A Toast to Tim's Father

May 19, 2011
Greetings from Cambridge. Would you believe we are staying in a room above a pub? The Earl of Derby, to be exact.
Yesterday was our last day in London and the only thing we did was go to the Tate Modern, a contemporary art gallery associated with the world famous Tate Gallery. The reason we went there was to see the Joan Miro exhibition. There were 13 rooms of his paintings and a few sculptures. Miro is one of our favorite artists and it was a joy to see so much of his work in one place. There was also a lot of historic information about Miro that we didn't know, starting with the fact that Joan is the Catalan spelling of Juan. He was fiercely loyal to Catalonia, the region of Spain north of Barcelona. After the Spanish Civil War, General Franco, the Spanish Dictator, suppressed all things Catalan causing Miro and his family to move to Paris in exile. Much of his art reflects these feelings. That is enough of a history lesson. Miro's art is fabulous and we thoroughly enjoyed the exhibition.
Today we rented a car and left London heading east towards Colchester to visit a garden. On the way we stopped in Boreham for lunch at the Cock Inn. This is noteworthy because Tim's father was stationed in Boreham a short time during WW II before his unit left for Normandy. While stationed at Boreham he raised many a pint of beer at the Cock Inn. We raised a toast today to Tim's father. Here's to you, Dad!
The Beth Chatto Garden east of Colchester was breath taking in its beauty. It is not as formal as many other English gardens that we have visited. It was a riot of color, or as Tim likes to say, "a visual cacaphony", with iris, rhododendren, poppies, primulas, and many others too numerous to mention in full bloom. In particular, we were impressed with the many varied and unusual, for us, specimens of columbine. We both, but Lynda in particular, enjoyed being back in a true English garden.
This evening we went into Cambridge and walked about the city center. Cambridge is the seat of oneof the world's great univerities. Cambridge University consists of nearly 30 seperate colleges with King's College being the most famous. Tourists are allowed on the grounds of the seperate colleges at very limited times. When we asked about visiting Kings's College we were told that we could visit the Chapel, which is a famous architecual site, tomorrow but the rest of the grounds were closed as the students were sitting for their exams now. What with no tourists around and students studying madly for exams, it was very quiet in the city center next to the University, a perfect night for a quiet stroll.
Tomorrow the plan is to visit King's College Chapel and then drive to Ely to visit the cathedral there, before driving on toward York. But at this point in our trip who knows what tomorrow will bring. Guess you will just have to check in with the blog again. How's that for a tease!
Cheers!