I keep meaning to mention that I'm posting even more photos at my flicker site...can't put too many more images here so I've put the rest in an England set on my flicker page.

Day 7 – Friar's Crag, Castlerigg Stone Circle, Aira Force and Housesteads Roman Fort

As we woke up this morning (to another big English breakfast) we were pleased to see that the rain had let up a bit and there were a few patches of blue sky. We walked over to Friar's Crag for a final overlook of the Derwentwater then walked back through town center in Keswick. We picked up some Cornish Pasties for lunch and a few sweets in the bakery. As we were pulling out of town we stopped one more time at the Castlerigg Stone Circle since it was dry; while the view was grand we had to share the place with about 20 or 30 others but that was ok. We traded couples' photos with another couple then headed off to our next stop.

“Force” is another word for waterfall. The Aira Force flows from a deep slot into another nearby lake – Ullswater. We drove to the parking spot and took a nice, non-rainy hike uphill about a half mile to see the 70-foot force. It was really spilling quite a bit of dark, tannin-stained water from all the recent rain. The wind and spray at the bottom was very strong. At both the bottom and the top, the view is fantastic from old stone bridges. After the hike, we parked near Ullswater and enjoyed our pasties – meat and vegetable pies encased in a thick crusty shell. Supposedly, these were the lunches of Cornish miners who could eat them with dirty hands then throw out the nasty crust they had used to hold them. I ate a little of my crust but it truly was just a “handle” - dry and tasteless. The rest of the pasty was delicious though!

After a quick hour up the highway we arrived in Once Brewed (yes, that's the name of the town) at the Twice Brewed Inn. There we got a small room over the pub with the water closets and showers down the hall (I'm hoping it's not too busy tomorrow morning...). The view out the window was of Hadrian's Wall, built by the Roman Emperor Hadrian in the second century. This wall extends 74 miles across Britain, from west to east. It is just south of the England-Scotland border but not by much. Pat and I had always wanted to walk the whole thing but on this trip we'll settle for a 2.5 mile walk on one of the prettiest sections.

At the eastern end of where we'll hike we visited the Housestead Fort ruins. Built and occupied from the middle second through fourth centuries AD, the ruins lie along a hillside just north of Hadrian's Wall. The foundations and some really amazing features still remain, after almost two millennia. Surrounding the fort are treeless hillsides and pastures filled with nothing but stone-walled paddocks, lambs and ewes. As I write this here (before the pub turned up the music, that is) all I can hear is an occasional car passing by along with lots of bleating and baa-ing. Knitter's paradise!

Day 6 – Derwent Water, the Catbells and the Honister Pass

We started the day with a “proper” English breakfast, cooked by Richard and served by Linda at the B&B. We had fruit, rolls, toast, jam, butter, coffee, orange juice, ham (bacon, they called it), sausage, eggs and a stewed tomato. We passed on the cereal, milk, yogurt, beans and mushrooms but we could have had them if we wanted! After breakfast, Linda talked us out of hiking the Catbells, a ridgeline hike that climbs hundreds of feet above the lake but is very slippery. Also, the clouds had mostly obscured the tops of the fells (mountains) and so we figured if you can't see up from down, you wouldn't be able to see the views of “down” from up! Good logic, so we thought. We opted to ride the Keswick Launch around the lower part of the lake then disembark for the hike along the lower shoulder of the Catbells. It was not as big a hike but was judged to be “doable” in the clouds and predicted light rain. The launch, by the way, is a beautiful wooden boat, about 50' overall length, for ferrying passengers on the hour-long, seven-stop route around the lake.

We disembarked at the only stop available – after weeks of drought the region was now seeing floods and the landing spot we wanted was underwater! Oh well – but it made for a longer and by the time we got back – much wetter walk. We hiked around the NW edge of the lake and stopped in for a coffee and scone at a small cafe at a boat rental along the lake. The scone – which we ate with clotted cream and jam (yum) – was fantastic and the stop gave us a much needed reprieve from the rain which was by now a pretty steady downpour. Apparently there are three kinds of British rains – umbrella rain, raincoat rain and then umbrella AND raincoat rain. This was the latter!

As we walked back to Keswick though the outskirt streets we noted that nowhere in this Northern Lakes region did we see McDonald's or other commercial chain stores or restaurants. Keswick has not been “Americanized” and still retains a lot of genuine English character. We commented several times that we really felt like we were in the England that we had read about and seen on TV, rather than some watered-down version of it. Interesting! We made it back to our room by mid-afternoon after about a four-mile walk around the western and northern sides of the lake.

