March 26, 2015 - Winchester

We're staying with our friends Ron and Chris in Winchester. It's as if we saw them yesterday! We've been friends for - dare I say it - 45 years. Dave has noticed that we seem to visit them in England every 17 years. Obviously, that has to change as I'm not sure nursing homes have bus trips to England. Luckily, we do manage to vacation together every few years, so it's not like we NEVER see them.

After lunch of Chris' delicious curried sweet potato soup, a bit of unpacking, and catching up, we headed into Winchester to wander around in the late afternoon. The day is chilly and blustery, but warmer than it has been at home in Wisconsin recently. We headed to the area where once stood Winchester Castle, but now houses the government and law centers for this region.

Our first stop is the Great Hall which remains in its 13th century form and is all that is left of the original Winchester Castle. The famous King Arthur's Round Table has hung in this hall since the 1400s. The table dates to the 13th century so is not contemporaneous with King Arthur. (Hmmmm...) Originally unpainted, Henry VIII had it painted in 1522 with the names of the Knights of the Round Table and an image of the legendary King Arthur.

Dave & Ron under King Arthur's Round Table to give you a sense of its size.

Out a side door is a beautiful re-creation of a medieval herb garden named for the two Queen Eleanors (of Provence and Castile) wives of Edward I and Henri III. It's a lovely calm spot with the beginnings of spring flowers and tree buds already showing themselves.

After exploring the little history museum, we headed for the downtown area, filled with a mixture of brick and half-timbered buildings, small roads and alleys.

God Begot Manor, 1050, part of estates of Emma, daughter of Richard Duke of Normandy. Emma was mother of  English King Edward the Confessor.

We moseyed down High Street (like our Main Street) past lots of estate agent offices - these are real estate agents. Chris tells me that Winchester is the new "posh" location to live. Only an hour from London, it's a relatively easy commute by train and a small town environment. House prices have been skyrocketing because of the influx of London folks and estate agents have been busy. Contributing to the problem is that developing land willy-nilly isn't allowed and so prices of existing houses go up due to the shortage of housing. Makes it hard on the locals to find affordable housing. Sound familiar?

Near this building is the City Cross, aka Buttercross. A Buttercross dates from the medieval ages and was placed in an open air market where villagers purchased their butter, milk and eggs. Sellers would lay out their wares on the stepped bases of the cross. 

Chris in front of City Cross

We headed down a covered alley and I spotted an extremely narrow church - at least its entrance is narrow, hardly wider than the door. St. Lawrence in the Square has its roots in the 9th century and became the royal chapel for William the Conqueror (that would be shortly after 1066). It is considered the oldest parish of Norman foundation within the city's walls. 

The stone and flint entrance is the entire width of the church footprint at the street.

The walls are filled with memorial plaques going back hundreds of years.

The blue fish sign marks the entrance to St. Lawrence and you can see the narrowness of its stone and flint street entry.

We ended at the Cathedral, which we've seen in past visits. This cathedral is always worth a visit as it is huge, beautiful and full of history. While the cathedral was founded in 642, the current building dates from Norman times and is more than 900 years old. Built in Gothic style, this is one of the largest cathedrals in England and is the longest of any European Gothic cathedral. 

"WinchesterCathedral-west-wyrdlight" by WyrdLight.com. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:WinchesterCathedral-west-wyrdlight.jpg#/media/File:WinchesterCathedral-west-wyrdlight.jpg

Our final stop was the Old Vine Pub to have a pint. Well, the boys had a pint and the girls had wine. There's something so warm and inviting about English pubs. Our trip is well-started with great friends in an historic English town worthy of wandering. Cheers!

March 27, 2015 Visiting Avebury Henge

An amazing day! You all undoubtedly know about Stonehenge which is only 30 miles from South Wonston where we're staying. Well, today we learned that England has many henges (14 according to Wikipedia) and we traveled to Avebury, the largest henge in the country. A henge is a circular flat area with a large ditch surrounding it. It often has stone or wooden circles inside and was likely used as some sort of ceremonial site rather than daily living.

An hour of driving through country roads and passing through small villages where many of the houses had thatched roofs brought us to the village of Avebury.

Thatched cottages in Avebury village

Avebury village

The village transects the henge which obscures its size. However there are standing lines of stones and ditches almost surrounding the village.

http://www.onthisdeity.com/7th-january-1649-%E2%80%93-the-re-discovery-of-avebury/

This largest henge is more than 3/4 mile in circumference and is bisected by two roads with the village built partly into the circle. Many of the standing stones had been toppled and buried or carried away, but with ongoing excavations from 1908 onward, many have been restored.

