Good start

Sounds like this will be an interesting trip! I'm already impressed that you took Godzilla on the tube.

Anxiously awaiting more from the Pickles...especially since we will be visiting England and N. Wales in October. Your report is terrific!

I'm hoping Godzilla didn't make the return trip and has already been replaced but if not forget the replacement Leatherman tool for Fathers Day and treat Mr. Pickle to some lightweight luggage!
Sounds like a good trip...

Looking forward to more Pickles and Godzilla

Our copy of Michael Middleditch’s London Mapguide was really useful, but we didn’t realize an address on Princes Square included every building around the square, and we spent some time wandering about before we actually found the hostel (this is a literary device known as foreshadowing).

Hostel 63, 63 Princes Square, Bayswater

I engaged in a bit of lodging paranoia before we left – the reviews I’d read of the hostel before I booked were pretty good, but I read more reviews a couple of weeks before we arrived, and they were not nearly as complimentary. Thankfully, audere_est_facere was kind enough to look them up for me, and assured me that we would be all right. Mr. Pickle checked the room before we paid, and thought it would meet our needs – it was pretty bare-bones, but we knew we would be gone all day so that didn’t bother us.

Our room was on the 4th floor – with no lift, of course – and Mr. Pickle was grateful to leave Godzilla (now renamed Hernia Helper) in our double room after wrestling it up the narrow stairs.

Pros of Hostel 63:

1. It was cheap - $71 per night, $78 on Friday night
2. They had Nutella at breakfast
3. Friendly staff
4. Everything was clean

Cons:

1. The toilet and shower were down a flight of stairs
2. One shower room had no lock
3. The other shower leaked all over the floor
4. No soap or paper towels in the bathrooms
5. Lumpy mattress and really flat pillows

All in all, it met our needs, but I wouldn’t stay there again – next time I’ll use Priceline or stay in a YHA hostel.

We took showers, then walked a few blocks to catch the Big Bus tour on Bayswater Road. http://www.bigbus.co.uk It was a lovely, sunny day, and we enjoyed sitting on the open upper deck. The Big Bus tour was a relaxing way for us to see some of the major tourist attractions that we wouldn’t be visiting, and it was fun getting an overview of the city.

By the time we reached the Tower of London, our heads were starting to nod, so we got off the bus and stretched our legs for a few minutes. It was late enough in the day that the next bus we got on didn’t do the Kensington loop, so we never saw the museums in that area. We were both tired, though, so that was OK.

We departed the bus at Marble Arch and met our first pedestrian subway. Of course, we took the wrong exit (sorry, Flanner, they’re not that simple for this jet-lagged, first-time visitor), but eventually we figured out how to get to the bus stop.

http://www.fancyapint.com told us the Prince Edward pub was right around the corner from our hostel, and we stopped there for dinner (sausage and mash for me, a burger for Mr. Pickle, and pints of Tanglefoot and Badger, all very good). Our last stop for the evening was a Sainsbury’s Local for some picnic items.

We were in bed by 9:00 and slept like the proverbial logs until I was dragged into consciousness at about 2:45 in the morning by the sound of something scritchety-scratching about our plastic grocery bags. “Maybe I’m imagining it,” I thought hopefully, and went back to sleep.

No such luck. The next time, Mr. Pickle heard it too. After he finished putting everything plastic into our suitcases, he couldn’t get back to sleep. Eventually he woke me up to start Thursday’s adventures.
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May 3rd In Which We Visit Greenwich, Westminster, Churchill And Spend an Evening with Audere

“Aubrey, may I trouble you for the salt?”

We took the Tube to Blackfriars, then the Thames Clipper to Greenwich. It was too cold to sit outside, but it was fascinating watching all the old wharves and warehouses go by and thinking of all the people and merchandise that traveled the globe.

I’m a fan of Patrick O’Brian’s excellent Aubrey/Maturin series, so a trip to the National Maritime Museum was a must on my list. We weren’t sure it was going to work in our schedule, but a couple of the London Walks we had considered didn’t meet our needs, and I was very happy we were able to fit Greenwich back in.

After a look through the visitor’s center, we went to the museum. We were on a fairly tight schedule, so we mostly concentrated on the “Nelson’s Navy” exhibit. We both enjoyed the narrated diagram of the Battle of Trafalgar, which is projected on a large horizontal surface. It’s often difficult for me to picture how those sea battles were actually fought, and this diagram was very clear and helpful.

The last room has the uniform Nelson was wearing when he was killed at Trafalgar. There is also a surgeon’s uniform and kit – it was fun to see what Stephen Maturin would have worn and some of the instruments he would have used.

We took the tram up the hill to the Royal Observatory for a quick look inside and to take our pictures on the Prime Meridian (with bunches of other tourists, of course), then walked back down to ride the DLR and Tube to Westminster.
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“I see (stuff about) dead people.”

We got to Westminster Abbey just in time for the last verger’s tour of the afternoon; we used the Days Out 2-for-1 coupon for admission and weren’t asked for our train ticket. The verger’s tour was very interesting and informative, well worth the extra cost as we were able to see Edward the Confessor’s shrine up close. There are so many memorials that the rest of the tour is a bit blurred in my mind, but it was enjoyable and I wouldn’t mind spending more time there.

Our next stop was the Cabinet War Rooms and Churchill Museum, just up the street. During World War II, this was Churchill’s heavily fortified underground headquarters; when the war ended, it was closed up. Everything (map rooms, bedrooms, radio rooms, etc.) was left just as it was – a visit here is like walking through a life-sized time capsule. This place is fascinating. The Churchill Museum is also very good, but we ended up having to rush a bit through the last part of the war rooms before it closed at 6:00. Do allow at least two hours if you plan to visit here; we only had 90 minutes and it wasn’t quite enough.
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We took the Tube to London Bridge, where we took the wrong exit out of the station (are you beginning to detect a pattern?) and wandered a bit before realizing we were standing in front of our eventual dinner destination, got ourselves oriented correctly, and walked down the street and around the corner to meet audere_est_facere.

David had, at great personal sacrifice, researched several pubs in the area before our visit. We met in front of the Borough of Grapes, which, unfortunately, had just closed for remodeling, so we went to the Wheatsheaf (I think) for a pint, followed by a short DAVETRUFACT tour of the South Bank. We walked past the Clink Prison (now a museum), down by the Thames, and past the rebuilt Globe Theatre, then circled back. We attempted to stop at a couple more pubs, but they were very crowded and noisy, so we ended up back at the Wheatsheaf. We don’t go to bars at home, and it was fun seeing a small slice of English pub culture.

Dinner was at the George Inn, the last galleried inn in London. Once the Tabard Inn, it was the site where pilgrims (including Chaucer’s) departed for Canterbury, and was rebuilt as the George in the 1600s. Shakespeare’s plays were originally performed in the courtyard of the George.

We went upstairs to the lovely, quieter dining room and enjoyed a very good dinner – steak and ale pies for us, venison for Audere – and talked about various topics, including travel and American hair and teeth (I was relieved to find we have neither). The Pickles had a wonderful evening – thanks so much, David!

We stopped at Westminster again on our way back to the hostel to take night shots of the Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, and the London Eye before heading back to Bayswater. No scurrying visitors this evening, thankfully, and we both got a full night’s sleep.
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May 4th In Which We Explore Foundational Documents, See Stuff the English Nicked, and Watch Les Miz Get STOMPed!

We slept in a bit, stopped at Boots to buy a new hair dryer, and tried to find a fuse for our adapter, which we blew out our first night (hint – don’t try to plug a battery charger into one of those things).

Our first major stop of the day was Leicester Square. Mr. Pickle is a fan of musicals, and I’m not. To give you an idea of our musical differences, when we met he was aNeil Diamond and Barbra Streisand fan, and I was into the Sex Pistols and Siouxsie and the Banshees. But it was our anniversary celebration, and any good marriage involves some give and take, so we decided to get tickets for Les Miserables at the TKTS booth in Leicester Square.

He left me in the Tube station to save a bit of money on our Oyster card (actually, it was nice to sit for a few minutes and read). When he returned, he told me TKTS hadn’t gotten any Les Miz tickets from the theatre, and, after looking over the other choices, he got tickets for STOMP! instead.

