Our first full day in London! We met up with my parents, sister, and the boys at the statue of Churchill in Westminster, right near Big Ben. The plan was to take a boat cruise from there to the Tower of London. It was a beautiful day and the cruise on the boat was nice. Once at the Tower, Amy and I decided to go on a little date while the rest of the crew went into the Tower. We walked over to Whitechapel and took in that area. We went to the Spitalfields m...

Update from Ellie…. Apparently they knew the Viking settlement was there. It was not a surprise. We took one last walk on the York wall and then through the city before we had to catch our noon train to London. The trip to was smooth and we arrived around 2:00 pm. I do appreciate the ease of train travel in this country. Once in London we found our hotel, which is situated right near the British Museum, North of the River Thames. We got settled and then m...

What a difference three days makes! It was a high of 63 degrees today. 40 degrees cooler than Tuesday! We actually felt cold. More touristing in York today. We started out at the York Castle Museum, which has a lot of different old stuff situated in the old prison. Once done there, the women went and got tea at the famous Betty’s Tea Room while the men did the manly thing and went to the National Railway Museum. Not encouraging any gender stereotypes the...

Today we took the bus to Castle Howard, an 18th century manor house and estate about an hour ride north of York. The bus took us through the narrow, winding country roads of North Yorkshire. We had a great time touring the manor house (145 rooms!!! But we only saw handful). The rooms were filled with priceless art, Roman sculptures, and beautiful furnishings. One of the rooms was dedicated to all the films and TV shows that were filmed there (like Bridgerton!...

Now that the graduation was out of the way and everyone has recovered (somewhat) from jet lag it was time for some hard core tourtisting in York. Today we spent the morning in the York Minster. We walked through the whole thing, toured the museum in the basement, and climbed the tower that offered wonderful views of York. After a picnic lunch in the Minster park we walked through the Yorkshire Museum which traced the history of Yorkshire from prehistoric times...