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We're back from the U.K.! We're still figuring out how to handle our photos, but with luck we'll put some online soon.
Some highlights: in Cambridge, we got to go to dinner at Pembroke College and see Nonna (Meryl's mom)'s masterpiece-in-progress. The dinner was entertaining for both of us and a first experience of the culture of the university for Tim. We ate delicious traditional food and joined in a conversation that rambled between mathematical disagreements to Middle Eastern politics, accompanied by a knight, several other fellows of the college, and Pembroke graduate who works for the prince of Jordan. We have since started to read Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency and are enjoying understanding the references to Cambridge.
Nonna's masterpiece is a beautiful viola, which she is making for Gwyneth (Meryl's sister) to play. The body and neck/scroll are more or less complete, and when you hold the body in your hands you can feel vibrations from people talking. An excellent sign!
After leaving Cambridge, we stopped in Ipswich to visit Meryl's friend Claire Scott, who is doing very well aside from a badly broken ankle (she and her lovely boyfriend live in a cozy and increasingly elegant cottage, and she enjoys her job aside from having to deal with the National Health Service). We followed up that visit by meeting Rebecca Kent (currently trying to get a business going in portrait-painting) in Bath, where we spent the night and had a touristy-but-fun afternoon tea in the Pump Room (location of many Regency-era balls and Jane Austin scenes). Wandering around the town was Tim's favorite part of the trip. The river, parks, and old streets and buildings give it tremendous charm despite its tourist-trap facade.
The next stop was Wales, where we stayed with Meryl's grandmother at Gelly Farm and visited Atlantic College with Andrea Frischoltz. Meryl's favorite part of the trip was climbing to the top of Gelly, from which we were able to see all the way to the Bristol Channel. Gelly is mountain but also a large sheep farm, so we walked in a no-man's-land between the romanticism of mist, valleys and ancient graves and the realism of flies and sheep skeletons. Atlantic College was wonderful, as always, although Tim got left behind a bit by Meryl and Andrea's reminiscences and gossip.
Our final stop was London, where we had almost no time but managed to see Covent Garden, Leicester Square, some of the Royal Guard, Westminster Abbey, and Madame Tussaud's (the wax museum). Westminster Abbey is amazing for its gothic architecture, but the best part was finding all the graves of random famous people (Darwin, Clementi, ...). Madame Tussaud's was amazing because ... well, it's Madame Tussaud's. If you haven't been, you should go. Best moments: taking pictures of each other strangling/beating up George Bush and seeing figures such as Einstein and DaVinci look like real people.
After that, we came home. Current plans: recover from jet-lag and lose the 10 extra pounds each we must have gained from the large quantities of beer/cider and pub food we consumed! As ever, let us know if you're coming through the Bay area ...
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