Our vacation in Britain - week 1

We are currently travelling to Scotland after a wonderful week in London and Wales. The following pictures are "highlights" from each place we visited. We really enjoyed travelling round Wales and would have loved to have stayed longer.

A lot of the places we are visiting are owned by the National Trust. We have a family pass which means we can get in free to most things.

Buckingham Palace - 20 July

Visiting Buckingham Palace is always one of those things that any visitor to London should try to do. We happened upon the tail end of a ceremony involving the Queens Guard and seeing everyone in their colorful uniforms on the elegent horses was lovely. We were not able to go into the palace because the Royal Chambers were not open yet.

The Mews - Buckingham Palace - 20 July

After enjoying the outside of the palace we went round the corner to the Queens Gallery which has a lovely display of paintings, jewely etc. We could not take photos inside.

We then proceeded to The Mews and absolutely loved it. The picture shows the post coach horses being excercised. We saw lots of the royal coaches and some of the horses in various sections.

A view from the London Eye - 20 July

The London Eye was controversial when it was built. It looks like a huge bicycle wheel and can be seen for miles in various parts of the city.

On the whole I was not impressed mainly because most of the landscape is just rooflines. There was a few interesting things to see. I did have fun watching the birds play on the support cables !!!!!

Madame Tussauds - 21 July

There's a lot to see at Madame Tussaud's and in some areas it can get quite congested as people stop to interact with the models.

My favorite areas were related to the sports stars, the History of London (a gentle roller coaster ride) and the Madame Tussaud exhibit. There are live actors in the dungeon area who "try" to scare the living daylights out of you :) Some of the exhibits in that area can be a bit disturbing.

After our visit we met up with my brother and went for lunch at a lovely little eatery not far from my favorite tube stop - Baker Street.

From there we went to St.Pauls Cathedral, with umbrellas in tow, and enjoyed some time in there. The inside is lovely and we enjoyed hiking up into the dome. Nik and I were all for going up to the very top.

After a stroll across the Millenium Bridge (which meets an untimely end in the new Harry Potter film) and seeking shelter from the rain in the Tate we returned to St.Pauls for Evensong. The choir, it turned out, was on holiday so we missed what is considered the best part.

Stonehenge - 22nd July

Our first stop off outside of London, after picking up the van from Heathrow airport, was Stonehenge.

It's a hugely popular place to visit and in some ways the "mystic" no longer exists. The monument is smaller than we expected but still impressive. It was a bit breezy while we were there. I have to wonder how our distant ancestors were able to hoist those stones in the winds that blasted across the plain.

Due to some time constraints we opted not to go to Avesbury but I bought a couple of history books about the area. We drove to Devises on the way to Bath and passed our first "unusual" road sign - a picture meaning "caution tanks crossing".

We had issues in Bath regarding finding parking and road works in downtown so we scratched our plans to walk around and headed off to our hotel.

Gower Peninsula - Wales - 23 July

The literature lives up to the reality :) We totally loved this part of the Gower Peninsula - Rhossili Bay and Worms Head - even with the tide out.

There are seals out on Worms Head and some of the family spotted them from our higher viewpoint.

One of the things I really enjoyed was watching the number of dogs out and about being walked by their families. A little girl also tried talking to the sheep in one of the fields - one answered back much to her delight :)

For anyone feeling a bit jaded about life this is a great place to come and get the cob webs blowen away.

Swansea Castle - 23 July

We stayed overnight in Swansea and after our visit to the peninsula we went for a walk in Swansea center.

The castle ruin is quite a small part of what would have been a huge building. We came across it on our way to Plantasia, a small tropical plant exhibit. The Koi carp are huuuuge.

We spent part of our evening watching the new Harry Potter movie. Brilliant, but having read the book we were somewhat disappointed by the ending.

National Waterfront Museum - Swansea - 24 July

The National Waterfront Museum is a truly remarkable place to visit and we wished we could have spent all day there. It covers 300 years of Welsh industry and history. The exhibits are interactive and high tech but cozy, even I had a go at using them.

Amazingly it's free to all. What a huge gift to everyone.

Given my interest in genealogy I really enjoyed the exhibit about the 1850 census.

Here's the link http://www.museumwales.ac.uk/en/swansea/about/

Powis Castle - 24 July and Penryn Castle 25 July

The photograph is of Penrhyn Castle and of all the ones we visited in Wales it was by far my favorite.


Twas a longish drive to Powis Castle from Swansea but worth the visit. We drove up through the Brecon Becons to get there which is quite scenic even in the rain.

