Friday, December 31, 2010

HAPPY HOGMANAY!

Friday morning, we woke up a bit early and hit the showers before most everyone else in the hostel was awake. Bazpackers (www.bazpackershostel.co.uk). is an awesome place, a true hostel experience with an incredibly welcoming lounge that everyone hangs out around the fire. I actually heard a few people say that the fireplace was the clencher when deciding on which hostel to book. Excellent place.

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So, we left early, and it was still quite dark. We were headed to Stirling and it was slated to take about 2.5 hours, but part way along the route, I heard reports of heavy freezing fog, black ice, and an accident that I believe was on our route. I saw a sign for a scenic route to Stirling, and having not eaten any breakfast, I decided to head that way. It seems that no one in Scotland eats breakfast except on the weekends and only after 10. I was very difficult to to find anything to eat, and in Karen's opinion more importantly we couldn't find coffee. We stopped in this little village that had 3-4 coffee shops as we drove through. Nothing was open, except the least appealing looking coffee shop, and their menu was so small and nothing looked appealing. We went to the Co-op and bought a few pastries. We stopped by the coffee shop and got Karen a cup of coffee that she described as mediocre. Back on the road!

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I wanted to reach Stirling by 12:00, so even with the detour and the long stop looking for breakfast, I was happy to arrive just at 12:30. We drove by the Old Bridge a few times to get some pictures of it; unfortunately, we could not find a way to get to the bridge to get any stills, nor was there any parking nearby. It was pretty neat to see though.

(this picture is the NEW bridge)
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After passing the bridge a few times, we headed to the National Wallace Monument. IN-CRED-I-BLE! This thing is cool as heck. I had no idea that it was 150 years old! Seeing the tower itself was really cool, but we decided to head up to it. After a fairly steep 10 minute walk up to the monument, we headed up the stairs. Karen had missed the sign saying that the monument had 246 stairs in it, and I had no idea that 90% of them are tight and small spiral stairs. It was pretty intense, the passages were really tight, and there is only one way up and down. The tower is 4 and a half levels highs, and each level is quite high. You would go up about 40 stairs in this amazingly tight spiraling corridor hoping that no one would be coming down and then quickly dart into the room for that floor to get out of others way. The first floor has William Wallace's sword in it as well as a history of his life and the battle of Stirling. The next level up was the Hall of Heroes, which contained a bunch of busts of people important to maintaining the Independence of Scotland. I have no idea what this room was really about as you pretty much had to have the audio supplement for this part of the part. Fortunately, the book we bought has pictures and descriptions of everyone in this room.

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After this room, Karen's began to get very claustrophobic and creeped out by the heights we were at. She decided to go back down and I headed up. The next level was a room showcasing the history of building the tower and places around the world that had tributes to William Wallace. I spent the most time in this room reading about the history, it was intriguing. I then pressed onward to the roof top area. The first level of the roof pops you out onto an outer terrace that has these holes in the wall to glance around Stirling. The next level up is a large platform that has a great view of Stirling and the surrounding areas. The view of the river is amazing, but it was quite cold!

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I made my way down to ground level again and quickly checked out the gift shop. After a quick look around, Karen and I walked back down to the parking lot and checked out the gift shop here. We got a few things, and got a stuffed Highland Cow to accompany Mr. Prickles. They are part of a threesome of friends, also including Nessie! I think we are going to bring Mr. Prickles along to find regional friends from now one.

By now, it was about 1:45, so we headed to the hotel to check in. We got checked in, dropped out bags and went to grab some lunch. There was a big restaurant next door called the Eating Inn. It is apparently part of a chain of restaurants/pubs that are more geared toward families and have two large play areas. I was actually quite surprised, I was afraid from the moment we walked in that I wasn't going to like it. They didn't have a bunch of vegetarian selections, but I settled on the veg lasagna. Karen manned up...... She got HAGGIS!!! It took a long time for our food to come, and I think Karen wanted to strangle two of the kids seated near us, but the food was pretty dang good. My lasagna was nice and light, with a good salad, and filling. Karen immensely enjoyed her haggis. It was served with mashed potatoes (not great) and bashed neeps (mashed turnips) that we bought thought were pretty good. Desert was apple pie for me that was fairly decent, and sticky toffee pudding for Karen. The pudding (which is a cake covered in sticky sauce, not pudding as in America) was AMAZING. I wish I had tried this before, it was great. I can now say that the Haagen-Dazs ice cream from two years ago was amazingly close in taste as well!
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We went back to the hotel and I crashed for a few hours. Karen relaxed and then got ready for Hogmanay before waking me up. We left the hotel around 8-8:30 and headed toward the castle and downtown area. We found a decent parking space and headed to a restaurant called the Filling Station. Karen ordered a lasagna that she said was okay, and I had a tomato, mozzarella, and basil sandwich. The sandwich was also okay. Karen ordered garlic bread to go with her lasagna, and ended up being a 10 inch pizza crust with butter and garlic. It was really tasty. On to Hogmanay!

Walking up the hill was a bit of a relief for me, as we were eating dinner, there was an amazing number of young woman dressed in the most embarrassingly revealing clothing, and I was really concerned that I was getting us into something that we had no idea what it was. Fortunately, the crowd moving to the castle was significantly different, and more normal with exception of the awesome kilts, and the girls were all headed to the clubs. As we got onto the castle grounds, Madnish (www.madnish.co.uk), billed as the best Madness tribute band in Scotland (there is more than one?!!?! AWESOME!) was playing. Each band was only given about 30-35 minutes on stage, so I think we saw most of their set and they were great! Baggy Trousers, Our House, Night Boat to Cairo and more awesome classics. It was great!

The next guy that came out is this somewhat controversial guy that was on this Idol style show called X-Factor. His name is Wagner Carrilho (or something like that) and he is a Brazilian living in England, a retired gym coach. He has a unique look, long hair and a goatee, neck bracelet (traditional Native American style) and generally wears tight pants. He is a singer and a bongo player, and in my opinion, not very good. Apparently, he was sort of like William Hung on X-Factor, but some people actually like him. It was weird, and we were both glad to see him off the stage. The next band was this guy Darius Campbell that is a cheesy lounge singer, apparently he is somewhat popular as well. Didn't really care for him. The last band, on stage to welcome in the New Year was a Scottish fusion band mixing traditional and rock called Skerryvore (www.skerryvore.com). They were great, we both liked them immensely. Excellent mix of new stuff and old stuff, great mix of instruments, and a pretty good singer. They had a fiddle player, accordion player, and another accordion player that also played bagpipes. Great show.

As midnight struck, everyone counted down and then an awesome fireworks display was launched from the castle. People all over the city began launching Chinese lanterns, it looked like some sort of alien assault and was amazingly beautiful. Everyone sang some traditional song that I recognized and Karen actually knew some of the words, and these awesome dances broke out everywhere. Large groups of people would cross there arms and then link hands in a huge circle and they would dance into a tight circle and expand back outward. It was great to see so many people having fun, grabbing strangers and swinging them and having so much fun. It was awesome. Skerryvore got back on stage and finished up their set, and then we took off back toward the car. Loads of people were on the streets, wishing New Year out of windows, and having a good old time. The nice thing was that I saw only a few truly drunk people. It was a great way to welcome the New Year. I hope to Celebrate Hogmanay again some day.

Tomorrow we are headed back to London.

More pictures from today: http://s290.photobucket.com/albums/ll256/sandalscout/GB%202010-2011/Dec%2031-Stirling%20and%20Hogmanay/?start=all

Thursday, December 30, 2010

Too much science, not enough Nessie!

