September 2019

Trafalgar Square commemorates the Battle of Trafalgar, a British naval victory in the Napoleonic Wars over France and Spain that took place on October 21, 1805 and was led by Admiral Horatio Nelson

The Roman Wall around London was built in the late 2nd or early 3rd century and was 2 mi long enclosing an area of about 330 acres; it was 2.5 m to 3 m wide and up to 6 m high

We took an entertaining guided tour of Shakespeare's Globe Theater; the replica is built half-timbered and with a thatch roof as it was in Shakespeare's time

The Banqueting House was the only part of Whitehall Palace to survive the fires of the 1690s; Charles I was beheaded here in this first major classical building to be built in England in the Italian Palladian style

Gutenberg Bible, 1545; the British Library has the sole surviving manuscript copy of the poem Beowulf and the original manuscript of Handel's Messiah

This Enigma encoding machine was used by the Germans during the battle for France during June 1940; Churchill was 65 years old when he was elected Prime Minister and, despite lots of drinking and smoking, lived to be 90

The HMS Belfast was a Royal Navy warship that took part in the D-Day invasion; at 215 miles, the River Thames is the longest river entirely within England

Leadenhall Market is one of the oldest in London, dating from the 14th century; the ornate roof structure, painted green, maroon and cream, and cobbled floors of the current structure, designed in 1881, make it a popular tourist attraction

Since the coronation of William the Conqueror in 1066, all coronations of British monarchs have been in Westminster Abbey; we ran into Don Obenrader and Craig Dietz here!

St. Stephen's Hall at the Houses of Parliament was one of only two rooms where we could take photos; the House of Lords had very opulent rooms while the House of Commons was more practical

Shakespeare's Collected Poems, 1640; the British Library is the largest national library in the world by number of items cataloged with an estimated 200 million+ items

The Jewel Tower is a 14th-century surviving element of the Palace of Westminster; we went inside to see the artifacts but there really wasn't much to see

Cutty Sark was the world's last operating clipper ship; launched in 1869, Cutty Sark was among the fastest clippers ever built

The Queen's Gallery at Buckingham Palace had a special exhibition of 200 drawings by Leonardo da Vinci; all of the drawings were originally in this album

Having recently read Isaacson's biography of Da Vinci, many of the drawings I had seen in the book; you had to have a timed ticket for admission even though it's covered by the London Pass

Moccasins worn by Florence Nightingale, on display at the Wellcome Collection; after the Crimean War, Nightingale returned to England where she established the first training school for nurses

The visible remains of a 2nd century Roman amphitheater lie beneath the Guildhall Art Gallery; the ruins were discovered in 1988 during the building of the art gallery and builders decided to leave the ruins where they were

This copy of the Magna Carta at the Guildhall Art Gallery is widely regarded as one of the finest surviving 13th-century copies; this document is thought to have influenced the framers of the Declaration of Independence

The Tower of St. Elsyng Spital was built in 1330 as a refuge for blind beggars, paralyzed priests and, if space was still available, for beggars who wandered about the city

The Book of Common Prayer, 1717; the print is so tiny in this book that I don't see how anyone could read it; this was displayed at the free City of London Museum

There were 22 towers spaced about 210 feet apart on the Roman Wall; during the Great Fire of London in September 1666, almost all of the medieval City of London inside the wall was destroyed

I don't think Liverpool would be the big tourist destination it is today were it not for the Beatles; musicians from the city have produced 56 No. 1 singles, more than any other city in the world

The Royal Liver Building, opened in 1911, was one of the first buildings in the world to use reinforced concrete; it was the largest building (it's very deep) in Europe until the mid-thirties

Liverpool Town Hall (1754); the population of the city went from 78,000 in 1801 to 855,000 in 1931 then down to 440,000 in 2001

Bluecoat Chambers is the oldest surviving building in central Liverpool, dating from 1716; originally a boarding school, the building was later bought by English industrialist William Lever who founded Lever Bros and later Unilever

Painting to Hammer a Nail, Yoko Ono, 1966; Ono specialized in conceptual art and listening to her describe her work left me just as clueless as when I started

Liverpool Mountain, Ugo Rondinone, 2018; the Maritime Museum and Slavery Museum both had lots of exhibits but they were static when video would have been helpful

