I have wondered how to do this without boring the pants off everyone who is kind enough to read my blog. Being away for 3 weeks is a long time and in 'Miranda Time' that translates into over a 1000 pictures. I snapped like a demon for the last 3 weeks. I seem to have an obsession with detail and so there are a lot of close ups of moldings and roofs and weathervanes!
But I should start at the beginning. We needed to go to London to the USA Embassy and renew/extend our Visa. In order to do this we need to give 3 weeks for the authorities to do their job and process the visas. So a 3 week trip to the UK was booked. Now the first thing to note is that they TAKE your passport. So we would not be able to travel outside of the British Isles. So with all this in mind we set of travelling light and making stops along the way, to make it interesting for the boys.
We broke it down into London first (get interview out of the way), so we arrived on the Sunday interview Monday act like tourists till Friday and get the train to my sisters (who lives outside Peterborough) and then Monday train to York and be tourists and then Friday train to Blackpool, stay with Micky and Ruby and then get plane to IOM Saturday and be tourists there and following Saturday, fly to Gatwick, driver/taxi to Heathrow stay the night and then fly to America, on the Sunday arriving the same day. Said like, that 3 weeks passes remarkably quickly!
I will just let the copious pictures speak for themselves. Enjoy!
This is as close as I would allow myself to get a photo, didn't want to get arrested, but this is the American Embassy in London.
This is for the Moore family! You have a building in London!!!!
Name of the Pub (we did eat there and it was brill!), I can't make this stuff up!!!
Hotel land............nothing to be said other than this is London and we have just sat down.
Selfridges in London. Department store with a long history and known for it's high fashion. (I didn't go in!)
Down a side street..........such a surprise but they have literally every countries cuisine in London.
Fabulous window display. And the taxi below is just too cool.
Fashion from London, just so groovey
Fab building
This is carved from soap!!!!
Just a cool shot, think I was on a tour bus when I took this.
Ping Pong in the square, think that they are trying to make it fun in the city.
Weathervane.......I told you, details man!
Lord Nelson on top of his column in Trafalgar Sq. Plus one of the Lions from the same said sq.
Now if you had the key to these gates, you could go straight down the road to Queenies house! This is the end of The Mall and Buckingham Palace is what you can see in the far, far ground.
Cor Blimey Govnor That's Big Ben and a London Bus all in one shot! Actually several buses!!!!
Now this is Horse Guards and that I think is a female solider? What patience and I had to wait for the crowd to clear around them for a photo of this sentry box.........
So I put this in to show you the sites, Houses of Parliament, Big Ben and the crowds walking along the bridge and the PACKED tour bus. Did I mention, London was mobbed!!!!
All day long I ring this bell! But I have a lovely outfit on.!
I managed to get this photo, after Isaac spotted this as we whizzed by on the tour bus on our way to St Paul's Cathedral.
You be lookin' at the Cathedral and this is from the bus! Captures the scene I thought.
Oh do I look weary, being on hols is tiring, but this is a Paul's Patisserie and we have cake! I know confusing, we are near St Pauls cathedral and this place has nothing to do with it, it is a French chain shop selling yummy stuff!
That's what it looks like inside. Very rustic and French.
Old bus front and back
This is a new building on the London sky line called the Shard
St Pauls from the Millenium Bridge and yes it does move a lot! The bridge not St Paul's
Yes they have painted the trees!
London is definitely on the up, so much construction going on.
Wonderful graffiti.
Look closely at the name of the place on the bus? It says Nunhead.........well I thought that it was funny.
Old and new, the Gerkin and the Tower of London
This is a marker to show you have now entered the City of London (an old marker)
You might be able to make out, the people walking on the bridge..............loads of them.
Another groovey cab
We know who you are, that's Big Ben!
This is the cue for Madam Tussauds (didn't go in! this was also a shot from the tour bus)
This is on the BBC building
The Apple building
These mosaics are all over the building
I was so pleased with this shot, the bus was turning a corner and I just snapped and got the divers.
We went to the London Underground and Transport Museum and we found a place for Issy!
Look Mum I can drive a bus!
These next few snaps are just fab features around London
Striking out along the River...........That's the Thames and the boys. We are on our way to Cleopatra's Needle.
Same said needle
The Sphinx
Britannia and part of the Houses of Parliament
An electric sports car
Onto Greenwich and the time meridian
The Cutty Sark, the fastest tea clipper!!!!
