Went to to Castle Combe for a wonderful pub lunch. It's another one of those National Trust protected places.... read more

Visited the town of Bath, known since Roman times for the hot springs. The Roman Baths were closed, but walked around the whole town for several hours. Bath is truly one of Europe's highlights as a travel destination. The weather has been perfect. Well Hot. That's quite unusual for this part of England at this time of year. Luckily N..'s cousin's car has A/C. The A/C in the other car was not working and we wilted in the Wiltshire heat on our trip to Stonehenge and Avebury.... read more

N..'s nephew, joined us for the day, away from his work in London. Visited Avebury, which has a large stone circle around the village. The stones are not as big as those at Stonehenge, but impressive because of the size of the stone circle. Then visited Stonehenge, as you can tell from the pictures. Surprisingly it was not as touristed as we expected. It was busy for a weekend afternoon, but not as bad as we'd expected. It was a hot day and we were quite exhausted from the heat. Came home to a wonderful dinner that N..'s cousin had cooked.... read more

Visited Liverpool, which has grown beyond some singing insects and named “The European Capital of Culture” in 2008. N..'s cousin's daughter sang at a Church choir while we window shopped at the Liverpool One outdoor mall and did sight seeing at the dock yards. Saw some Morris dancers outside a pub - a rare sight these days.... read more

Fujairah is on the Indian Ocean, just north of the Omani mainland and south of the Musandam penninsula. Sallahuddin won a major battle against the crusader forces just north of Fujairah and west of the Musandam penninsula. This was beach time. But, we seemed to be the only ones on the beach. There was an Emirati party during the weekend, but we had the place pretty much to ourselves the rest of the time. W.. enjoyed digging big holes in the sand and burying himself in those holes. He showed himself to be a pretty good climber by repeatedly scaling a hill that over looked the hotel. He also enjoyed swimming in the sea and the pool, even though the water was colder than we expected. Not as cold as Vancouver seas in the summer, but ... read more