EIS – Countryside

Countryside

We traveled around Great Britain and the Republic of Ireland mostly on country roads.  That allowed us to see much of the country and the country side. 

You could see the patch work on the hills.  We saw many fields with wheat, corn, and many hay fields. 

Almost all of our “country side” pictures were taken from inside the motor coach doing between 45-60 miles an hour.  So, you’ll see some of the pictures are a little blurry on the bottom or have an overall blur from the bus movement. 

Further, the weather was simply great during the whole trip.  Our tour guide continued to mention that for a normal tour, it should be raining or very misty.  Therefore, you will see reflections from the windows in many of the pictures.  We did try to eliminate the blurriness and reflections as best we could.

Here you can see the reflection in the window as we look up a hill filled with heather just coming in bloom. 

I'm going to place pictures in the blog without much comment, unless there is a specific site where something happened. 

Here is Carmen at one of the overlooks we stopped to view the country side.  This was a river overlook.

This morning the water at this river crossing was absolutely calm.  The reflection in the water, fantastic.  You can see part of the bridge in the bottom right had corner.  This picture would have been perfect if not for the window reflection on the left side, oh well.

 Notice the bridge in the bottom left corner.

  

 

This was a stronghold in Scotland that was taken over by the British.  Called Corgaff Castle, has history dating back to the early 1550's.  In 1748, the castle was converted to barracks.

 

 Early morning fog and mirror lake, Scotland.

 

 You can clearly see the heather and the sections cleared where it was harvested.  There were similar locations where the ground was cut to harvest the peat in the bogs.

 One of the few mornings that was foggy.

 

EIS – Architecture

Architecture

First, let me say that, some of the buildings are old, I'm not talking about 100 years, no, some of these buildings are over 300 years old.  The building owners or trustees continue to preserve these buildings. 

We saw a variety of architecture, including the Black-and-White timber-framed buildings of the Tutor style , common in pre-Norman and certainly Celtic eras, dating back to the 16th century (building continued into the early 1900’s). 

These have upright and vertical timbers often supported by diagonal timbers.  The wattle walls built with mortar and whitewashed often have overhanging first floors, dormer windows, thatched roofs and high chimneys. 

As you can see from some of the photos, the first floor had a limited amount of space, so the upper floors would overhang the ground floor, enlarging the square footage of the upper floors. 

Also, if you look carefully at these pictures, you'll notice that some of the buildings have sunken beams and some are not very square.

We saw a number of buildings with thatch roofs.  We even got a close up of the thatch.  Some of these buildings are in the black-and-white tutor style.  Notice the dormer in the roof for the window.

The Tutor style of architecture had a style which included dormers and tall chimneys.  Some of the buildings also incorporated the black-and-white style.  These buildings are inside the Edinburgh Castle.

Elizabethan, named after the then Queen Elizabeth, architecture and style mostly applied to larger manors built by rich landlords and the aristocrats.  The Elizabethan style period ranges from the mid 1500’s and continued into the 1600’s. 

During this period, the court nobility erected many large manor houses.  The buildings had a symmetrical layouts, in other words, if you looked of one side of the building, it frequently mirrored the other side.  Usually designed and referred to as an “E” plan because of the floor layout.  Also, many “smaller” buildings continued with the Tutor style using beams and whitewashed plaster.

The Georgian style Architecture built between 1714 and 1840 during the reign of King George I, II, III, and IV.  One of the features of the Georgian style is the Greek and Roman influence.  Further, because of the great urban growth and lack of space, there was a need to pack many houses into small spaces.  These buildings built in terraces and often in straight lines along a street, keeping the individual house small, yet four floors tall.  Some of the terraces designs include crescent and oval buildings and often overlooking a park.  (Look as the width of the road, imagine having two cars try to pass each other here.)

Georgian buildings also have unique doors with Greek styled or fan windows over the door.  Many have bright colors making them unique to others next door. 

This building was the birth place of Alexander Graham Bell in 1847.  No, that's not him in the window.

There are many buildings in the US with the Georgian style of architecture.  Buildings we saw during this trip were in very good shape.  A number of them were having the exterior cleaned of the coal soot which darkened the stone.

The Shambles in York, England (rebuilt about 1400) is a narrow medieval street once lined with butcher shops.  The windows have large sills where the butchers would display the cut meats while larger pieces hung on hooks for viewing.  The buildings now contain shops, boutiques and food establishments.

Now for some unusual architecture.  These two building structures are at Oxford University.  The "bridge" is similar to that of the Bridge of Sighs in Venice, Italy.  It is reportedly used in the Harry Potter movies along with other buildings in Oxford.

This building is one of the oldest at Oxford.  It contains the library with many old books.  This building might be the build unsed for the library also in the Harry Potter movies.

EIS – To London, last day in England (Day 24)

EIS – To London, last day in England (Day 24)

(9/10/2010)  Our last full day in England and this morning we have a late start.  Breakfast starts at 7:00am, but we do not leave the hotel (a Ramada no less) until 9:00am.  Carmen and I ate breakfast at 7:00am and when we finished went out for a walk along the boardwalk.  Nearly across the street is a gazebo which extends out from the upper walkway.

We walked down along the beach and we found to our surprise that the beach is not sand, but small stones.  Coming from a place where our beaches are mostly fine sand, I cannot see lying in the sun on the beach here.  Everyone must use beach chairs to sit on the beach.  There are a couple of piers, this one was about a mile away and we did not get to walk on it.  This one has an amusement park at the end, similar to the one at several piers in the US.

