Just another day in paradise - Edinburgh, Scotland

Palace of Holyroodhouse - picture taken from the city observatory

Arthur's Seat in Holyrood Park - we didn't quite make it all the way to the highest point but still got a very good hike in

one view of Edinburgh taken during our hike in Holyrood Park

Edinburgh Castle and the Grassmarket from our hotel room at night

We spent another day exploring Edinburgh, this time spending most of the time on the other end of the Royal Mile. We visited the Palace of Holyroodhouse which is the official Scottish home of Queen Elizabeth and Prince Charles. We enjoyed surveying the grounds and gardens and learning a little bit more about the history of Scotland's royalty. We also took a quick walk through the Scottish Parliament.

Since it was such a beautiful day (probably at least 70 degrees), we took a few different hikes to get some amazing views of the city. David's conference begins on Thursday so tomorrow is our last day here in Scotland. We know we will miss this awesome place, but are also looking forward to being back in London and staying in a different part of the city than we did before. Hopefully the internet connection at our next hotel in London is also good so we can continue to keep updating the blog. We have enjoyed keeping this blog updated so we have a semi-diary of our adventures.

Edinburgh, Scotland

We arrived in Edinburgh (pronounced by the locals as Edinboro), Scotland and it was more beautiful than we expected. We arrived at the train station around 11:00 and walked with our luggage up a HUGE hill because David didn’t want to get a taxi. The one good thing about hauling 40 lbs of luggage and a backpack was the beautiful view – the city of Edinburgh and the Castle. Once we got to our hotel we went to our room and we were amazed at the view out of our room window. It is looking right over the Grassmarket and up at the Castle (see photo below). While we could have sat all day looking at the Edinburgh Castle through our window, we decided to get a closer look.

Our view from Room 4111

We toured the grounds at Edinburgh Castle and saw the awesome views of the city below. We also got to see the Scotland Crown Jewels which are housed there. After spending a few hours at the Castle we headed back down High Street also known as the Royal Mile.

We made a stop at the Scotland Scotch Whiskey Experience. We learned how Scotch Whiskey is made and got to sample some of the local fare. David was bold and went for a more mature whiskey with a very full, smoky flavor. The tour guide said of this specific sample: “You will either love it or hate it.” By the look on David’s face, along with the watering eyes and sporadic coughing – I would say he wasn’t a fan. We also got to see the world’s largest Scotch Whiskey collection with thousands of bottles including a few that were over a hundred years old!!

The view of the city from Edinburgh Castle

At the Scotch Whiskey Experience

We continued our walk down the Royal Mile and got to see a lot of neat shops and old building including the place where J.K. Rowling started writing the Harry Potter books, a statue of Greyfriar’s Bobby (the dog Bobby refused to leave his master’s gravesite for over 10 years and even inspired a Walt Disney Movie), and the place of the last public execution in Scotland. We went to a magnificent Cathedral – St. Giles. There was a lot of beautiful stain glass, statues, and memorials inside. We found a great little Italian restaurant for dinner and decided to turn in early. We have been going a 100 mph since we arrived in Europe, so we figured we would relax and enjoy the beautiful view from our room.

The Statue and Pub dedicated to Greyfriar's Bobby

St. Giles Cathedral

Stained Glass at St. Giles

The Grassmarket (the street our hotel is located at)

Edinburgh Cityscape

Edinburgh Castle

All Aboard!!

Just a quick update as we take the train to Edinburgh, Scotland. Had an early departure this morning and we should be arriving in Scotland in a few more hours. Hopefully the weather will be nice for us - it's a little bit cloudy now but that is probably to be expected for Scotland in September.

London: Day 3

Another busy but very fun and memorable day! We started the day by taking a walk to a really cool area of London known as Marylebone - lots of cool shops, restaurants, and buildings. Cori actually stumbled upon this area while reading a travel magazine a few months ago, so we thought it looked so cool we decided to check it out for ourselves. One of our first stops was at La Fromagerie (http://www.lafromagerie.co.uk/). For those of you who don’t speak French, fromagerie is French for cheese shop. We were able to enter “the cheese room” and sample a few of the 150 kinds of cheese. We settled on an 18 month old Cheddar that was absolutely awesome! We added a freshly baked baguette and a slice of banana cake with vanilla butter cream frosting and headed to Regent’s Park for a nice and peaceful picnic lunch. While La Fromagerie prides itself on being one of the best cheese shops in all of England, we both agreed that the highlight of the meal was the banana cake. The vanilla butter cream frosting was probably one of the best things that we have ever eaten in our lifetime.

After leaving Regent’s Park, we made our way toward Abbey Road where the Beatles recorded many famous records as well as the site of the famous album cover picture of the Beatles crossing Abbey Road.

Next, we jumped on a double decker bus and headed for Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens. Hyde Park is known for a number of famous statues (King Albert, Peter Pan) and memorials (Princess Diana Memorial Fountain was one that we visited) while Kensington Gardens is the home of Kensington Palace (one of Princess Diana’s homes). After spending at least a couple hours in Hyde Park/Kensington Gardens, we took a quick subway trip to visit the Michelin House which is the former UK headquarters for Michelin Tyre Company, and it was built in 1910. It has since been restored and is the home of Bibendum Oyster House & Deli/Marketplace. We then made our way to three of the most famous London landmarks – Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, & Parliament. We ended our night by enjoying the Thames River Festival and stopped by the Mulberry Bush Pub for the classic English meal of fish & chips.

