Britain: London

Y’all, London, though. I am not a big city person. I like yards, I like being able to park my car with ease, I like having almost no access to public transportation. But, I really liked London! We stayed in a nice area called Earl’s Court (funnily enough this is also where my two besties Kara and Tristan stayed during their summer abroad). There were restaurants, grocery stores and coffee shops all within walking distance of our EasyHotel. Have you heard of the airline EasyJet? Maybe? Well, they make hotels too! It was the most basic (although private) room we have had yet, and you had to pay for all extras including left luggage and wifi. We were in London though, so who wants to spend time in a hotel room? We JAM PACKED our schedule and the first afternoon/evening we were there I went to see a play that blew my mind. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time is a book about a boy with autism who tries to solve the mystery of who killed his neighbor’s dog. The set was phenomenal and the acting was entrancing. I also delighted in seeing a book I have read come alive on the stage. That evening we had Indian food! Have I mentioned that I love Indian food?

It was a curious incident.

The set design was unbelievable! 

 

The tube!!

The next morning we started by picking up our lovely little London Passes which I had carefully calculated would pay for themselves and then some if we hit most of the big attractions in the 48 hour limit. To begin: The Churchill Museum. Um, this guy was a fascinating, fascinating man. Not only did the museum document his life and accomplishments but it was housed in the War Rooms from which he directed most of the military decisions of WWII. Unfortunately, we had to limit our time there in order to see all that we had on our itinerary but we both thoroughly enjoyed it. Did you know that Winston Churchill had these specially made leisure suits so he could be comfy and professional? That is my kinda boss. After Churchill we went to the museum advertised as the Benjamin Franklin house. This ‘museum’ aka historical tour is housed in an old boarding house where Franklin stayed during his 16 years in London. The place was pretty interesting to see, but the historical tour was conducted by an actress who played his friend and companion of the time, and she would interact with recordings in each of the different rooms. The rooms were not arranged with artifacts or furniture. Overall it was an odd, mildly educating experience. After that adventure, we ate our peanut butter sandwiches and marched towards the Tower of London. Part of what was neat to end our UK tour in London was the fact that throughout the rest of our adventures in the country we read about different people and events which took place in the capital. Often what happened in London was a culmination of prior events occurring all over the country. We arrived just in time for a tour with one of the famous Beefeater, and he delightfully recounted the historical highlights of the bloody past of the place. By this finish we were exhausted in the extreme and decided to go to a Mexican restaurant near our hotel for dinner. Mmmm… Mexican food.

In the war room. Churchill is such a fascinating fellow!

 

Jared says this is proof Churchill is brilliant. I don't necessarily agree but if I did, we wouldn't be us.

 

That is one mighty, mighty fortress.

Tower Bridge as seen from the Tower of London. 

Bright and early the next day we were off again. This day started at Westminster Abbey. We were in the first group to enter and followed in the flow of people with our audio guide. Most of what to see inside of this iconic place are the graves of famous people. To me, it’s cool to see but when it’s just a tombstone there isn’t much to do but look and move on. After perusing the grounds, we scurried on to the Globe theater (obviously not the burned-to-the-ground original, but located very near where the one that stood in Shakespeare’s time would have stood.) Originally, we had wanted to see a play in this round venue but our schedule was too long in finalizing, and everything was sold out. So, I was quite excited when the tour guide mentioned that there was a rehearsal going on so we would have to be silent in the theater space. She elaborated by saying that it was an international company rehearsing Hamlet… in Cantonese. Welp, nevermind then. After our snippet of Cantonese Hamlet, we hopped on a bus to the Beefeater Gin distillery. Neither of us had any idea how gin is made and if one is going to learn about making gin, then London is the place to do it. The tour and museum were brief but engaging and we learned about how making gin is different than distilling other spirits. It was worth the effort to stop by before we headed to the National Museum. We were worried about only having two hours there, but once we arrived we learned that over half of the exhibits were closed. Apparently, the workers were striking. As such, we had plenty of time to see the exhibits. We wanted to stay in the downtown area until after dark so we could see The Eye, Big Ben and all of the bridges at night so we went somewhere near the museum to have our last UK fish and chips. We then discovered the walking path along the Thames and walked along the river, enjoying the views before returning the hotel. What. A. Day.

Big Ben and the London Eye

National Gallery- we're frameable- go on, hang us on the wall.

