Sightseeing the Gulf Coast Part 2

So, at the end of Part 1 we left off at Fort de Soto State Park, southwest of St. Petersburg.  After you leave the park you backtrack north, rejoin the Pinellas Bayway eastbound (no further tolls travelling in this direction), and in just a few minutes you pick up Interstate 275.

If, at this point, you would like to detour a few minutes north to visit downtown St. Petersburg, just take I-275 north and follow the signs.  This compact city faces the enclosed waters of Tampa Bay, and has a lovely chain of waterfront parks.  It's a great place for a stroll on the sometimes-cooler winter mornings.

St. Petersburg has a large pier with a very distinctive building at the end, which houses restaurants, patios and shops.  Park on the shore (much cheaper than the spaces on the pier itself), and walk out.  It's also a great place to get close up and personal with the pelicans.

To continue south, get back on I-275 south and keep going past the Pinellas Bayway.  Here you'll pay a toll -- a resounding, wallet-draining $1.25 -- to cross the Sunshine Skyway which stretches right across the entire mouth of Tampa Bay.  The whole crossing consists of several shorter bridges connecting islands, and linking to the 4.1 mile (6.67 km) main bridge across the central channel.  An earlier bridge of the same name was destroyed in 1980 when a freighter slammed into a main pier during a blinding thunderstorm.  The new bridge, opened seven years later, has a higher, longer central span above the shipping channel and the support piers are surrounded by large concrete "dolphin" fenders which will stop any incoming ship before it can strike the pier.

As soon as you come off the Skyway, follow the highway signs to Bradenton.  This city has some interesting historic buildings in its downtown district.  It's also the headquarters of Tropicana Juice.  You'll see a few of those old buildings as you turn right onto Florida route 64 to drive out to the next chain of coastal barrier islands.  At the end of Route 64 you are in the town of Holmes Beach on Anna Maria Island.  Turning left (south) on Route 789 you soon come to another huge public beach park in Bradenton Beach,  You can't miss it because the right side of the road simply widens out to form a sandy parking area hundreds of metres long under the overhanging trees.  Just over the dune is the beach proper.

Many of the houses and businesses on Anna Maria Island are old wooden buildings, and have plainly been around for a while.  As soon as you cross the next beach to Longboat Key, the atmosphere changes totally.  You are now in the presence of money -- big money.  It's abundantly clear that you shouldn't even look for a second at property on Longboat if you have to ask the price.  These homes have the rarest of all commodities in coastal Florida -- privacy.  The road is lined with shrubs, trees, and hedges, and while some houses are visible from the road, many are not.  Further south you actually come to a golf course, which is quite an achievement when you realize just how narrow these islands are.  It's lined with high rise condos on the far (beach) side.

As the name suggests, it takes a while to drive down the full length of Longboat Key, and then you cross another bridge to St. Armand's Key and you have plainly arrived.  The main streets radiating from St. Armand's Circle are a window shopper's paradise, although much of the merchandise for sale is very high end.  There are a couple of quirky little gift shops to add to the mix.  In one of these shops, way back on my first visit to the Gulf Coast in 2001, I bought this brass plaque:

ON THIS SITE, IN 1883, NOTHING HAPPENED.

I'm still hunting for a suitable place to stick it up.  St. Armand's alone among all these resorts doesn't just have a beach -- it has a Lido.  Oh, my.  From the Circle, you head back to the mainland along a double road with a tree-lined boulevard down the centre, and then across a high bridge to Sarasota.

Sarasota is obviously a temple to big money too, and as you look around you realize that a notable portion of this big money is Old Big Money.  This city has some eye-catching mansions, and some gigantic, towering condos that look as if they are eye-catching-mansion wannabes.  The high rises are higher than anywhere else along the coast, and more opulent, and more garish.  So are the yachts.

This is also a city where the arts are highly significant, and nothing proves that better than the huge sculpture entitled "Unconditional Surrender" in the waterfront park, based on the famous World War Two era photograph!

Back in 2008, this sculpture temporarily disappeared and was replaced by another pair of pieces from the same artist.  The first showed a man and woman conversing, apparently unaware of the gigantic tooth which had appeared close by.

Across the street in front of an office tower that same year appeared this pileup of cars.

The big attraction in Sarasota is the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art.  This ornate building inspired by the classic Italian palaces of the Renaissance, was built by the Ringlings to house their collection of artworks, and to collect others.  A quick walk into the courtyard of the museum makes you feel almost as if you have been teleported to Florence!

The Ringling money all came from the Ringling Brothers - Barnum and Bailey Circus, which used to set up winter quarters in Florida every year.  The Ringlings chose Sarasota as their home, and single-handedly made it into the place to go for Old and New Money alike in the 1920s and 1930s.  The Museum, its beautiful gardens, and its associated exhibitions, including a Circus Museum and the Ringlings' home, Ca d'Zan, are all now affiliated with Florida State University.  You can enjoy a good walk through the museums and house, and all around the sizable property and gardens.

