One Last Day

Tuesday, May 31, 2011 Road Junkies 0 Comments

3 MONTHS IN EUROPE, Day 92: 
London, England. 
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Our last day in London was also day #92, the last day of this epic journey we've been on since March 1.  Tomorrow we fly home to Atlanta.  Yesterday we agreed that we would both benefit from taking today slow and easy, getting in a bit of relaxing to prepare for our 9.5 hour flight coming up.  But when this day dawned, the last of our adventure, neither of us really wanted to do nothing.  So we hopped on the Tube and headed off to the Tower of London (pictured above).
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A historic castle on the north bank of the River Thames, the Tower of London is actually a complex of buildings within outer fortification walls.  One of the most visited sites in London, the tower has a 900-year history of serving as a royal residence, prison, armory, and other functions.
     
Waiting to enter Waterloo Barracks & Crown Jewels Exhibit
Perhaps the most popular exhibit at the Tower is the Crown Jewels, which have been on display here since 1669.  Although we don't doubt their spectacular attraction, this collection of crowns just wasn't enough to tempt us to wait in a line of several hundred people today.

Ravenmaster (photo from Tower of London)
We did have an interesting conversation with one of the Beefeater guards about the ravens which we saw on the Tower grounds.  According to legend, when the astronomer of King Charles II complained in the late 1600s that ravens were interfering with his observations of the stars, the king ordered all the birds destroyed.
    
Later after hearing a prophecy that both the Tower and his kingdom would fall if there were no ravens at the tower, he changed his mind.  Not only were the ravens allowed to remain, Charles issued a proclamation that no fewer than six ravens would always be in residence at the Tower, an edict which is still in force today.  In fact, the birds' wings are clipped to keep them from flying away.
     
Some of the ravens are bred at the tower while others come from rescue centers.  The birds can be approached and handled by the Yeoman Ravenmaster.  Ravens mate for life and guard their territory fiercely.  One of the largest-brained birds, raven have the ability to "speak" and live long lives.  One of the oldest ravens in the Tower's history, "Jim Crow" died in the 1920s at the age of 44 years.  A special burial site for the ravens lies within the walls.
     
From the tower, we had a great view of the Tower Bridge.  Located near the Tower of London, from which it gets its name, the bridge has established a role as one of London's iconic symbols.  Built in the late 1800s, the bridge was designed to enable tall-masted ships to access the London port facilities.
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Tower Bridge

The notion of London, a city 40 miles inland from the English Channel, as a port was a concept that took us by surprise.  We were quite startled when we walked around a corner and stumbled upon St. Katharine Dock, which dates back to 1125.  Though the docks once handled the world's most valuable cargoes, trade ships eventually grew too large for the docks.
     
St Katharine Dock, London
Nestled in the heart of the City of London, the marina today houses up to 200 luxury yachts and historic barges and provides space for private and corporate events.
     
One last stop on our must-see list was Trafalgar Square, which we hadn't visited since 1989.  Trafalgar Square is the center for national rejoicing and assemblies and rallies for various causes.  Located on the former site of the Royal Mews and stables dating back to the 13th century.  The present square was laid out between 1840 and 1845 by Sir Charles Barry, the architect of the Houses of Parliament, whose clock tower can be seen from the square.
     
Trafalgar Square
Once in the square, we were lured by the opportunity to visit the National Gallery, the British national art museum.  Founded in 1824, the collection includes 2,500 paintings representing the evolution of art from the 14th to the 20th centuries.
     
National Gallery of Art
We capped off this very interesting, though not restful, day with a performance of Noel Coward's Blithe Spirit at the Apollo Theater, just a short block from our hotel. 

Photo from London Telegraph
Though it wasn't unforgettable, this was a very good production with superbly cast actors and enough laughs to keep us happy.

Tomorrow we fly home to Georgia.  When we looked at Atlanta's weather forecast for tomorrow, we were shocked to see 97° for a projected high.  That will be an increase of about 30 degrees for us, but it's not as if we can do anything to change the forecast.   No point in sweating it.

