Thursday, February 3

Up early to deliver our car to the Sheraton Hotel.  Thrifty gave us a free ride to the airport and we were on our way home.

Wednesday, February 2 - London Temple

We had a 60 mile drive to the London Temple. It was misty and foggy but in the +s so it isn’t as cold.  We enjoyed our session, but it was small and we were the witness couple again.  The shift was small and again we had to feel our way around.  There is a large campus with a manor house for the presidency, apartments for the workers and apartments for distance patrons, and a nice visitor’s center.  The temple is as old as the Oakland Temple and due for a major remodel.  We met a missionary from Dallas.  He begged us to call the temple department and request to be assigned to London.  It was another 60 miles to our hotel.

We stayed at the Royal Chase Hotel in Shaftsbury.  We had our choice of a room in the new section (1950s) or the old section (1750s).  We took the old room.  The floor slanted!  I couldn’t get a picture that would show the crazy floor.  The room was comfortable but things didn’t stay on tables.  It was fun and we enjoyed it.

Stonehenge

Next, we went to Stonehenge.  It was getting late, but we paid the money and got an audio lesson that took about 30 minutes.  They told us what they know about Stonehenge  and what they don’t know.  It was fascinating.  It is an ancient calendar.  The openings between the stones allow the sun to strike the center stone.  Beginning with each solstice, and moving in a circle.  The large upright rocks are buried 1/3 in the ground.  They came from Northern Scotland.  We don’t know how they got them there.  They are all carved so that they fit together.  How’d they do that and why? 

Bath

We went through Bath  looking for the Roman Baths.  They were in the center of town but there was no where to park, so we left.  The center of Bath has been made into a pedestrian shopping mall.  The Jane Austin Museum might have been fun to explore.

Langford

We found the village of Langford and had to drive through.   

Cotswold Woolen Mills

We stopped at the Cotswold Woolen Mills.  We were told that we could see spinning and weaving.  We were able to visit a museum with fully threaded looms, but the actual weaving was done elsewhere.  Wayne bought an English hat and we bought two woolen throw blankets. 

Tuesday, February 1

We drove to Oxford to see the University.  Like Cambridge, it is made up of many colleges.

We spent the night in the Jersey Arms Hotel in Middleton.  It is a manor house begun in the 1100s and filled out in 1479.  This is the real McCoy.  It has low ceilings and it is cold and drafty.  We love it.  Had dinner by the fire in a dining room behind the bar. 

We drove by Blenheim Palace  but it is closed for the month of January.  We could have paid the money and gone in to see the gardens but it is freezing and everything is pruned back.  So we drove on.

Next we toured Broadway.  It was just as pretty.  We found the public library and were able to check our emails, but we will be home in a few days, so we didn’t answer them.  We hit a beautiful ring-necked pheasant a glancing blow off of the windshield.  There are a lot of pheasants and they are very beautiful.  We also found a building with a grass roof.

Monday, January 31 - the Cotswolds

We expected to see Thomas Kincade stuff.  There are 100s of villages in the Cotswolds.  We stopped at Burton-on-the-Water  and strolled through some of the shops.  It was very quaint but the temperature was -1C, still freezing.  I bought some salt and pepper shakers at the Edinburgh Woolen Mills

We took some wrong turns and since NUVI is programmed to avoid u-turns, we saw some back country.  It was fun.  Every night Wayne asks, “Where are we?” and I have to think.  Tonight we stayed in a Best Western in Cirencester, called, The Stratton House.   It was built as a manor house, and we are back in England.  We had dinner in the bar and took the big round table next to the fireplace.  Another couple came in and we invited them to join us by the fire.    They were Stan and Barbara and seemed to be quite wealthy.  He collects cars.  They were on their way to Wales to visit their daughter and son-in-law.  They told us what villages to see in the Cotswolds. 

Sunday, January 30

NUVI said the closest LDS church was 62 miles so we decided that was impossible.  Now I wish we had looked in the telephone book.  There may have been on in Carmethen.  We drove through Llandovry and Llanadog, both places in my Grandma DeeDee’s family.  It is still -6C which is very cold.  The water in the bottles in the car is frozen.  We stopped at Castle Rupert.   It is a ruin and we could have paid money to go beyond the wall and really explore, but it was too cold to be outside and we didn’t want to take the time.

Carmethen, South Wales

The countryside with hedges separating the sheep fields.  It is hilly in Wales.  We spent the night in Carmethen.  We found a room in The Boar’s Head Hotel and Pub. We learned not to try to sleep over a pub.  It was Saturday night and they had a live band until 1:30 am.  The music was so loud, the room vibrated.  We thought it was funny that they put up a sign warning you not to wake the neighbors with the bathroom fan. We didn’t get much sleep.  The Boar’s Head did have a parking lot, if you could get your car through the narrow alleyway to get to it.  We pulled in the sideview mirrors and made it. 

We had lunch on Porthmadog  at The Grape Vine.  We had pulled into a parking lot (it’s hard to find a place to park) looking for a restaurant.  It was closed.  A woman was walking by and we asked her where a good place to eat was.  She told us to go into town and park in the store parking lot.  The store is the Welsh equivalent to Wal-Mart.  Anyway, we did that and when we walked down the street, we found The Grape Vine and the woman we talked to was right outside talking to her friend.  Lunch was good, but the lunchroom was very crowded.  As we returned to the car, Wayne needed a picture of a giant dog. 

Snowdonia, Northern Wales

We found a look out over the Snowdonia Mountains.  We took a break since we could get one.  The mountains are beautiful.  Snowdonia Peak is the highest mountain in England at about 1200’.    We enjoyed chatting with Joan and Keith (brother and sister) while we were there. Keith took our picture for us.  Keith loves to climb Mt. Snowdonia.