We arrived in Scotland in the evening and got through customs without too much difficulty. Our customs officer had an extremely thick Scottish accent and while I could understand most of his questions, at one point I totally misinterpreted what he was saying.....
He asked Dave and I where we were living and I replied France. To this I thought he said, "well you shouldn't"....and believing he was just making a dig at France I smiled and said nothing. He then looked up at us expectantly as if he were waiting for a response. After a few seconds of starting stupidly back at him he repeated what he had said...only this time he said it slower and it was "are you students?" Yikes....so the customs man was not joking with us, he was just trying to figure out why two Canadians were living in France!
After that small miscommunication we did not have too many other blunders trying to understand the Scots....all around we found them to be the most lovely people and thoroughly enjoyed our time in Scotland.
We stayed in the Holiday Inn Express just off the Royal Mile - it was the perfect location for us to explore "old town" and we were able to walk the majority of places we wanted to explore. When we arrived at our hotel it was about 9pm and we needed to eat! Thankfully there was a pub a five minute walk from our hotel and we decided to try it out. The Tron turned out to be a really great find....we had burgers and chips and Dave had a beer for about 8 pounds. We liked the atmosphere and the food and of course the proximity to our hotel! After dinner we up the Royal Mile to Edinburgh Castle - it was deserted at that time of night so we got an interesting glimpse at the castle at night - under a huge moon and a clear Edinburgh sky. Definitely an experience I will not soon forget. After our walk we went back to our hotel and went to bed, wanting to get a good nights sleep before our first full day in Edinburgh!
The next morning we had breakfast at our hotel - complete with sausages (they are the best in the UK for some reason!) - and then set out to visit the interior of Edinburgh Castle by daylight. We spent about 3 hours there, learning about the Castle's history, Scotland's history and the military importance of the "rock". Also, the castle sits on a summit of an old volcano and the views of Edinburgh from its grounds are fantastic. It was my second time at the Castle but I was not in the least bored during my second visit...if anything I learned more and my interest and fascination with Scottish history was renewed.
After visiting the castle we made our way down the Royal Mile - visiting some other sights and shops that line the famous street. We went to a Tartan mill, bought some souvenirs and then wound our way down to the Princes Street Christmas market - where my favorite booth sold different kinds of hats! I tried on many, and convinced Dave to try on one as well (he would not buy it though, even though I thought it was fantastic)!
That night we had booked a ghost tour of Edinburgh - so we bundled up and set out to spend a couple of hours wandering the dark streets and caverns of Edinburgh. There was a full moon, 12 attendees and a guide in a black cape! We heard stories about public executions, grave robbers and ghosts as we walked in and around the royal mile. Afterwards we went into the city's underground vaults and walked from room to room by candlelight hearing about the history that took place there. It was a fun night....Dave did not find it scary but I got a little spooked and stuck close to the group!
The next day we took a bus to Glasgow. We had planned on doing a highland tour but the one we booked was cancelled because of vehicle trouble. It was too late to book another one, so we decided to use the day to visit Glasgow instead. It was only an hour and a half drive from Edinburgh to Glasgow, so Dave and I sat in the front of the bus and watched as we drove across the countryside to Glasgow. We spent the day walking around downtown, shopping and looking around. In the evening we went to the Lighthouse, Glasgow's architecture museum and climbed to the top for a lookout over the city. It was beautiful - unfortunately my camera did not capture it well, so no pics :( Glasgow was a nice city, with a totally different feel to it than Edinburgh....however I do not think we had enough time in Glasgow to do it justice, but it was a good day trip - especially to do some shopping!
Unfortunately Dave started to get sick the day we went to Glasgow, so we returned to Edinburgh around 7pm, picked up subway for dinner and went directly to our hotel for the night. We watched a movie and some British TV and Dave went to bed early hoping he would feel better the next day after a good sleep. He woke up feeling a little bit worse, the main things being a head cold and lack of energy. So we decided to do a bus tour of Edinburgh - that way he could sit while at the same time seeing and learning about Edinburgh. We bought tickets for a hop-on, hop-off tour and spent the first hour and a half doing the whole circuit and listening to the tour commentary before getting off anywhere. We went through Grassmarket, Cowgate, around the University of Edinburgh, down the Royal Mile, to Holyrood Castle, the Scottish Parliament, out to the Salisbury Crags, up the Calton Hill, down Princes Street and around New Town. It was a good way to see some highlights of the city in a short time, especially with Dave being too sick to do much walking. After doing the whole tour once through, we got off the bus to do some looking around on our own and to visit some sites up close.
