Week One...(there is a lot to cover)

So it turns out that rural Engand doesn't have many Enternet Cafes. So first update is coming a week into the trip.

We made our way down to the coast and travelled from east to west, from the famous white cliffs...





Clear over to Land's End...





In between we stopped at every castle, village and natural wonder that caught our eye. We have already seen enough sites to last me a lifetime of travel, and we still have five weeks to go.

After we made it down the southern coast of England, we headed up north toward Stratford. (Shakespeare country!) If you don't know, I lOVE Shakespeare. King Lear is nearly my favorite play, ever. It was amazing to see his life become so real. We saw his house he grew up in, many of his family's houses and his tomb in the Holy Trinity Church. I can't describe the powerful feelings that I felt to be in the resting place of a literary genius that created more influencial work than any other human being.

(I'm still mastering uploading pictures, they will come later...I hope.)

Then we arrived in the Cotswolds. It is a small group of rural villages a couple hours northwest of London. Every street looks like a movie set or something from Home and Garden magazine! It is so quaint and cozy. The cottage we are staying in has recieved the nickname "the seven dwarfs cottage", because I have to duck through 80% of the house. It is Leslie's haven. Yes it is! She loves it so much! It is perfection to her to wake up to a chilly stone floor, make a fire and some breakfast. Then eat out on the back porch looking out over the vast green sheep field that surrounds us.

My Mom and Dad arrived yesterday and they have made our dynamic duo a complete quartet. It is great to have them join the journey. As soon as they arrived we went down to Stonehenge, which was everything it ought to be. Then spent the next day touring around the cotswolds. When Les and I went to church on Sunday, we met the Branch President's family who told us about an old lds chapel nearby. So today we went and visited the Gadfield Elm Chapel. It turns out it was a United Brothern chapel that was given to the church when the Brothern's entire congregation was converted to the gospel in 1835! So it is the oldest LDS chapel in church history! It was way cool.

(Still trying to upload more pictures...sorry)