Photos Posted

Okay, I’ve gone through over five thousand photos: 1675 from the Canon EOS 60D DSLR camera, and more than 3400 from the Nikon Coolpix S9700 camera. I’ve whittled it down to about 900 photos and made them available here: http://photos.klotzbachs.us/Vacations/Summer2014/  The photos are separated into three groups: those from the DSLR, panoramas, and those from the point-and-shoot.

1st Day Back

No images today. Yesterday was our first day back.

Halleigh was the first to get up, 4 AM, but went back to sleep for a little while at least before continually waking Darrell up: “why doesn’t the computer work”, “Why doesn’t the TV turn on”, etc.

Took the kids to the 11:35 showing of “How to Train Your Dragon 2.” If you haven’t seen it, great movie. Everyone loved it.

Then we went to CostCo for lunch and victuals for the rest of the week. After that, Tae Kwon Do for the kids, dinner, and put things away from the luggage. Kids went to sleep early. Darrell and Chan not so early.

Didn’t have time to get the photos off the DSLR, but have started that process today – 1675 photos to go through from that camera alone!

Darrell could stand to be back in Europe for another 50 or 60 years or so. 🙂

The Flight Back

English Church in Slough

We got up this morning and had some breakfast at the Express by Holiday Inn hotel in Slough. Was a pretty nice self-serve buffet that included scrambled eggs, English sausage (yum), toast, baked beans, croissants, cereal, fruit and more.

Afterwards Darrell went for one last walk while the others watched TV. Then we packed up the car and headed for the rental car return at Heathrow. On the way, Darrell realized we hadn’t filled up the car with petrol. We didn’t find a station on the way so had the GPS find us one close by.

Dropped off the car and met a lovely couple from New Zealand as we got on the shuttle bus to the Terminal. Swapped contact information. Will be reaching out to them soon.

The adventure didn’t end with the dropping off of the car. You’d think 2.5 hours at the airport would be plenty of time for eating and shopping. Always has been more than enough for Darrell in the past. Well, Iain thought he’d seen a souvenir store on the lower level of Terminal 2 (The Queen’s Terminal). Turned out to be  a WH Smith’s. Went through security (didn’t have a gate assignment yet) and looked around for which place (of many) to eat at. Board said our gate would open at 2, with the flight leaving at 3 PM. Sat down to at at 1:45 and wouldn’t you know it, the board changed and said to go the gate – gate B39, 15 minutes away. We didn’t have our food yet!

Church Spire in Slough

Ate quickly! Darrell and Halleigh went to a WH Smith’s real quick for a few more English sweets and we rushed off to the gate. Seemed like plenty of time. Yet, on the the way it said “doors closing” about the ½ hour before departure where planes usually start boarding! WOW! We made it. In fact several people came after us still, but got the family pretty excited for a moment or few.

Yet the adventure still didn’t end there. First flight was to Montreal, Canada. Boeing 777. Was a pretty nice aircraft, but actually needs a  lot of work on design. Entertainment system was nice. Full touch screen, responsive, and great movies, TV shows and more. But there was also a panel on the armrests for changing channels, volume, turning on the light, and yes, calling the stewards/stewardesses. Wouldn’t you know that it was placed right where you set your elbow?! So everyone was turning on their lights and calling the flight attendants accidentally.

But the real fun was yet to come. We had an hour layover in Montreal. Probably was meant to be more, but the flight out of Heathrow left a bit late. Still, thought it would be okay, but no. One goes through US customs in Canada. Plus, they are using a new process. One doesn’t have to get your bags, but they do match a bag to the person going on the plane. Sit and wait while they do that. Oh, and have one customs official to try to make it tight. Finally get matched, get in line, have someone check if people are on flights that are soon to depart so get bumped up in the line, but still doesn’t help when the one customs official spends 10 minutes with one couple and there’s another couple in front of us heading to the same flight. Fortunately airport people notified the gate that a few of us were on our way, stuck in customs. We all made it, and flew a smaller, Airbus 320 if I recall correctly, home; two of us on one side of the aircraft, the other two on the other side. Don’t think anyone slept until the last couple of hours of this second flight.

Upon landing, Chan found that her friend that was picking us up was already at the airport. Hadn’t waited for us to call. We got home around close to 11 PM at night.

Windsor

Windsor Castle Stateroom Entrance

Today we had a wonderful cooked breakfast at Darrell’s luvly aunt’s, loaded up the car, snapped a few shots and said our goodbyes. Weather was looking stormy as we left, but didn’t have any rain.

We headed off to Windsor for one last sightseeing visit before we say goodbye to the Mondeo Titanium X and leave England on Wednesday. It’s going to feel a bit strange driving on the right side of the road again in a few days.

