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Photos of the little man - from the last two adventures

Looks like Nancy and Iain wore eachother out...

In the backyard

Look who is still in thier PJs...

Looking cute

Iain is helping Mom and Dad plan part of the Hadrian's wall adventure

He loves to read - or at least look at the photos

Southern England – The Conquest

This was our big adventure with Nancy, southern England. We began with Upnor, moving to Canterbury, on to Dover stopping over at Elham and lastly the village of Battle (where the Battle of Hastings in 1066 was actually fought).

First Stop Upnor-
located in an absolutely cute village, but then again most of them are here in England . This castle makes me laugh - it totally failed. And I am not talking it took a hard hit and lost - but was just blown off.
The Dutch just sailed on by…this is the Castle

Donnie is trying to help these guys out...

To Dover!

The Famous White Cliffs of Dover...and they are steep!

I didn't really like walking along them, too scary for me. But I had to grab a piece of chalk!



Photo from the road, a nice one of the Castle and the Church.
The Church and 1st century Roman light house




Then on to Canterbury...

Canterbury could be one of my favorite cathedrals.

Nice contrast between old and new acquisitions. This where the Black Prince is buried. (1330 - 1376) Edward, The Black Prince, is remembered by some as a great chivalric hero of British history. He is the son of Edward III and the Black Prince’s son later became King Richard II and ruled between 1377-99. Below are his actaul helmet, shield, and vest.

The Bell Tower

High alter (past the bell tower)

Major event: the location of Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, was killed here in December 1170 after a rift with Henry II. Thomas later become a Saint. This event cause a major shift of pilgrims from Durham to Canterbury.

Another part of Canterbury, thought Travis would like this one!

On to Elham...

This village is Elham and this photos is our BnB.
To read the history go to www.abbotsfireside.com

As you can see, our door was a bit short. The door jamb was about 5'4". None of them were square, all of them were different heights, but all very cute.

You can see a really cute naked boy running around in our room,
also note the lime plaster and 14th c wood.

To Battle...

Ever heard of the Battle of Hastings? Took place in 1066 had to do with William the Conquer and Harold? Changed the history of England forever?

Well it took place near Hastings in this little village, now just called Battle. I guess they figured that was going to be the biggest thing that ever happend so why not just rename the village after the event.
Above is the actaual battlefield. After William the Conquer killed Harold he later build an Abbey in honour to him, this is it. There is also a marker where Harold fell and one where his tomb is located. If you cannot tell, the abbey is in ruin and both markers are now outside.

Burghley Horse Trials & Buckingham Palace

Here are some adventure photos during Nancy's Trip!

Our First outing was The Burghley Horse Trials in Stamford. Anyone who is a horse person will know what it is, for the rest of us it is THE international event. The bonus was that there were over 300 venders! Yes, let me loose and let me go shopping!! Pretty cool. Oh and about the horses... we saw some of the jumps for the Cross Country , saw the pony club-jumping event and, Dressage (fancy foot work)
Nancy was in Horse Heaven.

This is one of the Cross Country jumps, the Burghley House is in the background. They have a connection with the Biltmore House. (Small world) Oh, this was also where they filmed part of the more recent ‘Pride and Prejudice’

Part of the Pony Club-Jumping Event. Apparently these kids are riding horses more expensive than my car or Donnie's Jeep. The upkeep, board, food and accessories not included.

Now for BUCKINGHAM PALACE, a Royal Day Out...

We toured the Royal State Apartments (only about ¼ of the palace) We were not allowed to take photos inside the palace. There was also a special exhibition of the Queen’s dresses and jewelry! The Queen is a small lady- maybe 5 foot, maybe. And the late 60s, early 70s were not a good year for style. Oh but good gravy the JEWLERY….All in all very informative and surprising.

My dream car...a Phantom -- so gracefull...

But these are nice wheels too....this is the Royal Coronation Coach.

We are back from our 4-day adventure to the North! The photos are chronologically backwards,
sorry I didn't plan so well there.

Carlisle Castle, is on the western side of England next to the Scottish boarder. In fact, our Bed & Breakfast was in Scotland.