“Oohhhhkaaaay,” I thought, regretting that I hadn’t gone with him and steered him to something different – but the musical evening was his choice, so I figured I’d survive somehow.

Back on the Tube to Euston, where we went to the British Library. We enjoyed our picnic in the courtyard before visiting the Treasures of the British Library room. I’m a lifelong reader and book lover, but I can’t really express what a thrill it was to see the Magna Carta, a Gutenberg Bible, Shakespeare’s First Folio, original handwritten scores by Handel and Mozart, and many other items that are building blocks of western civilization.

I could have spent longer there, but we reluctantly dragged ourselves away and walked down the street to King’s Cross station. I pushed really hard, but I couldn’t get the trolley through the wall at Platform 9 ¾. Once a Muggle, always a Muggle…

We strolled through Russell Square to the British Museum, where, since it was getting late, we took the audio highlights tour. What an amazing collection – the Rosetta Stone, amazing Greek statues, Egyptian mummies, and so much more. I especially loved the Lewis Chessmen, each with their own uniquely humorous face.

We wanted to save a little money on dinner, so we ate at the Stockpot near Soho. It’s nothing fancy, just basic good food – lamb cutlets for me, fish and chips for Mr. Pickle, with a Victoria sponge for dessert – for about £ 6 each.

From the Stockpot, it’s a short walk past bustling Leicester Square to the Vaudeville Theatre. We had third row seats, but they were off to the side, so we moved back a couple of rows to some empty center seats before the performance.

If you haven’t seen STOMP!, it’s basically rhythmic fun with household items – brooms, trash cans, buckets, etc. I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed the show; it was fun, energetic, and highly entertaining.
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Just loving your report -- did you ever find out the source of the scritchy plastic bag sounds?

By the way, I meant to say that I love the updated Jane Austen quote that begins your essay...

I'm LOVING this report. What a great variety of things you did already - just 2 days into the trip. And how exciting to meet up with a Fodor's comrade.

STOMP is pretty amazing - not really a musical as conventionally defined. My older daughter and I both took years of tap dance, so it really was a fun show for us. Of course, Les Mis is one of our all time favorites.

I'm sure we're the same age (we're celebrating our 26th anniversary next month). It's funny, I went through a phase in high school of listening to Neil Diamond (don't tell ANYONE). My younger daughter is a huge Sex Pistols fan. She was excited to pick up a Cure t-shirt when she was in London last summer.

Looking forward to more of your adventures.

Your trip report is terrific. I can't wait to read more.

We are taking a 25th anniversary trip, too. After 25 yrs. we've discovered Mr. Specs likes to watch other people doing things, and I'd rather "do" than watch. So he's at the U.S. Open Golf thingie, and I'm off to England in July. A bit of a pickle, but no problem.

What are "American hair and teeth?"

KTtravel asked my question.

Very enjoyable trip report.

I'll leave it to audere or one of the other Blokes to really explain American teeth and hair - but just suffice it to say, no matter how we dress - the teeth and hair are a dead giveaway . . . . .

>>What are "American hair and teeth?" <<

Think Carol Channing.

Carol WHO

I'd never heard of her but a quick Google gives
http://news.siu.edu/photos/channing.jpg

That's the feller.

Am I the only person who knows about musicals, then?

Mame, anyone?

Thanks, Azzure! We're pretty sure our nighttime visitor was a mouse - at least it disappeared when Mr. Pickle turned on the light, and it didn't come back.

American hair - Audere says John Kerry has it - I think it means that overly coiffed and blowdried look. Carol Channing is a pretty good example of a woman with American hair and teeth!

Lee Ann

ElendilPickle:

Title caught my eye right away and what a delightful read.

How brave you and Mr. ElendilPickle were to stay at Hostel 63. Your honest review will help others decide if it is even worth $71.

Loving your style of writing and do hope you get to stay somewhere a little nicer as your trip progresses.

We are going to San Francisco in early July and saw on one of the other threads you also are planning a visit. Perhaps we will bump into each other.

Sandy

Sandy, we took the kids to San Francisco last year for a couple of days, but we're not planning a return trip right away. It's a wonderful city, one of my favorite places in the United States. I hope you enjoy it!

Lee Ann

Enjoying your fun report...

Strange scratching noises during the night would qualify as a "CON" for me! Priceline, baby, Priceline.

There's also a sort of American male hair that looks obviously woven.
I'm all in favour of orthodontics, but a lot of cosmetic dentistry is a con trick,
Veneers actually involve removing a slice of enamel and once you have them, they have to be renewed from time to time.
Tching! goes the cash register.
Bleaching teeth makes them porous, so they stain more quickly.
Guess what, they have to be re-bleached.
Tching again.

Perhaps you should revert to the old idea that the best thing to do was have them all out (some people got that as a 21st birthday present) and use false teeth instead....

Enjoying this smart and funny report.

Hope the hair and teeth part is over.

I've got all my own of both, thanks.

I have all my own english teeth, but sadly me and my english hair have come to a parting of the ways.

May 5th In Which Mr. Pickle Vanquishes Godzilla and Mrs. Pickle Fulfills a Lifelong Dream, Views a Grandiose Spectacle, and Meets the Roundabout from Hell

We packed up early, bade a happy farewell to Hostel 63, and walked to the Queensway station to take the Tube to the car rental office near Marble Arch. Unfortunately, the Central line was closed for repairs over the bank holiday weekend, and we had to take a very full bus to our destination.

We lugged our suitcases on board and found a place to stand – at least, I stood. Mr. Pickle had to hold onto Godzilla (now renamed Hernia Helper after he dragged it back down all those stairs, down the street, and on the bus) and spent the ride uncomfortably crouched, attempting to hold the pole and prevent Hernia Helper from running amok in the aisle.
London buses don’t announce approaching stops, so I was anxiously trying to peer out the windows around the fellow passengers while avoiding the Mr. Pickle vs. Godzilla match. Providentially, I spotted Marble Arch and we left the bus, to the relief of the people near us.

We reserved our car through AutoEurope; since he drove on the left in New Zealand, Mr. Pickle decided it would be best to save some money and rent a manual transmission.

The nice man at National Car Rental looked through our paperwork, made a phone call, and asked, “Can you drive a car with automatic transmission?” “Errr…yes,” Mr. Pickle said. “Well, we’re out of manual transmissions at the moment, so we’re giving you a free upgrade to an automatic transmission.” Whooo hoooo!! We were given a lovely Citroen Xsara, a comfortable sort of mouse-shaped car.

For the rest of the trip, we used our Michelin road atlas and the excellent driving directions found at http://aa

“…the soil of the Shire is deep. Still there are things deeper and higher; and not a gaffer could tend his garden in what he calls peace but for them, whether he knows about them or not. I am glad that I know about them, a little.” -- J. R. R. Tolkien

From Marble Arch it was very easy to get on the motorway and drive to Oxford. I’ve been a Tolkien fan for 35 years, and I’ve long dreamed of visiting the city where he wrote The Lord of the Rings. Janisj recommended we park at the Pear Tree Park and Ride, which is next to Wolvercote Cemetery, where Tolkien and his wife, Edith, are buried.

Naturally, we got lost trying to get into the car park and ended up stopping at the Trout Inn in Wolvercote to ask directions. If we had had more time in Oxford, it looks like a delightful place to eat. We retraced our steps, found the car park, and rode into town.

I wanted to visit Christ Church College, but the dining hall (used as Hogwarts’ Great Hall in the Harry Potter films) was closed, so we walked through its memorial garden and down around Christ Church Meadow to Merton College, where Tolkien lived and taught for many years.

At Merton, we were able to walk all over the college, looking at Tolkien’s rooms (he lived there after Edith died) and imagining what it would be like to live in such a building.

We walked down toward the river, passing Magdalen College (where C. S. Lewis taught), the Botanic Gardens (where you can see Tolkien’s favorite pine tree) and a labor protest march attended by union members, Greens, Communists, and Socialists.

Addison’s Walk, along the Cherwell, is where Tolkien, Lewis, and Charles Williams had many of the conversations which were instrumental in Lewis’s becoming a Christian. We, too, strolled that path – it’s difficult for me to describe how I felt walking where two of my literary heroes walked!

“…I’ll cook you some taters one of these days. I will: fried fish and chips served by S. Gamgee. You couldn’t say no to that.”

