Stonehenge... and more henges... and more stones

It is funny that, as many time as my parents have visited to UK, they have never visit the Stonehenge. They certainly know about 'those' stones. Since even my much-less-well-travelled brother visited those stones earlier this year, they decide it is a must-see for this trip.

The Stonehenge is probably one of the most recognise piles of stone in Britain, and possibly in Europe. Archaeologists have agreed that Stonehenge was built in four distinct phases, with the first phase began at around 3200BC. This is what I call antiquity!

A lot of people have heard about the Stonehenge, and it has become a very touristy spot, with a big carpark opposite the road and layers of fences around it.

But little do they know that there is a Woodhenge not far from the Stonehenge.


(Source: http://www.themodernantiquarian.com/img_fullsize/16119.jpg)

Woodhenge is supposed to be much older than Stonehenge. The monument consisted of concentric rings of tall wooden posts over a circle with a diameter of 520 meters. It is approximately aligned to the Midsummer sunrise and it must have been an impressive sight! The wooden posts have long since disappeared and rings of concrete markers now mark where the posts would have originally stood.

In addition to the Woodhenge, the Avebury Henge and Stone Circle at the Avebury village is also worth seeing. It is four times the size of the site at Stonehenge and it certainly has more stones to it!


(Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avebury_stone_circle)

The main feature at Avebury is a huge stone circle (the Outer Circle), which is some 421 meters in diameter. Surrounding the Outer Circle is a ditch and bank which is close to a mile in circumference forming a henge. Within the Outer Circle are two Inner Circles, Northern and Southern.

Unfortunately, only 27 stones of the Outer Circle are 'original' and even then, many of these are re-erected in the 1930s. Most of the damage to the site has been done within the last 500 years. During the early Middle Ages, the church attempted to purge the area of pagan beliefs by persuading locals to pull down the 'devil's work' and bury the stones. This practice came to an abrupt halt when one of the stones toppled over killing a barber surgeon. His skeleton was discovered under one of the stones on the southern side of the main circle when stones were being re-erected earlier this century. More destruction came during the 18th century when local farmers took to toppling and breaking up the stones to make way for agricultural land and to use the stones as building material for the village of Avebury and local farm buildings. It's a shame but I guess that's just part of the history.

The White Horse

We decided to take my parents to the Stonehenge. As we heads to Stonehenge, we saw on our map a few signs which screamed "tourist attractions". A few of them are the infamous White Horses. SP read about these figures of White Horses ages ago and he believed it was antiquity. So we thought it was 'worth seeing'.

The first White Horse (the Cherhill White Horse) we saw wasn't very impressive, as we could only view it from a distance. So we picked another one from the brochure and head for the oldest, and one of the more accessible White Horse - the Westbury White Horse.

The Westbury White Horse is supposed to be one of the best situated, being high on a very steep slope and offering a panoramic view of the surroundings.


The Westbury White Horse

It is situated underneath Bratton Castle, an Iron Age hill fort.

Some people actually suggested that the horse was an ancient figure created in 878, possibly to commemorate the battle of Ethandun, in which King Alfred fought off Viking invaders. However, there is no evidence to suggest that the battle took place in the area or that the original horse is this old. So what SP read was only speculation.

Anyway, the white horse is known on the site for at least three hundred years so while it's not exactly antiquity, it is still worth seeing. As you can see from the photo, the horse looks like a normal horse 'standing' on the hill. But the horse hasn't always look like this. Instead, it looked more like this:

(Source: http://wiltshirewhitehorses.org.uk/images/oldwesmaphorse.jpg)

In 1778, a guy named George Gee decided that the old version wasn't a good representation of the horse so he re-cut it to form the basis of the present day design.

And in the early twentieth century, someone decided to add concrete to hold the edging stone in place. The decision to concrete it over was made to stop the chalk surface of the horse, which rests on a steep slope, from crumbling away. One 'good' idea follow by the next, in the 1950s, it was decided that it would do good to the maintenance budget to paint the figure in white. The concreting was again repeated in 1995, giving us the now-a-day Westbury White Horse.