- That would be what Karen said after the Nessie Exhibit today. But first....

We started this morning off a little later than I wanted to, but it was still dark out when I got up. That makes it much easier to sleep in, or just lay around and chill out, check email, etc. By the time we finally got up, ate breakfast and got over to the reception building it was about 30 minutes later than I wanted, but the building was locked up. We went and got Karen some coffee and killed about 45 minutes.

Walked back to the hostel, but it was still locked. We finally found a doorbell and dropped the key off. On the road again! Along the way, just by coincidence, I saw a castle out of the corner of my eye. It was the famous Castle Stalker, a really neat keep on a small island. You may have seen it in Monty Python and the Holy Grail. It was not open due to season and tidal access issue, but we whipped around and took several good photos of it.

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Our second stop of the day was Glenfinnan Viaduct, which some of you may remember from the Harry Potter films. It's the railroad platform that the Hogwart's Express uses several times and it the arched platform that Harry and Ron fly the Ford Anglia around when trying to find the train. I was a little disappointed with it, but it was still cool. It was wet out, so the structure was really dark, unlike in the films. The base of it is private property, and there was a bunch of junks (old cars and stuff) stacked up near it, making it hard to get a good picture. Still, overall, a really awesome area.

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We then headed toward Loch Ness! The village at the southwestern end of Loch Ness, Fort Augustus is supposed to be a really good place to shop, especially for Scottish wool products, tartans, and kilts. I have this strange desire to buy a kilt, but while the price is quite affordable here (about £50, versus the £400 I've seen online), I have absolutely no idea where I will ever where one. I think that one would be nice for hiking, but I think I'd prefer a Utili-Kilt if I'm going to spend that much money on clothing. So, we drove through Ft. Augustus, seeing our first signs for Loch Ness attractions, inns that the word "Inn" was shaped to look like Nessie. We drove along the Loch for the first 15 miles or so, Karen had her eyes peeled the entire time. She didn't see much, not even a penguin, but quite a diligent eye open while we rolled into Castle Urquhart. The castle was built in the 13th century, and I honestly don't know more than that, as we decided to pass on visiting it. We took some pictures, but didn't feel like walking through another ruined castle in the rain, so we went just a few more miles to the village of Drumnadrochit to visit the Loch Ness exhibits, gift shops, and the like.

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Our first shop was a small gift shop to take the obligatory shots with their Nessie sculpture. We picked up some souvenirs, including a pin with the crossed flags of Scotland (St. Andrew's Cross and Royal Standard of Scotland) and a Tartan scarf made with the Tartan known as the Pride of Scotland. I dig it a lot!

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After wrapping up at the gift shop, we headed to the Loch Ness Exhibition Centre (www.3dlochness.com/loch-ness-2000.htm). We took some even better photos of their Nessie statue, and Karen snapped several of their small submarine that was placed right outside of the exhibit.

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We stepped inside the exhibit and were prepared to be shown something impressive. Unfortunately, this did not happen. It was a 6 room multimedia display that had us asking more questions than when we came in. The weird thing about it was that guy that ran the place, wrote a book about the mystery, and also heads the most current research team looking for more proof of Nessie (and was actually working behind the curtain at the reception desk) seems to actually want to find Nessie, but all of the presentation was mostly evidence as to why something of that size would not be able to live in the Loch and explained most of the sightings as something other than a monster. Oh well, sort of a bummer.

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We left the exhibit and made our way to Inverness. Inverness turned out to be a lot larger than I expected. The road layout in Inverness was also VERY confusing to me (I never felt this way anywhere else in Britain). We finally found the hostel and then finally found parking nearby and made out way in. After checking in, dropping our bags and relaxing in the lounge, I struck up a conversation with a German guy that was also staying in the hostel. Seemed like a nice guy. We made our way down the block to a tapas restaurant called La Tortilla Asesina (www.latortillaasesina.co.uk). SOOOOO GOOOOOD! I've never eaten in a Spanish restaurant before, and have never had Tapas. Little food is awesome! We really enjoyed the meal, it was extremely tasty. We had chickpea salad, spinach croquettes, stuffed peppers (AWESOME!), Moorish couscous, tiny roasted peppers, and sauteed mushrooms and Karen had ham and cheese croquettes as well. I think it may have been my favorite meal in Britain! We headed back to the hostel and chilled out some more in the lounge. Karen went up to the room to read after a while, and I stayed up until about 11:00 (not late, but we had to be up early and it was a long day) talking with a group of people from all over the world (Australia, Finland, Germany, Brazil, France, and Scandinavia). It was a really great experience that I hope to repeat one day!

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Tomorrow we will be headed to Stirling to see the National Wallace Monument and celebrating Hogmanay at Stirling Castle. And who knows, maybe I'll buy a kilt tomorrow?

More pics from today: http://s290.photobucket.com/albums/ll256/sandalscout/GB%202010-2011/Dec%2030-Oban-Loch%20Ness-Inverness/?start=all

Wednesday, December 29, 2010

TV and Radio in the UK

Radio is a bizarre phenomena on this isle. From everything I've seen, there are only a handful of radio stations here at all. There is literally BBC 1-4, Heart, and a few more stations that I would classify as "wide spread." They are assigned ranges and broadcast within those areas. As you move about, you'll begin to lose signal on one frequency, so you simply tune to another frequency in that range to pick it up again. The programs are geared toward everyone, everywhere on the island. BBC 1, for example, is broadcast from 97.7 to 99.7 and during the day plays popular music, with genre specific shows into the night. BBC is very similar, as is Heart and the other wide broadcast stations. BBC 3 seems to focus on classical, opera and Jazz, while BBC Classic is classical music. BBC 4 is mostly arts, culture, and news.

In addition to these long broadcast stations, we've found a handful of regional stations. There is a BBC Welsh and BBC Gaelic in those respect languages (Cymru and Gael). There is a BBC Scotland and I think a few in other major cities. What is odd is that in addition to these stations, we've literally seen only 2 other stations. One is a local variety station based out of Oban, and according to a Radio Maps website, the only station to service the 90,000 people that live in the Argyll and Bute area. The other was a rock station that I think was based out of Glasgow. The variety of stations focusing on specific genres of music that we are so used to in America is almost non-existent here. It's quite weird!

TV was a weird disappointment for me. We've seen a handful of new things that are good, but most of the British TV shows are pretty bad, even to the people that live here. Most of the TV on the air here is imported from America. Scrubs is vastly popular, The Simpsons are on regularly, Friends, and How You Meet My Mother and in demand as well. Many of the movies on TV and advertised here are, understandably, from Hollywood. The movies that I've seen advertised that are from the UK are generally quite bad looking. Understandably, Bollywood films are in high demand around the island.

It's a PENGUIN! TURN AROUND!

Yep - It's true!!!! Karen saw a penguin today! In Scotland! In a river, no less. There it was, standing in all of it's Great Cormorant splendor! hahahahaha, never mind that penguins don't live in this hemisphere. It's was awesome. She made me turn around and go look at it myself. It looked like a heavy heron. It was neat, but penguin?!?!?!

Apart from this massive excitement in the car, it was a pretty chill day. We left the Urr Lodge this morning after sleeping in, and attempted to locate a laundrette in nearby Castle Douglas after some quick shopping at Tesco for food and laundry soap. We FINALLY found the place, and it was drop-off only, no self service. BOO! Anyway, we got on the road and took the scenic route instead of the motorway. If was a nice, but very foggy ride toward Glasgow. Suddenly, outside of Kilmarnock, the sun began poking through in the distance. By the town we passed through Kilmarnock, the fields around us were awash in light, rich green fields lit up for the first time in days. I think we have literally seen sunlight for two short periods the entire time we've been here. It was great, really made us realize we had missed the sun.

