Category Archives: history

around home, history, UK

Chartwell House

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One of the great delights of being back in England is the accessibility of interesting historical things. The previous few days had struck a similar pattern – miserably wet & cloudy in the morning before clearing to a reasonably nice afternoon. The same happened yesterday, so Trish & I were looking for somewhere to go. Initially the Hop Farm looked like a good idea, but it seems to have turned in to a family park which would be teeming at this time of the year. Eventually we settled on a shorter drive south to Chartwell House in the Kentish countryside.

I’m not sure how I wasn’t aware of this place on my last stay here as it’s quite close & satisfies my historical interest being the home of Winston Churchill from the early ’20s until just before his death in 1965. We managed to snake a parking space – of course many other people thought it would be a good time to visit such a nice spot. The grounds aren’t particularly large, but there is a nice big lawn sloping down towards a couple of ponds & looking out over the Weald of Kent. There were also plenty of ponds & walled gardens – the first walled one we came across was a very nice rose garden. Further past the house & the croquet lawn was an extensive kitchen garden – some of the walls for this were built by Churchill himself. Also out in the grounds is the studio where Churchill pursued his love of painting.

The house isn’t from the outside overly exciting or ostentatious. Entry inside was timed so that one could still move comfortable in & between the rooms. No photos allowed inside – interesting to see where Churchill had written most of his many books. Shortly after taking over the house, Churchill had a lot of work done including adding a wing facing out towards the lawn & ponds. This at least gave a lot more space & light to the interior. More of Churchill’s better paintings & an extensive library abounded. Upstairs there was a small museum detailing some of his life & achievements, as well as many of the various ceremonial & other clothes that were very interesting. Overall a very pleasant afternoon pottering around & enjoying the Englishness of it all.

city, history, roadtrip, travel, USA

Seattle

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For a city know for its rain & only having two seasons, winter & August, we were lucky to have an absolutely stunning day on Friday exploring what is a very nice city in the sun (but then most are). After much frustration with the metro’s awful website, Google Maps told me what I wanted to know simply & we headed downtown after a much needed sleep-in. First stop was the Underground Tour, which came highly recommended from Karin. The tour was insanely popular, but very well run, informative & most amusing. When Seattle was built originally it was in the intertidal zone & twice-daily flooding was a bit of a problem. Not to mention the smelly waste-disposal problem – sewage tended to come back in with the tide. Like all good American cities it seems, Seattle had a big fire in its history which went a good way to wiping out the whole city.

For the rebuilding phase the engineers wanted to take a long time to raise up the height of the city. However, the building owners didn’t wait so rebuilding started almost immediately. Eventually the City put huge retaining walls along the perimeter of 33 blocks worth of the city. These were then filled with whatever they could find & so the street was now up on the second story, while the sidewalk was still down on the first floor. Eventually a new sidewalk was built bridging the gap between the street & the building, leaving a underground network of tunnels where the old sidewalk used to be – this was what we toured through seeing all manner of relics. Well worth the time & money to get that interesting insight in to the city’s history.

The coil of the first electric elevator in Seattle & other paraphernalia.

The ferry to Bainbridge Island was a good way to get out on the harbour & enjoy the sun & good views of the city. So we spent a few hours riding out to the island, poking around & tripping back.

We strolled over to the famous Pike Place markets, saw people throwing fish around to order & wandered out. Valerie had decided some time ago that she wanted to buy me a Stetson in the States (I could hardly refuse such an offer) & as this was our last chance we eventually found the shop we were looking for. With me having no fashion sense, it was a long deliberation before I ended up with a grey fedora – which I hopefully will find occasion to wear a bit. That night we managed to tick off a very slight desire to eat at the Cheesecake Factory. It was crazy busy on a Friday night, but we had a nice meal & the cheesecake was very good & not too intense.

family, food, history, roadtrip, travel, USA

Following (a bit of) the Oregon Trail

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Regrettably, as with a roadtrip, we had to leave Boise yesterday.  Maybe we caught it in its best light, but we really enjoyed our brief visit to Idaho & its capital. We were aiming towards Hood River – which is on the Columbia River – in central north Oregon, but didn’t want to do all the drive in one day so just pottered along.  Along the freeway we saw much more cropping, an old tumbledown cement factory at Lime, a still-operating cement factory (only one kiln though) just down the road & the return of the big trains.  We popped into Baker City, a town that had taken great delight in proclaiming from most Main St windows that some publication had voted it the most beautiful small town of America in a Best of the Road competition.

