Day One, The Tour Begins, Windsor

We had a refreshing Aperol Spritz and enjoyed the nice weather.

Our itinerary summed up Day one like this:

Your tour departs at 2 pm from your Windsor Hotel.  Venture to see the splendors of Windsor Castle, a residence of the King, and the oldest and largest inhabited castle in the world.  Then take a walking tour arouind the medieval town of Windsor with a local guide.  Enjoy a welcome drink with your group, and dine and explore as you wish this evening.  Our welcome drink was scheduled for 6 pm.

Walk this way.  There are no inside photo's permitted, but it was awesome to see it.  Wish I could share with you; but it's a BIG no no.  There are security checks as you enter so travel light and leave backpacks in the hotel or in our case the tour coach..

Trying to snap photo's as we walked with our guide wasn't super easy.  You have to keep up.  

Queen Victoria on High Street as you make your way to the entrance.  As you can see lots of rehab work is going on.  The tour guide said it's perpetual.  The bronze statue was to commemorate her Golden Jubilee (50th year).   At that time, she was the longest serving Monarch.

The State Entrance.  Just outside this gate was wear The Queen was often seen with her dogs, and or riding her horse.  She was quite popular and friendly according to our tour guide who saw her multiple times.

Turning the opposite direction from The State Entrance puts you in line with The Long Walk.  A beautiful place to walk, run etc.  It's 2.64 miles to the end where a horse statue resides on Snow Hill.  This was created during the reign of Charles II.

Our local guide pointing out items of interest.  Note the restaurant behind her, The Prince Harry.  After our tour and welcome drink, we attempted to go there for dinner.  They were not busy, but the wait staff and bartender just looked at us and walked away.  We waited a few minutes more and then walked out.  Guess they didn't want our business.  We did note pictures of Harry and Meghan on the walls.

Tried my best to get a picture without people, but as you can see, wasn't quite successful.  Windsor is full of tourists.  The shambles built in 1718.  Look how crocked it is.  Remember you can click on any picture to see things larger.

While this old plaque isn't readable.  It marks the location of Nell Gwynn's residence, and now tea room.

And Chinese Restaurant.  The date on the building is 1648.  She was a stage actress and one of King Charles's mistresses.

You'll recall dinner was not included, which is very weird.  I've never done a tour that didn't have a welcome dinner.  It gives the group a chance to get to know each other, and many people have just arrived that day and are tired.  To have to search out somewhere to eat isn't a particularly good way to start the tour.  So after our welcome drink, and a foiled attempt to eat at the pub right across the street from our hotel, The Prince Harry; we ended up at Meejana, 1 Church Lane in a very cute Lebanese restaurant.  My dish was an eggplant something and was delicious.  Don't remember what Jane had, but she was very pleased with it.  **edited to add my friend remembered what I had, it was Mousakaa.

See what a cute little super clean place it was.  Would highly recommend it.  We were seated at an open window area, and they had outside eating as well.

Marching orders.  Most days we had something like this posted to indicate what was next.  So breakfast at 7am, luggage out by your door by 7 am, be on the coach at 8 am for departure.  Dinner tomorrow at 6:30 in our hotel, our first group dinner.  

PLEASE leave me a comment when you come visit, so I know you were here. Your visits and comments are very special to me. AND remember, leave your name and url and not your profile link. Name and url takes me right to your blog post so I can reciprocate the visit.

ARRIVAL DAY WINDSOR, Thames River Cruise

 We arrived at Castle Hotel Windsor too early to check in, but they held our luggage for us and when the appropriate time came would deliver our luggage to our room.  This is not a picture I took, but one from their website.  Our room was not in this section of the building, but in a building behind it.  The 2nd building is a much newer portion.  We spent 2 nights here.

Just out the door were lots of shops, and yes...Windsor Castle is right there!

We stopped for a drink to pass some time, right across the street from The Thames River.

A nice outside patio with views of The River.

We had booked a 2 hour river cruise which was very relaxing after our over night flight and gave us a view of the castle.  We scheduled with French Brothers .  We had rain off and on, but still found the cruise enjoyable.  We went through Boveney Lock.  I understood the basic concept of going through a dock when water levels changed; but have never done it and found it very interesting.  We had views of Eton College as well as the castle.

The ship was pretty basic with plastic chairs.

Walking alone the Thames after our cruise also proved to be enjoyable.  You see lots of house boats.

The first of many Fish N Chips meals.  This was excellent.  Followed by a nice Irish Coffee

In a very nice outside patio right on the River.

