Letters from a Golden English Autumn, Part 3: Cambridge walks

October 1.

So we are safely in Cambridge, and the driving part of my trip is over (except for returning the car tomorrow). After a beautiful home cooked Lancastrian hot pot dinner, I'm now tucked up for a much needed night's rest.

(Morning)  The most beautiful morning in Cambridge, crisp and sunny. Jan's in bed with a cold and I'm wandering the town on my own; it’s nice to be staying near Newnham College, with tree lined streets and elegant homes, and the trees turning golden in the sunshine. My own cold is quite gone, and am full of energy though walking on these concrete cobbly streets one must be careful. There, now I’ve finished my cappuccino at the Caffe Nero opposite Kings College... 

Had a lovely stroll around Cambridge, the market, one or two colleges, then went to Michaelhouse (a restaurant at a church) for a good cooked breakfast, eggs, sausages etc. 

The Market

Flowers near the Fitzwilliam

Breakfast at Michaelhouse

Then made my way to the Fitzwilliam Museum and had one of those exalted visits, seeing the Ruskin collection of Turners. 

A Venetian Turner

"Young Man Reclining on the Downs" (Theodore Carvelle d'Abgny, 1798-1871)

Then it was time to deal with retuning the car. I was downright scared at the prospect of having to actually drive through the winding and busy streets of Cambridge alone. It's odd, because I am as good at maneuvering a vehicle as ever; reflexes, peripheral vision, are fine. But I can't do operations like read six signs while at a roundabout, I naturally slow down, whereupon the other drivers start honking and glaring, which is horribly unnerving. Basically I can only drive in a city like Cambridge with someone to tell me where to turn. If only I could use a SatNav - but I still haven't been able to figure them out. To get to the Cambridge car return, I wrote out a sheet of directions by hand, but after about the fourth or fifth direction, I did something wrong...didn't make a “dog leg turn” (as Jan later told me), and it was irremediable. Found myself trapped in a maze of one way streets crammed with crowds, bicycles, trucks, traffic. And impossible to just pull over - no such thing. With no idea what to do I continued straight on and found myself near Kings which is only for buses, and got honked! Then I saw a street that I remembered from my walk, knew it went straight back to the house, and I turned into it. Got back safely, but was absolutely done with trying to get to the car place; I simply called them up and told them I could NOT do it and they must come to get me!  They were kind, amused and rather proud of their city, to think that I could drive from Edinburgh to Liverpool etc but be defeated by Cambridge! They sent a nice girl and boy to pick up the car, arriving in 20 minutes. Yay Enterprise! 

Then as the day was so gorgeous I strolled into town again for a sausage roll and cream tea at Fitzbilly's, very nice.

Fitzbilly's scone and clotted cream

Friday Oct. 2

My Grantchester walk.  After cappuccino and croissants at a student place, Jan walked me as far as Newnham Village (so pretty) and went back to rest, while I walked on to Grantchester on my own, which was very exciting and beautiful, taking pictures all the way, past cows and pheasants and swans, the beautiful meadows and river, in that golden light. At last I reached The Orchard (it's about 2 miles each way I reckon). 

Flowers in Newnham Village

Shop in Newnham village

 I found that as long as I was at the Cambridge edge of Newnham, on concrete and cobbles, I walked rather slowly and painfully. But as soon as I was on the path in the meadows, on springy turf, suddenly I was able to take good long hiking strides with no discomfort whatever. Cement’s the culprit.  Well, at The Orchard with no one to witness my piggishness I ordered a ton of food:  a huge Ploughman's lunch, cheddar, Brie, Stilton, crisp crusted hunks of bread, Branston pickle chutney and pickled onions, with fresh Cambridge apple juice! Not to mention a Victoria sponge and tea, all enjoyed sitting under beautiful ripening apple trees. Finished off the meal by picking a few wild blackberries.    

On the way to Grantchester

Family and dog watch a punter

The Orchard

Ripe apples hanging on the trees

Under the apple trees

The Ploughman's lunch - a feast!

Closeup of the most perfect Victoria sponge of the trip

Delicious blackberries

Grantchester cows

Little white Grantchester cow

On the way back...

 I had to walk back quickly, as I was meeting Pam, a member of the Girls Own list, back in town at three. I made the walk back in an hour, the concrete soreness returning by then! But Pam and I had a delightful chat at the Caffe Nero, and then visited our favorite Haunted Bookshop, and bought the odd book or two. As a novice Chaletian it was nice for me to have Pam tell me her favorites, and warn me off the lesser ones. I wound up buying Carola Storms the Chalet School, The Coming of Age of the Chalet school, The Highland Twins and The Rivals. Also The White Riders by Monica Edwards and The Vicarage Children in Skye by Lorna Hill. Then I staggered back to Jan's for a rest!  Clara and the darling little boys arrived around 7 for family dinner, which was very homey.

Me and Pam at The Haunted Bookshop

We stayed until closing!