 

Van Gogh!

It's bigger on the inside. #tardis

With this eye, I see all the things.

The next morning, we checked out of our EasyHotel, checked in to the Marriott (free night with points!) and went for our scheduled tour of the Buckingham Palace state rooms. We lucked out and came to the city during the brief interval that these rooms are open to the public. Learning about the palace and the royal family was interesting and a great way to start the day. The next (and final) stop of the day was the National Library. Such ancient, beautiful works in hundreds of languages are housed here. I feel a unique sense of awe when looking at these old books and manuscripts. The written word has played such an important role in history and those documents which remain are a fascinating reflection of all aspects of society and how we have progressed. Jared visited the special Magna Carta exhibition and I returned to the Marriott where I promptly spent 3 hours in the bathtub.

Our last day, we checked out, mailed our Oxford box, had a British breakfast, and went to the National Museum before making our way to the airport.

Farewell, London and the UK. It was a blast.

Britain: Bath, Stonehenge and Oxford, Oh My!

We stopped at Beester castle, which is the place that the guy who sold us our English Heritage membership told us was his inspiration to study English history. Hmm.

It was on a lone hill so you could see for miles. So, that was nice.

We continued on towards Bath, where we set up camp just south of town in a quaint campground nestled between farms off the winding country roads. There were a disproportionate amount of children at this site, so their crazy antics provided a different type of evening entertainment. In the morning, we took the park'n'ride bus into town and started with the main attraction- the Roman baths. Despite having been to Rome and having seen numerous other ruins from the ancient and vast empire, the baths were still a very impressive site. The museum was well organized and provided interesting information, and the baths themselves were well-preserved and restored. The baths are representative of not only an interesting cultural tradition but early engineering ingenuity as well.

That campin' life!

I really, really wanted to get in.

 

Standing above the baths, the view was remarkable!

After the baths, we walked through town and saw the Pulteney Bridge across the River Avon. We continued walking through the thrift shop lined streets, then arrived at the Royal Crescent, one of the most famous Georgian buildings in the whole of England, where we stopped to sit and take in the view. We then found a nice, shaded outdoor garden to enjoy some beverages before heading back to our camp for the night.

The Royal Crescent has nothing on these full crescent faces.

After a nice rest, we woke to a dreary (but not rainy) morning and left Bath to head towards Oxford via Stonehenge! Stonehenge is a little bit hard to describe. It has obviously become a huge tourist attraction. There are a ton of people being shuffled in and out and around the ancient stones every hour. However, it is difficult to ignore the history and the mysticism surrounding them. They are far older than anything we have seen on our trip up to this point, and the fact that their true purpose is still unknown adds an extra layer of mystery. Most people agree that the stones signify something spiritual, but I think that they are cool in the simple fact that they are what people left behind so long ago. Someone was here. They built these stone things. We can still see them. That is amazing.

On our way to Stonehenge we drove by Silbury Hill, a deceptively large man-made mound (98 ft).

 

Stonehenge!

Us in front of Stonehenge!

Oh, Oxford. We didn’t really do ya right. We spent our last two nights camping just outside of Oxford, but the only day that was meant to be devoted to the town was instead spent trying to figure out how to ship another box. Alas, postal services once again stole some precious moments from us. We were able to squeeze a couple hours of sightseeing in and visited the Bodleian Library and the Ashmolean museums. Then, that night Jared went to a Premiership soccer game by his lonesome and I stayed at the campsite and did laundry, tried to post on the blog and watched a movie that we had downloaded on the tablet. It was not a horrible day by any stretch, but not our most productive either.

 

Aston Villa versus Manchester United. Jared said the stadium was packed.

The next morning we were off and away to London town! I was more excited prior to seeing London than I was prior to almost any other place we have been!

Britain: Liverpool

Our first night in Liverpool we cooked dinner and hung out at our hostel to make use of the wifi. The next day was our Liverpool city day. I went for a run and then we walked down to the historic docks, and then split up for a bit while Jared went to the Maritime Museum and I attempted to talk to an Apple worker about my phone. We met up for fish and chips at a pub and then went to the Liverpool Cathedral before cooking at the hostel for dinner. That evening we headed out to the to watch a Beatles cover band in the venue where that they got their start, the historic (and cramped and stuffy) Cavern Club. We had a blast karaoke-ing with the crowd during all of our favorite songs from the Fab Four.

