What a jolly 'oliday!....

So here are some long awaited photos of the past almost month...has it really been that long?...of my time here in England, the first 2 weeks of which were spent driving nearly 2000 miles all over this island with Jana, my sis. (For more details of our adventures you'll have to check out her blog here) I will say this: I don't really have the time to go into a too detailed travel log, but roughly here's where we were:

Sat. 20th: Arrive, nap, Lyme Park (below)

Sun. 21st: Church and visits
Mon. 22nd: Peak District: Hathersage, Chatsworth House, Bakewell for their famous pudding (it's a pie/tart), Castleton and Mam Tor (one of the 3 peaks that give the Peak district its name)

Here's Chatsworth House:

View from the top of Mam Tor

Us at the peak

Tues. 23rd: Preston Temple and visit to Mary Boswell, a companion of mine, in Wirral (near Liverpool)

Wed. 24th: Drive from Mary's to Ashington via the Lake District

The Lakes, Beatrix Potter country

Thurs. 25th: Holy Island, Bamburgh Castle

Lindisfarne castle on Holy Island

Fri. 26th: Dunstanburgh Castle, Alnwick Castle (Harry Potter's castle), Cragside house

Dunstanburgh castle

Alnwick castle

Sat. 27th: Durham and its Cathedral, Quayside Newcastle

view of Durham Cathedral from the river

Sun. 28th: Church and visiting

Mon. 29th: Drive from Ashington to Montrose, Scotland, to visit another companion, Roseanne, and her husband

Tues. 30th: Edinburgh

Wed. 31st: Drive from Scotland back down to Sheffield via Hadrians wall

Sunrise

Hadrians Wall

Thurs. 1st: Drive from Sheffield to London to stay with another companion, Rosie, London Temple Fri. 2nd: central London (too many specifics to list) and 'Wicked'

The London Eye

Tower Bridge

Buckingham Palace

Sat. 3rd: Drive back to Sheffield

Sun. 4th: Jana to the airport, Church, train for me down to London

Here are some picts from my two extra sightseeing days before officially starting work.

Big Ben

Trafalgar Square

Westminster Abbey

The Queen and Prince Philip leaving the Houses of Parliament after giving her speech (notice the very posh, gold-inlayed carriage)

St. James Cathedral

Don't worry, there'll be more to come. Heather's flying in Sunday morning and will be here for a week! And to give thanks this year we'll be spending 2 days in Paris!