After doing our sightseeing Dave was wiped out and went back to the hotel to lay down. I decided to do some looking around Princes street and visit some of the stores I used to shop at when I lived in the UK. It was fun to have a look around Sainsbury's, Marks & Spencer`s and Bhs....by the time I was done my browsing night had fallen. I walked down Princes Street to get some pictures of the Christmas fair in the park and then went back to the hotel and to Dave with Thai take out for dinner!
The next morning we headed to the airport to fly to Cardiff, Wales. It was Christmas eve and we were excited to be staying in Cardiff with family friends over Christmas. When we arrived in Cardiff we were picked up by Adrian. Adrian was my grade 5 exchange teacher from Wales and his wife Joanne exchanged teaching jobs with my cousin Gerry....so in the years that had passed we had kept in touch and they had kindly invited us to spend Christmas with them and their two sons Jamie and Ben. We arrived back at their house from the airport to a wonderful meal of cheese fondue, roast leg of lamb, potatoes and vegetables! It was so good - and nothing beats a wonderful home cooked meal when you have been eating out for a week! After dinner we watched rugby on TV because we were going to a rugby game on Boxing day and Dave and I did not know the rules! And then I was introduced to Top Gear - a BBC car show....all I can say is that I am not at all interested in cars, but this is a fantastic show! If you have never seen it, check it out.
The next morning was Christmas! And with two boys in the house it was an exciting morning! Poor Dave was still not feeling well, so he slept in and I went into the living room to see the boys open their presents! Christmas is so much more fun when you have kids around - Jamie and Ben were excitedly tearing through their presents, opening a PS3, games, cricket gear, trading cards! It was indeed a good Christmas morning! Even Dave and I received a present - Osprey scarves - the Ospreys being the rugby team we were going to see!
After breakfast Adrian, Jamie, Ben and I headed out to church. Joanne had already gone to get ready to play in worship and Dave stayed home to rest. We walked about 20 minutes to church, down into the valley, across the river and into the village where the church was. We passed under Castle Coch on our walk and also saw some horses! It was a sunny, clear beautiful morning! I felt very thankful and very blessed.
After church we returned home and Joanne started preparing Christmas dinner - wow! We had turkey and ham and potatoes and stuffing and yorkshire pudding and cauliflower with cheese sauce and sausages....so good! And then, later that night we had chocolate and christmas pudding!!! With cream on top! It was amazing - I was one happy girl. Here is a pic of the chocolate pudding on fire:
The next day was Rugby game day - the game did not start until 4 though, so we all went down to the Cardiff bay to look around. It is an area similar to the Forks in Winnipeg as it has historical significance and has been redone. It was particularly significant as a shipping post for the mining and steel industry in Wales, and as one of the southwestern port in the UK that was instrumental in WWII. Thankfully Joanne knew her history so Dave and I learned a lot from her as we walked around the Bay. Then we departed for the Rugby game!
We drove to Swansea from Cardiff - about an hour drive - to get to the stadium...Adrian found a parking spot and pulled in....and then we were approached and told the game was cancelled! Noooo! Apparently it got too cold the night before and the plumbing pipes froze....so there was no working plumping for the game. And it was a 20 some odd thousand sold out game.....so there really needed to be working toilet facilities. Of course we were all disappointed - Dave and I were wearing our Ospry scarves and were so excited. But I think Adrian took it the worst :)
So we headed back home and spent the evening eating stew and yorkshire puddings and relaxing. For both Dave and I our time in Cardiff was wonderful. It was so good to be able to spend Christmas with a family and not in some hotel all by ourselves. It was also great to see the Dinsmores again and catch up with them. And for Dave, it was a great place to recuperate and get rid of his cold - as he got wonderful sleep-filled nights and was fed amazing, hearty and healthy food - just what his body needed! Thank you Adrian, Joanne, Jamie & Ben!
The next morning we took a bus to London - we left Cardiff around 10:30 and got to London after 2.... we arrived at Victoria Coach Station and then took the tube to West Kensington to find our hostel. We found it without too much difficulty, the hostel was only a 5-10 minute walk from the tube station. Upon checking in and getting our keys we headed up to our 4 bed, mixed dorm room (London is very expensive so I booked us in this cheaper room for the two nights we were there instead of a private room). Dave opened the door and standing in the middle of the room on a yoga mat was a man in his underwear - apparently doing yoga! This was our first introduction to Julian - our roommate for the next two days. He turned out to be a really nice guy and both Dave and I liked him....I was just more comfortable once he put on some clothes!