Near the gazebo, the remains of another pier remain in the water.  As told by the tour guide, a storm destroyed the pier.  We in the US would have had to remove the skeleton of the old pier for safety reasons.  Here in England, they keep their ancient ruins, apparently, whatever they are.

We left the hotel on time and drove to the Royal Pavilion in Brighton, not far from the hotel.  The Royal Pavilion, built for a seaside resort for George, the Prince of Wales in 1787.  As you can see, the exterior is built in the Indo-Saracen style prevalent in India, as seen at the Taj Mahal. 

The interior of the Royal Pavilion, which we did not get in to see because it wasn’t open yet, has Chinese influences.

The front, or back depending on where you stand, has columns covering most of the façade.  The Indian influence, clearly seen in the lattice work and the tops of the windows was extended and redesigned in 1801-1808.

The tops of the chimneys match the tops of spires.  You can see the chimneys, just to the right of center, six of them and five just above those, all have the same tops as each of the regular column spires.

We left the Pavilion and Brighton and headed to London.  On the way, we made a late morning break at Tunbridge Wells.  Here we find a district, housing clothing and other shops, restaurants and cafes, called the Pantiles.  Several restaurants, bakery and coffee shops provide shoppers with snacks and lunches.  Carmen and I bought a couple of pastries; we’ve been doing this for most of the trip. 

Some of the building architecture in the Pantiles is in the black-and-white design that we have seen throughout England.  This one, the Duke of York, is a pub and it has some new add-ons, the security camera and alarm.  It is in front of the “Corn Exchange” an indoor shopping area.

Before too long we are back in London and our tour ends.  We verify our airline information for the next morning and also our ride pick up, and then we headed out for dinner and a walk around before returning to repack. 

We have a portable weight scale (if you travel having one of these becomes real handy) and weighed our bags and also bags for some of the people on our tour.  They thought they were way over weight, but they were fine.  Tomorrow morning, 6:15am, our ride to Gatwick airport picks us up for our flight back to the US.

Carmen and I will post more pictures of our trip in a couple of more postings.  We’ll have more pictures of some of the Cathedrals, Stonehenge, architecture, castles and the countryside.

Until later, Bob and Carmen – EIS.

EIS – To Brighton (Day 23)

EIS – To Brighton (Day 23)

(9/9/2010)  We drive today to Brighton on the English Channel.  Over the last couple of days, a number of people on the tour asked about our stop at Stonehenge.  The response was that we have a drive by view.  A number of people, including Carmen and me, have requested a stop for half an hour instead of stopping longer at another stop.  When we leave Plymouth this morning, it is a little foggy making one of only a few mornings we’ve had rain or fog.

So, with so many asking to stop, we will have a half hour stop to view Stonehenge.  When we get to Stonehenge there are many crows or black birds sitting on and flying around the stones.

We took pictures from the road over a chain link fence.  Carmen is shorter and didn't quite clear the top of the fence.  I did not think I had enough time to go around the site and take pictures in the time allotted, so I did not pay to get closer.  Understand you cannot get close to the stones, only walk around a walk way. 

In either case, I was stupid not to pay the money to go around, live and learn.  Anyone going to Stonehenge should pay the money and go around; it’s a bit of money just to see some rocks, but the history!  Beside, you’ll get pictures from all the angles.  Bring a wide angle lens. 

Our pictures are only from the northeast side, outside of the fence.  If you are tall enough, you can stand on a small hump between the dirt walkway and the road.

The “heel stone” is close to the fence and during the solstice casts a shadow into the center of the stone ring.  You can see the stone clearly next to the road from the satellite picture here: Stonehenge_view .  (You might have to click on satellite.  Or use whatever satellite viewer you wish and search for Stonehenge.) 

Also you can see the parking lot just north of the site.  The white strip along the road is where we walked, between the fence and the road.  The fence is about five and a half feet high, just high enough for me to see over, but not Carmen.  Carmen's pictures are throught the fence.  (I’ll have more pictures of Stonehenge after the last day posted for the trip.)  Here you can see the walkway inside the fence where you would walk if you paid the price of admission.  It is only about 25 feet away from the fence.

Our time at Stonehenge was over quickly and we hopped into the coach and after a short drive stopped in Salisbury for lunch.  Here is the Salisbury Cathedral a gothic building. 

We went inside and looked around.  There are people buried here from the 1050’s.  Some of the stone and artwork is extraordinary. 

Back outside we get a closer look at the front door and the statues and ornamentation. 

Leaving Salisbury we skirt by Portsmouth and head to Arundel.  Arundel as in many of the cities and towns we have visited or passed by has a castle.  The Arundel Castle sits atop a small hill and was open to the public.  However, we did not have time to walk through. 

Across the street from the castle entrance, the remains of an old Abby sits next to the river.

We did not stay in Salisbury for very long, mostly for a comfort stop and we soon back on the road.  Not much time later, we are in Brighton.  We stayed in a hotel across the street from the beach and boardwalk.  This is a typical seashore resort town with a “boardwalk”, actually made of cement and brick. (This is the lower walkway taken from the upper walk.)

There is an upper walk and a lower walk.  The lower walk has shops built in below the upper walkway.  While we were walking around most everything was closed up.  I can immagine how many people would be here on a weekend.

Until later, Bob and Carmen – EIS.