Windsor Castle and Brighton

Windsor Castle
Walking up to the castle from the town of Windsor. The queen is in the castle today so some areas will be restricted from visiting.

This is looking down on the town from the walkway up.

Here comes the changing of the guards at the castle.

It's not the Queen but who?

After touring the castle and looking around town a little we stopped for a coffee. After our coffee we were back in the car and off to Brighton.

We have been blessed with such beautiful weather. During the 6 weeks we were gone we only had 2 days of all day rain. Look at those blue skies--who says it rains all the time in England???

Let that girl of mine anywhere near the water and she just has to go mucking around. I believe Jim now has some more rocks for his house. I admit I picked up some too, they were very colorful. They are now sitting on top my desk and the site of them brings back such wonderful memories.

Love this saying

Aren't theses houses neat?

Once again these beautiful rounded buildings.

After Brighton we headed back to Sulihull. Driving through the gorgeous countryside you see above. Once home we had Wednesday and Thursday to say our good byes to Genette and family, Georgina and family, Val, and Mum and Jack.

We left Jim and Jane's about 4:00 AM on Friday morning and drove to Manchester, England to get our flight.

All I can say is that staying with Jim and Jane was like staying with family. Lee enjoys Jim's company as much as I enjoy Jane's.

During our stay with Jim and Jane they put 2,000 miles on the car, so you can see Jim really did show us England.

We feel like we will never be able to repay Jim and Jane for making this the trip of a lifetime. We do so hope that their family will make use of our home for their future travels in the USA.

Hopefully Jim and Jane will be able to join us in Florida in 2012.

Until then Jane and I will continue to talk every Sunday and pretend that we are not oceans apart.

I love you both so much, Judy

We flew to Dublin, Ireland and then went through passport inspection and then left for Kennedy airport, New York. The flight went fine and faster than I thought it would be. Once in New York we got a shuttle to the train station (Grand Central) only to find out we needed to be in Penn Station to take the train home to Harrisburg. We had to take 2 subways to get to Penn Station. Once there, we finally got tickets--went down to the platform and the train had just pulled out. Lee had to wait in line and exchange the tickets and we left about an hour later. The train ride was 3 hours and by the time my brother picked us up we had been up for 23 hours. We were exhausted.

WAS IT WORTH IT? YOU BET IT WAS, WE HAVE HAD THE TRIP OF A LIFETIME!!

Picture from the plan as we left Dublin.

Goodbye Europe

London

We stayed at this lovely B&B in the Sussex Downs. Nice rooms, fantastic 3 course dinner and full English breakfast all included in the price. We checked in early, took the train into London and then ran our tails off to make to Buckingham Palace in time for the changing of the guards.

This was a week day and the crowd was huge.

Can you imagine pulling this duty? No moving, no expression, just stand there.

Here's Buckingham Palace and that famous balcony.

Here's Jim and Jane having their balcony kiss.

Downing Street

Oops!!!

Big Ben and Westminster
The cue to get into the church was several blocks so we decided to spend our time touring the rest of the city rather than spending the day in line. If you go on a Sunday you can get in for free.

Pictures taken in the park.

That famous roadway leading to the palace.

This is like the Times Square of London.

I just love these buildings that take on the same contour as the road. Why straighten the road just curve the building.

Once again we had another full day. We spent about 6 hours touring London and then we crashed at the B&B for about an hour and then had a lovely 3 course meal and of course excellent company. We were all so tired and Jane had swollen ankles from so much walking.

Tomorrow it is off the Windsor Castle and Brighton on the coast.