Scotland Days Two and Three!

Before I left for Edinburgh, it was recommended to me to take a Highlands tour with Rabbie's, a mini-coach tour company.  They only take a max of 16 people on a tour in a mini-coach and were supposed to be fabulous.  Rabbie's more than lived up to the hype!  My tour guide was just brilliant, having so many stories and interesting tid-bits to talk about that she talked for almost 12 hours straight.  I learned so much about Scotland, it was amazing.

Upon leaving Edinburgh, we passed the site of the Battle of Falkirk when we were on the motorway:

This was the site of one of the battles that William Wallace fought at (and I believe this is where he lost and was captured).  Apparently Wallace was a pretty crazy dude and not as cool as I thought he was.  Well, anyways, Braveheart's a good movie. :)  Apparently he had no education in warfare, but he paired up with a guy who was.  When that guy died, Wallace didn't fare so well anymore.  Then he was captured and had a death so grisly that people still don't like to mention it so much here.  Let's just say the movie was very gentle in comparison to reality.

Our first stop was Calandar, where Queen Victoria and Prince Albert honeymooned!  This is the hotel they stayed at.  It was a pretty cute little town and apparently Queen Victoria thought so too.  She fell in love with the Highlands and, therefore, so did everyone else in the UK.

This was a beautiful loch that we stopped off at on our way.  The weather was pretty unpredictable that day, so I was glad to have caught some sunlight.  And, yes, the water was freezing!

Proof I was in the Highlands. 

What you see here is all boggy marshland.  Our coach began to sink as we stood there taking pictures, so we had to get on quickly before it got stuck! 

We must've seen 15 rainbows that day.  Unpredictable weather! 

This is Glencoe, the site of an infamous massacre.  Back when Scottish clans were having to choose between declaring loyalty to King James (they were known as Jacobites, which derives from the Latin word for James, jacobus) or the English King.  The clan that lived in Glencoe, the McDonalds, were Jacobites but had been instructed to declare loyalty to the English King until King James had enough support in France, where he was hiding.  Apparently, the clan chief got the memo a little too late and didn't declare loyalty in time.  The English King needed someone to make an example of and a very small clan in the Highlands fit the bill.

The Highlands is composed of very unforgiving geography and weather.  As such, Highlanders had a rule to never deny anyone hospitality, no matter who they were.  Not only that, but the guests were given the absolute best of everything the clan had.  The Campbells, who were loyal to the English King, called on that hospitality when passing through making sure that everyone was behaving themselves.  They stayed for 12 days with the clan before they got the message to murder the entire clan.  In the middle of the night, they shot the clan chief and his family with muskets.  The fact that they used muskets is significant because it made noise, waking the rest of the clan.  The remainder of the clan ran for the hills in the dead of winter in nothing more than their pajamas.  Those who weren't outright murdered died from exposure.  Of a clan of 200 people, only 8 survived that massacre.  There is a saying in Scotland, "Never trust a Campbell", which is where that saying came from.  There were two rules that were not to be violated amongst the rough Highlanders: Never murder on sacred ground and never murder under trust.  The Campbells violated that, murdering under trust.  

To this day, if your last name is Campbell, you will be refused service in Glencoe.  My guide told of a customer that she had who was backpacking along the Scottish Way, which runs through Glencoe.  He began to feel poorly and so decided to stop in Glencoe and get a hotel room.  The first hotel he stopped at took one look at his credit card and refused to serve him, telling him that because his last name was Campbell, he was not welcome there.  He had to go another 5 miles, stopping at many hotels along the way before he could find a hotel that would take him (and even then they changed his name in the registry).

She also told an amusing story about the singer, Glen Campbell.  Apparently he was in Glencoe at a pub having a few drinks and getting a little rude with the waitress.  She went to her boss and let him know how rude Glen was being and that she refused to serve him anymore.  Being a good boss, he went over to Glen Campbell to tell him to finish his drink and get out.  Glen pulled the "Do you know who I am" card, to which the manager replied that, no, he didn't know who he was.  Upon learning that he was a Campbell, Glen didn't even get to finish his drink and was summarily thrown out on his rear.

