We spent the next three days visiting several towns in the Cotswolds. I have personal favorites, and those might just be the ones with the most pictures in this post. 😉 By the way, this is primarily a pictorial post.

I spent a fair amount of time reading about various villages to decide which ones to visit. I ended up being happy with the choices, although we skipped two due to timing (spending more time in the previous town, which was just fine!) and arrived in one too late because everything was closed.

We visited Castle Combe, Bibury, and Burford on the first day.

Castle Combe is one of the most photographed places in the Cotswolds. There have been no new buildings built in Castle Combe since the 17th century in a bid to keep its idyllic appearance. Notable TV and film productions have taken place in this village, including Downton Abbey, Stardust, Wolf Man, War Horse, and Doctor Doolittle. Honey-colored cottages surround a 14th Century market square and its church of St Andrews hosts a faceless clock – possibly the oldest clock in England.

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It was time to leave London and start seeing more of England. There are SO many places to visit! I’d originally decided to skip Wales and split our time between England, Scotland and Ireland, but then I read about how beautiful parts of Wales are, so I combined England and Wales and spent a bit more time there than each of Scotland and Ireland. But that meant that we only had seven days in England.

We used public transportation to and throughout London. We then took the train to Bath. We wanted to go to Stonehenge as well, but we couldn’t find a train to it. So, we went to Bath, rented a car and drove to Stonehenge and back to Bath.

We got to Bath and I walked to the car rental place. I used Google maps, which took me to a residence. Ha! But I’d passed a Europcar Rental Office on the way, so I went back to it and they had our reservation. After dealing with them for about 30 minutes because they were trying to overcharge us by many hundreds of dollars, I drove to pick up Michael and we made our first stop: Mary Shelley’s House of Frankenstein in Bath. Yep, just what every tourist does!

I thought it might be a bit scary. It wasn’t. But that was fine! We ended up learning a LOT about Mary Shelley.

Let’s just start with this: Written over 200 years ago, Frankenstein is one of the most influential books in literature.

We learn this about Mary in the first room:

Mary had a complex and unconventional childhood. Keenly interested in science, she was especially fascinated by galvanism, the theory that electricity could be used to bring a dead body back to life.

This explains why the first room you enter also has a fake electricity-generating machine. You put one hand on each of the vertical bars and hold on. The sound builds then it makes a loud noise and lights up.

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Day two in London started at Buckingham Palace to see the changing of the guards. We got there about a half hour early. We waited. It was time for the changing of the guards. Nothing. After a few more minutes, two police officers came around and told the crowd that the changing of the guards had been canceled for that day.

So we just took some pictures of other stuff.

Outside of the gates to Buckingham Palace is the Victoria Memorial, a monument to Queen Victoria, by the sculptor Sir Thomas Brock. Designed in 1901, it was unveiled 6 May 16, 1911, though it was not completed until 1924. 

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We began our 33-day long UK/Ireland trip on June 7th, taking a plane from Malaga, Spain to Bournemouth, England, then a train to London. This was the cheapest way to get there.

Here is our England/Wales itinerary from 30,000 feet:

We had two full days in London, and a total of 11 days in England and Wales. This post is about London.

I’d been to London when I was in college and was eager to return. Michael had never been there. I was excited to see it with him this time!

Our first sight when getting off the train at Paddington station, other than Paddington station, was of a modern artwork of animals sitting around a table. We each sat to visit with them for a bit. They had British accents. 🙂

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We left Cartagena on June 3. It was a two-day trip (240 nm) to Gibraltar, so we anchored overnight at Almeria. We saw a few dolphins along the way, but they didn’t visit for long so I only have a few not-so-great pictures.

We expected to have an entirely uneventful trip to Gibraltar. We did, for the most part. But then this happened in Almeria.

‘Twas the night of our passage, and all through Seahike
Not a creature was stirring on this anchorage site;
The wind was blowing outside o’er the sea
And the waves were rolling, though we were alee;
And Michael on his side and I on my back,
Had just settled down for a long summer’s nap,
When out on the water there arose such a noise,
I threw off my sheet and lost all of my poise.
I gave Michael a nudge and said, “Someone is here,
And I don’t think it’s Santa or his tiny reindeer.”
We donned all our clothes, threw open the door,
And said to the darkness, “We’re coming, wait more.”
The moon in the sky gave sort of a clue,
But the flashlights they held gave us the full view.
When what to our wondering eyes did appear,
But a miniature boat and three Spanish señores.
Their uniforms and papers, no need for credentials,
We knew at that moment they were Customs officials.
They came on Seahike, the sugar scoop, with care,
With hopes that our documents would all be there.
Our boat cert, our passports, our address and more,
Our length and our beam, and our draft and last shore;
To the officials we gave them, all wrapped in a bow,
While our pillows and bedsheets called us from below.
When the info was entered and we’d signed both the forms,
They went to their dinghy to find other moors.
But we heard one exclaim as he tugged on his vest,
“Go back to bed and continue your rest.”

Yes, that is exactly how it happened. It was 11:30 p.m. when they arrived.

We weren’t able to sail the entire trip, but it was enough to make us happy.

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