Devin Comes to Visit Day 1

Well Devin decided he wanted to visit London- so he flew over for a a week's vacation and I got to show him around London, and we visited Paris for 2 days!

He got in Thursday morning around 1030, and I immediately whisked him off to LPH to drop his bags of before we set out for the British Museum.  He came with one cabin sized suitcase for the entire week- clearly we travel differently!

I allowed him to rest for a few minutes before we headed out, but no sleeping!  Worst thing you can do after flying in to a place in the morning is to lay down and go to sleep!   So we got moving and went over to the British Museum since it is just down the street from my school, and I had class at 3.  The main thing that he wanted to see was the Easter Island statue since he has previously traveled there, and heard the guide talk about this particular statue.

Success!

So from this we went to see all of the typical things one goes to see- the Rosetta Stone, the Elgin Marbles, various Egyptian and ancient Mesopotamian items, ancient Greek and Roman things, etc.... Pretty standard museum stuff- except that this is the British Museum, and everything in it is awesome!  To me at least!  So we spent a few hours there until I had to leave to go to class, leaving Devin to wander around Tottenham Court Road (Just parallel to school) and experience some British pubs- which he has some interesting stories about.  

That was all the sightseeing we did that day- I managed to get out of class early, took a little detour to show him Mr. Jeremy Bentham, and then we headed back to LPH to rest up because we were seeing Spamalot that night!  I believe I was more excited than he was at this point, as he was pretty exhausted.  I can be slightly overwhelming when showing people tourist things that I love :)    

So we went out to dinner near Charing Cross and then headed down the road to the theater!  I'm glad I picked such an uplifting play- Devin would have been passed out on the floor if it had been anything less!  But we ended up getting out not so great seats changed into pretty decent seats, and he ended up really enjoying it!





 As this was my second time seeing it, I knew what was happening and what to expect, but it was still funny because either the actors were improvising, or someone was acting funny in the audience because they kept trying not to laugh- a few times they did not succeed, but that made it even better!

 This is one of the best parts of the play- the song....not the event-they didn't crucify people!

So that was day 1. On to Day 2- lots of walking and seeing London!

Scotland Day 3, February 12th- Loch Ness!

This was our day trip to Loch Ness- a very long, yet interesting trip!

The bus left Edinburgh around 8am, and there's not much to say about the bus trip, except that our driver/guide was awesome and very informative about the area we were passing through!  It was about an 8 hour drive up, and then back, with a stop here and there for pictures, etc...

The first stop was at a gift shop/rest stop for a few minutes for a bathroom trip and to buy souvenirs...which of course I did.  This was in the Trossachs National Park and was stunning!  It actually looks like Colorado does, or really anywhere in the West that has snowy mountains.

Back on the bus, we went through some really pretty scenery, but the highlight was that we rove by Doune Castle!  I wish we could have stopped, but we didn't :(   For those who don't know, this was the castle that the Monty Python crew filmed a lot of scenes from Monty Python and Holy Grail in!

We had another photo stop, I forget what the mountains are called, but it was really pretty!  And really cold...

So then we finally get to the Loch Ness area, and there is just enough time to go on the hour long boat ride (pre-paid...there had better have been time....)  It was an absolutely gorgeous day for this!  We really lucked out with the weather.

Sadly, there was no sighting of Nessie, although the Captain is a true believer, and has been for about 30 years.  He had some interesting stories and pictures of his ventures out looking for her, and any of her relatives!

Scotland Trip- Day 3-February 11- Edinburgh

Well I am a horrible blogger and have not written about the rest of my trip- I apologize!


We started off the day walking down the Royal Mile to the Palace of Holyroodhouse!  It is the official Scottish  residence of the Queen.

Even though it was my second time visiting it, it's still a pretty cool place to visit, especially if you like the Tudor period in history- because this is where Mary, Queen of Scots lived with her husband.  They have a lot of personal effects of hers- from books, mirrors, etc... to locks of hair. You're not allowed to take pictures anywhere inside the Palace, but it is really pretty!

Here is a link if anyone wants to learn more about it!- http://www.royalcollection.org.uk/visit/palaceofholyroodhouse



Connected to the Palace are the ruins of Holyrood Abbey.  Most abbey ruins are pretty cool anyways just because of how old they are.  Various royals are buried here including Kings David II, James II, James V and his first Queen Magdalen, etc...

From there, since it was only about 10min away, and was such a pretty day, albeit windy, we decided to walk up Arthur's Seat- a hill (felt like a mountain to me...hiker that I am...)

It is 251m (~800ft) high, and the day we went it was also muddy and the trails aren't really marked at all.  They are marked in the sense that you can tell it's a trail, but then there are splits all over the place, and the only map I saw was at the bottom telling you about the various trails, but there were more once you started walking...slightly confusing!

Even though the climb was rough, the weather and view made up for it.  We also discovered a delicious fudge shop on the way back which also went a long way to easing my leg pains :)

 On the way down, we found the easy way instead of slipping down wet rock and mud...it was a nice grassy slope.

