Thursday, June 14, 2012 – writing while in flight
from Edinburgh to Paris
Its been hard to find time to write.
Days have been quite full. Finally here in the air I have a few
minutes to catch up.
Friday, June 8
We arrived in London around noon on
Friday, June 8. The flight over was smooth and uneventful. After
getting our baggage we made our way to the Underground and caught a
train to the apartment where we'd be staying. We bought “Oyster”
passes in advance, so we already had the cards we needed to board the
Underground.
Our apartment was about three blocks
from the Gloucester Road Underground station, so it wasn't hard to
walk there. The building was hidden behind another building on the
street so it took a bit of looking the first time to find it.
After dropping our bags we took off
immediately again on the Tube to a bike tour (which we had paid for
ahead of time). We had our own personal guide take us around the
heart of London for about two and a half hours. Unfortunately it was
raining lightly and very cold, but it was still a fun introduction to
the city.
That night we had dinner at “Petrus”,
a very nice restaurant in the Mayfair area, where we also celebrated
Jonathan's 23rd birthday.
Saturday, June 9
On Saturday we started the day by
taking the Tube to the east end of the city where we went through the
Tower of London. More about that in a minute.
Before we started planning our visit, I
was confused about London Bridge and the Tower of London (never
having been here before). I thought it was all basically the same
thing. Now I know that there is London Bridge (the first bridge ever
built in London, but very plain and boring to look at), Tower Bridge
(the famous bridge with two large towers, seen in the first “Sherlock
Holmes” film, and is only a little over 100 years old), and the
Tower of London (which is actually a castle).
Being a real fanatic about history, I
was excited to tour the Tower of London. The original innermost
castle (“The White Tower”) was built by William the Conqueror
shortly after he won the Battle of Hastings in 1066 and took over
England. Over succeeding centuries other English kings built more
walls and surrounding buildings. It still sits guarding the river
entrance to London, just a few blocks away from the modern
skyscrapers of London's financial district.
The Tower is most famous for the
prisoners that have been held (and often executed there), including
deposed kings, wives of Henry VIII, and others considered by the
ruling powers to be traitors and criminals. We followed one of the
“Beefeater” guards around for a guided tour and storytelling.
Leaving the Tower we began walking to
the west, heading toward St. Paul's Cathedral. Unfortunatlely I
didn't read my notes carefully enough. I had written down to be in
St. Paul's before 4:00 but didn't remember why. We walked leisurely
along and got there at about 4:10 – to discover that they close the
doors at 4:00! So we were not able to go inside. Bummer.
From there we walked north to the
Museum of London – where they have the entire history of the city
described through numerous exhibits. Especially interesting – an
exhibit on how the Black Plague wiped out half the city in the mid
14th century, and another on the Great Fire that burned
much of the city in 1666.
As we walked away from the Musuem on
our way to the Tube station we were stopped for about 10 minutes,
unable to get across the road because of a huge parade of naked
bicyclists! Men and women of all ages were yelling, blowing whistles,
singing, and more, while riding bikes with no clothes whatsoever. No
idea why.
We took the Tube over to the West End
near Oxford Street and had dinner in a little pub before going to the
Dominion Theater, where we saw “We Will Rock You” – a musical
story featuring the music of Queen.
After the show we spent some time
trying to find a store still open at 11:00 PM that would sell a hair
straightener. Laura brought hers from home and had used it that
morning with the 110 → 220 volt converter that we brought.
Unfortunately the converter didn't work perfectly with that
high-wattage appliance and apparently the straightener got too hot. I
heard her scream when I was in the other room and went running in to
discover her holding a chunk of black, burned hair in her hand! We
were able to find a 220V straightener the next day, so no more hair
emergencies.
