Ely the Town

On a recent trip to the southeast of England, we visited the town of Ely. The town is famous for its cathedral and for being the home town of Oliver Cromwell. The story about its name is also interesting.

Our GPS led us through town and we found some free three hour parking not far from the cathedral. The cathedral was so large and impressive it will (no surprise to regular readers) get its own post. Walking into town, we could see it quite easily.

Lucy was behind me, don't worry

We walked past the Porta (the medieval entrance to the monastery of Ely; now a library for the King's School) and the bishop's house on our way to the cathedral.

There was a large garden area on the other side that we did not explore

The bishop's house, not open to the public

At the cathedral, we saw many of the buildings that provide support to the cathedral, including the offices across the street. This set of medieval buildings is the largest still in use today.

Pretty swanky office building--they don't make them like that anymore!

After touring the cathedral, we went to the high street to get a snack. (The high street is the main shopping street in a town, even if it isn't named "High Street.") Lots of stores with clothes or mobile phones or trinkets or food or gambling or stationary or anything else you might imagine can be found on the high streets of England.

In this picture, Jacob is behind me

The other end of the high street

Where we had our snack--yummy baked goodness!

We stopped in the cathedral shop and were told the tourist information spot was back up past the cathedral at Oliver Cromwell's house. Cromwell's was another place we wanted to see just because of how famous he is. We had to go through the church yard, which had a cannon in the middle of it! The sign by the cannon says it is a "Russian cannon captured during the Crimean War, presented to the people of Ely by Queen Victoria in 1860 to mark the creation of the Ely Rifle volunteers."

Pointed not at the cathedral, but towards Cromwell's house--is that intentional?

Jacob enjoys the cannon

Another distraction on the way to Cromwell's was a small garden next to the Old Fire Engine Restaurant. The garden was through a doorway. The children loved sneaking in, though I don't think we would have gotten into any trouble there.

The garden wasn't quite in bloom yet

We also saw some nice Tudor homes and the parish church.

We wished we had some bread for the ducks!

The arch had black ribbons and flowers, maybe from a recent funeral?

Finally we made it to Oliver Cromwell's House (and tourist information centre).

Sign at the Cromwell abode

Oliver Cromwell's House in Ely

A museum on Cromwell is also available to tour for a slight fee. When it was open, which for us wouldn't be for another five minutes. We decided to relax on a nearby bench.

Jacob and Lucy relax

You may be wondering what is written on the bench. We were too. We discovered Mrs. Cromwell's recipe for cooking eels. Assuming you would be dubious, I took a picture as proof.

Mmmm...eels!

For those of you wishing the full text, I did not transcribe it, so you will have to visit yourself. We did go into the house but did not take the tour. Instead, we admired the tourist sign outside the house, which also conspicuously depicted a certain water animal.

Not a snake!

Reading up a bit on the history of the town, originally it was surrounded by water and marshlands and the area was known as the Isle of Eels. Eels were apparently a large part of the economy and it is assumed that's why the town is named after them (yes, Ely is pronounced "eel-e"). One story tells of how invading armies were never able to conquer Ely because they could not find a way through the swamps. Until the day that a local traitor led some invaders along one of the secret paths. Nowadays, the land is quite flat and mostly dry, though eels are still caught in the Great River Ouse that runs through the area.

Another mystery that we were not able to solve was the symbolism of three keys, which is found in many spots around Ely.

Decoration in the King's School gate

Googling brings up mention of Robert Orford, Bishop of Ely from 1303-1310, who apparently had three keys in his coat of arms, but much more information about him is not available, especially why three keys. But I digress...

After seeing some of Cromwell's digs, we were approaching lunch time and the end of the children's patience, so we headed back to our car and our hotel. It was fun to visit Ely and maybe we'll come back for one of the eel festivals. Or not!

More on the Cathedral tomorrow (or next post, as the case may be).

Movie Trailer: Zombie Hamlet

There's a movie coming out called Zombie Hamlet. You might hope it's about some small town in the countryside being overrun by zombies, but no, it is Shakespeare's Hamlet, as is clear from the poster.

No, it's for real...check it out on iTunes. Though this isn't really an adaptation of Hamlet, it's about a first time film director who makes a deal to retheme Hamlet as an American Civil War story set in Louisiana. Financing from Hollywood falls through while they are on location. A local matriarch is willing to put up $300,000 for the film, which inspires them to aim low by adding the zombie theme. This movie looks as terrible as the description sounds. I can't believe it's really going to play in movie theaters. It seems like it should be premiering on the SyFy channel...on a Saturday afternoon. Yikes!

Okay, originally I was going to spare you a YouTube link to the trailer and make you go to iTunes for it, but I've relented. Here it is for your viewing pleas...uh...for you to view.



It's odd that no one has "zombied up" Hamlet yet. The play seems pretty ripe with opportunities:

• The poison that kills Hamlet's father could be a zombie virus, leading to...
• The Ghost of Hamlet's father now the Zombie of Hamlet's father, doomed to walk the earth for a certain time
• Fortinbras's army could be a ravaging zombie horde bearing down on Denmark
• Ophelia could be giving out herbs that protect from zombies, e.g. "Rosemary's for dismemberment" instead of "remembering" (though obviously pretty flowers aren't going to protect anyone from zombies, so it shows how crazy she really is)
• Hamlet could prove he loves Ophelia more than Laertes by putting down her post-suicide zombie self
• Hamlet's return from England could be...wait for it...twenty-eight days later

I could go on, but you probably don't want me to. My apologies to anyone for whom I have ruined future viewings of Shakespeare's greatest work.

