Bud and Karen Little Family: Trip to England

Trip to England - 2008

London

This is the start of our trip to England - This section covers London - Other pages are for York, Cotswolds, and Bath.

Taking off and arriving

Here we are starting out and checking into our Bed and Breakfast in London

Wimbledon

The highlight and driving force for the trip was Wimbledon

Arriving in Wimbledon (cute town)

The Williams Sisters -- Playing on the same side in doubles

Of course it would not be Wimbledon without Strawberries and Cream

London Sites

Near Buckingham palace

Tower of Big Ben (actually Ben is the name for the bells)

London Eye Ferris Wheel

An outdoor Opera in the Trafalgar Square

Note the Jameson name on the awnings (likely named after the notorious Tyler Jameson Little)

Outside LDS church in London near Hyde Park

Looking out the Hop on Hop Off Bus - (St. Paul's Cathedral)

Of course the platform from the Harry Potter movie - (Kings Cross Station)

Buckingham Palace and the Changing of the Guard

Across from Buckingham Palace

Statue of the Queen in the square in front of Buckingham Palace

Area where the mounted Guard get ready for the changing of duties

The old guard that have been working all day come out of their barracks and go down the road to Buckingham Palace for the changing of the new guards

The new and refreshed guards come from the area and march down with a marching band to the Buckingham Palace to relieve the old guard. (Guards come from Welsh, Scottish, and other guard units from around England.

They both converge on Buckingham Palace for the Changing of the Guard that happen every day in the summer months around 12:00 noon - (pending rain)

London Sites

Westminster Abbey -

Tower of London - (pretty interesting - they keep the Crown Jewels (crown for queen) there.)

The tower was notorious for toucher.

The old days of an 'out house' inside.

The Beefeaters still keep track of the Tower and give tours.

The British Museum was pretty impressive.

Great Egyptian area.

Rosetta Stone - (always heard about this, kind of fun to see it.)

London Theaters

London has an incredible amount of theaters.

We enjoyed a 'who done it' - Agatha Christie murder mystery at the Mouse Trap. (London's longest running play ever.)

The Shakespere Globe has fantastic plays. (Fortunately or unfortunately - we could not get tickets except for the 'peasant standing only tickets) - Kind of fun right down in front.

We got to see Wicked. Lot's of fun!!

York and Cambridge

After London we picked up a care and drove up to York - visiting Cambridge on the way up.

Whoohoo!!! Driving on the wrong side of the road, sitting on the wrong side of the car, and shifting with the left hand. What an adventure!!! (Especially around the many round-abouts or going down VERY small coutry roads at at Break-Neck speeds almost jousting with the upcoming cars using the rear view mirrors as swords.

Cambridge

Cambridge is an interesting city. The university is made up of many colleges (Trinity, Christ's Church, and etc.) The students live in the college areas and can take classes at any of the colleges and graduate from Cambridge.

The Students live in these areas and have a central grassy area.

Museum.

York

York is a walled city. It was inhabited by the Romans around 300 AD. The foundation of the current Minster was built on the old Roman foundation. When Henry the 8th pulled away from the Catholic Church he formed the Church of England. (He basically threw out the Catholic monks and nuns and trashed out the churches. Below is the left overs from that.

The old shops have VERY narrow streets.

Typical Pub - good reasonable priced food. (We even had Yorkshire Pudding in York. Tasted a lot like Karen's home cooking.)

Oldest pub in York. (Built in 1500's)

Wall around city.

York Minster - (Church of England 2nd most important location. 1st being Arch-Bishop of Canterbury - Arch-Bishop of York in #2.)

Looking off top of York Minister - after something like 250+ steps.

Dining out in York - (was an old Assembly Hall)

Chipping Camden and cruising the Cotswold.

The Cotswolds are a delightfully quaint series of little villages in Central England. We stayed in Chipping Camden, but traveled through a half of dozen little villages (separated by grassy rolling hills of farming land and sheep.)

A cattle traffic jam on a small country road.

Boren on the Water - cute little town with parks and canals.

This hotel is in a town called Bakewell. Jane Austin stayed in this hotel. (Obviously we needed to see it, since Jane Austin stayed there.)

Bakewell is famous for their Bakewell Pudding. (a great custard like pie -- really great!!) )

In the Cotswold's the houses are named. Here is the Little House.

Yes, they still have butcher shops with meat hanging in the window. (Also many of these and other shops have Cornish Pasties - (a great little meat turn-over with meats, cheeses, and taste great.)

Stockades in Stow-in-the-Wold - Karen has me where she wants me.

This is located outside a church. Looks a lot like the entrance in one of the Lord of the Ring's movies. (Unfortunately did not see any Hobbits.)

Chatsworth House Look familiar??? If you are a big Jane Austin fan this house was used for (I believe) Mr. Darcey's house (the Pemberly?? - Personally I am not a big Jane Austin fan -- sorry - however my wife Karen is HUGE Jane Austin fan so it was a 'mandatory' stop. ) However, in a VERY pretty setting with sheep roaming around with beautify countryside.

A cute couple outside the Chatsworth house - (wondering why they can't move here.)

Bath

Bath is a wonderful little tourist town. As a matter of fact it was a tourist spa for the Romans in around 300 AD. The Romans built some great baths and spas around a hot water mineral spring. Years later in the 1700's the Brits built baths right on top of the old Roman baths. It wasn't until a surveyor dug down and found the Roman baths under the 1700 baths. (Actually in pretty good shape.) Here are the Roman Baths. (Renovated from the earlier baths)

One of the older houses in Bath. Later the city was built in the 1700's with stone rather than the brick on this house.

Origin of the hot springs

Church right outside Roman Baths

A speculator builder built the Royal Crescent, a place for the wealthy to live and promenade around the square.

The Costume and Fashion Museum

Karen even gets to dress up in the costumes. Here is a British "Hottie"

Yep, you guessed it. Karen would not miss the Jane Austin Center.

The Woodville Bed and Breakfast. (with the cutest grandma for a proprietor .)

Desserts in the Pump House. (How posh!!!)

Typical homes in Bath.

Avebury and Stonehenge

Avebury is much like Stone Hendge - but with more rocks and spread out more

Yes, Stone Hendge is just like in the pictures. However, it is just hanging out there in a field.

Blenheim Palace (Birthplace of Winston Churchill and residence of the Duke of Marlborough) The story goes that the Duke of Marlboro won a big battle for England (I think back in 1500 or 1600 hundreds.) The Queen rewarded him with a huge amount of money. He spent the money on a great palace. It has been handed down from Duke to Duke through the time. (The current Duke of Marlboro lives in it now.I think he much use the entry fee money to help maintain it. ) It is often referred to as Brittan's version of the Versailles palace in France. Winston Churchill was a cousin to the Duke. His mom was on holiday staying at the Blenheim Palace when Winston was due and he was born in the palace. He spent a fair amount of time in his growing up years visiting and staying at the palace. (I guess military genius runs in families...)