Side trip to Roslynn and coming home

Our last day in the UK we decided to indulge our bit of love for the book and movie the Da Vinci Code. It wasn't too far away, we could easily hop on one of the Lothian buses and be out there to Roslynn in about 45 minutes. So we did, as well as about 10 other people on the bus. We rode out into the countryside (beautiful!) and into a tiny little town. We got off the bus and walked a bit down a small lane to a path up and around to a Welcome center for Roslynn Chapel. We were able to take lots of photos outside the chapel, which is still undergoing some renovation. But zero photos are permitted inside. I walked around the outside, impressed at how large this cathedral would have been had it been completed. Once inside, I was blown away. It is simply beautiful. Walking around, I wish I could have taken photos, but it just would not have done it justice. We listened to a brief tour discussion, history of the chapel and explanation of the restoration. It was great to hear, and more enlightening than anything we had read. We walked down into the "crypt" area where Tom Hanks had made the discoveries of the lineages. Unfortunately, it is actually a small square room to no where. Nope, no extra basement room, no secret passages, no archives of documents. Sorry guys. Oh well. But the architecture of the building is real, the ceiling is real, the rest is real. We spent a great deal of time there, and then afterwards I bought a silk scarf with the proceeds going to the restoration. And then hopped the bus back to Edinburgh for the Italian dinner. We spent our last evening in our lovely hotel, The Roxburghe, which was the best for location and walking distance for everything. Our flight back the next morning was back on Air France which was a little delayed out of the UK, and in Paris we had a bit of a hiccup trying to switch planes. We were just in time at the gate, but when we got to the bus, it seemed to take a while to fill up the bus before it would move on to the plane. In the meantime a small child was coughing a lot near me. I have a crappy immune system, my only thought was "at least this is at the end of the trip." We finally got to our plane, and on our way. I watched a few movies on the way home and we finally landed in Newark. A few days later I began feeling ill, and a few more I had a full borne flu. Thank you small child on the bus in Paris. Again, at least it was at the end of my vacation. :) The joys of travel come with a cost sometimes. All in all, we had a fabulous time. Our first trip to the UK was great, we got to go to the highlands, see and sail on Loch Ness, tour Edinburgh Castle, see the Royal Jewels, see Roslynn Chapel, tour Edinburgh Zoo, see a few castles, Dunnottar Castle which is amazing, eat great sushi, visit friends, take a train through the countryside along the coast, and spend time with the locals at the theater, in the "delux seats" getting soft leather seats! This was a great vacation, I'm glad we both enjoyed it and even enjoyed finally seeing the penguins....

Edinburgh, UK

Back on the train and traveled back to Edinburgh. We had a great weekend in Aberdeen (Thanks Liz!) but we had to go back and see the rest of the city, tour the castle and make a side trip to Roslynn. We started out with our trip up to Edinburgh Castle. And I mean "up" to the castle. The castle is set atop a now defunct volcano, and has been around for a very long time. The oldest building on the castle grounds is from 1130, St. Margaret's chapel.  It is still there and we were able to go inside and see the building. The view from the top is phenomenal, as you can see. And we lucked out having a gorgeous day, stunning blue skies and warm weather. It was a great day to tour the grounds. We walked all over the grounds, up and down lots of stairs (why so many stairs??) and soaked in the atmosphere. Even got to see Mons Meg, the huge 550 year old cannon.  The area around the castle was amazing and we could easily see why the Scotts chose this area as a fortress.

