Scotland- Edinburgh and Beyond

All Aboard! Our first train ride and we are off from Grantham to Edinburgh (pronounced ED'n-burah), Scotland. It was an easy trip seeing as though there were no change in trains- just a straight shot there. The trains here are so nice. We got a table to ourselves and read Rick Steves along the way! We arrived in Scotland and found our Hostel very easily. I was quite nervous as this would be my first hostel experience, but it turned out to be really nice! We were in a 6 person room and had some asian roommates. That afternoon we went into Edinburgh and explored. It was a lovely city- very old, medieval architecture. We promenaded down the Royal Mile between the Edinburgh Castle at the top and the Palace of Holyroodhouse (the queen's vacation home for a week a year) at the bottom. We went into a Whisky store- where the famous Scotch comes from, and then we found my favorite store, Ness, which has the cutest colorful plaids in clothes, purses, shoes, scarves, etc. I went in there a couple of times. There was a wedding going on and a nice man in the wedding took his picture with us in his kilt. Love it! That evening we had reservations to take a tour of Mary King's Close. A close is an alley leading to a courtyard or square and this tour provided a unique look into the past as we took a trip through the excavated underground where people once lived. Our guide told us some ghost stories and interesting historical insight into what it may have been like to live in Edinburgh hundreds of years ago. Next we went to Viva Mexico, a delicious Mexican restaurant that gave us so much needed good food. We were celebrating my roommate, Andrea's, birthday a little early too! Her 21st! That night we dug right into the Scottish culture and went and saw a movie. haha. The Switch with Jennifer Aniston, I loved it. The little boy in it is so cute! The next morning we went off on an adventure to hike up Authur's Seat, an 822-foot extinct volcano. I couldn't be the lazy one! So I did it..and I enjoyed the view of Edinburgh from the top. It was so windy though. I almost blew off the mountain.




Following our last look around Edinburgh we hopped on a bus to Berwick-upon-Tweed, a small coastal town practically on the border between Scotland and England. There we took a taxi to Coldingham where we were staying at our first with Dorothy and Sweetheart (that's what Dorothy called him). It was so cute, we got our own little bedroom and it was just so cozy. We stayed in that night to prepare us for the best day of Shelby's life- the day she could see Siccar Point. Although the story of finding Siccar Point with give it no justice, I will attempt to describe our adventure, and oh was it an adventure, in every way. Sweetheart took us to the city of St. Abbs that morning after a delicious breakfast prepared by Dorothy, complete with Black Pudding (she wouldn't tell us what was in it, but we looked it up...thank goodness I tried just a nibble - blood, yum) Anyways, at the drop off point we were told it was a couple of miles and it shouldn't take us too long to find the famous Geological Point, Siccar Point. It started off great, we were seeing gorgeous views of Scotland's coast. We were following all the signs for the 'coastal path' and all was well. We even found the light house that we were told about. The path we took was simply dirt and sheep were freely roaming EVERYWHERE. It was a great way to truly experience this area and it's beauty. Then a few hours past and everyone we saw had never heard of Siccar Point and the mountains were getting steeper. We had to be close, right! WRONG. But the coastal path continued, so we did too. Then, in the middle of a field, not so close to the coast, the coastal path abruptly ended. Now what?! We made our way across a field intentionally running into an older couple that was hiking. They had heard of Siccar Point, but bad news, we were still about an hour away. We felt good though, they gave us directions and we were on our way. The first landmark we should come across is an old farm house, check. There we met a boy who offered to drive us, but didn't have a driver's license, great help. haha. So we climbed the fence and came across our next landmark, the car park. It was like Dora the Explorer. Then we continued along the road...at one point climbed a barbed wire fence, now it was more like The Bourne Identity. Lol. An hour past, and we were still walking. At this point, I was walking with my eyes clothes because I was so tired. Far down a busy road we saw a nice looking lady mowing her lawn. We asked if she knew how far we were from Siccar Point. She had no idea, so she got her husband, Paul, and he had a map for us to look at. We could see the cliff from their yard! But...he said it would still take us another couple of hours!! I'm sure he saw our dreadful faces when he told us this news and offered to drive us as close as he could. Now don't get the impression that I will just hop in the car with any stranger...but I saw Paul as an angel from God! They were such a nice couple and I was glad to have any other mode of transportation besides walking. We took us to an area, said climb up that cliff, and left. So up we go and there was a sign!! "Siccar Point". We were so excited that it even had a sign! Down the 80 degree slope Stephanie and I had fun sliding down, and Shelby climbed. We had finally made it! How exciting. We saw the unconformity in the rocks and Shelby was in heaven.

