Sunday, November 23, 2008
The Fun Never Stops; It Just Slows Down.
Our regular readers might have noticed a lull in our blog posts lately. This is because some of our adventures can easily be summed up in a few words and they may not be of interest to a wide audience. But to fill in the gap, here's a sample of our month: school, rain, head lice, laundromat, fog, constipation, homework, head lice, rain, chest infection, sleet, and one day of no heat. This doesn't even include Mike's trip back to the US and our visa project. But that's another story.
The Merry Month of November
November is a busy month for celebrations here in Cambridge. November 5 is Guy Fawkes Day, also known as Bonfire Night. Guy Fawkes Day is a recognition of the 1605 Gunpowder Plot, a secret plan to overthrow the king and blow up the Parliament building with a stash of gunpowder. The highlight of the celebration is a grand fireworks display and a huge bonfire, which traditionally burned an effigy of Guy Fawkes and sometimes the Pope (because conspirators were Catholic), but apparently naming the effigy is not politically correct, so now effigies are anonymous. I honestly couldn't see whether there was any such thing at the bonfire we attended. But the fun wasn't limited to just one night. We actually saw fireworks from the windows of our home on several nights before and after November 5. I guess with no Independence Day celebrations, this is their big opportunity to enjoy the fireworks. One advantage to the November spectacle is that it gets dark early enough for even the children to enjoy the display before bedtime.
November 11 is known here as Remembrance Day which commemorates the lives lost in times of war, with specific attention to the First World War. The British suffered nearly 1 million deaths resulting from World War I. Remembrance Day was marked nationwide with visits to gravesites and memorials, wreaths of red poppies, and two minutes of silence at 11:00 am. Even the school children participated. I was impressed by the observation of the holiday. Growing up in the US, I have not found Veteran's Day to have the same widespread reverence.
November 16 brought the arrival of the official Christmas shopping season in Cambridge. The celebration included a parade, concert, Father Christmas, and the "Switch On" of the decorative lights in town. All of this was conducted in miserable fog and rain. Mind you, there's no shying away from saying Christmas here. I'll wait to see if people wish me "Happy Christmas" or just "Happy Holidays".
November 11 is known here as Remembrance Day which commemorates the lives lost in times of war, with specific attention to the First World War. The British suffered nearly 1 million deaths resulting from World War I. Remembrance Day was marked nationwide with visits to gravesites and memorials, wreaths of red poppies, and two minutes of silence at 11:00 am. Even the school children participated. I was impressed by the observation of the holiday. Growing up in the US, I have not found Veteran's Day to have the same widespread reverence.
November 16 brought the arrival of the official Christmas shopping season in Cambridge. The celebration included a parade, concert, Father Christmas, and the "Switch On" of the decorative lights in town. All of this was conducted in miserable fog and rain. Mind you, there's no shying away from saying Christmas here. I'll wait to see if people wish me "Happy Christmas" or just "Happy Holidays".
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Windsor Castle
The second part of our trip to Windsor was a visit to the great Windsor Castle, which sits right in the middle of the town, although I suppose the castle came first. Windsor Castle is around 1000 years old and has been in continuous royal use since it was first built by William the Conqueror. Queen Elizabeth II considers it her primary home and lives there nearly every weekend. About 150 other people also live on the castle grounds.
This round tower is the site of the original fortress. If the Queen is present, her seal will fly from the flagpole instead of the Union Jack. Annie was disappointed to learn that the Queen was not home during our visit. Maybe they could have had a little chat.
This is an exterior view of the State Apartments, which were previously used as living quarters for monarchs. Today they are used for official functions of the monarchy, including entertaining other heads of state. We were able to tour the inside. The rooms are filled with artwork by Rubens, Van Dyck, and Rembrandt, among many others.
We also visited Saint George's Chapel, which is housed within the Castle. It dates from the mid-1300's (though the present building I believe was completed in the late 1400's) and is the burial site of 10 English monarchs. Today it remains an active Church of England parish.
The tour was self-guided with audio accompaniment, with a version for adults and another for children. Timmy and Annie especially enjoyed using the audio device to learn about the history of the castle. It was fun to see them concentrating and staring at displays or artwork in obvious response to the audio track.
