West Stow Anglo-Saxon Village is an archeological site and museum dedicated to the artefacts and culture found in that area of Suffolk. There is evidence that people lived here as far back as the Mesolithic period, approximately 11,600 years ago, and that people have inhabited the area off and on throughout the ages.
In 1849, people became interested in the site and was excavated in the 18th and 19th centuries as well as a more recent excavation between 1956 and 1972. The majority of the structures that were once on this site were called sunken-feature buildings. There were also a great deal of coins as well as pottery found on the site. The museum displays some of these artefacts as well as others that they have found in nearby areas of Suffolk.
Replicas
Replica
Inside the replica of the weavers hut
On the site now is a series of approximately seven buildings built by researchers in an effort to determine how the Anglo-Saxons built their dwellings as well as what kind of buildings they used. There are also replicas of the weapons used from the earliest times to the medieval times and re-enactments as a part of the tour, including everything from slingshots, to trebuchets, to gonnes, which were medieval hand cannons.
lighting the gonne
re-enactment of the trebuchet
more re-enactors
The area also comprises of 125 acres with trails, countryside, heath, which has purple heather on it right now, and walks to explore. There is also a playground, picnic area, and a cafe.
If you like Beatrix Potter, you might just find Melford Hall to be right up your alley. Built in the 16th century, Melford Hall was originally held by abbots until the dissolution of the monasteries when it was granted to William Cordell. It was passed and sold within the Cordell family until 1786, when it was sold to Harry Parker, the son of Admiral Hyde Parker and became the seat of the Parker baronetcy. The home was passed to the National Trust in 1960. The family still occupies a wing and some of the gardens by lease.
Beatrix Potter was a much-loved cousin of the Parkers and visited often after 1890. She was said to have brought mice and other creatures with her that she painted as well as painting or making pen and ink drawings of the house and gardens, which are on display in a small outbuilding as well as within the house itself. There is also a model of Jemima Puddle-Duck that she gifted the Parker children on one of her visits.
Along with the artwork, you can tour the room where Beatrix Potter stayed as well as many other rooms in the home. There is a small garden to the rear of the house that is tended by the National Trust and open to visitors as well as a small lawn to one side where there is seating for the tea room and room for people to play croquet. The National Trust also provides picnic blankets and Beatrix Potter themed toys for children to enjoy on the lawn as well.
The house is lovely, though more modern in some ways than others. There are current photographs of the family around the house, which you don’t see in many of the other National Trust homes, and some of the furniture is more modern since family resided in many of the rooms toured until the ’60’s.
If you’re near Long Melford in Suffolk, Melford Hall is definitely worth a look–especially if you’re a Beatrix Potter fan.
During Jane Austen Regency Week several years ago, a group of us drove out to Winchester hoping to go inside the cathedral and pay our respects to Jane. Little did we know there is a flower show held ever other year at the cathedral and it was closed down the day we went to set up. I wanted to go again, but never made it back until this year. This year would normally be the year the flower show was held in Winchester, but I suppose the 200th anniversary of Jane’s death changed things a bit. Instead, the cathedral and all of Hampshire are celebrating Jane Austen.
I wish the weather had been cooler, but all of England was sweating out a heat wave for that entire week, and that Wednesday was no different. Intending to also go to the Mysterious Miss Austen exhibit, my daughter and I decided to go to the cathedral first since it was the closest. We stopped by the book bench in front of the cathedral first so I could snap a quick photo.
When we entered the cathedral, much to my surprise, my daughter was free because she is under 16 and with family. She’s at an age where she is rarely free or even reduced. She is still a student, so it’s always nice that something educational is made more affordable. 🙂
The greeters at the cathedral handed us a brochure with the best parts of the building labelled, and told us where to begin. Fortunately, Jane Austen’s grave is one of the first parts, though we had to wait for a tour to finish to actually stand close by. There are sculptures nearby and infographics that are well done and interesting, so we weren’t completely bored. Not to mention that the cathedral is beautiful and one of the most spectacular I’ve seen so far.