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By the time we reached Glasgow a short while later, the sun had disappeared, replaced by a misty fog, thicker than any fog I've ever experienced at 1:00 in the afternoon, and heavier than it had been thus far on the trip. It was really thick, visibility was down to maybe 100 yards, at best. Passing through Glasgow was pretty easy, we sort of just looped around the west side of the city, and then headed toward Loch Lomond. This area was a large park region, as well as a popular tourist destination. There were a bunch of fancy looking hotels, as well as a bunch of signs indicating mountain hiking and mountain biking were popular here. Looks like a great area to visit in the summer.

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As we approached the Loch itself, we were pretty well floored. The "major" road here was extremely twisty; it seemed to take about an hour to drive the 17 miles on the map. It was curvy with good reason though, it followed right along next to the lake, tracing the bank, and shadowing the mountains. Magnificent! We stopped at a small gift shop that was near a very interesting power station. Water is stored in a mountain top lake and when more electricity is needed valves in these pipes leading to the generator at the base of the mountain are opened to power turbines. Very cool! We saw cars in the parking lot from the Netherlands and Romania! Steering wheel was on the correct side and everything.

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As we headed toward Oban, our destination for the night, we were following a faster but still curvy road. The landscape opened up some and we were in a wide valley. The mountains still rose up around us. There was a juvenile braided river running in the valley, and it was quite nice. This is the river that Karen spotted her penguin in! Classic!

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As we approached Oban, we began seeing signs of a fishing industry and larger bodies of water. Oban lies on the Firth of Lorn which in turn joins the Atlantic Ocean. Apparently, there is good seafood in the area. We rolled into Oban, literally rounding a corner above the town, looking out over the wharf and houses faces the waterfront. Very picturesque. We drove through the town, excited to see a small but busy stretch of shops, food stores, coffee shops, restaurants and pubs. After looping through town and finding the check-in for Backpacker's Plus (www.backpackersplus.com), we parked and headed inside. A quick phone call to the manager and we then hung out in the rec room until she arrived. A huge bonus, they do laundry! £2.50 a load, and the loads are big. They were able to do all of our laundry in one load, so we gave then the bottle of laundry gel we bought this morning. We had no need for it any more.

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We got checked in, dropped our bags in the room, and took a walk around town. We did some window and real shopping, and then decided to eat out tonight instead of cooking. We found a weird Curry/Fish/Pizza/Kebab joint that actually looked good. Karen got Rogan Josh Curry and rice, and it was AWESOME. Probably the best Indian-style food since we got here, in my opinion. I got a veggie pizza that was GREAT, even if it had corn on it. I also got tikka potatoes that were very tasty. The two definitely hit the spot, and the price was quite decent.

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Oh, while we were in the restaurant, the news was on, and the weather lady actually said that Northern England and Scotland were due for an "Outbreak of drizzle." Really? Outbreak? That implies something bad, not drizzle. Weirdos. I'm really concerned for these people, if they get real weather, they are going to be in for a real shock. It is LITERALLY 40 degrees right now and was probably close to 50 at some point today.

We are currently chilling out in our room, uploaded photos, and watching some TV. We've got to go get our clothes in a little while, and I think we may hit up the Irish pub down the street for a bit as well.

Tomorrow, LOCH NESS!!!!!!

More pictures from today: http://s290.photobucket.com/albums/ll256/sandalscout/GB%202010-2011/Dec%2029-Castle%20Douglas%20to%20Oban/?start=all

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

A note on cars and driving in Great Britain

As many of you know, I'm a bit of a car nut, so I thought I'd sure my thoughts on the cars here, the different cars that I've seen, and initial thoughts on driving.

There are so many cars available here that are not likely to be on sale in the US any time soon. There are entire niches and classes that do not even exist in the United States that are here. It's nuts! Obviously, there are a ton of small cars that are not in the US, but I am a bit surprised I've not seen a bunch of smarts. We've seen some, and a lot more than I would in the US, just not as many as expected. There are cars in the same class, or really close, that we have seen quite a few of. The Toyota Aygo, Ford KA, Fiat 600, and the like. I dig them, they fit a specific need and even more so than in the US address the needs of most of the drivers on the road.

Moving into the compact classes, it's amazing the variety here and it also shames the brands that are available in the US. Looking at the Ford UK and Vauxhall (General Motors) divisions based in the UK it's easy to see why their American cousins are struggling. The model Ford range in Europe is smart, sexy, and from what I can see, affordable. The Focus is part of that range, and obviously enjoyed great success in the States, but the other offerings here (the S-Max, Fiesta (just now in the States), Mondeo, KA and Fusion (different than the US Model)) are excellent examples of great cars. Through in just about any car from Vauxhall and you've got two excellent marques that could potentially dominate in the US. Instead, we get watered down versions of a few of these cars, and then pathetically reused Ford Tauruses, Chevy Impalas (seriously? GAG!) and a stable full of cars that no one particularly likes and just buy because they are "American", yet they are most likely built in Mexico or Canada.

On top of these two brands are a plethora of other choices that we don't have. MG still makes great looking cars, and hopefully they aren't still using Lucas to make their electronics for them. Puegot and Fiat both carry heavy ranges here, and you see them everywhere. Citreon and Alfa Romeo are definite contenders in their specific niches. I could go on and on.

And this isn't including the cars that are available in the US, but rarely seen. I've seen more Bentleys, Aston Martins, and Lotuses in the last week than I've seen in 3 years. It's incredible.

This is how great the market is here. We were upgraded to an S-Max when we picked up the car. This is our car:

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I love it. It's really sporty, got great lines, and got a ton of room. It took me until the 3rd or 4th day of driving it to make a realization..... IT'S A MINVAN!!!!!!!!! WTF? I like a minivan? It doesn't fit the mold for American minivans, but it has 3 rows of seating, a tall front seat, and is nearly tall enough to be classified as that. It's not really a crossover, so, to me, that makes it a minivan! Weird, huh? Nice looking car too.

That's not to mention the truck and SUV Market. Mitsubishi L200 Pickups (PREOW!), Delica 4x4 microvans. Nissan Terrano, Suzuki Jiminy, and a handful of other mini-SUVs with true 4WD and solid front and rear axles. They look fantastic to boot! Plus, you have to love all of the Land Rovers that are everywhere. Classic Series II trucks that are still on the motorways, Series I trucks parked next to fields as a farmer works, and Defenders out the wazoo. Gotta love some Defender!

I don't even not what to say about bikes, except that they are everywhere. When we were at Woodhenge on a very cold and icy morning, I heard one on the road below us. I only caught a glimpse of it, but I think it was the ever-popular SV650. Those things are everywhere. Seen quite a few motards about, some dual sports, and a bunch of naked street bikes. There popularity must be partially driven by cost as they often seem like a persons only transport, but it's great to see them all.

Driving here is actually easier than I thought it would be. My first street was a bit weird and I bailed out at the end into a parking lot, but it all makes sense. The roundabouts are great. You can be cruising with traffic at 60mph, roll up to a roundabout, see that it's clear and hit it doing 30 without any reason to stop for a redlight. I totally get it, and it's great. Driving on the left was a bit weird, if for no other reason than you are judging distance on a side you don't normally, but I think I struggled with that more due to the size of the rental versus my daily car. I've handled it all fairly well, except one small incident. As we left a interstates services area, the road setup was a bit different than normal here. I pulled across my lane and into the oncoming lane. Just as I realized I was wrong, Karen commented on it, and a white BMW appeared coming around the corner. No biggie, and it wasn't even close, but still a little scary. Apart from the car seeming quite wide and some places that I feel the posted speeds (which are still not quite clear to me, it seems that when you go above 50mph the speed is not posted, and when you exit a village the speed goes up without any indicator) are faster than I want to drive, resulting in someone riding a bit close, it's been quite alright.

