A Somerset Summer

Our month hanging out and exploring Somerset, England

[somersetsummer]

A stop on the B4520 between Builth Wells and Brecon to catch the view on one of the few cloudy days of our trip.  This drive is mentioned online as a great driving road.  I agree!  twisty, turning two lane road up and over hills. Gorgeous. 

[somersetsummer]

Old phonebooth on Pensford Lane

[somersetsummer]

Sunset in Bath from Alexandria Park

[uncleclarrieschestofdrawers-dea]

Combermere Lodge of Union No. 295, circa 1905.  Macclesfield, Cheshire, England.

William Henry Macdonald left these photographs with his son, Clarence, who then kept them in a box in the lower drawer of his dresser. If you look closely at the list of Worshipful Masters, you can see William H. Macdonald listed in the year 1904. Later, after the family moved to Los Angeles, California, William and his son, Clarence, were active in the local lodge there.

[somersetsummer]

We drove up to Macclesfield to visit the city where my mother's family, the Macdonalds, lived for several generations.  The Combermere Lodge is still active but not located in the same building.  We were, however, able to visit the new lodge and get a tour from the current lodge secretary.

[somersetsummer]

36 Things Teri Observed in England

During our month in Somerset, Teri created a list of things she found interesting about the trip.  She posted new items to facebook as she discovered them.  Here is the list in its entirety.

One important thing to know.  The "first pub" referred to several times in the list is the Bear and Swan in Chew Magna.  This delightful eatery was full of locals each night and the staff were fun, considerate and accommodating to our desire to sit, drink a pint, and use their free wifi.  And I got to join in on Quiz Night!

Teri's List

I can be replaced by a GPS.

Now that Paul is comfortable driving, this DOES feel like being in a video game.

The first pub is still my favorite.

Although this is a small island, you can still get lost.

Getting lost can be kind of fun.

Half a pint is probably enough, but not as much fun.

Most pubs close at 6:00pm on Sunday, except my favorite pub.

Did I mention that the first pub is still my favorite?

Porridge is NOT oatmeal.

 Rubbings are done because you cannot read old tombstones.

There are cameras everywhere watching how you drive.

The first Pub is still my favorite.

There is no law requiring what direction your car has to be facing when parallel parking.

A good tip is 10%

I do have GPS in the cities!

Latte's with regular milk are amazing!

Based on our current schedule, we will see more sunsets than sunrises!

The primary school lets out at 15:15, stay away, those Mom's are on a mission!

There are no Mosquitos here, lots of gnats, but have not seen a single mosquito.

A trip in the car feels like Mr. Toad's Wild Ride, now that Paul Hedges is quite comfortable driving!

The first pub is still my favorite ;)

Once Paul drives to a location he can get back there without a map

My sense of direction is even worse than I thought it was!

School starts at 9:00am and is still in session until July 25.

The vehicle ID # is the pair of numbers on the license plate (the rest are letters)

Stoplights go green yellow red and then they go red YELLOW green, which is quite helpful!

The pound coin is heavy!

Breakfast is at 10:00.

Welsh town names have too many consonants.

Gammon is Ham

People's English accents vary from place to place.

They don't have washcloths in the hotels. It appears they call them flannels and they are considered intimate, therefore they are not provided. Hmmm?

There are hand dryers everywhere and every single dryer is different. 

Laughing really loud in public is completely acceptable, and makes the pubs quite lively!

Don't bother with the bacon, it's like a heated slice of ham

And finally, first pub is still my favorite.

[somersetsummer]

It is a Weston Super-Mare kinda day.

[somersetsummer]

Bond Cars Exhibit. On display at the London Film Museum. Great exhibit.

[somersetsummer]

An old, well maintained phone booth sits on a triangle of grass between roads in Stanton Wick. The booth has been converted to a book sharing, local council news posting, artsy information location. Brilliant.

[somersetsummer]

This is Bandit. He and his owner stopped to chat with us on our walk in Bath. The gent had just moved from Lyme Regis and suggested we visit. Glad that we took his suggestion. And we were able to play with Bandit!

[somersetsummer]

St. Mary Redcliffe Church, Bristol, England

[somersetsummer]

Photos from our second visit to Lyme Regis. The weather was much better and we had a chance to walk on the beach to see the construction of new measures to prevent erosion and also visited the parish church that is located on the tip of the bluff overlooking the channel.

