Foreign in Hertfordshire

Not much to say here. There was a Bank Holiday weekend, and the weather turned absolutely wonderful. We discovered that our garden is overgrown, our gardening tools are well-shaped to causing blisters, and our mower spews black smoke instead of revolving. On the plus side, we grilled out (Sainsburys has wonderful food) and visited the Botanical Gardens. Cambridge was chosen over Kew, partly because it was cheaper, partly because I’m more familiar with Cambridge, but mostly because it was closer and we left the decision til too late. (As an aside: parking in Cambridge is always difficult. Horrendous even. We had to park half a mile away).

While I’m not a botanist, and can hardly judge the quality of the plants, parts of the trip were breathtaking. Many of the plants in the newly refurbished Glasshouses were astonishing, verging on alien. The jade vines were one of my favourites. (Apparently, I am not alone in this feeling, since the Garden has a whole page of information on them). Many of the other parts of the park also have nice signposts, descibing the surrounding plants. I found these informative and interesting, though Becky enjoyed them less than I did. And finally, the most beautiful area of the Gardens is probably the central lake, surrounded by the limestone Rock Gardens, The Bog Garden and the Woodland Garden. This was well-staffed by mating ducks, who jealously guarded their territory and chased the top females (it was all quite cute). Many pictures were taken, and all are available on a set on flickr.

Addendum: Upon poking around the website for the gardens, I realized how much I wish that I’d seen it before visiting. They have many interesting exhibits, and the site has very interesting background information, which wouldn’t be available in the park. For example, the page on their famous trees is great, and I wish that I’d known to be on the lookout (for example, the Dawn Redwood or the Cambridge Oak).

This post is very late in the coming, sorry! But I just wanted to write a quick diddy about the trip to Dover we took a few weeks back. We bypassed the town (as it lacks anything of real interest) and drove straight to the White Cliffs where we were immediately offered gorgeous views.

We spent A LOT of time walking along the cliffs, and we made it all the way to South Foreland Lighthouse, where we had to turn around and walk back the way we came. I’m not sure how many miles we covered that day, but my feet were sure happy when we made it back to the car.

Unfortunately we did so much walking that we ran out of time to see Dover Castle - which is supposed to be quite impressive. On the grounds it has the remains of a Saxon church and Roman Lighthouse. Not to mention underground there’s a labyrinth of secret wartime tunnels. My family is coming over for a visit the end of this month, so I have a feeling we’ll be planning a day trip back to Dover.

Now I just have to kick David to write a post about the lovely time we had at the Camrbidge Botanical Gardens yesterday.

This post is very late in the coming, but here it is. I celebrated a birthday this month (March 9) and turned the ripe old age of 24. Luke and I drove about two and a half hours up north and stayed with Luke’s dad, Slawek, in order to have a proper weekend of sightseeing. He lives in Northwich, which is between Liverpool and Manchester, and a hop, skip and a jump away from northern Wales. Saturday we visited the old medieval town of York, but unfortunately the day didn’t go so well. We had a late start to the day and it took us 3 hours to get to York, as we took the scenic route — which was quite lovely, but the weather wasn’t cooperating. We drove through a national park called Peak District, near the town of Buxton, which is a place I will definitely need to return as the views were quite beautiful. We didn’t arrive in York until 2:30, which didn’t leave us much time at all to see the city properly. So we walked around and saw the main attractions and I made mental notes of the things I’d like to return to see. The highlight of the day for me was the awesome pictures I took at Clifford’s Tower — the only section that remains of York Castle. We only had about 20 minutes of sunlight the entire day, and at that time we happened to be standing at the base of the hill where Clifford’s Tower stands. Gorgeous.

(So beautiful, in fact, that we had to turn it into our new header image for this blog.)

Click here for the full photo set of York.

