Photos from our last day in Edinburgh

Greg *did* have the digital camera, luckily! I was a little worried when I couldn't find it. Finally got the pictures from our last day in Edinburgh off of it. I sent in 17 rolls of film when we got back, so hopefully those will start trickling in. There are still 4 waiting for the extra film mailers I ordered.

This first one is the Palace of Hollyroodhouse.

Directly across the street is the new, ultra modern Scottish Parliament building (the one Greg said looked like it had teeth on the sidewalk in front of it.)

Looking down the Royal Mile. (Why did it always seem like we were walking *up* the Royal Mile?)

That's part of the castle (see our first day in Scotland) from a park down below.

This is from the same park, looking up at the Royal Mile. (The castle is to the right.)

Still in the park. Glad we got to appreciate all the daffodils while we were there, because ours were pretty much gone by the time we got home.

Greg took this one on his last tube ride. We should have used the digital camera to record a movie to capture the tube voice saying "Mind the gap. Mind the gap. Mind the gap. Mind the gap..." Next time. Right, Greg? ;)

Spring

Spring is here. I wore a winter coat every day while in Europe, and it was 80 when we landed in Greenville on Saturday night. It's been in the mid-80s all week, up until today. Yesterday actually set a record high.

The daffodils came and went while I was gone. I managed to snag a few pictures of the last few that were still looking ok. The pear trees are also blooming like crazy - they smell so funny; not good - and as the leaves come out and the flowers fall, it looks like it has been snowing in our driveway.

The pollen is horrendous. I honestly don't remember pollen like this back up north. The cars are just covered in a thick layer of yellowish-green. When it rains a little, it all runs into these yellowish-green puddles.

I've seen some tulips up in some of the neighbors' yards. Everything in our yard seems to bloom later than it does in the neighbors. So, hopefully that means it got cold enough for the tulips this winter. I was starting to worry.

Everything that we planted last year seems to have survived (well, except for the azalea that got taken out by the weedwacker. But that got replaced) except for the peonies that I really really wanted. Guess we'll be needing to fill in those spots.

This will be my first weekend this year with "pull weeds" as one of my chores on my list.

Lefty as an Alarm Clock

Lefty has always had this funny quirk, where she dips one of her front paws in the water dish and then licks it off instead of drinking directly from the bowl. Well, I usually keep a glass of water next to the bed. I thought it was pretty funny when the kittens fit their heads down in the glass and drink out of it (once I'm done. Drives me crazy when they beat me to it at night!). Yesterday morning, SOMEONE (I'm assuming Lefty, based on her little habit) dipped her paw in the water and then flicked it in my face. Twice.

Alright, alright, I'm awake. Thanks.

Airport Adventures

Back in Paris. I just checked, and Greg's flight from Gatwick says it is boarding. He rode with me to Heathrow this morning, and then took the train to Gatwick. He'll get to Atlanta before I do, but right now has a later scheduled flight back home. We each have a set of car keys (and a cell phone message telling me where the car is parked), but hopefully we'll get to meet up in Atlanta, and maybe even get on the same flight home.

Last Day

I am tired. Tired of not sleeping. Tired of carrying a purse around 24-7. Tired of not being able to find a purse that will stay on my shoulder. Tired of constantly having strangers’ elbows in my sides.

And I’m cranky. Friday didn’t start out so hot. We went for breakfast somewhere different, because we were (I was?) tired of Starbucks for breakfast. I had a breakfast sandwich with a fried egg on it, and in the first bite, I managed to pop the yolk, and get it both in my hair and on my scarf. I don’t know whether or not egg yolk comes out.

Afterwards, we walked all the way down the Royal Mile to the Palace of Hollyroodhouse. The whole experience reminded be of the Biltmore House in Asheville, but older and with more history. There weren’t a whole lot of rooms that you were allowed into, and the gardens were closed. It was kind of the opposite experience of the castle on Wednesday. There was a ton to see at the castle – more than I had expected-, and we didn’t see all of it. But there was less to see at the Palace than I had expected.

