Wawa's Ramblings

Britain Part 1

Friday, August 17, 2007

I attended a conference in Warnemunde, Germany in September 2000. Since I had to transit in London, we took this opportunity to join a Cosmos Tour of Britain. Here are some snippets of our Cosmos Tour

Day 1- First stop is Hampton Court Palace. The Kings and Queens of England have lived here for centuries and the palace is still counted among the Queen's royal houses. Just an hour stop for us to walk around the gardens and take photos.

Next was a half hour photo stop at Stonehenge, the prehistoric monument which is composed of earthworks surrounding a circular setting of large standing stones. We were so surprised at how small and insignificant the stones looked, as the travel pictures always depict these great, gigantic stones. Sorry to say but it was not at all impressive.

Lunch stop was at Salisbury, the medieval city which has Britain's tallest spire at 123 metres. Salisbury is also known as the "City of the Soaring Spire". We grabbed a quick lunch at McDonald's so that we could have some time to explore the town.

Salisbury cathedral

Our next stop was at Bath and we were only given 11/2 hours to wander around this World Heritage site. This was a nice city with its Georgian architecture and Roman Baths, but we did not have much time to take in all the sights. However, a couple of our tour companions chose to have tea in one of the cafes in the Roman Baths at the expense of exploring the city.

Great Pulteney Street

Pulteney bridge

Our last stop for the day was an orientation drive in Cardiff, the capital of Wales before we checked into our hotel, Forte Posthouse Cardiff, for a well deserved rest.

Day 2- First stop was Tintern Abbey in Wye Valley. This abbey is situated in a wooded valley of the River Wye in northeast Wales. The abbey was founded in 1131 and the present remains late from the late 13th century.

Next stop was a half hour visit to the town of Broadway, renowned for its typical Cotswold village.

We had a photo stop at Anne Hathaway's cottage, the pre-marital home of William Shakespeare's wife Anne, before heading to Stratford upon Avon for lunch break.

Statford upon Avon is the birthplace of Shakespeare and we were given 21/2 hours to wander around the town. We grabbed some sandwiches from Marks and Spencer and took a leisurely walk along the Avon River, admiring the pretty scenery and flowers.

After that, it was a 21/2 hour drive to Wales. We had a brief stop at Llangollen, an ancient market town situated on the banks of the river Dee in northeast Wales. We sure stood out in this town as there were hardly any Asians and we could feel people looking at us with some curiosity.