gloucester and turned east, it was getting more consistent.  I had some trouble figuring out how to keep the windshield wipers working.  I found it necessary to keep the wipers going by holding the right lever while also keeping my hands on the wheel.  It got a bit tiresome.

The first part of the trip was quite easy, but then we had to start winding around smaller roads.  We got a bit lost and I ended up making a wrong turn.  I was headed north instead of south, so I had to pull off and go in to a village.  Fortunately we found a lady walking her dog who was willing to direct us back in the correct direction.  Sometimes Google Maps fail us.

Finally, we made it to Stonehenge.  The rain was coming down quite steadily, but we were determined to power through to our destination.  Stonehenge is an English Heritage site.  Anyone coming over to England for an extended period of time should really consider buying an English Heritage membership. Our tickets cost seven pounds and 80 pence, so it wasn't too dear, but if you go to a sufficient number of sites it adds up to a good cost savings.

Once we arrived, we found quite a few people had the same idea we did.  It was not crowded, but it was well populated.  By the time we parked, the rain was coming down quite steadily.  We were well equipped with our umbrellas, and headed through the underpass.

The murals lining the walls offered a theory of how the stone circle came to be.

It is mysterious.  These stones weigh so much and came from so far away.  The English Heritage site lists questions most people conjure:  "Was Stonehenge a temple for sun worship, a healing centre, a burial site or perhaps a huge calendar? How did our ancestors manage to carry the mighty stones from so far away and then, using only the most primitive of tools, build this amazing structure?"  Indeed!

I visited here in 1972 with my friend Susan Whitehead Whiting and her parents. I remember it vaguely, but I do remember thinking the stones were so big.  Back then, people could walk right up to and among the stones.  Today, guests are asked to walk on a path behind a rope barrier.

Neither the rain nor the barrier impeded my husband's delight at being there.

He's wearing an audio guide, something I've come to appreciate at these sites.  The problem is one needs time to listen to those items of greatest interest.  I've decided that these guides are best used alone.  People respond to these guides in such an independent way.  I like them, but I get frustrated if I can't listen to those things I find most interesting.  Ah well...

We decided to take another shot without the umbrella blocking the view.

I have to say, I was so happy he was able to have this thrill.  He truly loved being there.

We were able to get some nice shots of the site.

I was pleased with these sites, but it would have been nice to get a few other perspectives.  Unfortunately, there was limited accessibility.  The other paths were closed off because of the rain.  Still...I saw a few people had crossed over and walked on the path anyway.  I tried doing it and was shooed away by a staff person.  GRRRRRR

Our whole visit was well under an hour, but it was worth it.  My husband really loved being there and that's worth everything.

We thought we would have lunch in Amesbury, the nearest village.  It wasn't particularly convenient to stop there however, so we continued on until we found a promising site.  Finally, we drove through Marlborough and spied a promising lunch venue.  We parked in a kind of dodgy spot, but headed down the block to the Marlborough Conservative Club for fish and chips.

The people were very friendly and welcoming.  There was a horse race on which seemed to engross most of the clientele.

At the end of our meal, they graciously pointed us in the right direction and we bid the Marlborough Conservative Club farewell.

Cadbury World

Our last field trip of the term was to Cadbury World in Birmingham, or to be more precise Bournville.  Originally, we had planned to go to Stratford-Upon-Avon, but there wasn't a lot of enthusiasm for that option.  We discussed it at our weekly seminar meeting and by majority vote decided Cadbury World was a better option.  Not only was there chocolate in the works, the annual Frankfurt Christmas Fair was taking place at the same time--so we could get two field trips in one.

We boarded the train for Birmingham and made it to the factory in no time at all.  The purple color of the Bournville train station gate is clearly tied to the Cadbury image.

It's a short walk from the train station to the factory.

The Cadbury campus is quite large.  This building is actually quite a ways from the entrance to Cadbury World per se, but the signage was clear.

Finally we arrived at our destination.

We hung out in the shop for a while.

There were some really attractive items such as these:

but there were also a few odd pieces such as these items, called "bespoke" shoes:

I've seen these at one of our local chocolate shops as well.  Frankly, I don't get it.  They're pretty, I guess, but why shoes?

Still, the shoes made more sense to me than these promotional strategies:

It's hard to read, but it says "Because the lady loves Milk Tray".  This one is frankly a bit disturbing:

I'll never eat another chocolate bunny.  I'll always see this seductive rabbit in my head.

The tour offers a history lesson on chocolate

and then the Cadbury factory itself.

The tour included "static sets, animatronics, video presentations, multi-sensory cinema, interactive displays and activities, and staff demonstrations."  More importantly for the chocoholics among us were the samples.  My personal favorite were the melted chocolate in cups.  Very, very tasty.  There were also some fun constructions.

I had a particular affinity for the advertising displays.

My husband and I treated ourselves to a cup of Cadbury's Hot Chocolate.  It was good, but the Ho Cho at the Chocolate Deli in Worcester is better---just sayin'...

Once we left, we headed back to Birmingham New Street where we found the Frankfurt Christmas Fair.  New Street had displays for about six or seven city block lengths.

This was a beer garden, but most of the sites were Christmas related:

There were also many food vendors with a German link.

We bought a hot dog and were then ready to head back to Worcester.

Within a week, we had an opportunity to compare the Birmingham Frankfurt Fair with the Worcester Christmas Fayre.

Thanksgiving in Worcester

Thanksgiving is such a great holiday; the very name explains why.  The focus is on gratitude, not gifts.  It can be exhausting, but not if people work together and share the burden.

Our Study in England students were bound and determined to make this a successful holiday, and threw themselves in to preparations.  Our student assistants organized all of us,

divvying up the duties.  Each of us on staff (or more precisely in my case, my husband) made turkeys,

and the students worked on making sides and desserts.

Helen reserved a hall on campus, and one of our student assistants and I set tables.  Kathryn channeled her inner Martha Stewart and gathered materials for centerpieces, 

and I found a cute fruit salad idea and set up plates for all the tables.

 We had quite the array of "appetizers" (which no one really ate).

Our students were encouraged to invite guests to the dinner.

We had a few, but there was plenty of room for more.

The students voted to "dress" for the occasion; they all looked very nice.

We tried our best to rise to the occasion as well.

It was a lovely occasion, and I think we were all satisfied with the outcome. More importantly, we were all grateful to be together.