Edinburgh, Scotland

Hello from Scotland! We arrived here on Friday morning after an incredible drive from the Lake District. The hour we spent on the secondary road from Windermere to the major motorway en route to Edinburgh was for sure the best hour that we have ever had in a car. It was amazingly beautiful and captivating. We drove up and down hills on windy roads going up and down past trees, fog, sheep, and lakes. It was also incredibly fun to drive. We managed to stop and take some pictures even though we were on a tight schedule.





Then, we got to Edinburgh and relieved much stress by returning our rental car. After driving on some of England's tightest and most twisted roads, it felt so good to not have to worry about our little Picanto, even though it left us on foot. The car company was located about five kilometres from the centre of the city, which was where our hostel was. Five kilometres? That's nothing. We'll walk. With forty pounds on our backs. Sounds good. Actually, though, it wasn't horrible. The walk was long and heavy, but we got to see a lot of the city that we wouldn't have otherwise. It really is a beautiful city. We did feel the consequences in our feet the rest of our time there, though; they were very tired.

Once we checked into our hostel, which was great by the way, we grabbed some lunch and marched off toward the old town (where all the really old buildings are). The hub of this old town is called the Royal Mile. The Royal Mile climbs up a hill in the middle of the city and culminates at the Edinburgh Castle. The ground essentially drops away from this castle and really shows you how natural and manufactured beauty can work together so well. It was a magnificent spectacle. We spent some time around this castle, in the cemetery beneath it, and in the Royal Mile before heading back to our hostel for the day.

The Edinburgh Castle on its pedestal

A section of the Royal Mile

The Tolbooth Church on the Royal Mile

The castle at night

Our second day in Edinburgh was spent primarily on buses. We bought an all day bus pass because we weren't loving the thought of spending another day on our feet. This was a good thing. And it was a beautiful day. 17 and sunny (how does that sound Saskatoon?). First off, we went to an area of the city called Holyrood Park. This is where the queen stays when she is in Scotland - at the Holyrood Palace - and it also features the highest point in Edinburgh. Arthur's Seat is the summit of the mountain hill that is in the middle of the city. It was crazy because this mountain is in the middle of jampacked city. We obviously hiked it. It was a really fun experience. After a lot of hard work climbing up two hills, we were rewarded with tremendous views and some great scenery. It was a definite highlight. After that we jumped back on the buses and spent the rest of the day checking out the coastline (which wasn't spectacular) and some other cool parts of the city.

A beautiful river, bridge, church combo

Steps leading to Arthur's Seat

Ang shows us a view of the city from Holyrood

Now, we both show you

The marvelous cliffs in Holyrood Park
Different cliffs, but also marvelous

Our experience in Edinburgh has been great. We liked our hostel and we loved the city and its random mounds of rock sprouting up in the middle of the city. It's awesome how there's a castle on one of them. Tomorrow, we're off to Dublin on a plane.

We Made It! - London Heathrow to the Lake District

We arrived to the UK on Tuesday at about noon London time after an eight hour flight from Minneapolis. Once we landed, we grabbed our backpacks and managed to find a bus to take us to our hostel located on a nice little London street. We stayed here for one night and were able to wear off some of our jet lag.


The next morning, we headed back to the airport to receive our prebooked car - a lovely Kia Picanto, which we used to drive to Windermere in the beautiful lake district. Driving a car in the UK is not a cup of tea. Getting used to driving a car on the wrong side of the street, getting used to driving on the wrong side of that car, trying to figure out how to get out of the maze of roundabouts and twisty streets the Heathrow Airport is, and trying to find the right motorway for us to be on was all quite an experience. Some would say it's stressful. But we found out which way we needed to go and we were on our way actually quicker than one would have expected. It was a fun experience cruising up the British motorways along with all the lorries (semis) and compact cars. The interesting thing was that there were no speed limits posted. We weren't sure if it was just an unwritten thing or not. We stayed in the middle lane, but had many BMWs and Audis cruise past us at speeds of I'm guessing 90 mph.



