London- a true world city!

5 days and 6 nights in London are not enough.  The last city to visit in our adventure, London was a great place to wind down- well, wind up, actually:-).  Talk about frenetic!  From the time you step out of the arrival gate to the moment you leave, you are surrounded by people, sounds, history, music, art, architecture, sometimes decent food, good beer, great theatre (that is quite different from American theatre!), and on and on!  Plus, no other city can place incredibly old and historic buildings next to architecturally magnificent new structures like the English.  London- a World-Class city!  To make it even better, we met up with people on 3 days: Terry, Carolin, and Kim, Peter, Jonathon and Owen- people we were were ecstatic to see, and loved being around!  They added so much to our London experience, we can't even fully express it.  London- what a joy to visit!

 Cool busker!  Witch with a cell:-)

 Parliament

 and Big Ben!

 and Rich with the London eye

 Borough's Market- a VERY cool market at the base of "the Shard" the newest and most modern sky-scraper on the London Skyline

Borough Market with "the Shard" in the back-ground

 the Tower Bridge with Rich

 Modern buildings as seen from the Thames!

 the oldest building in London (London Tower), and one of the newest,n "the Gherkin"

 The Tower of London (oldest building in London) and "the Shard", the newest building in London

cool view of the Tower Bridge

The Tower of London and the Tower Bridge

an afternoon with Terry, whom we met on the cruise, lives just outside London, and is a very cool Englishman!

Harrods and the city at night!

Brighton is a very cool seaside town on the southern coast of England!  My friend Carolin, originally from Frankfurt, Germany, has chosen Brighton as her home.  After showing us this very cool town, we agree with her!  It is definitely a liveable seaside town!

 sunset in Brighton

 the Brighton board-walk

 Brighton town

 Carolin and Brighton at the Royal Pavilion

 Brighton from the beach

 the pier, with very fun rides and games

the beach

Windsor- home of the Royal Family!  We met my niece Kim, her husband Peter and their two children Jonathon and Owen, in Windsor for the day.  They are residents of England and are working there.  What is totally cute: the two boys are speaking english like the English!  Totally cute!!!

 Windsor castle from the river

 Rich, Peter, Kim, Jonathon and Owen

 posing in front of our family home, if we were of royal blood.  

 Owen found a rock!

 Rich and the boys goofing around

town view of Windsor

Rich and I with the boys

Edinburgh!

Edinburgh- If Hogwarts were a city, it would be Edinburgh!  From the moment you come our of Waverly Train Station, you see incredible brown brick buildings with spires, arches, passage-ways, bridges, hills, all looking straight out of Harry Potter- just incredible.  

The city has some really great pubs, with excellent pub-grub!  My favorite is all the pies they serve- some with puff pastry topping, others with mashed potatoes!  For Rich- fish and chips.  Plus, they have interesting names, good beer, and that famous Scottish whiskey!

The city has a cool castle that over-looks the city, with a beautiful park around it.  The Cathedral is also quite nice!  As Vince Coyle says, Edinburgh is the most visually stunning city on the planet.  Some truth to this, I tell you.  come visit- you won't be disappointed!


Cool pubs!

Beautiful Cathedral

The dark side of the force is strong with this highland storm trooper!

Sunset and city vies- spectacular!

Ghost tour!! Scary!!!

Sunset Whiskey with the group:

The Guillotine- keep sharp objects away from the ones who love us...

Bag-pipers everywhere!  I will miss them- their music is so beautiful!!!!

And the castle- day and night

Castle dungeon

Beautiful YORK, England- another incredibly cute town!

York is just awesomely cute!  It seems the world is intent on providing us with ever more cute towns that we can visit and enjoy.  I know I have over-done "cute", but seriously, these towns can't have any other description!  I have used "cute'" for Lecce, Italy; Bruge, Belgium; Heidelburg, Germany; all of Netherlands; and now YORK England.  Each of these towns are just incredibly nice: clean, beautiful architecture, small and easily toured, nice restaurants and hotels and of course cute shops with cute things to look at and maybe buy.  Cathedrals/cute churches are part of it, sometimes little rivers or canals and cute little bridges, and always little (or big, as in Bruge) squares you can sit at a restaurant and drink and people-watch.  But all are so very different!  Each has a different feel, of course different culture, different food and wine/beer; bu all have one thing in common: coffee and pastries!

York, though, is the English version of a cute town, with brick buildings, the largest g
Gothic cathedral north of the Alps, a river with bridges, good beer...You be the judge.  Me, I recommend going to all of them and just enjoying them.  The great thing about Yorks cathedral is that the interior was build with limestone, so it is very light and airy, unlike darkness that is Notre Dame.

Plus on this journey, we met up with Vince and Terry and Ben Coyle- Rich's in-laws!

Haunted Phone Booth!!!  Scary!!!!!!

York is steeped in history!  A Roman outpost, much of the city is built on top of ruins- the cathedral is built over a Roman fort, and the medieval city walls follow the old city roads;  then English, then the Vikings invaded and stayed for 300 years, then English again.  It is considered one of the most haunted cities in the world, so a ghost tour is a must.  The River Ouse runs thru it, and the boat ride is quire relaxing.  We stayed at the Old Grey Mare hotel- 250 years old, it has 104 sightings of ghosts- sadly, e didn't see any, but there was lots of creaking, but that was probably from the 250 year old wood!

Sadly, there was no sun- itwas a grey, cloudy time.  The filtered light sort of made everything a bit grey- so sorry- you can't see the great colors from my photos.

City view!  From almost anywhere in the city, you can see the towers of the Cathedral

 Inside!  As you can see, the interior is very bright- as if the light of God is everywhere

 Archangel Michael smoting a dragon!

Beautiful stained glass in the Cathedral

 

 St. Richard appeared before us!  We were in AWE!

 Another Cathedral view- the night lighting was really great!

 Cathedral view- it truly is beautiful!

 city view

Vince, Terry, and Ben Coyle were in Europe, so we met up in York- and later in Edinburgh!

City view

City view

All of us on the city wall- it is about 3 miles around!

 Cool gate to the city- anytime there is a wall, there is a gate!

City view

What is probably the most sad about this blog entry- we are now at the tail end of our trip.  We fly home on September 30, 2014.  Hard to believe that more than 6 months have passed.