England & Iceland June/July 2016

What follows is a summary of our trip this summer to England and Iceland. Photos can be found on my Facebook page, enjoy.....

Sunday June 26, 2016

Left home at around 2pm and drove up to Durham and checked into the Indigo Hotel close to RDU Airport. We decided to come up to the airport a day early so that there would be no panic tomorrow! Also, we can leave the car at the hotel so no worries about parking. Hotel room very comfortable and we had dinner in the hotel which was very nice and convenient.

Monday June 27, 2016 and Tuesday June 28, 2016

A leisurely start to today! Enjoyed a late breakfast and caught the shuttle to RDU at 12pm. The flight left RDU on time and we enjoyed the flight to Boston on JetBlue. Actually, we were very impressed with JetBlue, the seats in economy were comfortable and seemed to have more leg room that economy on American Airlines, our usual carrier of choice. Also, they had personal video screens on each seat with a good selection of content. Also, free Wi-Fi and if you are an Amazon Prime member you can stream content from them!!

In Boston we had a long walk to get to the International Terminal, not well sign posted! We had about a 4 hour layover in Boston so had a leisurely meal and then waited for the flight to be called. Icelandair boarded in an unusual way starting with those seated in window seats, then middle seats and then aisle seats, it seemed to work pretty good as we left the gate exactly on time! Once again the seating and leg room was excellent and the personal entertainment system had a huge selection of video and music content, very impressive. No meals were served, but you could purchase a good selection of food on the flight.

The flight to Iceland was uneventful, though it never really got dark and finally we saw sunrise at about 2am! As we approached Iceland the pilot came on and said that the airport had been closed for a 30 minute period so we ended up doing some big circles in the sky before landing at around 5:50am local time. Unfortunately, our final leg to Glasgow was already scheduled to be 90 minutes delayed which really turned out to be about 2 hours so we had a much longer layover in Keflavik than we had anticipated. I wondered whether the staff at the airport had had a celebration for Iceland’s Euro 2016 victory over England and that was why the airport shut down, inebriated workers!

We finally arrived in Glasgow at about 1pm and then for the first time used the ePassport exit through immigration where if you have a passport with a chip in it you can place your passport on a scanner and it matches your facial feature to the passport and says yes or no! Made it a much faster process! Bags came through quickly and then off to collect the rental car.

So, the rental car process goes smoothly enough, though very lengthy as the forms to sign seem to multiply every time. Finally get the car assigned and then trudge to the rental car park just as it’s starting to rain only to discover that the vehicle is a manual and not an auto, which normally would not bother me, but because my left knee is a bit wonky at the moment I decided to trudge all the way back to the terminal and get the vehicle changed, which I was able to do. We ended up with a very nice Volvo XC70 SUV that will suit our needs very nicely!

Then just a quick 15 minute drive to our hotel in Glasgow where we finally checked in at 3pm. It had been a very long haul, but if the connections had been as originally scheduled would have been OK and definitely worth all the money saved! We ended up having a quick meal at 4pm and then a refreshing shower and then crashed!

Feel quite refreshed now, it’s 1am on Wednesday June 29^th! Probably try and get a few more hours of shut eye and then off to Newcastle later today with a few old castles on the way!

Wednesday June 29, 2016

Started with an excellent breakfast at the hotel, I had smoked salmon and scrambled eggs and Jill had kippers! We lingered over breakfast and then went for a walk along the Clyde to get a feeling for Glasgow. The weather was very gray so made the city look especially drab. They have made attempts along the Clyde to improve the city, but we saw many areas that had been razed to the ground and left vacant. We checked out of the hotel at 12pm and then made our way to our first stop of the day, Bamburgh Castle.

