Hello and welcome to my more sensible account of our travels in England.
London was frantic. We saw three west end shows in three nights - Les Mis (brilliant), Spamalot (very very funny) and We Will Rock You (yes, well, um, it was loud and there were some good songs, but the acting was a bit dodgy...). We did a lot of touristy things (the Tower, walking the monopoly board, etc), and caught up with a girl I met in Mexico. It was a good trip, but I'm glad we left when we did.
We caught the train to Bath and then hired a car to drive around. Bath was just as lovely as last time, and this time I made it to the Jane Austen museum (Tony declined). Cardiff was our next stop. It was great, even though we couldn't catch up with our Cardiff based friends. We visited the Doctor Who exbibition and saw where the entrance to Torchwood is (for all you Torchwood fans). Next we went to Stratford Upon Avon, which was great, but my flu was starting to kick in. We wandered around looking at wibbly wobbly houses and visited Shakespeare's birthplace for a bit.
We drove up to Derbyshire the next day and were going to the Cornishware factory. I was so stoked to finally be going there. However, the company has gone into receivership and the factory and shop have closed. In a huff, we drove on to Derby, got annoyed and decided to go on to Nottingham instead. Nottingham was nice. A great place for shopping or robbing the rich and giving to the poor. The forrest was nice (must admit I didn't spend much time looking at the lace!).
York was great. I recommend York to anyone. I wont wax lyrical about it here, but I know a great B&B if anyone's in the area.
We stayed in Durham Castle for a night. Durham Castle was the best bit about Durham. The castle was amazing and it was a great place to stay. We left and went to Alnwick Castle - where some of Harry Potter was filmed. We had a look about the castle and then watched some owl flying displays. There was a big African owl called Sasha that I particularly liked. She didn't want to fly, but she got there in the end.
Last night we stayed in Bamburg. There's a great castle there on a rocky outcrop, but I wouldn't recommend that anyone spend too much time in Bamburgh, its a bit too much like Royston Vasey - its a local town for local people.
So now we're in Edinburgh for the Festival. It's raining cats and dogs and we're supposed to be going to the Military Tattoo tonight (do fireworks work in the rain?). Hopefully it will ease off soon. At least our flu's are subsiding.
