Bus Tour of the UK, August 1993

This travelogue details experiences that I had on my very first trip to the U.K. in 1993. I took a Cosmos bus tour around England, Wales and Scotland, beginning in London which took almost two weeks in total, including the extra night or two in London at either end.

England was somewhere I had always wanted to visit. British history held me in thrall for years and I always knew that when I was finally able to afford to travel, it would be my first destination. Thus, late in August 1993, I was off! I went with a coworker but unfortunately, she had to fly back the day after we arrived due to some personal problems that cropped up so I was unexpectedly on my own. On arrival in London, the hotel was the Barbican, which is now the Thistle City Barbican, I believe. It was a standard tourist hotel then and from what I've seen on the net, it's not much better now though it touts itself as a "luxury" hotel. I think there are better out there for your money.

The first thing on the agenda was to find the Applause centre to exchange theatre vouchers for tickets, though it turned out we were exchanging vouchers for vouchers. We had booked to see Miss Saigon through a travel agent tour brochure and this was how it worked. We wandered around Covent Garden for an hour, stopping for a sandwich and a cup of tea at a cafe but by the time we returned to the hotel, my traveling companion realized she was going to have to go back to Canada and booked herself on the flight home for the next morning. It was a bit daunting but I knew that I would be ok. I was in an English speaking country and booked on a bus tour, not completely on my own so it would just be an adventure!

She left the next morning after breakfast. I wrote in my travel journal and then decided to take the bull by the horns, so to speak. I was in London! A city i had always wanted to see and there was no way i was going to sit in a hotel room all morning! I had an afternoon tour to the Tower of London booked but that was hours away. I still felt under the weather but damn the torpedoes, full steam ahead. I found out that St. Paul's Cathedral was about a half hour's walk away. Right! Point me in the right direction and off i go! It's about 9 a.m. and the sun is shining. I almost got lost but asked directions in a shop. I turned the last corner and there it was, looming large and surprising me with it's immense dimensions! I do live in a city but the tallest building only has about 30 floors. Still, though St. Paul's wasn't that tall (not like the skyscrapers in the nearby City), it was still a shock to see how big it was since it isn't, of course, your standard office building.

I was still a bit shaky on and off so found a little vendor where i bought some water and a banana and sat on the steps of the cathedral while i had that. I know now that aside from the obvious, I was dehydrated from the jet lag. I made my way into the Cathedral after taking a few pictures from the outside and proceeded to be totally awestruck! It's very ornate and everything is in such huge proportions! Inside i found it humid and warm and didn't really spend as much time looking around as i might normally have. I checked out the crypt and bought a booklet from the gift tables (no shop at that time though there is a gift shop and cafe in the crypt area now).

As i said, i didn't feel so great so i left around 11. I had planned to take a bus west to go to Harrods but now i thought maybe i wouldn't have time to get back to the hotel for the tour at 1:30 p.m. so i started walking north again. I'm glad i did because i came upon ruins of the old London Wall and came upon the Barbican Center where the Museum of London is. Well, it was there, I was there and I still had an hour or so to kill, so why not? In i went! The museum
tracks the history of the city of London and i really liked all the exhibitions. There were dioramas, photos, artifacts, video presentations and many interesting exhibits including a little garden in a courtyard. Watching the time, i left and hailed a cab for the last mile to the hotel and got a quick sandwich in the hotel bar.

The afternoon tour i booked drove through the City of London with a Bluebird guide narrating and pointing out historical buildings and sites. We saw the Monument which is 202 feet tall and is located 202 feet from where the great Fire of London (1666) began in Pudding Lane in a bakery. Most of the road access in and out of the City was blocked off, and traffic can only get in one way and out another. That's a bit scary since it's that way because of terrorism. The City has it's own governor and police force and Greater London has 38 boroughs! Most of the narrow streets in the City are named for what that area used to produce, i.e. Glove Lane where gloves were made.

The Tower was very large and well preserved. The guide told us lots of facts and interesting stories as we walked around the grounds. I don't know why or how i missed it but i did miss the area where the scaffold used to be. It was pointed out from farther away but there was so many places to look that i guess i didn't get that far. We were given two choices. Stand in a long line to see the crown jewels or wander on my own for about an hour or so before the bus was due to leave. I made the wrong choice by standing in line for the jewels. They were pretty amazing but the wait was abotu 45 minutes long although the line moved steadily. I would rather have poked my nose in some of the buildings where the jails were and in the chapel where Anne Boleyn is buried. In retrospect I suppose I could have forgone the bus altogether and made my own way back to the hotel. I did have time to pick up a couple of souvenirs including a nice china mug with Henry VIII and his six wives. I still use that mug!

A few first impressions of London: Driving in from Heathrow it looked like any other city at first - office buildings, warehouses. Then the side streets got narrower and the buildings got older. One section of a street had one antique shop after the other (Kensington High Street) and there seemed to be a lot of streets like that, with one type of business dominating a block or two along the way. One street may change names several times along it's course. I heard a bell chiming the hour one night and got all excited, thinking it was Big Ben until i later realized the hotel was in Islington and thus too far from Westminster so it must have been a local church or maybe St. Paul's (?). I didn't take too long to get used to the traffic flowing in the opposite direction from what i was used to but the drivers are a lot more aggressive than i'm used to in little old Halifax! They pay no attention to pedestrians who seem to cross when they get the chance rather than wait for the signal which is mostly ignored by traffic.

Tour starts tomorrow. First day we go to Hampton Court, Salisbury and Stonehenge and end up overnighting near Exeter. I'm a little nervous but i think it's more of an excited-nervous feeling like you get when you start a new job or new school. Who will be my co-travelers? What will the guide be like? Will there be others on the tour traveling alone? Stay tuned...

On Ludgate Hill, at the end of The Strand, you come around a turn in the road and this huge domed building looms out at you amid the busy traffic. St. Paul's Cathedral was finished in 1710, built after the great fire of London in 1666 burned down Old St. Paul's. It's a Baroque masterpiece, filled with tombs, statues, frescos and gilded everything.

It costs 10 pounds for adults, 9 for seniors plus they have family (2 children 2 adults) tickets and that includes everything. You can visit the crypt and you can also climb up over 500 steps to go to the very top of the dome. It's fewer if you just want to go to the Whispering Gallery where a sound whispered on one side will travel around and be heard on the other. It really works! There's also an outside deck at the base of the dome with higher stone balustrades. At the very top, there's only a narrow walk way and a waist high railing. I'm ok with heights and even i found that a bit intimidating.

