England / Wales - Bristol

We left Edinburgh very early the next morning for a flight to Dublin.  From there, we had several days of fun-filled Irish adventure in Dingle and Dublin (I actually wrote about those stops in a timely manner).

This is the part of the vacation I am most excited to share.  Not because of some amazing, once-in-a-lifetime event, but because we got to spend these next three days with our good friends, Sian and Ben.  There is nothing like seeing a city or a country through the eyes of those who know it best.  We are so lucky to have made friends with them while were taking surfing lessons in Peniche, Portugal.  

Further proof of my theory that the farther you travel from home, the smaller the world becomes.

We arrived at the Bristol airport at 6:30am.  EARLY!!  Sian picked us up and took us back to the house for breakfast.  Ben had prepared a full English breakfast, including hot cross buns.  Chris and I couldn't hold back our laughter when he asked us, with a straight face in his awesome British accent (or really non-accent since we were in England), if we would like a hot cross bun.  Sorry Ben!!  We'll call it lack of sleep from the incredibly early flight time.  After we finished our delicious meal, and caught up with our friends, we headed for the train station.

The four of us took the train to Bath to enjoy, well, the Roman Baths.

The baths were constructed over a thermal spring by the Romans in about 60 AD when they occupied England (and much of the rest of Europe).  The town because such a bathing hot-spot that it eventually took on the name Bath.  During the height of their use, the complex included the Great Bath,

steam rooms,

and other assorted pools.  The bath also served as a temple.  Quite the multi-purpose facility.

The audio-guides provided with our entrance ticket gave us WAY more information than we could ever absorb, but we did our best.  On the way out, we had the chance to sample the supposedly curative water from the spring.  It tasted like sucking on a penny.  Yuck!

Our next stop was the adjacent Bath Abbey.

A church of some sort has stood in this spot since the mid 900s.  However, the Abbey as it stands today was constructed some time in the 1500s.  Like the other churches built around the same time in England, the Bath Abbey has a stunning fan-vaulted ceiling and loads of stained glass.  So beautiful.

At this point, our trip took a slight detour.  Chris's camera stopped working.  A major deal for anyone that knows us!  Yet another reason that we were thankful to be visiting friends.  When we got back to their house, Sian loaned us an old camera.  We've held it hostage so that they will come see us!

Continuing our journey through Bath's history, we walked across town to the Royal Crescent.  This series of town homes was built in the 1770s in the Georgian style.

We finished our time in bath with a stop at a local pub.  Drinks and friends after a long day.  Doesn't get much better than that.

Until those friends introduce you to the world of take-away fish and chips.  Enter Crispies and my very happy tummy!

Ben was in charge of Sunday's activities, and his tour-guide skills did not disappoint.  He took us on a tour of Bristol, his home for many years.  We started in a part of town known for it's street art.

The art on display throughout the neighborhood was outstanding, a little strange in places, and often a bit humorous.  We were told to be on the lookout for work done by a famous street artists named Banksey.  We eventually found one of this pieces on the wall of a health clinic near the Bristol City Council (the blue paint splashes aren't his).

Just around the corner from the City Council was the Bristol Cathedral.  The Cathedral was surprisingly quiet for a Sunday afternoon, so we took advantage of the opportunity to have a nearly-private look around.

The next stop on our tour was a meet-up with several of Sian and Ben's friends at a waterfront pub on a boat. Sian introduced me to her favorite, and now my favorite, brand of pear cider.  Too bad I can't find it here.  Yet another reason to make a return trip.  After about half-an-hour on the boat, it started to rain.  No worries... we are always prepared for rain.

We wrapped up our fun-filled day in Bristol with a few rounds of darts with more of Sian and Ben's friends.  Sian tells me that darts is a very British past-time.  I was terrible, but it was a lot of fun!

