Day 30: The Cross England Marathon

THE CROSS ENGLAND MARATHON

AND WE ARE OFF.....  11:00 AM IN BRISTOL boarding the train for Paddington Station. We are crossing England today from West to East ... by train,,,stopping in London for a meeting at Crescent Circle, Regents Park and then off again to Norwich up by the North Sea in East Anglia (as the east country of England is called) by 6:30p.m. www. ................ Its a reserved coach seat to London for the morning ride on the First Great Western Railway. Centuries of travel watching from windows. My childhood trains from Bristol to Paddington had compartments seating 6 with an outside door and an than an inside door to the corridor. You could sleep across the seats. If you got a compartment to yourselves it was so safe, so insulated, so important.

ENGLAND FROM THE TRAIN:  Swindon, Didcot, Reading, Slough ... heading to  London. There are no mountains here... some rolling hills. Fields laid down centuries ago... measured in hectares, still called hectors. Separated by hedgerows; those ecological micro environments that are an intrinsic part of the ecology of agriculture. Migrating home to bird species that devour hatching insects. The structural framework for wild flower vines and the rich earthy formulae for the roots of Queen Ann's Lace blossom bouquets..... heaven for bees...the supporting characters for it all. 

And its 12:20 in Paddington Station. It's only a short way to Crescent Circle. The labyrinth to be managed to get there by underground with a heavy suitcase plus is too daunting. I let a taxi take me over to Baker St. Station and then around the back to the edge of Regents Park. Regent's Park is the outlying edge to Royal London. Crescent Circle is an architectural gem of terraced houses designed by John Nash, all of cream colored stone with black iron railings. Now mainly offices and corporate headquarters, they once housed Victorian families with upstairs parlors and downstairs kitchens.
My destination is the home of The Prince of Wales Business Leadership Foundation and the International Tourism Partnership. An long hourish later I am out the back door on foot to Baker St. Station... I need to get to Liverpool Station on the east edge of London and we are in the middle. This suitcase weights 25 kilos plus the laptop bag, all of which requires an escalator or elevator to get me to the underground platform level for which there are two sets of stairs... not to be found at Baker St.. and according to the station attendant not at the Liverpool Station underground either. In case you haven't noticed I travel alone. There is a limit to my ability to schlep without a ramp or help. The options are clear.. to the street and I hail a taxi, New York style.  There goes Saint Pancreas Station, whose trains go in another direction. Wasn't that the setting for Harry Potter's track number 13 to Hogwarts? 

17 British pounds later and a delightful conversation with the cabbie. We talk about how to find the parts of the original London Wall which sparks a conversation about the layers of London that lie below and around us. He is especially knowledgeable about the Huguenots, religious immigrants from Central Europe who were tradesmen and developed London's shipping trade. Too soon we are at Liverpool, in one piece with little strain on my already exhausted body. What's a few pounds (dollars) at this point!

STAGE TWO OF THE CROSS ENGLAND MARATHON

Liverpool Station train to Norwich departing at 4:30. It is Friday afternoon and there is a reserved coach seat on The Great Eastern Railway. We will be in Norwich by 6:22 pm. We pass thru the Olympic Village Station with standing sculpture pieces of shiny eye shaped metals hung to look like leaves or waves. The tracks are quiet this afternoon but will soon be packed with people.  Off northeast to Colchester, Ipswich, Diss and then Norwich. Ipswich gives us a glimpse of the mud flats of the River Orwell which flows into the North Sea.

The fields are larger up here.... the hedgerows dismantled for the large harvesters and other mega agricultural tools that make farming cost effective with labor less efficiency.

 The station for Diss is much as I last remembered it. A country stop between Ipswich and Norwich. I went to kindergarten here , started school here, had a birthday part in the town hall... my father set

the 14th century chimney on fire stuffing the Christmas tree up it.... not my mother's idea!

Arriving.... on time and welcomed warmly we head out of Norwich now north, to the ancient village of Aylsham deep in the countryside of northern East Anglia.  

Charlie is cooking. He is a good cook and an even better baker... we missed the chocolate cake but will catch up with it in the morning. Planning ahead he has made Cottage Pie, already baked in the oven:  a mix called MINCE; ground beef, onions, carrots and beef stock; smothered in a later of mashed new potatoes and baked until crispy. Heaven...with gravy and chopped cabbage. I like Charlie's way of cooking it. He chops 1 large cabbage and puts it into a medium-largish pot.

Put 1 tsp of salt on top of the cabbage and then pour BOILING water over the cabbage to fill 1/2 of the pot. Let the boiling water continue to cook the cabbage to crisp not mushy. Leave the top off, as it cooks quickly and the cabbage will retain its sharp green colors.

Does it ever get dark here? we are even further north and the day stretches out. We watch the football match and ENGLAND WINS, what a goal...  Sweden looses... a historic win and England moves forward in the European championships. I don't move anywhere but to bed. There's a new friend, Rupert. He watches birds......