Around Great Britain in 11 days

Last week, Florence and I took a rapid tour of universities in Great Britain. The tour ranged in geography from the north of Scotland (Aberdeen) to southwestern England, and from Durham in the east to Cardiff in the west. Within 11 days (including the travel days), we saw nine universities!

Kings College Church,
with the Gibb building to the right
(designed by James's great great nth grandfather)

Rear gate of King's College

We saw so many sights, it is really hard to recap. Sadly, the blog program did not work on the ipad, or we would have written daily. Here is my attempt.

View of Gibb building from other side

Day one, we flew from Perugia to London, where our friends Ann and James picked us up and whisked us to Cambridge. We wandered around (including going into King's College, where James is an alumnus; we got to see the marvelous church where the choir records its heavenly music!), had a lovely tea (much anticipated, since lunch had been a no-go), and just got a general feel for the place. I loved its hushed atmosphere of deep quiet and study, and Florence liked the river!

Matthew's college

Cream tea, channeling Alice!

Bridge of Sighs, wanting to be Venice!

Oxford was next. Much more of a proper town with the colleges interspersed, it felt generally busier. This is where Dodgson had tea with Alice (yes, the one for whom Alice in Wonderland was written), and we three (Florence, Ann, and I) had tea in the exact same spot! The pub was torn down and then another rebuilt, but we did get to see the view they would have had. We had the chance to see Matthew's college (Ann and James's son), which was really lovely: ancient walls, hushed courtyard, and some modern architecture sneaked into the middle to provide extra space).

Royal Holloway

Then Royal Holloway. Florence and I had lunch in the Monkey's Forehead (which troubled me, since it was named in actuality the "Monkeys Forehead"). The original building is a Victorian splendor or horror, depending on your taste. We had the chance of an official tour, plus a meeting with one of the professors.

Clock Tower, Royal Holloway

My waking view!

Maths and other buildings, Warwick

Saturday, we woke up to snow and wondered how we would be able to get back! Warwick, a very modern campus built in the 1960s, had an open day that day, and we really didn't want to miss it.  It included a tour and the chance to talk to some of the students on campus. Situated in Coventry, it is more dispersed than I expected, and really felt like an American campus. Ann is a professor there, so she was kind enough to drive us there and tell us a bit about the university life and the students.

New library, Aberdeen

Main quad, Aberdeen

Alley, Aberdeen

Streetscape, Aberdeen

Sunday meant a flight up to Aberdeen, then a stay in the Station Hotel. The next morning, and we were on campus. Mostly a granite-block campus (the university was started in 1495 or something), it has the most beautiful modern library. We received a really warm welcome there: had meetings with one of the professors, had a personal campus tour, AND met with an admissions officer. We were really impressed by how kind everyone was to us, from the university officials to the shopkeepers.

View from train

Local train station

It was actually Caribbean green

Someone was eating haggis-flavored potato chips!

Monday afternoon, we took a gorgeous train ride down the coast...
through Edinburgh (near the Firth of Forth!), down and around into England, and ending in Durham.

Stained glass! Flowers!

Highly detailed floor

The whole thing is about 3.5 feet tall

In real life!

A night in a B&B (which offered a delicious, full breakfast...enough to keep us going until tea time!), then the next morning off to Durham University! The cathedral is really lovely, and they are currently involved in a fundraiser: for one pound, you can purchase a Lego brick to add to the model of the cathedral they are creating! Unfortunately, I didn't realize that they were closing until it was too late, so I didn't get to add anything to it.

The "Norman" keep actually dates to
the Victorian period!

Castle College

On the green outside Durham Cathedral

Off to the airport in Newcastle, and a flight to Bristol came next. Night in the Bristol hotel, then the next morning off in the rental car to the University of Exeter! We had a meeting scheduled with an admissions tutor, who then invited us to attend his speech and a presentation by current students that were part of the "Offer Holders' Open Day." This was a day designed to help those who had been accepted to the school decide between Exeter and any of the other universities which had accepted them.

Tea and dinner with my cousin Paula and her family! It was great to see how big Archie, Felix, and Daisy are becoming and to spend some time with Paula's husband, Chris. We really don't get to see them often enough, and are thrilled that Paula and the kids will be coming for a visit in just a few weeks! We're already making plans for fun things to do with them.

Next morning, University of Bath. On the way, there had been an accident: overturned tractor trailer! Luckily, everyone seemed okay, but there were a host of people herding sweet pink pigs towards an enclosure! Florence and I had a little giggle just because the pigs were so adorable. Having no appointment at the university, we mostly drove around the campus, and then went to visit the Roman baths after which the city was named. We also wanted to visit the Wookey Hole cheddar caves on the way back. What a great name, right? As it happened, it looked like a total tourist trap (and a local we stopped said that it was, in fact)...but the town was cute. One of these days, I WILL visit some of the cheddar caves; but it was not to be this time!

Another tea and dinner with Paula et al. and the next morning (after a bit of time with Paula and Chris after the kids had gone to school) it was time to sally forth to Wales. Phew!

The suspension bridge between England and Wales is really lovely, and Cardiff Castle was a lot of fun. Originally founded during Roman times as a fort, the castle itself was most lately added onto and duded up by one of the owners in the 19th century. A confection of Gothic Revival, it is simultaneously tremendously overdone and lovely.

View from the keep

View of the keep

Dining room

Bedroom, complete with mirrored ceiling

I loved the frog detailing in the clock tower

 The university itself has no real campus (it is very much a city university), but has a really nice location near the Sophia Gardens. We were very impressed with the extent of that facility. Since Florence wasn't feeling well (coming down with a cold), we needed to get to the hotel. So off we went!  Quick pub dinner, then bed.

Dining room

Ensuite bath with flush toilet

Nursery with story frieze

Arab Room floor

Ceiling of clock tower smoking room

Rooftop garden...originally intended as
a bath, but the water weight would have
been too much

Fireplace in one of the studies

Ceiling of Arab Room

The marble in the door was all
different types, each with its
provenance identified

The last day involved a driving tour of southeastern Wales. We went up to Abergavenny, then across to Monmouth, then down past Chepstow. Tintern Abbey was breathtaking: I had to turn in quickly (to an admittedly justified blaring of horns from the driver behind me) just to get a photo. Gorgeous! And then to the airport and home, utterly exhausted.

Tintern Abbey

Love,
Alexandra