Scotland

Kristi and I at a fountain in the park area surrounding Edinburgh castle

"This is a city of shifting light, of changing skies, of sudden vistas. A city so beautiful it breaks the heart again and again."

Alexander McCall Smith, Author (2006)

We saw this quote on the side of a building as we were driving into Edinburgh and it pretty much encapsulates both the city and the countryside that we visited :) 

Needless to say it was an exceptionally beautiful area, the architecture, the highlands, the castles - all of it. 

We arrived on Friday after a five hour train ride (which I found much more enjoyable then a car trip) and after a short bus tour of the city we were dropped off at our hotel - a real treat after living in our tiny London flats. We were then left to our own devices for the rest of the day and Kristi and I immediately took off towards the centre of town. Although we had decided to wander, there was one place in particular I wanted to find - it's called "The Elephant House" and it was where J.K. Rowling wrote the Harry Potter books. If you look out the window from the café you can see Edinburgh castle, which apparently was the inspiration for 'Hogwarts'. 

Here's the castle! (unfortunately my eyes are shut for this shot)

After visiting the café and enjoying a hot chocolate (and brownie) Kristi and I continued our wander around the city and admired the architecture, most of which was still maintained from the 19th century. When we got tired of architecture-spotting we decided we should try climbing a hill by the castle, our attempts didn't last too long (as the hill got too steep) but we decided to take a picture of our (semi) accomplishment regardless.

Climbing the hill to the castle

That evening we headed out to "The Conan Doyle", a pub that was across from our hotel and we enjoyed cheap pints and bar drinks before we decided to go have a try at karaoke. Needless to say, the karaoke part of the evening was rather amusing - with yours truly delivering a particularly show-stopping rendition of "Piano Man" (although I'm not sure it 'stopped' the 'show' in a positive way :P ). Kristi happened to video part of this experience, but unfortunately it has thus been destroyed in some (un)fortunate "accident". 

The following day we were off to the Highlands and to slowly make our way up to Inverness (along the coast, where we would be staying that night). Along the way we visited the "hairy cows" (pronounced 'harry coo's'). The one in the picture is named Heather, and the one behind her is Hamish. Apparently these two particular coo's were at a local farm and were lined up to be slaughtered but the town liked this particular pair so much that they had them saved. Now Heather and Hamish hang out at a local tourist area and have their picture taken all day long. Not exactly the life for me, but they seem to be enjoying themselves. 

In addition to the coo's, we also had a chance to witness some of the most breathtaking scenery I have ever seen. Pictures really do not do it justice, but hopefully you can get a good idea of the landscape and the sheer size of the highlands. 

Highlands outside Glencoe

In addition to the Highlands, we also visited the infamous Loch Ness and searched for the monster, I tried in vain to lure it the shore but offering myself as a human sacrifice, but alas we still did not spot it. If you look closely at the water however, you will notice a tiny ripple, I'm convinced that the monster was hiding below...or somebody threw a rock.

Loch Ness!

The third day of Scotland was spent touring a variety of different sites on our way back down to Edinburgh. On the way we stopped at Blair Castle (originally owned by the Athol bloodline - I'll let you imagine the variety of jokes that come with that last name). We also visited the Blair Athol whiskey distillery and had the chance to sample some of their single malt whiskey (I'm told it's an acquired taste). 

A rather modest abode

I wanted to caption this 'little athols" but Kristi said it wasn't appropriate

The final day of Scotland wrapped up rather quietly as we headed over to Edinburgh Castle and got a chance to wander through the rooms and visit the Crown Jewels (wow). The castle itself has been there for a long time and the view from the top looks over the entirety of Edinburgh all the way to the sea.

Visiting the castle

Attack!

Even better attack!

Alright well that's all for now - I will try to update again next week some time, perhaps with some birthday pictures :)

Catching up

I have been rather delinquent about this whole blogging thing (a fact which my mother likes to remind me of). So I will attempt a giant catch up.

Nice weather :)

A couple of weeks ago we spent a day in Brighton (a seaside town on the English Channel). We spent the first part of our journey wandering along the beach (comprised of medium stones rather then sand - not pleasant for bare feet) and 'paddling' in the water (the English term for getting your feet wet).

This rocks.

While on the beach, I spent a chunk of time picking up various stones to see if I could find any that would meet the criteria for Grandpa Kyle's 'rock chocolates' or just any that had an interesting pattern/shape. I managed to find one that kind of looks like a strange piece of black licorice all-sorts - it now serves as a proud paperweight on my desk.

We (I) couldn't resist.