TUESDAY, 31 MAY 2011

A Sampling of a Colossus

Monday, May 30, 2011 Road Junkies 0 Comments

3 MONTHS IN EUROPE, Day 91: 
London, England. 
   
Having never visited the stately institution before, we set aside today for a foray to the incomparable British Museum (pictured above).  Established in 1753, while the American colonies were still a vital part of the empire, this repository of human history and culture houses more than 13 million objects in collections from every corner of the world. 
     
Living and Dying Gallery
Like other national museums in the United Kingdom, the British Museum offers free admission.  We chose to document just a few highlights of the fascinating exhibits as a way to remember our visit to this masterpiece of a museum, whose annual attendance is second only to Paris's Louvre.
     
Ga Coffins
The Living and Dying exhibit explored ways that different peoples maintain health and well-being as well as the customs associated with death.  The Ga people on the southeast coast of Ghana are renowned for their tradition of intricately carved figurative coffins.  Legend has it that two brothers made an airplane-shaped coffin in 1951 for their grandmother, who had always wanted to fly but been unable to.  Word of the decorative coffin spread until this new type of coffin became quite popular.

Ghanan Coffins (photos from British Museum)
Today families order coffins with designs representing the achievements or dreams, or even a personality trait, of their loved one.  Sometimes the deceased will have prepared a design or concept for his or her own coffin.  The coffins are made of wood and then painted.  Two beautiful examples on exhibit in the museum were one designed like an SLR camera and one in the shape of an eagle.
     
Babylonian Boundary Stones
Boundary stones, or kudurru monuments, were used in Babylonia as permanent records of land ownership and of privileges such as tax exemption.  They described sales or royal grantsor judgments.  Sometimes they confirmed disputed decisions made by previous kings.  The sun, moon and star engraved at the top of boundary stones represented the Mesopotamian sky-gods who were said to guarantee the legality of the stones. 
     
Babylonian Boundary Stones (photos from British Museum)
The cuneiform inscription on a stone on exhibit, for example, recorded the granting by the governor of five tracts of corn land in the district of Edina in south Babylonia to a man called Gula-eresh. The boundaries of the land were described, and the surveyor was named, as were two high officials who approved the transfer.  Nine gods were invoked to protect the monument, along with seventeen divine symbols. The text ended with curses on anyone who removed, ignored or destroyed the boundary stone.
     
Roman Freedman Portraits
These stone releifs were once part of tombs that lined the roads of the Roman Empire.  Freedmen and freedwomen were former slaves who had purchased their freedom, earned it through service or been freed in an owner's will.
     
Portraits of Roman Freedmen and Freedwomen
Even after they gained their freedom, freedmen remained linked to their former master and took the same name.  Freedmen were not full citizens and were excluded from high positions in the army and society.  They worked as bankers, merchants, shippers, factory owners and craftsmen, dominating those fields and becoming rich and influential in their own right.
     
Swedish Coins
From an exhibit on the history of money, we learned about Swedish copper.  Beginning in the 17th century, large mines in Sweden produced massive amounts of copper, much of which was exported to Europe and Asia for the production of copper coins.  Within Sweden, the copper was made into huge rectangular 'coins' as a replacement for multiple coins.
     
Swedish Plate Money (1/2 daler on L, 8 daler on R)
Plate money, as these large coins were called, first appeared in the 1640s and had the advantage of being both money and a commodity, copper.  The issue of plate money ceased in the 1760s. The inconvenience of handling one-foot by two-feet coins weighing upwards of 20 pounds led to the introduction of paper currency in Sweden, the first in Europe.
     
We Want More...
The British Museum is an immense archive housing one of the most comprehensive collections of art and artifacts in the world.  On our visit, we were barely able to take in a small sample of the museum's offerings, giving us a compelling reason to return to London to meet more of the faces of history as the British Museum relates their stories.
     
Faces from the exhibits
     
MONDAY, 30 MAY 2011

Southern Meets Northern...Almost

Sunday, May 29, 2011 Road Junkies 0 Comments

3 MONTHS IN EUROPE, Day 90: 
London, England. 
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This morning we transferred from our Regents Park area hotel to one in the West End, near Leicester Square and the theatre district, hoping we'll be able to catch a couple more plays before we leave on Wednesday.  After we dropped off our bags at our final hotel of the trip, it was time to explore.
   
