The Journey Day 16: London, England

September 18th, 2016; London, England

On the fifth day, of our visit we took a day trip. We decided on Warrick Castle, Stratford upon Avon, and Oxford. The tour guide was quite good and knowledgeable about the sites and London. She explained a lot about the locations before arriving so there was little need to read the information at the sites. That meant we could enjoy the sites as they stood. 

Warrick Castle

Warrick Castle is quite old, but was updated in the Victorian era and maintained. Inside the castle, it is a cute park for families and kids. It is a little like a renaissance festival. The castle has lance fighting, haunted tunnels and shows. We climbed the walls to walk around those. From the walls there was a great view of the country and the castle!

Then, we went to the peacock garden for a refresher and a small bite. The garden was so pretty! On our way back to the bus we also got some ice cream. 

Shakespeare's birthplace, with a performance!

From the castle, we went to the birthplace and hometown of Shakespeare! It was quite a poppin' town. We toured the birth home, which thanks to Charles Dickens and his contemporaries was preserved. Shakespeare was pretty wealthy for his time with schooling and a nice home. He was wealthy enough that he owned at least two beds! It was much nicer than old homes in the wild west. As an adult, he bought a bigger home still nearby. That house was not on the tour. 

The town, as I said, was busy. It was filled with shops and cafe's. I guess a lot of people visit the birthplace. We walked around and grabbed pastries and some chocolates. 

Oxford!

Once we were on our way, I read and Kelsi tried to nap! We drove through the Cotswolds, but after Ireland and Scotland the land was a bit redundant! We didn't stop in this area driving straight thru to Oxford. We did the walking tour at the school which was very informative. It also happened that a show was being filmed, so we were able to see a bit of the filming. 

It was so cool to see the Oxford reading room which is iconic. The school also boosts some famous students and loads of stories. So there were lots of knickknacks from them, like Alice in Wonderland, Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter. So I bought souvenirs from the school and some Harry Potter themed items. It was much cheaper than buying merchandise from US universities! 

Hospital Wing

After shopping we stopped at a cafe as we were leaving Kelsi got fudge and I got a milkshake. Then, we were back on the bus towards London.

We spent the end of the night near Trafalgar Square. We ate Italian food, I had rigatoni and Kelsi had pesto. We also had desserts. Then we walked over the Jubliee bridge and down to Blackfriars and back to our room.

The next day, was the day we do not speak of (travelling home day) so that day will not have a blog post.


 

The Journey Day 15: London, England

September 17th, 2016; London, England

The plan for the day was to visit museums: Victoria and Albert, Natural History and Science. We started the day by going to Pret for lattes and pastries. I ate a ham and cheese breakfast sandwich and Kelsi had an almond croissant. 

Then we took the underground to the museums. We went to V&A first, it was big and the layout was frustrating so I gave up trying to see everything. There was plenty to see anyway. The extra exhibit was for fashion week, so there was fashion thru the ages which was very interesting. At every exhibit window I asked Kelsi which of the outfits she liked best out of all of the ones in that exhibit. Most of the exhibits had an obvious favorite, but not all of them. The sculptures and beautiful doors were amazing. I also loved the paintings. We stayed for several hours, but we left before we finished it all.

We decided we needed some refreshers and snacks. We went to Kensington Creperie. I had mint tea and Kelsi had a latte. I hardly ever eat crepes so I am not sure I know what my favorite flavors would be, but I had the apple & cinnamon which was very good. Kelsi really loved hers!

After our refreshers we went the the natural history museum. The dinosaurs were awesome. I really liked the exhibit about Earth's plates and the timeline from the beginning to Earth as we know it today. The human exhibit was also really great. We were there for hours, and when we were done we decided to cut the science museum. I do love science museums, but I'm glad we went to the other two first, I know much more about science and seeing exhibits I know less about was better. 

