Terra firma

The adventure has ended.

Our travel was long (we left the student flat at 6:15 a.m. British Time and arrived in the Twin Cities at 7 p.m. Central, which is the equivalent of 1 a.m. the next day, British Time), but uneventful. Jet lag is definitely catching up with us, but we've had worse. We'll spend a few days with our daughter and son-in-law here to recover.

The first order of business will be to get a car, as mass transit doesn't work as well here as in Europe. Next we need a house, since we've been "homeless people" while in England. Then there are all the little things, such as phones, internet access, cable TV, and the other necessities of First World, 21st Century life. There will be a few more posts over the next month about these adjustments.

Reverse culture shock occurs after returning from a long time away. These have been subtle little revelations that last only an instant before the conscious mind says, "Of course!": Coming to a stop sign and looking for traffic to come from the right instead of from the left (!). Reaching for the plug of an appliance and being surprised to find that it's a small, two-pronged plug instead of the big, honking 3-prong British variety (!). Hearing people speaking on the street and thinking to oneself, "they must be Americans" (!). I'm sure there will be other, more profound observations in the days ahead.

Do we miss England? Yes. Are we glad to be home? Yes to that, too.

Ground Hog Day

Our students have gone and things are quiet as we prepare to wrap up the year. Some have been curious about what we did here to stay occupied. The question most often seems to come from colleagues who can't believe this program, with only a dozen students and three courses to teach in the year, could possibly be a full-time job. While there's no easy answer for precisely what it is we did, let me assure you that we had plenty to keep us busy.

In the 1993 motion picture Groundhog Day, Bill Murray's character is condemned, by unnamed metaphysical forces, to live the same day (2 February) over and over again until he gets it right. I don't feel as though I've been condemned to anything, but my days here in England took on a certain Groundhog Day-like routine -- at least the first part of the day.

We were awakened by the boiler, even in June

In the mornings we were been awakened by the timer on our heating system (yes, even in June!). When the boiler kicked in, around 6:45 a.m., we'd hear a bit of clanking in the radiators which stirred us out of bed. I generally made coffee while Mary hit the shower, then took my turn getting clean. After dressing, I checked my email -- because of the time difference, anything sent late afternoon or evening in the U.S. arrives over night here.

Nuthall Road was usually busy with traffic

Breakfast was followed by a check of U.S. newspaper websites to see what's happening at home. By 8 I was off to the news shop to get a newspaper. I invariably met the same kids going to school, the same workers awaiting their ride at the bus stop.

An unusually calm view of Nuthall Road bus stops on a bank holiday morning

Jack, the proprietor at J & S News, was always good for a morning chat, and we solved the world's problems for a few minutes. On the way home I would see the guys at the used car dealership opening up, even see some of the same delivery "lorries" (trucks) in the neighborhood.

Jack at J&S news always had a smile and a laugh

After we read the paper I would take it over to the flat so that the students could read it also (reading daily papers was part of their assigned course work). When I get there around 9 a.m. few are up and around. One or two may have gone to class already, and a couple more may have been eating breakfast. The rest were still in bed. These are college students, after all, and they were probably up well past midnight "studying," or something.

Unfortunately I didn't get a shot of J & S when it was open, 6 to 6 daily.

I made my rounds of the building, checking doors, thermostats, lights, etc., and generally making sure nothing bad is happening, then head home once again. From here on, there is no routine. Groundhog Day is over and every day is different.

Monday was class day. We met in the evening, but my preps often went most of the day.

Tuesdays and Fridays were shopping days. It usually took an hour and a half or more for both of us, along with one student, to fill two "trolleys" (shopping carts) and get all those groceries back to the pantry in the flat. Mary spent many more hours organizing cooks, menus, and shopping lists.

Other mornings were often reading or writing time. Luther insists I keep a detailed spreadsheet of all our bills and expenses, and this usually requires a daily update. There may have been assignments to grade, trip itineraries to lay out, reservations to make, lessons to plan. Keep in mind that in this gig, I was not only the professor, but the dean of students, head resident, financial services director, buildings & grounds supervisor, cafeteria manager, counseling center staff, chaplain, housekeeping supervisor, etc., etc.

Bringing over the newspaper gave me an excuse to make my rounds at the student flat

After lunch Mary and I almost always took a walk of at least a couple miles. Often we would use this to go on a mission for some program-related errand. Perhaps it was be to the grocery store for some forgotten or last minute item, to the post office, or to the bank, or a hardware store.

The rest of the afternoon were more desk work, or maintenance duty. One recent day I spent much of the afternoon fixing bicycles (for this I got a Ph.D.?). Another day I was on a ladder, scrubbing mold off the ceiling in one of the flat bedrooms (this is England and it's damp).

Buses -- I was planning a full blog post on Nottingham mass transit,
but I didn't get to it.

The early morning may be a Groundhog Day routine, but from there it's anything but routine. Yet the to-do list never grows short. I was the teacher, but also the dean of students, counselor, chief of buildings and grounds, comptroller, and CEO. And much of what we did took three times as long because we had to figure out how to do it the English way, which we weren't used to. But in less that three weeks, we'll be getting reacquainted with America once again.

