Antiques, Bakewell and Moor

Two Antiques attend a Roadshow! – starting this account of what we did today (26/10/17) and then will backtrack over the last few days in York.  So yes, we went to the Antiques Roadshow in Newcastle, a mere hour away by train.  We planned our day pretty well, arriving at the venue at 8.50am, to join a queue of about 150. Doors opened at 9.15 (earlier than the advertised time of 9.30). The whole process of getting people in, assessing which expert to see, and then finally seeing that person was like a well-oiled machine. B and I went our separate ways – me to miscellaneous, and B to books.  I had a one on one with Paul Atterbury (I knew him from watching the tv show).  He was quite delightful and looked at my small brass thread counter saying it most probably one used by a buyer of material to check the quality. He said it could fetch maybe 40 quid (more than I was expecting, but not hoping for obviously!!).  I also had a strange button type object that he decided was a semi-precious stone set in brass and would have been part of a stud worn on a shirt or similar.  He hoped I had not come all the way from NZ to get these valued (ie make a fortune!) I reassured him that that was not the case and that we were just taking advantage of the fact that the programme coincided with our trip. A look of relief came across his face.  We chatted about NZ, I shook his hand and went on my way. I will let B tell you about her own valuation.  We met up again and planted ourselves as close to the action on a couple of segments being filmed for TV.  One was on the Mauritania, with pictures, ship’s plans, contracts, log books and local to the area. They film about 25 segments, of which not all will make the final cut. We saw Fiona Bruce (current presenter, very tall, she kept on taking her shoes off for filming).  After a while we found a rather nice sofa at the end of the room next to the armoury expert, to rest and lo and behold the local council press officer spied us and asked if he could take our photo, and then if we would each do a piece to camera about our day so far.  Naturally we were delighted to oblige!  It was on the council facebook page within about an hour!  So if you want a laugh just go onto Newcastle City Council facebook page and there we are!  After that excitement we needed some lunch so grabbed a cup of soup and sausage roll and made our way to an area that had another nice sofa to sit on, and relaxed out there.  We got the odd strange look from some others sitting there, but ignored those until we realised that we were actually in the “special holding pen” for people waiting to be called to speak with a producer and then go to the make up room for their spruce up before filming. We didn’t let this faze us, taking our time to sup & eat before finally with great grace leaving the area and wishing them all the best!  Such fun!  I would love to say that we learnt lots about antiques, and the history of them, but alas that is not the case because you can’t hear a thing – there are so many people, it is very noisy, The experts speak quite intimately to the hopeful attendee, and so all that nodding you see on TV is just because that’s all you can do really.  Two exceptions were the delightfully brash, entertaining and un PC appraisals of glass expert Andy McConnell, who asks people to put items on his table and then he talks about them all.  If a piece catches an expert’s eye, they fill out a form which then gets passed onto a producer, who then decides if it will make good tv viewing. From there, another producer checks out the backstory, the variety of scenes already shot etc etc, and then it may make it to the filming stage.  The other exception to learning about something came from when I did finally get close enough to hear an evaluation and historical account from expert Hilary Kay (she was lovely) about an object that was a sail press (valued at  £350 to-£400) and a snuff box painted with a whaling theme (£1500- £2000).  I was standing right next to the couple who owned it, but fear I won’t make the cut haha.  For me one of the biggest delights was people watching – they came with their hopes and dreams in shopping trollies, suitcases,  plastic bags, lolly tins, and they all bought heaps with them!!  The well-heeled, the op shoppers, the dignitaries, the slightly odd, the young, the Kiwi girls out for a day of fun!  (Carol, there has to be a play in this somewhere!!) I loved watching the technical aspects of filming – from the props people dressing the scenes, to the sound men wiring then up for sound, to the multitude of cameras and angles, to the last minute make up for the presenters and then how many “takes” before  “that’s a wrap”.  All very interesting and intriguing.  We spent the whole day there before catching our train back early evening.  The byline to the show is “Behind every treasure there’s a priceless story”.  We had a great day, it had its priceless moments and we are so pleased we made the effort to include this gem in our itinerary.

I know you will probably need a cuppa before reading further, but I will carry on anyway.