Monday, the entirety of Great Britain had the day off in celebration of the Queen's Jubilee celebration (more on that later).  We had our own celebration by going on a hiking adventure in Wales.  Sian is originally from Wales and wanted to make sure that we got to experience a little bit of her heritage for ourselves.  So, we loaded up in the car and headed for Brecon Beacons National Park.  More specifically, we were headed for Pont Ar Daf, the highest point in Wales.  I'm fairly certain we started the climb at sea level or below, so the 2,700 foot climb was a good workout.

We all made it to the top without too much trouble.  The views from the top of the hill were beautiful.  Sian said on a clear day, you can see all the way to the coast.  Pretty amazing.

After a leisurely climb back down the hill, we stopped for a break and some ice cream before continuing on our way.

One the way back to Bristol, we took a slight detour toward a castle we saw off in the distance.  I will never get used to the idea of casually passing a castle as you drive along.

Castell Coch turned out to be way to expensive to be worth a trip inside, so we walked around the perimeter before loading back into the car and head for home.  It's Sian and Ben's garden wonderful?  The perfect place to sit on a sunny day.

That evening, we watched the Queen's Jubilee festivities on TV.  I think we were far more excited about everything that was going on than either Sian or Ben were, but they humored us as we peppered them with questions.

The next morning, we packed our bags and loaded into the car again.  This time, we were headed for Stonehenge!!  Our lovely tour hosts hadn't been in years, so they offered to make the drive with us.  Driving up to Stonehenge was weird to say the least.  We were driving through rural England, and then all of a sudden there it was.  In the middle of a field - surrounded by sheep.

Construction on this mysterious arrangement of massive stones is believed to have begun as early as 3000 BC, making this the oldest site we visited on our travels. The audio-guide provided with our entrance ticket explained every detail of Stonehenge from the astronomic alignment to the hundreds of burial mounds concentrated in the fields surrounding the site.  We spent several hours walking slowly in a circle around the stones, staring in wonder.  Then, we had a little fun!

Before we knew it, it was time to head for the nearby train station to catch our train to London.  Many, many, many thanks to our wonderful hosts.  We truly had an amazing time!  You are always welcome, wherever we may be.

Scotland - Edinburgh

We wrapped up our tour (of the York Minster), packed up the car, and headed north again.  Next stop... Hadrian's Wall and Scotland! 

The drive from York to Edinburgh, our stop for the night included about four hours of driving time through the back roads of northern England and southern Scotland.  About half way to Edinburgh, we turned off the back road onto a little country road that runs parallel to Hadrian's Wall.  The wall was constructed in about 122 AD for a still unknown purpose and stretches about 80 miles from coast to coast across northern England.  

We followed the Wall for several miles before arriving at a visitors center nestled in between two hills in the absolute middle of nowhere.  We talked with the nice lady in the gift shop for a few minutes; then, we drove up to the trail head for a nice hour-long hike along the wall.

The walk was a little more of a hike than we had anticipated.  Turns out this part of England has plenty of steep hills.  Grateful for a seat, we jumped back in the car and headed north just a short way to the border between England and Scotland.  Who could pass up the chance to stop with a sign like this located next to a convenient parking lot?

About two hours later, we rolled down another sleepy little street to find our B&B for the next two nights.  We were greeted by a sweet couple who showered us with restaurant and sightseeing recommendations in heavy Scottish accents.  We ended up at a restaurant just down the street for dinner.  It was here that we discovered our new favorite beer and choked down enjoyed more mushy peas.

The next morning, at the recommendation of our hosts, we took a scenic nature walk from our B&B into downtown Edinburgh.  The walk afforded us a great view of the city and was the perfect way to start the day.

We started our tour of the city at the bottom of the Royal Mile near the Palace of Holyroodhouse, the home of the Royal family when they are in town, and the Scottish Parliament building.

These buildings are situated directly across the street from one another.  Nothing like a little architectural discord.  We slowly made our way up the Royal Mile stopping in shops and detouring down side streets.

Just over half way up the hill, we came to St. Giles' Cathedral.  The towering cathedral spire is one of the most recognizable fixtures of the Edinburgh skyline (scroll back up a few pictures to see what I'm talking about).  

