Peckish Travels

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.

I am ignoring major recent events and not discussing the Trump bombing of Iran. Sick at heart that too many of our (Bob and my) fellow citizens have inflicted a mad man on the world. Instead I’ll focus on our quick visit today to Windsor and Eton, although Eton will be covered in a separate blog.

Windsor, as many know, is the home of Windsor Castle, one of the official residences of the British monarch and the oldest and largest occupied castle in the world. We opted not to visit (I visited many moons ago as a college student.), as it is $47 US per person and no photos allowed inside, but you can’t help but see some of the castle as you wander around the town of Windsor.

Bob and I left the Isle of Guernsey yesterday and headed for Eton/Windsor for a short stay. (Just a note, that these towns are side by side, divided by the River Thames.).

Our homeowner was kind enough to drive us to the ferry terminal at 8:30 am for our 10:00 am ferry departing for Poole, England. It would be a calm, three hour sailing. We bought a light breakfast on board and spent most of our time read, finishing digital paperwork for our Airbnb in Eton, and taking photos.

We deboarded in Poole, and while there were signs for customs, we didn’t have to stop and show our passports or fill out any forms. We had checked our big bags for the sailing, and they were ready for us to pickup by the time we got to that area.

We had about an hour to catch our train but still decided to grab a cab as we weren’t sure how walkable the route to the train station would be. For future reference, it is walkable and about 20 minutes, although going by cab was quicker and saved some wear and tear on the wheels of our luggage.

Our train was to depart at 2:07 for Eton/Windsor via a train change at Clapham Junction. We then were to have a 45 minute layover for our train to Eton/Windsor and arrive into Eton/Windsor at 5:39. It didn’t play out that way, but it still turned out pretty good. On the upside, we got on a slightly earlier train (1:58), as the 2:07 was delayed, and we were able to find space for our bags and seats to sit in!

On the downside, the new train was also delayed, and our 45 minute layover in Clapham Junction became a 5 minute could have easily missed but didn’t connection. There was a discrepancy in the posted departure time for Eton/Windsor and what Bob’s app had. The train we got on had a lot of stops and got us in close to 6:00 pm.

It felt like a very long day. We walked what was to be a short seven minutes to our Airbnb in Eton, but we had a bit of trouble finding it. The directions the Airbnb sent us took us into a car park, but between our AppleMaps and GoogleMaps we managed to figure it out and get into our room.

Bob and I have had some lovely last days in Guernsey, as we’ve been mostly busy with doing last task errands, etc. before we leave.

Wednesday we had a good walk into a new (for us) area of the island, although the destination turned out to be a bit disappointing. However, we ended up finding a large, new grocery for a shop, so it all turned out okay.

Thursday, I walked downtown for a couple of errands. Checking the GPS, it suggested a new walking route, so I saw a few places that we hadn’t captured before. The route showed the overlap of rural and more urban areas on the island.

Finally, Friday afternoon our homeowners arrived safely back to Guernsey, and we had a great chat and meal with them, cooked by Bob. It was awesome! Sadly, it did mean our last few hours with two of the sweetest, funniest dogs we’ve cared for. We will definitely miss Rosie and Daisie.

So maybe the local Visitors Bureau isn’t going to hire me to run their new add campaign, but based on the museum we visited today, it’s not an entirely inaccurate description. And I’ll try not to think about this on Saturday morning when we ferry to Poole, England.

As of today, Bob and I have been going by foot on all our excursions, which has kept us in one part of the island. Today, we ventured over to the West Coast of the island by bus to visit the Fort Grey Shipwreck Museum and the Guernsey Pearl gift shop. This eliminated the need for a 2.5 hour walk over and then back again as well as allowed us to check out the island bus service.

Bob had researched the schedules, and we caught the #62 bus on the road that runs in front of our little subdivision. The bus stop was pretty casual, being only indicated by paint on the road.

The bus ride was about $2 US each way for each of us. It was a good value, as the ride over was only about 25 minutes, and we got to watch oncoming traffic move onto the sidewalks to allow the bus to go by. With the limited road and sidewalk size, there is a lot of sharing and making way for others that takes place here. Definitely less stressful with locals behind the wrong-sided 😂 wheel.

Anyhoo, the point of the trip was the Fort Grey Shipwreck Museum, but first, in through the gift shop. Unless paying with cash, you need to purchase the tickets to the museum in the Guernsey Pearl gift shop, which does sell pearls and other local gifts, like Guernseys (the sweater), potentially making the 5 pound cost for the museum much, much more expensive.

This building contains what has been brought up of a Roman ship which sank in St Peter Port harbor after a fire on board. The ship dates to AD 280! The wreck was discovered by a diver in 1982 and was brought up by a team of divers and archaeologists between 1984 and 1986.

We then headed across the main road to the main portion of The Fort Grey Shipwreck Museum, which is located in Fort Grey, built in the early 1800s as part of a chain of coastal defenses for Guernsey to protect against possible attack from the French. It is named for the Governor of Guernsey during the time of its construction.

The museum provided information and items about general seafaring navigation as well as documenting all of the known shipwrecks in the waters surrounding Guernsey. One very helpful display noted that from the very earliest seafaring days, two of the world’s most important trade routes passed close to the island of Guernsey, from Britain and Northern Europe to the Mediterranean and from the English Channel to America. I guess this increased the chances of shipwrecks for this area.

The lighting of the Hanoi Lighthouse in 1862 would have been a very helpful navigational tool in the area.

Some photos of the scenic bus ride on the way back to St Peter Port.

It’s a beautiful day here in Guernsey, probably the warmest one since our first day here. While the thermometer (weather app) is only saying 60 F, the wind is not making it cooler as it usually is and the sun has been out for most of the day.

Before I talk about today’s outing, a couple of items from the past two days. First, at 3:19 am on Thursday, June 12, our new grandniece, Mila Elise, made her debut, making our grandnephew, Harrison Alan, a big brother. We’re looking forward to seeing the whole family sometime next month when we’re back in the States.

At this housesit, one of our responsibilities has been tending to the garden, which happily has allowed us to have some fresh produce— mostly snap peas and Swiss chard. However, the other day after watering we noticed that there were a lot of strawberries that were ripe. So, we picked a bunch, and then Bob made the tart below based on a recipe I found in a magazine. It was awesome! Can’t wait to have some more tonight, along with some sautéed chard. (We are eating out of the garden with the homeowners’ permission, of course)

Today, we headed west from the house for almost an hour’s walk to the Folk and Costume Museum in Saumarez Park. This route also took us by Waitrose, our favorite grocery store here just due to size, as well as some attractive hotels and homes.

Saumarez Park consists of the remains of what was one of the largest country estates on the island. It was designed by James Saumarez and his wife Jane beginning in 1875. The estate was purchased by the States of Guernsey in 1938. We specifically went to visit the free-entry Folk and Costume Museum, but ended up walking around most of the property.

The costume exhibit was called From Cobblestones to Catwalks: 1970’s High Street and High Fashion. It seemed to primarily be based off donations from a local woman. It brought back scary fashion memories from that time.