British blitz...

I returned this past Thursday from my whirlwind trip to England...wow! I left Friday evening and met up with my half brother R. and half sister R. on Saturday morning, to visit with cousins of our father and see where he was born. We did a little family research while we were there, and received a family tree put together by dad's cousin D. whom we stayed with in West Parley, Dorset for 4 nights. We visited towns that most American tourists don't go to and lived as the English do for a few days! It was really great. D. took us to Wimbourne where we toured the Minster (church), Portsmouth where dad lived in early childhood, and to Bournemouth and Poole on the channel. Also when we were in Portsmouth, we visited the Naval Museum as our grandfather and greatgrandfather had long careers with the British Royal Navy. A highlight was touring the HMS Victory which was a famous ship from the battle of Trafalgar during the Napoleanic wars (I must check my historical facts on that one...) Admiral Nelson is a national hero and he was felled on that ship during the famous battle.

On my last day (Wed.) we took a train to Woking station outside of London and had lunch in a pub with dad's cousin Thelma. I had never met her but have heard about her all my life -- she is a robust, opinionated, and strong lady of 90 years! After lunch we were met by a friend we all knew in New Jersey, Mel, who returned to England after college and has married and is raising 2 young boys there. She and her family took us around London that Evening to hit some of the highlights. We had a "flight" on the London Eye where we got a birds eye view of the city. Then we crossed the River Thames and walked to Trafalgar square (where I saw the National Gallery, only from the outside...still amazing!) then on to Buckingham Palace. Apparently there was a state dinner going on by the look of things -- the Queen's flag was raised signifying her presence. We kept walking past 10 Downing Street, past the Royal Guard Museum (it was too late to see any of the red tunics outside). We ended up by the Houses of Parliment and Big Ben (I almost cried when I got my first glimpse of them from across the Thames -- for a former art history major, all of Europe is like Disneyworld!) and Westminster Abby, which we actually saw best from the Eye due to trees and traffic on the ground. Then we rode the tube back to Mel's house and were driven back to our hotel at Heathrow. It was a whirlwind tour of highlights, hence my title "British blitz".

It was great, too much to write about on the blog. The weather was chilly and rainy much of the time but I didn't mind one bit! We sampled lots of pubs and I learned lots about my dad's culture. In Dorset, there were so many cozy and quaint areas that I felt like I was in the Hobbits' shire at times. I loved it!

Here are just a few pics...R. and R. had some better ones, perhaps I'll add them later.

Cheers!