museum

London

From Scotland we drove back to Central England to return the rental car. We spent a night at a unique AirBnB, on a small boat in Midlands. We chose this spot in part for its uniqueness, but also because it was very close to Midlands airport, out of which we would be flying early in the morning on our way to London to wind down our tour of Europe.

London was fascinating, with a lot to see. It’s a large city, but reasonably easy to navigate via the subway (the “tube”), buses and on foot. With a week to explore on our own, we felt that we got to see all the highlights we wanted to.

The London Eye


It was mid-October when we were in London. Although the number of tourists typically starts to dwindle in September after the summer high season, we still found many places crowded. I like to tell people the photo below was our only view of the Changing of the Guard. That’s not entirely true, but it does illustrate the crowds we encountered.

The Changing of the Guard


We enjoyed visiting museums in London, especially since many offer free admission. Of course they are also nice because as well-known museums in a large city, they are able to acquire some of the most sought-after works of art. Van Gogh is consistently one of my favorite artists, and I enjoyed seeing a number of his works.

Van Gogh – Sunflowers


In an unscientific survey of costs during our travels, we would say that Copenhagen and Zurich were the most expensive cities we visited in Europe. Prague was the least expensive. Berlin was somewhere in between. London was not as expensive as Copenhagen and Zurich, but is was certainly not inexpensive. One thing that seemed expensive in London was transportation. In order to visit my cousin on the outskirts of London, we took a public bus plus a train for a portion of the trip, and the total cost was the equivalent of about $72 US for two of us to make the round trip. Many people make this commute daily to work in the city, so this must be quite expensive on an annual basis.

A note about traveling in London – if you ever find yourself flying to or from the Stansted area, I highly recommend the Hampton by Hilton London Stansted Airport for its convenience. You could almost say it is located inside the airport. Actually it is across the street, but it is within easy walking distance, mostly via a covered walkway that protects you from the weather. We had an early morning flight, and staying at the Hampton Stansted ensured that we would be on time. I would also give a shout out to the hotel staff, who were some of the best we’ve encountered at Hampton Inn. They made it a truly great experience for our brief stay.

Final Notes on Heath, Massachusetts

Here are a few items that didn’t merit a full blog post of their own, but that I still wanted to include.

Near the very small center of town in Heath, nestled among the prolific growth of hickory and maple trees in the area, lies a stone cottage that can easily be missed as you drive by. What makes this one notable is that for a time it was the occasional home of Reinhold Niebuhr. He was a renowned theologian of the first half of the 20th century. He is credited as the author of Serenity Prayer and is said to have first preached it in the church a few steps from the cottage.

Niebuhr’s stone cottage

We were surprised to learn of the artistic heritage of this part of New England. It seems that everywhere we turned we encountered art in one form or another – outdoor music events, writers, glass blowers, ceramics artists, artists of other media. In addition, there were multiple universities and art museums within an hour’s drive, including the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, the Smith College Museum of Art, and the Clark Art Institute, with an extensive collection of works by Renoir.

Ceramics by a new artist
A painting of apples by Renoir

Ticks have become a major problem in this part of the country. We saw them often, and both of us repeatedly found ticks on our skin. It put a damper on our desire to do outdoor activities. Upwards of 25% of ticks in the area test positive for Lyme disease, and we met people who had been impacted by debilitating cases of Lyme.

Gardens and woods provide an environment where ticks thrive

The locals say Massachusetts has two seasons: July and winter. Even though we were only there for five months, we felt we understood the meaning. We arrived in winter, which lasted much longer than what we’re used to in California; once it finally warmed up (around July), we started seeing signs of fall coming on. In reality the summertime weather we experienced in northwestern Massachusetts was very pleasant. It is not the same hot, humid weather you find in Boston. The extensive forests covering the landscape in every direction kept the temperature very pleasant. The one unusual weather event we experienced appeared to be a tornado; there was a distinct stretch of trees about two miles from our house sit where multiple trees had been blown down and the power went out for several hours.

A covered bridge for protection from the weather