The day ended with a birthday celebration back at Slawek’s — with plenty of booze and birthday cake for all. The next day we woke up early and headed into Northern Wales. This was the first time I had left England since arriving in January, so I was quite excited, and the day couldn’t have been more perfect. We visited Conwy Castle, said to be one of the most impressive castles in Wales, not to mention in Great Britain. Built in 1283, it was one of the many great fortresses King Edward I (aka Longshanks) built during his conquest of Wales. We had a lot of fun wandering through the castle and climbing the long, winding staircases to the tops of the towers. I’m not normally afraid of heights but my legs felt a little wobbly as the towers were quite high! It was definitely worth the climb though, at the top you were offered amazing views, which I tried to capture in some of the pictures I took.

Side view of Conwy Castle

Left: Shot looking down from one of the towers. Right: The beautiful bay

Click here for the full photo set of Wales.

While Cowny Castle was definitely the main attraction in Conwy, the town itself is adorable. The neatest thing about it is the walls Edward I built around the city are still intact, and you can walk the entire perimeter of the city on them, which we did. Some of the walls are built quite steep, so we definitely got some exercise, which was much needed after the very large fish + chips lunch we had! Other than that we didn’t find much else of huge interest in the town. The quay was lovely, and unfortunately for us the smallest house in Great Britain was closed. But it was a wonderful day and I couldn’t ask for a better birthday!

Conwy Castle was just one of many castles I’d eventually love to visit in Wales. The top ones on my list (all built by Edward I), in no particular order are:

Harlech
Caernarfon
Beaumaris

Luke’s father came down from Manchester and being my first Easter away from family ever, I decided to cook a nice dinner for the house. Fortunately, my own father gave some wonderful advice on recipes and helped me along (First piece of advice: Leg of Lamb is great. Second piece of advice: English shoppers are determined and relentless. Have a second choice). At his suggestion, I tried a Pork Tenderloin with Apples and Potatoes (with beans and carrots as sides). The meal turned out wonderfully, and the new potatoes were marvelous.

Notes on the recipe: the pork seemed slightly overdone, maybe one should try slightly less than the 50-55 minutes in the oven. The potatoes were absolutely delicious and were perfectly cooked (and disappeared immediately). Lastly, although Luke was very ill and didn’t eat much (which is why he doesn’t show up in the photos), the recipe seemed more on the 6 people side. This may change on the amount of sides, but we certainly have loads of delicious leftovers. A all-around success, I would definitely try this recipe again.

A note for the photo-inclined (probably only Robert): unfortunately I can’t claim ownership of the good shots here. The blown out flashed shots were both mine (the shadows in the knife shot are quite bothering), while the perfect food shots were taken by Becky.

Not much to report, but we took a quick trip to Lincoln. Parts were fantastic, parts were difficult. The nice part was Lincoln itself. The difficult part was everything else. It rained very heavily most of the day, we couldn’t figure out the parking, and it was freezing cold (about 0C). Being Wisconsinites, the cold shouldn’t have presented much of an issue, but we dressed for English rain, leaving us shivering most of the day.

The highlight was the medieval Bishop’s Palace. Lincoln used to be a very rich and powerful diocese (reaching from the Thames to the Humber), and the church built a magnificent palace (mostly constructed by Bishop Robert de Chesney and Bishop St Hugh from 1155 - 1200). Unfortunately, war and crown intervened and ruined much of the structure. Henry VIII’s seizure of church lands removed the supply of money to pay for the site. Later, the Royalists in the English Civil War sacked the building, mainly by violently stripping the lead roof and plumbing fittings, which left the weather to do the rest. The site has since been picked up the English Heritage Foundation (since the church doesn’t want to pay for upkeep) who have done a magnificent job turning it into a topnotch tourist attraction. The admission includes an excellent audio tour of the site, and is well worth following. While marvelous, the only shortcoming was the lack of access to the the Victorian Bishop’s Chapel (built over the medieval service halls) because it is still in use by the current bishop.

A View of the Lower East Hall, with the well at the end.

A view of the ruined palace from Bishop Alnwick’s Tower and The Central Column in the Chapter House.

