25 July: Our trip started with a short flight from Hahn, Germany to Stansted, England. We rented a small car and set off for Scotland. We stopped at Laneham Church, Nottinghamshire so I could take photos of a 14th century chest that I want to reproduce. We then drove on to the Royal Armouries Museum in Leeds. The museum staff told me that tent I wanted to see was NOT an original, but was a reproduction, so we didn't bother going into the museum. We drove on to stay with friends in Edinburgh.
26 July: We drove out of Edinburgh. The Towie Barclay castle is NOT in the town of Towie. Towie Barclay is just south of Turiff, an hour further north of the town of Towie. We made that mistake, but drove through some really pretty countryside on the way. We met with Marc Ellington (who owns Towie Barclay) and he let us wander around and take photographs. In the late afternoon we headed back south. We stopped at the Old Fettercairn distillery for a tour and to buy some local Scotch (they don't export it) from one of the oldest continuously operating distilleries in Scotland. (It became legal in 1823 and Fettercairn opened in 1824). We had hoped to make it all the way back to London, but we lost too much time in the confusion with Towie.
27 July: We drove into London Tuesday morning and toured the Tower of London. In the medieval section of the Tower, devoted to Edward ("Longshanks"), we met a guide who told us about some original 15th century trestle tables in a palace south of London called Penshurst. On Tuesday afternoon, we went to see the musical CATS, which was one of the primary reasons for going to London. I had been promising Tarythe that I would take her to London to see CATS, so we went. It was really cool!
28 July: We went to Penshurt Palace on Wednesday. It was a private museum so they wouldn't let me take any photos (darn it), but it was pretty cool. We also took a tour of Hever Castle and Chiddingstone Castle. (also private museums so no photos of the inside...)
29 July: Thursday, it was back to London for an open top bus tour around town. We had the opportunity to get off at any stop and get back on the next bus whenever we wanted. We toured the Royal Mews at Buckingham Palace (where they keep the horses and carriages) and saw the changing of the Horse Guards. We also toured the Museum of London where Tarythe spent a couple of hours reading every display in the "Roman London" portion of the museum while I photographed artifacts in the "Medieval London" portion. Neither of us cared about the sections from the 17th century on...
30 July: We got up early to catch our flight back to Germany, where it was off to the La Trappe brewery in Holland....