Three Days in Cranbrook

Dan white knuckled the steering wheel as he tried to maneuver his way through the tree-tunneled, one lane roads on these  rolling hills of Kent  to our destination of Cranbrook.    I found myself holding my breath and clenching the seat as we navigated the roundabouts while in reverse sitting positions in our car rental.   It's hard to get used to being a passenger  on the left side of the car where the driver is supposed to be.    I used the imaginary brake several times before we made it to the Millfields House B & B, our place of sleep for three nights.

Roads along the way

Millfields House

Reflections at the end of the day at Millsfield House

B & B

Bodiam

Our first day out of Cranbrook, we managed to see quite a bit, despite our jetlag.     We almost skipped Bodium Castle because of our crowded agenda, but we're glad we didn't because it turned out to be quite a treasure.   Around 1385, a former knight under Edward II,  Dalyngrigge,  married a woman with lots of land.   Using money he stole from plundering in several battles in France, Dalyngrigge built this spring-fed moated castle more for show than for defense.   

  

A 14th Century Toilet at Bodium

 

The fish in the moat are bigger than the ducks.

 

Knole Manor House

Manor houses around here are quite big and available for touring as well.   Knole Manor is one example of an English Manor house that is bigger than a shopping Mall in Phoenix.    The place comes complete with herds of deer.

 

  Not shy at all

Gardens

One of the truly impressive characteristics of this part of the country is the beautiful manicured gardens.   We visited several including Sissinghurst, Merriment, and the Great Dixter. 

Sissinghurst tower overlooking gardens

Tower in Sissinghurst

Merriment Gardens

 

 

CANTERBURY CATHEDRAL

While the cathedral is certainly impressive from the outside

 

and had some interesting sights inside

It didn't seem nearly as impressive as the cathedrals that we had seen in Germany, so we didn't spend that much time there but moved on.

LEEDS

Leeds Castle, voted one of the best castles in the world, is one of my favorite places so far.   Almost as amazing  as the castle itself, are the surrounding  gardens with lakes, streams, and a little waterfall.    The castle itself has quite a history, but the last owner created a magnificent bird sanctuary on the grounds.   I wish I knew the names of all the beautiful waterfowl we saw. 

Swans in Leeds

  Getting a closer look, I'll have to look up the names of these.

Leeds Castle

Quite the birds!

 Rye

Here's what the tourist guide says about Rye.

"Perched on a hill, overlooking the River Rother and Romney Marsh, this ancient town is the sort of place you thought existed only in your imagination.
With enchanting cobbled streets, medieval church and beautifully preserved historic houses from medieval, Tudor and Georgian times, Rye is almost suspended in time and has a uniquely unhurried atmosphere. Compact enough to discover the key places of interest over a week-end but with plenty of secret treasures to entice you to stay much longer and to return again."

My favorite part was the Lamb House, where Henry James wrote his novels, the cobbled streets, and the historic houses.   Definitely worth the trip.

Rye Pie shop

English Breakfast

Traditionally, the English breakfast is a little different from what we're used to with mushrooms and baked tomatoes to go along with our eggs.    Another tasty treat the English like with their breakfast is baked beans, sometimes alone and sometimes on top of toast.   I'm not there, yet.

Our long day yesterday was complete with a walk to a brasserie near our B & B where we had an amazing pasta dinner.   Now we're off to Winchester.

Over the pond

Well, the flight over was pretty easy.  It was a "sleeper" flight, so there were no meals served or announcements so you could go right to sleep (or try to) and sleep the flight away.  BA business class is pretty good, you've got a seat that fully reclines and you have enough space to lie on your side comfortably.  Still, sleeping on a plane isn't exactly easy, but I think we both managed to get some sleep.  It's 7:20 PM here and I feel pretty good, and have all day.  The plan is to try to get to sleep pretty early so we'll be ready tomorrow.  But it's still very light so I don't know when the sun will go down.

It took us a little bit to get the GPS to work the way we wanted, and even after that we didn't have an actual street address for the B&B (I don't think it has one, it's a 700 year old house (at least the oak foundations) on a little lane.  We kept stopping and asking for directions, and each time got directions to a different place.  I finally remembered that there was a map on the web site that I had printed, so I dug it out of the suitcase and after a few false starts we found the place.  It's quite picturesque and quaint and the room is very comfortable.

 

It is a bit away from Windsor, but since we had a car that wasn't a problem.

Then I discovered that the UK SIM card that I purchased wasn't activated.  After several phone calls I got that straightened out, but by the time I did the main office was closed and I couldn't top it up with my US credit card in the automated system.  So I've still got that hurdle to get by tomorrow.

After we found our B&B, we went to a local pub for lunch.  It wasn't bad, but nothing to write home about (wait, I guess I am writing home about it).

Then it was off to Windsor Castle.

Getting there was pretty easy, finding a place to park, not so much.  But we finally found a lot, parked the car and went off to explore the castle.  Unfortunately by the time we got there, it was only 3 hours to closing, so we had to skip through pretty quickly.  But that was probably a good thing, since after 3 hours we were ready to take a load off anyway.  They don't let you take pictures inside the castle, so I don't have any pictures of the really interesting things like the Queen's Doll House and the State Apartments.  If you've never heard of the Queen's Doll House it really fascinating.  It's a 1/12 replica of the Queen's apartments and everything in it is a real replica, not just a fake.  The sheets on the beds were made by the same people that made the regular sheets, the faucets are hooked up to real hot and cold running water, the books in the library are leather bound and have the actual book contents inscribed in miniature inside (this last one is pretty hard to believe, but the guide swears it's true).  There's even an upright hooker vacuum cleaner that actually works.

