Touring England, Scotland and Northern Ireland

When we left the Cotswalds and drove to East Anglia we decided to take our time and enjoy Britain at a slower pace.  We visited the northeast coast, drove down the coast and back to our home base of RAF Lakenheath.  We thought England was a small island in the North Sea, across the channel from the continent of Europe...what we found was a charming friendly country full wonderful people who embraced us and welcomed us in their country with open arms.  As we continued to drive around the UK exploring new back yards, we discovered a country rich in history and proud of traditions.  We visited the ancestral home of Pat's family near Lancaster (see the special blog we posted on her family's history).  We drove across the country to the city of Edinburgh and its massive castle.  What we also found in Edinbrugh was a total stranger, Norry, who we stopped to ask directions to a good place to eat, changed his plans and took us to a pub about a quarter mile away.  Along the way filled us with the history of Edinburgh, the castle and pointed out other interesting facts on the city.  When he left us to go to work, we were amazed that a person would take a half hour out of his time and who was on the way to work to befriend four strangers from the USA.  Our next stop had to be St Andrews, the birthplace of golf.  While visiting the Old Course at St Andrews we tried to make arrangements for lodging on the west coast of Scotland.  The owner told us we had to be there no later than 8:00pm and we were 3 1/2 hours away and it was 4:30.  We raced across Scotland and was rewarded with the best bed and breakfast in Great Britain.  The Grove will stand out as not only a place to stay but as a place we met people who we want to remain friends with long after we leave Great Britain.  Karen, the owner and Billy our hostess went out of their way to make us feel like family.  They will be welcome in our homes anytime they choose to visit either Arizona or Colorado.  Our next stop was an unexpected crash while sightseeing on the back roads of Scotland...Ouch!  But we moved on with another car (ours was totaled) and drove to Loch Ness.  We made arrangements to stay in the Abbey at Lock Ness.  What a treat to stay 3 days in the Abbey and be treated like royalty.  No we did not see Nessie...the picture I posted on Facebook was two very little clumps of dirt rising out of the Loch that looked like Nessie and we couldn't  resist posting the unique picture.  We left Scotland and took the ferry to Belfast and Northern Ireland.  Did you know that the Titanic was built in Belfast, we visited the museum for the Titanic in Belfast?  If you get a chance to visit Belfast and go to the museum you will enjoy an interactive museum like we have never seen in all of our travels.  We also drove over to see the Giant Causeway and learned of the folk lore surrounding the Giant Causeway, another very interesting site.  For some reason, the pictures we downloaded from our travels around Northern Ireland have not posted to our IPAD and we will post them on our next blog posting.

Cromer...a secret RAF base during WWII!

We drove through A village called Hope....this was in the next village!  A little English humor!

A Roman aqueduct on the road to Lancaster

We found a pub in Lancaster that was established in the early 1700s...eating in wine cellars was a little different but then again so are we!

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Edinburgh Castle

This picture says it all....all you golfers out there....this is Mecca!

This is a picture of Tom and Maryann, Pat and George and Karen, the owner of the Grove....in our humble opinion the best bread and breakfast in the United Kingdom!

This was the result of a car passing us on the right as we were turning up right!  No one hurt badly but we were a little shaken up, but It did not deter us from continuing our adventure.

A perfect picture, taken from a bridge that was on our way to Loch Ness!  

The Abbey at Loch Ness!  Anyone for Chess?

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Our home while at Loch Ness!

The Scottish Highlands

We indulged  ourselves of a little beer at every stop...Coors owns Doombar so we had to support our son and his job at Coors!

Our last stop in Northern Island, the Marble Arch Caves...the longest caves Great Britain, very picturesque....we will try to download pictures of the caves on our next blog when we post of our adventures in Ireland.

We are now in Ireland and will stay here for about 10 days touring the countryside, trying to immerse ourselves in the culture, visiting the landmarks and enjoying the Irish pubs, music, and people we meet.  We hope your Spring is full of new adventures and will visit our blog to see what we are up to as we find new backyards to explore throughout Euope

Pat's Family History comes to Life!

Pat walking away from Ashton Hall

 

The course was a little soggy today but the members asked us if we wanted to play a round after we talked to them about Pat's family history and shared  how our research matched their research.  Should have brought our clubs, very private country club so we were honored to be asked!

