England, Scotland, and Wales 2008

Day 1: Our Arrival in England, and Driving to Bath

2008-09-29T19:19:00.001-07:00

Today was actually 32 hours long thanks to the magic of time zones, and it felt like it.

After a full day of work, I picked up Mary from her office and headed to the airport. About fourteen hours later, we landed at Heathrow just after noon local time-about 5am in the bay area. My brilliant plan was to stay awake the whole flight so that I'd beat jetlag with a good night's sleep. This turned out to be a fantastic idea with one little flaw: it turns out that re-learning how to drive while running entirely on caffeine is actually just shy of suicidal.

So, exhausted as all hell, we drove off the Alamo car park in the rain (our choice of Alamo would bite us in the ass later--never EVER rent from Alamo without a full forensic inspection of your vehicle beforehand), and I got my first experience on English roads in London traffic. This went about as well as expected. In fact, if I hadn't opted to rent a GPS with our vehicle, chances are I'd still be driving in circles around some roundabout next to Heathrow. Even so, my attempt to get out London and onto the M4 motorway can only be described as epic.

Two hours later, we arrived in Bath, both making heroic jokes about not being tired while each of us cried a little inside. Thanks to GPS, we found our hotel, the Edgar Townhouse, quickly. The Townhouse is a small and reasonably priced bed-and-breakfast within walking distance of downtown. While it's noisy and cramped, it is also clean, has wi-fi, and serves good breakfasts.

I got my first taste of parallel parking on medieval streets on the wrong side of the road. Thank god our car--which we promptly dubbed "The Flaming Tomato"--was roughly the size of a golf cart. You can see it on the left. I was glad to be on my two feet again, and we started wandering the town.

Like most urban areas in Britain, Bath has a small roman and medieval center around which buildings get progressively newer in rings radiating outward. After a picnic dinner in a small square, we caught a night walking tour of the town and spent the next few hours being regaled with stories of 18th century Bath fashion and politics. Probably it was fascinating, but I'll never know--I was starting to fade in and out.

Eventually, we gave up on the tour, found our way back to our room, and crashed hard.

Day 2: Bath, England - Roman Baths, Bath Costume Museum, and the Museum of Bath at Work

2008-09-29T19:18:00.001-07:00

Today I had my first English "fry"-sausage, tomatoes, eggs, mushrooms, bacon, toast, tea, orange juice, cereal. . . basically, the works. I admit, I enjoyed them the entire time I was in the UK. Those breakfasts hit you like a truck.

Our first stop of the day was the ruins of the ancient Roman Baths, from which-wait for it-the town got its name. Leaving details for tour books, I found this visit to be extremely interesting, and learned a lot about Roman architecture. For example, I didn't know Roman floors were actually raised off the ground by stacks of tiles. On cold days (basically every day in England), they lit furnace fires outside the house that circulated heat under the floors, which would radiate upwards and warm the rooms. Damn, why don't I have that in my apartment? All-in-all a fantastic sight, with one small quibble: I wish the museum could have stopped projecting fat naked "Roman" men on the walls in an attempt (I'm guessing) to improve "immersion".

After the Baths, we took a moment to shop and pick up a pay-as-you-go cell phone for 20GBP. This turned out to be a life-saver later. Grab one if you are traveling through the UK. You'll need to book ahead more than you realize beforehand, and landline phones are very expensive here.

Our next major sight was the Bath Costume Museum. This venue is best described as homage to all things British fashion, from the 1700s to the present, from underwear to shoes. I kind of sleep-walked through this one to avoid having to learn stuff about historic women's swimwear, handbags, and shoes. There was even a section where you could try on a corset and skirt. This was Mary's bag, and as you can see she absolutely loved every second of it. One exhibit I did pay attention to was a series of photos of famous 60s, 70s, and 80s British bands on loan from a music magazine. Very cool.

Our final stop for the day was the Museum of Bath at Work. Despite the name, this place is absolutely fascinating and a must visit for any fan of "The Way Things Work". In the 1800s a business in downtown Bath named The Bowden Company made and sold everything from machinery to soda pop. After 100 years, the city finally bought them out so they could redevelop their real estate. However, at the same time, a trust fund bought everything inside the Bowden Company shop, photographed and cataloged it, and reconstructed the workshops in the museum. The result? Some really fun exhibits of 19th century technology. All of it is set up exactly as the workers laid it down. This may sound boring, but trust me, its not. Ever wonder how soda was bottled back in the 1800s? You should-it's a very clever process.

We took a quick tour of the Bath Abbey on the way back from Bath at Work. The current incarnation dates from 1611, but the site has been home to churches for a thousand years. The first king of a unified(ish) Britain, Edgar of the Saxons, was crowned there in 976. As it stands today the Abbey is an impressive structure absolutely dripping with prerequisite buttresses and stained glass. We thought it grand, but this was of course before we visited York, Durham, and Westminster.

Dinner was at "Restaurant Number 5", a cute little French place near the Poulterny Bridge. Mary and I shared a full 3-course meal and a bottle of wine, which was more than enough to keep us happy for a couple hours. After a long period of post-dinner wandering and people watching on a lazy summer evening, we returned to our room and worked on our sleep debt.

