Shrewsbury

Since I can't figure out how to upload a photo to my profile, here is a photo of me with my husband Bill and Charles Darwin. We recently went on a (very expensive) trip to the UK. We were driving through England, Scotland and Wales with my brother- without really much of an agenda, and just happened to decide to stop in Shrewsbury for the night. Coming into town, there were big signs saying "Welcome to Shrewsbury; the Birthplace of Darwin." Kind of exciting for a car full of atheists/ humanists/ Brights, etc. (well, I'm not sure that my brother was all that excited, but then he IS an engineer).

I'm actually from England originally, and have been back several times over the years-this time we were there for my Grandfather's 99th birthday. Bill is an archeologist who has never been off the North American continent (ok-he's been to Hawai'i, but that doesn't count), and he wanted to see as many historic and prehistoric things as we could cram into three weeks. We had planned to go to Stonehenge, Hadrian's Wall, Edinburgh, the British Museum, the Natural History Museum, the Tower of London, the HMS Victory, Bath, and as many castles, cathedrals, and abbeys, ruined or otherwise, as we could, but Shrewsbury was a bonus!

We never did get to Portsmouth to see the Victory.

Reminder to self: NEVER visit England again during the half-term break. The entire City of London was crawling with kids. The Underground was packed all day, and we couldn't get more than halfway through the Natural History Museum. We gave up and went to a pub.