We also visited the Edinburgh Zoo. The zoo is both awesome and interesting. If you don't know it, you can mess up your trip. Like we kind of did. The zoo is built on a hillside, and there are trolly buses. You should take the trolly bus to the top of the hill and walk down, we didn't and tried to walk uphill. Not a good idea. We also got there with a few minutes to spare before the famous "Penguin Parade" that happens each day at 2:15 pm. The gate attendant told us if we "hurry" we could make it. She forgot to mention the whole hillside aspect of the zoo. After running a bit and trying to make it there on time I gave up, exhausted, exasperated, and out of breath. With only the ability to say "F@ck the penguins." Jeboleth agreed, laughing, in between gasps for air, and we just walked uphill the few last bits to see the end of the parade. we could see tons and tons and tons of penguins. This zoo has more penguins than we've ever seen in one location. We were also able to see a ton of other animals, and the land area for each of them was great, it was more like the zoo was built around the animals and people were allowed to peak in rather than the zoo being built for humans to view the animals. Nice. I always like to see a place where the animals come first. Great.

We also walked around checking out the Fringe Festival listening to the music, watching impromptu plays, and listening to the pipers. I also went hunting for cashmere, I found three scarves that were very nice and warm. I didn't buy a lot of trinkets though. We also did not have time to go out of the city to any whisky distilleries, however, there was a whisky museum in the city, The Scotch Whisky Experience. It began as an amusement park ride in a little cart in the shape of a barrel. The cart took you through the production process with how it all begins from yeast, and the history of whisky, scotch style. At the end of the ride you get off and are ushered into a group, where we go into a room to learn more and get to sample a bit of whisky. Jeboleth and I tried 3 different kinds. I actually liked one, Glenkinchie an East Lothian lowland malt from a company that has been in business before 1837. It was quite tasty, so much so that I bought a small bottle to bring home. Jeboleth had no love for whisky, any of them, so he passed. After the tastings we were ushered into another room.

A room full from floor to ceilling, around the corner, and more again, full, of nothing but whisky bottles. In fact it is the largest collection of whiskey bottles in the world. It contains ~3,500 individual bottles in the collection and includes everything from regular looking bottles to chess sets, all containing whisky. Amazing, and pretty astounding. We got to keep our tasting glasses, we bought some gifts in the gift shop on our way out, and then headed back through the streets of Edinburgh. Our stay in the UK included tasting authentic Scottish/UK foods (haddock and chips, haggis (veggie)), sushi, Chinese buffet (oh yum!) lots of pub food (pop in for a pint?) but for our final night I was craving Italian. Yes, I know, but I wanted it. Walking back we found a quaint little Italian restaurant, with a tiny window table, I had fabulous spaghetti marinara and enjoyed our final meal in the UK. Of course it was also odd to see McDonalds, TGIFridays, Burger King, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Subway and Pizza Hut in the UK, and that there was a line out the door and down the street for Pizza Hut..... sigh. At least we found more authentic foods and got to taste the culture. Although for myself, I think I'm done with the pickle and cheese sandwiches and IRN-BRU drinks. Just saying...

Welcome to Aberdeen, Scotland that is...

When I tell people around here that I spent a weekend in Aberdeen with friends and it was so awesome and we had such a great time, they stare at me. Blinking. Then I have to clarify, Aberdeen, Scotland. Not Maryland. Not that the Maryland one might be cool too, I've driven past the exit on 95 a zillion times, but in Aberdeen, Scotland, it is on the ocean. There are castles like Dunnottar that date back to before 1700 and was graced by the likes of William Wallace and Queen Mary, not to mention some pretty darn good sushi! I am not kidding, the place has kick-butt sushi restaurants! We met up with some friends who live there in Aberdeen and spent a great time touring. We stayed at the Atholl hotel, which was far exceeding the standards of any hotel I've seen. Very nice staff, comfy bed, clean, and hand towels in the bath!! Beyond just being beautiful, they were so helpful. Anyone heading to Aberdeen, this is the place to stay, short taxi ride from the train station and a short walk into town. Very nice. We loved out stay, and even got to see a great movie, The Guard, which was seriously great and it is too bad it was limited released in the US. And the sushi, YUM! We went to dinner at one little place that I can't recall the name, oh it was Yorokobi bi CJ, and then the next day we found, Yo Sushi!, a cool sushi bar that had little sushi plates on a conveyor belt... yes a conveyor belt... that passed in front of you and you selected what you wanted. We were there on blue plate day, lucky for us. (they were all one price so we didn't need to take out a second mortgage to have lunch...) Aberdeen was a cool city, if you're in the UK, and in the area, I recommend it. Hit the beach too! If we would have had more time we would have spent more time there and gone to the amusement park, but we just didn't. So much to do and just not enough time, but we did manage a few things...

