We have been walking in the footprints of history this week. We began our trip to the “countryside” (not quite as country as it was 30 years ago when I was here!) with a night in Portsmouth. Portsmouth is a port town and there were thousands of sailboats in marinas and on moorings. I was glad we did not have Galt there or else we would have never found him again! In Portsmouth, we went to see two very impressive ships at the Maritime Museum. The first was the Mary Rose. The Mary Rose was the first ship that King Henry VIII had commissioned for his navy when he took the throne at age 18. The Mary Rose sank in 1545. A group of divers located her in the 1970s and she was raised from the bottom of the ocean over the next decade. It was amazing how well preserved the items were! The second ship completed a journey for us and Capt. Nelson. . As you may recall, we visited Nelson’s Dockyard in Antigua and learned about the early years of Capt. Horatio Nelson and his ship the Victory. Well, this trip, we got to go onboard the Victory. They were refurbishing it so it was covered in scaffolding but it was a still an amazing site. The next morning we headed out for my bucket list item, The Jamaica Inn. The Inn is famous for its’ history of smuggling on the Cornwall coast. Not only did they smuggle, the smugglers would lure the ships into the rocks on purpose to steal their wares. Quite the ugly lot! The Inn was featured in a novel by Daphne du Maurier called “The Jamaica Inn” and ever since I read it, I knew I had to visit. We splurged for the night and stayed in the Daphne du Maurier suite which not only had a clawfoot tub in the middle of the room but it had a seven foot wide bed! I thoroughly enjoyed myself while soaking in the tub and sipping champagne. Bill was very sweet to be my butler all night by refilling my glass. The next morning we went through the Daphne du Maurier museum onsite before heading out to the coast. At the coast, we visited the Geevor Tin Mine. From the 17th to the 19th century, England was the primary source for tin. The mine closed in the 1980s when the mine was forced to shut down due to low tin prices. Bill was a great tour guide and explained all the machinery so now I can make rum and mine tin as well! After the mine, we made a quick stop by the Pendeen Lighthouse and then made a long, tedious, traffic-filled drive over to Plymouth. It is my opinion that England must be the RV capital of the world. I counted 15 RVs in less than 3 minutes so you imagine the jam. Plymouth was our favorite town that we visited. It was also a port town and had hundreds of boats. There was a seaside promenade filled with cafes and restaurants. After the stressful drive, we enjoyed tapas for dinner by the sea on a beautiful evening. In the morning, we went on a tour at the Plymouth Gin Distillery which had been around for hundreds of years. During WWII, Plymouth was heavily bombed and damaged. The navy sent the following message to their ships in the area, “Plymouth heavily damaged. The gin distillery still stands.” The distillery even had a special “navy gin” which was 57% alcohol so that it could be stored next to the gun powder on the ships. I guess the lesson would be….if you want to be saved by the Navy, run to the distillery! After our tour, we headed toward Bristol where we would stay the night before driving back into London to catch our afternoon flight. Bill routed us through the Dartmoor National Park which was beautiful! I had been waiting and waiting for unspoiled moors and we finally found them. While the Jamaica Inn was technically in the moors, much of the land around the inn had been claimed for farmland. In Dartmoor, the moors were exactly as I had pictured them when reading Wuthering Heights, Secret Garden, Jane Eyre and dozens more of the British classics. I took a few minutes to wander along a path and felt like I had stepped into another time. Another bucket list item completed. We fly out tomorrow to Portugal! We will be visiting Porto, Pinhao, Lisbon and Sintra. More trains and planes and sights to see! Ratings for the English “countryside” Overall: 7.5 Points of interest: 8.5 Ease of communication: 10 Ease of transportation: 5 Friendly people: 7 Food: 6 Cost of living: 7 Weather: 10 for additional miracle days!! Bill’s favorite thing: Plymouth Sally’s favorite thing: The Jamaica Inn and the Moors (Please excuse Bill’s all lowercase writing….my head is going to pop but I agreed not to touch it! Lol!) Hey all, This is bill, i am going to hijack the blog for a few minutes, to give my perspective on oslo/norway, london and the sw moors area of england.. first off is olso/norway. Norway is a geographically large country with a small population (about 5.5 M) and about 20% (1M )live in and around oslo.. That means that there