Northern England and the Lake District

This post is a couple of weeks late, but I didn't want to ignore the great time we had on our whirlwind trip up to northern England. Life just kept whirling more and more since we returned back to London, I haven't had a chance to reflect on it till now. During the first week of June we drove about 800 miles, and had a packed and wonderful week up north visiting friends, seeing beautiful countryside, and of course, more Roman ruins. During our trip we experienced plenty of history, and lots of little roads with villages with roundabouts and some very English food.

I'm not sure if I can get all the photos in the correct order, but here's a rundown of our trip:

Our first day took us on a long drive to the city of Chester, just between Liverpool and the border of Northern Wales. Chester was a very important Roman city, its size and importance rivaled London for hundreds of years. The Romans built it to support the thousands of legionnaires that were spreading across England further north to protect the borders of the Empire against the barbarians even further north (Scotland...). It has the oldest and most complete wall of any city in England, mostly built in medieval times but on the site of the Roman wall. It has the most wonderful two story shopping arcade built in the 1700's to protect the wealthy and finely dressed from the muddy streets and rainy skies. We think it should be voted 'England's' Friendliest City'.

As I was studying the map to continue our journey the next day I realized how close we were to Liverpool. I suddenly thought that Michael might like to see the childhood homes of John Lennon and Paul McCartney, and we spontaneously took a short diversion to Merseyside. Anna wasn't too pleased with this turn of events, but she navigated quietly and ably to get us to the National Trust site from where we met the van that would take us to the Beatles' suburban homes. Then she went ballistic with joy! When we arrived at Speke Hall, we discovered it to be one of the largest and best preserved Tudor homes in England, and it came with guides wearing period costumes. We all had a quick tour around the grand house and gardens, learning some very interesting trivia about the Tudors (priests had to dress as servants to hide themselves from the Elizabethan guards, changing into their vestments only for weekly mass, and then the great houses built spyholes into chimneys to spot the guards coming from a distance because the priests would be killed immediately for continuing to promote their Catholic faith, so in the middle of mass they'd have to whip their collars and robes off. Michael wondered why they didn't just keep the servant's dress on all the time? Seems a reasonable query...) Anna decided to stay at Speke Hall to soak up it's atmosphere further, while Michael and I hopped on the Beatles' van; Anna is our harp playing, Tudor loving daughter, while Michael couldn't wait to touch all things rock 'n roll and Beatles!

To appease the current neighbors of the Lennon and McCartney's houses, the National Trust takes just 14 people into them at a time via mini-van, so there are no cars nor hoards of people wandering around. We had a great time getting toured around the houses by the men whose job it is to live in these homes as caretakers, and after 11 years the guy in McCartney's house looks uncannily like Paul himself...No photos are allowed inside, but these are amazing places to visit. The Trust has worked hard with the McCartneys and Yoko Ono to redecorate the houses exactly as they were in the late 50's and early '60's so that you can stand in John's room where Paul used to visit and write songs together, and then they'd go down to the vestibule at the front door to sing them because the acoustics were better there. So many interesting things: photos of them writing 'Please Please Me' in the sitting room, early illustrations by John Lennon, original door handles, floors, windows, all their early inspiration everywhere! Michael just soaked it up, and he kept rubbing his hands over everything, even kissed the kitchen tile floor in Paul's house!! If you're in England, this is a great excursion to make. And you can even fly to Liverpool, landing at the John Lennon airport - which has the best graphics of any airport I've seen!

From here we drove into the Lake District, and across it to our friends who live in the little village of Greysouthen (pronounced 'greysoon'). We stayed with Lydia and her family; Lydia is a school friend of Anna's from when we lived in Cambridge, and after not seeing each other for 6 years it seemed not a day had passed. I had a lovely time catching up with my friend, Lydia's mom, Helen, and Michael and Harry, no longer babies together, played and played. Michael fit right into village life here and I didn't see him much for the couple of days for her was down in the park playing football (soccer) with all the village boys. We took some lovely walks in this part of the Lake District, visited another ancient stone circle at Castlerigg, fed the Davies' chickens and harvested the eggs, hung out in the market town of Keswick where we finally got our fish 'n chips for dinner. It was far too brief a visit, and it was so pleasant and friendly, another place on the list 'places definitely to return to'.

