As Promised...

Finally... back to England!  =-) 

(I think i've figured out the problem with Blogger.  It works MUCH better if i upload the pictures FIRST.)

If you recall, we landed in Manchester, England; had supper with S & her friend; left the next morning (in a rental car) for Wales; rode north across the coast toward Rhyl, Colwyn Bay, Llandudno, and around the Great Orme.  Then we rode south toward Betws-y-Coed, Dolgellau, and Aberystwyth, all the way to Cardigan.  We spent the night in a hotel in a small town called Gwbert, and left the next day for Carmarthen where we met up with K & her friend, and took them to lunch.  Then we went to Newport, Wales (Ryder Cup was there), and on to Bath, England.  We spent the night in Bath and went to the old town of Lacock, followed by Bourton-on-the-Water.  We spent the night in Bath again...  And now you're "caught up"!  =-)

The fifth day began with a typical English breakfast for me.  (I LOVED it!  I know lots of people talk about how bad and/or bland the food is in England, but i never had anything there that i didn't like, and i tried some of the "traditional" stuff.)

Traditional English breakfast, minus the beans.

After breakfast, we walked into town to tour the Roman baths in Bath (thus the name!).

The main Roman bath, looking down from the present street level.

Boyfriend & me below the present street level, touring the Baths.

I won't bore you with ALLL the pictures we took.  =-)

After touring the Baths, we took the Mayor's Tour of Bath, England.  If you ever go, SERIOUSLY take this tour!  It's very informative, and it's 

FREE!  =-)  Free is always good!  

Street sign near the start of our Mayor's Tour.  Boyfriend & i liked it...

The Royal Crescent in Bath, England.  Google it sometime.  You'll be amazed...

Circus in Bath, England.  It's thus called because the four buildings make a circle.

Sorry, i don't really have a better picture of it.  Google this one too!  =-)

After our Mayor's Tour of Bath, and after we had a bite for lunch, we went to...

Yes!  Stonehenge!
I ABSOLUTELY *LOVED* IT!!! 
There was a slight problem with visiting Stonehenge, though...
I WAS FREEZIN'!!!  The temp was in the 40s, and the wind was *whippin'* across all those open pastures around Stonehenge.
You see, Stonehenge is in the middle of *nowhere*, with *nothing* around it except for some military camps (bases).  We could hear them shooting their cannons and what-not, but still...

It was Beautiful and Majestic, and i *loved* it!
I  think i could have stood there and "felt" it better if i wasn't freezin' my ass off, but if i ever get the chance to go back, you better believe i'll go back to Stonehenge as well!
Talk about History!

We took *TONS* of pictures of Stonehenge, but i'll only show you a *few*... unless you simply beg me to show more.  =-)

Boyfriend and me in front of Stonehenge.

It's not tiny, but it's not as big as i thought it was from the t.v. shows i've seen...

But i'm NOT complaining!

It was Magnificent!

Sorry about the "Do Not Enter" sign, but they were everywhere.

So much so that Boyfriend didn't even notice it was in the pic until i pointed it out to him...

at HOME!  =-)

  

A shot from far away.

There's a walk all the way around it so you can see it 360.

After oohing and aahing (and freezing my buns off!), we turned in the rental car at Gatwick Airport, and rode the train in to Victoria Station.

Boyfriend & me on the train into London.

We were excited, and getting a bit tired...

The Victoria Station in London.

We had to find the correct Tube to get to our hotel.

No problem though!  There was a  Tube station right around the corner from our hotel!  Yay!

We stayed at the Copthorne Tara International Hotel near the High Street/Kensington Tube station.

The view of London from our hotel window.

If i had pointed a *little* more to the left, you would have been able to see

the London Eye in the distance.

Once we got settled into our rooms, Boyfriend, W, C and I went out in search of a pub for supper.

We didn't have far to look!  (Thank goodness.)

We got supper and a pint (or two...) at a pub called The Prince of Wales.

We thought it was fitting, since we'd just been in Wales a couple of days before, and we loved it so.

Good pub! 

W took a picture of *every* pub we ate/drank in!

Trust me, that's a lot of pubs.  =-)

A good end to a VERY good day!

I SWEAR i'll try to post sooner than the previous "incidents"! 