Walking this site is awe-inspiring. Begun about 2,600 BC, the 9-12 foot deep ditch around the 3/4 mile henge was dug using only antler picks and rakes with the broken up chalky soil carried out by human hands in baskets. While the purpose is unknown, the dedication and cooperation of the Neolithic people digging this 20-30 foot wide ditch belies my concept of simple people scratching out a living by hunting and gathering.

 

The Avebury henge was very complex with a large outer circle on the inner banks of the ditch and then 2 smaller double circles inside. There are only 36 stones standing from this immense work and the locations of other stones are marked with small concrete pillars. It's impossible to see the entirety of the henge due to the damage caused by the intersecting roads and the village buildings that cross the circle in places.  But there is enough here to take your breath away.

We walked along the entire ditch circumference, sometimes among the stones sometimes outside the ditch.

Besides this enormous henge, there were others close by - one joined by a broad avenue marked by a double row of stones. Not far away, another Neolithic monument exists called Sillbury Hill. Built between 2,400 and 2,000 BC this hill is the largest pre-historic mound in Europe, over 1500 feet around its base and 115 feet tall with a flat top of 90 feet across the top. Why it was built is a mystery but, due to archeological excavations, much is known about how it was built - basically by carrying stones and soil by hand (likely in baskets) and piling it up over many years.

This henge however is only one of the features Avebury has to offer. A picturesque small village, including a church dating back 1000 years and a manor house & farm are part of the area and we explored these as well - but I'll tell about them in the next post.

March 26, 2015 - We've Arrived: Planes & Trains & Subways

We've arrived safely in Winchester in Southern England after a long day's (night's) journey.  

• Madison-Chicago-London via American Airlines went as smoothly as possible considering how uncomfortable it is to sit in a narrow little seat for 6 1/2 hours. We arrived 8:30 am London time (that's 3:30 am our time) not having slept much and after going through passport control and customs (easy-peasy) we headed off to find the Tube (London's subway) for our next leg of the journey. 
• Ooops. Need to change money first in order to be able to buy tickets. No problem - ATM worked just fine with our debit card. And now we have British pounds. 

•  On to the Picadilly Tube line - about a mile away from where we left customs. At least it felt that far as we followed maze-like underground hallways that were thankfully well-marked. 

• Tickets in hand, we catch the next train. I'm noticing that the Tube is much more handicapped friendly these days - we were able to use elevators rather than escalators - important since some of the escalators go up multiple stories to get to street level. 

• Of course we have to change lines to get to our final destination of the Waterloo train station involving more long maze-like hallways and more escalators. 

• My luggage solution worked great - the new suitcase rolls great and was easy to handle, even with the backpack strung on top. Dave's arms got tired from pulling 2 suitcases behind him - the kind that only have 2 wheels. 
• Once at Waterloo, we had to retrieve our tickets that we'd purchased online a few weeks ago. Also turned out to be easy-peasy. Using a self-serve ticket kiosk, Dave put in the credit card used to purchase the tickets and a transaction number and the machine spit out our tickets exactly as requested. 
  
• Next challenge - get out our cell phones and 1) let our friends know we would be on time at the Winchester train station and 2) make sure Lynn's phone worked. (My phone was purchased the last time we were in France and has a sim card that only uses European frequencies.) Ta-da! Success on both counts. Although we must have looked rather comical while we fiddled, because not one, but two helpful Brits offered to help us old geezers figure out our phone's settings. 
  
• Next step, the train to Winchester. Waterloo has trains leaving every minute or so and has more than 20 tracks. I was really nervous because they display the departing trains on a big board, but trains are not assigned a track until the last minute. 

• Our train departed at 12:05 (Doors close 30 seconds before departure the sign warned.) and the track for the train was posted just after 11:57. 

• And you have to enter the track area by putting your ticket into one of the gates at the track and then get your luggage through the narrow door.  Luckily we found a gate that allowed for wide baggage.
  
• Biggest obstacle on the train is to stay awake so we get off  at the right stop. We pass through miles of London suburbs with red brick buildings - apartments and attached homes mostly splaying out from both sides of the train tracks. The train is comfortable, fast and quiet. After half an hour we are starting to see fields and stands of trees - the grass here is green already and the trees are budding. The temperature in London was in the 50's but damp and grey. As we moved farther south, the sun appeared and it felt warmer.

• By 1 pm we were in Winchester. Ron met us at the station and we were soon at their house in South Wonston. 
• We've arrived!

March 25, 2015 - Departure

'Twas the night before leaving and all through the house
All the creatures were stirring "Now where is that blouse?"

