Condra e.V. Forum

Wollte nur eine Vollzugsmeldung abgeben...
Sind also in Bath angekommen. Habe ich schon erwähnt, dass ich Südengland liebe?? Diese ganzen alten englischen Herrenhäuser... *schmacht* Ich glaub, ich bleib hier.

In Bath gibt es ein interessantes Museum: Museum of Costume & Assembly Room. Aus dem Text: One of the finest collections of its kind in the world present the story of fashion over the las 400 years. Free audioguides bring to life the changing styles in fashionalbe men´s, women´s and children´s clothes.

Ich geb mal immer wieder Zwischenmeldungen von mir...

Kind regards
Susanne

*schmacht*

Ebenfalls da sein will. Hier kriege ich ja noch nicht mal eine Nähmaschine organisiert!

Ihr habt's gut... Schaut Dir nur ja alles gut an, damit Volaire ihren Schneidern demnächst neue Aufträge für schöne Klamotten für ihren Lehrmeister geben kann. :)

Dann noch viel Spaß "auf der Insel", lasst's Euch gutgehen. Wir sehen uns...

Lieben Gruß,

Björn

Hach!!!

My first report from England:
Yesterday we arrived at Dover and we drove through the land to Salisbury. There we stoped and watched the Cathedral of Salisbury. The Cathedral was build in the 12. century and is "frühgotisch - early gothic??". Its tower is 123 meters high and the highest churchtower of england. There are only ca. 10 higher towers of churches in Europe. Very impressing were the columns and the cloister with the monasterys garden inside... And they had a tomcat in the Cathedral. I found this very funny.
Then we left Salisbury and drove to the north. We wanted to see Old Sarum, that was the origin of Salisbury. One of the bishops wanted to live in the plain, and Old Sarum was lying on the top of a hill. But we didn´t find the road to Old Sarum, and so we went on to Bath. Nearby Salisbury lies Stonehenge, but our time didn´t allow to visit it yet.
In Bath we occupied our house and then we had to wait until the rain would end... But nothing happened... *g*
In the later afternoon we decided to drive to the Chew Valley Lake, a great lake just 20 or 25 km away. It is one of the greatest habitat for birds in England. We had a walk for an hour and then returned to our car because we wanted to get home to dinner.
Today we hat rain again - is there any other weather in England?? We drove to Cheddar. There are two big caves and a very impressive gorge. We have made a lot of photos... On the way to the caves we saw a "Lidl"!!!!! And it had opened... it was a wonder... We bought three bottles of Pepsi and toast because we have a toaster in our kitchen...
The caves were wonderful and we all were amazed... At our return we made a stop in Wells. There is one more Cathedral and we went in of course... The Cathedral is also build in gothic style. It has over 120 stone-sculptures. After visiting the Cathedral we ambled through Wells and then we had a lot of work to find our car.
After our arrival at our house we ate and then the children went to bed. So I could write this report.
I hope you enjoyed it and I will go on tomorrow.
Susanne

Mh...well- your report was really interesting and fun to read. I will forgive you the pretty small amount of mistakes I found but I am sure maria will find about a thousand more... (but don't worry,. darling, you know how she is with such things, ay?)...

have a wonderful time! We want to hear every bloody detail...

I didn´t say that my English is perfect. I´m just learning. And when I write my report in English, I can learn...  :D

Anika! Stop spoiling her. You need to be firm with your students. At first I was all like "What the heck, why is she writing in English?" but it's only fitting. When in Rome, do as the Romans do. When in Britain do as...

Kay ...so this is gonig to be our foreign talk thread..fine...

more talk please

I am lost for words.

