Last day of vacation... catching up with the blog

Well it would seem that I ran out of steam a bit, and have fallen behind in my blog writing! Truth to tell, I was so occupied with everything to do with our trip that I simply focused on experiencing things rather than writing about them. Indeed we had lots of social time, and I prefer to take advantage of the moment to visit with people, rather than being antisocial and huddling in front of a screen.


After a great sleep in the nicest of hostels, in Helmsley, we carried on to Alnwick, and stopped first at Barter Books, one of the largest second-hand book shops in Britain, where we found something for each of us to take away.


From there we decided to stop at Alnwick Castle, the home of the Duke of Northumberland and his family for over 700 years. It was positively dripping with the wealth that they have accumulated over the centuries, packed with thousands of books, silk wallcloth, bespoke woven persian carpets, an extensive china collection, and so many paintings... The castle is kept in excellent repair, and has appeared on film and television many times, most famously perhaps in the Harry Potter films, as well as in Blackadder, Elisabeth, and the two most recent Robin Hood films. Of course Hagrid and other members of the Hogwarts staff were on hand to give some demonstrations... Duncan didn't have a broomstick but he still wanted to try flying...


After leaving Alnwick we carried on pretty much straight to Garvald, to meet Rob, Viki and Katie. It was great to see them again, and to catch up on all that has been happening since we were last to visit... most importantly, none of us had seen little Katie since she arrived!

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The next day was quieter; speaking of being anti-social, I did have a solitary couple of hours, while Rob was at work, and Maggie and the boys were at a wave pool having a swim, and so I caught up on some of my musical preparations, and began to coordinate a number of urgent repairs to our house in Toronto. It's amazing how things add up, when you are not there to fix or do them yourself as they happen to break, or come loose, or need painting, etc.

I should make an aside here, on the topic of musical preparations; I actually have a lot to get ready for... I've been very pleasantly surprised by quite a few contracts for this autumn, almost all of them here in Brussels!

I wrote back in June about La Grande Duchesse de Gerolstein performances that I'm debuting here in Brussels and Louvain, and the Bach solo baritone cantata Ich will den Kreuzstab gerne tragen, but there are some more things that have just arrived. The first is a recital concert on behalf of the St. Andrew's organ fund, but that is relatively simple, since I'm doing an old favorite, Ravel's three-part Don Quichotte à Dulcinée song cycle.


Far more intimidating is the baritone solo in Orff's very famous Carmina Burana this November in Brussels, with two other soloists, three choirs en masse, a big orchestra, and a 45-voice children's choir. Carmina Burana is a wonderful, dramatic, unique piece, but that makes it uniquely challenging to perform, especially for the baritone, who has the lion's share of the solo singing; the part incorporates everything from stentorian, dramatic singing at the very top of the vocal range, to delicate falsetto coloratura, and lots in between. I've always wanted to do it, and am really excited about singing it for the first time here in Brussels. One other point that's worth making: I was approached to do the work by a contact I first made in February of 2009, which goes to show that you sometimes have to be patient, and wait for some good fortune to roll your way...


But back to Garvald, near Edinburgh... one of the reasons that Maggie, Viki and the kids went swimming was the weather; Scotland experienced heavy rains during those few days, and so there was little to do outside. Duncan and I did take Heidi the dog for a walk, and were quite shocked with how high the river had risen.

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The next day we began our road trip to the highlands. First we crossed the Firth of Forth, and saw the famous train bridge, built in 1895.


We stopped off to look at the grave of Rob Roy...


From there we continued northwest to Glencoe, a beautiful nature preserve, and also the site of the infamous massacre of the MacDonalds by the Earl of Argyll's Regiment of Foot, under the command of Captain Robert Campbell of Glenlyon.



Maggie and I weren't really prepared for the beauty of the place, and found the views breathtaking, and quite moving emotionally. My nearest Scottish ancestors have most likely been in Canada since the 18th century, but Maggie's family connection is much more recent, but we both felt something stirring inside as we gazed out over the beautiful mountains and valleys, partially shrouded in cloud and mist... and no, I don't think it was the haggis and potato pie we had for breakfast either...

