Bark, Bug, and Branches

This is from a plane tree in a park called The Vines in Rochester, Kent.  One guide book said that Charles Dickens was seen leaning against the wall in this park two days before he died.  (I didn't lean against any walls there.)

Jack seemed to think the trunk needed an embellishment.

This oak bark has the added attraction of this interesting looking fly-like insect.

I come from a big-tree-deprived part of the world, so these dramatic large oak trees grab my attention.  

You can double click on this picture to read other Dicken tidbits and The Vines.

The oak pictures are from Thorndon Country Park, Essex.

Thanks again, Doug, for showing us these places!

Brussels to Köln

As I wrote the title I wondered why I write the English version of Brussels and the German version of Cologne.  Probably because I don't know French, but I can get by in German.

We're in a tiny German town with a strange name visiting friends and I'll post on that next, but here are some pictures of the train ride.

We took a taxi from the hotel to the Midi Station in Brussels - about ten minutes for just under €10 [the symbol for Euros on the US Mac keyboard is option+shift+2].  (According to my computer's currency conversion, that's $12.64, the Euro really did lose value since we got here.)  All you have to do is ask and people tell you where to find your train.  English works fine. 

Here's a trash bin on the station platform.

Leaving Brussels.  That dome was visible on the picture I posted the other day from our Brussels hotel.

This is a second class car.  This is one of those sleek trains.  It never seemed to go all that fast, but it was wonderfully quiet.  The sign on the door to the next compartment announces wifi, but I'm still not going to pay their rate for two hours of wifi.  I noticed it continues to be true that the fancy hotels charge exorbitant fees for wifi and the less fancy hotels offer it for free.  Our hotel in Brussels had free wifi.

I'm not sure if this is Liege or Aachen, the two places I remember the train stopped.

You can tell we're near Köln because you can see the famous cathedral.

I didn't realize how close the train station was to the cathedral until we got there.  But we only had twenty minutes until we caught the next train on to Wuppertal, so we didn't wander out of the station to see the Cathedral.  (We have been there before.)  This is from the train platform.

We crossed the Rhein and were soon in Wuppertal (30 minutes from Köln) where we were picked up by HG and his daughter A.

How Many Member States in Euro Parliament? How many members?

[The answers are below.]

It seemed only fitting that we visit the European Union Parliament today, given we did a tour of Congress in DC and the Reichstag in Berlin.  I wasn't particularly impressed.  We walked in a group with out earphones in, connected to our own languages and listened to the very bland EU description telling us how great the EU is.  I learned something because I knew so little, and being in the building certainly makes it all much more real. 

This complex reminded me a bit of the huge skyscrapers/malls that sprang up in Beijing in the last 15 years.  Big, glassy, and not usually very attractive. 

We had a little vignette on the audio about this sculpture, but I didn't write it down and haven't been able to find it on the internet.  Through the window you only see a bit of it.  Another blogger who had a personal tour and much more to say, commented on the sculpture this way:

The other is an indescribable conglomeration of lengthy metal strips hanging down in an atrium. Either could be entitled, "More money than sense".

This is where the Parliament meets.  From the European Parliament website:

The European Parliament is the only directly-elected body of the European Union. The 736 Members of the European Parliament are there to represent you, the citizen. They are elected once every five years by voters right across the 27 Member States of the European Union on behalf of its 500 million citizens.

Since you (particularly US citizens) probably won't find much spare time to learn a lot about the Euro Parliament,  I'd just suggest you consider making an appointment with yourself on your calendar for an hour to just poke around on their website.

The car was parked near the entrance to the Science Museum.  It rained a lot of today, though not too hard.  Wednesday morning we're headed to a small town near Wuppertal to visit good friends I first met as a student in Göttingen, long, long ago. 

Russian Model and Other English Signs

At Burnham-on-Crouch club for Conservatives.

Going out to visit an old church.

An old alms-house in Rochester.

Near Piccadilly Circus in London. 

