Friday, April 16, 2010

London Trip- Day 3-6: Scotland

We left for Scotland early Tuesday morning and arrived by train in Edinburgh around 4:00 pm. Our first order of business was to get something to eat for a late lunch/early dinner. We walked to Royal Mile up to the castle and then down a hill covered with hundreds of daffodils.
We woke up Wednesday morning and had a full Scottish breakfast which consists of: 1 egg (poached, fried, scrambled), bacon (we call it ham), sausage (not like any we have in the US), mushrooms, a broiled tomato, haggis, and a potato scone. Thats right folks, I tried haggis... tasted a lot like dressing/stuffing. We took a bus tour around Edinburgh and took a tour of the castle. I was very cold and miserable for most of the day do it was nice to be able to sit on the bus and see all the sights. The sun came out around 4:00 and just before sunset we climbed up a little hill just down from our hotel, Calton Hill. There was a part on top with a few monuments and gorgeous views of the city. It was a great end of the day... followed by sticky toffee pudding and cheese cake (you can say we ate our way through Edinburgh).
Edinburgh Castle:
Calton Hill:
View of Arthur's Seat & Edinburgh from Calton Hill:

Thursday we took a tour up to St. Andrews stopping at a couple of fishing villages in Fife. I really thought this part of the trip would appeal more to Ben because he is such a golf lover, but I think this has been my favorite part of the trip so far. I was a beautiful day with sun and temperatures reaching almost into the 60's... really unheard of for Scotland this time for year. I really enjoyed walking the beached in the Fife and St. Andrews looking for sea glass (it even inspired me to by some wellies (rain boots) because everyone else walking the
beach was so cute in them). The golf coarse was amazingly beautiful. They were preparing for the 2010 British Open. We also stopped off to see the university
and the old ruins of an abby that Henry VIII had destroyed after the church told him he could not divorce Ann Bolyne.
Fishing Village:
St. AndrewsAbby Ruins:

We got back to London around noon today. After getting Tyler settled on the train back to Egham, Ben and I decided to stay and see more to the sites. We toured St. Paul's Cathedral. Very nice, but I really did not like being up in the dome. Ben climbed to the very top the catherdral, I sat on a bench in the dome and tried not to look up or down while I waited for him. From there we went back to Tragalgar's Square to tour the National Gallery... we saw paintings by Monet, Reimbrant, Michelangleo, and Van Gogh just to name a few. From there we made our way to Piccadilly Circus and ate dinner in a little family run Italian place... probably the best Raviolli I have ever had. It's been a great few days and
we feel so blessed to have the opportunity. Looking forward to tomorrow... Portabello Road in the morning and ending with seeing Wicked.
St. Paul's Catherdral:
Piccadilly Circus: (A lot like Times Square)

1 comment:

Donald Conrad said...

Where are the wellies? I wanna see a picture of those :)

 
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