A Jolly Holiday from Holladay.

Woke up in London yesterday...

"When a man tires of London, he tires of life." 

~Samuel Johnson

Just got back from a 2-week whirlwind tour of England, Scotland, and Wales with my family. It was brilliant! We started out in Bath, a beautiful city on the river Avon. 

Me and my mom. Behind us is Bath Abbey.

The Roman Baths were way cooler then I thought.  You walk in on ground level, but the baths are actually a couple stories below you. The water is green, and has lead in it, so I'm sure that swimming in it and drinking it was such a good idea. We tried the actual water up in the pump room, and it tasted nasty, kinda like warm blood!

While in Bath, we visited Stourhead Gardens and Stonehenge. 

Stourhead Gardens were beautiful! Not to mention they filmed some of Pride and Prejudice here. Remember the rain scene?

Stonehenge. It was unreal to stand there after seeing so many pictures of the place my whole life. 

 Next, we moved on to the Cotswolds. I didn't take a lot of pictures, but the little towns were all so quaint with thatched roofs and covered in flowers.

James and I in Chipping Campden. 

Our next stop was Statford-upon-Avon. We saw Shakespeare's birthplace as well as Anne Hathaway's cottage, and Peter and James of course fed the swans on the river Avon.

Our hotel- was standing when Shakespeare lived there. 

Did I mention that we rented a car? It was pretty crazy driving on the wrong side of the road AND the wrong side of the car. Luckily, my dad is amazing and he figured it out. We saw this sign on the back of a truck. 

 We continued our trip by heading up to Wales. We stopped first at Conwy, a beautiful city on the shores of a lake.

Conwy castle.

The smallest house in Great Britain. The last person to live there, in the 1900s, was over 6 feet tall!

Wales was beautiful and green. 

Stopping at a McDonalds. I was bummed, until I saw that they had cadburry mcflurrys on the menu. Yuumm!

Quick stop in Liverpool. "Penny Lane is in my ears and in my eyes...." 

Our next big stop was at the village of Luss, on the bonnie, bonnie banks of Loch Lomond. This was where my Cahoon ancestors came from.

Our one rainy day was is Edinburgh, Scotland. But that didn't stop us from enjoying the city.

Hidden mickey at the Edinburgh castle!

The Royal Mile. 

Hadrian's Wall. 

 The second to last stop was at York. The city had a medieval feel and was really fun to walk through.

York Minster. 

The Shambles--originally where all the butchers worked, but now the streets are lined with shops. 

Finally, we made it to London! We only had three days there, but we crammed in a ton: Westminster, Tower of London, Trafalgar Square, too many museums to count (my favorite was the National Gallery), big red bus tour, cruise on the Thames, St. Pauls, St. Martins in the Field, Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, and so much more!

View from right outside our hotel!

Feeding the birds at St. Paul's. 

What a brilliant holiday!