Adventures in Europe: Road Trip through the Scottish Highlands, United Kingdom

Over the last week Diana and I drove a loop through the Scottish Highlands, visiting Oban, the Isle of Mull, Iona, Loch Ness, Inverness, Cairngorms National Park, and many other places.

Adventures in Europe: Stonehenge, United Kingdom

 After we left the Cotswolds, we stopped for lunch in Marlborough and then continued driving onward to Stonehenge.

Adventures in Europe: Cotswolds, England, United Kingdom

Yesterday Diana flew into London and met me in Swindon. Swindon itself is likely not on many tourist lists (although I have to say I quite liked it), but it is more or less smack dab between the Cotswolds and Stonehenge so it makes a good base from which to tour. Today we rented a little car and began our morning by heading north into the Cotswolds to one of its most famous villages, Stow-on-the-Wold.

I have heard nightmares of crowds of tourists overrunning the Cotswolds, so we were relieved to arrive and find that not to be the case here (at least not at this time of day). Also, I have to admit, the village was as quaint and picturesque and "honey-coloured" as folks claim. 

Stow-on-the-Wold is especially known for St. Edward's Church, where one of the doors has become framed by two large trees. To be honest I half expected a queue here to photograph the door, but in reality I had it all to myself!

Inside of the church was nice, too, and Diana and I spent about ten minutes inside.

In the village square, the medieval stocks have been restored to pretty-close-to-working-order, which is quite amusing. A volunteer lady was picking up garbage here and we had a nice chat with her. I asked her for advice of another village to visit and she was nice enough to recommend Lower Slaughter.

But, before we headed to Lower Slaughter we toured more of Stow-on-the-Wold . . .

. . . including stopping for tea and a scone. I am pretty sure nothing I have ever done in England made me feel so quintessentially English than enjoying a scone in a village in the Cotswolds.

There were no tourist buses at Lower Slaughter, so our friendly lady in Stow-on-the-Wold was right, but there were still a lot of tourists; I did manage to find parking, however, after a second drive by.

We visited St. Mary's Church . . .

 . . . and then the truly picturesque honey-coloured cottages along the River Eye.

We had originally intended to visit three Cotswolds villages, but we were content after Stow-on-the-Wold and Lower Slaughter, so we drove south and out of the Cotswolds, stopping in the market town of Marlborough for lunch. Marlborough's high street was bustling--good thing it is one of the widest historic streets in all of the UK!

In Marlborough St. Peter's Church has been converted into a community centre, and there is a cafe inside where we ate our lunch. The church contains 500 years of history, and was where the future Cardinal Thomas Wolsey was ordained.

Adventures in Europe: Bristol and Bath, United Kingdom

As part of my cycling trip I spent last night in Bristol and this morning I did a small tour on my way out of town, including visiting two of Banksy's public art installations. 

This one is called "Well Hung Lover."

And this one is "Mild Mild West."

Once I arrived in Bath I needed to catch a train to Swindon, but I did a little loop to see the very impressive Bath Abbey . . .

. . . Pulteney Bridge (apparently "one of only four bridges in the world to have shops across its full span on both sides") . . .

. . . St. John the Evangelist's Catholic Church . . .

. . . and many other sites that I did not even manage poor taken-while-riding-a-bicycle photos of. Clearly Bath is a fun town, however, and they are in the middle of the Jane Austen festival so it seemed to have some particularly good energy, and many folks in Jane Austen period costumes.

Adventures in Europe: Wales, United Kingdom

I have spent the last four days cycling across Wales from Holyhead to Bristol (with nights in Harlech, Llanidloes, and Hay-on-Wye). I am blogging about the cycling at my cycling blog (https://cyclingedmontonian.blogspot.ca/), but here are a few photos from along my route starting in the northwest corner of Wales and heading to the southeast where Wales borders England.

Adventures in Europe: London, United Kingdom

I flew into London today (YEG-OHR-LHR), arriving early this afternoon. I am going to start my visit to the UK with a cycling trip in Wales, so I took the tube into the city to pick up a rental bike. The weather was as perfect as you would want in London so I was super happy to cycle from near Waterloo Station up to Euston Station, passing Buckingham Palace, down the mall, around Trafalgar Square, and so on.

I have been in London over five times but it was my first time riding a bike and I cannot believe I never did it before!

Once I reached Euston I wanted to eat before I caught my train, so I sat for a lovely meal in an Indian restaurant.

Then I headed to Euston to catch my 19:00 train to Holyhead, Wales.

The bike fit comfortably, and I settled in for the four hour ride.