[somersetsummer]

A panorama of the Cobb at Lyme Regis

[somersetsummer]

Midsomer Norton is one of the small cities that the Hedges family is connected to in some way.  William and Elizabeth Hedges (my great-great grandfather and grandmother) baptized their children at the Methodist church in Midsomer Norton.  The first image above is the church as it stands today and the image below is across the street from the church.

We will be stopping by again this week to enter the church and chat with the staff there.

[somersetsummer]

We took the train from Bath Spa Station to London on Monday, July 6. The trip was very nice. We were able to find an unreserved seat and enjoy the view of the countryside all the way to Paddington Station. From there we went down to the Tube and reacquainted ourselves with the various lines.

Tube signs and assistance seems to have improved in the 10 years since we were last here. Or maybe we are just a bit wiser and calmer.  Which ever it was, we were able to determine that we needed the orange Circle line, purchased tickets, and proceeded (on the left) to our train.

We had decided to do a typical tour around London while we were there.  Starting at Westminster to see the usual sites of Westminster Abbey, Parliament / Big Ben, London Eye, South Bank, across the Millennium Bridge and up to Trafalgar Square to the Museum of Art, down the Mall to Buckingham Palace. After that was done, heading to Covent Garden to enjoy the narrow, colorful streets and look for a place for dinner.

We did that, sort of.

During the week earlier I had noticed on the tv news that the Tour de France was kicking off in Yorkshire.  But I did not pay attention to the fact that stage 3 was ending in London. When we got off the Tube at Westminster and walked up to the street we were greeted by enormous crowds and closed streets.  On the plus side, the Westminster Bridge was open to foot traffic, so we could walk without tripping over the revelers who were there for the event.  On the minus side, it was nearly impossible to walk along the South Bank due to the crowds.

We walked back across the Millennium Bridge and to Victoria Embankment for a quick sandwich and decided to wait for the riders to come through.  What we thought was a one hour wait turned into a three hour sit-stand-watch the caravan-watch crazy people do funny things-rain-wait-and then  WOOSHHH the riders flew by.  I crouched down to take photos and Teri used my phone to capture slo-mo video.

After the riders, everyone flowed back to their jobs or to touring around London.  We walked up to Trafalgar to find it had been turned into a music stage. And what's the deal with the blue rooster????

By then the Art Museum was closed, so we headed down the Mall where the race had finished. Then a stop at Buckingham Palace and the Victoria Monument.  Then out to Covent Garden, dinner at a nice steak place, some gelato, more walking and then we discovered that it was getting late and we still had a tube ride back to Paddington Station to get on a late train to Bath.

We go to Paddington Station and ran to our train that pulled out a minute later.  Unfortunately, the train seats were all full and many of the riders were semi-drunk Tour de France partiers who were heading back out to Reading or Swindon.  So we stood in the bar and had a drink until the train emptied enough to sit for the remainder.  We finally got back to the cottage just after midnight, exhausted but thrilled with our dumb luck that we had experienced such a great event on the one day we went into the city.

[somersetsummer]

Video of the Tour de France riders from our spot at Victoria Embankment in London.  This uses the iphone slo-mo capabilities.

[somersetsummer]

We have been having so much fun driving around Somerset and had put off using our train passes. Our original intent was to train into London once a week, but we have been so happy with the sights and food of Somerset that we had put that off. Then we started getting recommendations from locals that Cardiff was a nice visit with good pubs, shopping and history... and just a short train ride away.

We decided to use the Bath Spa station because it, for us, feels easier to get to and park. Bristol Temple Meads station is technically closer but is very busy and hectic.

The train ride to Cardiff is pleasant and drops off right in the city centre. We stopped for lunch and then up to Cardiff Castle.

Cardiff Castle is an enormous space with a family house, an exquisite tower, and ancient Norman Keep relic.

We took the Tower tour and was able to see the amazing interior that was built by John Patrick Crichton-Stuart, 3rd Marquess of Bute. The Marquess's vast range of interests included religion, medievalism, the occult, and architecture. These are all evident in the unique interior of the Tower.

[somersetsummer]

We spent July 4th in Lyme Regis, just a short 90 minute drive south of Pensford. The weather was not great, but we still enjoyed the sights and the people. The coast line and beaches are beautiful. The beach has been eroding due to violent storms so the local council placed smooth stones on the beach to ow it down. We also had a chance to watch kite and wind surfers out in the small bay.