Letterboxes and curiosity led us to visit one of London's most recognized sights today.  Built at the top of Ludgate Hill, London's highest point, St. Paul's Cathedral (pictured above) is the second largest church in Great Britain. This particular St. Paul's is the fifth church by that name on the same spot since the year 604 AD.  From the time of its completion in 1710, St. Paul's stood as the tallest building in the city until 1962.  Even with the advent of skyscrapers, it remains in the top 30. 
     
On this Sunday afternoon, the cathedral and its grounds were awash with thousands of tourists. But with a recent multimillion dollar facelift in honor of its 300th anniversary, St. Paul's was ready to receive visitors.  With all that activity, we were glad that the letterbox honoring this Christopher Wren architectural masterpiece was not at the cathedral but in a small park nearby.
     
After locating the box, we crossed the River Thames on the spectacular Millennium Footbridge to search for another letterbox near the Tate Modern Museum.  Opened in June, 2000, the bridge became the subject of controversy because of swaying inadvertently created by its design.
     
London Millennium Footbridge
Although it was deemed perfectly safe, the bridge was closed almost immediately after opening due to the public outcry.  With two years of modifications, this now popular footbridge was reopened in 2002.  It crosses the river between St. Paul's and the Tate Modern, where we found the letterbox to be missing.
     
Deciding to leave our visit to the Tate for a later time, we decided to catch a train back to our hotel.  What seemed like a simple journey became very complicated through a series of blunders and bizarre circumstances.
     
3:50 pm:  Misjudging our location, we entered the Mansion House subway station rather than St. Paul's, the station where we had arrived, so we had to recalculate because the two stations are served by different lines.
     
4:00 pm:  We took the wrong subway line from Mansion House.  Instead of the Circle line we intended to take, we boarded a train on the District line.  (Let the record show that both lines shared the same platform.)
     
4:10 pm:  Once we discovered we were on the wrong train (just after it left the station), we asked one of our knowledgeable fellow passengers which direction the train was headed.  "Upminster," she replied.  Oops!  Wrong direction.  We studied the map for a station with an intersecting line we could use.  No problem.  Two stops later we exited the train at the Monument station, which happened to be served by the Northern line, which would take us to Leicester Square near our hotel.
     
4:15 pm:  Congratulating ourselves for figuring out such a quick solution, we headed toward the platform for the Northern line.  As we were going down the stairs, we heard a distorted intercom announcement regarding that very line.  "Turn around....(garbled)... up the stairs...(garbled)...Northern line... (garbled)."  When we saw people begin flooding up the stairs we were descending, we thought it was a strong indication we should reverse course.
     
Can't go there
4:25 p.m.  Trailing after the crowd and hoping some of them may have actually understood the announcement, which was garbled/repeated several times, we walked up more stairs to another level.  Following the signs for the Northern line there, we reached an escalator where two members of the transit police blocked our way and told us we could go no further, that the Northern line was closed there, that we needed to turn around, go back the way we came, turn left, then right, then left again, blah, blah, blah.
     
4:35 p.m. - Walking off in the many directions we were instructed to go, we saw paramedics carrying a bloke strapped to a stretcher up a set of stairs.  He looked pretty banged up and we wondered if there was a connection to the closed train line...
   
4:45 p.m. - Still trudging toward the Northern signs, we realized we had actually walked underground a quarter of a mile from the Monument station to the Bank station.  About the time we experienced this epiphany, we encountered a Tube system employee in the corridor.  "What's the best way to Leicester Square?" we asked.  "Catch the Central line at platform 5, go to Holborn and transfer to Piccadilly there," he replied cheerfully.
     
the wild goose

Say what??  The Northern line wasn't the one we needed after all?? 
     
