Mum, Dad, and a London Double-Decker Bus

On August 30th I met my Mom and Dad in London! I had to be very brave as I travelled by train to London, figure out the London Tube system and walk to our B&B all by myself - and I'm not terrific with directions. Thank GOD for the iPhone & GPS :-)  

After checking into my room at our B&B, the host told me my parents were down the street having lunch at a pub and for me to go meet them. As I was walking to the pub, I looked up and there, standing across the street was my Dad! What a great site in a city full of strangers!!!

Touring double-decker bus style

We spent the first full day of their vacation riding around town in one of the quintessential London double-decker hop-on hop-off tour busses. We hopped off near Westminster Abbey (sorry, no photos allowed inside) to explore. 

Westminster Abbey, Houses of Parliament & Big Ben

We braved the crowds at Westminster Abbey and Dad found the tombs of lots of famous scientists (Darwin, Galileo, Newton, etc.) for a proper scientist geek-out session. Mom & I enjoyed seeing the Kings, Queens, and writers' tombs (including Chaucer, Dickens, etc.) for a lady geek-out session.

Houses of Parliament

Clock Tower (Big Ben) and the London Eye

We hopped back on the tour bus and headed over to the Tower of London. Along the way we saw Saint Paul's Cathedral, drove over the London Bridge where we had a great view of the Tower Bridge before actually driving over the Tower Bridge. 

St. Paul's Cathedral

Tower Bridge as seen from London Bridge

Driving over the Tower Bridge

We hopped off at the Tower of London (pictures & story in the next post) and spent a quick hour and a half visiting the site before they closed for the night. 

Dad and the Tower Bridge

Whew! What a great start to a great vacation!

Ladies' Day at the York Races

Fancy-schmancy

Two weeks ago I got all dolled up (complete with British fascinator) and went to "Ladies' Day" at the York Races. Apparently the big-time horse races come to York for a week every year, and one day out of the week is Ladies' Day. On that day, everyone dresses fancy - women in dresses & hats, men in suit and tie - to enjoy the races. I thought I was dressed quite nicely, but once there realized I was one of the least dressed-up ladies in attendance. When these ladies dress up, they DRESS UP! 

The two other gals I went with (one British and one American) had attended the last four Ladies' Days at the York Races, so they knew what to do. First priority: a bottle of champagne & lots of people watching. Second priority: complementary and snarky commentary on well dressed and tacky attendees. These two hours were worth the price of admission alone. 

Champagne sippin' and people watchin'

I took a few surreptitious photos of a group of well-dressed ladies and uber-fancy hats. 

Pretty ladies

Now that's a hat!

I didn't have the guts to take a photo of any of the tacky outfits, but let's just say lady in the couture silk (?) hot-pants bodysuit with cape won the award. It was extremely hot weather, but even I know you don't wear hot-pants... especially to a fancy British shindig! 

Balcony box seating

We had tickets that allowed us into the nicest spectator section, where we could see the balcony box seats reserved for owners and their families / friends. At one point we were sitting in shaded pavilion seating (did I mention it was really hot?) near a very nicely dressed woman in her 50s and a teenage girl. The race ended with the horse owned by Lord Andrew Lloyd-Webber victorious - and five minutes later the woman (Lady Lloyd-Webber) and their teenage daughter were on the jumbotron accepting the 350,000 pound prize money. I was practically rubbing shoulders with an actual "Lady!"

We watched five out of the six races, I bet a few pounds per race and won a few pounds on race number three. All in all, a wonderful day! I'll definitely go back next year!

And they're off!

We Saw the Sea!!

Happy Sheep

The train to and from Edinburgh provided some beautiful scenery. We hadn't seen an ocean in five months, and it was surprising how comforting it was to see the sea. Not "our" ocean, but still pretty darned spectacular.

Not Pebble Beach, but a pretty golf course nonetheless

Edinburgh's Royal Military Tattoo

When Bill and I visited Edinburgh during our honeymoon almost eight years ago, we saw a few stage remnants of the Tattoo, which runs throughout August every year. There was probably one section of seating still being dismantled outside the historic castle. and a videos showcasing the Tattoo. It looked so cool, I turned to Bill and told him if we ever found ourselves in or near Edinburgh in August, we HAD to get tickets to see the Tattoo. 

Flash forward seven and a half years: I remembered my proclamation while sitting in our newly rented house (but still empty as our household shipment had yet to arrive from the states) and started researching tickets. That night I told Bill that tickets were still available on the night of my birthday, and that's basically what I wanted to do as my birthday present. Of course he said okay (he's awesome like that!), so I clicked "buy tickets" and found ourselves a room at a bed and breakfast for the weekend.