Bamburgh Castle has been the seat of the Kings of Northumberland and commands an imposing position on the coast, high on a hill above the village. The castle originally built by the Normans was destroyed during the War of the Roses and the current buildings are restoration work from the 1700’s onwards when the castle was purchased by the Bishop of Durham and subsequently through various owners to the Armstrong family, the current owners. By now it was raining off and on and of course we had to get the obligatory selfie of us in our rain gear! This rain was not quite as pleasant as the rain in French Polynesia, about 30F cooler!!

After Bamburgh Castle we stopped in the village below the castle to get a photo of the castle high on the hill and because we had braved the rain so well we treated ourselves to a wonderful cream tea, oh the decadence!

We then tried to visit Dunstanborough Castle, but the weather defeated us! It was still raining when we got to Craster and as a visit to this castle involved a one mile hike, we passed and then drove to Alnwick to take a look at Alnwick Castle, which featured in the Harry Potter movies as Hogwarts. We did manage to get some good pics of the castle, dodging the rain!

Then onto Newcastle for our overnight stay there. As we drove into the city we were impressed with the buildings we saw and the overall feel of the city was very good. Our hotel, the Indigo Hotel was very nice and surprised us by have an excellent restaurant attached, a Marco Pierre White Steakhouse and Grill. We booked a table straight away and had a great meal, made better by our excellent waiter Houman.

Thursday June 30, 2016

After last night’s blow out meal neither of us needed breakfast so we set off reasonably early for a walk down to the Tyne to see the iconic bridges of Newcastle. We were not disappointed as the bridges are magnificent! There are many old buildings in Newcastle, even back to Elizabethan times and one can see that at one time it was a wealthy city based on the scale of the city buildings.

One thing you do notice in Newcastle close to the river is the incessant bird calls and large scale evidence of bird poop! A massive Kittiwake colony has been established in the city and they return each year in March to have their chicks before leaving for their normal feeding grounds in August. We saw people running under bridges holding newspapers over their heads to protect themselves from the poop! Got some good pics of the bridges and the Sage Center before starting to return to the hotel. On the way back we stopped into St. Nicholas Cathedral and were surprised to see a Lectern from pre-reformation times.

En route to Harrogate we stopped first in Whitby at the Abbey. An imposing ruin high above the town. The stones from the Abbey have been used by a local gentry family that was granted the Abbey lands by Henry VIII following the dissolution of the monasteries to build their home! While looking around the Abbey we were surprised by an RAF jet doing low level maneuvers at a very high speed, pretty impressive, but not for the faint hearted.

Then onto Scarborough to track down a house that Ken had lived just before WWII), 37 Albermarle Crescent. We did find it and took a few photos, have to see whether Beryl remembers! Overall, not too impressed with Scarborough, it’s the first northern city/town we have been to that looked past its sell by date!

From there onto Harrogate. We got caught in rush hour traffic around York and got checked into the hotel at around 7pm. A quick shower and then down to the restaurant for dinner.

Friday July 1, 2016

We had a long day planned today with a journey back into our ancestral roots. Our first stop was in Brigg in North Lincolnshire. Jill’s 2xGreat Grandfather (Job Day) had lived in Brigg in the mid to late 1800’s and from the census records of that time I had found two addresses of where he had lived. The first , 11 College Yard, no longer seemed to be there, although College Yard still exists. Then onto the second address, 48 Wrawby Street, and this still is there! We took a number of photos of the home and then went to check out the local tourist info office. In there we found a couple of neat pictures of the market square, one of which we will send to Jack as we found out that his ancestors were from the Brigg area also, a small world indeed!

Our next stop was Barnetby where we stopped at St. Mary’s church where Job’s father, Thomas, was married in 1826. The church is no longer consecrated but is being preserved by the church trust. Then onto Ulceby, where Thomas had raised his family. No dwellings fit the time for his stay there as all the addresses I had seemed to be fairly modern so we just drove around the town.

A longer drive now to Feltwell in Norfolk to see the town where I have the earliest Edwards I have been able to find. We located St. Mary’s church where Thomas Edwards, my 4xGreat Grandfather was married in 1774. We wandered around the graveyard, but didn’t find any evidence of Edwards on any of the headstones.