A few days later we were back on the road to cross the northern part of England, and stop at the Roman Hadrian's Wall while driving west to east. Amazingly much of this frontier of the Romans still stands, not as tall as it once was because most of the stone was used over the centuries by the Saxons for their churches, Normans for the forts, the Middle Ages for cathedrals, and everybody over hundreds of years for farmhouses. This drive took us through Carlisle, home of the McVities' factory, where we almost stopped just to pay homage, but the big fast roundabouts just spun us through the city. (Mc Vities are the makers of the chocolate digestive cookies/biscuits we crave so deeply.......)

At Newcastle we turned right and started heading south back down the east side of England. We took a quick stop at Beamish, a history museum that brings to life northern England in the 1800's - a typical town, coal mine village, country house, farm, etc. etc. It's a walk back through time. Interesting and tasty with an old-fashioned sweet shop and cafe where Anna ordered herself a meat pie and mushy peas (essentially mashed potatoes with peas...yum, kinda....)

Anna continued to be the most competent of navigators and helped me stay awake for the long drive back to London, and Bill surprised us with a telephone call as we passed by Cambridge - perfect timing to perk me up for the last hour or so of this 400 mile journey on our last day.

Hungary

Oh my goodness, I think I've died and gone to heaven! Budapest - wow! I can't believe it, but every place I visit just keeps getting better and better. Turkey and Bodrum, so beautiful and interesting; Athens, welcoming and great food; Amalfi Coast, stunning; Pyrenees, I could breathe the sky in; little village in the Netherlands, charming; Paris, well Paris is PARIS!; London, like coming home...but now Budapest?!?! This place is like butter, everything is just soooo smooth, golden. I have never walked through an airport and out the other side with so much ease, help, friendliness. From passport control to the van that took me right to the hotel door, with the most helpful tourist desk I've ever experienced, everything was just friendly magic. And cheap too!! Each and every one of you, if you haven't yet, has got to come here. Stay at the Gresham Palace if you can afford it (an art nouveau palatial residence redone by the Four Seasons); if not this tiny, new hotel I found in the Pest section is wonderful, Central 21. Modern, classy, comfortable, friendly, free internet. And cheap! It's also probably helping that the weather has been a very sweet 75 degrees with a slight breeze to keep things cool.

I didn't want to leave my super comfy room with a super comfy bed, but I finally dragged myself out to find the tram stop (I had gotten up at 5:30am to catch a train, then the Underground, then a bus to the airport where my plane was delayed 4 hours...and I had no book to read because I'm traveling super duper lightly so I can have all the weight allowed to get Harlowe back to England this weekend when I go to Spain to pick her up - Hungary is just a little detour I've treated myself too, ALONE! My lovely friend Michelle is taking care of the children for me. THANK YOU!) Anyway, I took the tram to the oldest metro line in Europe, 1867 I think? It's very cute, with beautiful woodwork and fancy tiles, and trains that go way too fast.