This morning I woke up and something was wrong. I thought I was back in Germany... it wasn´t raining any more. But when I managed my first surprise, we were very happy and planned the day.
So we went by bus to Bath and made a lot of photos because Bath is a very attractive town. Many of the buildings are conserved from medieval times. Most of them were built of sandstone. The whole town is a World Heritage Site by Unesco.
We visited the "Roman Baths", they were found in the 18th century. The romans came to England in 43 AD and they found a thermal spring here which was admired by the natives, they had a Godess named Sulis. The romans called the temple they built here Aquae Sulis and they adored Sulis and Minerva. Next to the temple they built a bath which was used by all citicens and many people came here from the whole Roman Empire because the bath was famous for the healing effect of the water. About 400 AD the Romans left Bath to recapture Rome and the baths and the temple got to ruins. Then some centuries later the english men used the ruins and builded their homes onto these walls. So the roman buildings were lost until the 18th century.
Now they have a museum here and there are audioguides for Germans, too. So I did understand all of the explanations.
After we left the baths, we strolled through Bath and found an KFC... mjam.
Then we visited the Cathedral... a lot of photos here... and at least we went home by bus again.
But we didn´t see all of the things we wanted to see in Bath and so we will go here one more time...
The museum of costumes is waiting for my visit... And here is a "Circus" and the "Royal Crescent" with the "Royal Victoria Park". But I will give a report when I have seen them.
So, you will read the next text tomorrow evening.
Good night!

...waiting...are we having a dia-show on a biiiig screen when you return, dear?

Back from the front...

We visited Stonehenge and Old Sarum today. Because both of them are part of the "English Heritage", we are now members of this organization. Just for two weeks, but the price was 44 pounds!!! But the entrance fee for all places we wanted to see here in England would have been much higher.

First I describe Stonehenge. The stone circle was built between 3000 BC and 1600 BC in three periods. No one knows today why it was built. Some of the stones were carried over 100 km from Wales to this place. Stonehenge is orientated to the rising and setting sun, but you know this already, I expect. Stonehenge is a World Heritage Site, too.
But more important than the facts I heard there was the impression of these stones in the middle of the hills - it was really overwhelming.

After this we drove to Old Sarum and this time we found it... (You remember, at the first day we drove out of Salisbury and wanted to visit Old Sarum, but we missed it - or didn´t I mentioned this detail?)
Now we were able to see these ruins what in the beginning of the Middle Age was the castle of Wiliam the Conqueror in 1070. But before this using it was built in about 500 BC in the Iron Age and then occupied by the Romans, the Saxons and at least by the Normans. In the middle of the 12th century a town grew here and the castle expanded. Also a Cathedral was built here, but the first one was destroyed a few days after sanctification by lightning. The second Cathedral built here was larger than the first one and contained the resedence of the bishop.
But when Old Sarum grew and more and more people lived here, the water wasn´t enough here and so they decided to move downhill to a new settlement, Salisbury.
The stones of the old castle were used for other buildings so all we can see today are foundation walls.
A little information additionally: We found an information panel on which the "great tower" of Old Sarum was explained. There we found a statement what is interesting for us: It is an Norman old word for "place of the noble", it is "dunjon". This place was in the great tower. After the king was settling in his new castle, the great tower was used as a prison and propabely the word "dungeon" is originated from this...
More from England tomorrow...

Dunjon? That explains the french "Donjon"-castle-thingie, too... heh...
I'm still sooo jealous! What's the house you stay in like?

Oh yes, I wanted to write something generally to our holidays here...

First was of course the left-hand traffic. It was very difficult for us and it needed a lot of concentration to make no mistakes. But we got used to this.

On our way through the land we admired the picturesque villages and houses, the old cottages and country estates, the old casles and the white horses and so on.

The roads here are really good, but a pavement is very rare. And some roads what are in the maps of the land we in germany would name field path. The trees are growing near the roads and in the middle of the road the trees from each site meet each other. It is very romantic sometimes... when you don´t have to drive there with oncoming traffic.

Most of the houses here we in germany wouldn´t want to live in. The standard of electricity, heating, water and so on is very low. The windows are simple-glaced, the front door has only a simple key and I think they aren´t afraid of burglars. But in the most streets you have a neighbourhood-guarding. Most of the elder houses have wooden shutters which can be fold to the side of the windows. This gives the impression of old english gentry. And so is our house. The rooms have a very high ceiling and the doors are white laquered and the doorknobs are really this: Knobs to turn. In each room we have a wall-cupboard. To open the windows we have to push them up. On the walls outside we have rambler roses and many other flowers.

In the towns they have cameras to control the streets. And there are speed-controls all over the land. The people are really friendly and very obliging here. To eat and drink is not really more expensive than in germany, just a little bit. But rent of a flat or house or to buy a house is very expensive. To buy a simple house in a town would cost about 300.000 pound, this is 450.000 euro.

