England and Scotland

July 26, 2000

Having a fantastic time here in the land of 'Mind the Gap!' and 'Cheers!'

Upon my arrival at Gatwick, London, I took the train to Bath, then York, Edinburgh, Scotland and back to London (over a period of 11 days.) But I am getting ahead of myself...

After a 22-hour journey (Melvin Village, New Hampshire to Bath, England) I found my lodging for the night, grabbed a quick shower and headed back into town. Determined to stay awake until 9:30 or 10 pm to switch over to London time, I wandered around Bath, admiring the beautiful buildings (all are made with the creamy colored Bath Limestone, from nearby quarries, most in the Georgian style from 200 years ago.) I made it until 9, then stumbled back to the hostel to my room, which I was sharing with 3 other women. I chatted with Miriam, an Australian artist whose medium is gelatin and computer chips!

In the morning I took a 2 hour walking tour with a wonderful local woman, very informative and entertaining. Other highlights of my time in Bath include a visit to the Roman Bath Museum (see picture - Romans occupied Bath from around 70 to 400 AD) a trip out to Stonehenge, Avebury and a few quaint Cotswold Villages.

After Bath I headed up to York, a 4-hour train trip through gentle green rolling hills, dotted with sheep and cute English cottages. In York I stayed at the rowdy Backpackers Hostel, sharing a room with 7 other women of various nationalities. Lots of Australians and Germans with a smattering of others. Not too many Americans!

York has an ancient wall surrounding it, with a huge Minster as its biggest feature. My first evening there I attended an evensong - a service with a boys/mens choir singing, their sweet voices echoing thought the huge church - incredible acoustics!! I went on another walking tour and learned about the Viking occupation, saw ruins from the Romans, Angles/Saxons, Vikings and Normans. Toured Jorvik, an underground museum featuring Viking ruins and displays, went to the Castle Museum and wandered around town.

Next was Edinburgh, Scotland. By now, the brogues were getting thicker and the days much longer - the sun set at 10:30 and rose before 5) The food remained unremarkable. Lots of runny scrambled eggs, boiled tomatoes, fish and chips with mushy peas. Yuck. The pints of lager are great though!

I had a tough time finding a place in Edinburgh due to the Brittish Open and Tiger Woods, but managed to find a very small room 20 minutes outside of town in a B & B. Edinburh is really cool- the castle is awesome and the Royal Mile a lot of fun. Below the castle there used to be a lake (loch) where they would throw the women who were accused of witchcraft to see if they were guilty or not. If they were innocent, they drowned and sunk, but that was ok because their souls would go to heaven! If they were guilty, they didn't drown, were hauled from the loch, taken up to the castle where they were strangled, then burned! No one bothered to take the drowned women out of the loch. When it was drained, they found the remains of over 200 women.

Now I am in London. Here I have concentrated on the museums. (I am really interested in Art History.) Went to the National Gallery, Brittish Museum, Brittish Library and the new Tate Museum of Modern Art. My favorite was the Library, where I got to see some illuminated manuscripts and original old manuscripts of the Qu'ran, Bhagavad Gita, the Diamond Sutra, old Hebrew Bibles, the Gutenburg Bible, the oldest complete Bible in existence, as well as Leonardo Da Vinci's notebooks, the Magna Carta, original Shakespeare plays, original Beatle's lyrics, and originals from Dickens, Lewis Caroll, James Joyce, etc. Really cool. At the Brittish Museum I saw the Rosetta Stone and the Elgin Marbles - wonderful since I will be at the Parthenon in only a few more weeks - as well as a wonderful exhibit on Egyptian funeral customes. Lots of mummies and scarabs.

I am adjusting to the rigors of travel - figuring out how to deal with the money, train schedules, packing, trying to eat nutritious food and stay healthy, finding my own pace so I don't overdo it, determining at what level of paranoia I should operate (ie do I ALWAYS have to wear my money belt? Should I cable my bags to a rail while I am on the train? Are there pickpockets everywhere?), and so on.

Tomorrow I fly to Istanbul, and start all over again! New money, customs, religion, people, transportation systems. So far so good! :)