Day 1 - The Arrival

We are here! A long time in planning, it is hard to believe we are back in England. Deb and Karen traveled to Wales 15 years ago for a Summer Study through Olympic College. We had long weekends, so took the opportunity to see Ireland, Scotland, and visit London. That seems like a long time ago!

The original plan for our 2008 trip had been to go to Ireland, but as the planning got going and the list of things to see got longer, we decided to split the trips and do the England/Scotland part first. We'll be spending a couple of days in London, going on a Trafalgar Tour through England and Scotland, and then traveling on our own for a few more days, visiting the town in Wales we called home for a summer.

Our van driver from the airport gave us a mini-tour as he drove us to our hotel, the Hilton Olympia. We knew we did not want jet lag to cost us our first day here, so we quickly unpacked and freshened up and headed straight for the London Eye.

We had studied the tube map and were confident that we wouldn't get lost, but our first hurdle was not which line or direction to take, it was figuring out the ticket machine at the station. Luckily a kind gentleman took pity on us and started punching buttons until it spit out two round- trip tickets. (He did it at lightening speed, and we were both pretty sure neither of us could recreate his Touch-screen Tango, but we'll worry about tomorrow's tickets then.)
The tube map study sessions paid off and we were able to transfer trains, and arrive at Westminster station without any drama. We were like two school kids when we left the station. There were the Houses of Parliament! With one swift motion (grinning ear to ear), we both had our cameras out and were snapping away. The nice thing about London is that you are always surrounded by other tourists, so you don't have to feel self conscious about taking pictures. You would probably stand out more if you didn't have a camera in your hand!

After a few pictures of the Houses of Parliament (top photo) and a few dozen pictures of Big Ben (second photo), we walked across the Westminster Bridge, making sure to take a few more pictures of Big Ben from varying distances just in case.

We would need to eat before we took our "flight" on the London Eye, and we are only slightly ashamed to say that we ended up eating at McDonald's. Hey, we were really hungry, and the only thing we saw before the Golden Arches was a street vendor selling some sort of roasted nuts. (OK, we didn't really look that hard. Our burger and chicken strips were delicious!)

The last photo is of a former government building that now houses the London Aquarium and a Salvador Dali exhibit.

Day 1 - London Eye

Wow. The London Eye looks much bigger in person. And Karen's Dad has seen a lot of episodes of Modern Marvels, so she knows that really smart engineers probably worked on this, but this contraption should not be standing! Two measly legs and some cable? Oh, what the heck, let's go.

We bought our tickets and got aboard our pod with about 10 other people. The pods hold about 20 people, which would be way to many if you ask us. (Sidenote: Karen had not known she was afraid of heights.) The wheel moves very slowly and on a clear day you can see for miles.
The second picture gives you a good view of the pods. They rotate around the wheel so that when you are at the top of the rotation, you get unobstructed views in all directions. Amazing.

In the third picture you can see St. Paul's and in the last picture you can see the building lovingly called the Easter Egg. Karen and Deb recognized it from the British Series MI-5. We practically squealed every time we saw something from the show. OK, we would never squeal, but we were pretty nerdy.



The "flight" on the Eye last about 30 minutes, so we had a chance to really take in the views. We also had time to plot our course for the rest of the evening from the bird's eye view. Next would be a walk across the Hungerford Footbridge, a visit to Trafalgar Square, a pass by Downing Street (alas no invitation to visit with the PM), and then to St. James Park and Buckingham Palace. Not too bad for our first day here!!

Day 1 - Buckingham Palace

We ended our walkabout at Buckingham palace. We had wandered through St. James Park and figured we might as well keep going and get a shot of the palace. The last time we visited London (1993) our Buckingham Palace experience consisted of driving around the circle in front about 5 times and trying to take pictures out the bus window!

This was much more pleasant! The perfect way to end our first day here. Karen and Deb posed on a bridge in St. James Park to get pictures with Buckingham Palace in the background.


Time now to decide what to eat for dinner. Since we had cheated and had McDonald's for lunch, the thought had crossed our mind to go somewhere a little more appropriate for dinner. After much contemplation and a few too many blocks of walking, we went back to the hotel and had room service. We'll try English food tomorrow...

Day 2 - Kensington Palace

We had a nice sleep in this morning and were looking forward to a nice leisurely day! It would be too much to hope that another nice gentleman would be waiting to help us with the tube tickets today, so we decided to buy an Oyster Pass and act like real Londoners. A lovely gal at the train station helped us, and within minutes we had tube passes loaded with some money ( we had no idea how long it would last us, but the girl seemed confident we would get through our day without reloading). It took us a few trips to realize you had to swipe your card going in AND out of the stations, but we eventually got the hang of it!



