Europe, 2003

Hi….Well I finally made it back down to the islands where I am sitting amongst the chaos that is my boat…chaos because I have been getting her back into sailing order after her repairs in the yard and long storage this summer…I splashed her two days after my arrival and it has been one thing after another, but the list is getting shorter as my bank account is getting leaner, but I see light at the end of the old proverbial tunnel…my prediction that I would be bruised, battered and sore all over as I adjusted to life back on the water has been surpassed…the rain has finally let up as the late tropical storm has passed and the weather is turning very nice…Of course the diesel starter that was fixed temporarily at best has gone out and my guests and I are awaiting a new starter to arrive from the States…
My visit with Tony and Sandra in England surpassed my greatest expectations…they are the most congenial of hosts and made it a very memorable trip. They live in the northern part of England near the Lake District in Penrith about an hours train ride south of Edinburough…their home is 160 years old, situated in the countryside…it is one of the newer houses in their village as many of their neighbors homes date back to the Elizabethan Period or about 450 years old…their home is next to a small church, St Cuthbert’s which is over a thousand years old and still has Sunday services….the thing that struck me the most was how history surrounded me everyplace I visited…Most of my time there I was in sensory overload….
Upon my arrival in Manchester, we immediately had me fitted for a dinner jacket that I would be needing for our dinner at the Lord Mayor of London’s residence known as the Mansion House…None of Tony’s dinner shirts fit me so Sandra and I went into Penrith where I purchased one from a haberdashery that is located below the home where the English poet Wordsworth’s grandparents lived…the shop has been in the same location since 1749! My first experience with a true English Pub took place on our drive back to their home in Penrith on the day of my arrival….I love the pubs and are just another part of their culture that I wish existed in the States. This one has been a pub for about 500 years and is located on an old carriage route that no longer exists….Tony and Sandra’s home has been beautifully restored by them and I enjoyed very comfortable accommodations while visiting them…Across the small road that passes through the old stone gates that provided access to the Squires’ estate when it still existed, is an old Celtic Cross, some 1500 years old…
I won’t attempt to describe all that I saw while in England, there are travel writers who can do a much better job than I…instead I would like to share some of the highlights of my visit….I was introduced to many very nice people and made to feel very welcome…For the most part everyone I met were mostly interested in my impressions of their country, something they are all very proud of…and is reflected on how well everything is kept…the food for the most part was nothing like I imagined, as I had always heard how bad English cuisine was…and I enjoyed many wonderful meals in Pubs and as a guest of many friends of Tony and Sandra’s…I must say the experience left me wanting to pack up my painting supplies and try to put on canvas many of the beautiful sights I was surrounded by…While in England we traveled by train to Edinburough, Scotland, walking about the city enjoying the sights, drove through the beautiful Lake District, visited many small villages, enjoyed lunch in the great room of a castle built in 900 A.D., walked along Hadrian’s Wall, visited a small pub and went on a tour of the micro brewery that was located in back, went for a walk through the mountains, but most importantly, met many very nice people who always treated me with the utmost politeness…The opportunity to see this countryside for my first time as very few tourists, will be an experience I shall never forget…
From England Tony and I flew to Spain where we hired a car and drove south to Gibralter…We spent several days sightseeing on the “island” as it is still called, even though it is connected to the mainland of Spain by a causeway that has been built upon which a runway has been built…Possession of Gibralter by Britain for the past 450 years has been a problem for the Spanish Government and crossing back and forth across the border was always slow…From Gibralter Tony and I drove down to Tarifa, Spain where we took a ferry across to Tangers, Morocco…We spent the day walking through the famous Casbah’s alleyways and markets…Again I was treated very well wherever I went…although it is a Islamic country, their king is a very forward looking, modern man and though many of the old traditions are still in evidence, there exists a modern cosmopolitan look and feel to the city…
