Last 4 Days of England and the First 3 Days of Scotland

The last few days in Reading were nice. We had good weather and got out to see a bit more to the surrounding area and Reading itself. We took the “Salters’ Steamers” on a River Thames boat trip from Reading to Henley on the Thames. The trip lasted about 2 1/2 hours and we passed through several locks on the way. Henley on the Thames is famous for its Rowing Regatta which we were a few days too early to catch. Chris and I also spend an afternoon seeing some more of downtown Reading – have a look at the picture of the Reading Lion. The artist supposedly committed suicide when someone pointed out that if a Lion really had legs like that, it couldn’t walk.

We left Reading in good time on Friday morning and made our way up to Warwick. The Warwick Castle, according to the guidebooks was a place to see. We were not disappointed. It is a large castle with ramparts around a couple of sides of it which you could walk up on. It had a “Scary Dungeon” complete with period actors who made the experience fun. In one room the “Cook” was dissecting a body to see if she could determine the cause of the Plague, and in another room a “Torturer” showed off the tools of the trade – a tongue twister (literally) and a most cruel device – a penis snipper (ouch!). We also got to watch the firing of the Trebuchet.

From Warwick, we headed up to Leeds to spend the night. In the morning we made the short drive out to Bilton, where my Grandfather, on my mother’s side was born. We took pictures of the Church where he sang in the choir and of the house he was born in. His father, my great-grandfather was the head gardener at Bilton Hall. When I visited England in 1986, we were able to tour the gardens, but now they are fenced off to the public behind a large gate.

From Bilton, we headed off to Haworth where the Bronte Parsonage (Wuthering Heights / Jane Eyre books) is located. Although not a direct descendant, supposedly the Brontes are on some branch of my family tree on my father’s side. Behind the Church is an eerie looking graveyard, with row on row of old tall headstones. The rest of the day was spent driving up to Perth.

Our place in Scotland is in the small village of Bridge of Earn, about 3 kms outside of Perth. We have an A-Frame cabin that is comfy. As we sit in our living room, we can see River Earn flow by – sometime one direction and sometimes the other direction. If you catch it at the right time – the flow appears to stop. The river is clearly affected by the tides. The country side is beautiful around here, and hopefully it will stop raining so we can enjoy it in a bit of sunshine.

Yesterday, on our way to stock up on groceries, we discovered that the Perth Highland Games were on. It was a nice sunny afternoon and we spent it wandering the fairgrounds, watching the pipe band competitions, strong men throwing hammer and shot puts, bike races, tug-a-wars, highland dancing and a series of running races for people of all ages. The event was well attended and the beer tent seemed always to be busy. We left before it was over, and within a few minutes it was pouring rain down in buckets. We were sure glad we made it out of the fairgrounds before the rain hit. We will get to see more pipe bands while in Scotland as we have tickets to the World’s in Glasgow this Saturday and the Tatoo in Edinburgh the following week.

Hope all is well back in Canada. I hear that summer has finally arrived in Ontario with the temperature going up into the 30’s for a change.

Ian

Last Last 4 Days of England and the First 3 Days of Scotland