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Postlogue - 24 December

Home safe and sound with lots of good memories and photos to edit and post.

I will be updated the entries in this blog with a "photo of the day" and will also post a link to the photo album of all my photos once I do a quick edit.

I hope that you enjoyed my travelogue of this trip!

Note (Dec 25) - our luggage finally made it to us about 9:00p on Christmas Day (Night). Again, I was complaining too much as I felt we were fortunate to make the Chicago connection we had.

Day 14, 23 December - London and Home!

Chelsea, waiting to board our flight back to the States.

I woke up pretty easily ahead of the alarm clock this morning and went for a short walk while Chelsea showered and finished getting ready. The area where we stayed is really a good area for tourists and I found other ameneties (Starbucks, etc.) within a couple of blocks of the train station.

We got everything packed up and headed to the Tube station at 8:00a.  It was pretty quiet during my walk around 7:30a, but now 30 minutes later it was busier with the business rush! We had spotted the lifts (elevators) in the Tube entrance that would let us by-pass having to navigate the stairs with our luggage and we didn't have to wait too long.

The Picadilly Tube line was a different story...  the cars were jammed packed, but we managed to squeeze in with our luggage. I just put my luggage against the pole in the center of the car and hung on there knowing that which either side door opened, I'd be mostly "out of the way". The crowd thinned out as we made our way closer to Heathrow, but it took a bit longer than normal and we arrived at Heathrow terminal at about 9:30a! 

I could really tell that Chelsea was having mixed feelings about going home - she seems to really enjoy the European way of life and I was sad that our travels together were coming to an end.

We made it thru the check-in process fine, it was just slow with the luggage drop-off being the slowest part of the process. Security was a breeze as we didn't have to take laptops out of their cases nor take our shoes off.

We got some coffee and a snack and I tried to stay on my feet as much as possible knowing that I had 9 plus hours in a plane to Chicago. We boarded the 767 and, much to our surprise, we ended up with an empty seat next to us so we had a bit more room to stretch out. The flight went ok, and I caught up on some blog entries, watched 3 movies, and napped a bit. The pilot had warned us that Chicago was having some weather issues, but that we were in good shape with plenty of extra fuel in case we got into a holding pattern trying to land at O'Hare. But, fortunately again, we were only about 20 minutes late landing and made it through customs without any issues.

Once we got to the domestic flight terminal it was a totally different story!!!  Chicago was getting snow again and the gates were packed with people waiting on delayed flights or hoping for stand-by seats.  Our flight was showing delayed until 8:45p so we tried to find a place to "hunker down". I had intentionally purchased United air tickets so that I would be on the same flight as Chelsea so that if there were delays we would be together. Nothing would suck more than being stuck in an airport on Christmas Eve by yourself.

Tensions were running high as many flights were being cancelled and travelers were having to play the "stand by" game.  After a while, I went for a walk and to get some food. I was walking back with an order of McDonald's fries when Chelsea came running down the hall. They had bumped up our flight departure to 7:00p and she was afraid that I wasn't going to get back in time.  We were some of the fortunate few - our flight's plane had made it into O'Hare and would be making the flight to Nashville!!!

We finally boarded about 7:20p and about 7 lucky people from the list of nearly 50 stand-by passengers made it on as well. The pilot told us it was going to be a bit of a wait while our fuel was topped off and the plane de-iced.  Finally, about 8:30p, we pushed back from the gate and got into the taxi and take-off pattern. After nearly an hour of taxiing, the pilot came back on and said the precipitation had changed and that we had been taxiing too long and that we would be returning to the gate for more fuel and another de-icing! Of course, people were moaning and complaining, but I was just happy to be on board a flight that seemed like it was going to make it out that night. I envisioned having to stay in O'Hare for a day or two if our flight got cancelled.

Finally, around 10:30p we made it back to the take off pattern and got under way! The flight to Nashville arrived at 11:58p - we were indeed some of the lucky ones!  Of course, our luggage hadn't made it with us so we had to fill out the missing luggage forms and were told it might be Christmas day before we get our luggage. I had no issue with the luggage - at least we would be at home and with family for both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

Chelsea had a couple of friends that met her at the airport so we stayed up late talking and visiting when we got home.

It has been a great trip and one that I won't forget!  Especially to get to spend so much time with Chelsea and do some great things together!

In the words of a friend, Keith Misegades, "I am a lucky man!"

Happy Holidays to all and may 2009 bring you good fortune!

Day 13, 22 December - London

This site, on south bank of Thames river, has been the site of a pub for more than 400 years!

We had spent some time looking over the brochures about what we wanted to see on our last day in London and decided to buy a one-day London Pass. The pass has free admission to a lot of different places along with discounts on transport and dining. It seemed to be a good bargain if you are going to hit up several attractions in a short period of time.