Speaking of gardens, while in Sarasota, don't overlook the beautiful Marie Selby Botanical Gardens.

That's a far south as I got on this trip, but shortly I will also get around to blogging about the regions farther south which I have visited previously: Siesta Key, Fort Myers, Sanibel and Captiva Islands, Bonita Beach, and Marco Island.

Sightseeing the Gulf Coast Part 1

Okay, right off the bat, the Gulf Coast between Clearwater and Sarasota is not a sightseer's mecca unless your idea of sightseeing is to visit the top 20 in the Ugly Giant Condo Building Sweepstakes.

But there are a few places worth visiting.  Some of them I have seen on this trip, and some on other trips.  I'll take them in order from north to south.  The key road is Florida Route 699, which runs down the long strip of barrier island beaches all the way from Clearwater to St. Petersburg and Pass-a-Grille beaches.  It's not a fast road (speed limits vary between 25 and 35 mph) but then, this is a holiday so who's racing the clock?  Not me, for one!

In Clearwater Beach, there are plenty of gigantic palatial ugly condos.  This kind of resort isn't about getting away from it all.  It's about bringing it all with you.

But it's the Clearwater Marine Aquarium which is a must-see.  It's unique even when compared to other aquaria.  That's because this one is primarily a marine hospital, dedicated to healing injured marine wildlife and (when possible) returning them to the wild.  One of the fascinating aspects is meeting with the naturalists who explain exactly why this dolphin or that sea turtle is unable to survive unaided in the wild.  Their most famous dolphin lost her tail after an accident, and has been learning to swim with a prosthetic tail!  One of the sea turtles has suffered a permanent injury (probably from being hit by a boat) which prevents her from submerging -- it's like she has a permanent airbag inside her tail end which keeps her tail always above the water.

Going south from Clearwater you pass through Belleair Beach and Indian Rocks Beach, where there are more private homes and everything is on a much more modest scale.  The condos reappear in Redington Beach, but are not nearly as overpowering.  Along the way there are plenty of restaurants, often in older wooden buildings of great character, and assorted shops.  Big national brands are notable by their absence.  If you want those, cross one of the seven causeways linking the barrier islands to the mainland.

Carrying on south through Madeira Beach you come to Madeira Beach Village, a sort-of quaint shopping area.  A few miles farther south is John's Pass.  The "Pass" in this case refers to a navigable channel between islands from the inner lagoon to the ocean.  John's Pass was originally a fishing village, and still retains a bit of that character, but is now mainly a shopping and dining attraction.  Several of the restaurants have outdoor decks overlooking the Pass, and there is a long boardwalk stretching along the shore where you can see fishing boats, private yachts and cruisers, and pelicans.

Every time I see the pelicans, I'm always reminded of a limerick I first read many years ago:

A wonderful bird is the pelican,

his pouch can hold more than his belican,

He can store in his beak

Enough fish for a week,

Though I'm darned if I see how the helican.

As you continue down across Treasure Island and onto St. Petersburg Beach (always called St. Pete Beach for short), the surroundings get ever more touristy.  St. Pete Beach has more shopping facilities than any of the other beach communities, including half a dozen old-style surf and beach stores.  Also, the mainland chains begin appearing here.  Sigh.  At the last causeway, you see the palatial "pink palace", Loews Don Cesar Hotel, one of those classic old resorts that dotted the main beaches of Florida back in the first half of the last century.  Few now remain, and this is one of the best.

Past Don Cesar, the road gets narrower and slower as you make your way down to the old-style village of Pass-a-Grille.  The houses here are small, the streets narrow, and the beach spectacular and wide and beautiful.  If you are looking for a good ocean beach to relax on for a day, or a place to stroll around some unusual shops, this is a great location.

But back north to the last causeway, the Pinellas Bayway.  Note that this is the only one of the seven crossings that charges a toll -- $0.75, which is almost enough to break the bank!  It's a chain of bridges connecting several islands over to the mainland.  Halfway across, there's a right turn that takes you down to Fort de Soto Park.  There's one further toll bridge on this road, and that's the only admission fee you have to pay.  What I love about Fort de Soto park is that so much of it looks just as this coast looked when the first Europeans arrived: sand dunes, sawgrass, marshes, channels.  The beach here is probably the widest and certainly the wildest on the entire coastal section.  Since the whole island is a state park there is no development, no concessions to rent you a beach chair or a sailboat, no condos, no noisy restaurants.  Bring your own picnic, or grab a bite to eat from the food stand at the parking lot.  And then you can really relax, and genuinely get away from it all.

I have to finish my packing and head for the airport today (waaaah -- the weather has been uncommonly sunny and warm all week and still is).  Give me a day or so to recover from the flight home, and I'll continue the journey south in my next post.

(Note:  most of the pictures on this post are not mine.

