Showing posts with label stonehenge. Show all posts
Showing posts with label stonehenge. Show all posts

Site-Seeing England's Southern Coast and Midlands

Beachy Head Lighthouse
After hitting Paris for the weekend with my parents, we drove back to my temporary home in Chichester from London in my parents rental car, or care hire, depending on what country you are from!  My dad had quite the experience driving a "manual" on the opposite side of the car and on the opposite side of the road in a country he is not familiar with!  We did make it back safely, though, thank the Lord!  I had to go back to work on Monday, so my parents settled into my flat and figured out what sites they wanted to explore during the days while I was working.  It was so nice to come home from work and have my parents back from a day of site-seeing, mom making an amazing dinner and talking about their recent adventures over a glass of wine.  They went around to Portsmouth Harbour, Southhampton, out to Portland, Winchester and Arundel all during the week while I was at work. On Friday, I had the day off, so we decided to head East to the Seven Sister white cliffs and Beachy Head lighthouse.  It was a beautiful sunny day, perfect for the walk along the high cliffs along the coast!  On our way back, we stopped in Brighton, walked down to the Pier and through the Royal Pavilion, then decided to have dinner at a Wagamama.  It was a great day!

My parents at Clifton Suspension Bridge
On Saturday, my parent's last, full day here, we got up early and headed to Stonehenge. I grabbed a coffee and a scone and ventured around while my parents went inside to do the tour (I had already done the tour, so didn't want to bother ;-)).  It was lucky I didn't go inside, because I got to see a pack of hare's jumping around and playing tag right in front of Stonehenge!  I got a great video of them too!  After Stonehenge, we jumped back in the car to walk across the Clifton Suspension Bridge in Bristol.  Man, was it high! Built in the early 1800s, soaring across the Avon Canal.  My mom did well, considering here extreme fear of heights as we walked across it and took some amazing pictures with an incredible view looking out over the town of Bristol.

Me at the Roman Baths
Backtracking back to Bath, where we first passed by, we parked and walked along the Avon Canal and into the city, where we stopped at a Pasty Shoppe to get some lunch first before going into the Roman Baths for a tour.  It's really amazing how so many years ago, they had a full service day-spa with natural springs and saunas!  I loved it!  It made me want to go get a massage and sit in a mineral bath.  The Bath Abbey beside it was large and gorgeous, as are all the cathedrals in this country!   I just can't stop taking photos of them all.  There is so much history here!  Before heading home, my mom and I grabbed some cappuccinos, we stopped in the Jane Austen Centre, where she lived for six years and then were set, ready for the 2 hr drive back.  We went into Chichester city centre for some burgers and fries and then back to my flat so my parents could pack up their stuff for their flight on Sunday.  It was sad to see them go, I have to admit.  It's always nice to have company to enjoy the days with!  Especially when its family!  I am heading to Sweden on Wednesday to catch up with Kim, so that will be exciting!  Stay tuned for more fun travels while I'm out here.  Only 56 days left!

97 Days Across The Pond....

Okay, so I figure its about time I write on this blog.  For crying out loud it IS a travel blog, and I'm pretty sure what you would call my 97 day adventure away from the U.S. nothing short of that...a traveling adventure!  

London Eye At Night
For those of you who don't know why I'm spending these 97 days overseas, its because I was one of 18 employees within the Bonnier AB (TransWorld Media's parent company) network chosen to participate in the GROW Ambassador program, where you literally transplant your life to another country, another job and another home!  I am now residing in Chichester, England, which is located in West Sussex, or what most would better understand as 90 minutes south of London near the coast of the English Channel and France.  I will be working at Autumn Publishing for the next 3 months, in co-editions for children's book publishing.  What does that really mean?  Well I've recently learned that it consists of seeking out international book publishers and retailers and inquiring to see if they'd be interested in either publishing or selling the children's books that Autumn Publishing creates, which are comprised mainly of activity and learning books for kids aged 3 - 8 years old.  So you can see now, how different the next 3 months of my life are going to be transitioning from action sports magazines to this!

Tower Bridge
I'm going to rewind a bit since I've started documenting a little late.  I'm already 3 weeks into my trip now!  21 days to be exact!  So whats the countdown at now?  76 days! Ha!  Okay, so 3 weeks ago, on a Sunday, I arrived into London Heathrow Airport at around 10:30am.  It was a nice long travel experience, seeing as though I actually left on Friday morning to Denver for TransWorld SNOWboarding's Rider's Poll Awards show before jumping back on the airplane on Saturday to head to LAX airport and straight on to London! I made it.... barely! Haha.  Upon arrival into London, I met Kim, my fellow TransWorld coworker and also GROW participant.  She was to be heading onward to Stockholm, Sweden for her 3 month experience, but first spent two days with me in London!  It was a whirlwind two days, but we had so much fun squeezing it all in!  We stayed in a small hotel in Kensington and immediately ventured out to Picadilly Circus, rode the London Eye and enjoyed a nice fish and chips dinner and beer at an Irish Pub all in the first day! 
Stonehenge

 The next day we woke up early, grabbed a coffee and headed to what we thought was our tour to Stonehenge, only to find out they cancelled it!  We were rebooked onto a later tour and comped the double-decker red bus London tour in the interim.  This was a pleasant surprise because we ended up having a blast touring around London on the double-decker bus with our guide Sheldon!  We even got to go on a boat down the River Thames!  Around noon we grabbed some subs from Subway and jumped on the bus to Stonehenge.  It was chilly all day, but the sun was out and shining, so we considered ourselves very lucky!  As if that wasn't enough, a quick trip back to our hotel to freshen up, and we were back out to catch Dirty Dancing at the Aldwych Theatre and a late dinner.  The next morning we were both setting off on our own, separate adventures....onward to our new homes and jobs for the next 3 months!