Searching for Nessie...I think I'll say that dark blur on the far left hand side of the picture in the water is her.  Right?  :) 

I do have to say, I did not want to get out in this water.  No way, no how.  Not because of a theoretical human eating dinosaur, but because of GIANT EELS that have dragged people down in the past. Ugh! 

Apparently, this was a famous place of training military men in WWII. 

When they unveiled this statue, they had some WWII pilot/veterans attend.  The sculptor had been working on a photo he had obtained, but nobody knew the names of the subjects, so just assumed they were casualties of the war.  When they unveiled the statue, one of the vets looks up and goes, "Hey that's me!"  Small world, huh?

I have many many more stories that the guide told, which I hope to blog about soon!  It was a long day, 8am-8pm, but it was so awesome!  Highly, highly recommended. 

Holyrood Park.

On my walk through the park.  It was a beautiful, slightly windy day.

The best latte of my life (thus far).  This was my second one!

Scotland Day 1!

It's my last weekend before going home, which I just can't believe. It's gone so fast and been such an amazing month. I'm thrilled I did this rotation, it's been great!

Today I caught an EasyJet flight to Edinburgh. Karen & David live about 10 minutes from Gatwick. EasyJet is a discount airline that goes throughout europe. It's definitely a different boarding process, even from Southwest. Theres no assigned seating, but there's also no assigned boarding #. 40 minutes before departure they announce the gate. Everyone quickly makes their way to the gate and then queues up. Better hope you've used the bathroom, because you don't want to lose your spot! Then when you get on board, you find a seat that looks good and grab it! I got an exit row seat with pleeeennnty of legroom and a window seat so I could see Scotland from the air.

The flight to Edinburgh was only a little over an hour long and was cheaper than a train ticket which would take 7-9 hours! EasyJet is a definite recommendation to check out for cheap Euro travel.

Once in Edinburgh, I checked out Holyrood Palace, one of the royal residences only used a few months out of the year and open to tourists the rest of the time:

Having gone recently to Windsor Castle, another of the Queen's digs, I have to say that this is my favorite.  Windsor Castle is opulent, spacious, and regal.  It's also behind a huge stone wall and very fortified.  Holyrood seems relatively relaxed in comparison.  It's very small, especially considering what is actually lived in by the Queen.  Now I didn't get to actually see where she lives when she's there (I think), but it was only like one floor of this whole building.  Crazy.  Anyway, this palace was built next to an Abbey because one of the Kings was a pretty religious guy (ahem, King James) and wanted to be close to the Abbey.  At least, that's how I'm remembering it right now.  Anyways, there are Abbey ruins about 20 feet behind the palace.

Directly across from the Abbey stands this monstrosity:

Scotland is still part of the United Kingdom, but have their own Parliament (that still interacts with the other parliament down further south).  Scotland appears to be making its way towards gaining independence, but I heard a few people saying that they aren't sure if they actually want that or not.  Interesting.

I then headed up the Royal Mile:

It's hard to see in these pictures, but almost every single shop was a tourist shop.  Don't you worry, I didn't buy a tam o'shanter or a kilt.  I almost bought a towel that looked like a kilt, but I restrained myself.  Anyway, just shopping.  But it looks cool!  Apparently back before the 1600s, the buildings in Old Town Edinburgh were 14stories tall and slanted such that one could walk across the buildings at the top.  It meant that no sunlight would make it to the bottom, though.  Yuck.

I saw a few street performers along the way:

So you pay a few pounds and get to pose with an infamous Braveheart Scotsman!  Don't worry that Braveheart was about 40% true, nobody painted their faces, and william wallace was basically insane.  Oh, and he's wearing underwear.  He was showing it off. :)

I also visited Edinburgh Castle, which was pretty ok.  I had a few gripes with it, such as the exorbitant price they charged for entrance fee and then didn't include an audio guide with it!  I think I got spoilt in London.  Geez.

Anyway, next up is the Highlands!

London Day Four - Outside London :)

On our third - strike that - fourth day, we took a tour bus to Windsor Castle, Stonehenge and Bath.  This day was definitely one of the highlights of the trip - and it flew by.  The castle was well worth a full day's visit and Bath would be wonderful for a week-long vacation by itself.  Stonehenge was...errr, interesting.  I wouldn't say it was a bust, but on a day trip where 2 hours felt like 15 minutes at Windsor and Bath, 45 minutes was too long to stare at some large rocks.  Call me an uncultured ignoramus - I'll take those minutes and spend them exploring St. George's chapel or enjoying a coffee in one of Bath's cafes.