Poor Colin. He didn't want to visit another castle. He didn't like the audio tour. He just wanted to play with his Happy Meal toy, which he did, plopping himself down on the floor of the State Apartments and sending the toy whizzing under the barrier that prevents commoners like us from touching anything. Those royal guards can be so helpful about retrieving things. Luckily, there was a special activity for children at the castle on the day of our visit. The Big Draw is a nationwide project to engage people of all ages in drawing. Windsor Castle was supporting the effort by inviting the children to add to a large mural of castle life. Colin is really interested in drawing and creating lately, so he was thrilled. We practically had to drag him away!
This round tower is the site of the original fortress. If the Queen is present, her seal will fly from the flagpole instead of the Union Jack. Annie was disappointed to learn that the Queen was not home during our visit. Maybe they could have had a little chat.
This is an exterior view of the State Apartments, which were previously used as living quarters for monarchs. Today they are used for official functions of the monarchy, including entertaining other heads of state. We were able to tour the inside. The rooms are filled with artwork by Rubens, Van Dyck, and Rembrandt, among many others.
We also visited Saint George's Chapel, which is housed within the Castle. It dates from the mid-1300's (though the present building I believe was completed in the late 1400's) and is the burial site of 10 English monarchs. Today it remains an active Church of England parish.The tour was self-guided with audio accompaniment, with a version for adults and another for children. Timmy and Annie especially enjoyed using the audio device to learn about the history of the castle. It was fun to see them concentrating and staring at displays or artwork in obvious response to the audio track.
Poor Colin. He didn't want to visit another castle. He didn't like the audio tour. He just wanted to play with his Happy Meal toy, which he did, plopping himself down on the floor of the State Apartments and sending the toy whizzing under the barrier that prevents commoners like us from touching anything. Those royal guards can be so helpful about retrieving things. Luckily, there was a special activity for children at the castle on the day of our visit. The Big Draw is a nationwide project to engage people of all ages in drawing. Windsor Castle was supporting the effort by inviting the children to add to a large mural of castle life. Colin is really interested in drawing and creating lately, so he was thrilled. We practically had to drag him away!
Monday, November 3, 2008
Legoland
The British school year is divided into 3 terms with week long breaks at each half term and longer breaks between terms. As far as I can tell there are seldom any other days off. So this past week was our first half term break. Like many of our new friends here, we decided to do a little traveling. We went to Windsor which is west of London to visit Legoland and Windsor Castle.
We traveled by rail, changing trains at London's King's Cross Station. We alighted at platform 9, which is just steps away from Platform 9 3/4, familiar to any Harry Potter fan. Here's Annie preparing to push her luggage cart through the magical wall.
It turns out that Harry Potter and Hagrid beat us to Legoland!
For the children, Legoland was the highlight of the trip. It is a typical amusement park but the stand apart feature is Miniland, an extensive area of scenes from Europe entirely recreated with Legos. Timmy could not think of enough superlatives and exclamations to describe Miniland. Mike and I had to agree. Here are a few photos to give you a taste.
The USA was represented by Mount Rushmore and NASA's launch pad.
It was a fun, cold, long day which culminated with shopping for Lego souvenirs.
We traveled by rail, changing trains at London's King's Cross Station. We alighted at platform 9, which is just steps away from Platform 9 3/4, familiar to any Harry Potter fan. Here's Annie preparing to push her luggage cart through the magical wall.
It turns out that Harry Potter and Hagrid beat us to Legoland!
For the children, Legoland was the highlight of the trip. It is a typical amusement park but the stand apart feature is Miniland, an extensive area of scenes from Europe entirely recreated with Legos. Timmy could not think of enough superlatives and exclamations to describe Miniland. Mike and I had to agree. Here are a few photos to give you a taste.
This is St. Paul's Cathedral in London. Noticing Timmy's interest makes me hope he'll be more interested when we see the real thing!
I think this is Town Hall in Brussels, Belgium.
The USA was represented by Mount Rushmore and NASA's launch pad.It was a fun, cold, long day which culminated with shopping for Lego souvenirs.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)