=-)

I Won! =-)

DeeRoo had a give-away a couple of weeks ago, and

I Won! 

I couldn't believe it!  But even more,

i could NOT BELIEVE what she SENT me!!!
Look:

A shot so you can see that there *was*  sun when my daughter (Bunny) started taking pictures, but it was movin' FAST!

I was sorta expecting the package in the mail, but when i saw it,

I squealed like a little girl!  =-)

It contained TWO mug rugs (like coasters, but large enough for your coffee mug *and* a cookie or muffin):

What i'm callin' the "front" 'cause i love it so!

What i think DeeRoo intended as the front, and they're BEAUTIFUL!

 She also sent a mini quilt (which is what the give-away was for), which is on my kitchen counter at the moment, but i may hang it on the wall:

Beautiful!

And she has a pre-made label on the back! 

I want pre-made labels! [whine]

Love!

Dee also gave me a pattern to try out, and she sent along the *sweetest* note with my package! 

Pattern on the left and Love Note on the right.  =-)

And, as if all the above wasn't enough, Dee also sent me two batik fat quarters!  She said she felt such love and support from me when she started her blog, that she felt like i deserved all of this love...

I almost cried when i got this package in the mail...

Beautiful fabrics i'll make something with...

Thank you SO MUCH Dee!!! You're the BEST!

Here's everything together in one pic.  The sun was setting SOOO fast!  I had to continually move things as Bunny was taking the pix.  I wouldn't have believed it if i hadn't been there to see it myself!

Thank you Dee for having a give-away for your One Year Blogging Anniversary!

May you have many more GREAT years!

=-)

Day Five (Finally!)

Ughghghgh!!!!!
Blogger is giving me a hard time today!!!
It won't let me upload pix!

I'll be back...

We Interrupt This Program Once Again...

Sorry, but i'm traveling today and this weekend.   I'll be back Monday or Tuesday with more Tales of My England Trip.

=-)

We Interrupt This Program with a Very Special Announcement...

I'll get back to telling you about our trip to England tomorrow, but first i have to tell you why today is so special:

Today is my 27th wedding anniversary!!!

Boyfriend and i were married in some hotel in Charleston, SC 27 years ago.  I would show you pictures, but...

On the way to the park across from the Justice of the Peace's office, Boyfriend and i got in a terrible automobile accident in Georgetown, SC.  We plowed into the back of an 18-wheeler on a bridge on the highway, and we totalled Boyfriend's car.  Needless to say, we did not make it to our 2:00 "wedding" in the park.  Boyfriend called the Justice of the Peace  (JOP) from the hospital (while waiting for me to have x-rays), and the JOP said to "just let her know if we still wanted to do it later that evening since the paperwork was already filled out." 

So at about 7:00 that night, in our hotel room on I-26, the JOP married Boyfriend & me.  The 2 of us were all bruised up, and i had a broken thumb and 7 stitches in my leg, but we were determined to "do this thing!"

Boyfriend's Toyota Starlet on Nov 3rd, 1983

Boyfriend's  Toyota Starlet on Nov 4th, 1983

And here we are, twenty-seven years later!  We've kidded that since it was just Boyfriend and me and the JOP, maybe we weren't really *legally* married...   But it's certainly "by law" by now!  =-)

Yes, we've had our rough patches.  Every relationship does.
We lovingly refer to 1994 as "The Year of The Bitch"!  But thank you, Boyfriend, for holding on!  It just keeps getting better and better!!!

Thank you, Boyfriend, for being the BEST husband any girl could EVER ask for!!!

And may we have 27 MORE!

=-)

p.s. Do a little jig for my 100th Post!

Day Four: Bath, Lacock, Bourton-on-the-Water, Bath (again)

We drove our rental car from Bath, England to a small, old town called Lacock .  Beautiful little old town.  People actually LIVE in this town!  There are signs in most of the windows that say something about 'these really are houses and people really live here. Please do not disturb.' or something much nicer.

Lacock, England

The Red Lion Hotel on the left.

(W & C have stayed there before and highly recommend it.)

A barn built in the 1200s in Lacock.

Yep, you read that right!

An old church still in use in Lacock

(they were preparing for a service when we were walking around in it). 