Outside Blackfriar Pub

All of us at Dunnottar Castle

Jeboleth in the tide pools at Dunnottar Castle

Yo Sushi! Yummy...

Heading to the UK

For our vacation in August, we picked Scotland, UK. We planned a trip to fly to Paris, change planes, and land in Edinburgh. The first full day we took a bus tour into the highlands, up to Inverness and Loch Ness. No we did not see Nessie (darn). We also took a weekend to go up to Aberdeen and visit friends, then back to Edinburgh to tour the zoo, castle and down to Roslyn Chapel. Here are our highlights. The flight to Paris was long, but since I slept most of the way, I didn't notice much. I woke up a while before landing. BonJour! We flew on Air France, which btw, is one of the best airlines I've ever been on!!! They gave us hot towels, eye shades, ear plugs, and the seats were comfy, even in coach. Once we landed in Paris, we got on the bus system at CDG airport, rode around the outside of the airport to the next gate, where we waited maybe 10 minutes and was able to line up to get on the next bus to take us to our next plane to Edinburgh. Welcome to the UK! After heading off to our little hotel, Victoria Park House Hotel, a very minimalistic hotel. Our room was not ready, so we went down the road to find ourselves some lunch. We found a fabulous veggie food in a restaurant, Roseleaf Bar Cafe, that played the entire Cure Standing on the Beach CD, I was happy... I had the The Roseleafer, yummy!! We overtipped hugely because we were thinking American style, but the food was spectacular, so in the end, they deserved it. Back up to the hotel to our dinky room, far, far up the many stairs (many many stairs). Unfortunately the TV didn't work, we didn't have a hand towel and they never replaced our other used towels. Luckily it was only for a few days. But the beds were fine, sheets were clean and we only slept there and the price was low, bonus. We learned how to use the Lothian buses, even after taking one the wrong way accidentally once. The driver let us stay on and go back the other direction, Thank You!!! Our next day, our first full day in Scotland, we took the bus tour, via Scotline Tours They were wonderful to deal with online, and easy to find on the Royal Mile. Our guide was pleasant and the ride took us away from a day of downpours in Edinburgh into a chilly highlands. On our ride we stopped to see the

Harry Potter film site

sites where Harry Potter was filmed, a highland cow named Hamish, some "cheese and pickle" sandwiches with IRN-BRU drinks (both, acquired tastes) and the ride up to Urquhart Castle that sits on the top edge of Loch Ness. It was pretty awesome to walk around the ruins, see the trébuchet, and look out over the water. After our ruins tour, we got on the boat and took a water tour down the long lake. It was soooo cold! A hot cocoa was necessary to break the chill. I didn't take many photos because I was so busy trying to

Urquhart Castle, Loch Ness

keep warm. We finished up the tour, found a rest stop to get some food, much needed. And of course a tour through the gift shop. I found one of my eggie obsessions! If you read back on one of my holiday posts, you'd discover my Eggie addiction. I found an Eggie, refrigerator magnet with a measuring tape inside. I had to have it! I was so thrilled, and to top it off, I named it my "Scotch Egg" since it came from Scotland! (oh come on that was funny...). Once we were done there, we boarded the coach, snuggled up, and road the long road back to Edinburgh. It began to rain, we listened to soft highland music, the scenery got dark and a while later, in the misty rain, we arrived in a lamp-lit, stone street city. We thanked our guide and headed back to our room, far far above the streets. And the next days we we walked around Edinburgh getting a feel for the city, loving the transportation, choice of foods, the fact that the Fringe Festival was going on, and listing to all the excitement. Soon our weekend to Aberdeen was coming...