For people to leave messages
Plaque added later
Jane Austen’s Grave
A book was nearby where fans of Jane Austen could write a note, and I contributed–even though I tend to struggle for what to write. One of the entries on the page was simply, “You changed me forever.” which made me tear up. Jane Austen changed the lives and attitudes of so many and she never knew the influence her words had. I do think she’d be touched, but find a lot of things in honour of her a bit of a lark.
Winchester Cathedral is definitely a must see from the amazing ceiling to the graves of kings and queens on a wall near the altar. I wish we’d had more time to spend, but we were to drive home that day and I had to be there by a certain time.
Gorgeous stained glass
Remains of Kings and Queens
Down the centre.
After touring the cathedral, I walked my daughter a short ways behind to show her the house where Jane Austen died. We then walked to the library for the Mysterious Miss Austen exhibit. For those interested, it’s not large, but confined to two rooms and free to the public. Jane’s pelisse is on display as well as the original watercolour painted by her sister Cassandra as well as several derivations of that work and another drawing I’d never seen before, but was not fond of. I’m sure I’m leaving things out, but those are the bits that stick out in my mind the most.
House where Jane Austen died
I was unsure if photography was allowed, and there was a very vigilant library employee watching everyone like a hawk, so I didn’t even try. I did find the exhibit to be nice, so if you’re in the area, definitely stop by.
Unfortunately, we were limited in time, so my daughter and I hurried to M&S for a takeaway lunch and started our long drive home. Thank goodness the M-25 wasn’t crazy with traffic!
I wish I could say that I was able to experience more than I did, but personal reasons interfered and I only managed two days of Jane Austen immersion this year. 😉 I understand from those present that the Regency Day was the best yet and that despite the heat, the ball was a success, which was nice to hear, though I was sorry to have missed both. I’m not too sure about dressing out Regency in the heat wave we had at that time, but the rest would have been fun.
I arrived late afternoon on Monday the 19th and settled in, meeting up with good friend Cass Grafton, who arrived several days before. My first event was a talk by the well-known Jane Austen historian Diedre LeFaye, who spoke on Jane Austen’s life in Hampshire–primarily the places she lived and how they were depicted during her life and how the places or sites appear now. The talk was informative and the pictures were very interesting, especially of places I had visited.
St. Nicholas Church
From within the churchyard
Tuesday morning, my daughter and I walked out to Chawton and poked around St. Nicholas Church, which is near Chawton House and was the church associated with Edward Austen Knight’s estate. St. Nicholas was originally built sometime around 1270, though it was renovated and parts even re-built during the Victorian era. Most of the church was destroyed by fire in 1872 or 1873, but the chancel remained and is still part of the church that stands today. A plaque for Cassandra, Jane’s sister is still to the left of the altar and still retains scorch marks from the fire.
Interior
Scorch marks on Cassandra’s plaque
Outside St. Nicholas Church, Jane Austen’s mother Cassandra and her sister Cassandra Elizabeth are buried behind the building and almost set apart with how they are arranged.
Both graves
Her sister Cassandra
Her mother Cassandra
Tuesday afternoon, we attended a talk by Gabrielle Malcolm on “Darcy then and now,” which was interesting in how she illustrated the sources and inspirations for Jane Austen’s masterpiece and then how it has created an archetype that has carried through to modern story telling and literature.
That evening, Jane Austen House Museum held their annual open house. With the high temps, everyone walked through and after, a great many of the guests milled about in the gardens. We didn’t stay long, but walked through the house and then took the tour of the attics before heading off for dinner and to cool down.
Book Bench in front of JAHM
Marmite, the grumpy Jane Austen’s House Museum cat
Unfortunately, Wednesday meant it was time to travel home. My daughter and I did go into Winchester that morning, but I’ll save that for next week’s post. 🙂
Thanks to Joan at St. Mary’s Hall for the amazing place to stay. St. Mary’s Hall is located near The Butts and makes for an easy walk in one direction to Alton and in the other to Chawton. She is a wonderful hostess and definitely spoiled us! Maybe next year the weather will be more what we’re accustomed to!
