Istanbul - Part Two

Saturday, November 21st

Day two in Istanbul was jam packed with sites and activities. We started at the Hagia Sophia. As noted in the last post, this is the Byzantine church built by the Romans that was converted to a mosque and is now a museum.

The place was massive. It was much more open than most churches we've seen, which tend to have a lot of columns running through the middle. This place just felt like one gigantic room, probably because it was, and they say the Statue of Liberty can fit inside the dome).

They've left up a lot of the remnants of both Islam and Christianity that remain. The walls were originally covered with Christian mosaics, but were subsequently plastered over by the Muslims. In the conversion to a museum, many of these were found to be in good condition. It was interesting to see the images of Christ on one wall and then turn a corner to see Muslim decor.

The most interesting thing though, I think, was the placement of the altar. In Christian churches at the time, the altar faced east, so that the people were facing Jerusalem. Also, Christ was at the time thought to be returning from the east (based on a piece of scripture), so people wanted to be facing that way just in case! As most know, Muslims are required to face their holy city of Mecca when they pray. Mecca is slightly southeast of Istanbul, which presented a bit of a problem when the church was converted to a mosque. To solve it, they just put the Muslim altar slightly askew in the apse, so if you're looking straight down the middle of the building, the altar is set off slightly to the right.

Our next stop was the Topkapi Palace - the home of the sultans.

This started as a fortress, but over time was turned into a royal palace that was added to by each subsequent ruler until it became a lavish estate. We toured the whole place, and again were blown away at the interior decoration. Every room was covered in ornate, colorful tiles. It is like nothing we've seen anywhere else. This is officially Europe, but when you step into these places, you wouldn't be surprised to see Aladdin walk around the corner!

We toured several different buildings and gardens, all of which were very nice, but our favorite part by far was the harem. The common misconception of a harem is, of course, that it was a den of beautiful young women that were at the disposal of the sultan. In fact, the harem is simply a reference to the sultan's inner household. The harem was full of slave women, but the vast majority were simply servants. He could take up to four wives (usually chosen by his mother), but many took less than that. He was also allowed to have up to four concubines as well, but these were chosen by his mother and wives. This was all done not to simply give him pleasure, but instead to ensure the family dynasty continued. Because of these practices, the same family ruled here from the inception, something that was very rare in time.

So we definitely learned a big lesson about harems!! We got to see several apartments and reception halls and various other parts of the inner palace - all ornately decorated. Jenna just loved all of the beautiful and different tiles throughout the palace! Like the mosques, I wouldn't necessarily say these were more beautiful than other European palaces, but it was just so different that it was a nice change.

We next made a quick stop at an underground cistern - basically a giant well. It is the size of a couple of football fields, and is a large pool filled with columns. It was built by the Romans using columns from existing structures, so each is different. It sits right in the middle of the old town, and was provided water to the Roman citizens. When the Turks took over, they neglected it, but it stayed in fairly good working condition and still provided water to all of the wells in the main part of the city. It was rediscovered in the recent past and turned into a big tourist attraction, good for a look at some interesting old columns and some great photos.

After grabbing a quick lunch, we headed to the Grand Bazaar. This has been around for hundreds of years, and used to sell everything that you can imagine (other than the spices sold at the market down the road). Now, it is heavy on jewellery and souvenirs. The place is gigantic and a maze of shops, so it was fun to just wander around and peek into the shops.

After leaving the market, we headed up to the new town to wander down the main shopping street. On the way, we stopped by one of the other main mosques in town, The Mosque of Suleyman the Magnificent. Unfortunately this one is under a major refurbishment so the inside is mostly closed, but the small portion that we did get to see was pretty amazing.

We made it up to the New Town just after sunset, when there were a ton of people out. This is where they had all the major retail chains, which weren't a huge pull for us, but we did enjoy a nice dinner, and it was interesting to see the hundreds of people shopping along the street. This was definitely the place to be in the evenings.