The rest of the day was screwy because of our adventure timing events. Being Sunday, the Cathedral was busy with service, but we snuck in during an intermission. Of note were the Lincoln Imp and the Chapter House (which was used as a double for Westminster Abbey’s Chapter House). It was beautiful, yet incredibly dark (so the photos came out slightly blurry from the handheld long exposure). To warm up, we had lunch and beers at two local pubs (The Strugglers Inn was the CAMRA recommended one*), but missed entrance to the Castle. To make us more upset, not only is the Castle an amazing building with a long and morbid history, but also houses one of the only four copies of the Magna Carta (owned by the Cathedral since 4 days after the signing in 1215).

* Note to selves: Pubs serve Sunday lunch generally until 2-2:30. Arrive early (since the pub had the most amazing sounding menu, that they refused to serve us).

We visited St Albans for a second time over the weekend, and came to the conclusion that it really is the most worthwhile place to visit in Hertfordshire, hands down. It has around 2000 years of history, as it was first settled by an ancient British tribe called the Catuvellauni until the Romans came and set up shop. They built Verulamium, which became the second largest Roman settlement in Britain (the first being Londinium, of course). The city was ransacked for building material when St Albans was founded, so not much is left, but some outer walls of the city are still partially intact, as is the theatre. (Unfortunately none of the photos I took of the theatre came out, so I linked to this nice one I found on Flickr.) We had a great time visiting the Verulamium Museum and saw some fascinating artifacts - the most impressive being the gorgeous and stunningly well preserved mosaics.

We also had a pub lunch at Ye Olde Fighting Cocks - apparently the oldest pub in England - or so a former manager claims he found proof that a pub stood in the same spot in 795 AD. (I wonder how many pubs claim the “oldest pub” title.) Regardless it sure was delicious! Our last stop was at one of the local pubs for a pint, called The Lower Red Lion. It was filled with friendly locals and a cozy fire, and it was the perfect ending to a perfect day.

One of the best things about St Albans is that it’s only a short 30 minute drive away, and you can see everything in just a couple hours or less. So you can fill your day with other plans and still step into St Albans for some lovely sights. It’s also perfect if all you want is a low-key and relaxing day. I’m definitely taking everyone who comes visit us to St Albans.

Since moving to this country, one thing I’ve found that I absolutely love doing is getting in the car. The act of driving isn’t what I love - rather, the knowledge that I’m on my way to seeing some marvelous sights. Take this weekend, for example. We didn’t have any worthwhile plans to see great castles or cathedrals, so we ended up taking a trip to Woburn Safari Park. (Of all the things to find in the middle of England, I would never guess a safari park would be one of them.) I’ll only say briefly on the experience - it was pretty much like a huge traffic jam, with the exception of seeing a few neat animals on the way. Worth going there once, I probably won’t return, but at least I can say I’ve been to a safari park. However the safari park wasn’t what made the day special for me.

On the way to Woburn, we passed through a collection of charming small towns, and if I had to pick a favorite thing about this country so far, small towns would be it. If I had to guess I’ve visited or passed through about a dozen of them since coming here, and each one seems to have a character of its own, not to mention a quaintness that I can’t get enough of. I grew up in small towns in Wisconsin and absolutely hated it - couldn’t wait to get out of high school and move into the “big” city. Here, I want to move out of Stevenage and into one of these towns!

One of the towns was called Richmont, in Bedfordshire. In the distance I saw a very old looking building, so I had Luke drive me over there to investigate. We found ourselves in another town called Segenhoe, but all that was left of the town was a couple farm houses and the ruins of an 11th century church. The church was small and had been abandoned sometime in the 18th century, there was not much left… but I found it to be absolutely fascinating. This was right up my alley. Obviously in the States it’s very rare to see a building that’s been around for 100 years or more. While here, it’s nothing to stumble into a small town no one has heard of and visit a church that has been standing in the same spot for over 900 years. I find it difficult to imagine someone who is unable to be moved by that experience, in whatever small way.