Arrived in Windsor around the time the SatNav expected – around 1:30, about 3 hours after we left Darrell’s aunt’s house. Fairly quickly found parking and had to get Halleigh up, who was taking a nap. On the way up to the castle, found a few more souvenirs to take home, one of which Iain wanted but hadn’t gotten while we were in London – a little statue of Tower Bridge.

Darrell & Iain in Windsor Castle

Had a luvly afternoon in Windsor Castle, somewhere Darrell had seen from the Motorway before, but never been to. In fact, a fire broke out in the castle in 1992 and destroyed several rooms, including the lovely St. George’s room. Fortunately they restored the room within five years time. An incredibly fabulous place! It was amazing! Unfortunately they didn’t allow picture taking on the inside.

Afterwards it was a quick look around the town, then some dinner before heading off to the hotel. Access to the hotel is on a small narrow road. It has very limited free parking. We almost got stuck in it as there weren’t spaces available and the street around it was very crowded. The front lobby informed us how we could pay to park in the train station right next door. Not so pleased about that.

Chan in Windsor Castle

Tomorrow it’s off to Heathrow Airport where we return the car and fly back to the States via Canada. Will have to do a couple more posts yet, one with a link to photos from the DSLR after we get back and sort through them, so not quite done with this blog yet.

Main Entrance and Queen’s Rooms

St. George’s Chapel

Darrell’s Aunt’s House

Room We Stayed in

Ford Mondeo Titanium X

Lincoln

Lincoln

Today we went to Lincoln. Well, at least some of us did.

Been having lovely cups of tea with Darrell’s aunt Frances. Had some laundry done and put on the line. Kids wanted to stay with Darrell’s aunt rather than go out. She said it would be okay. So she watched the kids and took them to the park while Darrell and Chan did a spot of sightseeing in Lincoln.

Darrell followed the GPS, which didn’t take them out the way his aunt said to go. Resulted in some nice one-lane, two-way roads on the way out with farm tractors coming the other direction. Getting the full English experience we are, except we haven’t gotten to see a proper thatched cottage yet.

Parked at the bus station car park as recommended, and walked up High Streeet to the castle and cathedral. Beautiful walk. Beautiful cathedral as well, but we didn’t go in for a proper full viewing. Apparently there is a copy of the Magna Carta here as well, but we didn’t see it.

Thought about seeing Bishop’s Palace, but didn’t. Also considered going into the castle as it was only £2 each, but there was so much construction going on, we weren’t sure what we’d get to see.

Lincoln Cathedral

Chan found a store selling scarves, 1 for £10 or 2 for £15. She likes the patterns here better and had a difficult time choosing two, but did so eventually.

Then we headed off to Tesco’s for some shopping before coming home. Sweets, biscuits and tea. In the car park the car behind started backing out when we were almost fully backed out. That annoying beeping the car does saved us from some damage to the rental car! Darrell quickly put the car back in drive and pulled into the space again before getting hit.

Back at Aunt Frances’, she was preparing dinner. Had a video chat with mum before eating. Thanks Aunt Frances for a very luvly dinner of roast chicken, roast potatoes, new potatoes, broccoli and carrots. It was fantastic and I believe you’ve hooked the next generation on roast potatoes done right – Iain and Halleigh loved them as well.

Kids had a great time with and at Aunt Frances’. Halleigh doesn’t want to leave tomorrow and Iain asked when she’s coming to visit us. Smashing great time. We’re all not looking forward to leaving here tomorrow and the country on Wednesday.

Inside Lincoln Cathedral

Guildhall

The Long Drive

Forth Bridge

Day behind again. Will explain in a minute.

Woke up to beautiful weather. “Today” was to be the longest drive of the trip – Edinburgh to Darrell’s aunt’s house in Billinghay; little over 5 hours to 6 hours depending on when you checked Google Maps.

With the beautiful weather we decided to take some last nice pictures outside the back of our hotel, which was right along the seafront. And since we were nearby, stop and see the Forth Bridge before leaving as well. So not really the early start we had planned on, but no worries, still figured we’d be to Billinghay between 6 and 7 PM, which is when we said we’d be there.

Castle near Forth Bridge

Got some nice photos, then ran into a nice police detour with no directions on how to get around it, but we sorted it out. Had planned on stopping around 1 PM for lunch and petrol, but ended up being 2 PM instead; at the same services area at Durham as we had stopped on the way up. But it wasn’t the one that we thought it was that had a bridge across the motorway to more services on the other side that also had fish and chips, so we had to settle for McDonald’s. At least the kids got a new dragon toy that they’ve been collecting at McDonald’s since we found them in Brussels.