From there, we progressed to the National Museum of Scotland.http://www.nms.ac.uk/our_museums/national_museum.aspx

This museum has everything from animals(stuffed), hands on science and tech stuff, short movies, to various exhibitions on countries, ancient Egypt, as well as exhibitions on Scottish history, as well as some temporary exhibitions- one on Dr. Livingstone and  the other on the Vikings( we didn't go to that, but I went later on in the week)

It's a big museum with lots to see so we didn't see everything, 1 because we were tired and 2 because it was later in the afternoon and closing in a couple of hours anyways.  

February 10th- Adventure to Lindisfarne!

Before Lisa and I had even planned this trip to Scotland we had decided that we wanted to go to Lindisfarne- which is in England, about 45min or so from the border.  It's also called Holy Island, and is known for being the first place in Britain that the Vikings attacked,  because of the Lindisfarne Priory.  Also- it's famous because of the Lindisfarne Gospels- currently in the British Library.  Saints Aiden and Cuthbert are the most well known monks on the island.

It was an adventure getting there since it's an island for half the day, and of course the day we went, the castle was closed and it was super windy and rainy!  But it was fun and well worth everything!

We left Edinburgh around 9am for the 40-45min train ride to Berwick-upon-Tweed, where we would catch a cab, since the bus that goes over the causeway to the island, seemed very sporadic, if it ran at all, during the winter.  We finally got a number from the tourist info woman, and began the 20ish minute drive to the island.  It was around £22 for the one way, but totally worth it since our cabbie also played tour guide and told us a little bit of the history of the area and little facts here and there.

He dropped is off at the Lindisfarne Center, where we went through a little 3-part exhibit (that the woman at the front desk had to go in and turn on for us) about the island itself, the vikings, and the Gospels.  It was pretty interesting, especially the short videos they had here and there about the Vikings mainly- as well as the history of the Gospels, which are around 1300 years old...pretty neat!

From there, we walked to the Priory ruins, run by  English Heritage (I got in free because I'm a member- hooray!)  We spent 30-40 minutes wandering around taking pictures and trying to shield ourselves from the very gusty wind.  After that we, of course since I was on the trip :), went to find a souvenir store.  This store was closing as we got there (well, closing in about 20 min) because they wanted to leave the island before it flooded.  We should have thought about that before we made our plans...     And of course , as we left the store it began to rain, hard, so we ran back to the Priory to ask for a place to eat, and we were given directions to the Crown and anchor pub.  Best Steak and Ale pie I think I have ever had!  It was absolutely delicious!   Lisa had the fish and chips, and I even had a bite of the fish, and I didn't hate it!  

Even the pigeons were cold

 While we were eating, the local old boy's club came in and started drinking and talking about various things.  From them, we learned that the Castle was closed (even though it had said open on the website...) so we made ourselves comfortable at our table that we would sit at until the tide went out again- about 6 hours later.   While we were there, more and more people trickled in- some because of the rain, others because there was a big rugby game on- England vs. Ireland I think?I didn't pay attention because I don't understand rugby, and watching it just made me even more confused.

So as the old boys club saw that we were in the pub for the long haul everyone began to get a little more chatty and friendly, and I found out that one of the men had actually spent a day in Chattanooga!  What are the odds that I would find someone who had been there on a tiny island off the coast of England?!

Well, we decided to brave the wind and rain after a couple of hours of being in the pub, to go up and at least look at the castle.  The bartender said he would watch our things, and we bundled up to head out into the weather.  I think this wind was the strongest I've ever walked in (minus the straight line winds and tornado winds we had on Signal a few years ago).  Thank god for Eddie Bauer!  Their raincoat cut the wind to nothing! And my upper body stayed dry, as did my legs from the calf down....everything else- soaked, which made sitting kind of uncomfortable later on.

We made it to the castle after going through a couple of fences (No locks or signs that said we couldn't!)  We passed a lot of sheep, and even saw Bamburgh Castle in the distance.  It was pretty cool!

From Lisa (I'm not that fat, many layers!)

When we got back to the pub the crowd inside had grown considerably so we made ourselves comfortable between the two bigger tables on the bench, making friends with the family beside us that had two small, and progressively hyper, children- Ben and Zoe.  Ben was the funniest, because he kept saying things about his mom and dad like, how his dad liked to go to the pub and drink 4 or  5 pins, and how his mum ruined her shoes because she had to wade through the water because they got stuck somewhere.  They were cute.

From Lisa (I'm not that fat! Just layers!

Apparently, the people on Holy Island don't stand in front of fires to dry off, because I was asked if that's what people do where I come from- stand and warm their bums in front of fireplaces... seems normal to me! He also said I did not sound American...

The game ended around 4ish and the most people were gone by 5-5:30, and we still had about 1.5 hours to wait as our cabbie wasn't picking us up until 7.  Longest afternoon ever, but it was so much fun!

We made friends and had some good memories, and hopefully I'll make it back this summer!