From there I headed up Andrassy Street, past all the big, pretty old houses that now hold many embassies, to the central park to spend some time in the outdoor baths. One of the must do's here. While the Romans built quite an extensive baths network here because of all the thermal water underground, the whole public bathing thing really took off under Turkish control in the 16th century.
On my way to the baths I happened upon a delightful surprise. The Hungarians are known for their high culture, music, art, but particularly their literature and of that poetry being the most highly respected of all. To be a poet laureate here is, well, there is no person more respected. Anyway, I digress...I had exited the metro one stop too early, but once up on the street I heard a deep, powerful male voice booming a rich opera. So, while I couldn't yet see the park, I had no doubt where to go, where else could that voice be coming from? When I did see what was going on, as the sky was being burned up in a startling pink and red sunset, I slowed my rush to the baths and just took in the moment with the rest of the crowd. There were many singers and a chorus on a stage, framed by the monuments of the park entrance (a pair of imposing classical buildings, an eagle-capped column, a semi-circle of columns and statues of what must be heroic Hungarians - this was obviously an important location), and added to this were hundreds of Hungarian flags of all sizes, on the building opposite the stage was a gigantic banner of red poppies and the dates 1956, 1989, 2009, with bouquets of flowers laid beneath it. So many people were there, enjoying the music, flying flags and reading the temporary billboards with photographs, letters, and documents recounting the struggles for freedom this country has fought for during the last 60 years. I wish I could read Hungarian, but the photos were compelling, especially with the atmospheric background of the music and flag waving.

Eventually the baths beckoned, and I ventured further into the park. The Szechenyi bath complex is very, very big and very, very ornate. I accidentally approached from the back, and took about 10 minutes to walk around the whole building. Such a fancy place, and such an ordinary thing to do here! I snapped a couple of quick photos because it was just so much to see and take in, I wanted to remember it. You pay for a locker, go downstairs, get a towel, change and then go join everybody else in the BIG pools outside. Again, thought I'd died and went to heaven. As I slipped down into the warm water (32 Celcius, perfect!), I looked around at the yellow, ornate buildings and the oversized planters that were spewing water in fountains of various shapes and sized and thought, 'I've been here before, this feels very familiar...'

Then I had it, it was the Bellagio, from Las Vegas! Now, I've never liked Vegas, at all, but I really cannot go back there again after this spring. When we were having lunch in the Piazza in Amalfi a couple of weeks ago I was thinking that it looked suspiciously like the big room in the Venetian Hotel (more than does San Marco Square in Venice I think), and now the baths here are the spitting image of the pools at Bellagio, only much, much better. They're real here. Real peeling paint, fountains and bubbling water that grown-ups are playing and laughing in, real little girls being bounced in the big bubbles by their daddies, young lovers kissing under the waterfalls, old lovers kissing under the waterfalls, men in heady discussions and booming in laughter alternating with finger pointing, older men actually playing chess in the water! Wonderful stuff. I just floated around in bliss. And that's saying something, as my family knows, because I hate getting wet, do not like pools, yuck. Usually that's the case; but here, I never wanted to get out. And the watery activity choices kept changing: the big bubbly jets would go off and a current would start around the tiled tub in the center of the pool, and it was a fast current! Just swept you along if you wanted, or you could opt to sit under one of the peeing planters. And then the current subsided and the waterfalls started along the sides of the pool. And there wasn't just one pool, but three big ones, from what I could see. Two of these roundish ones and a really big, bigger than an Olympic sized pool I think, in the middle for swimming laps. And there were more inside, but I didn't feel the need to get out of my bliss. And there were massage tents set-up, and a weight room, and, and, and...so much more for this is a very large, very old and traditional wellness center. What a great thing to have in your culture; reminded me of the Japanese baths I loved so much, but this is mixed genders, not nude and is a very active place.

I did feel a tad guilty, though, because my family would love this place, it really shouldn't be me who gets to be here enjoying it. Bill, Harlowe, Anna and especially Michael would splash around so happily. I decided I will bring them back one day, and in the meantime, I am very, VERY appreciative and grateful for all the gifts I've been given during this amazing adventure.
Just to top all of this watery pleasure off, it started raining, just a bit. Soft, gentle drops that bounced off the pool's water. There were bubbles coming from below and bubbles coming from above - delicious. I finally and reluctantly climbed out; they were closing for the night, walked through the dark park back to the metro (which I felt quite safe doing all alone even though it was past 10pm) and went to the busy main square and found myself a yummy mojito and yummy Hungarian rice and fruit pudding thing. Again, delicious. I'm having such a good time here and have no children to read or sing to, so I thought I might share this great place while I'm actually still here.  

