Stratford-upon-Avon, then off to Heathrow, 28 and 29 June

On both days our colds were dragging us down a bit and the tourist schedule suffered as a result. On Tuesday we finally took Janet to the doctor in Chipping Campden to get the cough & cold checked out before the long flight home - not much could be done but some antibiotics were prescribed as a precaution. While in the area we had a look around Broadway village (ginger scones with clotted cream and honey on offer here - yum) and the Broadway tower.

The tower.

The tower is a "folly", designed by Capability Brown and built for the Earl of Coventry. It is on the highest hill in the area with views up to 60 miles if there should ever be a clear day. During WW2 it was used by the Observer Corp to spot enemy planes.

No planes in view today.

Later, we went to Stratford for a dose of Shakespeare. Arrived quite late in the afternoon so only had time for a visit to the cottage where he was born which is now of course a museum and gift shop. In the evening we had tickets for "A Midsummer Night's Dream" at the Royal Shakespeare Company's theatre. It was a very good show, performed by a mix of professional and amateur actors including some keen school kids. It turned out our seats were in the second row from the stage. The perfect location, close enough to see the action well, but not in the very front row which was prone to be visited by Puck for mischief making activities!

The Royal Shakespeare Company's theatre - outside.

... and inside. But no photos during the play of course.

Wednesday we had to finally head for Heathrow - the super long holiday is almost over and time to go home! Driving from Weston-sub-edge to London was uneventful, if a bit tedious. We stopped at Pam's place in Penge and had a very pleasant lunch with Pam, Tim and Sharon. It was great to see them again.

Then off to Heathrow, with some sat nav adventures along the way - due to user error not machine we have to admit. Sitting in the hotel waiting for the early morning flight felt like a bit of an anti climax, but it is without doubt time to draw a line under this trip and get back into routine! We'll have to make a point of resting up on the Singapore stop over and making the most of the last warm weather for a while!

Cotswolds, 26 and 27 June

Sunday we sadly said goodbye to Hamish and Ele, leaving them to embark on their next adventure, a 7 month back packer style holiday in Europe. But not before inspecting the Gonville & Caius library, which had been well frequented in between rowing and social events.

Next stop was the Manor Farm B&B at Weston-sub-edge (I'm sure there is reason for the name) in the Cotswolds. We were both suffering from the effects of the dreaded cold so it was a bit of a ho-hum day. En route we checked out a few villages renowned for being "pretty". They almost all had quirky names as well, but that was coincidental. Why wouldn't you call your village Upper Slaughter?

Upper Slaughter.

By chance we came across a village fete at Lower Oddington (not to be confused with Upper Oddington). There was nothing odd about it, just tea and cakes, pimms, dog show, sack races, white elephant, fully robed village cryer - the usual. So we stopped for afternoon tea.

Lower Oddington fete.

In the evening we enjoyed catching up for dinner with Neville, Corinna and Jeanette, friends from way, way, back.

Monday we visited nearby Hidcote garden, which was putting on a spectacular summer show. As a National Trust property we could enter for free using our Heritage NZ card - a bonus after so many steep entry fees over the last while!

Hidcote garden.

More garden.

Spent the afternoon at Pencombe, a small village in Herefordshire with old friends Tim & Alison. We hadn't seen each other since 1986 so there was a bit to catch up on - we arrived at 1:00 and when next checked the time it was 6:00!

Chilling in Cambridge, 24 and 25 June

Post the graduation exitement we had a lovely couple of days chilling around Cambridge and spending time wth Hamish and Ele.

Friday we made a small expedition to Ely, about 20 miles down the road in the fen country. Ely has a grand ancient cathedral (surprise) dating from the 1200's. It's point of difference is its "octagon" which is an 8 pillared octagonal area at the transept supporting a high lantern. The effect is to have much more space at the transept without pillars and to let light in from stained glass windows in the high lantern structure.

We took a tour of the octagon which included climbing 190 odd steps up to the roof where we could look down into the cathedral and also see for miles in every direction. The angels decorating the lantern turned out to be "doors" which could be opened (once you climbed up close).

Ele up with the angels.

The walk up was quite fun, following narrow spiral stairs and squeezing through tiny doorways.

Spiralling back down.

Small persons doorway.

Ely was home to Oliver Cromwell for 10 years. His cottage is still there and now doing duty as the tourist info centre as well as a Cromwell museum. We visited and came away better informed about who he was and about his involvement in the British civil wars of the 1600's. After the civil wars Cromwell was for a period Lord Protector of England, that is King except in name. A few years after Cromwell died the monarchy was restored. Cromwell's status then changed to traitor, and even though he was already dead, his body was exhumed and his head cut off and put on a spike.

The Cromwell museum was set up with interactive exhibits. You could dress up.

Yestreday 16th century graduation gowns, today 17th century soldier and lady garb.

