London and Colchester Castle
Both London and Colchester are old towns - around 2,000 years of birthdays each - amongst the oldest few in England. However, they have grown very differently, and in the last fortnight we happen to have visited them both.
In London, we stayed in an old hotel in Earl's Court. This is the suburb where the Aussies lived before it got too pricey, and we didn't spot any there on this trip. But we did get a good look at the rest of London, as we went on the London Eye (the large ferris-wheel in central London). In a far-sighted move, Kate's parents' gave us vouchers for it last Christmas, and we wanted to use them before the next Christmas came around! It was truly spectacular, and a sunny-clear day allowing us to see it all.
We strolled down the Thames, past many top-less British men (failing to dress to impress), and gradually made our way to the Greenwich observatory. There, we visited the various historical meridians, resisted buying a timepiece, and then settled down in the park to read the paper under a tree, letting the afternoon leisurely pass by.
The next day the weather cranked up another notch, and we tried to find air-conditioning in the British Museum. Sadly, the exhibits are temperature controlled, but the visitors are left to fend for themselves. It was getting a bit pongy upstairs, so we couldn't linger in the Anglo-Saxon exhibit (where the rest of Sutton Hoo was), but we quickly found the Rosetta Stone and the controversial Parthenon Frieze. Also, we got to hold some spare 3000 year-old pottery that they had lying around!
We finished the day in London over an extended lunch with Brendan and Catrin (who had flown in barely an hour earlier), only leaving when a busker called Crazy Nick played a witches-hat across the square from us, in an impressively talent-less way. The irony was that he was practically sitting at the base of Covent Garden.
Then this weekend, we met up with Benno in Colchester, for a bit of castle-spotting. The world's oldest Norman castle can be found there. It's mostly a shell, and has been renovated in more recent times, but the inside has been turned into a museum of Colchester's history. We did a good tour of the Roman foundations, where we sat in a tunnel deep within the earth, then went on top of the Norman castle where we heard jazz being played by a nearby Big Band. A real mix of periods and cultures!
This week is Kate's birthday, and she'll finally get to open the cards from her family that she's been resisting for the last few days!
- 15 August 2004
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High above London, we can see it all from the Eye. |
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