Coming Home

Today is our last day in the UK. We've just about managed to eat through all of our spare groceries, the fragile gifts are all bubble wrapped and the last of the laundry is hanging in the sun (and has been for 24 hours already, so it should be dry by tonight!).

On first assessment I'm fairly sure all of our things will fit in our luggage. This has been of some concern to Russell, but we did bring an extra duffel bag and didn't need to expand our luggage when we came, so we have plenty of extra space for the extra things we've acquired.

I'm off to take books back to the library, buy snacks for the flight and tickets for the bus to the airport. Then its just pack, pack, pack.

Cardiff

As it turned out, there was rail work between Cardiff and Reading last night. This meant our train was diverted, so what would normally be a two hour trip lasted three and a half. We got home around 11:30 and after two days of running all over the place we pretty much just fell into bed.

The exhaustion was worth it, though. We had a great time in Cardiff (though we could have easily devoted another day or two to it.) We got off to a slower start yesterday so we arrived in Cardiff around lunch time. After eating, we went to the central attraction of the city: Cardiff Castle. Cardiff Castle has been around a very long time. It was originally built over a Roman stronghold and has been added to and expanded since then.

To give a sense of the layout, when we first entered the stone walls surrounding the grounds, we were met with a view of the keep on the hill. This, as you can see from the picture, is the most "castle" looking building on the grounds. To the left was the much larger Cardiff Castle itself. I'm sure you can guess which one was lived in by the king/nobleman, and which one was lived in by the imprisoned older brother who was rightful king.

The keep was fun to walk through. There was an endless flight of steep stairs that took us to four or five rooms stacked one above the other. For the most part, however, the keep is just a well maintained relic. The real attraction is Cardiff Castle. I rather like how Wikipedia put it: "In the early 19th century the castle was enlarged and refashioned in an early Gothic Revival style for John Crichton-Stuart, 2nd Marquess of Bute by Henry Holland. But its transformation began in 1868 when the 3rd Marquess commissioned William Burges to undertake a massive rebuilding which turned the castle into a 19th century fantasy of a medieval palace."

"Fantasy of a Medieval Palace" is an understatement. Burges was apparently known for his extravagant architecture, and for going over budget. Way over budget. It was not uncommon for a bill to come to 10 times the bargained amount. Apparently, a good number of Burges' works were cut short because the patron simply couldn't afford the growing expense. Luckily, however, the Marquess of Bute had a fortune that could keep up with Burges, and the result is stunning. We weren't allowed to take pictures on the inside of the castle, so I'll just have to give a few meager descriptions and encourage you to someday go see the castle for yourself.

We went to the smoking room, which was a strictly men's only room with the days of the week depicted in each stained glass window, the four seasons painted on each of the four walls, an intricately detailed cathedral ceiling (in gothic style). It also boasted the face of the devil coming out of the ceiling above the door to scare off any women who might want to wander in uninvited.

Next we visited the children's nursery, which had beautiful paintings encircling the whole room depicting fairy tales and lanterns that hung from the ceiling with reliefs of nursery rhymes illuminated on each side. The paintings on the walls were a common theme revisited in the great hall. These paintings, however, were being refurbished, so several of them were hard to see. Apparently within the last 30 years, someone got the idea of varnishing the paintings in hopes of preserving them, but used a terrible varnish that almost destroyed the paintings. That varnish is now being removed (its suppose to take 2.5 years.)

We also saw the women's tea room, with high Turkish ceilings and wooden window panels (I've forgotten the name of such panels) that are so intricate no one can see in the room, but anyone inside can see out. There were also carved parrots encircling the room to remind the ladies not to gossip.

The Marquess (John)'s room was not to be overshadowed by the rest of the building. It featured an ornate ceiling with a grid of dark wood surrounding rectangular mirrors. On each beam of wood, the name "John" was written in various languages so that when he was in bed he could look up and see his name reflected thousands of times in the mirrors. The room was also surrounded by carved guardian angels' faces. They were done so that none of them, no matter where you stand in the room, ever focus on you. However, the eyes of one in the corner follows you wherever you go in the room.