Not only did Paul take us there, he said his wife felt bad and told him to come back and get us so he took us all the way back to our Bed and Breakfast too. Such a nice man. He even gave us a ton of cards that they had made with portraits of the area. We need to send him a thank you card!

That day was finished off with a much needed large Big Mac Meal that we devoured. After 6 hours of hiking we were hungry!

Made it back to Grantham that night and woke up for British studies quite sore and stiff. We made many memories in Scotland and pretty much guaranteed that Shelby will be a famous geologist one day--her picture's already all over WKU's campus!

Next stop, York and Birmingham.

-Aunt Kate

London, here I come!

Thursday, September 2 we departed the manor for our first adventure of many....London!! Although I have traveled to a wide variety of places, London hasn't been one of them surprisingly. I saved the easiest for last...the country where they speak English and it's very similar to America. Even with this being true, I was still a little nervous to navigate around the big city. I was very pleased to know my roommate, Andrea, lived in London all summer and is a pro, especially on the Tube (which is their subway system). A little thing that everyone knows about that's visited here is that you take the tube everywhere and when you get on it always says, "Please, mind the gap" Haha. Friday morning we started the day off strong after a good nights rest. We were to meet a school group at the Tower of London that morning. Giving ourselves plenty of time to take the tube, and to grab some delicious starbucks we arrived right on time thanks to our navigator. Although the Tower of London was not what I envisioned at all, it was still really cool. It is not, as the title suggests, a tower! It's actually a large building where people live currently, where prisoners were once held, and where Henry VIII had many people executed. Stephanie was very excited for this part of the excursion. We toured the Bloody Tower as well as my favorite, the rooms where the Crown Jewels are held. They were so extravagant, and it wasn't just one, there were rooms full of gold, rubies, diamonds, emeralds, pearls. It was incredible. No photos were allowed unfortunately. They told the story of Queen Elizabeth II's coronation and showed the video and then had her coronation gown on display- super fancy, I think it would look smashing on me!

London sits on the River Thames with many bridges going over one of which is the Tower Bridge. Here is a picture of me with it in the background. We got really lucky with the weather, it didn't rain on us once! I was so glad because it wouldn't have been the same experience had it rained the whole time. Our next stop was Oxford street, we were in much need of some shoes! At the very beginning of our morning we were just leaving starbucks and saw a red telephone booth so naturally we need a picture in it! And that's when Shelby's bad shoe luck began...her flip flop broke! We tried to fix it with a bobby pin and tape but nothing would work - so she limped around the tower of london until she was able to buy some ever-so-glamorous TUBE FLOPS! (don't google this to see what she bought...we came up with the name) They were cheap plastic flip flops with the Tube map on the bottom! Needless to say, Shelby was on a hunt for some shoes to wear! After Oxford Street we ventured to our next destination, Parliament, Big Ben, The London Eye, and Westminster Abbey. This section of town is like a one stop shop. All of the big sites of London are situated in a one mile radius of one another. We made our way up the stairs from the tube and there he was, Big Ben! The Parliament building is gorgeous as well! We sat for about an hour on the edge of the River Thames just soaking up the sun and the sights. When Big Ben struck 5pm we were off to Westminster Abbey. A great way to see, enjoy, and hear the beauty of Westminster Abbey is to attend the Evensong Service. It's free and you get to hear the organ and choir! Following the service we headed back to the hotel to get ready for a fun night out, afterall, at midnight it would be Stephanie's 20th birthday!