“Yes, yes, we could. Spoiling nice fish…”

Of course, we had to stop for lunch at the Eagle and Child. The Inklings (Tolkien, Lewis, Williams, and other writers) met here weekly in the “Rabbit Room” to have a drink and discuss their current work. The “new Hobbit” (Lord of the Rings) was first read to an audience here.

Like Sam, I couldn’t say no to a serving of fish and chips, fresh, piping hot, and delicious, accompanied by mushy peas (which tasted like fresh peas, not dried, with a hint of mint) and a pint of Brakspear Bitter. Mr. Pickle had a very good sausage sandwich. We took pictures of the Tolkien/Lewis memorabilia and one of me standing by the fireplace in the Rabbit Room.

Wolvercote Cemetery is a lovely place with many old gravestones and a small chapel. The Tolkiens’ grave is topped by a rosebush, a rosemary bush, and some other plants I didn’t recognize. When Edith died, he had the names of Luthien and Beren, two of the heroes of The Silmarillion whose love endured beyond the grave, engraved on the stone under their own names.

Blenheim Palace is only a few minutes from Oxford, and it was high on Mr. Pickle’s list of places to see. I wasn’t as enthralled – there must be a picture of Blenheim in the dictionary next to the word “ostentatious” – but we still enjoyed touring the house and some of the grounds, watching the peacocks and pheasant stroll across the lawn. Blenheim’s rose garden and “secret garden” are quite lovely, even in early May.

We had a reservation at the YHA hostel in Stratford-upon-Avon (£54 for a double ensuite room, including breakfast). Unfortunately, when I printed driving directions, I neglected to include the hostels in those directions. So we reached Stratford, but couldn’t find the YHA (which is actually a couple of miles outside town in a village called Alveston). We asked for directions at a gas station, and were told if we went around the roundabout, we would be on the road to the hostel.

Several miles later, there was no village in sight, much less the hostel. Back we went, through the same roundabout, back out the same road somehow. This happened a few more times – no matter what, we ended up at The Roundabout.

Finally, we called the hostel and found someone who could give us exact directions, and arrived with a huge sigh of relief. Mr. Pickle decided he needed to lie down for a few minutes and recuperate, and I checked my email.

Unfortunately, we arrived at the hostel too late for dinner, which necessitated another drive into Stratford. Knowing the proper road made getting back there much easier, even though we had to take The Roundabout from Hell again. This time, we could see the YHA signs – not too helpful when you’re coming from there!

We drove in the dark through some part of Stratford, passing pubs and restaurants, but couldn’t find a grocery store or a place to park. We looped around, went in and out of a residential area, and found ourselves on the road leading back to (say it with me) The Roundabout from Hell. Spotting an open pub (I would give you the name, but I’ve blotted it from my memory), we decided to skip cooking and have dinner there.

We walked in and stood at the bar, looking at the menu and beer selection and discussing what we wanted to eat while the Stepford-like staff and patrons stared at us. After a few minutes of this, the bartender said, “Oh, we’re not serving food tonight.” Either they enjoyed our accents or they were too clueless to figure out that we were talking about food choices for a reason.

At this point, I had had it. I stuffed the menu back in its holder, marched out to the car park, and yelled, “I HATE STRATFORD!!” Fortunately, our senses of humor kicked in, and once we stopped laughing, we went back to the RfH gas station, got some pasties and drinks, and called it a night.

You certainly saw and did a lot on your Oxford day. I especially like all the Lewis and Tolkein references that you provide. Back in 1974 when I was attending university, I took a seminar on CS Lewis and JRR Tolkein. Now I wish I'd paid a bit more attention to the Eagle and Child pub and a bit less to my (half) pint!

Ms Pickle:

Not only do you write one of the best written trip reports ever - but you get it right about Blenheim.

Congratulations on talent AND taste

Lee Ann - Sorry I didn't notice you went to San Francisco last year - I have been reading old posts.

Quite an adventure getting out of London.

You and Mr. ElendiPickle are changing my perception of who stays at hostels. My only experience was years ago on a school holiday when I was 14. Give us full details on the Alveston YHA.

Thanks for sharing your trip.

Sandy

May 6th In Which We Spend a Long Time at a Touristy Castle and Receive a Directional Revelation

We got up early and enjoyed breakfast in the dining room (sausages, hard-cooked eggs, fruit, croissants, yogurt, cereals, etc.) while we looked at our road atlas. You can imagine our delight when we realized we didn’t have to go back through Stratford to reach our next destination, Warwick Castle.

Warwick Castle (another Mr. Pickle choice) is a bit Disneyesque in some of its displays - the Kingmaker thing comes to mind - , and I wasn’t sure I wanted to spend much time there, but I liked it quite a bit more than I thought I would. Since it’s in good shape, it was interesting to see something of how a working castle would have operated. They had a variety of medieval weaponry demonstrations the day we were there, including archery, birds of prey, swords and other hand weapons, and the trebuchet.

After we toured the inside of the castle, we walked around the ramparts. I’m not a fan of heights at all, but it wasn’t too bad, and the views from the various towers are pretty incredible. We took some time to enjoy the gardens, including the peacock garden. The peacocks all went into their displays as we walked past. Either they found us strangely attractive or we have incredible animal magnetism.

We walked into the town of Warwick to look around a bit. As it was Sunday, most of the shops and restaurants were closed, but we window-shopped a bit and took pictures of the Lord Leycester Hospital. The building looked familiar, but we couldn’t place it until I read, in a book about Austen novel filming locations, that it was used in the BBC Pride and Prejudice as the place where Wickham and Lydia hide in London. We stopped at a tea room for lunch, but they had stopped serving sandwiches for the day, so we gave up on Warwick and left.

As usual, we took a wrong turn somewhere, but at least we ended up on a highway that would take us to the Peak District. We stopped for a late lunch at the Waterman in Hatton. It overlooks a canal and has lovely views. They were still serving Sunday lunch, and I had some delicious pork loin and the best roast potatoes ever – brown and crispy outside with wonderfully creamy centers. Mr. Pickle had the crab cake appetizer – I knew he was trying to save some money so I gave him some of my food since it was a really large serving.

After more than one wrong turn in Burton-on-Trent, involving raised voices and a few tears, we realized that if we checked off the finished sections of the AA directions, we wouldn’t get lost quite so easily. It still happened occasionally, but not as much. Eventually, we found an open grocery store, picked up some dinner and breakfast food, and made our way into the Peak District.

This area of England is just beautiful – green, rolling hills, stone fences, and sheep with twirly-tailed gamboling lambs everywhere. We made our way to the YHA Hartington Hall hostel for two nights.

Hartington Hall is one of YHA’s flagship hostels, and its quality shows everywhere you look. It’s a large, rambling 17th-century house with its own pub and restaurant. The barn and coach house have been converted into dormitories and private rooms as well. We had a room in the coach house with the shower and sink ensuite and the bathroom right next door. The coach house also has its own kitchen, so we didn’t have to compete for cooking and table space with others. It was very busy Sunday night, with many couples and families. We unpacked, fixed our dinner, got some locally brewed cider at the pub, and settled down in the library to relax and plan the next day’s activities.

I just noticed I neglected to properly copy and paste the URL for AA's Trip Finder. It is http://www.theaa.com/travel/index.jsp

Lee Ann

This is great! Keep it coming!

May 7th In Which The Pickles Spend Time with Mr. Darcy and Prince Humperdinck

We ate breakfast (man, that back bacon is good!), picked up our lunch, and drove to Bakewell. Jane Austen experts think this pretty town was her model for Lambton, Mrs. Gardner’s childhood home. It was market day, and we strolled about the stalls while sipping hot drinks. Thankfully, I was able to find good coffee pretty much everywhere we went. We bought a pork pie topped with pickle and some Lincolnshire fruit bread to eat with lunch, found the car, put in our Pride and Prejudice soundtrack CD, and drove to Chatsworth House, Jane Austen’s model for Pemberley and another of my “must-see” places.

“Elizabeth, as they drove along, watched for the first appearance of Pemberley Woods with some perturbation; and when at length they turned in at the lodge, her spirits were in a high flutter.”

