It has been a while...

... since I posted.  With the stay-at-home situation resulting from the COVID-19 virus - I have been busy taking advantage of the situation to get some knitting done - of course, it isn't going anywhere now - but I'll have some ready for the hospital when normalcy resumes (someday I hope!) as per the instructions below!

So - let me see - where did I leave off?  Hmmmmm...........

.... oh yes!  We were in the bus - heading north from Wales to Scotland!  I took this picture so you could see what good company we were in... see the little bear hanging in the window??  Oh my gosh - they knew we were coming!  😊

Our tour guide - James - was using this time to make sure all the plans were coming together - when he wasn't on the microphone telling us about the sights - he did an excellent job of keeping us entertained and informed.

The view out our window just kept getting better.  There are a lot of these hand-crafted stone fences in the farmer's fields in Britain, built many years ago and still sturdy.

This is a view of one of the villages we drove through.... 

 ... the buildings are old and very-well kept, as are all the old buildings in the UK!

 The streets are very narrow - I can't imagine travelling on roads this narrow in Canada!

 Since we were ahead of schedule, and thanks to our very proficient tour guide, we stopped for a boat cruise up the river.  

 You can see that we were not the only "Canadians" visiting (see the "Canada" geese?)..

 The scenery was beautiful - the whole country is beautiful and very green.  I recall asking Phil's Mum one time what she missed most about England, her response was the "green" - she said there was a lot more green in England.  At the time I couldn't figure that one out since we have lots of green in Canada.  But......the green is somehow greener - I can't explain it, but now I know what she meant.

 This was the view out our side of the boat - a little road in the middle of the forest.  I wondered where it went!

 This is a couple of young ladies on our tour.  All our tour-mates were friendly and very nice.  In the background you can see the shape of the boat.

 Another part of "the gang" and the view out the other side of the boat.

And, all too soon, we were back on the bus heading north again, while James worked out tomorrow's details.

End of Day Three in the UK

We travelled on after our tour of Cardiff Castle....

The buildings in this area are old and beautiful - and very well maintained....

The scenery is still beautiful....

When we arrived at Ludlow, they were having a flower festival...

This is a wider shot of this old stone structure - not uncommon in this part of the country!

When we got off the bus, we had some free time to wander around, and found ourselves walking on real cobblestone streets!

Poppa was captivated by this beautiful floral display.  He stopped to examine it closely since he would like to duplicate it for the front of our house!

Once again we were happy to call it a day - this is the view from our hotel room that night... and....

... this is the view in the opposite direction!  What a wonderful trip this turned out to be!

Day 3 in the UK (Part 2)

All too soon....

... we were back on the bus heading north.  The scenery in Wales is wonderful...

Poppa wasn't as intrigued with the scenery as I was and fell asleep as we rolled along....

......... but I was still looking out the window at the countryside....

......... which kept changing and was always lovely and contained some livestock from time to time, until....

... we arrived in Cardiff with some free time to stroll around.  We saw this amazing carousel and I had to get a picture for you!  After grabbing a bite to eat...

... we met James, our travel Director (who was VERY knowledgeable about everything, as well as very skilled in keeping everything under control!)... and then

... we all headed to Cardiff Castle, which....

...is absolutely stunning inside!

Trust me - the pictures do not do justice to the beauty and opulence of this famous castle!

I wished I had brought my big camera - my phone didn't really do it justice - imagine living here!

It is huge and we kept climbing spiral staircases.  When we reached...

... this huge dining room (where Poppa counted 34 chairs around the table!) 

...and the embellishments were breathtaking, but we were both a little tired and warm from all the climbing, so we decided to skip the last set of spiral stairs and went outside for a rest!  When the rest of the group came out of the castle,  we boarded the bus once more.

Where we were handed a timetable for the next day...

..... and dropped off at a lovely hotel in Cardiff where we didn't waste too much time getting into bed for a rest!

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!