Day 3: Around Bath, England - Avebury's Stone Circle, Glastonbury, Wells Cathedral, and back to Bath

2008-09-29T19:17:00.002-07:00

Today we took the Flaming Tomato for a spin. As far as driving went. . . well, I didn't hit anything. Which, given the width of some of these roads, was pretty damn surprising. Driving here is like a video game.

Our itinerary for the day basically was a giant circle north and east of Bath. First up was the town of Avebury.

Avebury is famous for the Neolithic stone circle surrounding the town. Everyone has seen Stonehenge. What most don't know beforehand is that you can only do exactly that at Stonehenge: see it. You can't get anywhere near the stones, let alone touch them. Once we learned this, we decided to visit the stone circle at Avebury instead, and save Stonehenge for another trip.

I was sad to miss Stonehenge, but was not disappointed by Avebury. The Neolithic ruins are a truly amazing and uniquely powerful articafts. Walking alongside three-thousand-year-old standing stones with only the ubiquitous sheep for company is one of those Travel Experiences™ that you always hear about. The pictures describe it better than I can.

From Avebury we drove on to Glastonbury, home of one of the oldest cathedral ruins in England--some of which date back to Saxon times. We went for the ruins, but we ended up enjoying the town itself almost as much on its own.

Despite the huge cathedral ruins and several churches, Glastonbury is dedicated almost entirely to Paganism, including everything from monthly gatherings in cornfields to rows of stores selling materials for gem magic, Wicca, druids, tarot readings, mystical healing, etc. Browsing the shops was a real treat: as an example, one bookstore window proudly displayed a row of books on magic, the sacred feminine, pagan holidays, bee-keeping, why schools don't work (dropping out 101?), and VW bus restoration. Talk about one-stop shopping.

In the middle of this cheerful town are the ruins of the ancient Glastonbury Abbey. Despite rain, we thoroughly wandered the entire site. The remains of this once-grand church (and it must have been dauntingly glorious) are haunting, and not to be missed. We also had the fortune to meet a very interesting craftsman who specialized in medieval pottery giving demonstrations at the site. He spent a good half hour discussing ancient methods of turning pots, vases, jars, steins, etc, and even more time telling us about how the art of craftsmanship has been lost in modern times. It was an interesting conversation.

After our first taste of Cornish Pasties for lunch (which are NOT sweet-a pastry is sweet, a pasty is savory), we next drove a few miles down the road to Wells.

Wells is home to another amazing 13th century cathedral-apparently there was a real run on these during the 1200s. This one was much bigger than any English cathedral we'd seen thus far. We arrived in time to catch the choir and organ combining in the nightly evensong service. Latin hymns floated through the stone interior as we wandered throughout the ancient church. Amazing experience.

A few hair-raising driving moments later, and we were back in Bath. We ate at a cheap Italian chain restaurant for dinner, and then headed back to the room to relax, pack up, plan our next leg of travel, and crash. Onward to Wales!

Day 4: South Wales and England - St. Fagans, Tinturn Abbey, and the Cotswolds

2008-09-29T19:17:00.001-07:00

The goal of today was to drive northeast into southern Wales before heading north to the Cotswolds region of England. We were on the road before the morning rush.

Our first stop was St. Fagan's Museum of Welsh Living, a "living museum" of how the Welsh lived for hundreds of years. If you're familiar with Williamsburg in Virginia, you'll have a pretty good idea of what this venue is like. It being Monday morning (and pouring rain), the place was largely deserted. This didn't stop us from enjoying tours of the 16th century manor and seeing exhibits of ancient Welsh crafts such as fishing, weaving, and making up game-breaking Scrabble words.

From St. Fagan's we continued on into Wales. Our next destination was the ruins of Tinturn Alley, buried deep in the Forest of Dean in the Wye river valley. Along the way, it was hard not to notice that Wales is absolutely drop-dead gorgeous. The Wye valley in particular is green beyond imagining. This is the only place I've seen that is lusher are the temperate rainforests in western Washington State. I would absolutely love to camp out here.

What remains of Tinturn Abbey, a prosperous Cisterican Abbey from the 12th until the 16th century, lies at the bottom of the valley outside Dean proper. It continued to pour rain, but when I saw Tinturn Abbey I frankly didn't care. Lost and forgotten for hundreds of years, this site was "rediscovered" by mainstream society in the 1800s, and as a mossy ruin draped in the green and gray mists of Wales it has an ethereal beauty to it. These ruins are the jewel of the valley, inspiring poets and tourists alike.

Soaked and tired, we finally left South Wales to head north to England's Cotswolds district. Our base in this area was the home of an incredibly kind woman named Carol Proctor, proprietress of the Cornerways bed and breakfast in the town of Chipping Campden. It's a very cute place, although we felt a bit stressed by being made a part of someone else's family for a few days. The village is quaint, but it is obvious that it lives and dies by the tourist dollar. There are more bed-and-breakfasts and hotels per square foot than anywhere I've been, and that includes the Cinque Terre. Since right now its summer holiday for most folks, the place is dead--and dies further after 5pm. Not much to do out here at night except go to bed early!