Another great attraction of Brighton was the Pier - basically a carnival complete with games, rides and a variety of machines that like to take your money from you. Naturally we were drawn to it immediately.

While there Kristi managed to win a small yellow duck (now named "fluffers" I believe) and I managed to hunt down the nearest mini donut stand. We also took advantage of the different games inside the Pier's buildings which vaguely resembled a more grown-up Chuckie Cheese.

Don't get any ideas...

I've also discovered that a lot of things in Great Britain are named "Victoria" (for obvious reasons). So, in the spirit of not leaving siblings out of the fun, I had Kristi take a picture of this sign. I figured that a certain unnamed sibling would appreciate the shout-out.

The rest of this entry is kind of a hodge-podge of time spent in London somewhere between Brighton and present day.

The picture on the left is fairly self-explanatory, but it was taken while we were doing our London "History walk" for our British Life and Culture class.

Scenes from London: The first two are from Downtown (kind of looks like the Winnipeg Golden Boy) and the third is from the "Canada Gate" at the park next to Buckingham Palace.

As we just got back from Scotland, I will try to have a new post up by tomorrow evening - the pictures are quite breathtaking and I'll make sure to write a little longer entry (since it is still fresh in my mind). 

Okay, okay, I'll get a blog

I give up - you win, my girlfriend was right, I should get a blog.

Now I have to think of things to write.

Okay, here we go - London.

I have now been in London for just over a week and so far it has been a really positive experience - the weather is cool (albeit rainy), the people are nice (minus the cyclist who almost ran over us) and the beer is good (no exception to this one).

Yesterday our group went on an excursion to Stonehenge and Bath - I was quite excited to see this international landmark and pleased that it looked just as good in real life as it does on all the Windows XP background photos. While there we took a plethora of pictures and listened to these tiny walkie-talkie like devices that gave an audio tour of the place.

What a trendy audio tour!

Kristi and I at Stonehenge...it was a little chilly

If you notice a semi-pained expression on my face in any of these pictures it's because the weather was rather chilly and I had donated my sweater to one of our trip participants who forgot to bring a sweater. Nonetheless I survived the ordeal in good form, wearing my thermal long-sleeve shirt and citing my Canadian heritage as making me near weatherproof. All that aside, Stonehenge was an incredible sight to witness - the sheer magnitude of the rocks and the fact that they have existed there for over 2000 years fascinating.

The girl in orange has my jacket, you can't see my arms because they have fallen off due to frostbite.
Or maybe because I'm in the back row. One of the two.

After Stonehenge, our group hopped back on the bus and toddled our way over to Bath (a rather famous little city). Basically Bath was an ancient Roman city established when Rome invaded Great Britian back in like 64 AD. They set up a city in Bath because they discovered a naturally occurring hot spring that piped mineral-rich water into a variety of pools. Thus, the Romans being smart folks, created a bunch of public baths there and built up a city around it.

Nowadays the Roman baths are used as a museum (although some of the baths are in use as part of hospitals or spa's nearby) and we were able to wander through and witness the ancient Roman architecture and restored pieces they had excavated from the nearby area.

To bathe, or not to bathe...

I think I will dive right in! (I can't imagine this would end well)

Outside of the baths in Bath, Bath is also a very fun touristy area (sorry for all the "bath"'s in that sentence). There are a lot of little shops (especially chocolate shops - which is absolutely okay with me), and places to sit and admire the architecture (most of which is neoclassical). Bath also boasts some celebrity credit, being the home of Jane Austen in her later life, Jane Seymour and at times, Johnny Depp.

I stole Kristi's hat. I think it's very fashion forward.

chocolate lion!

After a long day of wandering and sightseeing, we headed back to the bus and departed for London. Once we arrived back in the city Kristi and I decided we wanted to find some food to eat and didn't feel like cooking. After a long journey to find pizza (Google maps lied about location) we decided that our pocketbooks didn't meet the needs of our appetites so we retired to the flat to cook a meal for ourselves. We ended up cooking a large spaghetti meal and splitting a bottle of wine (which is extraordinarily cheap) and then retiring to the couch to watch, ironically enough, The Jane Austen Book Club (a rather cute movie, all told). 

Since this is my first blog - I had Kristi send me a bunch of pictures so that I could give a pictorial representation of what has being going on. Some of these photos come from our first day(s) in London when we took a trip over to Big Ben and Westminster Abbey. Chances are I will be back that way again sometime in the next 3 months, so I will write more about it at that point.

Tower bridge!

Alright - enough blogging for today, I have to go start the dryer again and attempt to make it dry my clothes. Apparently European appliances just don't agree with our American clothes.

:)