Day 15 & 16 - Inverness / Isle of Skye

So yesterday we did the tourist thing and went shopping.  The boutique shops have great people that are so friendly it's great.  The touristy shops have younger people that have no interest in you.  Anyway we picked up some trinkets then went over to a castle near by.  This was a unique castle cause some one lives there over half the year.  So you see period furniture but also newer stuff.  They had a new and old kitchen.  The gardens were very nice, but I think I'm a sucker for color.

Today we decided to get a car.  After planning the train we found a few of the legs we had not booked yet were 6x more expensive than before.  So Joe was comfortable if he got an automatic he could handle the wrong side of the road.  So anyway we picked up the car and drove to the Isle of Sky.  The scenery was very nice but the most impressive thing I saw was a water fall.  So imagine a standard smaller waterfall, then dark rocks contrasted with a nice green grass and moss covering 50% of them. Then the water flowing over the rocks and around them.  The water with the other colors seemed like this vibrant white. It was great.  Tonight we are in Oban.  Tomorrow we see puffins!

Day 14 - UK 2013 ( Northern Scotland)

Today was another long day but well worth the trip.  We drove up to the tippy top lands end of Scotland.  The only part farther north are some islands.  The road signs around here are rather unique. We ran into one section that said watch for otters.  Other signs show some towns in parenthesis, basically meaning your gonna turn off is road to get there but here is the distance.

 

On our way up we first stopped at DunRobin castle.  Very impressive castle built in the 1200s.  But the best part of this place was the falconry.  They had about an hour show where the falconer talked about his hawks.  He has 30 birds he exercises daily thru games like catch the fake rabbit or the fake bird he swings.  Then he says every evening he takes them hunting and they catch enough food for him and all the birds.  The whole training process was very impressive, he does it thru games and rewards.

From here we drove up a way and took a stroll on a rocky beach.  It was suppose to be a good place for fossils but it was very rocky and tide pooly.  So we found more squishy red things, crabs and other colorful things.

From here we went all the way up to John O'Groats.  here we ran into an army of tents for bicyclists.  it was a huge field, and dang cold and cloudy.  Tuff run for those guys.  On our way to the next stop we found a big sandy beach.  What's cool about this is we were on a beach that was a few steps from the road but if you look off one way there's a huge cliff

going into the sea, and you could see the Scottish isles with the same landscape. Quinn also found this cool looking guy relaxing in the sand. 

Next stop Thurso, here we had dinner in a nice restaurant, Scottish food has been fine.  We had lamb chops and beef burgers.  It's all local so was real good.  On our way to the restaurant a lorrie (small truck open back) drove down the street, on the back there was a guy without his shirt that had black stuff and what looked like wood chips all over.  We asked the waitress what that was about she said for good luck the groom has everything grown at him, for example eggs so stuff sticks, flour, coffee, basically anything.  Then he is paraded around town.  Interesting custom.
 

Next stop was home but on the way we saw the most spectacular view.  The sun was setting behind this mountain that had clouds running over it like water.  Finally when we found a place to park for a picture there was one sole deer silhouette at the top of the hill before the rolling clouds.  It was amazing.

 

 

 

Day 13 - UK 2013 (Jacobite train)

We got up super early, at least for being on vacation.  We hit the road a little after 7.  Although the sun seems to come up about 3:30 around here 7 is still too early.  Anyway, small road trip down to a town called Fort Williams.  To get here we had to drive down a lot of single track road with small passing pull outs.  We also gotta see the full setup for the RockNess concert weekend starting Friday.  Camp spots, mini store,  concert stage, Ferris wheel.  Seems like they got it all.  Anyway at fort Williams we hopped on a train that took us to the west coast of Scotland.  Real nice two hour ride over great scenery. The train and its path was used in a number of the Harry potter movies.  We saw the fancy bridge as well as walked thru all the cars and got to see the closet cars.  Although we were not cool enough to sit in those seats.

When the train stopped we had 2 hours to see the town of Mallaig.  We walked around a bit but mostly went and grabbed lunch.  For lunch we took the plunge And ordered some haggis. Surprise surprise it's actually pretty good, or at least what they served was..

On our way back we stopped at a castle, it still had its outer walls and you can see the remnant's of the old moat which used the river water diverted to get filled in.  It would have been very impressive in its day.

The only other exciting thing for the day was back at the apartment.  Across from the apartments there's a field and it had a horse and her new calf.  The calf was 3 days old and very curious.  It came up to meet us with no issue and then ran around playing while it looked at us.

