My dream trip came true! Week 1

For years I have wanted to visit England.
I have read books and watched TV shows and movies set in that beautiful country
and I have longed to see it. 

I have ancestors that immigrated from England and Scotland
and I wanted to see where they came from,

so a few years ago we began making plans for a visit.

Our friends, Evan and Melissa Hathaway, also wanted to go, Evan served a mission

in Leeds 40 years ago, so we set the date, September 2018.

Fortunately, we got all our plans made and the date finally arrived!

We flew from Boise on a Friday and arrived in jolly old London on Saturday morning.

We grabbed our bags and headed for the "tube".

Do we look like tired travelers who have been up all night?

 

 

We figured out which stop to get off at 

and arrived at our hotel, the Celtic hotel.

It was close to the tube station in the Bloomsbury section of the city. 

The hotel let us check in early and put our luggage in the rooms.

We freshened up a bit and headed out into the city.

First stop Picadilly Circus

Picadilly Square is kind of like Times Square in NYC.

Eros who looks kind of like Cupid.

Tom and Evan had tickets to a soccer match between

Fulham and Watford at one of London's oldest venues, Craven Cottage.

Melissa and I had tickets to see Buckingham Palace,

so we parted ways.

Buckingham Palace

Unfortunately they didn't have a changing of the guard that day.

Our appointment to see the state rooms in the Palace wasn't until 1:30 so we had time to view

the Queen's collection beforehand.

On display were many gifts given to the monarchy from foreign dignitaries.

An enamel egg, a gift from India

Amazing!

Unfortunately they don't allow you to photograph inside
the palace so I don't have pics,
but, needless to say, it was beautiful.
We saw Drawing rooms, ballrooms, state dining rooms, and the throne room.
Each was amazing.
It was so fun to see since, like I said I am a big BBC nerd
and I watched The Crown, and Victoria recently and
many of the scenes are set in the palace.
This is behind the palace in the garden.

After our tour we toured the Royal Mews, which is the Queen's carriages and horses.
I looked like a drowned rat, but that is what you get for wearing a hood in the rain.

This gold carriage was over the top.
Can't you just see Cinderella riding in that?

Afterwards, we met back up with the men.
At this point we were pretty tired after having no sleep the night before,
so we took the tube back to our hotel and found a nearby
pub for dinner.
Fish and chips hit the spot.

Sunday morning we took the tube to Hyde Park and found the church.
Sacrament meeting was great and people were so friendly.

We then went to the Victoria and Albert Museum which is really close to the church.

They had a really interesting display on fashion through the years.

We loved this dress which comes with your own couch inside ;)

We had lunch in this beautiful dining room inside the museum

We had a rainy walk to Harrod's department store and saw some
beautiful store fronts along the way.

And we found this statue of Lord Baden Powell by the Baden Powell House

Harrod's was unbelievable and hard to describe.

They have just about anything you would desire, if you can afford it.

This display of marzipan fruit was beautiful.

We wanted to see Speaker's Corner in Hyde Park,

so took the tube and then walked through the park.

It had quit raining and turned into a beautiful day.

Speaker's corner was interesting.

There were several vocal participants and the "bobby's"

were out in force to keep the peace.

President Hinckley mentioned in his autobiography how

on his mission he shared the gospel message at Speaker's Corner.

We then walked to Kensington Palace where Princess Victoria soon to be Queen Victoria lived
and Princess Diana,

and Harry and Meghan.

We walked through the grounds and then were able to go inside and see the state rooms.

They had an awesome display honoring Princess Di 

and all her fashions with many of her dresses on display ,

and a great exhibit on Queen Victoria. 

Melissa modeling a "couch" dress

The royal staircase

Who knew Tom's desire to be a footman.

This gate is where thousands of people left bouquets of flowers when Diana died.


We then took the tube to King's Cross station so we could
find Platform 9 3/4 for all you Harry Potter fans.

The wand collection of Dumbledore's Army

King's Cross

We ended our busy Sunday with a delicious Indian food feast!

On our way back to our hotel we found this Charles Dickens museum

in a home the famous author lived which was

really close to our hotel.

Monday we started our day at the Tower of London

The crown jewels were amazing!
I wish I had taken more pictures.

There is so much history in London.

Here's a little info on the Tower of London

The Tower of London, officially Her Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress of the Tower of London, is a historic castle located on the north bank of the River Thames in central London. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, separated from the eastern edge of the square mile of the City of London by the open space known as Tower Hill. It was founded towards the end of 1066 as part of the Norman Conquest of England. The White Tower, which gives the entire castle its name, was built by William the Conqueror in 1078 and was a resented symbol of oppression, inflicted upon London by the new ruling elite. The castle was used as a prison from 1100 until 1952, although that was not its primary purpose. A grand palace early in its history, it served as a royal residence. As a whole, the Tower is a complex of several buildings set within two concentric rings of defensive walls and a moat. There were several phases of expansion, mainly under Kings Richard I, Henry III, and Edward I in the 12th and 13th centuries. The general layout established by the late 13th century remains despite later activity on the site.

The view from the castle wall

They have an amazing display of armor in the old prison

We walked across Tower Bridge

Did a quick tour on the Hop on Hop off Bus

and made our way to Westminster Abbey

We waited through a huge line to get inside,

but it was worth the wait.

Many coronations have taken place in Westminster Abbey

as well as many royal marriages.

