England

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After an eleven hour flight we arrived in London, England on the 19th of July.

It was great to arrive in an English speaking country and order something from a menu that we could actually read and understand. We spent the night in a hostel in Bayswater (a lovely suburb in London near Hyde Park). First impressions were everything was so orderly and clean, but the women seemed extremely overdressed for a Wednesday afternoon!

Next it was on to Manchester where we hired a car just out of central London to avoid the traffic and drove to Kev and Shannon's house in Oldham. We spent the night gossiping about our travels and visiting the pub of course.

Next it was on to Thornaby to visit Chris' relatives. We spent a lovely few days unwinding and relaxing with Sheila (Chris' Grandmother) in Thornaby and catching with Chris' Aunty and Uncle (Kay and Ivor) and cousins (Justin, Luke and Peter) at the Pub. We also had a lovely afternoon trip to Whitby where Captain Cook served his apprenticeship and where the Endeavour was built. Many thanks to Sheila, Kay and Ivor for looking after us.

Chris and I then visted Richmond, Durham, York, and Bath. The English countryside was amazing. So English! We could have easily kept on visiting medieval castles and palaces, but London was calling. We visted London mostly on foot because we needed to loose some weight after eating croissants for breakfast every morning in Argentina. We visited Westminster Abbey, the Tower of London where we saw the Crown jewels, Buckingham Palace, the Houses of Parliament at Westminster, the Camden markets and Portobello Road. We had a chance to see Parliament in action on its last day. We also got to see the Queen musical 'We will Rock You' in London's west end which was fantastic.

We absolutely adored England and wished we had more time to spend there with everyone, but onward and upward and it's on to Rome!

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Photos

Chris sampling the water at the Roman Baths in Bath
The water tasted absolutely disgusting a cross between salty water and used bath water!

A typical scene in Bath
Bath was absolutely gorgeous!

Kirsty's dream house
This is Durham Park (just out of Bath) which consists of a 17th century mansion and gardens to die for. We spent half a day exploring the mansion's original furniture and gardens.

Isn't this the England you pictured?
Chris phoning his Grandma in a red phone box out the front of the Big Ben.