0 through 9, Jasper Johns, 1961; the Tate Liverpool focused mainly on modern art and had a special Keith Haring exhibition

The Beatles Story replicated the Cavern Club where the group first found stardom; fans, wedged into the small club which was hot and smoky, described the experience as euphoric

The Museum of Liverpool, opened in 2011, was my favorite of the many free museums in the city; Liverpool was a European Capital of Culture in 2008

The Beatles got together in 1960 and became the best selling and most influential band of all time; they were collectively included in Time magazine's compilation of the 20th century's 100 most influential people

The Catholic Cathedral seen from the top of the Anglican Cathedral; Liverpool also had the earliest mosque in England (1887)

Case History, John King, 1998; this creative sculpture on Hope Street reflects on the important role transportation has played in the development of the city

The Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral (Catholic) is on one end of Hope Street while the (Anglican) Liverpool Cathedral is at the other end; interestingly, both are modern, cavernous buildings

The Liverpool Central Library (1860); railways, transatlantic steamships, municipal trams and electric trains were all pioneered in Liverpool as modes of mass transit

The circular Picton Reading Room, completed in 1879, at the Liverpool Central Library was the first electrically lit library in the UK; the library was packed on a weekday afternoon with patrons

St. George's Hall (1854); prior to Charles Dickens (who often held readings here) sailing to America a banquet was hosted in the Great Hall for him on the April 10, 1869

Wellington Column (1865); Liverpool is home to the UK's oldest surviving classical orchestra, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as the oldest surviving repertory theater, the Liverpool Playhouse

The original design of the Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral would have made it the second-largest church in the world; it would have had the world's largest dome, with a diameter of 168 feet compared to the 137.7 feet diameter on St. Peter's Basilica

The Lantern Tower of the Liverpool Metropolitan Cathedral contains the world's largest area of colored glass; this modern cathedral, completed in 1967, is strikingly different from the other cathedrals I've seen in the UK

This statue of Eleanor Rigby is dedicated to all the lonely people of Liverpool; it's also an homage to the 1966 number 1 song from the Beatles

Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Rembrandt, 1630; the Walker Art Gallery was one of the many free museums in Liverpool (the city has the second most museums in the UK)

The Albert Dock, in the foreground, is Liverpool's biggest tourist draw attracting 4+ million tourists a year; the docks were built in the 1840s and are now home to a maritime museum, slavery museum, Tate Liverpool and the Beatle's Story

The Liverpool Cathedral is the longest in the world and the largest in the UK; it has the largest bell tower in the world but the Anglican cathedral is relatively new, begun in 1904 and completed in 1973

In addition to the Beatles, Liverpool is known for having 2 of the most successful Premier League soccer teams; Liverpool won the most recent European Cup title

Bottle and Fishes, Braque, 1912, Tate Liverpool; historical temperatures in the city have ranged from 0 (2010) to 95 degrees (2006) with snow being common in winter but heavy snow relatively rare

I can still remember listening to Live Aid and Do They Know It's Christmas? in which pop music rallied behind important social issues; after what happened to the Dixie Chicks, artists are now reluctant to speak up

This is the first time I've seen a street decked out with umbrellas that weren't open; to make matters worse, it was raining!

This 2018 billboard is just staggering; it was part of a John Lennon and Yoko Ono special exhibition at the Museum of Liverpool

The British Invasion was a cultural phenomenon of the mid-1960s but apparently there has been an American invasion too; Liverpool has a higher rate of obesity and lower life expectancy compared to other UK cities

The Liverpool Overhead Railway opened in 1893 and ran the length of the docks; it was the world's first electric elevated railway, the first to use automatic signalling and electric color light signals

Blitzed is an exhibition of 60 rare photographs at the Museum of Liverpool showing the devastation brought to the city during WW2; here the Liverpool Overhead Railway is destroyed

The population of Liverpool rose thanks to its dominant port and, especially during the 1840s, when Irish migrants began arriving by the hundreds of thousands as a result of the Great Famine

Split Decision; Liverpool has roughly 500,000 residents with 2.3 million in the metro area making it the fifth largest city in the UK

The Cunard Building, completed in 1917, is one of the Three Graces lining the Liverpool waterfront; inside I visited the overpriced British Music Experience which was like a glorified Hard Rock Cafe

