Oxford, Cotswald, Stratford -Upon-Avon

Dear Members,

This is that last segment of our trip.

Below is a picture of one of the colleges in Oxford.




We saw Trinity College and Christ Church. For those of you that are Harry Potter fans this was the location of the dining hall at Hogwarts, plus a staircase in the same college is used in the film.

Lewis Caroll's father was a professor at Christ Church and there are elements of the college that inspired his stories. As an homage to him there is an Alice In Wonderland Window in the dining hall. You may be able to Google it; our pictures did not turn out.



We stopped at the village of Burford. It is in the Cotswolds. The Cotswalds is not a county, but a group of counties that are involved in the wool trade. We spent a week in the Gloucestershire Cotswolds. Burford is in the Oxfordshire Cotswolds. Each area also has it's own type of architecture due to the kind of rock/stone in the area. So as you drive through you will notice what area you are in by the color of shape of the stone on the buildings.

Burford was lovely. We had lunch here.


Then we did some browsing at a local shop and noticed a nice selection of Weight Watcher Products. Here are some sauces. The English love their "curries" so it's not surprising to find different Indian Sauces in the supermarket.



We also found some great cookies made for Weight Watchers by Walkers, the maker of the famous shortbread. These are white chocolate raspberry cookies. They are 1 and 1/2 points for 2 cookies!!



As we were leaving the village we had to take this picture. It's a perfect example of the beauty of this place.



On to Anne Hathaway's Cottage and Shakespeare's birthplace at Straford - Upon - Avon.

Anne's family's cottage has been perserved for many years and the gardens developed and maintained. It was so wonderful as they planted many types of sweet peas along the paths even those dating back to the 1600's. It smelled wonderful.




Shakespeare visited this cottage when he was wooing Anne. They did not live here.



Beautiful day



In London we walked the Millenium Bridge from St. Pauls Cathedral to Southwark where the reproduction of The Globe Theatre was built in 1993. It took 50 years to build.

It was built about 2 miles from the original spot. Currently the original location has another protected building on it so there is no way for them to excavate it. Next door to that location they did find the reminance of The Rose Theatre, which preceeded The Globe. Archeologists are currently working on the site.




The entire structure is put together with wooden pegs/dowels. There were no nails used in building this theatre. The stage is painted to represent heaven and hell and is similar to a Greek Stage, so that good/holy characters come down to the stage from above and may enter Hell through the floor. The audience was seated based on class. The lowest class (the groundlings) stood for hours on the bottom floor up against the stage. There could be at least 1000 people down there, then each floor represented higher classes. The highest class or royalty would sit behind the stage. It may not seem exciting to us, but they wanted to be seen by the public just as you were viewing the actors. We were told that they often interrupted the play and spoke with the actors and musicians just to get attention. There would be food and drink served at the shows that would last for hours (especially with all the interruptions) and there would hardly be any set dressing. The plays were speaking plays not action, so that is why Shakespeare's text was so rich. He wasn't putting on action blockbusters, but more like readings.

The film Shakespeare In Love does not accurately depict Shakespeare except for the fact that only men were allowed to be actors. It was considered extremely low class to be an actor and even worse for a woman. It would be worse than being a prostitute. Shakespeare was wealthy and successful, being a partner in this theatre and having a home in London and back in Stratford.



Today, we visited the Charles Dicken's Museum. (Charles Dickens was intregal in perserving William Shakespeare's birthplace in Stratford) The museum is located in a house that Charles and Catherine owned when they initally moved to London, before the Pickwick Papers really took off.

This is the first place we really were allowed to take photos inside. We have many, but only are showing you this one. The two paintings are of Charles and Catherine when they were first married and moved into this house. Both very happy. Heather says, "He was an amazing salvation for the Victorian poor, one of my favorite authors, but a real J*ck%ss of a husband and father."






It was about 90 degrees. I had Heather snap this picture of me in Charles and Catherine's back garden.



We left the museum and came back to the hotel for lunch and freshen up before seeing 39 Steps tonight in Piccadilly Circus.

At the High Street Kensington Underground Station there are creature comforts from: Marks & Spencer to Cornish Pasties to Boots Chemist.

The day before we leave, we just realized that Boots sells food!!!

And healthy choices, no less!!!

They have a line called "Shapers". They offer a multitude of food that is easily labeled for those of us that want to stay health conscious.

