O, it's a snug little island! A right little, tight little island!

So here is part two. Nancy and I rented a car and took a week to discover England. We went to so many places and saw so many things. It was fantastic. We ended up getting a sat nav which was both our salvation and the bane of our existence. For the most part it was fabulous I wish we had spent more time in Scotland and the Lake District. That was the one part that I would have expanded.


We went to Winsor Castle to tour it only to find that the Queen was there so we didn't get to go in. We got some great stalking pictures in though and I began to hone my techniques.

I loved Stone Henge. I was so grateful we stopped here. It was fantastic and so peaceful-even with all the other hundreds of people.

Bath was pretty fun, even if everything shut down at six. It was fun to go and visit a place that Jane Austen writes so much about. It was fantastic. We sampled some of the water and I learned why people were cured. That water was so gross that I wanted to throw up after that. We wandered and visited the Jane Austen Center. It was fantastic.
We went to Wales and I loved it. I want to move there and learn Welsh. Believe me it was fantastic. Our first stop was Tinturn Abbey, this is one of my favorite poems and visiting was so powerful. I loved it. It was peaceful and serene and just incredible.


I took so many pictures here. It was inspiring.

We then went down to Cardiff to full my Doctor Who obession. It was fantastic. I loved Cardiff, except for the Traffic. We went to Cardiff Castle and that really sucked, Not a fan and not the best place we visited.

Then it was off to the Doctor Who stuff which Nancy was great to indulge my fangirl personality.


Look Heather., It is Jack's coat...sigh.

Oh why does that man look so good?

Another Tardis!!! I want a ride! I won't bore you with the rest of the exhibition pictures-I took a lot but this was in the top three favorite things.

Then of course we had to visit Torchwood. I really just loved Cardiff and Wales all together.
The next day I finally had the chance to visit my idols home. Stratford was fantastic and after ten days of being in the country as I stood in front of Shakespeare's birthplace I finally knew that I was in England. I started to cry at that moment. It was rather overwhelming. We stopped at Anne Hathaway's cottage first, it was overcome with tourists, but still we had a great time.

I have so many pictures from the gardens and of Stratford but after that visit we headed to Warrick Castle that reminded me a bit of Disneyland yeah, it was odd. Pretty grounds though even if it was overrun with school kids.



Then we went to York that had the best food and the coolest church. York Minster was the coolest one that we saw!
We went to Scotland the next day. I loved Scotland and it was fantastic. We tried to tour Edinburgh Castle, but it was closed due to the installation of someone. We did make it to Holyrood Place though, which was lucky as it was closing that day for the queen to visit. Dang her, she was stalking us.
Ah Scotland the land of my forefathers.

We got caught in a rain storm that lasted three minutes, but we were soaked after.
Look, it is my new Scottish boyfriend.
Yes, I ate at the Hogshead. It was a great pub with some great food.

Isn't that gorgeous. If we had more time we would have hiked it. Oh well.

nance doing her laundry, I had done mine the night before In York. when nance sends that picture I will pst that one.
At Holyrood House.
This is Hogwarts, right?
Honestly Scotland is so pretty. I loved it there.
We stopped at Hadiran's Wall on our way back into England. That is the wall behind me. We were too tired and didn't want to pay for parking to walk up to it.

We decided if anyone asked we would tell them that this was the wall.

We swung through the Lake District and it was fantastic there. I want to honeymoon there, I want to retire there, I want to go spend weeks there. It was fantastic.



See how pretty. We tried to go to the Beatrix Potter sites but they were all closed on Fridays.
That night we stopped to see the Preston Temple. We didn't get a chance to visit it as the hours didn't fit in our schedule but all the more reason to go back.

On our way back to London we stopped at Pemberly, oh I am sorry Chatsworth House. It was one of the other top three things that I saw (the Lake District rounded out that top three). So here are my fangirly pics.





So that is it. I will do Paris as soon as I get home from the grocery store, or maybe shower and put the groceries away. But it will all be done soon.

When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford.

Okay, I think I am slightly more coherent now, but suffering a bit from jet lag. In fact I was asleep at 6 last night and after a quick wake-up call I was back to sleep and then up at three. Works out as I had to take my parents to the airport this morning at five. So I have a busy day today. Stuff to get ready for the leadership retreat, write a talk for church, beta a few chapters, and do some three day things. I also have a bunch of packages to send out. Oh, and I promised someone I would finally watch Transformers I this weekend.

