Scotland

We just got back from our first official trip on this European adventure and it was awesome.  We decided to rent a car and break up the journey from London to Edinburgh with a stop in York.  I also thought it would be fun to give driving on the other side of the road a try.  We were upgraded by Enterprise from the smallest possible car to a brand new Prius:)  It took us about 10 minutes to figure out how to work a hybrid but once we did we were good to go and Dan did a wonderful job staying on the left side of the road (most of the time;))  Our Prius also came with a built in navigation system which was crucial considering the Garmin we bought on Amazon for this trip ended up not working at all; it for some reason kept putting us "near" but not quite on the road and then constantly "recalculating" because it thought we were driving through fields.  Hopefully we can fix it before driving through Spain or we will be in real trouble!

York is a quaint city in an area of England known as "The Dales."  The city was the ancient capitol of the north of England during the Roman Empire.  The medieval city walls are still in tact and the cathedral, the York Minster, is the 2nd largest Gothic Cathedral in the world (the largest being in Seville, Spain.)  We spent the night at a quirky B&B, The Old Grey Mare:

It was a cute place with a pub downstairs and 9-10 rooms upstairs.  It was certainly the budget option of B&B's, complete with old beach towels substituting as bath towels but for a quick place to sleep along the way, it worked great.

We spent the morning walking the city walls:

 visiting the York Minster, built between 1291 and 1350:

and shopping and exploring the Old Town, including the main shopping drag known as "The Shambles" where each floor hangs over a little further into the street than the one below it making it look like the buildings may topple over at any minute.

We walked through several outdoor markets and even happened upon the York Chocolate Festival:) We had a couple of pints at the Punch Bowl pub before getting back in the car and continuing on to Scotland.

We arrived in Scotland, checked into the lovely Hilton Edinburgh, and had dinner at the Whiski Rooms where Dan had his first scotch in Scotland after choosing from a selection of over 500!

The next morning we got to the Edinburgh Castle right when it opened, opting out of the tour and deciding just to wander around ourselves.  Walking up to the castle is really breathtaking and the views from the top are great.

After the castle we walked down the famous "Royal Mile" the main high street through the center of the Old City.  We took the "Real Mary King's Close Tour" which takes you through the now underground "closes" that used to make up the busiest and poorest part of the city in the 1600s.  Each close was a narrow alleyway between 6-7 story buildings with shop fronts along the ground floor.  Families lived in cramped and unsanitary conditions; they even used to dump their "toilet buckets" into the streets to let the waste run down into the obviously very contaminated "loch" where the Princes Street gardens are now located.

After the tour we went into St. Giles Cathedral, also along the Royal Mile.

We then popped into a mexican restaurant for lunch, odd choice I know but Dan and I have decided that we are going to try mexican in every European city we visit and see if we can find an unlikely winner:)  This place was pretty sub par but we weren't expecting much from Scotland.

We continued down to the end of the Royal Mile and visited the Palace of Holyrood House.  This is still a functioning palace and is the official residence of the queen when she visits Scotland and was also where Mary, Queen of Scots, spent a lot of time during her turbulent reign.

The most beautiful part of the palace was the gardens and the ruins of the Holyrood Abbey:

After the palace we climbed up Calton Hill for great views of the entire city:

We finished the day with dinner at La Piazza, a delicious Italian place near our hotel.

The next morning we drove up to St. Andrews.  We played the Eden Course, one of seven at the St. Andrews links.  Considering we hadn't played in 4 months, Dan and I both did pretty well; Dan shot 79, I had a 101.

After our round, we made our way over towards the Old Course, which is closed to play on Sundays and the public can walk along the fairways and greens.  It was an amazing experience for a couple of golf lovers.  The really cool thing about St. Andrews is that even though it is arguably the most famous golf course in the world and the birthplace of the game, there is surprisingly little pretension.  Anyone can play, even the Old Course if you book in advance, there are no golf carts or ball washers, we walked right into the clubhouse and got a table for lunch, no dress code, it's just about the golf.

We spent the rest of the day walking around the town and visiting the castle and cathedral:

Monday we headed to Rosslyn Chapel, which is the chapel featured at the end of the Da Vinci Code movie.  Legend says the crypt, which contains buried members of the St. Clair family, who have links to the Knights Templar, also contains the Holy Grail.  As the family refuses to excavate under the chapel, we will never know.  The chapel was really fascinating.  It is full of hidden symbolism and amazing stone carving.  Unfortunately, we could not take photos inside and the outside was covered in scaffolding, but I did get a couple shots:

 We also walked down the hill to see the remains of the Rosslyn House, where the ancestors of the family still live:

 Unfortunately, our trip ended with a miserable drive back to London through pouring rain and tons of traffic making a 6 hour drive turn into 9, ugh.  But overall, it was a great first trip!  Next stop, Prague!!

Cambridge Day Trip

This past weekend, we decided to get out of the city and start exploring some of our new country.  We decided to take a train to Cambridge, a quick 45 minute ride on the National Rail.  We arrived in Cambridge, walked up to the city center and explored the town.  As it turns out, the University of Cambridge is actually made up of 31 independent colleges.  Each student applies to and attends a specific college where they live and take all their classes and there is actually quite a bit of rivalry among the schools.  The first college we saw was King's College:

We then strolled down to Trinity, which many consider the best of the 31 Cambridge colleges:

Trinity was one of the few colleges where we were able to enter the inner courtyard and walk around the grounds (most of them are blocked off by guards.)  We were even able to enter the chapel at Trinity, which was beautiful:

As we were snapping photos outside Kings College, looking like the obvious tourists, we were approached by one of the many "punting" tour operators and were talked into a punting tour down the river cam.  A punt is a flat bottomed boat with a square bow propelled by pushing against the river bed with a pole.  It is a popular pastime in Cambridge and there were many punts on the river during our tour, despite the chilly temps.  It is a great way to see more of the colleges that line the river since access is restricted at most of  them.  We went by Clare college:

