Our travels continue

Greetings from rainy Plymouth!  After a busy couple of weeks, yesterday was more of a "down day."  With our friend Stuart as our travel guide, we visited some local sites (including the Pilgrim Steps).  Today, we hope to do some hiking in Dartmoor just outside the city, if the rain holds off.

Since my last update, we've seen: cathedrals in York, London, Norwich, Winchester, and Salisbury; a boat cruise on the Thames; the White Cliffs of Dover; the Tower of London; the British Museum; Stonehenge; and so much more.  A comprehensive list would be long, but that would hardly do justice to the trip. I've been impressed with the great age of the places we've visited and all the history they've seen.  Can you imagine regularly worshiping in a church that was nearly 1000 years old?  How about living in a castle that was visited by Henry VIII?  I've always been a history buff, so to stand where some of the greats from the past have stood has been quite meaningful to me.

But it's the present-day people that continue to impress the most.  We've been warmly received by so many people--not only the people we've stayed with but total strangers we've met.  There were the two older women we sat next to at Canterbury Cathedral last Sunday, the woman at the coffee shop in Bere Alston yesterday, the young mother and toddler in the tea room at Penshurst Place, and the man in London who helped us find our way, among many.  They've been cordial, helpful, and excited for us as we've discovered new things.

We have one more week before Steph returns to the US and the second phase of my trip begins.  After our hike today, we head toward Bristol, visiting Glastonbury and the Wells Cathedral along the way.  Next week, we'll go to Bath and Stratford-on-Avon, before returning to Manchester for Steph's flight home on Friday.

In my next post, I'll on some of the differences between the US and the UK I've noticed--particularly driving!