Before I get to what we did on our "one day tourist blitz" of London, let me tell you about the Oyster Card.  This is a card used on the London Underground. The card itself costs 3 GBP, but then you "top off" with money at any ticket machine in an Underground station. The beauty of the card is that you will never pay more for a day's worth of travel than the "one day, unlimited travel" pass. So you don't have to worry about trying to work out travel logistics for saving money! Also, the fares for single trips are discounted if you use your card! Another highly recommended item if spending anytime in London.

We made our way to the British Tourism office to purchase our London Passes. After getting the passes, Chelsea wanted to go tour the Tower of London (a free option with the pass) so we made our way to Tower Hill. Even though I had been to the tower on numerous occassions since 1973, I learned (or re-learned) many historical facts surrounding the Tower. One of which was the fact that Sir Walter Raliegh had been imprisoned at the tower on numerous occassions including a 10 year stretch during which his son was born at the Tower. I was also impressed with some of the grafitti carving in the "prison" tower that was done by prisoners.

After the Tower, we got on board one of the City Cruise boats that travels along the Thames (a hop-on hop-off ticket is free with the pass) and rode down to the Westminister area. The boat hand that gave an impromptou tour narrative during the trip was very entertaining and I enjoyed seeing someone that really enjoyed their job. 

We toured the Churchill Museum and War Cabinet Rooms near the Houses of Parliment. This was another "freebie" with the London Pass and was very intruiging to see the actual rooms and furnishings that Churchill and his staff used during the Battle of Britian and other strategic times during World War II.

After the War Rooms we walked along the edge of King James' Park and headed to Trafalger Square to grab a quick snack - a sandwich from Pret A Manger. It's nice to see "fast food" chains that produce healthy and environmentally conscious food. Too bad the American fast food chains couldn't take the hint! We ate our food sitting at the base of Nelson's monument in Trafalger Square and commented on the high number of foreign tourists are in London.  It was fun to watch all the kids try to climb onto the lions that guard Nelson's monument.

Also, on the London Pass was admission to any special exhibits at the National Portrait Gallery. While the National Portrait Gallery has free admission, they had a special exhibit of Annie Leibowitz work from her new book. We decided to take a quick turn through the exihibit, while we were in the neighborhood!

We had a bit more souvenier shopping to take care of so we headed towards Harrods Department store. To say the store was "crazy" with holiday shoppers would be an understatment, but we hung in there. Chelsea is no longer the timid, hang back person in crowds! Some cheaper momentos were also in order so we took the Tube to Picadilly Circus looking for the tourist souvenier stores. Picadilly was also a swarm of shoppers and tourists and there was another Christmas Fayre (amusement rides) taking place in Picadilly. We also lucked into finding a luggage store that was going out of business and I bought a cheap duffle bag to "offload" some of Chelsea's luggage so we hopefully wouldn't be hit with excess bag fees when we check into our flights tomorrow.

With our shopping goals accomplished we decided to take advantage of the Wagamama 2-for-1 deal with the London Pass. There was a Wagamama that honored the discount back near the Tower of London so we took the Tube and walked a few blocks looking for the restaurant. By this time (7:00p) the area was void of tourists and we thought what good luck... we're in for a quick meal. Unfortunately the restaurant was severely under staffed and we ended up waiting longer for our food here than at any other time during the trip. However, we did indeed get the 2-for-1 deal so it kind of made up for the poor service.

By this time it was 8:30p and we had been on the go nearly 12 hours - and since it gets dark so early, 8:30p feels well past midnight! We had planned to see a film at Chelsea Cinemas (another free feature of London Pass), but we were both pretty tired and decided to head back to the hotel.

Back at the hotel, we re-packed and caught up on email. Tomorrow is an early morning as we will catch the Tube for Heathrow around 8:00a and hope that the business rush hour is a bit less since it is only 2 days 'til Christmas!

Day 12, 21 December - London

Christmas tree, an annual gift from Norway, stands in Trafalgar Square, London.

Wow, a whole day (well two, actually) without having to worry about getting to another place! I enjoy our time when we are in one place with time to "explore" rather than having to rush and worry about getting to the next destination.

The weather was definitely milder in London... we slept with the window open last night! Our room faced the street on the 2nd floor (actully 3rd floor by American standards) and our hotel heating seemed to work fine (even with the room radiator turned off). I actually enjoyed hearing the street noise during the night and early morning.

We took our time getting going this morning. Chelsea is enjoying being out of the school routine and, quite frankly, I have not thought much about work! We didn't have much internet access over the past 4 days and I liked being "disconnected"!

