Edinburgh, Scotland

Edinburgh. Scotland.

 

Landon loved Edinburgh.  I think it was a combination of having conference over, loving the medieval castle and town, and the hike up Arthur’s seat.  On the first day there, Landon presented.  Then we went to Edinburgh castle and took a tour.  We got the audio tour pretty much every place we went.  They had a dog cemetery there.  Pretty funny when you think they have a special place to bury their dogs, yet they behead people – even royalty.  Weird.

 

 

 

 

The next day, we went to Holyrood Palace.  I don’t think I’ve ever been there before.  I didn’t realize the Queen stayed there during the summer.  That was neat.  Although I have to say I’d like my home furnishings better.  I wonder if you’re a Queen, what you get to decorate? You probably have to keep a lot ‘as is’.  My favorite part was the ruined Abbey.  After the palace, we walked through a church’s grave yard.  I thought it was going to connect to a walk I had done years ago with Kate.  I didn’t, but we ended up finding that one anyways.  We had lunch (cheeseburger) on a bench looking towards the Edinburgh Castle.  We took a tour of ‘The Real Mary King’s Close”.  I was disappointed to realize some of the exciting, yet bad stories I had heard were just rumors.  Basically, it’s just an old set of buildings and alleyways that had been built on top of.  They had a figure of a doctor (reenacting a scene) helping someone during the plague and he wore a mask that looks scary, like a bird’s bill.  It held good smelling stuff while he treated the disease, which could be stinky.  That was scary.  I actually thought that guy was going to turn out to be real and move or something.  They tried to make it creepy with the low lighting and their stories, but there just wasn’t much there. Disappointing.  Hee hee.  They did open a door of someone’s house they bought years ago and claimed no one’s been inside because they couldn’t be sure of the floor structure of something.  He shined in a flashlight.  That was freaky and cool.

 

We called home and wished Cam a Happy Birthday (from a stinky, stinky pay phone).

 Walked down the main street -- walked through graveyards ---

 You can see Hollyrood Palace in the distance above.

 

Anyways, after that we picked up some snacks from a store called TESORO, I think.  We went back to the hotel to get off our feet for a while and eat some snacks.  Then we headed up Arthur’s seat.  Landon loves this kind of stuff- which is a recent finding on my end, that he enjoys hiking so much.  It was misty and as you got to the top, you started to lose sight of the peaks on neighboring hills.  You couldn’t quite see the castle either.  It was a fun yet easy and fast hike.  The next day we flew out.  We got up about 5:45-6am and then headed back.  We flew into Amsterdam and then I didn’t have a seat assignment. They gave us separate chairs and we couldn’t figure out a way to change them.  Landon gave up his nice (Delta sky miles status) extra leg room seat to me and went back to sit by the crying child. I tell ya, that’s true love! :-) Flying is no big deal when you don’t have kids and have dozens of movies and TV shows to watch.  I watched “The Book Thief” and rewatched “Saving Mr. Banks”.  I saw a few TED talks.  The most worth mentioning was the one about Bill and Melinda Gates.  I had no idea how much money they gave away to help people.  That’s amazing. 

 

London, England - September 2014

 

After Landon's Urology presentation that morning in Dublin, we flew over to London.

After we arrived, we took the train and subsequently the Underground to our hotel.

After dropping off our luggage, we headed back out to find a restaurant.  We ate at a Spanish restaurant and learned there's such a thing as virgin Mojitos.  Lol.  We told the waiter we don't drink alcohol and he said he could make virgin Mojitos. They tasted like Sprite with crushed Mint.  It was pretty good, but tasted almost like a weed with how much mint was in the drink.  We had some other fun food items, such as roasted jalapenos and a kind of seafood that tasted almost creamy/ cheesey.   And green olives are growing on me.  I never thought I'd say that.

Multiple hop on/ hop off tour buses stopped outside our hotel, which was conveniently located near St. Paul's Catherdral.  We took the bus and then jumped off to walk across a bridge to view Tower Bridge.  Landon had never been to London before so there's was lots of fun and new things to see!

The rest of the skyline looks modern.

One of my favorite spots in London is Big Ben. I think it's the connection to Peter Pan.  Anyways, it's pretty, too!

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We stopped by Westminster Abbey which is right across the street.  Sadly, it was closed  that day so we just took a pic.

What luck! Buckingham Palace was open for Summer Touring.  We got to see the beautifully decorated rooms.  Lots of red velvet :-)

Here's the double decker tour bus that we used.