After dinner we headed off for what turned out to be the highlight of the day, and probably the trip - the Turkish Bath. We'd heard this was a great experience, but weren't exactly sure what to expect. We showed up and split off to our separate areas (there is a small amount of nudity involved, so they split the sexes). It was essentially the same for both of us, but Jenna did get a little extra massage at the end. Here is a brief description of what happens:

You go into a private room to change clothes and put on a towel, and then make your way to the bath. There is a large round heated marble slab in the middle of a very warm and steamy room, and surrounding the slab are several small sinks. You sit next to a sink and use a small bowl to pour hot water all over yourself. Once you're all warmed up and relaxed, you go over to lay on the slab and wait to be scrubbed. After laying for a short time a large Turkish man (or woman for Jenna) who speaks absolutely no English tells you to come over. Since he can't tell you where to lay or what to do, he pretty much throws your body around into the right position. He then proceeds to scrub your body with a coarse rag and soapy water, and then gives you a quick massage. It was by far the most interesting and foreign experience we've had since we've been in Europe, and it felt amazing. Definitely something to experience at least once in your life!!! For a reference, here is a picture from the website of what the bath looks like:

After the bath, we were completely relaxed and ready to fall into bed, so we stumbled back to the hotel and collapsed into an amazingly restful night's sleep.

Istanbul - Part One

For the one or two of you who read this blog on a regular basis, you may remember that on our cruise this summer we stopped in Kusadasi, Turkey, and that it was by far our least favorite stop along the way, and maybe our least favorite destination so far. Well, we felt like we might not be giving Turkey a fair assessment based on one port city, and we'd heard that Istanbul was really nice, so we decided to give it another try.

We are so glad that we made that decision. Istanbul is such an amazing and foreign place!! It's a city that sits on two continents, has a skyline dominated by mosques, and has a history that puts it as the center of the Roman and Ottoman empires. We spent four days, which will warrant multiple posts, and we literally can't say enough about what we experienced there. It has made its way into my (Aaron's) "Top 5 cities", and I think it will definitely be one of the most memorable trips that we've taken during our time in Europe.

Friday, November 20th - Arrival

We left early in the morning, but with a 4 hour flight and crossing two time zones, we didn't actually arrive in Istanbul until early in the afternoon. This is the only city in the world that sits on two different continents. The "old" part of the city that holds all the main sites as well as most of the business districts is in Europe. Just across the Bosphorus Straight to the west is Asia, which is mostly residential. Our flight arrived on the Asian side, which was good because we got to check off another new continent, but had the downside of a 1.5 hour trip to our hotel. We didn't end up getting to the hotel until after 4:30, but it was worth it to get a nice ride through the city.

The first thing that struck us was the number of Turkish flags flying everywhere. In America it seems like people are a little flag-crazy, with banks and churches and everyone else flying Old Glory. Europe is completely different, especially EU countries. Most government buildings will have the national flag (along side the EU flag), and some of the historical tourist sites will have them, but in general you don't see the national pride - at least not through flag bearing. Turkey was different, giving the USA a run for its money with the big red flag seen all over the place. You definitely knew what country you were in!!

The second thing that struck us were the minarets. These are the tall spires that are associated with mosques. Turkey is officially a secular nation, but with 99% of the population being Muslim, Islam definitely has a major hold on the city. There were tons of mosques throughout the city - we saw dozens just on our trip in. They are especially noticeable because the city doesn't have many buildings taller than 3-4 stories, and the minarets pop up to define the skyline. Just driving in from the airport we knew we were in for a very different experience!!

Since we got such a late start, the sites were starting to shut down, but I think we got a great taste in the short time that we did have. Our first stop was at the Sultan Ahmed I Mosque, but before we get too far, a short history lesson...please excuse any inaccuracies!! If you're not interested, just hop down to the next picture.

Around 300 AD, the Roman Empire was divided, with two Caesars ruling the empire. One of these was Constantine, who set up his capital near the far eastern border of the empire, naming it Constantinople. As time passed, he fought several civil wars against the other ruler, and eventually won control of the entire empire, with Constantinople as his home. He was the first Christian emperor, and ended the persecution of Christians that had existed since the Crucifixion.

