Friday, July 30, 2010

Edinburgh: The Edinburgh Castle

First, I apologize for not writing up all of our trip sooner. I think a part of me just doesn't want it to really be over. However, I better get everything written down before I forget!

Our train ride up to Edinburgh (That'd Ed-in-ber-ah, as the locals say) was beautiful and even though we checked into our hotel at ten in the evening, it was still very bright out. Our budget priced hotel room came with two tiny beds and we learned the hard way that a a last minute room for two doesn't always mean a room for, well, two. Mark's feet came within inches of the wall when he was in bed. It's funny now...


Luckily we were in good spirits and are flexible travelers. We woke up early on Sunday and hit the town. The first thing we did was taxi all the way up the royal mile to the entrance of the Edinburgh Castle. Wowee! We had to wait in a long line and spend lots of money to get it, but it was completely worth it. We spent over five hours in the castle and didn't see everything there was to see. If you are the type of person to read all the signs and listen to most of the audio guide, you definitely need an entire day just for the castle.


Don't let anyone fool you. I'm terrible at waiting in lines.


The view was worth it though. You could see the whole city! They had a lot of signage explaining what each building in the landscape was, as well as pictures depicting what the view looked like over the centuries. It was very well done.


Walking around felt kind of like an amusement park, except authentic and epic. As we were there on a summer weekend, the place was packed with tourists. We blended in.


We saw lots of guns and swords.


And took funny pictures in boxes.



There was a really old and rare pet cemetery, where apparently the really good and loyal hunting dogs got put to rest.


We saw huge canons, and there was also a 1:00 canon which goes off once a day. You can guess what time it goes off.


In the war museum we saw an old uniform and drum that was very cool and clearly some of the inspiration for many of the American marching band uniforms worn today.

In addition to the things not pictured, we saw the Scottish jewels, visited the Scottish War memorial, toured a prisoner of war dungeon, and contemplated the political and cultural relationship between Scotland and England.

After five hours, we were feeling the need to experience something different so we left and worked our way down the royal mile, which is the 1.25miles between the Edinburgh Castle and the Holyrood Palace. Throughout our time we managed to get some great shots of the castle though!


Thursday, July 22, 2010

York-The Original (Part 3)

We finished our walk on the city wall, then headed to the York Minster. After marveling at the restoration projects we could see from the outside, we forked up our entrance fees and headed in to see what there was to see.


This York Minster is the site were Constantine was first crowned Emperor. I'm sure a lot of other really important and cool things happened then too, but hey when you're royal and rich it's your story that gets told.



The intricate stained glass could only be appreciated from the inside, as the light has to shine through from the outside-in for the color to show. Almost all of the stained glass has been restored throughout the centuries at one point or another, but the original art and form has been kept and in many cases, much of the original material used for the restoration.


This is the breathtaking and neckbrecking view up the central tower. It is apparently 197 feet tall and weighs the equivalent of 14 jumbo jets, according to our sage Mr. Steves.


As a proper Church of England, the York Minster has a choir screen that boasts some incredibly old and intricate statues of England's Kings from William I (the conqueror) to Henry VI. 


The church was huge and impressive, and even kind of creepy. We loved it. It even had gift shop, where they had goods for sale in an effort to get even more money out of us.


We decided a picture was good enough. And after taking our time touring through the whole minster, we went outside to listen to the church bells announce the evensong. Then we went in, and along with all of the other non-Church of England-member tourists, attended their touristy evensong service. Believe me when I say touristy. It was elegant and nice and I'm sure it was mass in accordance to Anglican tradition, but they had tour guides helping us to our seats and a pamphlet explaining each part of the service. Then the choir started singing. It was an all men choir with boys ranging from barely able to see over the rail to  men needing to sit during parts of the service that normally called for standing.

I wish I could have recorded the singing or that I could think of words better than "wow" to describe the experience of listening to the choir perform. There was a pipe organ that we could feel through the wooden pew and the church was clearly built with vocal performance in mind. Art is a powerful thing. After the service we decided then and there to immediately start spending more money and time on seeing live music.

