Enjoying retirement
In The Red Rose County
Visits to Katherine and David started off in Glasgow with a trip to The Glasgow Science Centre, a pretty impressive building. And the first thing we saw inside was a view out of the windows of a sea plane landing jetty - most unusual. The Centre itself was absolutely brilliant, loads of very clever interactive displays always well explained and all great fun. Usually at something like this a lot of the 'gadgets' would be broken, but not here. Splendid views of Glasgow across the water too........ I would give the Centre top marks, great fun was had by all of us. It is set in a conglomeration of modern buildings which as a group are very interesting indeed. Anyway, lunch beckoned. On the way we passed an Orange Centre with flags flying...... And our destination was 111 Restaurant run by a Senegalese refugee. You have a tasting menu. Often these are pretentious and expensive. Here, not a bit of it....5 courses for £30, and you have the option of guessing every dish which we did quite successfully I might add. On every dish there were a host of flavours each of which stood out individually, the mark of a great cook. An amazing place, amazing value. Next to a Banksy exhibition at the Glasgow Gallery of Modern Art. Great fun and long queues..... Pics not allowed but in the exit hall scribblers were allowed. Like a lot of modern cities there is in Glasgow a blend of old and new. The impression we formed in our brief visit was very favourable indeed. Here's where I lost my first £5 bet. I wagered Aiisha she couldn't get grandma to do a public dance on Glasgow station.......and lost. Next day we went on the train to Aberdour..... past Murrayfield (built like a fortress)..... some nice buildings....... ....and over the Forth Bridge. At Aberdour we walked to Silversands beach and, on this changeable day, had a bit of fun .....and a mediterranean-style lunch..... We then decided to walk along the Fife coastal path to Burntisland.....very pretty too. On our way the Royal Scot sped past complete with old-fashioned Pullman carriages - this is just after! Burntisland was a bit of a mixture of historic buildings, independent shops, and some truly awful Sixties or Seventies concrete blocks designed with slit windows more appropriate to a high-security prison. That didn't bother us as we were off to the fair for Aiisha to spend the two wagers I had lost, and money kindly provided by her Dad. Not only was the fair good but Aiisha won a friend. And talking of friends the fairground people were the friendliest we have ever come across, allowing her extra time and rides and goes..... After a fair what better than an icecream? At the fair Aiisha also won two pop-ups, so an opportunity to gather all of her collection together at home..... Roxie has to have walks even in the rain. Still good views though. On our last morning, avoiding the second Coronation as best we could, we took Aiisha and friend Eva to Leith to the skating rink. A wander around Leith to our lunch showed us that it is still a working port........ and has many fine buildings of its own. Next, to London. The rail journey on the East Coast is quick and scenic........here we speed past Alnmouth. Our first destination - Wimbledon, where this year we had tickets for Number One court. What an amazing place Wimbledon is....everything neat, tidy, ordered and beautiful. The atmosphere is like nowhere else on earth - middle-class england enjoying a day out watching sport of the highest quality. We saw that Court 12 right at the far end of the Wimbledon complex seemed to have the best mix of matches so we queued (only for 10 minutes) to get on. The anticipation is great. We were rewarded by seeing Muchova v Neimeir and the finish of a match involving the charismatic Berrittini. We were really lucky to gain seats right at the front - you could almost touch the players. We were also lucky to see Katie Boulter win. The Brits wouldn't last much longer however.... Lunch at the Bistro - salmon and a nice glass of white wine - was delicious. Great service too and we were told that where we were sitting was usually a tennis court - close to the action again! Late afternoon we eventually used our expensive Court Number One seats. Again superb positions right behind the Press section........ We had never queued for general entry but we had enjoyed the day so much that we arrived reasonably early the next day to see if we could get in. The answer was no. A steward advised us that the queue was six hours long and the ground was already at capacity! Off we went on the bus to Twickenham and Marble Hill House. Marble Hill was built in the 1720s for Henrietta Howard, mistress of King George II when he was Prince of Wales, as a retreat from court life. Both house and garden were designed with advice from the most fashionable gentlemen of early Georgian England. Saved from destruction and development by an Act of Parliament in 1902, Marble Hill is the last complete survivor of the elegant villas and gardens that once bordered this part of the Thames. The villa is an important and relatively rare example of a house built for and by a woman in Georgian England. It’s a textbook example of Palladian architecture, the fashionable style based on classical