We dicussed what we wanted to do/see today and decided to take advantage of the good theater availability. I had read a magazine write-up (my same source for "Lost and Found Orchestra") about "Potted Potter", a 2-man parody of the Harry Potter novels. We found reasonable tickets, again on lastminute.com, for an afternoon show at Trafalger Studios.

We headed to Camden Town markets. This was one of the markets that was listed as open on Sunday morning and was just a short tube ride away from our hotel. Camden markets to turned out to be a treat for the photographer's eye!  First off, it has lots of shops and stalls that cater to punk and gothic fashions. It also sports a big international food market with lots of stalls offering all different kinds of ethnic fast food! I bought a couple of nice photos in a photography shop and a couple of small presents for Jamie and James (back home).

After the market Chelsea wanted to stop in the British Library (also very near our hotel). The exhibits are free and include some amazing documents! One of the four original copies of the Magna Carta, some of Shakespeare's original works, and notebooks from Leonardo Da Vinci! I could tell that Chelsea could spend days in the Library, but we had to be at the theater at 3:30p. 

"Potted Potter" was hilarious and we enjoyed the show very much. The theater only seated about 40 people, so it was an "up close and personal" show. After the show, with darkness pretty well set in, I did a few quick photos from the steps of the British Gallery before being told that tripods weren't allowed in that area. We made our way down to the Thames as I was hoping for some good photo ops with the buildings on the South Bank being lit in different colors for the holidays. We walked down to the Big Ben area taking a few photos and the nice light in the sky was from the building lights being reflected on the low clouds.

We had dinner at Bella Italia (again) near Oxford Circus then made our way back to the hotel to catch the football (soccer) highlights on the TV. 

One more full day in London before we head back home...

Day 11, 20 December - London

Ceiling detail in the Great Hall at Harlaxton College.

We said good bye to the Earl Howe and found the Enterprise car rental. It was another grey, dreary day, but it seemed the rain had moved on. After turning the car in, the Enterprise folks gave us a ride to the train station. Thank you, Enterprise!

We had coffee at the train station while we waited for our train to Grantham. Once back in Grantham we took a taxi out to Harlaxton Manor and retreived Chelsea's luggage. There were 3 other students that had been touring Europe and had spent the last night at Harlaxton. It was fun hearing Chelsea and her friends swap stories, but I felt sorry for those students that had gone to Italy on the school sponsored trip and were now stuck in Italian airports since the Italian airport workers had gone on strike. I hope they all make it home by Christmas as many had connecting flights in London upon return from Italy.

Chelsea showed me around some of the rooms at Harlaxton Manor, but most had been cleaned out and locked up for the holidays. We phoned for a cab to take us back to the train station after re-packing Chelsea's luggage so she could fit everything into her two bags. 

We had to kill about an hour and half at the Grantham train station before catching our train to London. The cheapest tickets on that Saturday were on a Hull City train so we didn't have the luxury of catching anything earlier than the one we had purchased tickets for. The train was crowded and we ended up sitting in the connecting area between two cars, but we had jump seats for the hour and ten minute ride to London's Kings Cross station.

London felt like a different world than we had been traveling in. It was warmer and there was a definite rush of holiday travelers, many from foreign countries. Our hotel was about a half block from Kings Cross and Saint Pancras stations. Many of the row houses have been converted into "budget" hotels since their location is so convenient to the rail stations! Our hotel, The Alhambra, was clean and well run.  A "budget" bargain at 70 GBP per night, but that included a full breakfast.

We used lastminute.com to purchase tickets to "Lost and Found Orchestra" a new production by the creators of "Stomp". We settled into our hotel and headed down to the Royal Festival Hall theater. The area around the theater was jumping with Christmas fayre booths and rides. This is also where the London Eye is located. We ate at Wagamama before the show.

"Lost and Found Orchestra" is an amazing show and one which I'd highly recommend seeing if you ever get the chance. The Royal Festival Hall is also an amazing theater and we had awesome seats in the 14th row, center for 10 GBP! 

After the show we headed back to the hotel and enjoyed some "down time" lounging on comfortable beds and a TV that actually worked!

Day 10, 19 December - Oxford & Nottingham

There are many whimsical gargoyles on buildings in Oxford.

I slept pretty well at the hostel despite the close proxemity to the trains and the paint fumes from the remodeling. We got out of the hostel around our usual time of 9:00a and walked to high street. We had lucked into a parking space right in the front of the hostel and decided to chance leaving the car there during the day.

Oxford is definitely one of those cities that you don't want to take a car into. There are thousands of bicycles and it appears that the bicycle is the most efficient means of transportation.

We wondered around the city centre until 11:00a, the start of our walking tour. The official City Guides (blue badges) tours are definitely worth the price and Chelsea and  agreed that it would be best to catch a tour when we first get into a city/town.

