Day Three in the UK!

First Things First:  Thank you to our friend David who lives in the UK (more on that in a later post!) e-mailed me last evening to advise that the large building on the shores of the Thames (the last picture in the previous blog) is the British Houses of Parliament!  

Our trip to the UK just kept getting better!  After an early rise we boarded the bus again.  This time the bus stopped at....

...... did you guess?  YES!  Stonehenge!  I know it has been  diminished by time and tourists - but still - it made me catch my breath to actually be standing there!  

We couldn't get right up-close due to the deteriorating condition of the mysterious stones, touirsts are required to stay on a marked path - I didn't care!

There was no shortage of visitors - that's me in the white jacket - I was really there!

Of course, I had to get a picture of Poppa too!

But, all too soon, it was time to leave.  Back on the bus to our next stop....

.... another famous place - the Roman Baths in the city of Bath - of course!  Another stop at another place I had learned about, heard about, but never thought I would actually see!

This is the exterior - impressive!

The interior is equally captivating!

Old carved relics are numerous - and intriguing - and captivating!

And of course, there is the actual "bath"!  The water is constantly flowing and is quite warm.

The architecture is extremely picture-worthy - including the many statues!

These are stones used in the heating process - I'm not sure how, but the lower areas were full of these piles of huge rock!

And Poppa stood in line to buy me a souvenir at the gift shop!

Day Two in the UK (Part 2)

Our afternoon was also awesome!  Right after Poppa stopped for some breakfast in the hotel dining room...

.... we boarded the bus and arrived at....

...... the famous Tower of London!  Yes - this is the place where Henry VIII sent his out-of-favour wives to be beheaded!  

See the arches up ahead?

This is where we entered....

... for a quick look at the living quarters....

... and the altar of the resident clergy.

This is called the White Castle - the royalty stayed here occasionally...

Visitors could walk all the way around the perimeter up on the parapets and the views from there were wonderful!

For some reason Poppa strolled along much more quickly than I did!

This time he stopped to wait for me!

If I leaned over I could see the ground level stairs coming up!  As you can see if was quite high!

There were several of these large canons placed strategically to fend off the enemy!

A closer view!  

An inside view of the chapel.

A spot for Poppa to feel like a knight in shining armor!

A view of the Tower Bridge from the Tower!  When our tour there was finished.......

We made our way down to the Thames River for a boat ride.

There was space for a lot of passengers so we quickly grabbed a seat.

It was a wonderful, peaceful (no-climbing-involved) sight-seeing trip.  This huge ferris wheel can be seen from almost anywhere in the area!.

I think this is one of the royal residences - but honestly - we saw so much that I'm not sure which one!  When we got off the boat we had no idea (this was a "free-time" adventure for us) where we were in relation to the hotel.  We walked around for a while - just seeing the sights - and then hailed a cab back to our hotel.  Cabs are everywhere and if you just stick your arm up they will stop and take you wherever  you want to go.  The cab drivers are well-informed and very polite.  As we drove along our driver treated us to descriptions of interesting things along the way and filled out heads with information about London.  The cab ride was almost as fun as the actual sight-seeing we had done!  We were quite worn out by the time we arrived back at the hotel - it was a full day - and we had to be up bright and early the next day to board the bus for the next destination!

Day Two in the UK

This is a picture I missed posting in the Buckingham Palace chapter - we were lucky enough to be there for the changing of the guards - complete with music and horses.  It was a great experience - lots of pomp and circumstance!  Loved every second.

Another view of the guard changing - it was so impressive!

Our travel arrangements were made through CAA - they were amazing - definitely will do that again.  The tour providers for the first part of our UK adventure were booked with Trafalgar Tours, again I recommed them to anyone thinking about a tour.  So......... this lady is a local Trafalgar Tour guide who took us to visit St. Paul's Cathedral.  She was very knowledgeable and prepared us well for the visit.  

This is the view from behind the cathedral - where we had to park the bus.  Then...

We had to walk around the block to get to the front....

... and around.. we could see it in the distance...

... another angle....

It is beautiful, but when we arrived, we discovered that we could not get in that day - there was special service going on.......so, since we had some time to spare, we decided to explore a bit, so

... we wandered to a pedestrian bridge which crossed the Thames River.

This is the view from the bridge...

.... and this is the Tower Bridge further up the river!  Too soon it was time to get back to the bus!

If You Guessed....

.... that we went to the UK.....

........ then you are absolutely correct!  Our friends (and landlords) from Florida actually live in the UK and had been suggesting that we visit the UK for quite a long time.  We finally decided we should do just that.... to see their country which is also where Poppa was born.  He came to Canada when he was six months old and has never been back!  So, finally after a lot of years, we decided we should do just that!  We left Canada on August 29th at 6:35pm and arrived at London Heathrow airport August 30th at 6:35am - an 8 hour flight, but because of the change in time zones we got there a day after we left!  I like to say "we left today and got there tomorrow!"

We were a day early for our tour to begin, so we took a tour to Buckingham Palace.  The actual palace was not open while we were there, but we did get to see the stables....

... look how clean!  I'm not sure any horses actually live in this part! There are a lot of....

......gorgeous carriages on display there.  This one is the carriage used for Queen Victoria's coronation.  If it appears that the gold is real - that's because it is!  No expenses spared for the royalty in that period of history.  It is really more beautiful than the picture can capture!

I think this is the newest mode of transport on display - it was also lovely - it would definitely be an impressive ride!

After the tour of the stables was finished, we walked around to the front of the palace.  There were a lot of people milling about as you can see.

There is a beautiful park behind these gates and each pillar represents a member of the British Empire.  The one on the right is for Canada!

The gardens are absolutely beautiful and extend all around the grounds in front of the palace.  I took a LOT of pictures and have tried to choose the highlights for you.  Incidentally, the carriage that you saw Poppa sitting on the the previous post was the only one visitors were allowed to touch!

This large statue stands in the center of the gardens and I had to get my own "Englishman" in the photo!

Here is my last shot of Buckingham Palace.  As you can see, it is quite large and very impressive - we were not disappointed! But....

...we were very tired after all the walking we did.  When we were finished at the palace we walked to Trafalgar Square to catch our tour bus back to the hotel and after a quick bite to eat, we went to bed!  Lots more to come!

A Couple of Pics I Missed

Here is .....

... a picture of Munchie that  I had missed in my previous posts....

... Poppa was out watering the flowers and I was busy and Munchie was busy too!

Here is the result of his work!  He still loves art and this is Squeegie and Blackie throwing money around!

End of August....

At the end of August we did something really exciting.  It will take a few posts to let you know all about it... so here is a teaser to see if you can guess what we did...

..... have you guessed yet?  No?  Well... more later!

Knitting....

A quick look at my knitting area....

..... this is a selection of yarns which I will possibly use to make Jeannie's blanket.....

...... I pick out those chosen for the particular part I am working on and put them on the chair next to my knitting chair - so I can reach them...

.... then I continue knitting - this is one section of the blanket, while....

.... being supervised by Tux and Mikey who sit on the chair nearby.