You know, it’s hard to go the U.K. and *not* get a few hundred pictures of statues and monuments. As Marc so succinctly put it, “this shit is EVERYwhere”. You literally can’t turn a corner without seeing a statue or a monument or an ornately carved surface. And you can’t blame it all on the Victorians. The Romans started it. But the Victorians certainly perfected it. I think if they’d cringe if they passed a blank wall. Or maybe it was just an ancient form of graffiti before they invented spray paint. Whatever, the outcome is amazing, and it would be next to impossible to find anyone with the skills (and patience, and time, and money) to do it these days.
So, sit back, and sift through a sampling of what there is to see. This only scratches the surface, trust me. I’ve added captions to offer some insight where I felt the urge. Others are self-explanatory.
Enjoy!
Click on thumbnails below for a full view of the photo. Also, you can read the full descriptions there – we haven’t figured out the vagaries of changing fonts etc quite yet… Apparently you have to get into the code to fix these items. I think I will leave that to my other half. I may be a geek, but I’m not a techno-geek. Yet.
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- Coventry Cathedral
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- Coventry Cathedral
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- Shakespear’s Globe – donation tile: The story goes that John Cleese offered up donations for both himself and for Michael Palin on condition that they spell Michael’s name wrong. Whether this is true or an excuse for the misspelling, is up to you to decide…
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- Shakepeare’s Globe – Comedy: Tragedy is on the other pillar and is no less buxom. Guys probably don’t care that she’s not smiling.
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- Ornamental Gates to Regent’s Park: The obsession with added ornate details to everything did not end with Queen Victoria…
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- Regent’s Park – fountain
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- Salisbury Cathedral: Believe it or not, this is a statue. They are scattered throughout the grounds and represent both historical and modern figures.
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- Gate Entrance – Salisbury: This is the crest that denotes one of the gates through the wall surrounding the inner section of Salisbury.
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- Stonehenge: Well, someone somewhere built this as a monument to something at some time.
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- The Roman Baths: An ancient mosaic from the Romans.
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- The Roman Baths: One of the roman figures surrounding the upper level of the baths.
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- The Roman Baths
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- The Roman Baths: The entrance to the baths – even the ceilings can’t escape the madness.
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- Ludlow: This is one of several novelty chess sets we saw in the U.K. This one is the Aussie version.
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- Ludlow: The elephant statue is a fairly recent addition to the town. The girl perched atop is one of our tour mates.
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- The grave of John Wordsworth: Helps to have a poet as a brother if you kick the bucket first.
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- The grave of William Wordsworth: Seriously, poets get the worst epitaphs. They don’t get to write them.
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- Gretna Green: This is where the english used to elope to get married by the local scottish blacksmith. This sign directs you to the right place, if you choose to go where many have gone before. Be careful – it’s legal!
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- Glasgow: I had to have at least one picture from Glasgow. This is it.
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- Fort Williams: This is a representation of the cable car I wasn’t taking into the Nevis Mountains in the town that I visited while Marc dangled far above the treetops. I still think I got the better view.
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- Loch Ness: Kind of like a newfie weather report, but with a twist.
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- Culloden
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- Culloden
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- Culloden
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- Culloden
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- Culloden
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- Culloden
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- Culloden
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- Culloden
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- Culloden
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- Blair Castle: Only the Brits… A fabulously tongue-in-cheek way to deliver a clear message to all the litterbugs.
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- Blair Castle crest
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- Blair Castle: So it’s not a monument per se, but it is certainly a monument to something. Yes, those are entire stag skulls with antlers. There was an entire wall covered in this very intricate pattern. No explanation. At least we should acknowledge this as a burial ground…
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- Rosslyn Chapel: We weren’t allowed to photograph the interior, so you’ll have to be happy with a shot of a statue mounted on the outer walls.