Our tour began at Windsor Castle, where we were shuffled through airport-style security (this is a royal residence, after all) and then turned loose on the castle grounds.  The grounds were immaculate and the state rooms were quite impressive.  Outside the state rooms were aisles forming a queue.  Since it was winter, we were actually able to (hurriedly) walk through all the state rooms without waiting.  Apparently, in the summer, you can expect to wait in line for 1-2 hours (which would have exhausted our entire time limit for the castle).  Here are some picture highlights:

Not sure who that guy is, but that umbrella belongs to our tour guide.  It wasn't raining. 

In the background is Windsor, with the castle immediately to our left.

This was actually where we exited the castle - it looked to be used primarily as an entrance for vehicles.

Walking up to the castle entrance.  Silly tourists wouldn't get out of my picture.

A garden within the castle - the picture does not do it justice, the scale was quite large and this was a major focal point as you entered the castle interior. 

The state rooms took up almost all our time here and, unfortunately, they do not allow photography.  That doesn't stop google though, so go look at some of the great rooms and halls that make up this castle.  Pretty spectacular.  I was particularly impressed by the golf course on the grounds.  I (quite naively) asked an employee if the course was private.  Muffling his laughter, he said, "yes, it's, well, not open to the public.  The royal family uses it and castle staff have access."  Pretty sweet perk if you ask me.  Does the queen need a caddy?

St. George's Chapel.  Due to the line and our tight schedule, we decided to skip it rather than miss our bus.  Would have loved another 30 minutes here (more on that later...).

Alright so we didn't see the changing of the guard at Buckingham palace.  But here's a guard returning to his post within the castle grounds.  And he has that peculiar hat (which, without a doubt, Laura knows the name of). 

A cycling club departing just outside the castle.  Nothing makes me feel more at home then a group of 10+ people wearing nothing but spandex.  This is just about the only time you'll see an English person wearing informal footwear (then again, who knows - they were probably tourists).

After the all-too-quick tour of the castle, we were back on the bus, with a Coke (with actual sugar, none of that high-fructose-corn-syrup trash) and tasty sandwich in hand, headed to Stonehenge.  At least for the trip out, even the time in the bus was interesting as we got to see the English countryside.

And now you do too. :)

Hmm - that's a pile of rocks. Oh, right.  Stonehenge.  It's a curiously arranged pile of rocks inexplicably located in the middle of the Salisbury plains.  Cool.

Since the ancients were able to move these boulders across half the country and arrange them in the pattern seen here, we assumed there must be some trick to transport them easily.  As you can see, Laura was able to lift one using only her left arm.  Granted, her left is almost as strong as her right, but you get the idea.  After being scolded for 'unsettling the natives,' Laura carefully placed the stone exactly how she had found it.  I guess England is serious about their "world heritage sites."

During our cab ride from Heathrow the first day, we heard from our cab driver that, "Stonehenge isn't as much of a draw now that you can't climb the rocks." I fully acknowledge that this anecdote - truthful or not - made my experience, well, underwhelming.  Still neat.  Still worth seeing.  But all I could think about was my clmbing shoes and some chalk.  THAT would have been worth 45 minutes.

Approaching Bath by bus...

The Roman Bath.  

A mosiac on the floor in the ruins of the Roman bath.

They've seen mountains.  They've seen oceans.  They've even seen Chacos.  And now, Roman baths too.

 Laura happy.

Laura, less happy.  She had the unfortunate desire to take Bath up on its offer of bath water for 50p. I assume this was not like drinking freezing cold mountain spring water in Colorado (filtered, of course).  I say assume because Laura tried it first and I had the wisdom to let her reaction dictate my next action.

What's that?  A Lush....in Bath?  The best part of this discovery was Laura's revelation that, as we walked up a street in a city we had never visited and a country we'd been in for three days, she could smell Lush.  Hah, very funny I said.  A Lush in Bath - how quaint.  And then I saw it.  For those of you unfamiliar with Lush, stay unfamiliar.  There's no going back.

