Grandma Sharon came to visit us just before Easter weekend. After a long trip to London where she ended up sleeping in the Chicago airport, she finally arrived and we wisked her away a day later to the west coast of England - the Devon/Cornwall area. We took a train to Exeter from London. Little did we know, we were in store for some of the worst weather to hit England over Easter for the last 25 years. Here is a picture of a newspaper headline with a picture of a huge wave (did I mention we went to the coast?). Here are Ethan and Grandma on the subway on our way to the train station.

After arriving in Exeter, we picked up our rental car and headed for Dartmouth a beautiful seaside port town along an area know as the "English Riveria." Of course, we took a car ferry and headed straight for the ruins of Dartmouth Castle. Here are some shots of rock collecting on the rocky beach near the castle.

Don't be fooled by the big smiles - it was freezing cold with gale force wind.

Here are Grandma and Ethan with Dartmouth Castle in the background.

After visiting Dartmouth, we headed for Lydford a tiny village in the Dartmoor Forest. We stayed at a bed and breakfast that was a real working farm. Here are some shots of the farm animals.

Lydford village has a castle used as a prison. The owners of the bed and breakfast told us that they used to do the hanging in the morning and the hearing in the afternoon.

Lydford is also home to a beautiful gorge and 100 ft. waterfall which we took a short hike to see.

After our visit to Lydford, we headed to Launceston a cute village in Devon also home to Launceston Castle pictured below. We had a few snow flurries while visiting the castle. After lunch of a Cornish Pasty, we headed to Tintagel in Cornwall where we would spend the next few nights.

We checked into our bed and breakfast at Tintagel and headed straight for the castle. As we approached the castle on the short trail the wind was extremely strong and very cold. When we arrived at the castle perched on a rocky cliff over the coast, we saw the crashing waves. Here they are ...

The waves were so strong in fact that we were not able to see the castle that day, because the walkway to the cliff was closed because of the wind. By the last day of the trip, we were finally able to view the castle (in the rain). Here is Tingagel Castle.

On Easter, the Easter Bunny visited Ethan and left a trail of eggs in the B&B. He also left a bag full of toys and candy! Here he is with his Easter basket.

After breakfast on Easter, we headed to the SW tip of Cornwall outside of Penzance to go to St. Michael's Mount. A beautiful castle located on an island surrounded by beautiful blue seas.

Later that day we visited an iron age village (Chysauster Village) and several standing stone sites. Here is Chysauster Village -

Here are the Lanyon Quoit Stones.

Here are the Men An Tol Stones.

Here are a few other shots from Easter weekend - Ethan in bubble bath and with Paddington Bear at Paddington Station in London.

Greenwich Mean Time - I have always wanted to say that ... We took a boat from London to Greewich last weekend to go to the Royal Observatory and see "the clock by which all clocks are set" and stand astride the Prime Meridian (point of zero longitude). Here is our boat - the ride took about 45 mins. The boat had a great tour with a few funny jokes. I learned that they call Tony Blair the "Golden Bush." I also learned that the original London Bridge was purchased by an American living in Arizona. The guy had it shipped to the USA, and it now stands reconstructed in lake Havasu City, Arizona. I was fascinated by this, so one need not travel to London to see the London Bridge.... for those wanting more info on the London Bridge in Lake Havasu City http://www.roadtripamerica.com/places/havasu.htm

Ethan took this great postcard quality picture of Tower Bridge on the way.

Here is a shot of Ethan on the top of the boat and then Ethan being goofy with dad.

Here it is - "the Prime Meridian of the World." Pretty cool stuff; I really enjoyed this trip, and Ethan learned a lot about clocks, time, and geography.

Here we are straddling the Prime Meridian with one foot in the Eastern and one foot in the Western Hemisphere.

Since Ethan is on half-term break this week, we took a three day trip to York, the North York Moors and the coast (Whitby, Robin Hood's Bay, Scarborough).

