Great Britain
York and Leeds – Day 9
Today we left Edinburgh and were on our way to York and Leeds. But after breakfast, we had yet another “coffee” stop. Out tour director decided to make 45-60 minute stops about an hour after breakfast so people could get coffee. I don’t know anyone who needs 45 minutes for coffee an hour after breakfast. And these stops were generally at gas stations that also had a Woolen Mill (a chain store). By this day, I was positively livid about this. I’d rather spend more time sight seeing and not shopping at a gas station! So, I decided to go for a walk, even though it was a little drizzly out. I noticed a lovely garden and spent most of...
Read MoreEdinburgh and Rosslyn Chapel – Day 8
This is Allan, our tour guide for a few hours in Edinburgh. Oh how I wished he were our tour guide the entire tour as opposed to the few hours in the morning in Edinburgh. Several people shared my sentiments. We were so sad to see him go. This guy was informative, interesting, coherent, engaging, enthusiastic to share the beauty of his city, helpful, genuinely interested to be here and share his knowledge and just delightful; in essence, everything our guide wasn’t. [Oh don't get me started; I wrote a 3-page, single-spaced, letter to the tour company describing all the shortcomings of the tour guide.] Our tour started with a drive which saw us disembark at...
Read MoreScottish Highlands – Day 7
Today started out with a promise. We were on out way to visit a shepherd! If you’ve been reading my blog with any regularity, you’ll have noticed my fascination with farms and people who run them and keep some kind of animals for food and profit. Though this particular stop was an optional excursion, in retrospect, this was absolutely, hands-down, the best part of the guided tour (yes, even better than seeing the Magna Carta). This man has 33 dogs, all of which he trains himself. He has special whistles and verbal command and each dog has some commands that are unique to that dog. Oh those dogs! They’re so well-trained, and so...
Read MoreGlasgow, Scottish Highlands – Day 6
Ugh. Today it rained all day, which means the two optional excursions that I purchased (one a boat ride on Lach Lomond and cable car ride to the top of Ben Nevis mountain) were canceled. One would think that there would be a back-up plan of some sort, since this is the first tour of this kind in Scotland, and it’s fall, and it rains in Scotland, especially in the fall. Needless to say, I was very angry about the poor planning. (Still am.) So we drove around and the bus would drop us off in shopping areas. I didn’t come here to shop! I really didn’t like that at all. Trying to make something positive come out of this miserable day, I thought...
Read MoreLake District, Glasgow – Day 5
I was a little disappointed today with the trip. The Lake District is supposedly some of the most gorgeous land in England and it looked like Door County in Wisconsin. Maybe it was just me, but I saw nothing special in the little train ride on a coal engine, nor did I see anything special in a boat ride from the train to where the bus picked us up (which was about halfway up the lake). The train was dirty with worn out seats and the coal produced an unpleasant scent. Had I known, I wouldn’t have purchased this optional excursion. We were on Lake Windemere (or Lach Windemere) and it has some beautiful houses along the shore, just like we do back home. Granted, we...
Read MoreBristol, Chester, Llangollen – Day 4
This morning it rained and was pretty chilly. Despite the weather, hearty Bristol residents ran in some kind of a race. I think it was for charity, but don’t remember. But the main attraction we saw in Bristol was the suspension bridge. And it was a nice bridge. But this is all we saw in Bristol. Don’t get me wrong, I love bridges, it’s when my “inner-geek” feasts. I so wish we could have seen more of the city though. And wish it hadn’t rained quite so much so I could have gotten out of the bus for more than two minutes to snap a picture. But oh well. After seeing the bridge we were off to see a ruin of an abbey. This...
Read MoreStonehenge, Salisbury, Bath – Day 3
This is the first day where I met the rest of the group and the tour guide.Her name is Pamela and she is very nice. The bus driver is Collin and he has a bit of a thicker accent, but still very understandable. Our first stop this morning was Stonehenge. When we drove up, we saw a wire fence around it and it turns you have to pay about 10 pounds to not have the fence in your field of vision. But even if you pay, you still can’t go up to the stones really close, you’re still about ¼ mile off. So, our tour guide told us that we’d get essentially the same view if we just walk up to it and just stand by the fence. So I did that. And found a hole in the fence and...
Read MoreCotswalds – Day 2
The started off too early since I only got about 5 hours of uninterrupted sleep since Wednesday. But it was wonderful to see the English countryside all enveloped in fog with fields and livestock coming into view as if a curtain had be drawn to reveal the hidden gems. After that short drive in the countryside, it was time to catch my train (from Bristol Temple Meads to Cheltenham) where Bob, my private tour guide for the day was waiting. (Before I left home, I did some research and contacted several private and semi-private tour operators and selected Diamond Tours.) Once I arrived at the station, off we went on the tour. The itinerary included the following...
London – Day 1
The flight into London was actually not that bad. It was a direct flight and I think that helped make it not so bad. The food, of course, was abysmal. For dinner, there was a chicken and rice dish of questionable ‘heritage’ (was it Indian? was it Asian? was it Italian? couldn’t really tell) and the breakfast was just gross. It really was. It was just a tub of yogurt (which was really sour to my taste) and a tiny mini-loaf of banana-scented “bread”. The reason bread is in quotes is because I’m not sure how else to refer to it but it wasn’t a pastry and it was the size of a deck of cards. I’m so glad I packed my own...
