Reading Away From Home

St. Andrews has a fabulous institutional invention they call "Reading Week," where students who aren't bogged down with their workload fly away to ski in some glamorous European destination, and students who wish to catch up on reading and research have a quieter town and library.

This year, a few friends and I ventured down to London to do some reading in the British Library, and then I journeyed over to Oxford (city I love above all others) to enjoy some rare manuscripts in the Bodleian.

Upon arrival in London, the girls and I visited the largest toy store in the UK, which was swamped with people and, of course, toys.


On Sunday, because the British Library was closed, we took a train journey to Hampton Court, former home of Henry VII and some other well-known monarchs.

The wine cellar:

The Great Hall, in which some of Shakespeare's plays premiered, I believe:

Possibly the most amazing bed I have ever seen in my life:

I think this is the more modern wing of the house, built by William and Mary more than a century later:

Part of the enormous gardens:

The tree on the right has enormous clumps of mistletoe:


Because I happened to be in London only a few days after Guy Fawkes Day, I had a chance to see some marvelous fireworks in Victoria Park with an old friend (and many new friends, most of whom kindly put me up at their home for a few days).


The weekend over, I settled down to work (taking a break one evening to watch the new cast of Les Mis put on a fine, if slightly less-polished, production).

On Wednesday, I was off to Oxford, city of my love and dreams and a home away from home. That this half the trip was marvellous despite the very little sleep I had each night should tell you how much I love this city and the amazing manuscripts it holds in numerous libraries.

The Old Bod, where I spent most of my last trip (though the manuscripts department has unfortunately moved since then):


I had supper the first night with a good friend (randomly also in Oxford) in the pub where the Inklings once met. My second day in the city was also Remembrance Day, celebrated with two minutes of silence in the reading rooms (differentiated from the other silence only by the ringing of a small bell!) and a trip to the amazing Christ Church College Cathedral, where I had a chance to hear Mozart's Requiem performed live by a rather amazing choir.


On Friday, I caught the sleeper train home . . .



(I think Isaac may have missed me).

Here We Fall Again . . .

Some of you might have heard that Isaac had another birthday last month (it tends to happen unexpectedly about once a year). Isaac was unfortunately just starting a marathon cold that has been alive and kicking for the past few weeks, so our celebrations were slightly subdued and I didn't make him pose for any photos (because the only thing worse than feeling sick and snuffly is feeling sick and snuffly with a camera shoved in one's face).

For breakfast, we celebrated in proper Southern fashion with bacon, biscuits, and gravy. Yummy. (Also, as compensation for not seeing Isaac's handsome face, here's part of our kitchen--fortunately for you all, the most attractive part).


We went out to a local Italian chain restaurant for supper (joined by our dear friend K.) and then came home for tea, hot grog (a la Prague) and presents. As you can see, Isaac had a round-themed present collection. Also, this is part of our living room.


We went to bed early in hopes of staving off further illness, but Isaac spent the next two days in bed anyway, which was tragic.

On the Friday after Isaac's birthday, we celebrated the end of September with an unexpected and beautiful surprise: a day of heavy rain followed by an enormous double rainbow that spread over most of the town (hence why I was unable to capture the entire rainbow in one image: you all will have to settle for two). These were taken from our "rooftop door" which literally opens out into empty space about six feet above the nearby rooftops.



Hope you all are well.

Farewell, Summer!

We've been walking around through piles of crisp and crunchy leaves for the past week or so--not glorious coloured leaves, but brown and crunchy ones that make beautiful sounds, instead of pretty pictures. Today I wore a sweater (British word: jumper) for the first time in months (and was then too warm, but, that's how it goes).

Anyway, in honour of the end of summer (and because I'm traditionally very far behind with my blog posts) here are a few photos from a picnic we enjoyed a month (or so) ago.

We hiked to the Rock and Spindle (a favourite) late one evening.

With the following stunning view of the sea,

we built a small fire in the lee of a rock, then roasted fish and vegetables over the flame.


As if this weren't enough, we topped off our supper by roasting marshmallows (they're firmer and come in pink and white) over the coals and sandwiching them between two chocolate-covered digestive biscuits.

The result:


A very delicious dessert, British style.

Term has begun (technically, today). I won't have a literature tutorial this fall, but will be teaching a Writing Lab of sorts for any students who wish to attend it. Although I'm very slightly disappointed, it will nevertheless afford me a pretty good opportunity to buckle down on my thesis, which is a very good thing. Life is still up in the air and pretty busy, so . . . you know. I'll stay occupied nonetheless.

[Edit: One more photo from our seaside cookout. This was the view of St. Andrews we enjoyed on our walk home . . .

God bless.]

A Belated Durham Conquest

So, also in July (you know, the one that was two months ago), I ventured to the absolutely amazing medieval town of Durham for a conference. I had a chance to stay in the keep of an 11th century castle, and this is the view from my bedroom on the first (I think!) morning:



This is a view from the steps of the dining hall, of said keep. My room was the single open window at the top of the keep:


Half the conference papers were given in a room decorated with 17th century Flemish tapestries. Here's one (the lighting was unfortunately a bit odd):


I had all my meals in this amazing Great Hall (did I mention it's about a thousand years old?) The armour on the far wall was left behind after Cromwell's army beat a hasty retreat from this same castle in the 17th century.


And the castle pub, where I enjoyed a relaxing drink (to help me sleep) the night before I gave my paper:


The castle also boasts an amazing sandstone chapel from the 11th century (beneath a very pretty 17th century chapel), but it was dark, and few to none of the photos turned out, so you will all have to visit the chapel for yourselves someday.