Chatsworth is a grand house, beautifully situated, and well kept. Unlike Blenheim, it feels comfortable and…well, more like a home. The Duke and Duchess of Devonshire, who still live at Chatsworth, continue to add new art to the house and grounds, some of which makes an amusing contrast to the antique furniture, sculpture, and paintings.

We thoroughly enjoyed touring the house. Everything, down to the stone windowsills filled with tiny fossils, was lovely. Unfortunately, the terrace isn’t open to the public, and we had to reenact the “Mrs. Darcy…Mrs. Darcy…Mrs. Darcy” scene from the newest version of P & P elsewhere.

The last room you tour at Chatsworth is the sculpture gallery. It contains many fine pieces, some of which you see in the movie. As we were walking through, I jokingly said, “I don’t see Mr. Darcy’s bust anywhere – it just doesn’t seem right without it!” Just then, Mr. Pickle said, “Look to your left.” There he was! I didn’t know the filmmakers had actually carved a marble bust of Matthew Macfadyen, which they donated to Chatsworth. I couldn’t help laughing, because I really hadn’t expected to see it.

“Elizabeth was delighted. She had never seen a place for which nature had done more, or where natural beauty had been so little counteracted by an awkward taste. They were all of them warm in their admiration; and at that moment she felt that to be mistress of Pemberley might be something!”

Somehow, we resisted the temptation to buy anything in the gift shop, and went out to the picnic area for lunch. All the YHA hostels pride themselves on serving locally grown foods as much as possible, and everything we had was very good, down to the freshly made baps and rolls. I had decided to take the plunge and ask for Marmite on my turkey sandwich, and I really liked it. It added a nice savory flavor to the turkey.

We spent an hour or so strolling through the fabulous gardens, then reluctantly left for Haddon Hall, just a few miles away.

“Tyrone, you know how much I love watching you work. But I have my country’s 500th anniversary to plan, my wedding to arrange, my wife to murder, and Gilder to frame for it. I’m swamped.” – The Princess Bride

Haddon Hall, which dates from Elizabethan times, is a lovely home. The Manners family is in the process of restoring the house, so the rooms and furnishings aren’t as well kept as Chatsworth, but it is worth visiting, especially if you’re a Princess Bride fan. It’s not nearly as busy as Chatsworth, either, so do go and contribute to its restoration! The main hall was Prince Humperdinck’s office, and I think they used a few exterior shots of the building as well. The new Pride and Prejudice made the main hall the public rooms at the inn in Lambton, and Haddon’s dining room was used for Elizabeth’s bedroom. The gardens are fairly small, but very nice, with roses, clematis, and a number of other plants I didn’t recognize. There’s also a small museum on the grounds which contains a variety of things they’ve found during the restoration.

We stayed until closing time, and stopped in Monyash on the way home so we could visit the church and its graveyard and walk around the town a bit. Our plan to try a Bakewell pudding was delayed since all of Bakewell’s shops were closed when we came back through. Providentially, I remembered the hostel’s restaurant, Eliza’s, serves it for dessert. We started our laundry and enjoyed dinner (baked goat cheese with honey, bread to spread it on, salmon, veggies, and the aforementioned pudding). The evening was chilly, so we asked the manager to start the fire in the library, got some of the excellent locally brewed stout from the pub, and wrote in our trip journal until bedtime.

May 8th In Which We Actually Don’t Get Lost Very Much

Today was another travel day, heading northeast to Buxton and west into north Wales. It was a pleasant drive, although it drizzled or rained most of the way. We traveled past Chester along the coast to Conwy Castle, one in the “Iron Ring” built by Edward I to attempt to contain the Welsh.

Most of the castle and the city walls are intact (houses and businesses are built into the walls); you get an excellent view of the walls from the top of Conwy’s highest castle tower. The vista was worth the climb, but the top was a little scary because there isn’t much space between you, the stair railing, the wall, and a long drop. I held on tightly and tried to look out, not down, until I couldn’t stand it anymore and went back.

We wanted to try a cream tea somewhere, and thought Conwy was the place for it, since we still had a bit of driving ahead before we reached our next hostel. We walked across the street to a tea room, which is built into the city wall and looked like it might have a nice view of the bay. As I set my foot on the first stair, the owner popped out, gave me a look, and slammed the door. Apparently most tea rooms close at 5:00 or shortly before.

We spent an hour walking through Conwy, doing some window shopping. As we walked, we considered stopping at a pub for a snack, but the “Please Leave Quietly” sign – on the outside of the door – made us reconsider.

We drove into Caernarvon, where, inevitably, we didn’t see the sign for the A4085 until we were past it. However, we found a Tesco as we looped around for another try, and stocked up on groceries for the next couple of days.

Our plan was to attend a Welsh male choir rehearsal in Caernarvon, but I’d had difficulty contacting the director, and we weren’t sure of the rehearsal location. By this time we were starving, so we decided to drive to our hostel, have dinner, and then decide what we wanted to do.

The YHA Snowdon Ranger hostel is about eight miles south of Caernarvon; it’s an old coaching inn at the foot of Mt. Snowdon, next to the Snowdon Ranger trail and across the road from Llyn Cwellen, with Cwm Cwellen looming behind the lake. The hostel has its own beach, but it was too rainy and cold to even put a toe in the water. Our room overlooked the lake and was very comfortable.

By the time we finished dinner, we decided to skip the choir rehearsal and just hang out at the hostel. One nice thing about traveling this way is the variety of people you can meet. We chatted with two sisters who were there to walk up Snowdon. The weather wasn’t cooperating, but they hoped to make the climb later in the week.

Mrs. Pickle -

This is lovely and has lots of useful info. I am also enjoying your observations. Please continue . . .

Still enjoying this wonderful read. I'd love to know: What sort of research did you do in anticipation of the trip?

Noe847, we started by deciding how long we could stay and going from there.

I had certain things I had to see - London, Oxford, Chatsworth, Haddon Hall, Stourhead, and Chawton - places associated with some of my favorite authors, mostly. Mr. Pickle wanted to go to north Wales, and added Blenheim Palace and Warwick Castle as we started to research.

I checked out a variety of guidebooks from the library (Fodor's, Frommer's, Lonely Planet) and eventually brought a Frommer's to bring along. Using those, we put together a basic loop route: London, Oxford, Warwick, the Peak District, north Wales, Shrewsbury, the Cotswolds, Bath, Salisbury, and back to London.

Janisj and some others recommended we revise our route, since Oxford and Warwick are easy day trips from pretty much any Cotswolds location. We decided to stick with our original plan, and it worked well for us. It was a good suggestion, though.

Basically, we tried to balance seeing things we really, really wanted to see in the amount of time we had with not wanting to spend hours in the car every day.

Accomodations - we'd stayed in a few hostels in New Zealand, so we didn't mind doing that in the UK. It really helped us keep costs down, and aside from the place in London, they were all very good.

I had a mental list of foods I wanted to try - local ales, good sausages, cream teas, Marmite, Pimm's - and was able to enjoy most of those as well.

Lee Ann

May 9 In Which We Escape The Village and Finally Score Some Goodies

“I am not a number. I am a free man!” – The Prisoner

We drove southwest through Rhyd-ddu and the charming village of Beddgelert to Portmeirion. Architect Clough Williams-Ellis built Portmeirion as an example of how a town could be built while altering the natural landscape as little as possible. All the buildings are brightly painted pastels and gold – after driving through the mist-covered mountains of Snowdonia with its gray stone houses, it’s a bit odd to find yourself plopped into a coastal Mediterranean village!

Audere_est_facere suggested we watch a few episodes of “The Prisoner” before we visited. I vaguely remember this show from my childhood, but hadn’t seen it since. Patrick McGoohan starred as a man who quits some sort of secret government job, is kidnapped and ends up imprisoned in The Village. Renamed Number Six, he makes numerous attempts to escape which are generally foiled by a man-sized white balloon. I suspect hallucinogenic substances may have been ingested during the making of this show, which has become a cult classic with a sizable fan club. Portmeirion’s “otherness” made it the perfect location for The Village.

Portmeirion is an incredibly lovely place. Everywhere you look there is a beautiful building or view. Having just watched “Prisoner” episodes adds a layer of surreality to the whole setting – seeing the line of abruptly ending footprints heading across the estuary (“I guess the balloon caught up with him”), the bandstand, and the building used for Number Two’s house led to a good deal of snickering and giggling. We were kind to the cashier at The Prisoner Shop, though, and refrained from asking her “Who is Number One?”

