Bob & Betty go British

Look, it's a castle!

Robert and I like a good ruin. It was Juliet who really encouraged our love of ruins. But then it is hard to find a castle that is still fully standing in England thanks to Cromwell. Even better is the fact that we can go and see most ruins for free now that we are members of English Heritage.

Brougham Castle (or ruin) is just outside Penrith which is where Vega and Mark teach at a local school (it's definitely nothing like Penrith in western Sydney). We ended up here at the end of Sunday after a failed attempt to see another castle in another little town called Appleby-in-Westmoreland. The gates to the castle where shut and there was a long and bitter rant on a sign on the front gate about funding and clashes with English Heritage. We decided to check out the local church (St Lawrence) instead which was first built in the 12th century and was adapted and added to over the centuries. Dad, you will be pleased to know that the church contains the oldest organ, that is still played, in England (apparently) and the baptismal font was made out of rock with fossils in it!

This brings us back to Brougham Castle. We had a great wander in and around and up in the castle. It was a great spot to take photos, although it was a pity about the weather. The castle was built on the site of a roman fort in the early 13th century by Robert de Vieuxpont. and was restored and lived in by Lady Anne Clifford in the 17th century. She was also responsible for restoring the church in Appleby-in-Westmoreland and happens to be buried there.

Unfortunately we had to go back home on Sunday afternoon. We caught the train from Penrith and had a rather long trip back to London and didn't get home until after 11pm. Still, we had a great weekend and thanks to Mark and Vega for looking after us so well.

It's almost the weekend again already and it's been a busy week. Our friend Juliet came back from Russia on Sunday evening and flew off to Croatia in the wee hours of Thursday morning. She reports that it's nice and warm and sunny unlike London where it's now much cooler and a bit wet. Tuesday morning I thought Juliet had turned into a bag lady. She had managed to collect cushions, motorcycle jacket liners, towels and throws to keep her warm during the night. I felt like a very bad host not offering her our doona - it's not like we've been using it. We'll know for next time...


On Wednesday night we went to the Stanmore of London. It's in the North West and it's the last stop on the Jubilee line. It didn't strike me as terribly different to many other places on the outskirts of London. In fact it's not very far from where Robert's Aunt lives in Pinner. We had Indian food with some of the people that Robert works with. The excuse for this event was an England vs Greece football match. I can't say that much watching of the football went on. But the food was good.

Last night we caught up with Brett who I used to work with at Monitor. It's been years since we saw him, and aside from some dreadlocks he was still Brett and we had a great old time checking out the local pubs of Covent Garden. He's been doing a bit of travelling - including snowboarding in Chili. Robert was a little jealous having missed out on winter in the southern hemisphere this year... Still, i'm sure he has grand ideas for skiing and snowboarding all over Europe as soon as it starts snowing!

I'm certainly hoping for sleep this weekend. With late nights and not having enough sleep on Wednesday night (had to get up at 3.30 to get Juliet in her taxi having gone to bed at 1am), I'm pretty much ready to collapse into bed right now.

posted by Elisabeth @ 9:32 PM