UK and Scotland part 2: Stratford, Sheffield, Leeds and York

August 9th: We got up early on the morning and headed off to Stratford-upon-Avon, arriving at the city centre just as everything was opening. It was really quite nice, although a little touristic, but there were parts that reminded us of our own little town of the same name in south-western Ontario. The birthplace of Wm. Shakespeare looked quite old from the outside, and we opted not to go inside and look around, but continued through the downtown to view the old Swan theatre and the new large modern theatre and home of the Royal Shakespeare Company. Interestingly the Stratford public library seems to be doing very well; it's funded and operated by the municipality and it's open every single day of the week. Someone tell Toronto Mayor Rob Ford.


From had considered a trip to Oxford, or a visit to Warwick Castle, but opted instead to continue north to Sheffield. Maggie had been given her father's favorite pair of Sheffield dressmaker's shears as a late teen, but they had been stolen some time later while at school, and so I had a mission to find her a replacement.


Fortunately Ernest Wright and Son in Sheffield were ready to remedy the situation, and despite being in the midst of a move of their factory premises, were happy to have us into their offices, and Philip Wright, the elder partner in the business, was a font of information about various types of shears and scissors, and let us snip away to our heart's content. Maggie finally settled on the 9-inch dressmakers' shears, and we stopped for a pint of the local farmer's beer in the pub next door to celebrate.


From Sheffield it was a short 50 minutes north to Leeds, where we took in a great many fantastic displays of armaments from around the world, sat the Royal Armouries. Free admission, and lots to see and do. The Asian weapons were for me the most stunning, with many different styles of armour and swords and guns, from India, Sri Lanka, and a number of other south asian countries. The elephant armour on display there dates from the 17th century and is the only set in existence. The other highlight was the samurai sword and armour collection, which was breathtaking.


The collection there covered arms and armaments from antiquity through the centuries right up to the present day, with one gallery devoted to self-defence, modern policing techniques and equipment and gang violence.


Also in Leeds we made a quick stop at a historic site: the Refectory , where The Who on February 14th, 1970 recorded their highly regarded album "Live at Leeds".


Just because I'm an opera singer, it doesn't preclude an appreciation for other kinds of music; after all I did play a lot of Who songs in a high school rock band, and even a classical singer must pay homage to such a live record, made by "The Loudest Band of All Time" at the height of their considerable powers.


We then continued from Leeds up to York, enjoying the views of the Yorkshire countryside very much along the way, and arrived for dinner with our friends Louise and David and their two children. That was a great catch-up; they were a daily "hello" stop enroute to the boys' Brussels school for three years until they moved back to York a year ago, and we were happy to see them all again, and made lots of appreciative noises at all the beautiful work they've been doing to redecorate their house after several years abroad.

That evening after dinner we carried on a short distance to Helmsley, which is located on the southern boundary of North York Moors National Park, and it's a beautiful place with many sandstone buildings, and easy access to a great many walking tours around Yorkshire. Definitely a future destination; I can envision using the village as a base for various tours of the surrounding conservation area...

up next... Alnwick Castle, Barter's bookstore, and our arrival in Scotland...

catch-up blog, pt. 1: taking the waters at Bath

We've had a very eventful trip up through central England, on our way to Garvald. My last blog entry ended at Portsmouth, and from there we made our way northwest through Salisbury, where we stopped for dinner. The Cathedral there was already closed to visitors by the time we arrived, and we opted not to visit Stonehenge itself, saving that for perhaps the return trip, or another visit. We stopped in at the New Inn, which has a nice view of the spire of Salisbury from the garden (see photo above) and sampled some Tanglefoot ale before moving on to Bath that evening.


The next morning we went first to the Roman Baths, arriving just after opening, and therefore enjoying a leisurely visit in advance of the big crowds that started to accumulate by the late morning. The Baths are currently housed in 18th-century buildings, but have been in use most probably since before the founding of Rome in around 750 BCE. Allegedly the hot springs that occur naturally at Bath were discovered by a mythological king of the Britons, Blalud, in around 836 BC, who built a temple structure around the spring after he was cured of leprosy by its waters. Blalud is an interesting figure for a number of reasons; in later legends he is said to have created the springs himself, and also constructed wings for himself using necromancy, but is said to have been killed whilst trying to use them to fly to the temple of Apollo in Trinovantum, now London. He was succeeded by his son, King Lear, and his three daughters, of whom perhaps you may have heard?