Top 10 Lists

American late-night comedy host, David Letterman, is known for his "Top Ten" lists, counting down from ten to one. We don't see Letterman here, but as we prepare to leave England and head back to Iowa, we have our lists of things we'll miss and things to which we're looking forward.

Ten things I will miss when I leave England:

10. A small, tight-knit group of really great students
9. A climate with no extremes in weather
8. Cathedrals, manor houses & castles
7. Generic Nutella
6. Cell phones that work everywhere
5. Free universal health care
4. Scones with clotted cream
3. Efficient mass transit
2. New friends we've made
1. Pubs with real ale!

Ten things I'm looking forward to back in the U.S.:

10. No longer commuting 85 miles to work,
      as I did before we came to England
9. Being able to watch/stream U.S. TV shows
8. Houses that look different on the outside
7. Having our own home & car once again
6. Getting back into campus/class routine
5. Spoken words that include consonants
4. Telephones that don't charge tolls for local calls
3. Gasoline at less than half the European price
2. Driving on a comfortable side of the road
1. Seeing family & friends

Those are my Top Ten, some tongue in cheek, some not. Other's lists may vary. But the point is, as much as we look forward to going home, there are things here we will always be sad to have left behind.

Denmark

The trip from Bremen up to Aarhus in Denmark was long and somewhat stressful in that the German and Danish rail officials seemed to give us several different stories about how all the connections take place. However, we finally made it.

Den Gamle By (The Old Town) outdoor museum, Aarhus, DK

We had a good Thai meal, but an expensive one, as the Scandinavian countries build a very high sales tax into all prices. After dinner we walked through a sort of "living history" museum of a 500 year old Danish village. It was closed for the day, but we could see things on the outside.

The match with Germany draws a crowd

On the way back to the hotel we encountered a large square with a huge TV screen where about a thousand young people were watching Denmark play Germany in the Euro Football (soccer) match. Quite the event!

The European way of not missing out on the soccer match
just because you've been drinking lots of beer!

The academic conference went well, and it was good to meet a batch of primarily European researchers in my field, though some I knew before from other events. Mary did shopping and sight-seeing around Aarhus while I did my academic thing.

Mary got to visit the cathedral in Aarhus

Because we had several hours in London between our plane landing and our train to Nottingham, we got on another train and went out to Hampton Court, where Henry VIII built a grand palace for his new queen Anne Boleyn -- er, no, scratch that -- Jane Seymour -- no, err, well, you get the idea. The Tudor-era palace was later remodeled by Charles II and again by others, but many of the original details remain. It's an interesting site.

Hampton Court's center section belonged to Henry VIII
and later monarchs added on.

Back to Nottingham, where our next task is getting ready to come home to the U.S.

Germany

In our various travels this year we seem to have been ignoring Germany. Not intentionally, we’ve just had so may other opportunities. A cheap easyJet flight from Manchester to Munich remedied the situation on Monday, June 11.

The "new" city hall in Munich

Munich hotels are not cheap, but we found one very close to the rail station with a good breakfast. In the evenings, we saw the main sites in central Munich, drank a beer or two at the famous Hofbrauhaus, and others.

The band plays on at the Hofbrauhaus

From there, it was only a short walk to catch the bus for a day trip to Linderhof and Neuschwanstein castles (both built by “mad” King Ludwig II of Bavaria in the 1840s-80s), with a brief stop at Oberammergau.

Linderhof Palace

Neuschwanstein Castle

On the way out of town we spent a sobering morning at the Dachau concentration camp site.

Memorial sculpture at Dachau

Armed with a Deutche Bahn rail pass, we stopped for an hour or so at historic Augsburg before continuing on to the Medieval village of Rothenburg ob der Tauber.

Augsburg

Once a rich market city, Rothenburg fell on hard times during the Thirty Years War in the 1600s and was “preserved by poverty” because the residents lacked the resources to modernize.

Mary on the ramparts at Rothenburg ob der Tauber

From Rothenburg we rode the rails to Würzburg, where unfortunately a couple of the things we came to see were closed for renovation. Nevertheless we got to tour the “Residenz” of the Prince Bishop, who ruled the province of Franconia without separation of church and state, and to people watch awhile in this very non-touristy, work-a-day German town.

The Residenz

Würzburg was fire-bombed by the British RAF just six-weeks before the end of World War II, but has been rebuilt and restored to its pre-War beauty.

Main square in tiny Bacharach

Bacharach street scene

We changed trains briefly in bustling Frankfurt, a modern industrial city quite the opposite of either Rothenburg or Würzburg, then changed again at Mainz to a local commuter train to ride down along the Rhine to another Medieval village, tiny Bacharach -- probably named in Roman times for Baccus, the god of wine. Bacharach is at the heart of Rhine wine country, and we spent the night in this scenic locale.

Marksburg, the only Rhine castle still in original Medieval configuration

The following morning we boarded a boat for a river cruise down the Rhine to Koblenz, enjoying scenes of vineyards and ancient castles along the way. Then we continued by train to Köln (Cologne) to stay the night. Our hotel was right across the street from the Philharmonie (a wonderful, very modern concert hall) and we managed tickets to an excellent evening performance.