I’ve been wanting to go to Flatford for some time. Run by the National Trust, Flatford is where the artist John Constable (1776-1837) painted approximately five of his works near the Flatford Mill. I happen to like Constable’s work and was intrigued by the gallery and the locations of his works. Along with the gallery and the scenery, Flatford also has the Bridge Cottage that people can tour as well as several walks and their tea room.
John Constable was born in nearby East Bergholt. His father owned Flatford Mill and several others according to the information on the site. He eventually married Maria Bicknell and moved to London, leaving the family mills to be taken over by his younger brother upon the death of his father.
Many of his works are set in Dedham Vale, which is the area surrounding Flatford, and represent a major contribution the Romantic movement of the time.
Driving to Flatford isn’t difficult, by any means, but eventually you reach a one-way single road carriage way that leads you to the car park. The entrance is quite close and once you are inside, a RPSB wildlife garden and the gallery are the first attractions.
View from the bridge
Further down river near the mill
Front of Flatford Mill
Side of Flatford Mill
We opted to view the exhibition first, which is a great deal of infographics and large prints of his work. We then toured the Bridge Cottage and crossed the bridge and took the walk down past the locks before we turned around and walked the other main trail that takes you past the Flatford Mill and the site of the famous painting “The Hay Wain” as well as several other cottages and buildings that existed in Constable’s day.
The Hay Wain
The View Now
The site of “The Hay Wain” was fascinating by how much was actually the same from Constable’s day to ours. Obviously the trees are different, but the house to the side and so much is still the same.
After, we stopped into the tea room for a lite bite to eat and something to drink. We usually love the tea room, but found this one had no gluten-free offerings unlike most of the other tea rooms, which was a bit of a disappointment.
Our last stop was the RPSB Wildlife garden, that was full of colour, interesting, and beautiful, though I think the younger children enjoyed it more than us. It was still nice and had a great deal of educational bits on how to promote wildlife in your own garden.
Flatford is a gorgeous area if you are keen on hiking some lovely trails and for scenery. Dogs were all over the property and a few had a ball swimming in the River Stour and playing as well, so if you enjoy bringing your dog, then it’s a great place for it. There are also boat tours and row boats to rent. My son wanted to do the rowboat, but I didn’t realise how much it would cost, so be warned there is a £10 deposit on a row boat and then it’s £5 per half-hour.
Those who are interested in seeing Constable’s work might want to plan a trip to the National Gallery to see “The Hay Wain” or another gallery displaying his work since there isn’t any of that at Flatford.
National Trust site on Flatford: https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/flatford
I finally did something touristy! Not a major trip or thing, but I tagged along on a trip to the Norwich Castle recently. I’ve been to the Cathedral (which is spectacular if you’ve never been) for Evensong during the Christmas season, but we just went for the morning and missed out on the castle.
The Norwich Castle is a 900 year old Norman castle originally started as a fortification according to our tour guide, but later the plans changed and it became a Royal Palace. Norwich Castle, today, is still the original structure, but instead of being just the castle, like most of the castles I’ve seen here, it is more a museum and art gallery.
Norwich Castle
Castle Keep
Castle Keep
When you enter the castle the centre-most portion is a cafe and stairwell. On the upper floor, there are exhibits for the Romans and Vikings, an exhibit honouring the Norfolk military, and the castle keep (the original part of the castle built). On the lower floor, there is a national history exhibit, an exhibit of Norfolk artists (including a Gainsborough!) and the Iceni and Boudica. I know I’ve left out bits and pieces, but we weren’t there for the entire day, so I did miss bits.
Greek Pot
Norfolk China
Awesome door from the Cathedral if I remember correctly
Also don’t forget to make it down to the dungeons for that portion of the exhibit as well. We had a guided tour of the castle keep, which added a lot to the experience as well. I understand there are also tours of the dungeons as well.
The castle is not huge and can be toured in a day without rushing. There’s a lot of variety and a good number of artefacts to enjoy and study. There’s so much in Norwich and a mall nearby the castle to enjoy when you are done with the castle. Definitely a fun day out!