I'm writing this while I'm still on the road and most

of the good ones are stored in my home computer.

I haven't migrated my files to CloudCuckooLand yet!)

The Ideal Resort?

Ask 100 people for a description of their ideal resort getaway, and you'll probably get 101 answers!

But if the travel ads and brochures are anything to go by, there seem to be some common factors that govern a lot of people's thinking on the subject.

Seems like the ideal resort should be big, have multiple restaurants, shops, bars, a nightclub or two, a super-gigantic pool or three as well as the beach, lots of fancy-shmancy recreational facilities, and a general atmosphere of 24-hour hedonism cranked up to overdrive.

Sorry, but that's not for me.  I am glad to report that just over 10 years ago I discovered a resort getaway in Florida that is ideal for me and other people who feel the way I do -- quiet, laid-back, friendly, small, and generally low-pressure.  In all those respects, it's a perfect fit with the area in which it's located.

The place is North Redington Beach, Florida, about halfway between St. Petersburg Beach and Clearwater Beach.  The DoubleTree Resort by Hilton is set in the middle of a string of condo buildings, and fits in with them perfectly.  It's definitely not big, brassy, or flamboyant.

Like most of its neighbours, the hotel is 6 stories tall.  It has less than 150 rooms, but over half of those face the beach.  There's a pool and sundeck, a Tiki bar and patio, another patio adjoining the restaurant, a lounge bar, and a small gift shop.  All the essentials, in other words, but nothing wildly extravagant or glitzy or show-offy.  And it suits me to perfection.  And because it's so small, you never have to walk more than a minute in any direction to reach any part of the facility.

I've come here a dozen times in the space of as many years, and it always feels good to be back.  A large part of that is that the staff are so friendly and helpful, in every way.  Last time I checked in, I had trouble with my key cards,  The concierge came upstairs with me, personally, to make sure the new cards worked as they should.

Today, I arrived early and my room wasn't ready.  The desk clerk took down my phone number, while I went to relax with a drink at the Tiki bar, and in 45 minutes I got a cellphone call to inform me that my room was now ready.  Tonight, at dinner, I got a big warm welcome (and very good service) from Daniel, the server, who remembered me from my last visit almost a year ago.

One of the beauties of North Redington Beach is that the beach is a good size, but not too gigantic.  There are some resorts on the Gulf Coast where you practically need binoculars to see the ocean from your hotel room because the beaches are so wide.  Here, the ocean is close enough that the music of the surf can lull you to sleep even with your sliding glass balcony door closed.

Rooms are a good size, beds are very comfortable (like all Hilton and DoubleTree hotels), and if the décor is a little dated that's all to the good as far as I'm concerned.  Ultra-chic modern hotels where every piece of furniture is shaped like a cube are not comfortable for me at all.  To quote from Corey Ford in a magazine article I read when I was a young boy, "Form follows function, the edict states, but the function doesn't follow my form."

The location of this hotel may be quiet, but there are a dozen or more superb restaurants within easy driving distance up and down Gulf Boulevard.  Shopping is also readily accessible in a number of nearby locations.  The fishing village, boardwalk and shopping/restaurant complex at John's Pass is picturesque, fun to visit, and about a 5-minute drive away.

Other benefits: the sinfully good DoubleTree chocolate chip cookie which every guest gets at check-in (I have to pass, of course, being diabetic) and the two-deck free parking garage.  And then there's the price!  For tonight, rooms with Gulf view were available for $119/night, which is dirt-cheap compared to many of the better-known resorts on the Gulf coast.  No, it isn't always that low, but it's often well into the "affordable" range.  It's not hard to see why -- when you're staying in a lavish resort compound with every frill and luxury under the sun, well, somebody has to pay for all those frills and you're the one who's going to pay!

And what don't you get?  Many resorts now charge many extra dollars a day for internet, for parking, and for "resort fees" which never seem to cover much.  None of that in this hotel.  And if you are a Gold or higher member of Hilton Hhonors, you will get a free and very plentiful breakfast buffet every morning, including the chance to order eggs any way you want, omelettes, and fresh-to-order pancakes from the kitchen (normal rate $17 and change including tax).

I confess, I feel a little uneasy about revealing my great secret hideaway to the world, but I take comfort in the fact that the hotel won't be getting any bigger, and that my usual habit of booking months ahead of time will ensure that I can always get back in here to be spoiled rotten whenever I want to come.

So, here are a few pictures of my Florida paradise.

View of the pool, Tiki bar and beach from my balcony:

Flowering shrubs are still blooming by the terrace in December:

View of the pool and front of the hotel, early morning:

And the Gulf Coast sunset is always spectacular:

Flying to the Sun

ADVANCE WARNING:  Much of this post is about the mechanics of air travel again.  If you are a multi-times a year seasoned traveller, read skippingly.  If you do one trip a year to the sunny south, and always seem to get into difficulties and hassles, this one's definitely for you!