Edinburgh Castle Entrance

The Tattoo showcases national marching bands and dance troops from all over the world, with the backdrop being the entrance to Edinburgh's Castle. They sell out the stadium for every show (one show most days, two shows Friday and Saturday), and the energy of the audience was amazing.

I took a few short videos as the show started. Again, the videos upload in QuickTime, which will not play on a tablet or smart phone, but will play on a computer with QuickTime - sorry! 

I also took a very short video of Mongolia's national band as it was very pretty in an erie sort of way, with throat singing, dancing, and actual snow fall. Again, it's a QuickTime movie, so fire up that laptop or desktop and watch away!

Scotland's Pipes and Drums

My phone ran out of juice, so I didn't record anything else. But, if you want to see the band that (I think) had the most fun with the Tattoo, here's a link to a video of New Zealand's portion. Enjoy the Maori chants, traditional and pop hits, including busting out Gangnam Style click here: New Zealand

And if you're really into it, you can watch the grand finale featuring all of the bands, fireworks over the castle, the lone piper, and much more by clicking here: Finale (PS Who knew singing Auld Lang Syne involved criss-crossed arms and shaking hands with your seat mates?)

As you can tell, we had a ton of fun - three blog posts from one weekend - woohoo!! I'm already crossing my fingers, hoping we can attend the Tattoo & Fringe Festival next Summer :-)

Edinburgh - Holyrood Palace and So Much More

Arthur's Seat

Edinburgh is my most favorite city in the whole wide world. Again, I haven't been very many places, but out of the places I have been, it's up there at the tippy top. Edinburgh is built around an extinct volcano, the remnants of which are called Arthur's Seat. The rest of Edinburgh, well, old Edinburgh, is built on very hilly terrain with the medieval castle at the top of the hill (called the Royal Mile) and the newer palace at the bottom of the hill (one "Royal Mile" away and downhill). We will be touring the medieval castle with my parents in a few weeks (YAY!),  so we opted to visit Holyrood Palace at the bottom of the hill. 

Holyrood Palace Courtyard

The palace is open to the public everyday, except when the Queen is in residence. This is a fully functional home, and sadly, we weren't able to take pictures on the inside. The most interesting rooms and historical factoids (in my humble opinion) related to Mary, Queen of Scot's time spent in this castle and all the drama that entailed. 

Scottish Unicorn

Can you spot the unicorn? 

The official Scottish animal and part of Scotland's coat of arms is the Unicorn. We saw lots of unicorns in statuary around the palace and Edinburgh in general. It makes me kind of sad that Scotland's official animal is fictional.

Holyrood Abbey Remains 

Holyrood Abbey Remains

There were also a few standing walls that remained from what must have been a magnificent abbey way back in the day. I think after 5 months of living here, Bill and I have reached our ABC point (another bloody castle?!?) as the best thing we saw this whole morning was not affiliated with the palace at all, but next door in the Queen's Gallery. The current exhibit featured about 100 of Leonardo DaVinci's anatomical drawings. As an on-hiatus anatomy and physiology teacher and massage therapist, I totally geeked out! It was an extra-special surprise birthday gift from the Queen herself :-)

A Leonardo DaVinci's Anatomical Study

The rest of the time in Edinburgh we were either attending Fringe Festival events (see previous post) or the Royal Military Tattoo (see next post - coming soon), or just walking around the city, laughing at signs,

Yum?

or finding quaint little hole-in-the-wall pubs with lively people and random entertainment. 

Rockin' Out in Captain's Pub

Edinburgh - Fringe Festival Edition

I have proclaimed Edinburgh my most favorite city in the whole wide world, and last weekend it kept it's #1 standing. (Disclaimer: I haven't been to a lot of places!)

Not only is the city absolutely beautiful, we had tickets to the Military Tattoo (more on that in a future post), we visited Holyrood Palace and had a surprise encounter with Leonardo DaVinci's anatomical drawings (more on these items in another future post), AND the Fringe Festival was taking place. What is the Fringe Festival, you ask? Well, Bill & I really didn't know until we got there. 

Fringe Event Posters Plastered EVERYWHERE

Turns out, the Fringe festival celebrates music, theater, and comedy. Things were literally happening EVERYWHERE you looked! In fact, as we were winding down our last full day we stumbled upon three more large venue spaces with theaters, food courts, etc. that we had not yet seen - and we had seen a lot! We wished we had known the size and scope of the Fringe festival so we could have planned our trip a bit more, but sometimes stumbling upon things is the most fun of all. 

