Journey to Britain
Article & photos by Benedict Wu



说起英国,很自然让人联想到大本钟,白金汉宫.而Benedict Wu与家人则另辟蹊径,度过了别样的夏季英国之旅.荡舟泰晤士河,漫步剑桥,徜徉于风光旖旎的大自然,回味那沧桑的历史,岂能不令人神往?

On the 19th of July, my wife and I flew from Dubai to the U.K. to join a 7-day "Boating Holiday" on the River Thames with our daughter.



Thames of course is very busy near London, but it is extremely serene and tranquil from Oxford to Windsor. The landscape all along is stunningly beautiful. Rowing on Thames was very popular particularly at the time before the Athens Olympics started, as Britain has won many gold medals in this event before. We had lots of fun cooking our own meals on board and sometimes venturing ashore to explore some small, lovely towns where we had our lunch or dinner.

We particularly liked Windsor where we were fortunate enough to come across the exchange of guards in front of the Queen's palace. The guards were no different from the Beef Eaters at the Buckingham Palace in London, and the event took place with full pomp and ceremony, which we found most entertaining.



As the sun did not set until after 9.30 p.m. usually I would take a walk on shore after dinner, sit by the river to read a book, watch the swans gliding gracefully on the water and look at the western sky gradually turning red as the sun sank slowly. I felt I was savoring the beauty of dusk in the seemingly suspended time.

After finishing our boating holiday on Thames, we visited Oxford, Cambridge and Bath. Oxford was most impressive with its old buildings and cultural atmosphere. You can only stand in awe in some of the halls where so many famous scholars once delivered their thesis or some great men like Nelson Mendela had their honorary degree conferred on them.



But one simply can't help falling in love with Cambridge. Nobody would ever be able to resist its charm-the river surrounding the campus, the willows touching the water, the numerous bridges with their arches mirrored in the water, the famous colleges with their long history and the famous poets or politicians associated with them. There were also people (probably some lecturers with their students) sitting under the trees chatting leisurely with a cup of tea in their hands.

Bath is a lovely ancient city once ruled by the Romans, and there are still remains of some public baths that the Romans liked to frequent. Hence the name is "Bath". There are some majestic buildings with historical interest, like the Bath Abbey.



We arrived in the late evening of the 28th of July at a small town called Narberth in a remote part on the western tip of Wales-the home of our daughter and her family.

Narberth is a lovely small town like many other towns we stopped at along Thames. The days were mostly glorious, though it got quite cool at night. It is even smaller and therefore quieter than the other towns. It makes a perfect hide-out to write a novel in. The landscape nearby is covered with pleasantly beautiful green trees and lush meadows with cattle grazing in the sun, and there are extensive beaches with fine sand within a 15-20 minutes' drive.



Occasionally we went to some of the beaches, basking in the warm summer sun and watching the seagulls pecking at the crumbs of cake left behind by half-naked men who were over-weight and obese women displaying their massive flesh in their under-sized bikinis. Not far from them were the children frolicking in the water.

Then I discovered there was something more to this apparent jollity than meets the eye. While hiking near the sea, we were somewhat shocked to come across some rugged coastlines with deep, awesome cliffs that ran 50 meters straight down to caves with black boulders and uninviting dark water below. Standing over the edge of the cliff gave me the creeps. But not far away from us was a man sitting in solitude, meditating by himself over the cliff in the rain, gazing at the sea far beyond. On our way back we came across a couple braving the gust from the sea and hiking with their baby high up in a basket over the husband's back. Then one day, in the most remote and deserted part of the country, we came unexpectedly upon an ancient, imposing cathedral in which lies the tomb of the father of King Henry VII. I feel I have a better understanding of what moulds the austerity and perseverance of so many British people.