We left the hostel after dropping off our stuff. It was already getting dark so we decided to just do some walking around by ourselves. We went to our tube station and waited for the tube for 15 minutes....something was wrong because you never have to wait that long. Then we learned that the station to the east of us was having signalling difficulties so there were no tubes coming through.....so we had to find an alternative way of getting to where we wanted to to go or wait it out. We decided to start walking in the direction of Victoria Station and look for a place to stop for dinner on our way. I was craving Indian food, so when we saw a restaurant with the word "masala" in the name I dragged Dave inside! We had a lovely dinner of butter chicken for him and chicken korma for me, plus samosas! After dinner we wandered along for a little while longer and came upon Earl's Court tube station....and this time the tubes were coming through! So we decided to make our way to the Parliament buildings and Big Ben and go from there. That evening we walked around Parliament, West Minister Abbey, Buckingham Palace and Covent Gardens. It was beautiful to see these building by night, but we knew we would be back the next day to see them in daylight too.
The following day we got up early to take a tour of London on another hop-on, hop-off bus. This time we had a tour guide providing commentary and we did the full tour circuit first to hear everything he had to say. Once again it was really interesting and a good way of learning about London. We went over the Tower Bridge, to the Tower of London, the Embankment, St. Paul's Cathedral, Trafalgar Square, Hyde Park and Speakers Corner, down Oxford Street, down Fleet Street, etc - plus to all the places we had been the night before.
We got off the bus at the Sherlock Holmes Pub and ate lunch there - for me it was shepherds pie and for Dave bangers & mash. I think this inspired Dave to find more Sherlock sights - so he went down Bakers street to find some other Sherlock inspired gems (and I did some shopping).
We then went on a Jack the Ripper walking tour - in the former area of Whitechapel where the killings took place. I had not known very much about Jack the Ripper so for me the tour was very educational. It was not like a "ghost tour" where the tour guide sought to spook you, but more of a focus was on describing what happened and discussing some theories about who the killer could have been. However, as the tour went on it became dark and we were taken through some shadowy alleyways and told some pretty gruesome stuff - so you did get a feeling of what kind of horror gripped that part of London during that time....and due to the background given on the women murdered (prostitutes and alcoholics) it became even more sad to me that these women were killed because they were in the wrong place with the wrong company out of desperation.
After the tour it was pretty late, so we went back to our hostel for the night. The next day we needed to catch our bus to Gatwick airport at 5am, so we knew it was going to be an early morning. We woke up at 4, got dressed and checked out and walked to our bus stop. Thankfully everything went smoothly and we caught our bus on time and got our plane back to France. It was an uneventful trip home - however one thing happened on the plane that has become a vivid memory for both Dave and I. We were seated already and a man in front of us hoisted his suitcase into the overhead compartment and in doing so hit another man already seated - apparently in the eye. He apologized profusely and asked if the man was okay - to which he replied - "no actually, I am not okay, you need to be careful". He then left to the bathroom to check his eye out and upon returning the man who hit him proceeded to ask after him again and apologize - and he got the same response each time, "no actually, I am not alright, you need to be careful". The man was obviously fine - it was not the most pleasant thing to happen, but it was by no a means catastrophic injury. And the poor man kept apologizing and asking if he could do anything. So Dave and I rolled our eyes at each other and in the last few days we have reenacted the moment for each other on mulitple occasions!
When we got home for the first couple of days we just slept, did laundry and hung out around the apartment. But we did manage to climb out of our laziness and celebrate New Years. The other Dave from ISU hosted a party at his apartment for all the other ISU students who were in town, so a group of about 12 of us celebrated New Years together. We played games, drank, snacked and rung in the new year with sparklers, confetti and champagne. We ended up staying out until 5am - and I only made it that long because at one point everyone but Dave and I went to a club for a few hours to dance and I had a nap before they returned! But it was a very fun night and a good way to bring in the new year with new friends!
On New Years day Dave and I slept in quite late (obviously) and then Dave made roast chickens in the oven - and I made the accompaniments. It was our first roast and it turned out superbly! Dave is a very good cook!
I cannot believe that it is 2011. The past year has been so full of changes I now wonder what the new year will bring.... the only sure thing is that I am sure it will surprise us!
Heather & Dave
sounds like a lovely trip heather - and nice to see all the photos! just think, i'm going to see some of those exact same sights in just a few months!
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