Visiting our friends, and Darwin's House

Day 15  Croyden and Down House  Monday, Sept 25, 2017

 David and Hilary Richardson, and Janet, following our tour of Charles Darwin's home. We took a morning train to Croyden, where David was waiting for us, went to their home, and still had time to go visit Down House.

Everything happened like clockwork during our departure at Southampton, except for our missing shuttle to the train station. Before we left Monroe, I had researched their port shuttle, the Jade customer service rep confirmed it, yet as we departed the ship, we were told there was no shuttle, and never had been. Total mystery.

We just set off on foot, pulling our luggage, and the train station was not all that far. Our tickets we purchased before we left Monroe were not until the 11:13 train, so we had plenty of time. When it was time to actually get the tickets we had purchased, we could not find the confirmation number (I must have accidentally thrown it away while packing the night before and throwing away other papers we no longer needed).  We went to a Starbuck's for free wifi, got on the computer, pulled back up the confirmation number, and all was well.

The train to Croydon was nice. We luckily had found seats with extra room for our luggage. All went fine. We got off the train, headed out to look for David or Hilary, and there was David. Good to see him again! We last saw them when they visited us in early Sept, 2013. I first met him 34 years ago when he became the nutritionist for Carnation Co. in the UK.

After taking our luggage upstairs to our room, and having some lunch and Czech beers, we decided we were all up for visiting Down House, Darwin's home.

We had an exciting drive across the narrow English roads to nearby Bromley Borough. Here is Down House from the front. It was built in 1778, and Darwin bought it in 1841 so they could get out of the noise and smog of London. He had already taken his HMS Beagle voyage, which was 1831-36. It was here at Down House that he analyzed all his accumulated data, continued his research, and published On The Origin of Species in 1859.

Darwin died in 1882, and his wife the next year. Their son rented it out for 20 yrs or so, and then it was a girl's school until 1926. The home has been a museum of Darwin's life since 1927, first privately, and then owned by the state starting 1996. They then restored the extensive gardens too, and David, Hilary, Janet and I walked around those when we finished in the house. Darwin had a large greenhouse in which he conducted many experiments.

We all enjoyed touring the home/museum. Darwin kept a record of every breath he took, it seemed. They showed his records of each day's weather, notes, thoughts, and observations. He appeared to have been writing all day long. He constantly did experiments, and evidence of this was all over the house/museum. It was ironic that during the entire five-year voyage circumnavigating the globe, he suffered badly from seasickness yet he wrote copious notes while on board the ship.

When we departed Down House, we drove close-by into Downe (yes, the village is spelled with an "e") to our first British pub "for a pint."

Being the first pub, I see that I was anxious to take photos of it. Typical pub in that they were playing darts. And in the 3rd photo, it shows the attractive painting of a fox hunt above the bar.

A similar photo as the one above with me, but all three looked so good that I want to include this picture too.

On our drive home, we passed by Biggin Hill Airport, which used to be a Royal Air Force base. It figured prominently during WWII as the RAF base protecting London. Over the course of the war, fighters based at Biggin Hill claimed 1,400 enemy aircraft, at the cost of the lives of 453 Biggin Hill-based aircrew.

When we got back home, we ate the pasta dinner that Hilary had prepared previously. We moved on to talk in their conservatory, and later watched the 10 pm news. They never miss their news, and they, as we do, get all fired up over the stories reported, complete with the yelling at the TV (or the people on it) the way we do. Hilary, especially, had strong opinions about Brexit, their political parties, the PM, the EU, and anything else.