rootless

A land of legend and fairy tales; where the princess is rescued and lives happily ever-after with her knight in shining armor after she kisses the frog who pulls the sword from the stone and slays the dragon.  The country the U.S. fought to gain its independence but with whom strong bonds of blood and alliance overshadow any differences which may arise.  It is great to be in Great Britain.

We start with London.  We have actually been to London several times, but we had never taken a river cruise on the Thames.  Gotta love those night cruises.
    

 

London is so full of history and incredible sites that it is easy to get stuck there and never see any other part of the England.   But even though it comprises only a small fraction of the earth’s land mass, Great Britain oozes history.  Perhaps it is just because it is easy to relate to stories told in your native tongue or to be interested in the truth that conceived the tales read to us by our mothers when we are children, but at every turn this country has preserved the evidence of its past.  

The complexities of the human drama that has laid the foundation for what so many of us have turned out to be with our particular set of preferences and morés are here in abundance.  And within many of us lives the very DNA that composed and compelled Kings, Queens, traitors and peasants to weave the trail of events that has culminated in the world we know today.  All of this history is still very alive all over the British isles and it was almost like going home to visit the places that make up so much of our heritage and see with our own eyes the actual spots where all these stories happened.

In Cambridge the venerated halls of higher education line the streets and echo with the words that shaped generations of attitudes and understanding.

 

 

King’s College

Visitors are warned to NOT walk on the grass, but senior members of the college and their guest ARE permitted to walk on the grass.  Ahh the privileges of the upper class.

 

 Corpus Christi College

There were no signs regarding the availability of promenading upon this checkerboard lawn.  However, who would dare trod this perfect pattern?

 

 

And of course, college life cannot be entirely spent inside the classrooms or walking (or not) upon the lawns.  One may also enjoy the thrill of youth by punting upon the river Cam.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then north to York we go.  

 

This ancient and beautiful little city has been the site of several millennia of political activities.  Once conquered by Constantine, it served as the capital of “Britannia Inferior” for the occupying Romans.  Later the Vikings came, left and so on and so forth.  Today the  almost 200,000 population lives a modern life in the midst of the reminders of its past.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The old heart of the city hosts thousands of tourists in an area called The Shambles.  Narrow old streets house trendy boutiques,  cafes and the odd serf or two (perhaps the Dork(s) of York??).

And what once had been a Catholic church, The York Minster is now the cathedral of the York Diocese of the Church of England.

Just a touch north of York, one comes across Heddon on the Wall; a small community which runs along a portion of Hadrian’s Wall that is still intact.

We get only the most minimum of a taste of English history in our visit to the eastern part of the country.   Even at that, the amount of historically significant events that had occurred in this region is almost overwhelming and the brevity of own lives looms ever more poignant.

Posted on December 16th, 2009 by dianagene
Filed under: Europe Trip