Wynmelvin » Travel

November 2nd, 2009

Russell — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 16:57:54 +0000

LONDON — I thought I’d go back to the Westminster City Archives this morning but on arrival found that they are closed on Mondays. So as it was such a beautiful day I thought I’d take a flight on the London Eye as last time it was such a drizzly grey day. The ticket also gets you in free to the new London Eye 4D Experience. The wait was longer but well worth it. At first I wondered what all the fuss was about as the film looked like any other—until the seagull flew in from over my shoulder!

After the London Eye it was into the city to do my last minute shopping. There were some very nice things, espcially at Hamley’s, that would be coming back with me if only I had room in the suitcase!

November 1st, 2009

Russell — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 20:21:14 +0000

LONDON — This morning was wet. The weather is supposed to be clear and dry tomorrow but rain is expected to return on Tuesday. I went to the Natural History Museum this morning and arrived in the rain to discover that they were very busy and that I could expect to be in the queue for up to two hours. As it transpired I only need to wait in the queue and the rain and the occasional gust of wind for about twenty minutes.

Once inside I went and had a look at one of the ticketed special exhibitions: the Veolia Environnement Wildlife Photographer of the Year. All of the photographs on display were beautiful and many were exceptional.
Returning to the entrance hall I joined the the queue for the dinosaur gallery—I couldn’t leave without visiting the dinosaurs again. This queue moved slower and so took longer, but after about forty minutes I was renewing my acquaintance with the dinosaurs.

I went back to the National Gallery specifically to enquire about their print on demand service—could you take one home with you or did you have to wait for it to arrive by post? As it turned out it is printed there and then depending on how many are in the queue. So I bought my print and was able to see it being printed out on the A0 printer.

October 31st, 2009

Russell — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 19:26:23 +0000

LONDON — Today I returned to the British Library. Now that I knew the date of Benjamin Coles’ death, I reasoned that I would be better able to select documents more likely to yield a positive result. I requested five and it was in the last that I viewed that I found what I was looking for. So after four hours of searching I put in a request to have a couple of pages scanned, and I now have to return on Monday afternoon to collect my copy.

Getting around London is a bit fraught this weekend—the last weekend of mid-term break. Not because their are kids everywhere, or the fact that it’s Halloween, but because the London Transport Authority chose this weekend to close three lines completely with partial closures of five others for engineering maintenance. Unfortunately the Circle line is one of those closed completely as I find that is the one I use most often. My London Underground app has certainly paid for itself.

October 30th, 2009

Russell — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 20:50:00 +0000

LONDON — Today I went to the National Gallery on Trafalgar Square. I had visited the Gallery on my previous trip to London and enjoyed it so much I just had to return for another look. And it didn’t disappoint. I still can’t get over how bright and vibrant the colours in the paintings are, especially those from the 15th and 16th centuries, when compared to what you see reproduced in books. And the other thing you don’t appreciate from the books are the relative sizes of the paintings. Some are tiny, and others are simply enormous. There is nothing like seeing the original paintings.

There were many memorable paintings but the one that really caught my eye was Two Tax Gatherers by Marinus van Reymerswaele, painted in about 1540. It reminded me of modern illustrations created with vector graphics programs. It impressed me so much I think I might go back and purchase a print.

For the rest of the afternoon I went shopping.

October 29th, 2009

Russell — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 22:14:49 +0000

LONDON — This morning I went to the London Metropolitan Archives to try and find a reference to Joseph Coles in St Thomas’ Hospital’s patient admission register for 1817. Unfortunately this particular item was classified as not fit for consultation due to bomb damage suffered during the Second World War, but I was able to fill in a form to request conservation. Hopefully it will be available for the next time I visit!

As my visit took all of twenty minutes I decided to head over to the nearby Westminster City Archives and see if I could locate any parish records for Joseph and Benjamin Coles—particularly their marriage records. I looked at the microfilms for the bigger parishes in Westminster at the time but found nothing. I think I’ll go back on Monday and check the smaller parishes. It would be nice to find something.

During mid-afternoon the Archives had a fire alarm drill to see if they could get us all out quickly. Everybody had to descend the five flights of stairs to safety with the loudest fire alarm I’ve had the pleasure to experience! Thankfully it wasn’t too long before we were allowed back in to continue our searching.

October 28th, 2009

Russell — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 21:03:10 +0000

LONDON — Getting from Bristol to London went a lot smoother than I’d are hope. The walk to the railway station, pushing one suitcase and pulling another, only took ten minutes. I probably got to the station too early but it meant I was able to be one of the first to board the train—and when you’ve got more bags than hands, it helps. One unexpected but pleasant surprise was that though my seat was standard class the coach itself was first class.