Queen's college:

the mathematical bridge:

A popular myth says this bridge was designed by Isaac Newton without the use of nuts or bolts but Newton in fact died 22 years before the bridge was even constructed.  We then turned around and headed back north by Trinity:

And Trinity's biggest rival, St. John's:

Under the bridge of sighs, named and designed after the Venice bridge and so named here because it is the bridge the students cross going from their dorms to the classroom buildings to take their finals:

It was a great tour and was nice to be able to get some history and fun facts about the city.  A couple of interesting factoids:
-In Cambridge, if you have the highest grades in your class at King's college, you are legally allowed to challenge any other student to a duel on the bridge and fight to the death.
-Sir Isaac Newton attended Trinity and has often claimed that he discovered gravity when an apple fell on his head out of tree as he sat by the river cam.  As apple trees have never grown anywhere along the river, and Isaac Newton was not well liked by his peers, it is thought it much more likely that someone threw an apple at his head;)
-Students do not live on campus until their 3rd year and are then given rooms based on their grades, with those with better grades getting the best rooms, ie-those that look out onto the river.

We then walked across the river:

And finished our day with a pint at "The Pickerel Inn" across from Magdalene college:

Great day trip and nice to get out of the city:-)

Hamstead Heath

A couple weeks ago, Dan and I decided to pack a picnic lunch and take the tube up to Hamstead Heath, a huge park just north of central London.  From our flat, it was a quick ride (Henry's second time on the tube:) and we arrived at Hamstead just after noon.  The tube lets you off onto Hamstead high street, which is lovely.  The whole area is hilly and quaint and really makes you feel as if you have left the city.

The neat thing about Hamstead is that it is a largely wooded park, as opposed to the maintained royal parks like Hyde and Regent's.  Henry had a great time hiking through the forest and running around with the many other dogs visiting the heath.  Although it was actually raining when we left our flat, it turned out to be a gorgeous sunny day, if a bit chilly.

We plopped down in one of the clearings for a picnic...

And then continued on towards the many ponds scattered throughout the park, many of which allow swimming in the summer.

We then climbed up Parliament Hill for great views of the city skyline.  It was a great way to spend a day and we will certainly be back, especially when it warms up!

Malta x2

Well...I made a second trip to Malta since at the moment, that is the only way I get to spend time with Dan.  Since I did most of the sightseeing and touristy activities there are to do on the island last time, I spent most of this trip enjoying the amenities of the Hilton. However, I wanted to add a couple more pics to the blog because I did have a chance this time to take the bus into Valletta, Malta's capital city, and walk around.

Republic Street; Valletta's main shopping area:

All dressed up for Christmas...

I walked around the entire city (only took about 20 minutes) and explored many cute streets and LOTS of hills...

St. Paul's Cathedral:

Barracca Gardens:

On my final day, I watched a sailing race from my room:

Overall, I had gorgeous weather and although it has been tough having Dan away, there are definitely worse places he could be.  

Malta

Dan ended up having to go to Malta his SECOND day of work and has been working out there every week since we arrived in London; which has put a lot of responsibility on me in terms of getting things settled here and exploring London on my own but on the bright side, I figured I might as well get a vacation out of it! I went to Malta for 5 days and got a little Mediterranean sunshine. The first two days, while Dan was working, I spent sightseeing by myself. The first day I took a "hop-on hop-off" bus, a great way to see a big part of the island in a short amount of time. The whole tour is 3 hours if you don't get off but you can jump off anywhere you want and get back on the next bus; they come every 30 minutes. You are given headphones and there is a running commentary of what you are passing as you ride along. Plus the bus is open topped so you can get great views and take pictures without even getting off. I stayed on the bus the whole time except for jumping off at Mdina, the ancient capitol of Malta. Mdina was the capitol until the 16th century, when it was moved to Valletta. It is one of the best preserved ancient walled cities in Europe. The medieval name is "Citta Nobile" meaning "the noble city." It is simply adorable with narrow streets and little chapels and you can walk around the whole thing in 20 minutes. The tour continued up the north side of the island through vineyards and farmland in the center of the island, to the sandy beaches along the north coast.

Hilton Malta:

St. Julian's Harbour; right next to hotel:

Mdina; the main gate:

St. Paul Cathedral; supposedly on the spot where St. Paul converted the Roman governor, Publius, to Christianity:

Mdina:

The following day, I took a Harbour cruise of the two main harbours; Marsamxetto Harbour and Grand Harbour. We got great views of the capitol, Valletta, and the "three cities;" Senglea, Vittoriosa, and Kalkara.

Valletta, the capitol:

traditional Maltese boats:

The many steps of Valletta; sometimes cars drive up and down the steps and park on them:

Dan was able to get some time off Sunday and we went sailing with one of the Ernst & Young partners (Anthony) on his boat. It was amazing; sparkling turquoise water and bright sunshine. Anthony gave us his version of the Harbour cruise and then we sailed up to the north end of the island, anchored in the bay next to Bugibba, a tourist city on the north end of the island, and went for a swim in the Mediterranean sea:) The water was a little chilly but the clearest I have ever been in. Dan and I ended the day with a delicious anniversary dinner an Italian/Mediterranean restaurant, Al Molo, on the St. Julian's Harbour (which is where the Hilton Malta is located that has been Dan's home these past few weeks.)

Swimming in the beautiful Mediterranean:

sunset over Valletta:

Monday, my last day in Malta, I spent lounging by the pools at the beautiful Hilton Malta. It's been sad to have Dan gone but it was great to get in a cheap Mediterranean vacation:) Sahha! (Maltese for Good-Bye)