London - Oxford - Liverpool - London

Schools here close for the “Toussaint Holiday” from Oct 24 until November 4. Monday Nov 1 was All Souls Day or All Saints Day (directly translated as “Toussaint”); Halloween actually is “all hallows eve.” So it was time for one of our Big Vacations Because We’re Already in Europe! We’re hoping we’ll be able to afford another. This one was to England because Joe had to work in Oxford for three days anyway.

London/Oxford

Monday October 25
We took the Eurostar into London’s St. Pancras station. This ride is about 2 hours and 15 minutes. The train is nice and fast and has a car where you can buy snacks and beverages. It was a short walk to the Crescent Hotel on Cartwright Gardens in Bloomsbury. This location was pretty good. The walk to Euston Street and Russell Square Undergrounds was only 5-10 minutes. There were plenty of buses at these locations also. The bus is fun to take in London because you can sit upstairs and really see things.
The first project was to find lunch and, in particular, satisfy our corned beef craving. The equivalent in London is called Salt Beef. A cabbie had told Joe there was good Salt Beef at a bagel place on Brick Lane in the East End. Old Jewish area, now filled with Indian restaurants. And our guide book said there was a really good bagel place on Brick Lane. So Joe figured that must be the place to go. Off we went by tube to Liverpool Street and then walked, and walked a bit more (past lots of Indian food) and finally found two bagel places. One in the guide book, and one with salt beef. We chose the salt beef. Quite tasty and the best deal of any food we found on our trip.
Puzzling through the London book of maps, Joe eventually found the way to a bus that took us to the Tower of London. We took a really interesting tour about all the beheadings and hangings of former British queens and heads of state. The Warders (sometimes called Beefeaters) emphasize the bloody parts. Pursuing the theme of British traditions, we had fish and chips for dinner around the corner from our hotel. Then we went to Leicester square to see a movie. Leicester square is so lively. There are amusement rides and games along with movies and pubs. The whole area is like people think Times Square would be like, but is not. People and activity, theatres, movies and restaurants for blocks and blocks.

Tuesday October 26
We took the train to Oxford. What a charming city. As you would expect it is very old with many buildings being built around 1500. We stayed in Holywell Manor, the graduate student dorm where Joe has his “rooms”. The bedroom-sitting room that a particularly eminent scholar would have! Except that it hasn’t been updated since about 1935. A bed had been put in his sitting room for Abby. Everything there is like you would expect from stories: a porter’s lodge at the entrance, a “Praefectus” in charge, a common room for the students – and also a TV room with lots of leather seating, and a pub that is run by the students. This dorm is part of Baliol College within Oxford. After getting settled it was time for lunch, so we made our way thru the torrential rain to The White Horse Pub, which has been a pub since at least 1591 and perhaps back into the 15th century. And Joe ran into two colleagues from Case Western, but didn’t want to talk about that stuff; he’s on sabbatical. Following lunch at this charming pub, Joe went to his office and Abby and I went to Christ Church College to see where Harry Potter 1 and 2 did some filming. We were not disappointed. We saw the stairs where Neville lost his toad. Also the room they used for the Great Hall. The Great Hall had 3 long tables with hot tables along the length of the room on each side. The High Table was a long table with place settings on both sides of the table. For later movies they built sets for all these places at their studio Levesdown. We also saw the corridor used in these 2 movies. Very cool!!!!!!
After this, Abby and I walked around their town center to see shops. A really full day of walking but it was exciting to be around all this history. At least for me – maybe not Abby. We all met up at Waterstone’s Bookstore. Abby hunted for books while I enjoyed a decaf. We bought six books; the selection of books in English is a bit better in Oxford than in Paris. Joe met us and then we all went to The Eagle and Child pub. This pub was so cool!!! JRR Tolkien and C.S. Lewis used to meet up at this pub while they taught at Oxford. Now it was time to return to Holywell Manor and collapse!!!!!

Wednesday, October 27
Abby and I spent the day wandering Oxford and shopping. We both got new “trainers” aka sneakers. We also discovered Marks and Spencer aka Marks and Sparks as the locals call it. Pretty good prices and everything you could need: clothes and a food market. So Abby and I were in there for a while. Joe met us for lunch and we ate at the British equivalent of a diner in the Oxford Covered Market. Then he went back to work and we went back to shopping for a while, before going back to the Manor to rest.
That evening at 5:30 Joe gave his Inaugural lecture at the Rothermere American Institute (RAI) of Oxford on the subject of American political ideologies. Of course, Abby and I went and were quite proud of Joe. The attendees remarked how brilliant and insightful his talk was, and a grad student from NYC really complimented Joe on the talk. Joe really is a terrific speaker and brings a new insight into American Politics. (No, I didn’t write that part! If anyone is curious, the talk is at http://www.rai.ox.ac.uk/index.php/academic-programme/podcasts. Best, Joe). The talk was followed by a reception and dinner at a wonderful restaurant, the Old Parsonage. The building “only” dates to 1660.

