Through England and Beyond!

Family under the Roman Arch

We are now full circle back with my parents in London where we started three months ago. We have had a great whirlwind tour of England starting from the North and working our way down. Met my parents and Glasgow and then the fun of driving on the left hand side began. Dad had to drive the whole time because it would cost extra for insurance if I drove, this was bad, not because my dad is a bad driver but because he is/was so excited and wanted to see everything that his head was swivelling around trying to take it all in and the car was swerving off the road….We managed to survive leaving Glasgow with me giving dad an on the go lesson in traffic circles. We drove down through southern Scotland and in the evening arrived a nice B&B near Hadrians Wall (after a few castle stops along the way of course). In the morning when we were leaving Dad apparently saw an interesting sign and, without stopping the car, had to read it. Scrape! Car meets a historic stone farm wall. 

York Walls

Dad's Mishap

O well, didn't let is spoil our trip. Hardrians wall was awesome and my dads favourite part to far. We walked along the best preserved parts of the wall for about 3 miles and then toured a roman fort. Next stop was York where we spent two days touring through the small city. Small, but really neat as it has some old medieval walls you can walk around and Yorkminster abbey was a beauty. My parents paid for a tour. Sophie and I went with the free option of gaining entrance to the abbey by attending an anglican evensong where the was a choir and everything. Interesting service and of course had a look around afterwards. Not sure if it is immoral to pull one over on the church or not but….16 pounds…how can us peasants ever gain entry otherwise? After York we headed to the Cotswolds which is a nice area of England where the rich own lots of houses and its very picturesque. Kind of like our Muskoka. 

Did some hiking in the fields  in between the villages. We were suppose to do a one way hike and then take the bus back but of course we ended up hiking on a statutory holiday when there was no bus service…..oh well. My parents had their first hostel experience in the cotswolds and it was actually pretty nice. Apparently had their best sleep so far on their trip there and we had a kitchen and a bathroom that we didn't really share with anyone else. It was actually better than this two star hotel we are staying at in London haha. After the cotswolds we headed towards london and along the way stumbled upon an awesome (free) Roman town site with an ruined amphitheatre and old walls. It was great! When on the outside of London we stayed with some of Dad's relatives Tom and Avril and they were very hospitable and told us a lot about our family history in England and everything which was awesome.

Roman Ampitheatre

 Took a day trip from their house to Bath and the sun was shining when we woke up so we all put on out shorts and were prepared for a pleasant day. By the time we arrived in Bath it was pouring rain non stop and so we pretty much did a 2 hour tour of the city in the rain, got frozen, toured the abbey and drove back for some warm pub food. What I saw through the rain and from under my umbrella looked great, we will definitely have to make a return trip. Today we turned our car in and came back to London where we will be for the next two days before we finally hit the continent. Been have lots of fun and it is nice to see a familiar face. Dad has been keeping us in stitches with his version of the english towns Newton-Upon-the-Tyne (Newcastle-Upon the Tyne) Bourbon on the Water (Burton on the water) and Stow on the Go (Stow on the Wold) amongst others! Lots of fun still to be had!