Day: July 28, 2026

Buckingham Palace Of course visiting Buckingham Palace for a tour and the changing of the guard was requisite. Buckingham Palace was originally known as Buckingham House and was built in 1703 for the Duke of Buckingham. King George III then bought it in 1761. Construction of the 775-room palace we…

We left Stonehenge and traveled through the Salisbury Plains to the Georgian city of Bath.  Arriving we could see rows of Roman stone houses in circles in the hill, very impressive.  Even today, all of the buildings must be built with Bath stone. Here we toured the Roman Baths and the Abbey where…

After leaving Hampton Palace, we traveled through the English countryside to Stonehenge.  The approach was breathtaking.  We took an audio guided tour of the Monument and learned so much.  We had 2-1/2 hours there, but it wasn’t enough.  We barely saw the exhibits.  I remember when I was there in 1965 that we could walk…

Llangollen, Wales, was our only taste of Wales and only for half a day. In 1282, King Edward I of England conquered the Principality of Wales; afterwards, the heir apparent to the English monarch has borne the title “Prince of Wales.”  In 1535 Wales joined with England. Then in 1707, it became…

We arrived in Chester for dinner and settled in for a long day ahead. We started with a walking tour of Chester (it was raining). Chester is a walled city with the most complete city walls in Britain.  It was founded as a Roman Fort in 75 A.D. King Arthur is…

Today we went from Bath through the Cotswolds to Stow-on-the-Wold and to Stratford-upon-Avon. I have never seen so many sheep.  The fields are full. Stow-on the-Wold is the highest of the Cotswold towns standing exposed on 800 foot high Stow Hill at a junction of seven major roads, including the Roman…

We proceeded through the Lake Country, more sheep!  This part of Enlgiand has a National Park with 16 lakes and is the wettest part of England.  It also is home to The Lakeland Fells, England’s only mountain range.  The Lake District was the home to many of the Romantic Poets as well as…

Today we traveled from Edinburgh to York. Historically this region was called Northumbria. Northumbria was an early Medieval kingdom between 654 and 1066 CE. It is comprised to three sections: The Scottish Borders, The Northeast of England, and Yorkshire. Abbotsford was our first stop. Abbotsford is the location of Abbotsford…

On our way to Edinburgh, we passed Lockerbie where the Pan Am flight was bombed 26 years ago, and Dumfries where Robert Burns, Scotland’s national poet, lived. We arrived late and found a great pub close to the hotel. We had a wonderful view of the castle from our room. Edinburgh has…

When we arrived at Cambridge we started with a walking tour. The first thing we saw was the famous Mathematical Bridge, leading to Queens College.  It is a wooden footbridge over the River Cam designed by William Etheridge and built by James Essex in 1749.  It was originally built without the use…

We arrived in London in time for a late dinner. We checked into our hotel. The formal tour was over, but we had an extra day and a half. We checked into our hotel and walked to a nearby pub, The Cambridge Arms. The next morning we walked to the…

Day One We started in Edgeware, a district of northern Greater London, in the London Borough of Barnet. The name “Edgeware Road” is also used to refer to the area of London, immediately to the north of Marble Arch. After checking into our hotel, we wandered down Edgeware Road to the Marble…