London: 1st January - 7th January 2005

We farewelled Paris on New Years Day to travel on the EuroStar across the French countryside and under the English Channel to London. Our accommodation in London was the tinniest we had ever seen! However, it was comfortable and we didn't really spend all that much time there. The first major thing we did was hop on a Red Bus Tour and see some of the sites around London. Buckingham Palace started us off with the changing of the guard ceremony. It was quite entertaining. We also saw Big Ben at night, lit up from the boat we were cruising on the river Thames and also the reconstruction of Shakespeare's Theatre (the original burnt in the London fire).

We celebrated our first wedding anniversary in London which was very special. We visited the Tower of London (Castle) and Madame Tussaud's Waxwork Museum. The Tower of London was a real eye opener. To learn of the past royal families was very interesting. A past king who had 2 boys (heirs to the throne) and the jealous king's brother who wanted TO BE king – as uncle to the boys he took them and killed them. They weren't to be found for many many years later hidden in the castle. They are now buried at Westminster Abbey. It was a sad story.

The Crown Jewels are also kept at the Tower of London. The septor has the largest diamond in the world in it, at 3,025 carrots! Now how many Aussie's can claim to be looking at the Crown Jewels on their first wedding anniversary?! After visiting the Tower of London we went to Madame Tussaud's which brightened our day and we spent a couple of hours taking our photos with the waxwork stars.

Westminster Abbey was my favourite place to visit in London. I have never seen anything like the Crypt in there before. In fact I never knew that people were buried in churches at all. A lot of the royal family and other seemingly important people are either buried there or remembered there. I couldn't believe the detail the people of the past put into remembering the lost.

St. Martin's in the Field Cathedral was another must stop to do a brass rubbing. We had a great time rubbing the wax on our paper over our chosen brass picture.

The British Museum was a great stop also. Some of the artefacts are just amazing... and so old! I was very excited to see golden Egyptian sarcophagus's and canopies jars as I had just studied Egypt and mummies with my 2004 Year 3 class. The most exciting display there was the 5000 year old naturally preserved body of an Egyptian. Although they didn't name him, when I had studied this particular mummy with year 3 a book called him 'Ginger' as he still had a little ginger hair left on his head. And yes he did... so I met Ginger!

Chester: 7th January - 14th January 2005

We left of Chester in a hire car that we would keep for the next 2 weeks. We nicknamed him 'Leo' like his numberplate said. Chester, as I was told, was a walled medieval city. I expected to see a city with a magnificent wall all around it sitting eloquently on a hill as we approached. I will a little disappointed but naive to think that the city hadn't spilled out of the walls as time had gone on and wars between neighbouring towns faded away. But still, we had this great accommodation just inside the city wall in the heart of town, close to the shops and places to see.

We did a lot of sightseeing from Chester, travelling in Leo to all sorts of places. Warwick Castle was a great spot and so well preserved. Waxwork displays really brought the castle to life again as it might have well been in the past. We also visited Stratford on Avon to see Shakespeare's Birthplace and Ann Hathaway's Cottage. I learnt for the first time that the saying "Sleep tight, don't let the bed bugs bite" came from keeping your bed tight with the ropes – we now have springs or slats on our bed instead of ropes, and the bed bugs – because there really were lots of them around! Ewww.

We trekked up to The Lake's District to see Windermere and The World of Beatrix Potter however due to heavy flooding the few days prior it was closed as were most of the shops. We still had a great day looking around and seeing the English countryside. I had never seen those fences all made out of stones before. They must take so long to build!

Leo took us down to Stoke to visit the Wedgwood Factory. I didn't think there would be much to see and do there and I wondered why we had devoted a day to the trip. As I discovered by there time you looked through the displays, learnt about the history of Wedgwood, walked through the factory to watch the different workers hand-make or hand print designs as well as watch the machines so delicately make the china, that was half the day gone! The other half we spent painting our own Wedgwood Plate design and looking through the Wedgwood store and the seconds shop.

Bath: 14th January - 21st January 2005

Bath was our last stop in England. It was a very different feel to London and Chester. Built mainly when King George was in power, they called the buildings "Georgian Era Architecture". Prior to the settlement in the 1700s the Roman's built these amazing Bath's there that are naturally heated by the earth's core. Still in operation but not hygienic enough to bathe in you can visit and see the handy work of the Roman's 2000 years ago. They were pretty smart!

Continuing with our day trips in Leo, we drove to Torquay to visit some family for a day and drove through a gorgeous little thatched roof village called Cockington and also spent a day visiting Stonehenge, Salisbury Cathedral, and a very early Saxon church dated back to the 12th century (possibly even 790AD). Stonehenge was my absolute favourite. Ever since my Dad had visited Stonehenge in 1988 I have wanted to see it for myself. The day was an absolute freezer but nothing was going to hurry me around the ancient rock formation. It was interesting to find out that they believe Stonehenge originally was a wooden structure before they erected the stones about 4600 years ago. Salisbury cathedral is one of the ancient holy places in England and has been for approximately 750 years. It was one of the biggest cathedrals we saw on our trip.

We travelled the beautiful small towns in the Cotswolds and were delighted to see snow fall for the first time. And spent another day touring Windsor Castle and Eton. Windsor Castle, where the Royal Family lives during a part of the year is very very large. It was great to see the grounds, see the Queen's Doll House collection and particularly walk through St. George's Chapel. The Princess Charlotte Memorial is a stone sculpture inside the Chapel that moved me the most on the entire trip. I bought a postcard of the sculpture to remind me of it. The back of the postcard says: "Princess Charlotte only daughter of George IV and heir to the throne, died in childbirth in 1817. This memorial is the work of Matthew Wyatt and depicts the Princess ascending to Heaven, accompanied by angels, one holding the stillborn child." Below this lies a still body covered in a sheet and mourners gathered around. It is a very sad memorial.