END OF THE LINE: MOSCOW STATION

LAST DAYS OF AUTUMN: LAST POST

Have spent most of the last 2 weeks visiting "old" haunts.
A visit to the British Library to do some family research in the India Archive yielded the unexpected thrill of seeing the original scroll of Kerouac's "On the Road" (normally in private hands).
The re-vamped William Morris Gallery/museum at Walthamstow was fantastic...the millions of pounds spent on it has been well considered and the big contrast with my last visit was the haords of people visiting there...including vast numbers of excited schoolchildren (interactive displays for kids are a new feature)...thanks must go to all those gamblers in the UK whose lottery ticket purchases funded this.
The Shakespeare exhibition at the British Museum was sensational...well the Brits do have access to it all: between the Bodleian and British Libraries they pretty much have it covered.

The Avins cousins

The visit to meet the Avins (my paternal grandmother's lot) cousins in Leicestershire was a great experience and they were most welcoming and made me felt like part of the family and as this is a family I have never met (except my dad) it was pretty special.
Then off to Norwich to Shirley & Robbie's for the weekend....great to see them again and as with good friends it felt like I had only seen them yesterday.
Norwich as the second most important city after London pretty much up until the industrial revolution, has great Medieval and Georgian streetscapes as well as a Norman castle, magnificent medieval cathedral and a great museum. Oh..and miles of shops too...as Isobel (aged 12) can attest as we spent hours trawling them to find (in vain) a dress for a wedding they are attending this weekend.!
A visit to the seaside at Sothwold was included and we caught the "ferry"(a rowboat) to the other side of the inlet to the pub for lunch (fish chips and mushy peas of course)....and I did see A SEAL!!!...and rows of beach huts, a pier and a medieval church (after 5 weeks here this is becoming the norm but never mundane).

Another visit to The Tate yesterday and the Pre-Raphaelite exhibition...foolish me thinking that it would be a bit less crowded than my last visit!...well worth it though and the last chance to see all those great works under on roof.

Last breakfast...at The Wolsley

Royal Academy tomorrow with Ben to see an exhibition on Bronzes and lunch together and home to pack and catch the plane at Heathrow at 9pm....not looking foward to the 24 hours in an upright position in a confined space!
It will be good to be home to sleep in my own bed and change the same 3 changes of clothes I have been wearing for 8 weeks and to never have to hand wash again (well not for some time anyway)...and to see family and friends again.
Ben has been a great host and his cooking will be especially missed.(he is an amazing cook)..but I'm sure he will be glad to have his floor back and see the airbed permanently deflated(this is  a very tiny flat)
See ya soon and thanks for listening to my rants
Kath xo

ISTANBUL & BEYOND

Sue & I returned the car safely (wonder of wonders) to Oxford and caught the train back to London a bit over a week ago. We managed to pack in a few more things in around here (including Simon Callow's fantastic one man show on the life of Charles Dickens by Peter Ackroyd,trips to Cambridge and the British Museum) before Sue flew home 5 days ago.
Ben and I then took the short trip to Istanbul..when you are in London most places are a hop, skip and a jump (except Australia of course).

Istanbul is an amazing city. The landscape is dominated by the most glorious mosques with the crowning glory Haghia Sophia and it's 1500 year old history ....truely breathtaking...
The people are lovely and language no problem...so it was generally very easy. The only drawback was the immense volume of tourists (enormous tour buses disgorging thousands of passengers every day)..but.since we were one of their number we can hardly complain!

Turkish icecream maker

Turkish tea, Turkish icecream and the best (fresh) figs I have ever tasted along with Gozleme (Turkish pancakes) meant the food experience was bloody good too! ...and then there was the Cretan restaurant with it's 16 plate Mezze "starter"......we did eat very well indeed....
Back in London now and the woolies and wet weather gear have been pulled back out of the luggage!
Kath

GETTING LOST 2



me and my gggg grandparents Sourton Devon

 The last day of the road trip has arrived and we will both heave a sigh of relief when the car is finally returned in Oxford. Admittedly it has enabled us to get to see so many things that are inaccessible by public transport but navigating the minutia of the roads has been very tricky at times (most of the time truth be known). We spent two days in Devon on the edge of Dartmoor in Sourton ..where my Pellow ancestors emigrated from in the 1850s....my cousin (6th mind you)Mark Pellow treated us to a tour of Pellow "sites" and some wonderfu home cooking. I met Pellows still farming in Sourton although "our" farm(Beatdown)was no longer in use and the old farmhouse was a ruin. We wanted to do some walking on Dartmoor but it was very wet so that was a shame....it is very beautiful country and loads of history (bit like the rest of England really)....but the Iron Age sites are the most extensive in Europe. On the way here (Kelmscott) we crossed the Salisbury Plains so stopped in at Stonehenge and Avebury stone circles.....both were astonishing! Now we are in the Cotswolds staying at William Morris's old watering hole The Plough Inn. This is a Tudor hamlet, little changed since the 15th century and we will visit William Morris's Kelmscott Manor this morning (a 2 minute walk from here)...what a treat!! The sun is shining for the first time in 5 days so we will make the most of it... back to London and Ben this arvo on the train.... Kath xo