York is tale of two cities – First day – first city – we arrived on a Saturday – couldn’t believe how many people had come out to meet & greet us ………. Oh no hang on ……. They couldn’t have cared less about us – they were there on a hen do, or a stag do, any do as long as they could wear next to nothing, wear skyscraper heels, yell loudly & then stagger back on the mini coach, or train at the end of the night.  Second day – second city….. a different place, people going about their normal lives, a calm, ancient city readjusting after being bombarded on what the locals call “mad Saturday”.  Loved the Jorvik Viking centre.  Attended Evensong at York Minster on Sunday – a time to sit and reflect & revel in beautiful singing in one of the best settings in the world, then home to our central city pad for roast beef & Yorkshire puddings.

A day trip to Whitby, crossing the Yorkshire moors was fun. Fog so thick on the moors, and wind pretty brisk later that it was all very “Bronte-esque”. Whitby is a typical English seaside town (and in the middle of a mid term school break), very busy with folk eating fish n chips out of a box with a wee fork, or eating ice-creams, or candy floss, or Whitby rock.  We opted for a ride out of the harbour on a replica Endeavour.  Back to York via a trip on the NYR (North Yorkshire Railway) which passed through the village of Goathland (where the TV series Heartbeat was set).  Yesterday we walked the walls of this ancient city, and indulged in some good old-fashioned service and delicious “fancies” at the famous Bettys Tea Shop.

I want to make mention of again and to thank our good friends Di & Pete, Raewyn & Ron and Chris for looking after the house etc, and to all of you who are following the blog and responding, and to those of you who are sending us good and welcome messages of support.

Pam

So back to the beginning – after we left Paris, we had a night in London before we caught a train to Manchester and a coach to the small village of Bakewell in the Peak District. A delightful spot famed for its Bakewell puddings and tarts of which we sampled a few! Delicious. Loved the village, and we spent sometime walking around the various alleys and lanes exploring the area. We also spent a day at Chatsworth House and gardens. Loved strolling through the gardens in particular.

So, on to York and Pam has pretty much covered this. AR yesterday was great and I took along two classic novels written in shorthand and dating back to the 1930s. Alas of no great value, but not unexpected – who uses shorthand these days!

Today we picked up a car and have travelled to Bowness-on-Windermere in the Lakes District through the beautiful Yorkshire Dales. Lovely to have a fine sunny day for this. Then our final 10 days in London – where has the time gone!

Barbara

A tart standing outside the pudding shop, Bakewell

Art installation at Chatsworth House, Derbyshire

Chatsworth Gardens

The Golden Fleece pub, York

Our view from our pew at Evensong, York Minster

Where's a horse when you need one! Pam trying to see if there are any pennies in the pilgrim's post on the Yorkshire Moors

Fog lifted but still a blustery day on the Moors

On the replica Endeavour heading out of Whitby Harbour into the North Sea

Part of the York City Wall

At Goathland Station - also known as the Harry Potter Station. Carriages on the left are holiday accommodation carriages

Teak carriages, only ones left in the country on the North Yorkshire Railway. We travelled in this as part of our day out on the Moors

View of York Minster from City Wall

Queueing for the Antiques Roadshow in Newcastle. Barbara towards front. Approximately 100 in front of us. It only took 10 minutes for the ones to join the queue behind us!

Pam with expert Paul Atterbury on the Miscellaneous table. Got his name wrong on the Facebook clip - shame!

Two classic antiques - priceless!

Lord Mayor of Newcastle looking hobbit-like beside presenter Fiona Bruce

Experts Ronnie Archer-Morgan and Andy McConnell on the glassware table - very entertaining

A thoroughly enjoyable day out

Ah oui Paris!

Back in London we were staying close to Euston Station and found ourselves spending a lot of time in the Wellcome Institute Museum and Library as they had a special weekend event entitled “Why Music: The Key to Memory”. It was also just across the road and had a great little café that we spent sometime in! The place was filled with music of all descriptions throughout the weekend and we also explored some of the medical displays.

It was a 10 minute walk to St Pancras and the Eurostar on Sunday for a three day sojourn to Paris. We remember doing the trip several times 12 years ago, but now it is much faster – 2¼ hours to Paris.