The tour was led by a very knowledgeable lady that made the tour very enjoyable.  Oxford is the city, Oxford University is the collection of 39 colleges, some that date back to the 1300s. My most enjoyable was Exeter - college of notables such as Michael Palin (Monty Python fame).

After the tour we retrieved the car back at the hostel and headed out of town towards Nottingham. We had decided to drop the car off in Nottingham on Saturday morning as it is a short train ride to Grantham and Harlaxton Manor, where we had to retrieve Chelsea's luggage.

The drive to Nottingham took us a bit longer than planned as the Friday traffic was heavy on the motorways, plus it rained off and on pretty much the whole way to Nottingham.

Another navigation challenge awaited us in Nottingham as we had the hostel address, but not a detailed enough map. We stopped at one of the "welcome breaks" on the M1 hoping for free wi-fi to get some directions in Nottingham, but we had to pay 6 GBP for 90 minutes of wi-fi time. We used all the time catching up on email, the news of my company's re-organization plan. My job is safe for the time being, but my current team is being broken up over 3 different managers and I don't currently know who I will be reporting to.

We did make it to the hostel (The Earl Howe) and this was by far the worst of our accomdations.  It looked like a pub that had it's heyday in the 70's and the rooms hadn't had the decor updated much since. However, the owner is by far the friendlist of any of our hosts we had! Peter is from Australia with a young son in Denmark so he lives in England. Chelsea and I decided not to venture out for dinner so we ended up chatting with Peter and his girlfriend over some pints of Guinness and Strongbow.

3 pints of Guinness made a very filling supper and I slept soundly that night. I was startled to wake up during the night though thinking that the room was a blaze as the electric heater emitted an orange glow that was very bright!

Tomorrow we turn the car back to Enterprise and head to London!

Day 9, 18 December - Bath & Oxford

Bicycle parking area at train station in Oxford, England.

I was hoping for some decent morning light as I wanted to photograph the Bath Abby without hordes of tourists milling about, but we woke up and it was anothe totally grey day. We packed up and headed out early (8:30a) - the hostel didn't include breakfast.  We were treated to some free parking, thanks to a kind lady that gave us here parking sticker with 2 remaining hours!

We found a Costa coffee shop (they are more prevelant here than Starbucks and definitely have faster service) and we had breakfast coffee sitting on a bench near the Bath Abbey. We spent some time in the Abbey and after doing a bit of souvenier shopping we headed off to Oxford.

The drive to Oxford was without incident and once again we ran into a traffic mess getting to the town centre. I commented to Chelsea that towns like Bath and Oxford must be crazy, crazy during high tourist season and that I would blame them from banning cars from the town centre all together. Most of these towns have park-and-rides, but still appears that a lot of traffic goes thru the town centre.

The one bad thing about traveling this time of year is the short days. We usually aren't at our destination until around 2:00p and this means we only have a short couple of hours of daylight left. With the remaining light in Oxford, we just walk around a bit trying to get our bearings before it got dark. 

Fortunately, our hostel, another YHA site, was right next to the train station and we had spotted it when we drove into the city centre. We checked into the hostel, which is being remodeled so there was a lot of chaos in reception and our room was on the very end of the building right next to the train station.

Dinner was Italian food at Bella Italia, a decent chain of nicer places with good food. 

We decided to not rush out of Oxford the next morning and had purchased tickets for a two hour walking tour of the city before we drive north to Nottingham to return the car.

Day 8, 17 December - Bath

Local produce is displayed at store in Much Wenlock, Shropshire.

A long day of car travel as we drive from Chester to Bath.  We leave Chester admist some nice sunshine, but it makes driving a bit of a strain on the eyes as we are driving into the low winter sun (heading southerly).  

We drive the "backroads" and make a short stop in Much Wenlock, an old market town in Shropshire that was one of Jamie's favorite villages when we lived here previously. Chelsea found a used book store on the high street and I wander around taking some photos of the old buildings and guild hall. When I go back to fetch Chelsea, we have a nice conversation with the book store owner and a gentleman customer about the recent political developments in the US.  Everyone wants to know what we think of the new president and some are comparing him to JFK already!

We drove the motorways down to Bath and encountered another traffic nightmare trying to navigate into Bath. There was a detour heading into the city center that completely threw us off, but we finally managed to find the bus station and a parking structure. We parked the car and set off to explore the city center and then toured the Roman Baths. We were part of the last group allowed in and it turned to our advantage. We hooked up with a tour guide and he filled us in a lot of the historical facts. It is amazing to be walking on stones and floors that people put in place nearly 2,000 years ago. It is almost amazing that the current structures, all erected during the Victorian ages are being supported by the original foundations that the Romans put in place!

