Jane Austen Festival in Bath

Our time in Bath was wonderful!  But it didn't start out that way.  We arrived earlier on Friday than we anticipated, so I decided to drive to the Jane Austen Center in downtown Bath.  I never expected all the steep and narrow streets with bumper to bumper traffic.  We took a few wrong turns and then tried to fight traffic to get back to where we intended.  We finally gave up in frustration, headed to our lodgings for the night, and then ended up having to parallel park on a hill.  I was exhausted and stressed out - probably more than any time on our trip - causing me to exclaim "I hate Bath!"

But I spoke too soon.  We woke up to beautiful weather and a wonderful breakfast smorgasbord with our hosts.  Rebecca got dressed in her regency attire and we headed to town to celebrate the Jane Austen Festival.

The first item on the agenda was a Promenade.  Hundreds of folks dressed in regency regalia paraded through Bath.  Rebecca joined the parade, and I walked alongside - snapping photos and just soaking it all in.  There was such an air of fun and excitement!

The promenade ended at the parade grounds where there was tea, dancing, etc.

There was a cool camera obscura, and Rebecca took a turn in it.  She said it was sort of like a periscope that allowed you to watch all the folks on the parade ground without them knowing it.

Afterwards we went to lunch.  This is the photo which I call "Jane Austen eats nachos."

She may be smiling, but not because she is impressed with English nachos.

During the weekend we also went to a regency "fayre":

and on a Jane Austen tour of Bath - where our tour guide pointed out all the settings that appeared in Jane's novels that were set in Bath  - "Persuasion" and "Northanger Abbey."  I have been reading "Persuasion" on the trip, so I really enjoyed being able to picture all the settings in my mind.  

We went to the pump room of the Roman baths, and drank a bit of the Bath water (which doesn't sound very appealing, does it?) that is supposed to be so healthy.

Here I am hoping that it is not that green water that I just drank:

We also attended Evensong at Bath Abbey.  This church seemed more like a "real church" than the other Anglican churches we attended on our trip.  There seemed to be actual church members there (not just tourists), Bible studies announced, etc.  They were all excited because their church has just been selected for the BBC broadcast on Christmas morning.  

This whole experience was like travelling back in time.  And just to make the time travel experience even more real, we had the unexpected pleasured of meeting "The Doctor" (12th and current doctor on the "Doctor Who?" show):

Rebecca noticed him in a gift shop and spoke to him.  We were the only ones in the shop, and he agreed to have his photo made.  He even asked us to check the camera to make sure his eyes weren't closed.  

Here are some more photos from our two days in Bath.  We still cannot believe the weather we have been blessed with.

20,000 Legos Under the Sea

Believe it or not, the beaches of Cornwall became a destination on our trip when we heard that it's the only place where you can search the beaches for Lego instead of shells (did I mention that we like to do things out of the ordinary?). A cargo ship carrying Lego bricks sunk in 1997, and it continues to wash ashore.  Ironically, most of the pieces have a nautical theme.

Unfortunately, we did not find Lego.  The beach was remarkably clean.  We did bring a few of our own for a photo op.  These are some minifigs that Noah built to represent Rebecca and me looking for Lego.

While we didn't find Lego, we found a wonderful beach and had great weather. Blue skies and big surf.  There were so many surfers, and I loved watching  them. Plus I loved all the caves and cliffs to explore.  I've never been a huge fan of only beach -   I like the shoreline to be interesting.  We also had a fantastic sunset.  I wish I could be a kid again and go to this beach.

That's me waving!

While in the area, we also took in Tintagel - which is basically castle ruins where legend has it that King Arthur was born.  The castle was not much, but the view was great.

The Lake District

In our family, we are lovers of lakes and mountains (which makes living in Tennessee very handy), so we knew we wanted to spend some time in England's Lake District.  Oh my goodness!  The beauty of the place was breathtaking.  The mountains look like velvet.  They were covered with grass, ferns and blooming purple heather - only a few of them had any trees at all.  This means that as you hike, you have a continuous view instead of only getting that rewarding view at the end of a long uphill climb (as we are used to in Appalachia).