Saturday dawned fine and warm(ish) so we did the proper English thing and had cream scones and tea in the meadow at Grantchester. Revived the debate about whether the cream goes on first or is it the jam? Obviously there is only one right way to do it!

In the afternoon we went to Bletchley Park (WW2 code breaking) and spend several hours looking. There is so much stuff it is a bit overwhelming for one visit, but very interesting. When we got back the weather in Cambridge had changed - it was winter again, with a hail storm and hail the size of marbles.

H & E's front door.

H & E's back yard.

In the evening we visited some more of Hamish & Ele's Cambridge haunts, just to satisfy my curiosity.

Fenner's cricket ground. G H Hardy and C P Snow spent many afternoons here (before the flats were built all around).

See "Variety of Men".

The "railway bridge" - River Cam bumps course.

Gonville & Caius temporary rowing club house - the new one is under construction!

Cambridge, graduation day

After all this time, the main reason for the whole trip has finally come upon us - graduation!

The day turned out to be another warm and muggy one, but there was no rain until late afternoon when the Gonville & Caius cermony and after match function were well over. Later it teemed with rain (and thundered) while I sat in the laundromat yet again waiting for washing to be done. (This is actually only the second laundromat visit in 8 weeks so we are not doing too badly with the in-room hand washing routine).

The G&C ceremony was at 10am. Just before that they processed from College to the Senate House. This is not a long walk as the two buildings are next door to each other. Perhaps a 100m walk in all, out the "gate of honour", along the lane, and in the front door of the Senate House. Hamish and two other LLMs led the procession, as LLM was the most senior degree being conferred and alphabetical order put him in the first 3 of the 5 LLMs.

(NB - G&C is often talked about as having 3 main gates. The "gate of humility" through which you first enter College, the "gate of virtue" through which you pass every day while studying, and "gate of honour", which you pass through for graduation only. A lesser, but still important, fourth gate, leading to the toilets, is known as the "gate of necessity".)

Coming out through the gate of honour on the way to the Senate House.

The ceremony itself was all in Latin, except for the H&S notices at the start. Hamish was second up, and therefore inside the Senate House for all of 5 minutes before filing back outside!

There hasn't been a lot of change in the procedure over the last few hundred years. As they apparently say in Cambridge: "A little change is good, but no change is better."

Dress codes for graduands are very strict. All garb is checked during the pre brief and you get sent back if anything is out of order. For example, shirts must be white, not cream. Apparently a couple of the lady graduands were sent away to change into a longer skirt. All this is purely mercenary as the College is fined by the University if it presents any improprerly attired graduands.

The grads come forward in groups of up to four. Each holds a finger of the Praelector while he presents and recommends them to the Master of the College. (Further research needed to find out the purpose of the finger, but it does have the practical effect of limiting the size of each group to four maximium). Each grad then kneels in front of the Master who says Latin words to confer the degree, before bowing and exiting stage right.

Very efficient. No speeches or musical interludes. Certainly no interjections or clapping from the crowd. No photographs. All in Latin. Quite different to the NZ University style of capping ceremonies.

The new Master of Laws.

Post match was a buffet lunch in Caius Court in the College. Salmon or quiche with salads, followed up by fresh rapberries and cream.

Buffet lunching.

Later we strolled and visited Kings College chapel, built in the 1600's by King Henry VI and others. It has the highest vaulted ceiling in the world. Certainly an impressive building to have for your chapel!

Kings College chapel.

Then time for a rest before a late dinner out. Even though we booked some time ago, we could only get a 9:30pm slot - good thing we had a decent lunch! All in all a great day to celebrate a great achievement. Well done Hamish!

Cambridge, 21 and 22 June

Tuesday 21st was a full on driving day - about 400 miles down the M6, A14 and various other motorways from Stirling to Cambridge. A pretty forgettable drive really, on roads that were efficient but dull. At Birmingham we discovered that there is now an M6 toll road that bypasses the city for a 3.50 toll. We were too mean to pay the toll so chanced a journey on the old M6 free road through the city. This road can get terribly congested but we were lucky with very few delays.

The big thrill once we reached Cambridge was of course catching up with Hamish and Ele who we hadn't seen for 9 months or so. Great to see them! We were treated to home coooked dinner plus (making the most of the warm, dry evening) a personal guided walking tour of the old city.

The court at Gonville and Caius College. Lawn showing evidence of wear and tear from the Ball. 

In the senior common room at G&C.

Did some more nosing around the old colleges on Wednesday. The town is packed with graduating students and proud hangers on. Due to graduation quite a few of the colleges are temporarily closed to visitors. We looked mostly at Gonville & Caius and Queens, and hope to see some others later in the week. We lunched in hall today. Hearty servings of institutional grub at very keen prices - ideal for impoverished students. Roast duck, mash and corn for us today.

Lunch in hall. That's us on the left at the plain table. The setting was for a formal dinner that night.