We had a few recommendations from people on restaurants to visit in London, one was Wagamama's. We knew that there was one near the Eye, which we still had a pass for. So we decided to go there and wait for dusk. We wanted to see the lights turn on from the Eye. We had pad thai and a bottle of rose, for Cait! It was delicious! We still talk about wanting to go to Wagamama's if only there was one nearby. 

When we finished it still wasn't dark enough to go on the Eye so we stopped at a beer stand for a beer. We sat in beach chairs nearby to drink the beers and look out at the river as dusk settled. When it was getting to be evening we went to over to the Eye. We thought the line would take longer than it did. We were still able to see the lights turn on, but another 10 minutes and it would have been better still. The view from the Eye was really awesome.

Once we back on the bank we went to Founder's Arm another place that was recommended to us. It is located right on the river near the Black Friars Bridge. We had beers there, even though it was quite cool out we sat outside because the view of the river was great. I chatted a bit with someone at the table nearby. Mostly about my accent! 

Then, we went down to the Cut and sat upstairs at Young Vic and had a drink there. It was quite a relaxing night. It was fun to get different views of the city. After that Kelsi went across the street for a late night chip run!

The Journey Day 13: London, England

September 15th, 2016 London, England

After our later night we rested for a bit in the morning. The plan for the day was to take the tube to Tower Hill, see the Tower of London, Tower Bridge and St. Paul's Cathedral. My cold was lingering. It wasn't really effecting my head, so it wasn't as bad as it could have been. I managed the cold by stuffing my pockets with tissues, I only needed to reload my pockets every few hours and holding my breath so I wouldn't sneeze on the Crown Jewels. 

We started the day at Pret Manger in Waterloo for breakfast. Kelsi had an almond crossiant. I had a chocolate one. Then, we went to Southwark Station. I planned originally to get an oyster card straight away, however, there were so many options that we ended up buying the day pass. Inside the station some nice attendant helped us with our route. I think we were both pretty wide-eyed at the amount of escalators at the Westminster's stop! 

White Tower

The room we were staying in had a Rick Steve's London book, which told us to buy tickets to the Tower of London online to save money and avoid the queue. We had to print our tickets, but they let us do so there. The book also recommended going straight to the Crown Jewels to avoid the lines. So that is exactly what we did, which was fine advice. We got in without trouble, but when we exited the line was already long, and when we walked by it later in the morning the lines were longer and longer still. Inside there were many and more jewels, from decorative weapons, crowns and necklace. It was really impressive!

After the jewels, we went back to the entrance of the Tower to get a tour with the Yeoman. The Yeoman tour is about an hour in length. It was quite funny and informative. There was a lot of information about the beheadings and the Princes in the Tower. I already knew a little bit about the Princes because prior to the trip I started listening to The History of England Podcast. I started from the beginning, but my podcast app also downloaded new episodes! I really like the podcast, the host has a good voice and even though I have already come back, I still listen to new episodes, though I haven't picked up where I left off from the beginning episodes! The newer episodes kept talking about the princes and said that he/we would get back to the princes and find out what happened to them. He had not gotten back to them by the time I left, but at the Tower I was able to learn the outcome. Anyway, I really recommend the Yoeman tour even if it is September and it's nearly 90°, and you have a horrible cold. I really loved the Abby it was so cute, but then I learned that is was a mass grave...!

After the tour we went to the White Tower. The tower showcases the line of Kings told by the armor that they wore. So there were lots of armor, swords, maces and etc to see. Very impressive. I liked reading the histories of the King's the best. The next stop was the bloody tower. It was good, but we almost missed it since we thought we had seen it before. Finally, we walked the wall. I liked the views of the city from the wall and the views of the Tower of London as well. There were armor and jewels in the wall tour as well, but I had already seen so much of both!

There was one other thing at the Tower that we saw. The Ravens. There are seven kept at the Tower. They are big and not afraid of people so they were funny to watch. 