The Lawrence genealogy on the wall at Aston Hall

Pat at the hearth in Ashinton Hall

Two senior members of the Lancaster Golf and Country club enjoying some tea and discussing the Ashton Hall history with us.  They also invited as to play around!

Golf displays in Ashton Hall

Leaving Ashinton Hall

Leaving the Cotswolds

We really enjoyed the small villages of the Cotswalls.  They represented to us the British countryside with the old churches, the manors of early England, the quaint shops and pubs.  It is a quiet life that has passed us by but is preserved here in England.  There are not many new houses most are from the 1700/1800 or early 1900s, refurbished and modern on the inside but on the outside have the look of a bygone era.  We will be leaving this part of Great Britain to discover the flatlands of East Anglia and the east coast of England.  We will stay on RAF Lakenheath but will travel the countryside searching for another slice of England and the how the culture differs from the Cotswolds.  update:  We made it to Cromer on the North Sea.  The seashore is always calming and we picked a perfect day to enjoy it. The skies were blue, the food was great and the scenery was spectacular.  We also drove down to Great Yarmouth....not so good as it was an Atlantic City look alike i.e., a beautiful sandy beach ruined by the glitzy arcade/gambling fake store fronts that had the look of a rundown amusement park.

The good news is that we have pictures to share....we solved the problem or I should say Alastair Gill,  a good friend of Tom and Maryann's solved the problem for us.  A big thank you to him and I will pass on to you his advice if you want to post pictures from your IPAD to a blog.  But for now here are some recent pictures.  OBTW....any typos/grammar mistakes are from George, Pat has not proofed this blog.  Please read this for content and not mistakes, enjoy the pictures and I promise to do better the next time.

The small village streets are enchanting 

We loved to just walk around the town and window shop and visit the pubs

Anne Hatwaways cottage (Shakespheare's wife)  Stratford-upon-Avon

Tewksbury Abbey, early Church of England

On the North Sea coastal city of Cromer in East Angalia, England with our friends Tom and Maryann!  No it is not cold, you will always see Maryann dressed like Nanuck of the North (that is why she lives in Tucson)!

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Crab sandwiches, crab salad, fresh cod....we are enjoying a meal overlooking the North Sea at Cromer.

One more day in East Angalia and it is off to Ashton Hall in Lancashire, near Lancaster on the west coast of England.  We hope to stop in Hope, England to explore the Peak District National Forest but will overnight near Pat's earliest relatives, Sir Robert Lawrence (@1100AD) at Ashton Hall.  We will crisscross England and enter Scotland to see Edinburgh Castle,visit St Andrews and overnight around Dundee, Scotland.   We cross back over Scotland to make our way up to Loch Ness where we will stay at the abbey on Loch Ness for 3 days.  Our unofficial time schedule has us taking the car ferry across the waters to Northern Ireland and Ireland.  When we make it back to England we will tour Wales, drive across Southern England to Dover where we will drop our car off and take the ferry across the Channel to Calsis.  Picking up another car we will begin our trip across Europe.  After revisiting two of the bases we used to be stationed, we will drive to Berlin, Warsaw, Budapest and Prague before heading back up to Normandy for the June 6th celebrations.  

We hope to see all of that but.....as we have stated over and over, plans are made in sand.  We may find something more interesting and our whole trip might be turned on its head but the one goal is to be in Normandy, after all that was the original reason for this adventure.  The original plan was for couple of weeks in June at Normandy and it ballooned into 3 months driving around Great Britain and Europe.  It is great to be retired and to have crazy friends who are flexible and like to have fun.  