But after our long day of wandering, that was fine with us. The only thing notable about our quick picnic dinner was trying one of the wholly British potato chip flavors we'd seen around: "roast chicken" (right up there with the "ketchup and mustard" flavor we saw in Greece). They nailed the flavor, but we weren't a fan. After a few brews at the local pub--during which Mary discovered she really likes hard cider-we packed it in.

Day 5: Cotswolds, England - Chipping Campden, Moreton-in-marsh, the Cotswolds Farm Park, Stratford-upon-Avon, and the Royal Shakespeare Company

2008-09-29T19:15:00.000-07:00

We rose early to see a true miracle: lo, the sun was actually shining!

This was great news, because one of the major attractions of the Cotswolds area is supposedly its insane number of walking trails. So, after some of Carol's delicious cooking, we borrowed a map and were off.

Right away, we learned two things: 1) turns out the much-vaunted Cotswolds trails are basically just unmarked tracks across endless fields, and 2) sheep are among the world's most prolific producers of dung. I guess they don't have much else to do other than cover vast expanses of land with their crap. Anyways, these two realizations had us looking for a reasonable trail for quite some time. Mary then tried to pet some sheep, but they weren't having any of that. Basically, failure all around.

Eventually, we found a somewhat-marked route across cropland and started walking. The sun was shining. Clouds dotted the sky while waving stalks of oats bobbed in the wind. A couple of miles later, we came to the very small village of Broad Campden (shown on the left). While nothing was open early, it was a very pretty little place to wander. It was about here that we started to relax and really enjoy our vacation.

When we got back, we took the Flaming Tomato for a spin. Our first stop for the day was the neighboring town of Moreton-in-marsh to check out their once-a-week street market. Apparently this market has been going on in the same place for 400+ years. There was nothing really special about it--it was a typical street market with merchants hawking stuff like carpet cleaner, some very random collections of goods, and lots of interesting free samples--but we had a great time browsing. We picked up some excellent homemade chocolates, and also discovered that slow-cooked pulled pork sandwiches with stuffing and baked apples are absolutely delicious.

After the market, we next proceeded to get completely lost looking for a nearby "petting farm" we'd heard about. Yeah, you read that right--after seeing all these sheep decorating the grass everywhere, Mary was absolutely determined to pet some soft and furry crapping machines. To that end we eventually reached the Cotswolds Farm Park.

The Farm Park can best be described as a farm-themed petting zoo. Bags of animal feed are 50 pence each. These are then used to lure various animals into petting distance, where they (mostly) peacefully submit to screaming kids banging them on the head in exchange for munchies. That said, Mary had a great time wandering around large paddocks feeding goats, sheep, and geese, and petting anything that got close enough. As soon as she shook the rustling bag of animal feed, she had instant friends. The goats in particular would climb all over one another to get her food. Turns out they're pretty dumb, too. We could put food down in front of them, on their heads, on other goats, even on their noses and they'd ignore it to concentrate on whatever was in her hands. I admit to having a good time experimenting with this. The highlight of the day was when Mary got to hold a baby chicken. It was pretty feisty at first, but once she learned to hold it firmly in place it just went right to sleep in her hands (which I'm guessing is a survival mechanism). Cuddling a little golden chick really made her day--I don't think she stopped giggling the rest of the afternoon.

After the farm park, we visited the town of Stratford-on-Avon, the birthplace of Shakespeare. The first thing we did was to buy two of the last available tickets for that night's show by the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC)--The Taming of the Shrew. More on this in a moment.

Next, we hit up the Shakespeare exhibition, including the house where he was born. The museum was very interesting and taught me a lot I didn't know about England's most famous bard. The house, however, wasn't that great--if it wasn't part of the ticket, we wouldn't have paid for it. It's just a typical old late-medieval house, leaning walls and all. Everything in it was fake and "as it would have been in his time", which made for a kitschy experience.

The show we caught that night was absolutely amazing. The RSC is wickedly good and performs these plays in a fantastically entertaining and accessible manner. I've seen Shrew before, but only performed as a comedy. The RSC had a different take on it: feminist tragedy. The show program was full of articles on female suppression and abuse, and Cate's colloquy at the end mourned the loss of her free will, as opposed to the supposed comedic taming of a shrewish wife. Very interesting interpretation, with some of the best stage acting I've ever seen.

Day 6: England and Wales - Blenheim Palace and Ruthin, North Wales

2008-09-29T19:14:00.002-07:00

The highlight of today's travel was Duke of Marlborough's Blenheim Palace. We hit it up first thing in the morning.

I'll leave the detailed descriptions of this place to tour books, but in a word, it's huge. Enormous gardens, more rooms than anyone could possibly need, and crammed to the gills with art, silver, and other valuables. The palace was built in the 1600s and has a grand history-in fact, Winston Churchill was born here. What's more, it's still being lived in today. We enjoyed touring it, although we thought the exhibit on the top floor somewhat silly. Its an "interactive" exhibit where the visitor is subjected to a series of wax robots and bland reenactments of historic scenes from past Dukes from the point of view of a handmaid's ghost. Then a video of the current Duke somberly thanks you for visiting. Unfortunately, he does so in such a stiff, plaid-suited manner that its almost impossible to take the whole thing seriously.

