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.

Gibraltar - Thursday May 31st

Headed over to Gibraltar today.  Was nice because we are so close it was only a 30 minute ride.  Trip started out funny we drove over the boarder so had to stop and show our passports, then you go about 100 feet and you have to show it again.  Were like didn't we just show them, he said that was in another country.  :)  guess usually when you take a plane you show it in the departure city then again in the arrival, but driving across is a bit different.

Anyway first thing you notice this year since its 2012 is the Queen of England's face everywhere.  I guess her Diamond Jubilee or her 60th year on the thrown is being celebrated this week.  I didn't think she was that old but i guess she really isn't cause she took the thrown at the age of 21.

The main site in Gibraltar is The Rock and the Monkeys on the Rock.  So we took the Funicular up to the tippy top.  Nice 6 minute ride up, not too bad considering it took us over 3 hours to walk back down.  Anyway as soon as you get to the top, theres a monkey sitting there staring at you thru the window.  You'd be surprised how intimidating they are since i know they are not very nice if they think they can get some food off you.  They are very cute from a safe distance, after taking in the view from the top we started our decent, the first thing you see along the way are monkeys monkeying around.  There were some babes rolling around, we saw some others eating carrots.  Odd thing there is the carrots they would bite and spit out, maybe they use them to brush their teeth.  Who knows.

So the first thing to see on the way down is a natural cave into the mountain.  Its nice but old and kinda drying up.  Having seen many caves in the US it wasn't that impressive.  From the cave you have to walk all the way to the other side of the rock.  I think its a bit over 2 miles or right around that so it took awhile, lots of monkeys along the way.  Quinn had an encounter with one that used him as a jump point, not bad but guess they don't clip their nails cause he had some pretty good marks on his shoulder and was quite freaked out.  Once we hit the other side of the Rock we went into the Tunnels, now these were cool.  Built around 1700 if I recall they had canon wholes for the standoff against the spanish.  The whole thing was very impressive and the stories along they way as the hypothesis about why there is a window not used for a canon, was it a wrong turn or a way to check which way to dig next.  Apparently the tunnels go around much of the Rock now they were expanded for WWI, however they expanded it so quickly that their not that stable so we couldn't check them out.

After the tunnels we saw an old town that the english were stuck in while being barricaded by the spanish, illness killed more of the town than the battles.  We also saw an old castle which was said to be the last stand against the enemy, once lost access to the Rock would be lost.  So once down the hill you'd think you would be done.  Right it was only 6 minutes up, but nope gotta take a ton of stairs to get back down to main street.  Gonna be sore in the morning.

Last thing for the day was the way out, we decided to take the coast road all the way around the Rock before heading to the boarder.  There is a real cool lighthouse on the farthest point, you could see Africa very easily, its amazing how close it is.  The other side of the Rock is very impressive there are a few houses but mostly just shear cliffs.  No wonder they didn't have to defend that side, only insane people would try to take Gibraltar from the back side.

Estepona, Spain

Need I say more :-)

Day 4 - Tangier, Morrocco

We took a tour of Tangier, Morrocco.  Its only 9 miles from Tarifa, Spain accross the strait of Gibralter.  So from Tarifa we caught the boat to Tangier.  It was a comfortable way to see the city but the city was not really that impressive. It was more of a cultural experience.  I've been to a number of spanish cities where they consider the alot of colorful tile work as an moorish archtecture, but in Tangier the only tiles were the quick peaks you got looking into peoples homes while walking down the narrow streets.






Anyway we arrived and they drove around talking about the fact at one point the city had shared ownership by 8 countries.  Each section was a totallly diffrent achictecuture non of it looking very african.  Or at least from my perspective. I did notice the stop signs, although the standard shape it had funny writting on them, but I bet it said stop.

Next on the tour was a couple camels.  But they dont seem like very smart animals one was laying down and pooped and it went right into his legs like a lap.  He didnt even try moving to get it off.  Next we took a short ride to the top of the hill, tangier seems to be on the side of a mountain so its all up hill from the port. 