A view from the Albert Dock

 

Where it all began.

Jammin' to some tunes.

 

Our next day was our Beatles day! We spent three hours in a fun taxi with a great tour guide who took us to all of the important Beatles sites of the city. We saw Penny Lane, Strawberry Fields (these are not, in fact, fields) and the childhood homes of all four of the "lads."

The hospital where John was born.

 

Sleepy me by Eleanor's grave.

 In front of Strawberry Fields, an old orphanage.

There was indeed a shelter in the middle of a roundabout.

We had a wonderful time and then went and bought a few more souvenirs before having a meal and going to bed early since we had to be up early to go to Bath via Beester Castle.

Britain: Glasgow & the Lake District

In Glasgow we were the first AirBnB tenants for a lovely couple. Loz and Rob have a great apartment in a great neighborhood and we were even able to use their facility pool and gym. It was so nice to sleep on a real bed and workout in a gym! Our first night there, we went to a restaurant at their recommendation and the food was delicious, plus we were also treated to a little bit of live music. We accidentally slept until close to 9 the next morning and had to get our butts in gear to eat breakfast and get out the door so we could explore the city. We visited two different museums, the Kelvingrove and the Mackintosh House, both free (as most museums  in Britain are), then went to Brewdog, an internationally famous brew pub, and a scotch bar (I abstained from the scotch, not my thing). We then went back to the apartment and enjoyed some conversation while cooking dinner. The next morning, it was a quick exercise and then we headed toward the Lake District, but on our way we made a stop at Birdoswald Fort and Museum, a ruined fortification along Hadrian's Wall, the famed (and also ruined) wall built by the Roman Emperor to keep those rowdy Scots out of Roman Britain.

The Kelvingrove was originally built for an international exhibition in Glasgow.

Dali's Christ of St. John of the Cross

Leaning on Hadrian's wall

The wall

 

The Lake District is a popular tourist destination for Brits as well and it was obvious to see why. It's a gorgeous area with large, rolling hills spotted with pretty blue lakes. Luckily, the weather cleared up for us and we had a beautiful night camping there. We woke up early the next day and got in a good 4 hour hike before going to see a football match (soccer game). Jared had wanted to see two soccer games while we were there, one from the League Two (like their minor league) and one from the Premiership (the top league). We went to a League Two match at Accrington Stanley. The stadium was surprisingly cozy but the crowd was active and the weather was nice, so it was a fun experience.

We hiked and found this bridge in the morning

Easy to have good seats when there are only 7 rows!

After the soccer game we headed to Liverpool!

Britain: The Highlands

I titled this post the Highlands because, even though we technically were in the Highlands while in Aviemore, we didn’t do much exploring outside of the music festival. Our two days in the Highlands we visited several different sites but not really any specific city. We started by visiting Ft. George, an impressive fortification built in response to the Jacobite uprising in the mid 1700’s. It is still in use today and also has different museums and exhibits. The fort is symmetrical and unique in that it was designed by a fashionable architect family in conjunction with the King's Military Engineer.

Ft. George

At the chapel in Ft. George, the upper right is an angel playing the bagpipes.

After Ft. George, we made it to Culloden just in time to go through the exhibit and visit the battlefield. This battle marked the end of the Jacobite uprising and was a disastrous defeat for the Highlanders. It was after this battle that the English forces effectively ended clan culture in the Highlands. Those in power thought it too risky for the clans to continue in their current state, so there was a campaign which resulted in the death or migration of the many Highland Scots.

The stone commemorating those from Clan Cameron who lost their lives at the battle

Before finding our dorm room for the night, we stopped by Clava Cairns. These are ancient stone circle graves. Part of what I find so intriguing about places like this is that for centuries no one bothered the structures. Gratefully, at some point a landowner even planted trees around the perimeter to further protect the graves.

Clava Cairns

That evening we drove along Loch Ness to a hostel just off the road and stayed in a dorm for the evening. Dormitories are never ideal but this place also had an awesomely huge kitchen in which we cooked some delicious dinner and breakfast. In the morning we had to back track some to visit Urquhart Castle. This was a place that had been recommended to us by several different people and was high on our priority list. Unfortunately, it was a little disappointing when we arrived. The castle is largely in ruins, and although on a very scenic spot it was not a very important defensive spot and so does not have a strong history behind it. We did some monster watching though and didn’t see a trace of neither head nor hide of the beast.