After Blenheim, we got to experience Birmingham rush hour traffic en route to Ruthin, a city in north Wales. We also learned that our GPS is a sadist. I don't know what algorithm it was using to "optimize" our route, but we were starting to get irritated by its constant preference for bike paths over multilane freeways. Something about pulling literally into a forest so a truck can pass you going the other direction at 60mph makes you appreciate those "super-size" American lanes.

We did however make it in one piece to Ruthin, and parked on a sidewalk. By now I had gotten past all guilt at parking wherever humanly possible and simply stuck the car wherever it would be out of the way and not kill anyone. While in Ruthin we stayed at the Gorphwysta bed and breakfast, a small place right off the main roundabout (shown right). The proprietress, a nice lady named Margaret, made us feel right at home.

We decided to check out Ruthin that evening by hitting a random pub for a drink, in which we got promptly got waylaid by a senile old Welsh man. It took a while to realize he was senile because I don't know Welsh. I'm sure our conversation was hilarious to the carefully-straight-faced barman. We did discover later on that Welsh "chips" are the best damn fresh fries in the world, especially with plenty of salt and malt vinegar. I'm going to get me some malt vinegar back in the states!

After jacking some internet from the bar to check email, we headed back in crashed.

Day 7: North Wales - Conwy, Caernarfon, Sowdonia National Park, and Beddlegert

2008-09-29T19:14:00.001-07:00

We've officially passed one week in the UK, and so far we are having the time of our lives!

After a hearty breakfast from Margaret, it was off to explore northern Wales. Our first stop was the town of Conwy, a short way west along the coast. Conwy has the distinction of having a fine castle and city walls left here by Edward the Longshanks (Edward I). We didn't tour the castle (we decided to save our castle budget for our next stop), but had a good time walking the city center and harbor.

From Conwy we drove to the ancient city of Caernarfon. This turned out to be a bustling town with a lot of construction, which threw our GPS for a serious loop. It actually locked up at one point. ("Turn Right. Turn Right. Turn Right. Turn Right. . . ")

Touring Caernarfon castle was a real treat. This is a huge, imposing edifice built by Edward I, just like Conwy Castle. The inner grounds of the castle are almost completely open for wandering and are in more or less good condition. The coronation of the Prince of Wales is held here--see our pictures. We spent a couple hours just wandering around ruins, up tiny stairways to towers, through small tunnels in the walls, etc, much like we wandered Burg Rheinfels on the Rhine a year ago. An interesting place to visit, and is's well worth the entry fee.

For lunch we had some traditional Welsh fish and chips at a small market shop in Caernarfon. Oh god, the fish and chips here are absolutely delicious wile also being absolutely terrible for us. I also reaffirmed my love for Welsh chips (wedge-cut French fries with malt vinegar and salt).

From Caernarfon we drove east into Snowdonia National Park. When I say drive, I really mean "bit back screams of terror while barreling down a slim 1.5-lane road at high speed while swerving around oncoming traffic and some of the world's dumbest sheep."

However, it was worth the trip just to see Snowdonia. We stopped at the small town of Beddlegert deep inside the park to wander for a bit. This village is named after the grave (Bedd) of a famous hound of Prince Llewellyn named Gelert (Bedd Gelert, which has since morphed into Beddlegert). Apparently the hound was the prince's famous pet until he came back one day and found him covered with blood and his infant son's cradle empty. The prince killed the hound, but then heard his son crying. The heir was discovered under the body of a dead wolf, which the hound had killed defending the baby.

We started hiking the area, but the rain eventually defeated this idea, and we were forced to make our way back to Ruthin.

On Margaret's recommendation, we had dinner at a small place next to our B&B named the "Restaurant on the Hill". Rick Steves, if you ever read this, you need to recommend this restaurant--or on second thought, maybe not, since that'll leave it for the rest of us. Excellent food, reasonable wine prices, and a very cheerful staff. We had blood pudding, Welsh beef pie, cheese plate, and an interesting desert called Eton Mash--plus a bottle of wine. After dinner we headed to a bar to steal wireless and drink cider before tipsily wandering back to our room. Tomorrow: Scotland!

Day 8: Oban, Scotland - The Oban Whiskey Distillery

2008-09-29T19:13:00.001-07:00

After breakfast, we bid goodbye to Margaret and headed regretfully out of Wales. I hope to return to this beautiful and remote part of the world sometime in the near future.

Our drive north to Scotland took most of the day. Our first destination was the seaside city of Oban in the southern highlands. Along the way we stopped at Loch Lomond (of Tintin fame) for some pictures and a breather.

The scenery as we drove was breathtaking. The highlands--even the southern tip of them--are amazing. At this point we'd only scratched the surface of the area, but even the little bit we saw were just wild and craggy and lovely as we'd hope. The windy, narrow roads of Scotland can either be a bitch or incredibly fun depending on who is in front of you. Passing is obviously an art form in Scotland.

We got into Oban around dinnertime. Crazy place to drive in--a maze of extremely narrow one-lane roads sandwiched between stone walls. It's the type of town you see drivers casually flip in mirrors to squeeze through gates. However, we did find our bed and breakfast, met our lovely host Moyra, and learned that it can be really hard to understand Scottish brogue!

While on the road we'd reserved a tour at the Oban whiskey distillery (thank god for the cell phone), so we headed there first. It was a great tour and the perfect way for Mary to try whiskey for the first time. We learned an incredible amount about distilling, and also got to taste "young" pre-bottled whiskey from the cask--68% alcohol!--alongside the finished 14-year aged product. Walking got a little hard after that.

