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our trip is over. we have traveled over 22000 miles over 50 days, visited 4 countries and numerous cities. Drank and ate ourselves to excess and enjoyed every moment of the time.  A special thanks to those who encouraged us and helped us along the way. Family members who said "why not?" and our daughters who provided exciting side trips and much needed guidance durng our adventure . And to total strangers who offered bewildered travelers directions, you were the beacons of security for us in some strange places.  Often a thank you is not enough, I hope it will suffice in this case.

Traffic to Heathrow Airport

Travelers

Last glimpse of England

The Atlantic Ocean is below, Really!

First glimpse of America. We are home.

London

London is our last stop before heading home. We have visited here before and so we decided with out limited time to visit a couple of our favorite spots; the Victoria and Albert museum and Covent Garden. The museum because it has an eclectic assemblage of stuff and always has some unusual special showing and because it is close by and free, and Covent Garden because it is a quaint shopping area with smaller shops focused on generally unusual items.

one of the standard symbols of London; the red double deck bus. we never ventured far enough from our hotel to use one of these they seemed to be plentiful, even to the point of double decking at some stops. (I thought that was rather funny but I may be alone with that thought based on local reaction)

The Victoria and Albert museum has this imposing front. The V&A as it is fondly called by locals dates back to 1852 and is named in honor of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.  The building covers about 13 acres and houses around 5 million exhibits. It deserves more than a cursory walk through and so we opted to visit just a couple of the galleries.

In the main entrance hangs this giant Chihuli glass chandelier. It is over 10' tall and is comprised of Chihuli's trademark, the twisted multicolored glass tapered tubes.  Spectacular i this setting and I am afraid my photo does not do it justice.

First floor galleries are mainly antique sculptures and icons. the spacious setting allows 360 degree viewing; this is a setting other museums we have visited could learn from.

Church sculptures like this gilded altar piece are prominent in the displays

the Egypt ian section includes several sarcophagus and other burial items along with these two towering columns which were engraved with pictograms of a king's adventures and conquests. I guess there is no limit to what you can do if you are a god-king

Upstairs in the special glass exhibit the display included several modern glass sculptures

This one was comprised of thousands of  thin glass rods that had been fused into this multicolored wave.

Another was this assemblage of glass blocks. this was labeled "DNA" and guess it could represent the results of coding.

I am particularly fond of this sculpture. it is about 2' tall. No title provided but I would label it "a distraction"

in addition to the glass exhibit there were a couple of rooms dedicated to the 1920's. This and the following signage show the advertising of that era.

Don't see much corn flour anymore.

Colman's mustard is still available in the familiar yellow tin. Somethings just should not change.

The beginning of  manufacturer directed customer interaction?

the 20's were a period of experimentation in design as this teapot demonstrates.

teapots must have been a "thing" in this era since the V&A has a large room dedicated to them. Row after row, each different but all serving the same function. Frank Lloyd Wright the advocate of form following function would be amazed at the variety of forms for the simple function of brewing and pouring tea. Teapots, teapots everywhere and not a drop to drink.

This reconstruction of a paneled room was to demonstrate the complex  marquetry that was evident in someof the high end houses of the era.

As a kid I would take a pile of 3x5 cards and draw stick figures on them which would appear to move when the cards were flipped in sequence.  I bet we all did this.  This device takes the card flipping to the nth level. inside the circular housing are probably over a thousand cards which when the handle was turned would display as a moving picture.

squashed musical instruments form the ceiling for this teaching and recital room.

This is nothing in particular. I just liked the lines and the reflected dome as an art composition. OK, for those of you who look for the meaning in these photos, you can view this as a metaphor for the museum -- a blending of new and old that combine to reflect the impact of the old on the new. 

The 24 hour clock in the lobby announces the hours.  In the background is a part of a wooden ceiling with royal symbols in marquetry.  I tried to get a full photo of it but could not find a location that permitted.