You aren't allowed to take photos in St. Paul's but i took a few "stealth" non-flash shots by aiming the camera from my waist and kept the best of the ones that came out, after i was scolded by a staff member for taking a proper photo of an angel statue. The decoration in the cathdral is just spectacular.

The Crypt is interesting as well, with the tombs of Waterloo veteran Wellington and Admiral Nelson. The simple tomb of Christopher Wren is there too, tucked away in a corner. There's a gift shop and a cafe as well for tired feet. They do have disabled access but you may have to ask for it. We did notice a platform that could fit a wheelchair on a rail to the crypt (where there are washrooms, and where the cafe and gift shop are). There's a wheelchair accessible entrance on the north side which enters via the crypt. The website, http://www.stpauls.co.uk/ has full descriptions of all the disabled access.

We thoroughly enjoyed our visit to St. Paul's. I didn't climb the dome this time but i have done in the past and the views are out of this world!

One of the star attractions in London is also one of the most expensive. At 17 pounds per adult (16 online) and 47 for a family entrance fee (2 adults, 3 kids) it's steep. The queues for tickets can be quite long and can stretch back to the tube station. We did find that the queue moved fairly smoothly and quickly. I do think that buying tickets online or from the kiosks a day or two ahead of time might be good if you're going in "prime time" (summer, school holidays).

It's not difficult to get there. The Tower Hill tube station is very close, the DLR station just around the corner from that and many busses stop along Tower Hill. Tour busses will stop nearby as well. If you arrive by train, go to the London Bridge station and then you can walk over historic Tower Bridge!

There are organized tours with the Yeoman Warders (Beefeaters) as tour guides and these are usually pretty crowded. We didn't bother and just followed our noses. First stop was the old medieval palace where there were a few reconstructed rooms from the 13th century, Edward I era. The throne room was most impressive and in the King's Hall which might have been used for dining, there were also a man and woman dressed in period costume. We went into a few of the towers and along parts of the walls and went to see Traitor's Gate and through the queues to see the crown jewels, set in a new exhibition. There are videos on the walls of the jewels and the coronation of the current monarchy while you wait in the lines which move steadily, and then in the jewel room, there are now moving conveyor belts along either side of the cases that you stand on. You can get back on again if you want to go through again or just have a look from a few yards away on the main floor. It keeps the crowds moving rather than them standing there and looking even though they were supposed to keep moving. All the other gold and silver pieces are in separate cases and you can look at your leisure at those.

We wandered the grounds, made friends with the ravens (who could pick a fight with a small dog and probably win!) and went into the Royal Chapel, St. Peter ad Vincula where the poor beheaded queens of Henry VIII are buried beneath the altar (including Anne Boleynn, Jane the Duchess of Rochford and Jane Seymour) No photos allowed inside the chapel though. We didn't have the energy to climb anymore stairs so we didn't go into the big White Tower, the original fortress in the center of the compound where there is an armory display and maybe we missed the best bit but there is certainly enough still that we didn’t see to warrant going back again sometime. There are actually quite a few of the towers along the walls open to the public with things to see inside. The Lower Wakefield tower has a torture device display and there is still graffiti on the walls in the Beauchamp tower apparently enscribed by prisoners of long ago.

The Tower is open most days of the year, closing at 5:30 p.m. in spring, summer and fall and at 4:30 from November to February. Most of the Tower is not accessible for people with mobility issues but the Crown Jewels are defintely accessible to wheelchairs. There are accessible toilet facilities, shops and eating stops. There are a couple of cafes and gift shops though there are also pubs and cafes close by outside the walls of the Tower as well.

If you are on a budget, then this is probably going to be a bit high cost but you can spend hours here. I find that if it's somewhere that you have a lot to see or do, then the cost doesn't seem quite so high. If you are on a budget and want to splurge on one thing, I think this would be the one to see.

September 24, 2001

We are on the banks of the Thames at the boat launch, ready to go upriver to Hampton Court.

The boat ride takes about an hour and a half from Richmond, about half the length the journey will take if you leave from Westminster pier in London. We had our sandwiches and a drink and watched the lovely scenery as we passed by. The weather is variable, with a bit of sun and blue sky showing now and then. There are lots of parks, businesses and a number of prestigious looking houses and apartment blocks which probably wouldn't come cheap. This follows the traditional approach to Hampton Court which was always by Royal Barge along the river. The first part of the palace you see is a great gilded gate that backs the south front and Privy Gardens.

Some of the history of Hampton Court Palace: It was built by Cardinal Wolsey in 1515 as a means to show off his wealth and power. His power waned, however, when he was not able to obtain a legal method to rid Henry VIII of his first wife, Katherine of Aragon and when Henry strongly hinted that he REALLY liked the palace, it was donated although the writing predicting the fate of Wolsey was clearly on the wall. Henry
spent a lot of time here, and expanded the palace to the point where it could house and entertain nearly 1000 people, servants, court attendants, hangers on and favour seekers.

In the late 17th century, King William III and Queen Mary II planned to tear down the palace and hired Christopher Wren at the end of the 17th C. to rebuild it. About half way through the rebuilding process, Mary died and William lost heart. Lucky for us as that meant quite a bit of the Tudor section still stands albeit with renovations and alterations. The Palace was still lived in during modern times, for "grace and favour" apartments until a fire in one of them in 1986 caused a lot of damage to the King's Apartments. These were restored but I don't believe anyone lives here now.

Hampton Court would have been imposing and impressive at it's height in the 16th and 17th C. with gilded cupolas, brightly painted brickwork and a gate house that was two stories taller than it's current height. It was reduced in Georgian times for safety. All the old Tudor chimneys are different. There are about a half dozen sections to be visited including the Tudor State rooms, Tudor Kitchens, Stuart King's and Queen's Apartments, Georgian Rooms and Wolsey rooms with the Renaissance Galleries. The Privy and sunken gardens are open with the rest of the palace until 6 p.m. and the park is open until dusk.

