The Best Trip of My Life

Well, it's time for another link-up!  This week's topic is "The Best Trip of My Life."  This topic seems especially timely, as I just got back from a vacation to Ontario, Canada.  While the vacation was wonderful, I cannot say it was the best trip of my life.  I have been very fortunate to be able to visit many places in my lifetime.  My parents viewed travel as important and took us different places every year.  They instilled a love of travel in me, so my husband and I take a real vacation every year.  This means that I have been to some incredible places.  I have been to many (but not all, although it is a goal) of the US states, as well as to 8 foreign countries: Canada, Mexico, Germany, Austria, the UK, Jordan, Egypt, and Israel.  That makes picking my favorite trip quite difficult.
As I was talking about this with my husband, he mentioned the trips I talk about the most: Great Britain (all three times I have been), Austria, and Alaska.  Since I have been to Great Britain 3 times already and would love to go back again, I decided I would pick my last tip there.
My first trip to Great Britain was a family vacation while I was in middle school. The second was on a high school choir tour.  The last time I was there I got to take my husband and see him fall in love with some of the same things I had loved for years.  We started off in London.  I love the Tower of London and the New Globe, while my husband could have stared at old manuscripts in the British Library for hours.  After that, we headed to Stratford-upon-Avon, where we did all of the traditional Shakespeare things.  We also got to see a fabulous performance of Antony and Cleopatra by the Royal Shakespeare Company.  We then headed to York, where we visited Yorkminster (of course), the Jorvik Viking Centre (which I love), and got to do a ghost tour.  Finally, we went to Edinburgh after a detour to Hadrian's wall.  My husband fell in love and decided he wants to retire there.  We stayed in a one-bedroom flat right on the royal mile, a block from Edinburgh Castle, which is one of my all-time favorite castles. There is so much history in Edinburgh, which makes it a great place for us to visit.  One of our favorite finds was Craigmillar castle.  It is a little out of the way.  It is largely a ruin.  It was very quiet when we were there.  It is the kind of castle where they give you the run of the place, so you can take your time and dream and imagine.

We also walked out of our flat one day and into the middle of the dress rehearsal for the installation of the new governor of Edinburgh Castle.  They did the entire ceremony, including the pipe and drum corps.  It was amazing!  While I don't have another trip planned to the UK anytime soon (our vacation destinations are planned through 2020), I do hope to visit again!
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