Castles and Kilts with Kids Three

Before we left for our family trip with Trafalgar Tours I was so busy tying up loose ends up at work, I didn't really spend a lot of time studying the itinerary. So every morning when we settled in on the bus, I was always excited about where we were headed to next.

Here are a few of the cool stops we made in the English countryside.

I guess history was never a strong suit of mine. I never realized how much Roman history was still strewn around the British countryside.

We spent time at the Roman Baths in the city of...you guessed it...Bath. It was fascinating meandering through the museum and the hot baths which have been maintained for the past 2,000 years. Boggles the mind. It was fun fooling around with a couple of actors who portrayed Romans from that era, as they interacted with us in character.

With a rock'n roll daddy, Liverpool was a highlight for us because of the Beatles. Our tour director Phil has apparently met the Fab Four and shared little tidbits about them along the way. For example, Liverpool rakes in between 4 to 500 million pounds a year from Beatles tourism! That's a lot of magical mystery tours.

Walking down the stairs to the Cavern Club was quite a trip.

My mom went camera crazy in Liverpool and put together this bunch of photos all about the Beatles from that day.

But Liverpool is more than the Beatles. Loved this art installation by Antony Gormley who scattered 100 life sized Iron Men along Crosby Beach.

The next two stops on our journey I'd never have heard about if not for Trafalgar Tours, who surprised us to some very cool destinations.

The first was Tatton Park - a neo-classical mansion perched amidst hundreds of acres of gorgeous land. Once the home of very wealthy landowners, it's become a living museum. A Butler and Housekeeper in character toured us through this incredible estate in character as if it were 1800's. Even the kids were riveted. If you've ever read Pride and Prejudice, this was Mr. Darcy's Pemberly manor house come to life.

The days were long and filled with adventure. Travelling by coach gave us time to sneak in some much needed sleep.

Last memorable stop in England was the Roman Vindolanda archeological dig and museum in Northumberland. Under a farmer's field in the British coutryside, an ancient Roman army fort was discovered. We listened to an archaeologist who painted a picture of what life might of been like 2,000 years ago based on the thousands of artifacts they've dug up already.

Then we headed to Hadrian's Wall - a 113 km long stone wall built by the Roman Emperor Hadrian in 122 AD to separate the Romans and the Barbarians. The wall still stands today and tourists like us "walk the wall". However, I must say, my heart was in my mouth watching my kids hop and skip along the top of it, as the footing was rocky and the wall was steep. But, that's just the neurotic mother in me overthinking. Look at these amazing photos!