“Long commanding the especially turbulent western end of the Anglo-Scottish border, Carlisle has witnessed many conflicts and sieges. During the following centuries kings such as Henry I, Richard III and Henry VIII contributed in various ways to the castles history. Mary Queen of Scots was confined here after her flight from Scotland in 1568. Iin the English Civil War it was besieged for eight months by Parliament's Scots allies, the Royalist surrendered in 1645 only after eating rats and even their dogs. In 1746, the castle became the last English fortress ever to suffer a siege, when Bonnie Prince Charlie's Jacobite garrison vainly attempted to hold off the Duke of Cumberland's army. It later became their prison: many died here, and others left only for hanging. We saw the legendary 'licking stones', which parched Jacobite prisoners desperately licked for moisture in order to stay alive.”

Hadrian’s Wall –

We went to a few sections of the wall, Chesters Fort was the first stop...

However the Heavens opened up on us and we very quickly became drenched. Drenched doesn’t even begin to describe how wet we were. Our tour of the wall became more of a drive by than the original plan of walking it. Click on the photo and see- then have a good laugh!

Chesters Fort was built (120 AD) to guard the Roman bridge, which carried Hadrian's Wall and the military road over the River North Tyne. It was one of the permanent troop bases. Occupied for nearly three centuries, its six-acre area housed a cavalry regiment of around 500 men.

All four principal gateways are well preserved, with the short lengths of Wall adjoining them. The entire foundations of the headquarters building are visible, with a courtyard, hall, regimental temple and strongroom clearly laid out: so is the commandant's house, the largest and most luxurious building in the fort. Down by the river, the changing rooms, steam rooms and bathing areas of the garrison's bath house are extremely well preserved, as is the Roman bridge abutment on the opposite bank of the river.

Durham Cathedral -‘one of the great architectural experiences of Europe’.

This is a postcard, we could not get this same angle but I thought you all needed to see a good photo of it.

A masterpiece of Romanesque architecture. (Began in 1093) It is the only cathedral in England to retain almost all of its Norman craftsmanship, and one of few to preserve the unity and integrity of its original design.

The Cathedral was built as a place of worship, specifically to house the shrine of St. Cuthbert, pilgrims came to Durham from all over England to see the shrine. It was also the home of a Benedictine monastic community.

The northern front of the Cathedral faces onto Palace green and here the full 496 foot length from west to east can be seen. The nave, quire and transepts are all Norman, at the west end is the 12c late Norman style Galilee Chapel and at the east end the 13th c Chapel of the Nine Altars is in the Gothic style. The western towers date from the 12th and 13th centuries and the great central tower is the most recent addition, it dates from the 15th century and displays perpendicular Gothic detailing. The original medieval sanctuary knocker can be seen in the Treasures of St Cuthbert a replica hangs at the north porch door.

Rievaulx Abbey

“Everywhere peace, everywhere serenity,

and a marvelous freedom from the tumult of the world.”

St. Aelred, monastery's third abbot.

Set in a beautiful and tranquil valley, it is among the most atmospheric and complete of all the ruined abbeys of the north. founded by St Bernard of Clairvaux, in 1132. From these modest beginnings grew one of the wealthiest monasteries of medieval England and the first northern Cistercian monastery. Most of this 13th-century 'presbytery' still stands to virtually its full impressive height, a reminder of Rievaulx's original splendour. Rievaulx was still a vibrant community when Henry VIII dissolved it in 1538.

Oh, and this is Elton Hall. It is just up the road in the next village. Surprisingly very impressive, the family has good taste – a few JWM Turner, J. Constable and T. Gainsborough. (I saw this a few weeks ago while Donnie was in the States.)


Okay, I think that is all. Nancy is arriving on the 5th and will be with us until the 18th. Donnie will be taking the entire time off from work! We have a few adventures planned while she is here so hopefully I will able to update the page in a few weeks.

Oh, I learned that if you click on the photos they get bigger...(I am new at this, can you tell?)

Alrightly then, Love you all - Kibs