Fast forward

I didn't do as many blog posts while we were away as I had hoped to do.  We had an easy-to-use app that transferred pics from the iphone to the ipad, but sometimes one device or the other was out of power.  More often, we were pub hopping in the evenings and the blogging just didn't happen.  So here's a few more pics that cover the last several days of our trip for those who are interested.

Devizes is a nice little market town situated near a river and a long series of locks that allowed canal boats to move uphill.  It's also the home of Wadworth Brewery.  We visited it last year and took the tour again this year. Wadworth has a team of shire horses and they still deliver beer to pubs within two miles of the brewery on a horse drawn dray.  They also have their own sign painting shop and until recently they had their own cooper who makes the wooden casks that they still use for some of their beer. 









































Bath was also a repeat visit from last year's trip.  Clay had missed most of it last year, however, because he was sick for a couple days so this year he got to actually see the town.  It's a beautiful town with an abbey and the best preserved roman baths in Britain. 


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This is a bridge over the river (Avon, I think) with buildings all along both sides.  When you
walk down the street you can not tell that you are on a bridge, it just looks like any city street.
 

Saxon village:  I can't remember the name of this town.  We just sort of happened upon on it and decided to stop and take a look.  It was a Saxon settlement that pre-dated the Norman Conquest in 1066.  The church has been modified over the centuries, of course, but still retains a pre-Norman look and they preserved some of the original Saxon architectural elements that are visible inside.  Churchyards were used and overused as burial places and were finally closed by Queen Victoria.  Over the years most have been cleaned up and many of the old stones placed against the churchyard wall.  At this church they used them as an edging border for a garden and others were laid as a walkway. 

 

Henley-on-Thames is best known to us as the place where rowing races are held.  The Olympic races were also held here, although how the town handled the crowds that must have generated is hard to imagine.  We were lucky to be there on a very pretty day and it's a place we will probably visit again.























Oxford:  We barely scratched the surface here.  Great place to visit.  We took a guided walking tour and we will definitely go back.  We were there on a Monday which is the day that the museums in Oxford are closed.  We got into a couple of the colleges and spent some time walking around the very pretty and historic town. 

This is a Saxon-era tower that still
exists as part of a church.

This is the oldest pub in Oxford, built
just outside, and actually part of,
the old Saxon city wall.
Thomas Hardy wrote about the place
in his masterwork, "Jude the Obscure."
We drank a pint to Jude.

Windsor was our final tourist stop before returning to Brighton where we returned the rental car (an Audi, which was very nice).  It was a foggy day, which sort of added to the castle ambience, I thought.  We did the guided tower tour, the kitchen tour, and the usual stateroom tour.  The castle sits right in the middle of the town of Windsor, or maybe the town sits right outside the castle gates.  It's another place that we could spend more time on another trip.

The changing of the guard at Windsor Castle.

The tower in the fog.  The moat here has been made into a garden.  The Queen still lives here
and spends a lot of weekends here.