Urquhart Castle

To finish up our time in the Highlands, we had two more stops: the Cameron museum and the Glenfinnan viaduct. My maiden name is Cameron and, although the name was originally spelled Camron on my grandfather’s birth certificate, the little bit of research I have done convinces me that the two names and families are certainly linked (if not the same), and in fact it is probable that there was a misspelling on the original birth certificate. Either way, I was in the Highlands so why wouldn’t I go take a look?! The museum was very small but on the original Clan lands. There were also genealogy papers, though not well organized, and since I had no idea where to even start and limited time I couldn’t sift through all of the information. After seeing the land of my Scottish people, we went to take a peek at the Glenfinnan Viaduct. This is the railway that is used for the Hogwart’s Express shots in Harry Potter. We were trying to make it when the train was going over but I think we missed it by no more than a half hour. The viaduct itself was still pretty neat to see and we were satisfied with our Highland adventure.

Clan Motto

On Cameron land

From our campsite in Glencoe

We stayed over that night in Glencoe, and left the next morning for our next stop, Glasgow!

Britain: Aviemore and More

Before we made it to Aviemore for the Gentlemen of the Road Festival, we made a pit stop at Stirling Castle, considered the only real rival to Edinburgh Castle for the title of most important castle in Scotland.

Only two directions to go in Scotland: England or THE NORTH.

King & Queen in the Great Hall at Stirling

From Stirling Castle (also on a hill), in the background is Stirling Bridge, where Mel Gibson won the Scots their independence.

 

The entrance is pretty grand

Reinactors are just a little off-putting

Aviemore. Aviemore. The best word I can think of to describe our three days in the Cairngorms National Park is….mud. We were in a field camping with more than 5,000 other people, and that crowd plus the "worst summer Scotland has had in 30 years" equals a whole lotta mud. Luckily, the first full day there, before it got too muddy, I was able to buy some Wellies (rain boots) or I would have ruined my only pair of shoes. Jared did end up ruining a pair of his shoes but he was in need of a new pair anyway, so it wasn’t a huge loss. There was so much mud, I am typing this several weeks later and I still laugh at how crazy the mud was. Unfortunately, I don’t think we got a very good picture of all the mud. But, I’m sure you can use your imagination. However, despite all of this mud, we still managed to have a pretty good time. We did lots of cuddling in the tent and lots of laughing and the music was pretty good as well. Most of the time when we go to concerts I get annoyed at Jared for looking up the playlists in advance and making a Spotify station based off of those lists. This time, I was thankful for the list since neither of us were really familiar with any of the artists besides Mumford & Sons. Our car had an adaptor so we were able to listen to the music while driving and it allowed us to better appreciate the acts during the festival.

This is Day 1. Some things just don't last, like sunny weather and a not-too-crowded field.

The crowd still gathered in the rain

The lights at night

We got pretty close!

This was actually one of the roads less traveled around the campsite.

We also managed, that first day, to sneak away for a little bit and visit the Highland Folk Museum and go for a quick hike.

Doesn't that beard just SCREAM lumberjack?

In the woods

The scenery was gorgeous

 

 

After we left our mud pit, we started towards the heart of The Highlands. Based on what a store owner told us, this was one of the busiest weekends of the year in the area. There were several different Highland Games competitions going on and all of the schools were on vacation so there was a high volume of visitors. This was very obvious when we were trying to find accommodation. EVERYTHING I searched for that was even near our price range was booked. That included most of the campsites as well. Finally, I found a room at a bed and breakfast in a coastal town called Lossiemouth, just east of Inverness. On our way to Lossimouth, we stopped at Ballindalloch Castle, a castle still inhabited by the founding baronet family. It was a beautiful estate and a thankfully beautiful day. We also mad a stop at the Glenlivet distillery where we learned about the famous Scottish whisky. Then, we beelined for our hotel and enjoyed a nice, hot shower that we didn’t have to wear sandals in, a toilet that wasn’t portable and muddy, and a soft, comfortable, warm bed. Oh, and internet! 

 

A beautiful still functional castle

In the garden

 

So green!

 

The next day we had to do laundry and then wandered towards Inverness and Loch Ness!