Update: I forgot this one from Cambridge.   It took me a while to figure out what it meant.

British Elections Update - Brown Steps Down

I guess I got hooked into finding out what is going to happen, so even from Brussels, I'm checking up on the British elections.

It seems that

1.  Gordon Brown, Labour's leader and the Prime Minister, is resigning.  That should solve a lot of problems.

2.  The Lib Dem negotiations with the Conservatives haven't been productive even though the Conservatives have offered to have a referendum on proportional representation. (Originally they were willing to study the issue.)

3.  With Gordon Brown out of the Labour leadership position, there's a much better chance for Labour and the Lib Dems to form a coalition.  Especially if it's true that Labour has offered to implement Proportional Representation without a referendum. [Update:  As Doug points out in the comments Labour plus the Lib Dems is not enough for a majority.]

For additional information (it seems some of the more accessible reports come from afar where they give you the main points and leave out the details.)

New Zealand Channel 3 News  
Portland Mercury

England to Brussels

Doug was a great host taking us here and there to see things we wouldn't have seen on our own.  AND, taking us to catch the 6:37 am Eurostar train at Ebbsfleet.  Thanks Doug!!!

Approaching Brussels.  The train went fast and was very quiet.  About 100 minutes from Ebbsfleet Station to Brussels. 

Getting ready to get off the train. 

My cousin had a therapy session, so we had lunch at the hospital.  I've never seen a restaurant quite like this one in a hospital. 

View from our hotel.  It's still gray, bur a bit warmer than UK.

View from my cousin's flat. 

After dinner, some cars had moved, leaving that one on the left sitting way out there by itself.  It's been a long day, so the pictures will have to suffice. 

What's Happening with the British Election?

Results:  Election seats/Percent of Parliament/Percent of Vote  (From BBC)



Conservative seats:  306 (47%)-  36% of Vote

Labour seats:  258 (29%)  - 29% of vote

Lib Dem seats:  57 (9%)   - 23% of vote

Other parties:   28  (4%)  - 12%


There is one seat still undecided because of a death that pushed the election back.


Voter turnout is pegged at 65%, up 4% from the 2005 election.


As best as I can figure this out, here's what's happening:

1.  No party has a majority.  The Conservatives got the most votes, but not enough to form a majority government.

2  They can either work out a coalition with another party(ies) that would give them collectively a majority or try to form a minority government.  A minority government would seem to run into problems and there would be a likelihood of a new election within a year. 

3.  The two other main parties, Labour and Liberal Democrats, are ideologically closer together than either is to the Conservatives and if the Conservatives can't form a coalition, Labour and the Lib Dems could, conceivably, form a majority government.

4.  However, the leader of the Lib Dems, Nick Clegg, doesn't like leader of Labour, Gordon Brown, and has even said in the campaign that he couldn't work with Brown.  On the radio today they are talking about a heated phone conversation Friday between Clegg and Brown, which they deny.  Brown does seem to have been a serious problem for many people who might otherwise have voted Labour.

5.  There seem to be some attempts by the Conservatives to work out an agreement with the Lib Dems.  But they have serious ideological differences including integration with Europe (Conservatives against, Lib Dems for) and electoral reform (Conservatives against, Lib Dems for.) 

6.  A major issue for the Lib Dems is proportional representation. You can see why the Lib Dem Party is so strongly for proportional voting  from the numbers at the top.  While they got 27% of the vote, they only got 9% of the seats.   I'll address this issue below. 

7.  Splits seem to be coming out into the open in all the parties.  Conservatives are angry with their leadership for failing to win a majority.  Lib Dems are concerned about their leader making an agreement with the Conservatives.  One Labour MP has called for Gordon Brown to step down.

8.  The first Green Party MP was elected Thursday.

9.  Meanwhile, the Constitution allows the sitting Prime Minister to continue as head of the government until a new government is formed.  So, despite Conservatives calling for him to step down because so many Labour seats have gone to the Conservatives (about 95), Brown is holding his position and looking for ways to work with the Lib Dems.