After touring the Tower we went to look for a place to eat. We found a place called Tom's which had sandwiches. I had a meatball one, it wasn't what I was expecting, but it was still good. Kelsi had a veggie wrap. We ate pretty quickly and then went to Tower Bridge.

Tower Bridge

We had to cross the Bridge twice because the exhibit was on the other side! The exhibit was pretty cool. There was a lot of information about bridges and how that bridge was made inside. The best part was the sky platform. It is a glass floor that you can look down to the bridge, and river below. You can see cars pass and when the bridge lifts you can see boats cross under. We were able to watch a boat pass under. 

There is an additional part of the exhibit about the hydraulics, but we didn't do that part, it was hot inside and we decided to get refreshers instead. We had ciders from the Bridge House, a restaurant at the base of the bridge. We were also able to see the bridge life from our table next to the river!

After our refreshers, we went to St. Paul's and only managed to get a little lost! I liked watching all of the people out and about on the warm day, laying in the grass, jogging around, and taking it easy. It was great! 

By the time we reached St. Paul's it was closed for touring! So we waited outside to go in for the Evensong. So I was able to watch more people from a shady spot on the steps. The Church was beautiful! The Evensong was an interesting experience! The singing was not like the Tabernacle Choir, but it was nice all the same. I actually think visiting the Church for the Evensong was better than going for the tour. We were able to see the St. Paul as the Church not the tourist spot!

After the Evensong we went across the street to Go! Sushi. It has sushi on a belt. Kelsi was worried about the freshness of the sushi, because one of our friends was sick at a sushi place with a belt before. So we watch very carefully, and only picked up pieces that were just put down! The sushi in London is different, as expected there were no Las Vegas, Philly or Arizona rolls, and the California roll didn't have cucumbers! Also, some of the pieces were served warm/hot even the raw kind. It was still good sushi, just different. The curry helped clear my nose a bit!

Finally, Kelsi forced me to return home to rest, because of my cold. I guess I looked and sounded pretty poor. I was glad for some rest. We did make a stop to get some cold medicine. It was in blister packs this time, not the kind that is mixed with water. Hopefully that will help!

The Journey Day 12: Wales, Cardiff to London, England

September 14th, 2016 Cardiff Wales

On this day, we traveled from Cardiff to London. I left a note in my journal that I logged the day in my phone. However, I have not been able to locate the log on my phone. I will try to explain some of what we did that day, but I am sure we will miss most things. Maybe I will find the log on my phone another day. 

We woke up in the morning and packed up our bags. Then we went across St. Mary to Coffee Heaven for coffees! We had all of our luggage with us and the girl at the cash register was a new so it took a while, but eventually we were off! We took the food to go and walked to the train station. We had to take a detour because there was some construction going on, but we didn't get lost! 

We made it to the train station and I bought our tickets. Before we went through with our tickets a nice gentleman told us that we should take the elevator because we had all of our luggage. Which saved us from having to carry the luggage up the stairs! We had to wait on the platform for the train, but we were able to drink coffees. I believe Kelsi stopped to get something to eat and another coffee.

On the train, I caught up on my log, finished my book, watched the scenery and had a sandwhich. Kelsi read a little, took a nap and had some oatmeal. 

September 14th, 2016 London, England

The train got off at Paddington Station. I was secretly really happy to see Paddington Station, they even have a little bear statue! We made our wait out of the station and then took a cab, at lunch time, which we learned was the slow way to go. I didn't mind the ride, I got to see a lot of sights. We had to walk around to get to the gate of the apartments. Our host was home, so he let us in and gave us a key. 

We settled in before going out. We started walking towards the river, but we missed our street at one point, we had to go back, but luckily it was a quick fix. When we ran into the Tate, I was able to reorient, and get to the Globe Theatre which was where we wanted to be. I thought maybe we would see a show, but we didn't end up doing that. There wasn't a show so early, and we were getting hungry. So we walked around to look for a restaurant.

