What I Captured in England on My Cheap Android Phone

 

When your sister invites you on a family trip to England, you consider it. When she offers to pay for your plane ticket, you think about it some more. Then when you’re going to be in her town when the flight leaves, you say yes.

On my first trip to Europe, six of us stayed three nights in London, three in Castle Combe village near Bath, and three in Oxford. The stunner for me was how much old stuff–no, I mean really old stuff, like 1300s old–there is scattered all over England. I’ve always heard only the highlights of what visitors can see in the UK, and I imagined you’d have to plan visits to specific sites to behold these things. Turns out unique architecture and one-of-a-kind artifacts are as ubiquitous over there as deer in northwest Montana.

The highlight of the trip for me was our stay in Castle Combe, where we spread out blissfully in a three-story rented house that dated from the 1300’s. Fortunately for us, there had been a few updates since then. After cold, wet London days, the sun in Castle Combe smiled down on us, birds sang, and the By Brook rushed and gurgled much as it had probably done 700 years ago when craftsmen made a living in the houses along its bank. Evening meals were at a pub after we wandered in the old churchyard and inspected the manor. The long hike in the countryside was the main event for which I’d been saving my knees weeks in advance, and it did not disappoint.

Roman bridge. Built, I assume, during the time of the Romans.

More of the By Brook on our route.

Seems like we were having a bit of an argument here. One small hiker was begging for silence to hear the birds; another was claiming that a member of the walking party “liked to play devil’s advocate.”

Never mind. It wasn’t important.

The hiking map took us by a pub, where the servers gave us permission to spread out our picnic things at their outdoor table. My two siblings bought beers–reluctantly, of course–to legitimize our activity further. Cheese, tasty chicken meatballs, and parts of two gourmet lunch baskets packed for us in town (20 pounds each–I mean, in cost, not weight) provided much of the fare.

This wall and door were across the street from where we ate.

A house I photographed after lunch when we began trying to work our way back to the trail. Which, incidentally, was hard to find because the directions were peppered with landmarks you might miss, such as stiles and hills. The little white sign toward the top of this house was actually a security system logo. It ruins the effect, but I suppose the owners have a right to protect what’s theirs.

Another stone wall with overhanging blossoms. Yawn.

A fairy door toward the end of the walk. It opened into a hollow log, where previous walkers had shoved in odd items.

There was spring mud to be avoided. We’d met some Americans earlier in the hike, and they had told us what to expect in the way of quagmires.

Bonus: A picture my sister took with her “real” camera.

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  1. Gary McVey Contributor
    Gary McVey
    @GaryMcVey

    Very nice pictures, Sawatdeeka! Thanks for posting them!

    • #1
  2. Jimmy Carter Member
    Jimmy Carter
    @JimmyCarter

    How was the food compared to American Montana fare.

    Do They serve drinks with ice?

    • #2
  3. Full Size Tabby Member
    Full Size Tabby
    @FullSizeTabby

    It is fun for us from the relatively new country of the United States to see and to visit stuff in much older countries. 

    Mrs. Tabby and I made several trips to Great Britain earlier in our marriage (1980s and 1990s), and my mother and I had made several visits in the 1970s. I recall being in Castle Combe a couple of times. But we focused more on buildings than on walking the countryside. In that era we stayed in family-owned Bed and Breakfast houses. The oldest I remember was a house whose core piece was built in the 1400s. I also remember visiting one English town building in the 1990s in which the “modern” renovation had been completed in the 1890s (the building had been built in the 1500s). 

     

    sawatdeeka: I imagined you’d have to plan visits to specific sites to behold these things. Turns out unique architecture and one-of-a-kind artifacts are as ubiquitous over there as deer in Northwest Montana. 

    I can’t speak to deer in Northwest Montana (deer are ubiquitous in western New York where we used to live, less common here in northern Texas), but our 30 + year ago experience in Great Britain was that interesting stuff was everywhere. We’d step into 800 year old village churches to find organists practicing, stop at ancient pubs and find the freshest trout lunch imaginable or an apple pie whose crust on its own was some of the best shortbread I had ever had. 

    • #3
  4. sawatdeeka Member
    sawatdeeka
    @sawatdeeka

    Jimmy Carter (View Comment):

    How was the food compared to American Montana fare.

    Do They serve drinks with ice?

    The food was fresh, tasty, and appetizingly presented wherever we went in England. Even the packaged food was delicious. 

    I seem to remember them not giving us ice . . . I don’t really notice because I usually don’t want ice anyway. One thing they would do sometimes is give us little water bottles with our glasses instead of serve us the tap water we were expecting. 

    • #4
  5. sawatdeeka Member
    sawatdeeka
    @sawatdeeka

    Full Size Tabby (View Comment):
    The oldest I remember was a house whose core piece was built in the 1400s.

    If you’re talking Castle Combe, that may be the place where we stayed. I have building pictures–but that was for a separate post. 

    • #5
  6. Stad Coolidge
    Stad
    @Stad

    Cool!

    • #6
  7. Ansonia Member
    Ansonia
    @Ansonia

    Fantastic pictures !

    • #7
  8. Zafar Member
    Zafar
    @Zafar

    I’m glad you enjoyed it.

    • #8
  9. EB Thatcher
    EB
    @EB

    FIFY

    • #9
  10. sawatdeeka Member
    sawatdeeka
    @sawatdeeka

    EB (View Comment):

    FIFY

    Thanks!  That helps. 

    • #10
  11. James Lileks Contributor
    James Lileks
    @jameslileks

    The ancient remainder are fascinating, but I also love the 19th and 20th century remainders.

    “Hah, why does that have a plaque? Is that the guy who interviewed Richard Nixon? Har har”

    “No. You’re thinking of his grandson, the son of the son.”

    • #11
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