The British Library and Bath Spa

26 March 2008

Happy Birthday Will

Once again we we're off in different directions. I went to the British Library to look at some ephemera related to the sinking of the Princess Alice. For more detail about that, go to my Victorian History Blog (http://www.vichist.blogspot.com). Since I did not have a reader's card, I had to get one and that reminded me of when last I tried to get one for the British Library. Back in 1967 when the Library was still part of the British Museum I applied for a reader's card only to discover that they were very difficult to get. This time, the process took about fifteen minutes and two documents; one with my signature and another with my address. Very easy. Unfortunately, as the gentleman processing my application commented, "It's too easy now; there isn't room enough for serious scholars with all the children sent here by their schools."

Virginia caught an 8.00am train to Bath for a sentimental journey. We had booked the trip in advance, from Hobart. As we probably told you last year, booking in advance saves an enormous amount of money, but you are locked into the times for which you booked. Even so, if you can do it, it is a great deal.

The trip was for Virginia to meet up with her old friend Michael Kelly whom she has known for forty-seven years. They drove around some of Wiltshire and Somerset's best scenery including Laycock Abbey and Bradford on Avon. She had a delightful day visiting old haunts and pubs and reminiscing.

While Virginia was exploring the West Country countryside, I decided to spend some time on the tops of buses. Generally I prefer to travel using the Tube because it is faster and I am usually less interested in the trip than in the destination. This afternoon, though, I walked up to Paddington Station where I caught a bus to Picadilly Circus; a most enjoyable trip which included lovely views of Regent street from the top of the bus.

The weather has been a bit milder. We are not finding gloves and scarves an essential item of dress but we are told that the next couple of days are going to be very wet. Ah well, in only two days we will be in Paris (where it is also wet).

From Platform 9 3/4 to Cambridge

25 March 2008

The tube (Underground) is definitely the fastest way of getting around Greater London, but it is boring and often means negotiating many steps or taking lifts or escalators and/or walking miles of corridors to connect between the various platforms. Today we figured out at least one route of the London busses. Virginia much prefers this because it not only reminds her of her childhood when she rode upstairs at the front of the double-decker busses but it also allows one a clear and uninterrupted view of the fabulous London scenery.

Route 205 starts very near Paddington Station and goes directly to Kings Cross station where we discovered that there really is a Platform 9 3/4! And all this time we thought Harry Potter was a figment of J. K. Rowling's imagination. We may have to rethink that and as you can see from the picture, we caught a luggage trolley just as it was going through the wall!

We then picked up cheap day return tickets to Cambridge and our train actually departed from platform 9 1/2! Needless to say, we enjoyed a lovely day out in that old University city. It is essential to gain a place at one of the more than thirty colleges before one can study at Cambridge University.This is quite the opposite of what happens at Jane Franklin Hall where one must first be admitted to study at the University of Tasmania before being received into a residential college.

Cambridge is an interesting place; made up of the old and the new. There are gorgeous medieval streets and some pretty ugly modern buildings. On the right is one of the old streets which really impressed. It looked like one of the drawings by Dore in his and Gerrold's wonderful book on London 1872.

The high point of our visit was walking through Kings College and spending time in the chapel from where we have all heard the service of nine lessons and Christmas Carols every year. A friend of Virginia's told her that to get a ticket for one of these services you need to have your name put in a waiting list at birth! It is a magnificent building. Begun in the 1450s it is noteworthy for many reasons particularly its magnificent fan vaulted ceiling completed in 1515.

The weather was so bitterly cold we ducked into a pub for lunch (as if we really needed an excuse). There is now no smoking in British Pubs which for us, being non-smokers, is wonderful. In fact, most indoor smoking appears to have been banned even in the railway stations. It is hard to imagine a British Pub or Railway station without the thick fug of smoke which always used to be a part of the building. It is a huge change since our visit last year and we are told that we can expect much the same sort of change in Paris.

Shops and Galleries

24 March 2008

Still cold and flurries of real snow! It's hard to imagine that last year was so warm we sat out in the Italian Garden in Hyde Park enjoying "summer" weather. We did some shopping in the morning and in the afternoon split up going to do different things. It's interesting that here we are on Easter Monday and all the shops are open. Virginia remembers when Easter was a sacred event with shops closed from mid-day Maunday Thursday to the start of business the following Tuesday. Shopping, too, is quite intriguing and the economies of scale are very apparent here. Twenty-two million people in greater London is equal to the total population of Australia. It's easy to see why each size of each item of clothing comes in a variety of, for example, arm lengths and leg lengths. We walked about one-eighth of Oxford Street and must have passed at least half-a-dozen major department stores. Nonetheless, with sub-zero temperatures outside, all the go is the summer lines. If you want a winter coat, you will be hard pressed; but you can certainly get a bikini!