Guess what! We ran into Alex and John. We had planned to meet them and Kelsi had messaged them, but we were trying to eat before. Ah well! After meeting up we went around to a few restaurants to look at the menus finally we settled on an Italian place. We sat outside which was fine, until the sun started setting. Alex and I were in the sun for a while, but we didn't move the table until the Kelsi and John were in the sun too.

We all ordered food and had some drinks, except for John because he doesn't drink, much. Inside there was live music and drums which were very loud. Nice from outside, but I think it would be hard to talk if we had been inside. 

After dinner we walked across Millennium Bridge and went over to the Blackfriar. Kelsi convinced John to have a beer stating that it was real ale. The Blackfriar was very busy with people just off of work, but we managed to squeeze in and have a drink. I am pretty sure we didn't have real ale at that bar. Which meant John had to have a real ale at the next place. I'm not sure he ever did! After our drink we walked over the Blackfriar bridge and ended up at Prince William Henry's Pub. We spent the rest of the night there drinking and chatting. It was really fun to just have a night out and not have to turn in early because of a tour! 

When we left Prince William Henry's pub we continued down the same street. For all the times we were lost during this trip, I immediately recognized the underground that we had past to get to the river, we turned up the Cut. I was getting hungry again so I made everyone stop at Ristorante Olivelli and I think I ate a pizza. I think Alex also had pizza, but I'm not certain.

After dinner, I convinced Kelsi, Alex and John that I knew the way back to our room. So we said goodbye to the guys. They were going to Italy so we wouldn't see them for the rest of the trip. I got us back to the apartments without any trouble! Once we arrived the trouble began! We didn't realize that the key for the outside door worked on the gate. So we stood at the gate trying to figure out what to do. Kelsi, had to hop the fence and get us in! 

The Journey Day 11: Wales, Cardiff

September 13th, 2016 Cardiff Wales

It rained. 

We attempted to walk to the docks in order to see the Dr. Who Experience. We ended up getting lost. We followed the signs to the docks, but the signs were for cars, not pedestrians. So we ended up taking the longest way to the docks ever. At one point we almost ended up on the highway. Luckily, that didn't seem quite right so we stopped to check the maps on our phones. Even though, we had phone plans to use our phones in Europe our phones did not work like they do in the United States. So we often didn't have access and pretty inconvenient times. Thanks a lot, Verizon. 

Anyway, while we were stopped someone came running out of the Volkswagen Auto dealership we were next to and told us that we shouldn't walk out onto the highway. Which of course, we agreed and thanked him. He was able to give us directions! Super nice.

Police Box, not an the actual Tardis

We arrived at the docks and noticed a lot of Roal Dohl themed souvenirs at the Millennium Center. The coming weekend would be the Roal Dohl festival complete with a giant peach! The setting up looked pretty awesome, so if you are going to go to Cardiff try get to the festival. We went around to the Dr. Who Experience only to find out that it was closed on Wednesday outside of summer! If only the police box on display was the Tardis! At least we were able to return to the Millennium center to buy souvenirs. I bought some Dr. Who coasters, and Kelsi bought gifts for the kids in her family, and possibly a few things for herself.

Then, we went to Zizzi for lunch. I started with an armatto and sprite Kelsi had as cider. I ate Margarita pizza and she had goat cheese and I think eggplant, but it was called aubergine. I'm not sure. I was a little worn out from walking in the rain. We had a second drink before we left.

We took a boat bus back to the center. It was such a direct route that it was quite upsetting that we spent all that time walking earlier. We went back to our room to change shoes. Kelsi wanted to get crepes so we went to Kapas to do so. I ate a sundae called Knickerbocker Glory which reminded me of a song by Fujiya & Miyagi. I guess the song is about the sundae, but I never realized that. After desert we walked through the arcades which are covered walkways enclosed by arches. So we were able to window shop and stay dry. Most of the shops were already closed or nearly there. It wasn't too late, but I notice that shops close pretty early in the UK and then bars and restaurants begin to open or at least pick up in business. 

