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********************************** Britain and Ireland Explorer-- (August 23-September 17, 1995) Part 1: London, Oxford, Stratford, Coventry, Wedgwood, Bakewell, York, and Edinburgh August 23-27
S. Kathleen Kitao and Kenji Kitao
Table of Contents
Day 1--August 23, 1995 (London)
Day 4--August 26 (Wedgwood, Bakewell)
Day 6--August 28 (Edinburgh)
Day 9--August 31 (Glencoe-->Loch Lommand-->Glasgow)
Day 11--September 2 (Chester)
Day 14--September 5 (Knock-->Sligo)
Day 17--September 8 (Cliffs of Moher-->Galway)
Day 22--September 13 (Bath-->Glastonbury-->Barnstaple)
#Day 1--August 23, 1995 (London)
We started our trip in London. We arrived there in the early afternoon and after checking into our hotel went to Westminster Abbey.
There was a special exhibition about the restoration of the abbey, which is going on now. We were able to see various exhibits about what restorers do, and even go up on scaffolding to the roof to see some of the restorers working on the stonework near the roof of the abbey. We also got a good view of the Palace of Westminster from there. (The Palace of Westminster is where the Parliament meets.)
While we were at the abbey, we also got to see the chapter house, the Pyx Chamber, and the museum underneath the abbey. The chapter house is an eight-sided room with stained glass, murals, and tile floors. It dates back to the 13th century and is amazingly well preserved. This is a place where monks sat daily to listen to the reading of a chapter from a book. For a time, the House of Commons met there--but they were moved when the monks complained that all the stomping was damaging their beautiful floor tiles.
The Pyx Chamber was a room where samples of coins were sent to make sure that they had sufficient weight of precious metals. There were huge cabinets that the coins were kept in. According to the guide, there was once a connecting door to the abbey. However, there was a theft that could only have taken place with the help of one or more monks, so that door was sealed off. Now there is a doorway with two doors, each about three or four inches thick, which each have three locks. To open the door, six keys are necessary, and each one is held by a different person. Even though coins are no longer kept here, they still use the six keys to open the six locks.
The museum has a displays of ecclestical silver and also effigies of former kings and queens of England. These effigies were used in the funeral procession when the king or queen died.
We also saw the library. This was good timing, since the library is not open to the public very often. The library has a large collection of very old books. Some of them were beautifully illuminated. One of the librarians explained that at one time books were so valuable that they were chained to the walls of libraries, and on some of the books we could see the metal rings that were used to attach the chain to the book. There was also a globe that was about 300 years old. I noticed that California was depicted as an island--this was before it was realized that California is part of mainland North America.
I attended a service at the abbey in the later afternoon. It is very "high church"--a very formal service.
Kenji's Corner
I went to the cabinet war room where Churchill made all his decisions during World War II. It is located in the basement of a building near Westminster. In this room, Churchill and his advisors collected the most recent information about battles all over Europe, analyzed it, and gave orders to the whole military.
Surprisingly, they had one telephone which connected with Washington directly. Churchill could talk with Roosevelt personally on that phone.
Keeping a large church is very expensive. Westminster Abbey had printed explanations of how much money is spent for what annually. Now they are charging 4 pounds for admission during the daytime, and 2 pounds on Wednesday evenings. If my memory is correct, Wednesday evening used to be free.
Finally we went to Chiswick House. This one was owned by Lord Burlington, who was known as a great patron of the arts in the 18th century. He traveled in Italy as a young man where he both became interested in art and came to admire Italian architecture. His house, which he helped design, is considered one of the great
The house is set in a lovely garden. During the time the house was built, the English were going into a changeover from formal gardens to gardens that imitated nature more closely.
Finally, we went to Kenwood House. It is located in the northern part of London. This house, which was built in 1616, but remodeled by Robert Adam in the 1700s, is simple and symmetrical from the outside and looks Georgian. A lawn sweeps back from the house to a pond, and there are woods behind the pond. The house is particularly well known for its art collection, which includes works by Rembrandt, Vermeer, and Gainsborough, among many other important works by English and Dutch masters.
Kenji's Corner
I liked Chiswick House best. One of the reasons was very simple. They had a video at the beginning of the tour of the house, so we had background knowledge about the house. Then we used a walkman and followed the taped guide. The tape was well made, and we felt like people were still living there when we visited.
I liked Kenwood House least, because there were many paintings which I did not understand. They had nice rooms and furniture. However, I did not have either a live guide or a taped one. I did not get much out of it. This gives some ideas for better teaching, doesn't it?
It is easy for us to do sightseeing in London. All we have to do is to buy a travel card. We can use British Rail, tubes (subways), and buses within the specified zones. The most expensive travel card is only 3.80 pounds a day, which covers a large area, including Hampton Court and Heathrow Airport. They even have long-term travel cards, which can be used for several days, a week or a month.
Another advantage of a travel card is that you can buy it with your credit card. Even right after you arrive in London and do not have British money, there is no problem getting it at any station.
Kenji's Corner
Oxford certainly has many beautiful colleges and buildings. Many buildings are worth visiting. However, since many colleges charge 2-3 pounds for admission, it would be very expensive to visit many colleges, like visiting many temples in Kyoto. If we could study or teach in such nice buildings, we would feel that we could do a much better job.
When we were about to leave Oxford, we found that one young Japanese man had not returned to the tour bus. We waited for him for one hour on the bus. There were about forty tourists from Canada, US, South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand. However, no one seriously complained about him, though they did tease him for several days afterward. Amazing!
Stratford is a nice place. One problem here is that things are scattered, and it is very difficult to see many places within a short time, so many people like us end up only seeing the birthplace of Shakespeare and the museum which is attached to it. Kathi has visited there three times now.
One problem of Trafalgar Tours is that they use hotels where there are no tourist attractions. We stayed in the suburbs of Birmingham. However, many people on our bus seemed to particularly enjoy drinking and eating. Many people were older, retired people. However, they had surprising appetites. We usually had a three course dinner at a hotel. The three courses are a starter, such as soup, salad, fruit, etc., a main dish, such as beef, fish, lamb, chicken or a vegetarian dish, and a dessert, such as ice-cream, pastry, or fruit. If you ate it in a nice restaurant, it would probably cost 15 pounds.
We usually arrived in a hotel before five. We had dinner from seven to eight-thirty or so. We woke up between six and seven. We ate a big English breakfast for 45 minutes or so. You will see that we spent much time at the hotel. Most of the hotels were clean and nice.
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