July 2017 – Paul and Kaye: Travels

After Wales we landed in London for another 6 days. We stayed at Mary’s AirBnB, a pleasant room and a charming host who gave us great advice. Some of which we followed and some not (to our dismay). Mary suggested the the Open Air Theatre in Regents Park for a thoroughly English theatre experience. We saw a pre-production of ‘A Tale of Two Cities’ on a beautiful summer evening outdoors. It was a memorable and very relevant production.

Mary also suggested we visit Windsor Castle- ‘go early, before 11’ she said. We got there around noon and stood in line for over 3 hours only to be told by a very calm, distinguished gentleman that it would only be another hour and a half. We ended up watching Lawn Bowling and met some charming advocates of the game. If you notice, our photos of Windsor Castle is from quite a distance , lawn bowling is up close.

We spent some time visiting different neighborhoods in London as well. Camden and Shoreditch were ‘hip’ and fun neighborhoods. Camden’s Market is lively with good food and interesting shops. Shoreditch is known for it’s street art.

Other stops included the Sky Gardens which gave us a birds eye view of London and a trip to Kew Royal Gardens. Finally, a visit to the Victoria and Albert Museum.

This ends our 6 1/2 week visit to the UK. We never intended to visit the UK except for having to bob in and out of the Schengen area. The weather kept us from enjoying Scotland and Wales and are definitely on our ‘redo’ list. Beautiful part of the UK and wonderful people.

From the UK we headed to Prague in the Czech Republic for 2 1/2 weeks (July 19-29).

For best viewing of images, it’s best to click on them.

Windsor Castle and Lawn Bowling:

Windsor Castle from behind the fence.

Statue of Queen Elizabeth in front of Windsor Castle

Perfect Lawn bowling form

You can just feel the incredible competitive tension.

London Street Art:

Sky Tower:

Sky Gardens is the top of the taller building.

Sky Gardens

View from Sky Gardens on the ‘Shard”.

View from Sky Gardens up the Thames River.

Kew Royal Gardens and the Victoria and Albert Museum:

Kew Royal Gardens

The Hive at Kew Gardens

National Art Library

Stain Glass exhibit at Victoria and Albert Museum

Sculpture at Victoria and Albert Museum

Cooling off in the Pond in Victoria and Albert Museum

Overhead view of the Victoria and Albert Museum Exit

Stage set for Tale of Two Cities

I’ve gotten a little behind on updating the blog for a variety of reasons I won’t bore you with.

We stayed for a week in Ingleton, England which is on the border of Yorkshire Dales National Park. The weather for the week was quite wet with occasional breaks in the clouds. The Dales are rolling hills used almost entirely for sheep and cattle grazing and hiking. We drove many small, one and two lane roads through the dales that took us along small streams and rivers and lovely, small English villages.

Some of the highlights of our week in Ingleton were:

A short Falls Hike took us through a series of 6 waterfalls. The Ribblehead Viaduct- built in the early 1870’s, it was is a train bridge that runs through the Yorkshire Dales and has a graveyard and chapel built for the men who died building it.

A free music and beer festival (the best kind) held in Dent, England. A small, cute and difficult to get to village in the middle of the Yorkshire Dales. Our chance to cut loose a little with some Brits. Great fun singing along with ‘Let’s do the time warp again’ and Tom Jones songs.

We also visited a car museum and White Scar Cave on a couple of the many rainy days we encountered.

Our next 9 nights were spent in North Wales in the town of Tregarth. We were hosted by Maude at her AirBnB , a delightful woman who have us great advice. The weather, again, was cloudy and rainy and kept us from seeing some of the sights we wanted. Both Kaye and I agree that Wales would be a place to revisit. We took a train ride to the peak of Snowdonia only to be engulfed in a cloud. We couldn’t see 5 feet in front of us, it could have been Nebraska.

We spent most of our times in Snowdonia National Park. The park is a favorite for hikers and climbers. Sir Edmund Hillary used Mount Snowdon as his training ground for his 1953 climb of Everest. The area is also known for Castles – 17 of them built by Edward I, slate mining, the Isle of Anglesey and Zip World. Snowdonia is a beautiful park with much to see and do.

Kaye and I did the Zip line- 3 of them. An 800,600 and 400 yard zip line. We, of course, bought the video to prove we did it and to show at our funerals.

The trip to Anglesey Island and Holy Island Light House which is a bird watchers paradise.

We also managed to find the local pool and gym and got in an occasional workout.

After Wales we spent 5 more days in London before heading to Prague. I’ll add some of the London pictures and notes later.

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Photos from Yorkshire Dales National Park and Ingleton, UK.