Now we drove onto Ely, a cathedral town set high on a lone hill in the Fens. Ely was originally an island, the Isle of Eels, but once the Fens were drained now is just a lone hill. A religious community had been established there in the late 7^th century and rose to significant prominence in England. The current building was started in the late 11^th century and it was designated as a cathedral in the 12^th century. Both the interior and exterior are magnificent and a highlight is the octagon tower and lantern above the transept. We also saw Oliver Cromwell’s home in Ely before having a Beef & Ale pie and chips in the Lamb before driving down to Cambridge for our final overnight stay before arriving in Devon.

Saturday July 2, 2016

We awoke early and were on the road by 9:15am and arrived and Joy & David’s in Barnet at around 10:20am. We had a really nice visit with them and remembered to wish Joy a happy 88^th birthday for yesterday! Then we set off for the drive down to Devon. Immediately, our Sat Nav declared that our route was being altered due to traffic conditions and instead of being routed up to the M25 we ended up driving towards London on the A1 and the going around the North Circular and then joining the A40 before dropping down to the M4 at Heathrow. It took us well over an 1hr and 30min to get to the junction of the M25 and M4! I can’t imagine how bad the M25 must have been if that was a better alternative! The rest of the drive to Devon was uneventful except for one accident on the other carriageway that created a “rubber neck” delay on our side and the Sat Nav taking us off the M5 at one interchange and then taking us directly back on!

We arrive at Merrivale just before 6pm and we’re looking forward to a few days of R&R!

Sunday July 3, 2016

A very relaxing day today! Set off to collect Matt & Kelly from the train station and stopped at Morrison’s on the way to get a load of groceries for the house. Our timing at the station was perfect as Jill collected Matt & Kelly as I was still trying to find a parking space in the short term parking!

All eight of us are now at Merrivale, a veritable Edwards clan gathering!

Clear skies tonight and we used the telescope to look at the planets, Mars and Jupiter. We could see the 4 moons of Jupiter quite clearly. Forgot that Saturn is also visible so waiting for another clear night.

Monday July 4, 2016

Nothing to report today other than working on photos and blog and relaxing!!

Tuesday July 5, 2016

Woke up to a much better day today, the sun is shining! In the afternoon we took Matt and Kelly into Plymouth and walked along the Hoe and saw the wonderful Lido that they have there. Then along to the Mayflower Memorial and steps (Replica!) and then back through parts of the old town to the car.

The skies stayed clear this evening and we were able to get a clear view of Saturn and could make out its rings! Also, took another look at Jupiter and its moons were now in a different position as they obviously rotate around the planet much faster than our moon!

Wednesday July 6, 2016

Today we left Heybrook Bay for the drive to Reigate to join up with Jill’s mum and family. It’s always bittersweet leaving mum now, as none of knows whether this will be the last time. She is doing remarkably well for her age, 91, so I expect her to carry on for a good few years yet!

I had decided that I would take Matt and Kelly over Dartmoor and quickly we stopped to take pictures of the horses running free on the Moor. Then onto Widecombe on the Moor for a coffee break and then poste haste to Stonehenge, a highlight of Kelly’s trip to the UK this time.

The layout for Stonehenge has changed considerably since we were there last, early 1990’s with Matt and Pat, and the car park and visitor centre is now 1.5 miles from the stones themselves. If you purchase an entry for £16.50 you get to ride a shuttle bus and get reasonably close to the stones versus free and walking 3 miles and only getting a trespass view of the stones!