The cathedral itself is hodgepodge of construction ranging in age from four interior columns from the early 1100s to a facade constructed in the 1800s.  The interior of the cathedral is decorated with beautiful stained-glass windows and really impressive organ.

Making our way up the hill, we took a few block detour to check out the National Museum of Scotland.  This place was massive.  We did our best to make it through the highlights but after several hours we had hardly made a dent in the impressive exhibits spanning the entire history of Scotland from prehistoric times through modern space travel and everything, every-thing, in between.  We even had a little fun playing dress-up in the kids section.  Isn't he handsome?

On our way back to the Royal Mile, we made a stop at a statue dedicated to Greyfriars Bobby, a terrier who watched over his master's grave for 14 years after he died.

Our last official stop of the day was Edinburgh Castle, located at the very top of the Royal Mile.  The original fortified castle was built on the top of a high rock some time in the 11th century and has served as a castle, fort, and military garrison ever since.  

The highlights of our tour were the Scottish National War Memorial, a solemn reminder that the British sent Scottish soldiers to all corners of the earth to protect the Empire, 

and the dog cemetery for the solders's dogs.  Talk about a room with a view.

Chris also thought the cannons were pretty cool.

We made our way back down the hill just in time for it to start drizzling - the first less-that-perfect weather we'd experienced so far.  We dug our trusty rain coats out of the backpack and trudged back down the hill to our bus stop.  Back at our B&B we asked for another dinner recommendation.  This time, we wanted some place we could try hagus because my brother had requested a picture of my trying it as his souvenir for this trip.  Who am I do say no to that?

I actually turned out to be really good... kind of like breakfast sausage.  Breakfast sausage and beer;  sounds all right to me.

Same drill as last time for the rest of our pictures from Scotland.  Pictures or Travel.

England - Cambridge and York

It's now been well over a year since we took our trip to the UK, but for the sake of ever having a chance of remembering anything we did, I'm going to try to finish all the blog posts for our last two European vacations.  I think I lost motivation when there were no more trips to be taken and just couldn't get going again.

Our trip to the UK began with a bit of confusion, lots of frustrating delays, and a mid-flight emergency.  We were scheduled to leave Lajes around 10:30am on Friday, May 25th.  In the days leading up to our departure, there were rumblings of an airline strike circulating around base.  Needless to say, we were nervous!  Unlike US airlines, the Portuguese airlines are actually proactive in the face of a known delay.  They called to reschedule us on Thursday night flight off the island.  They would cover the cost of our hotel in Lisbon, and give us meal vouchers for all the meals we would be forced to eat at the airport.  Talk about customer service!  We arrived at the airport on Thursday evening... which turned into Thursday night... which ended up being 2 am Friday morning!  Finally, though, we were up in the air, and that's really all we could ask for.

Not surprisingly, we were both exhausted.  We sent to sleep for a while, but when the food service came around, Chris couldn't get me to wake up.  After repeated attempts by both him and a pediatrician on the flight, I finally came around.  Lack of sleep and a lack of food had caused my blood sugar and, subsequently, my blood pressure to crash.  No blood = sleepy brain.  The flight attendants got me several bottles of juice and within a few minutes, I was feeling somewhat better.  This episode led to me getting checked out by the airport EMT's upon arrival, a cab being called to take us to a hotel I still can't remember, and a very panicked husband.

Sometime Friday afternoon, we returned to the airport to wait around for our very delayed flight to the UK.  All-in-all we ended up landing only five hours after our scheduled arrival time.  We picked up our rental car and mentally prepared ourselves for a night-time dive into driving on the 'wrong' side of the road.

About midnight, we finally arrived at the Holiday Inn Express in Cambridge.  The last time I was that thankful to see a hotel, I was ten, and the Holiday Inn rescued a family trip to Monterey, CA that nearly ended with the four of us spending the night in a pay-by-the-hour establishment (maybe that's why we stopped taking family vacations after that trip).

The next morning, we headed into the heart of Cambridge for a quick tour of the beautiful university town (and the hometown of our good friend Ben, who you'll meet later in this trip).  Our bus dropped us near Market Square, just behind Great St. Mary's church.  