Hillary led us first to the Tudor state rooms. We gaped up at the exquisite hammer beamed ceiling of the Great Hall, spotting the little painted faces peeking down. "Eaves" droppers! Most of the stained glass here is 19th C. but one window and section of the wall is believed to be original. The ceiling of one ante room is leather mache and gilded and there are Tudor roses everywhere in glass, in stonework and paintings and tapestries. The Royal Chapel has subdued lighting and is very peaceful. There are no photos allowed inside most of the Palace except the kitchens. There are actors/guides around in period dress who will stop to tell you about their manner of costume and what sort of person they are meant to represent for that period in time. We saw one man in a splendid doublet and tunic from Elizabethan times and another couple dressed in late 17th C. outfits and heard about the cost of their clothing and the type of people they would have represented.

Hillary took us next through the Stuart King's Apartments which are laid out identically to the Queen's apartments on the floor below though I didn't see that or the Georgian rooms. These rooms are much larger than the Tudor section with higher ceilings and wide sweeping staircases. There are lots of painted ceilings with Baroque decoration, plaster work and rich wall and bedroom hangings. My favourite room contained over 3000 pieces of armament decorating the walls in various patterns. Rifles, knives, swords, spears, etc. After this section our formal tour was over. Hillary was off with our applause and thanks and we had a couple of hours to look around on our own. I headed to the café by the kitchens first thing and then went to explore the kitchens, pretty much the last original Tudor part of the Palace, a series of rooms that are used for skinning game, plucking preparing fowl, baking, cooking etc with the old scarred wooden tables and huge ovens, high enough for a person to walk into.

There are a couple of gift shops and cafés in the complex. It's also interesting to explore some of the little courtyards. You can get an audio player to do a self-guided tour of various areas. I did go into the Wolsey rooms and Renaissance galleries as well. It's not known if Wolsey actually used those rooms but they are small, low ceilinged, and wood paneled and you can almost imagine him sitting at a desk by a window. There is supposed to be the ghost of Katherine Howard in one of the Tudor anterooms, too. On the grounds are a tennis court, a maze, the Great Vine which still produced wine every fall, the sunken garden and Privy Gardens and the huge park with it's pruned yew trees and fountains. When I was here in 1993 during a photo op stop of the gardens on the bus tour, the Privy and sunken gardens were in the process of being restored, using plants and shrubs that would have been there in the 17th C. The lowering sun cast long shadows along the garden paths and glinted off the decorated south front of the palace. I made my way to the train station across the river. I chatted to a couple on the train, two seniors who live in London. They told me about a documentary that was being aired on television, on the wives of Henry VIII. The second part was on tonight! What an appropriate way to cap off this day!

I bought a large tea and sandwich at a coffee shop in Euston station and settled in for a quiet night in the hotel after I made sure I had all my bits and pieces packed. I am checking out tomorrow and meeting Nikki
after work to finish out my week out in Essex in Leigh-on-Sea.

The group gathered in the morning and i met our guide, David. There are several women and a man traveling alone and i started out sitting with a teacher from Australia. Later on in the tour we all spread out a bit more where possible so i had a seat to myself for the second half. David is Irish and a cattle farmer off season. He's very friendly and funny and i think he's going to be a good one to have along for the ride!

Our stop at Hampton Court was brief and was only a visit to the gardens. We entered by the Lion's gate in the back and saw the maze and the Great Vine and a few sunken gardens that are still being restored. It's interesting to compare the architectural differences between the Tudor parts and the bits that were designed by Christopher Wren for William and Mary in the late 17th century/early 18th. I returned for a bit longer visit in 2000 and have attached that review to this journal.

Next Stop is Salisbury. That's a lunch stop so the bus parks near the Cathedral Close. We are pointed in the direction of the Cathedral should we wish to visit and told to be back at the bus in 2 hours. I head to the Cathedral and am again amazed at how enormous it is! This was built in the 13th century and the surface is smoke stained and worn. The steeple is under scaffolding and it apparently leans 29 inches off center but hasn't fallen over in it's 700-odd years. There is a little cafeteria so i had lunch there, bread, cheese and soup. I have a look around the Cathedral and spy a grouping of flags of various ages hanging from the wall. These are the standards of the Duke of Edinburgh's Wiltshire Regiment. One was from 1806, the colours of the 62nd Regimental Foot and is just threads and webbing, having been lost in the Ganges in India for 8 months in the mid 19th century. It's been hanging in the Cathedral since 1848.

The town of Salisbury looked delightful but i chose to spend my free time at the Cathedral. That's the thing about a bus tour. Bus tours give you an overview of the area and you do get to see the main tourist attractions with often front of the line advantages. No Waiting for tickets! You get an idea of where you might want to return to on your own later and Salisbury is a town i think i'd like to see more of.

We were taken out to Stonehenge but that was one sight i hadn't been that excited to see. I didn't bother to pay the fee to go onto the grounds closer to the stones. You could see them just fine from the road so i took one picture and had someone take my picture with them in the background. They were smaller than i expected. Still very large but i had thought they would be massive.

We drove through the Devon countryside which was very picturesque and filled with thatched roofed farmhouses and lots and lots of sheep! One road we drove on was so narrow that the trees brushed the windows of the bus on both sides! There was a brief "comfort" stop at an air museum and a stop in Exeter for a quick stretch of the legs to have a look-see at the Cathedral there. The hotel was actually outside of Exeter off the motorway, The Exeter Court, and was a motel type building with all the rooms at ground level. Room was basic and the dining room was off the bar where i met a few of the tour people before hand for a drink. The food, however was really good!!

My co-travelers were quite an international group, natives of Canada, U.S., Australia, New Zealand, Israel and the Phillipines. The ages ranged from 15 right up to two couples both married 50 years! Most nights on the road the evening meal was included and eaten in the hotel dining room so on those nights, many of the group fell into a routine of meeting for a drink before dinner in the hotel lounge. We often sat in the lounge or bar after dinner as well and got to know each other.

First stop the next morning was in Plymouth at the historic harbour and surrounding area called the Barbican and we heard many tales of press ganging men and boys into the Navy and we heard all about Sir Francis Drake's escapades during the Armada. We saw where the Mayflower was launched and though it didn't do anything for me, the Americans on the tour seemed interested in taking lots of pictures of the commemorative carvings and steps. I took pictures of the boats moored in the harbour and of the old part of Plymouth which has extremely narrow streets and whitewashed buildings, some with half timbered exteriors and many with baskets of flowers hanging from windows and doorways. David also read us a poem by Tennyson about a ship called the Revenge. David travels with a laptop and has all kinds of neat information stored in it. He's done this for a few years and has gathered a lot of interesting facts, stories and tidbits related to the history of the places we go to.

