Europe for Visitors Blog

Portsmouth honors a local boy, Charles Dickens

ABOVE: The Portsmouth City Museum is offering a free Charles Dickens exhibition through November 4.

Charles Dickens was born on February 7, 1812 in the city of Portsmouth, Hampshire on England's south coast. To honor the bicentenary of his birth, the Portsmouth City Museum is offering a series of exhibitions, talks, and other special events between February 7 and November 4.

The centerpiece of the bicentennial Dickensfest will be a free exhibition, A Tale of One City, that will explore what life was like during Dickens's time. The exhibition will feature several pages from the original handwritten manuscript of Nicholas Nickleby, which is being lent to the city by the British Library.

The free exhibition will be open daily except Mondays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. between January 28 and November 4. (On Monday bank holidays, the museum and exhibition will remain open.)

On Sunday, February 12, the Portsmouth City Museum will host a free talk on the "A Tale of One City" theme.

Charles Dickens' Birthplace Museum

While you're in Portsmouth, don't miss the Charles Dickens' Birthplace Museum, which occupies the modest house where the author was born. The museum is furnished in the style of 1809, when the newly-married parents of Charles Dickens set up house at 1 Mile End Terrace, Landport.

Portsmouth and Hampshire tourist information

To plan your trip, visit the Portsmouth pages at the region's official tourism site, Visitsoutheastengland.com, and the city's own tourist site at www.visitportsmouth.co.uk.

BELOW: The house where Dickens was born is now the Charles Dickens' Birthplace Museum.

Photos: Portsmouth City Museums.

Oxford opens its cloisters to adult students from the UK and abroad

ABOVE: The Tom Quad at Christ Church College, Oxford.

We love catchy headlines, and Barbara Gillam of BGPR has written a great example in this year's press release about England's most famous summer school for adults, The Oxford Experience:

"You don't have to be a Rhodes Scholar to go to Oxford."

Normally we don't simply reprint press releases, but Ms. Gillam's description of The Oxford Experience is so compelling that we see no point in writing our own rehashed version:

"Anglophiles, take note: Your college grades don’t matter to The Oxford Experience and you don’t have to be recommended by the Queen. This popular summer program in 'the city of dreaming spires' has no requirements, no tests and no papers. It provides an enjoyable week-long learning vacation at Christ Church, one of the most beautiful and prestigious of Oxford colleges, which was founded by Cardinal Wolsey almost five centuries ago.

"The residential program runs from July 1 to August 11, with each week starting on a Sunday and finishing the following Saturday. The choice of some 60 courses is varied: Castles in Britain; Anglo-American Relations and the Making of Modern Britain; From Rasputin to Putin; Tudor London; History of the English Language; The Beatles, Popular Music and Sixties Britain; The Georgian Home; The Brontës; Oxfordshire Towns; King Arthur and the Dark Ages; Virginia Woolf and her Circle; Wagner’s Ring; The Life and Works of Lewis Carroll; A History of the BBC; and English Country Houses.

"Participants stay in student accommodations—though rooms with private bath are available—and dine in the magnificent Hall, which gained fame in the Harry Potter films.  Three daily meals are included in the price: a full English breakfast, a buffet lunch and a served three-course dinner. 

"Once a week each student is invited to dine on High Table and, on the final night, everyone gathers for champagne in the flowering Cathedral Garden followed by a gala farewell dinner in the Hall.

"Throughout the week there are excursions to stately homes and such, tours of Oxford, pub walks, lectures, croquet and wine in the Masters’ Garden, performances by traditional Morris Dancers and Evensong in the college chapel, which is also the Oxford Cathedral.  At other times participants can enjoy Oxford’s concerts and theater, the college picture gallery, riverside walks in Christ Church Meadow and boating on the Isis (as the Thames is called in Oxford).

"The price of a one-week course—including tuition, accommodations, all meals (except those on excursions) and evening activities—is £1,135, or approximately  US $1,819.  Excursions and private bathrooms are extra.  The deadline for  summer 2012 registration is  May 1, 2012.  For more information go to www.conted.ox.ac.uk/oxfordexperience or write to The Oxford Experience, OUDCE, 1 Wellington Square, Oxford OX1  2JA, U.K."

And now, here are two more photos to whet your appetite for The Oxford Experience. The first shows a student in the Christ Church College Cloisters, while the second is of the college's South Façade:

Photos: Darrell Godliman.

Two Uniworld river cruises include Floriade 2012

ABOVE: A photo from the 1960 edition of Floriade, which was the first of Holland's once-in-a-decade international horticultural expositions.

Next year will bring the sixth edition of Floriade, an international flower and cultural exposition that takes place in a different location within the Netherlands every 10 years. More than 3 million visitors attended the last Floriade in 2002, and 2012's show (which will be in the Venlo district of the Netherlands, near the country's border with Germany) promises to be another massively-popular event.

Uniworld Boutique River Cruises is capitalizing on Floriade 2012 with two new itineraries that include visits to the exposition:

"Gems of Germany, Belgium & the Netherlands with Floriade" is a 7-night cruise from Brussels to Cologne or vice versa, with weekly departures from April 1 to early September.

"Grand Treasures of Europe" is a 14-night cruise from Brussels to Prague or vice versa, augmented by two nights at a hotel in Prague. The company is offering 11 departures from April 22 until early September.

The ship for both itineraries is Uniworld's River Ambassador, which was overhauled in 2011 and accommodates 120 passengers in 56 staterooms.

Couples can save up to $2,000 on either cruise by paying in full at the time of booking. (This offer expires on September 30, 2011.)

For more information on the cruises, visit www.uniworld.com. To learn more about the 2012 horticultural exposition, see our Floriade 2012 article at Europeforvisitors.com.

Photo: Floriade.