England and Scotland 4: London and the Queen!

At the end of our trip we spent two days in London. Mark and I went on our own one day and the next day we drove in with Mark's parents (and here's something that surprised me about London: when you drive in you have to pay an 8 pound "congestion charge," but you don't pay at a toll, you can pay on the internet before or after your visit or they'll bill you! That's about 16 dollars, by the way.). The first day we went to The British Museum and the Tate Modern and the second day we saw the Queen in the morning and wandered around the rest of the day seeing some of the nice neighborhoods.

I loved the British Museum, which is huge but very well organized. The map of the museum even includes a list of highlights, so we made sure to see all of those even though we didn't have time to see absolutely everything. The Tate Modern was also very nice, though I can't say that I understand modern art very well, so some of the pieces didn't do much for me. It was a real mix of styles, from fairly representational to completely non-representational, so I'd say there was something for everyone. The first picture is Mark in the Tate Modern with his foot in a crack that extends the length of the bottom floor, starting from a tiny little crack on one side and getting deeper and bigger as it goes across.

The next picture is the Queen in her carriage! I have one picture that's a bit closer, but I like this one because it shows that this is a woman who truly travels in style! After that is me at King's Cross Station, pushing the trolley that's attached so it looks like it's halfway through the wall at platform nine and three quarters, and the last is a little barge on the Thames that I liked because it says, "I eat rubbish."

That's all for England and Scotland, thanks for reading!
Cate

England and Scotland 3: Scotland

On Halloween we left Mark's village for the 6 hour journey up to Scotland. We stayed in a hotel that was made to look like a castle (see the first picture on the left), which had been renovated to make self-catering apartments. We stayed right in the middle turret, which was cool.

The first day we visited a whiskey distillery and took a tour, and we also tried haggis, which is a meaty concoction traditionally made of the heart, liver, and lungs of a sheep and boiled in the sheep's stomach. It looked and tasted like very peppery ground beef, and it was served with neeps and tatties (mashed turnips and mashed potatoes). The next day Mark and I went to Edinburgh and took a bus tour of the city (the second picture is Edinburgh castle taken from the bus). We also visited a few pubs and a really nice art gallery. On that last day we took a bike ride around a loch, which was beautiful, but Mark's mom fell and needed stitches in her knee.

The last picture on the left is a bagpipe player who was playing for tips just outside the station. Thanks for reading! My next post will include London and the Queen!

England and Scotland 2: Cambridge

Our third day in England we went to Cambridge where Mark's uncle and his family live. Before meeting the family we had some time to explore, so we went punting down the river with a tour guide and then visited a nice art gallery. Cambridge was beautiful, and it was a really nice day, though very cold.

The first picture was taken while we were punting and it's a bridge that was supposedly modelled after the Bridge of Sighs in Venice, though I don't think they look alike at all. The next picture is the quad of one of the colleges where they filmed a scene from Chariots of Fire (people try to run all the way around the quad while the bell is striking twelve and make it back before the last note ends - 42 seconds, I think - it's only been done three times). The next picture is on the streets of Cambridge, and the last one is Mark's parents and our guide while we were punting.

Thanks for reading, next post: Scotland!

England and Scotland 1: Stonehenge

Hello! Mark and I just returned from two weeks in England and Scotland! We went sightseeing and met Mark's relatives, and it was a very busy two weeks so I'll post about it in a few installments.

Our very first day we went to Stonehenge, which was top on my list of things to see. There's a fence around it so you can't walk amongst the stones like you could years ago, but you can still get close enough, I think. It was very cold and cloudy when we were there, but that only added to the mysterious atmosphere. There was a free audio guide, so we learned a bit about the stones while we walked around. The most interesting thing I learned is that no one knows who actually put the stones up (all this time I thought it was the druids for some reason).

The first picture is the stones (I took a lot of shots, and this is the best one for showing the whole thing without too many tourists in the way) and the second is Mark and his dad (can you see how cold and windy it is?).

Thanks for reading, more soon!
Cate