England

I rented a car, which meant driving on the left side of the road. This took a little getting used to. Quick, which of these pictures is right? If you can't answer instantly, you're not ready for driving in England (click on your choice and see the correct view - were you right?). I had no major problems, but the first day, driving out of Heathrow airport into heavy traffic, while tired from jet-lag, I wasn't sure I'd make it. But, after about the first day or two, I got used to it and it wasn't that bad. In fact, I grew to like their roundabouts as more efficient than the traffic lights and stop signs I'm used to at home. In the beginning, it's just like learning to drive all over again. The traffic is not where you're used to, especially at intersections. Everything in the car is unfamiliar. The mirrors aren't where you expect. Even the car isn't where you expect, you have to remember not to get too close to things on your left because that's where the other side of your car is. But the most difficult thing for me to adjust to was the manual transmission, with left-hand shifting. I can't even count how many times I shifted into the wrong gear, especially in the beginning. To top it all off, you have to get used to this while driving on unfamiliar roads looking for signs to your destination. I wisely headed away from London with it's heavy traffic, visiting Stonehenge and arriving for my first night in Bath. This picture is from my first day of driving, when I came upon and had to stop for a tank crossing in the vicinity of Stonehenge.

Central Southern England

Midlands

This is the neighboring village of Lower Slaughter, being painted by an artist. Together they're known as The Slaughters. England has numerous "odd" names for places, such as this. A lot more of America's cities than I realized were named after places here, I saw lots of familiar names.

This region also has numerous thatched-roof cottages, such as this example in the village of Chipping Campden. These are often surrounded by very nice gardens, I especially like the different way of trimming this hedge.

North Country

Hadrian's Wall, shown here at Housesteads Fort, marks the northern limit of the Roman Empire, which occupied England but not Scotland. This was a defensive wall, built by Roman emperor Hadrian, to protect his empire from invading Scottish tribes. Built all the way from coast to coast, with forts every mile, this was a huge undertaking. Stretches are still visible in the less populated middle country, and where the wall itself is not visible the ditches that were dug along it often are. This fort, partly reconstructed (how much so, they don't say), has an admission fee and small museum. I also visited a larger, better Roman Army museum a little further west that had quite a few interesting things (I believe this is the same museum my guidebook calls Vindolanda).

In the east, not far south of Hadrian's wall, is the city of Durham. I went here to see the old Normal style Durham Cathedral, which I did see, but this picture is of a different, smaller church in Durham (I liked this picture better than any of my cathedral pictures - so this is what you get to see). Understand that a city that has a famous old cathedral often has many other interesting old features that don't get the same publicity but nonetheless are an important part of the experience. The cathedral is old and massive, in the Norman (like Romanesque) style, with heavy rounded arches and thick walls, not the light, graceful style of this smaller church.

This is Barnard Castle, a bit further south from Durham. Barnard Castle is the name of both the town, and the 11th century castle on the hill behind the bridge (the bridge is also quite old). Also in this town is the Bowes Museum, with a very interesting mechanical silver swan that is operated periodically during the day. Other exhibits include mainly paintings, furniture, and other art objects. Nearby is the town of Bowes, with another small castle.

Continuing south, this is York, an old city with lots of things to see. York has a defensive wall like many other old cities, but I found this wall less impressive than some others, for example that at Rothenburg ob der Tauber in Germany. York's wall is massive, but is in the middle of the city (which expanded outside it), has no roof and less in the way of gun sights, etc., and a modern steel railing to keep you from falling off. Shown here is the large Gothic York Minster cathedral. From here you can walk through the Shambles, a section of medieval buildings, to the York Castle Museum on the other side of the old town. I went through this museum - there were plenty of interesting exhibits of old English life. Another museum in this town is the National Railway Museum, but I didn't visit that one.

London

You of course recognize Big Ben at the Palace of Westminster; the other picture is Westminster Abbey, right nearby.

This is Piccadilly Circus, one of the places I passed by on the bus tour. The bus tour was interesting and informative, but sometimes too fast paced as the sights rushed by.