August 2 -- Day 38
On the road again, we cycled about 50 miles this day to Redditch, just south of Birmingham, to see our good friend Victoria and her mom, Anne. On the way, I was passed by a girl cycling from Aberdeen, Scotland, all the way to Land's End. Her husband, who'd hurt his leg, was following her in the car and carting all their things, so she was putting away about 85 miles a day. 85 miles! Good grief!
As Mr. McKie warned, we had to tackle a huuuuuge hill called Harley's Bank. "The girl in pink said she'd try to bike up it, but I think you're doing it the right way," a roadside hiker told me as I pushed my bike up the hill. We struck up a conversation, and it turns out he was from a town on the other side of this monstrosity, called Much Wenlock. I'd already visited it before two years ago, and was eager to see it again. Half an hour later, I met Joe at the top of the hill, and we free-wheeled it all the way down to Much Wenlock. This is a beautiful, small town, with much of its original architecture still in tact, and we visited a 1300-year-old church for a few moments -- "You just missed coffee!" said the rector's wife, smiling.
Bridgnorth
Worcestershire
Redditch!
Later that evening, we rolled into Victoria's driveway, greeted by a fantastic sign that said, "Bienvenue! You made it!" Hooray!
We talked into the late hours of the night, eating dinner sometime around 11:00, à la espagnole.And we had a fantastic time with Victoria and her mum.
On Sunday, we more or less just putzed around the house, drinking tea and eating biscuits while we caught up with each other, though we went blackberry picking as well along a little road called Lovelyne(yum!).
August 3 -- Day 39
On Monday, we caught a train into Birmingham, where we met Joe's friend. Birmingham used to be very industrial, and it's population shot through the roof during the mid- to late-1800s. Many people lived in atrocious conditions here during the Industrial Revolution, and even up until 1966, a quarter of the houses didn't have indoor toilets. (Workers for the Cadbury Chocolate factory, on the other hand, had it pretty good. The brothers who founded the business, being the cool Quakers that they were, built a decent housing complex for their workers.) That's all changed now, and it's quite a pleasant city to stroll through.
The Bull Ring, where cattle were traditionally traded in Birmingham.
Canals in downtown Birmingham.
Going to an exhibition about hair at the art museum:
Two Victorias:
Very, very disappointingly, we have no more photos of our time with Victoria or Nancy, Joe's sister.
We stopped in for a bit at an exhibition at the art museum -- about hair! It explored what hair means to individuals and groups of people, and how we use our hair to express who we are. Quite interestingly, they interviewed Muslim women who, despite their head coverings, are beginning to have their hair done beautifully underneath, and punk rockers, among other groups of people.
Krispy Kreme!!!
Ah, that takes me back to North Carolina, near where I grew up and the company was founded. "Fresh hot donuts!" the red neon sign flashed -- we didn't think twice, and quickly lined up for our own taste of sugary sweet loveliness.
Here I sigh a big sigh of disappointment, as we had some amazing photos of interesting architecture around the city to share. Big sigh, right here. Instead, I snatched this photo from wikipedia's article on Birmingham of the Selfridge's building:
At the last minute, we dashed to our train, and met Victoria's sister and her friend for a fantastic dinner back at Victoria's house.
August 5 -- Day 40
Early in the morning, Anne drove the three of us to Stratford-on-Avon. On the way there, we passed Coughton Hall, where the wives of the men behind the Gunpowder Plot waited as their husbands attempted to blow up Parliament, and with it, King James I of England, in 1605. Ooooo.
Our first stop in Stratford was the Courtyard Theatre, temporary home of the Royal Shakespeare Company (they only have three theatres in town...only...), for tickets to Hamlet. Weeee! We were excited to see England's most prestigious Shakespearean company put on the show.
The rest of the day, we sightsaw (did I just make up a word?) around Stratford, checking out Shakespeare's birthplace and his church, making frequent breaks for tea and cakes whenever it rained (mmmm...soooo gooooood), and spotting random famous actors in the street (well, this we're taking on faith with Victoria's good word, as Joe and I didn't recognize these people). We grabbed fish-n-chips for dinner and ("Ooooo!") walked into the theatre. We later learned that this was the official opening night of the show, so there were all kinds of actors and other important-looking types there, and we were filmed briefly by the BBC. Victoria would turn and squeeze our arms, whispering, "That's such and such a person!" and I swear I saw a girl who must be Judi Dench's granddaughter. This production of the show has gotten a lot of attention, since the actor playing Hamlet (David Tennant, and he plays it very well) is currently Dr. Who:
A bit of a hearthrob, some critics have been hard on him, saying that the show is soldout to women just wanting to see him in person, but it turns out that he was a legitimate Shakespearean actor before his days playing sci-fi.