Windsor is an easy place to get around with lots to see, places to eat and shop.

Back in our hotel to relax for the night we enjoyed Crown Royal Black.  Our "offical tour" was scheduled to start the following day at 2 pm.

PLEASE leave me a comment when you come visit, so I know you were here. Your visits and comments are very special to me. AND remember, leave your name and url and not your profile link. Name and url takes me right to your blog post so I can reciprocate the visit.

The UK in Fourteen Days

I am recently back from a 14 day 13 night tour of The UK with CIE Tour Company.  CIE Tour Company has it's office in Cedarknolls, NJ and has been in business for 90 years.  I've taken tours before with Insight Vacations and would rate their tours (Ireland and Scotland, and Italy) over CIE.  The accommodations and meals were substandard, IMHO.  I did a review of the tour on yelp, and wish I had seen the reviews before booking.  There are 22 reviews counting mine and the average rating is only a 2.5 out of 5.  There were 7 people who gave the company a rating of 5, and 10 people who gave it a rating of 1.  My rating was a 2.  Interestingly CIE's webpage indicates they have a 95% satisfaction rate which seems not to match the reviews on yelp.

My friend and I choose this tour, as it's one of a few that included Wales.  We choose the month of August in order to attend the Military Tattoo in Edinburgh.  We covered a lot of miles as you can see.  One of the pluses of the tour was only having a single night once, and the bulk of the time spending two consecutive nights in the same lodging.  

The tour started in Windsor, which I really enjoyed.  The tour ended in London.

We added an extra night at the front of the tour to give us time to adjust a bit to the 5 hour difference, and to give us a buffer should there be any problems with flights etc.  You really just never know.  Travel nowadays can present some difficulties.

Here I am with my Prosecco on board Delta in business class.

AND my friend, Jane.  The flight was very nice, with excellent meal service and we managed to get a few hours sleep once the meal service was over and we were able to lay our seats flat.

PLEASE leave me a comment when you come visit, so I know you were here. Your visits and comments are very special to me. AND remember, leave your name and url and not your profile link. Name and url takes me right to your blog post so I can reciprocate the visit.

Shirks Candies, Sansotta's Italian Restaurant, Cardinals (Marion Road Trip part II)

Shirks Candies!  Home made candy since 1932.  Located at 1235 South Prospect Street, Marion Ohio.  Closed on Sunday and Monday, opened 10 am til 5:30 pm Tuesday through Friday, and 9:30 am til 4 pm on Sat.  A must when you visit Marion.  You can order on line through their website.  They have a facebook page as well.

Lots of variety, you won't leave dissapointed.

An area showing family members, news articles with some history of the family.  Elwood "Bert" Shirk purchased The Carmel Crisp Shop which was in downtown Marion back in 1932.  He made his Carmel Corn often as the theaters were letting out.  The aroma tempting the movie goers to purchase.  In 1940 he owned a sandwich shop were he also sold his goodies.  In 1965 his son Dick and wife Joan took over the business and grew it.  In 1999 their son Rick took over the business.  

Me with my bag of goodies on the way out of the store.

My purchases:  Cashews, Turtles, Peanut Butter Cups, and dark chocolate and sea salt covered carmel.  All were fantastic.

Another family owned buisness to visit is Sansotta's located at 1292 Delaware Avenue, Marion Ohio.  Hours are 10:45 am til 8 pm Monday through Sat, and 10:45 am til 5pm on Sunday.  It's a small non frills restaurant with good homemade food.  Pasta Bowls, Salads, Sandwiches, and daily specials.  All very resonably priced.

Small amount of tables, but it appeared they do a large carryout business when we were there for lunch.

You order at the counter and seat yourself.  

Hubby and I had 2 Torpedoes a piece.  I had ham and cheese (pictured above) and he had  meatball Torpedoes.  

You can walk or ride around downtown Marion and see beautifully painted Cardinals.  There are 17 to find.  Ohio was the 17th state in the Union, and the Cardinal is the state bird.  Each bird is painted by local artists and represents history.  The plaques on the bottom tell you who the artists were, which businesses sponsored the Cardinal.

Look at the details, so pretty.

This one reprents the histoic Palace Theater.

The historic Palace Theater built in 1928 has served Marion for many years from Vaudeville and Silent Films to todays concerts and other activities.

The Beautiful Palace is also available for weedings and other special events.

PLEASE leave me a comment when you come visit, so I know you were here. Your visits and comments are very special to me. AND remember, leave your name and url and not your profile link. Name and url takes me right to your blog post so I can reciprocate the visit.