After our walking about, we went to for drinks, first we went to Urban which as so cute and everyone was really friendly. Plus, we got to learn about real ale, which is from cask barrels instead of kegs. The beer does come out warm, but I didn't mind that. We had flights to taste a few different ones. They had a lot of specialty beers. I could probably spend a lot of time in the place if it was around here. Everyone was so nice there. Plus, they have fun game nights. 

Then we went to the Goat Major for more brains. 

We finished the night at Chiqutos for Mexican...well kinda. It was maybe more like Mexican food that I have had in Texas, than food I have had in Mexico or in Arizona. Which meants there was more corn and less spice! We had shared a Margarita pitcher...or two! I had chili beef tacos. Kelsi had a chicken burrito.

After dinner we went back to Kaspas for gelato. The quote of the night was: "My tummy says no, but my mouth says yes!"  Luckily I wasn't too stuffed when we finally went to bed.

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. 

The Journey Day 8 Edinburgh, Scotland

September 10th, 2016 Edinburgh, Scotland

Woke at 9am we went to a cafe for breakfast Olly Bongo's Cafe and Bistro for breakfast. I had a full English Breakfast and Kelsi had french toast. We both drank lattes. My opinion on the full breakfasts is that I like the English beans better than Irish and I also liked the Soda bread and potato cakes. I prefer Ranch style beans over baked beans so please keep that in mind, if you like sweet beans then you might prefer the Irish ones. 

English Breakfast

After Breakfast, I mailed some postcards, Kelsi got candy. At the Paradise Palms there were Tunnock's Carmel Waffers that she loved! So she was on a mission to find more of them. She didn't find any this time, but she did by the end of the day, and stocked up for the entire trip, she has to restock in London for on our return home.

Then we went to Edinburgh Castle. It was probably the most legit castle that we went to, it had kill holes. Which was the main criteria that we looked for when determining if a Castle was really real. While at the castle we tried some very delicious whiskey. We liked it so much we bought some for Caitlin and Dave as a gift. I think I should have bought more, I thought there would be more alcohol that I would want to bring home, so I only bought one bottle. 

Whiskey Tasting

The views of the city from the castle were awesome. We walked all around to get a look in all directions. At the castle they also have a museum of the military history and prisoner history. It was a lot to absorb! A real history buff might be able to spend all day at the castle alone! We made sure to look at everything, but by the end of each tour we didn't take as much time at each exhibit as we did at the beginning of the tour. It was so much to process.

From the Castle we went to the Whiskey Tour. There is a ride that quickly explains the whiskey making process. I remember the first step is the quality of the water, but then we moved on to the tasting part of the tour, so I'm not certain of the rest of the steps. Some of the steps I remember because I tried home brewing beer over the summer. I learned the lesson, don't brew beer in Arizona in the summer. In the Tasting Room we were given palettes to smell and from the scents and descriptions we were supposed to pick which region we wanted to try whiskey from. I picked the Highlands and Kelsi picked Spokane. The whiskey was pretty strong and I think perhaps I need to practice with lighter less smokey tasting whiskeys for a while longer yet.

The next part of the tour was to a huge collection of whiskey that had never been open. I looked at almost all of the bottles, and they all said Scotch! There were so many bottles and brands. Some of the whiskey will disappear from the bottles overtime, this is called the Angel's tax. Some bottles were more empty than others. Either the Angel's liked that whiskey more, or the sealing process was better in some than others.

Holyrood Palace

After the tour we went to the whiskey bar. Part of our package was tasting 4 of the 5 regions of Scotland Whiskey. So we had a flight of those. Now, I know I don't like the smokey ones! I may have ordered some more whiskey, except that there was too many choices, also we were getting hungry. So we walked down the Royla Mile and ate at The Royal McGregor. I had fish and chips. Kelsi had curry. She is getting more adventurous!

