Thursday and heading home!

Today the weather became a little colder and damp - I guess English weather caught up to us!
We said goodbye to Charlotte and thanked her for all her help!

Charles, Kathy, Gail, Kathy, Pat, Anne, Donyce, Irene, Charlotte, Pauline, Sue, Joan, Karen, Carol, and Beverly!             One final photo!

We headed out for Salisbury Cathedral. We made it just in time to have a tour of the Cathedral.

Inside the cathedral

Salisbury Cathedral Cloisters

Salisbury Cathedral - 13th century cathedral

19th century paintings on the vaulting

It was certainly beautiful!

The cathedral was also having a modern art display in and around the cathedral....



Next we headed for Stonehenge!

Carol and Beverly!

Gail!

Sue and Donyce!

It was cold, and we didn't want to pay the money to be on the other side of the fence! I enjoyed finally seeing Stonehenge! It was something that I always wanted to see - so now - been there - done that!!

Charles then drove us to The Continental Hotel, near Heathrow for our final night in England.........

Charles Power

Here we said goodbye to Charles. I know that I am safe in saying that Charles was a wonderful addition to our group! He was always willing to help out and he put up with all our comings and goings! His favorite saying was" not to worry!" and "Cheers". We all got to know and enjoy Charles. He answered so many questions about British terms and ways! We all invited Charles to come and visit us in USA!

A final dinner together.

Wednesday at Foxlease

Today, Bev and Carol stayed back at Foxlease with Charlotte to take care of some business and set up for a pinning ceremony.
The rest of the group went out touring around with Charles - I'm not quite sure where they went, but they had a good time!

We met again at 6pm for drinks in the bar - that has been our nightly treat!

Irene, Sue, Beth, and the bartender - Charlotte!

Pauline and Kathy

Joan and Charles

Kathy, Sue, Donyce, Anne, Irene, Karen, Gail, Pat, Joan, Pauline, Kathy, Bev, Carol

After another good dinner, we met in the Archives room for our ceremony. Everyone recieved a friendship tie and Foxlease pin.

We made Charlotte and Charles honorary Girl Scouts!

We had two  Girl Guides visiting at Foxlease join us for our ceremony, and they were very pleased to be included.

Mom and Daughter

Joan at the Pub!

Happy 92nd Birthday!

Happy Birthday!

After our ceremony, we all decided to find a pub for one last time together. We invited the two Girl Guides (Mom and her daughter)to go with us, and they accepted! We then found out it was Mom's birthday -92! So we had a party at the pub! She was very surprised and so pleased!

Next day at Foxlease

Beth leaving!

Today Beth had to leave us to go back to work so Gail and Bev bid her goodbye at 6am!

Later in the morning, we all got on the bus with Charles, and drove to Winchester and tour the area.
We saw King Alfreds Statue, King Arthur's round table, the Westgate, and of course,Winchester Cathedral!

King Arthurs Round Table ( hung on the wall) in the Great Hall

 

 

Stained Glass Window in Winchester Cathedral

Winchester Cathedral

The Westgate - Roman city gate - 1500 years ago

After touring the cathedral, and listening to an organ concert, went continued on.
Our next stop was a winery for some wine tasting and to buy a few bottles .

More about Foxlease!

I would like to tell everyone a bit about Foxlease:
Foxlease is a training and activity centre of Girlguiding UK near Lyndhurst, Hampshire, UK. The Foxlease estate has been owned and managed by Girlguiding UK since 1922. The estate is 65 acres  and main house is known as The Princess Mary House, in honour of her marriage. Foxlease has hosted the Guides' Third International Conference, Sixth World Conference and also the first World Camp. It is a Girls Guide training and conference center. I guess it is a bit like Edith Macy.
We stayed in The Princess Mary House. This is a large, rambling home, where Lord Baden Powell really slept here! Our rooms were upstairs and down halls that just kept on going! I think we each got lost at least once! We had a small breakfast each morning, and were given a bag lunch of interesting sandwiches to take with us on our trips. We would have a wonderful dinner each night. There is a small bar, that Charlotte would bar-tend each evening at 6:00pm.

It really was a great place to stay, loaded with Girl Guide and Girl Scout history, besides being a beautiful manor and grounds.
Thanks to Elaine for telling me about it!

View from Foxlease

Foxlease

View of Foxlease

Sue, Gail, Charlotte, Pauline learning about Foxlease

We arrived at Foxlease around 6:30 pm and were served a very good dinner of turkey, potatoes and yorkshire pudding! We then met our hostess, Charlotte who told us about Foxlease and gave us suggestions for trips in the following days.

We decided to take a pilgrimage to Brownsea Island.
The island is most notable as the home of the first camp of the Boy Scout movement in 1907.
We took another fery ride to the island, and most of the group went to hike to Lord Baden Powells commemorative stone, about 11/2 miles, and the Baden - Powell Outdoor center and trading post.

Lord Baden Powell at Poole Harbor

Karen, feeding the peacocks on Brownsea Island

Kathy feeding the peacocks

 Several others decided to walk the scenic route and enjoy lunch with a great view!

Sue having lunch

Our lunchtime view!

Whee! Brownsea Island Ferry ride!

We went back to Foxlease for another great meal!

APax Lodge Spoon for my spoon collection!

A beautiful Teapot, creamer, sugar bowl, and mug!

After dinner the girls surprised me with a few gifts that they had picked out for me! ( not shown is a matching teapot cozy, Pax Lodge Polo, and a Centennial Girl Guide mug!)
Needless to say, I was overwhelmed! Thank you all so much again!

Foxlease and Isle of Wight!

Long time since I have been able to post any updates! We had no computer access at Isle of Wight, and the computers at Foxlease are very temperamental!

So to bring you up to date....

Charles!

We all fit in the Van!

On Saturday, our driver - Charles - showed up with a 16 passenger van........ it fit 16 passengers, but luggage was a different matter!

Luggage was stacked everywhere!

I decided not to worry and went and hid at Pax Lodge till the van was loaded and all luggage stacked.

Our ride to the ferry at Southampton took 2 hours longer then it should have because the QE II was in port for its first voyage and the Queen was coming in to launch the ship! The traffic was terrible!

Stuck in traffic! We could have been in NY!

Anne and Pat enjoying the ferry ride

We finally got on the ferry and had a wonderful relaxing ride to The Isle of Wight.

Joan, Irene, Anne, Donyce, Sue, and Bev

Gail, Karen, Beth in the ferry

Katy with a cream tea! Boy, we needed that!

We arrived at Westhill Hotel, and were greeted with a cream tea! It really was nice. Katy greeted us and was very lovely. We got to pick our rooms and then went for a short ride to explore.

Our new best friend - Charles!

Group Photo!!

That night we had a wonderful dinner of soup and chicken, and cake.