Later, the Emperor Justinian built a giant church in the city, which would be the largest church in the world for 1,000 years. Time passed and the empire fell, and at last the city itself was conquered by the Turks in the 1400s, and the Sultan had the church converted into a Mosque, with the Christian symbols plastered over and 4 minarets being built outside. This, the Hagia Sophia was the main mosque in the city until it was converted to a museum in the 1930s. Subsequent sultans wanted to leave their mark on the city and please Allah, and as such tried to one-up the Hagia Sophia and each other. The first of these was the Suleymaniye Mosque, and the second and grandest was the Sultan Ahmed I Mosque. It was built with 6 minarets, which was apparently a very big deal, as this matched the number at the mosque in Mecca. To show who was really numero uno, a 7th minaret was soon built at the mosque in Mecca.

The sultans continued to rule the Ottoman Empire up through WW1, where they sided with Germany and the empire fell at the hands of the Allies. In the 1930's the country of Turkey was formed and has existed in essentially the same form to this day, with the government headed in centrally-located Ankara. Also, the city of Constantinople was renamed to Istanbul, which you probably knew already from the song:

Istanbul was Constantinople

Now it's Istanbul, not Constantinople

Been a long time gone, Constantinople

Why did Constantinople get the works

That's nobody's business but the Turks

Hopefully that wasn't too much history. In any case it should help give a little perspective on what we saw.

As I said, our first stop was the grand Sultan Ahmed I Mosque, better known as the Blue Mosque for the colored tiles that line the inside. Our hotel was just a block or so from here, and we arrived just before 5:00 which put us in the main courtyard to hear our first call to prayer.

In Islam, people are required to pray 5 times per day at times which are determined by the position of the sun. Since the timing can be a little confusing, they started announcing it to the people, which is why mosques all have minarets. The guy would climb to the top and shout out the call for all the people to hear to remind them to pray. Now, the call is read from inside the mosque, but blasted through the city via loud speakers attached to the minarets.

We'd read about the call to prayer and heard it described by many as "eerie". I think this is probably due to a mix of its association with a foreign religion, its being sung in a language that sounds nothing like English, and its use as a background track to numerous films concerning terrorism and Islamic extremism. I for one loved the idea of it (other than the fact that the first is around 5am, which did affect our sleeping). If you look at a translation, they are basically just saying "Come to pray", and then listing out several of the tenets of the faith (there is no god but Allah, etc). I think it is something similar to if every church in the US blasted "Jesus Loves Me" from the steeple, which I'm sure would seem eerie to a visiting Muslim who only spoke Arabic. I really wish that our churches did something similar as a reminder to break away from our busy days and focus a few minutes on God.

The mosque itself was awe inspiring. I wouldn't say that it was necessarily "better" than the cathedrals like St. Peters or the Duomo, it was just very different, and I think we were struck by the beauty in the differences from the churches that we've been visiting so often of late. First, the inside was so colorful!! Most cathedrals are plain stone, and although the architecture is incredibly beautiful, the amount of gray can make it a little drab. The Blue Mosque, however, is covered in tiles, (as are most mosques, and other Turkish buildings, for that matter). The patterns and colors were just so different that we were blown away. Also, the entire place was carpeted with bright red supple carpet with nice designs, which was also a far cry from the stone or tile floors of all European cathedrals. The architecture was also great. Similar in its awesomeness to many churches, but again, just different - with a focus more on domes and spires than on naves and apses.

We left the mosque and still had time to make it to one more thing before the day was done - the Egyptian Spice Market. This is an indoor market hall lined with small vendors. It originally filled with owners selling spices exclusively, which is where the name comes from, but over time a few other shops selling jewellery, clothing, pottery, and other goods have popped up as well. Spices are definitely still king here, though - something that we knew the second we stepped through the door and were hit with a shock of wonderful new aroma.

We walked the and browsed the shops, amazed at wonderful colors and fragrances of all the spices, and also amazed at the differences between this market and the one in Kusadasi. One of the most off-putting things about that place was that as you walked through the market, you were approached by every vendor who tried to coerce you to buy their carpets and leather goods and fake designer clothes. We'd heard that the markets in Istanbul were the same way, so we were a little apprehensive to go, but it turned out to be way more laid back. We did get a few people who talked to us, but we never really felt like they were pushy at all. In Kusadasi, we couldn't look in a window without being mobbed. It was a great experience, and we walked away with an armful of apple tea (a local favorite) and Turkish delight (famous candy which is hard to describe but delicious to eat).

