Tuesday and Wednesday: Stonehenge and Stroud

Hello, Stonehenge! 

My kids were adamant that we must stop at Stonehenge, and so we did. We checked out of our place Tuesday morning and headed out to see famous Stonehenge and Bath.

It took FOR-EV-ER to get there! It's supposed to just be a 2 1/2 hr drive, but there was a semi truck that had overturned on the motorway, and we were parked for hours, then detoured. Blah. Our kids thought they might die of starvation in our car! 

We finally made it, hours behind schedule. It was the same as it's ever been, surprise.:) Only, they've changed the road around since our last visit. So, now you can't just drive right up to it. Instead they are "preserving" it, and they make you park a mile away at a tourist center and ride their little bus over the hill to walk around it. (Can we say revenue racket??)

Anyway, our kids enjoyed it, and at least we weren't in the car for awhile.

But then, it was nearly dark and traffic stayed bad, and we didn't have time to go to Bath, sadly. Instead we traveled on to our flat in a little town called Stroud.

Our place was lovely--a two bedroom flat with nice light and really comfy beds. Here are the kids trying to teach Camille to crawl on the stairs. She didn't catch on, but they all looked cute!

Here they are, settling in on the hide-a-bed couch to watch part of The Bee Movie before bed.

Here's the cute room where Brian and I got to stay... In an American king bed, hooray! (Most of our beda have been doubles.)

Our view out the bedroom window in the morning...

The front of our flat... So cute and English.

We set off for Wales that next morning, and stopped at Gadfield Elm, which is the first LDS chapel the church ever owned. 

Our kids liked learning a bit about its history, and the service missionary who showed us around was very informative and kind.

He even took a family picture for us--one of the only ones from our trip so far, just because it's too much trouble to get everyone all rounded up and smiling while a stranger has to wait.;)

The missionary recommended a small village nearby for lunch, so we drove over to Ledbury. It was a nice scenic drive with a misty rain falling... Felt so very English...

We even happened into a private castle and stopped for a quick picture...

Ledbury truly was delightful. A perfect little English village...

We happened up this cobbled street...

And happened upon this gorgeous old church...

The missionary from Gadfield Elm told us Brigham Young actually went to Ledbury as a missionary, and visited this church...

We had our lunch in a tiny tea room called Mrs. Muffins. It was perfect. The kids shared a milk shake with Brian at the end, and I'm still dreaming of my sweet potato soup with red pepper and coconut milk.mmmmm...

And then.... We drove the rest of the day. It took forever to get to Wales to visit our friends, Rob and Jenny. I took this picture of our three back-seat sleepers...

Worn out!! It was a long day, but memorable for what we did along the way.