We wound up the morning with a quick visit to the National Portrait Gallery where I spent a bit of time looking at the Victorians on display and we had a bite of lunch. In the afternoon, Virginia wandered around the area near Paddington Station and down toward Hyde Park while I returned to Trafalgar Square and visited the National Gallery. The square, even with the crowds and pigeons, is still a wonderful sight. What is the old song?

I live in Trafalgar Square
With four lions to guard me.
Fountains and Statues all over the place
And the Metropole staring me right in the face.
I know it's a trifle drafty,
But I look at it this way, you see,
If it's good enough for Nelson,
It's quite good enough for me.

It was a relatively quick visit but I enjoyed the four El Grecos on display, especially the magnificent St Jerome. I spent a fair bit of time looking at the Impressionists as well before deciding I had had enough and returned to the hotel only ten minutes or so after Virginia.

The Imperial War Museum

23 March 2008

THE IMPERIAL WAR MUSEUM

Snow! We woke to snow and it was quite heavy although it didn't last long and it didn't stick. Nonetheless it was very pretty - especially from a centrally-heated hotel room.

After dealing with basic travel things (i.e. laundry) we headed off in separate directions. I went to the Imperial War Museum to see two particular exhibitions. On the way, I stopped to have a quick look at the house in which William Bligh, a less than towering figure in Australian History, lived. Interestingly on the blue plaque in front of the house the only mention is of the Bounty mutiny.

On to the museum where, in the entrance hall, there is enough military hardware to mount a small war! My interest, however, was in the exhibitions on "The Children's War," which dealt with the life of London children during the years of World War II; and a Holocaust exhibition.

Both were brilliantly mounted but as seems to me to be an unfortunate problem in such shows, they were not as well maintained as they should have been. Many of the "Press Here For ..." elements of the exhibitions did not work and in some places the lettering in signs had fallen or peeled off. Having said that, there was much that was good and thought provoking.

The first of these was a very large exhibition with a London street and a London house of the early '40s as a part of it. I was astonished at the number of Londoners killed in the air raids and the number of children relocated to the country. My favourite part of the exhibition was one letter from a six year old lad to his mother which said something like, "Dear Mum, they have something here called Spring, and they have it every year!" You can just imagine some youngster from the East End who had never seen a glorious Spring watching the countryside come to life for the first time.

The Holocaust exhibition was extensive although I felt that it emphasized the taking in of Jewish refugees by Britain to a greater degree than was justified. On the other hand, it did do justice to the support for the Nazis in Britain and did an excellent job on the growth of anti-antisemitism in Germany and its partner states.

One of the most surprising things was the large number of people of all ages, not just at the museum, but attending the two exhibitions. I was impressed by the number of parents and grandparents explaining elements of the exhibitions to children. "History," I thought, "is alive and well at the Imperial War Museum."

Meanwhile Virginia had walked up to Kensington Palace to meet her friend and work colleague, Christine Howard and Christine's daughter, Ruth. Christine is on holiday in England having visited Ruth in Lund, Sweden, where she is studying for a Master's Degree. They lunched at the Orangery, a flash eatery with prices to match. After lunch and afternoon tea there they walked back to Queensway to do some shopping.

Virginia and I joined forces in the later afternoon and after an hour or so recovery time went out to dinner at a very pleasant Italian restaurant near the hotel. Although there was no more snow, the temperature hovered around freezing all day.

By the way, we're convinced that we have finally worked out the way to travel on these long hauls. Although neither Virginia nor I seem to suffer extensively from Jet Lag, we've noticed that taking our travel over several days and taking daylight flights wherever possible means that when we arrive at our final destination we can jump straight into whatever activities we wish.

Cold Water Showers

22 March 2008

Easter Saturday and we know we are in London. Despite paying an exorbitant tariff for our hotel room, there was no hot water this morning! Even as I write they are trying to organize something; probably another room in which to shower. We shall see. Ah yes, about an hour after telling the front desk about the problem we had a maintenance man come to the room who confirmed that "yes, we weren't getting hot water." About an hour later we were informed that it was the boiler. Ah tourists to the UK must be a hardy breed willing to have cold showers; they told us there were not other complaints. Arnold of Rugby would have been proud!

Our room is typical of London hotels; very small and with some excellent amenities but as usual lacking some of the more basic ones. There is a tiny wardrobe which literally allows one to have only three or four hangers but there is the biggest and most modern television you have ever seen. Somehow the idea that as a tourist to London you are going to sit in your pokey little room and watch the TV suggests that England has now become the virtual reality escapist capital of the universe.

