We arrived back in London with plenty of time to spare before collecting Stacey, Brett, William, Thomas and Hayley from Heathrow. We had been getting SMS updates since 2:30am on Friday when they arrived at the airport in Brisbane. We had our welcome sign printed off and our trip t-shirts ready to wear for the pick up. All we needed now was for the flight to arrive.

Finally they emerged from Customs and we were greeted by huge hugs and kisses - just what the doctor ordered! Next order of business was to collect the hire car. There was a bit of pressure on as it was now 21:30 and the car had to be collected from a nearby hotel by 22:00. The GPS was not playing the game and even though Kerrie and Brett left first, the others who went by bus - got there first. Paperwork signed and car organised it was off to the first hotel to start our holiday together.

Sunday was a much anticipated date for the children. When we first talked about this trip with them we asked where they would like to go. All three agreed that LEGOLAND was a high priority so we decided that would be where we started. Greg and I had never heard of LEGOLAND but the children knew exactly what to expect. We had purchased our tickets on-line months in advance so that meant we did not have to queue at the entry gate. First stop was the Starwars exhibition with every imaginable Lego model of characters, Starfighters and worlds including Naboo and Tatooine. The models were animated using thousands of pieces of Lego. We watched the pirate show and Heart City - girl lego - shows. Rides included the Yellow Submarine at Atlantis, The Viking tyre ride, rollercoasters and Lego train. The children were extremely excited for the whole day which we finished off with a visit to Miniland - a Lego reproduction of cities in Europe including London and Paris where we will visit later in our trip. We returned to the hotel absolutely exhausted - especially Grams and Grampy!

We left London on Monday morning bound for Bath but we had a couple of stops on the way. First we went to Windsor for breakfast sitting opposite the Castle in a café. We decided not to wait around for the changing of the guard as it was drizzling rain and we had places to go!

Next stop was Stonehenge on the Salisbury Plain. Today was 22nd June. If we had been at Stonehenge on the 21st we would have had thousands of Druids to contend with as they celebrated the Summer Solstice. When we arrived we encountered a Shaman who engrossed Thomas with a story of what you could feel and hear through the goat-topped staff he was allowed to hold. Our visit to these famous stones started with the sighting of a line of white-clad Druids leaving the sacred site. We walked around the stones and discussed the theories of how the rocks got there. William thinks that cavemen dragged the stones there from Wales and stood them up as a monument. Who knows - he could be right!

Our destination for the night was Bath. Our hotel was right in the middle of town about 100m from the Roman Baths that were built over 2000 years ago. Our visit to the Baths was delayed until the morning as they were closed when we arrived. We were a little concerned that our visit to this site might not interest the children - how wrong we were! They wandered around with their audio guides close to their ears and we were in deep trouble if we tried to hurry them along. They were fascinated by the video images appearing on the walls as we soaked up the atmosphere associated with the ancient parts of the baths. We could have spent more time at the baths but we needed to move on to Manchester to fulfil one of William's holiday requests - can you guess what the request was?

If you said William wanted to visit Manchester United's stadium, you must know him well. I don't think I have ever seen him so excited - even more so than at LEGOLAND. We toured the museum and checked our the player statistics and trophy cabinets. Then we went on an hour long tour of the stadium. We got to sit in the Home Team's dugout, run down the tunnel to the side of the field but I think the most popular part of the tour was when we got to sit in the change rooms in front of the shirts of the current players - of course William sat proudly in front of Wayne Rooney's shirt for the whole time we spent in the change room. We also got to sit in the visitor's change rooms where shirts of Lionel Messi, David Beckham and even Jonah Lomu were on display as they had all played at this famous stadium. Then it was off to the Mega Store for a spot of shopping. One soccer ball, several certificates, a newspaper article, fridge magnets and stickers were purchased before we left.

While visiting the stadium we discovered that there was a 20/20 cricket match on just up the road at Old Trafford. Bret and William decided to see if they could get in to see England play New Zealand. Greg and I had been to Old Trafford in 1997 to watch the Ashes so we could easily understand Brett and Will's enthusiasm regarding an opportunity to visit this famous cricket field. They were lucky enough to get in and spent the night watching England beat the Kiwis - not a bad result. Hopefully England's form will desert them before we play them in the next few weeks. Our visit to Manchester was all we had hoped for and for some of us - was more than we expected!

Wednesday was the day we would get to Scotland - something Hayley and Thomas are particularly excited about - they have been practising their Scottish for months! Thomas is determined to try Haggis and Whiskey and to buy himself some bagpipes (heaven help us!) and Hayley just wants to get to stay in a real Scottish house. Greg and I drove directly to Glasgow to get ready for the arrival of the family. Stacey, Brett and the kids drove up through the Lakes District stopping off at Kendall, Windemere and Keswick. They checked out the Beatrix Potter House and Castle Rigg Circle of Stones on their way and finally arrived in Glasgow about 6pm.

So, we are all here together in Glasgow, ready to start the next part of our adventure together.