The Palace is right across the street from the new Parliament building, and stands in stark contrast to it – the new Parliament is one of the most modern buildings I’ve ever seen. It was really neat looking, except for the 1 ft tall rocks out front that Greg said looked like teeth.

Oh – no pictures for today. I’m at the airport now, and was surprised to realize I have no idea where the digital camera is. It got caught up in the flurry of repacking last night, and I’m hoping that Greg has it somewhere. I’ll try to post some when we get home.

We trudged back up the hill in search of lunch. Along the way, we found a Christmas store, and got an ornament of a snowman wearing a kilt. We finally settled on a lunch place called the Villager, slightly off the Royal Mile. I finally had some fish and chips.

We got some coffee (guess I wasn’t that sick of Starbucks) and went back to the new part of town and just looked around for a while. There’s a park in the gorge between the New Town and the castle, and we wandered around there for a while. The weather was a little funny all day – when the sun was out, you didn’t really want a coat. But as soon as the sun went in, you wanted a coat and (egg-crusted) scarf.

Finally had to head for the airport, though.

Sleep...

A million thanks to Greg for documenting yesterday. I walked into the hotel room last night and pretty much just passed out on the bed. I haven't been sleeping very well, still. I haven't really slept well since I've been in Europe, and it's pushing 3.5 weeks now. Hope this clears up once my head hits my own pillow. I'm usually a champion sleeper.

Rolls of film shot: 21

The Scottish Highlands

Assistant blogger Greg filling in again tonight. Here are the highlights from our tour today. We made it out the door with plenty of time and dropped by Starbucks for breakfast. The tour company was right across the street, so we waited until we saw the office doors open and a minibus show up outside. The minibus was fairly full, with a baker's dozen tourists and two guides. Normally, the guide is also the minibus driver, but our second guide today was training to learn this particular route. Most of us tourists were from the US, with one from Australia. there was another couple on the tour who were not around when the rest of us were talking about where "home" is. Both of our guides were from Scotland.

We headed out of the city towards the Highlands. We started on highway, but shortly afterwards switched to more rural roads. Our guides told us the population of Scotland is around 5 million, and of those, most live in the southern parts. We were headed north.

Our first stop of the day was for a rest stop at a gift shop. Sarah and I found some Scottish toys for our cats. We also had a chance to meet Hamish the Highland cow. His pasture borders the gift shop parking lot. Our tour guides assured us that despite being male, Hamish is referred to as a Highland cow, not a bull.

As we continued on, the roads became more twisty, and the mountains grew higher. We stopped several times on our way to Glencoe for photo opportunities and a chance to stretch our legs. The countryside seemed very empty of people. The road was the main sign of human presence, although our guides told us the land used to be forested. Over the years, the land has been cleared for timber to build ships, provide charcoal for use in the iron industry, and to clear the land for raising sheep. So despite looking empty, the signs of human impact were all around us.

Our guides were a wealth of information about Scottish history and culture. They also kept us entertained with traditional and modern music in the lulls between stories. Often the music mixed in with other world styles, including African and South American. One of our guides was quite the world traveler, even telling us a story about clearing airport security in South America with his bag pipes. They look quite curious in the X-ray, and further inspection is usually required. Often he ends up playing a song or two for security before they let him pass.

We were fortunate to have clear weather and were able to see the summit of Ben Nevis, the tallest mountain in the UK. Often the summit is hidden by clouds.

We continued on through the mountains to Glencoe, where we picked up the chain of lakes which include Loch Ness. A series of canals were built in the 1800s to connect the lakes and permit water travel through Scotland, rather than having to travel through the treacherous waters north of Scotland. Upon reaching the town of Fort Augustus, we stopped in a local store and grabbed a loaf of bread, some cheese, chips, and drinks at a store. With our lunch in hand, we boarded a boat for an hour cruise on Loch Ness. We left from right in front of the locks for the canal. Just in case there were no sightings of the real Loch Ness Monster, the boat provided this window sticker for photographs to remember our trip by.

