bye Wells / hello Christchurch and happy Bday

Monday June 24

Breakfast was a funny event today. James had granola and was sure the milk was off. He told the waitress, she checked and came back saying that he was right and replaced it. Kate went to help herself to orange juice and a gentleman whispered to her to be careful because he thought it was off, which it was. When Kate put something from the bowl of berries (which she had enjoyed the day before very much) on her granola she thought it was foaming. But, there were enough other things to eat and we thought it was rather funny. Nothing kills you.

David packed the car after breakfast and off we went. On the road again. David drove mainly little country roads. I was a bit too late but a minute ago this was like a one-way street with places to move into for oncoming traffic ... whoever is there first does it. Just like in Scotland I had written about earlier.

Kate and David's house in Christchurch is lovely. The weather was very nice and we took a walk around their garden. Ha-ha, I helped David pick raspberries. I am a good one to do that because I don't really care much about raspberries or blackberries. But I did help myself to a few gooseberries even though David said that they were not quite ripe yet. I thought they were delicious.

Kate had made a rhubarb upside-down cake in advance and we had that after supper.

Jane and Stephen had arrived in the afternoon from Windsor and after supper we all went to a quiz evening in a pub. Team of six. Jimmo was on a different team on the next table. He is a weekly regular. Stephen was our savior. He knew almost all the answers on the first sheet which were pictures of cartoon characters. 

Tuesday June 25

James is one of 5 siblings. The oldest (Jane) and the youngest (Stephen) have their birthday on the same day. Happy birthday, Jane! Happy birthday, Stephen! After breakfast: card opening in the conservatory. 

As a special birthday "treat" Jane got to sew patches onto Olivia's girl guide blanket. 

Lunch outside. So nice.

And then we decided to have a walk. This was new to James and me and we liked it a lot.

Wild horses!

River Avon flowing into the sea not far from here.

David and Stephen walked faster then us and waited at one point on a bench.

Typical gates on public paths were you actually sometimes walk over somebody's property.

Walking into Christchurch City Center.

Over the Avon.

Castle ruins (next to the Priory Church).

The harbor. Could not resist the concrete hippo with the duck sitting on the back. 

The Priory Church is over 900 years old. The Boathouse Restaurant (on the left) is where we celebrated James' 70th birthday . Memories!

Back at the house we had very delicious birthday cake. All chocolate. Of course we had to do the hip hip hurray twice.

Dinner was fun. It was planned to have Chinese take-out. "TopWok" was closed until 4:30 pm and David went to get a printed menu. It was too many pages to print from the website. A list was made, phoned in and it came delivered at the right time. They were big portions and (in my eyes) one of the best tasting Chinese foods I have had. No leftovers!

Before bedtime David asked whether we needed a nightcap. This bottle of Cognac actually had come from Cognac, a gift from visitors from that town. I think we helped start that bottle 1 or 2 years ago. Now we finished it. Good stuff!

Another splendid day over. Night night.

Wells on Sunday

We had agreed to meet for breakfast at 8:30 am. This first photo is especially for Helen.

Soft boiled eggs and soldiers (buttered toast cut into strips for dunking into the runny yolk ... if it is runny).

Church service in the cathedral was at 9:45 am. It was uplifting. The men and boy's choir was incredible. The church was relatively well attended and you could get goosebumps when everybody was singing the hymns and the organ playing.

Afterwards we were invited to coffee. The scissor arches were even more impressive from this angle. 

It was strange. I had just commented to the other three that nobody was talking to us when a much older gentleman approached us. We had a great conversation with him. He asked James and David about their professions etc. When we asked him it turned out the he had been the Dean of the Cathedral for over 30 years. We talked about preserving the great buildings rather than repairing them.

Can't remember what we did for lunch but at noon we went to see the Bishop' Palace. Yesterday's blog has already a photo of the entrance. 

Once you are through the gate there is a large inner court. Sometimes crocket played on the green. The palace is at the far end in the middle here and the chapel on the right.

There is not much more than one wall left from the Great Hall. We saw a cartoonish video which showed the building of this place over the years with some falling down etc. I looked for it on the website but could not find it.

Palace and chapel were very interesting. I have too many photos.

The chapel. View to the back.

I lit the top three. Prayers are needed.

The altar area with the sedilia. Can't believe I had never heard of it and now I have seen two in two days.

More upstairs. I love this "do not sit on historic chair" sign without words.

We had a lot of fun in this room. Like little children.

The gardens were upsolutely incredible. Typical English gardens were you can't even see any ground in the beds. So many flowers I had never seen. Stunning. 

A huge rose with several centers.

Trees for our climbing grandsons. There was also an amazing playground right next to it.

The palace wall and moat.

The formal garden from the wall. Funny that it doesn't show up more colorful from here. It was amazing.

The cafe inside called "the Bishop's table" because during Bishop Ken's time at the Palace (1685-1691) he invited every Sunday twelve poor men and women to have lunch with him. We saw the original table were they set around.

Three of us had scones with jam and clotted cream. Of course we had to have the discussion about "jam or cream first". No question for me: jam first.

James went for savory pasty.

I had asked one of the volunteers next to the cafe whether she knew the story of the swans (because she looked bored). She said she didn't know much but she pointed out the "swan lady" in purple next to the gate.

When we left I talked with "swan lady" and she was only too happy to talk with us. One swan from the last pair had died and the mate had left. About 5 weeks ago though they got a new pair from a rehabilitation place. The lady swan sits on the nest most of the time but she is the one who is already trained somewhat to come and ring the bell for food. The mail is still too timid.

Even though it started to drizzle we stood around because she had said the swan should come soon. We could stand under a huge tree and didn't really get much wet. After some calling the lady swan made her way. Some silly people halfway decided to share their supper with her halfway and James went over to tell them that she is being trained and they are hampering it. They were oblivious about the tradition.

Yup, a VIDEO!    (0:38)

James and I needed some "more steps" and had another good look at the outside. The detail of the facade is incredible. And it looks very cared for. Look at all those figures.

The women's world soccer champion ship was going on. We watched some of it. England played Cameroon. Some ugly moments from the other side. Happy "we" won.

After the late cream tea we were really not that hungry but had made a reservation in an Italian place where we could have salad and/or pizza. In passing it had really looked nice. And it was not disappointing. James and I had a delicious salad each and then shared a pizza. Great choice.

And yes, we all shared a bottle of red wine in fancy glasses I really liked.

There are horses and cows like this. Why not swans.

Sorry I can't show all the photos. We saw so many interesting and lovely things. And tomorrow we are leaving. Night night.