http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Donel/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Donel en-us Mon, 28 Dec 2009 17:33:26 +0000 Mon, 28 Dec 2009 17:33:26 +0000 Well here we are back home again. The flight seemed like forever. Slightly bumpy over northern Quebec.Final pictures are here and we're glad to be back. you don't hear that much from people on holidaysI will publish the final stats in one last blog.Added some missed pictures. http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Canada/Ontario/Pickering/blog-421145.html It's been 2 days in a whirlwind visit to Paris. Hop on Hop off tour thru the entire city on day 2 followed by the full day tour to the Palace of Versailles on day 3. Today day 4 was a travel day that started with shopping on the Champs Elysees ok Elke was doing the shopping while I was watching and avoiding the gypsies.Now I don't know if anyone else who has travelled thru Paris has come acro http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Greater-London/London-City/blog-420419.html Well we have 2 days worth here now. No internet yesterday well more a combination of tired and didn't want to pay for access.We waved goodbye to hilly Lyme Regis and headed out across the south west thru the famous standing stones Stonehenge.Awe inspiring sight. How and why did someone move 15 ton rocks 385 miles on water and land then carve and line them up to be a large sundial monthly http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/France/Ile-de-France/Paris/blog-419552.html Left Falmouth for Lyme Regis. Now we should mention that we stopped in Trelliseck at a Nation Trust garden. Beautifull country garden.Journeyed on to Sidmouth for some picturesque shopping.Travelled some more skinny roads and went to Lyme Regis. Roads here extremely steep and narrow. Climbing the hill in the car feels like a rocket launch.Tomorrow .... Off to STONEHENGE http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Cornwall/Truro/blog-418949.html Today's jaunt was relatively short in distance.I we thought that we had seen the worst in roads by driving thru the Highlands..... WRONG A little trick to driving in the Devon area... when the center line strip disappears brake NOW Roads will immediatley squeeze down to 5 ft wide seems a lot narrower and usually it happens at a curve with high hedges.Scenery makes it all worth it. We drov http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Devon/Exeter/blog-418634.html We jumped in the car and left Cwmbran and headed out to Bath.Once again a little difficult to navigate around with some of the exits at roundabouts unmarked. I have learned that if I can't find the exit that I want...... I just keep circling till I find what I m looking for. I am quite sure that I am making thre locals nuts.OK now we found Bath... pretty good signs to the long term parking. Let t http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Devon/Exeter/blog-418260.html A relatively short day today in distance anyway. Checked out of the Aber Cottage in Dolgellau pronounced dol geth lee yeah I know we'll explain later and wandered around this tiny hamlet. Very very narrow streets. almost humerous that there are lines painted down the middle of the road when it is only 6 feet wide. Said goodbye to Barabara at the cottage and headed out on the road. There is http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/Wales/Monmouth/blog-417879.html OK now we are off to Wales. Headed west for the coast and tried our best to stay close to the water. Found quite a few holiday towns similar to Blackpool. Huge sections of promenade with arcades gift shops pubs and restaurants. LARGE static caravan parks trailer parks and I mean huge. As we got further south and west the towns got smaller and the scenery became even more beautiful.Stopped in http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/Wales/Snowdon/blog-417506.html Lots to update have been without internet fo a acouple of days.July 8th Left Claclaig Inn Glen Coe headed for Inverarary the seat of the Duke of Argyll the cheiftan of the Campbell Clan. A beautiful castle with the highest room of any home in the UK 60 ' plus Walls all lined with weapons used at Culloden.Stopped for some great scallops at a roadside Inn Lochgair. Headed for Girvan on the wes http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/Scotland/Ayr/blog-417259.html We left Invergarry to visit Loch Ness Nope didn't see it.... We tried Went thru the visitor center which was informative. Now we are off to the Culloden battelfield. For those of you who do not know This was the last hand to hand battle in Great Britain between the government and the Jacobites Bonnie Prince Charlie the true heir to the throne. Very moving.... They had a very detailed vis http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/Scotland/Inverness/blog-416241.html