InSPIREd Sunday ~ Windsor

The last two days of our trip to England this past July were spent in Windsor. After touring Windsor Castle we walked down High street and spotted The Parish church of St. John the Baptist.

From the Lectern, look down the centre aisle and observe in the West Gallery a painting of The Last Supper. This is a national treasure. The picture was originally presented to the Royal Chapel c. 1660 by Brian Duppa, Bishop of Winchester, Prelate of the Order of the Garter. It was “bought by him beyond the sea”. Another tradition ascribes it to Franz de Cleyn (1588-1658), Rostock, Mecklenburg, Court painter to James I. It was rolled up and buried “in the plumery” (plumbers workshop?) in the Great Rebellion. It hung over the altar at St George’s, Windsor in 1702, and can be seen there in Sandby’s drawing dated 1786.

In my reading about this church after the fact I found that this and the next mosaics were by Antonio Salviati (1816-1890), who adorned The Altar of Westminster Abbey. Adoring Angels flank the Lamb with flag, and a pelican feeding its young, symbols of Humility and Sacrifice. Here are the adoring Angels.

This church like many churches in England is steeped in history. You can read more about it here.

On our tour of Windsor Castle we walked through St. George’s chapel which was amazing but they did not allow photographs inside so I will leave you with the outside shot of the Chapel.

We really enjoyed our time in Windsor and I’ll be sharing more from Windsor Castle and The River Thames in the future.

I’m linking to InSPIREd Sunday hosted by Beth and Sally.

The Rest of the Story…

…when website photos lie. I already moaned about our hotel in Henley-on-Thames here, but I’ll be moaning a little more with chuckles thrown in and tell you more about our experience which sadly we had to pay dear money for.

As I mentioned before the location of the hotel was right across the street from The River Thames.

When we checked in we took our suitcases to the room with no help offered. The room looked nothing, absolutely nothing like any of the rooms shown on the Website. The website showed photos of a nicely appointed hotel with nice rooms. Our room charge was 150 pounds so we were surprised when this was the condition of the chairs in our room. We left for a walk into town for lunch. When we came back to the hotel to freshen up before doing some more walking, the water in the room was not working. When we went down to the front desk there was a sign stating the water would be off until 6:00 P.M. Just a sign no one attending the desk. We didn’t understand why they didn’t inform us of that little fact when we checked in. After dinner and an evening walk we returned to the hotel and we went into the hotel bar to order a drink. The very young bartender said he was sorry but they did not have any gin. No Gin in a British bar? I just chuckled. We headed to our room and managed to get some sleep with our window open for air and the large portable fan on.

The early morning views were beautiful and still could be appreciated over the noise of the early delivery trucks on the road below our window. We got ready for breakfast and we headed down to the lobby to try to find where breakfast would be served. No one was in sight. No one at the front desk. When we checked in the person behind the desk had pointed in the general direction of where breakfast would be served. We walked that way and spotted a room with tables set for service and took a seat.

Our first thought was well this is nice maybe breakfast will make up for our less than comfortable night until… we waited and waited and waited and then Dear went out to try to find someone who would serve us some breakfast. There still was no one at the front desk. He finally found someone and we had to leave this nicely appointed room and head further down the hall to another room without flowers on the table.

The breakfast staff consisted of two young guys who didn’t seem sure of what they were doing. It honestly felt like they were pulled off the street that morning and shown quickly what to do. Notice our empty coffee cups. It took a long time to get coffee and a longer time to get our breakfast. We checked out, shook the dust off our shoes and headed to our next location for our last two nights that proved to be the balm we needed after this disappointing stay at the Red Lion Henley. We were so glad we had only booked one night here.

We do not recommend The Red Lion in Henley. We would love to re-visit Henley-on-Thames but we will do some better investigating on where to stay…

The Wind in the Willows

In Henley-on-Thames there is a River and Rowing Museum that has an exhibit devoted to The Wind in the Willows.

The Wind in the Willows is a charming children’s book written by Kenneth Grahame and published in 1908.

Mole and Ratty
“Believe me, my young friend, there is nothing – absolutely nothing –
half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats.”

The book tells the story of Ratty, Mole, Badger and Mr Toad and their adventures of the riverbank. Beneath the surface, his animal society is used as a vehicle for social comment with the story representing the passing of the old world and coming of the new.

“The river, which plays a central role in the book, is thought to have been inspired largely by the Thames from Cookham to Pangbourne where Grahame lived for much of his life. A permanent exhibition at the Museum uses 3-D models, theatrical lighting and audio guides to recreate the story, while a display in the River Gallery looks at the life of Kenneth Grahame and the development of the book. This display includes a selection of the Museum’s Wind in the Willows collection including a first edition produced by Methuen in 1908.”

Have you ever been on Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride at Disneyland?

The ride is of course influenced by this Children’s Classic. “Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride is a dark ride at Disneyland Park. It is one of the few remaining attractions that was operational on the park’s opening day in 1955.” I need to get back to Disneyland and take a ride again now that I’ve read the book and walked along the River Thames.

I read The Wind in the Willows for the first time in 2008 and that same year Dear and I went to the Rose Bowl Flea Market where I saw and purchased this teapot by Sadler from their Classic Stories series.