The pubs and inns have very interesting names. They are called "Rose And Crown", "Cross Keys", "King´s Head" and so on. Many houses have their own name here. Just imagine we would name our house. The neighbours would one more time think we are silly...  :D

This shall be enough for today. I am tired now...

Yesterday we went to Wales. At Bristol we used a big bridge across the Mouth of Severn. Then we arrived in Newport. Here the road signs were writen in English and Welsh. Some words were really funny. The Britans say "services" and the Welsh "Gwasanaethau". It was a little bit amusing. We first visited Caerphilly Casle. This was the first castle in Britain built in a concentric design. In later years this design was copied by many castles.
The castle had three successive lines of defence set one inside the other, all surrounded by a series of large water defences. The castle was very important in the times when Wales was occupied by Britain. There were many fights here between Llywelyn ap Gruffudd (Prince of Wales) and King Edward I, who returned from the crusades and Llywelyn failed to respond to five summonses to do homage to Edward I as his Lord.
In Caerphilly Castle there is a great hall what was used to receive and entertain important guests. I am shure you would habe been very impressed of the great hall. We should do a ball here.
Next we went north to the National Park of Wales. There were so many sheeps here, it was really great. Then we drove to the coast of the Atlantic Ocean, and the children found a lot of mussels, snail-shells and sea urchins. We hadn´t enough time and so we were not able to visit Pembroke, I really liked to see it just to impress Cricolorian...  :D
Today we will go to Bath one more time to visit the Museum of Costumes and to see some more architectural interesting places.

costumes!!! take pictures till the camera burns, ay?

River Severn? Isn't that where the "Cadfael"- stories take place?  :D

is it now...mh, i think i even own a copy of one of the stories...

Hier ein paar Impressionen

Kathedrale von Wells
(http://mittelalterliches-handwerk.de/images/englandtemp/England002.jpg)

Kathedrale von Salisbury
(http://mittelalterliches-handwerk.de/images/englandtemp/England003.jpg)

Cheddar Höhlen
(http://mittelalterliches-handwerk.de/images/englandtemp/England004.jpg)

(http://mittelalterliches-handwerk.de/images/englandtemp/England005.jpg)

Römische Bäder
(http://mittelalterliches-handwerk.de/images/englandtemp/England006.jpg)

Stonehenge
(http://mittelalterliches-handwerk.de/images/englandtemp/England007.jpg)

Old Sarum
(http://mittelalterliches-handwerk.de/images/englandtemp/England008.jpg)

(http://mittelalterliches-handwerk.de/images/englandtemp/England009.jpg)

Old Gemäuer
(http://mittelalterliches-handwerk.de/images/englandtemp/England010.jpg)

Hungerford Castle
(http://mittelalterliches-handwerk.de/images/englandtemp/England011.jpg)

(http://mittelalterliches-handwerk.de/images/englandtemp/England017.jpg)

(http://mittelalterliches-handwerk.de/images/englandtemp/England020.jpg)


(http://mittelalterliches-handwerk.de/images/englandtemp/England012.jpg)

Wales: Man kann einfaches auch kompliziert ausdrücken...
(http://mittelalterliches-handwerk.de/images/englandtemp/England013.jpg)

Caerphilly Castle
(http://mittelalterliches-handwerk.de/images/englandtemp/England014.jpg)

(http://mittelalterliches-handwerk.de/images/englandtemp/England015.jpg)

(http://mittelalterliches-handwerk.de/images/englandtemp/England016.jpg)

(http://mittelalterliches-handwerk.de/images/englandtemp/England018.jpg)

(http://mittelalterliches-handwerk.de/images/englandtemp/England019.jpg)


(http://mittelalterliches-handwerk.de/images/englandtemp/England021.jpg)

und noch ein Old Gemäuer
(http://mittelalterliches-handwerk.de/images/englandtemp/England022.jpg)

Hmm...
Diese Eiben würden schon ein paar Bögen abgeben...
aber ob die etwas dagegen haben, wenn ich deren 700 Jahre altes Unkraut umsäge...??
(http://mittelalterliches-handwerk.de/images/englandtemp/England001.jpg)

Weitere Ziele sind noch das Mary Rose-Museum, Lands End, Dover Castle

very impressing