March 13th

Well our bags are packed and we're ready to go- sort of:

This is a big explore for Robb and I as we take the ferry from Newcastle, England to Amsterdam.  Robb has made reservations for us to board the ship, which is also a car ferry, on Tuesday the 15th of March.  We are taking the car to make it easier to get around rather than using the train.  This trip will be a test of Robb's driving skills as now he will be driving on the opposite side of the road from the UK, like we do at home, but the steering wheel will now be on the wrong side.  It is great that his depth perception is good!

Robb could have had a deluxe room
with beautiful windows and ocean views
like this room---

But being the sweet wonderful husband that he is, and wanting to be able to take me along on the company budget- he opted for a little less splash so that I could tag along with him.  And since we are traveling all night, does it really matter?

Our first trip is taking us to a part of the world that we are very unfamiliar with.  We will be landing in Amsterdam and driving through the Netherlands to Germany.  The city we are going to in Germany is almost to the border of Denmark. 

On this map, the UK is the green island country and we are landing in the orange country across from it, the Netherlands, then driving north through the purple country, Germany almost to the pink country which is Denmark.

Robb has appointments in Belgium, the little green nation to the south, northern France, the big yellow country next to Germany, as well as Germany and the Netherlands so we will be driving for about a week after the renewable energy conference.

The Conference is being held in a small town called Husum, which is about an hour and a half from Hamburg.  We did visit Hamburg when we bought our tea for the tearoom but didn't have time on that visit to see much around the area. The one issue we have on this trip is that the conference center charged five hundred euros a day for the set up of the booth, which included a table, 2 chairs and electricity.  Even though the company is paying for the trip they keep Robb on a pretty tight budget and he isn't allowed to do as he pleases so we had to come up with a booth design that we could pack with us!

So.....  We are packing in the car

2 folding six foot tables

3 folding chairs

2 six by six background displays complete with posters of our wind turbine

1 pop up display that we received from the home office

1 small printer to be used to give out free site wind speeds and 2 reams of paper

2 forest green table cloths for tables

1 XZERES six foot banner for front of tables

1 white bowl and three bags (3lbs each) of wrapped candy

1000 fliers in English

1000 fliers in German

1 bag with assorted hooks, tape, scissors and tools

1 fold up luggage cart to move the above

And if all works out well - our suitcase, brief case with computer, a goodie bag and us.

  Please remember that we are driving a Ford Fiesta and I can't help thinking we will look like the car at the circus that all the clowns keep climbing out of! 

What an adventure awaits us.  Robb is doing a practice pack tomorrow!

Love to all,

Dawn

March 8th

Cambridge - night life

We had a lovely evening starting off with Evensong which is held in King's Chapel.  Evensong is different from any church service I have ever attended.  The main thing is that they sing the psalms.  Now I know they are songs/hymns but I have never heard them sung before.  The choir is made up of both boys and men, and it was beautiful.

The Chapel is every bit as beautiful on the inside as the out side.  They use a lot of candles and it makes the whole place look like a Christmas card even in spring.  We have been attending church each week but usually a different one, and this I must admit has to be the most beautiful yet.

After we attended Evensong we went on the hunt for a place to have dinner.  Not thinking ahead we hadn't made reservations anywhere and we quickly realized that having dinner out on a Saturday was a popular choice.  We finally found a Noodle House and we enjoyed a lovely Chinese dinner before attending the theatre.  Robb had bought tickets for us to see the "Scottish Play"as it is known to those in the acting world.  To us, it's Macbeth, not one of Shakespear's humorous plays to be sure.

A synopsis of the story:
The Tragedy of Macbeth (commonly called Macbeth) is a play by William Shakespeare about a regicide and its aftermath. It is Shakespeare's shortest tragedy and is believed to have been written sometime between 1603 and 1607. The earliest account of a performance of what was likely Shakespeare's play is April 1611, when Simon Forman recorded seeing such a play at the Globe Theatre. It was first published in the Folio of 1623, possibly from a prompt book for a specific performance.
Shakespeare's sources for the tragedy are the accounts of King Macbeth of Scotland, Macduff, and Duncan in Holinshed's Chronicles (1587), a history of England, Scotland and Ireland familiar to Shakespeare and his contemporaries. However, the story of Macbeth as told by Shakespeare bears no relation to real events in Scottish history as Macbeth was an admired and able monarch. In the backstage world of theatre, some believe that the play is cursed, and will not mention its title aloud, referring to it instead by such names as "the Scottish play". Over the centuries, the play has attracted some of the greatest actors in the roles of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. It has been adapted to film, television, opera, novels, comic books, and other media."