On our way back to Edinburgh, we stopped at a Whiskey Center for free tastings of 3 different single malt whiskeys. We also stopped for tea and shortbread in the town of Pitlochry.

Upon returning to Edinburgh, it was getting late and we were feeling tired, so we decided to stay close for dinner. We returned to the pizza restaurant we had dinner at on Wednesday night.

No haggis in sight.

Didn't get quite an early start this morning. But we made it to Starbucks for some muffins and coffee before walking up the "Royal Mile" to the Edinburgh Castle. On the way up the hill, we got slightly sidetracked by the Folk Music store and picked up two new CDs.













We went up to the castle and walked around for a few hours. It was cold, but no snow today! We got the audio guides and wound our way to the top of the castle, which is up on the top of an old volcano. The views were incredible, from everywhere throughout the castle.











We had lunch at the castle (we both had a salad and some butternut squash soup with these little corn, chice, and chili pancakes. The soup really hit the spot today! After lunch, we tourned some of the exhibits on the prisoner of war quarters, and the prison within the castle. We also went into the military musuem before heading back towards town. We stopped in a couple of shops. I got a bracelet. There was also a goodwill sort of store on the main road specifically to provide funds for "pets in need of vets." They had some other stuff in there, and we picked up some mice for the kittens.

We walked some more before deciding we were tired and ready to sit down. We went for afternoon tea (shortbread for me, carrot cake for Greg) at a place called Always Sunday, then rested at the hotel for a while. We crossed the bridge to the "New Town" section and shopped for a little bit before ALL of the shops closed up at 6:00. We wandered for a while and found an Italian restuarant for dinner.

After dinner, we headed back to the hotel with a quick stop at the only store still open -- the "99 pence" store. Greg finally found a pair of sunglasses, and I got a new pair, too, even though I didn't need them. (Hm, that's what happened when he found gloves yesterday, too.) We stopped on the bridge right next to the hotel (North Bridge) to get some night pictures of the castle, all lit up.

Tomorrow is another tour day. We're headed for Glencoe, the Highlands, and Loch Ness.

Blogger is loading in "British"...

... and asking me whether I want my photos alligned to the left, right, or "centre." :)

Rolls of film shot: 16

London to Edinburgh

Hi there. Greg filling in tonight as assistant blogger. Sarah needed a night off. We are in Edinburgh tonight, just back from dinner.

We started out today with coffee and pastries at a shop down the road from our hotel in London. We hopped on the subway (District line to Monument Station) and walked across London Bridge. The bridge was showing no signs of falling down today or anytime soon! We were headed for the “Brittan At War Experience”, which is a museum featuring exhibits about life in London during World War II. After we crossed the bridge, Sarah noticed a cycling shop and we dropped in to look for gloves. I lost one of my gloves somewhere in London, and needed another pair, with the weather turning colder. Happily, I found some!

The Experience started with a movie about life during the bombings in London. The theater is modeled after an actual city air raid shelter. There are mannequins sleeping in bunks next to you as you sit in the theater. Next you move through exhibit rooms with everything from period clothing to newspaper clippings and even a gas mask you can try on for yourself. It was a very powerful exhibit. We were joined on our tour by an energetic group of school children. They enjoyed the gas masks and the bomb shelters, but seemed less interested in the rest of the exhibits. I remember those sort of school trips. :)

We took the subway back to the station by our hotel and returned to the Asian restaurant we had dinner at last night. It was so good we came back for more! One of the waiters recognized us and asked us if we lived in the neighborhood. We told him we were just visiting, but he gave us some coupons for a return visit!

Earlier this week, we spotted a sign on a mailbox near our house proclaiming “No Junk Mail”. Sarah snapped this picture after lunch today. Where can I get one of those?!?


We returned to the hotel to pick up our suitcases and said goodbye to our first London residence. We hopped onto the Piccadilly line for Heathrow to catch our flight to Edinburgh. While waiting at our gate, a storm blew through first with some rain and then some more snow. The ground stayed clear, though, and we were able to take off without trouble. We landed in Edinburgh, collected our bags, and caught a cab to the hotel. The sun was setting as we drove through the city. The light was beautiful shining at the castle up on the hill. After checking in, we walked around on “the Royal Mile” for a few blocks and decided on pizza for dinner. Now we have settled in for the evening, and are looking forward to some sightseeing tomorrow.

