England 2005 Photo Gallery #1

Monday, June 27

Limo picked us up for the airport about 3:30 PM.

Jeff thinks that Sarah shed some tears as we were leaving.

At O’Hare our check-in went very smoothly. Flight took off a few minutes late but not bad. We were in three seats in the center section. It was a long flight.

Tuesday, June 28

Arrived Heathrow about on time. Carol’s luggage bag did not arrive with us but airline already had it on a list and took our information with the promise of delivering it the next day. Gave Carol a packet with a large white t-shirt and some toiletries. Got thru immigrations and customs. Got to Avis, made several decisions on car items and went to meet our car – a Renault. Jeff and I looked at each other wondering who was going to do the first driving. Mental flips of coins and Anne ended up in the driver’s seat. White knuckle all the way but we made it to our accommodations at House on the Hill, Bishops Waltham, with a few curbs being hit, several panics from Jeff, but no actual collisions with cars, buildings, or pedestrians. One of the first things we saw out of the airport was a Burger King!

Anne was sociable for a few minutes then went to take a nap to sleep off the nerves.

Later our host drove us to Portsmouth for a look see. She was wonderful. Later she dropped us off in Bishops Waltham and we went to a wine bar and bistro for dinner. Diane, our B and B hostess, had told us that ‘starters’ were frequently enough for a meal and Carol and Anne agreed.

Wednesday, June 29

Our hostess dropped us off at a bus stop and we made our way to and from Portsmouth – some problems with getting bus for the trip home.

After many inquiries found that the US Coast Guard tall ship Eagle would not be in port until tomorrow. We took a harbor tour and saw various other sites of the Portsmouth dock area and Festival of the Sea. We also ran into two other Coast Guard families who were also trying to figure out the Eagle schedule

Back to House on the Hill. Diane asked if any of us wanted to go to a dance performance at Winchester Cathedral. Anne accepted. The performance was unusual. For each of the dances a portion of the audience got to sit on recliner chairs under the plexi-glass stage. Interesting.

Thursday, June 30

Back into Portsmouth. We drove! There were several remote parking lots with bus service to the festival area and it worked out quite well for us. In the festival we found the Eagle. They were moored outboard of the Amerigo Vespucci from Italy. We waited on the Vespucci trying to find out when the Eagle would be open for visitors. End result? They were not going to be open for visitors on Thursday, but cadets and crew could bring their family members aboard. Technically, that didn’t include us because James was not aboard, but a wonderful 1/C “adopted” us and took us aboard. This day we also toured the HMS Victory (Lord Nelson’s flagship from the battle of Trafalgar), HMS Mary Rose (from the times of King Henry), and did some other wandering around the Historic Dockyards.

Friday, July 1

We headed off to do our first exploring of old English history. We visited Stonehenge and the Salisbury Cathedral, each spectacular in their own way. Salisbury Cathedral’s Charter House has a copy of the Magna Carta and we were properly impressed.