principles and inspired by the 16th-century Italian architect Palladio. Henrietta and her home became a magnet for London’s cultural and political élite – including her neighbours Alexander Pope, John Gay and Horace Walpole – on a scale said to rival the royal court. Here is Henrietta........Henrietta Howard was born in 1689 into a titled and respected family, the Hobarts of Blickling Hall in Norfolk. However, her early life was far from easy. By the time she was 12 she had lost her father in a duel and her mother to illness, and the family was burdened with mounting debts. In the hope of finding some security, in 1706 she married Charles Howard, the youngest son of the 5th Earl of Suffolk. This was a disastrous match, as a contemporary observed: ‘Thus they loved, thus they married, and thus they hated each other for the rest of their lives.’ Charles was described as ‘ill-tempered, obstinate, drunken, extravagant, brutal’, and soon squandered what money the couple had on drinking, gambling and whoring. Henrietta was left in fear of creditors and, as she noted in one letter, for her own safety. Although trapped in an abusive marriage and plunged into poverty, Henrietta refused to accept her dire circumstances. She raised funds to travel with Charles to the Hanoverian court, in the hope of currying favour with the dynasty which would inherit the throne of Great Britain on Queen Anne’s death. Her plan was a success. On the accession of the Elector of Hanover as George I of Great Britain in August 1714, Henrietta returned to England and was made Woman of the Bedchamber to Caroline, Princess of Wales. Soon afterwards she also became mistress to the Prince of Wales (later George II). Her dual roles of mistress and servant were not always easy to reconcile, requiring great tact and diplomacy. Described by her contemporaries as handsome, witty and intelligent, Henrietta attracted the attention not only of the king but also of many notable writers, politicians and courtiers. A Chinese lacquer screen is one of the few remaining objects from Henrietta’s own collection because the contents of the house were dispersed before the property came into public ownership in 1902. However, there was a remarkable reunion in the 1980s when a series of Italian decorative paintings by Giovanni Paolo Panini returned to their original home. Otherwise the paintings, furniture and porcelain on display in the house today (much on loan from the V and A) still evoke the 18th-century love of the Orient, and suit Henrietta Howard’s taste and status pretty well. The house has only been open a few months and is still being restored - indeed one of the guides showed us into a room undergoing restoration and not yet open. The grounds are also being restored. We spotted this black walnut tree. The grounds lead down to the river, and here we sat for a little refreshment. Very pleasant. We decided to walk along the Thames Path to Twickenham, and what a lovely walk we had. Truly 'Rus in urbe'. Another grand house along our path is Orleans House now an art gallery........ The fringes of Twickenham were delightful........... And we couldn't resist a stop here at the charcterful White Swan. The church wasn't open, but if it had been and we had been able to climb the tower this is the view. Fabulous. The pedestrianised Church Street was a wonderful end to our walk....... In the evening David took us to an area we didn't know along the Thames from Chiswick and Turnham Geen to Hammersmith Bridge. Wonderful houses and architecture, brilliant pubs, restaurants and delis and great shops...... The next day we drove to Hastings, a place I had always wanted to visit. The net drying sheds were unique. And there was one road full of interesting houses, albeit a main road.......but, apart from that, Hastings was a rather sad seaside place, down in the dumps. Very disappointing. We therefore sought out nearby Rye (like Hastings one of the old Cinque ports but now inland). And what a contrast. If there is a prettier town in England I'd like to see it. Every step you take is a delight with wonderful old houses and architecture, brilliant pubs and shops, cobbled streets, alleyways and more. It is Five Star. Here the quirky 'House With Two Front Doors'. We lunched at The Standard Inn - brimming with character, great service too. The Rye Marsh lamb I had was the best ever - fat, succulent, very tasty. The sticky toffee puddings we had were like wise the best ever. What a great and lucky choice. And there were bits of Rye we didn't see, here Church Square.... the gateway.... and Ypres Tower...... We drove across the marshes to nearby Camber Sands........looked great, but windy and cold today. One more stop on the way back to see The Pantiles at Tunbridge Wells, again on my bucket list and certainly more than worth the short diversion through the beautiful countryside. I haven't mentioned the Kent oast houses, many converted into residential places of great character like these. On our last day, once more in the sun (typical English weather) we lunched outside in the cafe at Acton Park looking at the beautiful crazy golf course........all in all a wonderful week.
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August 2023
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