This was the beginning of my first really long travel adventure, in which I took 9 weeks off work to do a Trafalgar Tour of Britain & Ireland, as well as an Insight Tour around Europe. Darren missed the first tour, but joined me for the European tour. I enjoyed travelling to so many different countries over a longer period of time than I had ever done before. There are so many places we visited on the tours, but let me start with the places I visited on the British part of the first tour : * London - Oxford - Stratford Upon Avon - Warwick Castle - Coventry ; * Wedgewood Pottery - York Minster & the 'Shambles' - Leeds ; * Newcastle - Hadrians Wall - Jedburgh Abbey - Edinburgh & the Tattoo ; * Stirling Castle - Loch Lomond - Vale of Weeping - Ben Nevis - Mallaig ; * Isle of Skye - Eileen Donan Castle - Loch Ness - Aviemore ; * Blair Atholl - Pitlochry - Perth - St Andrews Golf Course - Glasgow ; * Gretna Green - Grasmere & Windermere in the Lake District - Wigan ; * Chester Cathedral - Llangollen in North Wales - Vale of Clyde ; * Colwyn Bay - Betws-y-Coed & Snowdonia NP - Caernarfon - Angelsey ; * Ireland (look at seperate postcard of Ireland for this part of the tour) ; * Ferry from Ireland to Pembrokeshire - Cardiff Castle - Newport ; * Tintern Abbey - Merthyr Tydfil - Brecon Beacons NP - Abergavenny ; * Bath - Glastonbury & tasting Scrumpy ! - Exmoor - Barnstaple ; * Lands End - Penzance & St Michael's Mount - Plymouth - Dartmoor ; * Stonehenge - Salisbury Plain - back to London to meet up with Darren. After returning from the Europe tour, Darren & I stayed in London for a couple more days and did sightseeing which included watching 'the changing of the guard' at Buckingham Palace and doing the 'Big Bus' tour where we got to see the Tower of London, Big Ben & Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, Marble Arch, Nelsons Column at Trafalgar Square, The London Eye and even did a boat trip along the Thames. We also got to catch up with our friend Charles (from Oz) for dinner. On our last day, we caught the train out to Harwich in Essex to see my friend Sue (from Oz), before returning to London to meet up with our friend Colin (from Oz) for a couple of pints, then stop in Greenwich to look at the Millenium Dome before heading to Heathrow for our next flight onto Singpapore.