the honeymoon
You can see a much larger selection of our 700+ honeymoon pics on flickr. Here's the abbreviated (as much as possible) guide to our April 2005 adventures in the U.K.
At the airport, bound for London. Finally some time to read!
We arrived in London at 7am. After a few hours of napping, we ventured out to do the tourist thing. Here's the requisite picture of Ben with Big Ben.
Eva and Nick put us up in London and took us out on the town.
Here we are in St. Ives, Cornwall. We stayed at a wonderful vegetarian B&B called Coast. Ben messed up his foot on this first walk, and it bothered him for the whole rest of the trip, but we like to see that as the first test of our vows to care for one another. Joriel got to do lots of running-and-fetching, as well as "lean-on-me"-ing over the next 12 days.
Joriel and a green door.
Ben and a cup of espresso.
The view out the window at the Tate Museum, St. Ives.
Joriel at the Barbara Helpworth sculpture garden and museum.
After St. Ives, we took a train up the Cornwall coast to stay at Michael House for two days. This was probably the best part of the whole trip, in spite of Ben's injured foot. Here we are on the beach below the ruins of Tintagel Castle, the supposed birthplace of King Arthur.
Rob and Andrea! These newlyweds from Somerset were enjoying a weekend holiday at Michael House. We met them at dinner and fell in love immediately, as we are wont to do.
Andrea is an acupuncturist and volunteered to treat Ben's foot. She didn't think she had needles but found some at the bottom of her bag. Her ministrations made all the difference in getting us around Tintagel.
The magnificent Cornwall coast.
In Merlin's cave, below the Tintagel Castle ruins.
Ben braved this very cold water to see what lay at the other end of the cave.
Later, Ben bathed his ouchy foot in the allegedly healing waters of St. Nectan's Glen, a place of pilgrimage since 500 A.D.
Joriel adding to the offerings at St. Nectan's.
Trying to find St. Nectan's - this picture is all about the lush green foreverness of the English countryside.
Next stop Wales, where Joriel's nana approved wholeheartedly of her new grandson-outlaw.
Our fourth vegan English breakfast in a row - we were so spoiled! (We have pictures of almost every meal we ate. Ben takes his food seriously, thank you very much.)
Joriel's aunt Meg, uncle John, and cousin Ian took a day off to show us around Pembrokeshire.
The Green Bridge of Wales.
Ben blisses out in the ruins of the Bishop's Palace of St. David's Cathedral in Wales.
After a day of shopping in Tenby, Joriel models her new coat and hat.
Ben conquers the beach.
Being in Tenby again brings back childhood memories, and Joriel decides to show off some of her ballet moves. Too bad she quit taking lessons when she was six.
On the ferry to Ireland.
Already exhausted, here we are on the bus from the ferry stop in Rosslare to Dublin.
Ben at the ruins of the old Crom Castle in County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland. Built in 1610, the castle may have had some connection to his mother's family, the Crumes.
In the streets of Enniskillen, Northern Ireland.
The bustling streets of Dublin.
In Swansea, on our way back to London from Ireland, we had lunch with Joriel's beautiful cousin Kate. Ben's almost done meeting family members, though we didn't even come close to seeing them all.
We made it to Londontown just in time to catch the last five minutes of Nick's act.
Eva made us an amazing breakfast.
Nick is not a morning person.
Tiny car!
We sampled some entirely legal (at the time) substances and things got a little fuzzy for a while.
Joriel's aunt Suzanne came up from Hastings to have lunch with us on our last day in London.
Then we went to Stonehenge. It was very very very cold. And wet.
But we did see a rainbow from the train on our way back to London.
After seeing more in two weeks than any two people ever, we came home exhausted beyond belief. We were so happy to see our bed, and Kitty was also extremely happy and relieved.
The End.
