England 2015: Day 5--The Caen Hill Locks, More Churches, and the West Kennet Long Barrow

Are you still with me???  HA!  My head is swimming in images from that one week in England but here we are already at day 5 of 7.  And 8 more days before grandson Nicholas arrives!  You could say I'm running with the wolves right now.  :)

Day 5 was Friday, 19 June, when I was back with Lisl and Michael in Bath and Astrid was with us.  That day we covered a multitude of sins visual delights.

We started the day at the Caen Hill Locks on the Kennet and Avon Canal in Wiltshire.

It's a flight of 29 locks rising 237 feet in 2 miles,
but we were are at the main flight of only 16 locks.

All I can say is that it's one of the wonders of the world!

We started at the top near the café and looked down.

Once at the bottom, we looked back up.

Who dreamed up such a technological feat!

All out in the middle of Mother Nature doing her thing.

Lucky for us, narrowboats we going up and down.

Some people live on these boats while others rent them for vacation.

If you're on such a boat, you're the one who operates the opening and closing of the locks,
along with some willing volunteers, if you're lucky.

Does this look like a fun vacation to you?

You'd never forget it!

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After the locks, we visited 3 parish churches which I will add to my list thus far:

8.  St. Mary the Virgin Church, Bishops Cannings, Devizes, Wiltshire, 13th century.

Right away you can tell this isn't like the other parish churches we've seen thus far.

This one seems quite more grandiose, doesn't it.

 Yes, indeedy.

I wonder if this would have been too big for my preacher dad?

 Or too grandiose?

But he would have loved the the old wood.  The hymnals.  The cushions.

9.  St. Mary the Virgin Church, Alton Barnes,Wiltshire, 10th century.

See how quickly things can change.  This one is from the late Saxon Period (410-1066)!

And it's still in use!

It even has a wee balcony with all kinds of photo ops.  How fun.

10.  All Saints Church, Alton Priors, Wiltshire, 12th century.

Just a hop, skip and a jump away, we walked to this hard-to-find church.

It was declared redundant in 1972 and is no longer used for regular worship.

But it's still open to all and was being set up for the summer solstice celebration in 3 days.

(I wanted to do a brass rubbing at that front door.)

It had a strange presence I still can't explain....

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Between the churches we saw things, of course,

Nature's church.  And English architecture.

And more White Horses.  We've now seen 3 (one from last year).

Lisl wants to walk the White Horse Trail to all 8 (of 13) remaining Wiltshire horses.

Knowing her, she'll do it...all 90 miles!

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By mid-afternoon we were off to the West Kennet Long Barrow in Avebury,

a Neolithic chambered tomb built in (drum roll, please) 3650 BC.

Notice the Druids along the way, for the upcoming summer solstice.

The keepers of the gate told us no secrets.

We had to find them out for ourselves!

It felt like a desecration to see picnickers on top of the burial chamber,

but we held our tongues (hopefully not Ugly Americans??!!).

 Can you imagine being buried in there?

Many offerings were left in nooks and crannies.

And when we walked back down, we felt Mother Nature's gentle breeze.

The ancient whispers of the ages nearly rattled my bones.

How is it possible to see things this old?

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Once back home we ate and drank to the day at the nearby Fox & Hounds Pub.

Good God.  Good Friends.  Good food.  Let's eat!

It doesn't get much better than this, folks.

England 2015: Day 1--Batheaston to Bathampton Walk

Did I mention that one of my gifts to myself for my BIG 7-0 is flying grandson Nicholas over for the last 2 weeks of July?  He turns 15 on July 12th and will arrive on the 17th, just 5 days later.

So, having just returned from our week in England, I'm on a hot trot to get as many posts done before the Big Boy arrives.

As they say, let's start at the very beginning, Monday, 15 June, when hosts Lisl and Michael picked me up from the airport in Bristol (Astrid arrived 2 days later).

  First of all, this was my Facebook overview of Day 1.

On the ca. 25-mile drive from the Bristol Airport to Batheaston, where they live,

Lisl and Michael stopped at the reservoir along the way for a nice treat.

A 99 Flake is an ice cream cone with a Cadbury flake inserted in it.