The rest of the week in Budapest was filled with wandering around the elegant streets and strolling through picturesque squares.  On my second evening my friend Phil arrived, and after living here for five years he knew all the things one must see and do.  He was such a wonderful traveling companion, fun, interesting, charming - so great to catch up with him and let him share 'his' city with me.  He took me to the Buda side of the Danube and showed me the view from the castle, all the while pointing out little points of interest I would have otherwise missed, like the buildings damaged by WWII house to house fighting as the Nazis retreated to the castle hill in their last defense of the city.  We wandered around the Pest side of the river(Budapest was created in the 19th century by the joining of three smaller cities on either side of the Danube), and he took me to the Opera house and school of music, where we stood in the street and listened to the pianists and singers rehearse their beautiful music, and we stopped for coffee in Gerbaud, one of the city's oldest and grandest of coffee houses.  We kept looking up, as one must do in Budapest because of the beauty of all the buildings and statues; many of the buildings in Pest were built in the mid 19th century after a flood wiped out most of the medieval city and civic planners designed a city to copy the beauty and order of Paris.  At about the same time, an Austrian-Hungarian prince visited the city and was dismayed to find a dearth of statuary and so started a focused intent on increasing outdoor sculpture.  Maybe I'm getting old, but I LOVED all the parks and buildings statues; they are really interesting and beautiful, with stories to tell!  What they didn't finish in the 1860's, the architects at the turn of the 20th century did in an amazing array of Art Nouveau buildings and decorations.  

Of course, WWII really took its toll on the city, and after that the Communist era.  The city, and its buildings, are only beginning to recover; but the people are making a concerted effort to recapture the glory that was Budapest for hundreds of years.  To not forget the struggles for independence during the 20th century they have taken all the socialist political statuary and created a park to teach the future generations about the decades of oppression.  This was a place of intense learning for me; I surprisingly found the huge and stoic, heroic statues a little moving and the movie that was made of clips of secret police training videos was more than disturbing.  I kept marveling at the difference between my life of the 1960's, 1970's and 1980's, and all that I learned in school and experienced at home, while the people in Hungary lived under Communism.  The vast divide between lives, freedoms and ideology really came as a shock, despite my 'knowledge' of it from school and media in the USA growing up.  It is amazing to me to be in this city now, so full of energy, beauty and enjoyment.  This is definitely a place to come, have a cup of good coffee, enjoy, and learn.

Italy

The dark haired, well-tanned taxi driver places our small suitcase in the lobby of the hotel, takes the Euros I'm holding out, holds onto my hand in both of his and says slowly, "You have the most beautiful eyes, your husband is a very lucky man." And I know I'm in Italy.

Our week in the Bay of Naples and the Sorrento Peninsula was full of interesting events, both up and down. On the downside, and to dismiss them quickly, there was: the two and half days of POURING, PELTING rain (saved money with this, though, because it was raining so hard we couldn't even leave our room for meals at some times and Anna was very displeased with the humidity's effect on her curly hair!); the unusually rude ticket sellers at the Ancient Roman city of Herculaneum, which we tried to enter twice with no luck (5 minutes after last entry one day, no proof of European citizenship - which we are - on the next so we couldn't get the reduced rate and no credit card facilities to pay the exorbitant foreign fee!; half of the Archeological Museum in Naples closing as we walked through it because they were understaffed - so no Gladiator or Mural viewing for us; the closure with no explanation of the early Christian catacombs in Naples after an hour's walk through rather economically-challenged neighborhoods in the rain to find them; and Michael being mercilessly picked on by some pre-teen Italian boys in the pool at our hotel who kept teasing him about being Chinese and stealing his swim cap so he'd get in trouble by the lifeguard.

ok, onto the good stuff, and there was plenty. Our hotel was heaven for the kids. We had bunkbeds in our room, we had endless bread, butter, jam and hot chocolate for breakfast, we had cascading pools with two long water slides, we had a set of really bouncy trampolines (and I even joined them on these during a starry night- so fun AND beautiful!). I especially enjoyed the view from the terrace of the beaches and coast, and Anna especially enjoyed the Italian friends she made there (a very different experience from Michael's...)