First order of business was buying our Billy Elliot tickets at the Victoria Palace Theater. (No snafus on the tube ride! We are pros!) Since it was lunch time (yes, we REALLY had a sleep-in) we decided to walk toward the next tube station and find some place unusual/local/outside the box (at least for us). For those of you familiar with dining establishments in England, you will laugh at our choice of Bella Italia. It looked to us like a family owned Italian restaurant, and we were so proud of ourselves for going somewhere "different". Bella Italia, we would discover, is the Olive Garden of England. With VERY few exceptions, we saw a Bella Italia in EVERY town we stopped in. York? yep. Bath? you betcha. Stratford? oh, yes. So much for out of the ordinary!

After lunch, we hopped back on the tube and headed to Kensington. Karen led the way on a scenic tour of the High Street (i.e. she went the wrong direction and ended up in Holland Park instead of at Kensington Palace) and we enjoyed some nice window shopping. As the top picture shows, we did make it to the palace (yes, that is Karen holding Starbucks) and we took a brief tour. Deb felt it was a little light on Diana related information and references, but it was interesting and got us used to the hand held audio devices that we would get at pretty much every attraction on our tour. (The third picture is of the sunken garden, and the last picture is the orangery, which now holds a cafe.)

Day 2 - Princess Diana Fountain, Billy Elliot

The remainder of the afternoon was spent walking through Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park. The Princess Diana Memorial Fountain was on Deb's list of things she wanted to see, so we thought it appropriate to go see it right after our tour of Kensington Palace. It was quite a walk, but the sun was out so off we went.

The fountain has several different features all flowing around in a large circle.























We continued walking, passing the Wellington Arch (third photo), and many other things, eventually making it back to Victoria with enough time to grab some dinner before the show. We ate at Garfunkel's, which was another chain (who knew?!), and had fish and chips. Karen even tried the mushy peas, when in Rome and all of that. They were not her favorite thing. Then we walked next door to see the stage production of Billy Elliot. It was fantastic! Couldn't have asked for a better show to see in London! Now for the tube ride back to the Hilton Olympia and preparations for our big Trafalgar Tour Adventure.

Day 3 - Stratford, Coventry

Our first day on the Trafalgar Tour portion of our trip, and we jump right in! After a short tour of London (aka picking up passengers at other hotels), we hit the open road. (Well, as open as any road out of London can be.) We make a short stop to see Anne Hathaway's cottage (the wife of Shakespeare, not the actress from The Devil Wears Prada) and get a group photo taken. We did not purchase the photo, but we assure you that we looked great in it!

After that slightly awkward gathering, we had a lunch stop in Stratford Upon Avon. The tour of Shakespeare's birthplace (top photo) was amazingly crowded, so we made our experience the expedited version and set off to find some lunch. Thankfully a coworker who had recently taken a trip to England suggested pasties as a quick lunch alternative, so we found a bakery and then set off to wander the town.




Our next stop of the day was Coventry. We toured the bombed out cathedral which dates from the late 14th century to the early 15th century. It was bombed during the Second World War, and the ruins now stand as a war memorial. A new cathedral was built next to it.
















The second and third pictures are of the older section and the bottom picture is of a large window in the new cathedral. It is amazing to walk through the older section and have almost all of the walls still in tact, just no roof.

Day 4 - York

We were supposed to have done York yesterday, but we were running late and Harry thought it would be really crowded in the afternoon so suggested we make it our first Sunday morning stop.
Turned out to be a great idea. We practically had the town to ourselves. It was amazing. No crowds, we just got to wander at our leisure. The downside was that the shops were not open yet. (As you'll see, we more than made up for it later on the trip.)

First up was a brief talk by our guide Harry. You can see him in the bottom picture, poised and ready to astound us with his knowledge. He really is the best guide ever. If you take a Trafalgar tour in the UK, see if you can get on one of his. The jokes alone are worth it. Although Deb insists that it is the motion of the bus combined with Harry's soothing voice that makes her so tired on the bus that she barely buckles up before she is out like a light.

We could not go in the York Minster (top photo) because it was Sunday and services were about to start, but the outside was incredible. The design in the large window is known as the Heart of York. We could have stood looking at this building for days.
Who knew York would have a Starbucks! We didn't know yet that they would be almost as numerous as the Bella Italias! Yes, we went in! (You'll notice the sign above the door. Ah, the wind. We are sure there is a poem about wind and its virtues but by the end of this trip Chicago would need a new nickname.)

We tried to find the Quilt Museum for Karen, but even with the address and a map we couldn't find it. Oh well, add that to the itinerary for next time!
The third picture is of The Shambles. Built in the 1400s (I think) the top floors are almost close enough that you could shake your neighbors hand. They couldn't build on the sides, so they had to expand by overhanging the street. Slightly hysterical to see a group of 30 tourists there on a Sunday morning with the various digital camera sounds interrupting the quiet of a Sunday morning. Wish we had a picture of any of the numerous times we tromped off the bus and all stood side by side with our cameras pointed in the same direction!