Winter Wonderland

Our first stop this morning (after Starbucks) was the Tower of London, where people were tortured and beheaded pretty regularly, which provided much entertainment to Londoners back in the day. We went on a Beefeaters tour, given by one of the guards of the tower. Their proper name is Yeoman Warder, but the guards were called Beefeaters at one point because they had rations of beef and beer from the king when beef was a luxury. It was pretty entertaining.

Not sure what has been going on with the weather, but on a couple of occasions during the tour, it started snowing briefly, and then the sun was back out. It was a weird day like that, snow showers and sun.

After the tour, we went to see the Crown Jewels at the tower. The history of a country this old is just incredible. It's strange to think about the history of England and all of its violence, deceit, and torture, and then tie it to the modern Queen Elizabeth. What must it be like to be connected to that history? (Although it sounds like the Princess Diana controversy still isn't settled, and many people would consider it to be full of violence, history, and deceit... Hm....)

There are 8 ravens at the Tower with their wings clipped (so they can't leave), and someone assigned to take care of them. Apparently, they moved in when the Tower was being built and it became bad luck to remove them. Plus, they took care of clean up.

We left the tower and walked across Tower Bridge and got some lunch at a little restaurant that was underneath the end of the bridge, so we were right on the water and had views back to the Tower. I had a baguette with smoked salmon, cream cheese, and cucumbers, and Greg has some authentic shepherd's pie.








One thing that I noticed while we were walking around London the first day, and particularly when we were driving through the Cotswolds on Sunday is that there are daffodils everywhere! Driving through the countryside, there were patches and patches of them, some neat and orderly, some looking like they were just spread by seeds and sprouted up wherever they landed. (Having planted hundreds of bulbs in our front yard, I can attest that they surely aren't spread by seed!) But they're just beautiful!



We took the tube back to the Sloan Square/Knightsbridge area to do some shopping. We went to H&M (yes, in the US, too, but none near us) looking for a pair of gloves and some sunglasses for Greg, but I ended up doing all of the shopping - a hat, some hair clips, a few necklaces. Then we went to Harrod's, the big fancy department store. Still no luck on the glove front, but we got a couple of souvenirs - some British tea, and a set of Easter finger puppets... for the cats! We passed up the *adorable* (but impractical) cat dish in the Harrod's window.

I had read a little bit about Harrod's in the guide book, and on the first floor (which Greg later remarked couldn't all be ONE floor), there's a huge "food hall." It's essentially a grocery store within the department store - with everything from fruits and vegetables and flowers to a sushi bar. When we were walking around outside, I remarked that it smelled like doughnuts. Greg thought I was a little crazy, but later on we found that the food hall also had a Krispy Kreme counter! We (barely) bypassed that, but did indulge at the ice cream counter. Greg had a coffee milkshake, and I had this monstrous berry sundae, with vanilla and strawberry ice cream and fresh blackberries, raspberries, and blueberries on top.

We went to walk off the ice cream, but at this point we realized that it probably would have been smarter to have had hot chocolate than ice cream! The sun was going down, and it was a bit blustery. Still, I wanted to walk through Hyde Park just to do it. As we got to the park entrance, I felt sprinkles of rain, but chose to ignore them. By the time we had gotten 500 feet further, we were in the middle of a big, blustery snow shower! (The picture is from the very beginning of the snow 'shower.') The flakes were big and fat and wet, and judging from previous experiences, we thought, "it's just another passing shower. it won't last long. let's keep going" Hm, not so much. It was FREEZING with the wind and big snowflakes hitting your face. This is more winter than either of us had seen in years! It was kind of funny really, as we tried to make our way through the park, moving my scarf further and further up to cover my face. There's a really pretty memorial to Princess Diana in the park - a little stream monument - that we looked at quickly, but had to keep moving!

