Scotland-England Trip
This 14-day tour of Scotland and England departed from Omaha to Edinburgh. The group traveled the city of Edinburgh through a guided orientation tour (including the Edinburgh Castle, the Royal Mile, Holyrood Palace - the queen's residence in Edinburgh, St. Giles Cathedral, and Mary King's Close - one of the most haunted places in Scotland). They also visited nearby Roslin (recently made famous by the DaVinci Code). They departed for Glasgow, via Stirling Castle and took a breathtaking cruise on Loch Lomond.
After touring Glasgow, they crossed the border into England and headed south through the scenic Lake District for touring and an overnight stay at Keswick. From there, they traveled to Chester (Princess Diana's city), with an en route stop to absorb the beauty of Beatrix Potter's Windemere, the largest natural lake in England. Next, they took a side trip to Northern Wales where they toured Conwy, one of Europe's finest examples of a medieval walled city, and Snowdonia National Park. They then continued south to Coventry (of Lady Godiva fame), one of Europe's major cities of peace and reconciliation, with stops at Warwick Castle and Coventry Cathedral. They continued on through the Cotswolds on their way to London, and toured Windsor Castle (the official residence of Queen Elizabeth II and the largest occupied castle in the world). In London, they saw Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, the houses of Parliament, Picadilly Circus, the famous department store Harrod's, and much more. They took a guided tour of Westminster Abbey (one of the greatest examples of ecclesiastical architecture on earth), St. Paul's Cathedral (designed by court architect Christopher Wren and built in AD 604), and the Tower of London (one of England's "must see" landmarks; completed in 1097, it now houses the crown jewels). The group also took a ride aboard the London Eye with free time for additional sightseeing, shopping and theatre performance.
The farewell dinner was at the famous Anchor Pub near the Globe theatre on the Thames River.