A Wander Down to Blickling Hall

This is a few days late.  But we're sitting in Paris and I thought I'd get this out.  We're actually sitting here watching The Fellowship of the Ring as we wind the day down.  Anyway....on to the past so we can move on to the Future.

I went up to Blickling Hall, which is one of those stately homes of England (I think there's a song as well as a movie with that title...)  Of course the day I went the house and the gardens were closed but the general estate grounds were open.  So I walked around and took a few pictures.

Here are a few!

The church at Blickling Hall

A Pheasant in the walk along the way...

A cool tree trunk on the Estate

A very cool door into the Estate

And a cool wall and tree

Blickling Hall from the back

Aylsham really is in rural England!  

We'll have a few pictures of France up soon!

Thinking of Spencer, Umberto Eco and All That....

OK.....If you're wondering why this is called Thinking of Spencer, Umberto Eco and all that, I have just one clue to offer.....

This is the picture of the church (the round part on the left side below) the Knights Templar build in London in the late 1100's.  It's one of the few round Christian churches in existence from this period (the only one?)  It was built round to mirror the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem built by the Emperor Constantine.  The current church of this name is not round but the original one was!  Anyway, Spencer and I have had many conversations about the Knights Templar over the years (naturally!)

Umberto Eco also wrote a book called Foucault's Pendulum that had a Templar-related mystery at its heart.  You should read it!

Here's a statue of two Templars on a column outside the church.
There are some amazing stained glass windows in the more traditional part of the church (the part on the right-hand side of the photo above.)  Here are a few pictures of those - the sun came out just at the right time!

After I left the Templar church I wandered over to the British Museum.  It's an amazing place - it has collections that span the globe.  Of course, most (some?) of that is the result of early English explorers looting and pillaging all the good stuff and sending it back home, but I guess those were different days.  The collection includes the Elgin Marbles from the Parthenon in Athens, massive gates from Nineveh, an incredible Egyptian collection of massive seated and standing statues, etc.  You name it, they probably have it!  This summer they are hosting what looks to be an amazing exhibit on the Emperor Hadrian - I'm glad to be coming back to London to see that.

A few years ago the British Museum decided to enclose what was just the roof of the building with an incredible roof.  The space this created has become the nerve-center for the museum.  Here are a few pictures!

   

Finally a few pictures from Somerset House.  It's a massive warren of rooms, halls and stairs. I thought these photos were a little like M C Escher's work.  You know the ones - where you can't tell which direction is up / down / side?  Check out a few here.  

      

That's it.  I'm back on the train to Aylsham tomorrow.  I had a good time in London, but didn't see anything too great in the theater.  But Kate and I saw a great film tonight - it is an Israeli film called Beaufort.  I highly recommend it.

London April 2008

Well, I actually made it into London and took a few photos today.  It was sunny part of the time, and then it actually rained/sleeted/snowed at one point.  So if the skies seem like they change from photo to photo all I can say is that they actually did!

This is the Royal Academy where I saw the From Russia exhibit.  

I also zipped (nipped, as they say in the UK) over to the National Portrait Gallery for an exhibit of Photographs from Vanity Fair.  That was fantastic.  This is a photo of Jean Harlow (screen goddess back in the day....)

This is part of the roof of St James Palace in central London.  I liked the gold weather vane and the chimneys.

This is looking down Pall Mall toward Buckingham Palace.  The London Marathon is tomorrow which is why (I think) they have all the British flags flying.  Why Tony isn't here to run the London Marathon I really don't know.....perhaps next year??????

Buckingham Palace from St James Park

I don't know what this is exactly!  It's taken from the lake in St James Park, and it's cool, and it has to be some government building.....but I have no idea which one!

This is a close-up of one of the towers of Westminster Cathedral.  It's followed by a view of the two towers of the cathedral.  

This is Big Ben with the London Eye (massive Ferris Wheel) in the background.  The London Eye moves very slowly around the entire circle and you supposedly have fantastic views.  The lines are always so long that I can't bring myself to wait!  One of these days, maybe.....

