My girlfriend Amy and I went off to England, Scotland and Ireland for three weeks during the summer. It was my first real vacation in a while! Relaxing and idyllic, the UK trip was a good combination of cultural experience and pure leisure.
Stone circles |
Hiking in Scotland |
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We started in London and did our best to comprehend the British Museum and National Gallery. We saw Les Miserables, which apparently has been playing in the same theater for over 10 years. London is cool, but we felt the real England was outside the city.
Then we rented a car and went touring castles. My favorite was Leeds Castle. At Leeds Castle, the center of the hedge maze is a turret so you can see where you've been and watch anyone coming in behind you. Then you go down into "the grotto" which is a manmade tunnel with a running stream and statues made of stones and seashells... including one huge looming face spouting water into a fountain.
Jet-lagged, sleep-deprived people should not try to tackle the Britism Museum as their first stop in London. I fell asleep in the cafeteria. |
The Egyptian exhibit at the British Muesum |
Leeds Castle was very cool. It had a moat, and a hedge maze with an underground grotto! |
Amy at Leeds Castle |
Les Miserables has been playing for 12 years in the same theater. |
Trafalgar Square. There was some kind of Islamic rally going on. |
Trafalgar Square. It was really hard to climb up here! |
We were lucky enough to hear Big Ben chime noon. |
Westminster Abbey. It |
Ightham Mote: an old house still being repaired |
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England has some great Bed & Breakfasts. We tried to stay in B&Bs rather than hotels, and it was a terrific experience.
Royalty and nobility have left behind numerous castles and mansions in England. Most were magnificent. Many had wonderful gardens as well.
Perhaps the best B&B we stayed in. |
Every B&B served us eggs, bacon, and sausage. Grease: one of the national foods of Britain? |
We got our first rain at Hever Castle. They had a hedge maze too which was not quite as interesting, and a |
I had to hold the umbrella so Amy could take this one! |
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Penshurst Place had a great castle & gardens. It was the most impressive of the gardens we saw.
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This is supposed to look like the British flag |
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Wonderful gardens, but we liked Penshurst just a little better. They make it look easy, but we saw a few gardens that hadn't been kept up well, and you can really tell the difference. I like the gardens that are broken up by hedges into little clearings you can discover. Amy took most of our trip pictures; she particularly liked shooting gardens.
Sissinghurst Castle & Gardens |
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A tower at Sissinghurst gave a birds-eye view. |
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Salisbury (sawlz'-bree) Cathedral, where they keep the Magna Carta.
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Salisbury had some modern art on display. These little clay creatures filled an entire hall. |
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Longleat House is an old mansion which is still privately owned. To earn enough money to keep up the house, the owners have turned the grounds into an amusement park!
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Me at the TARDIS at Longleat |
The world |
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Stonehenge was very impressive and definitely worth the trip. Unfortunately vandalism has taken its toll and tourists are not allowed to walk among the stones.
They plan to divert the ugly roads and tourist tunnel and restore a natural look by 2009. Wish we'd gone to Woodhenge, too!
Amy at Stonehenge. |
Stonehenge |
A tourist horde, including us, prevented quiet reflection on the ancient people who built Stonehenge |
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Amy and I passed through Stratford-Upon-Avon. Seeing Othello & a Midsummer Night's Dream was great. Otherwise, the town was too touristy for us. Fortunately, there were plenty of attractions in the area, including Hidcote Manor Gardens.
Hidcote was good but didn't compete with the splendor we'd seen elsewhere. I think Penshurst and Sissinghurst were so perfect that they made it look easy. Now we're getting a deeper appreciation for the effort that goes into these gardens.
My Aunt Jill |
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Look at this shrub! That |
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Castle Howard was one of the nicest castles. A fantastic site!
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Amy had to chase this peacock to get it in the camera |
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Hadrian's Wall is an old Roman wall built to keep out the marauding Scottish. The Romans never did conquer the Scots. To make the most of our time, we've had a pretty packed schedule, rushed from one place to another. Today, we finally take some time just to sit and appreciate nature. It's serene, and there are plenty of sheep.
Hadrian |
I sit and reflect on the Universe. |
One of the Roman forts at Hadrian |
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We continued north through York and into Scotland, visiting just one more castle. It's beautiful, but small and we're starting to get a little tired of castles.
We kept running into cows and sheep roaming the countryside! They tend to look at you as though both curious and dumbstruck. It's very cute. We even had a herd of reindeer cross the road in front of our car!
Durham Castle, which houses an active college |
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Scottish castle and gardens. |
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The cows are even more curious and stupefied than the sheep. These were near a small stone circle. |
Investigating us up close |
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We crossed off the other castles on our trip and decided to go exploring some of the nearby stone circles. Stonehenge is not alone: there are hundreds of stone circles, barrows, and mounds dating from ancient Britain. Amy and I found a guide and went to see some of the small ones. Many were oddly juxtaposed to houses, farms, or pasture land.
Amy and I punted the castles and went to see several minor stone circles. There are hundreds just around Aberdeen! |
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Seeking ancient wisdom. |
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A sheep with a stone circle in the background. Not a great shot, but darn it, I had to sneak into a meadow to get this one so I |
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We ended up in the Cairngorm mountains of Scotland. This area is less popular with tourists and we had several lovely hiking days where we hardly saw anyone else at all. The Cairngorm Mountains have 3 of the 4 highest peaks in Britain. We hiked them and one lower route.
This is Hiking Day 1: Cairn Lochan, at 3990 ft., the #4 highest peak in the UK.
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It |
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You need to get an early start so you have time to pause and enjoy the peacefulness. |
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Mountain ice becomes a stream which runs down to a lake in this high mountain valley at 3,000 ft. It looks like snow but it |
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Eag a' Chait and Loch Morlich. Peak 1860 ft. Much warmer down here.
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Hiking to Cairn Gorm and Ben Macdui, Britain's #2 and #3 tallest peaks
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One of many mountain streams |
Not quite sunset over the highest lake in Scotland. |
The peak of Ben Macdui, 4296 ft., in clouds. |
The big valley is the end of the hike. The car park is here. |
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Then we flew to Dublin and took a train to the Killarney area in southwest Ireland. It's a tourist town with many shops. Ireland was nice, but not as idyllic as we'd hoped. Next time we'll avoid the #1 tourist location and high tourist season.
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The Gap of Dunhoe trail also swarmed with tourists, many of whom took horse carts, which forced us to watch our step and hold our noses. |
However, the boat ride back was great. |
Time to go home. Good bye, Ireland! |
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