Hi there! Well, here is my trip in words, I hope you enjoy it. You know where to read me if you have any questions or comments!

I left around 10am on the 20th of June. We didn't get there till 8:30am on the 21st. We lost a lot of sleep because of the five hour time difference, but we weren't allowed to sleep either because it would mess up your entire schedule while you were there. After we were settled and what not, we had lunch in the hotel [London]. We then tried to find the underground railway [a.k.a. subway]. We ended up going thru some private property and had the police yell at us. They didn't seem to understand that we were lost. We finally made it to where we wanted to go by asking people who lived there. They must have thought we were insane, but oh well.

Our first stop was to Badon Powell's house, the founder of Boy Scouts. It wasn't really exciting, but I was so happy I was there because it was such a walk from where we came from. We went back to the hotel, why, I don't know. It was a mistake because I ended up falling asleep, whatever time it was. Then Alan, my brother, goes, "Samara, it's 9:30 let's go." I shot up so fast and started packing [we rarely stay in a hotel for more than 2 nights because we were traveling around the country] and changing clothes. He looks at me and says "What are you doing? We're going to eat dinner." Great. My parents came in and asked if I was ready and I just decided to go back to sleep. When morning did arrive, he made a point of telling me.

On the 22nd, we went to St. Paul's cathedral, where Princess Diana and Prince Charles' got married. We saw Kensington Palace [Diana's home], the Parlament building, Thames River, Big Ben, and other places. We almost missed our tour bus because we were two mintues late from coming out of the cathedral. We were lucky, but I know two other people who weren't.

We then went to Prince Charles' home. Of course, we weren't allowed inside, a-he was home and b-he never made it part of a tour the Queen has made her homes. I had to take a picture with his guard. He never said a word, not that he was allowed to. Then we went to Buckingham Palace. We watched the marching band march around as a practice and then waited a while till they came back and did it for real. They do this everyday, tradition I suppose.

After lunch, we went to the Tower of London. We saw the crown jewels there. Then we traveled in a place where they kept weapons from wars or whatever and then to the Bloody Tower, where Sir Walter stayed before he was executed. On our way to the Tower, we passed by St. Mary's, where Prince Harry and William were born. It was also near where the band, Bush, came from.

We left London on the 23rd. We drove over to Hampton court, where King Henry lived. We saw the Great Hall, the Haunted Hall [Called this because his wife ran to him passing thru this hall begging for him not to kill her, but he did anyways. Supposeably, you can hear her running down the halls some times.] which leads to the chapel, and other parts I can't remember.

We went to Sailsbury cathedral. It's the tallest one in England. Eventually, we went over to Stonehedge. We walked around it and that was it. There's really not much to do there, I mean, it's just a bunch of stones.

We made our way to Wales the next day. Our first stop was at Plymouth. It was freezing. I mean, it was just a little land mark next to the water. It was raining with lots of wind. Rather, it wasn't really raining, but misting. It looked like flurries. Either way, it was chilly. We also went to some Abbey Ruins. I don't know which ones specifically they were because we passed by so many.

Then we went to the Bath. Very boring. I mean, there's a limit to how much I can take. It was ancient civilization of how people used to clean themselves. The area, or rocks that were leftover from hundreds of years ago.

We left Cardiff the next day and went to the Wedgewood factory. My mom bought lots of things from there. I mean, it was more than anything you ever wanted to know about Wedgewood, but it was a stop. We "shopped" around Liverpool and then went to the hotel to eat dinner. All the stores close around 5:30pm, so there's really nothing much to do since our tours don't leave us till 5pm.

On the 26th, we made our way back up to Wales, this time we went to the northern part, where the Welish language is spoken. We stopped at horseshoe bend, named that because the street is in a shape of a horseshoe. I really didn't care where we stopped because I was getting nauseated. Going thru mountains really isn't my cup of tea. We ended up in Chester where we heard the town crier. Eventually we had to leave and go back to Liverpool, where we stopped at the Martime Museum, yet another boring adventure. It's really all the same stuff you've seen in America or in our history books.

That was a wonderful resting night. We had a fire alarm, false it turned out to be. Didn't matter. My wonderful parents still made me get dressed [it's rather hard putting pants over leggings] and walk all the way down the five flights of stairs, thru the kitchen [boy did those cooks think we were insane], and then to reception to find out it was a false alarm caused by the dry ice machine. OK, fine.