The stockings were strewn all over the stair
In hopes they'd dry quicker if left out to air.

We'd like to be nestled all snug in our beds
But visions of checklists keep clouding our heads.
Dave in his lounge chair pores over a map
While Lynn writes this blog post, computer in lap.

Just an hour ago you could hear us all chatter
With children and grand kids, our loved ones who matter

Our last night together flew by like a flash
Stealing kisses and hugs before we must dash.



The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow (what? Isn't it supposed to be spring?)
Made us happy to know there'd be sun where we go.
When, what to my wondering eyes should appear,
But our suitcases, all packed, leaving time for a beer. (For Dave, not Lynn)

Well, I'm afraid I've rolled poor Clement C Moore over in his grave a few times already so I'll quit butchering his poem.

We are ready to go! Seems to have been so long in the planning. But the bags sit in the front hall and the check list is down to the "close the house" items and final few items that need to be packed at the last minute. It's hard to believe we've finally made it to departure time.

Because we are taking so many different forms of transportation, we worked really hard to keep our luggage to a minimum and managed to keep it to one checked bag apiece, one carry on and one personal item apiece. Not bad for 2 months. We really limited our wardrobe. For example, I'm taking 4 short sleeved and 4 long sleeved shirts for the whole 2 month stay. We have laundry facilities so packing any more isn't really necessary, although I'll truly be sick of those clothes before we leave. All the weight lifting I did over the past year at Hybrid Fitness will help me manage those bags.

We fly to London, then catch a train to Winchester to visit friends for a few days before returning to London to catch the Eurostar (the train that takes only 3 hours between London and Paris). Of course, that requires taking the Tube (subway) across London to get from one train station to another. Then from downtown Paris we must take a train out to the airport where we are meeting our friends and picking up our car. Then finally we get to make our way to La Borie des Combes.in Bézenac. That's a lot of humphing of luggage! I've been working out, but managing all that luggage will be exhausting.

I did buy the world's lightest suitcase (weighs under 5 pounds empty) by IT from eBags. Hoping it will last, but between the well-designed inner space of this suitcase and the compression bags I bought, I managed to get all my clothes, shoes and toiletries into this one bag. Score! It's a hit so far.

Our carry-on is filled mostly with electronics - C-Pap machines for both of us (getting old requires extra equipment), lots of cameras and the assorted cords and chargers for these. Dave can't live without music so an iPod and Jawbone are coming with as well. The laptop will go in my backpack. And we're bringing a few carefully selected guidebooks.

For money, we'll use credit cards and ATM (Debit) cards. The Debit cards work in all ATM machines, giving you cash in Euros at the current rate of exchange. Our bank doesn't charge any fees for this, so we get our money at the rate of the day. We got a Barclay chip and pin credit card as we've had some problems in the past with using American magnetic strip cards in France. Mostly in self-serve, not-attended situations like toll booths and unattended gas stations. However, buying train tickets in the past has been an issue as the ticket kiosks and the tellers can only accept chip and pin cards. (These cards have a data chip in them and require you to enter a pin number in order to complete the transaction.) So, in the past we've had to go to an ATM to take out sufficient cash to purchase the train tickets.

We're also carrying our drivers' licenses and insurance cards as well as back up credit cards. We'll keep this stuff in our money belts that we wear under our clothes while traveling. Once in La Borie des Combes, we can keep some of this stuff in our rooms. We learned long ago to make sure we each carry at least one credit card that the other doesn't carry so that if one of us loses their purse or wallet, the other has a credit card that hasn't been compromised and can be used to pay our way out of our troubles.

Gotta run to get this adventure off to a good start. Will share a bit of the Dordogne next post.

Aaaah! Finally France

It's been a busy few years since our last trip to France. We had intended to return every 2 years, but then life happened. 2013 would have been the time for the next trip, but son Michael married his sweetheart, Browen, in May that year and we were up to our eyeballs in wedding.  Most people would think that we could have gone in the fall instead - and seen the grape harvest as a bonus. But those of you who know my husband know that we don't travel in the fall because it is football season and we have season tickets to the University of Wisconsin Badger games. Winter months are less than ideal times (unless visiting ski resorts) for visiting France and the summer months are overrun with European vacationers and high prices.

So we started to look toward 2014 and it became obvious that my arthritic hip would not allow me to walk enough to enjoy the trip. So we postponed again while I got a hip replacement done this past May.

And now it's 2015. There's another wedding, this time in late June and in northern Wisconsin which limits how much help we can be in planning. Daughter Christie and her fiance Alex have things well in hand and have graciously given us their blessing to travel to France for April and May.

