You are currently browsing Beckster's articles.
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:
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 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.)
muppetspanker
Beckster