When lunch was over we went to Holyrood Palace. The place is still in use by the Queen when she visits Scotland, but there are no kill holes. This tour I picked up an audio guide, and summarized the guide for Kelsi. I think she enjoyed it because I was so good at relaying the information. People died in this room, this room is where people eat dinner, and etc. Just the fact from me!

Blue box 

Then we went to Franksteins it was a hoot! We ordered beers, Tennents, and sat on the second floor to watch people. People from the UK and Europe are just different enough that I know they are not Americans, but they aren't so different that I can't really pick out what makes them different. It is fascinating! I love watching people. After our drink we crossed the street to the restaurant Cellar Door. We kept walking by it, and it reminded me Tolkien every time we past it!

When you walk in you walk down the stairs to a cellar, only it's not really a cellar, because the building is kind of on a slope so there is a floor below that, which is also at street level and the door we went through is at the bridge level! I'm still pretty confused about the bridges and streets in Edinburgh even though we got better at navigating it!

Cider

The room does feel like a cellar so that was kind of fun. We both ate risotto dishes and Thistle Cross Ciders. Kelsi's was ginger and mine was strawberry. I took a picture of mine and sent it to Caitlin because she is my gluten free friend! 

After dinner we went to get drinks at Paradise Palms. We started with a tea pot, then Kelsi tried a gin fize, gin is pretty popular in Edinburgh, and I had another Tennents. This time at the Paradise Palms it was very busy with tons of people and awesome music. It was such a fun place it seemed to me that many of the people there were locals so it was great watching everyone! I loved it. We couldn't stay out too late because we had to get up early tomorrow for our tour of the Highlands and Loch Ness. When we got back to our room the music was just as loud as the night before, but it was a little easier to sleep. In the middle of the night, after the music stopped, one of the other guests ran out of their room to the bathroom because he was sick. Then he started sobbing! Getting sick is gross, but there was no need to cry about it the way he was. Kelsi and I could only laugh about it.

 

The Journey Day 7 Edinburgh, Scotland

September 9th, 2016 Belfast to Edinburgh, Scotland

Great Scot! I know a few!

We were up early for our flight. Our host had left us some things for breakfast. I had pancakes, I don't eat pancakes with syrup so it was easy to eat while repacking and getting ready. Kelsi ate toast. We both had some tea. We took a cab to the airport. It was a bit of a drive out of the city, but I guess that is pretty typical with airports. There was some difficulty with the card reader in the cab, but everything eventually worked out! 

At the airport, there were more issues with Kelsi's survivors, she bought too many tea towels! She had to fit all of them in her carry on which was difficult, but she eventually got the bag to zip. The there was more issues with the wifi and our electronic tickets. We could only get the Wifi in the lobby not at the first security point. So she had to take screenshots in order to make sure we could scan through the gates. All these mishaps were a bit of a bother, but I didn't mind too much.

Edinburgh, from Scott Monument

After the first point, there was a long security line. Luckily the Wifi worked in there and I took the time to buy tickets for a day trip to Lochness and the Highlands. When we finally got through security we stopped for coffee. Then we went our gate, there was already a queue. The queue was pretty long, in the states they call groups of people at a time, but there was just a single line. I'm not sure which is actually faster, but waiting in line is not better than waiting for your group to be called.

On the plane, I wrote some postcards and read. Kelsi closed her eyes, but I'm not sure if she slept too much. 

We arrived in Edinburgh just a bit after the scheduled time. The flight was short, but waiting to get off the plane took almost the same amount of time! We got our bags and took the tram to Princess Street. It was raining, but that didn't deter from the city's appeal. 

The city is so beautiful. It is built on hills and because this and the buildings, there is a bit of an illusion where two or three buildings look like one building! The hills make dragging luggage around more difficult, but I actually didn't mind too much because it gave me more time to look at everything and everyone. We had pretty great directions and didn't get lost so that made it more enjoyable. The room we were staying at is above the Paradise Palms, which is a bar. When we got in we were shown up to our room and informed that we were allowed a discount at the Palms. We took advantage of this after a quick dress change. I made the decision to wear ballet flats which didn't hold up later in the rain. So that dictated some of our later activities!