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Okay, folks, I'm off on my travels again -- this time, just a short trip to my favourite beachfront hotel in Florida.  I'll be home for Christmas -- and not only in my dreams!

Way, way back in 1986 I spent several days at the Expo '86 World's Fair in Vancouver, and among my memories was this little incident.  I timed all the lineups that I had to wait in at the Fair, because I was curious to see how long I waited each time.  Mostly it was a matter of 20-30 minutes, but on this one occasion it took 45 minutes.  I joined the line right behind a couple who arrived about 10 seconds ahead of me.  Just as we were being let into the show, some friends of theirs came along and asked this couple how long they had waited.  "We've been here forever!," was his reply, and she amplified with, "Yeah, at least 2 hours!"   LOL!

I mention this because I often read people complaining about how long it takes to get anywhere or do anything in Toronto's Pearson International Airport.  Right away, I could tell them some real horror stories about some other major airports I've used that are far, far worse.  And I suspect that they are often having the same problem as that couple in Vancouver in 1986.

Having said that, I do know that the airport gets much busier at some times than at others.  If you hate long lineups, my first advice to you for a southern beach vacation is to forget the cheap charter flights and go with a scheduled airline, if you can.  Here's why.  The only way the charter airlines can make money is to keep their planes in the air for every possible hour.  This can often mean, depending on your destination, either the dreaded 6:30 am departure (with the obligatory 2-3 hours early to check in) or the equally horrendous red-eye, leaving just before midnight and arriving at your resort's airport at 3:00 am. 

True, there are some destinations where scheduled alternatives are not available -- but Florida certainly isn't one of them.  For each of the three main travel regions of Florida -- the Gulf Coast, Orlando, and Miami/Fort Lauderdale region -- there are multiple choices of both kinds of flights.  And fortunately, for those of us starting from Toronto and region, there are no time zone changes!

So here's the bonus.  My flight leaves Toronto at 10:55 in the morning, and arrives in Tampa 3 hours later.  I get to wake up at a normal hour, have time for a good breakfast in my hotel before heading to the airport, and at the other end I pick up my rental car and drive to my destination before the afternoon rush hour begins.  I'm also passing through both airports at an off-peak time of day.  That's what I call a win-win situation!

My experience at Toronto is that when I pick a flight leaving at the off-peak, I can usually get from hotel room to the boarding gate in less than an hour all in, including shuttle to the airport, baggage drop, security, and walk to the gate.  Add about 15-25 minutes for a flight to the United States where you have to pre-clear U.S. Customs before going through security.  Add on another half hour of safety margin, and I've never once come anywhere close to missing a flight.

Here's the second hint.  As soon as you get to the airport, get out your boarding passes and passports and don't put them away.  I've seen people waste incredible amounts of time storing their documents away into a nicely-zippered wallet tucked into a neat little inside pocket of a tightly-packed carry-on bag, only to have to reverse the process and dig them back out a few minutes later.  And then they do the same thing again!  Talk about not learning from your mistakes.  Even at the boarding gate, you need to show that passport to get on the plane, so don't put it away until you're aboard.

Both the USA and Canada have greatly streamlined their customs/immigration procedures at Pearson by introducing scanners that instantly scan and save your landing card with your personal information on it.  Usually, I get asked no questions now, or perhaps one at most.

Once you're through security and inside the terminal, look UP -- because that's where the signs are, giving directions to the various gates.  They aren't painted on the floor!  This is one time in your life when you can waste a phenomenal amount of time and energy by burying your nose in your phone and texting as you walk off down the wrong corridor all the way to the end -- and I see people do just that almost every time I go through the airport now!

If flying to Florida, I highly recommend Tampa Airport as a destination because of the incredibly short walking distances involved.  The main terminal is compact, and there are direct escalators linking the floors on all sides.  The five satellite concourses with the gates are linked to the main building by electric shuttle trains which take less than a minute.  You clear security after taking the shuttle to your satellite, which means that there are five different security areas.  Even on peak period flights, I've never taken more than 30 minutes to clear security at Tampa.  When you arrive, you step off the shuttle and right in front of you are two escalators down to the two different baggage claim areas.  Pick-ups for hotels, car rentals, taxis, and private vehicles are right outside the doors beside each set of baggage carousels.  I wish every airport was this easy to use!

By the way, one of the nastiest drawbacks of travelling to Orlando is that many discount airlines now use the Orlando-Sanford airport, located many, many miles away from central Orlando and even farther away from the theme parks that are this region's # 1 attraction!  Distance from Disney World:  Sanford is only about half an hour closer to Disney than Tampa Airport!  Factor that travel time and cost in when pricing that temptingly cheap discount air fare!  On the other hand, if you can get a good flight into St. Petersburg/Clearwater Airport you will be about 20 minutes driving time closer to the beaches than at Tampa Airport.