So we're off. This time to the Dorgogne. Near Sarlat-la-Caneda in southwestern France. An area we don't as yet know well, but which promises a fantastic immersion opportunity with all our favorite elements: food, wine, history, and beautiful scenery.

We've rented what promises to be an idyllic retreat for the months of April and May near a small village called Bezenac. La Borie des Combes is a 700 year-old farmhouse that housed the communal bake-ovens for neighboring medieval villagers. It has been lovingly restored by an American couple who now live full-time in France.

La Borie des Combes

We have again leased a Peugeot manual diesel car since we had such good luck with our last Peugeot. Once again this will be a brand new car and, apparently, they don't mind if we return it full of bread crumbs. (Did I mention how tasty French bread, the real thing, is?)

Dave has put new sim cards into our European cell phones and created US and European phone numbers for them.  His works fine (at least in the US), mine not so much, but we're hoping the fact that mine is a true French phone means it will start working when it can access French rather than US networks.

This time, we got credit cards with chip and pin technology so that we can use them in French self-serve kiosks such as toll-booths and unattended gas stations. We had a near disaster when I nearly ran out of gas out in the country and the only gas station was unstaffed. Then there were the few times we nearly had to run toll booth barricades because we didn't have the right change for the automatic machines. Oh, and then there was the time we had to drive over the curb in the surface parking lot because we couldn't pay for our parking ticket, so couldn't raise the barrier and exit like honest people do. There aren't many US credit card companies that support this technology (which adds an additional layer of security to using the cards) but it is possible to get them in the US if you are persistent.

We'll have lots of friends and family joining us at varying times during our stay which prompted us to rent a 3-bedroom apartment. The rooms will be full for all but a few days of our two-month stay.  We've had such fun exploring with friends in the past that we're glad we'll be sharing our experiences with so many again this time.

 There will be activity options for all interests -

• hiking and exploring the countryside
• kayaking or tour-boating on the Dordogne
• visiting endless castles and bastide towns
• visiting medieval cities and churches
• seeing pre-historic cave paintings
• farmers markets, cooking and eating great food
• and of course, exploring the wine regions of Bordeaux, St Emilion and the surrounding areas

So we're excited that it's finally time to get ready - I'll share some of the books we're reading in my next post.  It may still be winter here in Wisconsin, but it's spring in our hearts.

3 Wineries - 3 cases of wine

Our phones work well for navigating, so we're not missing the GPS too much today.  After a slow start - traveling is exhausting especially with all the delays we've had - we head up Napa Valley aiming for V. Sattui in St Helena which has tasting, a recommended deli and a picnic area. Before leaving the hotel, we downloaded a wine finder app for the Napa/Sonoma region that has lots of two for one tastings coupons. Looks like the days of free tastings are over and most seem to want $15 or more per person. Some will waive the tasting fee if you buy.

   

V. Sattui Winery and Deli

B

Tasting at V. Sattui is great. Wines are sold only at the winery, but shipping is only $25 per case. We buy a case of wine with a mix of white cabernet sauvignon, merlot, and zinfandel. We saved one slot for a bottle of Angelica - a blend of moscat juice and brandy. A great after dinner drink.

 





From the deli we purchased French bread, cheese and grapes for a picnic lunch. The weather was partly sunny and mild, perfect for a picnic on the first day of November, don't you think? The mild climate still shows fall - trees are turning color - the vines are likewise shades of yellow and red.  We've noticed that roses are often planted at the ends of the vine rows. They and other flowers are still in bloom and add beautiful colors to the winery landscapes.

 Next stop was Louis Martini. We had tasted a wonderful Cabernet Sauvignon (red) at a wine tasting a few weeks ago. Our wine host told us it was unavailable in the stores locally, but it was on the tasting menu. It was the one I loved and so we bought a case. Case number 2.  Unfortunately, shipping was around $70, so any savings in purchasing from the winery are eaten up in shipping.

We learned throughout the week that wineries use different shippers and that the shippers are the ones who maintain the agreements with the states.  (When shipping wine, it must be signed for on delivery by someone over age 21.) They also are the ones who set the shipping prices.

 Wine tasting works pretty similarly in all wineries.  You belly up to the bar where there is a list of the wines you can taste.  You often have a choice of a classic or normal tasting or reserve tasting (the more expensive wines the winery produces.)  There are generally 4-6 wines in each category.  There's usually a container for pouring wines you don't like or if you are watching how much wine you are taking in.  Some places offer crackers or breadsticks or water to cleanse the palate or rinse your glass between tastings.  The wines are tasted generally from lightest whites to darkest reds.