We caught dinner at Coar Moar, a trendy bar along the main drag. Excellent, excellent seafood. After wandering the town it was time to crash.

Day 9: Touring Scotland - Glencoe Valley, Stirling, the Wallace Memorial, and Edinburgh

2008-09-29T19:12:00.000-07:00

Today we had breakfast with a really nice American couple (an elderly father and daughter) that we'd met during our whiskey tour. They were following roughly the same itinerary we were, and we'd run into them several times on our trip.

We said goodbye to Moyra and met her husband Stuart Campbell. It turns out that her husband works at the Distillery, and was pleased as punch that Mary had tasted--and enjoyed--her first whiskey there.

Our original plan was to drive up to Inverness and see the battlefield of Culloden, but the 6 hour drive so soon after a long drive north made us to change our plans. Instead we started by visiting Glencoe, site of the Glencoe Massacre.

The Glencoe valley is wild highland country bisected by a snaking two-lane highway, and is, in short, Amazingly. Unbelievably. Gorgeous. Enough said--just look at the pictures. We pulled over at several points to wander small paths through the heather. God I could come to love Scotland.

After joyriding through Glencoe we drove over to Stirling, a medieval town containing Stirling Castle, the historic seat of Scottish royalty (shown right). The town itself has steep, winding medieval streets (cobbles and all) that made us thank our lucky stars we were parking the Flaming Tomato instead of a real car.

We had a good time walking around Stirling and the castle, but decided not to pay the 17 pounds for us to tour it, as the palace is closed through 2008. Instead, we visited the William Wallace memorial.

Built in the 19th century to commemorate Braveheart himself, the Wallace memorial is on a steep hill overlooking the battlefield of the Battle of Stirling Bridge. It also contains lots of winding stairs and zero protection from the howling wind. An in-character Scotsman related to us the story of the battle of Stirling Bridge, where Wallace decimated Edward I's army by splitting them up via the river. Perhaps not surprisingly, Mel Gibson's version is not remotely accurate.

We also saw the Wallace sword (huge), learned a lot about the man behind the legend. In reality, Willy was gifted guerilla fighter and an extremely bloody guy--but that was exactly what the situation called for.

From Stirling we drove on to Edinburgh, the City of a Thousand Bed and Breakfasts. Good lord, Scotland is trying hard for tourism. The landscape is amazing, but the exploitation of anything Scottish got to be a bit. . . much. I would much rather wander the remote places in Wales and the highlands.

Driving in Edinburgh is very challenging at present. They are hard at work repairing gas mains, causing a lot of closed roads, detours, etc--all of which made GPS almost useless. I'm not sure how long this will go on, so study a map and learn where the major roads are before you drive there!

Anyways, I somehow managed not to kill us AND find our lodgings. Our base in Edinburgh was the Ard-Na-Said Bed and Breakfast, a very pleasant place run by Jim and Olive. After pub grub, drinks, and some internet it was back to crash and get ready for day 2 of Edinburgh.

Day 10: Edinburgh, Scotland - Edinburgh Castle, the Royal Mile, and the National Galleries of Scotland

2008-09-29T19:11:00.000-07:00

What a cold, rainy, and windy day. And wow, were we unprepared for it. Consequently, we froze our asses off all day.

The first stop of the day was Edinburgh castle. This is a huge place with much to see, and as such I'll leave details to travel books. Of note was the war museum, which showed the many aspects of soldering outside of weapons-everything from tactics to medicine to how soldiers ate. We also got the chance to try on various types of armor and heft some weapons see what it was like trying to move around with the stuff. Mary looked downright dangerous.

Other neat exhibits in the Castle include the Mon Meg--a HUGE gun that could shoot a 325 lb rock 2.5 miles--and the Honors of Scotland. The Honors are the Scottish equivalent of the English crown jewels. They consist of the Stone of Scone (coronation stone), scepter, crown, and sword of Scottish royalty. They have a long and sordid history which was worth learning about. This especially goes for the Stone.

Next, we walked down Edinburgh's Royal Mile in the rain, stopping to see Gladstone's Land, a very old house restored to how it would have looked at the various centuries of its existence. This building was originally put up in the 1500s, and then added on to and lived in until present. The upper apartments are actually still in use today. We toured the restored rooms and chatted with the guides a bit. It was a worthwhile visit, but I wouldn't make it a destination on its own. We also stopped into St. Giles cathedral (shown right), but mostly because we really enjoy cathedral architecture.

Lunch was fish and chips in a nearby mall food court, which was delicious--we desperately needed something hot after the blustery cold. Afterwards, we visited the National Portrait Gallery of Scotland and proceeded to learn a lot about historic notables of Scotland. This was actually somewhat of an unintended detour, as we were actually looking for the National Gallery of Scotland, and ended up in the Portrait Gallery by mistake (there are many National Gallery museums, it turns out). However, it's free and turned out to be interesting, so we stayed and walked through it.