After drying out for 30 minutes or so back in our room, we took the car for a round-trip around the lake, over Honister Pass. We got a bumpy start as some of the roads became one-lane and we were already having a rough time being on the left. When the buses and trucks (lorries) came zooming up it was bit scary, but we managed. The pass itself was amazing – rain by now was pouring down in sheets and the road was very steep. We passed the Honister Slate Mine at the top of the pass then descended along with major rivulets of water into the small town of Buttermere. We took a different mountain pass home and found massive waterfalls pouring out of the hillsides – truly beautiful but photography was almost impossible due to the downpour.

We made it back to Keswick then rounded our day out with a bowl of “Hungarian Goulash” and pints of ale at the Dog and Gun pub. Sleep was no problem that night...

Day 5 – Travel to North Lakes District

We hopped back on the train for a four hour ride from Oxford to Penrith, in the North Lakes District. Two people made us want to go there: Rick Steves and Beth Daniels. Rick is our favorite European travel writer (of PBS fame) and Beth is our friend from church and Pat's knitting group. When we told her we were going to England she shared with us a book she had from many years ago, hikes and walks in the North Lakes District. It was a small, hand-written and hand-illustrated book that we thought reflected a simple time and place. I'm happy to report that once we got there, it was like stepping back in time and it probably wasn't much different from how Beth saw it.

But...moving back, we had to get from Penrith to Keswick along Derwent Water (the lake) so we rented a car. Driving on the left is SO MUCH FUN and a SIMPLE thing to do...HAH!...but really, don't try this at home! We managed to navigate to Keswick thanks to good luck and Bif's GPS (thanks for that) and found our B&B very easily. Linda (proprietor) met us and welcomed us with more information about the area and its walks than we could possibly absorb. We finished the evening with a quick, rain-soaked walk to see the Castlerigg Stone Circle, one of Britain's oldest and we had it almost completely to ourselves. Then we came back into town, ate a quick pizza (nice – even with a British sausage on it) then called it a night.

Day 4 – Stonehenge, Avebury Stone Circle & Bath

Just an aside: not only do Brits drive on the other side of the road but people walk that way, escalators are laid out the reverse of ours and the hot and cold taps are switched around. If that doesn't keep you confused enough, sometimes these “rules” don't hold (except the driving part...)

Jackie had planned a Saturday trip to Stonehenge for those students that wanted to go and she timed it so Chuck and I could be included. The bus ride was a breeze; we left early enough to avoid the incredible crowds that were surging in as we were leaving. Stonehenge is amazing and you get the chills just standing there. They're not sure why it was built but we do know it was a lot of work and all done by hand. Really impressive. It would be fun to be there on the summer solstice, if not to see the sun come through the arches at sunrise then at least to see all the wacky people celebrating!

Jackie had a nice picnic lunch for everyone that included sandwiches, crisps and fruit. The Brits put some pretty odd stuff on their sandwiches...

At any rate, we then walked around the stone circle at Avebury which is very, very large and well preserved, much bigger than Stonehenge. It is a much older circle but the standing rocks aren't carved and they don't form arches, they are just rolled into place and then stood up. A village and two roads pass right through it, so it is more of a “living” circle.

From there we went to Bath to tour the Roman Baths. The National Trust controls most of the historic sites in Britian and seems to do a pretty good job of controlling the flow of humanity. In most of the places we toured, you pay your admission and are given a hand-set that tells you about the things that you are seeing and walking by; these seem to pace the crowds and keep everyone moving at about the same rate. Everything we've seen has been well preserved when you consider the numbers of people that tour them everyday. Everything in England closes at 5pm. Bath was crowded in the extreme but standing on ruins over 2,000 years old makes it well worth the wait and crowds.

We returned back to Oxford around 8pm, tossed in two quick loads of laundry and called it a night.

Day 3 – Greenwich and the Prime Meridian

We took the tube to the high speed commuter Catamaran and rode that down the Thames to Greenwich, passing under the Tower Bridge. Upon our arrival in Greenwich we toured the National Maritime Museum; it has some really nice displays but it was packed with nannies and prams. 

From there we walked up the hill to the Royal Observatory and the prime meridian. As all tourists must do, we stood with one foot in the east and one in the west. The Observatory is laid out for touring through the complexities of accurate timekeeping for determining longitude. We saw several of the early chronometers and timepieces that were real accomplishments for their time, making accurate navigation possible.

 

 We then strolled back into town and found a pub where we had Bangers and Mash for dinner. Both Chuck and I thought is was an awesome meal. And people say you don't come to England for the food...

The weather so far has been cold enough to require a sweat shirt most of the time. It chooses to rain sporadically and seems like so far we have been indoors when it does.

