England and France - Sunderland, Cambridge, London

From Edinburgh I went to Sunderland, then to Cambridge, then back to London.

Sunderland was the place a married couple on the way across the Channel and Nicola on the way back had invited me for a visit. I stayed with the Fryett's in Sunderland. They took me to a football game on Saturday afternoon (the "match of the day"). I remember that quite a few people were there. The packed stands were right up against the field. Every time the ball was kicked way up into the crowd, it would quickly be returned to the field so play could resume. We met up with my married friends, Jean and Stephen too. The summer of 1999 our family went to Disney World. We were at the Animal Kingdom, in line to meet Winnie the Pooh, I struck up a conversation with a man behind us who had a strong Scottish accent. He was a grandfather taking his grandchildren to Disney. They had started their trip on the West coast of the U.S. and were finishing up here in Florida. Those of you who have been to Disney World know about the long waits in line. We had some time to kill, so I recited my Sunderland story to this grandfather - about meeting someone each way on the Channel crossing and being invited to stay in Sunderland. "Yes", he said, "People in the North are like that, they'll invite you into their homes."

"Where are you from, then?" I asked. He told me some town name. "Where's that in Scotland?" "Its not in Scotland, it's in England" "Whereabouts?" "It's 'aboot 5 miles from Sunderland". I don't think he was putting me on.

My trip was beginning to draw to a close. Several people told me mid-September in England would be cool and rainy. But the weather had been warm and sunny. In Cambridge I rented a punt boat and went punting. The river is the Cam. It reminded me of poling a duck boat. Like in Oxford, I wandered around the many and various colleges. This arch of tree foliage just caught my eye. My history teacher at the U of Minn was a graduate student here. He told us the story of how Oliver Cromwell's head was evetually returned to Cambridge and he and his professor buried it under the floor of one of the college churches.

I don't know why this caught my eye, but I had to capture this image for *some* reason.

The oldest colleges at Cambridge are strung out along the river Cam. The brige in the picture at the left is the Wren Bridge, St John's College. Built in 1709, it is also known as The Old Bridge and Kitchen Bridge

I returned to London and walked to St. James Park and took these final pictures before taking the train to Gatwick airport and home. In the picture on the right notice the huge dead elm? Dutch elm disease strikes again.

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Marseille, Cassi, Aix-en-Provence     Dover, Battle, London     Oxford and Salisbury     Bath, Birmingham, Edinburgh     Sunderland, Cambridge, London
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