They use Traffic Light Nutrition. Meaning each item is labeled with Green dots indicating "go for it" foods, Yellow dots signifying " Enjoy Most of the Time" foods, and Red dots for "Indulge Now & Again" foods. This was so simple and easy. I hope the US comes up with the same system.

I will show you these products when I return, but here are some photographs.












By the way, they all tasted GREAT!!! We had a ginger ale that was to die for and that was only 15 calories for about 160z bottle!

This will be the last entry of my blog in England, as tomorrow we will be on the airplane coming home.

I will be seeing my At Work people at the City on Wednesday and WWU on Thursday. The rest of you I will see the start of next week - Monday and Tuesday.

I look forward to reconnecting with everyone and am anxious to see your progress while I've been gone.

Cheer-e-o from Merry Olde England!!!

Paula and Heather

Henley, Hoff, Hampton Court and Henry VIII

Dear Members,

Besides walking, as an active past-time, another exercise the English participate in is rowing. One of the famous rowing competitions is the Henley Regatta.

We visited Henley On Thames on the way back into London. The regatta is this week along with Wimbledon and Ascot.



Whilst in Henley, this guy followed us around everywhere we went, with his entourage - seriously.



He even followed us back to our tour bus. Heather thought he might be working part time at Starbucks there in Henley, because he came in about 5 times while we were there. I think he was trying to use the restroom.

By the way, the English have a nickname for Starbucks, they call it St. Ar-bucks.



The tour group returned to London and flew back to the USA. My daughter and I are staying on until June 30th.

We went on to Hampton Court Palace the following day. It was a gorgeous day.




Heather went through the maze and back. She took a picture of this at its center.



This is an archway of Elm trees.



Hampton Court Palace is half Tudor structure and half Baroque

Here's a great shot of the baroque side with our friend Nigel and myself.



Here's a picture of one of the amazing ceilings in the palace.



There were celebrations and re-inactments while we are here commemorating the 500th year of Henry VIII ascension to the throne. So, there were actors portraying his six wives and himself on the grounds. They did an excellent job.



Katherine Parr

Today, we visited The Tower Of London. I've been many times and still enjoy going. This time they had a special exhibit on Henry VIII's armor. You may not know this, but we couldn't take pictures of most things as it is not allowed. So that's why you see mostly outside shots.



Here's the famous "traitors gate"



A guard at attention near the entrance to the vaults that hold the crown jewels. We saw those as well. They are too unbelievable to be real, but they are.



As we left the tower(s) we saw Tower Bridge from the Thames.



We attempted to see the reproduction of the original Globe Theatre, but they were closed. They will be open again on Sunday and we'll give it a try.




Here's a funny sign for one of the West End shows...I had to take the photo!!

We've ate well, but we've been walking our pants off as well. Plus it's really humid here too. We are having a great time all in all.

We even treated ourselves to a Cornish Ice Cream. I'll tell you about that when we get back.

Only a few days to go. It's really sped by.

Wales, Castles and Fireside Fun

We've had some adventures the last few days.

Obviously, I am not sharing every single picture with you because that would just take too much time right now with my tiny little HP Notebook. We'll see what we can upload when we get home :)

So, here's some tidbits.

We stopped in a sweet town called Hereferd (hair-a-ferd) and I happened on my favorite store. They have one here too...


It's TK instead of TJ here, but it's still wonderful.

Then off to Wales. We visited a town called Hay On Wye (Hay on Why). It's half in England and half in Wales. The man who established the town emancipated himself from both countries and became his own kingdom for a time. This town is the largest used book location in the world, most all of the 40 stores are full of used/antique books including a cinema that has at least 100,000 books.

Here's some fun signs we found on our walk around town...





(doesn't she look pitiful..at any time)

Today we went to Ludlow to visit Ludlow Castle and the surrounding area. This was the view on the way in



Entrance into Ludlow Castle... It's the 50th anniversary of their Shakespeare Festival. It's staged outside within the castle walls.



It's a medieval castle, so no windows just stone structure...



On our way back to the manor, we ran into some car trouble. While we were riding along a buzzer started to sound on Nigel's (our driver's) dashboard. We smelled something like burning tires, we turned around in our seats to see a big cloud of smoke coming in the cab of the bus.

Nigel got us to the side of the road and we calmly got out of the coach (bus)...



And then we heard popping of tires and windows breaking and flames coming out like crazy.

Some how our coach was on fire.

