Back in 2015 Rock and I took a trip to London and Paris. Ever since then, Rock has secretly been plotting a return trip to England; something he never does. I can’t get him to go back to the same place twice. I would LOVE to go back to Hawaii but he always says, “but we’ve been there already”, to which I always say, “but there are FOUR other islands!”. Well, when he suggested a trip back to England this year, I happily agreed, not just because I would love to see more of England, but because it means I get to use it next time he doesn’t want to back to the same place twice!

We mostly failed to sleep on the red eye flight to London, but I suppose I never would have gotten this picture of our airplane in the air over the ocean if I’d been asleep. Silver linings, folks!

We got through customs lickety split because everything is automated there. Then it was on to the car rental place. Rock had totally forgotten that we drove on the left side of the road in the Turks and Caicos 14 years ago, but he picked it up again pretty quickly. It was terrifying to drive on roads that have two lanes crammed into the space of one of our lanes. And every road is very curvy and lined with hedges so visibility is terrible. Not to mention the people coming the other direction are usually going 60 miles an hour. Roundabouts were everywhere and I never would have been able to manage driving those. Even after a week I would try to figure out the way through one and I was always wrong. Good thing Rock was driving. All that being said, the roads were beautiful. It’s like driving through a tunnel of green everywhere you go.

We stayed in a little town about an hour from London called Henley on Thames. It is right on the river and is famous for it’s Rowing Regatta’s. Part of Boys in the Boat was actually filmed along this stretch of the river. It was beautiful. We spent our first day walking around the town.

This was our home while in England. Most of the houses, even these little ones were named. Mead Cottage, Wesley House, Happy Cottage. Rock and I decided we should name our house after visiting England.

First night dinner-what else???

On our second day we hit a couple nearby National Trust sites. They are state owned properties, often big houses that were donated when the owners could no longer care for the big properties. This was Grays Court which is used in a Downton Abbey episode. We had rain and sun off and on every day. Sometimes sprinkling, sometimes pouring, and then it would clear up and the sun would come out. We took our umbrellas with us wherever we went. And every day it was windy.

The grounds and gardens of the houses we saw were so beautiful, just as amazing as the houses themselves if not mores so. And the views of the rolling English countryside were amazing. I didn’t get many pictures that did them justice but I did get many blisters from walking around so many estates!

3rd Day was the Downton Abbey Day! The house is actually called Highclere Castle and it is owned by the Earl of Carnarvon. It was so fun to walk around the the estate and see the inside of the house/castle where they filmed one of my favorite shows! They wouldn’t let us take pictures inside, so I used some from online.

Last stop that day was Watership Down. One of Rock’s favorite books is actually based on a real place!! I had no idea before we planned this trip. He really wanted to hike to the top of the down, and since it’s near Highclere castle we ended our day there. It was a beautiful hike and we managed to do the whole thing before it started to rain.

Didn’t see any rabbits, though I’m sure Hazel’s descendants were there hiding in the brush.