And finally -- once you have landed and gotten into that rental car, be prepared to drive.  And drive.  And drive.  Florida's cities are spread out over phenomenal areas of land in relation to their population, and you will have to drive past miles of shopping plazas, fast food restaurants, churches, and motels before you finally get near the beachfront resort you've chosen.  Tourist brochures print misleadingly small maps which make it look as if that great little restaurant is just a few blocks away, and then you find out it's a 20-30 minute drive in each direction.  Not much you can do except grin and bear it.

After I actually get there, I'll do another post about my favourite resort and why I love it so much, and then one about some of the little attractions of the surrounding region.

Britain: The Last Words (until next time!)

Well, I am now back in Canada, and for those of you following my trip you will know what a great variety of experiences I enjoyed in 2 weeks.

This just seemed like a good time to share a few more general observations and helpful hints about travel in the British Isles.  So here are my useful info bites, in no particular order.

[1]  Driving on the left is not difficult.  Driving down very narrow streets with cars parked on both sides and a bus or truck coming at you the other way is difficult.

[2]  British hotels have small rooms.  I mean small.  Deal with it.  Beds are firmer than in North America and pillows are thinner.

[3]  British bathtubs stand much higher above the floor than North American tubs.  Practise your leg raises before you go.

[4]  Breakfast:  grilled tomatoes (pronounced "to-MAH-toes") and mushrooms are standard.  Black pudding is frequent.  Fried bread appears once in a while.  It's just a slice of bread fried crisp in the pan after the bacon is done to soak up the bacon grease.  And the bacon looks and tastes different.  Some places now also offer "streaky bacon" -- that's the regular kind eaten in Canada and the USA.

[5]  Britain is expensive.  Prices for most items are double the Canadian prices, give or take a bit.  In London the prices are much higher again, especially for hotels.

[6]  Pubs: a "pub" is now almost any restaurant which the owners choose to call a pub.  It may be a traditional oak-lined local pub, or it may be a glossy modern gourmet palace.  In a traditional pub you order drinks and food at the bar.  You are then given your drinks, and your food is brought to you when ready.

[7]  When travelling by bus, train, or air, a "single" isn't a person travelling alone.  It's a one-way fare.

[8]  When parking, take a good look around to see if there are any "Pay-and-Display" machines nearby.  This is an alien species that is rapidly taking over the British Isles and all its car parks.

[9]  Parking "stalls" (spaces) are all designed for cars the size of an obese skateboard.  Most cars are now much bigger than that and so there isn't a lot of room to spare.  Deal with it.

[10]  Watch out for rogue bricks sticking up out of brick sidewalks and roadways to trip you.  Some of the more aggressive bricks may jump at you.  Ditto for cobblestones.

[11]  The population of Britain divides equally into 2 groups: those who walk on the left side of a sidewalk and those who walk on the right side of the sidewalk.  Members of both groups will give you an ugly stare as you walk directly into their path.  You can't win.

[12]  "Queueing" is mandatory.  It means lining up for something or some place.  Do not, repeat NOT, ever try to jump a queue.  You will be politely but coldly reduced to quivering shreds of shame and remorse on the ground.

[13]  British coinage is heavy -- especially the pound coin.  Try to spend it as quickly as possible so you don't walk around with a 10 degree list to starboard.  But do keep one pound coin on hand (see below)

[14]  If going to a "leisure centre" (translation: public pool and/or gym), the lockers in the locker room require a pound coin to lock the door and release the key.  You get it back when you open the locker again.  Remember to take it with you, that's nearly $2 we're talking about!

[15]  Old British towns and cities have terribly narrow and twisty streets.  Some are restricted to pedestrians only.  Parking is rare and expensive, and parking fines are common and much more expensive.  If there is a Park-and-Ride on the outskirts, use it!  Many towns and cities have them.

[16]  Coffee placed in hotel and B&B guest rooms is instant coffee -- together with a kettle for boiling the water.  Not to worry, it tastes much more like the real thing than North American instant coffee (for my tastebuds, anyway).  And the little milk tubs hold real milk, not the liquid chemical slop so often seen here.

[17]  If your hotel or B&B is in an older house (many of them are), be prepared for sloping and irregular floors, slanting walls, and creaking boards.  Maybe even a resident ghost or two....

[18]  Familiar brand names and logos abound in food and drink.  Just expect that they will taste different from the versions you are accustomed to.  Especially true of Starbucks.

[19]  In a restaurant or breakfast room, if asked "Black or White?", this is not a declaration of racial segregation.  It means "Do you want your coffee straight up or with milk?"  If with milk, you may be offered a choice of warm or cold milk.  Starbucks does this in the UK.  Don't expect cream.  Learn to like milk in your coffee or do without.

[20]  A "bap" is a bread roll with fillings.  Usually called this when bought at a take-away shop.

[21]  "Chips" are french fries.  "Crisps" are potato chips.  Keep that straight.

[22]  If going to a theatre or concert, the "stalls" are the ground floor seats.