GETTING LOST

Great Dixter

Charleston

We will be glad to get back to train travel after the travails of deciphering the AA Road Atlas,negotiating the intermnable number of roundabouts and getting lost inumberable times. As it is taking 3X as long to travel the same distance it would at home we have had to modify the itinerary somewhat. We have travelled the lanes and hedgerows of Kent and Sussex, visited some great gardens (Sissinghurst and Great Dixter) and a medieval manor house(Igtham Mote) and Bodian Castle....as well as visiting the seaside "idyll" Of the Burnes-Jones's and their nephew Rudyard at Rottingdean. The car,however,has enabled us to visit Batemans (Rudyard Kipling),the amazing Charleston (Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant),Chawton(Jane Austen) and Selborne(1700's naturalist Gilbert White) ....so the trauma of driving in a strange and very busy place has it's benefits.....The English are very polite drivers and lessen the difficulty of the whole thing. We are in Bath now for a whole day and will take up the Mayor's offer(she/he sponsors these each day) of a free walking tour this morning, despite the rain that has just started to fall....and then on to the Roman Baths..... Sorry no photos as yet...still trying to work that out..Kathxo

THE PALACES OF CATH & LIZ

Catherine's Palace just outside St Petersburg with it's restored Amber Room (the Nazis stole the original and then it was destroyed by allied bombing)was a great experience...although the gardens were a bit easier on the eye...all that gilt was a bit much and I expect just a bit too much on the already overburdended taxpaying peasants of Russia (as we have seen).

We made it to London although it felt pretty weird getting here after a good night's sleep in only 3 hours....how civilised! Sue and I are camped on Ben's floor in Kensington and have been out sightseeing every day (of course)..straight out after depositing our bags to catch the last warm sunny day of summer & have a Pimms by the Serpentine and then on to Fortnum & Masons for a cuppa(as you do).....so far a fantastic Pre-Raphaelite exhibition at the Tate Gallery and a play at The Globe Theatre (As You Like It)...The Globe is such a hoot as everyone including the actors are out to have a good time and the atmosphere is like one big party. Hampton Court Palace yesterday and caught the boat back down the Thames to Westminster....and today caught the bus to South Kensington and visited it's museums(Natural History & V&A)....great stuff... ...and home to another gourmet dinner from Ben's kitchen (his mother did teach him well)....life in Katoomba will seem pretty dull after all this.... pick car up tomorrow in Kent..... Kath and Sue

ST PETERSBURG

The Hermitage

Well St Petersburg is very different to Moscow ...the wealth is not so evident and the pace is much slower. The architecture is very gentile(Stalin's monolithic and grand buildings are not here) and with the rivers and canals it has a elegant and cultured feel.
We are just a 40 minute walk from the Hermitage in a lovely apartment which we have to ourselves as Marina the only other guest is at work all day... a real luxury to have so much space after the cramped conditions of hostels and trains.
The walking tour we did with Dimitri took us to the backstreets and his knowledge of the city was vast ...so we got our bearings on arrival rather than as we leave! Dimitri's grandfather lost his parents and 3 siblings in the Seige of Leningrad (the only brother to survive was at the front)...so the horror of that time was brought home to us....and the impact of the war was so great on Russia (20 million dead)that the bravery and resillience of it's people is treated with the respect and reverence it is due.

Dostoyevsky's window

Statues of writers are here in abundance and their museums (as in Moscow) ... Dostoyevsky and Akhmatova are the only 2 I have been able to fit in.....I must say the bright and comfortable flat of Dostoyevsky's was not the dark and depressing place I expected (obviously I read too many Russian novels).
The Hermitage was sumptuous and decadent( no wonder there was so much unrest) ...and it was great to be in a room of Van Goghs' and not have to jostle for a position as we would for any visiting exhibiton at home.
Today we are tackling the Metro to get to Catherine's Palace to meet with the restored Amber Room(the original was destroyed in the war after the Nazi's removed it).
Sorry the postcards have been absent but you have no idea how hard it is to find a post office here let alone find someone in the PO willing to sell you a stamp!!...so they shall be sent from London which is were we are heading tomorrow morning.....dasvidanya Kath et al xo