All of us got out just fine, but not all our belongings. The most important things like our passports, money and cameras made it just fine.

A few members had teddy bears etc on and they didn't make it :(





The police and fire were quick and helpful. We felt really sorry for the fire crew as they do not have as many fire hydrants as we do, so they kept having to drive a distance and load up on water and then drive back. I'd hate to have a house on fire over here.

The coach (bus) system over here is extremely efficient and as soon as our friend Nigel came off the bus he made a call and we had another bus within the hour.

That's pretty great :)

All in all it's just fine, everyone is safe and healthy and everyone is in good spirits.

England Day 6 Post # 2

Hey Folks,

We've been super busy!!! There is a lot wi-fi areas here in England, but they can be a bit titchy.

So, we are taking this time to write you while we have a wide open connection and update you with some photos.

We stayed in London for a couple of days,



(Me in front of the Sunken Garden at Kensington Palace)

(Goodbye Big Ben Tower, for now.)



and then off to the West Country. We are staying in a manor based in Gloucestershire.



(On the way to Gloucestershire. For those of you that are fans of The Vicar Of Dibley, you may find this image familiar. It's of the opening scene; though that is shot from a helicopter)


(Manor Born..to someone else)

While in the West Country we are with a collectors' tour. This will be my third time traveling with them. We have a small group of 14, very fun, people. They collect many different items such as: teddybears, dolls, antique jewelry etc...

We have traveled to Whitney - known for antique stores and The Teddy Bears Of Whitney. Look them up! While we were there we happened on a bear made by bear artist Jeannette Werner from BELLINGHAM, WA. Can you believe it?



Plus, we meant to mention that the first news we saw on the BBC was a story about water bottles made from cardboard instead of plastic. The inventor is a student from WWU in Bellingham!

The world is such a small place.

After Whitney, we traveled to Tetbury known for wool, cheese rolling (check it out on the web) and Highgrove Garden - Where Charles and Camilla have one of their homes. Charles (Charlie) owns most of the town, so it's stayed in great shape without building new homes and tearing town the ancient relics. You may know that Charles is into conservation both natural and historical architecture. He has a store in Tetbury called Highgrove Shop. Any purchases there support his charities. He sells only organic free trade products, and locally created products, books on how to save the world etc..

People may visit his gardens, but you'll need to put in a request two years ahead of time. It's not a waiting list, it takes two years for them to do a background check on you and anyone in your party planning on visiting. Then you are notified no earlier than 3 weeks prior to your requested date and they advise you when you can enter and when you must exist the premisis. Once visited you may not return to Highgrove. Crazy, huh.

From the pictures in the shop, it is gorgeous!! So it's probably worth it. We were not allowed to take photographs in the shop...

Please visit the websites:

http://www.princeofwales.gov.uk/personalprofiles/residences/highgrove/thegarden/

www.highgroveshop.com




Outside of Tetbury we visited an abbey and i's garden. The gardens are on 5 acres and are very famous or infamous here. The gardens were purchased by billionares that happen to be naturalists (nudists to you and I). The gardens are gorgeous, you just need to know that they may be naked while you are visiting. No such luck (thank god), though a couple of ladies on the tour did try to encourage it.







These pictures just give you a tiny, tiny, taste of what we saw that day.


While we've been walking our sweet buns off, we have been eating well. Before I began traveling to England, I had heard that English Food was horrible. I have never found that to be the case. It's been outstanding if anything.

Even Mr. Hungry thinks so...



Typically when you book a hotel room in England your room rate includes the "English Breakfast Plan". This means you get a full breakfast of whatever is being served. Usually it's an assortment of items like eggs, bacon, potatoes, tomatoes, beans, cereals, yogurts, fruits etc...

Here are some pics of our meal choices. You can see that you can make great choices while traveling abroad. Most moderate restaurants and pubs here will let you "split" meals. Also, as a Weight Watcher you can figure in the more points heavy items and off set them with the 300 miles of walking each day!!



(This is a meal we shared at Harrods. Bruschetta with salad and two old fashioned lemonades)


(Typical Full English. Consists of poached eggs, potatoes, baked beans, bacon, mushrooms, tomatoes, sometimes Black Pudding etc...)

Healthy choices always offered. Includes very tasty grapefruit slices.


The English even have low-fat, non-fat dairy choices




Heather and Paula in the Harrods Food Halls





Hope you are all well.

We'll update soon.

Paula and Heather