Day 12 - UK 2013 (reindeer)

 

 

 Today we went and visited a few places.  We started the day at a reindeer facility.  They manage a herd in a national park here in north Scotland.  We drove up to a hike in an area near a ski resort in the Cairnmore national park.  We hiked a little way into a 1000 acre enclosure they use for the reindeer on and off and were able to feed the ones there.  All the females had been released into the high part of the park for the summer with their calves, but the ones that were left are super neat.  We were able to feed them, and pet them.  Of course since they were hot, which is nuts since I was freezing, so they were shedding clumps of hair.  Some fun facts is their hooves click when they walk so they can follow each other in a blizzard.  And they don't get cold until -35 F. 

After this place we went over to a battle field.  Of course like the ones in the US it's a giant open area.  There are some grave stones marking Clan members and memorial in the

center.  They had the two lines marked with red and blue flags its amazing their front lines don't seem that far apart.  You cant see the other side very well but you can at least see it.

After the battle field we followed a random sign to a Cairne, which is the Stonehenge like grave areas. This one had 3 sites with big stones and huge mounds.  And there was another site near by we walked to that had another circle and then an area were they thought there may have been a chapel.  Not sure how they figured that out looked like a lot of rocks in somewhat of a square but the Indian ruins in the US are more defined than this place was.

 

 Here is a picture of a bridge that we could see from the stone cemetery.  Tomorrow off to take the Hogwarts train. 

Day 11 - UK 2013 (Loch Ness)

 

We are staying in a great apartment in Inverness, although luckily our friends have a car cause its not that close to down town.  Today we took a bus and cruise of Loch Ness.  We started off with catching the bus at the bus station and driving toward the lock.  N the bus we heard more confusing history on this royal family and that and the battles between Catholics and Protestants.  Not sure how anyone keeps that stuff strait especially when there's Mary X then Mary Y and James I or James IV.

Anyway first stop on the tour was a stone circle.  It was small stones and in the middle was a kinda dome thing that I guess was a grave.  So I don't know bout everyone else but I thought stone hedge was this unique thing.  But it's not, there are hundreds around the British isles.  This one was nice cause you could get up close and really check it out.  It was in a filed Amundsen sheep near by.

From here we stopped at the Loch Ness visitor center.  It's amazing how many people/scientists have worked to determine if there is a Loch Ness monster.  They have done numerous sonar expeditions, submarine dives and habitat research.  Doesn't seem like a dinars our size creature could live in the loch but some thing may have come in from the ocean at some point in its long past.

After the visitor center we went and  checked out an old old castle.  Very neat looking on a little peninsula on Loch Ness.  You could walk up one tower and into the dungeons.  The landscape in this part of the country is so green and vibrant.  I bet it's like Seattle or Oregon, I don't think they get sunny days very often here.  From the castle we took a boat back to Inverness.  Loch Ness is one of a few lochs that are connected naturally and with mans assistance to create a shortcut from the North Sea to the Atlantic.  Like the Mississippi it has Loch and Dams where it takes you from one water heigh to another.  We went from Loch Ness to a canal and had to drop a little bit.  One thing I noticed was a nice looking bike path that ran the same path as the canal.

Almost forgot to mention the hairy cows.  I wouldn't normally say a cow is cute but these guys really are neat.  After the tour since we were in town we tried to stop at some local shops and get some meat and food but everything closes between 5 and 530.  What I don't get is if you work all day when do you go get your food?  Maybe they work different hours, not sure.  Anyway they have the kinda Walmart style shop that's open 24 hours so we ended up going there.

Tomorrow we are thinking reindeer.  We'll see.  Oh and as I was going thru the pictures here is a water sign and a street sign we saw today that was different.

 

Day 10 - UK 2013 (Edinburgh)

 

 

 

Today was day two in Edinburgh, we started the day off with a tour of the royal palace.  It's still used today at least once a year by the queen.  It's strange to think they actually sit in some of the ornate chairs, or use the silver set on show in the dining room.  But I guess if your a queen and don't use the nice stuff what's the point of having it.  Although the palace was neat to see the gardens were real neat.  Some awesome colors in bloom and everything so alive was real neat.   There was also remnants of an old Abby,  you could see the grand arches where stain glass must have once stood.  The place with the garden right next to it just gave you a feeling of awe.  The guide mentioned its many times painted or captured by artists and I can see why.

