Our first weekend in England was a road trip to Avebury, Stonehenge, and Portsmouth historic dockyard. We raced around south of Oxford, with Andy as navigator (he's become amazing with the map!) and Liam as signspotter--he tells me when to turn and he always calls out when he spots a castle.
What an amazing summer this is for the boys! We've become accustomed to being surrounded by centuries-old buildings, to driving on the left side of the road, and to the routines of Oxford . The boys aren't in summer camp yet as the English schoolchildren are still in school! They don't get out for the summer until July 9! Then, they only have vacation until the beginning of September. The boys are feeling fortunate to only have the summer math packets to complete!
We're becoming used to climbing the stairs to our fourth floor flat (3rd floor European counting), to carrying groceries home on foot, to riding the city bus for long distance, and to dealing with huge crowds of tourists on Oxford's sidewalks.
On to the pictures!
We went on a Stonehenge after hours tour with Pat Shelley and Brian, and I can't say enough about their kindness! I have a much greater appreciation for the cultures that created these amazing spaces. The boys preferred Avebury--the town inside a henge. You can touch the stones there, and the legend says that if you run around the Devil's Chair (named for its seat of rock) 100 times you'll see the devil.
Andy made it 100 times but I had to cut Liam off at 97 because we had to race south to meet Pat for our Stonehenge tour. I'm pretty sure that as angry as Liam was, he saw the devil and Andy didn't!
Sunday morning we went to Portsmouth Historic Dockyards, where we clambered around the HMS Warrior and looked discreetly at the HMS Victory. The Warrior isn't much of a famous ship, so the British Navy allowed the boys to fire a cannon! They really loved that ship. The Victory, Admiral Nelson's ship, is historic, so it's too precious to allow people to touch everything. The boys were bored with the ropes barring things. We've got some pictures from our harbor tour and the Spinnaker Tower--a glass-bottom thing-a-ma-bob towering above the harbor.
All in all a fun, exhausting weekend! Back to school for Melinda--Chaucer awaits.