Darrell sent his aunt an email saying they were currently still on time for a 6 PM arrive. That always jinxes it, doesn’t it? Ended up being at the services area for more than an hour and ran into some traffic and slow downs around construction after that and didn’t make it until 6:40.

Had Chinese take-away for dinner and done in time to watch the World Cup final game of Germany vs. Argentina. We were rooting for Germany, who won it with a goal scored in extra time! Whoohoo! Well done Germany. It was a great game.

That kept us up until late. Didn’t believe I had internet access from my blog writing machine, so didn’t post. Found out in the morning that I did. So catching up now.

 

Kids playing on seaside

Jellyfish

Almond House Hotel

Village near Forth Bridge

Edinburgh

Edinburgh Castle

Forecast was for rain several periods throughout the day. We mostly lucked out. Cloudy most of the day. Looked a bit like rain early on, but didn’t really amount to much more than a few drops until the afternoon.

At the recommendation of the hotel receptionist, we drove in and parked at St. James shopping centre in New Town. Ran into some diverted routing due to construction which the SatNav wasn’t aware of. Curiously, didn’t see signs telling non-locals of the way around it, but we managed anyway.

Nice narrow spiral up 6 levels to park. Fourth level was full and didn’t really have a loop for getting around. Was fun turning the estate around there to get to a higher level. And in case that wasn’t fun enough, the spiral down, being the inside loop, was even tighter. But we made it through.

Royal Mile

In town, the kids found some bungee jumping bouncers that they wanted to try. £6 each for 3 minutes. They loved it though, with Halleigh saying she wanted to fly before going in. That she did. Afterwards, we headed across to Old Town to work our way up to the castle. Did some shopping on the way up as well. Chan got a wool kilt and hat. Darrell considered some Scottish formalwear of a kilt, but decided he wouldn’t really wear it.

Line for the castle was quite long. Thought we were going to be able to short-cut it due to English Heritage membership, but was told that because it was oversees membership, it didn’t apply. Kids didn’t seem that interested in seeing the castle, so we jumped out of line giving us more time to wonder the city.

We walked the full Royal Mile down to the Queen’s official residence in Scotland. Then back up and into New Town. That’s when our weather luck ran out. Started raining as we walked down Princess Street around 6 PM in the evening. Had dinner at Bella Italia, an Italian chain here, found one last souvenir shop open on the way to the car park, bought a few more souvenirs, then left downtown.

GPS, of course, tried to route us through the same closed section of road despite some earlier mis-turns which we hoped would have avoided it. Turned out to be fortunate. Found an open Tesco Metro on the way back where we got some water and a box of loose leaf PG Tips tea.

Walking around Edinburg, Chan mentioned several times that she loves Scotland. We’ll miss Scotland when we leave tomorrow, but not the hotel we stayed in.

Scottish Formalwear

Siamese Halleigh

Siamese Iain

Stocky Family

York to Edinburgh

Arch at York Priory Hotel

Today we said goodbye to our lovely room at the York Priory Hotel, which we loved. Like the room in Lermoos, this one was quite special and we recommend it if you’re going to York. The room was great, it had parking, and the city centre is ½ mile away – a very easy and pleasant walk.

Darrell bought some baked goods at a local bakery for breakfast, put most of the luggage in the car, then strolled around for one last set of pictures of the hotel and the old city wall. We then checked out. On the way out, the kids met a couple of boys with remote controlled cars who were quite nice and shared. The boys were 8 and 10, about the same ages as Iain and Halleigh. They hit it off instantly – Minecraft fans as well. Not having much for plans other than a four hour drive to Edinburgh, we sat and chatted with their parents who were also quite nice. They had lived in Australia but now were in England and the father had just gotten a job in York. They were in the hotel until they could get the keys to their new apartment. We chatted with them until noon then climbed into the Mondeo Titanium X (sounds like something you’d name a rocket, and I guess it is a bit like a Saturn V one 😉 ) and headed off to Edinburgh.

Front of York Priory Hotel

Nothing much to report on the drive. Had thought to stop by Hadrian’s wall on the way up, but decided against it for various reasons. For those interested in history, Hadrian’s wall was built by the Romans around 122 AD. It goes from coast-to-coast and there are various theories as to why it was built. Darrell has seen it a couple of times before. It is impressive in its length, but has narrow roads around it, it doesn’t really have buildings in it that one can look around in, so not everyone may have been as interested in it anyway.

We arrived in Edinburgh around 6:30 PM. After checking in, ran out to get some take-away food. After dinner, a quick walk along the seaside. I should note that we’ve gone from a nice hotel to a hotel likely built in former Marine barracks. Or, at least that the assumption given the location and road name – Marine Drive.

Might be too bad that we didn’t arrive earlier as well. Weather was quite nice today. Forecast for tomorrow is rain.