It is bitterly cold here and they are saying we might get some snow. Even if we don't, the temperature is unlikely to get above 5C and with the wind chill factor taken into account it will, according to the Met, feel like -2 degrees. You can understand why we would like a nice hot shower before we head out! Still, the good news is that we can have a shower in another room which has, allegedly, warmer water. I'd already shaved and for any guys reading this you will probably recall what it is like to have a cold-water shave. We were just told that there was a room with slightly warmer water. Virginia went up to shower and reports that it is no better so it looks like it is cold or at least cool showers today. And what would you like to bet that the hotel management won't even offer us a partial refund? Dream on...

So I sent Virginia down hoping that the arts of female persuasion might work. By golly-gosh, it did. According to her report they said "Sorry, madam, but these things do happen." To which she said, "so do refunds when an implied contract is broken." To which they replied, "How about free breakfasts for the week." "Done" said she, adding, "But only if your promise of having it fixed by this evening holds." We went out for the day and found, on our return, the hot water system was working.

While we were out we went to the Churchill Museum and Cabinet War Rooms in Whitehall. In the past I have been very critical of museums in London. Well, I eat my words. This is a great exhibition space with everything well presented and for anyone with an interest in either World War II or Churchill, it is a must-see. Getting there was a bit of a challenge. Of course, it being a British Bank Holiday some of the Underground lines were closed down. What would normally be and on-off trip on the Tube turned out to be a let's-see-how-many-stations- we-can-see-in-one-trip experience.

when we got back to the hotel, Virginia's day was made when she found a number of messages from her friend of over fifty years, Julie Christie (film actor).

Hope you all have a great visit from the Easter or Passover bunny - take your choice.

From the Sublime to Heathrow

21 March 2008

I am constantly amazed at the progress (and in some cases "regress") that we have seen in our lifetime. As I write this we are comfortably seated in an aircraft, travelling at around 1000km per hour, over the Andaman Sea. The outside temperature is -32C and we have just under 9,500km to fly to London. So here we are, computer set up, describing it to you. And, assuming you check the blog, you will be reading about it a few hours after we reach London.

Security at Singapore is much more intense than at Melbourne, but even so we moved through it quickly. From the time we joined the queue at the departure lounge to the time the plane actually took off, was about 30 minutes. Although it looked as if the flight was going to be very crowded, we were given seats in the middle section; one on the aisle and one next to it. Well our luck was pretty good! The two seats next to us were empty and Bruce moving with a speed that clearly belied his years grabbed the aisle seat on the other side, thus putting Virginia on one aisle and himself on the other. Nobody, of course, would want the two middle seats so we had a very nice group of four seats all to ourselves.

This morning we went out to breakfast at 7.30 and were out of the hotel at 8.00 which gave us time to do a little bit of shopping; aftershave for Bruce and perfume for Virginia. Our small purchases seemed just that when the woman in front of us bought over $2,000 worth of make-up and assorted other gear. We wondered how she was going to get that into wherever she was going without paying pretty hefty duty.

The surprising thing was how quickly we cleared everything when we finally arrived in London an hour late due to headwinds of over 150km an hour. Usually I stand in the long queue while Virginia whizzes through the UK passport line. This time I joined her and we were through very quickly. There's a lesson in that! I sometimes think that as far as Heathrow is concerned it is "if you are not UK, stay away." Still the EU line moves pretty quickly. Overall, Heathrow has a lot to learn from Changi. In Singapore the airport is clean, there are people movers of all sorts to help you, an intelligent and articulate staff and lots to see and do. There are even free movies twenty-four hours a day although why anyone would want to watch movies in the terminal after having probably watched them on the plane I do not know. But I digress. To compare the airports is comparing the sublime to the ridiculous. In Singapore you feel as if you are welcome, valued and appreciated. The word is s-e-r-v-i-c-e; something that is still unfamiliar to the staff at Heathrow.

Anyway, we got from Heathrow to Paddington on the Heathrow Express. It now costs about 17 pounds for a one way trip, but it is worth it, taking only fifteen minutes into the city. At Paddington we, of course, saw our old friend, Paddington Bear and said hello before getting a taxi to our hotel which, although within walking distance, seemed too far after the trip.

We went out for dinner and although we tried to stay awake, we turned out the lights and were asleep by 7.30pm.

Singapore Airlines and Terminals

20 March 2008

We left Melbourne for Singapore and had one of those flights where everything seemed to go like clockwork. You know that interminable wait once you have boarded the plane and wait for the take-off? This time the plane taxied out and took off only minutes after it was fully boarded. Although there was a little turbulence, it was a quick smooth flight with all of the usual amenities. We watched a couple of films, ate a couple of meals and before we knew it, we were in Singapore.