On Sunday we saw three one-hour plays that were all quite good. The best was a powerful one-woman show about a young woman training to be on UK's first ever olympic boxing team. The play was call Bitch Boxer and the writer/actress was Charlotte Josephine. I hope we get to see a lot more of her on TV and in the movies - she was awesome!

Drumming up Business

You had to pay for many of the shows, but people were out drumming up business (sometimes literally) for their shows with pamphlets, short street performances, etc.

There were pipers, of course.

And a group I could have listened to all day.

Bill liked the band from the photo above better, but unfortunately I didn't get a video of their performance. We also saw fire jugglers, "comedians" (I think the good ones didn't have to drum up business), and much, much more.  

I want to go back and experience the Fringe Festival again, but I know the next time won't hold that magic of discovery. But it will still probably be awesome. 

PS Look at me, gettin' all fancy with the video blog!! :-)

Knocking about Knarsborough

Knarsburough

Last week one of my new friends took me on a 15 minute drive to visit the next town over, Knarsborough. I had heard it was pretty, but pretty is an understatement! The bridge is for the trains to and from York, so it's functional, but much more picturesque than your basic train bridge. 

Knarsburough Bridge

We learned on the walking tour we attended that Knarsborough is built around a gorge, which was quite steep to walk up and down from the car park. Even tough we walked up the more gentle slope, I was definitely winded by the time we got to the top and castle ruins. The castle was razed by Oliver Cromwell's crew during their puritanical reign (after the British civil war) and only a small portion still stands.

Remains of Knarsburough Castle

At the castle ruins there was a costumed lady with her pet ravens. I'm not quite sure what that was all about, but she talked to visitors while feeding her pets raw chicken livers. She warned us not to get too close, as one of the ravens has been known to peck at people. Yikes!

Have a piece of liver, my precioussss!

After the walking tour and our own poking about, we hiked down the steeper, riverside path and had some iced coffee at a riverbank cafe. What a fun day! I can't wait to go back soon, as it's quite nearby. 

Riverside view of Knarsburough Bridge

PS Daniel Craig owns a home in Knarsburough - on Bond Drive, no less - and is often seen in and around town.

Impromptu Trip to York

Earlier this week I had all my household cleaning supplies out, ready for a day of chores. I checked the Internet and noticed a train was leaving for York in 30 minutes. I instantly realized that I could catch the train; I grabbed my purse and headed to the station. 

The ride to York is 35 minutes of mostly beautiful scenery.

Yorkshire Countryside

Once in York, I walked the long way around the medieval city walls to find Micklegate Bar. This was the city's main point of entry for hundreds of years. During the War of the Roses, big battle losers' prominent leaders would have their heads posted on spikes atop Micklegate Bar. I'm sure this helps add fuel to the whole "York is the most haunted city in England" story.

Micklegate Bar

As luck would have it, I ran into the original York Ghost Walk tour leader (and his creepy sidekick) drumming up business and posing for my camera.

I walked around for several hours, got a little lost and found my way again. All the while seeing some pretty cool sites to photograph. 

An old building's clock

Medieval Gargoyles Chillin'

...and everyone's celebrating the Doctor's 50th anniversary this week - even cake shops!!

EXTERMINATE!!!

Before heading back to the train station, I took this picture of the Minster's famous rose window. I can't wait to see it from the inside again! 

York Minster's Rose Window

On the train home, I got one more good picture. This time of nearby Knarsborogh. All in all a successful day. Except I still had a house that needed cleaning... but this was way more fun!

Knarsborough

Brightwell cum Sotwell

After our weekend adventures in Oxford, Bill dropped me off in the tiny village of Brightwell cum Sotwell, about 30 minutes outside of Oxford. It was in this tiny village (actually, two teeny-tiny villages - Brightwell and Sotwell - that grew into one tiny village) Dr. Edward Bach created his now famous flower remedies. 

I stayed at a bed and breakfast that has traditional rooms, but I was lucky enough to book their small shepherd's hut. Here's a picture of the hut, and its daytime and sunset views. 

Shepherd's Hut

Daytime View

Sunset View

I took the level one course at the Bach center where I learned about the 38 flower remedies and their basic uses. It's kind of like aromatherapy and helps people deal with their emotions such as fear, impatience, anxiety, grief, despair, etc. 

Below is an image of Dr. Bach's former home, which is now the Bach Centre. The centre's garden is also where they grow the flowers for all of their remedies. It was an incredibly HOT week in England, but the garden was beautiful. I've included several garden photos. Enjoy! 

Bach Centre

Bach's Rock Rose

Bach's Honeysuckle

Bach's Cerato

Pretty Flower in Bach Garden

I'm already booked for level 2 and another stay in the shepherd's hut in October. Perhaps I'll get to use the hut's wood burning stove next time!