I guess the point I’m trying to express is that I don’t have to visit extravagant monuments in order to be truly affected by the vast history of this country. I got just as much wonder out of seeing the ruins of this small, unimportant church as I did from seeing the architectural beauty of Ely Cathedral.

I have become convinced that England is a beautiful country. Much better than Wisconsin. Every time that I drive somewhere, the rolling countryside looks marvelous, with its real green fields and historic non-striaght fences and walls. I wish that I could capture the look of the area better, but its hard. Recently, I managed to travel through the Lake District and County Durham, though the overcast skies prevented any nice photography (and the fog … there are massive amounts of fog, sometimes through the whole day blocking out all viewing of the sun).

Otherwise, I bumped into a fantastic article in Top Gear Magazine, that almost makes it onto the web version. Around the World in 80 Drives, theoretically 80 of the most beautiful/interesting roads to drive down. The web article is much more limited (cutting out some fo the descriptions and road names) but has some excellent photos.

We visited St Albans last week for a quick afternoon. My guess, is that its probably the nicest place in Hertfordshire, though we haven’t poked around enough. Regardless, St Albans at least has the most history of any location in Hertfordshire. Originally, it was called Verulamium and was the third largest city in Roman England. Later, around 250AD, a Roman citizen named Alban sheltered a refugee Christian priest, Saint Amphibalus and was executed for doing so. Supposedly, a shrine was built at the point of execution and Alban becamse St. Alban, England’s first martyr.

The local cathedral, built around the shrine, was only made a cathedral in 1877, prior to that it was one fo the largest abbeys in England (with much of the original building starting in Norman times, around 1100). However, the Dissolution of the Monastaries (blah, blah, blah, Henry VIII) act destroyed almost all of the abbey, and left only the church and a gatehouse. The church was purchased by the township, and became the parish church was upgraded to a cathedral in Victorian times.

Unfortunately, while we saw the cathedral, we missed the Roman History museum (called the Verulamium) and anything else of significance. The Good Beer Guide lists 8 marvelous pubs to visit, and we managed to miss all of them, though that will certainly change sooner or later. And finally, a couple of photos were taken:

St Albans Cathedral from the front.

The Nave; The Ceiling of the Tower

I had a wonderful couple days in London this past weekend. First off, on Friday night we put on our drinking caps and David and I headed into the trendy area of downtown London known as Camden via train. We met up with Dave’s former flatmate Jon and a couple of Jon’s exuberant work colleagues. The five of us then started off on an unexpected but delightful pub crawl, which took us all over Camden. This being my very first night of drinking in London, I had the luck of fabricating the event into, “Lets show this American how we party in London!” Which basically meant that I had drinks handed to me the entire night and I was in a whimsical state by the time I made it back to King’s Cross to catch the midnight train home. It is also noteworthy to point out that our group of five consisted of two Brits, a Scot, an American, and a Australian. Only in London…

I was also shocked to find out the very next day there was a terrible fire in Camden Market! And to think the night before we were right across the canal from where the fire started.

Camden Locks

From right: Becky, Matt, Jon, and Steve. A photo from across Regent’s Canal, left.

On Sunday, I was off to London again, this time with Luke and my father-in-law, Slawek. It was a gorgeous sunny and warm afternoon, without a cloud in the sky, which made the perfect backdrop for my camera. (Quick side note:  we had about a 7 day period with flawless sunny weather, and this quite perplexed me. I thought I was living in the UK?)

We were thinking about what to do in London that day when it occurred  to me that this was my 5th trip into the city and I had yet to see any of sights that make London famous. For example: Big Ben. Or Westminster. Or Buckingham Palace. Or Trafalgar Square! So that afternoon we trekked all around town, seeing famous building after famous building, until our feet were sore. Didn’t go inside any of them… most were closed on Sundays and besides, it was too nice a day to be cooped up in a museum. And of course, I took a bunch of photos. (Click the picture below to see the full set.)