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I have just come back from a short (3 week) trip in the UK (England and Wales). I went over for a short course in Cambridge (Genetics of Multifactorial Diseases) and took advantage of the ‘free trip’ to spend some time touring. As you can imagine, I tried to see as much ‘Medieval’ stuff as possible. I’m going to be describing parts of my trip and some things that I learned in a series of articles in the Seraph. I plan to cover London, Shrewsbury, Ludlow, Clun, and Cardiff (in that order). Please ask me if you want more information, especially regarding travel, accommodations, etc. I cannot describe it all in short articles.

I started my journey in London. As I have been to London before, I did not have to rush around seeing all of the sites. There are many and one can spend weeks viewing London alone. I usually avoid ‘touristy’ things, but I bought a ticket (£12) on a ‘hop on/hop off’ tourist bus. They have several routes that go around the city, and real guides (as opposed to tapes) to point out interesting things. The tickets are good for 24 hours and you can jump on and off the bus at will. I bought one the night I got there to try to stay awake so I would not be that affected by the time change, and then used it to go to the Tower the next day. It was well worth the money, and I would highly recommend it to anyone going to London. It is a great way to get an overview of the City. Plus, you can jump off for any reason, like seeing a good restaurant, etc. (Warning - if you jump off right after they describe the first Irish pub in London and you have red hair they presume you are going to visit it (correctly) and announce it to the bus).

The tower of London is probably one of the most popular sites in the city. Construction on the White Tower was begun in the reign of William the Conqueror/Bastard and finished in 1087. They have uncovered the stairway where the bodies of the ‘princes of the tower’ were found; the bones have been moved to Westminster Abbey. Inside the tower is the Chapel of St. John the Evangelist, I signed up for the (free) tour of this chapel with one of the Yeoman Warder (they do all the tours in the tower). I was only 1 of 3 who went on the tour, so I got a lot of questions answered. Most people only go on the typical tour which is crowded, mine had over 100 of us. The white tower now contains an armory display, it was impressive but I kept thinking “I see things like this lying around my camp all the time!” There are several other towers in the tower; the ‘medieval tower’ had costumed performers (13th century). They were entertaining, but I think I surprised them with my questions about their shoes. I was impressed with the chandeliers and caliber’s, and of course took notes & pictures in the interest of recreating them. The broad Arrow Tower contained a very interesting 14th century tunic that I sketched. I couldn’t see all of it, nor could I touch it - there was a piece of glass in the way. The big differences that I noticed from ‘our’ types of tunics are1) it was lined with ‘pink’ material and was very thick (padded). 2) the neck was not cut as deep as we make them, and 3) there were vertical seams that did not connect material but probably held the padding in place. I’m not surprised that their tunics were thicker than ‘ours’, the UK is colder than California. They consider temperatures over 800 F to be ‘hot and clammy’. Needless to say, I was cold often!

On the guided tours of London, I learned the meaning of several expressions. Here are a few which I found amusing. ‘On a soapox’ comes from Speakers Corner, which is an area of Hyde Park that individuals are allowed to speak their mind. Free speech is always allowed in Britain, however, only in this area of Hyde park are individuals allowed to address more than 12 individuals at a time. The speakers must stand at least 6 inches off British soil (hence they used to use a soap box). So technically, they are not on British soil. ‘Nelson’s Blood’ (have you heard the lyrics ‘drop of Nelson’s Blood wouldn’t do us any harm’)? Lord Nelson died the battle of Trafalgar and his body was returned to England for burial. Since they did not want the body to decompose, they pickled him in Brandy for the return journey. When he arrived in England, it was discovered that the sailors had drunk over half of the brandy. ‘One for the road/ on the wagon’. Prisoners who were being taking to be hung were allowed to drink beer on the road enroute ‘one for the road’, except the driver who was ‘on the wagon’.

Rowanna's Travels Part 1: London.