Drivin' drivin' drivin'

Today we had to make the trip from Edinburgh area in Scotland down to Bath area in England. It is about a 5 and a half hour drive, so we decided to take it slow and not rush to fit anything else in. We woke up around 9, and had some breakfast with Gran and Grandpa, relaxed for a while and chatted about what route to take, packed up the car and by around noon we were on the road. We were planning to drive down through the lake district, but when we saw the signs for Hadrian's Wall we decided to detour and go take a look! Hadrian's wall is the wall that was built to separate Scotland and England. Along it at one time stood at least 17 fort's which guarded it to make sure people did not pass. When we got to it we visited one of the old roman forts that had been uncovered - it was little more than some stones on the ground outlining where things used to be, but it was still really neat to see.

We later headed back onto the motorway, and after many hours of driving reached Stratford-Upon-Avon. As it turns out we managed to stumble into Shakespeare's birthday weekend celebration, we didn't arrive until 6pm so many of the places were already closed and the crowds were moving out, but it gave us a great opportunity to wander around the town without too much insanity! We went and viewed William Shakespeare's birthplace and the place where he bought his first house. We saw his death place and the church where he is buried. We also saw Anne Hathaway's house, and the Avon canal. All in all it was amazing wondering through the streets where such a legend once roamed! Many of the buildings are old Tudor buildings, and cobblestone streets are predominant, it is a beautiful town, and celebration is everywhere!

Walking down main street every lamppost has a shield attached with one of his plays en scripted on it, and flags from every country adorn signposts and poles. There are statues of jesters and pretty shop windows filled with bright colors. We had a fabulous time just getting lost in the middle of it all.

When we had circled the town twice we decided to grab some dinner before hitting the road again. We turned down the first alley we saw and found a tiny little hole-in-the-wall Indian restaurant and walked in. It was incredible!! We stepped down into the small, brightly adorned dining area, and were led to a table in the corner. Once we had picked our dinners, we were given some free poppadoms to snack on, and we sat there taking it all in. The kitchen was upstairs, and they sent the food down on a little elevator, there was an old fireplace where they kept heating trays which were made for the tables, and an entire silver bin full of poppadoms! When our meal was ready three waiters came over (this happened for every table) and folded our naan and put it on side plates, then they dished up our rice for us, put a heating tray in the middle of the table and put two steaming hot pots on it and whisked the serving plates away.

When we had finished talking about how cool the service was we dug in.... and wow... yum! We didn't leave a bite! We thought we were completely stuffed, but when they brought the dessert menu (all in pictures) we couldn't help ourselves! Geoff ordered an orange sorbet, served in a frozen hollowed out orange, and I got a frozen Irish coffee. We finally left (much later than anticipated) and are heading another hour to our hotel for the night in Chippenham.

The hunt for the Loch Ness Monster

Our first (and only) goal of the day was to find the Loch Ness Monster, so after breakfast we headed into Inverness to find out where we could get a boat! We passed by the Inverness Castle and ran in the tourist information office, grabbed the addresses we needed and went on our way.

Our Jacobite cruise left from about half way between Inverness and the Urquhart Castle, and we had some time to kill before our departure, so we perused the gift shop, and then sat on a driftwood bench by the water. We were two of about 7 people waiting at the dock, until 5 minutes before leaving a group of 16 frogs joined the boat (frogs for those of you who don't know, are the french). The first half an hour of our hunt was a little insane, the tour bus group broke out the bottles of champagne before we even left the dock and were dancing and taking group pictures every moment of the way. The other 7 of us non-frogs (all American and English people) all migrated to the front of the boat and enjoyed the gorgeous surroundings. The tour group had signed up for the sightseeing trip on the castle grounds, so they departed on the far shore, at which point we all spread out and began to hunt more diligently. As you can see from our photo, it paid off!!!!!

Okay... so maybe not, turns out the Loch Ness Monster must have been on vacation, but it was still lots of fun!

Next we headed south, back towards Edinburgh. On the way we saw a sign for a Highland Animal Park, and took a detour to check out some buffalo and horses! The park turned out to be pretty huge, hosting a drive through section to see reindeer, bison, wild horses, blue mountain sheep and a few other things. Then there was the wildlife hike, where you could see a red fox, snowy and tawny owls, lynx, wolves, arctic foxes, elk, beavers, otters, and many other birds and small mammals. We ended up spending a good 2+ hours here, before looking at our watches and realizing we better get going!

We got back to Gran and Grandpa's at around 7pm and all sat down for a dinner of beef pie, which was followed by trifle. Then we all headed into the living room to look at photos and relax. Geoff and Grandpa had a nightcap of molt whiskey, and we all talked about the days to come. It was a fun evening, and before we knew it time had whizzed by and it was almost midnight. We said our good nights and headed to bed.

"But they will never take our FREE-DOM!"

Well we got up early this morning, re-packed all of our bags, had some brekkie with Gran & Grandpa - made our plans to be back on tomorrow for dinner and headed out for a long-ish day of driving and touring.