What about Proportional Representation? 

The Observer has an article on this but I can't find it online.  In the US, primary elections tend to narrow the race to two main parties with minor party candidates who tend not to get many votes.  Here, there are a number of parties and so it can happen that a party like the Lib Dems can get a lot of votes in many districts, but mostly come in second or third.  Conversely, the Conservatives were able to win a lot of seats, but with less than 50% of the vote.  So there are four options that the Observer listed today that are on the table for electoral reform.  Basically they involve more complicated ranking schemes - you vote for more than one candidate ranking them 1, 2, 3, etc.  Then if there is no majority, the bottom candidate is dropped and the second choice for those voters is calculated.   The four options the Observer lists are:
1.  First past the post - the current system.  Each district picks an MP and the MP's pick the Prime Minister.

2.  Alternative vote (AV)  - Rank the candidates


3.  Alternative vote (AV+) - Same as two, with the addition of a list of party candidates.  I don't totally understand this one.


4.  Single transferable vote (STV)  - Bigger constituencies with more than one MP.  Again, this one isn't really clear to me. 


Here's a website that lists these options and a couple more if you want to see more detail.




What's next?  It seems to me, that if Labour got rid of Brown at the top, then there would be a greater chance of forming an alliance with the Lib Dems. 

London Tube 11:30pm Friday Night

From Woodlands Jr. School:

London comprises the City of London, and the 32 boroughs, of which 13 are in Inner London and 19 are in Outer London. It is a growing city spreading out and 'swallowing' many villages and towns in the south east of England. Because of this, there are many conflicting definitions of London and Greater London and the population of London varies accordingly.

London, the capital of England and the UK, occupies over 620 square miles and is the most populous city in the European Union, with over 7 million residents. London’s population is heavily concentrated (at about 4,539 people per sq km/11,568 per sq mi)

2001 Census

London's population was 7,172,000 on the latest Census Day of April 2001. This is 14.6 per cent of the total population of Britain. The population in 2005 was thought to have been about 7,518,000.

Canterbury Cathedral

It rained on and off today as we went Kent, the next county south of Essex, and visited Rochester - a place where Dickens lived - and then Canterbury to see the famous cathedral.

From the Cathedral's website:

St Augustine, the first Archbishop of Canterbury, arrived on the coast of Kent as a missionary to England in 597 AD. He came from Rome, sent by Pope Gregory the Great. It is said that Gregory had been struck by the beauty of Angle slaves he saw for sale in the city market and despatched Augustine and some monks to convert them to Christianity.  [I know it was a different time and people thought about slaves differently, but it still sounds bizarre to me.]

Augustine's original building lies beneath the floor of the nave– it was extensively rebuilt and enlarged by the Saxons, and the Cathedral was rebuilt completely by the Normans in 1070 following a major fire. There have been many additions to the building over the last nine hundred years, but parts of the quire and some of the windows and their stained glass date from the 12th century.

By 1077, Archbishop Lanfranc had rebuilt it as a Norman church, described as "nearly perfect". A staircase and parts of the North Wall - in the area of the North West transept also called the Martyrdom - remain from that building.

Again from the Cathedral website:

The Nave

The Romanesque Nave was replaced in the 14th century by the one we see today. Its tall columns rise to meet in delicate vaulted arches and gilt roof bosses high over our heads. It is one of the most magnificent surviving examples of English Perpendicular Gothic, designed by Henry Yevele, the King’s Master mason.

The Quire

The Quire was rebuilt and extended after a disastrous fire in 1174 destroyed the earlier structure. Thomas Becket's shrine was placed in the Trinity Chapel in 1220, until it was destroyed in 1538 during the Reformation by order of Henry VIII. The Corona, built as a separate shrine for the a piece of Becket's skull, completes the eastern exterior of the Cathedral in a unique fashion.  Beautiful stained glass windows illustrate miracles and stories associated with St Thomas.