The interior courtyard is a delightful place to relax.  it has a pond which is labeled "no wading" Yep that will work with the children and sunshine.

Covent Garden is three rows of buildings containing small shops of both brand and no name goods.

Linda found a friend in front of the candy and tobacco store. I guess I need to get kilts to wear.

This group of Krishna followers were parading around the Garden and for a moment I was back in the 60's and 70's.  If you want to get the full effect of this I posted a short video on Facebook. I can't post movies on this blog site.

Even street musicians need some respite from their labor.

One of the dramatic contrasts I found this trip is shown in these last pictures.  relics of the  era that included servants as an integral part of some wealthy households can still be found on entrance gates leading to some houses. This gate was for servants and tradesmen only.

Move into the twenty first century and we have these internet phone booths at which anyone with a few quid and a computer can log in and conduct whatever business they need.  the times have indeed changed.

Stonehenge

one of the sites Linda really wanted to visit while we were in England was Stonehenge.  This megalith is as we know a series of very large stones set in a circular pattern the purpose of which is only suspected.  Archeological digs in the area have revealed artifacts and cremation remains that have been confirmed to contain human remains. This evidence leads everyone to assume it was a burial grounds with ceremonial significance. The remains of animals also suggests that this was a site of sacrifices to various gods.

The earliest findings have been dated to around 3000 BCE making this site one of the oldest and longest used sites known.  The arrangement of the stones takes on special significance on Winter and Summer Solstices.  On these dates the rising sun cast light and shadows in particular ways to fully illuminate spaces inside the circle which on every other day are only partially lit.

The real topic of questions is how were these mammoth stones moved from their know origins some 200 miles away to this site and then stood on end by ancient people who had no known skills for such an undertaking. Theories abound and a quick search on line will yield several possible solutions.  One that I find plausible can be seen at (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCvx5gSnfW4)


Today it is owned by the English Crown and maintained by the National Trust.This site gets a lot of visitors with one guide suggesting that over 1 million people visit each year.

This is the visitor center which contains a museum of  some of the artifacts sound at the site along with a food center, gift shop(what would a historic site be without its gift shop?) and perhaps most important toilets.

There is an outdoor exhibit showing what some think might be housing typical of the indigenous people some 2000-3000 years ago.  this is the interior of one of the huts. The fire pit in the center would bother me since the roofs of these is made of thatch (dried reed like vegetation)

photo proof of visitation.

These are our friends Reuben and Gemma who provided us with transport from Porthtowan to London.  I am certain they drove considerably out of the way to insure that we would visit Stonehenge.  Special thanks to them for this experience.

traditional view of stones.

The builders were very intelligent and included in their design tabs as seen here to hold in place the large rocks laid across the uprights.  An interesting sidelight is the crow.  Crows or Ravens were absent from Stonehenge for about 300 years and have only recently returned. The Druids and other pagans who hold this site sacred believe this is an omen of bad tidings. 

there is good signage to help the visitors understand the history and importance of this site.

These rocks are very picturesque and nature was very cooperative with clouds and blue sky for our visit.

a view I like

At the visitor site there is this replica of one of the stones set to provide one theory on how they were moved.

Mining in Cornwall

Mining in the southwest corner of England has been going on since prehistoric times. A source for both copper and tin this area provided our ancestors with the materials to make bronze.  Bronze tools were a factor in the evolutionary process. 

Our visit to Cornwall brought us in contact with the remains of several engine houses that had served the commercial mining efforts of this area in the 1700's through the 1900's. Mining for lead, tin, arsenic, copper and silver the miners were a tough lot, beginning work at 6 and working 12 hour shifts.  The mines varied in depth from 100' to 1000'.  Men and boys, over 6 years old, would work in the ground while women and girls, also over 6, would work on the surface.  Temperature in the mine would be around 50F and with constant moisture it was  an environment where lung diseases were common. 