Newnham College cat

Letters from a Golden English Autumn, Part 2: Liverpool Scenes

Colorful Liverpool

Jan, Julian and me at Bold Street Coffee

September 28, 2015

After pleasantly poking around Coniston and Hawkstead in the Lake District we took the Windermere Ferry across the lake and by 4 PM were Liverpool bound. It was about a 100 mile drive on the M6, and I was glad to be on the motorway, as there’s no “other side of the road,” it’s like any freeway. Yet it turned out to be almost the most fraught driving of all. When a vast lorry pulled up right behind my bumper, keeping only a few inches between us (and we were going 60 mph in the slow lane), I thought that driver must be a lunatic. I just held on and eventually he went around me. To my horror it turned out he wasn’t an individual nutter – by the time we reached the outskirts of Liverpool a dozen lorries had given us the same treatment!  Yet we weren’t driving in a “lorry lane,” plenty of other ordinary cars were driving in it, and we were going at the speed limit. Never saw anything like it, and I’ve driven thousands of miles in the UK…but not in the last ten years. I have no idea of what has changed. I’d be willing to admit maybe it’s me, growing older as a driver, but my moments of panic at confusing signs and roundabouts weren't on the motorway, where I was driving straight on. So I don’t know. Has driving civility declined in England?  Are there a hell of a lot more cars now?  On previous trips I quite enjoyed the driving; this time I simply felt unsafe, and was thrilled to get out alive. I don’t understand the reason, but will stick to trains and buses in future. Better that way.

Julian meets us at Liverpool Cathedral

The Anglican cathedral, on a golden evening

Julian's apples

Sunset at the cathedral

Nadler hotel, hip and comfortable

Morning at the hotel

By the time we reached Liverpool it was nearly 7, and we were very tired. Jan’s son Julian guided us in by phone (“Head for the cathedral, see the spire, and I’ll be waiting in the street!”), and we arrived in golden dusk at his place, most relieved and rejoiced to have arrived. From the park surrounding glorious gigantic reddish Liverpool Cathedral, you can look down and see the whole city, lit by a magnificent sunset. Julian and Becca walked us over to our hotel, the Nadler, an amusing contrast to the old cathedral area, being super hipster modern. It’s in a lively neighborhood with lots of restaurants, and we had dinner in a cool, cutting edge barn of a place, looking for all the world like it was straight out of Jackson Hole, Wyoming. They made very tasty dishes of things like lamb and rice and salad all in a box together. After that, time to collapse!

Pictures of the Albert Docks

A sunken ship

Passing by Beatles exhibit (we didn't go in!)

Tuesday, September 29

Liverpool is the greatest, a real revelation. I was so amazed by what a terrific place it is, I just walked around all day exclaiming at it!  First of all it was an absolutely beautiful sunny day. Awoke in my hip, cool room at the Nadler, and met Jan, Julian and Becca in the lobby for breakfast at the Bold Street Coffeehouse, where they did wonderful creamy scrambled eggs and the kind of fabulous cured bacon you get in Wyoming and Montana – funny that old world Liverpool should keep giving me those Western vibes. Then we went walking to the Albert Docks. Spacious, airy, a harbor with boats, buildings ancient and new, beautifully juxtaposed, the area scattered with fine museums - you'd want to go there all the time!  Unlike most cities you don’t have to travel to go to one museum or sight after another; here, everything is located in easy walking distance from the Docks, and you can see as much or as little as you like in a day. First we did the Maritime Museum, with its wide range of exhibits of seafaring subjects, from the Lusitania disaster to ships’ figureheads to World War II bombings, everything remarkably interesting and well presented. We broke for tea and little cakes in their big attractive refurbished warehouse restaurant. We walked more about the Docks, and marveled at the impressively beautiful ,grand old library with its gorgeous dome and treasures, and the Tate Modern and Walker art museums. Particularly loved the Walker, which reminded me of the Fitzwilliam in Cambridge.

Port of Liverpool Building

Liverpool Town Hall 

"England Expects Every Man to Do His Duty"

"They That Go Down to the Sea in Ships"

At the Maritime Museum

Maritime Museum, ground floor

Figureheads at the Maritime Museum

 

Tea at the Maritime Museum

 When we were tired out we went back to the hotel to rest a bit, and then regrouped for dinner at a coffeehouse vegetarian restaurant, very cozy and near the hotel. A little too green for me, so later I went out for a wander alone and brought myself back a box of nice spicy Chinese noodles from the lively Chinatown here.  An eye opening day, I’m leaving Liverpool with a great desire to go back and see it again. Not at all the slummy early Beatles grungy place I imagined; it’s been revivified with panache and imagination, so it’s extremely attractive and vital – yet the old Georgian and Victorian architecture (there are said to be more Georgian buildings in Liverpool than in Bath, and it’s called England’s finest Victorian city) looks burnished and beautiful. The history shows, but not shabbily; rather, it shines, and it’s easy to imagine how it looked a century or two ago. The city completely lacks the overpowering megalopolis feeling of London; no monster crowds of tourists, no heavy traffic, so it's almost like being in London back in the 1950s. I don’t know how they achieved this but I’m sold!  Falling into bed, and tomorrow, the drive to Cambridge.

At the beautiful Walker Art Gallery

 

"The Green Monkey," George Stubbs (1775) 

"Eventide: A Scene at the Westminster Union Workhouse" (Von Herkomer, 1878)

Jan and Julian in front of "The Death of Shelley"

Julian and Queen Victoria have nothing to say to each other

 "Dante's Dream at the Time of the Death of Beatrice," Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1871)

The venerable and beautiful Liverpool Library

Looking at the library's dome

 A gorgeous combination of new and old

"Imagine" (sign against back wall)

 Disraeli and the young Queen Victoria bid us farewell to Liverpool