5:10 p.m. - We finally arrived at the Leicester Square station after an 80-minute journey.  Had we just walked from the Tate, it would have been only a mile and a half, not much more than we had walked in all the subway stations we had just visited, and probably wouldn't have taken more than 30 minutes.  Or, put another way, if we hadn't gone to the wrong station, boarded the wrong train, going in the wrong direction, everything would have been just fine.
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SUNDAY, 29 MAY 2011

A Day of Diversions

Saturday, May 28, 2011 Road Junkies 0 Comments

3 MONTHS IN EUROPE, Day 89: 
London, England. 
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Ready to spend a Saturday exploring the city, we found no shortage of fascinating places to visit.  Our day began at Regent's Park, which happens to be near our hotel and where we hoped to plant a letterbox.  One of the Royal Parks of London, Regent's was once a hunting park for Henry VIII.  Subsequently leased for farming, it was formalized into a park in the early 1800s at the direction of King George IV.
     
Today a variety of sports are played in the 410-acre park, and several public gardens are meticulously maintained (Italian Garden pictured above).  In addition to the formal Italian garden and the informal English garden, perhaps the most popular spot is Queen Mary's Garden, the most carefully tended section of the park.
     
Queen Mary's Garden, Regent's Park
Named for the wife of King George V, this world-famous rose garden exhibits in excess 30,000 rose plants of more than 400 varieties. We are not particularly fans of roses, but the ones we saw today and yesterday at Hyde Park's rose garden were spectacular.  Every imaginable color and variation were represented in these stunning collections. Who wouldn't feel rosy after visiting these amazing specimens?
     
Before leaving Regent's Park, we had a couple of chance encounters with some of the park's endless array of wildlife.  In particular we observed a sizable colony of grey herons living in the lake area.
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If this guy lived in the U.S., he would be a gray heron.
Most fascinating was the family of coots who approached when we walked slowly by the lake. Apparently these birds have become pretty desensitized to humans, especially when they think some snack or treat may be forthcoming.
   
Coots are a hoot!
The frontal coloring on the forehead is a primary feature of the coot, as are the semi-webbed feet.  What an interesting evolution, giving this water fowl lots of diverse opportunities on both land and in water.  The adolescent birds were sticking close to this adult.
     
Leaving the wildlife behind, we took the subway to Leicester Square where we scored a couple of tickets for a play tonight and had lunch at Walima, a new Lebanese restaurant on the square.  The food was delicious, and the service exceptional.
    
Plenty of vegetarian options in a Lebanese restaurant
After lunch, we visited Big Ben at Westminster and walked across Westminster Bridge to search for a couple of letterboxes which we were unable to find.  The boxes were hidden in very open areas and we suspect they fell victim to "muggles" (non-letterboxes) who thought they were trash and threw them away.
     
The London Eye
We found the 21-acre Southbank Centre in the midst of a four-month long celebration commemorating the 60th anniversary of the Festival of Britain.  Visitors thronged the Sea Life Aquarium and the London Eye, the city's 443-foot ferris wheel. 
     
Not up to the quality of human statues we saw in Florence, but darn good.
Street performers were busy plying their trade, from magicians to acrobats.  But the human statues were among the most popular. 
     
Anne-Marie Duff in Cause Célèbre
Our day ended at the Old Vic Theatre with a performance of Cause Célèbre, a drama based on a true story of a woman accused of conspiring with 18-year-old boyfriend to murder her husband in 1935.  We found the play quite entertaining, especially the riveting performance of Anne-Marie Duff, who played the lead.
     
It was a fitting end to our rosy, festive lark of a day in London.
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SATURDAY, 28 MAY 2011


And Then There Was One

Friday, May 27, 2011 Road Junkies 0 Comments

3 MONTHS IN EUROPE, Day 87-88: 
Kidmore End, England to London, 
England. 
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As we begin to wind down this long adventure, we left the old New Inn in Kidmore End Wednesday morning, dropped off our final rental car of the trip, and took the train into London.  Settling in at our hotel, we found a nearby spot for lunch, shopped for groceries and handwashed our laundry for what we hope will be the final time for a while.
   
On Thursday morning, after plotting our course around the city, we hopped on the Tube, London's subway system, in search of the local letterboxes.  The first box turned up missing, but our next box led us to the British Natural History Museum (pictured above).
     

