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I had picked up a Janesville Public Art Trail brochure shortly after we arrived for this stay, and since it was a nice day and no other plans, Bob and I drove downtown to see some of the many public art pieces in the downtown area. We were happily surprised that some of them helped us learn more about the history of the town as well.

Bob, my mom, and I visited a local farm market on Saturday, as I read that their sweet corn season had begun. Woo Hoo! We do love sweet corn, along with watermelon, it seems to be the epitome of a Midwestern summer. While Bob and I were interested in the sweet corn and tomatoes, they also sell their own watermelon, cucumbers, green beans, zucchini, peaches, and blueberries, and get other produce delivered. Happily, they make some lovely baked goods with their fruit as well.

Bob and I are in the state of Wisconsin, and specifically the city of Janesville, for the month of July. We are trying to avoid the governmental news as it continues to depress us, and we are on the other end of the political spectrum from most of my family, who we are now living near.

One of the downsides of our peripatetic lifestyle is that it is sometimes hard for our relatives to find us, so Bob and I were just recently reunited with a Christmas gift from Bob’s brother when we drove to Des Moines for the day for doctors appointments.

In Wisconsin, we’ve also been able to visit with extended family, including attending my great cousin’s first birthday on the 4th of July.

We visited a farmer’s market today with my mom and next week we’ll be back in Des Moines for a couple of days for a medical procedure for Bob.

More slow news to come on a sporadic basis until we start housesitting again in August.

From Primrose Hill, Bob and I walked about 15 minutes to Camden Market, a vibrant center of over 1,000 stalls, shops, bars, and cafes.

We left the market for a 25 minute walk along the Regent’s Canal to check out coal Drops Yard that we had heard about from Susan and Peter.

Before reaching Coal Drops Yard, we came upon the Gasholders, cast-iron gasholder guide frames used to contain a public garden space as well as residential apartments and penthouses.

Coal Drops Yard is next to the Gasholders. It is a converted area that had been used for the dropping of coal for distribution by horse or cart. It is now a space for multiple shops, businesses, and restaurants, as well as public gathering spaces.

Today, Bob and I had a great 4 hour, 8 mile walk on a lovely summer day here in London. We walked through Kensington, where we’re staying, into Paddington, and then onto Primrose Hill, Camden Market, and Coal Drops Yard. This is the first of two blogs about our outing.

We walked through one edge of Kensington Gardens. It was a lovely part of our walk today but wasn’t a destination, as we have visited the palace and much of the gardens on prior visits.

Our original destination was Primrose Hill for what we had read was the best view of London; however, since our walk was taking us through Paddington, I requested that we look up the new Paddington Pocket Park that I had read about.

After returning to the room after our V&A Museum visit yesterday, we relaxed in the room for a bit before prepping for our theater outing. We walked to the Gloucester Square station to catch the District line to the Embankment station. We left a bit early, so we had some time before the doors opened (3:15 for the 4:00 show), so we walked around the area a bit.

The Victoria Embankment Gardens made for a nice, mostly shaded walk.

The musical “Six” is about the six wives of Henry VIII — Catherine of Aragon, Anne Boleyn, Jane Seymour, Catherine Howard, and Catherine Parr, two of whom he divorced, two of whom he had beheaded, one who died of natural causes while they were married, and one who outlived him and remarried.

The majority of the quick, upbeat 80 minute performance has each of the wives telling the story of their marriage to see which one had the worst situation. They then decide to reclaim their legacy, as each obviously was their own person with a life before their marriage and some had a life after as well.

It’s a fun show with a bit of history thrown in. It also has connections with Cambridge and Scotland, as it was written in 2017 by two Cambridge University students and had its world debut at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. The cast and the onstage band are all female.

On the way to the show we had passed the Savoy Hotel, which Bob remembered had The American Bar, which was on the list of the best bars in London. We thought we’d try again for a Vesper cocktail even though we were both still collarless.

We headed there after the show, and the staff could not have been friendlier. So, we ended up having our very posh drink in a very posh place with some fun history. It is one of the longest surviving American bars which came to prominence in London in the ‘20s and ‘30s.

Harry Craddock, an English bartender, was a pivotal figure in the bar during the Prohibition period in America. He is best known for compiling the “Savoy Cocktail Book,” and for popularizing American-style cocktails in London. In 1934, he also co-founded the United Kingdom’s Bartender’s Guild. A fun history-filled afternoon!

Our dalliance with poshness is coming to a close. We’ll be back to our commonhood tomorrow or at least by the time we leave London.