Btw, I think that the Nissan Micra is probably my favorite new-to-me car. It's small and designed to look like a classic British sedan. It's pretty cool looking.

3 countries in one day!

Today has been GREAT! We started the morning off in incredibly wonderful Northern Wales; it was amazing there. I know I suck at describing things, but as we began to venture away from Wales and back to the Midlands region of England, the landscape really began to change, flatten out, get more brown and dreary. Wales was so green, the villages had a sort of Austrian feel to them, and it was wet and lovely. The roads were curvy, the villages set in valleys that had amazingly steep descents, and water was flowing in wonderful streams. It was sort of like the most awesome bits of the Smoky Mountains, but on steroids. I absolutely loved it. It was, quite possibly, one of the most naturally beautiful places I've ever been. I could see living in an ancient villa hear, attempting to live by some old craft or art.

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This morning started off a little bit different. We checked out of the hotel (which was GREAT and very affordable! www.whitewatershotel.co.uk/) and hit up the local co-operative grocery store. We spent less than £20 on enough food for breakfast and lunch. We got 4 mini baguettes, 2 chocolate croissants, 2 multipacks of crisps, 2 bottles of water, a chocolate bar, 2 apples and 2 pears, and 2 really tasty sandwiches for like £18!!! Breakthrough! We should have done this days ago! DUH!

After eating breakfast in the parking lot of the co-op, we crossed the River Dee and back toward England, soaking in the beautify countryside. Heading back into England was a bit depressing to me, but looking forward to Scotland was exciting. It got quite bland around Manchester and traffic a bit thick, especially in the opposite direction. We didn't have to stay on the motorway for very long, we were headed to Lake Country. This region is a famous as a holiday destination and even in the heavy weather it was still quite busy in the little villages along the lakes. As we rolled in to the southern part of the region, we passed loads of Bed and Breakfasts and outdoors shops, and a lot of families out hiking. I had initially planned on stopping at Hillside, Beatrix Potter's former house, but it was closed for the season and a good was out of the way, so we stopped for lunch alongside a creek and took a bunch of great photos. We then proceeded on to Grasmere, where William Wordsworth lived and were a museum about him resides now. Karen wasn't particularly interested in seeing the museum and Grasmere passed by so fast that we decided it wasn't worth stopping. I think it was a good idea.

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As we rolled through the Northern part of the region, we were simply blown away. It had been extremely foggy throughout much of the day, and it had gotten even heavier as we arrived in the Lakes District. It began to lift some as we passed Thirlmere lake and the views we were afforded we breathtaking. Simply incredible, big mountains on the sides, smooth, partially frozen placid lakes and incredible rocky crags. The traffic was pretty light, so I slowed down and we really enjoyed it. We stopped at one point and took some cool pictures of this neat series of large, steep hills that had been divided up with stone walls, presumably to keep sheep in specific "fields." It was great!

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We ambled out of the area, eventually making our way back to the motorway for a quick jaunt across the border into Scotland. It had begun getting dark so we didn't get to see much, but the fog got thicker and it started raining, which I think is going to be good for even more snow removal, unless it freezes tonight. It's not slated to be any more worse than today was, which would be fine with me. We arrived at the Urr Lodge (http://www.urrlodge.co.uk/) at around 4:30 and checked in. It's a hostel, but I really like it. Karen seems to as well. It's got a nice big eating area, communal kitchen, everything we need, and a nice community room for TV. After running to Tesco for dinner supplies (£9.56 for tortellini, sauce, 3 huge bottles of water, 5 tomatoes, a bunch of organic button mushrooms, salad mix (much better greens that at home), salad dressing, and a small coke! SCORE!) we cooked up dinner and chatted with the host couple. We've been watching various TV and chatting with them since. It's really nice. We are the only visitors here tonight, which is cool, but I think it takes away from the hostel experience some. We are staying at a hostel the next two nights though, so I think we'll get to interact with more people.

Tomorrow, into the Highlands of Scotland!

More pictures from today: http://s290.photobucket.com/albums/ll256/sandalscout/GB%202010-2011/Dec%2028-%20Wales%20to%20Scotland/

Monday, December 27, 2010

TODAY WAS AWESOME!

We visited so many cool places today, it's hard to even begin to write about them. We got a fairly early start as we had an 8:00am time frame to get to Stonehenge for our special Circle Access visit. The hotel was only about 5 minutes from Stonehenge, and it was really neat to drive up to the rocks. We parked and we a little confused about where we were supposed to be, but figured it out and approached the area blocked off by cones. A friendly security guard let us through, and then we were escorted to the stones by another security guard who talked with us along the way about the weather and where we were from, general chit chat, but she seemed nice. We passed through a tunnel under the road and then emerged at the rock site. We were told the rules (No chanting, no dancing, no open flames, no touching the rock, etc) and then let into the restricted zone to explore as we wanted. It was pretty amazing to gain access to an area that not everyone gets to any more. We slowly worked out way up to the circle, taking pictures along the way and getting a general layout for everything. The structure itself is pretty interesting, the layout is five rings of stones, but only two of them are the larger stones that everyone knows. There are three other circles of smaller, shorter stones, about shoulder height and maybe as big around as a person. As we studied the graffiti (some from the 1600's, probably earlier too) I realized that there were several mounds in the distance that appeared to be man made. They seem to form somewhat of a ring about Stonehenge, most of them are probably 3/4 of mile, or more, away. It was really difficult to take it all in, and simply awing. We stayed around for about 45 minutes, until it started to become really cold, and we then headed out.

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We returned to the hotel for breakfast, to pack, and to check out, and then we went just a little ways to Woodhenge. It's considered a sister site to Stonehenge as it was built during the same time (about 2000BCE), but it is different in it's construction. The layout of the sites is similar, but instead of stones propped up, there are holes that had timbers placed into them. The timbers have all rotted, but the holes have been filled with concrete pilings of the same size to preserve the locations. This site was not nearly as exciting, but it was still intriguing.

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After our quick visit to Woodhenge, we hit the road, headed to Southern Wales. Our first major stop here (after crossing the Severgn River on a pretty cool bridge with a pretty steep toll) was to be Tintern Abbey. Tintern Abbey was built in the 1100s to be used by Cistercian monks and was used for over 400 years until King Henry VIII took complete control of the church. It was used as residence for local workers for a while during the early 1700s but mostly fell into ruin during it's unoccupied time. It became a popular destination in the late 1700s after it was mentioned in a book, and "wild travel" become popular.

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Unfortunately for us, the site had experienced freezing rain before the snow came last week, and the ice was exposed yesterday, so it was not open for touring. The gift shop was open and the ladies working were very helpful and nice, but we were pretty bummed. We still got a TON of photos from outside the wall, and had a pretty good view of a large chunk of the structure. I was actually more blown away by Tintern Abbey than I was by Stonehenge. It's hard to imagine standing in a place that was the home of so many people for over 400 years, and still stands to this day, 900 years since it was built. Pictures cannot do this place justice. It is so hard to explain how awesome it is.

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After seeing as much of Tintern as we could, we hit the road, off toward Raglan Castle. Driving in Wales, or even the new counties in England that we did today was better than Oxfordshire, in my opinion. The roads seemed wider (possibly due to melted snow and me being more comfortable with the car), and people weren't in quite the rush as I had experienced before. Southern Wales and West-Central England is gorgeous. It's actually quite green right now, grass on the ground, and small amounts of snow on the tops of the hills. The valleys that people live in are charming as hell.

