Sunday, June 19th

Abbreviated version:

Drove to Berkeley Castle, about half an hour from here.  We knew it's pronouced "barkley", but we also learned that our American way of pronouncing it is actually closer to the original.  The Great Vowel Shift, don't you know? (Mel remembers.) The castle is old...not just old, but really, really old! http://www.berkeley-castle.com/index.php  We had a great tour of the castle, about an hour and a half.  We learned that the earlship had disappeared from the family in 1942 (not quite sure how that happened), and Mr. and Mrs. Berkeley are the current owners who live in some part of the castle.

Our claim to fame is that we actually got to meet Mr. Berkeley.  He was coming down the lane in his Audi (not a Bentley, unfortunately) and had to stop to open the gate at the ticket booth.  As we were crossing the lane at that moment, Bob volunteered to close the gate for him after he went through. (We had no idea who he was, of course.) The driver thanked him very much and gave him a hearty, "Well done!" and off he went.  The ticket agent came out to tell us that that was Mr. Berkeley himself.  He did say to enjoy ourselves but didn't invite us to tea.  Oh, well.

The gardens are lovely and I'm sure I must have mentioned that the roses are in full bloom.  Bob has lots of pictures, too many to post here, but he may put up a link.  The castle also has a butterfly house where they raise and host numerous varieties of butterflies. http://www.berkeley-castle.com/butterflyhouse.html  Really interesting.

 It's a small house, sort of like a conservatory full of blooming plants, lots of them tropical for the more exotic species.  We couldn't stay in there very long though because we were dressed for 50-60 degree weather and the temperature inside was really hot and humid--like being back in the South.

We had a Sunday lunch at a pub in the town right next to the castle.  This one was the Malt House http://www.themalthouse.uk.com/

and their Sunday dinner was a buffet with roasts of beef, pork, lamb, and turkey; veggies such as carrots, lightly cooked cabbage, parsnips, broccoli, cauliflower; and crispy roasted potatoes all crunchy on the outside. Oh, and Yorkshire pudding and gravy.  We ate at the table on the left.

On the way back toward here later in the afternoon, we stopped at Saul Junction http://www.gloucesterdocks.me.uk/canal/sauljunc.htm

"where the Gloucester & Sharpness Canal crosses the line of the earlier Stroudwater Canal, the only crossing of two independently owned canals in the country." We walked along the canal and took a ride down the canal past the old Cadbury building and the Prince of Wales' granaries. The best part is seeing the narrow boats that ply the canals for holiday trips.



That may look like Bob at the helm, but it's not. This is just a picture I found on Google.

Then we drove back here and I can't remember what we did after that.

But here's a picture of Joan reading and relaxing with Bob the cat today.

That wasn't very abbreviated at all, was it?