My thoughts? As we had towards to the horse, the wind grew much stronger and I almost got blown off the hilltop (serious!). Even then, I braved the wind and I was rewarded with an unoriginal, not-old-nor-new, painted and concrete horse?

You may say, the view must be great from the hill top. Yes, it was, except that there is this massive chimney of a local cement works right in the middle of my wonderful view.

Life is full of irony.

Spring in Cotswold!

My parents have decided to visit me for a couple of weeks. And despite having exam preparation commitment, I've decided to take them over to Cotswold for a long weekend trip. (Actually, my dad declares that exams are immaterial once I've started working full-time. He seemed to be encouraging me NOT to study!)

Anyway, SP and I visited Cotswold on our first trip to England enjoyed it very much. It is a relaxing place, with picturesque cottages, gentle hills, valleys and rivers. According to Wiki, "The Cotswolds lie within the current ceremonial counties of Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire, Wiltshire, Somerset, Warwickshire, and Worcestershire. The county of Gloucestershire forms the largest area of the Cotswolds." and it is only a 2-hours drive away from London.



Map of Cotswold (Source: http://www.cotswoldreview.co.uk/images/Cotswold%20Map_36.jpg)

My parent's flight arrived on Saturday afternoon so we need to head straight to Cotswold as soon as we've dropped off Valerie and the luggage at my place. For those who don't know my parents, they treasure every opportunity to travel so jet lag was not a concern to them and this is not case of 'parent-abuse'!

After a few hours in the London and Oxford traffic, we arrived at our B&B at around 8:30pm. The property is a sweet place. We didn't get a room in the cottage as we booked too late. But we had a cabin all to ourselves and it was not too bad.

It was quite late and most places have stopped serving food. We went into the village and a restaurant was kind enough was kind enough to accommodate us. We had a nice dinner. The gents had a nice piece of beef. My mother has a yummy fish dish and my duck dish was also very tasty. With our tummies filled, we returned to the B&B and had a good (not-so-good for some!) night sleep.

Next day, we started our visit at Bourton-on-the-Water. It is one of the prettiest villages in the Cotswold...


My parents and I on the bridge. The sky is still greyish in the morning.

We had a good walk around the village and visited the monthly farmers' market. Not much there we can buy though coz it's all food. We did manage to get some really yummy apple and mango juice though.

Later in the day, the sky started to clear up and we ventured into the nearby villages.


Slaughter (I can't remember whether it's Upper-Slaughter or Lower-Slaughter)

There is a really nice ice-cream bar in this village. (Again, I can't remember whether it's Upper-Slaughter or Lower-Slaughter). The special of the day was blackberry and apple-crumble ice-cream. Very tasty!

Nevertheless, I can somehow sense that my parents are getting bored walking around. When you are visiting villages like those in Cotswold, there is usually no defined itinerary and certainly no 'sights' or landmark per se. Therefore, we decided to find a landmark which looks special. We saw a picture of the Broadway Tower earlier in the morning so we thought we would go there via Stow-on-the-Wold.

Stow-on-the-Wold is where we stayed last time. It was a small village with a good pub at the Royalist Hotel. The brasserie of the hotel was also excellent. We intended to visit it again for that night. However, in the morning, our fellow B&Bers claimed that the food for this particular weekend was awful and his wife had to send the food back. They also had a positive dining experience last time they visited. So, we decided to stay away from the brasserie this time and asked our host to recommend a different restaurant. More on that later. Anyway, this time, when drove past Stow-on-the-Wold, we found that it has become much more commercialised. They even built a giant Tesco complex just outside the Town Centre. It was a bit disappointing. Even though the Tesco is built in a country house-style (a giant country-house, I must add), it has truly damaged the fairy-tale like beauty of the village.