are about 15 MSA’s (metropolitan statistical areas) in the us larger than norway. This will be important shortly. Oslo is a very clean, very efficient city, with lots of public transport at reasonable (about $3.50) for a one on/off. The trams and buses went every where, and where ever they didnt people mostly walked, very few cars in the city center.. Lots of bike, scooters, etc, (look at sallys pics) and lots of them for rent. It is almost a very homogenous group.. We saw a few asians, a few muslims, and 15 black people in 3 days. This leads to a ‘nice little collectivist enclave’ to quote a bartender.. The city is also homogenous.. Lots of low and mid rise buildings housing apts and storefronts.. The oldest around 1850s and moving forward.. Lots of building going on as well. So our little collectivist society taxes the holy crap out of things it doesnt like.. A beer in a restaurant was about $10, a pack of smokes $20, even beer in a store was about $3-$4 each. Even in bulk, they also tax sugar and anything they dont like..probably cars too.. Food was expensive, even fast food, BK double cheeseburger meal started about $10. For people that know me personally, you will be shocked that this method does work, i did not buy a beer in a restaurant while we were there.. So if you want democratic socialism feel free to move to norway.. Btw in the middle of winter, they get about 2 hours of gloaming a day ( thats partial sun) and we didnt see many stand alone houses. Almost all were attached, especially in the city center, or mid rise apts, so no yard for you.. Although there was a decent amount of parkland, id still hate to walk a dog in february!! Sally and i tried to come up with basic words to describe oslo, i came up with the stepford city, for those of you who know the reference, or even sterile.. Not my cup of tea.. Wouldnt live there even if weather was perfect.. On to london..so im comparison to oslo, london is cheap!! Bet youve never heard that.. Pints of good beer can be had in the $4-$6 range, food not too bad (although we had i think the worst wings ever in london). London is very diverse. People from everywhere are everywhere.. Lots of new construction going on. (for now) we did lots of walking, as again, cars in the city center are almost impossible to find a spot for unless you get one with your flat.. So we spent alot of time on the tubes. They are mostly clean, efficient and sprawl all over the place, but its almost always a 15 walk from where you want to go ( prob with mass transit in general) and not alot of fun i would think in crappy weather.. So life in london is a series of tube rides. Get up, walk to tube or rail station, get on tube, perhaps with a change or two, get off , walk to work, do in reverse to go home, and god forbid you have to purchase something for dinner to drag on the tube for dinner.. This lifestyle would never work anywhere in the us outside the big cities.. If most folks couldnt drive to walmart, itd be hell to pay.. That being said, the history and architecture in london is amazing.. I am glad to have spent some time here to see where we, as americans came from. Food was kinda vanilla but not horrible..(except the one meal) prices arent horrible.. No AC here though except in new buildings so if you get a hot summer like they had, watch out! People generally friendly but not warm. Still a bunch of stodgy brits!! The english countryside : as is typical in the US, things generally get cheaper as you venture off into the countryside.. And the roads get crazier.. Driving around in cornwall (sw england) was an exercise in patience and pain.. Roundabouts coupled with traffic lights and small villages made for a long day or two.. And many of the roads were barely, and i mean barely wide enough for two vehicles, with walls or hedges right on the curb.. It was crazy.. (and ive driven some crazy roads) especially in the islands.. We spent some time in both portsmouth and plymouth. (that of pilgrims fame) and enjoyed them both, plymouth more so.. Food still avg, but cheaper than london, so a plus.. Prices in general were better than london, except for sallys dream stay at the jamaica inn!! So on to the pain part of the driving, we rented a ford focus, not a bad little car, its a stick, driving on the left side of the road, on the right side of the car with lots of lights, narrow streets, and roundabouts, lots of shifting , legs still hurt!! If you ever come out here, shoot for the auto (but be prepared to open the wallet) Ok enough rambling for now,, ill be back shortly with more ‘commentary’ in the near future, now you can enjoy the much more eloquent ms miller again!!
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AuthorSally Miller Archives
May 2024
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