Last year, when we went overseas, we flew on the first day of the new regulations. You know, the ones where you have to put all of your travel essentials into a plastic zip-lock bag and make it available for inspection. The regulation is still in force, but seems to be less enforced. In fact, flying out Sydney we didn't even have to take them out of our hand luggage.

As usual we had booked into the Ambassador Hotel in the Transit area. While in the past we had always found the hotel to be marvelously convenient, we have to admit that it was pretty dreary. Flying Singapore Air meant that we were in the new Terminal 3. Here the hotel is much newer and brighter.

And speaking of Terminal 3, even if you are flying with an airline that doesn't use it, it is well worth a visit. Not only is it brand spanking new, it is architecturally interesting. This airport offers free internet access and free trolleys for getting your bags from point A to point B. Perhaps that is a lesson for some of our Australian airports. Of course, the name of the game in Singapore is service and the shops and restaurants in the airport are open 24 hours every day. Here's an example. We noticed a small food bar with four staff all of whom were working to serve customers and when there weren't customers, they were cleaning the stand and getting organised. This was just one of dozens of food places; all highly organised.

Since there is a three hour difference between Melbourne and Singapore, our bodies were telling us that it was three hours later than the clocks were saying. As a result, we are struggling to stay awake until 10.00pm local time even though our bodies will be insisting that it is 1.00am. It's been a long day, starting at 6.00am and going (hopefully) to 1.00 the following morning. Tomorrow should be better in that we can get up, go to the departure gate, and just get on board the plane. No checking in and waiting for several hours. But we will then have the long leg of the trip; thirteen hours to London.

So far we have no reason not to continue to say that Singapore Airlines is wonderful, but tomorrow will tell!

Up, Up and Away ...

19 March 2008

And we are away! Well, that's a bit of an exaggeration. It would probably be fair to say that today was one of those days where we seemed, in the old military adage, rushing to "hurry up and wait."

Last year when we caught a taxi to the airport we were convinced that the driver was out to establish the truth of the statement that you are more likely to be killed on the way to the airport than on your flight. Fortunately, this year, we arrived at the airport after a very smooth ride and a driver who seemed to prefer the music of ABC-FM to other stations. After such a good start, what could possibly go wrong?

Even the late departure of the plane to Melbourne delayed us by only about fifteen minutes and in this day and age; an age of computers, ADSL, mobile phones and speed, speed, speed, what's a delay of fifteen minutes?

Melbourne was as comfortable as an old shoe. We wandered around, did a but of shopping and had a bit to eat. Do you know SUGA? Well, its a Victorian "candy" outlet and well worth a visit to their website.I'm not certain, it is probably http://www.suga.com.au. Because of Virginia's background in confectionary sales she was very interested in the shop where they manufacture their wares. One of our students at Jane Franklin Hall had told her about it and we watched in absolute amazement as they hand threw the "rock" candy. They do a particularly interesting (albeit expensive) line with names actually imbedded in the "rock" candy. It is not too difficult to do something like "Dan and Amy," but "Alexander and Valentina" would be one hell of a challenge. I wish I had taken a picture or two but was so interested in what they were doing I forgot I had my camera in my pocket.

We then tried to get a taxi back to our hotel. After standing in the queue at Flinders Street Station for more than three quarters of an hour without a single cab arriving (and by the way, it was from 3.30 to 4.15)the only positive thing we could say was that we had advanced from twelfth in the queue to second as a result of the people in front of us giving up in disgust. Finally, taking a page from their book we gave up too and used the Airport bus to take us to the airport from where we called our hotel which mounted a rescue mission, coming to get us.

The weather remains kind and tomorrow morning we are off to Singapore.

Here we go again

Well, it's a year later and we are all a year older, but still getting around. We're off to Paris again with a short stop in Melbourne and an even shorter lay-over in Singapore. Then it's on to London for a week and from there to Paris via the Eurostar.

Usually Virginia is the one who spends several months getting excited about our annual pilgrimage while I try to not even think about it until a few days before we go. This year, for a variety of reasons, the whole thing seems to have crept up on both of us. Nonetheless, Virginia is packed and I am about half- packed.

I suppose we've been a bit distracted since Will has just gotten engaged to the lovely Philly! The wedding, we are told, will be in October so we will be getting over to Adelaide then, if not before. One can only hope that South Australia has cooled down a bit by then.

Like last year, we are flying with Singapore Airlines. We were very impressed with them and cannot say too many nice things about their staff. Long flights, like these, are awful at the best of times; especially when you travel "tourist" or as a friend of our refers to it, "wing-cling." But our experience has led us to believe that it can be a lot worse with other airlines and frequently is!

For my 70th birthday, Virgina gave me a new camera so prepare yourselves - there will be pictures! We actually depart on the 19th and I'll try to update the blog every few days as we go along. So until next time . . .