Liverpool technology influenced the development of American skyscrapers such as the Empire State Building; seen here is the Empire State Building made out of Bayko (like Legos) at the Museum of Liverpool

Lion is one of the world's oldest surviving railroad locomotives; built in 1838, it ran on the first railway line in the world, from Liverpool to Manchester

The Three Graces; Liverpool's growth as a major port was paralleled by the expansion of the city throughout the Industrial Revolution

Composition No. 11, Mondrian, 1920, Tate Liverpool; bands from the city include Dead or Alive, A Flock of Seagulls, Frankie Goes to Hollywood and Echo and the Bunnymen

The British Music Experience was just a superficial glimpse with many big names totally left out; Culture Club had some costumes included but I felt the visit was a waste of money

Liverpool has had a large Chinese population since the first ships from the Orient began docking here in the 1830s; this is the tallest Chinese arch in Europe

The Walker Art Gallery (1877) is home to the John Moores Contemporary Painting Prize, the biggest painting prize in the UK; many past winners were displayed but most I found hideous

Supper at Emmaus, Titian, 1531, Walker Art Gallery; residents of the city of Liverpool are referred to formally as Liverpudlians, but most often as Scousers, a reference to scouse, a form of stew

Amazing atrium at Liverpool Central Library; I found it very difficult to understand most of the locals even though they were speaking English

The Port of Liverpool Building (1907); in the 19th century, Liverpool was a major port of departure for Irish and English emigrants to North America

White Houses, Ville d'Avray, Seurat, 1883; the Walker Art Gallery had a respectable collection covering art from medieval times to the present

Radcliffe Camera from the University Church of St. Mary the Virgin; the University of Oxford is the oldest in the English-speaking world dating back to 1096

The colleges at Oxford are not based on major but are more focused on living arrangements and social life; lectures can include students from many different colleges but they receive important tutoring within their own colleges

The Tuileries Gardens, Pisarro, 1899; the Ashmolean Museum has an extensive collection that ranks second only to the British Museum

Marconi used this device for a famous public demonstration of wireless in 1896; the History of Science Museum was generally way over my head but my Dad and Lee would have enjoyed it

Founded in 1621, the University of Oxford Botanical Garden is the oldest botanical garden in the UK and the oldest scientific garden in the world; the oldest tree here dates back to 1645

Considered the first computer, these are pieces from Charles Babbage's unfinished Difference Engine (1830); it was designed as an early calculating machine that could produce astronomical or math tables by steam power

The Magdalen Bridge across the River Cherwell was completed in 1790; just like in Cambridge, students pole small boats along the river similar to the gondoliers in Venice

The Ashmolean Museum is named after Elias Ashmole who acquired the initial collection during his travels; the museum has one of the best collections of Pre-Raphaelite paintings, majolica pottery, and English silver in the world

The Messiah violin, Stradivari, 1716; it is considered to be the only Stradivarius in existence in as new state

The Restaurant de la Sirene, Van Gogh, 1887; the Ashmolean was the world's first university museum and the oldest museum in the UK (1677)

Carfax Tower is the only remaining part of the 13th century St. Martin's Church and stands in the exact center of Oxford; the tower is 23 meters high and no other building in town is allowed to be taller

All Souls College is a grandiose, graduate-only college founded in 1438, known for its demanding entrance examination; the University of Oxford is comprised of 39 constituent colleges

The Sheldonian Theater was designed by Christopher Wren in 1660 to host graduation ceremonies; the ceiling has 32 oil-on-canvas panels that relate the story truth, arts and sciences kicking ignorance out of the university

The Hertford Bridge is known locally as the Bridge of SIghs but it actually looks more like the RIalto Bridge; built in 1914, the bridge links the Old Quad and New Quad of Hertford College

The Bodleian is one of the oldest reference libraries in Europe and one of only six legal deposit libraries in the UK, which means that a copy of every book published in the UK and Ireland is required by law to be deposited here

Trinity College, founded in 1555, only has about 400 students and was one of the locations used for filming of the original series Brideshead Revisited; the principal production site for Mini cars (owned by BMW) is in Oxford

The Trinity College Chapel was the first to be designed entirely in the Baroque style; it was designed with advice from Christopher Wren and consecrated in 1694

The Saxon Tower of St. Michael, constructed in 1040, is the oldest surviving building in Oxford; the tower is the only part of the city walls that still remains