Now you know.

Of course, the reservoir, or bird sanctuary as I call it, was very nice, too.

I remembered it from a year ago when we stopped there with Chris.

Once I got settled at the house, Lisl and I started out on a walk,

from Batheaston to Bathampton (where Chris lives).  I call them suburbs of Bath.

You know me.  I want to see every little thing, which Lisl totally understands.

I don't remember the name of this little park but it was worth seeing.
[Addendum:   Lisl says it's Batheaston Garden.]

Near the park was a new bridge we didn't cross, except to the center, to get a view.

Looking back on it as we walked along the River Avon was lovely (good English word).

When we got to the toll bridge, we knew we were passing from Batheaston into Bathampton.

It's a privately-owned bridge, btw, with all the tolls going to the family that owns and maintains it.

It's the Bathampton Toll Bridge, from 1872, with 9 pointed arches.

Can you imagine that as your family business?

 Lisl's goal for our walk was to see the narrowboats on the Bathampton side of the River Avon.

We had already seen them last year on the Batheaston side.

You know that we have scads of canals all over Dutchland, of course,

but the Dutch do not have narrowboats.  They intrigue me to no end,

especially by all the stuff they put on top.  

These are their homes, you know.

Both going to and coming back from the narrowboats,

we walked through the cemetery of Bathampton's Church of St. Nicholas from the 13th century.

Besides Arthur Phillip's grave inside the church (Founder of Australia

and first Governor of New South Wales)....

...the grave of Walter Sickert (1860-1942), a painter and printmaker, is outside (middle left).

Three books in modern times maintain he was Jack the Ripper from the late 1880s.

Lisl believes the theory is very convincing from what she has read.  WOW.

We didn't spend much time inside at all, only for these few images.

But you know me and church cushions!

Lucky for me to find one of St. Nicholas, just days before he comes to visit!

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Day 1 down, now, and 6 to go.....(all longer than this one, I might add)....

Bristol, England

With this post, Folks, we're at the end of our England trip this past May, except that I'm dividing it into two separate posts.  YAY.  I bet you thought I'd never finish.

This all happened on a Saturday, the day before we flew back to the Netherlands.  And instead of driving, Chris and Lisl decided it best for us to go by train.

So, we left from Bath Spa and arrived in Bristol about 15 minutes later.  A no-brainer.

Straightaway from the train station we went to the St. Mary Redcliffe parish church (next post).

And then we walked to the harbor on the River Avon.

We could even see Cabot Tower from there (bottom-center).

 Don't forget the English narrowboats, of course.  I'm in love with them.

But the huge plus of the day was seeing the MATTHEW ship,

a replica of the sailing ship used by John Cabot in 1497 to sail from Bristol to North America.

In fact, today Lisl and Michael are actually sailing on her for a little tour.  How cool is that!

 There was so much to see down at the harbor.  Yup, we were short of eyes!

 After all that, we were so ready for a bacon buttie, something the English can never live down...

not as long as Astrid and I are in the picture.

 With tummies full, we started off again, on a mission...

...past all those colored houses, through the woods, to the bridge in the distance (top-center).

It's the Clifton Suspension Bridge from 1864, spanning the Avon gorge and River Avon.

Can you believe my little camera picked out this guy from 1100mm away!

He's crazy!  I don't think he had a clue what to do next.

Then it was tea time.  You know those English.  Ha!

I loved the wee family sitting right outside my window.

On our way past where the medieval church of St. Andrew was bombed during WWII,

but where the church graveyard still exists, is what's called the Birdcage Walk.

Then into the hub of the city past the Wills Memorial Building,

a landmark building of the University of Bristol, from 1915.

In that vicinity we saw a true Banksy painting and found out he was born in Bristol.

The Well-Hung Lover (top-center and right-bottom) is on Frogmore Street.

Impressions.  Impressions.  Impressions.

This is what we love about these walks.  Impressions.

How things are made!

The weathervanes were some of the most intricate and 3D-ish I've ever seen.

And the flowers all along the way....this year I couldn't get enough of them.

One last post remains of the England trip:  the St.Mary Redcliffe parish church.