We finally tore ourselves away from York, got onto another train, and raced even further up north to Edinburgh. York pictures are in the Picasa albums dated 6/25 and 6/26. Be sure to check them out!

Thursday, July 15, 2010

York-The Original (Part 2)

Following our lunch we headed off to follow Rick Steve's self guided walking tour through the city. Our walk led us to the Museum Gardens, which seemed to be like a city park. Many of the locals were there with their kids, strollers, picnics, on dates, laying out in the sun, playing soccer, and otherwise enjoying the day. 


Right when we entered the park, we saw the 13th century facade of the Abbey Hospital. The place was crawling with children and I imagined that if we had kids, they would be thrilled to finally see something old they were allowed to climb on. 



The highlight of the Museum Gardens for us was the remains of St. Mary's Abbey. When you travel, you never really know what things you will like, what you'll enjoy doing, what exhibits you'll find touching, and what you'll find strikes you as deeply awe inspiring. For us, the remains of St. Mary's Abbey was one of our biggest surprises. During our trip, we saw several cathedrals and minsters and castles and palaces and museums. It turns out though that scaffolding and restoration construction on these historic sites are as common as the crane in the Vegas skyline. The St. Mary's Abbey was a rare ruin though, left as it was destroyed five centuries ago. No one restored the stained glass, no one added bricks to the crumbling foundation, and no one roped off the entrance and added a toll booth. Instead they let the grass and the flowers grow and now people can come and enjoy the space, making what was once surely a horrific battle ground now a peaceful park.

According to our sage, Mr. Steves, the abbey dates back to the age of William the Conqueror. It was destroyed in the 16th century by Henry the VIII, for money and religion, and ultimately power.


Now only one wall stands. There used to be abbey's like this all over the area.


This one is part of the park, and people come and play in its remains. To us it felt kind of haunted, and it was weird thinking about a place of worship and sanctuary (and likely scandal and political power) being destroyed for the value of the lead in its roof and the idea of paying taxes to the state instead of tithing to the church. While we looked at the stone bricks that were surely chiseled and carved by hand centuries ago, a little girl was kicking a mini soccer ball with her dad under one of the arches. 


The sun would have set behind the west-facing stained glass each afternoon.


It makes a person feel small, and young, but not insignificant.


The museum gardens curators have used much of the stone remains to create pathways and new gardens. Some of the hidden alcoves are stunning and the symbolism of building from the rubble was not lost on us. 



After letting ourselves be awed by the abbey, we moved on to checking out the old multi-angled tower. There were old open (and empty) tombs and the trademark Roman red stripe of bricks. Apparently the lower stones are Roman and the upper stones are medieval. Building on top of Roman ruins was a common occurrence during medieval times, as it was very practical and cheap. And yes, you could walk around and even, should you be so inclined, climb into the tombs. We chose to keep walking as the place was overrun by 9 year old boys asking where the bodies were. 


Leaving the tower, we started our walk around the city wall. York is one of the few cities left with its original city wall still around that you can walk on. All day we were surrounded by hoards of tourists and locals alike, but suddenly we found ourselves alone on a peaceful walk on the wall.


We walked a huge portion of the wall, getting sneak glimpses into the city and sometimes having to single file. A lot of the wall was shaded and many spots still had little alcoves for archers. I felt like Robin Hood only without the whole "avenging the poor" thing.


Yes, that is a moat (now waterless). Very awesome. All it needs is a drawbridge! And so that was the end of our walk around the city. The next stop was the York Minster, which gets it own post. But first, one more picture of the Abbey.


Sunday, July 11, 2010

York-The Original (Part 1)

Growing up in the United States, we learn that places like "New York" and "New Jersey" and "New Haven" and "New Hampshire" were named such because they were named by people coming from the original towns of those names who wanted something, well, new. As a kid of course I thought that meant that somewhere there was an original "Port Beach" but that's a whole other thing.

