Day 9:

          Edinburgh to Leeds
 

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.

        Day 10,

          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. 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. I realized that the cross stitch i had done of an English cottage a few years ago was this very cottage! The pattern hadn't said so! So i plan to enlarge a photo of the cottage and hang it next to the cross stitch.

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, 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 caf‚ 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!

        Day 11,

          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 Church ill 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 12th 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.

London again

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 canceled.. 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.

        Day 12,

          London
 

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.

        Day 13

          London
 

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. It only cost 8 pounds which was very reasonable i thought. 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.

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So 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 was the best guide, too, and we spent a lot of time teasing each other but he was a lot of fun and he was also very well informed and had obviously done a lot of research. David told us he always says a little prayer before a tour "Please let them be normal!" He was always looking up notes and things in a laptop computer and playing tapes 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! We always had several choices for each course when we ate in the hotel. There were sheep and cattle grazing free everywhere. Every shower in every hotel worked a little differently. So much so that it became a joke at breakfast to see who was able to work out how to make it go! I was unexpectedly on my own but it was ok. In someways better because i could do what i wanted with nobody else to consider. Although i usually had company when i wanted it, it still would have been nice to have a friend along.

I took 13 rolls of film and they mostly all turned out fabulous! A few will look nice blown up on my walls. 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 don't think i saw one grocery store though i know they're there. We mostly saw little shops and markets. I want to go back again... I would like to see more of York and of Edinburgh. London of course.

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