Touring the Coswalds

We have been out and about since landing at Heathrow in London.  The first couple of days were tiring due to the jet lag but we managed to push through it and see a lot of this little gem in Great Britain.  We are staying in a little cottage in Stow in the Wold and it is perfect.  The owner is a wonderful young lady who had a cake on the counter when we arrived and baked another cake this past Wednesday just for us.  Walking around Stow in the Wold the afternoon of our arrival we met a local at a tea cafe, who told us about some of the sights we should take in and gave us the best advice we had so far...he suggested that we buy a National Trust annual pass.  This pass allows us to visit all the National trust sites free and also includes a parking pass.  It has paid for itself already and we have about 400 more place we could visit in  England and Scotland and Northern Ireland.  If you have seen some of our posts on Facebook you know we have been busy.  But I would like to recap.   We started our touring in the small town of Burford, where we visited a 900 year old church that has seen Kings, Queens, and statesmen among its guests.  It was incredible and beautiful.     We decided to have an afternoon along  the banks of a small stream in the town of Burton on the Water, along with a couple thousand English citizens on holiday (Easter).  Our first taste of English cuisine was at a pub called the Croft, this set the stage to visit a different pub each day for a meal.  The next day we thought it would be nice to drive to Bath and do the Roman baths...ok, Bath over Easter is a mad house and we are not into running around the city without finding a parking place so there was no Roman bath for us....we left the hordes and drove over to Bristol to visit the Apple Store to see if they could fix this problem with no pictures on the blog...their answer...it must be your blog, not our system!  Thanks Apple!  The next day we were off to an English Manor, Snowshill Manor was a manor built by Charles Wade just to house his assembly of artifacts collected from around England from the early 1900s.  Rather eccentric man but some of his collected artifacts are one of a kind and some could have been lost without anyone caring.  Beautiful gardens and rooms in the manor.  From the manor we drove to Avebury, the site of the first Stonehenge.  It is three times larger and 500 years earlier than Stonehenge.  Very interesting and wetted our appetite for Stonehenge.  The next day it was off to legendary Warrick castle, the home of Kings and Queens and of the dungeon that held some of their rivals and outcasts.  Since there was a Costco nearby we had to shop.  Our chauffeur, Tom, drove us to Stonehenge the next day and it's remarkable history and yet unexplained origins.  We made a pilgrimage to RAF Mildenhall and RAF Lakenheath (both are US Air Force bases) the next day for a doctor's visit for Maryann and to set up our lodging when we leave the Cotswolds to visit the western part of England and the North Sea harbors.  The following day we visited the manor of Ferdinand Rothschild, Waddesdon Manor, truly a beautiful manor, that was built to display rare art, statues, and artifacts from around the world.  He never lived there but used it to show off his collections and to throw extravagant parties.  To us,  it rivals the most beautiful castles in Germany and France and to think it was a party house of the rich and famous....definitely a place you would want to be invited to and to live in...check out some of the pictures on Facebook!  Today we drove to Statford upon the Avon, the home of William Shakesphere.  We were able to secure tickets to the Royal Shakesphere Theater to see Hamlet tomorrow.  We are really looking forward to see the live performances of Hamlet especially since it is here,  surrounded by the history of this small town.  It is off to London for a one day trip, since we have all been there a couple of times we thought we could just relax on the train and see a few touristy things and come back on the train to the peace and quiet of the Cotswolds.
Again, we apologize for the no pictures but hope you visit us on Facebook were we will posts a few pictures of our adventures.  We are so blessed to share these adventures with Tom and Maryann Graue and to have Tom do all of the driving here on the wrong side of the road....We know George would have us in a head collision in just a matter of minutes.  We hope you enjoy the blog, even without the pictures, and you will follow us in our search of the backyards of Great Britain, Ireland and the continent as we drive through these historical countries and share our experiences with you.

Our little cottage in Stow on the Wold

Stonehenge...The why and how are still a mystery but Stonehenge attracts and mystifies scholars and ordinary people from around the world.

Waddesdon Manor build by a Rothschild just to show off his collections and to party...must be nice!

We are in Great Britian!

I apologize for not having pictures, this is the first time I have used my IPAD to write the blog and for some reason I can't download the pictures onto my blog....any suggestions would be appreciated.