Oh yeah, tooth loss count this trip:

Iain:  3

Halleigh: 1

Our Room at York Priory

York City Wall

York

The Shambles

Started the morning off with breakfast at the hotel. Chan and I had the traditional English breakfast, though this one was pretty loaded: eggs, sausage, beacon, baked beans, mushrooms, tomato, hash brown, and fried bread for toast. The kids tried the pancakes. Iain loved them, but they were so filling he only ate one. Halleigh didn’t seem to like the butter or something, but we felt they were the best pancakes we’d ever had. Fantastic. And golden syrup was lovely. Might have to buy some of that to bring home.

After breakfast it was a walk into the city. First stop, of a long list of things we saw, Clifford’s Tower. Part of an old Norman fortification, it is all that remains of that portion of the fortification. It is high on a hill. Kids thoroughly enjoyed seeing that. Also helped to make sure we got our money’s worth from our English Heritage membership that we got at Stonehenge.

After coming back down, Iain wanted to do one of the sightseeing tours on a double decker bus, so we did. About half way around we got off as there was a bunch of stuff to see and take pictures of and

York Minster

was right near York Minster, the other side of the city from where we are staying. Quick stop in the tourist information office, then popped into York Minster, then back out to wander around the extremely beautiful city.

We had a lovely ice cream in town and Iain wondered why we can’t get ice cream like that in the U.S. While eating the ice cream, they watched a street performer, who got the kids into the act. The street performer swallowed a sword, rode a 7 foot high unicycle, and while on top, juggled 3 knives while blindfolded. Quite a feat.

Then it was down The Shambles. Darrell had always told Chan that scenes in Harry Potter were much like that of cities in England. As we walked down The Shambles, she kept saying “this is like Harry Potter!” I think she believes me now.

After walking around the city, we grabbed a snack to eat and stopped in a “park” to eat it. Turned out it was grounds of the York Museum Gardens which holds many spectacular sights – home of ruins of: a hospital, an abbey, and an old fort. Then we hopped back on our bus tour to complete it.

After the ride around the city, a quick stop in the National Rail Museum before it closed. Then up the old city wall. Some dinner, visit one of the old gates into the city, then walk back to the hotel. Quite a full day, and one in which we lucked out – weather forecast had called for periods of rain throughout the day. The rain didn’t happen.

Old City Wall

A Church in York

Skeldergate Bridge

Bootham Bar & York Minster

Monk Bar

Oxford

Christ Church Oxford

Today was a travel day – needed to get to York from Salisbury, over 4 hours drive away without traffic, stops, etc. That said, it also leaves some time to see a bit of something as well. Oxford was kind of on the way, so we popped into Oxford for a few hours to see some of the buildings of one of the best known universities in the world – Oxford University.

With a need to get some lunch as well, we didn’t have a lot of time to see things. What we did see, we loved though. Would love to come back to ths city again and do some walking tours and enter some if these incredible buildings and see the insides. Some scenes from the Harry Potter movies were filmed and/or inspired by some of these buildings.

After a stop at the tourist office, which we had a spot of trouble finding, we headed down to Christ Church, perhaps one of the most well known of the Oxford Univeristy buildings. We walked around the building snapping photos and through a walking path that took us past Corpus Christi College and Oriel College. On part of the walk there was a gate that only allowed one or two people through at a time in each direction. There was a large group trying to get through from the other direction, but we still managed to make it through.

Radcliffe Camera

We also saw Radcliffe Camera, Bodleian Library and Balliol College. Then it was back through a market for some quick purchases of snacks and supplies before the time was up on our parking space. Our timing wasn’t right coming out. Got stuck in traffic trying to head out of the city. Once past the construction though, things weren’t quite so bad, though there were still boughts of traffic trying to get to the M1 as well as on the M1. At one point it seemed a bit rediculous how many roundabouts there were. Must have been at least half-a-dozen, if not more, in a 6 mile stretch. There seemed to be a near continuous stream of “at the roundabout take the Xth exit” coming from the GPS directing the way to go. No sooner had we come out of one roundabout when the GPS would be instructing the exit for the next one. Eventually we got out of all of them though and found ourselves on a nice stretch of freeway.

We got into York around 8:30. At first there were a number of complaints from the kids about the hotel. Then they saw the room. They love it. So do we.

The family then watched the start of the Holland vs. Argentina World Cup game while Darrell took a quick stroll around to see what was around for food etc. He loves the location as well. In addition to some local restaurants and bakeries, there are some buildings and roads that remind him of areas around his grandparents house that he spent time at a kid. Plus the old city wall is about a ¼ mile away, with the city centre being ½ mile away. Looking forward to tomorrow.

 

Bridge of Sighs

Christ Church Cathedral

Balliol College