 

After the palace we headed toward the Scotland museum, but before we got there is stopped in a bookstore on the royal mile.  When I was a kid I was given four English adventure books, it was like pre Nancy drew.  The first one was called "the island of adventure".  Anyway the books were from a series of 6, so I took a look to see if I could find the other two.  I found one that I think I was missing so bought it.  Hope it's the right one.

Next stop the Museum of Scotland, parts of this place remind me of the smisonian in DC it shows evolution of cellphones for example.  Some other impressive items was the T-rex skeleton, and tones of other preserved animals and insects.  It had a lot of touch exhibits, it was perfect for both young and old.  And the café had a great banana split.

End of the day was the trip up to Inverness.  The landscape really changed,  a lot more mountains and trees.  They even have aspen up here.  We saw snow on some of the mountains so its definitely a bit chilly up here.  Tomorrow we go attempt to locate Nesse!

Day 9 : UK 2013 (Edinburgh)

Spent the entire morning at Edinburgh castle.  Not as impressive as others I have seen.  However there were some highlights.  The scots seem to have been very influential in all the wars they helped the British with.  There is a lot of information in the castle on Scotsman in the military. We also got to see the Crown Jewels which went thru some interesting tales of being locked away for 111 years at one point, basically forgotten.  They also had been buried during a number of wars, a lot of interesting tales on how they were protected over the years.  There was one prison area where American sailors from the revolution were held. There is a door preserving prisoner graffiti and one shows an American flag.  Kinda cool.

From here we went and checked out the Scottish gallery, it has a great cafe with a nice patio.  It also has many different paintings so we saw some Van Gogh, Monet, and others.  Took an accidental detour to the Scottish modern gallery, meant to go over to the Scottish museum.  Anyway that gallery was lame but the walk back was thru a more modern area of Edinburgh as well as thru a big park where there was a free concert and mini carnival.  Always fun to see how e locals enjoy a nice Sunday afternoon.

So we finished the day with some wonderful history.  Finally understand this cities strange streets.  So we look a tour called Mary Kings Close.

There was a government building built a long time back and when they did instead of tearing down houses they built on top of them.  But before I get to far ahead. Edingburgh castle is up on a hill.  From the castle to the palace there is a street called the royal mile.  It's runs down the hill along a ridge.  So since its a ridge each side of the royal mile drops dramatically. So they build purses along the royal mile and then down each hill they had steep houses seven stories or more high so they were close in elevation to the royal mile.  As I mentioned yesterday where the train is seemed like it should have been a river,  well I guess it was a loch at one point, but since there was no indoor plumbing and everything ran down hill you could image the conditions of this particular loch, so at some point it was drained.  So if you image in all these old style sky scrapers, imagine they fill in some areas and  build roads on top of the buildings.  Not sure I can explain it hope the pictures help.  I once took a tour of Seattle and its underground past,  it seems very much like that where the third floor of a building becomes e first floor when a road is put in across numerous third floors.

I'll get some pictures uploaded to help with the vision.

 

Day 8: UK 2013 (To Edinburgh)

Had a great day yesterday watching a cousin get married.  It was a beautiful ceremony and reception.  Tried an interesting drink called PIMS, it was very fruity and yummy.  The other interesting thing I learned is instead of hats ladies can where little things in their hair called fascinators, very cute.

 Well today we took the train from London King's Cross to Edinburgh.   I guess King's Cross is part of the Harry potter series cause ere was a train platform called 9 3/4 that went right thru a wall.  There was a shopping cart that appeared to have gotten stuck before it made it all the way thru.  So the train ride was pleasant Joe clocked us at one point going 120mph.  The scenery out the window was rolling hills, allot of sheep And scattered farms.  E one thing about the houses that looked different to me was the chimneys they had two or three tile like tubes sticking out.

Now Edinburgh is an interesting city.  At first I thought it was on a hill,  then I thought an old dried up river maybe around it.  But none of that appears to be true. So here is what I noticed.  The castle is high on one end and a mile down the main drag, royal mile is the palace.  From the palace we took an uphill trail to a nice high view of the city, this is where I was thinking okay nice hill goes down to old river area then up again on the other side where royal mile is, simple enough.  But when we try to get back from the one side it's not quite right it's like a stacked city.   So your walking and you look down a bridge and there's another street going perpendicular and its a bridge so under where we had just walked looks like houses and stores.  So what this place really looks like is giant tall buildings with different levels.  We noticed a tour sign about underground streets, so stay tuned hope I get the scoop on this strange city tomorrow.