The play was performed with no costumes and no props but was wonderfully performed and even though the story was sad, it was an enjoyable presentation.   

                            

As we walked out of theatre (British spelling) on our way back to the hotel and our bed (it was, after all, after 11:00p.m.), Robb thought that perhaps we had taken a turn down a wrong street into a wrong part of town.  We quickly realized that we had forgotten what a University town of over 20,000 students was like on a Saturday night.  More to the point, he hadn't realized that  mini, mini skirts were back in fashion.

He did enjoy the walk back to the hotel by the way!

Love to all from Cambridge,

Dawn

                    

March 7th

Cambridge by foot- 

After the bus and boat trip we wandered around town on foot.  There are many beautiful buildings to see and a wonderful open market that appears to be a daily market with Sunday being the biggest day of all with even more booths and fresh breads, seafood and meats.  Unfortunately, staying in a hotel and travelling by train we weren't able to take advantage of all the beautiful fresh foods and flowers offered.

We then walked around to the Fitzwilliam Museum where we took a hour long tour.

The Fitzwilliam Museum is the art museum of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1816 by the bequest of the VIIth Viscount Fitzwilliam of Merrion, it has been described as "one of the greatest art collections of the nation and a monument of the first importance". The collection includes works of art and antiquities of national and international importance, among them antiquities from Ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome; applied arts including English and European pottery and glass, furniture, clocks, fans, armour, Chinese, Japanese and Korean art, rugs and samplers; coins and medals; illuminated manuscripts, rare printed books; paintings including masterpieces by Domenico Veneziano, Titian, Veronese, Rubens, Van Dyck, Canaletto, Hogarth, Gainsborough, Constable, Monet, Degas, Renoir, Cezanne and Picasso and a fine collection of 20th century art; miniatures, drawings, watercolours and prints.  As you can imagine, a hour only highlighted a few of the different areas, and after the tour we spent quite a bit more time wandering around enjoying all the beautiful displays.

I was particularly drawn to the dishes and silver that were on display.  It always surprises me that no matter how many beautiful pieces I own, I could and would still add to my own "collection".  My long suffering and wonderful husband made the comment that it is a good thing that I am not rich, or our house would be overflowing with china.

While Robb was having his meeting I wandered the downtown shopping area by myself.  I found to my delight a big beautiful kitchen shop.  After looking at three floors of wonderful products my eyes lit on a small display of what is call a garlic card.  These cards are

credit card size and have a grater on the colored part
of the card.  Now I thought that this is one of the most
unusual "Kitchen gadgets" I had seen and decided to
buy a couple.  When shown my purchases later in the
day my guy, much to my amazement asked me how
you would keep the smell from getting all over the
stuff you have in your wallet?  Yes he actually thought
that one would take this with them.  After I quit laughing
I explained that it was a kitchen tool and that you washed
it and put it in the drawer.
Has anyone ever seen someone grate garlic over their
food in a restaurant?  Could be the new rage with one of these!

Well that's enough of walking for now!
Love to all,
Dawn

March 4th

Cambridge by punt

A punt is a flat-bottomed boat which does not have a keel, and is propelled by means of a long pole. Punts were introduced as pleasure craft in Edwardian times, since then punting has become one of the most popular ways to see the famous bridges and colleges along the River.

After our bus ride through and around the town (city) we took an hour long trip known as the college backs ride.  This means that you get to see the backs of the colleges and the views not normally available to the public.  Most of the colleges were built right at the waters edge and provisions were delivered by these flat bottomed boats to little doors that opened out to the water.  Some of the colleges have bridges that connect two buildings together having buildings on both sides of the water.

There are many bridges to pass under and under none of them could the young man who was punting the boat stand up.  I don't imagine many of the boats could carry very large things and the doors opening on the water side are pretty small.  It gave a rather beautiful and quiet view of the buildings.  The apartment that housed the royal family students was visible and you could see how fancy the decorations were even through the windows.  Prince Harry was the last one to attend Cambridge.  Wills went to St. Andrews in Scotland and lived more like a normal student in a rather common flat.  Though I was told that the "family" owned the building and the downstairs neighbors had to be "vetted" before being allowed to stay!

Our trip was directly after the bus trip so the sunny skies you see were not the photo's I took- well in fact I didn't take any as I was too busy trying to keep my umbrella from poking the young man's eyes out that sat next to me.  