Boyfriend (my husband) really likes this one.

It's an old gaol (jail).

Not even gonna ask what that says about him/us...

 After walking all around Lacock, we got back in the car and went to another quaint town in the Cotswolds area called Bourton-on-The-Water.  Another beautiful and old town.

This type of picture helps us remember where we were

when we're older and looking back on pix.

 There was a "Motor Museum" in Bourton-on-the-Water.  Very much worth the 4 pounds 10 pence admission price!  One man used to own most of what's in these seven or eight buildings!  He collected the cars, motorcycles, bicycles and other memorabilia for about 40 years, and he retired about 12 years ago and gave it to this organization.  If you're EVER in the area, give it a look!  You'll LOVE it too.

We  went to the Motor Museum.

Boyfriend LOVED it!  I thought it was really cool too.

Very worthwhile place to visit.

Just ONE of the MANY pix Boyfriend took in the museum.

 After driving and touring around, we went back to Bath for the evening.

Boyfriend and me in front of the Weir on the River Avon in Bath.

The Weir in front of Pultney Bridge, Bath, England

The Abbey in Bath, England

The Weir at Pultney Bridge on the River Avon on our stroll "home" in the evening.

Once again, it was another wonderful and beautiful day.  We had excellent weather and the sun even graced us with its presence off-and-on that day (October 17th).

Have i mentioned lately that i ABSOLUTELY LOVE LOVE LOVE ENGLAND!?!?!

=-)

Day Three

Woke up in Wales, in a small town near Cardigan.

We had breakfast at the Cliff Hotel (where we spent the night) in Gwbert  before beginning our day of driving the countryside. 

I LOVE the Traditional English Breakfast!  It consists of 2 over-medium eggs, "grilled" tomatoes and mushrooms, bangers (sausage, but doesn't really taste like our breakfast sausage, and it's *bigger*), beans (basically like Pork-n-Beans but without the pork), "bacon"  (looks just like country ham, but tastes a little like bacon), and toast.  LOVE! 

Traditional English Breakfast (minus the beans)

The Wales countryside. 

You can barely see the windmills in the background on the top of the hills. 

There were lots  of windmills on hilltops in Wales.  Generating electricity.  Yay!

After breakfast, we packed up and drove south (mostly along the west coast) to a small town callled Carmarthen, Wales.  We were going there to meet up with K (another friend from the Wine Room on a semester study-abroad). 

She walked us to the castle in the heart of Carmarthen, and then we walked to a nice little fish-n-chips place for lunch.

It was wonderful to see her again! 

The Castle in Carmarthen, Wales.

The Y Gegin Cafe, famous for excellent fish-n-chips.

After lunch and a nice visit with K and her friend, we drove on, heading east toward England and out of Wales.

The bridge over the Severn River

"Welcome to England"

and in Welsh at the bottom

Since W is a golfer (it's almost like a religion for some!), we absolutely HAD to stop  at the Celtic Manor where the Ryder Cup was played just a month or so ago...

This was solely for W

It didn't really mean much to me, but it was a GORGEOUS place!

Next we "landed" in Bath.  It's the most beautiful city!  And it's a very old city, so there was a lot of history there.  Oh heck! Who am i kidding?!  All of England is old with LOADS of history EVERYWHERE!  I loved it!  And the architecture!

We stayed in an old B&B called the Villa Magdala.  It was beautiful.  Boyfriend and i had never stayed in a B&B anywhere before, so i think this one has spoiled us for B&Bs from now on.  I doubt any B&B anywhere can be as great as this one was...

The Villa Magdala in Bath, England (from the front)

The Villa Magdala in Bath (entry is on the side)

Our Room (en-suite)

Double bed in our room

The Breakfast Room at the Villa Magdala B&B

 Once we got settled into our rooms, we went strolling around the beautiful town of Bath.  We settled on supper at the Sally Lunn, the oldest recorded house in Bath.  It's a quaint little place with multiple floors and delicious food. 

The Sally Lunn House (Restaurant)

The Sally Lunn House, circa 1482

After supper, we took a leisurely stroll back through town to our B&B for a very restful night.

Join me again tomorrow for Day Four...

=-)