England and Ireland: England. Part 7: The English Countryside.

Oh, my! I apologize for my very slow blogging. Life just keeps interfering!

If you are late to the party, or missed a post along the way, please see my previous blogs of this vacation:

Part 1: Liverpool
Part 2: Stratford-Upon-Avon
Addendum: More photos from Liverpool & Stratford
Part 3: London Olympics, Women’s Basketball
Part 4: London Olympics, Men’s Basketball
Part 5: London Olympics, Beach Volleyball and Women’s Diving
Part 6: London Olympics, Equestrian Jumping


Which brings us to today, The English Countryside.

After we left Greenwich Park and the equestrians, we sadly had to retrieve our luggage and catch a train out of London. I think we all feel that we’d like to go back and see the city for itself. There just was no time to enjoy the city this time.

For those of you Anglophiles (or more specifically, Londo-philes), I leave you with this as we leave London behind.

Sad as we were to be done with our Olympic experience, we were very happy to be on our way to visit Georgie, my college roomie and good friend. She is an expat who has been living in England more that half her life. She has a beautiful home in a small village west of London. We were so pleased that she invited us to her home!

The next day we headed out to the countryside. Georgie was our chauffeur, and we are so grateful to her for showing us around. Our first stop was the awesome (in the true sense of the word) Stonehenge. It was magical and mystical, of course. I thought I wouldn’t post too many pictures, as there are probably millions of good photos of Stonehenge in the world, but what the heck, I was there, and these are mine!

I always have the strange thought that throwing my head back at an odd angle will make a better picture. :-/

We also stopped at Old Wardour Castle and learned a little about medieval life and English History. Cool stuff.

We stopped for lunch in a pretty village where we found a sweet bookshop and tea room. We enjoyed tea and rarebits. It was fun that the waiter brought a timer to help us decide when our tea had been steeped properly.

Photo by Trish

Photo by Trish

Photo by Trish

Photo by Trish

Trish and Cyn had ancestors from the area, so we visited a few of their home places. One was the village of Yeovil, where there happened to be a “Retro Fair.”  I expected a street fair type deal, but it was the community center filled with booths selling Vintage clothing and jewelry, a craft room, music outside on the patio, and the ubiquitous pub.

Photo by Trish

The highlight of the stop to Yeovil to me was the burlesque show at the Retro Fair. These women had some cajones to get up there and strut their stuff!

We went on to Salisbury Cathedral, a beautiful ornate Anglican cathedral as only the English can build.

Later we returned home and watched the Olympics on TV for a bit before hitting the sack.

To come: Driving Adventures and Bath!

England and Ireland: England. Part 6: London Day 4

London, England Day 4

Our last day in London was my favorite. We saw Equestrian Jumping that day. Fabo!

After we packed and checked out of the hotel, we made our way to Greenwich, where the Equestrian events were held.

We got to walk through the neighborhood. Colorful folks, colorful doors!

Erin got to know a couple of the local friendly constables.

AND we got to stand on both hemispheres of the Earth at one time!

I had bought "Category C" tickets for the Equestrian Jumping event and didn't hold much hope for good seats. I thought that binoculars would be in order.

I was stunned and delighted that the venue was quite intimate and our seats were very close. The final jump of the course was right in front of us!

I didn't know much about jumping before attending this event. Unlike dressage, jumping scores consider neither elegance nor ungainliness in the jumps. Scores reflect the speed through the course and the avoidance of penalties for knocking down rails.

It is intriguing that both beast and man must be in top condition and must trust each other implicitly. Unlike other sports, the human athlete depends on the whims of a sometimes-unpredictable beast.

Though elegance is not scored, it is a wonderful sport to watch!

We saw 75 riders in this preliminary qualifying round. Each rider took about 90 seconds to ride the course.

Here are some videos of what we got to experience.

A rider completing the entire course:


A rider on the last jump, right in front of our seats!
And there is always the chance of a wreck. Do jumping spectators get a perverse thrill in the hopes of one like NASCAR aficionados? I don't know, but Erin caught the wreck of the afternoon. Neighther horse nor rider was injured.



(At Annette's request, the video above is listed as Private on YouTube. Sign in to YouTube to see it. If you cannot access it, view the version below)

England and Ireland: England. Part 5: London Day 3

London, England Day 3

Woo! Busy day on Friday at the Olympics! We had two events at two different venues.

Our morning event was beach volleyball at the Horse Guard Parades. They are beautiful grounds, and only a couple tube stops from our hotel.

Loos with a View!

One of the practice courts. Isn't the setting grand?!

It was a spectacularly beautiful, sunny day. Perfect for beach volleyball! It felt just like home. We saw two matches, a women's match and a men's match.

There was entertainment before the games. This is The Band of the Blues and Royals.

Here they are in action:


Our first beach volleyball match was women: Germany vs. Germany. Germany won! What a surprise! Germany was disappointed with the loss. Germany won in two straight games. I was disappointed that we didn't get to see a third.

It's not your monitor: The gal in red is wearing pink kinesiotape.

Then a slight raise of the net and the men came on the court. It was Poland vs. Switzerland. My hero of the match was 40-year-old Sascha Heyer.  He was a firecracker playing against men almost half his age. Alas, he and his teammate couldn't pull it off, and Poland won the match in two straight games.

 It was fun opening The Guardian the next day to see that writer Stephen Moss and his photographer had also been at the event and filed this article, printed in a spread in the center of the special Olympics section. Article: The Guardian, August 4, 2012 Photos: The Guardian, August 3, 2012


Our afternoon event was women's 3 -meter springboard diving, in the Aquatics Center back at Olympic Park.

This was the only event where it was a little hard for us to see, with the diving board being at the end of the aquatics center. Luckily, there was a nice big screen for re-plays. It was an exciting event, and I learned a little about the competition and the scoring. It was exciting to sit pool-side at the place where Michael Phelps made Olympic history.

The Chinese girls were amazing, especially the top scorer, who was so STRONG, and jumped so high and dived beautifully. The Mexican divers were very good, too, and I found out today why:  LA Times, September 9, 2012

And here is a taste of what we experienced. Videos of the two Team USA competitors, Christina Loukas and Cassidy Krug.



What amazing athletes we are watching!