Next and last tasting stop was Charles Krug. Christie and I had bought wine here in 2005 and Dave remembered these being the among his favorite wines. So we stopped, tasted and agreed that Charles Krug wines really suit our taste. Case 3. Time to stop tasting for the day! Too much money, too much wine.

Although, I was the drinker and Dave was the sipper today. Tomorrow he gets his revenge - I drive, he drinks while we explore Sonoma County.

Coming off-season is such a joy. We typically had the tasting server's undivided attention. There were few others in the tasting room with us. We got tips, extra tastes (one was a $75 Cabernet Sauvignon - so smooth) and vineyard stories. Just plain nice folks, very little salesmanship.


The day started foggy, lifting by the time we arrived in Napa Valley. We worked our way up Highway 29 through Napa, Yountville, St Helena and Calistoga. The sun on the mature yellow and red vines was beautiful. So different from the spring sun on the emerging vines when we were in Languedoc. I'll post photos once I get home - I'm currently working on my iPad and there's no way to input photos to this device. (Why would you build a tablet that couldn't talk to other devices? But I digress.)

 Napa is so beautiful with it's rolling hills and low mountains ringing the valley. Except for the occasional palm trees, you could convince yourself that you were in Tuscany. Golden sun, Italian cyprus trees - you know those tall skinny trees on every Italian landscape painting. Much of the architecture is Tuscan feeling and the vineyards rolling across the low lying hills and broad valleys look perfectly groomed, resting from the harvest in the fall sun.

 Once north of the town of Napa (population about 75,000), the vineyards line up in a row along both sides of the highway. More than 450 fill the region. Way more than could possibly be visited in a week... sigh.

Some vineyards still had grapes on the vines.  They tasted really sweet!  Not sure why they hadn't been picked - some were clearly on the edges of vineyards and so possibly missed.  Other varieties of grapes are harvested at different times.

We finished the afternoon by side-tripping to a geyser advertised as the Old Faithful of the West. Privately owned, viewing the geyser that thankfully erupted every 5-10 minutes cost us $6 each after the senior discount. The setting in the valley was pretty, luckily, because the geyser is a bit underpowered if you've actually seen Old Faithful. It shoots tree high in a skinny spurt for a few seconds. (I missed the first eruption because I went to the bathroom. Luckily we stayed a few minutes longer and I saw it twice before leaving.) 


We also drove down petrified forest road and stopped at the *yes* private Petrified Forest site. I didn't want to pay the $9 entry for seniors, but Dave likes this kind of stuff, so he paid and spent a half hour walking the trail. He thought it was really cool.





We're back at our home base now, drinking a V. Sattui rose with our Roquefort and Red Leicester cheeses. Who needs to eat out when you have French bread and great cheeses to go with your bottle of wine?

Life is good.

November in Napa

November 1, 2012

A break from football weekends allowed us to book a week trip to Napa for the first week of November. What could be better - Napa in the fall in low season.
Psyched for wine.

Our trip from Madison to Napa was derailed a bit by some Halloween tricks. We thought we'd be ok getting out of Madison because we were headed west and the Hurricane Sandy devastation was all to the east of us. If they had a plane, we reasoned, we should be able to fly. Well, sort of.

Turns out our plane arrived with something malfunctioning in the landing equipment. We waited while the mechanic looked at it, then waited longer while a part was sent from Detroit to fix it. Finally. 3 hours past our departure time and long after our Sacramento flight departed, we were on our way to Minneapolis.

Not a total loss as we stayed with Christie and Alex and got to see all the changes going on at their house.

Since our flights were messed up, we had to rebook. Delta managed that with minimal difficulty thanks to cell phones. However, our new tickets required pre-flight check-in for seat assignment and as could be figured, we were sitting in the very last row, middle and window.

I arrived in Sacramento in a foul mood. Picked up our rental car - Ford Focus with no GPS (Dave wouldn't pay the extra $50 for the week's rental.)

One hour drive got us to our hotel in Fairfield, just a few minutes drive from Napa and lots cheaper.

This is our first Orbitz trip. We usually make all our own plans, but this was a really cheap vacation package - basic hotel, basic car, and round trip ticket for just over $1200 for both of us.

Lunch at a salad buffet place improved my humor a bit. Fresh clothes and a change of shoes helped more.

We spent the afternoon in Napa getting oriented via the tourist office and our guide books. We found wine, bread, and cheese at a deli, then picked up napkins, plates, etc at Target before heading for the hotel for an early night.

Tomorrow we taste!