This morning we got up early to head off to Gloucester. We are going to stay with Ron, but also catch up with Melanie and Karen and their families. Just for two nights.
The photo was taken on Friday at the Christmas Market near Tower Bridge.
This morning we got up early to head off to Gloucester. We are going to stay with Ron, but also catch up with Melanie and Karen and their families. Just for two nights.
The photo was taken on Friday at the Christmas Market near Tower Bridge.
It was a quiet day inside, windy though not cold outside. After two fairly strenuous days we were happy to stay at home doing our stuff on computers. We went to a concert at a local church in the evening. Quite good quality – a good small orchestra, excellent soloists and a passable choir. They did some of the usual carols at the end: In dull jubilo, O come, O come Emannuel, The Shepherds’ Farewell, and then we were invited to join in for Hark the Herald Angels Sing. Stephen was disappointed that there was no supper, just drinks, for which we had to pay.
Afterwards we walked to Sainsburys to do some shopping.
Today is a packing up day as we prepare to go to stay with Ron for a couple of nights in Gloucester. We have been there before, of course, and seen the Cathedral and the docklands area. I am not sure what else there is to do, but we will only have one day, then will catch the coach back here.
We have the address where we will stay in Brandys Nad Labem. Disappointingly it is a boring looking apartment building in a suburban area – not on a street with cafes with old buildings around we had hoped. As Stephen said, it’s best to get our disappointment over and done with now before we go there. We may then be pleasantly surprised.
However, he has plans to do a trip to some other cities and even countries in the four weeks we are there. We can also visit Prague fairly easily. There is an historical centre of the town where we are staying, but we will have to find out how to get there. PLUS, we will have a car for visiting interesting places in the area, if we are brave enough to drive it!
The featured photo is from Friday and the pub is on the street where Grace (Stephen’s mother) was born.
Today was about going to a talk at the Victoria and Albert Museum in the evening and visiting the place where Stephen’s mother, Grace, was born. We have an address from her birth certificate: 1 Dolben Street, Southwark. She was born in 1911 and we were not sure what we would find in the area.
On arrival at the Tower Bridge station we couldn’t resist having a walk along to the river. We found a Christmas Market and an area with lots of cafes. Clearly we hadn’t gone far enough the previous evening. There were some clouds, but we could see blue sky and it was sunny. A very busy area even on a winter’s day. Still, the mild weather made it easy to be outdoors.
Then we caught a bus to Southwark to the area where we hoped to find the house. We found the street without difficulty, but could not find number 1. A Royal Mail man was able to clarify that the numbering system for the houses was not logical, with odds and evens on the same side of the street. However, the end of the street where Grace’s family would have lived was blocked off to make way for new buildings.
We spoke to people at the little workman’s cafe. It had been a cafe for a long time and the woman could remember the area being very run down. She said that the Victorian terraces in the area had been torn down to make way for buildings (in the 1960’s) before it was clear that this area would be upgraded and the houses valuable heritage. She also remembered Dolben St before the new building went in. She said it was an old cobbled street.
Basically, we came much too late!
Thompson House at the other end of the street was interesting. It looks as though it would have been there when she was born. There was a blue plaque with: Mary Wollstonecraft 1759-1797 on it.
After talking with the people in the cafe we walked back to the main street to catch a bus. After a long wait we chose a bus back to the Tower Bridge station area, then took a bus over the bridge, then the underground. The traffic was very slow indeed and when we changed to the underground it was all so easy. We were able to get a direct line, with a tunnel which goes to the museums in the area, so it was just a matter of following the signs to the V&A.
It is really lovely. I din’t have energy for much, but Stephen went off for a while, then we had a meal in the cafe until it was time to go the the lecture theatre for a talk. Very interesting, about the Anglo Saxon saints, who were the ‘celebrities’ of the time. We thought we might be a bit tired, but it was so interesting that we were enthralled.
As we were leaving, the dining room was abuzz with people, and there was a musician playing a grand piano. There was quite a buzz even at the entry hall with a bar and a DJ playing music. We were able to get direction on getting a bus back to Victoria Station, basically, just go out the front entrance and catch a V1.
We got home at about 9.30 I think.
I’m a bit behind in posting. I thought I would have time when we were out yesterday to write up our visit to Chesham, but we spent quite a lot of the afternoon getting around on buses. More on that in my next blog. As you read down, something has happened to the paragraphing on this entry and it doesn’t show the spaces. Sorry, as it makes it a little difficult to read.