Next up… Flatford! I know! I got out more than once!
Once we had our fill of Ghent, we drove the remaining way to Eindhoven, which is normally another 90 minutes or so, but took a bit longer due to some crazy traffic in Antwerp. We had a hotel just on the edge of the town centre, which was good and bad. Good because we weren’t in the heart of Carnival (I know someone whose hotel room window was by the deejay booth) but we still had a bit of the crowd and noise.
Church
Not really the town centre. Just a street I liked.
So, if you’re interested in a nice quiet weekend in Eindhoven, don’t go during Carnival! Carnival is a Catholic tradition there and celebrates the last week before the fasting of Lent, much like Mardi Gras and other carnivals around the world. It’s a lot of crazy costumes, dancing and alcohol. People get loud, drunk, and they party hard!
We settled in and decided to wander around a bit and find a place to eat–always a bit of a chore in a different country. We walked around the town centre, which is a lot of shopping, restaurants, bars, and a pretty church before we did an internet search for a gluten-free restaurant. The site we used first wasn’t very helpful and most restaurants didn’t have options for us. Eventually, we tried a place called Vintage, which could make anything on their menu to suit us.
I must say with language barriers and such, I was a little nervous and I probably over-asked several questions, but the server we had was very nice about it.
After our meal, we walked back towards the hotel and had a good time watching everyone dressed in their craziest get-ups for the celebrations. Tents with loud music, alcohol, and crowds cropped up throughout the area.
National Swim Centre, Netherlands
From the end of 50m
From the side
Our second day was spent mostly at the National Swim Centre, which is an amazing place if you’re into swimming and pools. It’s a beautiful facility and was fascinating to wander around when we weren’t busy.
After our busy day, we were certainly hungry, so we drove back to the hotel. I messed up a bit and I’m still waiting for someone to mail a ticket to my house since then! I missed the little side path for the car and ended up in a bus lane then I got stuck behind someone making a left turn, which made me run a red light. Hopefully, there were no cameras!
This was nothing! There was worse!
Carnival!
More of the aftermath
That evening, we wandered through the now filthy streets in the town centre to find another restaurant. Our problem this time wasn’t finding a place that was gluten-free so much as finding a restaurant that had room. All of them were packed!
Finally, a really nice gentleman at Ilios found us a table. I love Greek food and this place didn’t disappoint. The manager/owner spoke very good English and was so nice, even apologising for the slower service when the small restaurant was packed to the gills! The service, in my opinion, hadn’t suffered at all.
Once we’d eaten, we wandered around the streets a bit, but people were rowdier and the streets were truly gross with beer bottles and garbage, so we headed back to the hotel to sleep.
The next day we woke to our last day in Eindhoven, we swam, and we made our return trip to the Eurotunnel in Calais. The trip back was without any traffic and the weather was decent. We made it to the Chunnel about an hour and forty minutes early for our scheduled train. We were offered an earlier train, made it through customs, and when we were through, it said that our train was preparing to board, so we drove through the maze and onto the train. We didn’t discover until after we were packed in like sardines that it was the train before ours. I suppose they have plans in place for that because we had no issues and we paid nothing extra. We just ended up back in the UK 30 minutes before we were supposed to. I wasn’t upset about that at all!
We were looking for something for the kids a few weeks ago and I found this exhibit at the Horniman Museum for their Robot Zoo. Deciding to make a day of it, we decided to take the train since the tube ride was considerably shorter from the train station than the outermost tube station and the train is faster into London.
We made a late start and had a bit of fun navigating other trains to get to London since we missed the direct service, but we made it in and took the over 40 minute tube and London Overground ride to Forest Hill. It’s a neat part of town. A suburb really of London and was a fun one mile walk uphill to the museum. Now, there’s much more to the museum than just this Robot Zoo, but due to time and weather this time of year, we didn’t do everything the Horniman had to offer.
