July 16 Today is the day that we meet the people with whom we will be spending the next two weeks. We will travel by bus around Ireland and Scotland and will part ways once we end this tour in Edinburgh. Breakfast was at 8 am. It was a buffet breakfast complete with components of an English breakfast along with many extras such as pancakes, fried potatoes, mushrooms, and a variety of breads. Once finished, we had time to return to our rooms before boarding the bus for a trip around Dublin. I always laugh at the word Dublin…..it’s because of the many jokes Terry Wilson tells. I won’t share it here in print, but you can ask him and I’m sure he will tell you. Top of the list today……find a shirt that says Dublin ... read more

We had breakfast at our hotel…the Angel Hotel in Leamington Spa. It was a full English breakfast. The big difference was they would scramble eggs for Shealyn. The other thing is the breakfast included black pudding. It is made from pork or beef blood with pork fat or beef suet and a cereal, usually oats or barley and seasoning. It was not high on my list of things to try!! We walked around town and found a bus to Coventry, which is one of the places I wanted to go. Fifty years ago, Fairmont State Choir took a trip here and I wanted to revisit some places. Coventry was one of them. Because we were limited in transportation, we could only pick one area. Coventry Cathedral has a long history of destruction and rebuild starting in ... read more

July 12 I didn’t sleep well last night. I was restless and woke at 4:30. I did finally get some more sleep. My hair always tells when I’ve tossed and turned….it looks like mix master did it…..WILD!! Once everyone was awake we headed downstairs for breakfast. Shealyn was trying to figure what you do in London to avoid the heat. She found a site that said to visit Kew Garden when it’s hot. Kew has always been on my list to visit but it’s pretty far out. We were up for the challenge do off we went to Paddington Station to board the District Line to Kew Garden. The best part was the train was fairly empty so we got to sit down!! Plus we only had to change trains once. Kew gardens was a total ... read more

July 10 We got up, had our typical breakfast and got dressed for the day. We were heading to the British Museum and because we had tickets to see Six, the musical, we would not return until late evening The British Museum was very nice. It had a great amount of exhibits, but Shealyn was particularly interested in the Rosetta Stone, the Egyptian display, and Mesopotamia. As we entered the first thing we saw was the gift shop. Now the museum has a rotunda and the gift shops go almost all the way around. Shealyn had a ball buying items she could put on display in her classroom. When all was said and done, she had two bags full!!! We then went to see the Rosetta Stone. Shealyn was in the height of her glory!!!! (She’s ... read more

We got up and got ready for breakfast. We’ve stayed at this hotel in 2019 and loved the breakfast. We were hoping COVID hadn’t changed all that. We had 2 eggs on bread, beans, really good bacon, chocolate croissants, coffee, toast and tea. There was also cereal, fruit, and juice available. It was excellent. Our goal today was to get to some shops near Buckingham Palace that were closed for Good Friday when we were here last. We also wanted to walk they Hyde Park and sit in chairs along the water. We never found the chairs, but did visit the pavilion which had a coffee shop/ restaurant and Toilets. As we were walking, Marsha noticed her feet were swollen and her shoes were rubbing blisters. So we detoured to a pharmacy to get bandaids and ... read more