Forty-Fifth Post From Türkiye: First of Two Trips to England

My sweet sister has had to go through some tough times the last few years. But she is coming out the other side stronger and hopefully happier than she was before. I am so proud of her. She has been beside me my whole life (those first 14 months don't count). And when she decided she deserved a trip to celebrate her new beginning I told her to pick any place in Europe and I would meet her there. She picked the good ole 

United Kingdom!

(Caution: this is a long post!)

We started our adventure in London. 

Right off the plane and we headed to Westminster Abbey for evensong and then a Rick Steves' walking tour of the Whitehall area!

Westminster Abbey

Obligatory photo of phone booth and Big Ben.

Royal Horse Guards. Hillary didn't want me to take this but I told her the guard would have been offended if we didn't. I am pretty sure it's their favorite part of their duty.

The next morning we stopped for some pastries and then biked through Kennsington, Portobello Road, Hyde Park and Green Park to make it to the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace.

Again, Hill was like, "Why do I have to do this?". I told her, "It's just something you have to do in London. Now get over there and wave at me for a picture!". Sometimes being in Merry's Army can be hard.

Picnic in St. James Park

Trafalgar Square after a tour of the National Gallery and Portrait Gallery.

Walk along the Embankment.

Finish off with dinner at the Sherlock Holmes Pub.

On day three we head over to King's Cross Station to see Platform 9 3/4. It was fun but crazy stuffed with nerdy tourists like ourselves and you had to pay with gold. So that was weird.

If you pay for the photo op, this poor fool will stand behind you and hold the scarf out to make it look "magical". Oooo!

 We took a cab over to the British Museum. That place is awesome but exhausting. So much to see!

 We passed this shop where I need to buy all of Jack's clothes from now on!

 Next we headed over to The City for a cool walking tour I got off the internets. If you are headed to London you should check out the website. We started at St. Paul's.

Postmans Park and its heroes wall

Part of the old Roman/London Wall

Leadenhall market

Tower Bridge

Ferry Boat ride down the river.

 Another evening walk down the Embankment.

 I took this shot of Hill in front of Big Ben I thought it looked pretty good but when  I zoomed in it got even better!

Double Decker Bus Selfie

The next day we started with a tour of the Tower of London.

Hillary pretending it's not weird for her to pose with strangers.

Beef Eater tour guide.

Tight medieval stairwells are freaking her out!

British school children in uniform with a guy dressed up as a knight!!! Love it!

 We headed to the south side of the river for another awesome and LONG walking tour.

There used to be men who would wait around to ferry people across the river after they had been to the theatre and other entertainment venues on the south side of the Thames. And they had little seats to rest on. This is the last one.

Borough Market

Crazy entrance to the Tube.

I didn't know what to get Jack as a gift from my trip. But then I saw this! Used books sold under London Bridge! Perfecto!

I tried to get Hill to go down to the banks of the river to search for treasures but she thought that sounded gross. 

Ending our day and tour at the Globe Theatre and The Taming of the Shrew. So fantastic!

The next day we picked up our rental car and headed out to Stonehenge.

 What you wish it was like, visiting Stonehenge.

What it is actually like, visiting Stonehenge.

 We headed over to Avebury but we had to wait out a crazy Hail storm in the car.

I love Avebury! I love how you can walk all around the stones and touch them. 

Plus the village is beautiful as well. 

Hillary was excited about the sheep.

Next we headed over to Bath for a few days.

 We stayed in a little attic room of a B&B. Out our window we had a great view of the back garden and we had fun saloon style doors on our bathroom. Luckily we love each other enough to ignore the sounds of the other person using the facilities.

The Pump Room!

Roman Baths!

Bath Abbey

Jane Austen Center!

Free Guided Walking Tour. So interesting! Loved it!

The Gravel Path. The guide assured us that as Jane put this path in her book Persuasion, she surely walked here! Plus there is supposed to be a ghost of a soldier who stands under that tree sometimes. I didn't see him.

The Circus. No clowns to be seen. But she did say that a week before we were there they found a WWII bomb in someone's basement in the neighborhood. Fun!

I guess Dickens used to hang out in this pub. I think he did that a lot.

River Avon

From Bath we did a driving tour of the Cotswolds.

 First stop Castle Comb.

Little Door!

Excited for the Queen's 90th birthday!

 Ridiculously Charming!

 Second stop Bibury.

 We took a little walk through these woods and Hillary really got into it.

 Next, Upper Slaughter (The name comes from old English 'Slohtre', which has nothing to do with killing things and means, simply, 'Muddy place'.).

 A stop in Stow-on-the-Wold, with another Rick Steves' walking tour.

Hill was smiling for this picture but people in the stocks aren't meant to be happy so she had to stop.

People say that Tolkien used to like to walk and tour this area and that the doors on this church were his inspiration for the Doors of Moria! Wow! Excitement!

Our adorable B&B!! 

 Last Cotswolds stop, Bourton-on-the-Water for some dinner.

We then took a longish drive over to the coast to see the white cliffs.

Hill loved the way they just cut a square out of the trees when they trim next to the road. By the way this is totally a two way road. Constant fear of head on collision!

 Birling Gap

We loved it so much! The beach was great and then we took a walk along the tops of the cliffs. So, so, so gorgeous!

Cricket! 

 Our last site was Bodiam Castle. It was beautiful and a fabulous place to end our trip!

 I think I learned to give Jack a little more credit for how he runs Jack's Army on this trip. I planned most of this trip and was navigator as well. Sometimes I got a little frustrated and maybe a tad bit irritable trying to get us from point A to B. But Hill was a trooper and we ended up having so much fun. I am so glad we got to have this adventure together! Love you Hill!!!!

Trying on fascinators at a TK Maxx in Bath.

We crack ourselves up!