L is for London, Looe, and Leeds Castle

In keeping with my theme of "destinations," I was checking my photo albums for place names beginning with the letter L. There were so many that I decided to narrow it down to telling you about when I took D1 on a tour of England, Scotland, and Wales. This post will focus on a few places in England that we visited and really enjoyed. I'll save Scotland and Wales for another time. I also rummaged around for the journal I keep when I'm travelling and found the notes I made on that trip in August, 1998. I will ask you to forgive the quality of the photos as there weren't digital cameras then - these are all scanned from the photos I took with my old Ricoh. First comes LONDON, of course! We had a wonderful few days there touring around on the "hop on/hop off" bus. From my journal: A day in London showing Jamie the sights - we walked up to the Victoria & Albert Museum and got on the London Pride. We went up to see Madame Tussaud's, but there was a double line all the way around the block! So back on the bus and to Rock Circus in Picadilly. That was pretty good - then the Fashion Cafe for lunch...We got off the bus at Trafalgar Square and walked the Mall to the palace and then saw the Horse Guards on inspection... Here's Jamie posing in front of Big Ben. Next stop is LOOE, a small coastal town and fishing port about 20 miles (32 km) from Plymouth. "...very pretty with lots of seagulls and boats." Apparently, the village has a history of smuggling when Barbary pirates (Muslims from north Africa) swept in and captured 80 people from Looe and took them into slavery! Here's Jamie on the pier at Looe. The third spot, one of my favourites of the entire trip, was a visit to LEEDS Castle in Kent, southeast of London. We stayed a long time here, exploring the Aviary, the castle island, and the Maze (in which we got lost!) I would definitely go back to Leeds Castle on my own and take a picnic lunch to eat on the vast lawns. Here are some photos of us. I eventually gave up on the Maze, allowing the guide to help me through, but Jamie persevered and finally joined me on the Mound where the guide kindly took our photo. We weren't finished yet, though, because in order to get out, we had to find our way through the Grotto, which was rather dark, wet, and eerie. But we managed and had a good laugh afterwards. The last place I want to highlight is Coventry. I know it doesn't begin with the letter L, but it was the home of the famous, or should I say "notorious" LADY Godiva! "We saw the old and new cathedrals in Coventry and the statue of Lady Godiva..." According to legend, Godiva's husband would only reduce taxes on his tenants if she would strip naked and ride through the town covered only by her long hair. She took him up on it, issuing a proclamation that all villagers were to stay indoors with windows shut. One man (afterwards known as Peeping Tom) disobeyed the proclamation, boring a hole through his shutters and peeped at her. He was immediately struck blind! My best memory of the city of Coventry, though, is more about the old cathedral that was bombed on November 14, 1940, during WW2, leaving only a shell and the spire. The new cathedral, St. Michael's, was built immediately beside the original site and I took a photo of Jamie standing in front of the wall with the impressive sculpture of "St. Michael's Victory over Satan." I want to show you a close-up photo of the statue as well as the one I took of Jamie standing beneath it - it shows the Largeness of the statue...

I hope you enjoyed this little bit of London, Looe, Leeds Castle, and the story of Lady Godiva from Coventry. When we get to the letters S and W, I'll tell you all about Loch Ness and Llangollen. Until then, remember to check out the other contributions to ABC Wednesday, the brainchild of Mrs. Nesbitt at this link.