I don’t want to totally ignore the fact that this was a River and Rowing Museum so I will show you a couple photos from the larger part of the museum.

It was interesting to read about the Rowing history and to see the old Blazers and Olympic uniforms worn.

Do you like to mess about in boats? I have enjoyed canoeing on a lake and we tried Kayaking which was fun. If I can see the shore I don’t mind being in a boat but I’m not fond of being on water without a shoreline in sight.

Midsomer Murders…

We have gotten to the letter M with ABC Wednesday with thanks to Denise Nesbitt and the ABC Team.

While we were in Henley-on-Thames in England we enjoyed a visit to The Argyle where some of the scenes from the popular BBC murder series was filmed. DCI Tom Barnaby and his young sergeants are fun to follow around the English countryside and in many English pubs.

I smiled when I saw the signature brew for Midsomer Murders and of course I had to try it.

Do you watch any of the BBC Murder Mysteries? We enjoy Inspector Morse, Inspector Lewis and Midsomer Murders. I was happy to see Season 7 of Inspector Lewis start up on Masterpiece Mysteries on Sunday night here in the states.

Click on the ABC link above to see more entries for M or to join in the fun.

A Walk Along the Thames

While we were in Henley on Thames we had some wonderful walks.

These canal boats were so interesting and varied. We liked this one since it was named “Katie”. We saw it putt away later in the day…

We had several fun encounters with these three ladies as we walked along the banks of the river.

You could really feel the inspiration behind The Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame. We found the Wind in the Willows museum along this stretch of The River Thames along with a Rowing Museum and I’ll share the photos soon.

“This has been a wonderful day!” said he, as the rat shoved off and took to the sculls again. “Do you know, I’ve never been in a boat in all my life.”

“What?” cried the Rat, open mouthed: “Never been in a – you never-well, I-what have you been doing, then?”

“Is it so nice as all that?” asked the Mole shyly, though he was quite prepared to believe it as he leaned back in his seat and surveyed the cushions, the oars, the rowlocks, and all the fascinating fittings, and felt the boat sway lightly under him.

“Nice? It’s the only thing.” said the Water Rat solemnly, as he leaned forward for his stroke. “Believe me, my young friend, there is nothing – absolutely nothing- half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats. Simply messing.”

The first time I read The Wind in the Willows was as an adult and just a few years ago. If you’ve never read it I would highly recommend it.

In the spirit of the tales in this book I will share the saga of the hotel we stayed in while in Henley-on-Thames in a future post. We only had one night in Henley and we were glad to check out of the hotel but we could have explored the lovely town for another day. Maybe in the future we’ll re-visit with a better choice of lodging.

Hope you all had a nice weekend. We did here at this old house.

InSPIREd Sunday ~ Henley-on-Thames

The Parish Church of St. Mary the Virgin in Henley-on-Thames, England.

“The exact origin of St. Mary’s is unknown, but is likely to be around 1000, and the first recorded priest is Aumericus de Harcourt, in 1204.”

Linking up with Beth and Sally for InSPIREd Sunday.

The Road to Henley…

On Monday July 14th we left our self-catering lodging in Ross on Wye and headed East to Henley on Thames.

Our route was close to 100 miles and as you can see the roads were nice and wide compared to the country lanes we had been traveling on. When we left the M roads as we got close to Henley on Thames we enjoyed driving through some picturesque towns.

We crossed over this bridge as we entered the main streets of Henley on Thames.

This was our hotel for the night and if we knew then what we would soon discover we would have made other arrangement immediately. Live and learn.

This was a wonderful town to stroll through and the walkway along the River Thames was quite nice. More from Henley on Thames soon.

Today, Saturday October 4th I’m heading to the Seattle Center to attend a Tea Festival with our daughter Katie and some friends. I hope to have some fun things to share. We have had a most glorious introduction to October weather wise here in the Seattle area. I’m most thankful for the beauty that we are enjoying.

The River Wye, Hereford

If you click on this link you can read about this “exact replica of this Hereford Bull” that was donated to the city.

From Hereford and Ross-on-Wye we traveled East to spend a night in Henley-on-Thames and then our two last nights in Windsor, England. I’m working hard on wrapping up the posts of our wonderful time in Jolly Old England.

Inside Hereford

The Silver Gilt Corona was designed by Simon Beer and installed in 1992. It holds 14 candles and which represent the 14 deaneries in the diocese. The design symbolizes Christ’s crown of thorns and his crown of glory.

There are always so many wonderful details to see in a Cathedral. It can be overwhelming to your senses and there is no way to take it all in on one visit.

I’m moving along with my England posts. I have one more for Hereford that includes a Hereford Bull. We also finally made it to the River Wye which is a long curling river. When in this part of England and Wales we stayed in Ross-on-Wye and visited Hay-on-Wye and finally crossed over the river Wye on foot while in Hereford.

I do enjoy Autumn and am happy to welcome October. Hope all is well in your October world.

Hereford Cathedral

You can read about the history of this cathedral by clicking here.

Next time we’ll walk through this door and see all the amazing wonders within.

I’ll be linking to InSPIREd Sunday with this post. Thank you Beth and Sally.

The Happy Wonderer ~ ellen b.

To honor and encourage

Category Archives: Travel