England and Scotland

We arrived in the UK at the beginning of March and headed out to Benson. RAF Benson is where our cousin, Stewart, is stationed. It's quite close to London and a brilliant base for touring the country. We arrived and did absolutely nothing for several days! As Stew would say, it was ace!! :) Our three weeks in the UK were strictly for the purpose of having a holiday.

It was great to spend time with Stew and Mimi--always a highlight! We did some touring around together, had some barbeques in the yard (a bit early, but heck, we're Canadians!), hung out, cooked food, and chilled. What more could you ask for?

Another highlight was seeing some very good friends from Thailand: Ross and Sonia Wilson and their three girls. They've recently moved back to England from Thailand so we saw them in October 2009 in Thailand and then March 2010 in England. I spent my birthday there with them in Oxford--a very quiet one amazingly enough! Maybe I'm getting old... Nah!!!

Yet another amazing friend from England gave us some contacts for Scotland (thanks Jane) and we visited Edinburgh and then the wild moors near Tongue, Scotland. It was absolutely fantastic. Yet another place I think I need to go back and visit. The moors were stunning--even if it was still the end of winter and nothing was blooming. One day it was so windy that we almost couldn't climb the hills in the moors because the winds blew us over. The news that evening said they were actually gale-force winds. :) Cool!! I've wandered the moors in Scotland through gale-force winds...

Our other preoccupation during our tour of England and Scotland (Stew lent us his car so we bombed about in that) was locating ruined castles, abbeys, manor houses, towers, etc. Especially the free ones--not only for the obvious reason (they were free...) but also because they seemed to have the most character...and the fewest tourists! Our hands-down favoursit was Greenknowe Tower in Scotland! It was brilliant--you could still climb it up until the fourth floor! How cool is that?!

What else? Loads, really! Plinking away with the air rifle in Stew's garden, touring London with Mimi, birthday cards from Becky, Katie and Kezzie Wilson, staying with Fiona and John in Edinburgh, sleeping in the car next to the snowbank, sleeping on the floor and then the radiators at Stansted airport, Oz kebabs... :)

Hmmm... perhaps I really should just write a book...

Until then...onward to Rome!