England 2005 Photo Gallery #2

We were off to the London area but en route we did our first real stop for Carol. Jane Austen’s home at Chawton was easily on our way. Good displays and great garden. Anne also had to take pictures of some other interesting cottages in the area.

Then on to Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire, west of London. Anne’s family has maintained connections with one branch of her Loud-Alcock family in England for now 5 generations so we were about to have our first meeting with relatives! It was wonderful meeting Joan and Peter Marshall who Anne has heard of and seen letters from most of her life but never met. We spent some time at their house, then they took us out to see several sites of history and general beauty around their area which included the Quaker Meeting house where William Penn and others are buried, and a barn that is reputed to have been built using some timbers from the Mayflower. There was a wedding reception going on but we were able to go in for a few minutes. Unfortunately the meeting house had a fire awhile back and is being protected but not repaired yet.

Sunday, July 3

Off to a tour of London. Navigated the train and tube system easily with good directions from Peter. Once on the tour bus about the first thing out of our guide’s mouth was to the effect of ‘of course you have been told that because this is Sunday we will not be able to include the churches and cathedrals in this tour…’ No, we had not been told and we are sure that the guide knew very well that we had not been told. It does make some sense but … Anyway, there is a lot to see in London! Our guide has been doing these tours for a very long time and was able to tell us way more than Anne is capable of remembering at this point. It was a wonderful day in spite of some rain.