Christine's and Darrel's trip to the UK

Our good friends Christine and Darrel visited us from Chicago. We had a great time and they saw the sights of Milton Keynes, including traffic on the Grand Union Canal (link to the Canal and River Trust) at Cosgrove Lock.


Here are some more shots from their MK visit

We went to Packwood House (Link to National Trust site) near Solihull. It had rained very hard earlier in the day and the house we had planned to visit, Coughton Court (NT link again), was flooded so we went to Packwood instead. It was really lovely and a great accidental find. here are Karin, Christine and Darrel hiding in the topiary.


There are more Packwood pictures here

We then travelled to meet up with Mike, Katy and Cath who live in Washington, Tyne and Wear. Mike is a very knowledgeable guide and he took us to Housesteads fort (link to National Trust) on Hadrian's wall. Here we are posing on the wall.


More Housesteads pictures here

Later that evening we were joined by Bob from Greenwich and the following day we went on a grand tour of the Northumbrian coast including a couple of castles and ended up on Holy Island or Lindisfarne (link to Holy Island site). It was stunning.


Northumbrian coast pictures here

And more of Holy Island here

On the Sunday, an intrepid bunch climbed to the top of the Penshaw Monument (link to National Trust) and we went to Durham where we had a look at the magnificent cathedral. Karin and I set out to drive home and Christine and Darryl caught the train to London to spend their final evening in the UK with Bob.


There are some pictures of Penshaw and Durham here