We browsed the shops – there is a nice Portmeirion pottery outlet – and drove back to Beddgelert. It was raining a little too hard to walk around the town, but the people at the information center gave us a couple of cream tea recommendations.

We walked a block or so to Lyn’s, where we had a delicious tea – two scones with clotted cream, plus a slice of bara brith (a dark, spicy fruit bread). Now we’re hooked on clotted cream. Unfortunately, my attempts to make it at home have fallen flat, but at least I can buy some from time to time.

After we picked up some dinner items, we headed back to the hostel to enjoy a pint of excellent local ale from Purple Moose Brewery while we talked with other visitors. The two sisters were still there, hoping for a clear day, plus a couple of guys who were rock climbing somewhere in the area.

<<We were kind to the cashier at The Prisoner Shop, though, and refrained from asking her “Who is Number One?”>>


I adore Patrick McGoohan. Did you ever watch the Secret Agent series (Danger Man in Britain)? The Prisoner followed that. Anyway, like many things, it is a product of its time.

Secret Agent - that sounds familiar too. Maybe I'm just thinking of that Johnny Rivers song...

Lee Ann

Lee Ann:

I am still enjoying your trip report and have been to many of the places you are writing about.

I'd like to know a bit more about the YHA - did you make your reservations on-line from home or did you phone? Are you guaranteed a private room? Is there a website where you can see what the actual rooms look like?

Am I understanding correctly that you get the use of a kitchen to prepare food and clean up after yourself? What is the cost of a cafeteria YHA meal?

Do you travel this way at home?

Where do you live that you can buy clotted cream and how did you attempt to make it?

Sandy

Great report however for accuracy it is Bakew Tart not "Bakewell pudding "

They call it Bakewell pudding in Bakewell, Blightyboy. I suppose that 10 miles away in Hartington they might call it Bakewell tart, but I was striving for Peak District accuracy, since we wanted to get one in Bakewell.

Sandy, you can look at all of YHA's UK properties at http://www.yha.org.uk

You asked:

>>I'd like to know a bit more about the YHA - did you make your reservations on-line from home or did you phone? Are you guaranteed a private room? Is there a website where you can see what the actual rooms look like?<<

We made all our reservations, except for Snowdon Ranger, on YHA's website. I had to do Snowdon Ranger via email because their double rooms weren't showing up on the YHA site for some reason.

The site will say how many beds are in a room. As an example, my two choices for the Peak District were the YHA Hartington Hall and YHA Bakewell, both of which are listed as having two-bed rooms.

In reality, that can mean a double bed, or two twins, or a bunk bed. So I emailed each place to ask if they had double beds. Hartington Hall responded first, letting me know they had rooms with a double bed, shower, and sink in the room, and a toilet just down the hall.

As it turned out, Bakewell YHA also has double beds, but by the time they answered my email, I had already booked with Hartington, and didn't feel like changing my reservation.

There are pictures of each property on YHA's website, but not necessarily of the actual rooms.

>>Am I understanding correctly that you get the use of a kitchen to prepare food and clean up after yourself? What is the cost of a cafeteria YHA meal?<<

Yes, every hostel has a self-catering kitchen with cooking facilities, refrigerators, and utensils. You can cook whatever meals you choose and clean up afterwards. For people like us, who travel on a fairly low budget, it's a great way to go.

Not all hostels have a restaurant, but most of the ones we stayed at did. We had a three-course dinner at Hartington for about £10, and dinner in Bath was around £5-6. I imagine it varies from hostel to hostel. I think I mentioned that YHA prides itself on using locally grown foods as much as possible, which is a nice perk.

One thing I'd forgotten is if a hostel has a license to serve alcohol, you can't bring in your own wine or beer. We bought a bottle of wine on our way to the Peak District and ended up bringing it home in Godzilla. We really enjoyed the local beers we tried, though.

I would gladly stay at any of the YHA hostels we used, except for Bath. I'd even stay at the Stratford YHA if I could muster the courage to face the roundabout from Hell again!

At home (New Mexico) we have an abundance of inexpensive motels; hostels aren't as popular here, and if we want to visit family, we can get there in a couple of days. If I was going somewhere for an extended period of time, I would look at hostels. In fact, I already looked at Hostelling International's properties for our Hawaii trip next year, but they only have hostels in Oahu.

Clotted cream - I know of at least two stores here that carry it. I tried a recipe I found at cooksrecipes.com, which involved heating cream in a double boiler, and one of Alton Brown's recipes from the Food Network that had you pour cream into a coffee filter. It was supposed to leave the thicker stuff in the filter, but no luck there.

I can actually buy milk with the cream on top at my local co-op, but the milk is kind of expensive, so I haven't tried that yet. I also have a recipe that mixes cream and buttermilk. I suspect that may end up tasting more like creme fraiche, but it's probably worth a try.

Lee Ann

Bakewell pudding/tart is very easy to make.

Bakewell Pudding from the Great British Cookbook http://www.greatbritishkitchen.co.uk/cookbook.htm

A buttery mixture, flavoured with ground almonds and baked in a light pastry case, is the basis of this traditional Derbyshire recipe, sometimes known as Bakewell tart, the origin of which is still secret.

Ingredients

Serves: 4

225 Gram pastry (8 oz)
4 Tablespoon Red jam
110 Gram Ground almonds (4 oz)
110 Gram Caster sugar (4 oz)
50 Gram Butter, softened (2 oz)
3 Eggs, beaten
1/4 Teaspoon Almond essence


Method

Pre-heat oven to 200 °C / 400 °F / Gas 6.

Roll out the pastry on a floured surface and use to line a 900 ml (1 1/2 pint) shallow pie dish. Knock up the edge of the pastry with the back of a knife. Mark the rim with the prongs of a fork. Brush the jam over the base. Chill in the refrigerator while making the filling.

Beat the almonds with the sugar, butter, eggs and almond essence. Pour the filling over the jam and spread it evenly. Bake for 30 minutes or until the filling is set. Serve warm or cold with fresh cream or custard.

When I was in the US, my American friends really liked it.
I ground the almonds in a coffee grinder because I couldn't get the ready-ground packs over there.
Be generous with the jam

LeeAnn - Thank you so much for taking time to answer my many questions regarding your YHA experience. Very helpful information indeed.

Sandy

Yes, I love the info about youth hostels too. Thanks.

Really enjoying this Lee Ann!

Did Godzilla aka Hernia Helper go ALL the way with you? I have to say you both looked remarkably fit and healthy when we met up (two days on from here...) If you did get him home (Godzilla that is) has he been sent back to the thrift shop?

And you like Marmite! WooHoo!! Did you take any home with you to tantalise the tastebuds of your children?

Looking forward to the rest of your report.

LeeAnn -

Back to Secret Agent The Johnny Rivers song was the theme song for the US version of the series.

Thanks for the info re YHA - definitely something to research.

Now, on with the trip report . . .

Oh, yum - thanks, MissPrism!

Hi, Julia! Yes, Godzilla/Hernia Helper went all the way home with us - there was no way we were going to go suitcase shopping while we were traveling, and it was easier to handle once Mr. Pickle didn't have to haul it up and down many flights of stairs. My total experience with it on the trip was putting things in and taking things out.

I didn't buy any Marmite, but I can get it here. In fact, I plan to get some soon.

Lee Ann

>>Now, on with the trip report . . .<<

As you wish.

May 10th In Which We Pass By Legends, Say Hello to Brother Cadfael, Enjoy a Wonderful Dinner, and Survive the Motorway

Today was our longest driving day of our trip, so we packed up early and hit the road. We passed near Croesor, where Patrick O’Brian lived for a few years, and drove down the coast toward Barmouth. We stopped in Harlech to take pictures of the castle, and drove down to the beach. It was too cold and windy to stay long – though we saw a few people bundled up walking their dogs - but we enjoyed our closeup view of the Irish Sea.

At Barmouth, we turned east for Shrewsbury. As we neared Dolgellau, we passed Cader Idris, where Susan Cooper’s Newbury Award-winning novel The Grey King is set. It wasn’t raining, but the mountain was shrouded in ragged grey mist and looked suitably spooky. The Tolkien Ensemble’s An Evening in Rivendell CD was the perfect soundtrack for this leg of the trip.