Thursday October 28
A well deserved quiet day. Abby and I went to the library next to Joe’s office and read or studied. Abby has midterms Nov 12 – 18 so she wanted to study for those. I studied French since I am having a hard time mastering this language. Always I have a book. Then we had lunch all three of us and returned to the rooms. Thursday evening we were all invited to dine at the Great Hall of Baliol College. What an evening of fine dining!!!! We all meet in the faculty lounge where there is coffee, sodas, wine, and other spirits. The steward of Baliol College enters and rings a loud Bell and announces dinner is ready. We all walk into the great hall where we sit at the High Table. Dinner included a crab salad followed by veal stew with baby vegetables and Tagliatelle. Dessert was Calvados rice brulee with apple granite and apple tuile. Then we all went into another stunning room (the Senior Common Room where the faculty would normally dine) where we had fruit, chocolate, and nuts (which had to be cracked) along with choice of port, claret, and a sweet white wine. Not done yet – we returned to the faculty lounge for coffee and more spirits. It was a lovely evening!!! Abby was a bit disappointed that she did not get to wear a black gown like Joe did.

Back to London
Friday, October 29
In the morning in Oxford we checked out parts of the Bodleian Library. Again to see sites used for Harry Potter 1 and 2. In the Divinity school of the Bodleian is the room used as the infirmary in HP1 and also HP3 for dance practice before the Yule Ball. As usual, we took lots of pictures for all of you to see. Enjoy!

Then we walked to the train station and returned to London. We stayed in The Crescent Hotel again for one night. We took the bus over to the South Bank of the Thames and walked along until we reached the Tate Modern museum. By then our feet were tired and we had a surprisingly good snack. It’s a spectacular place and we only saw a bit of what they have, but the building itself is stunning. And Abby had to do a project on art by living artists for school, so it was a work trip. This museum is wonderful!!!!!

After that we walked some more, past the Globe Theatre (no performances after early October, sadly), through Boro Market and over to the London Bridge train station where we caught a train to visit Julie Strauss, Joe’s very good friend from grad school, for dinner. So Julie finally got to meet Abby, and we got to meet her six-year-old daughter, Phoebe. Abby was a very nice Big Girl with Phoebe and the rest of us sat and talked and caught up. Later on it was Train and Tube back to our hotel, observing the Londoners, inebriated and not.

Liverpool
Saturday, October 30
We went on a pilgrimage to Liverpool for all things related to the Beatles. I anticipated a run down city since I had read their economy wasn’t doing so well for many years. What I found was a real mix of old and new buildings. The local people are so friendly even though it is hard to understand their accent. There were a couple of times when Joe asked questions in the hotel or shops and then wasn’t sure how to say, “I didn’t understand a word you said.” Abby immediately liked the look of Liverpool because it reminded her of Cleveland. We took a tour on the Magical Mystical Tour bus. It was great!! We went away from the central city to the suburbs. After WW2, a lot of people lived in Council Housing because there was so much destruction from the War. It was a long wait to get updated housing. Our first stop was at Ringo’s birthplace, 9 Madagen Rd. A very working-class area. About 500 houses are boarded up and waiting to be torn down, including Ringo’s. But the pub where he used to go, and that is on the cover of his first solo album, is still there. Then we went to Penny Lane which is a long street with shops including businesses mentioned in their song. In the middle of the street there really is a roundabout. This was a shelter used to wait for trains or trams. Now it is boarded up. We also saw Lloyds Bank on the corner and a barber shop owned now by Tony Slavin. John and Paul lived within 10 minutes of Penny Lane which is reflected in their song. Next we went to George’s birthplace, 12 Arnold Grove. He had a large family with 4 kids total. All 6 of them lived in a small Council house with 2 bedrooms. At age 7 George and his family moved to 25 Upton Green, close to the McCartney home. It took that long after a request for a larger house. Then we went to the home of Brian Epstein. He grew up in a very middle class suburb, 197 Queens Drive. He ran a record store, Mems. A lot of kids came in to request the Beatles record, My Bonnie. So Brian went to the Cavern club to see them and became their manager in 1961.
John and Paul met at the Woolton Village festival in 1957. Later John would go to Paul’s house to write songs and practice. John’s Aunt was very strict and didn’t like him spending so much time playing music. Paul’s father had been a jazz musician so encouraged Paul to play guitar. The tour bus then went by Strawberry Fields. This was originally a children’s home run by the Salvation Army. It is gone now but the original gate is still there.