After our lovely buffet breakfast on Thursday, Bob and I walked about 10 minutes up Cromwell Road to the Victoria and Albert Museum to see what we could see before we needed to get ready to go to the musical “Six,” for which we had tickets for the 4:00 pm show.

Both the Natural History Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum are free to enter, but the Natural History Museum encourages you to book a timed ticket, and they didn’t have any available for this morning.

The V&A, per their website, is a family of museums dedicated to sharing a 5,000 year old story of creativity through collections, exhibitions, events, etc. It began as the Museum of Manufacturers in 1852. Bob and I had enjoyed our last visit to the V&A in Kensington and decided to go back. We arrived about 10:15 this morning and took part in the free 10:30 Highlights of the V&A tour.

One of our fun finds after the tour was their collection on theater and costumes.

And I really enjoyed the jewelry collection.

If we lived here, Bob and I would love to be members of this museum to really take advantage of all of their exhibitions and educational academies. More of our day out on the next blog.

Before we fly back to the states, Bob and I have a couple of days in London. This is the first blog of our London stay.

On Wednesday afternoon, Bob and I returned to the Xenia Hotel in the Kensington Borough of London, where we had stayed a couple of years ago. since it is part of the Marriott Autograph collection of hotels, we were able to get an early check in. Bob had upgraded our room so that there would be space for us and our 2 big bags. So posh.

I did our blog about our visit in Cambridge and then we walked for a little over an hour to the Dukes Hotel near Green Park.

We had headed to the Dukes Bar because Bob had researched the best bars in London to treat me to a Vesper cocktail, which is my favorite. We had read that the hotel was currently closed for renovations but that the bar was still open. What we had not read was that they had a dress code, and we were curtly told, luckily outside of the bar, that we could not enter due to no collars on our shirts. So common!

This morning we went down for the lovely buffet breakfast and while we were eating we heard the hostess tell people who weren’t staying at the hotel that the buffet cost $40 US. It was free for us as guests, so we were back to feeling rather posh.

After our quick stopover in Windsor/Eton, Bob and I made our way to Cambridge to continue the early Beth Birthday Tour with a visit with our friends Susan and Peter. They met us at the train station in Cambridge and walked with us the few short blocks to their home. It is always good to visit with them, and the weather ended up being very agreeable.

We arrived about 3ish, and we also got reacquainted with one of our favorite cats, the regal Hugo. Here he is enjoying a tuna lolly after dinner.

Bob made a salmon salad for our dinner, Peter made an Eton Mess for dessert, and we ate out on their lovely deck.

It was a great start to the visit. The next day was full of new visits for Bob and me — Sutton Hoo, Aldeburgh, and Snape Maltings. All sites in Suffolk County, which along with Cambridgeshire and Norfolk are in the East Anglia region of England.

Sutton Hoo — Sutton What? Bob and I were ignorant of this huge archeological discovery but were quite happy to get educated at this beautiful National Trust site, which provides a good overview of how Edith Pretty got the whole ball rolling in 1939 by asking an archeologist friend about some large earthen mounds she had seen on her property. Long story short, a lot of artifacts were discovered, including an Anglo-Saxon burial ship for King Rædwald. More of this interesting story can be found in the movie “The Dig” with Ralph Fiennes and Cary Mulligan, currently on Netflix.

After our visit to Sutton Hoo, we drove to the town of Aldeburgh on the coast of the North Sea for a walkabout along the coast and high street. Beautiful!

Finally, we headed back towards Cambridge but made a stop off at Snape Maltings. Snape Maltings sits on the banks of the River Alde with converted Victorian buildings, formerly used in the malting of barley for beer, that are now home to shops, galleries, a cafe, a restaurant, and a concert hall, which was opened by Queen Elizabeth in 1967.

This afternoon, Bob and I walked the small high street of Eton before exploring some of Eton College. We had read that on Sunday afternoons, you could get into a few of the college museum’s for free, so we took advantage of that as well.

A bit of background on Eton College. It is a boarding-only school for boys between 13 and 18. It was founded on October 11, 1440, by Henry VI (at the age of 18!) as a place of worship and learning. Currently, it provides education, sports, and extracurricular activities. It provides each student with a tutor to supervise studies but also to provide support outside of the educational curriculum as well.

Access to many of the campus buildings is restricted to the Eton College community (students, staff, etc.).

Eton alumni are known as Old Etonians, and they are an impressive bunch as noted by the following pics, which are just a sample of the accomplishments that were noted for the alumni.