The road goes ever on
Back from the U.K.! Just being back one day, I realise how much I love that country. This entry features a (I don't daresay short) review from the holiday I spent in England with Rob and Niek. We had our headquarters on a camping in the middle of the New Forest, southern England, near a tiny but cosy village called Brockenhurst. A selection of pictures can be found here. This is our story.
Wednesday 15th, July 2009 - Arrival and the good mistake
After the arrival by boat in Dover, England, in the we-have-to-get-used-to-driving-left-process, we missed the first roundabout. Instead of the motorway to the west, we ended up a more northern road. But it was a good mistake indeed, as we decided to pay a visit to the medieval city of Canterbury, with its magnificent cathedral. After a lunch and a walkabout through the cosy and ancient town centre, we headed for our final destination. The cathedral itself was cloed for visitors, as the local university held its graduate ceremony up there; the entire city was crowded with fellows and students in their traditional black robes. Three hours later, we arrived at our campsite in the heart of the New Forest. I’ve actually never seen such a beautiful spacy camping. The ponies and donkeys may roam freely up here, so sweet.
The view out of our tent. Nice, isn't it?
Thursday 16th, July 2009 - Southampton and the Half-Blood Prince
After a good night of sleep, a lunch and quite a few (card) games, we headed for Southampton. Not in particular to visit the city, as well as to watch the new Harry Potter movie in the local cinema. Southampton itself is nothing really special, the only thing worth mentioning is the great park, right in the town centre. Here we held a nice picnic before heading for the cinema. By the way, they do have one of those awesome Waterstone’s bookstores, where I bought the complete Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes in cintage classic edition. I love it. After eating a pizza in an Italian bar next to the cinema - where all the personnel was dressed in Harry Potter costumes, brilliant! - we watched the new Harry Potter movie. It’s really awesome!
Friday 16th, July 2009 - Games and Prejudice
The continuing rain forced us to spend the entire day in our tent. If you might be interested in an analysis of playing hearts, ‘Risk’ or ‘Kolonisten van Catan’, please contact me.
Saturday 17th, July 2009 - We good tourists
If you happen to visit south England, you inevitably come across the greatest tourist attraction of them all. By some mysterious means, for some mysterious purpose, some folks in the Iron Age decided to put some stones in a neat circle on a hill near Amesbury. Yup, I am indeed talking about Stonehenge. I assure you those stones are still there. On the way back, we paid a visit to Salisbury, a quite unknown but beautiful city, residence of the highest cathedral of England. Waterstone’s is also present up here.
Stonehenge. I like this particular photo of mine, and added a bit of contrast. Spooky...
Sunday 18th, July 2009 - Heaven of academics and book readers
Oxford. How I love this city. Being a student myself, Oxford is like a heaven for me. Not only the magnificent (more than) five-centuries-old colleges like the famous Christchurch and Magdalen College which are still in use (and how! Oxford is still the world’s leading university), but also the numerous alleyways and bookshops. We visited the official Oxford book shop, where they have all Oxford publications and books and… Blackwell’s. Remember that name. They claim to be the largest bookshop in the entire world. And I do believe them: ‘No matter the subject, we’ve got it covered’. We spent two hours here, and of course not left without a few books. I scored a facsimile of Lewis’ handwritten first manuscript of Alice’s Adventure Under Ground. At the end of the day, we ate at ‘The Chequers’, a 500-years-old pub. For me, this was the coolest day of our holiday by far. How awesome would it be to study here for a year or so?
Christchurch College, in the very centre of Oxford. For a while, you even foget you're in a large city.
Monday 19th, July 2009 - The end of the beginning
Time to pack our bags and leave this country. After saying goodbye to ‘Two-teeth’ Ted, the campsite owner, we started on our coastal travel to Dover. We made a stop in Brighton (again a book store, this time one with antique books, where I bought a really, really old edition of Dickens’ Nicholas Nickleby for just 2 Pound!) and Rye (picturesque harbor village where we ate fish ‘nd chips) before stepping on the boat. Bye bye England. Hope to see you soon. Really soon.