Here at the top is where they let us off the buss and we started walking around.  First we stopped by a snake show.  It was a cobra and it was fascinating what the snake was doing while the music was playing.  They had another snake that must not have been a cobra because his mission music or not was to get away from his handler, as soon as the guy put him down he hit the pavement slithering as fast as he could.  So the guy just put him back into his box.  From here we started walking along the small streets with little shops that were kinda cool.  They had this one that had spools of silk in vibrant colors, and another with embroidered outfits in beutiful colors and designs.  After a short walk we went for lunch in a morroccan restaurant, they had musicians playing in the background.  Food was interesting, chicken soup kinda stuff, shiskabob, cosco and a very sweat baklava looking desert. 

After lunch we went to a rug merchant who informed us the large rugs that are done by hand and it takes 4 hours a day for two ladies (guys make leather goods and metal only) for 9 months.  Very impressive, but bartering was required so I didnt buy anything.  I never feel like i get the best price.  If they agree to the price I likly could have gone lower so forget it i wont even try.  Anyway next we stopped at a spice merchant, they have natural drugs such as safron for cooking, some pepper like seed to stop snoring, orange oil for helping you sleep, and a bit of hash to make you feel good.  They do remind you that that hash is not suppose to be taken across the border.  The last thing worth mentioning is it feels like mexico with the pushy street merchants trying to sell you stuff, worse yet they use kids.  The bus drive back was nice, that part of the coast isnt overrun with condo sytle apartments its rolling hills.  Much more pleasant coast line.

Day 3 - Marbella & Estepona, Spain

 The area is very flowery, you kind of forget what these places with water look like.  Alot of the houses are white, the beaches are a bit rocky but still very nice.

The beach has a lot of nice bars and lounging areas.  We spent a bit of time in the shade having an afternoon drink at this one.

They have fresh smoked fish which is done by a fire lit in a fishing boat.  We saw most of the beach bars having this.  Kinda neat. 

Day 1 and 2 - Madrid & Toledo

So the trip started rather interesting. The flight from London to Madrid was only about half full. Then when we got there, mind you it was a Friday at 7.30. The place was deserted, I mean not a sole neither employees or travelers. We later found out it was the Spanish cup, in Madrid. The soccer game that compares to our super bowl. Europeans love their soccer.

So we stayed the night in Toledo and the next day took a tour of the Spain military museum in the alcazar of Toledo. Saw some cool stuff and learned a lot of political oddities. Guess one king Marie's off his two daughters to Austria and France or Italy don't recall completely. But then 200 years later grandsons from those lines caused the civil war. 

 Today we're near Marbella. The biggest strange thing here is everyone speaks English and your choice of food is Chinese or English. We had to go up to the next town, esteone to get a Spanish style meal. It was a fish place we ate at an Quinn was gunho about the shrimp on the menu, that is until they came out with heads and legs still attached. It was a classic face.

Spain / France 2012

Happy Birthday to the 9 year old today. He's in for a half day of school and a 9.5 hour flight to London which leaves in about 12 hours. This trip not sure how much new stuff I will get to see but Mr. 9 year old is in for some cool things. We fly direct out of Phoenix to London then off to Madrid. From their we are heading south to Marbella where other than some R&R we hope to go see the monkeys in Gibraltar. After Southern Spain its off to Northern Spain to visit family and then to finish off the trip we will be leaving from Paris so we will go checkout Disneyland.

Mexico city - April 2012

Second time ever in Mexico city. This trip I had a day in the center. The most interesting thing about this place is their thoughts of the dead an the sacrifices they did to their gods. Almost every Aztec piece of art we saw had a skull somewhere in the design. Now I think death and skulls and think the color black. You know the Grimm Reaper and all. But their art is bright colors. We saw the ciudad real and the different pyramids that had been built on it over the years. Before it was uncovered it was a parking lot. It's Lilly amazing what is under the cathedral across the street.