23rd to 26th August - York I must admit the transport systems in the UK are brilliant. I utilised the train network to travel up across to York, getting a lovely view of Leeds on the way through. York is a stunning city surrounded by sections of an ancient wall, a wide river and loads of beautiful gardens. As always I did some exploring and sightseeing, however some of this was with a friend - YAY. I was grateful to have a friend to be with, catch up with...

19th - 23rd August - Manchester After a whirlwind tour of Stratford I caught the coach up to Manchester with a change of bus in Birmingham. It was here I met a lovely teacher from Birmingham, who was interested in my view of London schools compared to Australian schools and if they were as advanced in their teaching as her school was. Into the discussion I got a little confused but waited to see where it was going. Her thoughts were that they were ahead of t...

18th August - Stratford-upon-Avon Up and off again, another adventure awaits. Stratford-Upon-Avon. A town steeped in the history of the literature legend of Shakespeare was explored to the fullest over Wednesday and Thursday. Shakespeare's gravestone; Ann Hathaway's cottage; Mary Arden's Cottage and farm area with the regular display and information about eagles and owls. It was here that I saw one of the snowy owls used in the first Harry Potter movi...

Outta London and off to explore England and Scotland First stop - Warwick A lovely, sleepy country town with a huge, intact castle - Warwick Castle. This castle is beautiful, from the gardens to the period rooms, decked out with orginal decore and wax figures in period costume. They also had on for the summer holidays a series of performances that were quite entertaining. Some of this castle I remember from when I was here about 14yrs ago with my fa...

Straight off the trip a few girls and I hired a zippy little car and took off to see Stonehenge and Bath for the day. Bath was an added extra that we kinda, only just fitted in. Stonehenge is really quite amazing, even in the rain and intermittent sun, these huge stones that stand tall out of the earth have a definate energy about them. It's a little hard to explain. Just gotta go there and experience it for yourselves :) A picnic lunch in the car becau...