Leaving Gibralter, we drove north along the Spanish Mediterranean coast, which is under heavy development for the large numbers of German, French and English who are moving there in large numbers. We spent one day visiting the old Moorish Palace of Alhambra in the ancient city of Grenada, a must see for anyone contemplating a tour of the country…Driving north through the Sierra Nevada mountains I was again surprised as I was surrounded by a sparsely inhabited countryside, much like the State of Nevada…Large vistas with very few towns or villages…the most intriguing for me was all the homes that were caves, cut into the soft stone with facades covering the them…We saw them everywhere…The Moors occupied Spain for many centuries and their castles can be found everywhere…Unfortunately the weather did not cooperate and we were unable to do any sailing due to gales coming off the Mediterranean so we stayed at Tony’s home in Spain and drove through the countryside visiting even more old churches and castles…I wasn’t very disappointed to be honest with you as I can go sailing anytime…
Flying back to England I was to be treated to what Tony described as the best part of my visit, London was that and more…Our first night the weather cooperated and we enjoyed walking through Westminster, near a hotel we were staying at…We saw Whitehall, # 10 Downing Street, Picadilly Circus, Soho, Trafalgar Square, walked along the Thames across from the Parliament and Big Ben (which is actually not the tower, but the bell inside), and enjoyed some great Indian Cuisine…After that first night it started raining and continued throughout the rest of our time there…The following day we went to St Paul’s and a play as well as Harrod’s where I did some of my Christmas shopping…The next day we went to The Tower of London and Tower bridge…That evening we went to an organ recital at Westminster Abbey, sitting in the front pews where the royal family sits entering through the Queen’s door…Every monarch since William the Conqueror has been coroneted in this place and it is filled with the tombs of many of them…
The next day was to be an experience I shall never forget, nor will I be inclined for many years to let anyone else forget…my dinner banquet at the Lord Mayor’s…Tony is a member of one of the many guilds that defined London in it’s early development…These guilds still exist for boat building, goldsmith, carpenters, and the Baker’s guild of which Tony is a member, as well as countless others…they were brought into existence as a method of providing a standard, much like our Bureau of Standards…it was a member of the Baker’s Guild, it is generally thought, who started the great London Fire while King Charles II was ruler, in 1652, and a large monument was erected at the spot it started…
Dressed in black tie and dinner jacket we first went to religious services at All Hallows Church next to The Tower…the church is over a thousand years old and the burial sight for many famous people from England’s history, such as Thomas More, Penn, the man who founded Pennsylvania and was the church that John Quincy Adams, 6th president of the United States got married in 1794.…during recent excavations many headless remains were also uncovered, remains from the Tower’s bloody past….From here we went to Mansion House, me in the company of three retired English Majors of the Royal Army…there had been some confusion of Douglas’ part as to my first name as we had only met once before in St Thomas where we had shared a great meal…Douglas is a master Chef and once cooked for the Queen Mother…After our Champagne reception, dinner was announced…As each of us passed through the double doors into the large dinning hall we were each announced with the rapping on the floor of a large staff crowned with the coat of arms of the Lord Mayor’s office by a gentleman dressed in clothing from the 1700’s…as another read out our names…when I walked through the door I was announced as “Mr. MELVIN Benoit” then I proceeded in line where I was introduced to the Lord Mayor and several Aldermen of London.
The food was only okay with a different wine being served at each course, followed with brandy at the end…During dinner, as we drank more wine our conversations became more enlivened…my dinner partner, sitting on my right was a Professor of Genetics at London University…he was in the audience when the discovery of DNA was announced and was a personal friend of the researches who had made the discovery…Didn’t matter, with enough wine in us by now, our conversation became even more lively…Across from me was a young man from Ireland who I spent much of the evening with…He owns a castle in Ireland and told me anytime I was in Ireland I must look him up…At the end of dinner and the speeches we performed the “Loving Cup Ceremony” in which a silver chalice, filled with more brandy is passed from one man to the next, each in turn wiping the lip of the chalice after taking a drink, turning around and passing the cup to the next man, who is standing back to back with you, as protection from times past…after so much wine I almost got it right…that night we drove back to Douglas’ home for more drinking…he is Scottish so I need not tell you what we finished the night imbibing…I woke up with one of the worst hangovers I have suffered in many a long while…The following day I flew back to the States where I enjoyed a weeks’ visit with my daughter’s for Thanksgiving holidays, before flying back down to Puerto Rico…
I was reflecting the first night on my boat, when she was back in the water while I was eating some cold baked beans straight out of the can, in the dark as I still hadn’t gotten the lights working yet, what wonderful extremes I live and what a lucky man I am to have the opportunity to see so much, but most importantly, to have met so many interesting people and to have made so many wonderful friends such as you….
Happy Holidays and God Bless,
Melvin