After the Portrait gallery we quickly found the correct gallery and spent an enjoyable afternoon browsing through our old friends Raphael, Titian, Tintoretto, El Greco, Botacelli, Monet, Degas, Gaudin, Van Gogh, Rembrandt, and many others. After three art-filled trips to Europe, I'm getting scarily good at recognizing the work of famous artists. Also enjoyed several Scottish artists I'd never really seen before, chief among them Sir Raeburn.

Tired and wet from a long day in the rain, we caught the bus back to our part of town, dropped our stuff, and went out to a nice dinner at a small restaurant named the New Bell (situated right above a great pub named the Old Bell). Good wine, great food--try the mussels if you ever eat here. Afterwards we drunkenly finished off our night at the Old Bell with hard cider.

Day 11: Edinburgh, Scotland - Greyfriars Bobby, National Museum of Scotland, and the rest of the Royal Mile

2008-09-29T19:10:00.000-07:00

We left our room today loaded with enough rain gear to weather a hurricane. In response, it stayed sunny and warm the entire day.

Our first stop was Greyfriars Bobby for Mary (see left), a statue dedicated to the most famously loyal dog in Scotland's history. After that, we spent the majority of the day in the National Museum of Scotland.

This museum is an absolutely AMAZING place, far surpassing its US Smithsonian equivalent. The institution has 7 floors of Scottish history covering everything from geological formation to early peoples to modern day trends. We spend a good 6 hours in this place and didn't come close to seeing all of it. Maybe that's because we spent too much time playing with the excellent, excellent hands-on exhibits, like firing a catapult at foam walls and driving racing simulators. Forget being an adult! There is just so much to do here, and best of all: it was FREE.

Next, we did something the geek in me really wanted: visited the coffee shop where Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone was written. The Elephant House coffee shop is outside of the tourist zone on a busy thoroughfare, and it is very nice place. I could see spending a lot of time in myself, given my own coffee-shop habits.

By now the day was almost done, so we decided to wander the Royal Mile and browse the touristy stores. We walked all the way down to the palace, the Scottish parliament building, and the remains of the old volcano, Arthur's Seat.

Dinner was pub grub at the Old Bell, followed by packing to leave Scotland tomorrow. An amazing place, and I want to come back as soon as possible.

Day 12: Return to England - Hadrian's Wall and Durham Cathedral

2008-09-29T19:09:00.001-07:00

After breakfast we said our goodbyes to Jim and Olive. I'm already planning my next trip to Scotland.

A short drive later, and we were back in England. Despite cold, rain and wind, we had to stop at Homestead Fort, one of the better-preserved Roman forts on Hadrian's Wall.

The story of the Roman Emperor Hadrian is out of scope for this travel log, but the wall he left behind is an amazing sight. It's very much out in the middle of nowhere, but worth the trip for anyone interested in the history of Rome. The weather did noting to diminish the power of these ancient ruins. Walking amongst 2000-year old stones making up the buildings of the fort was yet another Travel Experience™.

From Hadrian's Wall we headed into Durham. Durham is primarily a college town (we saw a lot of uniformed students wandering around), but has one of the oldest and most amazing cathedrals in England. However, holy crap driving in Durham sucked. If you visit here, do NOT drive in the town center, or you'll be treated to absolutely tiny one-lane medieval roads swarming with kids and traffic. Oh, and then you'll get waylaid for 2 GPB just to exit the city center (getting in is free, hah). We tried to find parking near the cathedral, failed, then tried to find our Bed and Breakfast, and nearly failed. Our lodgings were luckily outside of city center, so we finally just parked and walked to the cathedral.

However, once inside Durham Cathedral. . . it was all worth it. Now, sitting here writing afterwards, if I had to rank the top cathedrals in England based on majesty alone, Durham and York would come before Westminster. Words don't do it justice--check out our pictures.

Dinner was at a touristy little Italian place, followed by drinks at a pub, followed by exhausted slumber.

Day 13: York, England - Goodbye Flaming Tomato, York Minster, exploring York

2008-09-29T19:07:00.002-07:00

We got into York before noon, finding our Bed and Breakfast without any trouble. It's a very cute place named 23rd Street Mary's, run by a very friendly proprietress named Julie.

Then we had to turn in the Flaming Tomato. This was an ordeal. It turns out that despite zero vehicle-related mishaps on our trip, the Tomato had somehow picked up a small scratch and a nigh-undetectable ding on one door. I could barely see it and couldn't get it to show up on a picture, but the attendant told me that the ding was about a dime in size. These two imperfections will cost us (or my credit card insurance coverage) $200. Likely both were there before we left, and unfortunately neither of them could possibly have been detected on a rainy day in an airport lot. The extremely apologetic clerk (who only picked up the ding on very close inspection in full sunlight) basically told me that this is how the company makes money. This sort of shady car rental policy has forced me to conclude that I will never again rent from Alamo or its subsidiaries. Be warned, all travelers! Avoid them!

It took me a while to calm down from this, but once I did, we visited York Minster Cathedral. Holy. Shit. For the entire time I was in York, I was drawn to this building. It is just SO big, and even more majestic than Durham. Again, my inelegant words don't do it justice-look at our pictures.

If you visit York Minster, you should also spend the little bit extra to see the Undercroft and Crypt. The Undercroft contains some of the original Roman and Saxon ruins under the current church, while the Crypt contains an ancient and mystical 12th century Norman church underneath the nave. Both were worthwhile.