After the tour we set off to find our hostel. This time we at least had a decent city map and Chelsea navigated us to the hostel.  What a site!  The hostel is a villa overlooking Bath (on Bathwick Hill) built in the mid 1800s to resemble an Italian villa. It served as a hospital in WW II and has been a hostel since the 1960's.

We decided to chance navigating back to the city centre for dinner and then I did a bit of photography on the plaza near the Abby (church).

Rather than hurry out of Bath tomorrow we decided to not travel to south Wales so we would have time explore a bit more of Bath in the morning.

Day 7, 16 December - North Wales

The smallest house in Great Britain is located in Conwy, Wales. Notice the size of the trash can compared to the door!

Our day to explore north Wales started out on a bit of a sour note for one of our fellow travelers staying at the hostel. As we were preparing to leave the hostel, in Chester, the chap on duty reminded us not leave anything of value in our car as one of the cars parked out front had the drivers side window smashed during the night. Fortunately our car was fine.

We headed towards Conwy on the north coast of Wales and at Chelsea's suggestion we got off the main highway (A55) and took the roads that went right along the coast through the towns of Flint, Prestatyn, and Rhyl.  These appear to be pretty much towns that cater to English families on seaside week-end holidays.  At least the sun was shining some of the time and seeing just a bit of blue sky brightened my spirits.

We arrived at Conwy, site of a defensive castle built in the 1200's during Edward I's conquest of Wales. We walked along the medieval city walls and it amazes me the engineering feats that Edward employed to maintain his power in Wales. The walls are a great way to see the city!

After Conwy, we drove to Caenarfon to tour the castle there. This was another of Edward I's building feats and where his son, Edward II, was born and declared the first Prince of Wales. By this time it was raining steadily and we pretty much had the whole castle to ourselves. Chelsea is really up on British history now and she fills me on a lot of historical tidbits while we are touring.  Caenarfon is also where the current Prince of Wales (Prince Charles) was officially crowned Prince of Wales. Caenarfon is also a marvel of defensive engineering, but a lot of the features were never completed.

I can't imagine residing in a castle like these. I'm sure they were always dark and dank!

After the castle, we drove to Bewts-y-coed thru Snowdonia National Park. This is gorgeous, rugged country but unfortunately, it was raining and foggy all the way. We stopped in Bewts-y-coed for an afternoon snack and a bit of souvenier shopping. 

We completed the loop and arrived back at our hostel around 6:00p, got on the internet to complete our lodging reservations for the remaining nights before we get to London and then went and had Indian food for dinner on Lower Bridge Street in Chester.

Tomorrow is another long haul in the car! We're headed south to Bath!  

Day 6, 15 December - Telford & Chester

Shifnal town square is decorated for Christmas. Shifnal is the village that we lived in during 1989-90.

We caught the 9:00a train from Glasgow enroute to Telford. It was a journey of 2 train changes, but the trip went by fast. Virgin trains are nice, but I missed having the WiFi that we had on the east coast lines. We made train changes in Carlisle (emphasize the second syllable) and Wolverhampton.

Enterprise car rental picked us up at the train station in Telford and we got the rental car details sorted out. We enjoyed chatting with the chap that picked us up as he lives in Shifnal - the village we lived in in 1989 & 1990. Telford has grown a bit in 20 years since we were here, but we didn't have time to explore too much.

After getting the rental car, we drove to Shifnal, parked the car and walked the village. There is a lot of "re-building" in Shifnal but it doesn't appear to have expanded a good deal.  We got some lovely sandwiches at a small deli and ate while sitting on a bench in the town.

After our quick lunch, we took off in the car in search of Evelyth Hall. The manor where we had lived before moving into the village of Shifnal. Unfortunately, the turns didn't look familiar and before I knew it we were in Kemberton. I recognized the Mason Arms pub and I stopped and took a few pictures to show the home folk!

Since it was now getting dark (3:00p) we decided to head towards Chester as I'd rather navigate in the daylight. We made it to the hostel in Chester around 6:00p after a detour that neither Chelsea nor I could figure out how we managed to get off the A41 road!

Another navigation fiasco entailed when we decided to drive into Chester for dinner.  The hostel hostess said it was only a 20 minute walk, but we turned it into a 60 minute drive! We finally found Bridge Street - where the hostel hostess had recommended a couple of restaurants and we decided on Italian food!  We had a wonderful dinner at a family Italian restaurant on Lower Bridge Street - the best meal I've had since I've been here.

Tomorrow we're off to explore northern Wales... 

Day 5, 14 December - Glasgow, Scotland

Night time scene in George Square, Glasgow, Scotland.