My children wanted to see the Robot Zoo and the Aquarium, so we paid for the two together as the rest of the museum is free. The Robot Zoo is downstairs and really in one large room. There were several animal “Robots” set up around the room, built to show and kind of explain different physiological features if you read the bits that go along with each. For example, Giraffe’s have a series of valves in their neck to prevent them from passing out from blood loss from raising and lowering their head, so the robot version had a series of valves as well. There were also other activities that went along with each animal featured.
Grasshopper
Squid
Fly
The robots were colourful, imaginative, and interesting. I will say my youngest, at 9, is probably on the line to being too old for this exhibit. Most of the children there were quite young. It’s really geared towards younger children and while my 11-year-old did seem to enjoy herself, but said she would’ve preferred to stay at home with my eldest.
We then ventured down another level to the Aquarium. My children enjoyed the poison dart frogs, but the exhibition is actually rather small and I found it disappointing. It didn’t take long to wend our way through the tanks and make our way back upstairs.
London Skyline
We walked through a portion of the natural history museum, but my children were beginning to complain of hunger and how they wanted to leave, so after a quick walk through a small part of the gardens (which has a great view of the London skyline, by the way!) we called it a day. We took the Overground and the tube to Borough Market and ate at a seafood restaurant right in the shadow of a neat old church, walked about Southwark, crossed Millennium Bridge, and from St. Paul’s walked to the tube to return to the train station.
After a quick trip to Platform 9 3/4 and a Hotel Chocolate store, we took the train back home!
The Robot Zoo runs at the Horniman through 29 October 2017.
Now, most people would travel to Brussels and stay a few days so they can see all the town has to offer, but when you’re travelling with a band of teenagers for a sports competition, that doesn’t happen. Despite this trip being a very short one, there were a number of firsts for me. This was the first time I travelled by any mode of transportation across the channel, or under in this case, and into Europe as well as my first time in France and Belgium; not that I saw much of France but a bit of Calais and the motorway. 🙂
So, the Chunnel was not quite what I expected. I did some research and given that I get claustrophobic in the weirdest of situations was a little concerned over that, the crossing wasn’t bad at all. When you arrive at the Folkestone Chunnel Crossing, you use your reservation to be admitted to the area and as a coach, we went through customs at a small services where there’s a Starbucks, a W.H. Smith, and a Duty Free shop. When the time came for us to board our reserved crossing, we loaded back onto our bus and drove through a maze to reach the train.
It’s amazing really because the coaches drive in from the end and once each car is loaded, glass panes with the train doors fold out and a metal retractable door that descends from the ceiling. There are public toilets in the first and last cars, so you can get out for those or to just stretch your legs, though you cannot walk between the cars in the event a parking brake/hand brake fails.
The descent under the English Channel is really gradual; you don’t notice that you ever really are going down or back up again other than a bit of popping of the ears. I opted to get off the coach and stand along the side because the buses tend to rock back and forth, which can be a bit like being in a boat. It was a much smoother crossing that way. Once the train begins moving, the crossing takes about 20 to 30 minutes.
Brussels was larger than I expected, though a lovely town. We stayed in Grand Place, where there you have a choice of a number of hotels as well as touristy shops for entertainment. We arrived late afternoon, settled into our room, and then decided to walk around and look for a place to eat.
City Hall
Museum of Brussels
Grand Place is the central market square of Brussels and has its origins dating back to the 11th Century. As early as the 14th century, improvements began being made to the square, but those were destroyed in the late 17th century and the current buildings erected. Grand Place is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
If you haven’t been to Grand Place, it is a rather large square which has the City Hall and several guildhalls as well as the Maison du Roi (or King’s House) which contains the Museum of Brussels. The buildings are ornate and opulent Gothic and Baroque architecture, many decorated with gold paint or material and are even beautiful at night.
Most of the restaurants in this part of town have their menus outside of the door for people to peruse, but none had a gluten-free menu available from what we could tell. After a search online, we opted for Hard Rock Cafe. I haven’t been to a Hard Rock since I was a kid, but the staff was so nice and the food was very good, so we were happy.