One of the first things we saw on entering the grounds was baby peacocks with mommy in pursuit :) Quite charming. Dad showed up later.

Powis is situated on the top of a steep slope and the craggy side is given over to terraces and lovely gardens.

The Clive of India exhibit inside the castle is very interesting.

A good site to visit to find out more about the history of the castle is http://www.castlewales.com/powis.html

Lyme Park - 26 July

Our time at Lyme Park was somewhat soggy and breezy but interesting. As with all National Trust properties we could take any amount of pictures out in the gardens but none inside.

It's a fairly long drive up to the house and we were given a CD to listen too as we went along. Any Jane Austen fans know that this is the location of "the pond" in Pride and Prejudice. The estate is also part of the Peak District National Park.

One of the pianos dating from the late 1600's is now located in the Entrance Hall and made available to any visitors who can play. One of the guides said it makes a huge difference to the tone of the building when someone is playing.

Our vacation

6 days and counting. If we are able to get decent internet access we will blog here about our trip. The suitcases are sitting in the living room slowly being filled. Last minute details are hopefully getting taken care of tonight.

We are starting in London and then going to Wales via Avesbury and Bath. We are excited about visiting the Gower Peninsula and stopping off at Powis Castle on the way north. We will fill you in on the rest later.

Ever onwards

Our summer is moving along at a fair clip and as always less is accomplished than expected. Such is life.

John's book is going to print. The editor liked what was done so no more changes :) Woohoo!!!!!

Nik is off into the wild blue yonder.... somewhere near Knoxville..... for scout camp. He left this morning and will be back next Saturday. I guarantee one grungy child will show up with his dad :) John is staying overnight at the camp on Friday. Nik had his annual physical yesterday and that went well.

Juliet is in the middle of sitting her exams. She did one yesterday and is taking the other as I write. The technical college (for remote exams) is located about 10 minutes from us which is quite convenient. She has one more week left at work. The kids have been a bit more challenging this year but I think it has been a good growth experience for her.

We are all attempting to clean house today. It gets messy fast when all six of us and a (summer heat) heavy shedding dog are in residence. Liz has been whipping through her room and it looks great. She needed to unpack her large suitcase so we can borrow it.

Kristina has been helping me work out how to pack the suitcases so that we can take as few as possible. We won't have many opportunities to do laundry so we have to take that into account.

We are planning on taking my little laptop with us and the external hard drive so we can download pictures and hopefully find some time to blog about our trip as we go along. If that isn't feasible Juliet and I both intend on keeping detailed journals.

Since we are going to be gone we now have to cram in annual physicals, eye exams and dental visits before we either leave or everyone heads back to school. All of Juliet's have to be geared to her mission paperwork.

Happy 4th July

Our air conditioning has quit and we will be grilling out doors where it is cooler :) Fortunately we have lots of ceiling fans and a couple of floor fans to keep air circulating. My parents in Scotland don't have the same luxuries and are melting.

Have a fabulous celebratory day for those of you living this side of the puddle and any ex-pats everywhere else :) At the moment we are watching the Wimbeldon, Williams ladies match. Brilliant as always.

Kristina was at Girls Camp in LaVergne, this week and got back yesterday. She had a wonderful time. It is always one of the highlights of her year and I am so glad our church has this event. This was her first year as a youth leader. Their theme was "Be Your Own Kind Of Beautiful" with the scripture reference 1 Samuel 16:7 "...... for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart." Their cabin decor was based round Morning Glories.

Elisabeth has been sewing away making a dress for one of her friends and one for herself. While I have been sewing a whooooole lot longer than she has, she definitely has the better talent and ability. She and Juliet are both planning to make some skirts. I'm contemplating making a light weight dress or two to wear on our vacation. So much for my plan to pack away the sewing machine while my "sewing room" is being lived in by Juliet till the end of August.

Juliet is now organized for her "remote" finals next week. She has two to do and then can do a "woohoo, they are done" type happy dance :) She has been writing essays and will be studying hard over this week-end since she has a "heavy" work schedule next week.

Nik heads out to Scout camp at the end of next week so we have to get a few things like his physical paperwork done and some camp badge requirements completed (we will be on vacation when everyone else is working on theirs.)

Everyone now has up dated passports for our vacation. That's a big relief. We have the bulk of our itinerary and places to stay sorted out. We are so excited about touring Wales for almost a week before heading up to my parents. My aunt and uncle want to meet everyone and it just so happens we will be in their area (Derbyshire) on the 3rd of August and staying about 2 hours away during that week.