Travel Highlight – London
My husband’s family lived in England before moving to Australia. After they moved to Australia, he was born and lived there until ten years old. His grandmother and some cousins still lived in London. Before migrating to the United States, his family went back to London and lived with his grandmother for two years.
As we continued our travel journey, we wanted to go to Europe with London being part of the itinerary. We bought the land tour package and purchased separate air tickets because we wanted a flexible flight schedule.
My childhood friend Shirley lives in London. We arrived five days before the travel tour. Shirley and her husband took us to the cities outside London. We went to Stonehenge, Longleat, and Bath.
During my husband’s eleven and twelve-years-old in London, there was no fence around Stonehenge. He remembered going around and under the stones. Due to tourism and preservation of the historical site, there was a fence with signs prohibited tourists to get close to the stones.
Longleat is in Wiltshire, Somerset, 97 miles west of London. It is the first stately home open to the public. The Longleat estate includes the first safari park outside Africa.
Bath is famous for its Roman-built baths. While in Bath, we visited Jane Austen Centre. I am a Jane Austen fan, so the visit was a treat. Our visit was after the BBC Masterpiece Theatre broadcast the show Pride and Prejudice. The handsome actor’s portrait was on canvas painting, stationeries, CDs and other souvenir items.
My husband’s cousin picked up us from the hotel, took us to visit the house where his grandmother lived. We also visited the school he attended. There were two entrances to the school courtyard, with one marked Boys and the other one marked Girls. He bought some candy from his favorite store.
Another cousin lived by a river next to his backyard. He would take us on a boat, but there was a pouring rain. We had a barbeque and a good visit, catching up with the latest news.
When the tour started, the coach took us to go around Windsor Castle, Buckingham Palace, London Bridge, and Westminster Abbey. Some members wished to visit these sites on their own, the coach took them back to the hotel. The others who paid additional for the excursions went with the guide for the guided tours. We were on the guided tours.
Very beautifully written! and stunning pics
Happy Holidays 🙂
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Thanks for sharing your trip to London Miriam. You’ve certainly managed to get a lot of sight-seeing done and some lovely photos to keep the memories alive. It must have been extra special to see your hubby’s childhood haunts. I do find it kind of sad that Stonehenge has had to be fenced off and have also only ever seen it in this way. But, I guess it’s a good thing to preserve it for future generations to see. By the way, you’ve inspired me to take a trip to Bath in the near future! So thank you 🙂
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Thank you very much for your comment. I was sad not to go inside of the Roman Bath. We were busy walking around and caught up by a parade. We watched the parade for a while and had to get on on the road. I want to go again to see the inside. 🙂
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Love you travel highlight themes 😁
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Sorry for the delay to answer your comment. I haven’t checked the spam folder for a long time. Thank you so much for your visit and comment.<3
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That looks like so much fun. Someday I’ll get there and see many of those sights, I’m sure. I especially expect to be one of the tourists flocking to Stonehenge – though I’d rather enjoy it like your husband once did, without the fences. 😀
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Thank you for reading, Diana. There’re so many places we want to see. I’m sure you’ll be there, someday. It would have been fun to get up close to Stonehenge. 🙂
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Beautiful photos, Miriam! Thank you for the tour. We visited London a couple years ago, didn’t get to see Stonehenge. 🙂
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Thank you, Amy. In fact, it was the same tour when we went to Amsterdam. We went to London, Amsterdam, and Paris. It was a windy and rainy day wen we went, but we were glad for the visit. 🙂
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Lovely photos, Miriam. Sure looks like a fun time, and I am curious, but did you like the Jane Austen centre? I thought it was a bit of a rip-off! xx
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I agree with you, it’s more of a gift shop then Jane Austen centre. I expect to have more information about her, but it just has display of her books and the gift shop. ❤
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Beautiful blog. I like it
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Thank you so much. Now I’m afraid to make any changes. 🙂
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Yup ! It happens. I also didn’t change my theme from last one year 😃😃
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Oh, I just changed my theme and I have problems already. They haven’t solved it yet. 🙂 Don’t do anything until you’re sure. 🙂
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Lovely larger than life captures Miriam!
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Thank you, Dahlia. It was great to visit, especially the part about my husband’s childhood!
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Such a lovely nostalgic trip back to your husband’s roots. 😃
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Yes, Garfield. I would love to hear more about my husband’s childhood story. I’m trying to finish editing my poetry book, hopefully send it to Amazon later this year. Then I’ll work on other writing project. My husband has a great family story. 🙂
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Happy to hear that. Best wishes on your book.
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Thank you so much, Garfield.