We drove through Dartmoor National Park next with a photo stop at the top of a hill, or Tor where the wild ponies and sheep roam the moors. The moors are wide open spaces with very little vegetation above the level of the yellow-blooming gorse bushes. The ponies do actually belong to someone but are set free for the summer season as are the sheep. The
sheep were all marked with blue dye sprayed on their backsides. They do this to identify which ones belong to who. These sheep aren't used for the wool but for the mutton so it doesn't matter if their fleece is stained.

On the drive to Glastonbury, David read a bit to us from le Mort D'Arthur which popularized the King Arthur legends in the 13th century. There's not much left of the abbey there but i bought a sandwich from a snack shop and had it on the grounds under a tree and then had a look in the old chapel and cookhouse which is still standing. There are the graves of two people buried at what used to be the altar and that's supposed to be Arthur and Guinevere but it's not been proven. Good for tourism though i suppose. There may have been a Celtic king in the Saxon era that fought and won many battles which is where the legends probably started. It's probably not some place i would have stopped to check out had i been on my own but it was a relaxing lunch stop just the same.

Bath was lovely, full of Georgian architecture built out of the creamy coloured "Bath" stone. Bath was founded before the Romans but the Romans developed it into a spa once they had discovered the mineral springs. It fell out of fashion and was nearly wiped out but was revived in Georgian times, rebuilt and turned into a fashionable society hang out by the team of Ralph Allen, architect John Wood and P.R. guy Beau Nash. I didn't bother going to see the restored Roman baths or the Abbey. I wanted to wander around the streets instead and found a branch of the Past Times chain of stores that sells recreations of various historical eras. It's gift ware, scarves, jewelry, crafts, stationary etc. I saw more of it in 2003.

Our destination for the night was the Royal Hotel in downtown Cardiff and a few blocks away from the big sports stadium where just the night before was host to a U2 concert. Too bad we missed it since we probably could have heard it from the hotel although the traffic and noise afterward would have gone on long into the night. As it was, it was a pretty noisy night as the university results were just released that day and there were a lot of kids celebrating. I relaxed in my lovely large high ceilinged room with the old fashioned tub and heated towel racks until it was time to meet for our excursion to Cardiff Castle which included a traditional Welsh/Medieval banquet in rooms in the old cellars of the castle. The castle was restored by a Victorian Marquise in the Victorian version of medieval. Very over
the top but some of it was quite interesting. The banquet was full of tour groups. There was a host and the waitresses were dressed in traditional costume. We ate off wooden plates and drank from pewter mugs. There was entertainment, singing and dancing too and all in all worth the price of admission.

It's warm today but not sunny, the kind of high overcast day with the sun breaking through every now and then. We drive north through the Welsh Valleys of Brecon Beacons National Park. There are still slag heaps that look like mountains. That's the result of the coal mines. David remembers when he was a boy hearing about a bad accident in 1966 when a slag heap slid and crushed part of a town and killed many children in a school. There are still places where the small crowded rows and terraces of houses built by the mining companies for their employees still stand. Mining is a dying industry and there are only two mines still open in Wales.

We have a short break in Brecon. The scenery is getting prettier now as we leave the slag heaps for the area along English border called the Marches. We are heading for a lunch break in the market town of Ludlow. The castle in Ludlow used to be the household of the Prince of Wales. Oh, not now, but Henry VIII housed his son, Edward VI there, for one. Ludlow is full of half timbered Tudor style buildings including an old hotel called the Feathers where Cromwell was said to have stayed during the Civil War. I bought some rolls and cheese at a bakery and wandered the open air market before sitting at a bench in a park by the castle to eat. Bought some stamps as well for my postcards.

Heading in to North Wales and the scenery is getting more dramatic. The mountainsides are cut into by the slate mining but the valleys are vast and long and the sun has come out from behind the clouds. One of the "optional" outings that I had purchased was an afternoon cream tea in Ruthin Castle which is now an hotel. Not really worth the money but you don't always know until you do it. There is a little dining room where we all sat at large tables and had tea and scones. Time for a wander around the grounds which are impeccably kept. There I saw peacocks for the first time, the plain brown female and the gloriously coloured male in all his splendor. The bus nearly got stuck coming back through the town of Ruthin where one street was particularly narrow and a truck partially blocked the way. The wooden signs on the sidewalks had to be taken inside the shops and our driver, wheels on the pavements, came within inches of the buildings on either side of the bus!

We drove back to the hotel through the Horseshoe Pass which had spectacular views. Our hotel is the Wild Pheasant and is situated at the bottom of a hill about a half hour's walk outside of Llangollen proper in a very pretty setting. The hotel was comfortable and the food again was excellent. We arrived back after tea in the late afternoon so some of us got a lift into the village as the bus driver was going that way to fuel up. We had a look in a shop that sold needlecrafts and cross stitch patterns and I bought some nice Celtic designed jewelry. We walked back to the hotel along a path that runs along the Dee river, a wonderful photo spot with a church along the banks of the river and the stone bridge in town showing in the distance. We could see the old narrow gauge steam train in the station as well. That train, I hear, can be taken into Snowdonia National Park.

Our first stop on Day four is Chester, a short drive from Llangollen. It was originally a Roman base and through the years occupied by many, including the Saxons and Normans. Lots of half timbered houses in the historic center although many of them are Victorian recreations. You can tell the difference because the medieval version is plain with doorways and ceilings that don't measure even 6 feet high. The Victorians carved the half timbers and decorated the outside of the building more and the doorways are higher because they were taller by that time. Many of the "Rows" have Roman ruins in the basements but now the buildings are all shops and covered arcades. Also, the street plan inside the city walls is still exactly the way the Romans laid it out!

Chester is a very touristy city and is also a popular horse racing center. There is a Victorian clock, called the Grosvenor's Clock which is the second most photographed clock in Britain. (Big Ben, did you guess?) We had a quick walking tour along the walls of the city and through the historic cathedral and were allowed several hours for lunch. I wandered in and out of the shops and the cathedral, had a pint at a pub and a bowl of soup at a crowded cafe near the Cathedral square. This is Saturday and race day although it didn't get very crowded on the streets until after 11:30 or so and then it seemed like all of a sudden it was *too* crowded.