Marlborough, UK

On the way between Oxford and Avebury (Oxford stories are coming eventually!), we stopped off in Marlborough for a quick snack. We quickly found parking on the High Street. We were not so quick in choosing where to eat. Since the weather was nice, we decided to get some snacks from Waitrose and asked around about a playground. We found one not to far from the High Street. Luckily the Waitrose had a little cafe area where we bought tea to go. The children enjoyed the playground a lot.

This slide was popular

The roundabout had seats! (Yes, that's my tea sitting there)

Feeding the ducks leftover donuts and wood chips

We only paid for a hour of parking, necessitating a quick return to the car. I took a few shots of the some of the more interesting buildings.

The Merchant's House, the jewel of High Street according to the history

One end of High Street had a very ornate building

The person who told us about the playground also recommended going up the tower of the church for a fine view of the area. If we'd had two hours we would have gone up. As it was, we went on to Avebury to see the henge and church.

Naughts and Zeds: Fools Edition

Naughts and Zeds is an ongoing series of posts on the differences between language, culture, and everyday items in America and in Britain. For a list of previous posts, go here.

The stores here often have rather intriguing items to offer. I haven't worked my nerve up to buy hot dogs that are in a can (like a can of bean or soup), but I did get this delightful concoction:

It's a mixture of yogurt, whipped cream, and strawberries. Eating it is pretty delightful. Why the name? No one is quite sure, though according to the unassailably reliable source Wikipedia,

Several authors derive it from the French verb fouler meaning "to crush" or "to press" (in the context of pressing grapes for wine),^[4] but this derivation is dismissed by the Oxford English Dictionary as baseless and inconsistent with the early use of the word.^[1]

How reliable is an entry where the footnotes are out of order?

If you are in America, "fool" always refers to an idiot or a jester. The only American who would eat a fool is Hannibal Lecter. For Americans of a certain age, the word "fool" is forever associated with this man:

"I pity the fool who doesn't know who I am."

In spite of my fond memories of The A-Team, I think I prefer the English variety of fool.

Yorkshire Museum and Gardens, Garden Edition

After finishing up with the museum, we headed out to the gardens of the Yorkshire Museum and Gardens. The main attraction there is the very climbable ruins of St. Mary's Abbey. First built in 1088, this Benedictine monastery was dissolved (along with all the other monasteries) by King Henry VIII in the 1530s and 1540s. It slowly fell into ruin and is now the home of the museum.

The children were excited as soon as they saw it because, let's face it, nothing's more fun than climbing all over ruins.

Hey, wait for me!!!

Large doorway and walls

Jacob comes through the doorway

Lucy climbs what's left of the pillars supporting the church

Relaxing after a tough climb

Pushups are better at high altitudes

Climbing this one made me nervous

Jacob the Stylite

Trying to drive Fred Flintstone's car

We walked down the hillside from the abbey ruins to discover a Tudor-style building that was large and empty inside. A sign said it was available for rental, I assume for weddings or other big celebrations.

Not open for climbing

Later research (i.e. online research) shows this was the "hospitium." The ground floor is medieval and was originally used as a guest house or a barn for the abbey. It was rebuilt in a newer style in the 20th century.

Several gardens graced this area. I tried to keep the kids out but one area was just too tempting. Luckily the main feature is the stones that look perfect for walking across.

My advice: don't have this layout if you don't want children wandering through

We headed back toward the entrance and saw that we just missed our bus. Luckily, the next one would be along in ten minutes, so we went back through the main gate and explored the nearby tunnel.

Admiring the signs

Where did the bus go?

Lucy finds her niche

This area was the location of St. Leonard's Hospital, where the sick and poor in York were taken care of. The hospital even provided meals for prisoners in York Castle.

The one thing we didn't see that I would have liked to was the Observatory. It isn't very large but who isn't interested in astronomy? Alas, it's only open on Saturdays from 1130 to 1430. And every second Tuesday of the month. Not exactly convenient. Maybe over the summer when Jacob is out of school we will visit again!

Yorkshire Museum and Gardens, Museum Edition

The Yorkshire Museum and Gardens is home to a nice museum of artifacts mostly related to the city of York. We visited recently on another excursion to see more of York.

The first thing we saw in the museum was the toilets. Jacob's perennial favorite is still a requirement wherever we go. After that, we visited the Roman York exhibit, featuring the remains of a Roman wall.

Jacob crosses the wall

Lucy too close to the wall's decorations

They also displayed one of the mosaic floors that was found in York.

Jacob thought it was a maze

We also saw a life-size statue of Mars, god of war, dating from the Roman days (first to fourth century AD) and the most complete statue from that period found in Britain.

Jacob looks up to Mars

We also saw a bust of Constantine, first Christian emperor of the Roman empire.

Jacob leaves a note for the next visitor

Another part of the exhibit involved interactivity, mostly around the layout of the city or designing buildings.

Jacob examines the Roman plan for the city and how it relates to the current layout

Lucy tried to recreate classical structures from a pile of blocks

They had some other walls from the Roman baths, which I found a little surprising.

Who says bikinis were invented in the 20th century?

We didn't get to see much of the Medieval York exhibit, though we did view the York Helmet (also known as the Coppergate Helmet). It was discovered in 1982 during construction of a new shopping area. The helmet dates back to the late 700s and is in amazing shape for such an old find that was almost bulldozed.

Jacob loves weaponry!

We wandered through the Extinct exhibit, which had a Moa's skeleton.

Mighty Moa, now no longa!

The moa (dinorus robustus) was a New Zealand flightless bird that disappeared over 500 years ago. This skeleton is one of the most complete in any museum and is a highlight of visiting the museum.

After this, we went back outside into the glorious sunshine to visit the gardens part of the Yorkshire Museum and Gardens, which you will see in the next post!