Day 6 : UK 2013

Today was a solo adventure.  Took the train into London for a business meeting.  Was a very easy commute, I can see the appeal large city dwellers have with public transportation.  Coming from Phoenix we don't have that option.  The business men on the train bust out the laptop as soon as they got on and got to work.  Anyway finding the office I had to go to was a pain.  Unlike places I've been that have numbers above each door I had to walk up and down the street till I found two numbers to figure out which direction to go.  Then finally figuring that out I walked until I found the next number which was the one I was looking for.  It was a small door between a Subway(as in subs) and some other small shop.

After the meeting I decided to head to a shopping area, saw a sign for Harrod's which i had heard of so off I went.  Took the tube a couple stops, saw H&M and some other shops I see a lot in the US then finally made it to Harrod's.  Large fancy doors, displays windows all decked out advertising the Great Gatsby.  So room after room I see purses, okay there's gotta be cloths in here.  Next I hit a room of pastries, almost bought some fudge,  followed by almost buying petit fors, followed by wow check out those cup cakes.  The displays almost got me.  Well after making it out of the food section I saw a sign, egyptian escalators.  Now a picture does these stairs no justice, fancies steps I've ever seen.  From here I checked out all the floors, luckily the cloths were not my taste.  for me they looked like older lady cloths but what was odd even the kids stuff had that look just less material.  I saw one cute kids dress but it was 245 pounds, that almost $400, yikes.

Anyway enough shopping or browsing for me now I was off to the national archives.  First off i had to find a tube to Kew Gardens.  Oh but the fun with wandering without a real goal is if something catches your eye go for it.  So i was passing Victoria and Albert museum, most museums in London are free curtesey of the lottery.  (Hmm wonder were all our lottery funds go).  Anyway nice thing about this was there was no line so I hopped in picked a corridors saw stain glass, robes, ivory things, Italian columns, kinda cool information then when I'd had enough out I went no worry about cramming everything in.

So back to getting to the national archives, I enjoy attempting to figure out my family tree so figured is be a good place to stop.  Interesting yes useful unfortunately no.  It's free access which is nice but I can pay a fee and do the same searches from the comfort of my home.  Oh well, it was worth a shot.  

Day 3 : UK 2013

Yesterday we went to Dover Castle.  It's an impressive castle on the top of a hill.  You can see France from the castle tower.  Guess its about 35 miles to get over there, this is the general area where the trains use the Chunnel to go over to France.


Anyway they had a WWII event while we were there.  They had German and British soldiers walking around.  They had camps setup around the castle to show what you would typically see in a camp during world war II.  They had a spit fire plane and some other cool
cars.  There was a general store that you could see what was generally available.  Chocolate was very expensive.  Its funny but my aunt mentioned she saw her first banana after the war, she was so small she never experience life before the war so the rations seemed like the norm.  We also got to see a reenactment of an ambush.  The narrator gave a brief history of the main events for Britain during WWII, my history is very rusty I didn't remember they took over a lot of east and

south east countries before moving into France. They had a scouting party that had a jeep break down.  As they were working to fix the jeep the germans spotted the english and moved in.  They had rifles and a gatling gun going off in an exciting firefight.  Then the germans took over the british and captured their jeep, but one british soldier got away and next thing you know it a bunch of british soldiers come back and capture them all.  Very entertaining and informative.

So now back to the castle,  it was well position to see anything come from anywhere.  We were able to go up in the main castle to the top and have a great view.  On the way up they had the standard loo's (toilet), someone said that the name loo came about because they use to mark it with a 100.  But looking it up online that fun story isn't a real theory, most people think its just a play on words either french or english.  Anyway also on the way up the castle there was bedrooms and a kitchen showing what the place would look like back then.  The oddest thing i found is they beds were short and seemed small but the chairs seemed large.  Assuming the bed at least fit them then the chairs must have been designed like a throne, what was odd is they were so big i would image their feet never touched the ground.

Day 2 : UK 2013

So how bout those English lawn games that are played in the garden.  Now translate that to American and you get lets play some outside games in the backyard.  Some of the games are just like home such as jenga or some giant bowling pins.  But then there are the english games.




Scattles looks to be a game based on a Swedish game called Skittles.  It has twelve pins that are numbered and a stick for throwing.  The object is to get 50 points without going over.  So to start you toss a stick at the pins if you knock one down you get the points on that pin otherwise you get points for how ever many you knock down.  The fun part here is we're ever the knocked down pin lands is where it gets stood back up.  So you can imagine how scattered it gets.  Very fun but hard to win if you go over 50 you go back to 25 and the thing bounces all over so it's hard to hit what you aim for.

