We discover the day has a "theme"

Today’s adventure ended up having a theme, though we didn’t exactly plan it that way. It just evolved by accident. The day began with our trying to track down a window company of all things. Ever since we arrived at our Thurlby B&B, I’ve been really impressed with the windows here. To say they are light years better than then ones in our house in Nevada is decidedly an understatement. They’re heavy-duty aluminum and extremely sturdy, much more than anything I’ve ever seen in the US. So, I asked our hostess if she knew where the distributor was and, incredibly, she was able to furnish us with an address and, most importantly, a postal code. The little GPS machine just loves postal codes. Long story short, we drove and drove and drove and finally found the place and the chap there gave me a business card so I could pull up the factory on the internet and see if they sell in North America.

But that had nothing to do with the day’s theme. No, the theme came about because after the window place we found ourselves in a part of England that for which we really didn’t have brochures. So, we just asked the window guy where he would recommend we visit. Soon we were back on the road, headed toward the window guy’s suggested destination. But once there, we found a museum which, except for a small room near the front entrance, was not really open for business. However, a very nice employee at this museum recommended yet another destination, so off we went to follow her suggestion.

But that also had nothing to do with the theme. No, the theme came about because we happened to pick up a brochure at the aforementioned museum that described a museum in the nearby town of Peterborough that was having a special display on “Crime and Punishment” throughout history. Now that sounded interesting, we thought; something totally different than we had been seeing. So off we went in search of the town of Peterborough, often through a maze of expressway on-ramps and off-ramps and an absolute myriad of roundabouts. But finally we found said town and even managed to find a suitable parking garage for the Mini, though I believe I sort of drove up the down ramps in getting to the next level. Still, we made it.

The most interesting thing about the crime exhibit was the little piece they did on Agatha Christie. The exhibit, of course, had all the torture devices and weird weaponry you’d ever want to see, all which came complete with the horrified screams and moanings of victims resounding in the background as you strolled. But it was Agatha that drew my attention. Imagine being the most published author ever! Imagine having your play run continuously for over 50 years! My god, I haven’t even been able to sell my first book yet. I better get busy!

The rest of the Peterborough Museum was just as interesting. The displays ran the gamut from archaeology to Victorian streetscapes, from geology to paintings by local artists, from Roman items to sea creatures from 150 million years ago . But here again, the theme resurfaced. We started reading about Mary Queen of Scots (see photo 3) and how her last days were spent at Fotheringhay Castle located just a short distance away.

“How short?” I asked a museum staff member.

“Well,” she said, “It’s just down the road near Oundly.”

Now Oundly is exactly the town where we'd just been while hunting up the window company. Still, now that the theme of the day had asserted itself, I wasn’t about to argue.

“Okay,” I said to Concetta. “We need to go back.”

And that’s just what we did. More on-ramps and off-ramps and two dozen roundabouts and we were rolling into the tiny village (40 households) of Fotheringhay. Wow, what a great little village. All the stone cottages are neat as a pin and you have nothing but beautiful vistas beyond. I immediately got out the camera and started shooting. An old English canal runs right by the village and I had fun shooting the canal boats. Later, when we went in search of the castle site where Queen Mary lost her head, we met a really nice canal boat owner who paused from his work and talked to us for half an hour (see photo 6 for the canal boat guy. Photos 4 and 5 are of the castle in its heyday and now).

But at first, when we just weren’t certain where to look for the castle, a very nice lady out walking her grandson in a pram offered to not just tell us where the castle used to stand, but actually take us there. By the end of the walk we were having a fine old chat and I thought she’d ask to adopt us or something. Just kidding there. But everywhere we go in the UK, the residents always seem to love going out of their way to help us.

When we finally found the castle site, all that was left was a high mound of earth where the original castle “keep” stood, and one lone rock clump that is the only piece of building material left over after they tore the castle down and hauled the stones off to do a church or something in good ol’ Oundly. Concetta said she stood at the very top of that castle keep mound and tried to visualize what Mary might have seen from her cell window on that morning before they came for her. I don’t wonder but that the rivers and farms and forests look much the same as they did all those years ago.

To round out the evening, and to stick to the theme as close as possible, we decided to eat at the Sherlock Holmes-themed restaurant near the B&B here called the “Baskervilles,” reminiscent of the infamous hound. I had the Bangers and Mash and Concetta had the Fish and Chips.

So, there you are, another day in the life. I just hope I haven’t had so much ale that I go to sleep seeing Mary Queen of Scotts -- whose axeman took three strokes to cut through her neck even after she’d paid him to make his aim true -- hovering over the bed in the dark. It’s said that he grabbed her hair to display her head to the witnesses and her head separated from her wig bounced off the paving stones. Yuck!

Ciao, tutti