After Stonehenge we carried onto Winchester, which is somewhere that neither Jill nor I have been to. The cathedral is one of the largest in Europe so we were eager to take a look. We found a parking deck, but as we started to enter and had made a commitment to enter we saw that it said that it closed early and details were at the bottom of the entry ramp! Well, it closed and got locked at 6:30pm, way too early for us and so we tried to leave only to find that you need to pay to get out! So that cost £1.30 for nothing! Matt then found us another parking area much closer to the cathedral and so we parked there only now to find that we didn’t have enough loose change for the pay to park! There were instructions on how to pay via cell phone, so I tried that to no avail as it was a charged text and I don’t have any credit on my sim! I was on my way to get some change at a nearby hotel when I saw a different machine that let me us my NatWest card, saved!

Then onto the cathedral, but they wanted £8 each to go in, not paying that when we used to able to get into these places for free!

We walked through the town and found a place for dinner, we were all starving by now and enjoyed an Italian meal at Prezzo.

Then onto Reigate and checked into the Bridge House Hotel, a little run down, but OK for our needs, and then over to Greystones Drive for a quick visit with Beryl, Val and Malcolm.

Thursday July 7, 2016

Went over to Greystones Drive around 11am and had a visit with Sarah, Elin and Alex, and Charlie, Poppy and Evie. Miles wasn’t able to come as he was at school.

We took Beryl out to lunch at The Black Horse in Reigate where we had a very nice meal. Afterwards we went to Dorking to check out the antique stores as Kelly was interested in finding something old to take home with her. She found some old medium format slides of scenes from the 1930’s and she’ll mount them onto a frame when she gets home.

Michael and Sue arrived later this afternoon and we had an easy buffet supper that Val had prepared. Ben was able to come across and visit when he got back from a school trip to Stratford upon Avon.

Friday July 8, 2016

I met Matt and Kelly for breakfast in the hotel restaurant and we all enjoyed the works with a full English Breakfast! We were entertained at during breakfast by our waiter, Mondo, as he regaled us with his arsenal of magic tricks!

We had decided that we would all go to Hever Castle today, but beforehand we went down into Reigate so that Kelly could stock up on some make up supplies from Boots!

Hever Castle is very close to where Sarah and Oli live in Edenbridge, so we drove through the town so that Matt and Kelly could see it. We got to the castle about the same time as Val, Malcolm, Beryl and Michael (Sue had decided to stay at Reigate as her ankle was bothering her.) Hever Castle is the ancestral home of Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII’s second wife. We toured the beautiful gardens and then the house. Both the gardens and the house had been substantially restored and added to by the Astor family who had acquired the property in 1903 and then spent £10M on it.

As we were leaving the parking lot I had a minor altercation with another car! We were both pulling out at the same time and unfortunately banged bumpers. The Volvo I am driving was unscathed, but the other car now as a dent and cracked paint on its bumper. Will try to sort out the insurance aspects of this and get back to the other driver when I return to the US.

This evening we all went back to The Black Horse for dinner, apparently it’s Beryl favorite eating establishment. Had another good meal, but we called it an early night as we have to get up very early tomorrow to get Matt and Kelly to Heathrow for their 10am flight.

Saturday July 9, 2016

Awake at 5:30am and out of the hotel just before 6:30am and then onto Heathrow to drop Matt and Kelly off for their flight back home. Afterwards we had made plans to visit with Nigek and Denise, but we had a couple of hours to kill so we stopped at a Motorway service station for a cup of coffee and then a nap in the car!

We had a nice visit with Nigel and Denise and also met their new neighbour Sue, who is shortly relocating to LA for 3 years as her husband has a new job as CFO, Sony Pictures!

We had lunch with Nigel and Denise at a new café in Pangbourne and we all enjoyed another English Breakfast! We had a short walk around Pangbourne and found a wonderful cheese shop where we bough some VERY smelly cheese for Sue!

Next onto Blythe Bridge to spend the night with Michael and Sue who are returning home this afternoon along with Beryl. We are going to have a birthday dinner for Beryl with the Stoke family at the Upper House in Bardleston.

Had an enjoyable evening with Freda, Melvin, Linda, Ruth, Richard, Emma, David, Ellie and Ben. Food was great and Ellie entertained us all evening running around the grounds of the house which had been built for Josiah Wedgewood’s grandson, Francis.