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Hi Miriam, lovely to visit your blog at last, so sorry for my long delay. We’re undergoing extensive bathroom works which have gone on longer – and more expensive – than planned, and other constant life interruptions. Am pushing hard at every given opportunity on my memoir rewrites as you know, and still hoping to have the final draft ready for the editor by October. I hope all is going well with your poetry compilation. I felt as if I took a visit to my own doorstep in this post! London, of course, goes without saying, but I live in Somerset, only an hour from Bath! As for Stonehenge, I remember well going there as a girl when it had no fence. I often drive past it on the way out of Wiltshire. I’m so glad you got to visit my home country and had a lovely time, thank you for sharing your lovely photos 🙂 ❤
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Hi Sherri, it was a lovely time to visit my husband’s childhood places. It was more meaningful than other tourist areas. I wish we had gone in and see inside of the Bath. It was late and rainy, so we left. My husband’s cousins are still there. I’m sure we’ll go back to visit them.
I’m editing down to the last 40/130 pages of the poetry book. I inserted some of my photos on some pages. Now I may insert more, but they’re B&W, otherwise, it would cost more to print.
We had the bathroom downstairs remodel, the price went higher and higher. I had a lump sum from my retirement, it all went to the bathroom!!
I hope you could keep your timeline for your memoir. I just moved to another spot in my house and hope that having a view of my front yard helps me stay awake.
I need to talk with Irene about how to structure my memoir (I gave up on writing about the first part), that starts with my husband. Talk some more. Keep me posted. ❤ 🙂
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Sounds like you’re making good progress with your poetry book, Miriam. Yes, Irene will be able to give you some good pointers. Structure is the biggest challenge I found as I started to rewrite my bashed out first draft which I finished in 2014, after a year and a half. The last four years have been taken up with rewrites and a total restructure. I didn’t find the title until I finished the first draft. That told me I needed to have a complete re-think, and like you, cut out a lot from the beginning I realised I didn’t need. Let me know what you learn, let’s keep talking. Oh I feel your pain over your bathroom remodel, yikes, it’s crazy how expensive it can get. It’s done now thankfully…now to pay the bill! Catch up with you in the week, Miriam. Take care 🙂 ❤
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Thank you, Sherri. My daughter just told me her dad didn’t answer the email for a week. That’s very unlikely of him. She emailed to a doctor who treated him, as well as other people in the areas (Thailand and Vietnam). No answer yet. I hope some news turn out soon and something that my daughter can handle. I helped to find his address I knew 2 years ago and hope it will help if people help to look for him. 🙂
I’m almost done with the editing of the poetry and need to find a couple readers. ❤
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I hope so too, Miriam, that your daughter can get to the truth. I went through a lot like that with my own dear dad. Long story. Do keep me posted. Well done on the editing. I am away for a couple of weeks now, and have a tight deadline to meet to get my memoir MS to the editor, but do let me know if you need a reader down the line, if you can’t get anyone if, by the time I’m more free, I can help out. Just right now, I’m totally swamped, but I do what I can do. Have a wonderful weekend, my friend and catch up soon! 🙂 ❤
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Thank you, Sherri. My daughter heard from one of his contacts. He said her dad is okay.
Thank you for offering to be my reader. I’ll take up your offer. It will be a long time though.
We’re going away for a week also. ❤ 🙂
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Beautiful…Knowing London through your eyes😁
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Thank you so much for your visit and comment. 🙂
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You’re most welcome 😁😁
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🙂 🙂
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🌷🌷
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🙂
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Thanks for taking me with you around England 🙂
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You’re welcome, I’m so glad to have company. 🙂
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Sounds like you had an amazing trip! Beautiful photos!! 💜💜
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Yes, we did, Lynn. Thank you so much. ❤ ❤
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Great post and loved the commentary and photos
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Thank you, Cheryl. We had a good time.
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I have also visited the London attractions, Miriam, but I haven’t been to Bath or the Stonehedge. Two things that I really want to do. Lovely photographs and a great trip for you both.
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Thank you, Robbie! Bath and Stonehenge were not included in the tour. I was glad my friend showed us around, It was great. I was glad to visit Lynton’s school and his grandmother’s house.
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I hope you get to visit, Robbie, and when you do remember, I live one hour from Bath, an hour and a half from Stonehenge…say no more 😉
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Wow, personal tour guide. You can’t beat that. Robbie, you have to go for sure! 🙂
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🙂
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❤
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PS Miriam, I hope you return to Bath, and likewise with Robbie, when you do… 🙂
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I think we will, someday. 🙂
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Wonderful! 😉
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Yes, it would be wonderful to meet up. 🙂
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Wonderful for sure! 🙂
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Yes, keep in touch! 🙂
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Definitely! 🙂 ❤
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Yes, ❤ 🙂
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