CA Update - Marcia Ehinger

Marcia Ehinger is a retired physician who writes in many genres, poetry and prose. A member of the Sacramento Branch of the California Writers Club, she has had poems and short stories published in several CWC anthologies and the regional medical society journal.

DIY England

You never want your last-minute trip plans to include this news. “The federal government is shut down. Air traffic controllers are calling in sick, causing flight delays and cancellations.”

For more than a year, we had been waiting to see some of the premier sights of London. In addition, 2025 is the 250th anniversary of author Jane Austen’s birth, and the city of Bath features in her work.

The whole trip was DIY (do-it-yourself), with travel by underground (subway, AKA “The Tube”) or railway. Our London hotel was the Premier Inn near Paddington Station. Premier Inns are an English budget chain, family friendly, with comfortable rooms and a restaurant.

Our first adventure was a themed tour. Red double-decker buses are a familiar sight in downtown London, and we were on the lookout for a specific one. Our meeting spot was near the Sherlock Holmes Pub, sought out for free bathrooms, rather than the famous fictional detective. Brigit’s Bakery, a local pastry shop, had invested in several buses to showcase their baked goods with a high tea tour. We boarded the bus for a Paw Patrol mission around central London. Our treats included a choice of teas or hot chocolate, tiered trays of savory sandwiches, cupcakes and other sweets, and a dog bone shaped cookie.

Later that night, we wandered around the British Museum. In the morning, we found our way to the Tower of London and walked right into the Crown Jewels exhibit, no waiting! From there, we took an Uber boat to Greenwich and stood on the Prime Meridian.

The day after, we were dazzled by Kensington Palace and sloshed through the rain, subway lines, and a train ride to the Warner Brothers shuttle bus. At the studios where the Harry Potter films were made, we were greeted by a flying dragon, and as darkness descended, Dementors and Death Eaters. Huge buildings held actual movie sets, like the dorm rooms and staircases at Hogwarts, and fascinating displays of how movie magic is done—special effects, prosthetics and makeup, costuming, sound and music. Of course, our mesmerizing wanderings ended in multiple gift shops.

We checked out of our hotel in the morning and wheeled our bags to Paddington’s train station for a trip to Windsor Castle. There, we learned that English train stations no longer store luggage. Instead, Bounce, a network for storing your bags, has sprung up in partnership with local businesses. Our suitcases resided in a souvenir shop closet while we toured the castle.

We journeyed on to Oxford, where we hired a guide to show us around the university colleges. Teaching at Oxford University began in 1096, and so did tensions between town – the local villagers, and gown—the robed faculty and students. Town residents resented the presence of people they didn’t understand, so college students carried swords outside.

Over time, many famous people and stories had their origins at the colleges. JRR Tolkien and CS Lewis met regularly at the Eastgate Hotel, and the latter envisioned the beginning of the Narnia stories in a nearby alley. College dining halls and libraries became models for Harry Potter’s Hogwarts.

During the history tour, our bags stayed in the back room at Dosa, an Indian restaurant, where we returned to indulge in the delicious Diwali holiday special. Luggage retrieved, the railroad took us onward to Bath. We found our Air BnB in a row of apartments ingeniously adapted from the 18th century to modern times.

In the morning, we set out on our own walking tour. Much of modern Bath was built in the later 1700s from native stone and began a style known as Regency. The Crescent row houses, Assembly Rooms and the Pump Room next to the Roman Bath’s mineral springs were all part of Jane Austen’s life.

One of the Crescent homes has been restored to Georgian style, and the Jane Austen Center docents dress in Regency attire. The Pump Room is still a huge assembly hall which serves food, including high tea, and invites customers to fill a glass with mineral water from an 18th century fountain.

The Roman baths were part of an ancient spa and temple complex. They have been excavated and restored to provide fascinating windows into the past. A great Gothic church, Bath Abbey, towers nearby. It was rebuilt several times before 1616, when King Henry VIII stripped Catholic churches of their finery, basic building materials, and windows. A major restoration was carried out two hundred years later.

Sunshine greeted our morning bus tour to Stonehenge—roped off from the public, and Avebury, with much older and larger standing stones which you can hug. On the way back to Bath, we visited the picturesque villages of Lacock and Castle Combe. Their cottages and countryside were key to the wool trade and weaving of the past and are now historical treasures for contemporary television and film projects.

The last day, we relaxed in a chauffeured SUV for the rainy two-hour drive to the airport before a twenty-four-hour trip home.

~ Marcia Ehinger