As we had been to Paris a couple of times before we had specific things we wanted to do – the first day was revisiting The Louvre, a place we found both confusing and exhausting! While it was great to be there and among all the artworks that we only ever hear about, the thousands of people and some issues with negotiating our way round made it also stressful. In contrast, today we have been to the Musee d’Orsay, a much easier and more pleasant experience!

We finished yesterday in the Tuileries Gardens adjacent to The Louvre. A warm autumn day of 24 degrees meant people were out and about, enjoying the gardens and occupying the chairs around the large fountain. We had a relaxing time soaking up the sun for an hour or so.

Tomorrow it is back to London then on to Yorkshire to explore some small villages and York itself – more to come!

Barbara

I believe The Louvre is designed to drive you insane in its configuration. In fact I’m sure I saw more than one person who looked like they had been there for days just trying to find the way out!

Looking inside The Louvre - belies how many people were there!

 

A painter interpreting a painting in The Louvre gallery

Trying to be serious at The Louvre

Dwarfed by the pictures

The painting is called The Hands - so of course one more wouldn't hurt! And no, I wasn't touching it

Maxims!! In the concourse on the way out (yes, we did eventually find the right “sortie” – way out -  for our purposes) was a Maxims shop.  Now Maxims is of course a very popular and well- known restaurant in Paris, which we could never afford to dine at but give us the opportunity to go into one of their food shops and we were in like Flynn. We moved slowly about eyeing up the possibilities for a “post Louvre pick me up”.  A delightful young assistant offered us a small freebie treat.  I engaged her in conversation.  She had just come back from California where she stayed with her grandfather, and she hopes to return there to study real estate as the money is not good for that here in Paris.  Her English was very good, she asked where we were from, and after buying a few wee goodies from her she threw in a very generous handful of more freebie chocolates.  Small things like that, when you have paid the proverbial arm and leg during the course of the day, just makes your day. 

Tuileries Gardens - Eiffel Tower and, more importantly, Maxim's goodies

The Louvre, Tuilieries, and a walk along The Seine – tres bein.

Lawn mowers - goats, Tuileries Gardens

Just lucky that we are able to be here

Strolling by the Seine

Musee D’Orsay was a dream today. An attractive amazing space (used to be a Railway station.) Less crowds & cheaper than Louvre. An amazing & attractive space to display paintings, statues, furniture, bronzes. 

Through one of the giant clock faces in Musee d'Orsay, looking out across Paris

A Degas dancer

Inside Musee d'Orsay

Leonetto Cappiello – pencil drawing

Pammy's effort!!! Must try harder

We sat next to a very pleasant older Italian couple from Roma at lunchtime, and at the end of our meal had exchanged addresses, as you do! I even tried my hand at drawing one of the masterpieces as it looked sooooo easy!! A bit of fun though.

It’s been a long time between visits to Paris – 12 yrs or so, and so I don’t feel I know Paris well at all.  It is a city that has to work hard to charm me, for some reason, and yet needless to say, it has done that quite nicely, with small moments of joy, warm weather, a shabby- chic hotel (as only the Parisians can do), tempting food, and of course a loving, patient travelling companion to share it all with.  Merci Beaucoup Paris

Pam

Lounge room at our Hotel France Louvre

Colourful meringues

The Cruise

A cruise?  What might this mean? Will we like it? Where do we want to go? And for how long? We eventually chose a seven day P&O cruise leaving from Valletta in Malta, and going to Rome, Ajaccio (Corsica), Naples and Messina (Sicily) and back to Valletta with two sea days along the way.

First impressions were very good – embarkation at Valletta was a breeze, very well organised.  Then on getting to our cabin I really thought they had given us the wrong one! It was much more spacious and nicer than I had anticipated.  It was a stateroom with large outside window, no balcony (we didn’t want/need one) and an ensuite that was bigger than some hotels we have been in, esp in London!!

So….. onto some observations after 7 days on Oceana with approx. two thousand fellow passengers and 850 staff.  It is British owned with mainly Filipino and Indian hospitality staff, who are all very good at their jobs and quite delightful.

Temptation 100%  Resistance NIL  Waistline = EXPANDING

Temptation thine name is:- chocolate salami, tiramisu, swordfish, pizza, pancakes, pain un chocolat, wine, pasta, cheese, ice cream, sorbet, potted pulled pheasant, calves’ liver, salmon roulade, cheesecake, crab & leek pasty, sole, chocolate everything!!!.......................