It was the moisture that these engines were working to eliminate.  The regular rainfall and the granite rocks meant that any mine shaft was just a pocket to be filled with runoff water, To combat this, huge steam driven pumps were built and operated by mine owners. These pumps could lift water from the deepest 1000' mines through pipes that ranged in size from 6" to 36". The low pressure steam cylinders for these engines could be as large as 60' to 72" diameter (compared to the high pressure cylinders on a train of 24") and would work at a rate of 6-10 cycles per minute. Using a rocking beam they would work 24 hours to keep the mines from flooding. If you have seen an oil well with the rocker arm, these would be similar to that only driven by a steam engine and moving giant columns of water instead of 2" column of oil.

In the mines the men would find a "load" and follow it sending the rock pieces to the surface in wheeled carts (later replaced with horse pulled carts) where the women would send it through stamping machines to be pulverized and sifted to extract the minerals, also working the 12 hour shifts.

Another product of this area, created out of necessity, is the Cornish Pasty.  This delicious sandwich like food is a mixture of meat, potatoes, and veggies contained in a pouch of dough which is then baked with a handle to allow eating without washing your hands.  Cooks have created variations but the traditional Pasty is still favored.

Idyllic countryside, deep history filled with fascinating side-trips, and deep flavored foods make this corner of England a place worth a revisit.

Typical vent pipe for the mines of Cornwall. These were very evident around the Porthtowan area,

The remaining engine houses and vents are a popular walking destination and the trails to them are often very well worn.

The English walker must place one foot directly in front of the other when stepping. the trails are often deep ruts barely over a shoe width as you can see in this photo.  I suspected cattle as the creator of these narrow trails but we saw very little evidence of them.

Our destination is this derelict engine house.

Mines are a danger to hikers and animals. the government and the national trust have erected these covers over many of the larger shafts. Smaller shafts have been caved in or filled.

entrance to the engine room.

from the soot on the ceiling and walls this hole looked like  a firebox to heat the steam box.

During our walk about we encountered  this camp site that included a caravan (trailer), motor home, and a teepee. Strange site in the Cornish countryside.

Another view of the engine house showing the differing material use in the stack area.  Many of these stacks have been struck by lightening shattering them.  This example has survived in better condition than many.

From one vantage point we could see another engine house and the caved in main shaft (off to the right of the engine house)

Dry laid stone walls are common sites in the countryside. Nature respects the time and effort needed to create such walls and adorns them with bright colored flowers to honor the builders.

After visiting the derelict engine houses, we drove to the last mine open to the public.  the Poldark Mine was about 800' deep, however we only went down to the 100' level.  In its day was a very profitable tin mine.  Tin is a natural metal and is important not only for the manufacturing of bronze item but also for plating of other metals to make them rust resistant (think of "tin cans" used for food). 

An example of one of the dewatering pumps used in mining.

Going into the mine this "load" (not called a vein in tin mining) is evident on one side of the shaft.  The tin ore is the blue-gray rock running parallel to the wire on the right side of the picture.  this load contains about 15% metal according to our guide.

Walking through the mine we got an idea of the close, damp conditions facing the early miners.

This shows how a load would be followed. bits of ore would be hauled out by hand to the main shaft where it could be wheeled out.

an ore load would be followed even if it went down, making the ore retrieval even harder.

The lowest (deepest?) mail box in England.  Mail is retrieved each weekday and carries a special postmark noting the deep location.

There is a diorama set up in one of the side shafts to show the working conditions of the children who were employed. 12 hours underground, breaking rocks or holding the end of a star bit drill and then wheeling out barrows of rock. Unhealthy, dangerous work for children who would probably not live to be over 40.

Recall the Cornish Pasty mentioned earlier?  Here a couple of friends, Reuben and Gemma show off a typical one.  OKAY maybe not a real one, which are about 7" long , but this shows the "handle" of dough that miners would use to avoid dirtying the edible portions. This concern over eating sanitation is interesting given the truly dangerous conditions encountered in the mine shaft.