My UK Trip, finally...

So, I finally got the pics loaded, and then decided there were far too many pics (527 in all), so got all fancy, and made a video out of about 100 of them. But first I thought I'd tell you a little about the trip.

We started in London, and spent 3 days there sightseeing. We took it all in - everything we could possibly see! The highlight was climbing the skinny staircase to the top of St. Paul's Cathedral - all 484 teeny tiny stairs. There's no chicken ext - once you start, you're stuck going up. But the view was wort it. And Westminster Abbey was equally gorgeous. Buckingham Palace was a big disappointment, I have to say.

More after the break...

Then it was off to Bath, where we saw the Abbey, the Roman Baths, the Jane Austen museum, and her house as well, and the crescents. If you look at the slide show, there's a hotel in it that was built by an architect who wanted to shed light on the disparity between the classes. There are 3 distinct rooftops on it - each representative of the lower, middle and upper classes. It was really cool!

Then it was on to Dublin, where we had a fantastic time. Not much else to say. Just a blast! Oh, they were building these sand sculptures in the middle of Dublin Castle. Weird. One note. We rented a car and drove our way through Ireland. I thought we were going to die! The roads are incredibly skinny two-lane roads, and there are these huge tour buses that hurtle down them.

Then it was on to Galway and Doolin, where we saw the amazing Cliffs of Moher. I have to acknowledge our marketing intern at work, who is actually a lifeguard on the Doolin pier (small world, huh?). Anyway, she told me everything to see in Ireland. It was awesome! I think Bob took about 50 pics of just the Cliffs, LOL! Then we took a ferry out to the Aran Islands, where they still speak old Irish, and live like they have for the past hundreds of years.

Then we went to Scotland. We adored Scotland! We were in Edinburgh for the first week of Festival, which is their equivalent of Oktoberfest. So. much. fun! And the people were just lovely - wonderful, warm and welcoming. (everywhere, but especially in Scotland)

Then it was back to England, where we met up with Karen S and her hubby in Nottingham. We had a fantastic time! They were really terrific - Karen and I had a great time talking about books, and all the latest gossip. But we all talked about everything - politics, houses, our jobs; you name it, we talked about it. The guys had a ton in common - even aside from commiserating about our book-spending habits and the number of boxes that seem to arrive at the doorstep from Amazon. TTG is just the nicest guy you can imagine. He and Karen are wonderful together. He made several recommendations to Bob about what else to do in London while I was working the following week - many of which Bob did, and thoroughly enjoyed.

So, while I slaved at the office over the next 4 days, Bob went to the Imperial War Museum (for 2 full days!) and visited Abbey Road Studios. We saw "We Will Rock You," which was totally cheesy, but fun nonetheless.

Anyway, without further ado, here are many of the pics we took... Word of warning if you are at work - there is music on the video, and it's quite long...