Day 1

We took the train from London's King's Cross Station to York where we rented our car, had lunch and visited York Minster the Gothic Cathedral in York pictured below.

We left York and headed for Rievaulx Abbey which was the first Northern Cistercian monastery. This Abbey is currently a series of remains, but it was an extremely impressive site and very beautiful. This was my favorite stop on the entire trip.

Ethan took this picture of us; he is becoming quite the photographer!

That evening we travelled to Whitby a small town on the Atlantic Ocean which was once a prominent whaling port. Captain Cook sailed his first ship out of Whitby in 1747 where he trained. All of Captain Cook's sailing vessels were built in Whitby. Whitby is also home to a 7th Century Monastery (Whitby Abbey) dramatically located on top of a cliff overlooking the ocean. To reach the Abbey, you have to climb 199 steps from the port. An interesting note, the graveyard of the church next to the Abbey was the sight of the filming of a scene from Bram Stoker's Dracula. Here is a night shot of the Abbey from the other side of town.

We had a great indian food meal (Ethan actually likes the rice and plain fried chicken at Indian food restaurants). We stayed in a small Bed and Breakfast in Whitby which served a huge English breakfast with the room. The English breakfast is a blessing and a curse. It is great, so you can fill up and eat a light lunch or no lunch at all, but it is also terrible if you have a sensitive stomach. There is something about all the butter, eggs, beans, and tomatoes (I eat mine without meat) that does not sit well for those with more delicate stomaches. I have decided to skip the full English from now on...

Day 2

After breakfast, we went for a walk on the Whitby beach - collected rocks and sea glass and then climbed the 199 steps to Whitby Abbey. Ethan enjoyed the Abbey, but mostly he enjoyed playing frisbee at all the sites we visited!

Here are the boys on the Whitby beach, and the Whitby Abbey is below this picture.

We actually used the timer on the camera to take this picture!

After the Abbey, we headed down the coast to Robin Hood's Bay. Robin Hood's Bay is a tiny fishing village on the North Yorkshire Coast. The tiny beach here was once a notorious smugglers landing, but has nothing to do with the actual Robin Hood. It was very windy, and we headed straight for the cliff top path and then to the beach.

After our short walk, we contined south down the coast to Scarborough Castle in Scarborough. The castle was built during Norman times on the site of a Roman signal station (the remains still visible). This castle is also situated on a rocky cliff with dramatic views of the coast.

We continued our journey to Helmsley Castle which was built in the 12th Century and was the site of a Civil War battle. Helmsley Castle located in Hemsley was also the site of a civil war battle. The town of Helmsley is a nice spot with cute shops and restaurants around a small town square.

After our visit to Helmsley castle, we got Ethan an ice cream cone and headed out for a walk on one of the thousands of footpaths that cover the English countryside. This footpath is called the Cleveland Way. We walked to the site of the ruins (barely visible) of a medieval village. In fact, when we got to the ruins and started to turn around Ethan said "where is our car" after which we explained to him that we were just walking on a path to the barely visible ruins and that we would have to turn around a go back to our car. He was a surprisingly good sport about this as we set a quick pace back to avoid nightfall.

Along the way we encountered a number of sheep wandering around the fields ....

Day 3

We woke up and had an early breakfast in Whitby and checked out of the bed and breakfast. We headed straight for the beach for one last stroll. After that we started our journey to Fountains Abbey. Along the way we came across a large road sign indicating the "Hole of Horkum" of course we could not resist stopping! It is basically a very large hole or valley which legend has it was created by the giant Kirk who scooped a large handful of mud out of the earth to throw at his wife Hilda. Here are the boys in front of the hole.

Fountains Abbey was founded in 1132 but not completed until the early 1500s. Now only the ruins of the Abbey remain, but they are quite spectacular and include some beautiful gardens and a working water mill. Note the blue sky and sunshine!


Ethan and dad enjoyed some frisbee.