Driving out of Chester the landscape flattened out. We could see the spires of Liverpool in the distance and we passed an old viaduct but it was a fairly monotonous drive until we arrived in the Lake District. This part of England, in the north west, is a series of very craggy mountains, etched out by glaciers with cold clear lakes in the valleys. We stopped in picturesque Grasmere where the poet Wordsworth once lived. The buildings are now mostly made of stone and slate instead of mortar and timber! There was a 300 year old cottage that used to be a schoolhouse but now houses a bakery where the specialty is gingerbread. Talk about a cottage industry! The gingerbread has been made in this building for about 140 years, in fact!

The scenery again flattened out as we neared the Scottish border to rolling hills and power poles. The weather is getting more overcast and dark and I think we may get some rain. We were warned that the hotel in downtown Carlisle isn't as nice as the one in Wales. Well, it was ok, the County Hotel, and older building but clean inside. The neighbourhood looked a little scruffy with a number of shops closed and boarded up and there wasn't a lot open that evening other than a pub a couple of doors down. Three or four of us popped in but the clientele didn't look particularly tourist-friendly so we returned to the hotel. As usual, the meal was good and a large group of us sat in a circle well into the evening and talked or paired off to play pool in the lounge.

The buildings now are made predominantly out of sandstone which absorbs the smoke from years of coal burning fireplaces, making the buildings look quite black in some cities. Some more impressions. The hotels have been clean, the food at the hotel dining rooms all been quite good. It's become a challenge and a running joke among us to figure out how the shower works in each hotel as every single one has functioned differently.

One thing I have noticed is that there are flowers everywhere! Even if a house only has a few feet between the front doorstep and the pavement, or road, there is a flowerpot there and another one hanging from a window sill. There are gardens and flower pots hanging from lamp posts and buildings, businesses and residences. One of the stereotypes of England is that it's a nation of gardeners and I can see why! It's so pretty.

In Scotland, David tells us there is a woolen mill at every coffee shop and a coffee shop attached to every woolen mill! There will be plenty of chances to buy woolen goods, tartans and things so not to buy the first thing we see. I know he must get a percentage of our sales if he takes us to a particular place but he also tells us if there are cheaper places or nicer goods elsewhere. He's a great guide, very informative and cheerful. He set the tone the first day when he introduced himself as Irish, and told us the Irish are well known to regard rules as meant to be bent, broken and twisted! He's traveled to many places but focuses on the UK now.

The weather is cooler now and more or less overcast. First thing this morning we drove across the Scottish border to Moffat for a visit to a woolen mill. I had a quick look around the mill which had some little boutique like shops filled with crafts in addition to the main store full of tweeds and tartans. Nice but I was not all that interested at this point. The factory is just outside of the town so I wandered in there. There were one or two souvenir stores open around the little High Street square but the thing that caught my interest was an old graveyard so i had a look round in there for a bit.

This part of Scotland is the Southern Uplands, mountainous but not as high as the Highlands in the north. There are more stone fences than hedges marking property borders and lots of sheep and Black Angus cattle. The countryside seems a lot bigger, the fields marked off are larger than in England and you go miles without seeing settlements though you will see farmhouses dotting the hillsides. No trees. The UK is only 9% covered with trees. There are tree "farms", quite a few in Scotland and the highlands where they grow faster so you'll see strips of green on a mountainside, like a blot of ink on a paper. Next to them you'll see where the previous patch of trees was clear cut.

We boarded the bus and headed north to Ayr, Robert Burns country. We stopped at a huge old Victorian hotel, the kind that usually was built beside a train station. The bus was going to take anyone who was interested on a short drive west to see the cottage where Burns was born. I'm not much interested in Burns so I stayed in Ayr. Another attraction was a sign on the hotel advertising an antique sale inside! The sale was in an exhibition room off the lobby and I spent a lovely hour and a half wandering there looking at the old furniture, jewelry and linens. It's Sunday and there wasn't too many stores open as I walked a few blocks in the vicinity so I returned to the street that fronts the hotel and had a light lunch in a cafe there. I had a bowl of soup, something with lentils I think. Except for one or two motorway truck stops that served canned soup, I never had a bad bowl of soup in the UK. Everywhere I had soup, hotels, restaurants or cafes, it was always homemade and delicious!

Our last stop for the day before arriving at our hotel outside of Glasgow was the Burrell Collection. The building is in a park like setting and there's even shaggy highland cattle wandering in a field nearby! A man named Burrell was a shipping magnate around the turn of the twentieth century and he collected anything and everything that caught his fancy. He even catalogued the whole collection himself in the kind of notebooks that schoolchildren use. When he died he bequeathed the collection to the city of Glasgow providing they built a place for it and it had to be outside of the grime of the city. It took Glasgow 30 years to decide where to put the building and the collection has been on display now for about 15 years.

It's amazing! There's everything from ancient Roman and Egyptian and Chinese artifacts to Georgian porcelain. There's needlepoint and embroidery from Tudor to Victorian age. Some huge tapestries. Suits of armour.

We are staying at the Dean Park hotel outside of Glasgow. It's quite nice but the downside is we aren't going to see any of the city at all on this tour. I suppose I could have organized a taxi with some others and go into the city in the evening but I didn't think of it at the time. David has been telling us a lot of interesting things about Scotland and it's judicial system where, if there's no law against it, you can do it! Scotland, now, of course has it's own parliament but when I was there it didn't though had its own constitution.

Into the Highlands: Today we head up into the highlands and it's still overcast with some showers and some sunny breaks here and there. We followed the Great lochs, passing Fort William and Ben Nevis, the highest peak in the UK. Our first stop was a photo op at Loch Lomond where there was a piper playing tunes for the tourists. Luckily there was a sunny break then. The road leading out from the Loch was so narrow that there was a stop and go light at one particularly sharp turn. In Newfoundland that kind of turn in the road which abuts a cliff is called a "scrape". Another stop was a sheepskin factory where there was also an exhibition about the Antarctic expeditions.

Driving up through the highlands to stories of Scottish folk heroes like Rob Roy, Robert the Bruce and William Wallace. The mountains are getting progressively higher and more barren. We passed a glade and later a field and saw rainbows. Not your standard arched rainbow however. There were pools of colour laying in the mist or on the ground of the field. It was the most amazing thing i've ever seen! I took a couple of pictures and the ones of the rainbows on the flat boggy field came out clearly. Another unusual sight was a huge boulder by the side of the road that had a tree growing up through it but I couldn't get a picture as it was on the other side of the road and I wasn't on that side of the bus. We had another photo op in a particularly bleak glen, Glencoe, which is where the clan MacDonald slaughtered the clan Campbell (or was it the other way around?) It was a long standing feud and the slaughter had something to do with swearing fealty to the English crown after the first Highland Rising in 1715.