We gradually made our way down the hills and across Wales into Shrewsbury, where Ellis Peters set her excellent Brother Cadfael mysteries, found a parking lot, and set out to explore.

“Do you have our lunch in your daypack?” I asked. We both came to a stop as we realized we not only left our lunch at the hostel, but all our other food as well. Oh, well, I’m sure other travelers put our tea and cereal to good use.

Providentially, you can always find a pub! We stopped at the King’s Head for toasted sandwiches, then walked through town to Shrewsbury Abbey, Brother Cadfael’s home. We didn’t take the guided tour, but one of the volunteers gave us some basic information and answered questions. Most of the Abbey’s grounds have been turned into roads and parking lots, but you can still get an idea of where things were, and the church is interesting. One tomb belongs to a man who left soldiering to become a monk; the people at the Abbey think that’s how Ellis Peters was inspired to write the Cadfael series.
A window dedicated to St. Benedict was installed about 10 years ago as a memorial to Edith Pargeter (Peters’ real name). The lower right corner contains an ink bottle, a book with “Cadfael” written on its open pages, and the initials E. P. It’s a nice tribute to a gifted writer.

Julia_t suggested we stop in Ludlow on our way south; it’s a charming town with a nice mix of Tudor and other architecture on its narrow streets. Ludlow Castle was about to close for the day, so we enjoyed a yummy piece of almond tart at the Buttery next to the castle instead.

As we entered Hereford, we realized AA’s directions tend to route you through the centers of cities rather than around. This allowed us to get thoroughly lost. We ran into one dead end after another trying to get out of town; eventually we found a pedestrian who helped us find the highway.

Even with the delay, we were still ahead of schedule as we drove through the drizzle and back across the border for our anniversary dinner at The Bell at Skenfrith (http://www.skenfrith.co.uk). After the stress of escaping Hereford, it was really nice to sit down in the parlor and put our feet up. The waitress brought us a little plate of appetizers to enjoy as we read the paper and sipped a pint of Timothy Taylor’s Landlord.

The Bell’s excellent food and peaceful ambiance was just right for our 25th anniversary dinner. Almost everything they serve was grown or raised onsite or at neighboring farms. Mr. Pickle had the trio of seafood with basil and chorizo couscous, fennel/tomato chutney, and sauce vierge. I enjoyed a perfectly cooked breast of local duck with garden herb pearl barley, a spring roll with duck confit and stir-fried veggies, onion marmalade, and a fine herb jus. At about £17 per entrée, this was our most expensive meal, but it was worth the cost.

We reluctantly got back in the car and drove through the dark, pouring rain to Stonehouse in the southern Cotswolds. AA’s directions routed us through the middle of Gloucester (I couldn’t find a way to change this on the AA site), and it was getting difficult to read them, even with the inside car light on. We finally found a helpful gas station clerk who pointed us to the M5. None of the YHA hostels in this area have double rooms, but I found a room at the Travelodge in Stonehouse (http://www.travelodge.co.uk)for £15 a night – definitely the biggest bargain of the trip. We had a very large family room with plenty of space.

Lee Ann,

Really loving your report and happy to see another Jane Austen fan! I'm not sure if you are a Jane Eyre fan, but Haddon Hall was also used for the newest adaptation of Jane Eyre.

We had wanted to tour Stourhead also, but we just didn't have the time - were you able to go, or did you have to cut it out?

No, I'm not really a Jane Eyre fan, but I did see some of the new BBC version. I picked up a copy of inBritain magazine before we left, and there was an article on Haddon which mentioned Jane Eyre filming there.

We had a wonderful afternoon at Stourhead - report to follow in the next couple of days or so!

Lee Ann

May 10 In Which We Enjoy a Romantic Drive Through the Northern Cotswolds, Discuss Unusual Food Names, and Dine with Julia

While researching this trip, I found the Passport’s Regional Guide to the Cotswolds by Christopher Knowles at the library. I don’t know if it’s still in print, but it has quite a bit of information about the Cotswolds, including a variety of walks and a couple of drives which looked appealing. We decided to do Knowles’ suggested route through the northern Cotswolds, which guided us through not only well-known towns like Bourton-on-the Water, Broadway, and Chipping Campden, but delightful little places like Notgrove, Stanton, and Stourton.

After a decent breakfast at a Little Chef located next to the Travelodge, we set off through Stroud and Cirencester to our first stop, Bourton-on-the-Water. The town wasn’t too busy, and we took a few minutes to stroll along the river and look in a few shops. We bought a few items in the Christmas shop; later we wished we’d bought more, as we didn’t see some of the things in other stores along the way.

Though we didn’t spend too long in any one place, we enjoyed traveling through the beautiful countryside, including, of course, several wrong turns. It was like driving through the Shire with rolling fields in varying shades of green, interspersed with fields filled with bright yellow blooms. We enjoyed walking up Broadway’s high street, and stopped for our last cream tea of the trip at the Bantam tea rooms in Chipping Campden. The sense of history in these old wool towns, even for the casual observer, is ever present – you can’t help but delight in having tea in a 400-year-old building.

After our looping drive, we stopped in Bibury. It was too late for anything to be open, but we spent a while wandering through the rain, looking at the cottages on Arlington Row – I imagine the residents get tired of having tourists walking past their doors every day - and watching a man and his little son feed the ducks by the Coln River.

Eventually we made our way back toward Stonehouse. Julia_t lives in the area, and she had made dinner reservations for us at the Bell Inn in Selsley. We drove up the steep hill into the car park, and got out to discover a stunning view across the valley to the towns on the other side. We would never have found this place on our own, but it was a perfect dinner location.

Julia gave us a lot of help before we left, and it was a delight to meet her in person. Shortly after we ordered drinks and sat down at our table, one of the regulars came to tell us we should go outside to the beer garden. There was a gorgeous double rainbow spanning the sunlit valley – with the dark clouds behind the hills, it was quite spectacular.

One of the men asked where we were from, and we discovered his sister also lived in Albuquerque. “I bet you don’t have faggots on the menu there!” he guffawed. “A lot of Americans come here and get offended when they see them in a menu!” Thanks to you all, I already knew what they were – we’d cooked some a couple of nights earlier, so we skipped them this evening for some lasagna and fish pie.

Julia came through with more helpful tourist information – a copy of her walking tour of Bath, another walking tour of the North Nibley area, and a lovely copy of Cotswold Images. We talked about our families, various Fodorites, and more unusual food names, such as the infamous spotted dick. She also made sure we tried their sticky toffee pudding, another “must-eat” on our list. It was topped with that wonderful sauce and a delicious scoop of locally made banana toffee ice cream. It was truly lovely meeting Julia and enjoying dinner with her!

May 12 In Which We Find Our Shoes Aren’t Made for Walkin’, Contemplate the Dangers of a Red-Hot Poker, and Stroll With the Bennet Girls and Severus Snape

We wanted to do a short walk near where we were staying before we headed south. After consulting with Julia and our Cotswolds book, we chose a walk that started and ended in the small town of Uley, taking us around the ancient hillfort of Uley Bury and giving views of Owlpen Manor and the surrounding countryside.

We set off through the drizzle past the Uley post office, skirted the churchyard, and started up the hill, where we reached our first kissing gate and our first dilemma (not what to do at the kissing gate – after 25 years, we can figure that out). It had been raining off and on all over England for the past week, and what would have been a solid border at the edge of the field was now a three-foot wide swamp of mud and muck. Since this was the only walk we’d planned, we left our hiking boots at home.

The ever-resourceful Mr. Pickle spotted a large dead tree branch leaning against the fence, which he laid across the muck. We carefully edged along the branch while holding on to the overhanging branches for balance, and voila! We were in the cow pasture, none the worse for wear.

Off we trudged up the hill, noting there was indeed a lovely, albeit misty, view of Uley and Owlpen Manor in the distance, and along the edge of the woods to the next gate – and an even wider, deeper stretch of mud with no helpful branches in sight.

We looked deeply into each other’s eyes – and at our soaked shoes, socks, and trousers. “I think we’ve had enough country walking for this trip,” Mr. Pickle said. With the strains of “Laughter in the Rain” echoing through my head, we retraced our steps down the field, across the branch, and back into Uley. We took a path through the churchyard, peeked in the church (they were preparing to hold a prayer service for Madeleine McCann and her family), and stopped at the town hall to ask if we could change clothes. I was glad I brought more than one pair of shoes!