By the time we'd finished it was getting on in the evening, and we were getting hungry. We once again trusted the judgement of our Rick Steves' guidebook, and once again were not disappointed. Dinner started with a giant piece of flat bread that was very good and helped stretch out our stomachs to make way for the incredible kebaps that we'd ordered for the meal. I had lamb and Jenna had Chicken, and both were just delicious. Not sure if it was the spices or just our recent lack of decent grilled meat, but we were in heaven. We were completely stuffed, but of course that didn't stop us from capping it all off with some delicious baklava and apple tea for dessert. After finishing, we waddled back down to the hotel and headed to bed early in order to get a good start on Saturday...

to be continued...

In the pursuit of employment

So let me start this off by saying that I, Jenna, have always been handed jobs on silver platters. At age 15 I started working at the Olathe Public Library, I got the job because my best friend was already employed there. At 16 immediately after I finished my lifeguard class I went with ratty chloriney hair and wearing my swimsuit to see if I could get a job at Prairie Village Pool, while my Mom waited in the minivan. About 5 minutes later I was handed a whistle and a swimsuit and told to come back Monday morning. At 19 I worked for my Dad's college roommate's wife in her ice cream shop, PJ's. At 22 I applied for 3 nursing jobs before graduation and I had my choice between the 3. All of this to explain that I have never had to go through what I have in the past year in trying to be employed.

Summer 2008

I had looked in to getting a nursing job in the UK a tiny bit and all I could find to do was to take the International English Language Test (IELTS). I applied to take it in Dallas on one of our free weekends, but the test ended up being cancelled. I figured it wouldn't be a problem and I would just take it in London when we got there.

Fall 2008

Shortly after arriving I contacted the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) to make sure I applied to take the correct IELTS, there are two. I applied to take the IELTS required on October 11th. The day came and went, the test was pretty simple, however when the results came two weeks later, I was sad to realize I did not get 100% on the test! I was in the passing range but I thought I should have done a little better on the test that was testing me on my knowledge of my native language! I called the NMC and let them know I was done and I had the results. This is where they informed me that I took the wrong test and I needed to take the other one. Needless to say this was a very sad day for me!

So the next day, after a lot of consoling from Aaron I took myself down to apply for the next test. The earliest I could sign up was November 15. I took the test, pretty much the same thing. Two weeks later I received my results. I was happier this time, I did do a little bit better on the test, but still not 100%! I notified the NMC that I had my results and they informed me that they would send a packet in the mail.

Winter 2008

I received the packet in the mail about mid-December. I had to send specific forms to my school, Olivet's, registrar, the head of the nursing department at Olivet, the Texas Board of Nurses, and two references. Then they had to fill out this specific form and mail it back. Luckily we had friends, Eric and Anne, that were going home for Christmas and they agreed to take the forms that I had preaddressed and stamped home with them and mail them from there to 'speed the process along'.

Also I had to send the NMC a notarized copy of my nursing license, birth certificate, passport, work visa, and marriage license. Well come to find out they don't really have notaries here. I had to make an appointment with a lawyer to notarize my documents, which wasn't the cheapest. So I complete all of that and mail it all in and wait on all of my documents from the States.

In February I went home for two weeks for one of my college roommates weddings and also to visit my sister and brother-in-law and to meet my newborn nephew Kale. While I was home Aaron called me and let me know that the NMC had mailed me a letter. My notarized passport copy was not stamped, one of the references they received did not have my start and end dates of employment, my school transcript was not yet received.

While I was home I was able to get a copy of my passport notarized. I also contacted my reference and asked them to resend their form with the start and end dates of my employment. I thought this would take care of all the problems. When I got back to the UK I sent my passport and contacted the NMC. They hadn't received my recent reference yet but they had received my school transcript. Unfortunately the way the US records school credit hours is different from the way the UK and most of the rest of the world records them. For example my Intro to Nursing class was 3 credit hours. In the UK they count credit hours as how many hours were actually spent in the class or in a clinical setting. It took several months to figure out this difference and several more weeks to get in contact with my schools registrar and the head of the nursing program at Olivet to get all of this straightened out! Very frustrating! Basically I ended up talking with the department head and we guessed how many hours each clinical and class time consisted of and she filled out the form and mailed it back to the UK.

