Scotland: Part1

On our fifth day of vacation, we packed our bags and got on a 4 hour train ride to Scotland. Ava did great for the first 3 hours but the last hour was a challenge. She was so ready to be off of that train...it was also nap time.

Once we got to Scotland, we walked to our hotel which was only about a 10 minute walk. We dropped off our bags (since our room wasn't clean yet) and strolled the city for the afternoon. We hit up a bunch of souvenir shops and visited the Edinburgh Castle. It was HUGE! We decided to not go in because we had read several reviews that it wasn't worth it. We ate dinner at an Italian pizza place and then called it a night.

This was taken from the train!

This guy was cracking me up. He would jump towards people and growl to try to scare them as they would walk by!

 The sun finally decided to pop out for a few seconds...

London 2013: Part 3

On our fourth day in London, we jumped on a train to Newbury to see the Highclere Castle (aka Downton Abbey castle)! Y'all, I can not express how excited I was! I have watched all 3 seasons of Downton Abbey and I am a little obsessed. So here it goes.. First, let me give a few details.

Since 1679, the castle has been home to the Carnarvon family. The castle is set on more than 1,000 acres and has at least 50 bedrooms. The man that designed the exterior architecture was the same man that designed the Westminster Palace (Parliament) exterior. The current Lord and Lady Carnarvon (Georgie and Fiona) live on the estate today but do not live in the Highclere Castle. All of the furniture and decor that is in Downton Abbey is the original decor of Highclere Caste, which I thought was neat! One thing that I did notice a difference in was that there were pictures everywhere displayed of the Carnarvon family. It was neat to see all the history of the people that used to rule the estate.

We got to tour the first two floors and to my surprise, there were several rooms that were not shown in Downton Abbey like the Gentleman's room and Woman's room. The Gentleman's room was used for drinking, smoking, and lounging. The Woman's room was a place for morning tea. We didn't get to tour the maids quarters and I am not even sure that the rooms they show on Downton Abbey are really apart of the Highclere castle. They may have filmed it in a different location. I am not certain, though.

Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take any pictures inside but thanks to the show, you can know exactly what it looks like inside! :)

Ava was happy to be at the Downton Abbey castle ;)

A couple of scenes were filmed here.

I can't believe I am at the Downton Abbey castle!!! Unreal!

Recognize this bench? There are several scenes in Downton Abbey that are filmed here.

This is the entrance to the garden. It wasn't so pretty because none of the flowers were in bloom but I bet it is beautiful in the summer time.

Remember in the show where they have a similar device? This is the original row of bells in Highclere and could best be described as a (dare I say) cell phone? Each bell has a slightly different tone so the maids could tell which part of the house was ringing for them and this device would also show which part of the house was ringing.

We spent 3 hours at the Highclere castle and I could have stayed all day! It was so much fun just to walk around outside with the castle in the background. Once our cab arrived to pick us up, we went to the train stop to catch a train back to London. We ate dinner in London then headed to our hotel to get some sleep because the next morning, we were heading to Scotland!

London 2013: Part 2

Our third day in London, we took a train to Stonehenge.. you know..one of the 7th wonders of the world. Apparently, not a lot of people have heard of Stonehenge?. The pictures will familiarize you if you don't know what I am talking about.

Anyways, we were really excited to see Stonehenge. The city (Salisbury) was so cute! I wish I would have gotten more pictures of it because it was adorable.Once we got to Salisbury, we walked to the bus stop (across town) to catch a bus to Stonehenge. It was about a 30 minutes drive. The stones are in the middle of nowhere on top of a hill. It was FREEZING!!! The bus dropped us off and another one would be back an hour later to pick us up so we were stuck out there for an hour in the freezing weather. We viewed the stones for about 15 minutes and then decided to spend the remainder of the hour eating our lunch and touring the gift shop. Bryce was cold...and if he is cold, it must be COLD!

A really neat building we saw on our walk to the bus stop...

The town doesn't look near as cute in the picture as it does in person...

There it is!!

This is what Stonehenge looked like when it was first built.

Once we got back on the bus, we headed back to the train station to jump on a train to take us to Bath! No, not to take a bath...the actually city, Bath! ;) What is in bath..you might ask? The ROMAN baths!!! It was SO neat!!

