Arrived at Newcastle and drove north to Fenham Farm. Hopped over to Holy Island the next morning, then along Hadrian's Wall over to the lakes.
Great timing: hit the hills at sunset.
In the Lake District, the small hike I told you about, a cruise on Ullswater, tea at the Apple Pie Cafe (highly recommended) and a bit of shopping, finally Hill Top.
Through the dales (rollercoaster roads, waterfall) over to the moors.
Yes, it sounds illogical, but we had planned to hike in the dales and got a) a bad forecast and b) no good place to stay.
Hiked on the moors (pink heather everywhere), spent a day at the beach and went twice to York. Tea at Betty's, yum!
Hey @ElendilTheTall, I saw your message for me from last night. It was worse than me waking up just to say mornin. I don't remember getting up at all. So I sleep messaged you.
Then Oxford (we needed a bit of a break, re-pack, relax), saw the colleges, the Bodleian library, I snuck into a museum.
Avebury (a very "hands on" day, both at the manor house and the henge), I think I still like it better than Stonehenge, which we did the next day. But Stonehenge has improved a lot since my last visit. (Long time ago, I admit.)
Then with a bit of a detour through Salisbury (bookstore...!) and the New Forest (including the mandatory curious pony that ambled over to us for a cursory snack check and a few pats) to London.
And yes, of course traffic on a Sunday evening was just as congested as it was to be expexted.
The minors had a blast on the Tube and we grownups found out that our ten year old oysters still worked.
The next day, we took a Clipper to Greenwich, walked up to the Royal Observatory, rode the DLR, crossed Westminster Bridge and the great finale: The London Eye while the lights went on in the city.