Broadway Tower, at 1024 feet (312m) above sea level, is the second highest point on the Cotswold region. You can, apparently, see across the Severn Valley and as far as the Welsh Mountains on a clear day, .


SP and I at the Broadway Towers

That evening, we went to the restaurant at the Mousetrap Inn as recommended by our host. Our entrees were all yummy. Unfortunately, everyone except me had wonderful main course. My Wild Mushroom Risotto turned out to be more risotto than mushrooms (I can't even see the mushrooms!). And I can barely taste any flavour in my dish. For the rest of the night, I was thinking , "The lamb that the lady on the next table ordered looked very yummy. I should have ordered lamb" O well :(

For the next day, we know we have to move quickly out of the villages to avoid more boredom on my parents' side. So we quickly visited the Arlington Row at Bibury.


Picture at Bibury. Sorry, I didn't pick our picture of the Arlington Row.

On the way back to the car, we took a different route and saw an old lady feeding the ducks by the river. We stopped and had a chat to her. Then she offered us bread for feeding. She got ten loaves of bread to feed them (the bread look new to me)!


Some ducks jumped up and took food straight from my hands!


But some of the smarter ones seem to be able to sense that I ate one of their fellow members just two days ago! I love ducks. Both alive and on a plate :)

After Bibury, we left the Cotswold region to search for real 'sight'..........

(to be continued)


More information:
Whiteshoots Cottage - Our B&B
http://www.whiteshoots.co.uk/

Eagle and Child, the brasserie at the Royalist Hotel
http://www.theroyalisthotel.com/hotel-eagle.htm

Broadway Tower
http://www.broadwaytower.co.uk/

Mousetrap Inn
http://www.mousetrap-inn.co.uk

A map of regional expressions in Aussie English

http://www.abc.net.au/wordmap/search_map.htm

This link provides information about Aussie English by region. Quite interesting.

Valerie has made it to London

She arrived in London on Saturday!

The Paddington Bear

For those who are not in the know, my job involves a fair bit of travelling and I have become a heavy user of the English railway system.

So far, I've been on trains out of Euston, Kings' Cross/St Pancras, Waterloo and Paddington. (only London Bridge, Liverpool Street, Charring Cross, Cannon Street and Victoria to go! hahaha)

London Paddington Station

And these days, I'm going to the Paddington train station heaps and naturally, I have come across the infamous Paddington Bear. There is even a bronze statue of Paddington on the concourse!

Statue of the Paddington Bear

I've seen the bear many many times. I know him by his duffle cost, the battered hat and occasionally, the wellington boats. However, I don't know the story behind the bear. I didn't even know there is a story behind it all. So I decided to do some research and write a little about this figure.

Paddington Bear is a fictional character in a set of books written by Michael Bond (illustrated by Peggy Fortnum). According to the official website, the Brown family first saw Paddington when they were at the station to pick up their daughter. They spotted "a bear sitting all alone on a suitcase, behind a pile of mail bags, close to the lost property office. There is a note attached to his coat which reads 'Please look after this bear. Thank you.' He has arrived as a stowaway coming from 'deepest, darkest Peru', sent by his Aunt Lucy. He tells them that his Peruvian name is "hard to pronounce", so the Browns decide to call him Paddington. Paddington is then invited to stay with the Brown's at 32 Windsor Gardens near Portobello Road (Notting Hill) and the stories unfold as Paddington explore his life in England."

So, there you go. There is a story behind the bear. It's a little like Winnie-the-Poh is some way. But instead of setting the story in a forest, Paddington is about life in London.

Now, I really want to see whether there is a 32 Windsor Garden in Notting Hill!!

More merchandise!

What I had for lunch yesterday.

I had a craving for raw fish.

And for 6.5 pounds (around AUD$16.5), this is all you get!

I miss the Sydney Fish Market! :P

Beer in Belgium!

I am no expert in beer. SP and his group of friends like to have Belgian beer in Australia. Their favourites appear to be the Leffe range of beer as well as Chimay Grand Cru. (OK. OK. Someone in the group actually like Hoegaarden. He also like chips. But in terms of drinking, I don't think he is really "in the group".)