Like most, if not all, British national museums, the Natural History Museum offered free admission, and what a bargain it was!  The museum houses extensive exhibits of specimens gathered by the earliest naturalists, including Darwin, and submitted to the museum's collection.  From rare and exotic birds to dinosaurs and insects, this museum can keep even the youngest visitors amazed and amused for hours.
     
From the museum, our next stop was Hyde Park, one of the largest parks in central London.  The letterbox we were searching for took us to the park's rose garden, which happened to be the home of quite a variety of stunning flowers, in addition to the promised roses.
     
Buckingham Palace
Just a couple of Tube stops away, we found Green Park adjacent to Buckingham Palace.  Forgetting that President Obama had left his royal hosts and gone off to the G8 summit in France, we searched for him around the palace.  Not finding him nor the letterbox we were seeking in the park, we walked to the nearby St. James Park, where we did locate a letterbox, our only one of the day.
National Portrait Gallery
Our final stop of the day was the amazing National Portrait Gallery, another museum free of admission charges, even to non-residents.  The gallery houses an exceptional collection of portraits by and of British citizens in all areas of life.  Some portraits, including the intriguing painting of mystery author P.D. James, were commissioned especially for the museum.
     
Beloved British author P.D. James
Though we found only one of the five letterboxes we sought today, we were neither surprised nor disappointed.  The urban environment isn't always hospitable to these hidden treasures.  However, the search, as usual, took us to many places worth visiting.
     

THURSDAY, 26 MAY—FRIDAY, 27 MAY 2011

Say What??

Wednesday, May 25, 2011 Road Junkies 0 Comments

3 MONTHS IN EUROPE, Day 86: 
Kidmore End, England. 
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One of the great pleasures of traveling is encountering new ideas and learning about different ways of doing things.  But every now and then we come across concepts that are so... well, foreign that we find ourselves doing a double or even a triple take.  Oddly, that occurred repeatedly today.  We began to question whether Iceland's volcanic ash had seeped into our brains or if maybe today was actually April 1, and all the calendars were just wrong.

For Whom the Bridge Tolls
This morning whilst* driving on Deadman's Lane, a narrow country byway, toward Sulham Woods for a letterbox hike, we saw a sign indicating there was a "Weak Bridge" 4.5 miles ahead. Wait a minute.  Is that how the dead man met his fate?  A bit later, another sign warned, "Weak Bridge, 2 miles ahead.  No turning beyond this point."  That proved not totally accurate as there were indeed places one could turn off that road, but then maybe that's not what "no turning" meant.

The sign looked a bit roadworn so we figured the bridge had lasted a good long time, why not one more day?  On the other hand, maybe our little Vauxhall Corsa might prove to be this bridge's straw.  Living adventurously, we decided to take the plunge.  Uh, bad choice of words.

The toll booth
Toll rates

At any rate, we carried on* to the bridge where we were met with another surprise.  At the head of this very short, one lane bridge was a toll booth, manned by a tollkeeper.  Say what?  You warn me that I'm about to cross a weak bridge and then charge me for the privilege?  The toll was 40p (about $.65) for a car to cross, and we assume it's deposited into a search and rescue fund for when the bridge finally gives way.

We were happy to see that everyone pays a fair share to cross, whether man or beast. Though George III hasn't been on the throne since his death in 1820, this toll schedule he authorized was posted near the toll booth.  Note that 'd' was the old symbol for a penny, (from the Latin denarius, a coin used in the Roman Empire).  We wondered how the horses and sheep and the like carried their money.
    
Wanted:  Gullible Thieves
After our hike in Sulham Woods, we stopped to visit a small church nearby,where we saw two interesting signs.  Over a door set in the stone wall was a sign warning that anti-climb paint was present.  A bit of research turned up this information about the product on Wikipedia:  "Anti-climb paint (also known as Anti Vandal Paint) is a class of paint consisting of a thick oily coating that is applied with a stiff brush, trowel or by hand using a protective glove. In appearance it is similar to smooth gloss paint when applied but it remains slippery indefinitely thereby preventing any intruder from gaining a foothold.  It owes its effectiveness to the fact that it is based on a non-drying oil and keeps the surface greasy and slippery."  The product is designed for use on lamp posts and fences.
     
