England Pt. 1

I visited England with my parents 10 years ago and pretty much, with some exceptions, hated it. I got very sick and had a terrible attitude as well. So honestly, while I was looking forward to going there again, I had low expectations.

I now am totally in love with England. I want to go back. It's so beautiful. The people are nice.

Everything is way too expensive, that is the only downside (oh, and for some reason the teeth really are in very bad disrepair, and they don't give you much water to drink for your meals either, and their roads are way too thin, and their radio choices are terrible. . .) But truly, they are a people who protect and conserve the natural beauty that God has blessed them with. We drove 5 hours from London to Devon and all we saw was green and then the ocassional village. No suburban sprawl, no new construction spreading into the woods and fields. As Darby said, "It makes you feel better about the world knowing that places like this exist." It's like the Shire or something.

Since I don't want to overwhelm the log, I'll post the Devon pictures first, and the Cornwall pictures at a later date.


Landscape of Dartmoor. Dartmoor is an incredible protected area in Devon that is all sweeping hills (called Moors) and rock formations (called Tors). There are wild horses and ponies that roam freely, and sheep and goats as well. It's an amazing place.

An example of the numerous Tors. These are not manmade. Can you believe that? We climbed on top of one of them and the wind was incredibly strong up there and we got a little frightened (we never claimed to be mountainmen). We heard that on top of the highest Tor in Dartmoor there is built a stone church. We didn't have time to find that, but it's on our list of things to find when we return.

Sheep at Dartmoor

More Dartmoor. The sky was constantly changing. All of the Dartmoor pictures were taken in the space of about 2 hours, and I didn't adjust the colors -- the sky was just always changing colors and clouds and looks.

Stone is so prevelant that it's no wonder that all the houses are made of it.

The areas are seperated by the nicest stone walls. Nobody that I asked knew when they were built nor who built them. One woman guessed "farmers," "a long time ago."

I mentioned the wild horses, and you can see them silhoutted here on top of the hill. I ran up this hill for a while without thinking things through and my legs were torn up by some plants, like stinging nettles but worse. Oh man it hurt.

Another picture of Dartmoor's landscape.

Proof that Dartmoor made us happy. I think this is an interesting picture, because our faces look like faces of children, free of the second thoughts, the doubts, the concerns, the ulterior motives, the distractions that adults so often suffer. . .

The wedding we attended was in a cathedral built in 1200 AD. I particularly like some of the gravestones and thought that Sacred described the setting perfectly. Darby and I sang "Can't Help Falling in Love" and "And I love her" during the ceremony, which was quite an honor. Singing a Beatles song in a 13th Century Cathedral in England. . . kind of surreal.

Since generally the populace was illiterate back when the cathedrals were built, much of the gospel and truths of the scriptures are pictorially displayed in the stained glass windows and throughout the sanctuary.

I found Ian's kindred spirit! He made much more than $7 though. . . he's a better panhandler.

More sheep. It's funny, because Darby and I did a horrible job of planning for this trip (hadn't even booked anywhere to stay or decided where we were going until 1 week prior), and yet everything worked out perfectly. Whenever I would ask Darby where she wanted to stay in England and what she wanted to see, she said, "I want to see peaceful hills with lots of sheep." We saw that for sure.