We spent the rest of the day just wandering the medieval city of York, window-shopping and checking out various markets. Of note was the crazily small and packed Shambles district-at first, I thought that Harry Potter MUST have been filmed here. Watch the scenes of Diagon Alley in the first movie and you'll have an idea of what the Shambles was like (minus some costumes). Dinner was high tea at The Castle Tea Room. Sandwiches, clotted cream and jam on scones, and sweets--way too much to eat.

On the way back to our lodgings we visited the ruins of St. Mary's Abbey. This was a large and prosperous 12th century abbey that was thoroughly destroyed in the reformation. Only haunting ruins remain. As a side note, this abbey is mentioned in the Robin Hood stories--apparently, its Abbot was a very wealthy and unscrupulous man, whom Robin Hood enjoyed despoiling.

After an eventful day, we crashed early.

Day 14: York, England - Yorkshire Museum and the York Castle Museum

2008-09-29T19:07:00.001-07:00

I'm sure my waist is beginning to feel the effect of these huge English breakfasts, but damn, what a stick-to-your-ribs start to the day.

We started today with the forgotten museum of York, the Yorkshire Museum. We were alone nearly the whole time we were there. I'm not sure why, because it's excellent. There are a lot of good Roman, Viking, and then medieval exhibits as the history of York is traced through the ages. Artifacts of note include one of the two surviving Saxon helmets from pre-Norman times (the other is in the British Museum, which we saw later) and the Middleham Jewel. If you're in York, plan a stop at this museum.

After a lunch of Cornish pastries on the go, we next hit up the York Castle Museum for the rest of the afternoon.

This museum is yet another five-star attraction in my book. It is an absolutely huge venue with exhibits spanning all aspects of life in York, including (but not limited to) historical interiors, an indoor recreation of York city center in the 18th century (including costumed guides), 17th century fashion, wartime England--civil, WWI, and WWII--and a neat display centered on England in the 60s. That last area was personally interesting because it included descriptions of US activity at that time from the British point of view.

The York Castle Museum is absolutely huge, but has something for everyone and is worth staying to see all of. Oh, and try the little coin-operated theaters that are stashed in various corners as you go. Some of them are absolutely morbid.

We had a picnic for dinner, and then hit up a pub for drinks and to plan the next leg of our trip. After a long walk around York at night, we hit the hay. London, here we come!

Day 15: York to London, England - Westminster, Whitehall Lane, and the Victora and Albert Museum

2008-09-29T19:06:00.001-07:00

After a quick breakfast we dragged our luggage to the York train station and caught a train to London.

Once we got there, we had an interesting experience carrying suitcases through the London Underground during peak morning hours on a Friday. In short, this sucked pretty hard. However, we made our way to Victoria Station and found our hotel. As we expected, 89 GBP per night didn't give us a great room in London, but it was adequately clean, in a reasonable area, and it did have wireless.

Once we dumped our luggage, we headed right out again and walked over to Westminster Abbey.

Everybody knows Westminster. Not only is it the site of all English coronations since the 11th century (the coronation chair is on display here), but it appears that just about everyone in Britain gets been buried here. Well, ok, not everyone, but the place is wall-to-wall graves. You gotta figure they're gonna have to start rotating their stock soon and get some fresh faces in there. Among the many tombs were those of Elizabeth I, Mary I, Mary Queen of Scots, Handel, Chaucer, and Charles Darwin. While you're there, don't forget to check out the small museum (included in your ticket) right outside the nave--there are some interesting artifacts there, including royal robes and ceremonial swords.

After seeing the Abbey, we wandered down Whitehall Lane, taking pictures of various London landmarks and pinching ourselves at finally seeing some of these famous sights. We gawked at Big Ben, Parliament, the Thames River, Trafalgar Square, and eventually ended up at West End, where we had a cheap but hearty dinner at a cheap diner near the theaters.

For evening entertainment, we took the Tube over to the Victoria and Albert Museum at South Kensington. This huge and eclectic museum is open late on Fridays, and contains exhibits on all sorts of topics under the loose categorization of "lifestyle" throughout history. Everything from famous art (including Michaelangelo's "cartoons"), to jewelry, religious artifacts, silverware, clothing, weapons, and more can be found here. While we were there also got to see some London Fashion Week activities first-hand, as random groups of models in weird clothes strutting through the galleries accompanied by hordes of photographers and tourists (shown left). However, despite this, we did manage to view quite a bit of the V&A collection, which was extremely extensive. Highlights included the aforementioned tapestry sketches (cartoons) by Michelangelo, the section on fashion (which Mary was all over), and several VERY interesting "how-to" videos on jewel crafting (specifically, silver and enamel), silver working, and making stained glass windows. Those videos alone made our visit worth it. Best of all, its free!

Day 16: London, England - Tower of London, British Museum, and Vinopolis

2008-09-29T19:05:00.000-07:00

Our first sight of the day was the Tower of London.

The Tower is basically the castle at the heart of London, containing, among other things, an enormous amount of history, an armory, and the English Crown Jewels. The history comes mostly from famous executions, prisoners, and murders. Check out any history of the Tower to see what I mean.

