Wednesday we joined our tour, this time the company we chose with some hesitation was Cosmos. We were due to depart at 8am promptly, this did not happen due to 4 people not being on time. The coach waited for 20mins then departed without them. The four people who missed the coach had to make their own way to Leeds, our first stop for the night. Our first day was quite pleasant we stopped at Stratford upon Avon, home of William Shakspeare where we had the opportunity to visit Anne Hathaways home, wife of William. From there we had 2 1/2 hours to explore, what a delightful village, we really enjoyed this visit
Anne Hathaway's house
Whilst visiting Stratford upon Avon, I stumbled across an interior decorating shop, you can imagine my delight when they sold Liberty fabrics for half the price in the Liberty store. So to help the English economy, away I went and got quite many different prints.
William Shakespeare monument, donated by David Gower and family.
After Stratford upon Avon we headed towards Coventry, here we visited the bombed cathedral and Lady Godiva statue. This statue in the bombed cathedral was donated by Richard Branson.
We also waited until 3 pm to view the clock with Lady Godivan and the peeping Tom.
Lady Godiva statue and clock.
That night we spent in Leeds. Just an hour out of Leeds is York we had a couple of hours to explore, so I took the opportunity to visit The quilt museum,which opens at 10 am, it did not take very long to get around and look at the quilts, apparently I had just missed the original 1718 coverlet, on display was a replica, I did see Billings coverlet and a few other quilts, there was also some works from prisoners in jail and a Chinese Whispers competition. The museum after many years is closing in the next month, such a shame.
York was a delightful town.
On our trip to Edinburgh, we stopped at Hadrians wall.
Next day we travelled to Edinburgh, where we will spend two days exploring.
We attended a Scottish night and a wonderful time was had by all, we all sampled the haggis.
Whilst in Edinburgh, we also visited the Royal Brittania, this took about 2 hours, great to see how the queen decorated this ship.
This is the queens bedroom in the Royal Britania, above the bed is a beautiful embroidered panel, gorgeous.
Brittania even has it's own operating theatre.
After our two days in Edinburgh we travelled to the Scottish highlands, on the way we stopped at the famous St Andrews golf course, we had 2 hours, and it was very cold and sleeting, so wet and miserable in the cold.
This is the beach that Chariots of Fire was filmed on.
We travelled through Dundee, saw the Discovery ship that Sir Walter Scott used to explore the anaractic. Lunch in Pitlochry and onto Newtomore where we will be spending the night.
As part of an optional component of our tour we visited a sheep farm in the Scottish highlands, where we had the opportunity to see border collies in action, we also got the opportunity to hold some puppies and lambs.
Neil the shepherd with his border collie dogs.
Also did a spot of shearing with a pair of old shears we used to use before electric shears were a reality.
I would highly recommend doing this if you are ever in the Scottish highlands, it makes me appreciate how easy we have it. I have nothing but admiration for the farmers and animals in this harsh climate.
After a quite day and night in Newtonmore we travelled the next day to Glasgow, on the way we visited Lochness, Culloden battlefields, very wet and cold, so only a glimpse.
Lochness, did not spot Nessie!
We also had the opportunity to have a photo stop with the highland longhair cows.
Time to leave the highlands and into the lowlands, to Glasgow
This concludes our Scottish trip, onto Liverpool.
These are great photos; thank you for making contact and enjoy the rest of the tour!
ReplyDelete