All entries for November 2005

Remember, remember …

Back again from a nice trip to Cambridge… Silvi and I started on Friday afternoon to get there – unfortunately, it takes about 3h by train, so we arrived in the early evening at my sister Birgit's current studyplace. But getting there on a Friday was definitely worth it, because we could attend the formal dinner of Claire's College (the college of my sister). I think it was the poshest (and probably best) dinner I've had since coming to England. Starting with (free) Sherry, the meal itself went over three delicious courses. It was really great, but I think, I could have eaten double as much… Afterwards, we had a good time in the bar and got to know some of the colleagues of Birgit.
On Saturday, we did a sightseeing tour through Cambridge (with my sister as our guide) and visited most of the ancient colleges there (a few of them you can see in the gallery). We spent the whole day in town and returned after having seen the beautiful fireworks and the bonfire. Afterwards, we were really tired and prepared a dinner at Birgit's flat (which she is sharing with two other guys) and went to bed.
Today, we didn't have much time left, before we returned by train. We slept quite late, attended a service, had lunch and went off to the rail station (in heavy rain…). The journey back to Warwick took long, but everything went well and I am enjoying my Sunday evening, before Week 7 starts…

: 06 Nov 2005 22:04 |  Tags: Cambridge |  Comments (1) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Coughton Court

It's already Tuesday and once again I have not yet wrote a thing about my weekend – you can see that I'm more busy at the moment… However, my last weekend was quite nice. Silvi, her visitors from Germany and I joined a group of Birmingham's City Church to a trip to 'Coughton Court', which is about 18 miles south of Birmingham. For those of you that haven't heard about famous 'Coughton Court': It was the hiding place of the conspirators around Guy Fawkes. And for those of you that haven't heard about Guy Fawkes: He was a disappointed Roman Catholic who wanted to blow the Parliament in the air, in 1605. The reason for his disappointment was that the conditions for Roman Catholics got worse when King James I passed a few laws against them. However, his plan was discovered, he was captured and tortured for four days until he told the names of his conspirators. Today, people commemorate this event on 'Guy Fawkes Night'. Guy Fawkes is quite popular with children – there is a saying:

Remember, remember, the 5th of November,
gunpowder treason and plot,
I see no reason why gunpowder treason
should ever be forgot.

(Btw: The first line of this little poem also appears at the end of the trailer of "V for Vendetta", which plays in a fictionary fascist Britain.)

Well, we visited 'Coughton Court' (see pictures in the gallery) and got to know a bit about the history. Really interesting!
Afterwards, we had a nice dinner at the house of one of the organisators. Mmmh…
On Sunday, we went to the Jewellery Quarter, most of the Jewellers were closed, but the museum was very good. And after lunch I went back 'home', where we had French Dinner this time! Mmmh again ;-)

: 01 Nov 2005 23:05 |  Comments (3) |  Close comments |  Report a problem