The Britain Sample: England, Wales, Scotland July 9-21, 2000

I had been to England twice before this visit, but Corey had never been to Europe before. We decided to take a 10-day tour. We chose Brendan Tours, and had a lot of fun! The tour included England, Wales, and Scotland! I hadn't made it to Wales or Scotland on my previous visits, so I was very excited to visit these other two destinations! I also really wanted to show Corey things I'd loved so much on my previous visits: Greenwich, the British Museum, Stonehenge, the Tower of London, and the whole experience of London! We used a local travel agent to make the tour reservations. We added a three-night stay in London at the end of the trip. I took 22 rolls of film! I haven't included all of them here, however, there are quite a few! So you will have to scroll down a ways to view all of them. They are in chronological order, beginning with the day our flight left Los Angeles, Sunday, July 9th. If you have never been, I hope these pictures inspire you to make a visit to Great Britain, and if you have been previously, I hope these pictures help you think of your own wonderful memories! Enjoy! Click on the thumbnail to see a larger picture. Or you can go to the album page with all the larger format pictures. It may take a bit of time to load, however. NOTE: Some links are not yet active! Please bear with me as I get everything completed! And as normal, more is yet to come!                       On the way to the airport. July 9, 2000 Branscombe Richmond played Bobby Sixkiller in the tv show Renegade. This was our first view of London! After checking into our hotel, we immediately adventured out to go to Greenwich! Corey loves the tubes as much as I!           It had started to rain before we even got off the airplane! But that didn't stop me from dragging Corey out to Greenwich to stradle the Prime Meridian!   The red phone boxes are my favorite British icon!   The British Parliment is a familar sight even if you have never been to London before! It is along the Thames River. (Pronounced Temms-Thanks Heather!) One of the Queen's Guards.                 The day of our city tour we were to see the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace, instead we saw the Queen Mum! She turned 100 in August, 2000.  The Guards marchng down the Mall towards Buckingham Palace. Some of the beautiful scenery on the drive to Windsor Castle. After our morning city tour and a bite of lunch, we took a tour to Windsor Castle. It was still on the cool and drizzly side weather-wise.  View of Windsor Castle with a jet. A note about Windsor Castle: In the Fall of 1992, a horrible fire broke out and destroyed a lot of the castle. A restoration project took place and the rooms that were destroyed are back to their original splendor. I had been there in July of 1992 on my last visit to England.                  A Castle gardener at work.   One of the very wonderful things about Windsor, is the beautiful "hidden" gardens! You have to be sure to look over walls to see the aboundance of marvelous gardens throughout the castle grounds.     View of a turret of Windsor Castle.     Corey in front of Windsor Castle. The only drawback about being on an organized tour, is there never seems to be enough time to really explore where you are. But, later in this album, I'll make a comment about exploring on your own!                 Elizabeth in front of the train that Queen Victoria used to take to the castle. In the evening we had dinner and a cruise along the Thames. This is the Millineum Eye ferris wheel. We saw Parliment and the Clock Tower from the river. Many think this is Big Ben, but that is really the name of the bell. The RAF was flying over the Thames as a special show for the Queen Mum's birthday party which went on even before the actual day.         A view of St. Paul's at dusk from the river cruise. Tuesday was a very busy day for us! During the summer it doesn't get dark until around 10 p.m. This is a view of the Tower Bridge during the river cruise. Hampton Palace was the first stop on our tour as it got underway with our tour guide, Nell, on Wednesday morning. After an hour or so on the tour bus (known as a coach) walking the grounds of Hampton Palace was a nice break. The weather was still a bit cloudy, but it didn't stop us from having a lovely time! It seemed to be the best weather for a walk through the gardens! The yew trees are planted so that from the air they say W and M for William and Mary.             I love the signs of the pubs and inns. This is in Salisbury. Our next stop after Hampton. I was here in Salisbury the first time I visited England in 1987. At that time they were raising money to clean and restore the Cathedral. I was very happy to see that they had made good use of the one pound coin I donated! This is the front of Salisbury Cathedral. There are still some scaffolds up and the work continues. They have accomplished a lot and I was very impressed. Corey was looking forward to his first pint in an authentic English Pub!             Mysterious Stonehenge is on the Salisbury Plain. Corey at Stonehenge. Our next stop was Bath. This is a shot of the Cathedral. The Romans built this pool. Natural spring warm water rises up here.               Shot of Corey filming our visit to Bath. Elizabeth at the Roman Baths. A large stone from the bath. Corey at the source of the spring water.         These cat pillows in a store window reminded us of Magnum and Pie. Royal Victoria Park in Bath. At first we were disappointed to not stay in Bath, but Bristol was a lovely city. We took a walk through town with Randy and Sue. This is the floating dock on the river Avon in Bristol.         The University of Bristol We stopped for a brief visit in Stow-on-Wold on our way to Stratford. Stow-on-Wold is a very quaint and pretty village in the Cotswolds. We stopped for a picture stop at Anne Hathaway's cottage.       This bust of William Shakespeare is in the house in which he was born and raised. This is the dining area of the kitchen of the Shakespeare home. After we took this picture a docent came in and VERY STERNLY, not friendly at all, told us we were NOT to take pictures in the house! I never did see a sign. Oh well.   More     Please send comments to Elizabeth © 2000 Speedcat.com Created September 15, 2000 Updated October 14, 2000