Can't climb this door
Two questions.  1.  Does this paint look as if it may have a greasy or slippery texture?  2.  Since the wall is stone and obviously not painted, what are we trying to keep vandals from climbing?  Maybe the sign was installed after rock climbers mistook the church for a cliff to scale.
     
The other high weapon in the little church's arsenal against burglary was announced in a cautionary sign on the main entrance door.
     
Good luck with that plan.
Say what?  Smart water?  Of course, we had to look into this.  Here's how SmartWater is described on the company web site:  "SmartWater is a forensic liquid that assigns your valuables with their own unique forensic code, allowing them to be traced back to you."  OK.  So you buy this special liquid and coat your valuables with it and thieves can't remove the code so the police will go to the thief's home and find your property and you can prove it belongs to you?  And for the police to be able to trace your property, you need to pay a subscription fee to the purveyors of SmartWater to ensure that your "DNA-type" markers remain on file and accessible.  The promo video on the SmartWater site offers a better explanation.  If you're up for a bit of comedy, check it out.  
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It's Tradition
If your thatched roof has caught fire twice and caused extensive damage to your pub yet again, what do you do when it's time to rebuild?  Put in a new thatched roof, of course.  It's tradition.
     
That's what we were told at this pub where we had lunch today when we inquired about the foot-thick thatched roof.  "Oh, yeah.  The place has burned twice when the roof has caught," the barkeep told us.  "You can see the photos from the last fire.  Just have a look at the album there on the shelf."

Say what??

*Note that we're trying to learn to speak British English.
     
WEDNESDAY, 25 MAY 2011

Hoe Down at the Sea

Tuesday, May 24, 2011 Road Junkies 0 Comments

3 MONTHS IN EUROPE, Day 85: 
Plymouth, England to Kidmore End, England. 
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With Plymouth as a base, we've spent the last four days exploring the surrounding area.  Before departing this morning, we had to visit the famous Plymouth Hoe (pictured above), a large seaside public park with a panoramic view of Plymouth Sound and the English Channel beyond.
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The park's origins date back to medieval times, making it well-established by the time Sir Francis Drake was allegedly playing a game of bowls there in 1588 when he was told of the approach of the Spanish Armada.  According to legend, Drake replied that he had plenty of time to finish his game and still defeat the Spaniards, which indeed he did as he commanded the English forces.
    
Tinside Lindo
Below the Hoe is the city's semi-circular Tinside Lido, an Art Deco seaside swimming pool that opened in 1935.  The pool is filled with sea water pumped in through three aerator/fountains, which completely refresh the water every four hours.  In its early days, the Lido was a popular place for beauty contests and for locals to swim.  During World War II, its distinctive shape provided a convenient landmark for German bomber pilots as they flew over the coast.  After a period of decline resulting in the closing of Tinside in 1992, a campaign by locals galvanized support for a massive renovation, and the famous landmark reopened in 2005.
   
Smeaton's Tower
Another fascinating piece of history on the Hoe is the story of Smeaton's Tower, which formerly stood 14 miles offshore on Eddystone Island.  Built as a lighthouse almost 250 years ago, the tower marked a major innovation in lighthouse design.  John Smeaton was given the job of designing a new lighthouse after the first two had been destroyed by violent storms and fire.  In attempting to create a lighthouse that could withstand the gale winds off the Plymouth coast, Smeaton found inspiration in the oak tree, a tall natural structure which bends with the wind but does not break.
     
Using 1,493 granite blocks, Smeaton built the lighthouse like the rings of a tree, all dove-tail jointed together with marble dowels and oak pins. And just like a tree, the tower bends in the wind. So when storms raged, the lighthouse bent to and fro as the waves crashed over it, but the tower did not break. And now the Smeaton design is the model for all lighthouses built on rocks.
     
The lighthouse stood for 120 years warning ships and would probably be there still be offshore guiding ships today had not the foundation rock on which it was built became too eroded to support the structure.  In 1877, the upper part of it was dismantled and reassembled on Plymouth Hoe as a monument to the Yorkshire engineer who designed it.  Its base can still be seen near the shore next to the current lighthouse.
     