We crossed the park, and finally the snow shower passed. We ended up walking along the edge of the park into Notting Hill. Our plan was to eat dinner here, but, after a quick detour through the book store, we decided to head back for the hotel. (The snow was picking up again, and we were cold and wet and still hadn't found anywhere to eat dinner.) We decided on a Japanese restuarant right near the hotel called Wagamama. It was SO good. I was starving, and it just hit the spot. I was also rather pleased with myself for managing to eat the whole meal using chopsticks! IWe had some edamame (my new favorite snack) and fried dumplings, and then I had the yaki soba, a noodle dish with chicken and shrimp and vegetables and I'm not sure what else, but it was good! Greg had the yaki udon (I think... he's asleep now!), which was good too, but a little bit spicier. We had some green tea with dinner, and 'still' water from a wine bottle.

Back to the hotel to repack. We leave for Scotland on Tuesday afternoon... hoping the weather cooperates! It sounds like there have been lots of wind delays. I was just beat on Monday night, so it's actually Tuesday morning now. Looks like we will miss the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace, because it's only done on every other day in the winter, and was just done on Monday. Oh well - have to save it for next time!

Happy Mums Day!

Today is Mother's Day in the UK. Happy Mums Day!

5000 years in one day.

Rain showers first thing had me a bit concerned, but it cleared up again quickly, and we had another sunny day. There were some ocassional sprinkles during the day, but nothing too bad.

We went to Stonehenge first thing this morning, and it was ferociously windy, to the point where you really fell like you were going to fall over. Stonehenge is on a big plane, without a lot of wind barriers. On the way there, we saw a sign for Legoland on the highway, and both Greg and I almost demanded that the bus pull over. Sigh... so much to see, so little time. We were going to make it historical and build our own Stonehenge. You know, bridge the 5000 year time period we were covering today.

After that, we went to Bath to see the remains of the ancient Roman baths. It was pretty amazing to see the remains that were so old. The floors were all gone, but you could see the under floors, where there were stacks of flat, square stones to separate the floors from the heated subfloors. The bath itself is uncovered now, so it was full of nasty slime. On the way out, though, you could buy a glass of the pure (warm!) mineral water. Greg and I shared one, to take advantage of its natural healing powers... Verdict's still out, but it tasted pretty bad. But, hey, legend has it that it cured leprosy, so it's worth it.

At both Stonehenge and the Baths, we got audio tours, but one of the super cool things about Bath was that there was the traditional tour, but there was also a Bill Bryson commentary, which was much more interesting.

We picked up a quick lunch to eat on the bus as we headed through the Cotswolds to Stratford-upon-Avon (brie, tomato and basil on a baguette). The Cotswolds, as I learned today, are a series of small little 'market' towns on these green rolling hills. It's so incredible how old some of the houses and buildings are here. The area is so green - just grasses (and sheep) on the hills for as far as you can see. All of the farms are divided by miles and miles of hedges. There are some huge manor houses that we passed that were just incredible.


The towns in the Cotswolds all seemed to have really cool names, and it was neat to see some of the names of the 'original' towns before they were imported to New England, like the village of Pennsylvania. There was also Stow-on-the-Wold, Moreton-in-Marsh, Bourton-on-the-Water. As we were driving through one of the little towns, there was a warning sign -- the same one used for water fowl crossings, deer crossings, etc, that said "Elderly People." Too funny.



About two hours after we left Bath, we arrived in Stratford-upon-Avon and went to Shakespeare's birth place. I learned that Avon is just an old English word for river, so there are lots of "Avons" in England. We went through the museum and the house. I got a mug that has a bunch of Shakespearean insults on it (there was a set of magents, too, but I thought the mug was more ... practical.) A sampling... "O gull, O dolt, as ignorant as dirt" "I do desire we may be better strangers." "Elvish-mark'd abortive, rooting hog" "All the infections that the sun sucks up." "Beetle-headed flap-eared knave" "No so much brain as ear wax" "A fusty nut with no kernel" "Canker-blossom." Ok, *I* thought it was funny.





