I'm Back.....or.......Dan Sees England

Hello. I'm back. I was in Boston this weekend for my friend Nadya's wedding and to see some friends and family. It was a great break in a wonderful city with excellent weather. I had a fantastic time. I realized, however, that without sharing my stories here, I had begun to slowly lose touch with some people I care about. In a lot of ways, this is my link to the States! That's something I desperately don't want to lost. So a lot has been happening here....I'm just trying to keep up.

So far in our tale, we've followed Dan to Austria, NYC, Switzerland, and France. That covered December and January.

In February, I stayed around England:

1) Hampton Court Palace
The web site says, "Hampton Court Palace promises a magical journey back through 500 years of royal history." I have to get nervous anytime someon promises me 'magical journey,' but some friends and I decided we'd never been there and it's one of the BIG ones, so what else are we going to do in February. Turns out it was really nice, even in the London cold. Lots of old time-y paintings in huge royal rooms. It was interesting to see the different architecture that Henry VIII and then William III decided to go with. Quite odd - and not always good - but isn't that's what it's all about when you are king?
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8AZMnLlm1atGUN&notag=1


Here's us at the end of the hedge maze. Fun - but COLD! We went and got tea after.



2) Justin Visits and Leeds
After that, my friend Justin from high school came to visit for a bit. How great! It was just like old times, except we were pissing off British people instead of our high school teachers.


After a weekend in London, we met up in the city of Leeds (in the north) and had a really fun time. Leeds is a very different city from London - it's much smaller, but still has interesting history and architecture, and has incredible rock music. During the day, we ended up at a beautiful market in town. I bought a really cool new wallet!


3) Leeds Castle (in Kent, not Leeds...strangely)
Leeds Castle is just a bit outside of London, but really a world away. There is so much land that they've put up a few golf courses. The castle itself is very nice to see, though not really thrilling on the inside. The did an excellent job with the area though because there are several small lakes and rivers, a very impressive aviary, and a cool little historic town. All together, it made Leeds Castle a really enjoyable day trip.


There was even a falconry exhibit! You can sort of see the falcon over the guy in white's shoulder coming in to try to catch the thing that the demo guy was swinging around. It was pretty cool. Falcons fly fast - making them hard to photograph.




So that's February! Good times, good times. More stories and pics to come soon (I hope). Another ski trip (and Geneva car show!?!), Cambridge, Brighton, Boston, and more!

Hope you are all well.

Cheers,
Dan