Jolly Old England...and Scotland!

I promised a bit of an England blog, so here goes! We had an absolutely awesome trip. Left Atlanta on May 18th and returned late in the day on the 29th. When we flew out, we connected at Gatwick with a flight to Manchester. Our adventure began in the north with the lovely Lake District. We did some fun walks and hikes and the flowers were unbelievable... rhododendron that were like trees, not bushes! Saw lots of Wordworth sites.

Hadrian's wall impressed all of us...

Next it was on to Edinburgh. We had fabulous weather and even got sunburned. The Edinburgh Castle was so impressive, and we even hiked to a vantage point outside of town where we could see the entire city and the Firth of Forth. Beautiful yellow flowers I had always read about but never seen... gorse.
As we headed south again, we skirted along the east coast of England... miles of rugged, unpopulated coastline. Visited the Holy Island of Lindisfarne which is only accessible by car at low tide... otherwise, the road is underwater.

As we made our way throughout England, we saw famous cathedrals at Durham and Lincoln and saw several Cotswald villages. One of our favorite spots was Stratford Upon Avon. We toured Shakespeare's birthplace, and even rowed on the river.

Loved the Roman baths in Bath (where else!). And it was cool to see the huge double stone circle at Avebury.

In Oxford we ate lunch at the pub (Eagle and Child) where C.S. Lewis used to hang out. Then we did a three hour walking tour that was absolutely fascinating. The university is made up of 39 individual colleges. The most prestigious of all of them is Christ Church College... twelve prime ministers have graduated from there. The student dining hall is where scenes from Harry Potter were filmed. Inside each little cluster of buildings were beautifully manicured grassy courtyards.

We ended our trip in London. We'd had lovely weather up until then, but on Memorial Day (their Bank Holiday) it actually spit snow on us. (After drenching rain the night before and more rain that afternoon after temps rose.) One of the London tabloids ran a headline the next day that said "Don't Put Those Coats Away! Bank Holiday Colder Than Alaska!"

Emma Keatley (whom many of you know from the Scamps loop) actually managed to find me in the crowds at Buckingham Palace. We had time to chat and take photos, and Emma brought me a bagful of fun gifts.

This is a vastly edited version, but if I told you everything, we'd be here for days!!
I'd better get back to work on the book that's due at the end of July. Hope everyone has a great week.

Janice