The Hoe is a popular area for Plymouth residents and visitors with lots of activity on the water and in the park.  This morning a large group of school children had arranged themselves to form the number 50, and one of their teachers was on top of the tower taking photos of them as well as video greetings for the recipient of this special birthday message.  Once the photo session was done, the children were allowed to take full advantage of the coastal winds and fly the tiny kites they had been given.
     
What a fun field trip!
It was quite a festive sight with so many little kites flying and children laughing.  Their teachers were all dressed in fluorescent yellow high-visibility vests of the type worn by roadside workers.  We thought this was a brilliant idea, an easy way for the children to locate a trusted adult when needed.
     
Leaving Plymouth, we drove toward Reading on the outskirts of London, locating a letterbox (planted by an American) in the churchyard of St. Peter's in the little town of Woolhampton.  If the volcanic ash has reached this area from Iceland, as news reports indicate, it certainly was not visible to the naked eye in this gorgeous blue sky.
     
St. Peter's Church, Woolhampton
There was a second letterbox in Woolhampton and we located the spot where it was said to be hiding.  However, it was "protected" by a jungle of stinging nettle plants.  Even a letterbox isn't worth a battle with that fiend.
     
Well, it was new in 1691.
At the end of the day, we checked in at the New Inn in the little village of Kidmore End near Reading.  When we saw the building, we quickly realized it has seen lots of history.  The innkeeper confirmed our suspicions that the New Inn isn't exactly new.  It has been called that, however, for 320 years.  Of course, there's no one around who remembers the old inn.
    

TUESDAY, 24 MAY 2011

A Cornish Yen

Monday, May 23, 2011 Road Junkies 0 Comments

3 MONTHS IN EUROPE, Days 83-84: 
Plymouth, England. 
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Since we still had a couple of days booked in Plymouth (that we would not be spending looking for letterboxes on Dartmoor, as we expected), today seemed like a good time to explore part of the Cornish coast.  Cornwall is the peninsula at the extreme southwestern tip of the island of Great Britain, just to the west of Plymouth.
    
National Geographic includes the Cornwall coast on its list of Drives of a Lifetime: 500 of the World's Most Spectacular Trips. Since some of our favorite drives are also included on this list, we were very interested in having a look at the Cornish excursion.  Knowing the entire drive was too long, we opted to try some of the areas near Plymouth.
   

Our first stop was the fishing village of Looe (loo) on the coast (pictured above).  In medieval times, there were two villages on opposite banks of the River Looe, now joined as one town.  East Looe is home to the fishing harbor and the main shopping center while West Looe is somewhat quieter and more residential.  The towns are connected by a seven-arched Victorian bridge completed in 1853.
   
East Looe

We left Looe on Polperro Road in search of the hamlet that inspired National Geographic editors to gush: "Widely considered the most picturesque fishing village in Cornwall, little Polperro is a feast for the eyes."  As we neared the town, we began to see signs advertising the model village of Polperro. "Get a bird's eye view of our little fishing village," the signs proclaimed.  We were beginning to smell something fishy alright, but it was tourists caught in this trap, not halibut.
     
By this time we were so near the village, we decided to do a drive through before we moved on down the coast. That's why, when we saw the road diverge, we followed the sign for Village Centre rather than the sign pointing to Polperro Parking.  And that is how we found ourselves on the narrowest and steepest road we have experienced on this journey.
     
Is this really meant for car traffic?
At first, the street seemed fairly 'normal' (meaning in Cornwall it had about 1½ lanes), but as we drew into the residential part of town, it narrowed significantly.  We reached a point where no more than an inch of space separated our car from the buildings we drove between.  Utility poles along the "street" were decorated with paint and nicks from previous cars passing this way.  At least we weren't the first.
     
We had lowered the car windows to enable us to put our heads out and better gauge our distance from the obstacles so we could avoid paying Hertz for damage repair. I wasn't even driving and found the situation quite stressful, but Ken kept calm and carried on as if driving on this kind of "street" were a daily occurrence.  When we reached the bottom of this very steep hill, the street ended and our only choice was a right turn.  This landed us smack in the middle of a very narrow pedestrian filled lane.
      