Once we had some fun in the gift shop, we hit the first chocolate shop we found, which fortunately had great labelling for gluten. The chocolates from Bruyere were very good as well. While they had a great deal of places to buy Belgian Beer and Brussels lace, we walked around and enjoyed the area before we returned to our rooms to sleep.
Sorry about the quality of the photos. It was starting to darken and the rain did not help!
From the moment we crossed the first bridge, we followed the signs toward the Rialto Bridge and San Marco. Obviously, by my past posts, we did stop places along the way, shopping and sightseeing as we plodded along. Our main goal was to reach what everyone said we had to see.
View from the Rialto Bridge (sorry about my son’s head!)
The Rialto Bridge is one of four bridges that cross the Grand Canal, designed by Antonio da Ponte and completed in 1591. In all honesty, you can’t miss it since it’s rather large and in a rather busy and congested portion of Venice as you pass through the Rialto market to get to it. It also has shops, such as the Hard Rock Cafe, on the bridge itself, so you cannot see the Grand Canal from the interior of the bridge, you have to pass through an archway to an outer ramp to take pictures of the Grand Canal.
From the Rialto Bridge, the Piazza San Marco is not far and is one of the main sights of Venice, containing Saint Mark’s Basilica and Doges Palace as well as a few other sites. Our first stop was Saint Mark’s, an Italo-Byzantine church completed in 1092! We’d heard it was a must see and was free to enter, which was lovely. My complaint was it was dark. Not so dark you couldn’t see, but I really would have liked to see the mosaics (Not just regular mosaics either! The background is gold glass tesserae-gold leaf encased in layers of glass.), which cover the wall in more detail, and it was really impossible to see all I wanted. Given the windows in the ceiling, I am certain a bit of it was the poor weather and the time of day since we toured near 5 pm, but we had poor weather both days in Venice. No matter what, our experience would have likely been the same. My other complaint–we weren’t allowed photos.
Piazza San Marco
Saint Mark’s Basilica
Clock Tower
Doges Castle on the Piazetta
Now, one thing to note on Saint Mark’s! General admission to the building is free, and you can see most of the mosaic’s and the main portion of the church for nothing, but they do have certain artefacts and portions of the Basilica which require admission. For example, the Treasury has antiquities, even including a small animal mummy (My children found it and I don’t remember the animal. Sorry!) and some Greek/Roman pottery. The Presbytery is another part which requires admission.
Mosaics
Presbytery
Once we’d seen all of Saint Mark’s, we walked back out to take photos and then, walked down towards the water through the Piazetta and past Doges Castle. We took quite a few photos of the amazing view, though with the weather, though it was a bit foggy. From there, we turned left and walked down a ways before testing our skills and our sense of direction by taking whatever bridges we thought were in the correct direction to make it back to the tram. We ended up using the GPS/SatNav! Venice is a maze!
Our second day in Venice was rainy and more relaxed. We decided to play tourist shopper and walked through a lot of the gift shops and even boutiques (some felt no bigger than a walk-in closet!). I believe I warned everyone in the initial post to beware of the “Made in China” knock-off souvenirs. The handmade Carnivale masks are impressive and if you are looking for something small, not terribly expensive by comparison. There are also many shops touting, real Italian leather handbags. We found a distinct difference in the feel of the bag after shopping in one boutique rather than the touristy shop. Just be aware of what you are buying!
If you are celiac or gluten intolerant. Do not worry about finding food! Many restaurants offer either pizza or pasta, and sometimes both you can eat. We actually had a more difficult time finding bread and other “Sensa Glutine” items at the grocery store. Just beware the bakery windows! They look divine and I kept taking photos! I did enjoy the coffee and espresso drinks immensely, however, much to the chagrin of my nerves. 😉
If only!
Yum!!
We opted not to take a gondola ride as they were rather pricey for five people, though from what we discovered, you can haggle the price of the ride. 🙂
Photos St. Mark’s courtesy of:
tango7174 of St. Mark’s Basilica: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Veneto_Venezia2_tango7174.jpg
Dennis Jarvis of Pentecost at St. Mark’s https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Venice_SMarco_Vault2.jpg
