England and North Wales

In style - a double-decker bus. On the first day we visited the Brussels Atomium and took a boat ride in the beautiful medieval town of Bruges. We spent the evening walking along the Atlantic shore in Calais.

After crossing the Channel, we toured Shakespeare's birthplace - Stratford-upon-Avon - to see his birthplace, the cathedral in which he is buried, and the home of his wife, Anne Hathaway.

In Worchester we walked along the banks of England's longest river - the Severn, discovered the grave of John the Landless in the cathedral and some climbed the tower to enjoy the view of the city from a proper perspective.

In the evening we stayed with families in the Chester area. After a detailed study of the weather servers we decided to change the program of the next days, and we did well...

On Tuesday we went to North Wales. Along the way we watched picturesque scenery - pastures with sheep, solitary trees, golf courses and ever-rising hills. In the heart of Snowdonia NP (the town of Betws- y-Coed) we enjoyed the beautiful scenery, visited the information centre and some students even enjoyed a ride on the super narrow gauge railway. Everywhere we marvelled at the unintelligible and unpronounceable signs in Welsh. The next stop on our pilgrimage was Pen-y-Pass. The weather was good, the scenery was beautiful, but unfortunately there was not enough time to reach the highest peak Snowdon 1085 m above sea level.

We'll have to come back here sometime. The short trek between lakes and hills was one of the best of our trip.

Properly ventilated and also a bit wet, we conquered Conwy Castle and even took some spoils of war. :-)

In the evening, we watched the amazing sporting performance of Liverpool footballers in our families. (Victory over Barcelona 4-0 and qualification to the UEFA Champions League final.)

The very next morning we went to see Liverpool celebrate. The weather was typically British, so we took shelter in the Maritime and Slavery Museum. Then we enjoyed a glimpse of the victory atmosphere at Liverpool FC's Anfield stadium.

The travel agency ruled out a visit to the stadium, but we gave it a try and it worked! You just can't give up too soon!

We spent the afternoon in the centre of the medieval city of Chester, saw the cathedral, walked the walls. Then we had our last dinner with English families and headed to the university city of Oxford early the next morning. In the morning we explored the city in groups during a play, visited the museum, the most famous college, Christ Church - for example, twelve Prime Ministers of Great Britain studied there, as well as Albert Einstein and Harry Potter was filmed there.

Then some shopped, others explored England's oldest botanical garden.

Full of experiences and properly tired, we started the long journey home in the evening.

Photos from the tour can be found in photo gallery.

Šinknerová Zuzana PaedDr.