We woke up to another dark, grey, wet day in Edinburgh and caught the 9:00a train to Glasgow. It was an hour train ride to Glasgow and the train was pretty crowded for an early Sunday morning.

We had booked a room at the Euro Hostel in Glasgow and Chelsea navigated us to there from the train station without incident. Since, booking the Glasgow lodging was a minor pain in the rear we had decided not to go out and explore the city until we had reserved train tickets and lodging for the next night.  Advance tickets on the train are much cheaper than if you wait until the day of travel. But, you have to purchase prior to 6:00p the day before. We hung out at the hostel until the bar opened at 12:30p so we could get free WiFi.

We finally got out to explore the city about 2:00p and decided to catch one of the hop-on/hop-off tour buses to give us a quick overview of the city. We caught the bus at 3:00p from Georges' Square and Chelsea wanted to sit in the top - open air section of the bus. It was a good tour, we stayed on the bus the whole circuit (a bit over an hour) and were frozen when we got back to Georges' Square.

Glasgow has a whole different feel than Edinburgh - more of a working city than a just tourist attractions. We both commented on how we wish we had more time to explore Glasgow - one of the downfalls of booking rail and lodging for the next day before we got out and explored.

After the tour we joined the masses of people that were taking in the Christmas Fair and downtown shopping areas and walked a good bit of the pedistrian section (Buchanon St) amongest all the High Stree shops. We were looking for somewhere for a good dinner, but couldn't find anything that suited our fancy. We didn't want American chain restaurant food, but ended up at TGI Friday's!  The service was slow and the food medicore, but at least it was a warm place to set and enjoy the comforts.

After dinner we walked back to the hostel and caught up on emails. By that time it was nearly midnight and we hit the hay as tomorrow is an another "early" morning for the train to Telford.

Day 4, 13 December - Edinburgh, Scotland

Chelsea does her best Roman Conqueror imitation at the Museum of Scotland. 

I slept better than I have since I've been here and was suprised that it was 8:00a when I woke up. Still very dark outside...

We finally got going a bit after 9:00a and headed back up the Royal Mile to the Castle. We decided to do the audio tour along with the admission. The castle is amazing and the oldest building (Margaret's Chapel) dates from the 1100's.  There had been many improvements to the displays since I was there last in the late 80's.  The Stone of Scone (destiny) was even back in it's rightful place (from London) since I had last visited.

We toured the castle and caught the firing of the one o'clock cannon. The day had started out damp and now there was a steady rain.  There are some nice views from the castle, but I didn't even bother getting my camera out with the rain and dark, grey skies that prevailed.

After the castle we headed down to the Museum of Scotland. Grabbed a sandwich at museum cafe for lunch where I tried a can of Irn Bru. i likw the distinctive flavor, but Chelsea thought it tasted like cold syrup! The museum has some good exhibits on all aspects of Scottish history and is definitely worth the visit. 

After the museum we headed back to the room - we'd hope to climb Arthur's Seat, but gave into the damp and cold. After a short break, we headed across the street to the Southern Cross cafe to try and book train tickets and find lodging for tomorrow in Glasgow. 

After closing the cafe (and beating the 6:00p "advance" ticket deadline) we went in search for some dinner. We'd both remembered seeing the cheesey pizza when we walked past a Pizza Hut and we walked a good bit of the Royal Mile again in search of pizza.  We finally settled  into the Pizza Hut just a short block from our hostel, and we enjoyed a filling meal of starters and pizza.

Tomorrow we are off to Glasgow (Scotland) for the day and plan to head toward Telford (Shropshire) early on Monday morning.

Cheers!

Day 3, 12 December - Edinburgh, Scotland

Chelsea hanging out with poet Robert Ferguson at Canongate Kirk (church) in Edinburgh.

We got up fairly early (7:30a) in York and made our way to the train station to head towards 

Edinburgh. Another cold, frosty, grey morning as we walked the 20 minutes from the B&B down 

past the Minster to the train station. Chelsea has learned to navigate the cities and does 

quite well leading the way! Early morning York was a bustle of cars and pedistrians obviously 

making their way to work.

Coffee and a pastry for breakfast from The Upper Crust - smart little coffee kiosks in the 

stations and our train was right on time. Most seats on trains are now reserved and it makes 

it quite easy to get a seat. The stations have signs on where to stand for what cars (lettered 

A,B,C,etc.) 

Chelsea slept a good bit of the way to Edinburgh and I tried to catch up on email and news 

Yahoo.  The trains have WiFi, but not very fast, plus I seem to have trouble connecting each 

time. The train was fairly crowded with what appeared to be casual travelers going to Edinburgh 

for the week-end.