Today we are looping around the Isle of Skye. Headed northwest from our castle and travelled the winding roads. Many wonderfull road signs. Most have exlcamation marks and some form of picture. Common ones are school and children but my favourites are for sheep deer elderly and blind people. And when they show a sign for road narrowing they mean 1 lane and they mean it NOW You had best be havin http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/Scotland/Isle-of-Skye/blog-415887.html Left the spanish hotelBarcelo Carleton in Edinburgh this morning to head for Invergarry. As I had to walk 2 blocks to the rain that's th way it should be 1 day nice 1 day rain well only the morningWe drove along the motorway up to Perth and turned westward toward the Highlands. OK now I appreciate the term Highlands. In some of our pictures you are going to see white dots resolution not go http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/Scotland/Inverness/blog-415459.html Leaving Peebles and heading for Edinburgh with a stop at Rosslyn Chapel made more famous by the Da Vinci Code.It is undergoing a massive restoration project expected to take around 8 years. Left in pretty bad condition due mainly to the water retention of the sandstone which it is made out of.Another drive through the countryside to Edinburgh. We were lucky enough to be on the same road as our h http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/Scotland/Edinburgh/blog-415221.html We are leaving Whitby and heading along the coast and then north east to Peebles Scotland.Fantastic countryside Rolling hills and sheep everywhere In some cases the farms have no fences and they warn the drivers that the sheep may wander onto the road.A little tidbithellip there are no stop sings in the UK. Everyone just has to be careful.Stopped for lunch at Hadrianrsquos Inn which is just http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/Scotland/blog-414890.html Leaving Grimsby we continued up the east coast headed for Whitby we stopped in the town of Scarborough and visited Scarborough Castle. This ruin was started in 900 AD. There was evidence of settlements in 500 BC from archeological digs and there are remains of a Roman signal station. Scarborugh is also a great shopping town with huge pedestrian malls. Did a little shopping for the grandkids.On up http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Lincolnshire/Grimsby/blog-414881.html It's Canada Day and we are off to tangle with more roundabouts and pubsLeft Norwich for Sandringham the Royal summer home. Queen not at home She is defintely avoiding us.Toured the grounds and left for Cleethorpes on the east coast.Landscape in this area is gently rolling hills and quaint little villages.Arrived in Cleethorpes and walked the promenade looking for a pub. Found the Smugglers Inn http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Lincolnshire/Cleethorpes/blog-414174.html We are on our way to the seacoast when out of nowhere there appeared yet another cathedral and we just had to stop.It was the Norwich Cathedral which has the highest spire of all gothic cathedrals in Britain.Originally built starting in 1029 and partially rebuilt in 1529. Even the rebuild is 300 years older than Canada.Left the cathedal and headed east.I will say that the English people have prese http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Norfolk/Norwich/blog-413760.html Headed off to the country. Grabbed a cab from the hotel and went to get our train Liverpool St. station.Very civilized travel here. Kiosks to buy tickets put tickets into turnstiles which open automatically and off you go. Punctual smooth and fast. Taxi waiting for us and within five minutes we were at the car rental in Norwich. We had requested a small Vauxhall but they didn't have one so they http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Greater-London/blog-413595.html Holy crap it's hot here and because this type of heat is unusual there are NO AIR CONDITIONERSTotally soaked all day.Today is our day to travel with the locals on the underground. A little intimidating at first but the system is well laid out and fairly easy to understand.Our first visit is to St. Pauls Cathedral at the St pausl stop. from Euston down the northern line to the central line t http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Greater-London/London-City/blog-413444.html Wow What a day Started with a full English breakfast at the hotel. Sausages were great and the strawberries were awesome They are way better than back home.Left the hotel 730 and headed for the Big Bus double decker tour. It is a hop on hop off tour.We must have completed 3 laps of London in the total process. Got off at Buckingham palace and watched the changing of the guard. And yes we bro http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Greater-London/London-City/blog-412945.html