Tower of London - the red are ceramic poppies that people 'buy' through donations. " Each poppy commemorates a British and colonial death during World War One." (I found online).

From my journal: "we went to the Tower of London.  It’s beyond belief how people can hold public beheadings, even private ones! It was horrible to see torture devices. Who thinks of these things, let alone create and use them? I wish everyone could just do the right thing so all these horrible things would not even need to have been created.  The whole place has a sense of weight to me – such sadness, death and horror.  It was incredible to see the armor, the white tower, etc. and just to imagine what things would have been like 100’s of years ago.  And yet it just makes me appreciate living in this day and age.  Running water for bathrooms, my temperpedic bed! Pretty much any kind of food that I want… It’s incredible.  I live better than Kings and Queens of the past! We saw the crown jewels.  I thought I remember seeing more than just crowns – it was basically crowns.  But still spectacular.  I can’t keep royalty and names straight. "

Waiting for some hot chocolate. We got lots of hot chocolate on this trip.  The baboon on the top of the picture is made of wires. I believe the animals were supposed to represent all the wile animals that found Tower of London to be their home through the years.  People would give wild animals as gifts, but back then, they didn't really know how to care for the animals.  There was some accidents were people got hurt, but it sounded like mainly the animals died from lack of proper care.

 

We went on a tour given by a yeoman warder.  He was jolly and fun.  He seemed to relish retelling the gruesome history. He really did a spectacular job.  We wanted to tip him but he told us that he couldn't accept it.  Wikipedia says, "In 2011, there were 37 Yeomen Warders and one Chief Warder.^[1] All warders are retired from the Armed Forces of Commonwealth realms and must be former senior non-commissioned officers with at least 22 years of service. They must also hold the Long Service and Good Conduct medal."

Landon hadn't seen Les Mis on Broadway, so we got tickets for it in London.  Before going, we ate at an Italian Restaurant.  We ate upstairs, and the staff were serious business.  The man in charge was on top of things and seem to rip on our server who wrongly gave us bubbled water instead of still.  Landon got mussels for me to try - blech! He doesn't really like them either, but thought it'd be fun for me to try them. 

We saw the show and Landon's response was the same after seeing it at Chanhassen's Dinner theater - not too good.  He loves the book so much (like scripture) that it just can't live up to that!

From my journal:

Today we went to Westminster Abbey.  It was closed on Saturday so we went back.  The admission was 17 british pounds – about $25.  What?! I decided against going in.  But after taking a pic and looking through the gift shop, Landon said, “I’d pretend it was free and then decide what you’d like to do.”  I saw the long line was moving quickly (I was also thinking I wouldn’t have time to do anything else if I went in), so we did it.  And I’m glad we did.  Mom had previously told me about not being able to take A. Becky in when they visited with Nanny Ocel and how disappointed she had been for her.  So, that kind of was in the back of my mind as probably being a big deal.  Anyways, it was cool to imagine all the coronations and weddings that took place there through the 100’s of years.  We even saw the Coronation Chair.  So cool to be wood and old and fading paint and decoration…!! Westminster is packed with statues, plaques, and memorials.  It’s almost like they can’t fit in anything else! Lots of famous people buried there and royalty.  It made me wonder why Prince William and Kate would want to be married there? Tons of dead people inside there – kind of creepy. I walked down that aisle, pretending I was Kate, and realized that the black and white floor was uneven. Watch your step in your high heels! But it must have been incredibly thrilling to take part of such a historic place like that.  After Westminster, we took the Tube to Harrods.  But some hot cocoa tins for Mom/Dad and Melissa.  We were only inside for about 15 minutes… saw lots of food and jewelry, watches, etc.  I know that place is huge, but I also wanted to get out so I wouldn’t see things I wanted to buy! Not that I was tempted by those pricey things.  It was more temptation to buy small food tins and Christmas decorations. Lol.

We made our way to Kings Cross Station.

 

Hauling our suitcases to the "Tube" past St. Pauls.

"....Those Underground Stations are not disability friendly.  It’d be hard to get around if you were in a wheelchair.  Anyways, less than an hour left.  I am reading “The Happiness Project” on my phone.  I agree with a lot of what I’m reading."

Once at Kings Cross, I got some snacks for the train ride to Edinburgh.  I think it's fun to eat some of the treats that are not found in the US.  This "Flake" bar was a chocolate bar that flakes apart.  Pretty messy but it tasted like Cadbury Chocolate.  In fact, I think it's made by Cadbury.