We stepped into the church for a quick look around before heading across the street to the famous King's College chapel.

       

The chapel was easily the highlight of our stop in Cambridge.  Constructed by Henry VII in the 16th century, the fan vaulting supported the largest single span roof anywhere at the time. The chapel is also home to the largest concentration of Renaissance glass anywhere thanks to several good strokes of luck and the removal and storage of every pane of glass during the bombings of WWII.  We visited nearly 100 churches, mosques and chapels during our two years of traveling and this was one of my very favorites.

  

Next door to King's College, sits world-renowned Trinity College.  Some of history's most famous scholars graduated from this prestigious college.  Most of the college grounds were closed as we were visiting during finals week (no pressure building in any of the adjoining dorm rooms, I'm sure), so we were only able to see a small portion of the college.  We did, however, get to see the cloister where Sir Isaac Newton determined the speed of sound (huge nerd moment!!)

and were able to visit the Wren Library.  The Library houses hand-written journals by Newton and the original Winnie the Pooh.  The British, we would come to learn, have a thing for beautiful libraries, and the Wren Library was no exception.  There were no pictures allowed, so you'll have to settle for this picture from Wikipedia instead.  When we visited, there were tables set up on half the library for students to use while studying for finals - can you imagine!

We spent the rest of our morning and the early afternoon wandering around the beautiful college grounds clustered together around the River Cam.  Given more time, we would have happily rented a punt (flat bottomed boat with a pole) and enjoyed the beautiful afternoon sun on the river.

However, Evensong at the York Minster was calling our name, so we packed up and headed north.  Just over three hours later we had successfully navigated the A1, taken in the sites of the English countryside, and squeezed our tiny rental car through the even tinier old city walls surrounding York.  Our bed and breakfast was tucked away at the end of a quiet residential street - which our car almost didn't fit down.  We dropped everything and walked the 1/2 mile to the York Minster for Evensong.  The 45 minute service was beautiful - a musical experience led by the Minster's extremely talented all-boys choir.

With hours and hours of daylight stretching before us (thank you summer in the far northern hemisphere), we started in on the Rick Steves tour of the town.  We began in the park grounds surrounding St. Mary's Abby where we enjoyed an ice cream cone and a quiet chuckle at all the Brits sprawled out sunning themselves on every available patch of sunlight.

Then, we continued around the city atop the ancient walls.  It was fun peeking into the back yards along the way to admire the many beautiful gardens.

   Next, the tour led us through the heart of the city on picture-perfect streets lined with quirky old shops.

At some point, we got lost among the winding streets and gave up on the tour.  We wandered for a while, enjoying the beautiful weather, before ending up at a temporarily-installed Ferris wheel near York's train station.  We took a sunset ride and were treated to outstanding views of the city.

We ended our night in York with dinner at a quintessential English pub - complete with fish, chips, peas (I will never understand the mushy peas thing), and a pint.

The next morning, we woke up early and enjoyed a delicious English breakfast that included eggs, ham, toast, tomatoes and baked beans.  No complaints here!  We made our way to the Castle Museum for a peek at the history of York from Victorian times to the present.  Our favorite part of the museum was the completely reconstructed Victorian main street.  The reconstructed street look surprisingly similar to the real streets just blocks away.

The final stop of our time in York was the York Minster.  Most of the church was closed when we had attended Evensong the night before, so this was our chance to really get a good look around.  The proud Gothic cathedral was completed in the mid 1400's and was spared from destruction during the early Anglican church's separation from Catholicism because it was not associated with a monastery.  The highlight of the church was the Chapter House.  This octagonal room was home to England's very first Parliament, way back in 1295.

 

We wrapped up our tour, packed up the car, and headed north again.  Next stop... Hadrian's Wall and Scotland!

The rest of the pictures for this section of the trip are conveniently located in the "Pictures" tab.  They are also located in the "Travel" tab.  Just scroll down and click on the picture of the King's College chapel.  All the pictures and posts from our awesome vacations end up archived here.