[23]  On the "motorway" (freeway) you are not allowed to fill up the fast lane by driving all the way in that one, and you are not allowed to pass on the left (which would be the same as passing on the right in North America).  Apologies to all Ontarians who think the fast lane is the only one you are supposed to drive in.

[24]  On all other highways, you may not get anywhere very fast at all.  Don't plan long distance drives off the motorways.  It doesn't work.  Get very used to these narrow, twisty roads before you even dream of trying to pass someone.

[25]  Especially in towns and cities, do not expect to drive in a straight line to where you are going.  Be prepared for lots of twists and turns due to one-way streets, pedestrian-only streets, and so on.  British towns mainly predate the invention of "town planning".

[26]  "Lifts" are elevators.  Everywhere you go, the lifts now talk to you.  The voice is the same everywhere too -- female, cultivated, slow-spoken and bland.  Evidently the lifts are a species of cloned alien beings, perhaps remotely akin to the Pay-and-Display parking machines.

[27]  Also in lifts:  the ground floor is often labelled "0".  In such cases, the floor above the ground floor is "1", and so on up.  The basement may well be called "-1".

[28]  Many, but not all restaurants, now add a service charge to the bill.  Where this is done, the standard amount seems to be 10%.  Use that as a guideline in places where the charge is not added.

[29]  If, God forbid, you need a pharmacy for any reason, what you really need is a "Chemist".  The chain of Boots Chemist shops is ubiquitous and numerous.

[30]  Many stores sell pre-made sandwiches, individually packaged.  These are much, much better than their distant North American poor cousins.  Whole grain bread is common, cheese is real cheese, not processed slices, and meat is usually better too.  If the sandwich label mentions "pickle" don't expect sliced dills.  It's the short term for "Branston pickle", a kind of sweet relish with a rich nutty taste that's hard to describe.

Austere Majesty

One final half day left before returning my rented car, and what to do?  A quick look at the map reveals all kinds of interesting possibilities within reasonable distance from Maidenhead (my starting point) and Heathrow Airport (where I had to end up).  I was up and packed and fed in good time this morning, which broadened the field even more.  My final choice was a great location for a half-day getaway, and I did stick to the half-day frame as I had returned my car at Heathrow by 2:30 pm.

In the end, I opted for a day trip to Salisbury.  According to both tradition and law, Salisbury is ranked as a "City" because it is the home of a Cathedral of the Church of England, and the seat of a Bishop.  But by geographic standards, it's better described as a comfortably medium-sized town, with a central district chock-full of old buildings -- far more of them per hectare than most British cities can boast.

At the end of one shopping street you find this ancient gate, and passing through it you find yourself in the middle of a very large open green space, surrounded by buildings of many time periods.

This is the Cathedral Close, an area of land belonging to the Cathedral and under control of the Bishop.  This is the largest Cathedral Close in the United Kingdom, and by quite a wide margin.  And in the middle is the crown jewel of Salisbury, the Cathedral.

This particular Cathedral pushes to the limits in several interesting and somewhat contradictory directions.  It was built in the 1100s, uncommonly quickly (a matter of less than forty years, and for a hand-crafted stone church on this scale that's FAST!).  Thus, the entire structure displays uncommon unity of design and appearance.  That also brings up the second key fact, namely that the Early English Gothic style exemplified by this particular Cathedral was very plain and unornamented.  Indeed, windows were not often filled with coloured glass but with a palette of assorted greys.  The interior is dominated by the light grey limestone of the walls and the polished dark Purbeck marble used in some of the supporting columns.

One of the few notes of colour is struck by the vivid contemporary Gabriel Loire window in the chapel behind the main altar.

The result, compared to some of the later cathedrals, is rather austere and even plain in appearance, yet still has undoubted majesty and beauty of form.  The open nave running the full length of the church, uninterrupted, is among the tallest in England, and also somewhat narrower than many others, creating an impression of even more lofty heights.

The immense spire is the tallest in England and, at 123 metres, is one of the tallest stone spires in the world.  It was added two centuries later, but definitely signals a more outgoing, even vaunting approach to the Cathedral's development.  It has also caused a great deal of difficulty, due to the immense extra weight it imposes on the building (calculated at 6500 tonnes).  Special measures have had to be taken to prevent the weight of the spire bringing about its own collapse.  If you stand next to one of the four columns that form the main crossing and support the tower, and look straight up along the column, you can see it bending inwards.  Extra stone and metal supports in a number of key places have been used to stabilize the spire.  Even so, it leans out of a true vertical alignment.

Next to the Cathedral on its southern side is the Cloister, again the largest one in the British Isles.  This would have served as a place of meditation for the priests and canons of the Cathedral, and in warmer weather could also have been used for eating, reading, or working.

Off the east side of the Cloister is the Chapter House (photographs, alas, are not allowed).  Here is displayed one of the real treasures: one of only four authentic copies of Magna Carta, the Great Charter signed by King John in 1215 which stands at the root of most of the legal system of the U.K. and Canada, among others.  It's been carefully preserved, and it's amazing to look at this vellum document and reflect that next year it will be 800 years old!

