Our England-Scotland Tour in 2012 was the result of an overflow of interest in the tour that preceded it, one to Holland, Belgium and England.
Since we could not do the Holland tour a second time, we offered a completely different but equally adventure-packed tour starting in London and going north to Scotland.
This tour started at the same hotel off Marble Arch in London where the Holland tour finished. So, for a moment, we had 70 people in the same hotel – those from the Holland tour and those arriving for the Scottish tour. It was an amazing crossover with people chatting about their just-finished holiday and those talking about their excitement for things to come.
Both groups had one special thing in common – they were both going to the Chelsea Flower Show at the same time and they were both visiting the top English gardens of Sissinghurst, Great Dixter, Kew and Hampton Court.
When we had waved bye to the people from the Holland tour, we set out from London and headed first to Oxford.
On the way, we visited Hatfield House, the Elizabethan manor house and garden that was the Elizabeth 1 residence for a time.
In Oxfordshire, we visited Rousham, the house and garden next to the River Cherwell. This garden was famous for the inspired landscape work of Charles Bridgeman and William Kent, featuring a variety of novel as well as classical elements, including water rills and Greek-style temples and statuary.
We also visited Upton House, one of my favourite terraced gardens, which we enjoyed because of the way the garden fell into view as you walked down a grand lawn lined with cedars of Lebanon. At the end of the lawn, the terraces dropped down in dramatic fashion to a large lake below.
There were many exciting moments at the start of this tour that made me think it would have been enough just to have done this and gone on to London, but we were, in fact, going north to see more wonders, such as Chatsworth House and Haddon Hall in Derbyshire, and then on to Yorkshire to visit Harlow Carr, the famous RHS garden, and then up to Alnwick Garden with its wonderful water cascade and poison garden in Northumberland.
On our way north, we paused at Lichfield, a town not far from my hometown in Nottingham, to have tea and cake. Lichfield has a lovely cathedral and is the hometown of Dr. Johnson, the compiler of the English dictionary.
In Yorkshire, we stayed in York and got to see the minster and the Shambles and the quaint streets of the city and we also walked the old Roman city wall. Moving farther north, we came to Hadrian’s wall – or a portion of it – and had the fun of gathering together and standing on the wall.
Crossing the border into Scotland – the land of the men with short arms and deep pockets (Yes, yes I’m kidding! Sassenach, I know) and it was not long before we were tasting the water of life (uisge beatha) and visiting the prestigious Edinburgh botanic garden as well as the “secret garden” of Malleny, noted for its peace and tranquillity.
In Edinburgh, we walked down to Holyrood Palace and then wandered up the Royal Mile, pausing to buy gifts and souvenirs and visit a whisky shop, before reaching the castle at the top.
After exploring more of Edinburgh, seeing Greyfriars Bobby, we continued on, pausing to visit Dawyck Botanical Garden, before heading into Glasgow where we toured the city.
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