Our first stop was Sterling, we took a drive around the historic town and castle, and then followed the road down to William Wallace's monument. We parked at the bottom of the hill and hiked up the steep incline. It was a beautiful hike, and a clear warm day so you could see for miles and miles around. When we reached the monument we suddenly realize how big it was. It was beautiful, there is nothing surrounding it other than forest trees, as it is the only thing on the hill. As we walked around the outside we noticed a shuttle bus that drops you off at the front door instead of having to climb up the hour hiking path - it made us laugh, but I guess that's what happens when you don't stop in the tourist info. center first! As it turned out the hike was much more enjoyable though so we were glad we did it. The monument was quite expensive to tour so Geoff went in and I stayed outside to explore. He climbed the 246 steps to the top, and went through the information rooms. William Wallace's original sword was housed inside which was pretty amazing to see, but other than that it was just a history gallery. When we were done we hiked back down to the car and headed out.

Loch Lomond was beautiful, the was miles upon miles of rippling water surrounded by mountains and forests. We got out at several points to go down to the waters edge and see the views of the loch and waterfalls. It was a fun and very scenic drive, we took it all the way to the end, and continued on through the mountain range past Ben Nevis and on to Inverness.

We stopped for the night at 'The Old North Inn' a B&B just a few miles from Loch Ness, had a lovely dinner and now we are just re-capping before catching some Zs since it has been a long day!

What DO they wear under those kilts?

Well we haven't been brave enough to try to find out what they wear under the kilts, but we are now in Scotland! We arrived just over an hour late and had some problems finding the grandparents house since we arrived and realized we had forgotten to bring their phone number or house number.... whoops... but we made an emergency call to my parents and got the info we needed and then we were on our way! We arrived at their house around 7:45pm and promptly all hurried out to the local Indian for some curry - it was fantastic!!!! (I have missed 'real' Indian food and poppadoms SO much!) We had everything from onion bahjis to chicken jalfrezi and naan. All of the food was excellent and there was so much of it we just couldn't get through it as much as we tried!! After a couple of hours of gorging ourselves we stumbled back to their house and stayed up until 1:30am talking and planning, before collapsing.

This morning we headed out to Edinburgh after a late breakfast. We navigated our way to the city center and parked by the train station, this turned out to be not too too far from the tourist information center, so we headed in to figure out the best plan of attack! Edinburgh is pretty huge, so we ended up buying a 24 hour bus pass and taking an open top tour of the city - it was beautiful. The palace and castle were huge and impressive, and there were so many famous spots (the place where Sean Connery was born, Greyfriar Bobby's Bar and Graveyard, the coffee shop where J.k.Rawling wrote the first Harry Potter book and the school that she based Hogwort's on, the home of Alexander Graham Bell , and so on... The tour guide was great, and we were amazed and overwhelmed! The only surprisingly hideous part of Edinburgh were the houses of parliament which were a fairly modern disaster!!! After the hour tour we jumped off and grabbed sandwiches and tea, and then got back on the bus on a later trip. We got off at the bottom of the hill near Edinburgh Castle, and headed up to explore. It is HUGE. We walked around for hours in an attempt to see it all, it really is a vast and impressive castle with building upon beautiful building, and of course the crown jewels which were stunning! Finally we headed down to the car, passing by the gardens and princess street.

By the time we got back it was about 7pm and Gran had cooked lasagna, so we ate dinner and then headed to Asda to pick up some essentials (Asda we discovered is walmart incognito - a little scary, but more affordable than other places!). When we got back we all watched a video of the military tattoo that is held at Edinburgh castle every year - it looks incredible, and apparently the tickets sell out the day they are on sale every year, but it was really cool to see past highlights, especially after walking around where it takes place!

After making a hotel reservation for tomorrow night in Inverness we are heading to bed so we can get a reasonably early start in the morning!

Rain rain go away!

Well we got up bright and early to drive up to the Cliffs of Moher, it was grey and drizzly when we left, and by the time we got there the wind was insane and the rain was so harsh that it felt like hail - being the oh-so-smart people we are we decided to head up to the cliffs anyway and see if we could get some photos through the rain. We layered up with winter hats, scarves and coats under our rain jackets and went out.... by the time we got to the walkway our jeans were already soaked through, but we decided to climb the steps up to the top of the cliff anyway! We got a couple of somewhat viewable photos of the castle, (and some not so good ones of the cliff) and then ran back to the visitors center at the bottom of the hill. By the time we got back to the car my face was pretty obviously wind-burned, an we were both drenched, but it was fun, and worth the view!

We headed out for the long drive up to the tip of Northern Ireland. The drive was long and bumpy, but the moment we crossed over the border it improved drastically. The only problem we encountered was that the road signs looked exactly the same, but they had switched to miles per hour instead of kilometers per hour with no warning! We didn't figure this out until the way back into the Republic of Ireland - when it was sign posted.... DOH!