England ánd France as seen from the boat by dusk
Wednesday 15th, July 2009 - Arrival and the good mistake
After the arrival by boat in Dover, England, in the we-have-to-get-used-to-driving-left-process, we missed the first roundabout. Instead of the motorway to the west, we ended up a more northern road. But it was a good mistake indeed, as we decided to pay a visit to the medieval city of Canterbury, with its magnificent cathedral. After a lunch and a walkabout through the cosy and ancient town centre, we headed for our final destination. The cathedral itself was cloed for visitors, as the local university held its graduate ceremony up there; the entire city was crowded with fellows and students in their traditional black robes. Three hours later, we arrived at our campsite in the heart of the New Forest. I’ve actually never seen such a beautiful spacy camping. The ponies and donkeys may roam freely up here, so sweet.
The view out of our tent. Nice, isn't it?
Thursday 16th, July 2009 - Southampton and the Half-Blood Prince
After a good night of sleep, a lunch and quite a few (card) games, we headed for Southampton. Not in particular to visit the city, as well as to watch the new Harry Potter movie in the local cinema. Southampton itself is nothing really special, the only thing worth mentioning is the great park, right in the town centre. Here we held a nice picnic before heading for the cinema. By the way, they do have one of those awesome Waterstone’s bookstores, where I bought the complete Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes in cintage classic edition. I love it. After eating a pizza in an Italian bar next to the cinema - where all the personnel was dressed in Harry Potter costumes, brilliant! - we watched the new Harry Potter movie. It’s really awesome!
Friday 16th, July 2009 - Games and Prejudice
The continuing rain forced us to spend the entire day in our tent. If you might be interested in an analysis of playing hearts, ‘Risk’ or ‘Kolonisten van Catan’, please contact me.
Saturday 17th, July 2009 - We good tourists
If you happen to visit south England, you inevitably come across the greatest tourist attraction of them all. By some mysterious means, for some mysterious purpose, some folks in the Iron Age decided to put some stones in a neat circle on a hill near Amesbury. Yup, I am indeed talking about Stonehenge. I assure you those stones are still there. On the way back, we paid a visit to Salisbury, a quite unknown but beautiful city, residence of the highest cathedral of England. Waterstone’s is also present up here.
Stonehenge. I like this particular photo of mine, and added a bit of contrast. Spooky...
Sunday 18th, July 2009 - Heaven of academics and book readers
Oxford. How I love this city. Being a student myself, Oxford is like a heaven for me. Not only the magnificent (more than) five-centuries-old colleges like the famous Christchurch and Magdalen College which are still in use (and how! Oxford is still the world’s leading university), but also the numerous alleyways and bookshops. We visited the official Oxford book shop, where they have all Oxford publications and books and… Blackwell’s. Remember that name. They claim to be the largest bookshop in the entire world. And I do believe them: ‘No matter the subject, we’ve got it covered’. We spent two hours here, and of course not left without a few books. I scored a facsimile of Lewis’ handwritten first manuscript of Alice’s Adventure Under Ground. At the end of the day, we ate at ‘The Chequers’, a 500-years-old pub. For me, this was the coolest day of our holiday by far. How awesome would it be to study here for a year or so?
Christchurch College, in the very centre of Oxford. For a while, you even foget you're in a large city.
Monday 19th, July 2009 - The end of the beginning
Time to pack our bags and leave this country. After saying goodbye to ‘Two-teeth’ Ted, the campsite owner, we started on our coastal travel to Dover. We made a stop in Brighton (again a book store, this time one with antique books, where I bought a really, really old edition of Dickens’ Nicholas Nickleby for just 2 Pound!) and Rye (picturesque harbor village where we ate fish ‘nd chips) before stepping on the boat. Bye bye England. Hope to see you soon. Really soon.
England ánd France as seen from the boat by dusk