Visiting Great Britain
Hello Friends and Family~
We recently returned from a three week trip to Great Britain and here is
a brief summary of our first visit to the U.K. and a "few" pics thrown in.
Tower Bridge over the River Thames
Although three weeks is not nearly enough time to explore G.B. we felt like we saw a lot in the short amount of time that we had. We started out with a week in London where we stayed with our friends from Bellingham ~ Max and Arleen, who had rented an apartment 2 blocks from the British Museum right in the heart of the city. We had a wonderful time walking the city and riding the "Tube" and we were in awe of the history and architecture in this World Class City!
From London Carol and I rented a car and did a 2 week tour of the Cotswolds, Wales, Lakes District, and southern Scotland, returning to London through Yorkshire and visiting Cambridge.
Driving is an experience! Both a little crazy and exhilarating. After a few days you get used to it but between the switch in driving on the opposite side of the road and shifting left handed and the narrow hedgerow lanes in the countryside, it is quite an experience itself. Beyond that the country is beautiful, like the Northwest a verdant green with rolling hills filled with sheep and baby lambs, crisscrossed with ancient stone walls.
Exploring the Cotswolds is such a treat and feels like you've gone back in time with small windy lanes connecting little villages with the mandatory pubs and gorgeous stone houses. Really though every where we went the countryside is stunning and the people are very friendly and helpful. We enjoyed our visits with Airbnb hosts and people in the pubs and the accents really accentuate that one is not in "Kansas" anymore. In Wales it is even more apparent as Welsh, which is spoken widely there, for many as their mother tongue. It is a Celtic language which Britons spoke as early as 600 b.c.
You may well ask ~ "what about the food??" and our experience is that it is quite good and we had incredible meals in both rural pubs and nice restaurants in London.
Well I could go on and on [or have I already?] but I will leave you with some visual aids to back up my tall tales.
Thanks for listening!
Don and Carol
LONDON
Our first Meal on our day of arrival with friends Max and Arleen
Steak & Ale Pie, Fish & Chips, Bangers & Mash, and a Crown Burger
The Guide Meridian at Greenwich
View of London from Grenwich after a pleasant boat ride down the Thanes
Tower Bridge on the Thames
Typical sentiment in a subway (Brit term for pedestrian underpass)
[i.e. Not the Tube]
Artist at work in the Grafiti Subway
Scotch Eggs and other Vittles in the Running Horse Pub
London is a beautiful mix of both old and new architecture
Cotswolds and the Lakes District
taking a break on one of the many walking paths throughout the country
The way to Badmitton? Actually a popular Equestrian Center
A Beauty in the Beautiful Lakes District in northern England
Sheep and Stone Walls (one of about 40 such pictures I took)
Beautiful Bridge
Avebury hedge Neolithic Stones from 2850 b.c. with thatched roof house
Older and more expansive than Stonehenge. Avebury henge is the
largest in Britain with stone circles and the village within the larger circle
Rock Star
Beautiul Stone Bridges …..everywhere
Wales and Scotland
Carnarfon Castle in Wales
Abbotsford ~ home of Sir Walter Scott
Wonderful meal in a pub in Portonbello outside of Edinburgh
Five Spiced Duck with Bok Choy and Braised Cod with Spicy Beans
Edinburgh Castle
Himalaya putting course at St. Andrews, Scotland
Cambridge
Our favorite kind of Castle: showing it's age and no people
