The Road Goes Ever On

Sunday, August 23, 2009

Lavenham

High street in Lavenham

de Vere House; stone, brick, half-timbered

de Vere door moulding detail; hmmmmm...that de Vere? I thought they were from Oxford...

Leaning houses

A really bad case

Lavenham was once an important wool center, but declined after the Reformation. Everything, including war and developers, passed it by. There remain some 300 registered medeival/renaissance buildings, mostly half-timbered types, many about to fall over but for their neighbors leaning back into them.

Wimpole Estate

Wimpole Estate, frontal view

Garden

The Capability Brown garden view, complete with "folly"

We toured just a bit of East Anglia, starting with the Wimpole Estate, one of the great 18th century houses owned by the National Trust. They don't permit pix inside, so all you'll see are the exterior shots. But they're not bad.

Saturday, August 22, 2009

King's Chapel

The big draw in Cambridge, other than the university, is King's Chapel; not a cathedral, just a college chapel, but a major political statement, finished off by Henry VIII; begun a century earlier as a rather different sort of statement

West towers

West windows

What is extraordinary about King's is the fan vaulting, ordered personally by Henry, 2000 tons of it literally hanging from the roofing structure above via a sort of reverse arch system, most extensive in England

Vaulting close-up; capstones weigh a ton each

There is also Rubens' Adoration of the Magi, the altar piece

But the place is mostly about Henry, and His Church

And, look closely, "RA," Regina Anne (as in Boleyn)

Cambridge

We spent the equivalent of a couple days walking, wandering, shoppping, punting, around Cambridge. Nice place. Big-time traffic problems.

Punting on the Cam (punting on the Cam, we
shall go rejoicing, punting on the Cam)

King's Chapel and a bit of Trinity College

A courtyard in Trinity

Darwin house

Famous sundials (Queen's College, I think)

A Bridge of Sighs (so known, locally; something about exams)

St. John's College, the prettiest of them, but, alas, mostly Victorian age

Friday, August 21, 2009

Sallie B

I had no idea what a treat it was to see this aircraft in flight until I spoke with a member of the Sallie B Association who told me she'd logged only 9 minutes airborne in the past year...engine trouble, difficulty of repair in a large 66-year old plane.

Pride of place at Duxford clearly goes to the B-17G Flying Fortress Sallie B

Take-off from Duxford

What must have been a familiar sight here, 65 years ago, a Flying Fort banking
low over the East Anglia countryside

Flying over Bar Hill, on approach

Full view

Tail view

Apparently the Sallie B has been a movie star as well

From the American Hangar, US 8th and 9th Air Force bases in southeastern
England, June 6, 1944; you get to be proud to be a Yank, here

Duxford

This was just a normal weekend at Duxford; no air-show. But historic planes were flying everywhere, DeHavilland Dragon Rapides, Tiger Moths, an F86 Sabre Jet, Hurricanes, Spitfires, and the B-17...next post. In Hangar 2 they are restoring dozens of planes, including some rare creatures, a Heinkel-Jaeger bomber, Me109s, a Storch. And there are scores more on display, most intact, some, like a Zero, just a fuselage or wing. Amazing place.

The Imperial War Museum at Duxford is an unbelieveable place: an old RAF/8th
Air Force base, restored, with six or more giant hangars of aircraft, chronicling
British aviation, the Battle of Britain, and WWII.

There are American warplanes all over Duxford, many restored to flying condition,
but the American Hangar features three or four dozen American warbirds, all the way
from the Sopwith Camel to the F-15

Not least is a TBM Avenger torpedo bomber, made up to look like George Bush's
"Barbara"

The combat information center at Duxford has been restored to 1940; Duxford was
base to Douglas Bader's RAF squadron 242; Bader, a double-amputee after a flying
accident in the 30s, convinced the RAF he could still fly, rose to lead the 242th,
evenutally was shot down over Germany, a POW, then escaped....

A Hawker Hurricane, the work-horse of the Battle of Britain, approaches

I confess I did pause to enjoy a warm [sic] one, a Spitfire,
"The Bottle of Britain"

African Swallows

These are (click to enlarge) African swallows, which do migrate, the farmer at
Highfield said, from North Africa

S #1: It's not a question of where he grips it! It's a simple question of weight ratios! A five ounce bird could not carry a one pound coconut.
A: Well, it doesn't matter. Will you go and tell your master that Arthur from the Court of Camelot is here.
S #1: Listen. In order to maintain air-speed velocity, a swallow needs to beat its wings forty-three times every second, right?
A: Please!
S #1: Am I right?
A: I'm not interested!
S #2: It could be carried by an African swallow!
S #1: Oh, yeah, an African swallow maybe, but not a European swallow. That's my point.
S #2: Oh, yeah, I agree with that.
A: Will you ask your master if he wants to join my court at Camelot?!
S #1: But then of course a-- African swallows are non-migratory.
S #2: Oh, yeah...
S #1: So they couldn't bring a coconut back anyway...

Minis!

We became acquainted with Minis via my 1967 Lynchburg College roommate David Jones, who had a '66 Cooper that was racing-prepared. On our first European trip, in 1979, we tent-camped out of a rented Mini in the UK. In 1989, we bought a '74 850, autumn gold, that became Rebecca's car, and then mine. We're fans, and likely will own another someday. [Oh, yes, right: we're in the UK now, first at Rochester, briefly, then in Comberton, outside Cambridge, for several days' rest. The touring has been non-stop for weeks, and we needed a break. Especially after Dartford Crossing. It hasn't gotten any better after 10 or even 20 years.]

2009 is the 50 year anniversary of the first production of the Austin Mini;
production ceased about 2000, the longest-running in automotive history
(the current Mini is a BMW in clever disguise, although made in Oxford

When Minis started arriving in numbers at the campground we were in near
Cambridge--Highfield Farm Touring Park--we knew there would be more;
the great Mini 50th anniversary jamboree had been held in Birmingham the
week before, with more events all over the Island