Raglan Castle is probably the most famous castle in Wales, and it's also the newest. It's new enough, built in 1400s-1600s, that it has gun ports in addition to arrow ports for defending against attackers. It's pretty remarkable, and easily identifiable by it's 6-sided towers. It was very wet on the grounds, and a bit slick in places, so we didn't visit every open room, but we did a fairly thorough tour of much of it. Behind the main hall, you could see the various levels of apartments with highly appointed fireplaces, surrounded by elaborate carvings depicting what I believe was the people who hired the building of the fireplace. It was rewarding to tour my first real castle, I can't wait to see more. We saw some from the roadway today, but this was my first true medieval castle to visit.

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The rest of the day was spent driving the remaining distance to Llangollen where we are staying tonight in Northern Wales. Wales has two official languages, English and Welsh. When we arrived at the hotel, we entered into the wrong door and there was a gentleman there to tell us that reception was the next door down, but he first said it in Welsh and then in English. It caught me completely off guard. Nearly all signs in Wales are dual language, and while just over 20% of Wale's citizens speak Welsh, the bulk of that is located in Northern Wales, mostly on the West coast. It's pretty wild to see such a strange language that a large percentage of the population can speak, but it's nice that English holds equal status. Many of the signs at the Bangladorian restaurant we ate in this evening were in Welsh. Pretty cool!

Tomorrow is going to be a long day, we've got about 4 hours of driving today to, and that's not counting a planned detour through the Lake District in Northern England. We will be in Southern Scotland tomorrow night! 2 days with a 4 hour trip, and then 2 days of 3 hour trips. Not bad, I just have to remember to check on Karen more often, she was not happy when we rolled into town tonight. It was dark when we got to Northern Wales, but I can't wait to see the area tomorrow.

Here are more pictures from today: http://s290.photobucket.com/albums/ll256/sandalscout/GB%202010-2011/Dec%2027-Stonehenge-Tintern%20Abbey-Raglan%20Castle/?start=all

Sunday, December 26, 2010

Happy Boxing Day!

So, today is apparently the day of big sales and such, seems sort of like a reverse Black Friday or something. Historically, if I recall the story correctly, is the day that donation boxes at churches are opened to provide for the poor. I believe that when a ship went to sea, sailors and families would place money into a box at the church, and the priest would say a prayer for them. If they returned safely, the church would keep the box for boxing day, and if not, the money would be divided among the families to provide for a while. We didn't see a ton of shops open, but it is a Sunday, so I suspect tomorrow will be much busier in shopping districts.

Today was rather uneventful. We had breakfast at Ingon Bank Farm, chatted with the French/British couple (they are so delightful to talk with) and talked with John and Sue at the farm before heading out around 10:00am. Karen asked me to take her by the Trinity Church in Stratford, but due to services today, she could not go in and see William Shakespeare's grave. She did go around the church yard and snap some very cool pictures though. We then got on the road and headed toward Marlborough (seems like a delightful little village) before we stopped in Avebury for lunch.

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We had lunch at the Red Lion pub (www.red-lion-pub-avebury.co.uk), Karen had sausages and mashed potatoes, and I had a vegetarian burger and chips. The veggie burgers that I've had over here are light years ahead of almost any I've had in the states. I think that they tend to be made either in house at the individual pubs, or made for a chain of pubs (many of the pubs seem to be owned by larger management companies) and they are all unique and wonderful. Today's was a tandoori burger with loads of vegetables in it, spices, and topped with yoghurt. Really tasty.

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On our way to Avebury, We passed over a river, I'm sure I've read about it before but can't recall the name and didn't see a sign. The river was full of these amazing narrow boats, they are quite long but skinny boats designed to fit into canals. The boats are built in the style that the Civil War flat side boats were, squat, rectangular with sloping sides and flat tops. I really like them and would have tried to persuade Karen to go on a ride in one had the rivers and canals not been frozen over.

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After lunch, we walked to the megalith site that cuts the village in town, it's several looping stone sets that you can walk right through, touching the stones, seeing them very close up. It was really nice, and quite different than Stonehenge is supposed to be. We head there tomorrow.

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We wrapped up in Avebury and headed south, towards Amesbury, the site of Stonehenge. We had a Holiday Inn booked here for the night, so decided to check in and debate about going to Salisbury to see the chapel and Magna Carta. I did want to see the Magna Carta, but we figured it was going to be about £30 ($45) to park and get in to see the Magna Carta. I didn't have some of the information with me, and I couldn't remember if it was open on Boxing Day, or if it closed early. It was 3:00pm when we checked in, and even though Salisbury is only 12 miles from Amesbury, I was afraid it'd be a tight squeeze on time. Besides, we had to pay £15 ($23) just to get internet access and TV in the room tonight. We decided to forgo the trip further south.

I've noticed on this trip that we've both been sort of lethargic and not really up for doing a bunch. I've felt like I've been wasting our time here, but it's so expensive everyday that doing a bunch more, paying for parking, etc., etc., adds up so quickly. On top of that, it's very, very cold, and it starts to get dark around 3:30pm, which doesn't help. We literally have been active from like 9:00am to 3:30, apart from going out to dinner each evening. A lot of places have been closed due to the holidays, so that's a big damper as well. I think next year, if we travel over the holidays, somewhere close to or south of the equator will be in the cards. So, anyway, today was sort of a revelation for me, I can't quite put it down on paper, but I think I'm a 9 month traveler, and I'm dead smack in the middle of the 3 months that I don't want to go somewhere really exciting and new. Sort of a bummer to find this out.

Anyway, we checked into the hotel, caught up on email/facebook/etc., and watched a few movies. I found a local Indian place, Tandori Nights (www.tandorinights.co.uk) and we decided to go to town for dinner rather than eating in this business park that we are in. I really liked our food a lot, but Karen ranked it as her least favorite meal here. Not sure why exactly. She asked the waiter for boxes, and he simply cleared the dishes and walked away. Karen always has a problem communicating with waitstaff, even at home, but for once I thought she made it clear and was surprised when he simply stacked up everything and took it away.

So, now we are back in the room, getting psyched up for Stonehenge in the morning, and keeping an eye on the weather up north. It's supposed to warm up a bit by Monday, so hopefully the Highlands of Scotland are still doable. I sure hope so!

I realized that all of my writing so far have simply been "We went here, we did this, we ate that" and that's pretty much it. Today was a really good day, sort of a new start for me, and I really enjoyed being out in the "country." It's different than what I'm used to, for a number of reasons. The map book that we have has only A roads with a few B roads mixed in, so while most of them are two lane undivided roads, they are usually quite busy with traffic, and it seems like we are always near some bigger town or something, but I never know what. It's sort of odd driving in a country this small, somewhere that you are always near (relatively) some place of importance. The countryside is different also. Back home, the valleys are farmed, but there are always forested areas, hillsides covered in trees, and areas that have been left wild. In England, at least thus far, even the hills have been stripped bare except for the paths of trees that divide fields up. The only forested areas that I've seen have been wildlife preserves, and it's sort of weird.

Funny note of the day, in our hotel room, we have to place a door card into a reader inside the door in order for any of the electrical outlets or lights to work. What's that about?!?!?!

More pictures from today:

Saturday, December 25, 2010

Happy Christmas!

