The Best of Britain and Ireland -- Day Four

The following is my journal entry (with pictures and movies added) for Day 4 of my vacation to Britain and Ireland.

Today we got up early (an on time thanks to using two alarms and no ear plugs), got ready for the day, had our bags out by our door by 6:45, at breakfast, and met our tour group on the Cosmos bus at 7:45. We left pretty soon after that. We went through London and stopped at Hampton Court for a quick photo stop. We didn't tour the inside of this huge palace, just the grounds. They have beautiful gardens around the 1000 room palace. The outside of the palace looks pretty good too. This is one of the royal palaces, but it is not inhabited. To read more about this palace, click here.

Hampton Court Palace

Gardens around the palace

After we boarded the bus again, we made our way past beautiful English countryside to Oxford. We had two hours to wander around this Gregorian city. It is absolutely beautiful!

Notice all the bicycles.

A spot in the middle of the street where three bishops were burned for their faith in 1555 and 1556.

Like Venice, Oxford has a Bridge of Sighs as well. But this one is for
crossing into the Testing Center, instead of crossing into a prison.

Our tour director showed us some college buildings and took us through a courtyard under an old reference library. We were not supposed to talk through this courtyard because it was so close to the library. I was taking pictures of the buildings ...

...when Kelli came up to me and said "Erin, actor!" in a hush and hurried voice. I said, "Where?" and she pointed to a doorway. They were putting away a camera and I saw some commotion. I didn't see who she was talking about at first, but then I noticed him. It was John Rhys-Davies, the deep voice actor from Indiana Jones and the dwarf, Gimli, from Lord of the Rings. He was a lot older than he was in those films, but we saw someone famous at Oxford! :o)

John Rhys-Davies in Oxford

When our short guided tour was over, we were set loose on the city for the rest of the two hours. Kelli and I made our way to St. Mary's Cathedral to view the city at the top of the tower.


The way up consisted of wood, metal, and stone stairs. The spiral stone stairs were really steep and narrow. Oh, how I love spiral staircases!! We paid 3.50 pounds to go up it, but the view and the cool climb were worth it!!

The climb up to the tower in St. Mary's Cathedral

Views from the top

After we left the cathedral, we found an indoor/outdoor market and found a nice cafe there for lunch. The market was pretty cool to wander around in too. They had everything from decorated cakes to leather products to clothes to cold meats to whatever else you can imagine.

On our way back to the coach, we stopped at some college shops where I bought an Oxford sweatshirt. I thought it would be cool to have one! :o)

We also saw a cool grave yard while waiting for the coach to arrive.


On our way north, we passed through Cotswolds where we saw Blenheim Palace, the birthplace of Winston Churchill. We only got a glimpse of the house as we drove by the gate. I got a little ahead of things and took a picture early, so I missed the palace. Whoops!

Before the gates of Blenheim Palace

We continued north to Stratford-upon-Avon, birthplace of William Shakespeare. We first stopped at Anne Hathaway's cottage where we got a group photo taken and we were able to take a few pictures of the cottage ourselves. One of the things of note about the cottage is the thatched roof.

Anne Hathaway's cottage

Group picture of our tour

After we left the cottage, we were dropped off in the center of town and given two hours to roam. Kelli and I went through shops, saw Shakespeare's birth place, walked along the River Avon near the big theater, took pictures of the statue of Shakespeare and some of his famous characters, and wandered to the Holy Trinity Chapel (getting a bit lost along the way) where Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway are buried. Shakespeare was born and died on April 23. So when we arrived, there were still flowers on his tomb from is birthday/deathday celebration a few days before.

Front of Shakespeare's Birthplace

The Famous Swan Theater (under renovations)

The Royal Shakespeare Theater (specifically, the Waterside Theater)

The River Avon

Stratford was beautiful! There were a lot of good photo opportunities. On our way back to the coach, we walked up a different street so we could get pictures of the back of Shakespeare's house. Instead of paying a lot for the entrance fee, we opted to stick our cameras through the rod iron gate and snap a few pictures of the gardens and the house. :o)

The back of Shakespeare's birthplace

In one of the shops, we found a small recipe book for English Tea Parties. We both had to buy it for our yearly food group Tea Party!!

Once we left Stratford, we headed to Coventry. That is where we stopped for the night. We had about an hour before dinner, so we went up to our room and were pleasantly surprised at the size and comfort of the room. Our first hotel room was extremely small. This room looked more like an American hotel room...though it was a Ramada Inn, so they did pretty good at keeping it very similar to American models.

And in our room, the TV had our name on the screen. I've never seen that before.


Our dinner consisted of a choice of broccoli and cheese soup, spring rolls, or salad for an appetizer, sausage and mash potatoes (called Bangers and mash), pork and potatoes, or tomato pasta for the main dish, and spotted dick pudding, treacle tart, and fruit salad for dessert. This was the first time I had to ask what some of the things were, especially the spotted dick and the treacle tart. I ended up ordering the spring rolls, pork and potatoes, and the treacle tart. Everything was delicious, but the tart was very rich and very sweet. I don't think I'll will order that again.

Kelli and I were tired -- late nights and jet lag -- so we just decided to go to bed after dinner. Though with showering, getting ready for bed, and writing in our journals, it was still pretty late when we finally turned off the lights.

Tomorrow we are headed north to Newcastle. We will stop in the medieval city of York along the way.

Fun Fact: Coventry is the home of Lady Godiva, where she rode through town on horse back completely naked to save her city from taxes. The townspeople were ordered by her husband (the man who was imposing the taxes) not to look at her while she rode. However, one man named Tom did peek. He got in a lot of trouble for looking too. But that is where we get the term "Peeping Tom".