Revisiting England - A Preview

We are home from a 3-week trip to England and I have not completely made the transition from London to Asheville.  England is a place I have visited often since 1966 when I was an exchange student living with a family and studying British literature.  It was then I fell in love with “all things” British – a passion I’ve carried throughout my life.  I wish I had kept track of how many times I’ve been back to England over the years…a dozen or more at least…

My last visit was 8 years ago. Anticipating this trip, I wondered if I’d feel the same connection to England I’d always had. The answer is yes!  I will always be an Anglophile and yet this trip I was nostalgic for  “how things used to be” before globalization, mass media and communication that has brought a sameness to the developed countries in the world… even England. I miss the Britain of 40 or 50 years ago without the chain stores, fast food places, traffic, and people focussed on their cell phone screens.  But looking to the essence of what really draws me to England, I realized that it is my British friends, whom I have become as close to as family.

 British friends 

Jenny and David

• ·      Daytime drives, hikes, morning coffee, lunches, and teas with Jenny (my “English sister”) and husband David
• ·      Sunday lunch with Jenny’s son John, daughter-in-law Fiona and grandchildren – Ben, Emily, and Sam.
• ·      Marilyn Mann,  friend from Paraguay days, whom I had not seen since visiting in Hong Kong in the early 1990's
• ·      A weekend trip to Devon to see Josephine, our Filipina cook, and her British husband Peter, and sons Charlie and Josh (now 10 and 14).
• ·      Dinner at the Old Vic with Joanne Howarth, British actress, and newly added friend whom we hosted in Asheville 2 years ago.

Where We Stayed

View from the flat

20 Palace Road SW London

The Globe B & B in Topsham

• ·      Marilyn and Mike’s 8^th floor luxury London flat next to Victoria Station at 20 Palace Road SW…complete with 24-hour Concierge services
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• ·      Picture window views of the London Eye, Westminster Abbey, the Houses of Parliament, office buildings along the Thames, from the living room, kitchen, and bed
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•  Two nights at The Globe B & B in Topsham, Exeter, Devon – weekend visit with Jo and 

What We Did

Blenheim Palace

Hike along Sussex Coast - Seven Sisters

"King Lear" at the Old Vic

Sunday lunch with Jenny's family

Walk along Devon Coast in Burleigh with Jo, Charlie & Peter

Cream tea at the Savoy Palace Hotel

• ·      Walks from the flat through St. James Park, past the Royal Guards, to the Mall, Whitehall and Trafalgar Square.
• ·      Tour of the Wallace Collection Museum, and lunch in the glassed-in courtyard  with Marilyn
• ·      Lunch with Marilyn, Laura and boyfriend Stuart at The Black Lion pub in Hammersmith followed by long walk down the Embankment…rowers in training on the Thames River and brisk fall winds…
• ·      National Portrait Gallery, lunch in the Crypt at St. Martin in the Field’s Church and free classical music concert in the sanctuary
• ·      Theater – “Book of Mormon” (laughed till I cried), “Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night “(brilliant and creative staging), and” King Lear “(in modern dress) with Glenda Jackson at the Old Vic
• ·      Day trips into Kent and Sussex with Jenny and David – Lewes, walk to the Seven Sisters white cliffs along the coast, lunch at Badger’s Tea House in Alfriston in the Cuckmere Valley in Sussex, and afternoon visit to Monk House (country home of Virginia Woolf)
• ·      Hike with Jenny and David from Chartwell  (home of Churchill) through woods to Emmet’s Gardens with Fox and Hounds pub lunch – muted fall colors and leaves coming down all around us but no rain…
• ·      Joined the crowds on Oxford Street to brave the sales at Marks & Spencer on a Saturday
• ·      Morning at the Exhibition Hall of the British Library near St. Pancras Station, lunch at the Tate Modern and tea at the Crypt – walking all the way dodging the crowds children on midterm holiday
• ·      Hike with Jenny and David on the grounds of Standen House, East Grinstead in West Sussex (a National Trust property) and hot lunch in the refurbished barn
• ·      Tour of the “Abstract Impressionist” exhibit at the Royal Academy of Arts…all American artists and a timeline history of Impressionism… Lunch in the RAA cafeteria
• ·      Oxford Tube coach from Victoria to Oxford, changing to local double-decker bus and dropped off at the gates of Blenheim Palace (birthplace of Churchill), lunch in the cafeteria at Blenheim and walk through manicured gardens and extensive grounds
• ·      Weekend in Topsham with Friday night fancy dinner at Jo’s house with her family – toasting with champagne and ending with Mango Meringue Roll dessert
• ·      Cake and coffee at St. Margaret’s Anglican Church in Topsham including hymn singing accompanied by the organ (reminded us of Vicar of Dibley TV shows)
• ·      Saturday hike with Jo and Peter at Teign Gorge classic circuit with pub lunch at the Fingle Bridge Inn.  Dinner with the Drews at “L’estuaire”, French restaurant in Topsham
• ·      Sunday morning walk along the seacoast in Budleigh Salterton with Jo, Peter, and Charlie
• ·      Final lavish Cream Tea with Jenny and David at the Savoy Palace Hotel on the Strand in London

Unexpected Surprises

• ·      No rain in 3 weeks
• ·     Remembering geography of London
• ·      Fellow passengers on the tube and the double-decker buses offered us their seats (are we that old?)
• ·      Thriving bookstores full of affordably priced books
• ·      Popularity of the British Bakeoff on television
• ·      Politeness and civility London

British things I love…

• ·      Use of the English language –“Have a good journey”.  “Mind the gap between the cars.”  “Where is the loo?”  “Walk on the pavement.”  “I think I’ll have a lie down.”  “This, that, and the other…”
• ·      Favorites – McVities Digestive Chocolate Biscuits, Boots Cucumber Face Cream, Marks & Spencer jumpers, Penguin classic books, British greeting cards of all kinds, scones and clotted cream, hot pub lunches with roasted potatoes and Yorkshire pudding
• ·      Bucolic and manicured countryside with grazing sheep, narrow country lanes with high trimmed hedges, quiet untouched villages, country churchyards
• ·      Public transport – punctual trains, top of double-decker buses, London taxis with window separating passenger from driver
• ·      Gift shops museums and National Trust Properties
• ·      Coffee and tea shops