The castle kept going and going and becoming more and more ornate. We went up a left-handed spiral staircase to get to a roof-top garden patio with drains (for the almost constant rain) in the shape of a Celtic cross. There was also a dining room that featured a gorgeous round table with a hold in the middle that was apparently designed to allow a grape vine to grow up through the middle. In the dining room there was also a carved monkey along the wooden wainscoting. It turned out that if you pressed the nut in the monkey's mouth, it triggered a bell to call the servants.

Finally, we finished the tour in the library. While the overall library seemed more sedate a first glance, the bookshelves were intricately carved and each featured an exotic animal from one of the countries the Marquess had stakes in. This included a duck-bill platypus from Australia, Beavers from Canada, some large lizard from Australia, and a variety of others.

To help imagine these rooms, think of how ornate Victorian architecture could get, then imagine putting a fanciful architect, who is smoking a great quantity of opium, in charge of the design. I'm so glad we got to see it.

After the Castle, we tried to visit the Natural History Museum of Cardiff, which I had heard very good things about. It was open, but many of the displays were closed to the public because they were preparing for their centennial and a visit from the Queen. We wandered through what was open and then collapsed into a highly comfy leather couch in the lobby and took turns trying to convince each other to get up again. At this point, we were both very tired from all the adventuring and we considered just heading home early. I still wanted to at least see the bay, though, so we looked up the bus schedule and hopped a bus.

The bay was beautiful. We didn't have the energy to really walk all around it, so we just kept to the more touristy "Mermaid's Quay" which hosts a great deal of fancy restaurants and up-scale shops on the water. In the picture, you can see Russell standing next to a tower of steel with water cascading down it. It made a very impressive centerpiece at the entrance of the waterfront. We ducked into a fancy, fancy pub and each had a pint of the local Brain's beer. Russell had the bitter and I had the dark. Both were among the better beers we've had in England. The dark, especially, gets very high marks. It had a nice round stout taste but was more the consistency of a heavier ale.

We ended our day at a Turkish restaurant on the water. We both had outstanding meals, and got to try honest-to-goodness Turkish delights for dessert. Let me assure you, they are FAR tastier than the suspicious little candies Cadbury makes of the same name.

And the winner is...

Matt! He called it right on - we've just returned from Cardiff, land of rarebit and indecipherable signs. He wins our prize, which is TBA. But I promise it will be good.

Re: Your V1agra S0ft T4bs 0rder #0546176

As seen in Cambridge last weekend. I forgot to post it earlier.

Saturday in Oxford...

Both Nicole and Matt were right so far. We had to make one more trip to Oxford and stop for a bite to eat at the Eagle and Child. Russell had his first encounter with Fish and Chips and I had Sausage and Mash. Pub Grub!

We managed to fit in everything we had been hoping to. We started the day early at the Oxford Press Bookshop. Russell wasn't as impressed with it as he was with the Cambridge Press Bookshop, but Oxford was much better for teaching materials. I took Russell to see the Bodleian Library, where we found out that all of the white vans in the streets were part of filming for a movie (we think it's the next Harry Potter... but we aren't sure). We also FINALLY found the Natural History Museum. That's where we met Charlie (not stuffed). It was pouring when we finished at the museum, so we camped out just inside the door until the shower passed.


We ended our sight-seeing at Magdalene College. This is another of the oldest colleges in Oxford. When we first went in, everything seemed to be closed. Even the tea shop was closed (even though there was a sign set up saying it was open). We almost left after a quick tour around the first quadrangle, but luckily we read through our tour pamphlet more closely and discovered the one open door that took us to the rest of the university. There was plenty to see after all. There were several more quadrangles, an expansive trail behind the buildings and a field BRIMMING with hungry deer.

We had another lovely Malaysian meal at the restaurant where we went on our last trip to Oxford, and we rounded out the evening with a choral performance in the Sheldonian Theatre. The Oxford Bach Choir was performing (composed mostly of city members and students). It was fun to watch.

Where will we be off to tomorrow?