It's Christmas! Today has been a fairly lazy day, and I'm loving it. We woke up late and had breakfast just after 9:00 downstairs. Karen had a full English and seemed to enjoy it, and I had tomato (skinned, halved and grilled face down), grilled mushrooms, scrambled eggs and toast. It was pretty good. The jams that went with the toast were wonderful. We ate with a couple, she British and he French. It was pretty amusing, they own an apartment nearby but their family was all staying there, so they are staying here for some more privacy and quiet. The were retired and spend much of their time in Northwest France, but also visit with their children in Malta and Milan frequently. They seemed really nice.

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We drove into Stratford to join a walking tour of the town today, it was supposed to be an hour and a half long, but walking from the car along the river and snapping photographs for 15 minutes chilled us enough to make us change our minds on doing the walk. It is really quite cold here, it was about -5 to -10 all day long. It was -7 at 4:00 in the afternoon.

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After getting back to the car and warming up, we decided to return to the farm and warm up. Took about 15 minutes of reading before I zonked out, and Karen shortly after. We could only snooze for a little bit as we had lunch plans, so we got up and returned to town, parking almost exactly were we had earlier. The Dirty Duck (www.dirtyduck-pub-stratford-upon-avon.co.uk) was our destination for dinner. Christmas Dinner appears to be a very, very big deal in the UK, and the Dirty Duck seems to be a popular choice in Stratford. The place was fairly busy but we were seated right away even though we were a little early. Sam, the manager, came out to greet us, and I got the impression that we were the only Americans in today, even though John, the farm owner, seemed to think it was very popular with American tourists. Over the next two hours and 45 minutes, we ate and drank until we were STUFFED and Karen was drunk. We started off with some Canapes, I had brie and jam on crackers and Karen had some smoked salmon wrap things, and they brought us a bottle of champagne. This was followed by our starters, Karen had a parsnip soup with wonderful bread, it also smelled great and she liked it tremendously. I had a roasted red onion tarte. I wasn't sure what to expect, but it was great. It was sort of a pot pie with a flaky crust and a gravy with onions in side, roasted tomatoes on top, and a salad under it. It was very yummy. A little later, we were brought our main course; Karen selected the roast duck breast, and I had a mushroom and nut loaf. Karen had never had duck before and said that it was pretty good, but similar to dry turkey. My nut loaf was good, but filled me up quickly and tasted a lot like stuffing, which I'm not a big fan of. We each had roasted potatoes, parsnips, carrots and brussel sprouts as well. The potatoes were pretty tasty, as were the parsnips, but I'm picky about brussel sprouts and found them far too overcooked for my taste, and the carrots were sort of bland. The meal reminded me an awful lot of thanksgiving food, which I could care less about. It was good for what it was though, and the staff and atmosphere were great.

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For dessert, I had a traditional Christmas Pudding, it's sort of a dark cake made with dried fruits, very sticky, and served with a hot cream sauce on it. It was REALLY good. I get the impression that many of them now have a soft liquid center, but mine was two squares, sort of like brownies, but not chocolaty and it was great. Karen had champagne and raspberry Pavlova. I don't know what pavlova is, but her dessert was awesome. It was a creamy based with a crisp flaky cookie on top, stuffed with raspberries and garnished with mint. I had a taste and loved it. We both felt like the other had ordered the desert that we normally would have (I tend to be a fruit desert person, and her more heavy chocolates and such) but we were happy with our choice. A while after we finished desert, a plate of crackers, cheeses, and grapes was brought out. The cheeses were not my favorite, but I did eat more of the "aged-cheddar" than I might normally and thought it was okay. It was about this time that Karen finished the bottle of champagne and it was beginning to show. She found herself extremely amusing through most of the desert course and then the rest of the time we were there she was cracking herself up. It was pretty funny. we had been in the restaurant for about 2 and half hours and had only paid for 2 hour parking, even though I'm not sure that I had needed to (I saw someone else do it) so I thought we should leave. We settled the bill (ouch) and then headed out. Karen almost tackled me on the way to the car, just because, and then we made our way to the house. John, the owner, popped out and talked with us briefly, it sounded like they had a nice meal and the house smelled wonderful. We made our way upstairs where Karen promptly crashed and I read for a bit before typing this blog entry up.

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I think we may try to find a movie theatre in a little bit, or maybe just stay in the rest of the day! (We stayed in and chilled out)

More pictures from today:

Friday, December 24, 2010

On the road!

Today we woke up early. Really early. We went to sleep early last night, Karen significantly earlier than my 11:00pm. I woke up at 3:30a, thinking that the alarm hadn't gone off, and then went back to sleep until Karen woke me up about 6:10am. She was already up and blogging and such. We got up, ready and had a quick and simply, but good and filling breakfast downstairs before heading out.

We had to catch our train to Oxford from Paddington at 9:21, so we left the house around 8:00. It took only about 40 minutes to get to Paddington station via tube, so Karen stopped and got a coffee and a chocolate pastry for the train ride while I determined which platform we departed from. The train ride over was fairly uneventful, very sleep inducing. We left the station and found the car hire place very quickly. The staff there were wonderful and they got us in and out in a pretty quick time considering that they were helping 4 people and answering the phone. The adventure was about to begin.

So, we head out from the station and I took an easy left turn, knowing that it was not the way I wanted to go, but that it would be easier. I honestly expected to drive around for a little bit, get the feel of things, and then head into a gas station and buy an atlas. The first turn went well. The road sort of veered to the left, with an entrance into a business going straight. I began to turn left, and I saw a car in my lane, heading my direction, and I freaked out thinking that the road became a one way and I missed it somehow. I pulled into the business and turned around, realizing that the car in "my" lane was actually in the opposite lane and I was attempting to go the wrong way. WOOPS! I got back onto the road in the direction that we came from and headed back out, in the correct direction and in the correct lane. This time, things went much better.

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We left Oxford in what I thought was the general direction that we needed to head, but was wrong. We were headed basically south and needed to go northwest. We kept driving, winding through country roads and through a few small villages before we found a more major road. A quick stop at a gas station for an atlas, one wrong turn, and we were in the right direction. We headed toward Stratford, passing through several quaint villages that were packed with people finishing their Christmas shopping. We found our way into Stratford, zipped around town and then headed toward our farmstay, Ingon Bank Farm (www.ingonbankfarmbandb.co.uk). This place is amazing! The couple that runs it are very nice, and I can't wait until breakfast tomorrow morning. Karen is finally going to get her full English, and I'm excited about the eggs, mushrooms, and tomatoes that we discussed.

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After taking the bags up to the room, Karen had a cup of tea before we left back for town. We needed to get some lunch - we had "The Big Fish" which is fast food fish and chips, I had the veggie burger and Karen had another meat pie- and wanted to get some crackers and snacks for Christmas day. If you are not familiar with crackers, they are these tube shaped packages dressed in Christmas decor, they look like a wrapped cylinder, with a bow on each end and paper sticking out beyond that. You grab them by the two ends and pulled, igniting a small popper inside which then allows them to be ripped open to expose the gifts inside. We found this giant cracker on sale at a sort of dollar store (pound store? stirling store?), the thing being about 6 inches around and 2 feet in length. We also stopped into a Marks & Spencer grocery store and bought some biscuits, cheese and cookies.

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We went back to the farm and promptly crashed for naps. I slept nearly 3 hours before Karen woke me up. We decided we should probably go get some food before it was too late. We ended up back in Stratford, not exactly sure where we were at nor where we were going. I found a few pubs and restaurants that were open and parked. I'm not sure I was even parked legally, I can't quite tell how street markings work here yet. I know it was after the pay parking hours though, so I felt okay about leaving the car. We headed to 5 places before we found something to eat. The first was only serving guests, the second had just closed the kitchen, the third and fourth were only serving alcohol, but then we found the Cafe Rouge (www.caferouge.co.uk), a French cafe. It was a great choice. Karen had a sort of deconstructed beef stew, and I had a penne with mushrooms and leeks. Simple but very, very good. The ingredients were very fresh. After settling our tab, we walked about for a little bit, checking out some of the lights and shops in the area. Nearly everything was closed as it was almost 10:00pm, but it was nice to look around.

