Adventure day in the UK

I have a little updating to do as I have been a little busy these past few days. First off, let me begin with Sunday. This was the day Monica and I went on a little tour of the English country side. We woke up bright-n-early at 6:45, and were out the door by 7:30. We met our bus and tour guide near the Victoria tube station and boarded our (Mercedes Benz) coach bus.

Our first stop on the tour was about a 45 minute drive and was called Leed's Castle. It was surrounded by a beautiful lake and golf course. This castle used to be a fortress way back but was transformed into a royal palace by one of England's Kings.

Leed's Castle

I think I could live here...

The surrounding golf course :)

We got to the castle right as it was opening so we pretty much had it all to ourselves. Our tour guide gave us about an hour to explore it by ourselves which was really enjoyable. The whole time I was pretending I was back in time and was a royal princess living in this beautiful structure (I know kinda dorky right?). So we just explored the castle/castle grounds and took in all the beautiful scenery.

The Queen's Bathroom...where does she pee??

SHOES!

This room was so cozy...I could imagine sitting here with a book and cup o joe every day

Library

Dining room

Then it was time to board the Benz and head off to destination #2, Canterbury. Honestly, I wasn't sure what Canterbury was (all I know is there is a horesracing park in MN called Canterbury) so I wasn't really expecting much. We got to Canterbury where we had lunch at this little place-I had fish-n-chips! Then we got 2 hours to explore the city and boy did my opinion of Canterbury change! The first thing we came across was this beautiful, ginormous cathedral! It kind of looked like the Duomo from Milan...we got to tour the entire thing and even go into the basement area where you had to be silent because there were people praying and confessing. The architecture is the cathedral was incredible and it always amazes me as to how people built these kinds of structures way back when. I swear, my mouth was hanging open in awe the entire time I was walking through the cathedral. Another thing we saw inside was all these tombs of famous rulers, priests...etc. We saw the tomb of the Black Prince and one of the Kings of England...pretty awesome!

Canterbury Cathedral

So beautiful

We still had about half an hour after leaving the cathedral so we putzed around town and found the most amazing chocolate shop ever!! One of the workers let us test some of the chocolate and I swear it was the best thing I have ever tasted (chocolate wise). I wanted to buy everything, but I didn't because I need to save my monies for Belgium chocolate :) Anyway, we walked in some more shops and then finally headed back to the coach.

Next on the tour was the White Cliffs of Dover. It was super foggy on this day so we didn't get the greatest view of the Cliffs but supposedly on a clear day you can see the coast of France from the cliffs. Nonetheless, they were still pretty amazing. We also got to hang out on the rock beach for a little while (it was a little cold for a day at the beach) and touch the English Channel!! I kept thinking, I am just hanging out by the English Channel...no big deal :) Wow!

White Cliffs of Dover...at the top of the cliff you can kind of make out the Dover Castle

Dover Straight/English Channel

I touched the Channel! It was cold

Our final stop on the tour was in this little town called Greenwich (pronouced gren-nich). It was such a cute town right on the Thames River. There was a beautiful building designed by Sir Christopher Wren that we got to walk around. We even got to enter what they called the painted hall which had an amazing celing of painted art.

Not really sure what this room was for but the painting was incredible!

Then it was time to board the Thames Clipper and head back to London. The boat took us across the Thames and under the Tower and London bridges. It was pretty cool to see the city from a different viewpoint and the boat was really nice. It was a pretty busy day and I was exhausted at the end. I would have to say this may have been one of my favorite tours yet though because we got to see so much cool/different stuff. I always enjoy these tours because it gets me out of the city for a bit and rejuviantes me for another busy week surrounded by the crazies of London :)

Our transportation home :)

View of Tower Bridge from the Thames

Hope you enjoy these pictures!!!

Little London Adventurer