We drove to Scotland on the 27th. Our first stop was in the town where Peter cotton tail originated from. Then we went to some boring art and science musem and eventually gave up and sat on the bus and waited. Yet again, we had another fire alarm, our wonderful tour group gathering in the halls, but I was in the shower this time. We didn't go down to discover why it was a false alarm this time. Fine with me.

We made a lot of little stops the next day as we worked our way up the highlands. The roads are extremely narrow. Trees touched both sides of the bus and it was amazing that we could still pass other vehicles. We went to the Loch Ness while we were up there. No monster. There's a total of twenty-nine lochs, we must have seen at least a dozen or more of them. I felt extremely sick from going thru all of that but we stopped in a town called Pringles and I was ok. We kept passing these adorable Highland cows. I must have picked up six or seven postcards of them and a little stuffed one. Before we went to the hotel, we stopped at a Battlefield between two clans. Nothing exciting, just a bunch of land full of weeds.

We made our way to Edinbrough the next day. We made a quick stop at a view point and then went to the Whiskey factory. What was so important about that, I don't know. I wasn't allowed to have anything to drink because my tour director told me I was too young. Fine. I really didn't want any anyways. Still, Alan managed to get some. [You have to be 18 to drink, he's 16, and you have to be 16 to smoke.]

We went to the Balmar Palace. Another Queen home. Then we went to St. Andrews, a golf place. We eventually came back to the hotel. I made a phone call to my pen pal who lives about 30 miles away [or that's at least what the signs said]. She told me I couldn't meet her because she had friends over. Fine. For some reason, I think I could manage to make time for a pen pal who traveled from another country, but it's ok. My mom wants to go back to Scotland so maybe she'll have another chance.

The next day we went to the Edinbrough castle. It last till about noon and then we toured the local shops. I tried on some shoes there. I wear at least a 42 European style shoe. Actually, they were too small. They have the best shoes there. I now know why the Spice Girls are who they are. You would never find a pair of shoes the US that is 5 inches high and says "Go sexy" on the side. Or, at least wear I live you won't.

We had a Scottish show that night. It was like a comdey mixed with singing and dancing. We sat right up front and you know what they do to those people. One lady in our group got chosen to sing and she didn't know the song. The guy yelled at her as if she had just killed someone. It was meant as a joke, but he picked the wrong lady. She has a very light sense of humor.

We went to a Duke's house the next day. I don't know which one again, because I didn't write it down. One of his sons is married to the royal family I think. We stopped by Haiden's wall, what was left of it. We spent two hours in York. We had a mini tour of the place and then we went into the York Minster [minster means holy place].

On the 2nd of July, we went to Mary Ann Harthowe, Shakespeare's wife, home. Then we went to Straford and to his home. In the afternoon, I went to the cockwalds. We toured a manor house, where we had tea. Again, there was a haunted room and what not. We walked along a road to see some tatch roofed houses. Beforehand, we had gone to the Coventry cathedral. It was near the Lady Godiva statue. We went to see that too [that's what tourists do].

My mom had found this nifty shoe store that she wanted me to go to. It was almost closing time, but the lady had told her she would keep it open longer for her. Actually, when we got there, she locked us in so no one else would come in. I tried on every pair of shoes that could have been considered my size. I found one pair, it was 4 inches high, but I couldn't wear them. All of their shoes are made different from ours. The bottoms aren't flat, they're curved up. It would have required me to change my entire walking style. I ended up just getting a pair of converse flip-flops.

Our last day was back in London. We went to Churchill's grave and then to Oxford. Our final stop with the entire group was to Windsor Castle. The queen wasn't there. She was in Edinbrough [some palace that we passed; she had arrived there the day before we did so we couldn't tour that palace]. We didn't go into that castle because we didn't have enough time. We just walked around it, ok, a fifth of it. It's the largest castle in the world. I know one group went into there for two hours [the time we were limited] and barely made it to the bus on time. That night, we went to see the Complete Works of William Shakespeare in 97 minutes. It was preformed by three Americans [that's it]. They really only preformed Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet [beginning and end]. They fit the others inbetween, combining all of the comedies into one. It was a great way to end the tour.

We left on the fourth and we got back around 1am on the fifth. And here I am.



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