We chatted a bit with the people who were there for a digital photography class, and one of them suggested we stop at Berkeley Castle since we had extra time in our day. Since it was included in our Great British Heritage Pass, we decided it would be worth a visit. It was an enjoyable drive on one of the B roads; we passed the large William Tyndale monument near North Nibley as we went.

As we arrived a few minutes before the castle opened, we spent our time looking at the gardens (pleasant, but not as nice as others we saw) and walking around the perimeter of the castle. The Berkeley family lives in the castle, and someone’s little dog yapped at us from an upper balcony as we passed by.

We hadn’t spent any time learning about Berkeley Castle, as it wasn’t on our list of things to see, so we were happy to be invited to tag along with a tour group from Norfolk. We discovered this is the castle where Edward II was imprisoned and met his rather unpleasant, painful end; his cell is one of the first places you see on the tour. It was an interesting tour, including the huge kitchens and the Great Hall, which still has its original painted walls – a neat combination of artwork and Bible verses. Some fortunate couple was having a wedding reception in the Great Hall that afternoon. A variety of floral arrangements decorated the walls, and it was fun imagining having a party there.

I found the stained glass windows, which contained a chronology of various kings and nobles, amusing – I didn’t write down the exact names, but many were of people named Harold the Hapless and things like that. We ate lunch in the castle tea room (sandwiches and hot foods, reasonably priced) before leaving.

The Edward Jenner (inventor of the smallpox vaccine) Museum is next to the castle, but we didn’t have time to look in. We took a minute to look at all the classic Jaguars which were parked in the car park before we left, though – must have been some kind of road rally going on.

Our next stop was Lacock. This town was owned by the Talbot family for hundreds of years and was donated to the National Trust in the 1940s, so the 17th- and 18th-century shops and houses are well preserved. Lacock stood in for Meryton in the BBC Pride and Prejudice and was Highbury in the Gwyneth Paltrow/Jeremy Northam version of Emma, among other films. The cashier in the National Trust store said the Cranford Chronicles (an adaptation of some of Elizabeth Gaskell’s shorter novels), starring Judi Dench, had just finished filming there. Someone asked her how the townspeople feel about all the filming, and she said they seem to enjoy it – everyone signs up to be an extra and puts up with dirt on the streets and all the livestock.

We stopped at the Fox Talbot Museum of Photography, which was really interesting. William Henry Fox Talbot was one of the early pioneers of photography; his process of chemically developing pictures, called calotype, enabled photographers to make multiple copies of a single image. The museum contains many examples of his work and equipment, with changing exhibits upstairs.

From the museum, we walked down the drive to Lacock Abbey, founded in 1232 by Ela, Countess of Salisbury. She must have been a remarkable woman; she was also involved in the founding of Salisbury Cathedral, and her husband witnessed the signing of the Magna Carta. One of three original copies was housed at Lacock until it was donated to the British Museum Library in 1946.

The Sharington family built their house onto the remains of the abbey starting in the 1540s, but the original cloisters still survive. The cloisters were used as part of Hogwarts in the first two Harry Potter movies. We had fun trying to figure out where certain scenes were shot with the help of some photo displays.

We left in the late afternoon for the short drive to Bath, ending up by a square trying to figure out how to get to the YHA hostel. It’s actually located on Bathwick Hill, up a very narrow driveway. The hostel was was once an Italianate mansion, and still retains much of its lovely interior decoration.

We needed to do laundry, so we decided to have dinner at the hostel rather than driving back into the main part of town. I hadn’t tried a Pimm’s Cup yet, so I ordered one at the hostel’s pub. The bartender didn’t know what I was talking about, and since I’d never had one, I didn’t exactly know how it is made. I told her I would like a Bath Gems ale instead – I’d had one in Selsley and it was very good – only to watch her get my ale, then pour a shot of Pimm’s in on top! As far as I could tell, it didn’t affect the taste one way or the other. We enjoyed our meal, checked email, finished the laundry, and vegged in our room watching TV and chatting.

All the double rooms at the Bath YHA have bunk beds, but the price was right and we figured we could handle the novelty for one night. Unfortunately the novelty wore off fairly quickly, as the bunks had really thin, hard mattresses, and we both tossed and turned a lot.

Lee Ann:

Once you encounter one 3' wide swamp of mud and muck you know what is probably around the corner or up the hill. Been there done that and like you we didn't give up until we were a bit of a mess.

Love your descriptions, you bring back delightful memories.

Sorry to hear about the bunk beds in Bath. I take it this partical YHA is off your list.

Sandy

You've invented a new drink - a "Pimm's top". Better patent it fast!

For future reference, you probably helped confuse the barman

Pimm's bottles used to describe themselves as "Pimm's No 1 Cup". It's normal to drink Pimms' about 33% Pimms, 66% lemonade (ie the tasteless, sugared stuff that's sold as lemonade here) and a few hundred percent bits of veg: canonically mint and/or borage, with possibly a bit of cucumber peel, but sometimes half the contents of your nearest greengrocer.

Always called just Pimm's in Britain. Ask for a Pimm's and you get the whole botany lesson. I think they've dropped this "Cup" stuff from the label. But they just won't understand if you ask here for a Pimms Cup, though I think I've noticed the term is used sometimes abroad at the kind of places where they talk about "Worcestershire" sauce (in English: always 'Lea & Perrins' or 'Worcester Sauce')

With so many amateur bar staff around, perhaps you're lucky that you didn't get it in a cup. With milk.

>>Sorry to hear about the bunk beds in Bath. I take it this partical YHA is off your list.<<

Yes, it is. We would have stayed somewhere else, but it fit our budget.

>>For future reference, you probably helped confuse the barman<<

She really had no idea what I was asking for. She wasn't English and it took her a minute to find the bottle of Pimm's, and then she didn't know what to do with it. I bought a bottle of Pimm's last week, and I notice it has a recipe on it. I guess I should have taken a look while I was there. Mint sounds like a great addition - thanks for mentioning it!

May 13th In Which We Get Wet in Bath And Find Ourselves Acting English at Stourhead

We were glad to haul ourselves out of our bunks and leave the hostel to spend some time following Julia_t’s walking tour of Bath. After battling a pay and display machine, we made our way through the drizzle toward the center of town, stopping for a very good latte at the Yankee (Boston?) Tea Party. We toured the Roman Baths, as it was included in our Great British Heritage Pass and we wanted to get as much mileage out of it as possible. The baths were quite ingenious and more interesting than I thought they would be; it’s worth a stop if you’re in Bath.

We walked past the Abbey and made our way through increasing amounts of rain around the Circus and the Royal Crescent. Along the way, we stopped at the Jane Austen Centre. Since we planned to visit her home in Chawton the next day, we didn’t take the tour, but we spent some quality time in the gift shop. Since it was Mother’s Day at home, Mr. Pickle bought me a cup with some of Hugh Thomson’s well-known Austen illustrations. One side has Mr. and Mrs. Bennet, while the other has Mr. Darcy looking down his nose at Elizabeth saying, “She is tolerable…” Very nice with coffee or tea!

After buying picnic supplies at a Sainsbury’s, we found the car again and drove to Stourhead. This incredible garden was used in the new Pride and Prejudice – the Temple of Apollo is where Mr. Darcy proposes to Elizabeth and is rejected.

We walked the main two-mile loop, which is absolutely gorgeous with leafy green trees, copper beeches, azaleas and rhododendrons in bloom, bluebells in the woods; there is something beautiful in every direction. Along the way we passed the Pantheon, the Grotto, and other lovely structures.

As we made our way around the lake, we caught up with others who were enjoying the garden. Suddenly the sun emerged, and we found ourselves saying, “Ooh, lovely, it’s the sun” with everyone else. Living in New Mexico, where the sun shines almost every day, I never say anything like that – I felt rather English all of a sudden…

At the Temple of Apollo, we found a flute of champagne on the plinth next to where the proposal scene was filmed. We thought perhaps some romantic young man proposed to his lady there, and hoped he met with more success than Mr. Darcy!