We'd reserved a hostel room in Edinburgh and, while a bit expensive (twin room with shared bath was 

100 GBP for 2 nights) the location is great!  A 6 minute walk from the train station and a half-block 

off the Royal Mile. We got checked in and decided to explore without any particular destination 

in mind.

We walked a good bit of the Royal Mile searching out some lunch options and settled on baked 

potatoes from a little shop on the Mile. After a filling lunch, we toward Holyrood Palace and 

explored the cemetary at Canongate Kirk (kirk = church). Poet Robert Ferguson is buried there 

(he was the inspiration for Robert Louis Stevenson and Robert Burns - all Edinburgh natives. 

Also buried at Canongate is Adam Smith, the economist, but we couldn't find his grave.

We'd hope to catch a free walking tour at 3:00p, got to the meeting place, but were told that 

the tours were discontinued during the winter months (it was getting dark at 3:00p). We marveled 

at how none of the church bells rang at exactly the same moment, and that while the bells rang 

3:00p the church clock was a few minutes behind. Since there was no tour, we decided to head 

back to the hostel and get off our feet for a while.

A quick cat nap in the room and then we headed out to New Town. There was a German Christmas 

Fair with lots of food booths and craft vendors set up near the Walter Scott monument on Princes 

Street along with carnival rides. I took some photos and Chelsea got some crepes (with banana 

and nutella). We walked along Princes Street for a while and the wind was quite cold. It was 

spitting rain, but none of that seemed to hamper the crowd of fair goers. 

No luck with the moon this evening as there was not a bit of clear sky. We headed back to the 

Royal Mile in search of a pub to get warm. We spent a couple of hours at The Filling Station 

watching the football (soccer) and cricket highlights on Sky Sports and chatting. We chatted 

with the bar keeps a bit as they made different drinks for patrons - a lot seemed to be having 

office Christmas celebrations or maybe it was the usual TGIF!

We're planning on another day in Edinburgh tomorrow (Saturday) and bothe commented on that we 

are glad that we didn't try to see everything we wanted to see here in one day! It would have 

been too rushed.

Day 2 11 Dec (Thurs) - York

Paul & Chelsea at ruins of St. Mary's Abbey, York, England (11 Dec 2008)

After a somewhat fitfull night (read previous entry) I woke up to a dark and frosty morning. At 7:30a it was still pitch black outside. Enjoyed a nice conversation with a man from Edinburgh at breakfast (at The Red House B&B) that works for a charity organization that promotes cycling as a renewable resource!  Interesting conversation as we chatted about cycling the health-related crisis that we seem to be mired in.

I caught a cab to the Grantham train station and met up with Chelsea and we caught the train to York via a quick change at Doncaster.  It was only 11 GBP for both train tickets! Much discounted when bought in "advance" (prior to 6:00p the evening before) and via the internet.

We arrived at York around 10:30a and stowed our luggage at the left luggage area in the York train station. I found it odd that the attendant had to physically search only one of our bags before scanning the bag. Chelsea had been to York before so she knew the area well and led us on a quick tour of the York highlights including the old Roman wall and original fortress, the St. Mary's abbey ruins, and the Minster cathedral.  We walked thru the central shopping area and the Shambles (old medieval street) grabbed a quick sandwich (1 GBP sandwiches at Mr Sandwich) and headed to Clifford's Tower.

We spent a couple of hours going thru the Castle Museum that shows a lot of restored period rooms and local history with big sections from WWII and the Sixties.

We got an afternoon coffee pick-me-up at Starbucks (yes, they are everywhere) and then spent some more time around the Minster. I had hoped to catch a nice photo of the moonrise (nearly full) with the well lit cathedral, but luck wasn't on my side tonight.  Might get a good shot tomorrow night of the Edinburgh Castle.

We walked back to the train station, retrieved our luggage and then walked back to our B&B - the Blossoms on Clifton Street near the Bootham Bar (gate of the Roman wall).  After a quick rest in the room we ventured back to the city center and enjoyed a nice Italian dinner at Caesars.

It's great spending time with Chelsea and I'm enjoying our conversations. I'm really proud of how independent she has become and how she did the leading thru the sights at York.

Tomorrow morning we're off to Edinburgh, Scotland and are planning on staying there for two nights. Looking forward to some good whiskey!!! 

Day 1 (con't) 10 December (Weds): What's the opposite of jet lag?

My plan this evening was to retire early, sleep soundly and awaken early all refreshed and eager to go.  

I arrived back at the B&B (The Red House, Grantham) after dinner with Chelsea around 8:00p (20:00) and piddled around a bit and went to sleep around 9:00p. No trouble falling asleep, and woke up easily, what I thought would be somewhere in the 5:00a - 6:00a range. WRONG - it was only 12:28a!!!  After tossing and turning for an hour, I decided what the heck...  so I'm now writing this at 1:40a after catching up on email, facebook, etc.  Oh well, just hope I'm not dead to the world come 7:00a!!!