The Martyr's Memorial, built in 1843, is dedicated to 3 Anglican bishops who were executed by Queen Mary in 1555; Queen Mary restored Catholicism as the main religion and considered those that didn't convert heretics

My visit coincided with the worldwide Youth for Climate rally which drew tens of thousands of demonstrators to the center of Oxford; there were plenty of witty anti-Trump signs

The Bodleian Library now occupies several buildings and holds a staggering 11+ million books; it has 117 miles of shelves and one of the last copies of the Guttenberg Bible

This is the cell door from Boccardo Prison in which the Oxford Martyrs were kept before being burned at the stake; the day I visited was open house day when parents and new students visit the different colleges

Monch asters at the University of Oxford Botanical Garden; since today was essentially open house for prospective students at the different colleges I was able to see inside the campuses where the public is usually not allowed

Magdalen College is one of the wealthiest colleges, with a financial endowment of £273.2 million and one of the strongest academically; famous graduates include Oscar Wilde, Dudley Moore and former PM of Canada John Turner

Considered the most beautiful of all of Oxford University's colleges, Magdalen College was founded in 1458; the Great Quad was completed in 1474

I climbed the 13th century tower of University Church of St. Mary the Virgin for great views of town; in the early days of Oxford University, the church was adopted as the first building of the university

I heard just about every major language while I walked around Oxford; it was an odd feeling knowing that the teenagers here are the smartest of their generation from around the world although they looked just like normal kids

The Radcliffe Camera was the first circular library built in the UK (1749); unfortunately the library is not open to the public but it is the most photographed building in Oxford

This marble table from around 1855 at the Ashmolean consists of a circular inlaid slab of marble and semi-precious stones (many re-worked from fragments of ancient Roman architecture)

Portrait of Mademoiselle Claus, Manet, 1868; the Ashmolean has an excellent collection of Greek and Minoan pottery and an extensive collection of antiquities from Ancient Egypt and the Sudan

I've read all of Alexander McCall Smith's books and they are a philosophical journey about human nature; they are insightful and feature incredibly engaging characters

The Great Bookcase has been described as the most important example of Victorian painted furniture ever made; this 1862 piece is 10 feet high by 5 feet wide

Guy Fawkes was reportedly carrying this lantern when he was captured in the cellar of Westminster; the Gunpowder Plot was aimed at blowing up parliament and King James I

The Duck Sijctghen, Cuyp, 1647; Sijctghen (she laid 100+ eggs a year) was 20 years old when her wealthy owners had her portrait painted making her one of the most treasured animals of the 17th century

Powhatan's (father of Pocahontas) mantle is the most important surviving artifact from the first period of contact between the Indians and British colonists in the early 1600s

Flora Macdonald, Allan Ramsay, 1749; Macdonald became a popular romantic heroine for helping Bonnie Prince Charlie escape to the Isle of Skye in Scotland following the Battle of Culloden

1876 mantle clock; the Ashmolean, like most of the other museums in Oxford, has free admission although donations are requested

Hidcote has been returning the gardens to how they looked in the 1930s; funding came from an anonymous donor who made two large donations in 2002 and 2005 on the understanding that the National Trust would provide matched funding

Lawrence Johnston, acting on behalf of his mother, agreed to purchase Hidcote Manor Garden for £7,200 in 1907; as there was little existing garden, Lawrence effectively had a blank canvas to work with

Lawrence's search for plants took him to the Alps (1922), South Africa and Zimbabwe (1923), Kenya (1929) and China (1931); it would have been helpful if more of the plants had been labeled

Experts warned Johnston that the soil was all wrong, the site - high on the Cotswolds escarpment - was too exposed to wind and harsh weather

The 1920s and 1930s were Hidcote’s glory days attracting many well connected people interested in gardening and widespread critical acclaim; it was also open to the public for charity on two or three days each year

Johnston sponsored plant hunting trips to the Andes (1923), China (1931), Taiwan (1932) and the Appalachians (1933); Johnson became a naturalized British citizen in 1900

The 17th century manor house had just a couple of rooms open; it was fairly crowded despite being off-season with admission to the property roughly $16

Hidcote Manor Garden is one of the best-known and most influential Arts and Crafts gardens in Britain; it is near Chipping Campden in the Cotswalds