I first came to Salisbury in 1979, and that's 35 years ago now!  I was 25 at the time.  Even at that young-ish age, I took one look at the exterior and interior and realized that this Cathedral's design had a huge influence on the architect of St. James Anglican Cathedral in Toronto.  Although executed on a much smaller scale, the design of St. James echoes many features of Salisbury, not least the groups of three pointed windows, the centre one taller than the two others.  It's also not hard to see that the spire of St. James, and its height relative to the rest of the structure, find a precedent at Salisbury.

By the way, any of you familiar with Salisbury Plain may be wondering if I also visited the other famous historical monument of the region, Stonehenge.  The answer is "No".  I have been to Stonehenge twice in the past, and both times have found it disappointing.  Due to the size of crowds, there have to be extensive parking lots and walking trails around the site, while access to the interior of the stone circles is normally forbidden.  It's impossible to come to grips with any kind of mystical quality when surrounded by clamouring tourists all getting in each other's way with cameras.  Even the size of the stones doesn't make a noticeable impact on me when I have to be content to look at them from so many metres' distance.

(Not only that, but I never saw any armadillos, either singly or in pairs.)

By contrast, at Salisbury an hourly prayer is offered for a few minutes at the top of the hour throughout the day.  When the voice came over the PA system announcing the prayer, silence fell throughout almost all of that vast church.  Silence takes on an extra weight and perhaps meaning when experienced in a very large space like this.  The quality missing at Stonehenge came through very clearly indeed for me during that short prayer time.

The Ultimate Royal Castle

To anyone who knows the exact location of Maidenhead, where I am currently based, it will come as no surprise that I took advantage of a cloudy day with misty drizzle to visit Windsor Castle.

Windsor Castle is a remarkable amalgam of many different things.  It is one of the state residences of the Queen.  It houses a remarkable chapel, bigger than many cathedrals, whose services are attended by both residents of the area and visitors.  It's a mediaeval fortress and a royal palace.  As a museum, it houses an extensive displays of artworks, furniture, fine china, historic weapons and armour, and many other artifacts from the state collections and the Queen's personal collections.  There are also changing exhibitions from time to time.  It's a historic monument of great significance, as well as encompassing a capsule view of much of British history.  And the architecture of this massive complex is memorable in its own right.

The Castle's website advises visiting before 9:30 or after 11:30.  To me that sounded like the perfect excuse to start with lunch!  Just outside the gates of the Castle are a few very old buildings, one of which is the so-called "Crooked House", now a restaurant.  Just beyond it lies the "Carpenter's Arms", a traditional pub, and that's where I headed.

I was a little surprised when the menu was identical (or nearly so) to the "Crown" in Oxford, but then I remembered having heard that many of the traditional pubs have been bought up and standardized by one or two major companies -- this one being Nicholson's.  It doesn't bother me.  The pub looks like a pub ought to look, they have cider on tap, and the fish and chips tasted very authentic!  On the way out, I stopped to admire the etched-glass window which I had faced in reverse from inside while I was eating.

I then walked around the corner to the Castle entrance, purchased my ticket, passed through security check with no trouble, and headed into the sprawling complex.  I had to borrow a rather grainy aerial photo from online to show the true scope of the Castle.  The whole area to the right of the central Round Tower is the palace section.

And it is near the Round Tower that you enter the Castle.  You walk around the semi-circular walkway between the two walls on the left of the Tower.  On the way around you get great views of the military architecture (this is definitely the "fortress" section) as well as the beautiful gardens in the moat at the foot of the hill where the Round Tower stands.

You then proceed out onto the North Terrace, with beautiful views across the town towards the famous and elegant chapel of Eton College across the river.

From the North Terrace you enter the ceremonial wing of the palace, known as the State Apartments.  At this point, you are forbidden to take any pictures.  It's not hard to understand why.  Many of the textiles, paintings, and the like could easily be damaged by repeated exposure to flash photography.  A little searching online will soon help you find pictures taken by authorized photographers that will give you the idea.

The lavishness of the room decoration reflects the centuries of work that went into creating these enormous rooms.  Painted and carven ceilings, window frames, mirror frames and fireplaces are everywhere.  So is gold and gold leaf.  The furniture pieces include many that have been brought here from elsewhere for display.  So too with the hundreds of paintings.  Somehow, I doubt that the king's dressing room was really decorated to the last inch with twice-life-sized portraits of his ancestors!

The enormous collections of historic weapons and armour are all creatively displayed.  One corridor is completely lined with glass cases housing numerous china services from many of the world's greatest makers.  Marble tables with gilded legs and chairs with gilded frames and velvet cushions abound, as do gilded lampstands and crystal chandeliers.  Along the route, there are several photo and video displays which allow you to see the Castle as it appears when being used as the venue for a state banquet or other similar event.