That's it!  More on Tuesday when I will head in other directions during the day.

Ciao!

Looking Back to 2007 - London

Well, I'm in London now.  I arrived today from Norfolk!  Kelly and I took the train down - she's on her way to Wales to deliver a training seminar, Paul's off somewhere in the UK doing something similar, and I'm here enjoying myself!

Tomorrow Kate and I are going to see a fantastic exhibit of Russian Art at the Royal Academy.  It's called From Russia.  Here's one of the paintings we'll see.

I won't really have time to take too many pictures of London this trip around until early next week, so I thought I'd post a few from my trip last year.  These are from a Thames riverboat cruise from the Houses of Parliament to Hampton Court Palace.  The trip is great - I highly recommend it.  But it got SO COLD, so if you ever do this trip take a coat! Anyway, here they are for what they're worth!

Here are the Houses of Parliament from the Thames

(the building isn't really about to fall over - it's just me, the boat and the tide!)

Here are a few views of the river bank along the way

People who like movies of Shakespeare's plays with a certain high-powered English actor will recognize this location! 

Here are a few of Hampton Court Palace - this was the English equivalent to Versailles.  (Versailles is a little more impressive but this is still cool.  Henry VIII and many of his wives lived here!)

This is the Renaissance portion by Thomas Wren from the river.

The Tudor portion of the palace from the formal gardens

The Tudor Gatehouse

I guess that's about it.  I'll hopefully do a little wandering around on Tuesday and snap a few more photos.  Until then I'm be primarily hanging out with Kate, Ash and their kids.  Tomorrow is Shabbat dinner with Kate's parents, Saturday and Sunday I think we'll relax a bit, and then Monday we are going to try to do something fun since the kids are off for some sort of school holiday!

Bye for now!

A Few Thoughts (Ramblings) on This and That

In no particular order, here are some things I've been thinking about or noticed in the press that made me stop and think for a bit...

There is a magazine called Tricycle: The Buddhist Review.  In the Spring 2008 issue there is an article on Meditation.  In it, the author says this, "Knowing is Antithetical to Openness."

That made me think for a while.  That made me think this, "Openness is a Prerequisite to Knowledge."

Maybe I'm wrong, maybe I'm on to something.  I don't know, but that's something I'm thinking about right now.

There was a recent article in The Guardian (a leading UK paper) that focused on a statement by The Catholic cardinal of the UK.  In it he's quoted as saying that "Judeo-Christian values were the only thing binding British society together..."  I think that possibly many people in the US would have the same thought.  But isn't it sad that this way of thinking excludes the possibility of bringing in to our communities and societies over half the world [Buddhists, Hindus, Moslems, animists, Confucians, etc.?]  

And isn't also sad to think that a serious religious leader doesn't know how to look past religious differences to the core similarity that binds us all regardless of religion - we are all children of GOD?  That's the real value that we need to focus on to make the world a better place.

There was another interesting article in the Guardian recently - this was an OpEd, I think.  In it, the author says this.  "At the heart of the Christian Gospel are the values of integrity, justice, wholeness and inclusion: 'In Christ there is no bond or free, male or female, Jew or Greek."  How, therefore, can a church which claims to set people free and treat all as equal refuse even the possibility of considering whether a woman can be called to the episcopate?"  It's an interesting question...

In case you were wondering or had noticed, it's Champions League time in European Football (soccer to those who live in America!)  :-)

Paul and I had a great time last week watching two exciting matches:  Liverpool vs Arsenal and Roma vs Manchester United.  Paul's been a ManU fan forever so I had to root for them, or course.  But secretly I wanted Roma to win.  But ManU really outplayed them, so the better team won that night.  

