Old Blighty. Oxford and Stow on the Wold.

St Martin's Tower, also called Carfax tower Oxford

 

         My plans from the start was to backpack around the UK. London, Oxford, Stow on the Wold, Lincoln, York, Edinburgh, Iona, Cumbria, Ireland, Liverpool, Wales, Cornwall and back to London. I love history and ancient history and I've always wanted to see a suit of armour and walk the battlements of a real castle. I also intended to walk at least part of Hadrian's wall.
      

26–27 Cornmarket Street. Oxford. Dates from the fifteenth century

 

I got the bus from London to Oxford and the next day got up early before all the other tourist were about and had a good look at the place. I walked around the famous parts of town, the Bodleian Library and the Bridge of Sighs

 

Bodleian Library Oxford

The Bridge of Sighs

 

Then I walked to the Radcliffe Camera and explored the university precinct.

 

Queens Lane Oxford

 

 

 

The Radcliffe Camera

 

       When I was a small lad I saw a Victorian illustration of Empress Matilda escaping from a castle tower window. Imagine my delight when I found myself in that exact room in the tower in Oxford

Castle she escaped from. It was a big Norman Castle that incorporated the original Saxon walls and towers. The Parliamentary forces during the English civil war demolished nearly all of it excepted some of the original Saxon towers.

The tower in Oxford Castle Empress Matilda escaped from in 1142

 

The castle was converted into a prison and was in use into the 1990,s. It didn't get electricity till the 1960,s. And right up till it closed the prisoners had to use a bucket for a toilet.

Oxford Castle prison cell

St Michael at the North Gate. Another one of the surviving Saxon towers

 

Oxford canal and a narrow boat

 

My next stop was Stow on the Wold. The church there has two ancient yew trees growing on each side of the church door. Thought to be the bases behind The doors of Moria in Tolkien,s Lord of the Rings. When I got to Stow on the Wold I had no idea where the church might be. For all I knew it could have been 10 miles out of town, but it was right in the middle of the town, easy to find and there was nobody else around.

 

Yours truly in front of those famous doors

 

Yours truly not in front of those famous doors

 

Another view of St Edwards church. Stow on the Wold

 

A typical house in Stow on the Wold.

 

This time the weather let me down, and it rained all day. A bummer lots of crapy photos.

 

 

Old Blighty. Hampstead Heath and Highgate Cemetery

Highgate Cemetery August 2015

 

     I was blessed with good weather in the UK. But the the day I went to Highgate Cemetery it worked against me. It was a hot and sunny day so it was really hard to get a good shot of the over grown parts of the cemetery, the tomb stones were half in deep shadow and half in bright sun light, an impossible combination for a good photo. I walked from the hostel through Hampstead Heath on to Highgate.
   The cemetery was every thing you imagined, hundreds of tumbling down over grown tombstones, and the tombs of famous people.

Karl Marx, one of the most misunderstood men in history

 

One of the first famous persons grave I came across was Douglas Adams. Auther of that great trilogy in five parts. The hitch hikers guide to the galaxy.

 

Douglas Adams, a small and modest grave

 

If your a Sex Pistols fan. Heres Malcolm Mclarens grave, less modest.

 

Malcolm Mclaren

 

Some more images of Highgate Cemetery

 

 

 

 

I walked through Hampstead Heath on the way to and from Highgate Cemetery. I,m amazed at its size, and that much it is near wilderness so close to London

The City of London from Hampstead Heath

 

Its like a remote mountain meadow

 

One of the many lakes on Hampstead Heath

 

Kenwood House. Hampstead Heath

In front of Kenwood House

People by one of the many lakes on Hampstead Heath

A swan on a lake

A country lane in Hampstead Heath

Old Blighty the next day. Abbey Road, David Bowie and Marc Bolan

                                                     That famous pedestrian crossing
   The next day I walked from the hostel to the famous pedestrian crossing at Abbey road studio.
You could see a crowd of people from the end of the road, so you knew where you were. Another thing that struck me was on which side of the pedestrian crossing  the studio was on. I didn't know till now that you could see the Abbey Road studio on the cover of the album behind the Beatles.

Abbey Road studio

 

I'm going to jump ahead a few weeks and put all the pop stuff in this post. I flew from Dublin to Liverpool, and needless to say, while I was in Liverpool, I bealted there to. My hostel was on one side of Liverpool and Penny Lane was on the other, because I'm poor and stingy I walked, it took me an hour and a half. As you could probably guess, Penny lane didn't look anything like I imagined.

I always imagined Penny Lane was a short cobble lane (in black and white) near the centre of Liverpool. But its a great long road in suburbia, houses down one side, and most of the other side walled off open ground.

 

Penny Lane

 

I walked from one end of the road and back, stopped at a community centre that was also a Beatle shop. Where I bought the only tourist kinck knack of my whole UK trip. I bought a guitar plectrum, which I use when I play my guitar which I recently bought. It was the best type of tourist thing you could buy because it was cheap, it didn't take up any space and I use it.

 

 

Now back a few weeks to London. I've always been a David Bowie and a T rex fan. Its very sad that David Bowie has recently died. I am one of those people that David Bowie's music has been a back drop to my entire life. When I was about 11 in 1972  a friend of my brother brought around Ziggy Stardust. From when I first heard it I thought it was fantastic, and it was the first pop rock album I ever bought. The first record I ever bought was the single All my loving by the Beatles.

