Windlesham and Windsor – Our final day in England!

We had a fabulous evening with Daniel and Marysia and a really good nights sleep. The plans for today were to do the walk through Windsor Park starting off at Virginia Waters, and then walk the long mile and end up at the Castle. We woke to a beautiful sunny and hot day. So pleased as it would have been less fun to walk it in the rain. We had planned for Glenda to get to Dan and Marysias place and we go together, but she got stuck in traffic and was running late. So the plan was changed and we met Glenda at the park.

The walk was great and along with the views we had plenty of time to chat and enjoy each others company. We arrived at Windsor Castle just after lunch time so we found a cafe and had lunch together. After lunch we walked down to the river and looked at the swans and the boats. Lots of families were at the river and surrounding parks because of the beautiful sunny day.

We had to catch the 6pm bus back to the gates to Virginia Waters and the Windsor walk entrance so there was time to have a coffee at a cafe near the Castle. We arrived back at Daniels around 6.45pm. Glenda was able to stay for tea so we all went to the local Indian restaurant and enjoyed our last meal together.

What a fabulous time we have had in England! Tomorrow morning at 6am we are off to Heathrow airport to catch our plane to Singapore. This certainly has been a full holiday! It’s hard to remember the details of our whole time away. I will be reading this blog to help jog the memories. Onto the next chapter of the holiday….

A Day in Edinburgh

We woke to a very misty morning…Scotch Mist they call it…but that didn’t stop us! Off we went on foot until we could catch the on-off bus! We did the whole round but the crowd and cars were taking over the place! The reason why…Prince William was Knighted today at St. Giles Cathedral! We tried to get the best view from the top of the bus but didn’t actually see them. But we did get into the Cathedral later on in the day…the same day they were there!!! That excitement didn’t really compare with our walk around Edinburgh Castel. It is amazing and towers above the town of Edinburgh. Once the mist cleared we had a great view from the top. We also went out to see the Brittannica Ship with is docked at the port. It was going to cost nearly 40pound for us to go a through it and we only had a half hour before it closed. We didn’t thin we could do it justice in that short time…so maybe next time. I also spoke to a NZer on the bus and she recommended that we go to this ‘amazing’ castell near Aberdene…once again we just won’t have time as we are heading for Balmoral Castel tomorrow. I will just have to come over again!!! Anyway here are some photos from today 🙂

Windermere to Edinburgh

Another big day of travelling but once again saw some amazing sights! Firstly we drove around the Lakes Districts and sampled the wonderful sights that everyone talks about. You have to drive these roads to understand the experience….stone wall fences, narrow roads, steep hills, green land (well this time of the year anyway), lakes…just wonderful sights! We woke up to no rain but it was like we were in the clouds, quite misty, so it didn’t make good photography opportunities. We drove on to Penrith and visited an underground shopping centre! This wasn’t normal shopping so don’t think we had time to shop….this was a place built to attract tourists. It was a hill covered with grass…that you walked into (through a door of course) and the whole shopping centre was inside. It was great! We then moved on to Carlisle and did a tour through  Carlisle Castle…man is that place BIG! A fabulous experience as well. From there we had our first view of Hadrians wall and then moved on to the next place to view it. Talk about being in the middle of HISTORY!!! New Zealand is so young in comparison to England/Europe! And Europe is so big! Hadrians wall crosses the border between England and Scotland…and was build stone by stone by hand….about 2000 years ago!!!! Incredible. At one of the places Archeologists have dug up a whole Roman city and have a museum there with all the findings! We weren’t allowed to take photos through the museum but we could outside. They are still digging up artifacts and there is heaps more to go! Another wonderful experience. We are now in Edinburgh after a long 2 hour drive! The last half hour was in nose to nose traffic! The 3 lane motorway ends up at a round-a-bout…what a bottle neck to sort out….but Robin drove straight to our apartment (which is brand new by the way!) without any problems…..phew!!!