The Old Court at Queens.

After lunch we went punting on the Cam. We hired a self drive punt as Hamish was a master punter. I had a go too - seems it must be a learned skill, not an heriditary one.

Hamish, puntmaster.

The puntmater's apprentice having a go.

Lets everybody go punting!

Culloden and Bannockburn, 19 and 20 June

Culloden and Bannockburn, 19 and 20 June

These two days ended up focussed around historic battlefields, to the detriment of the other stuff that had been part of the original plan As a result we didn't get to Fort George or to Stirling Castle except to have a quick (free) look around the outside. We did manage quite a few back road drives with excellent scenery, although sometimes raining.

Anyway, on Sunday morning we spent a couple of hours in the museum at Culloden and then wandered the battlefield. When we were last there 30+ years back there was not much more than a paddock, so todays set up was extremely impressive and provided a good overview of the 1745 battle and why it took place. Of course the Scots lost and suffered a grim tally of about 1,500 casualties on the day plus ongoing reprisals, compared to 300 or so on the English side. The memorial stones were placed about 60 years after the battle to mark the graves of the fallen from the clans. I found them still quite moving today.

Culloden memorial.

MacGillivray, MacLean, Maclachlan, and Athol highlander clan memorial.

After Culloden, touring the nearby Fort George which is a "live" army base today, did not have so much appeal. We trekked over there but in the end the entry fee put us off and we abandoned the idea in favour of a scenic drive to our next stop at Pitlochry. Arrived at the unheard of early hour of about 5pm.

Pitlochry is a cute little town and it trapped us the next morning with its shops. After much exploring and not a little buying we managed to get back on the road about midday and took another long scenic route to Bannockburn through Queen's View, Loch Tummel, and Dochart Falls.

Queen's View - very moody.

Dochart Falls near Killin.

The "Battle of Bannockburn Experience" is completely different from Culloden and from any other museum/historic place we have so far visited. It uses 3D film clips to set the historical scene and provide background on the main players, then takes groups of 24 or so visitors into the battle room to replay the battle using a simulation. It was great fun and a very effective way of presenting the detail of what happened. The visitors are assigned command roles in the battle and get to make decisons on troop movements etc. Guess who was selected as the English King Edward and Scottish King Robert(a) the Bruce? Yes! And the English won the day on this occasion - more by luck than anything else I should add.

Bannockburn is very close to our next overnight stop at Stirling, so after completely revising the outcome of a piviotal event in British history, we went to check in. It was early, promising a beautiful fine evening, and we were feeling bad about not achieving our tourist quota for the day, so set off to tick some boxes. Nosed around the outside of Stirling Castle, walked up to the base of the (William) Wallace Monument for a view, cruised over to the Falkirk Wheel, fed the kelpies, and had fish & chips on a road side bench. Not too bad for an evening's work!

P.S. Kelpies are apparently Scottish water spirits that can change shapes and often take on the appearance of horses.

Wallace Monument.

Falkirk Wheel.

Stirling castle from cemetery next door.

Feeding the kelpie.

Favourite highland roads and a birthday, 18 June

The BIG event today was Janet's birthday, but we had previously decided to abandon presents given that this trip was a more than sufficient gift for both of us. So no tiresome extra stuff to pack into already bulging suitcases!

The best surprise present was that the 18th dawned a perfectly fine day, and this was the day we'd planned for our favourite Scottish road ever - the route over the Bealach na Bà pass to Applecross. Not so good - Janet's cold was at its worst so she was drugged up but still suffering.

It was a day for scenery - you had to be there, as no superlatives will do.

On Skye - from Portree south to Kyleakin and over the new (ish) bridge to Kyle of Lochalsh. The Cuillin hills were spectacular.

Cuillin hills, Skye.

The new bridge from Kyle of Lochalsh, Cuillin hills in the background.

On the mainland, we had a quick look at Eilean Doonan castle for old times sake, then off to Applecross via the pretty village of Plockton.

Eilean Doonan castle.

Plockton.

On the way up Bealach na Bà pass.

Bealach na Bà pass.

Bealach na Bà pass.

Birthday girl on the pass.

The road from Applecross towards Loch Torridon, looking over the sea to Skye (and Raasay).

We stopped for a healthy afternoon tea of cake, ice cream and coffee at Nanny's Coffee Bar in Shealdaig on the shore of Loch Torridon.

Shealdaig.

Unfortunately we had to give up on the plan to continue up to Ullapool as the day was running out and there was still a long way to go to our next night stop. Janet's McKenzie relatives at Ullapool (if any) will have to wait for another trip.

Made it to the next B&B at Drumnadrochit on Loch Ness fairly drained after a full day of excitement, colds included. But not too tired to check out the evening light on Urquhart castle.

Evening light on the ruins of Urquhart castle, Loch Ness.