I've always wanted to see the place where the photo of the cover of Ziggy stardust was taken. I googled it and found out it was taken at 23 Heddon st London, so I went there.

 Its now an expensive alfresco eating area

 

23 Heddon st London. Ziggy Stardust

 

The next stop was the Marc Bolan memorial at the place he died in a car crash in Barnes. When I was a kid, the only pop star picture I pinned to my wall was a picture of Marc Bolan out of the TV times.

Marc Bolan died exactly one month to the day after Elvis Presley died. Elvis Presley died on August the 16th 1977. And Marc Bolan died on September the 16th 1977. I can't remember when I heard of Marc Bolans death, it could have been months or longer later. No so when Elvis Presley died. It was head line news. I couldn't understand the out pouring of grief when Presley died, but I was stunned when John Lennon was murdered . Even though I was a Beatle fan, I didn't consider myself a John Lennon fan. And when he was killed I was surprised to feel I had lost a friend, even though I knew that to be ridiculous. Then I understood why people were so distraught when Elvis died. I don,t remember where I was.

 

Marc Bolan. Rock on

My trip to Old Blighty 2015

Tower of London October 2015. A nice sunny day

       I've been wanting to go to the UK since I read The Lord of the Rings when I was a kid in the mid 70,s So after some 40 years of messing about I finally got there. I spent 40 days there, back packing around the UK and Ireland. Most of the time I stayed at hostels and travelled by bus. Twice I hired a car, and some times I had to stay in expensive hotels or guest houses because either all the hostels were booked out or there was none.

        Now for the gory details. I left Australia at the end of August with Malayisa Airlines with a stop over in Kuala Lumpur. Gallows humor warning, I joked to my friends before I left they might never see me again. The flight over was uneventful, but I don't travel well, and in about 9/10ths of 1 second I,m uncomfortable and fidgeting for the whole million hours to Heathrow.
     When the plane landed I went through customs, then on to collect my pack, then I stood at the carousel wondering where I should be going next, expecting to have to go through some gruelling
baggage check. The place was poorly sign posted so I didn't know where to go to get out, so I just followed some one. The people I was following turned into the side door, so I went in to. In there was a two signs, one said if you have anything to declare go right, if you having nothing to declare go left. I didn't have anything to declare so I went left and found myself out in the arrival hall. That was it, in this post 9/11 world I through I would have to jump through hoops on arriving in the UK.
     I planned on catching the train to London, and then to the hostel I had already booked online. So I followed the signs to one of the Heathrow train stations. When I got to the platform the train was pulling in and a woman station conductor directed me on. I said I didn't have a ticked and I didn't know where I get one. She said don,t worry about it, you can get a ticket on the train, so I hopped on.
    On the way to London a message came over the PA saying anyone with out a ticket will be fined, and despite what the woman said, I couldn't see anywhere on the train to buy one. I thought, that's it, I,m only in England for an hour and I,m going to be arrested. The train passed through the London suburbs and I look at interest at what was passing. As a great fan of British history and comedy (The Goodies and George Orwell for example) I wanted see the urban landscape that appears in so much British history and British TV shows and movies. Every little detail was of interest. The roads, back streets, town houses and high streets (to use an English term for what in Australia we would call the main street)
      The train arrived in London, so I got off the train and wondered whats going to happen to me at the station when I can,t get through the turn style because I don,t have a ticket. I walked up to a station guy at the exit and told him I didn't have a ticket. Now I meet the famous  British no fuss attitude. The guy said (or words to this effect) no problem, you can get the ticket here. He printed a ticket and said, that will be 10 £ 10 p. I only had pound notes so he waved me through for just the 10 £. And he did it with such a nonchalant British style. No one in Australia would let you through anywhere, especially on a train station without paying the whole amount. They would call the police, as simple as that. If you were the station ticket guy you would concerned your boss would blast you ( or worse ) if you just waved a person through. I congratulate British common sense and flexibility.
    I had know idea where is I was and found out I was on Paddington Station. For some reason I thought Heathrow was south of London, and I expected the train to cross the Thames. As it didn't I had no idea which direction I needed to go. I wandered out of the station and bumped into a guy with a hawk on his arm. I thought he was a tourist attraction, but it turned out it was his job to keep the pigeons away with hawk. After a bit of a chat he said to get to Swiss Cottage, where the hostel was, get the train to Waterloo Station and get the Jubilee line to Swiss Cottage, so I hopped back on the train off to Waterloo.
       I ended getting off at Charing Cross and stumbling on Trafalgar Square then across the road to Mcdonalds, my first meal in the UK! After my maccs breakfast I walked down Whitehall to Westminster Station where I bought two maps of London from a very nice middle age couple, then I went into the station and the guy there showed me how to get the Oyster card and when he found out where  my hostel was he said it was near Abbey Road studios. I didn't intend to do the Beatle thing in the UK, but if the hostel was near that famous pedestrian crossing, I would go to it. I jumped on the train to Swiss Cottage, got off and found my hostel and planned the stage.

Elizabeth Tower (Big Ben)