Köln Cathedral

After seeing some sights in Köln the next morning, we took the train to Bremen. As it was Saturday, a number of things were closed. But we did see, at least on the outside, some of the architecture of Bremen’s charming city center. We enjoyed a good meal, and got tickets for another symphony concert, which we did not enjoy quite as much as the one the night before.

From the folktale, The Town Musicians of Bremen 

More to follow...

Belton House

OK, so I said that last weekend's trip to Cornwall would "almost surely be our last outing into the English countryside of this year." I said, "almost." One more little trip. This afternoon was sunny and reasonably warm, after a week of cold, wet, nasty weather (you may have watched the Queen's Jubilee taking place in the rain). We couldn't resist.

Cricket game on the lawn in front of Belton House

So, after attending church one last time at St. Peter's in the city centre, and bidding farewell to some of those in that congregation who have been so welcoming to us this year, we decided to take in one last National Trust site.

Carvings in the entry hall

Belton House is an estate just outside of Grantham, Lincolnshire, about 30 miles east of Nottingham. The house was built in the 1680s and kept in the family until the 1980s, so it is extremely well-preserved. The gardens comprise some 1300 acres.

More carving in the main salon

We're sorry we didn't find it sooner, because some of our students would have loved to visit here. But there are so many gems like this across Britain that people hardly mention them. And to tell the truth, they all do start to look a bit the same after a while.

Just a small part of the gardens

But Belton stands out for exceptional carvings in the decor, and for the preservation of various rooms from various periods in the house's history.

One of several unusual tombs in the family church

It was a great discovery and a lovely afternoon. Now, back to packing.

Cornwall

The Johns family name is much more common in Britain than in the U.S. I read once that the name is thought to have originated in Cornwall, so Mary and I thought we'd better go see the place. The four-day holiday weekend for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee was the opportunity.

St. Ives

St. Ives beach

It's a long way to Cornwall, at the extreme southwestern tip of the island of Britain. We left early Friday morning and drove all morning at motorway speed (70 m.p.h.), then father as the motorway gave way to slower, two lane roads.

Coastal walk

Zennor Head

Cornwall has a history of Celtic culture holding out against invaders, similar to Wales and Scotland. There is even a native Cornish language, similar to Welsh. It is far more common to see Cornwall County flags flying here than Union Jacks, even on the Queen's Jubilee weekend.

Minack Theatre

Gardens are a feature at Minack and everywhere in Cornwall

There aren't a lot of attractions in Cornwall, per se, but many scenic spots, gardens, and places to walk. Our first stop was the seaside village of St. Ives -- a rather touristy spot known for its beaches and art galleries.

Land's End

Walkway to Mousehole

We drove to the tiny village of Zennor and walked cliffs at the Head, then on to Porthcurno to visit the Minack Theatre, an outdoor theater carved into the hillside overlooking the sea.

Low tide at Mousehole

Mount Saint Michael

From there, it was only a short drive on winding, narrow roads to Land's End -- which, as the name implies, is the western-most point in Britain -- and its iconic lighthouse. The sea is so treacherous here that they no longer attempt to reach this beacon by boat, but by the helicopter landing pad on top.

Kynance Cove

We spent one night in a pleasant B&B at Penzance. It was supposed to be two nights, but thanks to a screw-up by Hotels.com, we had to move inland the second night, to a pretentious golf resort. Thus, we were not able to actually visit Mount Saint Michael, the castle overlooking Penzance harbor.

Trelissick Gardens

We did, however, walk around the little fishing village of Mousehole (pronounced MOW-zul, where the first syllable rhymes with cow). At low tide, the boats here are beached.

Lanhydrock Estate

We took a delightful hike at Kynance Cove, where sea and rocks meet. As we left Cornwall and crossed into Devonshire, the exploration continued.

Cotehele village

We visited several National Trust sites: walked through Trelissick Gardens, toured the Lanhydrock Estate, and the estate and village at Cotehele.

Tapestries line the walls at Cotehele Hall

Crossing the famous Dartmoor (setting for The Hound of the Baskervilles and other spooky novels) we were greeted, appropriately, with thick fog. But we did get to see several of the famous wild horses of the moor.

Wild horses roam Dartmoor in the fog

At Castle Drogo we toured "the last castle built in Britain." To be entirely correct, this is a manor house, completed in 1931, by a wealthy businessman with no title, but a romantic dream of nobility. Proving "they don't build 'em like they used to," this castle is crumbling due to leaking roofs, while castles ten times its age continue to stand.

"Castle" Drogo

After a night in a dreadful little seaside tourist town in Somerset, we briefly visited Cheddar Gorge, but didn't shell out for the tourist trap tour of the caves where the cheese is aged.

Cheddar Gorge

On the way home, we stopped at one of the most recently acquired National Trust sites, Croome Park, to see what an 18th century house looks like in the very early stages of renovation, and to see one of the half-dozen churches claiming to be the place where Shakespeare got married.

Croome Court

Early renovations at Croome

We put on a lot of miles, but had better weather than most of Britain this holiday weekend, on what will almost surely be our last outing into the English countryside of this year.