UK Trip Part 1

We left home on Friday (2nd July) at around 9pm and made ourselves comfortable for our approx. 9 hour car journey to Calais. Our ferry was booked for 8.35 am getting us into Dover at 9.05am UK time. The journey went smoothly and we only stopped off once for an hour for the hubster to have a snooze.

The port of Calais:

The white cliffs of Dover:

After embarking we made our way to a small village along the Kent coast (Greatstone-on-Sea) and spent the afternoon on the beach relaxing after our long journey. The weather was warm and windy and we didn't realise how hot the sun really was until later that night when we looked in the mirror and felt our sunburn!

Our first night was spent in Hastings, where the great battle in 1066 took place. The hotel was fine except for the water. We realised how spoilt we are having our Swiss tap water tasting better than most bottled spring water. Even the orange juice at breakfast tasted of chlorine! Poor Jordan couldn't sleep well because his back was burnt - poor guy - his back was lobster red :(

The first part of Sunday (4th July - Happy Birthday America and my Dad) was spent in Hastings.We took a walk on the beach - the lower part of the beach was sand and the upper part pebble - and it was lovely. There was hardly a cloud in the sky.

After walking along the beach we went into the town and then on a short walk up a hill to look down on the bay:

The sun was burning down on Jordan's shoulders and it hurt him so he took a towel to hide and protect himself. He didn't care what he looked like:

The English love their ice cream vans - they are everywhere!

The hubster was itching to walk this coastal path! Perhaps next time when we come to England.......

After lunch we made our way back to the car and drove to Stonehenge. It was amazing, we were in the middle of nowhere and all of a sudden there are cars and coaches and there in the distance is Stonehenge. We arrived at the world heritage site at around 4pm and took the audio tour around the stones. It was so cool and very interesting to realise that even though there are many theories as to how the stones got there, nobody really can say.

The audio guides were in multiple languages, so the boys listened to their guide in German:

A wind-swept me:

Here is a picture how they think it would/should have looked like in its "fullness":

Around the henge in all directions were "barrows", ancient burial grounds. It was a very special experience visiting Stonehenge. It was as if we were standing on holy ground.

At around 7pm we went back to the car to travel to Bath where would be spending the night. After checking in at the hotel, we took the short 10 minute walk along the river Avon into the town :

Although Bath is a Roman town, it had its hay-day in the early 1800's where the nobility and rich of England would come to Bath to "take the waters" and to enjoy the social scene that the town had to offer. Many of Jane Austen's novels are played here as the author herself lived in the town for a time, and many TV productions are filmed here. The honey coloured limestone buildings are soooo pretty:

Bath Abbey:

The boys getting into bed:

I'll show more of Bath in Part 2. I'm sorry for the photo overload but there are so many photos and I'm already having a hard time to shorten it down to what I have chosen. I think I'll definitely need more than 4 parts to document this trip!

Watch out for part 2 on either Tuesday or Wednesday........

Hugs,
Becca