Thu Aug 30

Stonehenge has fascinated us since childhood and we were not disappointed today. While it is difficult to get inside the ring of stones these days (although we had a tour company offer us a 07h00 visit for £420!), one gets quite a good view. It is truly a fantastic site to see this sort of logistics and engineering from 5 millennia ago. All this without the wheel. We spent an hour going around slowly, taking in the different perspectives. The oddest site was a dozen Buddhist monks with iPhones whom we last saw climbing the Celtic burial mounds.




Then 10 miles south to Wilton House, seat of the Earl of Pembroke (apologies for crooked photo) Gorgeous state rooms - the Single and Double Cube rooms - in the baroque style filled with Van Dyck, Lailley (the best two), Rembrandt, van de Velde and Reynolds works. It was here that Churchill and Eisenhower plotted the Normandy invasion. An interesting aside: if the present earl who is 34 yrs old and married does not produce a male heir, the 600 year old earldom will revert to those folks over at Highclere - the Carnavons who are distant relatives.










Then over to Salisbury Cathedral, 13th c. It has the highest church spire in England, it is glorious gothic. The charter house even has a copy of the original Magna Charta on display. It was a nice complement to the last gothic church built here in Bath which is more advanced and has more windows to give it better light.

We are happily ensconced in a small hotel - a house that apparently was built in 1830 for the Duke of Wellington who needed a local home for his mistress. Tomorrow, we head to the tomb of the baby eating bishop of Bath & Wells.

Location:Stonehenge, Wilton House & Salisbury Cathedral, Wiltshire

Wed Aug 29

Today began with lashing rain in Oxfordshire and it continued through our visit to Highclere Castle aka "Downton Abbey", home to the Earls of Carnavon. Great fun to be there. Bad news was that no photos were allowed of the interior rooms. The rooms are exactly the same as shown in the series including the dining room where so many scenes of those Grantham family dinners are shot. It's a beautiful home and despite its size, feels quite cosy. Place was packed with visitors...lots of big tour buses..at 20 pounds per head the Carnavons are doing well!

Very interesting Egyptian exhibit in the basement. The 5th Lord Carnavon financed Howard Carter 's King Tut expeditions and was present at the Tut discovery. Unfortunately he died from blood poisoning due to an infected mosquito bite while in Egypt a few months after the big discovery - giving rise to the "curse of King Tut" theory.

From there we drove through more rain to Bath. The old town was built in the 2nd half of the 18th c. and it is the best Georgian architecture. A very beautiful city We will have photos tomorrow to share.




This picture is of our local pub. Carl never got to see the Beatles - Pete Best was the 5th beatle - so this might be as close as he gets. And it proves to Ed that Carl is on this trip.

Location:Bath, Gloucester

Tue Aug 28

Today we visited Bletchley Park where thousands of people toiled during WW II attempting to break encrypted messages sent between German/Italian/Japanese army and naval personnel. While no computers were available to the code breakers at Bletchley Park, the machines and methods they invented were the foundation of computing. It is the birthplace of the post industrial era.





There were many to thank for the countless lives that were saved via advance knowledge of Axis plans but Alan Turing stands out for his decryption of Ultra coded messages (see machine above), his contributions to computing and his death as a result of being persecuted for being gay. The breakthrough was the "bombe" machine which broke the daily Nazi code every day.


While not on the beaten path, Bletchley Park is well worth a full day visit....and Carl thought he had died and gone to heaven, especially when he laid eyes on "The Bombe Machine"!!

Now we go back 500 years...and on to the beautiful Cotswold town of Burford. The High Street hasn't changed over the centuries. Beautiful 15/16th buildings in Cotswold stone line the streets...antique shops, galleries and lovely pubs..photos below. We dined at The Lamb pub...food was excellent. Just a beautiful and charming place. Stay tuned tomorrow for our visit to Downton Abbey...Carl has the alarm set early for this one!

Location:Bletchley Park, Buckinghamshire & Burford, Oxfordshire

Mon Aug 27

Today we went on a 15 kilometer hike through the lovely Cotswold countryside. We began in light rain but it was otherwise a lovely if cloudy.