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We got back to the car and noticed that a helicopter was hovering nearby. It was sort of creepy to me, but we got in a drove off. I didn't know which way we needed to go, but knew that there were enough signs to find our road. We ended up driving past a police van that was stopped beneath the helicopter and their were police standing looking over a cemetery wall with huge flashlights. Not sure what was going on, but the use of helicopters by a small police force seems very bizarre to me. I guess the UK is a big brother state though. There are cameras EVERYWHERE.

After finally finding our way out of time, I realized we were headed almost exactly the wrong way. I turned around, and we headed back to the farm.

Today was a really weird day for me. I think I was very stressed out. When we got to the car rental place, they informed us that they had upgraded us to a Ford S-Max. This is a very cool wagon-crossover car and I really like it, but it is significantly larger than the car I had reserved and enormous when compared to the smart fourtwo. I found myself driving into the piled snow drifts on the left side of the road because I'm not used to having to watch that side of the road very much. Not knowing every single road rule, dealing with roundabouts, and odd yields and signals wore on me as the day went on. Everything went smoothly, but it was nerve-grating. Hopefully it will be smoother from now on.

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Another thing that is really bizarre - I feel worried and homesick today. I'm not sure why, I mean, I miss the dogs, but I know that they are good, but for some other reason I want to be at home. I rarely really feel that when I'm gone from the house, unless Karen is not with me. I can't figure out what it is this time. I'm comfortable, we are seeing cool things, and I like the places were are staying. I think London wore me out, but the big nap today and the early night last night helped a lot. I am enjoying myself, just can't figure this out. I think part of it might be the amount of money we are spending, but we have enough to make it through the trip easily enough, it's just so much more than we would spend at home or even on vacation in the US.

I forgot to mention one thing yesterday. While we were in the Tower of London, one of the actresses was making King Edward II's bed and she asked if we thought it looked good enough. This guy standing next to us said "No" and the woman turned around and addressed me saying "I'm not done yet, I just meant this spot!" and sort of joking asked what my problem with it was. The guy that did it and I had a good laugh at each other and I said "Thanks!" before he turned back to here and said something about the colonists always causing trouble. It was really funny. I got called a colonist!

Pictures from today: http://s290.photobucket.com/albums/ll256/sandalscout/GB%202010-2011/Dec%2024-Oxford%20to%20Stratford-on-Avon/?start=all

Sorry for the lack of pictures in the post itself, once I get faster internet, I'll get them placed inline. (Done!)

Thursday, December 23, 2010

So much to see, so much to do and the day's are winding down!

After last nights extremely late tuck-in, we slept like bricks until late this morning. It was nearly 11:00am before I even woke, and Karen hadn't been awake for very long by this time. We got up, showered and took off. We headed back toward the Tower of London, deciding to have lunch in a pub along the way. This was a great revelation! We were actually able to eat lunch for less than £14 ($21)! Apparently the key to cheap meals is pubs. The sad thing, several people told us this, but I'm not sure why didn't actually listen. I just can't believe that the street food places where more expensive. It's crazy!

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Karen had a beef and ale pie with veggies and chips. Her pie was very filling and she said it was the best meal she'd had yet. I had vegetarian Lincolnshire sausages with chips and beans. The sausages were incredible, likely the best I've ever tasted. The chips were good, but not as nice as the ones we had last night. The beans, I had a feeling I knew what these would be like, and it was exactly correct. It appears that Heinz "beans in a rick tomato sauce" are the most popular in the UK. I think that they taste like really cheap, really bad Baked Beans. It's like cheap white beans in ketchup. I are them, but they are nothing remarkable. It's a shame really, beans are amazing when down right, a Puerto Rican with the right approach could make millions here!

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After a satisfying meal, and one that finally felt much better against the wallet, we headed across the street to tour the Tower of London. We had been giving a sneak preview last evening during the Ceremony of the Key's and we both had a feeling it was going to be very cool. We checked out all of the tower's along the south walls, facing the river. This section was were King Edward's (sorry, I can't remember which one, the II, I think) suite was located, so we saw where his bedroom, his private chapel, heated room, and other rooms were located, some of them set up in a mock layout. This was interesting, but we came to see the Royal Jewels and crowns. We proceeded on to the next tower to see these, and were very shocked that nearly every crown had been stripped of their jewels, only one of the crowns even had stones set in it. We left this tower feeling almost ripped off and headed to the gift shop below. There were books in the shops with tons of pictures of jeweled crowns, sceptres, orbs, and many other things that we had obviously missed somehow. We headed to the next building and proceeded into the queue to watch several coronation videos from Queen Elizabeth II's coronation in 1952. The films showcased several of the items used during the coronation and explained some of the history of specific gemstones and histories of certain swords and the like. We continued through a few more rooms of these films before we emerged into a row chock full of golden items covered in stones. There were royal maces (I guess these are used to lay down a royal ass-whooping, but I may be wrong), giant Grand Royal punch bowls large enough to bath in, beautiful crowns with the jewels still in tact, scepters with diamonds that boasted the largest diamond in the world at the time of it's creation, as well as many, many other items. We had found the royal jewels. They are astonishing, but unfortunately, we could not take photographs. This second exhibit was a welcome change from the first disappointing house of jewels.

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After wrapping up this tour, we walked around the grounds, checking out the Ravens, the chapel that contains the 7 people that were beheaded within the walls of the Tower, and briefly toured the row of houses that the Beefeaters reside in. It was getting a little late, so we decided to head back to the house in order to get ready for the Opera tonight. Karen had scheduled us to see Hansel und Gretel, in German, at 7:00pm.

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On the way back to the house, we both began dosing off quite quickly. Karen suggested that we could stay in and order food this evening, and I was not at all opposed. We lounged around, checked email, watched a little bit of TV tonight. The long nights had caught up to us, and it was beginning to affect our ability and desire to brave the ever-growing cold. I found the local Indian delivery joint, Curry King, placed a quick order and we chowed down once it got here. It was nothing special, sort of a cheap Chinese-style Indian delivery, but we didn't have to leave for it, and it was decent enough. Worked great for me!

So, now I'm laying in bed, Karen having gone to sleep some time ago. She was doing laundry and I found her passed out in the bed 30 minutes after she came up to fold a load. I'm feeling the pull to do the same.

Tomorrow, we leave for Stratford-upon-Avon, after renting a car in Oxford. I really hope the weather is good enough for us to carry out our plans. Fingers crossed!

Here are some more photos from today, and the full set is being uploaded to Karen's site. http://s290.photobucket.com/albums/ll256/sandalscout/GB%202010-2011/Dec%2023-Pub-Tower%20of%20London/

Is it only Day 2? Why are my feet so sore?

So, we are staying near this neighborhood in North London called Golder's Green. It appears to be the center of Judaism in London and apparently Jews like bread. So do I. There seems to be an average of three Jewish bakeries per block in the center of Golder's Green. I think we picked the most expensive one - a common theme today.