So we left the Castle, sat in the Sun for a bit, then had dinner and back to the B&B.  Relaxing for a bit, then off to bed to prepare for tomorrow.

Last Day in the Big Apple

We spent the morning packing, then parked out suitcases and headed down to Chinatown and Little Italy.  Here's where they meet:

The little markets in Chinatown are very strange with very fresh fish

and live frogs (yum!).

After wandering around for a while, we ate lunch at Vincent's and had some incredible lasagna.  Then we hopped on a subway to go back and finish up the Museum of Natural History.  When we got out at the stop I had picked on the map, we discovered that it emptied directly into the Museum.  We spent some more time in the Vertebrate section and then the Human Evolution section.

Then it was back to the hotel, off for a nice Thai dinner (with the best pad thai I've had since leaving Seattle) and then off to JFK to wait for the flight.

The Lady and Ellis Island

Today was visiting the Statue of Liberty and visiting Ellis Island.  First we stopped to see the WTC site, but could really see much.  For some reason they had partitions up to prevent easy viewing.  I did manage to get one picture of the construction site:

Then we walked down to Wall Street where we had to take the tourist shot

Then we grabbed some sandwiches to go and headed down to Battery Park to catch the ferry to Liberty Island and then Ellis Island.  There was a very cool statue in Battery Park commemorating those who died in WWII.

After that it was that most NY of all pastimes, waiting in line

But at least there was entertainment

Then at last we met the Lady

We walked around and then found the line where you could go into the pedestal (they don't let you go up to the crown anymore) and after spending 30 minutes in line, we got to a place where there was a park ranger and she told us that it was at least another hour before we got into the pedestal.  We decided that it wasn't worth the wait, so we took off and stood in another line to get on the ferry to take us over to Ellis Island.

Ellis Island was really fascinating.  They've done a great job of providing information on what it was like to be an immigrant coming through there.  Here are the desks where the immigration clerks would decide your fate.  Clearly you'd prefer Susan to me!

We took one of the last ferries back, then got on the subway to make our way back to the hotel.  After a little rest we went to a nearby Indian restaurant that was really good.  Then on the way back to our hotel, we find that just one block over there is a food festival going on, including a booth from the restaurant we ate at!

Tomorrow is our last day in the city.  We'll spend the morning getting packed for the trip, then we're going to head down to Little Italy for lunch, and then cruise through SoHo.  Then if we have time we might go back to the Museum of Natural History, as we didn't really have time to see everything we wanted the first time.  Then after dinner it'll be off to the airport to catch our flight to London (which doesn't leave until 10:20 PM).  So the next entry should be from somewhere in England!

Rockefeller Center and Moma

We started the day by heading over to Rockefeller Center.  First we just wandered around checking out the art work:

Then we went up to The Top of the Rock, the observation platform at the top of the Rockefeller Center (floor 67!).  It started with an exhibit and movie about when it was built.  John D. Rockefeller Jr. (Daddy made all the money with Standard Oil) leased the land to build a new opera house for the Metropolitan Opera.  But this was in 1929 and the crash happened and the Opera backed out.  Junior decided to go ahead and finance and build the building on his own, in the middle of the depression! 

The views from the top were incredible:

And of course the best view of all

After getting our fill of the view we headed out to Moma (The Museum of Modern Art).  There were Rousseau's

Van Gogh's

Kandinsky's

Picasso's

and these

My favorite, of course, being the painting that was solid black.  Now that takes real skill!

After that we took the subway down to Greenwich Village where we found Washington Square park was being renovated

so we couldn't get to the arch.  Then we headed off to another World Science Festival Lecture, this one called The Laws of Life about what other forms life might take.  We had to leave early so we could eat dinner (back at the Stardust Diner, which unfortunately was booked for a private party, but we went downstairs where the B team was singing) and then off to another play, Avenue Q, which is a musical about Sesame Street like characters, with a slightly more risque nature.  The music and actors were great and we really loved it.  It would be so great to be able to go to plays like the ones we've seen on a regular basis.  Oh well.

Tomorrow it's off to Ellis Island!

The Play and the Met

Went to see November last night with Nathan Lane, and it was great.  The evening was marred somewhat by the fact that sitting in the row in front of us was a woman who's laugh can best be described as a cross between the braying of a donkey and fingernails on a chalkboard.  But to add to the entertainment, across the row from us were a couple, both wearing bright red patent leather shoes (her's of the 6 inch spike with lots of straps variety).  Only in New York!

Today we went to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and it was incredible.  Definitely in the mold of the Louvre and the British Museum.  Everything from ancient Assyrian sculptures

to Van Gogh

After about four hours, we were museum'ed out, so we headed back to the hotel for a break.  Then, just by chance, we went to a place for dinner called the Starlight Diner.  It was your basic diner, but all the wait staff were actors/singers who performed.  And they were incredible!  It really makes you understand what the competition is like if people with voices and stage presence like these were waiting tables.  You wouldn't have been surprised to see any of them in a Broadway play.

After dinner we headed down to NYU to hear a lecture that was part of the World Science Festival.  This one was titled What Does It Mean To Be Human?  There were 12 panelists and Charlie Rose was the moderator.  I was familiar with two of the panelists, computer scientist Marvin Minsky and philosopher Daniel Dennett.  It was a really interesting discussion about what it means to be human spanning computer science, philosophy, neuroanatomy, genomics, sociology, embryology and more.  It ran about 20 minutes over, and we were sad it had to end there.

It really makes us wish that we lived somewhere where these types of activity were available all the time.