It was pretty nice & we spent a little while wandering the main street, reading plaques, looking in buildings & just enjoying the sunshine. There was also a big leafy park just down the road where we had another relaxing lunch. Further down the freeway & a bit east was the National Oregon Trail Interpretive Center – with time up our sleeves, it was well worth a look. Being the national center, it was far & away the most comprehensive display that we have seen yet on that mass-migration – we easily spent a couple of hours there reading & listening & pondering the hardship of the months endured & the landscape encountered (bits of which we’ve seen from the comfort of the car).

We’re clearly getting on in the trip as we opted for the nice easy route down I-84 instead of backroads through the hills. But there were still the Blue Mountains to get over (glad I wasn’t walking beside a wagon) before descending to the Columbia River plateau. It was clear we were back near a big river as more & more irrigation & nice looking fields popped up. Hermiston was a little off the freeway & a bit of a nothing town from what we could see (although it did have a gigantic WalMart distribution center on the outskirts – that must count for something), but it was a convenient place to rest for the evening. With a quick trip down to & across the Columbia River (quite a while since I last crossed that in Revelstoke, BC) we were in Washington – our third state for the day. The river is of course really high & we were impressed by the volume (in both senses) of the water pouring through the spillways at McNary dam.

Back in Hermiston, we struggled to find anywhere to eat dinner. But we struck a jackpot when we came across the Pheasant Cafe. Apparently more of a dance/clubbing venue later in the evening (it was a large complex), the restaurant was empty when we went in & the only guy working it was rather spookily named Brandon! He was super friendly & really interested in where we’ve come from (particularly Australia) & he cooked a mean prime rib.

family, history, roadtrip, travel, USA, vehicles

Sacramento

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Our first morning in Sacramento dawned a lot drier than it had been when we drove in to town the afternoon before. As it was Valerie’s birthday, we had a day off from driving & biking – instead we walked a short distance along the river to Old Sacramento. There’s still quite a few of the old buildings left around this part of the riverside & it was a pleasant walk around them & by the vessels docked. What was billed as North America’s best railroad museum was also in the vicinity so we popped in there to have a look.

The museum did a really good job of covering how the expansion of the railroad helped the nation to mature. There were also, of course, many big shiny old locomotives & carriages. Most of the wood-burning steam locos were quite small (4-4-0), but beautifully presented.

In this case, not so beautifully photographed

The biggest steam loco was one of the last built for Southern Pacific (in the 1940s). A cab-forward design (the locos were getting so big all the steam & so on was getting to be a problem in tunnels on cab-rear designs) it was a hulking great big thing with sixteen drive wheels (4-8-8-4). Unfortunately, it was only in service for twelve years as it was superceded by diesel. Another highlight was finally getting to go on a Pullman car – this one a sleeper.

Strolling for fifteen minutes or so after lunch in to downtown Sacramento, we reached the Capitol. With extensive gardens around it, the building itself is also impressive. We wandered around a bit looking at various displays before getting our now weary legs back to the motel.

Valerie’s birthday dinner was on the Delta King – a old paddlewheel boat moored in Old Sacramento that we’d seen earlier in the day.

I’m convinced that whoever was building that pyramid across the river got bored & gave up


It was by far the fanciest meal we’d had in a long time – it was great to have a break from over-enthusiastic & overbearing waitresses. As we were walking around the deck at the end of the meal we saw Tower Bridge lift its deck for a launch & as we got back on dry land I saw my first skunk (thankfully from a distance). But that sighting didn’t sour my impressions of Sacramento – the small part of what we saw (all downtown) was really nice, & we had two great meals to boot.