The promised post
Oct. 9th, 2004 10:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
icepixie*headdesk* Safari just crashed (frelling ImageShack), so I lost the whole entry I had on yesterday and today. Becuase I am a sad, sad person who doesn't want to read Renaissance drama at the moment, I'm going to try and recreate it.
Yesterday, we decided to be tourists in Exeter again. First, we tackled the underground passages. In medieval times (ca. 1100, but don't quote me on the century), fresh water was piped into the walled city via an underground network of lead pipes. Wheee, lead. These pipes had to be repaired somewhere every single day, so instead of keeping the roads pulled up all the time, the people working on them built the underground passages to get to the pipes. Now, because of bomb damage from WWII and general unsafetyness, the tour of them is pretty short; it only lasted about a half hour, and we went all of a quarter mile. Some of it was on hands and knees. Still, they were neat; very, very tiny, cool, and damp. And hey, we got to wear hard hats! I felt like a miner. Well, except for the lack of headlamp and the lack of black lung disease. Yeah.
Next, we went to the Northernhay and Rougemont Gardens, which are built around Rougemont Castle. Yes, it's another Norman castle. (As Ellen says, it's England. Castles happen.) Lots of pretty flowers, and palm trees, and bamboo. Still not sure if we somehow wandered into the tropics without looking... Anyway, Whitney crumbled off a bit of the castle while while trying to climb it; way to damage millenia-old buildings,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
pezprez. Although I suppose the graffiti defiles it somewhat more. Whitney, Stewart, and Chandra got to set off cannons in a metaphorical sense; Ellen and I photographed. The castle and gardens are on a hill, of course, which is about the same height as the one the university is on. You could see it in the distance, in fact. Yay, pretty. Not so pretty were the sketchy British guys trying to wave us over to their bench. Argh.
We hightailed it out of there and somehow dragged up the energy to go down to the quayside. More picturesque views. I think if I see any more picturesque things in the next few days, my head is going to explode. We visited an artsy craftsy store where I bought the sweetest fudge I've ever tasted. I think they took American fudge and doubled the sugar and halved the butter. I can't decide which I like more. Anyway, there were more cannons for us to sit on, and a really nice walk down the river. The water rushing over the spillway/locky thingy (still haven't figured out how that works) and the lack of people made it very pleasant. We saw a lot of ducks, more swans (aaaiiee!), plenty of boats, and our very own ha-ha. (If you haven't read or seen Tom Stoppard's Arcadia, like we just had to for class, you won't understand.) Anyway, yes, very nice. I shall be returning there to wander around some more.
We went to Dominos on the way back, and discovered that they don't do bacon pizza quite the same way their American brethern do. In fact, they do it like we would do ham pizza. Perhaps we should've said "streaky bacon." Although I don't think they smoke it over here, generally, so it may simply be a lost cause. *sigh* But hey, we watched The Mummy (yes, again) on Chandra's computer, and that makes up for a multitude of bad pizza sins.
Today we went on a class trip to Stourhead House and Gardens and to see a production of Arcadia at Bristol's Old Vic theatre. The reason behind visiting Stourhead was that the gardens resemble those described in the play, but it was nice enough on its own. A lot like Cheekwood, only on a grander scale. Nice enough, I suppose. Our group wandered through with Professor Bowman, who was a great source of historical info and just a fun guy to talk with. At the cafe we went to for lunch, I discovered a suitable substitute for the Boston Cream Pie yogurt I got addicted to over the summer in toffee-flavored yogurt. Mmmm, tasty. The play was great; I [heart] that play. And they had Viennese Waltz at the end! Wheee! (Can you tell I got up at 6:30 this morning? Before daylight. I haven't done that since high school. It was disgusting.)
The bus ride to and from Bristol was really pretty, and yes, picturesque. Again with the head exploding. But on the way back, we drove on a section of interstate that had been blasted through the limestone, leaving high, grey rock walls all along the road for a couple miles. It felt like home. *sniff* Also, I think we saw the little stretch of sea in between the southwest part of England and the southern shore of Wales; it might have been just a very large lake, but I think it was the ocean. If so, then that's the first time I've seen saltwater here. We need to get to Dawlish soon...
