What I did on holiday (2022 edition)

Well, we did it.

Andy and I have officially survived the most logistically complicated vacation of our lives, and it was, if you'll pardon the expression, bloody wonderful. Amazingly, too, it mostly went off without a hitch, allowing for a couple of rainy days (which are certainly to be expected in England in October).

Heaven on earth

I don't think a detailed summary of what we did is possible for me at this point, with my rather frazzled brain, but perhaps a brief listing will have you sufficiently hyperventilating.

Westminster Cathedral

We began with three days in London (Tate Britain, Sky Garden, Westminster Cathedral, the Hardy Tree at Old St. Pancras, All Saints, and of course the British Library).

Shibden Hall, familiar to fans of HBO's Gentleman Jack

Then we took the train to York, where we got a car and made our way to Lincoln, Durham, Castle Howard, and Shibden Hall (home of Anne Lister of Gentleman Jack fame), among other things. 

Breathtaking Lincoln Cathedral

We drove from York to Oxford, taking in the delightfully ramshackle Little Moreton Hall and the wonderfully somber Lichfield Cathedral (plus a drive-by of Samuel Johnson's birthplace) along the way. 

Blenheim Palace selfie

A brief visit to Blockley to consult Father Brown

Cloisters at Gloucester Cathedral (happily no
basilisk to be seen the day we were there)

Dining hall at Hogwarts, er, I mean Christ Church

Rollright Stones

A break for tea in Burford

During several days in Oxford, we took in (apart from Oxford itself—and the magnificent Bodleian, of course) Blenheim Palace, several Cotswold villages (Blockley to visit Father Brown, Bourton-on-the-Water, Northleach, and Burford), the Rollright Stones (didn't know they existed until a recently-read Gladys Mitchell put them on my radar), Stratford, Gloucester, and Tewkesbury. 

Wells Cathedral (whoa)

The famous scissor arches at Wells

Glastonbury Abbey, during a brief break
in the rain

Drove Oxford to Lyme Regis, with stops at Wells and Glastonbury Abbey (alas, it was pissing down rain, so we had to abandon hopes for the Tor). I attempted (with rather limited success) to recreate Meryl Streep's dramatic scene on the Cobb from The French Lieutenant's Woman, and the weather cooperated magnificently—to the extent that we couldn't venture more than a few steps onto the Cobb without fear of recreating Louisa's fall in Persuasion.

I tried. The top one is Meryl, if you can't tell...

From Lyme Regis (naturally a gorgeous day now that we had to leave), we ventured to Greenway House (Dame Agatha's old haunt), then, on a rather random whim of mine to visit an "atmospheric" medieval village, drove to South Zeal on the edge of Dartmoor, before checking in to our hotel in Exeter.

Our tour guide took us a bit out of our way for
a better few of Godrevy Lighthouse. Love to Ginny!

Port Isaac, familiar from Doc Martin

Alas, the doc declined to see me

Tintagel Castle

Arthur contemplating a puddle

On to Cornwall for two jam-packed full-day tours (Tintagel [wow], Port Isaac to visit the Doc and have a genuine Cornish pasty, the Bedruthan Steps, St. Michael's Mount, Mousehole, Lamorna Cove [wink wink], the Merry Maidens, and the lesser-known but even more wonderful Boscawen-un stone circle nearby.

Boscowan-en stone circle

Homage to Dame Agatha

Finally, back to London for a return visit to the British Library, a saunter through the National Gallery (sans tomato soup), and to The Mousetrap (great fun), then boarded the plane and went into a state of emotional and physical collapse from which we are only now beginning to emerge. But don't ever tell an American "you can't do all that". We might take it as a dare.

Somehow in the midst of all that constant going, we had a wonderful time and were consistently eager and thrilled to see so many wonderful things. And no one died as a result of our driving on the left for ten days—though we may have shrieked a bit along the way and a couple of our fellow drivers might have had a scary moment or two…

There might have been a book shop visit here and there as well.

Somehow these made it
home in my bags

Of those pictured, I managed to read five already, on trains and flights and in our hotel rooms at night. I was mainly focused on mysteries (including discovering a new love for Edmund Crispin when I came across Love Lies Bleeding on one of my first bookshop visits, and proceeded to stock up on three more before we left), but also read, and loved, Sally on the Rocks, by Winifred Boggs, from the British Library Women Writers series, curated by none other than Simon Thomas (see below).

One of the highest points, for me, a humble book geek, was getting to become a verified reader at both the British Library and the Bodleian at Oxford. Astonishingly, they did not just laugh in my face and ask security to escort me out when I applied. Surely if there's a heaven, it's quite a lot like these libraries. You can just make a list of the books you've coveted for, oh, say a decade or so without the slightest hope of ever finding them, submit requests for them, and … they just … bring them to you! It's the most amazing thing, and I will be revisiting those times in spirit in the coming weeks as I report on some of the books I've been able to read as a result of these astonishing nirvanas. Stay tuned for that.

A conservative first stack at the Bodleian, as I
had some legit research too that I'm not sharing yet

2nd Bodleian visit. The greed grows.

First British Library visit. Restraint is gone.

2nd British Library visit. Joyous mayhem.

The other big high point was getting to meet up with several online friends—in Oxford, with the brilliant Sue Sims and Hilary Clare, compilers of the immortal Encyclopaedia of Girls' School Stories and my particular advisors on British Library and Bodleian etiquette, being seasoned pros themselves; in Stratford-upon-Avon, with the charming Liz Dexter, whose blog here you already know, and with whom I hit a couple of very productive charity shops; in Witney (just down the road from "Thrush Green"), with the ubiquitous and aforementioned Simon Thomas, who very kindly brought a copy of Sally on the Rocks as a gift, thus providing additional the joyful train reading mentioned above; and in "atmospheric" South Zeal, with Avis Judd, who brought along several vintage women's magazines she'd come across, with perhaps a couple of hitherto-unknown women writers in them—woohoo!—and also personally showed me the fascinating "menhir", or standing stone, built into the wall of the Oxenham Arms, where we had a cider and a lovely chat.

Lunch in Oxford with Hilary Clare and Sue Sims

Lunch and book shopping in Stratford with Liz Dexter

Lunch and publishing talk in Witney with Simon Thomas

Book chat and a pint in South Zeal with Avis Judd

We had such fun with all of these folks, and meeting them gave us a very pleasing sense of belonging, even if we're not quite natives. Thank you so much to Sue, Hilary, Liz, Simon, and Avis for making time for us. Although modern technology is likely destroying the world in many ways, it also provides such a unique joy in enabling us to to meet kindred spirits even when far from home.

Poorly-lit geek with prehistoric menhir

BTW, the best food of the trip, hands down, was a Himalayan restaurant called Taas, just down from our hotel in York (2a-4 Bootham to be exact). I love Indian and Himalayan food, so I'm not a newby, but there were divine flavors in this food that I've never tasted before. I'm yearning for more, but alas, York is generally a bit far to go for dinner—even for an American...