We spent one long day hiking up to one peak (fell, as they call it here) and then across the ridge top to several other fells before descending through a quarry.  It was perfect hiking weather.  Unlike the Smoky Mountains, there was no haze.  This mountaintop experience was truly the high point of our trip.

Another cool thing is that we were able to start and finish this hike by just walking out the door of the place we were staying.  Evy, our airbnb hostess, and her family have done lots of hiking, but she said that the best one was right outside her door. She also gave me a great idea for motivating kids who are sometimes reluctant hikers (especially when that view is a long time coming). It's too late for me to use it with my kids, but I am spreading the word. She had little dog tags printed with the name of the fells or hikes.  When they reached the summit, they would open a bottle of pop, have a bite of candy, and a little medal ceremony.  She said her boys (now college age) still have their medal collections as one of their prized possessions.  Maybe this same approach would also have worked with reluctant water skiers!

A lot of writers came to the Lake District for inspiration, and I can see why.  I could even write poetry in a place like this.  We visited the homes of Wordsworth and Beatrix Potter.  This was a special memory to me as I remember studying Beatrix Potter's books and life when Rebecca was a first grader.  This field trip was a long time coming!  Here is Rebecca at Hilltop Farms, where Beatrix Potter lived.

Actually, this is where she lived until she got married.  Then she lived in this house pictured on the right that is across the street from Hilltop.  She used Hilltop as her own space for gardening, drawing, etc.

Our guide told us she feared her husband would want her to change something.

Hilltop is in Near Sawrey.  We took a walk from Near Sawrey to Far Sawrey and back again.  I just love the names of these places.

Then we headed to Wray Castle.  Beatrix Potter actually lived there while visiting the Lake District as a teen.  Here I am pretending I own the place:

It had a gorgeous view of pasture and lake.

Stonehenge Alternative

We decided when we were planning our trip that we would leave out Stonehenge.  It may have been really cool in the past when you could go right up to the stones, but I had no interest in seeing it from behind a rope - especially when the surrounding countryside was mostly flat.

As you probably know, there are stone circles of all kinds on the British Isles.  Our "Stonehenge Alternative" was Castlerigg Stone Circle in the Lake District.

It is a beautiful spot with a 360 degree view.

Plus they let you climb all over it (see previous post about Hadrian's Wall).  

Hadrian's Wall

This is the day we reached the northernmost point in our journey.  We started seeing signs for Scotland and would have loved to take a detour!

Our hostess, Madeleine, gave us directions to hike from where we were staying in Haltwhistle up to a lovely spot to see the wall - Cawfield's Quarry.  The British call this "walking" instead of "hiking."  This trail led through the forest and then through fields with sheep and cows.

The wall abruptly stops there, at least for a while, because the English tore it down to build their quarry.  Nowadays this would certainly be frowned upon as it turns out you are not even supposed to walk on the wall.  We didn't find this out until we had finished our hike, and as you can see from the photographic evidence, we did indeed get up on the wall.

Oh well.  I also ignored at least one other sign as you can see below:

I even managed to get Rebecca to join me out on the edge:

It was so cool to see this wall stretching out over the hills and thinking that it has been there for almost 2000 years.

Some Moors (not S'Mores)

Did you have to read Wuthering Heights in school?  I did.  So I made Rebecca read it, too.  It just seemed fair.  Then she also read Jane Eyre just for fun.

What do I think about most when I heard of these titles?  For some reason, I just always think of moors.  In fact, that is the landscape that most comes to mind when I think of any English novel.  And I've always wanted to see the moors, especially while they're blooming.  But I didn't think about that when I made our plane reservations for September, I promise.  So it was just an added blessing that we got to see heather blooming on the moors (I wasn't even sure we'd see moors since I worried we wouldn't be in the exact right location).

The first place we spotted the heather was right outside the Brontë Parsonage.  We opted not to pay to see the inside of the house but instead take a walk that the Brontë sisters would have taken.  When I saw the blooming heather, I sort of went crazy with the photos.  I didn't know at the time that we would be seeing this stuff all over the place in northern England.

In addition to the heather, there is this tall pink flower blooming everywhere.  I really liked it, and I asked our hostess, Zena, what it was and tried to write down what she said.  I wrote down "Rosebay willow hub" at first.  That's what it sounded like to me!  Turns out it is sort of the kudzu of England.