Interventions tried:- deck quoits, promenade deck route march (approx. I mile each time around), always taking the stairs instead of the elevators ( miles of bloody steps and surely heaps of brownie points), swimming, thinking about going to the on board gym, saying “we’ll just have the fruit next time” yeah right!! Taking shore excursions that involved some walking. You will notice there is very little photographic evidence of physical activity!

The brains have been getting a bit of a workout however – navigating (excuse the nautical term) our way around the ship, attending quizzes, and doing the daily crosswords and sudokus, counting the number of times a fellow passenger ( 99% are British, and we all know the stereotypical Englishman doesn’t really like to travel, yet they do it in their thousands, and they particularly love cruises) say “Oh I don’t like that muck, why can’t they just give us good old cheddar”.  Lost count by the way.

From the “I Kid You Not’ list. Some of the onboard information sessions included ‘Tongue & Pulse Analysis”, “Walk in Comfort with Good Feet”, “Arthritis and Back Pain solutions”, “Puffy Eyes Seminar”, “Relieving Back Pain & Improving Posture”.  And although some of those might have been relatively interesting you wouldn’t have caught us dead at them!!

There have been many special moments both on board and during shore excursions.  Sailing away from Naples had its moments.  A few passengers were missing in action so we could not depart at the scheduled time.  Urgent calls were placed for them over the loudspeakers for them or members of their family to contact the ship immediately.  They all eventually strolled on to the clapping of those on board. The watersider responsible for releasing the mooring ropes got stuck in traffic, so another wait.  We stood on deck watching all this unfold.  Across from us was a ginormous cruise boat with a huge video screen on its top deck which we could see and hear quite clearly.  Imagine our amusement when, as the laconic watersider finally arrived and released our ropes we looked up at the screen to see discovery channel images of Mitre Peak, Rotorua, and the Shotover River – one is never really far from home.  A stunning sunset & Mt Vesuvius farewelled us nicely.

A shore excursion option in Naples - bet it was fun!

Isle of Carpi – loved, loved, loved this – mountainous, place of the rich & famous, chair lift ride up to Monte Solaro, stunning views.

Looking back down on Grande Marina, Capri from the open-top taxi

Brave Barbara heading up the hill

Faraglioni - three towering rock formations off the coast of Capri

A little limoncello after the chairlift ride

Selfie

A slow quiet descent, some of it travels over peoples' back gardens and houses!

Busy Grande Marina, Capri

 

Why have a pretty picture of Naples when we can show you what a busy working port it is

Sicily – Imagine I am gesticulating wildly as I write this, and if you can read it with cotton balls stuffed in your cheeks (as Marlon Brando did in The Godfather) all the better.  Messina is home to the song “Volare”.  It is one of the nine main cities on Sicily.  We took an excursion to Savoca and Forza d’Agro. Up another crazy couple of winding roads up a mountain – but oh Mama Mia! The views and vistas took my breath away.  Mix in a few locations spots for The Godfather movies, pizza and cannelloni for lunch with Mt Etna steaming way in the background and hopefully you get a little of the wonderful atmosphere.

View from the coach looking towards the zig zag road ahead

Mount Etna (Sicily) to right in distance, it steams most of the time

Houses and orchard terraces Savoca (Godfather country)

Francis Ford Coppola artwork dedicated to him

Barbara outside church at Forza d'Agro

Now, we are first time cruisers, so have nothing to compare P&O against., but we have found them efficient, hospitable, with a comprehensive service of fantastic food, excellent entertainment, and well organised shore excursions. The Oceana is due for a refit very shortly so she will be extra special after that I imagine.

Final night for the girls on the Oceana

Pam

Not a lot for me to add! A great week and we have seen some amazing sights. Vertigo on the steep narrow roads up mountains in 50 seater buses was not good, but managed the chair lift without any problems (we were never too far off the ground)!

We are in Malta again for the night before flying to London tomorrow and visited the inland town of Mdna today.

Mdna, known as the silent city, proved a quiet oasis after a hectic week at sea

Wall detail, Mdna

Part of the fortified citadel which has stood on this spot since 1000 BC

After a couple of days we will be off to Paris for three nights via Eurostar then back to London and ?? – probably York and environs, we will let you know!

Barbara