Photos of England, 1995

Introduction

In 1995, my wife Karen and I took a trip to England. We got a package deal that included airfare and lodging for seven nights for somewhere under $700.00 per person. We flew from Boston to London/Gatwick airport. Then we took the Gatwick Express into London's Victoria Station, and walked to the hotel from there.

The day we arrived was Saturday, and after checking in and freshening up, we went to the antique market on Portobello Road, which was near our hotel.

Old Church, Thames River, Windsor Castle, Hampton Court

On Sunday, because we knew many places would be closed, we took a one-day bus tour.

This tour started at an old church. I don't remember the name of the town where the church was, but the poet Thomas Gray spent a lot of time here, and wrote his poem "Elegy in a Country Churchyard" here.

From there, we were taken to the Thames River where we boarded a boat that took us down the river, through a lock, to Windsor.

After touring Windsor Castle, we boarded the bus again, and were taken to Hampton Court.

The city of Brighton

I had been to England a year before this trip, in 1994, on business. I scheduled a couple of extra days so I could see something of the country. In addition to London, I wanted to see at least one other place in England. Since Brighton was convenient because it was on the same train line as Gatwick airport, I chose it as a place to see.

My wife's mother's maiden name is Hannington, and she has done a lot of research of her ancestry. When I was in Brighton, I saw a large department store there called "Hannington's". So it was possible that these people were related to my wife's family.

Because of this, Brighton became a definite addition to our trip.

We went to Victoria Station and took the train to Brighton for a day trip, where we saw the Lanes, the aquarium, the pier, the Royal Pavilion and Hannington's.

The city of Colchester

We both grew up in Colchester, CT, so a day trip to Colchester was another must on this trip.

There are several train stations located aound the perimeter of the city of London. You need to determine the correct train station to use depending upon your destination. We went to the Liverpool Street Station, and got a train to Colchester, where we explored the city, got lunch at a nice little restaurant, and checked out the castle. There are two stops listed at Colchester: Colchester and Colchester Town. We ended up at the wrong one. It was on top of a hill and we had to walk a ways down into the town of Colchester. The other stop was right in the town itself.

The city of London

In between all of this, we visited many places in London. I have some of the photos here, but many more are missing at this time. I will post them whenever I find them.

Among the places we visited were: Harrod's Department store; The Tower of London; Westminster Abbey, with views of Big Ben; Trafalgar Square.

We also took another Trafalgar tour one evening which was a Jack the Ripper tour and included stops at two pubs; one for just a drink, and the second one for dinner.