London

I don't have any of my notes, so I'm just telling what I remember.  We started with a tour of London with our fantastic blue badge guide, Peter Ffrench.  If you are ever in London and have a chance to go on one of Peter's tours, please do.  He was a delight from day one!  We saw the Tower of London, which I have always wanted to see.  We saw Westminster Abbey.  We saw so many wonderful things.  Counting the first day, we were three days in London, so I don't remember what we did on which days--it's a little jumbled up.  But I do remember a private tour (textile-specific) of the Victoria & Albert Museum.  We also visited a yarn shop called I Knit London.  Very cozy and welcoming, also served drinks.  (It's not always about the yarn!)  I went with another girl on the tour and we found a geocache nearby.  We walked as far as Kensington Gardens before we were too tired to go on.  We saw a performance of Oliver! at Drury Lane.  Wonderful performance--I can't even describe.

When we left London, we went to Bath.  Of Jane Austen's books--yes, that Bath.  Wife of Bath's tale--same Bath.  Also mentioned in Dickens more than once--that one.  As you can see, I've always been keen to see the things I've read about.  So off to Bath we go.  Whatever you've imagined, it's probably not that.  But it's fascinating to see the ancient history there!  Lots of museum-type information--you could spend all day just looking at the Roman Bath stuff and never see the Cathedral or the rest of the town.  But there's also the Jane Austen Centre and the Fashion Museum.  I made it to JA Center but not the FH Museum.  Then also were the shops and lunch.  Since the water has run through lead pipes for thousands of years, it is FULL of bacteria and they warn you not to touch it.  Interesting, since people went there for years for its healing powers.

Then on to Cardiff.  We had dinner and entertainment after our tour of Cardiff Castle.  No flash allowed, so my pictures aren't very good.  But can you imagine living in a town where there's a huge castle right there?  The tour was very interesting, the dinner was excellent, and the entertainment superb.  Beautiful singing by the staff.  One of our group was chosen for the audience participation part of the evening.  Wonderful, wonderful time.

The next day we saw Tintern Abbey.  This beautiful, majestic monastery has been the subject of poetry and art, founded in 1131.  It rained while we were there, which seemed appropriate, and the sky was such a beautiful blue afterwards.  I got a little water under the filter on my camera so my pictures aren't as good as I would have liked, but it was a gorgeous place.

We went to Hay-on-Wye, which is a village full of bookstores.  Overwhelming.  I could spend the rest of my life in a place like this!  My favorite was the Honesty Bookshop, just below the castle, which had a box to pay for the books that sat on shelves all around.  I worried about what happened to the books when it really rained!  It was so fun just to wander around the little village and see all there was to see.

We stopped at the Penderyn Distillery for a whiskey tasting.  I'm not a big whiskey drinker, but it was really cool to see how they make it.  We had the option for tasting or taking little bottles away, and since I didn't want to cart them all over Europe, I opted for the tasting and bought a shirt.

We went to the boathouse where Dylan Thomas wrote.  Next to a ruined castle, it was lovely, and I wish I had a place half so beautiful for writing.  The boathouse itself wasn't so much, but the scenery was breathtaking!  I took a lot of pictures.  I sat with Brenda Dayne (of Cast On fame) and discussed graduate school.  She was very encouraging!

We went to Tenby, a walled village in Pembrokeshire with literary history.  There were little blue history signs all over, saying Mary Ann Evans (George Eliot) stayed here before she wrote her novel, or Admiral Nelson stayed here.  We had a nice tour of this pretty little seaside spot.

We toured the Welsh Wool Museum and saw the old looms that used to create our fabric.  There were many beautiful blankets, and I would have bought at least one if I hadn't been concerned about the weight and available space of my luggage.  Since I was about to go to Paris, I didn't want to be overloaded.  I do wish now that I had at least gotten the lapblanket.

The last thing we saw before returning to London was St. Fagan's National History Museum. There was so much to see that I only saw half of it.  It covered British history from Celtic days to more recent "modern" history.  It's an interactive museum, for the most part.  I saw a blacksmith making tools.  I fed blackberries to turkeys.  On the other side, the side I didn't get to, was the castle and gardens.

So much more I could say, but this post is overlong as it is.  One thing I loved in London was the tea tray.  In every hotel room you could find a little tea tray, with an electric teapot that heated up the water in about two minutes.  Tea, milk, and cookies.  I missed it once I got to Paris.  I never really tried milk in my tea before I went to London, and now I prefer it that way.  I had such a lovely time, and someday I will go back.

One disappointment:  I was at King's Cross Station three times, and not once did I have enough time to find Platform 9 3/4.  There was always one more hallway to walk down to get there, and I just didn't have time.  I would have liked to take a picture.  Maybe next time!