Anyway, Belgian beer is supposed to be very good. So in addition to my chocolate hunt, SP and I also made every effort to try as many Belgian beer as possible.



From my past experience, beer goes reasonably well with mussels. And during my trip, I found that beer also goes well with beef stew, cold meat, 'cuckoo' (similar to chicken), rabbit. Many dishes are acutally cooked in beer. And according to the locals, it's supposed to go well with rye bread, cheese and even shallot!!

In our 9-day beer tasting effort, we managed to try a fair few beer. Below of some of them (we didn't manage to take a photo of every beer we drank. hehe):


From the Orval Trappist Monastery, one of the 6 remaining Trappist breweries in the world. It is one of our first beer in Belgium. It's slighly fruity and has a dry finish.

We also tried the "Mort Subite" (Sudden Death) A la Mort Subite. Although it was a 'must-try', I'm not particularly used to the sweet/sour taste of that particular beer.


Grimbergen Triple, from an abbey dating from 1100's. It has a crisp, bitter-sweet flavour. It's one of the stronger beer (9%).


Rochefort 8, also a Trappist beer. Rochefort comes in different numbers (They were 6, 7, 8, 9 from memory). I have no idea what they mean. Anyway, it is supposed to be one of the less commercial of the Trappist brewery and it was recommended to us repeatedly.


De Koninck and Kasteel.

The brewery of De Koninck is located in Antwerp and we were told that it's the only brewery in the city. The brewery has been around since 1830's and it is still managed and maintained by the founding family.

Kasteel is a rather sweet beer and it doesn't taste as strong as it really is (11%!!). I thought it was a rather interesting beer.


Gouden Carolus from Mechelen. This particular glass is Gouden Carolus Ambrio, but SP and I has basically tried all their regular line of beer.

We went to Mechelen in search of a brewery tour and the name of that brewery is "The Anchor" (Het Anker). The name of the beer, Gouden Carolus, actually means "Golden Charles", which is related to Emperor Charles V. He grew up in Mechelen at the court of his aunt Margaret of Austria (At the time, Mechelen was the capital of Flanders). He likes this beer so much that he arranged for regular delivery of the beer from Mechelen to Spain for his personal consumption. Even though Spain also produces excellent wine, he once stated that "the daughter of the grain was superior to the blood of the grape".

The beer was fit for an Emperor, so I think it's good enough for me. SP and I arrived at the brewery in the morning. We were directed to the bar and restaurant in the next property straight away. From there, we realised that they only do tour groups via prior bookings. Luckily, they were willing to let us join another English-speaking tour group at 7pm.

The tour was quite interesting. It is the my first time in a functioning brewery. After the tour, we went back to the bar and restaurant next door (which is a seperate business entity) to buy some beer . That's when the fun starts.

Initially, we just wanted to make our purchase and go, as it was close to around 8:30pm and we need to head back to Brussels. Then, the person-in-charge swiftly gave us each a glass of beer. And soon enough, we were chatting away. Our group got slightly bigger and with lively conversation, the beer tap continue to flow.

....We had glasses and glasses of Gouden Carolus Classic, Gouden Carolus Ambrios, Gouden Carolus Triple, Blusser, random liquor, more beer....

We had sooooo much fun that in the end, we decided to catch the last train back to Brussels!!! (Thank you Mr L for our express ride to the train station!) We didn't get to visit Brussels north that night, but I personally think that the night at Mechelen was the greatest night I've had in Belgium! :)

Our regrets: there was one beer which we both want to try but was not available. It's the Cuvee van de Keizer (Grand Cru for the King). It's made on the day of Emperor Charles V birthday (Feb) every year. Sadly, the bar has ran out of stock. I guess it leaves an excuse for us to return! hehehe


For more information:

Orval Trappist Brewery
http://www.orval.be


Het Naker
http://www.hetanker.be/