a birthday roadtrip

the day before my birthday, the boy and i took a little roadtrip west of london and then down to the seaside. our three main stops were:
first, stonehenge:IMG_3054
then, “gold hill” in shaftesbury:
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and  finally, a few gorgeous spots along dorset’s jurrasic coast!IMG_3132

it was a really wonderful day that made both of us fall even more in love with england – its history, charm and natural beauty. we even got a good dose of sunshine at the end of the day after sprinkling rain most of the morning and into the afternoon.

i was fascinated and delighted by the opportunity we had to see a druid procession at stonehenge. we learned that they were performing a baby blessing in the middle of the stones.

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stonehenge is so mystical and remarkable and fantastical. the boy had really been wanting to see those famous stones even since we moved to england (we are coming up on one year – i can’t believe it!).

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our drive through the english countryside to our next destinations was at times completely breathtaking, and i couldn’t/didn’t do a very good job capturing it! but man, i sure love this green and pleasant land. so much of my heart is filled with england.

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when we got to the darling little town of shaftesbury, we walked up the cobblestoned hill enjoying charming sights like these:
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and then turned around to behold this sublime view:
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and then had the most lovely little lunch at the salt cellar pub, perched perfectly at the crest of gold hill:
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after we ate, we continued on to the coast. when we arrived at the sea, i was just reeling with delight at the teal water, the white cliffs, the wildflower speckled slopes, the greenest grass. we sat on the beach near durdle door and then hiked over to lulworth cove. it got sunnier and sunnier and we were almost wishing for our swimsuits to take a dip!

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^^ i was obsessed with the orangey pebble beach, that was so intricate upon closer examination! ^^
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^^ the harsh afternoon lighting made it so hard to capture these scenes in photographs. it was just so pretty. ^^
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a few enchanting scenes from the little beach town of lulworth:
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there is so much to explore in england and in the united kingdom! we’re thinking that with baby we’ll swap some quick flights to mainland europe with covering more ground on this little green island, which is stuffed full of wonder and beauty.

Comments

  1. Great pix.

    When I saw the pix of gold hill I could hear the music in my head from the Hovis ad, the boy going down the hill on his bike & him saying the famous lines, "When I were a lad."

    I love how excited you get about the UK, especially when you use words like seaside.

    Wow, can't believe you've been here nearly a year now!

    By the way, did it take a while to get used to driving & being on the other side of the road?



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  2. Beautiful pictures of your weekend. I do hope that you can get to explore more of the UK - when I was looking at your raining pictures of the Italian Lakes I was thinking that you might as well have gone to the Lake District - which was (bizarrely for a Bank Holiday) gloriously sunny!

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  3. What a great little vacation! England is just beautiful! I've always wanted to visit, bit your blog makes me even more excited about going there someday. You do such a good job at capturing the beauty.
    p.s. You look great - that baby bump is so cute!!!

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  4. England is simply bursting with beauty like this at every turn! What a great capture of the stunning beauty in that little corner of the green and pleasant land!

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