Our apologies!  We're from Canada.
We were on the receiving end of many scowls and annoyed stares from pedestrians who had to flatten themselves against the wall for us to pass.  "Sorry, we're from Canada," we kept muttering, as we squeezed through, dodging bellies by mere millimeters.  At last, we escaped from the village center.  "Step on it!" I urged Ken as we saw the sign indicating the direction to the next village.
     
Fowey
Our last stop on this Cornish adventure was the small commercial seaport of Fowey (foy). The town of Fowey climbs up a hill from the water and stretches about a mile along the west bank of the River Fowey to its mouth.  Dating back to 1300, the town of 2,273 boasts many shops and galleries as well as a good number of eating places. We enjoyed a delicious lunch at the Boat House, a restaurant near the harbor.
     
We couldn't leave Cornwall without a hike on the South West Coast Path National Trail.  Britain's longest waymarked long-distance footpath, the path stretches 630 miles around the entire coastline of Cornwall and extends into neighboring counties.  The trail originated as a way for the Coast Guard to walk from lighthouse to lighthouse as they patrolled for smugglers.  Since they needed to be able to search every cove and inlet, the path hugs the coastline, affording stunning views.
     
South West Coast Path National Trail
We spent a couple of hours hiking out and back from Fowey.  No longer used by the Coast Guard, the path is now used exclusively for recreation.  We were impressed to see how many people were hiking this trail on a Sunday afternoon.  And as we've seen elsewhere in Great Britain, many of the hikers were our age and older.  Officials estimate that visitors who come to the area to hike the path pump £300 million into the Cornish economy each year.

SUNDAY, 22 MAY—MONDAY, 23 MAY 2011

Moor Than Meets the Eye

Saturday, May 21, 2011 Road Junkies 0 Comments

3 MONTHS IN EUROPE, Day 82: 
Dartmoor National Park, England. 
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After a disappointing first day attempting to letterbox on Dartmoor, we did more research last night on the internet, seeking out all the advice and pointers we could locate for where and how to cluelessly scavenge the moor for Dartmoor letterboxes. Exhausted, I fell into bed and dreamed that we returned to the moor and found lots of boxes. "So this is how it's done," I remember Dream Ken saying to me, as I returned his happy smile.
     

And that's just what it was. A dream. We returned to Dartmoor today and made a beeline for Yar Tor, another well-known haven to many letterboxes.  With our hiking sticks in hand, we scoured the tor.  I certainly won't claim that we searched under every one of the 19,762,305 rocks on the tor, but we looked under a truckload of them.  Our two hours of bending and climbing and foraging were rewarded with zero letterboxes.
     
Yar Tor
Like yesterday, we found some fragments of boxes and some kids' boxes but no legitimate Dartmoor letterboxes.  When we finally had enough banging our heads against the rocks, we decided that Dartmoor letterboxing was not the game for us.  Although it certainly would have been more fun had we found some real letterboxes, this monotonous looking under rocks paled in comparison to the version of letterboxing we've come to love.
     
Tip #42:  Search around a lone tree.  (We did!)
American letterboxing is rich with variety.  The clues for some American letterboxes provide straightforward directions for getting to the box, while others challenge and intrigue, pitting your wits against the planter's.  And then there are the mystery boxes which require you to puzzle out the location of the letterbox by using clues and cleverness.  Let's not forget the interesting places U.S. letterboxers often take the seeker (not that the moor isn't interesting but it's always the same moor).

Were we disappointed that we found only one Dartmoor letterbox in two days?  Yes, definitely.  And we really don't have any explanation as to why we came up empty-handed.  Did we feel that we wasted our time?  Absolutely not.  Not only did we enjoy the unique beauty of the moors, we also learned that we prefer American style letterboxing.  Guess we won't need to move to the UK, after all.

Dartmoor Pony of the Day:  Pepito
(He didn't find any letterboxes either.) 

     
SATURDAY, 21 MAY 2011
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