Guess The Weekend Adventure

Hello Everyone!

Russell suggested I post our "Guess the Weekend Adventure" Competition as its own post, since many of you may not have made it to the end of the Cambridge post, where the competition was originally put forth.

So here is is:

Guess the two cities Russell and I will visit this (our last) weekend in England. The hint? One city we have been to before, and the other is new to us.

A super awesome prize will be mailed to the first person to guess both cities correctly. There may be hints posted throughout the week (in the comments). Feel free to guess up to once a day.

Cambridge

I think Russell and I must have been inspired by the wonderful adventure we had Saturday, because we decided to venture out into greater England once again Sunday. I had mentioned that I wished I had had a chance to go to the Cambridge Press Bookshop, but I assumed it would be closed Sunday, like the Oxford Press Bookshop. Russell made me look online, though, and I'm so glad he did. The Cambridge Press Bookshop, as I'm sure you've deduced, is open Sunday afternoons, so we grabbed an early train and made our way there. It was a bit farther than we anticipated (about 2.5 hours because it was Sunday and the direct trains weren't running) but well worth the trip.

For once, we remembered to take our tourist book with us and see what there was of note in Cambridge (other than the bookstore and university, of course). We learned that we could attend the Evensong at 3:30 in King's College Chapel, where to find all the good food, and the details of punting.

Of course, we started at the bookstore, and I must confess we will be returning to Oregon heavier laden then we came. I spent all of the time we had in the English Teaching section and Russell wandered upstairs and returned with a book on Abstract Algebra, which he has been buried in ever since. This means that I, too, am learning about such things as "sets".

We left with enough time to make it to the Evensong. By going, we were not only able to see the inside of King's College Chapel, but enjoy the renowned boy's choir as well. The choral music was beautiful. The chapel was divided in half by the organ cabinet, which allowed the chapel to supply separate seating for the devout and the curious. We were tempted to sit on the devout side (closer to the choir) but in the end we chickened out and sat on the far side of the cabinet. In some ways this was good, because everyone around us was equally glued to their "Evensong Guidebook" but it did dampen the music a bit. Even so, it was quite enjoyable, and the chapel was gorgeous. (Alas, I couldn't bring myself to take pictures while people were filing in for the service.)

On leaving the chapel we made our way to Fitzbillies, another tourist book recommendation. Fitzbillies is apparently known for its baked goods, and specifically its Chelsea buns and chocolate cakes. (A Chelsea bun, as it turns out, is a cinnamon roll packed tight with raisins and such.) We had hoped to have tea with our baked goods in the adjoining restaurant, but we were informed on entering that business was so slow the staff had decided to go home and they would soon be closing. Instead, we took our cakes and walked towards the Backs.

The Backs is essentially strip of woodlands and gardens with a path that runs along the river Cam. There are bridges over the river into various colleges of the University. On first pass, we overshot the Backs and had to eat our cakes on a park bench we found further up the road. As we returned, however, we did manage to find the path and made our way along the river. The Backs really makes for a beautiful stroll. Everything was lush and green and there were gorgeous views of the university on the far bank. There were also views of silly tourists punting (or at least trying their best) along the river. A punt is a long flat boat and punting has to do with guiding and propelling this boat along the river with a pole. You can hire a local student to do the punting for you, or you can opt to do it yourself.

After a brief stop in to a pub and a nice long sunny lounge in a local park, we ended our day with dinner at a Chinese restaurant. It was some of the best Chinese food Russell and I have ever had. We ordered tea to go with dinner, but it took us a while to figure out how to get the tea to stop coming. At first we thought that if we left tea in our cups, the waiter would stop refilling our teapot. This was not the case, however. If the pot even approached empty (no matter the state of the cups, it was refreshed. If our cups dropped past half full, they were refilled for us. We finally had to leave the cups and teapot full or risk a very wakeful night.

Only one weekend left before we come home, and that means two more days of full adventure. A prize to anyone who guesses the two cities we plan to visit next.

(I'll give you a hint: Saturday we'll be going to a city we've already visited, and Sunday, we're off to a city we've never been to before.)