Before touring the State Apartments, you may if you wish visit the display of Queen Mary's Doll House.  I have not bothered on either of my two visits, but I have no doubt it is as remarkable as anything else to be seen at Windsor.

You emerge into the courtyard surrounded by the palace complex, and this lets you appreciate its true and full size (the State Apartments occupy only the north side of the palace wings).

You then exit into the Lower Ward of the Castle via the gatehouse beside the Round Tower, and begin walking downhill towards the lower gate and exit.  Here I paused to take  a selfie (that's an interesting challenge with a SLR camera!) just to prove that I really was there!



And then I took a picture looking down the entire length of the Lower Ward.



Along the way to the exit, on the right side, is the extraordinary and beautiful St. George's Chapel, built in the 1400s at the height of the English Perpendicular Gothic style.

The unusual, almost parabolic, curve at the tops of the nearest windows is repeated inside in an even more flattened form in the beautiful fan-vaulted ceiling.  The master mason who carried out this work, Henry Janyns, was indeed an inspired engineer and architect.  The vaulting is decorated with heraldic crests known as "bosses" at the intersections of the vaulting tracery.  This chapel is the official chapel of the Order of the Garter, and the Knights of the Garter hold their ceremonial church service here every year.  Again, I've had to borrow a picture because amateur photography is barred in the Chapel.

From there, I proceeded down the rest of the hill and out the gate, bringing my sightseeing for the day to a close.  And with a considerable case of "tourist feet" (again), I headed back to the car and returned to Maidenhead and my hotel.

A Circle Tour and Two Shows

I'm now at my next to last stopover before heading home, in the town of Maidenhead, which is just west of Windsor.  I came here to spend a couple of days visiting with my good friends Janine and Lisa.  Janine is a former colleague from Elliot Lake Secondary School.  Her mother and sister both live in Woodstock, near my home, so we're all good friends!

On Saturday night, Janine cooked up a great turkey dinner in honour of Canadian Thanksgiving, and we had a good visit.  Yesterday, she picked me up at my hotel and took me on a little circle tour by car of some of the smaller towns and villages around about.  Our one extended stop was at the town of Marlow, which -- like Maidenhead -- is on the Thames River.  This river meanders back and forth in great big loops across the countryside.  So it's a little confusing to find that the river is on the east side of Maidenhead, and then you can drive west to Henley -- which is on the river -- and then go northeast to Marlow -- which is also on the river -- and..., well, you get the idea!

Anyway, Marlow is another attractive English country town.  This means that you have a High Street with all the main shops, cafes, banks, restaurants, and the like.  You have buildings of all ages from the 1200s to the 2000s rubbing shoulders, but discreetly, and the most modern ones are sometimes hidden from view behind an older facade.  There are always a handful of old pubs and inns, dating way back, such as the George and Dragon (a common pub name).

There's always a lovely old parish church with its graveyard.  In Marlow, the church (All Saints) has a particularly imposing tower and spire and a lovely setting right by the river.  

Close, by, a chain suspension bridge finished in 1832 spans the river.  It is one of two existing bridges built by William Tierney Clark, the other being the similar but larger bridge spanning the Danube at Budapest.

During the late 1700s and early 1800s a great web of canals stretched across the landscape, and canal boats carried passengers and freight between many of the major towns and cities.  The Thames River formed a major link in this network, and numerous locks and weirs were built to keep the river level consistent and move the canal boats up and down the stream.  A weir and lock are located just downstream from the bridge.

From Marlow we continued circling through villages such as Cookham and Bray, and made our way down to Windsor, where we stopped for lunch.  Windsor Castle was not on the agenda, as that is an extended visit all on its own and we had other plans!  And, alas, that is where the pictures stopped because rain was in the forecast.

After lunch, the three of us drove into London to the Tate Gallery, which has mounted a major exhibition of the late works of J. M. W. Turner, one of my favourite artists.  The Tate houses the Turner Bequest, and for this special exhibition their collection was supplemented by works borrowed from other galleries.  Certainly the classic paintings such as Rain, Steam and Speed: The Great Western Railway, or The Angel Standing in the Sun were shown, in context, alongside many lesser-known works.  Also on display were pages from the artist's sketchbooks, his palettes and palette knives, his spectacles, and the like.  All was arranged to show how his style continued to evolve quite dramatically during the later years of his life while his subject matter remained consistent in many cases.  All in all it was a fascinating and informative show!

We then went out to dinner, and then to the Duchess Theatre.  The Play That Goes Wrong is a side-splitting farce, the kind that wears you out because you laugh so hard.  If it wasn't precisely great theatre it certainly was great fun.  You can read my detailed reactions to the show here:

An Outrageous Evening of Farce

The beauty of the 7:00pm curtain time is that we were able to make it back to Maidenhead and our respective quarters in very good time, so it wasn't a late night out!