The taxi drivers here in Grantham are nice chaps and very chatty!  The cabbie that drove me to Grantham is a bass player in 3 bands and the one the drove me back wants to be a driving instructor!

Harlaxton Manor was cool, but not as impressive (in the dark and with all the students packing up to leave) as the photos I'd found on the web. Hope I can have some time when we come back to get Chelsea's luggage (in the daytime) to see things in a better "light"!  All of Chelsea's friends were nice and very polite. They all seemed on the verge of weepy eyes knowing that this was the last few hours together for most of them.

Tomorrow's plans call for meeting Chelsea at the train station at 8:30a and traveling to York and spending the day in York. York, according to some travel books, is the 2nd most tourist visited town in England (after London, of course), but some locals tell me that because it is very popular with the locals!  Should be fun!

Day 1 - 10 December (Weds).

Uneventful flights to Dulles and then Heathrow.  Only had about 45 minutes to make my connection at Dulles, but made it without any issues. Flight over the pond was good. Met a nice English bloke and we chatted thru dinner and then both of us promptly fell asleep. I didn't wake up until the announcement that we were 30 minutes from landing and it was time to fill out the customs paperwork.

Customs was no problem and I felt like I won the lottery when my bag was the very first one off the baggage carousel!  

Rode the underground (Picadilly line) from Heathrow to Kings Cross rail station and then took train to Grantham. Made it into Grantham about 2:30p and was greeted with a note on the door of the B&B that said the owners would be back at 4:00p. I walked thru Grantham - I'm sure I looked like a homeless man dragging a wheeled duffle bag all thru "High Street" - looking for a pay phone to see if I could call the B&B and get checked in early. I was anxious to see Chelsea so it was frustrating having to kill an hour and half waiting to check into the B&B (The Red House).

Took cab out the Harlaxton Manor and had a nice chat with driver - he plays bass in 3 bands (one since he was 16) including an Elvis impersonation band!

Dinner at the Manor was nothing spectacular and Chelsea is right with her descriptions of their food. Pretty bland.  Hung out with Chels for a while - got the tour of the Manor and she introduced me to all of her friends.  She seems so independent now!

I'm writing this back at the B&B as I'm going to bed early (8:30p) so I can get an early start tomorrow. I'm meeting Chelsea at the train station at 8:30a and we're heading off to York!

Cheers!

New plans...

Current plans on bypassing Ireland in favor of some more time to explore southern England and places like Oxford and Cambridge.  So here's an updated itinerary that we might use:

Tues Dec 9 - USA to UK 

Weds Dec 10 - London Heathrow to Grantham. I will probably stay at Avenue Hotel or Red House  B&B.

Thurs Dec 11 - Grantham to York (train). Explore York. Lodging in York.

Fri Dec 12 - York to Edinburgh (train). Explore Edinburgh. Lodging in Edinburgh.

Sat. Dec 13 - Explore Edinburgh.  Lodging in Edinburgh.

Sun Dec 14 -Travel to Glasgow (train). Explore Glasgow. Lodging in Glasgow or late train to Telford.

Mon Dec 15 - Pick up car in Telford. Explore Telford area (Shifnel, etc.). Lodging in Ruthin, Wales.

Tues Dec 16 - one day blitz of north Wales.  Lodging ???

Weds Dec 17 - Travel to Oxford (auto). Lodging in Oxford.

Thurs Dec 18 - Travel to Bath (auto). Lodging in Bath.

Fri Dec 19 - Explore southern Wales (auto). Late travel to Telford area. Lodging ???

Sat. Dec 20 - return car in Telford (no later than noon). Travel to Grantham via train. Pick up Chelsea's luggage. Late train to London. Lodging London hostel.

Sun Dec 21 - explore London or day trip to Cambridge/???

Mon Dec 22 - expore London

Tues Dec 23 - early AM travel to Heathrow. Flight back to USA.

Read about Chelsea's experiences...

Here is Chelsea's blog about her experiences spent in England during the fall semester: http://futurepulitzer.blogspot.com/

Welcome!!!

I will post some snippets and photos from my December 2008 travels to England to meet daughter, Chelsea when she finishes her exams after studying the fall semester at Harlaxton (the UK campus of University of Evansville). We will be traveling together in the UK from December 10th and returning home to Tennessee on December 23rd.

I hope to post here regularly during the trip for family and friends to keep up with us, but not going to sacrifice "quality" travel experiences to spend at a laptop or searching for wi-fi spots. So... please check back often if you don't see a post for a few days.

Please feel free to leave comments or feedback - we'd love to know that someone is actually reading the posts!