However, three things really made this visit stand out for us: 1) the Crown Jewels, which contain some of the world's biggest and best quality diamonds, 2) an exhibition of medieval weaponry held out in the moat (including the firing of a ballista!), and 3) an amazing armory containing some truly epic, um, codpieces. Check out the picture on the right. Hey there, big fella.

A few other notes about the Tower of London: if you can get there early, and see the Crown Jewels first. It may not seem like there is much of a queue outside, but there are whole rooms dedicated to holding line switchbacks. Skip this by starting there at opening. Secondly, don't bother to get the audioguide. It wasn't worth the money as we had no time to really use it (despite spending half a day here), they demand a passport as collateral, and the same line serves both renting and returning guides, making it a pain to return later.

From the Tower we next took the Tube to hit up the British Museum.

If you are ever in London, make the time to see this museum. I simply can't stress this enough. The British Museum has one of the top two or three collections I've ever seen in the world-the only other museums that I think even compare are the Louvre in Paris and the Papal Museum in Rome. We spent 5+ hours in here and only began to scratch the surface of what was offered.

I'll leave descriptions of specific exhibits to the books; there are so many famous pieces in here that it's impossible to list them all. However, it was particularly rewarding to see the Rosetta stone and Cleopatra's Mummy for the first time. I'd read so much about each that seeing them in person was extremely satisfying. Also memorable were the amazing artifacts of the famous Sutton Hoo royal burial site.

While we were here the museum was having a special exhibition on Emperor Hadrian. To commemorate the exhibit, they'd put on a wide range of activities illustrating Roman life--everything from Roman army drills to Roman dancing. We found these fun to watch, and of course took advantage of the photo op.

Dinner was out of a grocery store on the run before we headed over to our final venue for the day, the Vinopolis wine museum.

We'd read about Vinopolis while in York and decided to make it our Saturday night activity. In short, Vinopolis is basically a giant excuse to drink while pretending to learn stuff. For the money they give you some tickets (good for 6 tastings plus a small cocktail), attempt to teach you how to taste wine, and then let you go to town on a wide variety of (mostly cheap) wines from all over the world. They have many tasting tables staffed with perpetually irritated attendants (not that I really blame them--dealing with drunken tourists for a living must suck) and folks just basically wander the museum ignoring the exhibits and drinking themselves silly.

The place is not exactly what I'd call a value, but it was fun to try out different grapes I'd never heard of before from wine regions in Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, and Georgia. Despite my best efforts to kill brain cells, I did learn a few things about how to taste wines-the 30 min intro session wasn't useless. For the price I found it lacking and somewhat gimmicky, but we had a good time getting blitzed and closing the place out anyways.

Day 17: London, England - British National Gallery and the British Library

2008-09-29T19:04:00.000-07:00

We opened today with a visit to the British National Gallery, stopping by to gawk at the famous St. Martin-in-the-fields along the way. I wish we'd had a chance to see a concert at St. Martin's, but alas, next time!

The National Gallery is, of course, outstanding. This labyrinthine collection of galleries contains so many famous paintings that there is just no chance to appreciate them all properly. We carefully checked off each room on a museum map and still kept missing things. I will be back to London someday, and when I do I'll come give this museum the time it deserves.

Among the many classic paintings displayed here is one of particular note, at least for us: Van Gogh's Sunflowers. We've all seen it in books and on merchandise; viewing it in person, however, is something else entirely. The reason is that Van Gogh makes extensive use of texture in his paintings-for example, when he paints grass, he really layers on the paint in such a way that it really adds the feel that you are, in fact, looking at grass. And that's really what he seems to strive for: recognition without realism. I'm no art expert, but really appreciate his work, both here and in Amsterdam.

After a quick lunch at King's Cross station, we headed into the British Library.

Yeah, so visiting a Library probably sounds like a really boring experience. However, the British Library is like the Library of Congress, except that the British collection contains some of the world's oldest and most famous literature. For example, a hand-written play by Shakespeare, the Gutenberg Bible, some of the oldest surviving Qurans, an original copy of the Magna Carta, and original Beatle lyrics by the bandmembers themselves-some which were jotted down on napkins. And there is much, much more. The Library collection is priceless tribute to the growth of human civilization. Unfortunately, for preservation reasons, only a part of it is on display at any one time, but what we did get to see was beyond memorable.

Dinner tonight was a splurge, the required "tribute to London" traditional English dinner, crunchy vegetables and all. Venison, mustard and rabbit casserole, lamb pie, and treacle tart, all washed down with an excellent French red. Afterwards, we took our time and walked through the city at night, seeing the Eye (which we intended to ride, but flat ran out of time), Big Ben, Whitehall Lane, and Westminster all shining in the dark. An amazing finish to an unforgettable day.

Day 18: London, England and the End of the Road

2008-09-29T18:46:00.000-07:00

There isn't much to tell about our last day in England. In short, we got up, ate a huge breakfast, checked out of our hotel, and headed to the airport. A few hours later we were winging our way home.

This trip was possibly the best one to Europe yet. A lot of that was the extra efficiency and freedom of having a car. But that wasn't the whole story. The whole time I was in the United Kingdom I felt like I was really there to plan my next trip to the Isles. There are so many things there I still want to see, and places I hope to revisit soon.

Thanks for reading, and please leave a comment! Happy travels!