England, Part I: Calne

This past Sunday, 6:30 a.m., we took a bus from our flat to the Lübeck bahnhof, a train to Hamburg bahnhof, another train to the Hamburg Airport, flew to Gatwick Airport in London (EasyJet: 70 eu total for the two of us, round-trip), then took a train to Chippenham (pronounced Chip'-in-im) where we were picked up by our Air Bnb host and driven to a little town called Calne. This trip took us from 6:30 a.m. until 5:30 p.m.  A lot quicker than when the Romans first settled in this area.

The little town of Calne isn't known as a hot tourist spot. It has been a market town on the road from Bristol to London since the 11th century, but its more recent history is based on bacon. In the late 1700s, pigs raised in Ireland were shipped to Bristol and herded to London. On their way they passed through Calne, and an enterprising fellow took it upon himself to buy pigs that weren't going to make it. By the end of the 20th century, Calne had became known for its large pork processing industry. The processing plant closed its doors in the 1980s, putting thousands of out of work. Since then the town has been clawing its way back up, and now is thriving again. We thought it was very pretty, to our American eyes, but apparently not everyone in that area thinks so. (They have never seen certain small Minnesota towns in winter!)



The reason we went to Calne, however, was to visit an illustrator, Christopher Dunn, whose work I've been admiring for a long time. His illustrations of forest animals are done in realistic style -- except that they are wearing pants. He's currently working on a fully illustrated version of Wind in the Willows. His website is here (https://www.chris-dunn.co.uk/) and I encourage you to take a look because it's a joy to see. 

Anyway, Christopher put out an unbelievable invitation on his website: that anyone visiting Calne should stop by for a visit. So we made it a point to visit Calne, arranging a visit beforehand, and his invitation was for real:  not only did we get to meet Chris and his wife and see his studio, we were even served tea. *sigh*  The whole thing was so overwhelming for me I don't even know what to write about it. I have so much to process. Hearing him talk about how he thought of this and how he did that, while standing in his studio looking at his sketches and one of his paintings in progress, was the highlight of my entire stay here in Europe. Like I told him and his wife, it was like meeting E. H. Shepard or Beatrix Potter.  Looking at the photo below, I still can't believe I was there!

Christopher Dunn and ME, in his studio, looking at the original pencil sketch of one of my favorite paintings of his, The Duke of York, which is now finished and is on his website

We stayed one night in Calne at an Air Bnb that was originally a carriage house. This place used to be owned by one of the Antiques Roadshow experts, Clive Farahar. Apparently the room that was now "our" bedroom was so packed with antiques the new owners couldn't even walk in it. And speaking of celebrities, we also learned that the nearby home of a friend of Prince Charles was the "secret" meeting place for Charles and Camilla back in the day. 

Our Air Bnb was the little house attached in the back here:

The proprietors of this place, John & Kathy, were so welcoming, they even left a fridge full of food (and Guinness!), and cooked us a lamb curry dinner! We had a good chat over wine afterward about our respective countries' politics and found that we were on the same wavelength. John and their dog Dexter even helped Gary look at properties for sale around the area:

From Calne we had to return to Chippenham to take the train to Bath, and John generously offered to drive us there. On the way, he stopped by two local towns, Avebury (Ave'-bree) and Lacock (Lay'-cock), which Christopher had mentioned to us as good places to see. Avebury is part of the Stone Henge system and has large rocks circling it. (Many people prefer it to Stone Henge, which is now overly commercial, they say.) It was a quick drive through, and it was raining, so I snapped some photos out the car window, approaching Avebury: 

... and some of the large, Stone-Henge-like rocks of Avebury:

(As you can see, they had just had a big snow, and the rain was melting it that day.)

John also drove us through Lacock, which is a national historic site (the entire town). In medieval times, Lacock was started near the banks of the river Avon at the edge of Melksham Forest, one of the royal hunting forests. The inhabitants were tenants of the Abbey, which was founded in the 13th century. To pay rent, they paid tithes -- plant crops, fleeces, etc. -- which were collected in a building called the Tithe Barn. The barn is still standing, and they say that except for a new roof, it has changed little since then:

The entire town of Lacock is old and seemingly untouched by time. It's the location of scenes from Harry Potter movies and Downton Abbey, and other shows and movies. I'd definitely like to return there, if I ever get back to England. 

However, we had a train to catch so we pressed on.