Cheers,
Yesterday Randal and I raced over to the British Museum to join up with a www.walks.com tour. Today I had my third life drawing class. Time is flying!
Our cruiser group is passing a set of germs around and several folks have running noses and coughs. Randal had a dose and shared with me, but mine was much milder…me being a tough New Englander.
This email completes our Thanksgiving Day adventure.
Ru
The Brunel Museum and Mayflower Pub Lunch
“The Brunel Museum in historic Rotherhithe is directly above the Thames Tunnel which opened 170 years ago in March this year. This is where Isambard Kingdom Brunel began his extraordinary career, aged nineteen years. Working with his father Sir Marc Brunel, he helped build the first tunnel under a river anywhere in the world.” http://www.brunel-museum.org.uk/
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/ is a great article with history and loads of then and now photos.
My favorite part of the visit was chatting with the fellow in charge that day. He let both of us pay the concessionaires fee (some museums require you be 65,) set up the introductory video, and then interrupted his lunch to make me a cup of “Brit Rail Tea.” He was a train buff and told me several stories; the most amazing is when he climbed a train water tower to take photos of a train passing by.
What is Brit Rail Tea? I’m not sure what it is, but I know what it’s not. He offered Earl Grey and Lady Grey and Brit Rail. When I said “plain old tea” was fine, I got what he called “Brit Rail.” It was made with a quick soak of a tea bag and then a splash of milk.
“The teabags sold in UK supermarkets tend to make stronger tea than their rather frightening American counterparts. If you can get hold of some British teabags, you can make tea the way they do at London train stations. We call this British Rail tea.
When you order a cup of tea at a London train station they dump milk, sugar, teabag, and boiling water into the cup at the same time and then hand it to you. This makes for a uniquely generic flavor that is just right for an early morning zombie commute. You can achieve similar results on a larger scale by using a full-sized insulated carafe instead of a cup. This should last you all morning, and keep you "going" all afternoon. “ http://ubiqx.org/cifs/Appendix-A.html
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Brunel Museum |
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We couldn’t go into the shaft that day, but on www.walks.com they take you there. |
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Brunel was also famous for train bridges and train stations as well as the design of several famous ships. http://www.brunels-old-station.co.uk/section.php/41/1/brunel_s_old_station_history http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/brunel_kingdom_isambard.shtml |
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My favorite things were these “peep shows.” In an episode of Larkrise to Candleford, a great BBC series set at the end of the 19th century, some school children made one of these so to get to see one here was neat! Theirs was not so elaborate but was constructed on a similar basis.
You look through this opening……
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While in the museum I had a quick chat with an American couple from Ithaca, NY about a www.walks.con tour they’d done related to Brunel and the Thames. They were also off to have lunch at the Mayflower. … More about them in a later email. |
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Then it was time to walk the short distance along Rotherhithe Street back to the Mayflower Pub to meet up with our SKD cruiser pals for lunch. Our reservation was for 1:30 PM. Randal and I were early but were the last of our group to arrive. We were all seated in the upstairs room over the bar; the room where Brunel and his friends would come to work on his tunnel project. The pub was crowded and dark so once we sat down we pretty much stayed put, so I don’t have many photos really. Service was excellent! Our food was prompt and we were all served at the same time, amazing as there were 12 of us. There’s some info about the Mayflower Pub below as well as at their website http://themayflowerrotherhithe.com/ |
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Not our group but you can see what the place looks like |
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Upstairs bar |
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I loved the light and the flowers! I know the difference between cheddar, mozarella, blue, etc, but the British cheeses, I’ve no clue. |
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Gerry and Holly, the couple from the Brunel Museum on the left. Charlotte and Allen from Portland, ME on the right; all were at the tables just next to Randal and Me. Our group was at tables set up in front of the window. I was sitting next to Collin in the stripped button down shirt and Randal was across from me. We met Gerry and Holloy in the Brunel and Charlotte and Allen in the Pub. Gerry and Holly came to visit DoraMac Saturday evening, their final night in London before heading to Brighton and then back to Ithaca, NY. Charlotte and Allen live in London at the Southdock Marina on their boat and will come visit when Charlotte returns from a trip to France. |
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We had what seemed to me traditional Pilgrim fare rather than American Thanksgiving food which now includes everything under the sun and any number of dishes with marshmallows melted on top. Our meal started with pumpkin soup and “village bread.” Then this mountain of turkey, roasted veggies and “sweet potato mash.” It was more than I could do, though I did eat all my veggies which were cooked as vegetables should be. You can see my mug of mulled apple cider just next to the snowman. (Of course I do love melted marshmallows on sweet potatoes!) |
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I’d intended to bring a plastic container for my dessert but forgot, so I ate it then and there! I wouldn’t call it pumpkin pie, but it did have pumpkin and crust and a very thick cream on top. I washed it down with a pot of tea! |
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Not a great photo, but you get the idea. |
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After leaving the pub we revisited the Pilgrim statue and then walked back as it grew dark at 4 PM. |
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Rotherhithe
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My Hanukkah candles…. Tea candles on a wooden cutting board. |
The Mayflower pub stands on the site of The Shippe pub that dates back to around 1550.
It is close to where the Mayflower ship was fitted out for the long transatlantic voyage.
The pub was rebuilt as the Spread Eagle and Crown in 1780 and renamed as The Mayflower in 1957.
It was the nearby landing steps to this pub that the Pilgrim Fathers set sail aboard The Mayflower Ship.
The pilgrims left Rotherhithe and headed for America via Southampton and Plymouth
The location they landed on is now known as Plymouth Rock
· The Mayflower was a 12-year-old, 180-ton vessel, which had previously been used in the wine trade
· The voyage took 66 days
· Former President George Bush, Richard Nixon, Marilyn Monroe and Humphrey Bogart were all descendants of the Pilgrim Fathers
· The Mayflower Pub is the only place licensed to sell American stamps in the UK
· Michael Caine was born in Rotherhithe on 14 March 1933 as Maurice Joseph Micklewhite. He is patron of the Southwark Young Pilgrims
The Mayflower public house was named for the ship that carried the Pilgrim Fathers. It is not known exactly where the Mayflower was moored, or where she departed from when she left Rotherhithe for her first stop at Southampton, although there is a local convention that it was near the current site of the pub. The pub’s website claims that it was established in 1621 but although the pub has a satisfyingly ancient appearance it looks a lot older than it actually is. A pub near the site of the Mayflower pub called The Shippe is the oldest one recorded, and is thought to have dated back to around 1550. A pub called The Spread Eagle was certainly established on this site, but it is not known how old it was when it burned down in the 18th Century. It was replaced in 1780 with another pub, The Spread Eagle and Crown, but this was also doomed, and its top floor and roof were obliterated in the Second World War. It was only rebuilt in 1958 when it was renamed The Mayflower. An attractive building both inside and out, with a large jetty, its architects set out to evoke a vague impression of the past rather than impose a 1950s contemporary design on the area. In spite of its recent date, its much older look makes it feel authentically connected with Rotherhithe’s early history and that’s rather nice. http://russiadock.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Public%20art