We headed back under the river by elevated rail (?) and switched to the tube, ending up with our luggage at Paddington Station for the train trip out to Oxford. It was too crowded in the station to get a photo of Paddington Bear but his statue is there. This station is huge with tons of platforms; luckily we didn't lose Bob. To Chuck's delight the Great Western Paddington Station Band was playing on the platform and we stood and listened to them for awhile (Chuck's note: standing behind the band, I saw the euphonium player get the conductor's “evil eye” for a missed entrance. I unfortunately recognized that look from experience!) The train to Oxford was quick and efficient and Jackie was there to meet us on the platform when we arrived. At Trinity College of Oxford University, where Jackie is directing Georgetown University's summer program, we settled into our room on stairway 6. Jackie and Bob came into our room and we all sat there and visited until midnight.

Day 2 – London with Bob

We woke up fresh and ready to see some London. The first place we went was Westminster Abbey for the Verge tour which was great, really informative. I had read Ken Follet's Pillars of the Earth before I left home and that really added to the tour. The priest that was doing the hourly prayers that week at theNo Abbey walked with our tour and I talked to him for a while and learned about the roles that the visiting monks, nuns and priests preform. 

No photos allowed inside!  Westminster Abbey is a functioning house of worship.  Inside, we passed the tombs of many famous scientists, composers, authors, statesmen and clerics.  Too many names to mention.

We left the Abby and walked up to Trafalgar Square past the Royal Horse guard, which did a changing of the guard right in front of us. That was neat but signs warned us to "watch out - horses bite and kick." We returned to the Abbey to hear a brass band preform a lunch time concert; Chuck was in his element.

We had lunch at a Fuller's Pub - meat pie and ale ...

 ...then we strolled past Buckingham Palace. I know the Queen wanted me to stop and say “hello” but there were menacing guards standing at all the gates, so I didn't poke my head in. 

We popped into a tube station and rode up to the British Museum, a really beautiful museum full of amazing treasures. We did a quick tour through Egypt, Asyria and Greece, seeing the Rosetta Stone and the Elgin Marbles.

That night Chuck and I had tickets to see the ceremony of the keys, this is when they lock up the Tower of London and all the Royal Jewels. That was just neat to see and I would recommend anyone heading over get tickets.

Day 1 – Arrival in London

Day 1 – Arrival in London.

Our trip over was easy and uneventful. We booked an aisle and a window seat and no one took the seat between us so we spread out and slept that fitful airplane sleep. Bob Hoell (aka Uncle Bif) meet us at Heathrow airport and whisked us onto the tube (London's subway). We checked our bags at our hotel and headed into old London and St. Paul's Cathedral. Our goal was to keep walking and stay awake until 8pm or so, Britain time. We were hoping for an easy time with the jet-lag. 

Once it was clear to Bob that we shouldn't be allowed to sit down or stop for long moments (big risk of falling asleep!) he kept us walking.

We crossed the Millennium Bridge and walked through the Tate Modern art museum while it rained outside and from there we headed along the Thames River on the Jubilee Walk.

 

We stopped at the London Eye and took photos. One of the “bubbles” from this big Ferris-wheel observation structure had just been delivered up the Thames by barge – that was interesting.

We walked up some steps and then crossed the Thames on the Jubilee pedestrian bridge. It was late afternoon by then and we were clearly the “walking wounded.” Bob became concerned about us negotiating stairs, crossing streets and getting on the tube...we were very tired! We took the tube back to our hotel and Bob had us stop at a grocery store and buy snacks. His thinking was that we weren't going to eat any dinner. He was right...I woke up about midnight for a brief snack and went back to sleep about an hour later.

Every Day in May - Final Three Days and Wrap-Up

For the longest time, I've left it looking like I never did finish my goal. Actually, I did, and I've had these scraps of paper with data on them floating around my desk. So while it's not pretty or elaborate, here are the stats for the last three days:

Day 29 - Saturday

I rode up and down the hills of East Bradford's park below our house. There's a nice gravel trail that drops a couple of hundred feet down to a small stream from a field at the top, so I repeated that a few times before heading home.
B: M
T: 40.08
O: 42.8
M: 39.0
A: 9.4
D: 6.38

Day 30 - Sunday - Around the block with Maya -
B: M
T: 10.53
O: 44.2
M: 10.8
A: 7.7
D: 1.40

Day 31 - Monday Memorial Day - Down the Struble Trail with Pat -
B: M
T: 39.09
O: 49.8
M: 15.8
A: 8.4
D: 5.59

So...the mileage for May was 114.9 miles on the road bike and 37.6 miles on the mountain bike for a grand total of 152.5 miles.

Contrasting this month with last year (since I do keep records of all my rides) - I rode about the same distance this year on the road bike (114.9 in 2010 vs. 108.5 in 2009) but WAY fewer miles on the mountain bike: 386.4 in 2009 (329.2 of that was on my Pittsburgh to DC trip) vs. 37.5 in 2010.

Moral of the story: making a committment to ride put me out there many more days and evenings than I ever would have without doing so. Many of those rides were only 1.4 miles with Maya, but she sure benefitted from it too. This was a great thing to do, and I'll try it again...soon!