United Kingdom

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Thanks to friends in Verrado, Peter and Helen O'Grady we are doing a house exchange since they will be in Arizona while we are in the UK. There home is in the Northumberland area in the village of Shotley Bridge. The funny thing is we sold our home in Vancouver and have nothing to exchange with at this time. However next summer the Pearl District in Portland, Oregon will be our home and Peter and Helen can enjoy the city as well as the majestic beauty of the Pacific Northwest.

Started with 4 days in London and then added an extra day to take in morre of the sights of this magnificent city and enjoyed two plays, Les Miserable and Billy Elliott. Missed a ride on The Eye since we never got a pure blue sky day, and the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace. The British Museum, Tower of London, Piccadilly Square, Fish N Chips, Westminster Abbey were all great, well not the Fish N Chips. We were then off to Peter and Helen's home by train (3 hours) what a great trip thru the English countryside of green rolling pastures and fields dotted with towns and villages.

The O'Gradys home is lovely and we were warmly welcomed by their daughters Rachel and Vicki and their longtime neighbor Sue who brought us a freshly baked delicious pie.

Shotley Bridge has been our base and we made bus trips to Durham to see the Castle and Cathederal, Consett for staples and Newcastle Upon Tyne for tours of the town, St. Nicholas Cathederal, Milenium Bridge, Grainger Market and the original Castle.

York our next stop and the volunteer city tour guide was the best, learning about the earliest times and the English history of the town. We departed with plans to visit The Lake District on our way to Scotland. The English weather did not cooperate so we continued our drive in the rain rather than hiking in the rain.

Edinbourgh Scotland is a must see. The Royal Mile is some of the best people watching anywhere and the views from the castle are amazing. Hadrians wall was also on our must see list and a relaxing walk along and on the the wall thru the pastoral countryside of Northern England made for a great day.

Mary indulged me by spending our last day on the British Isle by visiting St. Andrews Scotland the home of golf. I was able to play as a single after getting in line at 5AM to put my name on the list. Yes it was worth every cold minute of waiting and a memory I will not forget or the day Mary spent wandering in St Andrews with our luggage as I had the car. Awe yes the car yes it is an experience driving on the left sitting on right and shifting with the left hand. The only thing that is the same is gas on right - clutch on the left. Oh did I mention the round-a-bouts, what a thrill getting stuck in those circles. Signalling, shifting, accelerating, braking and all at the same time while avoiding every type of vehicle on the English roads. Memories

Well it was goodbye to England/Scotland and we flew to Shannon Ireland and the land of green.

First stop in Ireland, the village of Lisdoonvarna, we were not aware that this was the site of a month long festival, party known as the Match Maker Festival. It dates back to not sure how far and at that time when the harvest was done everyone would gather in this small village and an individual known as the match maker would interview the inhabitants and then decide who should marry who. This was the original match.com, or itsonlylunch.com or any number of current meet up places on the web. Yes there is still a match maker but the main focus of this month long extravaganza is too find a mate for the night. Well we found our mate for the night, each other and enjoyed the evening. Cliffs of Moher our next stop as we traveled down the west coast of Ireland, these shear rugged cliffs are magnificent, windy and cold no sunhine this day. Final destination that day was the Dingle Pennisula and the small town of Dingle.

Dingle was a great stop and we enjoyed many evenings in small pubs and dinner of steamed mussels and Guinness, did I mention how good the seafood is in Ireland and there is always Irish Lamb stew if you don't want to share the bounty of the Irish Sea. The days were spent hiking in the green hills and rock fences what a magical place.

We continued on to Killarney and the small town of Kinsale and the hospitality of the Irish. Our final stop was Dublin and were not disappointed by this grand city.

We would revisit the Emerald Island and Bill would want to partake of the many links courses it has to offer.

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