All in all, we probably spent over 9 hours on our feet today, so we are actually looking forward to the train ride tomorrow to Edinburgh, Scotland. It is about a 4 hours train ride which will give our feet and legs a little time to recover before we start our sightseeing adventure in Edinburgh. I think we are planning to visit Edinburgh Castle as well as a scotch distillery and museum once we arrive tomorrow afternoon. Depending on the internet situation in Edinburgh, we will try and give another quick update in the next day or two so keep checking back. Cheers!!

David's own personal heaven - a room completely filled with cheese!

Regent's Park

Cori trying to not get hit by the passing traffic at Abbey Road

The Michelin House

Westminster Abbey



Look kids, Big Ben...Parliament! (Chevy Chase from Natl. Lampoon's)

Big Ben & Parliament along the Thames River

The Mulberry Bush Pub

London: Day 1 & 2

St. Paul's Cathedral and Millennium Bridge by the River Thames in London

The Market Porter Public House during our pub tour.

Windsor Castle (right) and St. George's Cathedral (left)

At the Roman Bath House in the city of Bath

By the Avon River in Bath

At Stonehenge

Piccadilly Circus at night.

We arrived safely into London after stops in the Memphis & Amsterdam airports. The flight to Europe was over 8 hours long but didn’t seem too bad because we each had our own TV screen and a wide selection of movies to choose from which helped to pass the time. We arrived at the hotel at around 4:00 p.m. London time. After a quick shower to freshen up, we headed out for a guided tour called “Along the River Thames Pub Walk”. We got to see quite a few famous London landmarks including St. Paul’s Cathedral, The Millennium Bridge, the Globe Theatre, Tate Modern museum, and of course, the Thames River. We also got to sample a few local brews at 2 pub stops, Youngs Founders Arm & The Market Porter. By the end of the night, we were completely wiped out (basically 24 hours since we started our trip with little to no sleep). We had just enough energy to grab a quick pizza before we turned in for the night.

Today (Saturday) we had another long day. We took a bus tour outside the city of London which included stops at Windsor Castle, the old Roman city of Bath, and Stonehenge. The entire tour and travel time lasted about 12 hours, but we definitely got to see many interesting and beautiful sites. First, at Windsor Castle we got to quickly tour the grounds and see some of the State Rooms inside the castle. The interior decorations are so amazing and truly fit for a queen! The city of Bath was about a 2 hour bus ride from Windsor, but it was definitely worth the wait! The city was built among 7 hills in the English countryside. It was originally founded by the Romans because of the natural hot springs that are found in the area. The main attraction of the tour was to visit the ancient Roman bath house but we found that the city of Bath itself was almost more breathtaking. While touring the city, we also passed by a rugby match and watched a cricket match for a few minutes. We both think that we could spend a few days in Bath relaxing and taking in the sights, but we were limited to only a few hours on the tour. Our final stop was at the ancient ruins of Stonehenge. You may remember this sight from the National Lampoon’s European Vacation when Chevy Chase clumsily backs into one of the stones and brings the entire monument down! However, in real life you really aren’t allowed to get that close to the stones but we did get close enough to enjoy it and snap a few pictures. Honestly, Stonehenge is something that we are glad we visited once, but don’t really have much desire to go back again! It’s basically situated in the middle of the English countryside amongst sheep and farmland so besides the rocks there isn’t much to it!

We ended the night at Piccadilly Circus which is kind of like the Times Square of London. We saw a lot of interesting things – people, buildings, and vehicles. We are planning to head back sometime during the day also.

Hopefully we will get the chance to update the blog a few more times during our trip. We can’t make any promises though because the internet situation is a little sketchy. The internet connection we are using now is in a pub by our hotel, so we really don’t mind seeking out a good brew and free wi-fi.

Cheers!

Brew at the Zoo and Visiting Cara too...

A few weeks ago we met Cori's family in Columbia, Mo since it was time for Cara to start volleyball and her Junior year of college. It was a short trip, but it is always fun to see everyone and spend time together.

Hanging out at Stephen's Park in Columbia, MO.

After we returned from Columbia, David drove across Ohio and Pennsylvania on his way to State College, Penn. the home of Penn State University. He was there for a week, and attended a conference and presented a poster of his research there. He enjoyed the experience in "Happy Valley" especially getting to see the campus and the HUGE Penn State football stadium.

We enjoyed some time with friends at "Brew at the Zoo" in Louisville. Over 25 breweries were there plus food and wine as well. There were breweries from as far away as Canada and Oregon. You paid up front and were given a mug to sample all the goodies you wanted that night. We also got to meet & pet some of the furry zoo friends too.

Caroline & Vince (some of Cori's co-workers)

Meeting a wallaby.

David's friend, Amos the Camel.

We are headed to London, England and Edinburgh, Scotland this week. We are very excited! We are going to try to keep a blog-diary of our trip. Keep an eye out for photos and stories!!