These pictures aren't edited because my Windows Live photo gallery was messing up but I couldn't hold out any longer on posting pics so here they are...

I just love the old architecture!! This is how it was throughout the whole city. So beautiful!

 This is a model of the Roman baths. If you see to the far left, the funnel is how the water system works. The water comes from way deep down in the ground so when it rises to the top (where they bathed), it is naturally REALLY warm. It is so neat that the hot water is all natural! I never blogged about our experience in Baden Baden but Bryce and I got to go to a day spa that was set up the same way. So neat!

See the steam coming from the water? Came from way deep in the ground!

This was inside the entrance! SO beautiful!!!

We had a great time in bath. We caught the train back to London that evening and we didn't get back to our hotel till real late. We went to bed and got up the next morning to head to the HIGHCLERE CASTLE!!! Definitely one of the top 10 best days of my life! ;)

Stay tuned Downton Abbey addicts... ;)

London 2013: Part 1

On April 6th at 3:30am, the alarm went off. We all got up and got dressed to head to the airport for our 6:30am flight to London.Within the next 8 days, we will travel to London, Bath, Stonehenge, Newbury (Highclere Castle aka Downton Abbey castle), and Scotland.

Ava slept most of the way to the airport. She did great on the 1 hour flight to London. Once we arrived at the London airport, we caught a train into the city. We dropped our stuff off at the hotel and checked in. It was way too early to get into our hotel room (8am) so we decided to go to Harrod's. I was not expecting the 4 story, 5-acres, 330 departments, one MILLION square feet store. I was expecting an upscale Neiman's. I was a little overwhelmed to say the least. It was such a fun place to see, though.

We were starving after spending almost 2 hours in the store so we went across the street to have tea at Richeaux's. It wasn't the nicest place to have tea but it was a neat experience. After having afternoon (or late morning for us) tea in London, it makes me want to have afternoon tea everyday!! I wish we could have gone to a really nice place to have tea like The Ritz but we just didn't feel like spending 100 pounds (around $150) to have afternoon tea and I also didn't feel comfortable taking Ava into such a nice setting. Maybe next time! ;) 

 Ava stayed entertained with the sugar packets.

After tea, we were exhausted from being up since 3:30am so we decided to go to the grocery store that was right next to our hotel to stock up for the week. Our hotel was actually like an apartment so it had a full kitchen. We bought breakfast and lunch stuff so we would only be eating out for dinner each day.

We got our groceries and went back to our hotel room. I was running a fever and feeling SO sick so we laid low the rest of the evening. I loaded up on the meds that evening and by the next day, I was feeling much better.

The next morning, we got up pretty early and went to the Kensington Palace which is the future home of Will and Kate (they will move in once Will is out of the military) and it was the home of the late Princess Diana. We went to the palace on our first trip to London but didn't tour the inside. I really wanted to go inside this time and I am so glad we did. It was beautiful.

This was a sign outside the restroom. Everyone is a prince or princess in this castle! ha!

These pictures really don't do this place justice. It was stunning.

Wouldn't you like to be the baby that sleeps in this cradle?! Wow! I am pretty sure this is the cradle that Queen Victoria slept in.

After we viewed the castle and had our sandwiches for lunch, we walked to St. Paul's Cathedral which was absolutely gorgeous inside but we weren't allowed to take pictures...

After St. Pauls, we went to see Buckingham palace, Parliament, Big Ben, and Westminster Abbey. They are all right next to each other except Buckingham palace. We had to walk a few blocks to see that one. Buckingham palace is only open a few weeks out of the year. It is the Queens main residence so it is only open when she is out of town. Unfortunately, it was closed both times we were in London.. :(

Parliament 

Westminster Abbey (Where Will and Kate were married)

We didn't spend much time at any of these places because we had already visited them on our first trip to London. 

Once again, we were super exhausted from walking all day so we ate dinner at Azzurro Italian restaurant and then headed back to our hotel for the night. 

If you want to read about our first trip to London, you can read all about it here..

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Next up... Stonehenge, Bath, and the Highclere Caste!!!