The Journey Day 10 Cardiff, Wales

September 12th, 2016 Cardiff Wales

Views from Castle

We managed to get to Cardiff after another loud night. It would have been a hoot to join in, but our flight was early. We got to the airport on time, but the airline was delayed a bit. The rules are such that the pilots couldn't fly until they had a certain amount of time off from the night before. I suppose it is reasonable to want pilots that are not sleep deprived. The actual flight was only 40 minutes!

Views from Castle, and of Castle

We took a bus to the City Center, a short trip. The check in at the hotel, Royal Hotel was 3 PM, but we were able to drop off our bags at the lobby. After dropping on bags off we went to lunch at the Yard. It was located in the brewery quarter. I had a welsh style burger with peppers, bacon, ham and onion chutney with chips. It was my favorite burger, very spicy! Kelsi had goat cheese and red pepper on sourdough. Kelsi ordered a beer for me while I was in the bathroom. In Cardiff they had a local beer called Brains. There were Regular Brains, Dark Brains, Bitter Brains, Black Brains, and etc. I really liked all the flavors of Brains and particularly miss it. I think Kelsi ordered us a Regular Brains for our taste. 

Views from Castle, and of the tower

After lunch we walked to Cardiff Castle. We stayed there until 3 PM. I really liked the castle. It was a site that was originally founded by the Romans, with additions from the Normans and the Butes family in the recent past. It also served as a fortress during bombing raiders in World War II. I liked walked around because it was like walking around different centuries. The map for the tour was quite complicated though. It walked you from one end of the castle to the other several times. It also walked out up a tower in the center of the castle. The views from that were really awesome!

When we finished with the Castle we went to the hotel to check in. We also decided to take a nap. Because it was difficult to get to sleep the night before, and our early morning, we were very tired. I meant to set the alarm so that our nap was only 2 hours, but I 'forgot' We slept for almost 4 hours! It was much needed. 

Views of Cardiff

We were feeling very refreshed. We looked on our phones for a good place to eat. We decided on Italian and were recommended Zerodegrees. It was just around the corner from the hotel. I have seafood linguine and a beer. Kelsi had Thai stir fry! She is getting more adventorous every day! I ended up over tipping on the bill a bit. I tipped 20% instead of 10%. I typically tip 20% in the U.S. and kind of forgot. The waiter seemed shocked!  Ah well.

After dinner we went to Goat Major, which my map said is the oldest pub in Cardiff. We had more Brains. I got the award winning Brains, Kelsi had regular Brains, but the top of the tap said Legendary! So perhaps it was Legendary regular Brains.

The we went for gelato at Kaspas. I ate cheesecake and cookie dough.  Kelsi had chocolate peanut butter and cookie dough. They were very good. Kelsi wants to go back tomorrow for crepes. So we will do that for breakfast.

The Journey Day 9 Edinburgh, Highlands, Loch Ness, Scotland

September 11th, 2016 Edinburgh, Scotland Day trip to Highlands and Loch Ness

Loch Ness

The third day in Scotland we were up early. We stopped in at Starbucks for pumpkin spiced lattes, they weren't as good as usual because in Ireland I heard a girl say that Pumpkin Spice was just ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg. She took the magic out of the pumpkin spice! I also got a pan au chocolate again! Yummy! Then we walked down the Mile to Haggis Adventures to check in for our day trip to Loch Ness and the Highlands. 

Glencoe

We were there with plenty of times and had to wait a while before we got going, but at least we were able to do so on the bus. The trip was not our favorite. The majority of the trip was spent on the bus. It was a four hour trip to Loch Ness and four hours back. There were very few stops and mostly they were comfort stops. Now, I want to say that visiting the Highlands is amazing and it is very pretty, but because there were few stops and most of it was seen on the bus, it wasn't as good as it could have been. Loch Ness was also very pretty, but since it took so long to get to the Ness, we didn't have a lot of time there either. My recommendation for someone who has one day outside of Edinburgh is to take a trip around the Highlands either a whiskey tour, or hike Ben Revis. Don't try to visit Loch Ness in one day. If you want to visit Loch Ness, then I suggest taking a two day trip! 

North American side

Europe side

I did like our driver and guide. He was very knowledgeable and I learned more about Mary, Queen of Scots, the Highlands and the Loch. One fact that I learned was that the hills were created when the North America plate and the European plate were pressed together creating a mountain range. In the United States we call the range the Appalachians! The land on one side of the Ness used to be part of the North American continent and the part south of the lake was part of the European continent. When the continents split it is very messy!

Hairy Coo!

I also learned that cows is pronounce 'coos' and there are hairy coos, and regular coos. We met two hairy coos on the way up to the Loch.

Another story the guide told us was, The story of the Massacre of Glencoe, which sounded a lot like the Red Wedding. MacIain was late when pledging alliance to William and Mary. So, troops under the command of Robert Campbell were sent to Glencoe. The MacDonalds gave them hospitality for days while they were there. After ten days the troops and Campbell began killing the MacDonalds. So, it was similar to the Red Wedding, only instead of the host killing the guest, it was the other way around.

There was one exciting thing about the trip. Kelsi saw the monster! She was wearing a pink bow and waved at Kelsi before disappearing. This didn't happen when I was looking, but Kelsi wouldn't lie.

Highlands

After the mostly bus ride and little touring we wanted to find a place to watch American football. So we went into a hotel to ask. The hotel gave us three places where the games might be played. The first place was a dud, but the second place was a success! It was called the Three Sisters, and we only got lost a little bit on the way there. 

Highlands

Inside there were all sorts of people dressed up in equestrian gear, not sure what that was for, but it was fun to see. Most of the televisions were playing soccer, and we had to go way in the back to watch the American football games, but we were able to watch them. It was not surprising to find that the section was mostly filled with American tourist! I do believe there was at least one or two Scotsmen watching too. The television were showing only one game for the morning game and one for the afternoon, the night game would be on around 3 AM in the morning, which was the Cardinals vs. Patriots game. Considering the tragic loss, I am ALMOST glad I missed it.

We ordered food. I had a meatball sub which was good. Kelsi had pizza, she said later it wasn't her favorite. Kelsi drank Hop 13 and I had a Tennents! I really liked that beer! 

While we were watching the game, some guys started talking to us. John and Alex were from Kansas City, Mo. They were on their own journey, stating in Ireland, and going to Italy via London in a few days. They were staying in hostels along the way. Though they distracted us from the game they were quite funny. I was also unintentionally funny. I started talking before I quite finished my thoug

"Computer books!"

hts, and Socially Awesome Penguin occurred. Kelsi and John were in a slightly heated debate about eBooks vs Hard books. I really don't care what medium my books come in as long as the books are good. Alex also had a neutral stance, because he prefers movies. Kelsi and John however were very passionate about their side. One of John's key argument was that writers wouldn't stop writing hard books, but Kelsi thinks that eBooks will be the only form of most books in the future. Then, I suddenly remembered that computer algorithms nearly won a literary competition! Instead of saying that I said, "Computer books, have you read them?" Well, I think I won the argument because after that the debate was dropped. We laughed about computer books for most of the night. 

We laughed about it again when we met up in London a few days later. Meanwhile, we go to Cardiff at ten am the next day.