We Made it to Scotland!

On Wednesday am we were in Chester and stayed there for most of the morning. Apparently, Chester started out as a very old Roman encampment so there are quite a lot of ancient things round about; as in walls, buildings, castle walls., etc. I'm getting to the point where I have heard so much information that I think my brain is saturated and it's not letting too much more in. We walked around a bit and saw the church which is only a little less old than the cathedral at Salisbury which was built in something like 1260. So that makes the church is Chester built around 1300? I don't really know for sure, I just know it is old.  I was walking around thinking of one of the books I read by Roberta Gellis, I can't remember the name but I know Chester was in it.  It was a pretty good book.  So now I may have to borrow it from Lizzy and read it again.


 

We went up on the old wall that was built around the original much smaller city. Surprisingly, there was still much of the wall left and they let us walk right on it. I can't imagine doing this in the US. That's the great thing about Europe, the are so good about letting you see and touch their old ruined parts. These are some of the pictures of the wall.

We walked around on this - it was up about two stories high.

Sara on the wall between two buildings.  When they started to run out of room in these old cities, they just started to go up higher. 

Above is a picture of the wall going across one of the main thoroughfares.  I think this was either water gate street or something like that.  The funny Victorian thing on top of the wall was put up in honor of, who else? Queen Victoria.  There are so many Victorian monstronsities all over these countries.  It's a shame how much they get in the way of all the old walls, buildings, etc.

Below is a picture of a Roman amphitheater, I think.

 and this is a Norman Arch ?  I really should have been paying better attention.

Below are pictures of the architecture in Chester.  There are a lot of very old buildings, but some are not as old and have been built to fit in.  I think this one below was 1660 something?

While we were waiting for the bus, Sara and I went hat shopping.  We wanted to get one of those cool fascinators like we saw so many women wearing at the Royal Wedding.  This is the inside of the hat shop.  There were hundred of hats!

So then we were off to the Lake District.  Yay!  I was thinking the Lake district would be very wide and open and different than it actually was.  There is actually only one lake in the Lake district and then many meres.  So, Windemere and Grasmere are towns that are situated on those lakes.  Mere means water.  You know mar in Spanish means sea.  I'm sure it is related.  The lakes are situated between and amongst fens.  Fens are not tall enough to be mountains, nor short enough to be hills, thus they are fens.  And the fens are all bald and rocky and rounded on top.  At the bottoms of these fens are the meres and the one lake, and it is the most beautiful area I have seen here in England.  I can see why everyone in England wants to visit there.  It was greener than green and just beautiful.  Inside I just kept thinking,"I can't believe I'm seeing this." 
Even though I think Utah and Idaho are beautiful and gorgeious and breath taking, this place is opposite to them and I love it.  It's kind of a yin yang thing.  We stopped in Grasmere for about one and a half hours for lunch and to see the village.  Wordsworth lived and died here,  Beatrix Potter moved here and wrote some of her little books from here.  The church graveyard is where Wordsworth is buried and Sara and I found his gravestone.  It is one of the most picturesque little villages ever.  I wish my pictures did it justice.

 This is a picture of Lake Windemere.

 This is a picture of the little stream that flows through Grasmere.

 This lovely arrangement was planted atop a fence ending.

The bridge over the stream.

 Below is the church and churchyard where Wordsworth was buried.  And then the gravestone of William Wordworth and his family.

We could smell the most amazing butter smell in the churchyard. So, we followed our noses and it led us to this quaint little Gingerbread shop.  Cute front window and little gate that led into it. 

Inside was this lady selling her wares.

Sara outside the shop glad we didn't purchase another sweet thing,.  I've been indulging a little too much.

Sorry this one is so blurry, but we were whizzing by as we left Grasmere.  Then we were off to see Scotland.  We climbed up and up and saw lots of stone fences.

Lots of sheep in the fields and on the hillside.

Lots of gorse on the fens.  That's the yellow brush plant on the side.

 Then we saw the Atlantic ocean to the left of us and turned to the northeast toward the other side of Scotland to get to Edinburgh.  That's the Atlantic out there.

 Then we came to a place that is very famous in Regency literature.  There was this wee beastie in a field next door.

 And some beautiful heather, which wasn't on the moor, thank you very much, Catherine and Heathcliff.

 Yes, we had arrived at Gretna Green and the village blacksmith's place of business.  Too bad I was here without Alan.  Maybe we could have renewed our vows. 

Very little and very touristy.  They were selling everything.  Then we were on our way to Edinburgh.  We finally got there about 5:30 and I will let Sara tell you about Edinburgh, since I've taken up way too much time.

From London to Bath May 16, 2011

We started off on Monday morning taking a long route out of London. London goes on and on, just different areas of it that go from one city to another, but I will just call them London. We were headed West, even though I could have sworn we were driving to the Northeast. We were headed for Hampton Court to see the palace that Henry VIII built. I was excited to see the gardens, which were being opened especially just for us. I was not disappointed.

Hampton Court is about a day’s carriage ride from London , for us about 45 – 60 minutes. We were driving parallel with the Thames river sometimes crossing over it and then crossing back. The palace is on the Thames river and so visitors to the court could come up the river in a barge and land and then were escorted up through the gardens to the palace. Very cool. The oldest part of Hampton Court is a Tudor style  (see above pictures). The next part was built on by Elizabeth, Henry’s daughter with Anne Boelyn, and then the last part is Georgian which was actually built during the time of William and Mary, not Tudors anymore, but Georges.

The gardens were huge and surrounded the palace on three sides. I loved all of them; the formal gardens, the promenade, the informal, the herb garden, the wilderness.

 The formal garden entrance.

 This is the orangerie.

This is the herb garden which they were reconstructing.

 I'm going to try and make one of these for my wilderness garden.

Sara posing by the rhododendrons in the wilderness park.
We then traveled west again to the town of Salisbury and the great cathedral there. The book ,”The Pillars of Heaven” by Ken Follett was written about this cathedral. Fiction of course. Ken Follet actually lives here in this town. The cathedral is huge and they finished it in just 38 years. If you could see this place you would be amazed. A copy of The Magna Carta is also here at this Cathedral. Also, Europe’s oldest clock is here. Outside the yards and houses were beautiful.

 The old old old clock

After Salisbury we traveled on to Stonehenge. What can I say about this place? We walked all around the outside snapping pictures and enjoying it so much.

Then on to Bath – I loved Bath before I ever saw it, mainly because of “Friday’s Child” and “Persuasion”, which both have parts that take place here, Bath was surprising because it turned out to be a very hilly town – not flat like I had assumed. We saw the church there,

and the Roman Baths after which Bath was named,

the Assembly rooms, where the dances and socials took place,

 the Circle which was a good place to live socially, and the Royal Crescent, which was even more exclusive. Bath is a really neat city, most the buildings are made of Limestone and so it’s all pretty yellow. Below is the royal crescent row of homes.  You know - where Anne runs down Captain Wentworth in the newest movie.

So there you have it, sweethhearts!  Our first day out on the highways of England.  Cheerio and What, what, and all that.

p.s.  Make sure you check out Sara's blog she has posted again our adventures from Bath to Chester. 

Sara has posted, but it isn't showing up!

Go to Sara's blog to see what we did in London today.  For some reason her blog is not showing a new post.  Sara is having blogger issues and we hope to get them fixed.  Her side pictures and other things are not showing up on her blog either.  Do any of you know how to fix these problems?  Let us know.