We arranged with Angela to meet on the way to Chesham. Our goal was to visit the gravesite of:
Stephen said I should show the tower closeup and from East Croydon – compare and contrast. The top photo shows what it really looks like from the apartment. It is the left hand tower in the photo. UPDATE: we think we have confused the towers. It is probably the right hand tower that we saw at Crystal Palace and my zoomed shot is of the BBC tower.
Note: the tower does’t tilt even if it appears to in the photos.
Today we caught a bus to Crystal Palace and took a walk in the park. It wasn’t cold, although the wind could make it feel that way at times. We had lunch of soup and bread at a cafe (we are a bit sick of taking rolls for lunch).
The park seems quite degraded and the features which perhaps date from the time of the actual Crystal Palace are in disrepair. Apart from the rather nice old Railway Station.
We found some lakes and a Dinosaur Park, with workmen doing some maintenance on some of the exhibits. It was quite interesting for us as we kept making discoveries. There is also a farm which appears to be set up as a learning centre for school children. We met some of the walking tiny ponies and goats. The animals looks beautifully kept. I didn’t manage to get good photos, however, especially as I was trying to avoid focusing on the children.
We caught the bus home to a cup of tea and toast with Marmite. I had put on a meal in the slow cooker, so that was our dinner.
We took a little walk in the afternoon to reach the church that I photographed from our balcony a few days ago. It is about 100 years old, so fairly new by English standards. It was windy, though not very cold, but uncomfortable to be out for a long time. If you put your curser over the photos and click once, then slide over, you can see the individual captions. They are not exciting photos, but at least I am not recycling from outings on other days.
In the evening we went to see the film of the play The Winters Tale which is being put on by the Kenneth Branagh Theatre group starring himself and Judi Dench. The switch to jealousy in the early scenes was handled well. I had the enjoyable experience of having forgotten that Pauline had hidden Hermione all those years so that when her daughter is reclaimed by her father, she is able to rejoin them. The King has learned his lesson, or so we hope! I found it so moving that I automatically applauded with the audience in the film at the end.
Today, Wednesday, is mixed in terms of weather. We have had some rain, now we have alternate sun and clouds. We are going to go out fairly soon.
We have been cooking the sort of meals that last us for 3 or 4 nights, either some form of savoury mince, or meat dish in the slow cooker. Nothing very startling, but nice to have when we come home after an outing and don’t want to cook. We just add mixed frozen veggies, some pasta or rice, and are good to go. As well, we have lots of fruit, and, less healthily, creamed honey (which I never eat at home), marmalade, cereal and eggs. I bought some Marmite hoping that it would be somewhat like Vegemite, and I can’t really tell the difference now. I remember not liking it at all in the past. The texture is different to Vegemite, a bit gooey.
We were tired from being out fairly late on Sunday night. However, I had noticed that one of my walking shoes had worn through on the sole. When I checked at home the sole on the other one was split as well. No wonder I was getting damp feet!
I have another pair of fairly solid shoes, but they are Mary Jane style with open top, not good for wet days.
We went to one outdoor shop where they were having a Black Friday sale. The staff didn’t seem very interested, but I found a padded long jacket for about half price, so we bought that. They did not appear to have waterproof shoes and I was a bit worried about the boots coming up to my ankles as I could have problems when walking with them (based on past experience).
We tried another shop where staff were immediately more knowledgable. I was able to get gore-tex shoes with good tread on the sole and because they are made of material (not hard leather), I am hoping that they will make good walking shoes. Stephen said ‘what about when you go to the opera’, but I don’t think I really care. The shoes are sneakers really, but will people look at my feet?
Anyway, I could always take the Mary Jane shoes in a bag to the theatre if it worries me. I have been worried when out walking in my other shoes that didn’t have any tread left on them.
Because Stephen is usually the subject of my photos I asked him to model the coat and shoes for me for posting here.
We had a call from Stephen’s cousin Ron to say that he was feeling better and would we still like to go for a visit. We worked out that we can go next week for a couple of nights, and that has been arranged. We will go on Monday and return here on Wednesday. That will give us three days to prepare for our coach trip to Prague. We have contacted George (our exchangee) because we still don’t have the address of our next home exchange. We know it is in the town on Brandys Nad Labem somewhere. All has been arranged for Lesley to meet them at our house in Perth to give them keys, etc.