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We started off having what I think we thought was going to be a fairly simple bakery experience and ended up being a full blown meal. Novellino is nice, hip, trendy, and very clean with a fairly friendly, if not somewhat snooty, wait staff. I think they are expected to be by both their employer and clientele, and it didn't ruin the place, just a bit "nuevo riche" for my taste. Anyway, Karen ordered a breakfast with fried eggs, a salad, tuna and 2 weird creamy sauces. She also ordered a "pot of breakfast tea" that had one tea bag and enough water for a cup and a half of tea. She did not care for her meal, but man, did she put on a good face there. I had two pieces of toast with scrambled eggs on top. I don't like eggs... my bad. The breads and jams were good though. The bill was not. I believe it was £18 (about $27, oh god, that hurts, I'm actually converting them right now.... THE GOGGLES, THEY DO NOTHING!). Yeah, not cheap.

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We headed out, walked down to the next underground station (which is above ground, even higher than the streets, makes no sense to me!) and headed for the British Museum. We walked a few blocks to the museum and proceeded inside, having no clue we were about to be blown away. It all went by in a rush, I'm not even sure what I saw anymore, and I think we only saw like maybe 1/5 of the public rooms and didn't really study most of those. One could spend weeks in the place and actually enjoy it. We mostly viewed the Egyptian displays, the rock carvings, statues, and sarcophagi are not graspable. Simply mind blowing. The Assyrian carvings are simply astonishing, their gates mind-blowing, and the detail of the smallest figures so intricate that it's hard to imagine that they were all made by hand. The black onyx figures were incredibly smooth and exactly what I expected, so much so that it was sort of creepy. The Rosetta Stone. Need I say more?

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We headed through to the "The History of Humans in 100 Artifacts" exhibit and saw parts of this, things that were indicated as important in a tour overview that we saw, before we headed upstairs to the mummy display. Along the way we passed through the Medieval Europe display and I was mesmerized by the displays here. The history of the dark ages has always seemed so clouded and distant to me, but being surrounded by these items and pictures of restored settlements brought an air to them that was not very different to the living villages of the colonial and civil war periods from the United States. The amount of insight into the lives and history of this time are so much greater than I ever gleaned from reading a text book about it. I really hope that we get to make our trip to the ruins in England, Scotland and Wales as we planned, the taste of these things have left me wanting more.

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The mummy display upstairs was great! I am still fascinated by the fact that Egyptians began burying their dead in coffins in order to isolate them from the ground, and therefore help to preserve their bodies, but in fact this led to the very quick decomposition of their soft tissue and the old-school ground burial resulted in a very much in-tact mummification of the body. The techniques that were developed in order to keep a body in tact and in a coffin is pretty neat, but a bit gross. The detail put into the sarcophagi and the shrouds is impressive, and the mummification of animals was bizarre but intriguing. After a quick view of this display, we made our way out to the back of the museum, to glance around the South Pacific displays and a new looking display called "Connecting to Ancestors" that was really neat. Seeing an Easter Island Moai was simply cool. The displays from various natives around the world was particularly neat, especially the similarities among many of them.

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After finishing this display, we realized that we had been in the museum for about three hours, we were hungry and thirsty. We headed out, and straight to Malabar Junction to have, yet another, Indian Meal. Can't beat it, so why not enjoy it as much as possible. Malabar Junction specializes in Southern Indian, so I had Kalar, which is cooked green bananas in a light sauce with ginger, and Karen had Vegetable Korma, sort of an "all-around" curry with vegetables. It was good, tasty, and simple. And expensive. I believe it was around £26. By this point, I stopped comparing it to places at home. I can't imagine how people live in London, unless everyone makes ridiculous salaries, or they all know about the affordable places to eat and we are not finding them!

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So, we had a good and filling Indian lunch, and we decided to head to the Tower of London to take our tour before the Ceremony of the Key's that we've scheduled for this evening. The days have been flying by, and by the time we got to the ticket house, it was only 30 minutes before the Tower closed. We decided it was best to see the Tower the next day, and decided to head to Harrod's and window shop.

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Harrod's is a shopper's paradise. Fortunately, Karen and I are not very big shoppers and instead found it stuffy and overcrowded. Don't get me wrong, they had a lot of amazing things for sale here, but the huge mass of people visiting was unbearable at times. We walked through THREE perfumeries before making around way to the market and food shops area. Talk about selection! They had a ton of really neat imported sweets, delicacies and a wonderful variety of exotic fruits and vegetables from all of over the world. There were a ton of fruits that I'd never any seen before, let alone heard of. It was really neat see a large selection of Italian pastas and sausages, stuff that we have not seen since last year. This place is like Whole Foods on steroids! We moved on to the food shops on the west side of the building. This was a little more disappointing. There was a large candy store that was pretty impressive, but there was also a Krispy Kreme donut store. There was a very overpriced pizzeria that did not look particularly tasty. The prices on a personal pizza were in the £15 range ($24) and fairly plain looking - which is usually very tasty, but I want substance for my price. However, there was a really really awesome treat here. There was an old school gelato shop. It was a weird mix of traditional American style ice cream soda fountain and gelato. The actual ice cream was made in the traditional Italian style but served in massive Sunday styles with candy and fruit, wafers and chocolate. Karen had a 3 scoop Sunday with chocolates and candy, and I had the Chairman of the Board, and it was AMAZING! It was served with strawberry and vanilla gelato, wafer, chocolate straws, and a bunch of fruit; kiwi, grapes, strawberries, red currants and more. It was sooo good, and sooo big, I couldn't eat the whole thing. The big shock was when the bill came. I almost died. We paid £32 ($50) for two ridiculously large servings of gelato. For some reason, we didn't think to share. Did I mention that London is expensive?!?!?!

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After stuffing ourselves on gelato, we walked around a bit, grabbed a coffee and water at Caffe Nero, and window shopped some more in Knightsbridge. We wandered around for a while and found ourselves in Hyde Park. a Corner of Hyde Park had been set up as the Winter Wonderland festival/circus. We took a stroll through this, checking out all of the kids riding rides, people snacking on German treats, fresh roasted chestnuts and various vendors selling wares. I'm glad we checked this out, Londoner's really seem to enjoy celebrating Christmas.

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Before long, it was time to head back to the Tower for the Ceremony of the Key's. As we waited, we spoke with a family from Minnesota, a woman from Australia, and a beefeater. It was here that was we told that there are only 36 Beefeaters and that they all live at the Tower with their families. I was aware that the guards that wear the tall bearskin hats were not Beefeaters as people often think, but rather they are members of the five regiments of the Royal Guard. The Beefeaters are officially known as Yeoman Warders of Her Majesty’s Royal Palace and Fortress the Tower of London, and Members of the Sovereign's Body Guard of the Yeoman Guard Extraordinary. We moved into the tower to view the ceremony, and unfortunately not able to take pictures. It was very intriguing and a big learning experience. Check out wikipedia to find out more on the actual ceremony. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ceremony_of_the_Keys

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To wrap up the night, we headed back to Piccadilly circus to enjoy some of the street food. Apparently, I didn't get the memo, we spent £33 ($51) on some Lebanese food (at a restaurant run by Greeks) that was two meals and a Humus appetizer. It was good, but I could have eaten similar food for less than $20 in Nashville. I know, this isn't Nashville, but that was disappointing. This was supposed to be a cheap meal!

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We headed home via the Northline and crashed pretty straight away. It was very late, and we've been getting home later and later each night. Tomorrow is going to be crammed in tight if we keep this up! I think we've been walking about 5-6 miles a day since we got here.

More pictures from today http://s290.photobucket.com/albums/ll256/sandalscout/GB%202010-2011/Dec%2022-British%20Museum-Harrods-Keys%20Ceremony/

Also, check out Karen's site for a ton more pictures from the trip. http://mondarytravel.shutterfly.com/