In spite of the increasingly cloudy weather, heavy mists and fog, the scenery was spectacular! The top of Ben Nevis was obliterated by clouds. The landscape from Fort William to Inverness contained more trees so it didn't seem quite so bleak. We had another photo op at Loch Ness but couldn't stop near Urquhart Castle as the owners don't want hords of tourists crawling over it anymore. Fair enough! There's a visitor center at one end of the loch which is the deepest lake in Britain at 727 feet. We didn't go into the visitor center which had a large cartoonish figure of the monster Nessie outside it. Thank you David. Some visitor centers are quite interesting but I really don't think this one would have done much for me!

One of the most moving visits on this tour was the battlefield of Cullodden outside of Inverness. You can see grassy mounds which are the mass graves of the clans. There are stone markers by them indicating the clans buried there. There's a little gully with running water that is the "Well of the Dead". There is a big stone cairn memorial built in 1881. When you stand there you look out on a small field with a yellow flag on the far left and a red one on the far right. This was the position of the armies. The field looks impossibly small but I think you are acually standing in the middle of it. The atmosphere, even with people walking around and taking photos is quiet. If you didn't believe in ghosts, you might think twice about that. The air seems heavy with the sad spirits of the dead here even with the wind coming across the heather-covered battlefield. It was spooky, sobering, solemn and pensive. It's not hard to imagine 9000 men fighting with swords and axes, with blood soaked fields covered in dying Scots.

Our hotel for the night was in the ski resort town of Aviemore. Kind of a plain hotel but again, good food. I tried haggis which was quite tasty and probably not made with all the disgusting things it used to be made of. This seemed like ground meat, beef I hope :), with spices and barley to bulk it up. Had an interesting chat in the bar after dinner with David, Bill the driver and another chap, Scott who was on the tour on his own. We got into the man vs. Woman argument but it was all in fun, it wasn't a serious argument. I also called home tonight.

Today was the 25th wedding anniversary of one of the couples traveling with us. David played two tapes, both consisting of bagpipe music but one was the traditional Scottish pipe and one the traditional Irish pipe which is more mellow, softer and lower pitched. I'm still partial to the Scottish!

It was quite cold this morning and damp. First stop this morning was a whiskey distillery in the highlands. It was a bit odd to see the Canadian flag flying over the gate. Apparently Glenlivet is owned by Seagram's Canada! The distillery was not operating because they take the month of August off to clean the place and for holidays but we were guided around anyway and had the whole procedure explained by a bonny ginger haired young guide who does this to pay for her university. There was the obligatory tasting afterwards and to my surprise i actually liked it! I think my only other experience with Scotch whiskey might have been a blend rather than a single malt. I can't say i would be a regular drinker of it but even though it was only 10 o'clock a.m. it went down quite well. That's how cold it was this morning!

We drove down through the mountains making out way to Braemar. The mountains, where before they were high, dark and forbidding are slowly becoming a bit lower, more rolling. Very pretty scenery. There were very few houses along this road, the hillside dotted with one here and there, of various sizes. Some were old abandoned crofter's cottages, one looked like an old castle keep that was still lived in. (Braemar Castle) We drove past where Balmoral was and could only see a few turrets over the trees but it was mostly hidden. We couldn't visit the grounds as the Royal Family is in residence in August and September. We stopped at the town of Braemar, not far away for our lunch. A group of us partook of the lunch buffet at the Fife Arms Hotel, a lovely old Victorian structure. So there. We at least had tea within 5 miles of the Queen!

We stopped in St. Andrew's, a very old university city on the Firth of Forth where one of the oldest golf courses in the UK is located. Supposedly the rules for the modern golf game were derived here. The university has been here since the 15th century, originally an ecclesiastical organization but was quite famous for it's medical school later on. We stopped near The Old Course with it's very large clubhouse. You could rent a club and putt on a little green for a pound but I'm not particularly into golf. I bought a few souvenirs for one or two golfing friends and walked around by the harbour lined with cliffs upon which are perched some of the older buildings. I walked along the street that followed the harbour but not far enough to find the ruins of the cathedral. It wasn't going to be a long stop so i just wandered around the streets near where the golf course was.

We finally arrived in South Queensferry, a suburb about 8 miles outside of Edinburgh at the modern Forth Bridges Moat House which overlooks the Firth of Forth and the Forth Bridge which is lit up at night! Very pretty!

I had joined up with the optional outing to the Edinburgh Tattoo tonight with a dinner included beforehand. We were told to dress casually and warmly as we would be sitting outside on stadium seats outside the Castle which is up on a cliff overlooking the city. It could be quite chilly and windy. Only they didn't tell us that our dinner, a buffet style, was in one of the nicest hotels in Edinburgh, the George! So we're all standing in line at the buffet, surrounded by china, silver, marble pillars and high carved ceilings in our jeans and sweatshirts! The Tattoo was really great, very colourful too. Halifax has had one for a number of years but there was something awesome about the pageant of the Scottish brass and pipe bands, folk dancing and military displays with the ancient Edinburgh Castle looming at one end of the esplanade. At the end was a lone piper on top of the battlements. Haunting strains of Amazing Grace floated down across a silent crowd and when the massed pipe bands joined in, it moved me to tears. But that song, played on pipes always does.

Edinburgh

This morning we are driven into the city to pick up a local guide for a tour around the City, Castle and Holyrood Palace. Although the city was probably founded in the 7th century, most of the oldest parts now date from the 15th to 17th. That would be the Royal Mile which extends from the Castle to Holyrood Palace. In the 17th century, the North Loch was drained and the newer part of the city was built. There's park now where some of the loch was. This was something I didn't know before and it is quite amazing considering the limited technology they used. Apparently the bodies of women drowned as witches were found when the water was drained!

After a drive around we were taken though Edinburgh Castle. The view was great from the escarpment! The weather is semi-overcast and cool but looks like the rain will stay away. We had some free time to explore and i decided to follow the corridors that led to the Scottish Crown Jewels. Lining the corridors were exhibitions and dioramas depicting Scottish History. The "jewels" were two or three things with some jewels on them. Rather disappointing and since the route took so long i didn't get to explore some of the other old buildings in the grounds. Live and learn!

