Peterborough

We are in London and it is our last day...we are off to Stratford to see David Tennant in his much acclaimed - according to the critics we've read so far - turn as Hamlet - then back to London tomorrow to depart. I'm not going to dwell on how sad we feel about that - I'll save that for a later blog! But I do want to get some pictures of the magnificent Norman cathedral at Peterborough up for your viewing pleasure. Peterborough was an abbey first and a cathedral second - and the building you see was begun in 1118. It is a masterpiece of Romanesque architecture.

(Fast forward: imagine sands slipping in an hour glass or pages furiously turning on a calendar a' la cheesy B movie....)
OKAY...so we WERE in London and....anyway, some pictures of Peterborough. First, exteriors of the amazing west front:






Exteriors:



A few looking up the nave:



And towards the west end:







The transept:




Looking up:




The ceiling:


This crucifix is of recent vintage, but very fitting and striking:


Here's some of the amazing fan vaulting:



Sad, abandonned Catherine of Aragon is buried here:



An exterior door, Norman all the way:


Here's the Hedda stone, an remnant of anciemt Anglo-Saxon stone carving:


Aside from the cathedral, Peterborough is not much to see. Everything else has a run-down, tatty, dirty edge to it - not a place wherein one would want to be stranded at the bus station, for example, which later I was - until you find the beautiful Neme River, which is crowded with swans, dripping with weeping willows along broad windy walks and manicured green fields - just suddenly, amazingly lovely! Walk down by the river side, and the grungy, oily feeling of the streets abruptly stops; the air actually seemed to lighten, freshen, become dynamic - and not the least because of all the swans! So incongruous, all that elegance floating through gritty Peterborough -like shimmery blue and white satin ribboning through brown polyester.








For once, I actually had some food to give the poor, gorgeous creatures , and two different sets of mother swans with cygnets approached, one with two, and one with three, the latter almost fully grown but still very gray.





















Fantastic!
Anyway, I did eventually get back to Cambridge...several hours late.
I realize this blog is long in coming - and I still have a few more blogs from England, including Carter and Lanaux Go Punting, Last Day Frenzy, Curse of the Duty Free Store...so check back in in a few days...!