We're Back and we're tired

This is is the first of what is sure to be several posts about our trip to England. First of all I have to say that our trip would have been totally different if it wasn't for Des' brother and his wonderful wife. David and Alison picked us up from the air port and shuttled us around all over the place. They helped us make arrangements for hotels, bus tickets and purchasing an overseas English Heritage Pass (highly recommended).

Like I said, David and Alison picked us up from the airport and promptly began our jammed packed tour of various parts of England. I honestly don't remember parts of the dive between destinations because I was asleep (we landed in Manchester at 6:15AM UK time which is 11:00PM in Canada). The photo above is of Peveril Castle. The only part of the castle still standing is the keep, which has had extensive conservation work done to it allowing people to enter previously inaccessible parts of the structure. It sits on top of a hill and you can hike all around it. I was in heaven because it was virtually impossible to take a bad photo in that setting.

This is a photo taken in the valley below the castle. The castle would have been behind me. Every one else had moved ahead already, but I just could not resist and I had to keep shooting.

As we hiked along the valley I couldn't help but picturing this setting as something out of a book or movie.

This is the Keep, which was built in 1176

The countryside is so beautiful. The farm lands look more like highly manicured lawns than anything else. All of the fields are separated by rock fences and trimmed bushes. Everything was so green due to the year round moisture the area gets.

Our next stop was Bolsover Castle. The original fortress was purchased in 1612 and was continually added to just because the owners had the money and wanted a "fashionable retreat."

Our last sight we visited on our first day was Rufford Abbey (c. 1170) which was transformed into a "great house"

the gardens offered some nice locations for us to take some nice shots of the two of us and Des alone.

We can't thank David and Alison enough (even though they ran us into the ground the first day) for helping us with our trip.

Here we all are in front of Rufford.

We will be back with another instalment of our trip in a day or two so stay tuned if you would like to see more.