I was up to London for a couple days for some training. Since I was in east London in the Financial district I took advantage of the area and the first night I went on a Jack the Ripper Walk which was really good! The second night I skated at Broadgate Ice Rink.
This year I decided to take Kelly to the Cotswolds area of England for our Anniversary (11 yrs). When you think about classic English villages, the Cotswolds are exactly that. Houses and buildings made from honey colored cotswold stone, these villages are a treat to visit. We stayed at a B&B in a village called Broadway. The B&B was called East House, and probably one of the nicest places we have ever stayed.
Here are some photos of East House and the Room we stayed in - "The Georgian".
Broadway Village and a couple shots from Broadway Tower
Dinner out on Saturday night in the Great Hall at the famous Lygon Arms Hotel
Other Cotswold Villages we visited:
Upper and Lower Slaughter. The name of the villages stems from the Old English name for a wet land 'slough' or 'slothre' (Old English for muddy place) upon which it lies. Very quiet, classic Cotswold village.
Bourton on the Water. While much more touristy, still a very enjoyable place to visit. We had tea and scones by the river here.
Chipping-Campden with its ancient Market Hall built in 1627, and the beautiful St. James Church
Stow-on-the-Wold - couple shots here with some really cool trees that were planted by this Church and now seem to be part of the structure
Kelly's parents and aunt Nancy are in town so we took the opportunity to take a weekday and go without the kids to visit Bath England. Typical english weather we had rain and sun off and on the entire day but generally it was favorable and nice considering we are now in October. And what a great city to visit! As the guidebooks will say, its a must visit if you come to England. Its is a very ancient city and as the name suggests is named for the Roman Baths that were the centerpiece of this town from the beginning. Bath is considered to be the southern most tip of the cotswold region of England. You can see the buildings all have a similar golden hue that comes from the sandstone in the region used to build all the stone buildings in the city.
Kelly and I celebrated 10 years of marriage on October 5 2012. Our goal was to pull off a weekend in London.... no easy task with 4 kids, but in a combined effort we were able to pull it off. We decided to bring Preston with us, and leave the 3 oldest at home with a babysitter. It turned out to be a spectacular sunny fall weekend in London, and a great way to celebrate 10 great years together.
We took the train up from Cardiff friday afternoon. Trains are very pleasant and much better than cars or airplanes. The train dropped us off at Paddington station in central london, and a short cab ride brought us to our hotel for the weekend. I had selected a boutique hotel - The Chesterfield Mayfair. Here are some shots of the hotel. The weekend package came with a bottle of champain and a complimentary afternoon tea which we took advantage of on Saturday afternoon.
Daytimes were spent walking and seeing the sites of central London. Since the weather was so good, we stayed outside for the most part. Plus lines were long at many sites and Preston is much better when he is moving around. Pictures from our daytime walks. You will likely recognize most of the landmarks.
On our 5th Aniversary we were living in Boise Idaho with only Hunter and Noah. We went away then as well. That time, my parents stayed with the two boys while we spent a long weekend in Park City Utah. Amazing how much is different in 5 years. Time flies when you are having fun.
We are big fans of the British drama - Downton Abbey. Visiting the location where the show is filmed - Highclere Castle, was on our 'must do' list when relocating to the UK!
The castle has somewhat limited opening times. A few days in May, a few days in June, and then open July, August and part of September with special openings at chrismas and Easter. In addition to the limited days, it also has limits on tickets offered per day, and is not open Friday's or Saturdays. So with the Olympics on this summer and it being a very easy trip out from London, it became a challenge to pick a day that would work and that wasn't sold out. A few weeks ago, we then realized that it would soon be closed again for the Winter with the last opening day being September 13. Then checking online we found out that there were only two days remaining that had tickets available (Sept 11, and 12) so we picked the 11th and pre-booked our tickets hoping for good weather.
Well this time, we lucked out on weather and had a beautiful fall day at Highclere castle. We decided to not pull the boys out of school being that it was only their second week, so went with only Preston and Abbie. It was a little over 2 hours from our house, mostly on motorways which made for good driving.
It is a very impressive site to behold as you begin walking up to the structure and see all the open laws around.
We decided to tour the inside of the castle first. Unfortunately they do not allow photography of any kind inside the house but it was amazing to see the rooms that we are now so familiar with. The house was packed, causing the tour to move very slow. They should limit the number of people moving through more. We figured about half the people visiting were there because of the TV show and the other half were just visiting it as a tourist destination, and didn't know anything about Downton Abbey, (and were probably trying to figure out who this 'Earl of Grantham' guy was.)
After the tour Abbey and Preston were starving so we had lunch on the green, before walking around the grounds.
Kelly and I realized that we were hungry now as well so stopped for lunch and tea at the tea room on the property. How very English! Overall, a great day, with perfect weather. The Season premier is this Sunday (Sept 16) so we are now excited to watch with a new perspective.
On the way home, I thought it might be fun to stop by Stonehenge since it is in the general vicinity.
Yes, its one of those 'must sees' if in England, but what a complete tourist trap....and very underwhelming. First off, they charge you a fee to walk on a cordoned off pathway that doesn't even let you anywhere near the stones. I don't mind paying if it helps preserve the site, but we are talking about a set of rocks here.... Plus the crowds ... today you would have been standing admiring the site with about 500 others (remember this was only a Tuesday after school was back in session). I satisfied my curiosity and took a few pictures from outside the fence for free like many others were doing. (The crowds of people from the bus tours are just slightly to the right of my photo, standing behind the ropes of course:)