The other game that was different that they played was French cricket.  In this game one person has a cricket bat,  short fat piece of stick.  That person must protect their legs from the tennis ball, knees down everyone else is trying to his the person with the bat.  The bat person can't move when the ball is in play but if he hits it with the bat he can run away until its picked up.  If its caught they are out and the bat moves to he who caught it or was able to hit the batters leg.

So anyway a great relaxing day out in an English garden with family.

Day 1 : UK 2013

England's southern coast was a good place for things to fossilize.  Apparently the last time global warming occurred naturally due to volcanos and things the beach we went to was 400 miles away from the nearest land.  The place we went to was Eastbrook and the beach was below the first of seven sisters, guess some hills slash white cliffs that lead to the sea.  These white cliffs are actually chalk, kinda cool and mixed around the chalk there was also flint.  So chisel and mini hammer in hand no surprise when Quinn mentions "I can make sparks" within the first few minutes.

Anyway getting ahead of myself.  We met a gentleman named Roy for a fossil hunt at Beachy Head. We had bought a mini hammer and chisel for the kids from him.  Everyone had to put on a hard hat and goggles.  Luckily we didn't have any rock slides so the helmets didn't get used per say but the goggles sure did.  A six and ten year old with hammer and chisel can generate a lot of flying rock.  Anyway it was about a mile walk down to the beach, little more work on the way back than getting there.  The green grassy fields dumping into the sea was pretty amazing then coming up to the white cliffs and a tiny lighthouse down on the point. 

 A very pleasant place to be no matter what the activity.  Now we found a number of fossils as well as normal shells.  I think a lot of the fun is e cracking of rocks,  will there be something or not.  For us mostly not,  found a few fossils i didn't have to break into, if I was smart enough I'd remember the names, but Roy was great at explaining what each thing was and how it lived when it did.  Both for kids an adults if your ever in an area fossils is definitely a fun activity.

So here are our main finds..

Pre Trip 2013 - United Kingdom

One day left and we are off for a month to the United Kingdom.  At the moment its looking a might bit chilly for this desert dweller so I have my thermals and rain gear packed.  This trip will be different than any other in the past, we are planning to tackle public transportation.  Mostly trains but also some bus routes.  Really looking forward to the experience.

Anyway, Ive plotted all our main destinations out on a map so you can see the plan.  I will try to add to the blog as we have coverage and see interesting things.

Lisbon Portugal - June 1st

Drove over from Estepona spain to Lisbon today.  The drive was about 6 hours we really didn't stop.  We did see some giant towers that Joe said had mirrors on them that directed the light down to solar panels.  It looked very shinny and contrasting against the country side.  Other than that the drive was fields and open area.

Lisbon greeted us with a giant statue the I associate more with Rio de Janeiro.  But now that i think about it thats Brazil and they speak portuguese so not sure which one came first but its gigantic and looks over the city with open arms.

This place is extremely hilly so after Gibraltar yesterday I really won't be walking much tomorrow, my legs are sore.  It has trolly cars like San Francisco, but from what I can tell its not strait lines or simple routes those things go all over.  An unlike San Francisco which i think of rolling hills this seems to just have a few rolls up each side.  From our hotel we walked down to the castle or at least it was down until you get to the coast and realize you then have to climb to the highest part of Lisbon cause where else would they build a castle.  So up up we went.  It was an impressive castle but I must stay with Quinn its always a bit stressful.  Narrow steps, no railings and a free for all to touch everything.  A kids dream, so after saying be careful for the 10th time i just try to not watch and hope he makes it back.

Along our walk there and back we saw lots of statues, cool side walks, even the big building with a graffiti like alligator painted on it.


We ate dinner at a place along one of the main walks, and two very interesting things.  One the meal came with bread fine, and with the bread came butter, cheese spread and Sardine Paste.  Huh.. no thank you.  But wait take a look at the pile o spinach on the right.  Or at least i think it was spinach.

One last comment on odd things, Quinn says our hotel doors look like luggage in an airplane.  The hall being the airplane hull and the doors the luggage.  This picture doesn't do it justice but take a look and you be the judge.

Tomorrow off to my moms town Granon Spain, its about a 9 hour drive from here but once there we will likely do a lot of nothing for the week.  Can't wait.