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- Alexander and Bucephalus
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- Alexander and Bucephalus: According to wikipedia, Plutarch tells the story of how, in 344 BC, a thirteen-year-old Alexander won the horse. A horse dealer named Philonicus the Thessalian offered Bucephalus to King Philip II for the sum of 13 talents, but because no one could tame the animal, Philip was not interested. However, Philip’s son Alexander was. He promised to pay for the horse himself should he fail to tame it. He was given a chance and surprised all by subduing it. He spoke soothingly to the horse and turned it towards the sun so that it could no longer see its own shadow, which had been the cause of its distress. Dropping his fluttering cloak as well, Alexander successfully tamed the horse.
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- The Scott Monument. From the bottom. I did not climb it.
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- The Scott Monument: The great man himself.
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- The Scott Monument
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- Another great man on a great horse
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- Edinburgh Castle: Look up, look way up, and you will find ornate decorations on the ceilings as well as the walls. Everywhere. Seriously. There is not safe place to look.
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- Edinburgh Castle
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- Edinburgh Castle
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- Edinburgh Castle: The sign identifying the “new” sections of the castle. They were only built in the 1600s. Hardly worth seeing really. Practically modern!
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- Edinburgh Castle
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- The England Scotland Border: That’s Marc taking a picture of me taking a picture of him at the Scottish Border.
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- The England Scotland border: There’s a big You Are Here pointer just in case you were really lost and thought you were at the Welsh border.
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- Neptune
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- It’s a warrior. On a horse. Somewhere between York and Edinburgh. I think it’s Durham, but I could be wrong. Quite frankly, they all start to look alike after a couple of days.
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- York: I think this speaks for itself. Have no idea what Bile Beans are, but I’m fairly sure I don’t want to know.
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- York: Embedded in the original roman wall around the town.
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- Fire! This is an old fire brigade sign from the 1700s. Apparently, they used to work like insurance companies do now. You’d pay a particular fire brigade to come if you had a fire. The sign (in this case, the teeny elephant at the top) identified the brigade that you used. If you had a fire, and another brigade came by, they’d let the place burn down. Nice system. Actually, now that I think about it, VERY similar to modern insurance. Even if you did pay them.
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- Peeping Tom: This is a reenactment that happens every hour where the Peeping Tom comes out and takes a look at Lady Godiva. Very edge-of-your-seat type entertainment. Sometimes, I really really wish there was a sarcasm font.
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- Lady Godiva: See Marc’s blog on this particular statue – I can’t add anything.
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- Coventry: This is the devil being defeated by St. Michael, I think. Impressive. Probably one of the most impressive things about Coventry, really.
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- Stratford-upon-Avon: The joker – he stands pretty much in the centre of town and is quite spectacular.
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- On the London Eye: I took a picture with the crest of the London Eye in the picture to prove that I was, indeed, in a capsule taking a picture through the glass. Still not sure how he convinced me to do this.
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- The Canada Memorial – Green Park: This is one section of the memorial. Much of the city is being cleaned up/renovated for the Olympics, so the rest was behind scaffolding etc. Unfortunately, we were unable to see the Victoria monument or the Kensington fountains for the same reason.
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- Aztec artifact
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- British Museum: She’s helping to hold up the acropolis. Quite the lady.
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- British Museum: Horse with man.
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- British Museum: Persephone and her mother
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- British Museum: Aphrodite – nice to know you didn’t need to be a size zero to be worshiped in the “old” days.
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- British Museum
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- British Museum
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- Tower of London: Even the canon are decorated.
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- The Tower of London: The memorial to royalty who lost their heads, literally, in approximately this spot on the grounds of the Tower of London.
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Funny, I took the same picture of the Beans sign in York
The slide show is a bit too quick to read all the captions.
If you hover your mouse over the picture, you can stop the slide show and go through at your own pace using the right/left arrows. Another thing you can’t control without recoding is the speed… I may be a geek, but I’m not a techno-geek. Yet.
Thanks for the tip.
I’ve been studying architecture for over 30 years. It is safe to say that this building is the most aspiring one on the planet. Visit it once and you will agree with me!