A Few Cute Things from Salisbury

In my post on Salisbury I forgot to post a few things. And yes, they're both cute.
The first are these fluffy cygnets (ours in Reading have grown past the "cute, fluffy" stage and into the "gangly adolescent" stage):

The second took place while we were in the cathedral. We were wandering past the votive candles and this little girl (she was just old enough to be running in an awkward fashion) streaked up to the votive candles, climbed up on the kneeling board and blew with all her might (as though blowing out birthday candles.) Russell and I were both horrified at first, but the innocence of it quickly made it the funniest things we had seen all day.

Salisbury

Russell and I didn't know much about Salisbury, but since the bus was going there, we were quite keen to go there, too.

Ann, the professor who invited us along, referred to Salisbury as a "Cathedral Town." Somehow, that seemed apt to me. The central focus of the city, as I'm sure you've guessed, is the cathedral. The spire is visible from quite a ways off and is emblematic of the city. As cathedrals go (and I've seen quite a few over the years) this one was one of the better ones. It had a more open feeling, was less dank and was less cluttered with dead people.

On our way out, we stopped by the Chapter House (a side room off of the interior garden). In it, we were quite surprised to discover one of the last four remaining copies of the Magna Carta (and apparently the best preserved). The Magna Carta, if you don't know or are racking your brain to remember, is the document written up by King John and the Barons of England outlining the laws of the land. To give a tiny bit more background, King John had been focusing all of his attention (and the country's money) on the crusades and had been neglecting the country. The Barons were furious and on the verge of civil war. The Magna Carta included a list of agreed-upon rules (related to fair trials, what to do if you died while in debt, that the king couldn't take your land without permission, etc.) King John promptly refused to honor the document, and I believe England did erupt into violence. What's interesting about the Magna Carta, though, is that it was an important model of a number of other governing documents around the world, including the U.S. Constitution (though we left out the bit about women not being alowed to bring charges in court unless related to the death of her husband).

After the Cathedral, Russell and I went to lunch. Ann had told us about a famous pub in town, The Haunch of Venison. We decided to give it a try. The restaurant and pub seem to be separate from each other (the pub is on the bottom floor, the restaurant goes by the name "One" and is on the second floor). It was a cool old building, though. Everything was tilty and lopsided with low door frames. The stairs were treacherous, too, but not as treacherous as the floor on the second floor. The picture I took illustrates just how slanted the room was. Some of it is due to perspective (I was seated) but mostly its just the room slouching away from the center of the building. I tripped and nearly fell on my way to our table because I wasn't expecting the floor to drop so quickly, and Russell did likewise on the way out. The food was very good, though, and the atmosphere excellent.

Once characteristic we have been finding about Cathedral towns is that they are often old and full of shopping. Salisbury is no different. The shops tended to be more recognizable standards rather than boutiques, but the sheer number was impressive (and there were a few boutiques thrown in for color). There was also a large open air market.

Stonehenge

Russell and I took off this morning with a bus load of students from all corners of the world. Our first stop was Stonehenge.

I wasn't sure what to expect. I had heard rumors that it is just a tourist trap now and not worth seeing. Others said it was well worth the trip... if it was a nice sunny day. Oh, and the forecast called for rain, rain and more rain.

As it turned out, though, the forecasts were wrong. We had a lovely sunny day (if a big humid) and I'm very glad we went. I will say that if you are expecting to hike off into the hillside and stumble upon a mystical pile of stones with an eerie mist hanging low around their base, you'll be disappointed. There are two highways that go right by Stonehenge and a huge parking lot across the highway from it. There were also (as you can imagine) many many tourists there to see this famous attraction. In order to protect the stones (and perhaps the people), the actual henge is roped off. You can walk all around it, but only at a distance. You can't get close (note the photo, that's as close as you get). This certainly detracts from the experience, but there is still plenty to learn and see.

