Cambridge was to follow up my grandmother's side, the Harts/
Fowlers who were farm labourers from the Fen country. After a quick trip into Cambridge proper to see the uni and the punts on the river, we drove out to Chatteris and visited the musem and library. They had some really interesting old maps, photos and documents that gave us an insight into the area and the place that she was born.
The Fen country is very rich agriculturally, and was quite low and swampy. The road winds its way through the fields on a narrow raised embankment about two or three metres high so it is a bit of a ride with no barriers and a steep drop off into fields and canals! In prehistoric times people had to live in settlements on gravel islands which became the villages and Chatteris became quite a large and prosperous one with lots of farms and therfore labourers......but not any more.
This is a house we came across in Chatteris when we got lost ....again .......in the back streets of the town.
The countryside was flat and rural and, because we were off the "beaten track, we found some interesting old houses that seem to have been left in a time warp......except for the T.V. aerials!
In fact, the pub we stayed at is an old thatched building hundreds of years old. The village itself would have about 200 people max and these houses are just normal village houses that people live in across and down the street.
Cambridge to London is not far and doesn't take long......except when you get into London proper. What a nightmare....but we finally found our apartment (shoebox) and Erin who has been here a couple of weeks and is quite adept at getting around on the "tube".
On our first day sightseeing we ended up at Buckingham Palace just as the "Changing of the Guards" ceremony was happening. What pomp and circumstance.....and what a crowd! Streets closed off, police and barricades everywhere, it certainly was a spectacle.
London is a big city with so many attractions that tourists are everywhere and there is a thriving souvenir shop business with shops lining the streets in many places like Leicester Square.
We did many of the icons, Big Ben, Nelson's Column, the Tower Bridge and the Palace etc but also went to more out of the way places like the Florence Nightingale Museum (unfortunately closed to a sewarage issue....nice!), the Globe Theatre, Beatles Shop and Baker St.
On the way we got a really good look around London and an appreciation of the history and culture of the place. It's little wonder London is such a popular destinstion.
We spent a couple of hours in the Natural History Museum .....together with a thousand school excursion groups from France and Germany.....but really could only manage a superficial look at the exhibits.......
...........and we criss crossed the Thames any number of times on Westminster Bridge, Waterloo Bridge, Southwark Bridge, London Bridge (didn't fall down) and the Millenium Bridge. We certainly wore out some shoe leather!
The weather has been kind ( relatively....but somewhat greyish) and we have been able to see a great deal in the time of our stay here but after a show at the West End (Miss Saigon) on Saturday with Erin and her friend Katherine, we will be catching the train to Paris for the last leg of our journey.....no genealogy there.
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