It was another sci-fi actor who made my heart throb, though. Victoria had to hold me back when the man playing Claudius and the Ghost walked out onto stage:
That's right!! Patrick Stewart!! And what a Claudius did he play. Oooo, so thrilling!
(As a side-note: I realized that Patrick Stewart's Captain Jean-Luc Picard's favorite drink is Earl Grey Tea. Is this inconsistent with the fact that his character is French? Shouldn't he be drinking, oh, I don't know, an espresso or a verre de Bordeaux?)
So, lesson learned: if you want to play cool sci-fi characters on TV, a solid background in Shakespeare wouldn't hurt.
Joe: "To think, we just had all these fantastic actors in front of us for three hours!"
(Photos of David Tennant and Patrick Stewart from wikipedia)
August 6 -- Day 41
We putzed around again, cycling a bit to the nearby village of Feckinham. In the evening, we came home to a cream tea beautifully laid out by Anne. Now, I must explain this fantastic English institution. A cream tea consists of scones, tea (with milk! of course), jam, and -- oh, the best -- clotted cream from Cornwall. Clotted cream, though its name may invoke images of cream that should have been thrown out weeks ago, is in fact a delicious, thick yet fluffy, slightly sweetened cream. So, you slice your scone in half, smear on the jam and cream (or the cream and then the jam), ignore the amount of calories you're about to introduce to your body in on bite, and -- mmmm! -- enjoy the moment of bliss. Really, the English have got tea time down.
August 7 -- Day 42
Joe left early this morning and biked on to his sister Nancy's in Oxford. I stayed behind to chill with Victoria a little longer, and to catch up on the blog (which was weeks and weeks behind!).
August 8 -- Day 43
I set out on my own to Oxford this morning despite the light rain, stopping in Stratford on the way again. Coming to a quiet one-way street, I dismounted, and was promptly addressed by a smart-looking old gentleman: "My, aren't you a quite the law-abiding cyclist! Most others would just keep going in the wrong direction or cycle on the path." I stopped to chat with him a while. "You know the theatre is just down that way?" I told him I'd just seen Hamlet the other night, and enjoyed it thoroughly. "Ah, yes, many people come to see Hamlet just to see David Tennant," to which I replied that I'd only ever seen one episode of Dr. Who. He smiled and encouraged me on my way: "Cheerio! Or, until next time, as they say!"
I made it to Oxford in good time, with advice from Joe to take the bike paths ("I almost fell twice."). Indeed, we are both surprised at how much faster we're biking now!
And in Oxford, we spent a fun and relaxing few days, all too short, with Nancy, her boyfriend Duncan, and their lovely new baby, Imogen.
August 9 -- Day 43
Feebie? Phoebe?
No, FEB! Or, Full English Breakfast. Seven ingrediants: sausage, bacon, black pudding, fried eggs, beans, toast...I forgot the last one! Mmm, and tea. Guaranteed to sustain you for many hours, to kill you after long-term consumption, and to give vegetarians nightmares.
Dodging the rain, we walked into the city of Oxford to check out the Museum of Natural History -- a massive collection of stuffed animals, fossils, rocks, and statues of the scientists who studied them, housed in a tall, light-filled neo-gothic gallery. Then we did a quick tour of Oxford and New College (which dates from, what 1300?), whose grounds were used, among other things, as a burial ground for victims of the Black Plague. We stopped for tea and cake in the late afternoon (without fail, always a good idea!), and sauntered back home in the rain. After a while, you know, you just get used to it.
That night, Joe and I babysat the 'Moge so that Duncan and Nancy could have a night out, and we stuffed ourselves with vegetarian curry (to balance out the FEB), and watched the British version of The Office.
August 10 -- Day 44
In the morning, I went to church at Christ College's chapel, which is the city's cathedral and a gorgeous place, architecturally, and was filled with beautiful singing from a visiting Dutch choir. Curiously: the pews all faced the inner isle, not the sanctuary.
In the afternoon, we went to West Wycombe, which is an old estate now owned and run by the National Trust. One of its owners of old, a certain Sir Francis Dashwood, also excavated the nearby Hellfire Caves, known for its allegedly crazy parties, of which partook a certain Benjamin Franklin (oh, do google it). The house itself (house? mansion, I should say), often appearing in films like the recent "The Importance of Being Earnest", was covered in portraits and (some rather suggestive) murals, and was filled with gorgeous furniture. We walked around the park a bit as well, taking in the green-ness of it all.
That evening, we had tea with Duncan's parents (tea! so good!), and then a deeeeelicious traditional roast chicken dinner.
August 11 -- Day 45
A day for gathering our things together, doing laundry, lubricating bike chains, and planning out the rest of our trip. Nancy, who is appearing on the prestigious Mastermind television quiz show soon, was to fly out the next day to be filmed in her hometown of St. Louis with Imogen, so we were planning to leave the next morning as well.
