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

Wed & Thurs, Sept 21 & 22

Arrived in Milan after tearfully saying "Arrivederci!" to Stresa. It truly is one of the most beautiful places to visit - we will return one day! Here is a final picture photo of Isola Bella as taken from our hotel room.



Milan is a very busy city - a real mix of business, fashion and art. It's fashion week this week for spring/summer 2012 (I haven't even gotten out of my 2011 summer stuff yet!) and the city is filled with ridiculously thin models. Everyone dresses very stylishly - and it has nothing to do with expensive clothing - people here have a very innate sense of what looks good in clothing and how to put it together.Lots of great fashion billboards around the city . Here is an Armani one.



After arriving at the Westin which is located just outside the old city, we headed to La Brera art museum which has the best and biggest collection of northern Italian art in the world. After wandering through 30 rooms of art our feet gave out and we headed to a cafe for a Campari and orange juice (very Milanese) and a beer.

Today we started with the most delicious apricot brioche for breakfast. I could have eaten 10 of them! People here only have a quick brioche and cappuccino for breakfast as they make their way to work. Sounds very light but they eat very large lunches and then don't eat dinner until 9pm.

We then headed off to meet with our tour group. Why did we join a tour? Because we wanted to see Da Vinci's The Last Supper and the only way to do that was through a tour. I had not realized that in order to get Last Supper tickets you must order at least 2-3 months in advance. So in a panic on Monday I scoured the Internet to find tours who could take us . I finally found a 3 hour Milan tour that included the Last Supper - what a relief.

So we got a tour that took us around the magnificent Duomo cathedral- picture here- and the Galleria indoor shopping mall, a few other local sights and finally the last supper. It is a fascinating work of art - in a serious state of deteriation but still very powerful.





Tonight we went to the La Scala Opera house to see the symphony. Stunning interior -an incredible experience to be there. The symphony was excellent.



Tomorrow is our last day. We'll do some shopping here and then head for the airport where we will stay overnight since our flight is at 7am on Sat.
This vacation has been one of our best ever . Very sad to leave, but we'll be back - can't get enough of Italy!

See you all soon!

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Sunday & Monday, Sept 18 & 19

Just when we thought we couldn't find a more beautiful place on earth than Bellagio, we find ourselves in Stresa. Beautiful little islands (Borromees Islands) scattered around the large lake of Lago Maggiore with towering mountains as a backdrop. The views here are simply stunning!!! We're staying in a huge Old World, over the top Baroque style hotel, the Grand Hotel des Iles Borromees where Ernest Hemingway loved to stay when in the area. Apparently he wrote wrote A Farewell to Arms here and used the hotel as a setting for portions of the novel. We are here for 3 nights.






Yesterday we took a short boat ride to Isola Bella- it remains true to it's name (beautiful!) - where the Borommeo family who ruled this area in the 16th & 17th centuries had built a massive palace that takes up about 2/3 of the island.








Filled with opulently decorated rooms and surrounded with beautiful gardens with white peacocks. Also visited Isola Pescetoria, an island with an old fishing village - disappointing place over run with tourists and with nothing other than souvenir shops and pizza stands.

Today we strolled in to the town of Stresa and poked about. Then got in the car and took a 40 min drive over to a neighboring lake to visit the medieval town of Orta San Giulio. We took a short boat ride to a tiny island off the coast of the town which is home to a beautiful Basilica and Benedictine monastery.





Everywhere there are signs and messages about silence - a beautiful and contemplative spot.

Off to Locarno, Switzerland in the morning via panoramic train.

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Location:Stresa