Fully restored and lifted and look that would be Louie holding it up.
We even managed to get to Deptford and Eileen and Charlie's pub. This picture is a good likeness and hangs in the bar. Eileen is Kay's sister and also knew that a boy liked chips!
Oh the joy of the underground!
Onto Sarah's and here's the kids old and new playing!
So left to right, Louie, Robert, Isaac and Heather.
David and Damian outside and they decided that badminton was in order.
The star! Sarah's family dog, Mole
Lou on the trampoline!
This is the scene by the house, just idyllic
Isaac and Mole and a true bond was formed! Isaac is trying to teach Mole to fetch!
OK boys lets go on a Boat trip, and yes that is Louie driving.
More bleep Weathervanes, this is Cambridge
Wow the bikes
Wanted everything in this window, so just took a picture of it.
This would be Cambridge in the summer, mobbed!
A descendant of the tree that Isaac Newton sat under. (Honestly, I'm not making this up!)
I love this picture, John (next to Isaac) had been avoiding my picture taking and just as I took this scene and Isaac had been right next to Sarah, blocking John, Isaac side stepped and I clicked and got John!
The Botanical Gardens that Sarah and David and family took us in Cambridge.
Louie, Heather and Robert
Prefect! John and Isaac
A game of tip!
Wonderful street names
Hats the boys bought in Cambridge and yes we were crazy enough to carry these all the way home to the USA!
Sunset at Sarah's and a perfect Fen night. (The area that Sarah and her family live in England SE is called The Fens)
Damian and Isaac fishing and Isaac did catch something!
York and the River Ouse outside our Hotel window.
Canada Geese..................bloody noisey
The Shambles, one of the oldest shopping streets in Britain.
This is a man on a bike and he was there everyday being a living statue.............
Clifton Tower, oh and Louie
The steps were scary
View inside and view out to the Minster in the background.
Louie as a Bishop and doing a crowning..............no I don't know who the other kids were!
Micklegate in York is really old and we found this wonderful old church.
York was a walled city and we decided that we would walk the walls, think we lasted 5 minutes.......we all needed the loo and really the walls all pretty much look like this!
Underneath this pub was the remains of an actual Roman Bath! cool. The fact I remember from the film we saw, was that the Baths were noisy..as Roman soldiers plucked there hair from their bodies.......this included the arm pits!!!!!Ouch!
There were loads of little alley ways in York, it is a really higgley piggley place and they had lots of renamed lanes?
This is the Minster. The largest Gothic Cathedral in Europe..wow
For Louie and all of us we went to the National Railway museum and here is the Mallard above, and the Flying Scotsman below (waiting for her paint job, she should be green)
The Rocket and a happy Boy! We road on it, and that is genuine happy Damian.
Of course Louie loved it too.
We went on a boat cruise of the River Ouse and found Canal Boats
This is a gate house for the bridge we passed under and it connects to the Walls.
Another interesting Pub name
Gate House
This is an American shop in York! They must have a lot of American's studying there.............wow
While we were out and about we went to the Minster one day and behind the Minster they were filming for the PD James novel that is being adapted for TV, Death Comes to Pemberly............they were on break and I snapped the actors!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
There are a lot of gates to the City of York and this is another
We are on the home stretch folks and this is Caroline and Isaac in the Isle of Man
A threshing machine at the Southern Agricultural Show, a must see event on the Manx social calendar.
Caroline and me!!!!
One of the events that they do and this was Caroline's friend!
Alley ways in Castletown, where Caroline lives and we went to school from the age of 11. So we know it well. This was my favorite secret walk.
Around the harbor in Castletown
Wonderful lighthouses. Looking to Langness in Castletown...note the sky in these pictures, it was blue nearly the whole time we were there.
This is Milners Tower a folly built at the top of a hill in Port Erin where we stayed and I decided to walk the boys up it! It was a really windy day.
This is view back to Port Erin
Isaac is sheltering from the wind!
The moorland of the hill
Views from the top and the Calf of Man. The most southerly bit of the island, is a smaller island.
Isaac requested before we went to the Island to visit the Wildlife park and here are some of the animals we saw.
Now we are homeward bound! Thanks for sharing our holiday. I have tried to not bore you but still give you a taste of the 3 weeks. There is loads more pictures and words, but this sums it up. Wonderful time and great places. We saw lovely family and made the most of it. It was great to see it all, and it is great to also be home...........love to you all far and near.