Currently, little is known about who built Stonehenge or why they built it. What was fascinating, though, were all of the old legends about it that are completely baseless. I assume you have already discarded any rumors you may have heard of Merlyn or the Devil moving the rocks by magic as merely hearsay. But ever heard that druids were connected to Stonehenge? Thought it was somehow connected to Ireland? Could swear there were sacrifices performed there? None of these are true. In fact, the sacrifice rumor got started because the outer rocks of Stonehenge have a high iron content in them and when they are on their sides they turn a reddish color. Must be blood!

The things that are known about Stonehenge is that it was the third henge build on this location. The first was dug into the ground and had wooden posts (and you can still see a groove in the grass where it used to be - it almost seems like a mote around Stonehenge. The second henge was composed of smaller blue stones from Wales - a number of which are still standing and are essentially integrated into the third Stonehenge. This last henge refers to the largest stones around the outside that are most visible. The stones for these came from somewhere nearer by. It has also been noted that in June, the sun shines through the center "arch" of the remaining enclosure of stones. In July, the sun shines though the next arch and so on until the Winter Solstice, when it would come back around. So there does seem to be some sort of calendar connection.

Stonehenge isn't the only interesting thing to see in the area. All through the hills where Stonehenge is located there are barrows - ancient burial mounds. There is one right next to the Heel Stone at Stone Henge and there is a cluster of them about half a mile past the parking lot. You can see three of these mounds in the photograph. Apparently there is an abnormal density of barrows around Stonehenge. I think there may have been some that were communal burial sites, but most were for an individual person. The barrows you see in the photo are quite large, probably around twice the height of a person. As we drove away, Russel land I were able to spot several other barrows scattered around the countryside.

Upcoming Adventure

The building next to the Language Resource Centre at Reading University is finally being torn down. That was a interesting to watch. When I arrived yesterday there was a huddle of instructors standing mouth agape at the fence watching this dinosaur-like piece of machinery biting its way through the steel girders holding the roof up. There was a great flurry of picture-taking as well. All through my tutoring session I could feel the ground vibrating from the demolition. They still have about half of the building to go. I wonder if there will be anything left when I get there this afternoon...

As for the upcoming adventure, Russell and I were invited to go along with the students on a field trip to Stonehenge and then Salsbury. These were two places I had wanted to see but didn't think I would have time for. It should be a lot of fun. I've heard rumors of nice weather too...

Pictures!

I wasn't too sure about loading pictures to the blog from Internet Cafes, so all of our posts were naked (as I'm sure you noticed). Needless to say, however, we were taking pictures. For today's post I'm just going to put up some highlights with titles:

Martes de Campo

With My Host Family.



My Host Mother Pouring Sidra



Russell About to Enjoy a Tortilla Sandwich



Oviedo

Russell and... Woody Allen? Huh?



A Box of Very Happy Hippos That We Enjoyed on the Bus to San Sebastian



San Sebastian

A View of Concha Beach and the City



A Door in Down Town San Sebastian (Apparently the city has quite the Art Nouveau Past)



An Impressive Rock Formation Around the Corner from Ondarreta Beach

Back Home... Or... Well, Sort Of

Russell and I got back to Reading late last night. Our flight was delayed out of Spain and we delayed ourselves to get dinner once we arrived in London. We rolled into Reading around 11:00 at night.

Russell was noticing how we are about to go through a progression of "going home" events. First, we were all tired out from running around in San Sebastian, so returning to Oviedo felt a bit like we were coming home. Then we left Spain and returned to Reading, which felt even more like coming home. Our next homecoming is in two weeks, when we leave the UK for Oregon. Since we'll be staying with my dad until we find a place to live, though, we'll have one more move after that (hopefully the last for a while).

For the time being, though, it is nice to get back to our adopted routine. Russell grumbled off to work this morning and I unpacked, got started on a mountain of laundry, restocked our kitchen and made my regular trip to the library. This afternoon I'm going to go try and pick up where I left off at the University. Unfortunately, I got a message saying that the schedule for the university is all shifted around this week, so I don't quite know what to expect when I get there. (Something about a grand opening? Huh??)