We got on the tube and went to St. Paul's cathedral.

We hurried and climbed up at least a thousand stairs

to get a look at London from the dome.

At this point we were exhausted and hungry so we took the tube

 

to the Theater district and found a delicious

Korean restaurant for dinner.

The food was amazing!!!

After dinner, we walked to the Victoria Palace Theater.

We got there early and had lots of time to

take pictures before Hamilton began.

What a gorgeous theater.

I had heard so much hype about the musical Hamilton,

but can I just say, it exceeded my expectations.

It was fabulous!

I was mesmerized every minute.

It was fun watching it in England because King George makes

a very comical appearance.

I am so glad we were able to get tickets!

It was one of the many highlights from the trip!

 Tuesday morning we checked out of our London hotel,

took an uber to the airport

and rented our rental car.

Evan bravely was the driver and Tom was the navigator.

Melissa and I happily sat in the back as moral support.

We made our way to beautiful Stratford upon Avon.

What glorious weather!

We wandered around and found the church where

William Shakespeare is buried.

What a picturesque place.

William Shakespeare's grave.

So many of the buildings in the little town

have original tudor houses and businesses.

We had a delicious lunch in a tea house.

The food was amazing and the old building was just as amazing.

We got back in our car and drove to Yorkshire and Sheffield where my Fox and Slinn

ancestors are from.

I put the address in for St. Peter's church in Sheffield

which is where the Slinn's were married

and ended up at this church,

which definitely wasn't around in the 1700's.

Funny story, this church is in a sketchy part of Sheffield

and we were in the middle of a drug deal.

I was glad to get out of there.

I've since discovered that the church they were married in

Sheffield Cathedral is a medieval church and is still standing in central

Sheffield. 

I guess we went to the wrong one :(
We gotta go back..

This was the vicarage behind the church which we thought might have

been original.

We drove through some of the areas that Evan served his mission in,

and ended up in York at our bed and breakfast.

We had dinner that night at a Thai restaurant.

The food was yummy!

Wednesday morning we explored York.

What a beautiful medieval city.

We started our exploration by walking along the city wall.

We met up with a tour guide and had a free tour of the old city.

These ruins date back to Roman times.

Constantine was actually crowned ruler of the Roman empire in York

The old abbey

The York rose is a common symbol in Yorkshire

This old city hall is now part of a university.

This is so beautiful it looks fake.

We shopped and wandered around the "shambles"

where as you can see the road between the buildings is very narrow.

You can almost touch both sides of the street.

The bakeries were amazing and I had to sample a macaroon.

We also toured Yorkminster
a beautiful cathedral

Love how this archbishop guy is posing on his crypt.

The baptistry

This guy must be buried with his dog

Tom on his way down the stairs from the bell tower

Not sure what this little devil guy is doing.

After dinner we walked back into York and took a ghost tour.

This guy was our tour guide.

He had a great Yorkshire accent and told some great spooky stories.

Thursday we checked out of our B & B and drove towards Newcastle upon Tyne.

We stopped in Helmsley, a picturesque Yorkshire town, and bought food for a picnic.

Who knew that holly (yes that Christmas stuff) grew on trees?

We drove through the absolutely gorgeous Yorkshire countryside

and found ourselves upon the moors.

We did a little hiking on the moors and thought about Jane Eyre, Rebecca,

and James Herriott and every other fictional character set in Yorkshire.

We had our picnic in Whitby, by this old abbey

which was the setting for Dracula

Yummy picnic!!

We then drove to Goathland

which was the setting for the Hogwart's Express

train station in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

This is totally where we were!

Steam train

Gorgeous wooden train

More beautiful Yorkshire countryside with lots of hedgerows.

We finally arrived at our B & B in Newcastle

and had dinner at a delicious pub.

My steak, leek, and ale pie was brilliant!

On Friday, we headed for Scotland with a few stops at castles along the way

Can you believe how narrow the roads are?

We first stopped at Alnwick castle.

What a cool garden gate.

Many movies have been filmed at Alnwick castle,

Harry Potter, Robin Hood Prince of Thieves, Transformers 5,

Downton Abby, just to name a few.

We toured inside the castle (very impressive, especially the library)
 because the duke who lives there wasn't there,

then we had a tour outside the castle.

Our cute tour guide who gave us a tour of all the sites that

were used in the movies.

A picture of the cast of Downton Abby,

they filmed the Christmas shows at this castle.

I used the bathroom in the castle and thought it was pretty funny 

to see this label in the toilet.

We continued our drive along the North Sea up to Bamburgh Castle.

What a gorgeous setting right along the coast.

We walked for a mile along the beach.

We stopped in Berwick upon Tweed and saw these beautiful Roman bridges.

We then drove into beautiful Edinburgh

to our B&B which was located really close to

the city center.

Oh Edinburgh, how I love you!

It is a beautiful city and kind of reminded me of Prague.

Everywhere you look is beautiful!

This castle on the hill in the middle of the city looks fake, it is so beautiful!

Edinburgh Train station

Love this bagpiper standing on the bridge

We walked around and caught the light at just the right time for some beautiful pics.

We found dinner that night right downtown.

Their specialty was "mashers'. Which to this Idaho girl were delicious
along with some Apple soda.

Step count at the end of the first week!

We walked over 50 miles

and climbed 238 flights of stairs.

Crazy, but awesome!

If you haven't had enough,
 Part 2 will continue with our second week of adventures!