Let me just start this out saying that this was one of the best trips of my life. I loved it all, except Paris. I hated Paris. I had so much fun. I saw things I had read and studied since I was a little girl. It was just overwhelming and there were a few times that I just cried a little. I came home less stressed and just happy. It was just what I needed.

So below the cut are pictures and stories. I probably will have to spread this across a few posts, as though I only uploaded a few of the pictures from my trip imagine what a few of 800 are. There will probably be a few more when Nancy (my traveling partner) sends me her pics. So just be prepared.

We started off our trip in London, in fact after a horrible trip to JFK we ended up sitting on the tarmac at JFK for two hours and we made friends while we waited and flirted a bit. By the time we got into London it was late and we ended up having to take a cab from the airport, as there was a tube strike going on, 90 Pounds later we got to the hotel but were wide awake so we took a midnight walk.

Me with my first passport stamp.
The next day we went out and due to a tube strike we ended up seeing much more of London than we would have ever. I meet up with Rachel and her friend. It was a ton of fun exploring new places. and eating some great cup cakes.

We took so many touristy pictures. But that is half the fun, right?

We didn't get to see this but I was so happy to find the Mamma Mia theater!

My friend Nancy and I. She was a great we had so much fun together. We also met up with Nimah who is a doll. It was so fun to meet someone who I have "known" for five years. The rest of the time in London we saw everything we possible could. Took night bus tours, boat tours, toured everything that we could. Sampled the food. Fell in love with Percy Pigs, Thornton's toffee, and Thornton's chocolate. It was fantastic. So here are more pictures with commentary about each one.


At Kensington Palace. This was particularly fun as on the way home I watched Young Victoria, part of which had been filmed here.

More of Kensington. The gardens are gorgeous there. And everything is so green. To a girl from the desert of Utah that was awesome.

Harrods a great shopping adventure. That place was huge.

Making a brass rubbing- people started taking pictures of us it was sort of odd.

We went to go and see the changing of the guard, actually we left before the actually ceremony, there were too many people. But we did get a few pictures before then.

Buckbeakbabie suggested that we go and see Wicked, it was fantastic and we had such great seats. It was just a great show and there was no one choking on a cough drop at the climax of the show.

Nimah told me where I could find a police box and I had to make sure that I visited it in all my geekiness.

Westminster Abbey, we didn't get to go in as it was closed but the outside was gorgeous.

I was ennamored with Big Ben. I took so many flippin' pictures of that clock tower. I leave you with one.

I am still trying to decide if I liked this or not. It really is a bit of an eyesore, but It made a cool picture.Plus, as my dad reminded me it is just a big alien transmitter anyway.

Yes, I got excited at this...maybe a bit too excited.

Nance and I at the Prime Meridian. That was actually really cool.

Visiting the Tower of London. I really liked this it wasn't at all how I ever imagined it and I was able to be a tour guide for Nancy explaining all the crazy history that I have learned and have bottled up in my mind. It was awesome.

People actually live in the tower. I didn't know that before.

Crossing the Wibbley Wobbely Bridge.

St. Paul's Cathedral. It was gorgeous and we had gorgeous weather.

We also went and saw Billy Elliot, it was pretty good but I wished we had gotten to see Lion King.

Visiting Buckingham Palace--after the changing of the guard.

Enjoying afternoon tea at noon. They kinda looked at us funny when we asked for it that early but they served it anyway. It was delicious. I loved the scones. oh and the tea was fantastic. Why don't we have tea like that here.

At the Globe. we stood right next to the stage and got to wear the funny paper hats they provided. Someone tried to make us move and Nancy went all evil American on them and they backed down. It was great but the part where the girl fainted next to me was slightly odd.

We visited Richmond and walked around the Park and to Kew Gardens. part of the way there (it was a seven mile walk) I got a popsicle that was passion fruit. it was fabulous but here's the thing- I am allergic to passion fruit. So there was a little scary moment there but I turned out to be okay. We ended up walking to Kew Gardens, which was gorgeous.


Water lilies I love water lilies It was my first time seeing them and I was so excited..