London: Westminster and War Cabinet Rooms

Ground zero of Look Right World

Look, kids, it's Big Ben!

Some of the Houses of Parliament

The Churchill statue at Westminster, which I have never

cared for; makes him look like a gorilla in an over-coat

Oliver Cromwell...cultural tourism enemy #1;

should be "slighted," I think, just in fairness

War cabinet room; all original; the Imperial War Museum

has done a wonderful job of retaining and preserving all the

original material; all of it

The prime minister's room in the "bunker"

The Cabinet War Rooms are wonderful, but
the Churchill Museum, adjoining, surpassed
anything I could have wanted...beyond
Blenheim and even Chartwell; the photo is
of the signatures of those participating in the
the first meeting between Churchill and
Roosevelt, aboard the USS Augusta
in Placentia Bay, Canada, 1941, which
I particularly rever for Harry Hopkins'
signature; Hopkins was Roosevelt's
trusted "deputy president"--"the man who
came to dinner"--and who was his emissary
to both Churchill and Stalin in those dark
years; perhaps my favorite book of the era is
Robert Sherwood's Roosevelt and Hopkins:
An Intimate History

We spent a bit more than a week in London, camped at the Crystal Palace Caravan Park, taking the bus/underground into the inner city every day. We got to know route #3 pretty well. I won't do a day-by-day account, but rather focus on specific places and happenings.

Our first day we just reacquainted ourselves with Westminster for a while, and then I did the War Cabinet Rooms/Churchill Museum. (Vicki sat in the gift shop for three hours, reading everything they had; what a good wife I have!)

Salisbury

Salisbury Cathedral, highest tower in UK, one of the

highest in Europe

Nave

Choir, or Quire, as the Brits say

Cloisters; alas, pix were not permitted in the

chapter house

Downtown Salisbury, Sunday afternoon

After Stonehenge, we drove on the short distance to Salisbury, toured the famous cathedral there, walked the downtown streets, and stayed overnight in the coach carpark, for a nominal fee. The tourism season is pretty much over, and it is quiet everywhere, people settling now into the holiday pre-season.

Salisbury has never been one of my favorite cathedrals. The chapter house with its sculptures and collections is interesting--not least one of the oldest Magna Cartas around (there are scores, different editions, etc.)--but the cathedral, despite its great height, etc., is just too perfectly monochrome for me.
 
The next day, Monday, we drove on for an appointment with Gold RV in Alton, to have some further winter-proofing done on the Grey Wanderer. The work proved to be less demanding than expected, and, within an hour or so, we were off again, to London, and the Crystal Palace Caravan Park, south of the city. We found the Park with only a little difficulty and with some help from a Dulwich College instructor who kindly provided us with curb-side directions. We have navigated London without a SatNav on several previous occasions, generally long-lasting disasters, but this time, Tom-assisted, was really not bad. We spent the rest of the day setting up, as it were, getting our bearings, and so on.

Stonehenge

Stonehenge

The next day we visited Stonehenge, walking around it,

listening to the audio-guide. When we first visited, 30

years ago, you could walk out and touch the stones.

Today's 30 year-old visitor center still seems like a

temporary structure. English Heritage has a formidable

task in designing a new center, managing the hordes of

visitors, in re-routing the highways that pass so close to

this, one of humanity's most compelling monuments.

Uffington White Horse

There are many white horses in Britain, wherever there is

chalk underlying the grass, and particularly in Wiltshire.

Uffington is among the oldest, now reckoned to be from

about 1000BC. The figure--quite stylized in Uffington's

case--is created by scouring the grass and soil down to the

chalk and maintaining it that way...over the aeons.

Horse head, ground view

More

The manger, a natural hill at the foot of the figure,

unnaturally flattened, where the horse is said to feed at 
night

After our incredible megalithic day, we spent a rainy night in the White Horse carpark, high on the hill.

Uffington Castle

Back the other way on the Ridgeway is Uffington Castle,
the remains of one of the more prominent Iron Age hill
forts in the region.

Ditch and bank

Signpost

Contemporary megaliths

Wayland's Smithy

Wayland's Smithy is an ancient long barrow just a few meters

off the Ridgeway

Side view

Entrance

Kerbstones along the side

On the Ridgeway

In the afternoon, we drove over to Uffington, the White Horse

and Castle, and walked on the Ridgeway, "the Oldest Road."

Above, a signpost; the Ridgeway, from, roughly, Avebury to

the Thames, has been in use since paleolithic times

Vicki

Me

Parts of the Ridgeway admit automobile traffic; even Tom

was impressed...

Interlude: Our Oldest Companion

Neolithic dog from Avebury (at the museum)

"Our Oldest Companion...this is perhaps the earliest

indication of the British obsession with dogs...." Obession.

Indeed. I wasn't going to say anything. In three months on

this island, on every footpath, trail, track, up and down Ben

Nevis and Snowdon, on the beaches, at the landing grounds,

in the fields, in the villages...everywhere, we have seen

Brits walking their dogs. Most often there appear to be a

couple dogs per family, but, often, we have seen a single

person walking three or even four dogs. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The dogs themselves are exceptionally well-

behaved, if perhaps a bit aloof. Well, they

are British. Their owners are a bit less well-

behaved, sometimes foregoing the injunction

to keep their pets on leads, and, less

charmingly, to pick up their pets' droppings.

The south part of the island is subsiding into

the sea, and I strongly suspect the reason

is not the movement of tectonic plates, but

other movements....

I rest my case

Lesser Known Sights of Avebury

The little parish church--part Saxon, then Norman, then late

medieval--is of interest

Avebury Manor; good to know something was going on

here in the last 4000-5000 years

One of the better Avebury shops, especially for megalithomaniacs

Avebury

We spent the balance of morning at Avebury, perhaps the

greatest of megalithic sites on this island, part of a giant

neolithic complex, as I said, that is still being uncovered

and reinterpreted. The scale of the circles is unforgettable--

a whole village and thoroughfare lie within--but, even

after three previous visits, I had forgotten the great size of

the stones. Of course it is impossible to get all of Avebury

in the picture--it's hundreds of feet in diameter, the ditch here

is 12 feet deep and the bank is 27 feet high...

Me by one of the smaller stones

Part of the array

Vicki by one of the medium-sized ones

One of the really huge ones

Still more

Silbury Hill

Silbury Hill is about the same age as Avebury, as I recall,

maybe 3000BC at its height, all part of a giant, connected

"ceremonial" complex. The Hill is still the largest earthen

structure in Europe. It has been excavated many times,

but nothing has ever been found, except the sarsen stone

foundations and frame that underlie it. Humans are not

allowed to climb on it.

Up closer; sheep's eye view

No climbing, humans

West Kennet Long Barrow

November 7 was a banner megalithic day. The carpark at

Avebury was closed early when we got there, so we drove

over to neighboring West Kennet Long Barrow, one of the

older neolithic monuments in the area, 3000-4000BC. I

walked the quarter mile over to enjoy it alone in the early

morning calm. A long barrow--in this case perhaps 150'

long--is a chambered tomb, sometimes kerbed, but with

huge entrance, interior side and ceiling stones, all big

enough for a large person to walk under. An allee couverte,

as we'll say in France in a couple weeks. Above, the

entrance to the barrow.

Cup marks on the big stones

Part of the passage-way

Exterior view...just a long mound

Silbury Hill in the distance