Saturday, we woke up early to make it to the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace. Now all that it's worked up to be....a huge crowd of people and I couldn't see anything. I heard the band playing but that's about it. That poor queen has to deal with all those people every morning! Sounds pretty miserable to me. I can just live in my nice castle in the English countryside all incognito. I love it! Following this unsuccessful event we made our way to Leicester Square to purchase our show tickets for the evening..we decided on Chicago (kind of ironic as we were not in the US), nevertheless, we were very excited. We took a quick pit stop at Piccadilly circus, the small, London version of Times Square. Next on our agenda was Portobello Market- it took FOREVER to get there! The darn tube had areas closed and it messed us all up. But we finally got there and were able to enjoy the adorable little area with the Portobello Market. I loved the street it was on, it was lined with rainbow colored townhouses and vendors selling items such as jewelry, clothes, antiques, etc. We even visited a yummy cupcake store called Hummingbird Bakery. For this evening, for Stephanie's birthday we had dinner reservations at the Tate Modern Restaurant which is across Millenium Bridge from St. Paul's Cathedral looking over the River. We were on the top floor seated by the window with an awesome view. And we got steak! It was so good. I think Stephanie had a wonderful birthday dinner complete with candles to blow out atop her chocolate cake!

That night was complete with seeing Chicago! It was awesome. The theater was a lot smaller than in NYC but it was still really good. It was a fun girls night out!

Sunday we departed London for Hampton Court Palace about an hour outside of London. Henry VII and William and Mary and all sorts of royalty lived there. My favorite part was one room that was decorated with guns and knives on the walls. It looked like just patterns, but if you looked closer you could tell it was actually these weapons making up the art. In addition, I loved the gardens. We had a fun little photo shoot out there! That completed our first weekend away. It was a great start to our semester. Next stop, Edinburgh, which Shelby, Stephanie and I have planned on our own.

More to come,

Keep reading!

Cheers,

Aunt Kate

My New Home: it's not a ship, but a castle!

August 26th I departed from Louisville airport for my next journey. Yes, I know I move quick. I've been referred to as Carmen San Diego a couple of times..but what can I say, you only live once!! You have to live like you were dying, as Tim McGraw might say. It was quite hard leaving my wonderful family though. I will miss them so much over these 4 months, especially little Avery who will be dramatically different when I get back. I hate missing all of it! She came to the airport to say farewell to me in her cute little homemade shirt. It says I <3 Aunt Kate. It brought tears to my eyes.



I arrived in London on the morning of August 27th to begin my Fall 2010 semester at Harlaxton College. Harlaxton is situated an hour or two north of London in Grantham. It's a small, quaint little town with all the necessities which I love because it gives the real English countryside feel. I live inside that 'manor' (pic on right) -- isn't it crazy that I get to call that home! Here I eat, sleep, and take classes. Some days, I don't even go outside because everything I need is in there. As far as my room, I got pretty darn lucky...my roommates, Andrea and Lacie, and I have one of the largest rooms in the manor. I love it - it has a couch and everything!



This semester I am taking 12 hours of classes, which is awesome, so I can travel on the weekends. Everyone is required to take 6 hours of British Studies - for the record, I very strongly dislike History classes so this will be a tough one for me. My other 6 hours include Special Topics in Biology regarding all of the famous British Scientists. It's a field trip based course so we will be visiting many famous sites throughout England where science has been impacted. And lastly, Public Speaking, which I'm required to have, so might as well take it now, right!




My friends from WKU, Stephanie and Shelby are with me here at Harlaxton, and I'm so glad! We are planning all our trips together for the weekends and it's so much fun to have them here with me. We are going to make lifetime memories together.

Our second night here we had a 'high table dinner' which required 'smart' dress. It was followed by tea and dessert, which they call 'pudding'. To the left is a picture of Andrea, Me, Stephanie, Lacie, and Shelby!

Classes began August 30th, and that weekend we were off to explore London! That will be in the next post.

Hope you enjoy!

Cheers,

Aunt Kate