April 17, 2008

The United Kingdom




Day 1. SALT LAKE-DALLAS-LONDON
The entire day was spent on a plane. Not much else to say.

Day 2. ARRIVAL IN LONDON
We stopped at our hotel and then went to see the town. We started with a trip to the Tower of London where the crown jeweles are kept.


Tower bridge and the River Thames


Tower of London


Day 3. LONDON
We took a morning sightseeing trip around London and saw alot of the famous landmarks
Whitehall’s mounted horseguards and Buckingham Palace. That afternoon we took a visit to Windsor Castle where the queen lives.


Mounted Guards



Buckingham Palace


Picadley Circus, Londons Time Square


St. Pauls cathedral




Windsor Castle.

Day 4. LONDON-YORK-SCOTCH CORNER
We traveled northbound from London. We took a walking tour in the university city of Cambridge, one of the country’s oldest seats of learning. In York, Englands most complete medieval city, we saw the great structure of York Minster.


Cambridge




York

York Minster

Day 5. EDINBURGH SCOTLAND
We headed North to see a section of Hadrian’s Wall, the Roman coast-to-coast defense against marauding northern tribes, then went through wild Northumberland National Park to the Scottish border. Stoped for photos at Jedburgh and then Melrose with its 12th-century abbey ruins and connections with Robert the Bruce. We arrived in Edinburg and that night we went to a Scottish evening with highland dancers, bagpipers, and, of course, the ceremony of the haggis, which wasn't that bad, it was actually quite good.

Hadrian's wall



Jedburgh abey ruins

Melrose abey ruins


Bagpiper and Dancers


The haggis.

Day 6. EDINBURGH
We had a full day to enjoy this “Prince of Cities.” Morning sightseeing took us to the 200-year-old “New Town” and famous scientists, inventors, and novelists. In the “Old Town,” we went up to Edinburgh Castle to admire Scotland’s Crown Jewels. We then walked the "Royal Mile" From the castle down to Holyrood Castle.






Edinburgh Castle.



Holyrood Palace, where the Queen stays when she comes to Scotland.

Day 7. CHESTER-LIVERPOOL
We went South through the history-steeped Lowland Hills and drove through beautiful scenery in the Lake District, considered to be the finest of England’s national parks. Visit Wordsworth’s Grasmere. Then went to Chester, the historic county town on the River Dee, our walking tour included the Roman remains, black and white half-timbered buildings, and the two-tiered arcades called the “Rows.” Ended the day in Liverpool of Beatles fame, once the departure port of the great transatlantic liners, and European Capital of Culture in 2008.


Grasmere


Historic Chester.


Roman remains in Chester.


"Penny Lane" From the Beetles song


The Liverpool docks

Day 8. WHALES-STRATFORD-BRISTOL
We into Wales to picturesque Llangollen village, home of an international competition for poets and musicians. Back in England, we toured fascinating Stratford-upon-Avon, a living monument to William Shakespeare, before driving through the scenic Cotswold Hills with a stop for photos in picture-book Broadway. Overnight in Bristol where we saw the SS Great Britain, and the historic harbor from where John Cabot sailed in 1497 to discover America.


Here we are in Wales

The birth place of Shakespeare

Thatched roofs in Broadway.

SS Great Britain

Day 9. SALISBURY-BATH-LONDON
It was a day of memorable highlights with a visit first to the elegant Georgian city of Bath, famous for its Roman relics, before continuing via Stonehenge, still an intriguing mystery, to Salisbury, the “City of the Soaring Spire.” After returning to London we went and saw "Phantom of the Opera" and sat on the front row.
The Roman bath house



The spire is a little crooked, its 2ft out of true.

Phantom of the Opera

Day 10. LONDON-DALLAS-SALT LAKE
We were excited to get home and see our baby again. We had a great trip, I'm so glad we went.

5 comments:

Crystal said...

Looks like tons of fun! I'm glad you went too and took pictures so we could participate :)

Chad Welch said...

That looks like a lot of fun. You showed us a picture of haggis, but there weren't any bites taken. How do we know you really ate it?

Amy N. said...

What a great trip, thanks for the ride. So did you have any days it didn't rain on you? These are great pictures and I enjoyed the trip!

ScottBoomer said...

Well Chad you'll just have to take my word that we ate haggis. It's not as bad as you'd think. It's just lamb meat and spices.

Amy it rained every day we were there. Which appernetly is normal for them.

Unknown said...

It looks like you had an incredible trip, and you packed a lot of things into those ten days. I can't help but wonder if you had the help of a travel agent. There's no way you could have seen all of that without some great planning. All I can say is that if you planned it by yourselves, I'll want some help when we finally save some money to take a big trip. I'm jealous.