Sunday July 10, 2016

Left Blythe Bridge around 11:30am and then made our way to Liverpool, another first for us. Checked into our hotel around 2pm and then went for an explore around the Merseyside and then into the city. We enjoyed visiting the Liverpool Museum and then discovering the Cavern, no longer the original, but almost in the same location!

The dock/waterfront of Liverpool has been really revitalized, but overall the city did not make as good as impression as Newcastle.

Had a meal in a restaurant overlooking the Albert Dock and then back to the hotel to get ready to return to Glasgow tomorrow.

Monday July 11, 2016

It was pouring with rain this morning and I was not looking forward to the fairly long walk to the parking deck where I had left the car. However, after breakfast and check out the rain was not so heavy, just a fine mist blown by a very strong wind!

We had decided to drive through the Lake District on our way back to Glasgow and so once we reached Kendal we left the M6 to travel up to Keswick! The plan went awry when I made the wrong turn in Windermere and we drove south down the lake instead of north! However, we ended up at nice National Trust property, Fell Foot, at the south end of the lake and enjoyed an early lunch in the tea shop with great views of the lake.

After lunch we went back to Kendal and stopped to take a few pics there and then took the right road towards Keswick! At Keswick we saw a sign for the Castlerigg stone circle. It is a stone circle that is one of 1300 stone circles in the British Isles and Brittany and is thought to be 4500 years old. Managed to get a few good photos before a horde of people descended on the site!

Then we set off for our hotel for tonight, but thought that a cream tea would be nice. We wandered around the Lake District trying to find one and ended up at Ullswater, where we stopped for another photo opportunity.

Reached our hotel around 7pm and checked in and then had a meal in the bar before getting ready for our flight to Reykjavik.

Tuesday July 12, 2016

Our flight to Iceland was not until mid afternoon so we were able to have a fairly leisurely start to the day. Dropped the car off at the airport and then checked in for the flight. Clearing immigration and security was a breeze and then to the gate to await the flight. We left Glasgow on time and once at the airport in Keflavik cleared immigration very quickly and the bags were on the carousel almost immediately! Finally figured out where the rental car agency, Sixt, was and waited for a shuttle bus to take us there. Once we had the car made the 45 minute drive to the hotel without incident. Though it should be noted that the rules for driving around roundabouts in Iceland need some getting used to! You’d better make sure that you yield to traffic already on the roundabout and if you are going around more then two exits get into the outside lane!

We are staying at the Hilton Nodica, about a mile from downtown Reykjavik, which we can see if we look sideways from our 8^th floor hotel room. The Snaefells Peninsula is also visible with its volcano and glacier.

We ate dinner in the hotel restaurant and enjoyed the chef’s meal tonight. An amazing scallops starter followed by a salted cod main and a rhubarb creation for dessert. Bloody expensive, but the presentation and taste well worth it!

Wednesday July 13, 2016

After sleeping through a daylight night we decided to travel up to the Snaefells Peninsula toady as the weather looked the most promising for our three days in Iceland. It’s a long drive of about 2:30 hrs before anything gets interesting scenery wise so we decided to make our first stop in a small town on the north coast of the peninsula, Stykkishholmur. We walked around the harbour and then up to a very modern church perched above the town. You could certainly have a photography project of Icelandic churches. I should note that you go through an amazing tunnel on this route under the Hvalfjordur. The tunnel is almost 6 km long and before it was opened the route around the fjordur would have been over 60 km in length, so a real time saver.

Then onto Grundarfjordur to see the “most photographed mountain in Iceland” the Kirkjufell. Spent quite a long time there and at a close by waterfall taking photos.

Then we moved onto Olafsvik where we had lunch. I had a great burger and Jill had a wonderful selection of Icelandic cheeses.