Leaving our Colorado friends and our family in Colorado was not easy, it never is, but we drove to Ohio to surprise Fran,  Pat's close friend, from high school on her 65th birthday.  Pat enlisted her daughter, Amy and her husband Buck to ensure the ruse was on...she was very surprised and we all shared in her amazement and happiness.  It was a short stay in the Buckeye state but we did get to visit with Pat's 98 year old aunt, Martha for a few hours and have a meal with George's family before leaving the Motorhome at his brother's house and driving to Pennsylvannia to pick up our friends, Tom and Maryann.  The four of us drove to Washington DC and caught a plane to London to begin our first 42 day leg of our European adventure.  Flying British Airlines is a treat in itself, the flight was smooth and they must have fed us at least three times and brought snacks a couple of other times, OBTW all the drinks are free and the wine hit the spot.  Landing in England posed the biggest problem of the day.  Driving on the left side of the road, thank God for Tom....he did great!  We arrived at our first stop, Kate's Cottage in Stow-on-the-Wold.  We will just relax for a few days to get over the jet lag and start exploring.  There was a wonderful cake waiting for us and we enjoyed it for a late snack.  So we are here, a little tired, and will be touring the Cotswolds for a couple weeks.
We are cutting this post a little short because we are all a little fuzzy.

On the Road Again

Our winter volunteering at Chatfield State Park is over and we enjoyed working and meeting new friends at the park.  We kept busy trimming trees, painting, cleaning up the aftermath of the summer floods, installing new fire pits and hundreds of small jobs.  Of course the real reason we volunteer at the park is so we can see our family on a continual basis throughout the winter.  We celebrated Thanksgiving at Steamboat ski area with Kris, Amy and the super K's, Christmas with David and April and Holly, Kasey's birthday with the family and was there for April and David's new baby boy, born on March 4th.  Lucas Henry came into the world at 8# 1oz and was 21 inches long.  It was a nice cap for a wonderful time from late October to March 14th when we fired up the Motorhome and headed east.    One other milestone we should mention is that George is done with his maintenence treatments, after 5 years the Doctor said it was enough and he would do annual Pet Scans to follow George for the next few years.
Our next adventure will be with our close friends, Tom and Maryann Graue, who we mentioned many times over the years in our blogs.  We visited with them in October and sat around talking about what we missed when we were in Germany together.  One thing lead to another and we both failed to go to Normandy and decided that we should go in 2016 together.  So in December we drove back down to Tucson to plan our trip.  After a hours of talking we decided that we should also visit Great Britian and Ireland, a few more discussions and it was decided that we should also go to Berlin and Warsaw.....well to make this short...we are going to Europe for 3 months and see those things we missed when we were stationed in Germany.   We will fly out on British Air on March 23rd out of Dulles International outside of Washington DC.  We hope Europe can handle the four of us, we have a few planned stops but for the most part we will drive around England, Scotland, Northren Ireland, Ireland, return to England and take the ferry to France to start our continent trip through the Benalux, Germany, Poland, the Czeck republic, back into Germany and up to Normandy for the June 6th celebrations before crossing back to England for a couple of weeks and catching our flight back to Washington DC. On June 15th.
We will be posting pictures and sites on the blog so if interested in our next backyard adventure stay tuned.  Of course the downside of this adventure is that we will miss our family, our grandkids (shelfish parents won't let us take them with us) and our friends in Colorado.  But this maybe our last great backyard adventure, at least for awhile since we now have 4 grandchildren.  All of you grandparents know the draw of the grandkids on us old people and now with 2 under 2 years old and two starting school and into everything ....it might be time to think about staying a little closer to our family.   But that is a post for another time...wish us luck and follow our adventure on the blog!

Washington and the Northwest!

