The past few months we had been thinking about a trip to the United Kingdom with an idea of travel in September so we (mainly Larry) had been reading travel books on the UK giving us a plan of where we wanted to visit. We had to wait to know what my drug schedule was to be able to book our airline reservations getting us to the UK and back home and then proceeded with planning the in-between. However, we had six days to book bus, bed & breakfasts, hotels, car rental, ferry, and airline within the UK. It all went well. We left Phoenix on Tuesday, August 27, returning 18 days later.
We arrived in London on the 28th, found the bus station located adjacent to the airline terminal and caught our bus for the approximately two hour trip to Bath located west and a tad south of London.
There is an eight hour difference between the UK and Phoenix. We had slept pretty well on the trip over so weren't overly tired upon arrival allowing us to check into our B&B and then head out to see the sights of Bath with a tour booked the following day for Stonehenge.
Below is a picture of our B&B. What a great start to the trip. The B&B was ultra comfortable and we were about a 20 minute walk to downtown.
We participated in a free walking tour of the city conducted by a local Bath volunteer and that evening we paid to go on the Bizarre Bath tour which was essentially a walking comedy show - quite entertaining. We also visited the Roman Baths.
Bath is said to have more protected historic buildings per capita than any other town in England with 90% of the buildings from the 1700s and flowers are found everywhere. The city is built of a creamy limestone called "Bath stone" but its fame began with the "healing" hot springs even before the Romans arrived.
Stonehenge - what can I say!? We booked a tour for this part of the trip. Our driver was from Scotland and the group was small (18). We felt lucky to be able to travel during the time of the year that we did allowing us to avoid the masses of tourists that must visit this location in July and August. We were able to get photos that almost makes one think we were there by ourselves. I loved getting to come here!
Following two evenings in Bath, we then took a train to Holyhead (pronounced Hollyhead) in the northern part of Wales. Wales is a country the size of Massachusetts and is located on a peninsula on the west coast of Britain. We enjoyed the relaxation of a train ride while soaking in the countryside scenes and visiting with a delightful older woman from Northern Wales; but, we were challenged occasionally understanding her with her thick Welsh accent.
Below was our view as we walked to dinner that evening.
We saw a lot of flowers while on this trip.
The following morning we took a ferry to Dublin. The trip lasted about two hours. We checked into our hotel and headed out to see what there was to see in Dublin. We got on a double-decker tourist bus that allowed you to get on and off wherever you wanted along the route. We jumped off to tour the Guinness Brewery!
The following day, our adventure really began - we rented a car and Larry got to drive with the steering wheel on the right, the stick shift on the left and drive on the wrong side of the road! Yikes! He did great though. We drove from Dublin west across Ireland with a destination of Kenmare on the west coast. There were ancient stone circles, crumbling castle ruins, spectacular vistas and green, green and more green!
Did I mention that we saw a lot of flowers on this trip too?
Following two evenings in Kenmare and exploring the Ring of Kerry and Dingle peninsulas, we headed for Shannon a little further north where we took a plane to Edinburgh, Scotland.
Our guide book tells us that Scotland makes up about a third of Britain's geographical area but has less than a tenth of its population. Edinburgh was nice to visit but especially, I believe, because there were less tourists there since we were there off season - ha! We stayed for two nights.
It was time for Larry to brave driving again as we ventured north to Inverness and then west along Loch Ness (we didn't see Nessie) with a destination of Oban (pronounced Obin) where we stayed for two nights. The castle pictured below was on a island and is where Mary Queen of Scots was held.
The picture below is the ruins at Urquhart (UR-kurt) with a view of Loch Ness.
Isn't this fellow interesting!? They are Highland cattle referred to as "hairy coos". The guide book insinuated we'd see them everywhere but we just happened upon this small herd right by the side of the road allowing me this photo.
We loved Oban. This picturesque seaside community provided us with relaxation, peace, tranquility and the walk I'd been dreaming about all along for this trip -- through a green field. We met a nice sheep rancher as we were walking through his property and learned a lot about the art of being a sheep rancher. We'd had a nice bed & breakfast in Bath but the room we had here was exceptional.
You'll remember I mentioned we saw a lot of flowers...
Larry took the below photo with his iPhone - quite the little camera. It is a photo of the small town area of Oban.
And then, the night before we were to leave Oban, we were treated to this beautiful sunset - spectacular!
We stayed two nights in Oban and then it was time to head to the North Lake District taking us back to England.
It was difficult to say which location we liked more: Oban or Keswick (pronounced KEZ-ick).
The drive from Oban to Keswick was beautiful (surprise!) and our bed & breakfast room here was special as well. Keswick was our walking/hiking destination- there were a multitude of walks and hikes to choose from. We had three nights in this great location and this is where we started experiencing some rain showers. But it was still warm so the moisture was welcomed.
This was the view from this bed & breakfast: looking out on a 9-hole pitch and putt. Yes, we played.
Keswick is located on the banks of Derwentwater Lake. No we did not rent one of the row boats but we did do a lake cruise on the bigger boat you see.
And this path took us to the Castlerigg Stone Circle - another one of those walks that I had imagined we'd be able to do.
As our guide book says, 70 percent of England's stone circles are in this part of England and Castlerigg is one of the best and oldest. The circle is estimated to be 5,000 years old and it is guessed that it served as a calendar for ritual celebrations relating to the solstices
Did I mention we saw a lot of sheep?
This was the view from one of our several walks/hikes that we did.
We enjoyed visiting an Irish or Scottish or English pub while on this "holiday" as well.
We woke one morning to this view - it made us anxious to get to enjoying a walk in the countryside.
And then it was time to leave Keswick. We drove to York and gladly handed the rental car back over to Hertz! York is historic and interesting but just wasn't as pretty as the places we'd been. Nonetheless, we made good use of our short time there by taking another city tour (as we had in Bath) conducted by a community volunteer.
The masonry on this wall are from Roman times from the red brick down. Those are coffins at the base of the wall.
We had one night in York and then took a train into London. London! Interesting to see all that we did but London is a city which includes busy, noisy and a lot of people! Nonetheless, it was a great way to end this very special vacation.
Below is the back side of Westminster Abbey, Big Ben and a view of the Parliament Building with Big Bed at its side.
As well as doing a touristy jump on/off double-decker bus, we did a lot of walking.
One of the neat things we did while in London was to be at Buckingham Palace for the changing of the guard ceremony. It was a bit rainy that day and fun to watch the hordes of tourists arrive and fill the area bit-by-bit.
We ditched the crowd after the changing of the guard and made our way towards Kensington Palace just to get an idea of the conditions Will and Kate and George are living in - we think they're comfortable.
So, there you go - a picture of our 18 days in the United Kingdom. It was a dream trip - thank you Larry for getting me there. We had a wonderful time and enjoyed each and every minute but were certainly ready to come home.
Upon arrival on Saturday, September 14, the following Tuesday I had my three month scan and we learned that the new drug I'm on, Temodar, is working - yea! This drug affects platelet count which is a tad low. I was to start round four of this drug this past Wednesday but that date has been pushed out to the end of next week to give bone marrow a bit more time to fix that platelet issue. In the meantime, we leave Sunday for Vancouver, B.C. Larry has business and I get to go along. I'm counting on seeing the beginnings of fall colors while there. Yea! Life is good!!! (Was this a long blog or what!?)