We then drove across the peninsula towards the historic church at Budir and also managed to get some long distance shots of the Snaefellsjokull. The church was very interesting and unique and then we moved onto a nearby waterfall, Bjarnafoss. Got some great images before we set of for the 2:30 hrs drive back to the hotel!

On the way back we decided to take a detour via Akranes and took some photos of the old and new lighthouses there.

Thursday July 14, 2016

Golden Circle day! First stop was Pingvellir, the site of the ancient Icelandic Parliament. Set on an inland plain that had decent overland routes to all of the Icelandic communities in the 10^th century! The parliament met each summer from 930 to 1798! It’s one of the UNESCO World Heritage Sites.

At this park you can also see evidence of the movement of two tectonic plates, the North American and Eurasian plates that are moving apart by 3mm each year. Because Iceland sits upon these two plate edges is why it is so volcanically active.

Next stop was Gullfoss, an enormous double waterfall over 100 ft in height. The volume of water passing over the falls was amazing and apparently during flood situations the 200 ft deep canyon can be completely filled with water!

We passed by the Geysir, the original that has given its name to all others around the world, but missed the show and decided to move on towards the south coast of the Reykjavik peninsula. Once at the coast we stopped at a restaurant overlooking the ocean atop black sand dunes with a turquoise blue water as the background. Amazing view and great food.

We decided that to check out where Gulla is from originally, Grindavik, farther along the south coast of the peninsula, but first of all we stopped at an historic church, Strandarkirkja, perched next to a volcanic lava beach. The rain that had been threatening for some while now came upon us with a vengeance so we moved onto Grindavik and drove around the town and appreciated why Gulla has left!

Next, we decided to check out the famous Blue Lagoon. By now it's really raining and the wind is howling so we brave the elements to see if they’ll let us just take a look at the lagoon, we can’t enter, but apparently there is a footpath around some of the lagoon, so off we set. We don’t get too far before we decide that we are now soaked through and turn back to the car. We are amazed to see how crowded the parking lot is and to see people rushing into the facility with hardly anything on in the rain and howling gale! When we were turned away at the entrance we were told that there were no more tickets for today available, completely sold out!

So back to the hotel to dry out, a G&T and then dinner!

Friday July 15, 2016

The last day of our vacation before returning to the USA. We decided to have a less stressful day today to give my knee which has been really bothering me for the last few weeks a rest. We decided that we would drive into Reykjavik and have a look around, so that was the plan. We got into town and discovered that it’s hilly so walking around wouldn’t be a good idea and then true to form it started to rain! We did find a nice lighthouse to photograph and then decided that we would take the long drive around the Hvalfjordur and then back through the tunnel.

The drive was very scenic and we were able to get some good photos before returning to Reykjavik by the tunnel.

An early supper, packing and then to bed for an early start tomorrow.

Saturday July 16, 2016

Up at 6:00am and left the hotel at 7:00am. Dropped the car off with no problems and then checked in for the flights, first to JFK and then onto RDU. Very impressed with KEF, everything worked well and their security check was well organised, not like at JFK!

Smooth flight to JFK and got a good view of Greenland and managed to get a few shots to post on FB.

Now waiting for a flight to RDU, only another 3:45 hours to go. Will have a meal before we board. We’ll collect the car at the Indigo Hotel at RDU and then onto Matt & Kelly’s before driving back to the beach tomorrow.

Signing off for this trip, your truly……Steve.

Update: Well everything was working out fine until we boarded the plane to RDU! We had a lengthy ground hold of about an hour before takeoff due to bad weather around Washington DC that had closed the airspace. Then, as we arrived in the RDU area bad storms fired up there and they closed the airport to all arrivals and departures! We circled for an hour before diverting to Charlotte to take on additional fuel and waiting for the airport to reopen which it did around 10:30pm. We arrived back at RDU around midnight and then waited for almost an hour for our bags before catching the hotel shuttle back to the Indigo hotel to collect our car. We finally made it to Matt & Kelly's at 1:30am....a VERY long day indeed!