Hello from Painswick, Gloucestershire

The Falcon Inn

Painswick99 YewsA stop along the way
Roman BathsRaised floors with heating underneath in the Roman BathsWe found this tour to be so educational.
The Romans were very advanced in their engineering."When in Rome......or Bath"Bath Abbey in background and Roman Baths in foregroundFashion MuseumThis guy knew his Marilyn Monroe memorabilia.

Tonight we are staying at The Falcon Inn in Painswick, just past Stroud (no, we are not outside of Barrie :)) in the Cotswolds. It is called the "Queen of the Cotswolds" and is noted for the 99 Yew trees in the church courtyard.
Today we spent over five hours in Bath and took a guided tour of the Roman Baths. It was so informative. We also visited the Fashion Museum which included a special exhibition of dresses that were worm by Marilyn Monroe. Tonight England plays the Czech Repubic on the telly. Till next time...

Greetings from Hinton Charterhouse

The Rose and Crown Inn

We have left Ireland and its rain behind us. Today we toured Salisbury Cathedral and are staying at the Rose and Crown (an 18th Century Inn) in Hinton Charterhouse, just outside of Bath. We rented a car which has been quite the experience so far. Debra had a good stiff drink once we got here. :)
Tomorrow we plan to tour Bath and then Blenhiem Palace outside of Oxford (never made it that far that day).
Bye for now.

Greetings from Dublin

Paris has come and gone. Adieu to a fantastic city. It was our favorite so far. Ireland is WET! A record rainfall is in the making. Tomorrow we fly to Bournemouth for our Cotswolds adventure. We are hiring a car and will be travelling on the 'Romantic Road'.

La Tour Eiffel

We climbed to the second level of the Eiffel Tower. What a great view. We visited Sacre Coeur and the Musee D'Orsay. The traffic around the Arc de Triomphe was crazy. It is a giant traffic circle with no lanes and cars, buses, motorcycles, bicycles coming from seven different streets all trying to merge in. We toured the Opera House which was a treat. The coffee here is fantastic. The French know how to cook and how to make GOOD cafe. Ireland is up next.

Paris via Eurostar

Eurostar in Gare du Nord, Paris

We leave this morning for Paris. Yesterday we spent four hours at the Tower of London. We watched a couple of knights dueling. In the evening, we went to see Les Miserables at the Queen's Theatre.
A great time to date. Bye for now.

Hi from London England

We are having a great time.
We have seen amazing architecture: St Pauls Cathedral; Westminster Abbey; Houses of Parliament; Big Ben; Regent St; Carnaby St; Harrods; Tate Modern; Trafalgar Square; Leicester Square; Covent Garden... Whew, our feet are sore. We are sitting in a little neighbourhood pub with Internet, so I can send this from my iPhone. Bye for now.

Off to Jolly 'Ole England

We leave on Friday for our UK adventure.
It will include stops in Paris and Dublin as well as some of the
English countryside and of course London. Stay tuned.

Trista's anniversary gift to us

Trista took us out for dinner at the Irish Times Pub, which was very yummy. Debra had Shepard's Pie, I had Fish and Chips and Trista had some type of Irish Poutine. THANK YOU TRISTA!!

Festival 150 - BC 150 Years 'The Best Place on Earth'

Harbour Ferries, very busy

Beautiful setting isn't it?Kick off to Festival BC 150. Speakers included the Premier of BC Gordon Campbell and the Prime Minister of Canada Stephen Harper.

Lovely 25 degrees

The Snowbirds put on their usual excellent display

Rueben and I went down to watch the opening ceremonies

Symphony Splash 2008

Warming the crowd up with the CanUS Hot Jazz Band. The Victoria Symphony performs starting at 7 pm. They play from this barge in the Inner Harbour facing the Legislature Building.

A beautiful evening in Victoria with a temperature of 21 degrees at 7:30 pm

The water will fill up with kayaks, canoes and motorboats by the time the music is well under way.

The crowd will be in excess of 40,000 people tonight. Tomorrow on the Legislature lawns there will be a concert celebrating BC150 with Dal Richards, Colin James, Burton Cummings, Sarah McLachlan and more. At noon the Snowbirds will do an aerial performance.