Sleepy in Oviedo

Russell and I got up much too early this morning and made our way to the bus stop. Since we were running to catch the bus to San Sebastian, we wanted to make sure we had plenty of time to make it for the bus back. We got up two hours before the bus, were out the door 30 minutes later and had walked the mile and a half to the bus station with more than an hour to spare. Better than running in a panic, though.

The bus back was uneventful. We briefly considered going out to Gijon (a neighboring city) for a change of pace the rest of the day, but in the end we decided a nice long lunch and being lazy sounded better. For lunch, we had fabada. Fabada is a bean dish with chorizo, morcilla (blood sausage)and ham. Its really tasty, but not one of your lighter cuisines. After only five hours of sleep the night before and a belly full of fabada, we both crashed. After a quick nap, we forced ourselves to leave our hotel and enjoy Oviedo while we still can.

Needless to say, I´m not going to be writing much longer.

We are meeting up with my host sister this evening, catching a quick lunch with my host mom tomorrow, and we´ll be back at home tomorrow night.

Last Night in San Sebastian

This is my last post from San Sebastian. Russell and I are killing the "middle of the day lull" by playing on the Internet. Many of the shops and sights shut down between 2:00 and 5:00. Of course, they are then open late into the night, so it all works out.

Today we went to the San Sebastian Aquarium. It was fairly small, but really well put together. They had a good number of interesting fish, the displays were well set up, and there was an underwater tube you could walk through. Russell and I really enjoyed it. Since it was a particularly wet Saturday, the aquarium was full of children. This had the drawback of being incredibly noisy, and the advantage of being quite entertaining in terms of eves-dropping. It was interesting how some kids could be completely fascinated by the fish, and others could be utterly terrified.

After lunch, we also got Russell a haircut. We had spotted a nice barber shop the day before, but it was closed Saturday. Instead we found another place nearby. I think more hair came off than stayed on. He was badly in need of a trim.

Tonight we're going to go Tapa hunting again and probably end things early. We have to leave for the bus tomorrow at 6:00am. Bleh.

Greetings from Tapas Land

Russell and I made it to San Sebastian. It took us a while to find the hostel we were staying at. I had looked it up on a map, so I had a vague notion of where it was, but when I went to mark it on our more detailed, tourist map, it wasn´t included. The little tourist map we had only showed the beaches and old part of town. Pretty much nothing else. Not even the bus station in down town. I asked a very nice pharmacist for directions and she showed me a faster way to get where we were going. That wasn´t on the map either, but it worked great.

Today we are vaguely following the tourist guide of sights to see, but we got bored of it after a while and now we´re just wandering aimlessly. One thing we knew about San Sebastian before we came was that it was known for its tapas. Tapas, in case you haven´t heard of them, are like little appetizers. Traditionally, you get a small but free appetizer with your glass of wine or beer at the bar. It might be a little cup of peanuts, a slice of cured ham, a bit of cheese, or something similar. The story goes, that at some point a fellow asked the bar tender for a cover to keep the flies out of his wine, and the bar tender gave him a slice of cured ham. The tradition apparently stuck. In some cases, though, the tapas are more spectacular and you have to pay for them. That´s how it works here.

We have been walking around the old part of town and have seen just how fancy a tapa can get. Russell had one composed of a slice of baguette, two slices of hard boiled egg covering it, a roll of smoked salmon with crab salad stuffed inside and a sardine over the top. I had one that that also started with the bread, had crab salad piled up high, and was decorated with some sort of green herb and a shrimp on top. We´ve seen even fancier tapas since then. Tonight we plan to go tapas sampling. They seem to range from one to two euros.

For lunch we played the lost Americans and went to eat too early (1:00). The restaurant had just opened and was absolutely empty. The next couple didn´t arrive for another half hour, and the third couple came just as we were leaving at 2:00. We knew better, but we were hungry. Coffee just doesn´t hold us until 2:00. We also ordered the cheap wine. We´re generally used to cheap wine. It doesn´t phase us. In fact, we tend to relish it. But this was the cheap wine king. The waiter tried to warn us, but since it was 4 euros for the small bottle of wine, we weren´t too worried. It tasted vaguely of watered down grape juice.