4 Places I have visited

Ione tagged me to name four special places I have visited. I got a bit carried away searching through photo CDs (great post-inspection displacement activity.) Number one is:

South Africa, specifically Benoni where we visited in October 2004 for my sister-on-law Dee and brother-in-law Stephen's wedding. It was an amazing 10 days culminating in a beautiful wedding. Above is the Jupp family garden where we spent an awful lot of time relaxing and eating and looking at beautiful pink skies such as this. They are the most amazing hosts.

Secondly I have chosen Normandy. I first visited in the summer of 1985 when I worked at the Maison Evangelique in Houlgate for two months. (Incidentally, that was where I met Janet, the American girl who introduced me to the music of Dan Fogelberg.) Then I went on two school trips to the landing beaches and ww2 sites. I loved it so much that I persuaded the family to go there on holiday in 2001 and they loved it too. I loved the town hall in Rouen (below) still bearing the bullet holes as the Résistance battled it out.

Another great love of mine in Normandy is the pretty town of Honfleur. The harbour is lined with good restaurants and multi-coloured buildings.

Number 3 is Cornwall. Peter and I went there on our honeymoon in 1989. Then we returned 11 years later with the children and Peter's brother Stephen. We retook all our honeymoon photos with Tom and Anni in along with us. We matched our honeymoon photo at the famous signpost. Then in 2005 we went back again with Peter's sister Ann, her hubby Jon and their daughters Hannah and Ella. This is the beautiful Lizard Point:
Ann is the best fun to go on holiday with. She knows no fear. We went to a place I'd better not name which has reconstructed Victorian and second world wartime streets. You weren't allowed to take photographs nor cross the barriers into the exhibitions. So here's a photo of Ann sitting on the Victorian toilet, right before she set the alarms off for the third time.
Number 4 has to be John O'Groats in April 2001. The signpost at Lands End gave me the bug to go there. We went on a great road trip, in the days before driving hurt Peter's back. We drove up to Glasgow with our friend Andrea, calling off at Hadrian's Wall on the way. That was an odd experience since most of it was out of bounds due to the foot and mouth crisis. We spent some time in Glasgow with our friends Peter and Anne and also visited Edinburgh. Then for my 36th birthday, Peter took me (and the children) to an amazing hotel near Inverness. On my birthday we drove up to John O'Groats, through the Cairngorms. It was breathtakingly beautiful. When we got to the famous signpost, it was so windy that my hair went vertical. It's so desolate up there, it's awesome. We stayed the night in Thurso, where Peter was laughed at for asking where he could buy a newspaper after 6pm.

We then drove home via Stirling. Lovely, lovely trips. I could go on, but I had to pick 4.