It was a beautiful drive though, once I was able to ease my knuckles from the steering wheel and look out the side windows. And it kept getting more and more beautiful as we got closer to our destination. We strayed off the main highway and made our way into the Lake District and on to Windermere. This brought our driving experience to a whole new level. Going down the narrow, two way highway and the tight streets of the town trying to find our hostel was crazy. For those of you who are acquainted with the Victoria bridge in Saskatoon and how tight and intimidating it can be, try driving down a Victoria bridge all the time down twisty and hilly roads with five foot high walls on either side and speed limit signs that say "40 mph". And in town, there are streets that can fit two cars, but usually there will be parked cars sporadically placed so that you will need to just know who has the right of way or you will not survive. And I forgot to mention the loads and loads of pedestrians marking the sidewalks and filling onto the roads so that I must assume the amount of injuries must reach an incomparable level here in Winderemere, but yet the cars are still driven at around 35 mph.



That being said, we have really enjoyed our time here in the Lake District. We have spent time in Windermere, but have also been to and around a neighbouring town of Ambleside, which has a very unique atmosphere about it. Both towns have a lot of beauty to share and we tried to make the most of it. We have enjoyed the streets and the cool, old buildings. We also have really loved the natural scenery. That is probably the best part. Both these towns have a lot of people that pack the streets and shops and piers (on Lake Windermere), but we have found some great spots outside of these towns, in the surrounding hills, where tourists do not seem to go, that offer some very pretty natural spectacles and outstanding views.


Lake Windermere with a view of the town behind

A great view of the lake and hillside from Bisky Howe Viewpoint

The town of Ambleside

St. Martin's Church peaking through the trees in Ambleside

The cemetery at St. Martin's

Part of the string of waterfalls that is Stockghyll Force

The rocky steps led the way

The falls at the top

A countryside house amidst the sheep pastures

A typical scene from our car window

Tomorrow (the 9th), we head off to Edinburgh, Scotland bright and early in order to return our car in time. We are excited to spend a few days there before flying over to Dublin.

The Time has Come

April 5, 2010 is a day we've been counting down to and anticipating for quite some time. Well, now our iPod countdown app says 0 and its time to roll. It's hard to know what this is going to feel like when I actually realize what's happening. As you can see, our bags are packed and we're ready to go.



This week we're off, but last week was BC. We went to Abbotsford for a few days to visit Doug and Elissa and Caleb and John Mayer. The week was wonderful and the concert was quite good. It's fun to witness talent like that first hand. We got some good pictures of that night, as well as the days hanging out at Doug and Elissa's. Other highlights include dance parties, building MegaBlok towers, and the 48 egg Easter Egg Hunt (this one was messy).












So, as we go along on our trip we hope to update this thing approximately every city we're in complete with pictures and a little description. Then, after it's all done, you can get a better idea of what stops you want to make on your own trip! Thanks for following along!

Itinerary

Tyler and I have been doing a lot of research over this last year trying to come up with an itinerary for our trip based on the places that we would like to see, and what time and money will allow. This has not been the easiest task, and has proven to be a lot more time consuming than what we thought it would be. We are looking forward to being done this part of our planning and are excited about all of the places that we are hoping to visit. Here is a list of places that we are hoping to see:

London, England
Windermere (the lake district), England
Edinburgh, Scotland
Dublin, Ireland
Belfast, Northern Ireland
Paris, France
Bremen, Germany
Berlin, Germany
Prague, Czech Republic
Vienna, Austria
Salzburg, Austria
Munich, Germany
St. Moritz, Switzerland (Alps train tour)
Bern, Switzerland
Marseille, France
Nice, France
Milan, Italy
Venice, Italy
Cinque Terre, Italy
Florence, Italy
Rome, Italy
Naples, Italy
Pompei, Italy
Bari, Italy
Naxos, Greek Island
Santorini, Greek Island
Crete, Greek Island
Athens, Greece
London, England

We are trying to leave some room for flexibility in our schedule in case there are delays, or if we just want to spend a little bit more time somewhere, but as of right now these are the places that we will be seeing and the order we hope to do things.

In addition to our Europe trip, Tyler, myself and my sister Trisha will be flying out to Abbotsford at the end of this month to visit Doug, Elissa and Caleb, and will be returning to Saskatoon 2 days before we depart for London. We are very excited for a chance to get to see them before we leave on our trip, and are also excited as we all got tickets to see John Mayer in Vancouver! Only 29 more days and we're off!

We're Going!

The main purpose of this blog is to keep our friends and family informed as to where we are and to keep in touch with them while we are away. Tyler and I will be departing on April 5, 2010 for London, England, and we will be spending almost 3 1/2 months backpacking Europe. Travelling Europe has been a dream of ours since before we got married and we are very excited that it is becoming reality. We will be posting many updates and pictures while we are away, and we hope you will follow along with us as we experience the trip that we have spent many days and hours preparing for.