The day the sun came out we hopped on the bus down the Amalfi Coast. So pretty and reminded me a little of the Big Sur Coast; a few more colorful villages tumbling down the cliffs to the sea perhaps, and maybe I'm getting a little homesick, but I enjoyed the curvy road hanging to the mountain side and felt comfortable and at ease despite the steep vertical drop. We opted out of trying to 'do' all the villages along the way and settled down in Amalfi for the day. We explored the hilly alleyways of the ancient maritime city, toured the beautiful Duomo, ate lunch in the main piazza (Anna devoured her whole plate of spaghetti with clams, and disgusted Michael by extracting each clam from its shell with gusto), relaxed on the beach (children swimming, me getting a massage from an enterprising immigrant from Canton - I'm a sucker for a Chinese massage), and of course enjoying a gelato or two.

The next day took us very early to the ruins of Pompeii. The ticket people here were super friendly and accommodating, didn't even charge for the children! Both Roman sites are run by the same company, and neither seemed to follow the information on the signs. Very confusing, but at least Pompeii on this sunny morning was a happy experience. The children opted for the children's audio guide over a human personal guide because they wanted the freedom to explore the site. I told them the six things I definitely wanted to see while there, then Michael and Anna each took a map, listened to their audio for an overview of the whole place, each figured out a route, and then I made them confer and negotiate to decide upon a plan for us to follow. And this was no easy task because Pompeii is at least as big as our hometown of Los Altos and two of the things that were 'definites' for me were on opposite sides of the place. We did it, and before it became too hot. This place is amazing, and fortunately the original Roman public fountains are now plumbed with a modern system so there was water to splash on ourselves at almost every corner. We saw the preserved plaster casts of some of the dying, suffering people from the volcano eruption, incredibly colored and detailed mosaics and wall paintings (especially in the brothel! I had some delicate explaining to do to Anna and Michael in there!), Roman writing on so many walls, the oldest surviving Roman amphitheatre, etc. etc. We found especially interesting all the streetside cafes with built in dishes and tile countertops, evidently it was custom in Roman cities to not go home for lunch. Michael thinks these are the forerunners to the Spanish tapas style of eating. As our hours in Pompeii went on we thought it would have been an excellent idea if the current managers of the site re-opened some of these cafes up with small snacks and drinks. And of course, the visit to Pompeii continued our Monty Python tour of Europe as we laughed as we wondered 'What have the Romans ever done for us?' and tried to read the ancient graffiti on many of the walls to see if they got the grammar correct... We finished our morning with a delicious lunch of pizza, pasta and Caprese salad, and some truly magical lemon icy drinks fresh from the biggest lemons we have ever seen.

One thing that really stood out for us was the very little in contrast between all the ruins and the actual cities where the people currently live. This is especially true at Herculaneum, where Anna noticed the similarity between the Ancient Roman city and the modern higher one. Everything seems to be falling and crumbling apart, but nobody seems to notice. People are living in buildings in which half are empty with banging shutters and huge chunks of plaster are missing and there is graffiti everywhere (like much of Pompeii, and frustratingly often on the street and train station signs so you can't tell where you are!).

The three best parts and most memorable of our Italian tour have to be, though, the friendly people (because when they were, they REALLY were, lots of kisses goodbye from our local baker and restauranteur), the sun and its setting - so beautiful, and of course the food. Everything I put into my mouth just made me melt in happiness. Yum! La dolce vita!