Chester, Ludlow, Cardiff, Bath, Glastonbury, Widecome and Plymouth.

Chester is a lovely city in England, just near the North Wales border, we had an hour to explore, after visiting the pharmacy.

Chester has a lovely old abbey that is worth visiting, inside the abbey is a gorgeous tapestry, donated by BJ Elvgren a Chesapeake  artist from the USA in 1993.

After visiting the quaint town of Chester we progressed onto Ludlow. This small village was also enjoyable to visit, but again it was raining and with DH feeling poorly we did not venture too far, we shared a ploughman's lunch and a nice cuppa tea. I did manage to buy some nice Victorian prints in a quaint little print shop. We also found a Kath Kidston shop in Chester, nice to have a look.

DH being funny!

Ludlow Castle

We then travelled onto Cardiff, where we will spend the night. We booked into a night out with the tour and went to the Millenium centre so that we may experience some welsh culture. The Millenium centre is situated on Cardiff bay and when we visited it was raining and very strong winds, behind the Millenium centre is the studio where Dr Who is filmed! ,due to the wind and rain DH passed up the chance for a photo opportunity. All was forgiven when DH discovered the silver tower where Torchwood is filmed.

Sceanery below was all made of paper

Welsh singers

Our harpist.

Let me introduce Brian from NZ, who is a wonderful singer and knows all the welsh songs, such a delight to have Brian on our tour and I also discovered he has a daughter that loves to quilt as well.

My welsh meal was Faggots and lamb, you may ask what is a faggot, well apparently it is like a meatball made out of all the sheeps inards.

Next morning we travelled to Plymouth for the night, on the way to Plymouth we stopped in Bath for 2 1/2 hours so I took the opportunity to visit Jane Austins house, which also has tea rooms attached to the house.

Jane Austin's house

Bath is a delightful and historical town.

The bridge has boutique shops across it very similar to Florence.

Unusual features.

In Bath we had tea in the Mad hatters tea shop, how elcletic.

After Bath we ventured onto Glastonbury for lunch, what an interesting town, reminds me of Katoomba

An alternative town, very spiritual.

Buddha 

Glastonbury Abbey, just a shell.

Onward ho to Widecombe a small village of 100 people, lovely stone houses and church.

On arrival into Plymouth, we did not do the river cruise due to hubby feeling poorly, but had a walk around the docks.

Just love this sculpture.

Plymouth docks

This concludes my post, will revisit very soon.

Glasgow, Liverpool, North Wales, and Chester.

After leaving the Scottish highlands we travelled to Liverpool on the way we passed a number  of loch's, the last being Loch Lomond. After passing Loch Lomond you have officially left the highlands.  We travelled onto Glasgow for an overnight stay.

Queen Victoria statue in the square, apparently the only ever statue of Victoria on a horse!

Glasgow Square

DH was excited to see Dr Who's tardis.

After a tour of the centre of Glasgow, we headed to Liverpool.

Our first stop was Gretna Green, where we spent 1 1/2 hrs, Gretna Green is just before the Scottish border, as you enter into England, Gretna Green was made famous for couples to elope.  Young couples would just go across the border into Scotland, when they could not get married in England.

A charming little village.

A large metal hand sculpture and below some of the shops in Gretna Green

After leaving Gretna Green we ventured into the Lakes district, where we had lunch in Grassmere, home of Williams Wordsworth and Grassmere gingerbread.

A nice lunch in amongst beautiful sceanery.

I must admit the gingerbread was good.

What a delightful village and a wonderful paradise you could spend quite a few days in the Lajes district exploring.

On arrival into Liverpool we did the city and Beatles tour.

This Anglican Church is in Liverpool, it has a gift shop, cafe and is used for functions, as church goers are now only 12% of the population that attend these days, this is the only way that the church can raise funds to operate. This church is worth a visit it is a mixture of antique and modern. The church's huge, arches are 333 feet high and 666 feet long.

On our Beatles tour we saw this statue of Eleanor Rigby" all the lonely people " donated by Tommy Steele.

The Beatles statue near Caven club where it all happened, Paul McCartney created and sponsors LIVA a drama and theatrical school in Liverppol

Dinner was at our hotel that night. Liverpool is very much a working class city.

The next day saw us venture into North Wales to visit Betws-y- Coed and Carnarvon, Gwynedd, unfortunately for us it was raining again.

Lovely stone wall bridges.

Betws-y-Coed is a very pet friendly town and raises funds for apes in Africa.

Then onto Carnarvon, Gwynedd, for lunch, still raining.

Lunch was enjoyed at the black boy pub, I had the Welsh Cow and DH had the steak and Ale pie

Aptly named the black boy hotel.

After our day trip out we ventured back to Liverpool to dine at Jamies Italian restaurant. Five of us from the group ventured out, it was only a 10 min walk to the restaurant. prices were reasonable by British standards and we all had a lovely night. The front of the restaurant is very deceptive, looks small, but once inside, is quite large with also more seating upstairs.

Downstairs eating.

Wednesday we left Liverpool to travel to Cardiff, Wales.

DH was feeling poorly as he had caught the flu that half the tour have caught, so our mission was to find a doctor or chemist.

Chester in Wales is a quaint town, lots to see with beautiful buildings, also raining. we managed to get some cough mixture, no need for antibiotics at present.

Gorgeous Abbey in Chester.

Will continue with more later.