On a small side street near the musuem, we found these phrases in the sidewalk. Anyone know what they reference? A children's book???

We stopped for tea and scones (with clotted cream) before heading back to London. The traffic on the way back was pretty painful, a parking lot at several points. By the time we got back to the hotel, it was nearly 9 and we hadn't eaten dinner. We decided to stay close to the hotel again and went to the Goumet Burger Kitchen (we figured that only somebody really desperate would be taking their mum to a burger restaurant at 9pm on Mother's Day). The burgers were literaly 6 inches tall, and it wouldn't fit in your mouth. I tried an avocado and bacon burger, and all of the avocado ended up smushed up onto the plate by the 2nd or 3rd bite. But it was good, and we shared some fries dipped in blue cheese sauce. When we got there, it was pretty empty, and we figured we'd be closing it down, but it filled up after we got there. Didn't look like any mums, though.

Did you know...

...that the Thames has tides? The river was extremely low this morning. I'd never seen a river with such dramatic tides.

Rolls of film shot: 13

Look kids, it's Big Ben.

Luckily, Greg arrived before I did on Friday and figured out where the hotel was, how to get there, how the underground worked ... because by the time I got in last night, I was totally exhausted and brain dead and just needed to be told what to do. I slept like a log last night.











We got up at a decent hour today, and stopped at a coffee shop for breakfast. We got our Oyster passes (after a painfully long wait in line), and then headed into town. We walked by Parliament and Big Ben, and then headed for the London Eye. The line looked a bit daunting, but actually moved pretty quickly. It was really cool - very smooth, and with great views. Afterwards, we stopped for a quick snack - a sweet Wonder Waffle.


Today was probably the warmest day that we're going to get while we're here. It started a little cloudy, but after we got out of the Eye, it cleared up, and was sunny all afternoon.









After the Eye, we went for a bit of a walk, past Tony Blair's house (he was in a meeting and couldn't take our call), and the horse guard. (We're saving Buckingham Palace and the changing of the guard for another day.) We wandered to Picadilly Circus and had lunch at a place called Tiger Tiger. It was mostly Asian cuisine, and mine was a bit spciy. Kind of frustrating that I couldn't get a glass of water until I was halfway done with my meal. Makes me think the American tipping system may be on to something.

All of the Irish pubs have been packed all day, as it is St. Patrick's Day. People wearing silly hats and spilling out of bars onto the sidewalks. Makes me feel old. I still remember going to the "Cheers" bar in Boston with Isabelle on St. Patrick's day right after we both turned 21.

After lunch, we went to HMV, a CD/DVD, etc store and found lots of good stuff. We got a bunch of CDs - some were used, some were new, but somehow altogether they averaged less than $10 US each. We got Johnny Cash, Counting Crows, Eric Clapton, Tracy Chapman, Sarah McLachlan, Genesis, Peter Gabriel, James Blunt, KD Lang... finally we had to leave before we found any more!






We wandered towards Covent Gardens, a big market apparently. It was packed and hard to look at anything without getting shoved. There were also a bunch of street performances going on with big circles of people watching. I never quite figured it out, but there were lots of Punch and Judy references on buildings and in the guide book. Finally managed to get this picture in a quieter alley ... where we found the best chocolate chip cookies ever!



By then we were exhuasted, and came back to the hotel and took a nap. We woke up around 7pm, and went for dinner at an Italian place called Zizzi. The area that the hotel is in is really great. It's nearly residential, but right around the corner from an underground stop. We're in Kensington, near the Earl's Court stop. It's got a very 'neighborhood' feel and is mostly residential, with a bunch of little restaurants and shops on the main road. But not nearly as crowded and overwhelming as downtown London. Our hotel room is tiny, but nice. We've got windows that open onto a small garden courtyard behing the hotel. I knew nothing about the hotel or area when I picked them online, so we got pretty lucky.

Tomorrow is our big tour day -- we'll be gone all day to Stonehenge, Bath, the Cotswolds, and Stratford-upon-Avon. Can't wait!