After dinner that evening, Joe and I met an old friend of his from school for drinks. Sabrina, it turns out, just finished her master's in Eastern European Studies, and so she set forth to explain to us the current conflict between Georgia and Russia. (Being on the road so much, we are rather out of touch with the news!).
August 12 -- Day 46
Dickmanning
I learned a new word:
"To Dickmann" - verb. To take a lot longer to leave than one has planned.
Between the rain (weather is so fickle here!), some unexpected news for me, and general preparations (like buying our ferry tickets for Friday morning), we got out of town muuuuch later than we thought we would. We wanted to get a start, as we had about 135 to 150 miles to bike by Friday morning, in time to catch our ferry. With rain a definite possibility, Duncan said, "Why don't you stop at Colin's? He's on your way, and you can stay there for the night." Colin is Duncan's brother who lives just 20 miles east of Oxford. Seeing as it was about 7pm, we jumped on the idea.
The curse of the flat tires
I swear, we must just have the most horrible luck with flat tires.
We checked them before we left, and Joe even pumped up his somewhat flat tire again.
Must've gone through some broken glass.
"Are you serious?" Joe said. We weren't even out of the city yet. We found a pedestrian tunnel to shelter in from the rain, and changed the innertube in my back tire as quickly as possible. We've now used a total of four innertubes between the two of us.
That task done (performed quite quickly now, as we've had lots of experience with it), we got back onto the bike path (thankfully, as one would not want to cycle down A40). We were pleased to find that it led us down quiet country roadswith virtually no traffic and recently-paved paths. Things were looking up as the sun came out, a rainbow arched in the east, and we dodged puddles on the pavement. Just six miles from Colin's:
"Joe, does my tire look flat to you?" Yep, it had gone again. It was getting dark (the sun sets so much earlier now than when we started this trip in June), so we just stopped every mile or so and pumped it up again.
We noted that miles are much longer than kilometers. We're looking forward to the gratification one has when ticking kilometers off quickly on the continent.
But, I am proud to say, that despite all the flatness of tires, we made it to Colin's in two hours -- that's twenty miles in two hours, folks! Much faster than we used to be! Colin greeted us at the door, and a few hours later, we collapsed happily into our beds.
August 13 -- Day 46
After many thanks to Colin and patching my innertube, we cycled through Princes Risborough for another FEB to fill ourselves up on protein, over which we reassessed our journey. We were on the road for less than five minutes when,
"PING!"
Even though I was maybe twenty meters from Joe, even I heard his spoke snap. His wheel, bending under all the weight in his bags and his body, just couldn't handle the stress. We walked back into P. Risboro (as the signs say) to the bike shop, only to read a sign that said,
"On holiday until August 16th. We apologize for any inconvenience our shop's closure may cause."
So were we!
Luckily, Joe got a hold of Colin, who offered to take us to the next town in search of a new wheel. We hurried to his house, threw our bikes in the back of his van, and sped off. 25 miles and two bike shops later, we still had no wheel ("We can get it in maybe a week and a half.") and 110 miles to cover by Friday morning. We pounded our heads for possible solutions. In the end, we decided to return to Colin's house to do some research. Calling the ferry company, we learned that we can change our ticket to another day (whew!), so we can still bike the rest of the distance and avoid taking a bus or the dreaded train (a quick lesson on the shortfalls of the invisible hand: Margaret Thatcher privatized British trains in the 1980s, which led to a complete disaster. Train tickets are completely overpriced now -- as the train might be owned by one company, but who might have to rent use of the track from another company -- and you may have to change companies several times during a trip.). Colin searched eBay for the possibility of Joe's buying a new bike altogether, and in the end found a bike shop in Oxford (where the boys are now, as I write).
Colin, who runs his own one-man company converting vans into camping vehicles, had very generously sacrificed most of his working day driving us around on this crazy hunt for a bicycle wheel (lesson learned: call in advance!). It being late in the afternoon, he needed to get some work done, so we pitched in and helped!
We worked on customizing Ikea cabinets (I learned how to drill!) to fit into the back of the current van, and on installing the bedframe. For this second task, Joe slid his skinny self underneath the van, squeezing himself just beneath the muffler ("Don't put anymore weight on the van, please!"), to drill holes through the chassy and the bottom of the van's body, to which we would later bolt the bedframe.
Wii? Oui!
Who wants to play real sports? We played Wii for hours with Colin's friends after a yummy chicken curry dinner, incuring possible shoulder and elbow injuries from simulated baseball, golf, and bowling games.
"Well, we're having great fun and we're looking forward to 2012."
The response of all the British athletes who've walked away without an Olympic medal.
August 14 -- Day 47
The first ever absolutely up-to-date blog entry!!!!
Bada-bing, bada boom!
So, well, the men are in Oxford bicycle hunting, and I'm keeping the cats company as I write. We'll see what new adventures await us once we get back on the road again!
Cheerio!
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