Catching up Days 19 - 21

Hello my lovelies. My goodness it’s easy to get behind! Can’t believe I haven’t visited you here in blogland since Wednesday what a big catch up post this is going to be … are you ready? got yourself a nice warm cuppa…wait…no…on second thoughts…

Are you ready? Got yourself a nice cool drink? Right we’re off. First things first I’ll replace that picture (day 18) of the lovely ‘little’ b&b in Lacock  that I got off the net with some luscious pics of my own.

Okay that’s done, did you have a look? Did you see MGM looking all lord-of-the-manner-ish? Best travelling companion e-v-e-r! Don’t get me started on how good it is to have him all to myself for 6 whole weeks, I don’t want you all running for buckets

Right here’s one big catch up…

Day 19

Lacock & Bath

The view from the window

After a full English breakfast (bacon, sausages, mushrooms, eggs, tomato, toast – yum) served in the vast morning room (did not even think to take my camera to breakfast), all we wanted to do was lie down and be f-u-l-l. Of course this was out of the question because we had to check out. Just as well really because we had a very full day of seeing ahead of us.

Lacock (pronounced with a long ‘a’ as in layer) is a village in Wiltshire, with very well preserved medieval architecture, 3 miles (5 km) from the town of Chippenham. We stopped in Chippenham yesterday and wandered the streets but it was gloomy and too rainy for photos.

Lacock in pictures VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

You might recognise Lacock as a set for some Harry Potter scenes, particularly the  Abbey, but it is often used in films because of it’s pristine preservation to name a few, Cranford, the BBC’s Pride and Prejudice, Moll Flanders, The Other Boleyn Girl.

The Abbey, is a National Trust building, so it’s closed in January. A bit of a pity, the downside of travelling in  winter which we’re quite happy to embrace because the cold is what we crave You can usually wander the grounds of these beautiful buildings and there’s often parts open to compensate.

We did spend a lot of time in this church though…

St. Cyriac’s was built towards’ the end of the 11th Century and is not a National Trust building – can you believe that! It’s a working church and had the loveliest warmth about it.

The grave yard was replete with stones so old the writing had weathered off and the ones we could read were 300 years old.

Somehow it’s nice to be a church that’s so old and still alive and vibrant. Makes me feel more confident about my own church that is so young by comparison.

 

 

             

From Lacock it’s just a short drive to Bath. We’ve been here before so we didn’t visit the Roman Baths. As I remember it was MYS and me being totally fascinated by those clever Romans while MGM and the girls were just repeating ‘but what HAVE the Romans ever done for us then’. How’s this for a contrast to St. Cyriac’s …

Yes Bath Abbey is very impressive as is the whole city, dominated as it is by its Georgian architecture. The city itself is way older than these 18th century buildings having been chattered as a city in Elizabethan times (1590) and tracing its lineage back to the Romans who established it for its medicinal waters in AD43.

here’s what we saw

inside the Abbey VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

You’ll notice a picture of the Aussie flag. I was so surprised to see it in Bath Abbey. Governor Arthur Philip died near Bath and is commemorated in the this flag.

		around Bath VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

cherubs, who does this bring to mind?

he just can’t help himself!

we had afternoon Devonshire tea in a cafe on this bridge. There it is on the corner how cute it that!

   the view from the window.

Day 20

London (again)

We came back to London to do the things we missed the other day. Let’s face it you could spend months in London and not see it all, so we actually only did two things off the list but there were good ones. Hold on to your seat Becca here’s the Globe!

 

Can you see me in front of the stage? Okay so I know it’s only a reproduction of the one that burnt down – as a result of the cannon shot (yes a real cannon) in a performance of Henry VIII in 1613 but it was still magical. Next time we’re in London (don’t hold your breath) I’m going to plan ahead so we can see a play here – how good would that be!

We also went back to the Tate Modern and I went in to say hello to the Cubists, Futurists, the poor old guys who don’t really get a name just ‘after Impressionists’ (some of whom I really love). And to my complete surprise I found my favourite in all the world sculpture, Rodin’s ‘The Kiss’. Just walked around a corner and there it was framed in the doorway beaUtiFul.

I’m not really a fan of modern art but there is something so exuberant about Lichtenstein and Warhol. A new discovery for me is Glenn Ligon, a conceptual artist who works with, amongst other thins, text! love love love his work.

We returned to Wokingham in the evening to share our last pub meal with LL and Rob. We have really enjoyed our England experience thanks in very large part to our wonderful hosts who embraced our holiday-mode-skittishness “we’ve changed our minds we’re off to Bath” – in  note left on the kitchen bench that they found when they came home from work!), taught us (well MGM actually) about real beer and generally made our visit so easy and fun!

So good in fact that we’re lobbing in on them again at the end of our trip – how good is it to have friends! 

Goodbye Wokingham

Day 21

Wokingham to Oberstaufen

You know how I said we have really good friends…we had a flight at stupid o’clock this morning which means that we were up at ugly o’clock and Rob too – on a Saturday! He chauffeured us into Heathrow, which considering he designed (all by himself apparently) the new terminal, was not actually hard for him to get to, he just pointed the beast (his very spiffy Jaguar) in the general direction and said ‘to work’ and off we went!

It was sad to say goodbye to one country but so exciting to be in Germany again. Breathing in the cold air, jumping in our hire car and screaming along the autobahns at ridiculous speeds (being passed by low flying Porsches).

       

I love the European bed thing, so neat and scrumptiously cosy. Remember this kitchen cherubs? and as you can see not as much snow as the last time we were here but there are still ski runs open on the hill opposite our rooms. 

We had good old fashioned pizza for dinner – I know not very German but MGM did have to drink two free beers (that come in litre glasses) while he was waiting for the pizza to cook. We also forgot the sugar when we did the shopping so we borrowed some – literally a cup of sugar – from the lady at the shop (how friendly is that) which MGM had to ask for with absolutely no German lingo (we miss you LL) and then carry up a fairly steep hill, balanced on top of the pizza boxes.

I think he was glad to see the end of the day! 

There now all caught up. Congratulations for sticking with me to the end of this post. BTW I’ve fiddled with the comment thing a bit. I think I’ve opened up the access so if you want to comment you should be able to now.

While I’ve been writing this (instead of my next essay) the sun has set and the night skiers are out on the slopes – so pretty! see you tomorrow with a much more user friendly post.