Hmmm. I think that's it. Pictures in the next post, which may be tonight or tomorrow.
Yesterday, we decided to be tourists in Exeter again. First, we tackled the underground passages. In medieval times (ca. 1100, but don't quote me on the century), fresh water was piped into the walled city via an underground network of lead pipes. Wheee, lead. These pipes had to be repaired somewhere every single day, so instead of keeping the roads pulled up all the time, the people working on them built the underground passages to get to the pipes. Now, because of bomb damage from WWII and general unsafetyness, the tour of them is pretty short; it only lasted about a half hour, and we went all of a quarter mile. Some of it was on hands and knees. Still, they were neat; very, very tiny, cool, and damp. And hey, we got to wear hard hats! I felt like a miner. Well, except for the lack of headlamp and the lack of black lung disease. Yeah.
Next, we went to the Northernhay and Rougemont Gardens, which are built around Rougemont Castle. Yes, it's another Norman castle. (As Ellen says, it's England. Castles happen.) Lots of pretty flowers, and palm trees, and bamboo. Still not sure if we somehow wandered into the tropics without looking... Anyway, Whitney crumbled off a bit of the castle while while trying to climb it; way to damage millenia-old buildings,
pezprez. Although I suppose the graffiti defiles it somewhat more. Whitney, Stewart, and Chandra got to set off cannons in a metaphorical sense; Ellen and I photographed. The castle and gardens are on a hill, of course, which is about the same height as the one the university is on. You could see it in the distance, in fact. Yay, pretty. Not so pretty were the sketchy British guys trying to wave us over to their bench. Argh.We hightailed it out of there and somehow dragged up the energy to go down to the quayside. More picturesque views. I think if I see any more picturesque things in the next few days, my head is going to explode. We visited an artsy craftsy store where I bought the sweetest fudge I've ever tasted. I think they took American fudge and doubled the sugar and halved the butter. I can't decide which I like more. Anyway, there were more cannons for us to sit on, and a really nice walk down the river. The water rushing over the spillway/locky thingy (still haven't figured out how that works) and the lack of people made it very pleasant. We saw a lot of ducks, more swans (aaaiiee!), plenty of boats, and our very own ha-ha. (If you haven't read or seen Tom Stoppard's Arcadia, like we just had to for class, you won't understand.) Anyway, yes, very nice. I shall be returning there to wander around some more.
We went to Dominos on the way back, and discovered that they don't do bacon pizza quite the same way their American brethern do. In fact, they do it like we would do ham pizza. Perhaps we should've said "streaky bacon." Although I don't think they smoke it over here, generally, so it may simply be a lost cause. *sigh* But hey, we watched The Mummy (yes, again) on Chandra's computer, and that makes up for a multitude of bad pizza sins.
Today we went on a class trip to Stourhead House and Gardens and to see a production of Arcadia at Bristol's Old Vic theatre. The reason behind visiting Stourhead was that the gardens resemble those described in the play, but it was nice enough on its own. A lot like Cheekwood, only on a grander scale. Nice enough, I suppose. Our group wandered through with Professor Bowman, who was a great source of historical info and just a fun guy to talk with. At the cafe we went to for lunch, I discovered a suitable substitute for the Boston Cream Pie yogurt I got addicted to over the summer in toffee-flavored yogurt. Mmmm, tasty. The play was great; I [heart] that play. And they had Viennese Waltz at the end! Wheee! (Can you tell I got up at 6:30 this morning? Before daylight. I haven't done that since high school. It was disgusting.)
The bus ride to and from Bristol was really pretty, and yes, picturesque. Again with the head exploding. But on the way back, we drove on a section of interstate that had been blasted through the limestone, leaving high, grey rock walls all along the road for a couple miles. It felt like home. *sniff* Also, I think we saw the little stretch of sea in between the southwest part of England and the southern shore of Wales; it might have been just a very large lake, but I think it was the ocean. If so, then that's the first time I've seen saltwater here. We need to get to Dawlish soon...
Hmmm. I think that's it. Pictures in the next post, which may be tonight or tomorrow.