Once I was back in London and settled in to the hotel, I went back to the British Museum to see about making a booking for Monday for the Moctezuma exhibition. Instead there was no need to make an advanced booking so I got an immediate ticket and spent the next hour or so viewing exhibits relating to Moctezuma, the last ruler of the Aztecs, and the conquest by the Spanish. There were some very beautiful objects, especially the masks inlaid with turquoise, and an impressive stone eagle with a bowl-shaped cavity in its back to receive sacrificed hearts.

It’s starting to get dark early now. Clocks went back an hour last Sunday morning.

October 27th, 2009

Russell — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 21:04:20 +0000

BRISTOL — The first task to do today was to get the car back to the Hertz depot. Actually, the first thing was to locate a petrol station to fill up the tank. Hotel reception pointed me in the right direction. There are not many petrol stations in central Bristol. After getting in the wrong lane a couple of times I managed to deliver the car to the depot. One of the staff very kindly offered me a lift back to the hotel in the car I had just used—the first time I had sat in the passenger seat!

Then it was off to the Post Office to post my parcel. The package weighed 8.9 kilograms and would have cost £80.00 with no insurance cover, or £104.00 with a £50.00 insurance cover, to get it home. On advice I decided to repack the box into two to try and get each below five kilograms so they could go by Royal Mail rather than Parcel Force. It took a while but the total cost for the two came to £54.00 with insurance cover of £39.00 each.
Then it was back to the hotel to try and repack my luggage.

October 26th, 2009

Russell — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 20:47:12 +0000

BRISTOL — This morning began with an early walk to the railway station to reserve a seat to Paddington (the advanced ticket office is closed Sundays). That done, I returned to the hotel to get the car and drive to Mells, the birthplace of my ancestors Benjamin and Joseph Coles.

I found Mells relatively easily. I managed to squeeze the car in to a space along a street and entered the churchyard of the parish church. I didn’t find any tombstones of familial interest but I wasn’t really expecting to—my Coles family had left Mells around 1800 and most 18th century and earlier tombstones are barely legible.

I then drove into Frome, a large(ish) town nearby and had a look around. I stopped and bought a postage box to send my collection of guide books home and help lighten my baggage. I headed back to Bristol early afternoon, partly to ensure I got a park but also to give me time to pack the box.

I got the box packed with all my guidebooks but I fear it might be a bit too heavy. It will be interesting at the Post Office tomorrow!

October 25th, 2009

Russell — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 22:08:26 +0000

BRISTOL — This morning I decided to explore Bristol and quickly decided that it is not an easy city to get around on foot. Bt the end of the day I still hadn’t found the high street and the maps I had weren’t much help in that respect. Bristol’s maritime heritage is very much to the fore and I did manage to find the SS Great Britain.

Brunel’s SS Great Britain was the first large steam ship to combine an iron hull with screw-driven propulsion and set the standard for decades to come. I found it interesting that at one point it was owned by the same family that lived in the house I visited yesterday—Tyntesfield. After investigation the ship’s hull from underwater and looking through the museum, you are given the chance to explore ship above and below decks. The ship has been very well restored as much as possible and it was very easy to imagine being back in time on one of her voyages to Australia.

I retraced my steps around the harbour-side and headed towards the city centre (or so I thought) to try and find the post office. In that I failed. I’ll have to ask reception for directions as I have a parcel of printed matter to send home to try and lighten my load!

October 24th, 2009

Russell — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 20:58:43 +0000

BRISTOL — This morning I crossed the Severn from Wales into England and by-passed Bristol. I headed for Tyntesfield—I wasn’t sure what it was other than it being a National Trust property. I arrived just after noon and it started bucketing down. Thankfully the rain only lasted for twenty minutes or so. It turns out that Tyntesfield is a country house. Unusually, the house is in the middle of a conservation, preservation and restoration project but is still open to the public.

The house was covered in scaffolding which meant that its unique gothic exterior was hidden from sight. It was only in the gift shop when I saw a postcard of the house that I remembered having seen the house in an episode of Antiques Roadshow. It was interesting to see the interior of the house in a state of disarray while in the process of being restored.

I drove into Bristol and headed towards the city centre. My road atlas was of no use and it took about 40 minutes of driving around before I came across signs for the Temple Meads Railway Station (I knew where the hotel was in relation to the station). I arrived to find the hotel car park full so I had to park in the handicapped spot as a token from reception was needed to exit the barriered car park. While I was checking in some one else was checking out so I was able to appropriate their car park instead.