This complex is remarkable, and it contains the best-preserved Roman bath structure, and indeed, elements of the best-preserved Roman temple in the world. In the above photo you can see the facade from the temple to Minerva (Athena) that the Romans built, including the famous "Gorgon's Head" sculptured medallion in the centre. The name seems to be a modern affectation, as the figure has a flowing moustache and beard, and the Gorgon of legend was female, and a monster, not a god. There are signs that the head is in fact that of Oceanus, or Neptune; in the corners are Tritons, half men and half fish, Neptune's servants, and in the lower left centre ground is a face helmet in the form of a dolphin’s head. Or is it a Celtic water god's face? It's all quite a mystery, but it illustrates the remarkable blending of the Celtic and Roman worlds that happened here, and elsewhere in Roman Britain.

Many different items have been found in the spring... flints that appeared to have been thrown in as offerings to the goddess in pre-roman times; jewels, beautifully carved as signets, that had been either thrown into the bath as offerings, or perhaps had their fixatives grow loose from the hot water, so that they fell from their rings to the depths of the spring while their owner was bathing.


The British Romans called this place Aquae Sulis, after the Celtic goddess Sulis, and they worshipped Sulis as a sort of aspect of Minerva, and it would seem that they frequently called upon her to intercede their behalf... a fascinating find were the many small pieces of lead foil with inscriptions that had been folded and tossed into the spring; these curse tablets appealed to the gods to right a perceived wrong, or such as a theft or betrayal, or punish the evildoer, and the vehemence of the language is really quite dramatic.


After leaving the bath complex we headed back up to the modern street level of Bath and onwards to the pump room, which is now a lovely restaurant, and sampled the water for ourselves. "Tastes like liver" was Duncan's opinion; certainly the dissolved iron in the water didn't appeal to any of us, but it's supposed to be good for you...


Just across the square is Bath Abbey, filled with wonderful memorial monuments, beautiful windows and other bits of staggering artwork. The ceiling is really stupendous, with beautiful fan vaulting, and the boys were given a quiz sheet to fill in as they explored the different corners of this historic building.

We had opted at the Baths to pay for a combined ticket, so next we headed to the fashion museum, which was worth a visit, expecially at this moment, since there was a fabulous temporary exhibition of costumes by British designers, made famous from Oscar-nominated and -winning films.


I was most taken with the Olivier "Hamlet" costume... while Duncan's taste ran rather more to "Captain Jack Sparrow" of Pirates of the Caribbean fame.


All in all, it was a very full but rewarding day, and we had a small coffee to refresh ourselves, and headed down the road to Stratford-upon-Avon... to be continued...

Victory

August 8th.
Yesterday was quite a day, with lots and lots of activities to keep us very busy. We opted to take the M-class motorway so as to get to Portsmouth early, and were able to tour the Victory, Nelson's flagship at the Battle of Trafalgar and the site of his death on the 21st of October 1805.

Quite a Nelson cult arose after Trafalgar, and that success cemented the supremacy of the British Navy, which remained unchallenged until the 20th century. There's a good book by Robin Lane Fox called "The Middle Sea" that deals with this in detail, while recounting a history of the Mediterranean. (Yes I know that Tafalgar wasn't in the Med, but you can take that up with Robin, he has his reasons). The museum collection next to the Victory was chock-full of Nelson sculptures, paintings, and more personal items like uniforms, buckles, and correspondence, as well as jewelry, including some made from Nelson's hair, all on display.

We also took in the narrated harbour tour, which, as Portsmouth is still a major Naval base and training centre, was weighted heavily with commentary on the modern warships moored there. We saw a couple of decomissioned aircraft carriers, built in the era of the harrier jet (as a kid I was fascinated by the idea of a vertical takeoff airplane and I still think they're cool), lots of frigates and some new destroyers including one in production called the "Duncan"! There was also the Monitor, a first world war vessel, and the Warrior, a huge capital ship of the Victorian era, still in the water, with three masts and two steam funnels.

The harbour is overlooked by a beautiful new observation platform, the Spinnaker Tower, which complements the port nicely. It seems to me that Portsmouth has managed to make many different eras both of boatbuilding and of architecture coexist in a peaceful and complementary way.