The Royal Mile was lined with 4 or 5 story houses and narrow alleys called wynds. Holyrood Palace is technically in another municipality and is the residence of the reigning monarch when in the city. We were taken through the public rooms with the lovely and ornate furniture and paintings. The palace has of course been added to by various monarchs but we were taken into the older section which is where Mary Queen of Scots would have lived. We saw her rooms and the little office she used when her Italian secretary was murdered by her husband's supporters. That part of the palace is smaller and plainer, with the decorations less ornate. We had a bit of time to wander around the grounds where the ruins of the chapel still stand before we were driven back to to the city center.

We had the rest of the day free and were given a time to meet back at the bus if we decided to come back that way. We could also make our own way back by public transportation if we wanted to stay in the city for dinner. I went to lunch at a pub on Rose Street with a mother-daughter couple and then set off on my own. I had to decide if i wanted to shop or explore the old sections of the Royal Mile. I know whatever i chose i would have wished i could have done the other but in the end i went for a bit of a shop. I found an outdoor market in the courtyard of an old church so i had a browse there. I strolled through the park below the castle and found an underground shopping mall by Waverly train statin. Most of the new development has to go down as there are restrictions on height and on redevelopment in the historic areas. By the time the bus was ready to leave, so was i so i decided to go back to the hotel. I didn't have any plans for dinner but met up with a mother and daughter from Israel and the son of one of the other ladies and the four of us walked into Queensferry and found a restaurant that looked nice and had a great view of the Forth Bridge all lit up. The other two women were vegans so we had to check the outside menus of several before we found one that offered vegetarian dishes. The restaurant we tried was called the Seal Craig Hotel and we really had a good meal. I lucked out when I wasn't charged for my entree which was a cold seafood plate, only my appetizer and drinks! A few games of pool back at the hotel and a chat with the two older couples from Israel, not without it's translation difficulties at times and it was off to bed.

This morning we heard about David's family business, a cattle farm in Tipperary which he runs during the off season. He has a manager for when he's touring. We drove down through the lowlands at the border where Jedburg Abbey is. We also had a quick photo stop on the road where we could see Sir Walter Scott's old house. There was also a rest stop at a roadside souvenir stand. I picked up a couple of things and spied some lovely white Port Merion china!

We had another photo stop at the Scotland-England border where there was the requisite piper. Nice views of the rolling hills and hearing Hava Nagila played on the pipes was not to be missed! :) We saw a small bit of Hadrian's Roman Wall but i know there are better parts. This wasn't much to talk about. Nor was the lunch stop at a motorway truck stop. We had a lot of territory to cover today so there was no scenic drives. We were headed across the flat Yorkshire dales for an afternoon in the historic city of York.

That was worth the wait, crowded with tourists though it was. The medieval streets no wider than a car, the old buildings, leaning so that you think they might topple over, the city walls and the amazing Minster. I have already had to buy more film and am now on my 11th but one mother and daughter couple had 13 developed in Edinburgh with double prints and the tour was only 2/3 over by then! I really liked York and i would love to go back there again when i have
more time to explore. There's a Viking museum and lots of little shops you discover in the oddest places. The most famous street, The Shambles, was once the area where the butchers had their shops and you can still see the meat hooks outside under the eaves of the overhanging upper storeys. Today of course there are expensive little shops all along there.

Our hotel was one of the Stakis chain and built around an old windmill. I had a very small single room by the elevator but the food and company was good as usual.

Leeds to Leamington Spa

When i woke up i wasn't feeling all that well, and i don't really know what it was. It hung on most of the day so i didn't really enjoy myself today. We spent another hour or two on the motorway down through the midlands before arriving in Coventry to view the new cathedral built beside the burned out ruins of the old one. The old one was destroyed during the second world war by fire bombs. The new one doesn't impress me really. It just looks like an oversized church. There is one wall that is all etched glass and another that has small windows from floor to ceiling, each being stained glass. After the old style Gothic cathedrals we've been seeing, this was just too modern to be in the same class! I didn't walk around too much, just sat on the steps with a bottle of water which helped some.

We were driven to Stratford and had our group picture taken outside Anne Hathaway's cottage. Only it was in the car park in the back so you couldn't see the cottage in the photo. I suppose there isn't really a good spot for a group around the front. I would have thought a group photo somewhere more recognizable like Edinburgh Castle or in Chester might have been better. The cottage is really lovely, and much older looking than in pictures.

We were set loose in Stratford for lunch and for the afternoon. Not hungry, i walked a bit. Changed some money in American Express which was in a tourist information kiosk in a park by the Avon River, a park dotted with statues of Will and some of his characters. I went through the birthplace of Shakespeare which also has a room of costumes from plays put on by the BBC and a gift shop of course. I walked along the Avon to Trinity Church to see where he was buried and along back by Hall's Croft where his daughter lived and down the high street. I finally had a bowl of soup in a little cafe around 4 o'clock, starting to feel a bit better. Our hotel in Leamington Spa is fairly close to Warwick Castle but we didn't get to see it. I would have liked that. I ate lightly although the service and food was impeccable at the hotel dining room but I went to bed early after watching Coronation Street, the first night I've had the chance since I've been here!

Leamington Spa to London

Feeling better today, i slept from about 8 last night right through to this morning. We drove through the Cotswolds. It's sunny this morning and the scenery is flat and agricultural. Lots of farms. I was always under the impression that the cottages in the cotswolds were thatched but most of them are not. They are built of a honey coloured stone with slate roofs! We had a photo stop in Stow on Wold and another in the churchyard in Bladon where Winston Churchill is buried. Our other morning stop was the university city of Oxford, another place with a lot of wonderful old buildings! Oxford university actually consists of 35 colleges, the earliest founded because England was at war with France so the students couldn't go to the Sorbonne in Paris. David walked us around by the Bodlean Library and the quads by some of the colleges and the reading rooms. On my own after that i found an indoor market that was built into, well it felt ike
it was all underground or in a cave. You went in off the street and there were all sorts of shops for fruit, veg, fish and meat as well as books and clothing along a few corridors with were low ceilings.

Our next stop was Windsor. We were allowed into the Castle grounds for another walking tour. There are a lot of buildings and they cover a large area. It was originally a wooden fortress built by William I (The Conqueror) in the late 11th century shortly after he invaded England and took the throne. I didn't bother to pay to see the State apartments or the doll house there. I am getting a bit tired of seeing things!! Can't take too much more in i think and i really did want to see St. George's chapel, a lovely gothic style structure! There are crypts underneath the floor and markers telling you who is buried there and i was thrilled to see Henry VIII's stone. He's buried with Jane Seymour as we all know. You weren't allowed to take pictures inside the chapel though and it was enforced.