Also, the nearby cathedral holds the tombs of the Venerable Bede and St. Cuthbert. The evensong I attended was breathtaking.

Jealous yet?

Journey to the Center of Europe

A few weeks back, our lovely little fishing village hosted a very big golf tournament, and our usually reasonable population of 25,000 (during the semesters) swelled to 250,000, so Isaac and I left town. After some deliberation, we settled upon Prague (Praha to the residents) as a suitable destination, by merits of its being off this briefly golf-crazed island and also for the relatively cheap deals we got on airline tickets and hotels.

Prague as a city is pretty well known for four things, or so, I think.

Coffee,


Beer,


Modern art,
(The top image is a pretty awesome sculpture near the stare mesto (old town) square, made entirely of keys, as might be evident from the close-up on the right; the bottom one of my favourite buildings, which we passed every day).



And jazz, which is everywhere but difficult to capture in a photo.

Isaac and I arrived around noon on Monday only to discover that Prague is a veritable sauna in the summer. We had booked an afternoon boat cruise, and so made our way to the river (hoping it would be cooler) to enjoy some water views of the city. This is the famous Charles Bridge:

And this a whimsical photograph I snapped of a cyclist on the riverside walkway, a little later.


We meandered a lot on our first night, and suddenly realised we were in Bohemia, land of green fairies and, well, Absintheries.


We spent most of the second day wandering through the older section of town, trying desperately to follow a "walk" in a five-year-old tour book we had borrowed from the library. We think some of the alleyways have been closed off since then, so I was distracted from taking photos by the fact that neither of us could figure out the author's directions. We lunched in a lovely restaurant (vegetarian, we later discovered!)that may or may not have been in the oldest street in Prague, and continued meandering. In the evening, we stumbled upon a jazz festival in the stare mesto, and amused ourselves by listening to the music, eating enormous sausages, and watching small children frighten pigeons.


On Wednesday, again unbearably hot, we visited Hradcany Castle (also called Prague Castle), which sits atop a high hill on the west side of the river.

Hradcany has some lovely gardens:

And a pretty stunning church in the middle of the castle grounds.

Too warm from the beating sun, we ventured even further up the hill to visit the Strahov Monastery (my one must-see destination from this trip). In addition to its charming restaurant, in which we were fed grilled meat, amazing plum dumplings, and some monastery-brewed beer (Isaac had a yellow wheat beer which he loved immensely), the monastery also hosts an amazing library. Photography rights cost as much as admission, so here's a picture of the outside:

We had supper at a highly recommended restaurant called Kolkovna. They fed Isaac a very lovely goulash with a soft pretzel, then took more than an hour to bring us our meals (which were very nice when they finally arrived). I had sauerkraut and pork pancakes with sour cream, and they were marvelous (facilitated, I am sure, by my extreme hunger).


We finished our evening by returning to the Absintherie we'd seen on Monday. We tried Absinthe straight on ice and also Absinthe poured over sugar and set on fire. After our fire Absinthe was prepared, we were given a moody little table with water and peanuts at which we could sip our drinks and ponder the bohemian lifestyle. (I suggested to Isaac that we begin singing songs from The Sound of Music, a la Moulin Rouge but we elected to walk home along the river in relative silence instead).


Given the oppressive heat, we tried a different approach on Thursday, and left the hotel at a little past six in the morning. We walked across the Charles Bridge, which is decorated with lovely statues of mostly biblical scenes, watched the sun rise, and had coffee together at a little cafe before walking back to the hotel for breakfast.



In the afternoon we visited the Jewish Quarter, which has mostly been taken over by street vendors and the high fashion shops of Pariska Street. The New and Old Synagogues stand side by side, separated by a narrow alleyway. (Attempts to take a wider photo of both together might have ended with an unfortunate car accident, so here they are separately).

Prague is also, supposedly, the birthplace of the marionette theatre, so we finished our day with an evening spent watching a puppet production of Mozart's Don Giovanni,.


Hoping for a quieter day, we spent a great deal of Friday morning exploring Vysehrad (Castle?), conveniently located up a hill just behind our hotel. Vysehrad, across the river and a bit south of Hradcany, is the historic "outpost" for Prague, and the views were stunning, as were the gardens. Vysehrad is also home to the Church of Sts. Cyril and Methodius.






We spent our last full day quietly, wandering through the stare mesto again and sipping coffee in various locations throughout the city. The square surrounds this enormous statue of Jan Hus.

On the far side of the square is the astronomical clock. On the hour, each hour, various figures appear at the open doors near the top of the clock. One, I think, is supposed to be the Devil letting a little sand seep from an hourglass. The square fills up with crowds of tourists for about fifteen minutes every hour, so this is the best photo I could manage.

We concluded our trip as we began it: with a boat tour of the city. We saw our lovely Vysehrad in the evening light:

We also had a stunning view of the sunset reflected in the aforementioned dancing buildings.

We walked home along the river after dark.

I went to Durham afterwards, but that's a subject for another blog post.

Crazy Daze

Our last few weeks have been a bit wild. In the past fifteen days, we've had three visitors from the States, journeyed across and around Scotland by car and by train, hiked the tallest mountain in the UK (Ben Nevis), moved to a new flat, and kept up a pretty decent work flow regardless (Isaac took two days off during our adventures and I've taken a few more but still managed to write a conference paper and compile a slide show for it). Exciting but crazy.

Our new address will be emailed out soon to interested parties, but as we don't yet have internet access in our new flat, it might take a little longer than expected. In the meantime, here's a photo of my handsome husband taken on the side of Ben Nevis and looking out over Loch Lochy and the Atlantic (click for a larger version).



Hope you are all well! Take care!