 We have reached our high water mark for our western states swing.  Washington with it beaches, forests, mountains and attractions did not disappoint.  The big plus here was the weather was perfect, sunny and warm with light breezes.  The locals told us they had not had weather like this for a long time, usually it is raining, windy and overcast.  Timing is everything!!  Our Washington exploration started in Westport, we heard that there was a military campground with 3 sites and a lighthouse.  Well the lighthouse was awesome, the sites... not so much, barely a wide spot in the woods and mosquitos just begging for you to go outside.  One day was enough for us and we drove up to McCord AFB so we could drive down to Mt. Rainer for a day trip.  Mount Rainer is more impressive in person than any picture we could take.  After a couple days at McCord we drove north of Seattle to Whidbey Naval Air Station.  We were blown away after we arrived at Cliffside RV park, not only were the views of the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the sunset breathtaking, they have a master gardener on staff and he works from 6 to 6 caring for the beautiful flowers he planted throughout the park, he also planted strawberries for all the campers to pick for free.  The first full day at Cliffside was dedicated to going north to explore Vancouver, Canada.  It is a beautiful city but we think that we are not big city tourists because we drove around taking pictures but finding a parking place was like pulling teeth with pliers. Not disappointed but also not a big fan of the congestion that goes along with city life.  The next day we explored around Whidbey Island and the quaint seaports that dot the island.  Much more to our liking!  We did do the tourist thing by going down to Space Needle and the surrounding attractions.   We also took the ferry to Port Townsend to visit our friends from our camp hosting at Chatfield State Park.  Peggy and Howard Doi are hosting again near Port Townsend.  We did have time while on the air station to get in 3.5 mile walks every morning which runs along the beach and into the woods...not a bad way to start your day. After exploring around northern Washington we decided to drive over to Fairchild AFB outside of Spokane.  We also used this stop to replace the front tire on the Ford...why?  Well we had another blowout on the motorhome and it took out our compartment behind the duals along with our compressor that we stored in the compartment.  After replacing both rear duals on the drivers side and driving to Spokane we discovered that some of the debris cut the front tire on the car and it was not fixable.  BTW that is four blowouts in the last three years but on the positive side the motorhome has all new tires and spare so we shouldn't have any more tire problems.  While at Fairchild, which is a beautiful well kept base, we took a couple day trips to Grand Coulee Dam, Spokane, and Coeur d'Alene.  If you don't know, the Grand Coulee is the largest dam in the US and four times the size of Hoover Dam and produces three times the electric power.  Coeur d'Alene is a charming little city with the huge Lake Coeur d'Alene right downtown. As we leave Washington and start our way back to Colorado we still have Idaho, the Grand Tetons, Salt Lake City to add to our backyard exploration.  An added bonus for our trip, Kris and Amy will join us in Salt Lake City to do some family history research and they will leave our grandsons, Kasey and Karsten with us for the remainder of our adventure. 

 

 

 

Lighthouse at Westport where we stayed overnight and toured the lighthouse!

Majestic Mount Rainer

 

Our site at Whidbey Naval Air Station with the Strait of Juan de Fuca in the our backyard!

The Peace Arch on the Canadian Border

The Space Needle in Seattle

This is the sunset we saw every night from our motorhome

The 100s of logs washed up on the beach behind our motorhome indicates the weather is not always sunny and warm!

It is called Cliffside RV park for a reason

George in the sleepy fishing village of Coupesville, Washington

A little windy on the Ferry!  Now we can say that we have taken ferries on both coasts!

Took the ferry over to Port Townsend to see our camphost friends from Chatfield..

.Peggy and Howard Doi

Every sunset at Whidbey was just awesome!

 

Not all RV campgrounds are designed the same,

 the sites at Fairchild AFB are a little narrow!  But the host and the other RVers were very friendly!

 

How did that picture get in here....

Oh maybe because we miss these three sweethearts,

 Karsten, Holly, and Kasey!

 

 

 

B-52 at the Airpark on Fairchild AFB

OK why does the Air Force have train cars?

 

The Lake at Coeur d'Alene...the lake is in the middle of the city

 

The Grand Coulee Dam - the largest dam in the US

 with almost 12 million cubic yards of concrete

 (4 x the amount as Hoover Dam and 3x the generating capacity)

Amazing what you learn reading this blog!

Lake Roosevelt formed by the Grand Coulee Dam, the lake runs about 40 miles back toward Spokane.

 

As we reached our goal of traveling up the coasts of California, Oregon, and Washington we can reflect on how fortunate we are to be able to continue this lifestyle and to visit with friends throughout the United States.  Our trip is only half way complete but we will do the return trip in about two weeks rather than two months.  Day trips to the Tetons, landmarks in Idaho, and a week in Salt Lake are all on the agenda for us.  When Kasey and Karsten join us we will let them choose between a few sites so our final leg might be a few more days than we planned but we think they will want to go Dinosaur National Monument to see the bones of the ancient giants, also by traveling the back roads of Utah, Colorado and Wyoming will give them a chance to stop and enjoy the trip.  Can't wait...it will be a different adventure! 

We hope you are enjoying your summer.  Stay safe and take extra good care of yourselves!