Well Mark and I did get to visit the original York. York is famous for being the site where Constantine was crowned emperor in 306. That's the year, 306AD. Now that's history. And it's nothing like New York.

We started our trip off Friday night (June 26) and took a train up to the city. After getting a bit lost we finally found our hotel. We got up early Saturday morning and began our adventure, starting with the castle museum. The museum was very cool, and a lot bigger than we thought it would be but I'm glad we went there first because it would pale compared to museums we would see in London the next weekend. In retrospect, it might have been better to skip it and spend our time elsewhere, but since we hadn't seen bigger and better yet we really enjoyed it! How were we to know London held better (and free) museums? Some highlights from the museum included:


This quilt top was hand sewn, and up close it was amazing to see the perfectly measured pieces and identically even stitches. I have seen (and made) quilts today using fancy and expensive tools yet they lack the accuracy of this quilt. I'm not saying I'm ready to toss my rotary cutter into the rubbish bin and swear off my pfaff, but the ladies that came before us put something into their quilts that I don't have. I think it was patience.


I didn't think I would still be in my twenties when I saw a childhood toy in a museum, but there it is... an original Gameboy... I got one when I was eight. To be fair, the museum had a whole toy exhibit that went right up to 2003, but still, it was weird to see.



Tourist trap though it was, we still had fun messing around with the amusement park style picture spots. 



After the castle museum, we walked through the historic shambles, which is one of the oldest streets left in York that still maintains much of its original character. Depending on who you ask, it dates back to the 14th or 15th century. 



We ate lunch at the Concerto Cafe, at the recommendation of the Rick Steves book. We both tried food we couldn't pronounce and in the end while the food was good the atmosphere was much better. The plates and menus even had music notes on them! Very cool. 

After lunch, we headed off to the Museum Gardens and then to the York Minster, to be continued! 

Thursday, July 8, 2010

Back home

I made it back home, and whew jet lag sucks. For some reason for me coming back hit me way harder than going there.

I just wanted to let you know I put up pictures from our trip to Lingwood and our weekend in London. Look carefully and you'll find more things checked off the now famous bucket list, some beautiful shots of Big Ben, some terrifying pictures of a mummy I plan to use to frighten the next child who sasses me in class, and hopefully inspiration to spend your vacation days and go somewhere awesome.

Links to albums:

July 1

July 2

July 3

July 4

Backdated stories to follow, sometime in the coming days. Until then I leave with you some terrible poetry, inspired no doubt by jet lag.

Ode to a British Mocha

oh British mocha
so perfectly steamed
with two shots
Espresso
and real chocolate
this is how Caffeine
is intended
I'm so sorry to leave you
for my american syrup
and powder imitation
oh my perfect, perfect mocha
Starbucks be damned.

Friday, July 2, 2010

From Lingwood to London

I just wanted to leave you all with a quick status update! It may be awhile before I get back on to post pictures and finish telling all about last weekend's trip to York/Edinburgh but it will definitely happen!

Last night Mark and I took a train out to the tiny (and believe me when I say tiny) town of Lingwood. After driving through the little town of Brady once when we were in college, Mark has long wanted to visit somewhere named Lingwood. In the spirit of doing things while we have the chance, once we found ourselves near an opportunity we took it. It was certainly an adventure of sorts, filled with a silent sleepy suburb and two characters on the train who thought we were the coolest people ever because we were American. More posts on that with pictures later.


View Larger Map

Tonight we're taking the train down to London where we have another crazy jam packed weekend planned. Of all the places we're visiting though, London is the one we're most likely to come back and visit the most as it is the easiest and most likely hub for our future European travels.

My UK adventure comes to an end early Tuesday morning, when I hop on a flight back to the states so that I can pack up our apartment, find us a new place to live in LA, continue my job hunt, and generally be responsible. Mark is going to continue his work here for another 2.5 weeks after I leave so if you all complain enough, you might convince him to blog a little!