My memories of England and Northen Ireland

The best moment on this rope bridge is when you reach the middle and look down. You suddenly realize you are on a rope bridge that gets destroyed every winter. The rope bridge is gently swinging and there is sea below you. It ain't bungee-jumping but sure gives you a small dose of adrenalin. You cross over to the other side and just stare out at the sea. Fantastic. You can see land in far away distance. Someone tells you that is Scotland. You sit down on the lush green grass - as close as you dare near the edge of the island - and then it it hits you. You are sitting in a bed if small, beautiful wild flowers. Heavenly.

A day trip to the Lake district? My colleague and I were immediately game. The day trip turned out to be the best ever. It involved a bus pick up, a steam-engine driven train ride and a steamer ride across the lake Windermere. We then had more than an hour to take a boat ride. A day well spent.

This was in 1993. And I still remember every moment of it.

This is a beautiful picture of the Anne Hathaway's cottage at Stratford Upon Avon. This is a must-do for all tourists. But it still doesn't do justice to what is etched in my mind is the lush green park in the middle of the city and the beautiful butterfly farm next to it. Just to sit in the big, green park, next to the river, listening to the live band play and seeing small children running around ...sigh ... heavenly. All this, after a walk through the town of Stratford, just perfect.
I was here in 1999.

I had read about Stonehenge before I actually saw it with my own eyes. Believe me, it is not just a pile of stones. What hits you first is the miles and miles of rolling, open green plain. And in the middle of it all stands what-would-have-been circular set of stones. What is more fascinating than the real thing is to imagine what it was before it fell to the ravages of time and men (who used some of the stones to build houses). And you wonder where did they get these huge stones from - there is nothing remotely hilly in the vicinity.

This was a day trip with our host, Dave Dodds, who drove us down from Birmingham to Stonehenge, the Salisbury Cathedral, the Bath university and the Bath city.

Near perfect geometrically shaped stones neatly piled on top of each other forming a causeway into the sea ... I would like to believe this was actually the work of the Irish giant. Rapidly cooled lava is so boring.