Dartmoor

Driving through here in broad daylight, it was hard to imagine the Hounds of the Baskervilles looming through the mist with glowing jaws.
Instead the local wildlife seemed to be sheep playing red rover with the traffic.
We stopped at a tiny village called Widecombe-in-the-Moor before hurtling on along roads that it seemed impossible to get a coach through, but we made it without hitting any sheep or stray tourists.

Salisbury

Home to the tallest spire in England, Salisbury is a lovely town that we didn't actually walk through as we spent the stop whipping through the cathedral. Here are some images of the beautiful building (once again, the scaffolding trend had gone before us and as for doing a Constable shot...)

Stonehenge

Brighton

The favourite seaside town has been a place to take the sea air for centuries. George the Prince Regent built his pleasure house pavillion here. Unfortunately no photography was allowed inside, the decor was rather overwhelming and burst from the ceilings and walls in pseudo-oriental abandon. Here are some details of the outside, once again, a portion of which was in scaffolding!




Our hotel turned out to be one of the most impressive buildings on the front.


Brighton used to have two piers but one burned to just a shell. The Skylark used to take people between the piers. I wonder if we found it, or is every other boat in Brighton called Skylark...

Battle

This little town marks the spot of the Battle of Hastings in 1066. True, Hastings itself is not far away, but the battle was named for the nearest town at the time. This is where it really happened. An abbey was built on the spot and the gates dominate the town centre.

Destination Canterbury

This is Wednesday 24 June and we join our Globus tour group who will be our travelling companions for the next 22 days. Heading straight from London to our first stop Canterbury.

The South Bank Lion bids us goodbye as we cross Westminster bridge.

Looking through a Canterbury street towards the great cathedral. (Following the scaffolding trend that we seem to have, the famous gate to the cathedral is undergoing maintenance, so I can't get a shot of the church through the arch unless I want it with unasthetic metal bars and green mesh..)

Canterbury cathedral is the most important church in England being the seat of the Archbishop of Canterbury who is the chief cleric for the Church of England. Thomas Becket was murdered here and a candle burns continually to his memory. It was to his shrine that loyal pilgrims would travel, telling each other stories to while away the time - hence the inspiration for Chaucer's Canterbury Tales.

This building is suitably impressive in size and style. Naturally, I went shutter mad and the following is a collection of impressions.

On the Thames

This is still recording our first day in London. After going on the London Eye, we took a boat tour which is also run by the Eye group. It takes you along a stretch of the Thames from the Houses of Parliament to Tower Bridge. We had a very amusing tour guide called Leighton who basically rewrote London history with his dry wit, Londoners obviously do not hold their politicians in high regard, nor their modern architects...


It seems on this trip that most of what we want to see is undergoing refurbishment and repairs. The historic Savoy, home to so many Gilbert and Sullivan premiers is completely under wraps and unphotographable. Tower Bridge is being repainted so it was impossible to get the classic end to end view, and I had to content myself with a detail shot.


Houses of Parliament with what our guide called an inferior boat company's vessel in front - rather possessive of their bit of water.


The Eye in full next to the refurbished County Hall which serves as the administrative building for the Eye group and a museum.


Shades of my first operetta, The Yeomen of the Guard, as we go past the Tower of London. Look out for the entrance to Traitor's Gate.