Punch Tea

At the Paradise Palms, the menu is American Soul Food and 100% meat free, many dishes are also vegan. I had a veggie burger and Kelsi had nachos. We shared a kettle of punch "tea". The Paradise Palm is so cute inside and the food is delicious. We were there pretty early so we had no way of knowing that at night Paradise becomes a very popular and crowded place. We would find out in short time.

After lunch, we walked back down to Princess street to visit the info center. Kelsi wanted to get more tea towels even if she didn't say so, but they didn't have any. We got a hop-on-hop off bus ticket, but before we took the tour we climbed Scott Monument.

Scott Monument

Scott Monument was built for Sir Walter Scott the Scottish writer of some note. He wrote novels like Ivanhoe and poetry like "Marmion". Which contains the famous quote, "Oh, what a tangled web we weave..." Edinburgh has many many famous authors and was named as the first city of literature in 2004. Every year in August, there is had a huge book Festival. It would have been great to see it! Anyway, Scott Monument is a Gothic style spire, that Charles Dickens said that was "a failure," but I quite liked it. We climbed to the top and the views were great. 

After the Monument, we took a turn on the Ferris wheel. I liked spinning our pod, but Kelsi did not! She was nice though and spun it very slowly.  

I wanted to take the hop-on hop-off tour bus after that because my shoes were soaked and I was hopping they would dry. They did a bit, but it was still raining after the tour was over. The tour was nice because we had a chance to look at sites that we wanted to explore more later. It was the last tour of the day, so it was too late to do any other site seeing that day.

After the bus tour, I waited in a doorway to keep my shoes from getting to wet until Kelsi was ready. We hurried back to our room so that I could change my shoes. We took a different street back up the hill to our rooms. We got pretty lost doing this. We didn't realize at the time that because the city is built on hills there are levels to the city. So when we went up a different street it didn't bring us back to the Royal Mile instead it brought us to a street below it. We only figured it out when we climbed some stairs. As soon as we climbed the stairs, we recognized some buildings and sites from the hop-on tour and were able to reorient our position. I eventually was able to change my shoes, but it took a lot of work.

Edinburgh

Once I had proper shoes, we walked over to Greyfriars Bobby's Bar for dinner. The is a restaurant is named after a very loyal Skye Terrier dog. After his owner died, he stayed at the grave side for 14 years. The dog could sometimes be called away to eat, but would return quickly after. What a cute story. There is also a statue of the dog in front and people will rub it's nose. The nose is shiny and worn compared to the rest of the statue. I'm not sure why they do so, but I patted it a few times. Kelsi started laughing at me when I would. There wasn't much of a wait, but perhaps that was because of the rain. I had a Tennets beer and I thought hard about trying haggis, but I was worried that I wouldn't like it. I am pretty adventurous when it comes to food, but I haven't seen many people review it favorably. Instead, I ate spotted sausage yum! Kelsi had a burger and a ginger beer.  During dinner Kelsi was a hero! A lady forgot her umbrella at her table, she's lucky that Kelsi was there!

The Elephant House

After dinner we walked up to the castle it was too late to go in so we turned around. We also saw a whiskey experience nearby that we decided we wanted to do later on. On our way back to our room, we stopped at the Elephant House for dessert and special hot chocolate drinks. It's a shop where some of the Harry Potter series was written, which thrilled the child and nerd in me. I tried not to be too much of geek about it. Inside the bathroom, the walls are covered with shout outs from fans about the series. It was so cool! 

We called it a night after that, going back to our room to find that the cute Paradise Palms from early was a machine of noise designed for keeping the delicate sleeper awake. Luckily, it ended around 1 am so it wasn't as bad as it could have been.