A restaurant tucked into a back alley. Much more appealing than what America tucks into back alleys. 

 

This was the church/bus depot.  Well, the latter is more a description than an official designation.  Our bus dropped us off and picked us up here.  Yeah, RTD has nothing on England.  When was the last time you boarded a bus in the states and said, "wait, are those....flying buttresses?"  With Bath captured via the electronic genius of the iPhone, we boarded our bus and headed back to London.

Still to come:  Day 3 and Days 5-7.


-Steve 

English Differences

Since being over here, I've realized how different English society and culture is from American.  Here are a few differences of staying here that I've experienced.

• American accents aren't necessarily as obviously American as I imagined they would be.  It's obvious that I'm not from here, so I usually get asked where I'm from.  I have been asked if I'm from Australia, though.  That question definitely took me aback, since I usually have a hard time distinguishing English and Australian accents!
• Brits are reserved people in public, such as in shops.  However, most people that I've met are absolutely warm and lovely people who are always willing to share a biscuit (cookie) and bring a cuppa tea to you, even taking the time to add milk and sugar to it when you "forget" to say that you wanted that.  (Lol)
• For whatever reason, I just feel that British children are better well-behaved than American kiddos, at least in the doctor office (aka "the surgery" here).  I don't know if it's my accent that kind of befuddles them or the fact that there is almost no preventative health here so kids don't learn to hate doctors offices (very likely), but these kids listen to their parents and are so sweet.  Not all of them, of course, but most of them. :)
• Don't ever tell someone you are going to roll their pants up for them.  It means something very different here.  
• Cellphones are present, but people are not constantly on them everywhere they go.
• Butter and cream are king, but there is not the obesity problem as much here.
• English people are unfailingly polite.  When I bring a patient back to the exam room, most will stand until I invite them to take a seat.
• Believe me, they are really really polite!  If a train is late, the transport system actually apologizes.  Several times.  They even make posters a week after a delay (just a delay, y'all) to explain WHY there was a delay and to apologize again.
• English cheese is really, really, really good.  It also is usually really really really SHARP.  It makes extra-sharp cheddar seem wimpy
• American driving system is a CINCH compared with the English.  The roads here are narrow, signage is difficult to see, and there are many many rules that we don't have.  I don't think that people here CAN multitask while driving.

Look for the upcoming Laura's Guide to English Lingo!

Seven Sisters...who needs Dover??

One of the things always in the back of my mind when I imagined coming to England was seeing the white cliffs of Dover.  However, I'd heard how unimpressive they can be and how unimpressive Dover itself is.  Well, it was still on my list...until I heard about the Seven Sisters Country Park in Sussex.  Seven Sisters has been a long time favorite by my hosts, David and Karen, and an area they especially love to take visitors to.

This little area of Sussex is only about 40 miles away from France, making it an ideal geographic area for the Germans to aim for when they were planning on invading (or so the English reasoned anyways).  The English built bunkers, dug trenches/dikes/I don't know what to call it, and built these small concrete barriers to prevent tanks from advancing.  Apparently during the war, the locals spent the evenings lighting up the beach at night and built a faux airstrip visible during the day to trick the Germans into thinking this was actually an area farther north (Leicester, I believe...btw, it's pronounced "Lester".  I kid you not).  I say apparently because I read that in a Wikipedia article...so who knows if it's true!  However, all the things built into the beach from WWII are still there today.  Some of the bunkers had lots of beer bottles and trash in them...this one wasn't too bad:

This is about a football field length away from the beach.

Pretty cozy in there, I'd say.

I was told those ditches at the bottom center of the picture were to prevent tanks from advancing, as are the concrete structures on the pic below. 

But we didn't come to just take in some history!  Like I said, who needs the white cliffs of Dover when you have the Seven Sisters???

These wild ponies are here to eat the tufts of grass the sheep leave behind.  They are gorgeous!  

Anyways, it was a beautiful weekend with perfect weather, if a bit chilly.  Things have been getting down to the negatives over night (as the weatherwoman here says, the minimum of -2.5C and a maximum of 5-7...so proper) and it was pretty windy at the tops of the cliffs, but beautiful blue skies and low tide?  Perfect!