John Lennon went to live with his Aunt Mimi and Uncle George at the age of 5 after his father died. At the time it was thought that a single mother raising a son was frowned upon. His aunt was very strict. Yoko Ono bought this house and donated it to the National Trust. There is a plaque on the house commemorating that John lived here. The plaque says: John Lennon 1940-1980 Musician and Songwriter lived here 1945-1963.
The McCartney home is at 20 Forthlin Avenue very close to John’s home. Paul’s mother was a midwife and the custom at the time was that most births were at home by a midwife. They moved to this house in 1955 and a year later Mary McCartney died of breast cancer. Paul and his brother Mike were raised by their father, Jim. I mentioned earlier that Jim played Jazz locally and encouraged Paul’s musical ambitions. This home was purchased by the National Trust in 1995. There is only a small sign in front of this house saying that it is the home of Paul McCartney. The plaque isn’t placed on the house until after death. So lets hope they don’t get a plaque for a very long time!!!! A woman was tending her small and very nice garden next to all the people looking in at Paul’s house. There must be a song in that.

Finally our last stop on this tour was to the Cavern Club. It opened in 1957 originally as a jazz club until 1960 when bands performed there. It was closed in 1972 but reopened in 1984. Check out the pictures. Very cool place. There were all kind of beatles videos playing and a cover band. Lots of drinking but that’s true all over England. Really cool and fun place. Check out these photos. If you are a fan of the Beatles, you will love this.

Other parts of Liverpool
Liverpool has a new mall with a peace memorial picturing John and Sean on it. We had dinner at a burger chain there on Saturday night. We were ready for that. Also, they have sculptures of “Superlambanana” all around central city. These are lambs with a tail of a banana. For us, a major tourist attraction was the modern Crowne Plaza Hotel where we stayed, in the touristy area near the Albert Dock. Large shower and tub! Cushy beds! Sunday morning we toured the Maritime museum and Slave Museum. The Maritime museum has a terrific exhibit on the Shackleton expedition to the South Pole. Frank Hurley a photographer went with the exhibition to document so the pictures in the exhibit were actual events of the expedition. Spectacular stuff. It also had some good stuff about immigration through Liverpool. 9 million people traveled from Liverpool to the Americas or Australia.

London Again
Sunday, October 31
London again until Abby and I returned to Paris and Joe to Oxford. Sunday night we relaxed and went to another movie. It was Halloween so seemed only appropriate to see “Vampires Suck.” Abby said it lampooned all the things you would expect from seeing the Twilight movies. We were exhausted from all the walking in Liverpool. Monday during the day we went in different directions to do some touristy activities. Sydelle went to see the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace while Abby and Joe went on the London Eye. The Eye is a giant ferris wheel built for the Millenium celebration but remains as a huge tourist attraction. Abby and Joe then walked through Westminster and St. James Park and looked at Buckingham Palace from a distance, and again through Green Park. It was nice to see all that green, and autumn foliage, and a quite impressive array of waterfowl. Including pelicans (!?) Then we met up at the British Museum. What can you say about the British Museum? It is one of a kind with the most amazing exhibits. Even if they stole some of them. It’s a must if you go to London. Monday night we saw a play, War Horse. The play is a really moving account of a horse bought by the cavalry in the WW1. It is a story of war thru the eyes of the horse. At the end of the play all of us had tears but it’s a happy ending.

Along the week we ate in several English pubs. It was fun for me to see the English relaxing with a pint. They are very lively and loud. Tuesday morning before we boarded the Eurostar, Abby and Joe went to King’s Cross station where Harry Potter is supposed to depart for Hogwarts. Check the photos for Abby at platform 9&3/4. Then we were all off - Abby and I to Paris and Joe to Oxford. Great vacation albeit exhausting. I felt like I needed a vacation from my vacation.
Look at our photos and enjoy them. We enjoyed doing all these things.

I will post pictures on separate posts so you may have an idea of what you are looking at. Unfortunately, I cannot figure out how to label each picture so the reader knows what they are looking at.