Through fields, around cows and sheep, over rivers and along country roads we went, stopping to visit the Mitford family home in Asthall. We could not enter but got a great view from across the Windrush River.




On to Swinbrook, where we stopped for lunch and a pint at the Swan Inn which is owned by the only surviving sister, Debo, the Duchess of Devonshire. It is a shrine to the Mitfords and very popular. Went on further to the little 13th century church where 4 Mitford sisters are buried.




The church is also quite famous for the Fettiplace monuments, funerary statues of 6 generations of Fettiplaces, a very prominent family in this area from 14-18th centuries. As you can see from the photo below, the statues are stacked against the wall near the altar in a most unusual pose!




Going back was in part along an old Roman road. Almost everything in the Cotswolds has some sense of antiquity to it.

Location:Asthall & Swinford, Oxfordshire

Sun Aug 26

Departed London mid-morning and drove about an hour to the tiny village of Minster Lovell. We are west of Oxford staying in a 15th c. inn in the heart of the beautiful Cotswolds surrounded by lovely little honey coloured stone cottages. Today was a lovely warm day and after a couple of Oxford pints , we took advantage of it to go on a 6 km walk of the local countryside which brought us to the ruins of Richard III's chamberlain's manse. Our room is top left. We are in Mitford sisters territory and plan to visit their village Swinbrook, the setting of so many of their books and memoirs.

Location:Minster Lovell, Oxfordshire

Sat Aug 25

Began at Heywood Hill Bookstore, famous for Nancy Mitford's time there. Unfortunately closed for bank holiday.


Morning visit to the National Gallery. Too many high points to discuss but look up The Fighting Temeraire on Google. Then tubed over to Gloucester Road to see the bookstore "Slightly Foxed", once owned by Graham Greene's nephew. From there, the Wallace Collection, a fantastic private collection with stunning Canali, Dutch and British paintings. On to The Marylebone pub for happy hour, then to our favorite restaurant "Orrery". Vacation is hard work.


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Location:London

Fri Aug 24

Very busy day. Up early despite our still lingering jetlag. Grabbed a quick sandwich and bowl of muesli and off to St Paul's Cathedral whose dome is such a landmark of London's skyline. London is such an incredibly busy city. Hordes of people everywhere. Even off rush hour the Tube is packed. We did an excellent guided 90 minute tour of St Pauls's. We didn't realize how stunning the interior is. Beautiful mosaic ceilings and the church really rivals Westminster Abbey for graves and monuments of all the great people of music, literature and military exploits. The climb to the top of the dome was not so bad.


We then headed to a small park nearby strangely named Postman's Park. There is a monument in the park to all citizens who died saving others. Sad stories, many of children who drowned while saving other children. Beautiful ceramic plaques list their names and the circumstances of their deaths - very poignant.


Then on to Buckingham Palace. Neither of us had ever done the tour and now that the Jubilee year was here the time had come. Well worth seeing, particularly for the Queens art collection and the opportunity to see those beautiful staterooms.


We then headed off for a quick beer at a local pub, back to the hotel to change and the off to dinner. The restaurant tonight is called Dinner. Owned by Hester Blumenthal, also owner of the Fat Duck in Wiltshire - once voted the best restaurant in the world. Hester has taken various menu items from the period 1300-1940 and re-worked them into the most delicious food! Our meal tonight was one of the best we have ever had - just amazing! Now back at the hotel - stuffed and ready for a good nights sleep.

Location:London

Thu Aug 23

Museum Day. Leighton House Museum for a view of Victoria's favorite pre-Raphaelite in Kensington. Then down to the Museum of Natural History to see an excellent exhibit on Scott's fatal Antarctic journey. Through Harrod's and around Buckingham Palace where 2 boring old gits invited us in to play pool - we said no when they told us to surrender our Blackberries. Dinner on the Embankment near Waterloo Bridge.



museum of natural history


The queen waving

Location:London

Wed Aug 22

We arrived at Heathrow at 20:30, half an hour early and headed to the Park Lane in Mayfair. After sampling the local beer, we walked to Piccadilly Circus and Trafalgar Square. The former is still packed at midnight.


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Location:Sheraton Park Lane Bar