We watched a number of people who had rented smaller punts that were trying to make their way down stream. I think on a beautiful sunny summers day it would be fun to try "punting" myself.  At least when I got the pole stuck and fell into the river it would be warmer to dry off, as I am sure some of the winter punters found out.

Quiz- What is the name of the river that runs through Cambridge?

Answer- the river Cam of course!

Love to all,

Dawn 

March 3rd

Upon arriving in Cambridge we booked into our hotel, a smallish one that started out as the first "women's college" within the town of Cambridge. Up until then they had a college in a small village south of the town.  The separation was felt necessary due to all of the young men in Cambridge.  When the women's college did move into the town it originally had five students.  Women at that time could learn, but were not given degrees, just letters of completion.  It wasn't until 1947 that they finally received a full degree and it wasn't until 1980 that the last male college went co-ed.  Of the 31 colleges, 27 were all male dating back to the 1200's and four female colleges were started in the late 1800's and early 1900's.  It is interesting to note that of the 27 male colleges, all of them are now co-ed, and of the four female colleges, only one is!  Reverse discrimination?

We enjoyed the city in four ways and each day I'll tell you about one.

Cambridge by bus - Yes this was a double decker open top bus.  Fortunately for us it had a small section on the front of the bus that was covered, because as in Oregon, it was raining.

The city tour was interesting as it gave us an over view of all the different colleges and some information about the town.  Cambridge is now called a city, but according to the rules that make a town a city it actually isn't.  The Queen has allowed it to become a city under special license - the reason is that it has no cathedral.  It does have this:

Which you might think is one.  But no, as this "chapel" is known as Kings College Chapel and doesn't have a Bishop's seat which is required to make a church building a cathedral and a town a city.  Hard to believe that something this big and beautiful wouldn't qualify but it doesn't.

The tour was interesting and we spent an hour in the front seat of the upper deck.  Cold but dry as we drove around the town.  Winter probably isn't the ideal time for open buses.

A special note about language once again.  One of the colleges is Magdalene but it is called
"Maudlin"  We were driving down the street called Magdalene and the driver kept saying Maudlin and I couldn't figure out what he was talking about.  Finally he cleared it up by saying I know you think it should be Magdalene but we call it Maudlin.  No reason for the difference- just what it's called.

Hopefully we'll get used to the words and the way they use them and pronounce them.  I have to admit it keeps us from saying things to other people for fear of mis-pronouncing them.  And they say we speak the same language!

Love to all,
Dawn

March 2nd

Well at last I am back.  I don't know why this post about Chester didn't get put on, it was our last stop as we left Wales and headed back home.  I think I must have hit delete instead of Post.  All the excitement from the trip must have had me "flying in the air".

Robb and I have been to Chester a number of times, but each time you start walking down the streets you feel transported back in time.  The original town started as Roman fort back in 79AD and is situated on the estuary of the river Dee. The entire town was a walled city, with about two miles of walls surrounding the fort.  It is hard to believe but you can still walk around the town on this wall.  There are buildings that are built into the wall and it is a wonder as you walk to realize how very old it is.

The rained continued as we walked around the town so these photographs are ones I found on the net as it was raining and blowing so hard all the ones I tried to take didn't turn out.

These buildings are big buildings and they go back at least 200 yards.  At the top of these stairs is a department store called Debenham's.  It is like our Nordstroms and once you are inside the store all the beauty and charm disappears.  It was sad that they hadn't kept any of the old look.  A lot of the little shops still have all the timber on the inside and other than the merchandise looked as they must have when they were built.

Robb took me into a small coffee shop where I had my first scones since we have arrived.  It was a busy little shop and the table we sat at was 20 inches wide (I measured it with my little purse tape because I couldn't believe how small it was!).  And I don't think there was 20 inches between us and the next table.  It seems that all the restaurants here in the UK have small tables and sometimes you are closer to the person sitting next to you than the one you came with.  If I had set my tables up like these I would have been able to do 80 covers in my tearoom.

I would say that Chester was one of the first, if not the first, multi-tiered shopping centers.  You can walk on a second (first floor here) walk way with shops on the side and these shops are covered so in the rain they get the most traffic.  We enjoyed our afternoon as we walked around for a few hours but then it was time to call the trip over and head back home! 

I am hopeful that we can include another visit to Chester when the weather is nicer and we are able to take the walk on the wall.

Love to all,

Dawn