We had a great full day in London today, with lots more sunshine than forecasted, including a long (but not long enough!) visit to the medieval galleries in the British Museum on my own and a cruise on the Thames that we both really enjoyed. But first, some catching up with photos from the last few days.

Friday: Herefordshire Churches

On Friday we visited some little country churches and a cathedral in Herefordshire, the county bordering Wales. We had a good time with our tripods in the small churches and it was a pretty relaxed day, although it involved a lot of driving on tiny roads.


David surveys the countryside by the church in Castle Frome, our first stop


Castle Frome church, from the 12th century


The reason we came to this church way out in the boonies: a very cool baptismal font from the 12th century.


Representation of the Gospel of Matthew


Baptism of Jesus (who looks a little cold) by John the Baptist

Then a stop at Hereford Cathedral:





After visiting the cathedral, which didn't take too long, we had lunch down the street at ASK, a chain Italian restaurant. We used to eat at ASK in Oxford regularly, so it was friendly to be back, and it was good food, too.


We ordered garlic bread and were quite happy when it turned out to be garlic pizza bread. It was seriously good.


I had this very delicious butternut squash and parmesan soup.

For mains, David had chicken marsala and I had spaghetti bolognaise, both of which were good but not worth writing home about. But it appears that I am anyway.

Then it was back out into the countryside to visit another little church and enjoy a lack of people again. This one is called Eardisley and, like Castle Frome, its main claim to fame is its carved baptismal font.


The Eardisley font, with harvest decorations. All the churches we visited had such beautiful decorations of flowers and harvest-related things like wheat and apples.


Warriors


Lion


Jesus pulling souls out of limbo between his death and resurrection

It was nearing dusk by the time we got to our last stop, which wasn't planned but ended up being mostly on the way: Abbey Dore, which we also visited on a whim three years ago. Our last visit (see the bottom of this post) was really memorable because it was almost completely dark out and we couldn't find any lights inside for quite some time, so we did a lot of wandering around in a very large, very dark church by ourselves! This visit wasn't nearly as dramatic, and we were worn out from the long day so didn't stay long, but it was nice to get some photos with a bit more light available.



After driving at least another hour, we spent the night in our cheapest hotel yet, a Premier Inn in the modern outskirts of Gloucester. It wasn't horrible, but it was very small and the carpets felt weirdly damp. We had a sad dinner of sandwiches from the huge Tesco grocery store across a roundabout from the hotel. I was excited to leave the next morning!

Saturday: Gloucester to the Cotswolds

Saturday morning we visited Gloucester Cathedral, which we have visited once before. It's a great cathedral and it's wonderfully friendly to photographers, even in the crypt. It also doesn't have an admission fee or photo permit fee, and the staff are friendly and enthusiastic, all of which made me want to give a whole lot more to the donation boxes than would have been asked for in fees (listen up, stingy other cathedrals!). Hopefully they also get a good fee by being one of the major filming locations of Harry Potter!

It was very cloudy and there was scaffolding on the exterior, so we didn't get any great outside photos, but we had a wonderful time inside. The cathedral was hosting a temporary sculpture exhibition called "Crucible," which meant large pieces of modern art appearing throughout the cathedral. I was a bit bummed about this for interfering with our photos at first, but most of the art was actually pretty interesting and it made kind of a nice contrast to the medieval building.


The nave of Gloucester Cathedral. The white discs, which rotate slowly, are part of the modern sculpture exhibition.


The gorgeous cloister, which appears regularly in the Harry Potter movies.

The ancient crypt can only be visited on a (free) guided tour, so we joined one at 11am. It was led by an old man with a great personality and was quite enjoyable. In addition to talking about the architecture, he spent a lot of time talking about the history of how the cathedral was used when it was part of a monastery in the Middle Ages. He explained that monasteries were primarily "prayer factories" where monks said prayers for people's souls around the clock to help them get out of purgatory earlier, in exchange for donations to the monastery. The crypt is quite large and we had the freedom to wander around and take pictures during the tour, which took about 20 minutes.


Crypt tour guide


Ambulatory (outer aisle) around the crypt


Inner part of the crypt, with modern sculpture


Medieval sculpture in the crypt

Next we headed up to the galleries, which were great fun as well. The galleries overlooking the choir were the largest I've ever seen, and they provided a closer view of the huge stained glass window at the east end of the church.


Gallery


View from gallery

We wandered around Gloucester a bit before leaving town, including a stop at Marks & Spencer for sandwiches. David tried a new one: Wensleydale cheese with carrot chutney. He was quite happy with it.


The sandwich obediently posed for a photo

From Gloucester we headed east to our friendly old stomping grounds in the Cotswolds near Oxford, stopping in the lovely village of Burford. We used to occasionally visit Burford when we lived in Great Milton, mainly for the heavenly brownies available from a bakery on the main street. We were delighted to find that the brownies were still available and as delicious as ever!






When we first arrived, in order to earn our brownie, I took some pictures in the nice parish church while David valiantly located a parking spot - not an easy task in a popular Cotswold village on a Saturday! He then joined me at the church, and we had a fun time searching for an ancient sculpture mentioned in the church booklet. It was not easy to find!





I don't know much about the sculpture, as I haven't had a chance to look it up yet, but the booklet said it's known as "The Three Disgraces" and dates from 160 AD. It wasn't easy to photograph either, because of the bright spotlight shining on it - it tested my skills in manual settings to the limit and David had to step in to get 'er done.

The churchyard is exceptionally peaceful and beautiful, with lots of old tombs, green trees, and a gentle river with ducks that bends right around the church. I think if I ever live in England again, Burford just might be the place. (I had already narrowed it down to the Cotswolds.) I could see myself on that riverside bench with a book pretty easily.






Our stop for the night was a B&B on a farm just outside Abingdon, a historic town south of Oxford. It was a really great place to stay. It's run by the farmer's wife, who is my age or younger - she's a woman of few words but has great taste in decorating and keeps an immaculately clean house. David chatted with her husband out in the fields the next morning - he was also a man of few words, but very nice.



Immediately after checking in, we drove into Oxford for an early dinner at Wagamama (our fav noodle place), which was just about to open when we left in 2007. It was great fun to walk around our familiar old city a bit after dinner.


Chicken ramen at Wagamama


The High Street, Oxford

Back at the B&B, my laptop gave up the ghost and we (especially David) spent the rest of the evening worrying and working on that.

Sunday: Oxford

Sunday morning we had a good breakfast at the farm, then checked out early - but were delayed significantly by the realization that the B&B only accepts cash (the first time we've encountered that). We didn't have quite enough to cover it, so had to drive into Abingdon and do a few circles looking for an elusive ATM, then back out to the farm again.

But eventually we were on our way, and headed for PC World in Oxford to get a new hard drive and a few other things for my computer. David used to shop there quite a lot, and it's a pretty good computer store by UK standards, so I'm glad that at least my computer broke at a convenient time! We found everything we needed quickly, then got to park and start seeing the sights.

And that's where I'll have to end tonight; my eyelids no longer seem willing to stay open. Good night!

Labels: burford, cathedral, england, food, gloucester, herefordshire, oxford