I walked back into Windsor with an older couple from the bus that i met after i came out of the chapel and we found a small restaurant called Cody's where we had a lovely but somewhat expensive lunch before making our way back past the rail station to the parking lot where the bus was waiting.

We hit the road and arrived back in London at the Barbican hotel by around 4. That was rather sad, parting with some of the group and our wonderful guide, David. He really was a gem! Some of the group were staying at the Barbican so we met up for a meal in the hotel, too tired to walk further today. I had planned to take the optional Thames cruise with dinner but i cancelled. Had a few drinks in the bar with some of the crowd before heading to bed. Many are leaving tomorrow but I'm changing hotels to the Tavistock and staying on a few more days. I offered the other ticket to Miss Saigon to a single lady from Montreal who was on our tour who was also staying on a few days. She was delighted and we made arrangements to meet in front of the theatre tomorrow night.

Had breakfast with some bus people before heading over to the Tavistock. There was a bit of trouble there as my friend had the hotel voucher with her and had forgotten to give it to me. The hotel had to get in touch with Air Canada vacations to verify the booking which took an extra day as it was Labour Day in Canada and the office was closed but it turned out ok, i didn't have to pay for the room again!

This afternoon i took the subway...sorry, the Underground to the Strand where i had arranged to meet an older couple from Victoria. Seems to me that was my first try at the Tube which was a bit intimidating at first because i was afraid I'd get on the wrong train or go the wrong way. We three walked through Trafalgar square down the Mall to Buckingham Palace. You'd be hard pressed to decide whether there were more tourists or more pigeons in Trafalgar square! We walked around St. James park to Westminster Abbey and the Houses of Parliament. There's Big Ben!! We wound up back at Trafalgar square after coming back up Whitehall past Downing Street which is closed off to the public for security reasons. Westminster was rebuilt after a fire in Victorian times and finished near the end of the 19th century but it was built in a gothic style to match Westminster abbey. It's so ornate and really beautiful. Anyway we had a quick early dinner at a New York style restaurant along the Strand and parted ways. I made my way back to the hotel successfully by Tube and relaxed for the evening.

My last day in London i spent on my own, on my feet mostly. Continental breakfast comes with the room so i had a light meal of cereal and tea and toast before setting off around 9 a.m. I arranged for an airport shuttle for the next morning so that was sorted out. I took a double decker bus to Charing Cross and sat up top of course! I went down Whitehall to Westminster Abbey to see inside again. We had dropped in yesterday but the back part was closed. Well it turns out that back part is the part you have to pay to see and i was getting a bit short on funds so decided to skip it. I wish i hadn't because that was where all the chapels and statues where the famous people are buried as well as the Coronation chair. The entrance fees to things are a bit pricey so i settled for a postcard or two. I walked back up past the back part of the Horse Guards barracks and saw where the war rooms were but again, that was a bit pricey to go in so i skipped it too. There aren't a lot of people around today, or at least not this early and it's also a bank holiday so there aren't too many office workers around either.

On to the National gallery in Trafalgar square...free admission! I saw some of the rooms rather quickly as they were on the way to the paintings i really wanted to see which were the ones painted before the 17th century. These are mostly religious in theme or painted versions of allegories and mythologies. Some of the art from the 13thto 15th centuries was actually removed from altars in churches and painted on wood or stone. My favourites of course are the impressionist works on the 19th century. I also loved the Turner and Constable works. I read in my journal that "Renoir is ok" but now, 7 years later i just love Renoir, Cezanne and Pisarro as well. I would have bought a print or two but didn't have anything solid to keep them in and was afraid they'd get crushed or torn in my suitcase.

After leaving the gallery i made my way to Picadilly circus, stopping for lunch at an Arby's, my one concession to fast food this trip! I went into the London Palladium complex and had thought i would go to the Rock Circus where there is the history of Rock and Roll along with music and wax figures but again, more expensive than i expected. It would work out to be something like 14 dollars for what would have taken less than a half hour to see. Had a peek into Planet
Hollywood to see some of the memorabilia on display.

I took the tube to Harrods but didn't see too much of it other than the main floor and food halls as my back and legs were protesting very loudly. I had to buy something in Harrods so i bought a small package of teabags and some loose tea! The food halls truly were amazing although I've heard the food section in Fortnum and Mason is equally or more impressive! I staggered out of there and walked down Cromwell road past the Victoria and Albert Museum but, energy waning, i decided to head back to the hotel. I found a convenience store that sold packaged sandwiches and bought one, and a bottle of juice to take back with me. I really like the Tube, it's so fast and now I'm getting the hang of using it.

After my light meal i got ready to go to the theatre. I decided not to dress up too much, just nice pants and a blouse and i took a taxi to the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane, one of the oldest in London. This building is not the original on the site but it's about 200 years old as it is! Met up with my fellow tour traveler out front and we went inside the ornately decorated theatre and found our seat. We thoroughly enjoyed the musical which was very sad at the end. What a show! This is the one that has a real helicopter lowered down from the rafters at one point! It took us quite awhile to get a taxi after the show in spite of people telling us there were cabs everywhere. They all seemed to be taken! We were a bit nervous on the street at night but it turned out ok and we were quite safe after all. Got a taxi and were dropped off at our hotels.

So the my dream trip is over. A few observations and comments: The age of everything constantly amazed me. It was nothing to see houses and buildings 300 to 500 years old and still being used. There are flowers *everywhere*! Even if just in a window box or a small plant pot outside the door if that's all there was room for! The people on the tour were so nice other than one or two that were complainers but mainly they were just great! David told us he always says a little prayer before a tour "Please let them be normal!" David was the best, too, and he was very well informed and had obviously done a lot of research. He was always looking up notes and things in a laptop and playing music for us. Bill, our driver was very skilled and we always felt safe. The food was mostly excellent, except for motorway stops and the beer was great! I took 13 rolls of film and they mostly all turned out fabulous! We saw a lot of countryside, most of it just beautiful. There's a lot of different types of scenery across the country and so many different kinds of architecture most of it old. I've been back to the UK many times since then and I still enjoy it sights and history very much.