The gazebos, built in 1915, offer a place to rest to enjoy some of the best views in the garden; I enjoyed the peace and beauty of the many gardens we visited

The Long Walk presents one of the best views at the 10.5 acre garden; Hidcote's gardens have various characters and themes, achieved by the use of box hedges, hornbeam and yew, as well as stone walls

The Bathing Pond was actually initially used for that purpose (I guess like a swimming pool); Hidcote was the first garden of national importance taken on under the Gardens Fund at the National Trust

Today income generated by approximately 175,000 people who visit Hidcote every year ensures the garden is maintained to a high standard, and that the beauty that Lawrence Johnston created between 1907 and 1948 will be preserved for future generations

In 1919, Gertrude (Johnston's mother) bought another farm, enlarging the garden to the current boundaries; this period saw the extension of the Long Walk and the creation of the Wilderness, Mrs Winthrop’s Garden, the Pillar Garden and the Rock Bank

An American, Lawrence Johnston, and his mother bought Hidcote in 1907 and by 1910 he had begun to lay out the key features of the garden; in the 1920s he had twelve full-time gardeners working for him

Johnston, the well-educated heir of a Baltimore stockbroking family, became a British subject after graduating from Cambridge and enlisted in the military to serve in the Second Boer War

The Pillar Garden, comprised of towering yew trees, was created in 1923; the garden houses 22 yew pillars set over 3 terraces which creates the effect of entering three different gardens

The Beech Allee would be gorgeous in the fall; Johnston was known to have introduced more than 40 new plants to the United Kingdom

Hidcote had a tennis court but the surface is more reminiscent of a parking lot than a tennis court; it was also very easy to lose the balls in the bushes

Hidcote is an iconic example of an English Garden and became very influential in garden design and plant collecting; starting in 1922, Lawrence took part in a series of plant hunting expeditions

In 1948 Johnston deeded Hidcote Manor Garden to the National Trust; he also constructed a garden at a property he bought near Menton, France

Portmeirion is a village in north Wales built to show how a beautiful site could be developed without spoiling it; the village is surrounded by 70 acres of forest

Portmeirion is not a real town but a private development which charges visitors $15 if you want to explore the village; I suspect the village would be packed in the summer

Noël Coward wrote Blithe Spirit while staying in the Fountain 2 suite at Portmeirion; George Bernard Shaw and H. G. Wells were also early visitors

Portmeirion's architectural bricolage and deliberately fanciful nostalgia have been noted as an influence on the development of postmodernism in architecture in the late 20th century

The village would be great for weddings, business meetings, family reunions, etc.; Portmeirion is a perfect setting in this age of Instagram

Leaving Portmeirion we got behind a Rolls Royce SUV; I googled the price and they start around $375,000 (for a car!)

Red aloe vera is not a plant you'd normally see in Wales; Prince Charles has supposedly visited Portmeirion

One of the biggest ongoing discussions Lee and I had was which side to walk on; when Lee asked locals they said there was no standard side which seems very un-British

In 1956 the village was visited by architect Frank Lloyd Wright, and other famous visitors have included Gregory Peck, Ingrid Bergman and Paul McCartney

Bristol Colonnade; the village was built between 1925 and 1975 and takes advantage of a micro-climate which lets plants native to Italy grow here

The Beatles' manager, Brian Epstein, was a frequent visitor and George Harrison spent his 50th birthday in the village in 1993; Portmeirion is also frequently used as a setting for movies and TV shows

The view across Tremadog Bay shows typical Welsh countryside; there are endless slate walls separating sheep pastures and a hardy, independent people used to harsh weather

Major Walter Clopton Wingfield is generally credited with inventing lawn tennis when in 1873 he designed and patented a similar game for his guests to play on his nearby estate of Nantclwyd in Llanelidan, Wales

Portmeirion is often called the UK's most odd village but it's a fun, offbeat attraction; I just loved the whimsical nature of it and the colors brightened a blustery Welsh day

The developer has denied repeated claims that the village design was based on Portofino on the Italian Riviera but I don't see any resemblance; the buildings now are mainly apartments and hotel rooms

The developer stated that he wanted to pay tribute to the atmosphere of the Mediterranean but, unfortunately, he couldn't bring the warm weather too