From Stourhead it’s not far to Salisbury, where we spent our final night at the YHA. The hostel is a late 19th-century house, where we had a nice comfortable double room. We cooked dinner, repacked our things, and spent the rest of the evening in the lounge catching up on the news (still full of Tony Blair and Maddy McCann, with a good amount of soccer mixed in) and laughing at Pegg and Frost’s Night In.

I'm midway through posting pictures on Picasaweb - you can see them at http://tinyurl.com/3clrcv

May 14th In Which We Pay Homage to Miss Austen and Bid a Fond Farewell to the United Kingdom

After breakfast (included in the price of the room), we drove to Winchester. All I really wanted to do there was go to the Cathedral, see Jane Austen’s grave, and leave, but Mr. Pickle decided we should take the guided tour of the Cathedral. I was getting into my usual “we have to keep moving we can’t miss our flight and we need to get to the airport much earlier than necessary” mode, so I was somewhat resistant to this plan. However, the tour was really interesting and informative, and Rosalind, our guide, made sure we saw Jane’s grave first so if we needed to leave, we wouldn’t miss it.

The Cathedral contains some fabulous art and architecture, including some lovely Russian icons, several windows which were either designed by or done in tribute to the Arts and Crafts movement (or was it the Pre-Raphaelites? I can’t remember), the 12th-century font with its carvings of St. Nicholas, a small chapel in which the altar and benches were carved in a cool rippling pattern as a memorial to Izaak Walton, and much more. I enjoyed the statue of William Walker, the diver who saved the Cathedral from collapsing, emerging from the water. After the great west window was destroyed during the English Civil War, the people of Winchester saved all the glass and replaced it. The window looks much like a mosaic now, and has an abstract beauty.

The Cathedral’s contribution to Winchester’s 2007 Year of Sculpture is an exhibition called Light. It was…interesting (I got the impression Rosalind didn’t think much of it either). I’m not sure which was more striking, the chile ristra-like string of painted plastic bottles which were lit from within, or the large heap of milk crates and other plastic items melted together. Light can be seen at the Cathedral until July 31st, if you’re interested. http://www.yearofsculpture.com

After a stop to pick up some lunch items, we made our way to our final destination, Chawton Cottage, a few miles outside Winchester. Jane Austen lived here for several years, writing and/or revising most of her novels.

Our flight was scheduled to leave at 4:15, and by the time we arrived at Chawton (missing the cottage, driving through the tiny village, going back on the highway, turning back – the usual scheme) it was past noon. I was near tears, convinced we didn’t have time to see anything there. Mr. Pickle reassured me we had plenty of time to look through the house and that I wouldn’t have to rush.

It was such a thrill seeing the cottage, especially Jane’s writing table. You aren’t supposed to take pictures inside the house, but I blocked the security camera’s view while Mr. Pickle took a non-flash photograph.

I had been disappointed to find the original manuscript of Persuasion wasn’t on display when we visited the British Library, so I was excited to see it at Chawton!

Besides the cottage and furnishings, garden, artwork, etc., several of the costumes from the new Anne Hathaway/James McAvoy film Becoming Jane were on display. They didn’t film the movie at Chawton, but it was still fun to see the outfits.

Mr. Pickle eventually managed to drag me back to the car (it was after 1:00 and we did need to leave) for a blessedly quick, uneventful drive to Heathrow - aside from needing to drive around the block a couple of times to get into the gas station, and our difficulty finding the right lane to return the rental car, that is. At least we’d already accidentally figured out how to get to the highway from Chawton!

We found National’s office, spent some time discussing whether we would be charged for a scrape on the bumper (no, as it turned out), and took the bus to the terminal. We checked in around 2:30, went to the TFL office to get our Oyster card refunds (we hadn’t done it in London because the Tube stations nearest us were closed for the bank holiday), and started the long walk to the gate.

It was about 3:00 when we reached the gate, and they were already starting to board the plane. The return flight wasn’t very full, and we had room to spread out a bit. I enjoyed more yummy NZ wine and some lamb, finished watching The Lord of the Rings films, saw Miss Potter (lovely scenery and performances but kind of a blah story), and started falling asleep minutes before we landed at LAX at 7:45 p.m.

After spending the night with a friend due to there being no LAX-ABQ flights after about 8:30, we had a very uncrowded morning flight back home.

I’m so glad we decided to visit England and Wales. There are several places where I’d love to spend more time, and, of course, many things we didn’t have time to see at all. I hope we can return in the future.

Thanks again to janisj, flanneruk,audere_est_facere, julia_t, and so many others for your advice and suggestions!

I am so pleased you enjoyed yourselves. It was lovely to meet the pair of you. It's just a shame that you had to ruin your holiday by inflicting Jane Bloody Austen on yourselves. Talk about footshootery!

De gustibus and all that, old chap.

i know - just teasing

ElendilPickle: This has been one of the most enjoyable trip reports ever. So - when are you planning your next visit -- LOTS more Austen sites to see

(I'm not generally a "hostel person" - but you've even managed to make hostels sound good )

Well done!

I figured a Tolkien fan with the audacity to add "pickle" to the hallowed name "Elendil" would have irreverence to spare -- not disappointed.

Thanks for the dazzling trip report. Fodor's should give out some sort of annual Distinguished Trip Report award; you'd be in the running for sure.

You all are so kind - I'm blushing!

So, Audere, how was your long weekend at the Jane Austen Centre?

Lee Ann

Good heavens, I forgot the Godzilla/Hernia Helper Update! So many of you wanted to know its fate...

One of Mr. Pickle's coworkers had a garage sale a couple of weeks after we got home, and we sold the thing for $7. I hope the poor suckers - er, nice people - get their money's worth out of it!

Lee Ann

Lee Ann,

Can't believe your report is over Loved seeing all your photos - Miss Austen would be quite honored by your trip! So glad you got to see Chawton despite navagational problems!

Waiting to see your pictures on Stourhead - how far a drive was it from Bath or from London?

I noticed a picture in the Peak District of a church in Monyash - our B&B was on Monyash road...is it the same Monyash?

So excited about Stourhead, I forgot to add...

Did you just look around the grounds or the house also? How long did it take you in total? Are there places to eat on the estate?

>>I noticed a picture in the Peak District of a church in Monyash - our B&B was on Monyash road...is it the same Monyash?<<

It must have been! We drove through on our way back from Haddon Hall.

I'm in the middle of posting Wales pictures right now, but I will get to Stourhead eventually, I promise. We didn't tour the house, just the grounds.

Stourhead is about 45 minutes or so from Bath; we spent at least two hours there, but didn't see it all.

There is a pub with a restaurant on the road between the gardens and the car park.

Lee Ann

So, Audere, how was your long weekend at the Jane Austen Centre?>>>>>>

Thankfully some nutters decided to blow up London so I had to work instead.

Honestly, the quality of terrorist you get these days is woeful. Curly Larry and Moe would have done a beter job.

Nyuk nyuk nyuk!

After I typed that question, I realized I made it sound like you were going into rehab.

Lee Ann

Lee Ann,

Thanks! I'm looking forward to your Stourhead photos with great anticipation!

Anna, I'm heading out of town for a few days, so I won't finish the pictures until I return. I'm just posting some Shrewsbury photos now.

Lee Ann

Lee Ann, I just finished reading your truly wonderful trip report all at one go. I missed it earlier because I was in the UK while you were posting. The day we stopped in Shrewsbury we found ourselves in the middle of a civil war reenactment. Anyway, your report brings back some great memories and provides inspiration for our next UK trip.

Oh LeeAnn , what a wonderful trip report. You have a real talent!
I enjoyed reading every bit of it ( and I should be outside enjoying this beautiful summer day!!).

I don't frequent the Europe forum that much, so I totally missed your report earlier. I'm so glad I caught up with it.

How did the hostels compare with the ones in NZ? That's the only place I've stayed in hostels. I usually stay in B&B's in Britain.

I'll look forward to future trip reports from you.

Kodi, we liked all the YHA hostels, except for the beds in the Bath hostel.

They are larger than most of the hostels we used in New Zealand, but not so big that they felt impersonal (there are larger YHA hostels in the UK, but we didn't stay in any of them). The facilities were always clean and well-kept in each, and the staff was always friendly. We'd definitely choose hostels again.

Lee Ann