Northern Ireland was beautiful, we took a coastal tour route that stretched for miles and miles around the top of the country, we stopped at Giants Causeway first, got out and took a few miles walk along the mountain side. It was a really gorgeous place, and a great setting for an early evening hike. After returning to the car, we continued along the coastal highway through the Glens of Antrim - it was breath-taking, and the setting sun only added to the dramatic views. We passed a huge waterfall cascading down the side of a mountain and several mountain goats on the side of the road, but the most impressive part had to be the shoreline, with its steep cliffs, green fields, and powerful waves.

It was a perfect end to our Ireland tour this week. (Aside from our Dublin day coming up on May 6th!) Our drive back to the hotel in Dublin was a long one, but once we figured out the speed limit and realized we could go 120kph then it was smooth sailing! We got sandwitches and soda for dinner in a Spar stop, and kept going. We passed Belfast at night and it was quite a sight to see with all the lights and bridges lit up. We didn't hit the hotel until 1 am, because we got quite lost in Dublin, but we slept in this morning so all is well!

It is now Tuesday and we have returned the rental car and hopped our first flight to London, the flight was nearly empty so that was quite nice! Our next flight is in just over an hour and then we will be in Edinburgh! Thats all for now folks - we will update you again in Scotland!!!

Frights and Feasts

We started off with an early morning, a quick breakfast and we headed out to drive around the Ring of Kerry. Let's just say small windy roads and rain storms with alot of fog and low visibilty do not mix!!! The ring of Kerry is a 4 hour drive around the whole county of Kerry (which is on the coast). There were some pretty coast lines, but not four hours worth, and in the rain... well... it just wasnt really worth it. We had fun, and did snap some semi-respectible photos - but all in all it was pretty stressful trying to stay on the road and not bust a tire on the worn down roads! After leaving the Kerry we headed to lunch at a local pub and then up north to Bunratty. The castle was pretty impressive from the outside, but very much a tourist trap inside, with staged gated rooms and plentiful souveneer shops! It was still fun to look around, and we even ran into some chickens and peacocks! We hit the 24 hour grocery store this afternoon also to stock up on snacks for our big drive tomorrow, hula hoops, lion bars, buttons, aero's and I even found a bottle of bitter lemon!!! YUM!

We decided to sign up for the Medeval feast in the evening since our hotel was nearby (we prebooked the Travelodge, as all B&B's here charge per person, not per room, and end up being more than the Travelodge internet rate! The feast was pretty funny, lots of harp playing and singing and a crazy four course meal to be eaten with your hands (I did however manage to snag a fork since I was offered melon instead of ribs by a merciful girl!). We met a great couple from around the boston area and spent the dinner and entertainment hours talking to them. When all is said and done it was a bit of a loopy day, but ended on a high note!!

Crystal, Castles and more.

We woke up this morning and headed over to the Waterford Crystal factory, they had a little cafe where we had breakfast and then we met up with our tour guide Olive - who took us to the actual factory by bus. There were only about 7 of us which was nice, and the tour was about an hour in length. It showed everything from mold making, to glass blowing, marking, cutting, sculpting, and quality control rooms after every junction. It was really amazing, and we learned so much about it! (For example: Each piece goes through quality inspection after every station, and if it fails inspection then the station that it fails does not get paid AT ALL. So at the end of the day noone is salaried and they only get paid for the pieces they make that pass! The fail rate coming out of the glass blowing area is as high as 20% some days, so the glass blowers have to work really hard to make sure each piece is perfect so that they don't lose their pay. All of the different jobs have a minimum of 8 years of training, with some having as many as 15 to become a master craft, so the workers we met had all been there for around 30/35 years! Also we saw the only other copies of all the waterford custom made pieces like the millennium ball and about 30 different sports trophies. They only make two copies of each piece like these, one goes to the person/company that ordered it and one stays in the factory on display, and then they burn the birch mold that they make them with so that they can't be reproduced! All in all it was alot of fun!

After a quick lunch we headed on to Blarney Castle, a couple of hours away near Cork. This was an un-restored castle (unlike Kilkenny), and offers a gift of life-long eloquence for those who dare to kiss the Blarney Stone at the top of the tower (this involves lying on your back and shifting down a hole to kiss the stone upside down - while hoping the staff member is strong enough to pull you back up) Geoff and I decided we are able to hold a decent conversation and bypassed this coveted opportunity! However we did hike to the top of the very high Tower and look into all the remaining rooms. Then we went to explore the surrounding grounds. There was a huge Druid influence - the remains of which we saw in the form of a Druid circle, a sacrificial altar and a head Druid's cave. They were beautiful and at the same time very creepy. However the further we ventured into the forest the more beauty there was to see including a Fairy's Glade and the Wishing Steps, where people have to walk backwards with their eyes closed both down and back up in order for their wish to come true! (Geoff did try this, but opened his eyes at the bottom because he couldn't get a good grip on the walls!) We also saw a Witches Kitchen, and close by was a witches stone and hat! It was a great place to visit, with so much to see that we spent a majority of the day there before heading to Killarney for the evening. We are now in Killarney for the night and planning to head out to drive the Ring of Kerry in the morning!