The most interesting part for me was the Mary Rose museum, which despite its unassuming exterior was wonderfully laid out inside. This ship of that name was a favorite of Henry VII, and it sank before his very eyes while repelling a french fleet in 1545 and stayed under water for over four hundred years before being rediscovered in 1971 and salvaged in 1982 in one of the most complex and expensive projects in the history of maritime archaeology. The ship itself is having a new museum complex built to display it, but the current museum is filled the the many "time capsule" objects that reveal Tudor customs and culture.

The kids were able to try out a number of example sets of weapons and armour, and the quality of preservation of so many artifacts was stunning. I especially liked the beautifully preserved bronze cannons, some made in England but others from Italy...

It was a lovely day out and a good start to our trip.

Note: we just got ourselves hooked up with a sim card and so just got several messages about our safety and well-being... Apparently there have been some riots in London and other cities, but we have seen no sign of any trouble and in any case our path will pass well clear of the affected places. We'll be careful.

Train to the UK

10h20. We left at 7h30 and made pretty good time, so that we were offered earlier train departures at the check-in. It means that we'll be in the UK perhaps 45 minutes earlier than planned, which means extra time in Portsmouth, touring Nelson's ship 'Victory', and seeing the famous dockyards there.

The system for getting on the train was pretty simple, and driving onto the car train was like entering a parking garage. It would seem that this is the most energy and time-efficient means of traversing the channel with a car, so we are excited to be taking the "chunnel" shuttle for the first time.

Trip to UK and Scotland

We are currently packing and getting everything assembled for tomorrow's departure. We've done the math, and have opted not to camp, but instead will make use of the excellent variety of hostels that pepper the UK. The price for a private family room in a hostel is not much more than a campsite, and I think we'll have a better time of it sleeping in a warm bed - breakfast included - than roughing it. Given that the forecast temperature in the UK tomorrow night is in the low double-digits, and the daytime temperatures aren't much higher, I'm okay with staying indoors. I hope you're getting better weather in Canada! The next time we go camping I think it will be there, maybe next summer.

The comfort factor is particularly important since we have lots we would like to see. So far the draft trip itinerary is here:

View Full Size Travel Map at Travellerspoint

We'll blog as we go, so we hope to have lots to report. We are planning visits to Roman Baths in Bath, the monument of Stonehenge, cathedrals in Salisbury, Coventry, Canterbury and elsewhere, castles in Warwick and the highlands, armouries and concert-halls in Leeds, scissor-works in Sheffield, Viking settlements in York, and dolphin sightings in Inverness; but were are looking forward even more to spending time with our friends in the vicinity of London, York and Edinburgh...

Summer part II

Essential skills for all 12-year olds:

• open a bottle of wine with a pulltaps corkscrew
• make a gin and tonic
• make a martini
• make espresso

I remember my uncle Gus telling me about pouring whisky when I was about Malcolm's age... I think it went something like, "three cubes of ice in a tumbler, then juuuust float the cubes. Then add your mix, or if you prefer leave it as is." A good skill to remember if you are making drinks for several people and don't want to be bothered with finding a measure.

This is especially true for those who choose acting as a career: Bruce tells me that Rod Maxwell, the former head of the theatre programme at Sheridan college, used to teach the first year acting class how to make cocktails, since, as he put it, "This is probably going to be their first job after graduation anyway". There is no indication from Malcolm that he wants to act, but there are worse first jobs than baristo, or bartender.

We are pretty much recovered from our trip back; it wasn't terribly stressful this time, since the flight was only a couple of hours, but I was suffering from some sort of terrible acid indigestion, and a day or two later, from terrible muscle pains. Maggie also had some of those symptoms only not as intensely... I think I got some sort of summer flu bug.

Fortunately that is over now, and I'm feeling better. We're catching up on bills and paperwork, and also finalizing our list for our upcoming trip to the UK. We have friends in the vicinity of London and York, and plan to take two or three days to make it through England on our way to Rob and Viki and Katie up in Garvald, near Edinburgh. We plan to see some of the sights in the south, and also during our Scotland stay, visit the Kilravock castle of the Rose clan, near Inverness. My mother has a family connection to the Clan Macpherson, and their castles (Ballindalloch and Cluny) are around 40-50 miles from Kilravock, so maybe in the distant past our ancestors knew each other?


I will let you know more about the trip as it unfolds, but since we haven't spent much time in England at all, we plan to see some of the historic sites on our way through. Happy August 1st to our fellow Canadians... rock out during the long weekend!