Of course, we weren't there in person, but one we watched at home and one we watched at the pub.  That was fun!  I was also interested in the Chelsea vs Fenerbahce game - Fenerbahçe is a big club in Istanbul.  In Turkey they take their football VERY seriously!  You should check it out if you can - great games, amazing players and a lot of fun!  Hopefully when I'm in Istanbul I'll be able to go to a match or two - Istanbul has Fenerbahçe, Galatasaray and Beşiktaş, so there are some gret games there.  I'll have to check out the schedule.

I'm of to London tomorrow (Thursday) so I should have a few good pictures to share at some point in the next few days.

Looking back to 2007 - Athens

Well, I'm sitting in Aylsham relaxing.  It's very nice for me, but it doesn't give me many opportunities to post any interesting travel pictures!  So I decided to post a few pictures from my Europe trip last year.  I'll be in some of the same places this year, but there are a few that I won't return to this time 'round.

So, here are a few of the ones I liked:

Here's a shot of the Acropolis from the Pynx.  (I have no idea how to say that!)  The Athenian Agora is between where I'm standing and the Acropolis, so you can imagine how impressive that must have been when it was built, painted and dazzling in the sunlight!  (Sorry this is a little hazy, but what can you do?)

Acropolis with Parthenon on the right

On the Acropolis there is a interesting temple called the Erechtheum.  This porch is, I think, one of the few places in the ancient world that used statues of women rather than any of the traditional Greek column styles.  They are called the Caryatids.

The approach to the Acropolis was through the Propylaea.

Here are two pictures of the Temple of Hephaestus in the Agora itself.

Finally, this is a statue of the Emperor Hadrian (according to the sign - although it's hard to tell with no head!)

Well, that's it.  Not much I know, but I'll put up a few more things in the next few days.  Bye for now!

A View of Aylsham

I thought I share a few views of Aylsham (where Kelly and Paul live) and Norwich.

So, first things first.

Aylsham is just a little Market Town out in Norfolk.  But it is an ancient Market Town, so that makes it a cool place to be.  

It's also part of the Cittaslow movement.  According to its Website, CittaSlow is a way of thinking and being.  It's about protecting the environment, promoting local goods and produce, avoiding the homogenization of life that we so often see.  It's a cool movement and you can find out more at the CittaSlow Aylsham site!  Maybe Mom and Dad can get Cedar City to join the CittaSlow movement - there still might be time before it loses its small town charm!    

Anyway, here are some pictures of Aylsham:

Here's a picture of Kelly hard at work.  Well, actually I've distracted her from work in this particular photo!

Here's a photo of a cool little cottage on the way into the center of town and the Aylsham Church

Here's a picture of Norwich - the Cathedral spire is in the distance

And finally the local postman's vehicle!

That's it!

A few thoughts next on the Champions League matches currently underway  We can only HOPE that Fenerbahçe does well against Chelsea tonight!

ARRIVAL IN THE UK

Well, I've been in the UK for a week now.  While it's hard to believe that I've been here for a week already it also seems like I've been here for a long time.  Chalk that up to Paul and Kelly who basically have told me just to come and go as I like.  They are superb friends.  

I have to say that I always enjoy Virgin Atlantic.  They had 59 movies to choose from!  I only managed to watch a few, but I have a great list of films I want to see now.  I did manage to see a great Japanese anime called Paprika.  Definitely recommend it - but it's not a cartoon for kids.  I watched a great Bollywood film, but I can't remember the name.  But my favorite Bollywood film so far is Devdas - I really enjoyed that!

I tried Beowulf.  BORING movie, but good story.

Anyway, Virgin also gives a nice little amenity pack with socks, sleeping mask, toothpaste and tooth brush.  It's nice that even those of us in Economy get a little bit of love.

I took the Heathrow Express into London from Heathrow.  Want to hear another good reason to fly Virgin?  In short - it doesn't fly into Terminal 5 at Heathrow which means it's avoided the travel disaster there!  Anyway, after a quick Heathrow Express trip into London and a short-ish Tube ride to Liverpool Street station and another long-ish train trip out to Norwich, here I am!

I'll upload a few pictures later today.