Sunday, June 10
An early start this morning, as the
girls had a 9:00 appointment to ride horses in Hyde Park. We all
walked together to the stable. It was a little surprising – we were
walking down a residential street in the city, following our map, and
it directed us down an alley (“Bathhurst Mews”). It appeared to
be an alley where cars could park, and had more homes. Just when we
were sure we were in the wrong place, we turned the corner and
discovered a small horse stable right there!
The girls took off on a pleasant
one-hour ride, while the boys walked over to an Italian Cafe for
coffee and wi-fi.
From here we began a long walk through
the Mayfair area, viewing the houses and buildings while we made our
way to The Ritz hotel for high tea. We met Monica and Ian Hunter
there (parents of Denise Vogt, our friend and director of the ballet
school that Summer attends). They were delightful hosts, helping us
understand some of the traditions of English tea.
After tea we walked on through Oxford
and Regent Streets, to Picadilly Circus, and through the Soho area.
After grabbing some snacks in Chinatown we made our way by Tube to
the London Eye (the giant ferris wheel that sits on the river). It
was a fun experience, but the weather was very cloudy and rainy, so
the view was not the best.
Monday, June 11
The nasty weather got even nastier
today. We had a whole walking tour planned of the Westminster area.
Due to constant heavy rain and cold we had to scrap a good portion of
our plan.
We were supposed to start by seeing the
changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace. Due to the queen's 60th
jubilee they have the outside area surrounding the palace closed to
the public as they work on taking down the stands that were put there
during the celebration. We had to stand way off to the side of the
palace and wait an hour in the pouring rain. Finally we saw a small
group of guards march by, wearing rain gear, and that was it. We
couldn't get in closer to where they do the actual ceremony – quite
an anti-climax.
After this we went to Westminster
Abbey. That was amazing – so many kings and queens and famous
people buried there from hundreds of years ago. Its a shame you can't
take photos inside.
From here we had to make up a new plan
to stay out of the rain, so we hopped on a bus to the east side and
went to the Tower Bridge. There is a really interesting exhibition at
the top of the bridge showing how it was made.
After this we were ready for dinner, so
we made our way back to a fun Chinese place we had seen in Soho, then
afterward walked one more time through Picadilly Circus.
Time to leave London. It was nice but
the weather stunk!!!!
Tuesday, June 12
Morning flight to Edinburgh. We had
looked into taking a train in order to see the countryside, but it
turned out to be MUCH cheaper to fly.
We checked into our hotel (in the
center of the city) then looked for a little place to grab some
lunch. We had to try Scottish fare at our first chance – Laura had
some haggis (which she really enjoyed), while Jonathan and I both
tried some Scotch whisky with our food.
We walked up the hill to Edinburgh
Castle (just a half mile away) and toured the grounds. Fascinating
history behind this 800-year old castle, and an amazing view of the
whole city and the sea.
We returned to our hotel and caught a
taxi out to Prestonfield, where we had dinner and watched a great
show called “Taste of Scotland”. Lots of traditional music,
singing and dancing, with an intermission of a dish of haggis.
Wednesday, June 13
An early start in order to get on the
tour bus by 8:30. We traveled with 10 other people on an all-day
drive through the nearby Highlands to the west. We saw six castles
throughout the day, along with AMAZING scenery of mountains, lochs
and streams with little villages in between. Our tour guide told us
stories and gave descriptions throughout, taking occasional pauses to
play traditional music on a CD.
We had lunch at Inverary Castle, where
we were told the Duke that owns the castle still lives. Laura and
Summer took a quick tour through the castle and stopped at the gift
shop. The man behind the counter made a comment about signing a book
about the castle. It turns out he was the Duke himself, and Laura
talked to him for awhile and got some pictures.
When we got back to our hotel the
Olympic Torch was just arriving. There was a HUGE crowd all along
High Street from the middle of town up to the castle. We watched as
the torch ran by to a procession at the castle.
For dinner we took a taxi outside of
town to Dalhousie Castle, dating from the 12th century,
where we had an AMAZING dinner.
Packing up tonight to fly to Paris....
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