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. 

We Are Here! London that is!

After a pretty uneventful couple of flights, we arrived safely at Heathrow.  We had a little joking with the border patrol about if we had a place to stay for the night, got new stamps in our passports, and met our driver all before 7:00 am.  We had a 20 minute ride from Heathrow to our Hotel (the Park Plaza Westminster Bridge).  This hotel is situated just over the Thames river on the south bank, about a block from the Millenial wheel the giant Ferris Wheel.  We didn't get to check in to our hotel room right away, so we left our luggage with the concierge and walked back over the bridge into the area of Westminster.

This is the view from our hotel across the bridge to Big Ben, Parliament and the Westminster area.

A large Lion statue at the side of the Thames and bridge and below is Parliament buildings.

PARDON my picture taking abilities.  I am not Morgan or Alan who both take great pictures. 

  We walked across the bridge in back of us toward the clock tower and then turned left down a street and saw the Parliament buildings up close and personal.  The weather is cool, jacket weather, just right for me. The picture below is of the big Ferris Wheel on the right of the bridge.

 Below are statues of Cromwell first and then Richard the Lion Heart below him both at the Parliament buildings.

 We were walking down a beautiful street and across the street to our right was Westminster Abbey where Prince William and Kate Middleton were married two weeks ago or a fortnight. 

To our left was the tower which used to be the Westminster Palace, but is now the Parliament Buildings.

We wanted to walk over to Westminster Abbey, so we walked down this pretty little street on the backside of the Abbey with a wall, but were never able to get in to the abbey area. But I took some pictures of the backdoor and some beautiful window boxes. Every building, every home, every window has beautiful flowers hanging in front. I love that.

 This was the backside of the Abbey.  Look where the door knob is.  This wall and door were very old. 

So we finally got to the abbey, it costs 16 pounds to go in.  I have some extra pounds I would like to donate to Westminster abbey.  But we didn't go in, not yet! Maybe tomorrow.  But I took some pictures outside. 

The picture above is of the Jewel Tower, built almost 1,000 years ago.  This area was just across the street from Parliament also and in the same area as the abbey.  You can't see it in the picture but it had a real moat sans water.Then Sara wanted to go take a picture of No.10 Downing Street.  On the was we saw a statue of Abraham Lincoln, and an one that looked like Joseph Smith.  I don't know who it was, but this is the second statue I have seen in Europe that looks like the prophet.  The other one was in Rome at the Villa Borghese.  

 Above is Abraham and below is Joseph.

Very much like the White House,  They don't let you get too close.  Across the street is the entrance.

I shot the above picture toward where I thought the Prime Minister lived and the one below of the sign of the street. 

Back toward the Parliament area and the bridge was this cute pub. 

 The food looked really good, especially the cheesecake.  The Fish and Chips sounded best to me.  I love English chips, don't you?

On the way back to our hotel to see if we could check in, I just had to get a shot of me in this

.  So we are now back at the hotel, checked in.  Sara is snoozing and snoring and I'm really wiped out, but I wanted you to see our room.  Very, very nice, except for a weird ballet picture.

 I am missing everyone already, but so excited to be here,  as you can tell from my picture. 

Have a great day!,  I'm going to get some sleep!