Summer 2009

Finally in the middle of June, after numerous phone calls back and forth to the NMC, figuring out which paperwork they had lost/misfiled and finding again, all my paperwork was finally in! Finally I was able to sign up to take a Nursing Certification class! Basically this class was to educate you on how the UK health system worked. Unfortunately for me there were  not a lot of class options and most of them were taking a summer holiday! At this point I was feeling like I was never going to catch a break...

I did sign up to take a class that started at the end of August.  It was in Bournemouth, England, about 90 minutes away via train. However I only had to go 3 times over a months time and it was on the southern coast of England. It was also rumoured to have a nice beach. Things were starting to look up!

I started the class the end of August. It was a painless train ride to Bournemouth. The class was supposed to start at 9am and last all day. We were sent home with homework at 1pm. So I headed down the street to spend the rest of the afternoon at the beach. Now we're talking...:) In my class there were several Austrailian nurses that also had to complete the IELTS test and had to take this class. That made me feel a little better that people in the commonwealth still had to go through what I had just gone through! They also had some of the same horror stories of the NMC losing documents and having to start the process over again!

While in the class I heard of a nursing agency located in London called Pulse. When I wasn't doing my homework or going to class over the next month I went and interviewed with them and got a job as a nursing assistant. I was cleared to start working in that role about the same time I found out I passed the class, September 22nd 2009. Once I passed the class there was of course more paperwork to be sent in before I actually received my license back. While waiting on my license I worked as a tech. I worked in a few different hospitals which wasn't the greatest but I mostly worked for a home health agency which was pretty good.

Fall 2009

The home health job had me working 15 hour days, navigating neighborhoods in Camden, Hampstead Heath, Chalk Farm and Belsize Park. I mostly helped elderly people that had been sick or were recently home from hospital prepare a meal or wash for the day. I always prepared a cup of tea and biscuits. A few times I sat with an elderly confused man at a nursing home while he watched tele, and ate his dinner. He would get angry with a few of the other residents and start yelling at them to "Shut Up!" I filled my time working hard as a nurse tech for the next month. I was thrilled to get out of the flat and start making money again! I'd had a year off and I didn't know it at the time, but I think I was depressed. I always thought I would like to not work, but it turns out that watching t.v. all day can be a little depressing!!

I finally got the letter on October 28th 2009 that I could start working as a nurse. I let my agency know that as soon as I could! I was ready to start doing what I was licensed to do! :) From there on out I mostly worked in the PACU at one hospital, Chelsea and Westminster. I worked with a great group of people from all over the world! The manager was Austrailian and there were staff there from the UK, Scotland, Ireland, Spain, Holland, New Zealand, Austrailia, the Philippines, and me the American! Working there was very similar to working at home. The patient:nurse ratio was 1:1 which is better than it is in the US. The hardest part was getting used to the generic names for drugs and figuring out what the doctors preferences were. (As an agency nurse that is always the challenge.)

I had a great time working in the UK once I was finally allowed to do so. C&W was a short bus ride across the Thames, if it was a nice day I would walk, which was sometimes faster than the bus. I met some great people working there and I am so thankful that I stuck with the long paperwork process and that I was finally gainfully employed!

Kaboom!

Jenna and I's dating anniversary is the 5th of November (1997, if you're really interested). Turns out that England thinks that was a pretty important event, because it is the one day where they set off fireworks (other than New Years). We appreciate that the Brits have decided to give us the attention that we rightly deserve.

So here is a quick history lesson on why they really have the fireworks this day...

So in the 1500s, Henry VIII (of many wives fame) changed religion in England, breaking from the Catholic church in order to divorce his first wife. After he died, there was a struggle between the Catholics and Protestants, depending who was on the throne. His son Edward, a Protestant, took the throne first, and wasn't exactly nice to the Catholics in England. After his short reign, Henry's daughter from his first marriage Mary, a Catholic, took the throne and enacted a good deal of revenge on the Protestants who'd been in power, earning her the title of Bloody Mary.

After Mary died, her sister Elizabeth (Anne Boleyn's daughter), took over and reigned for over 40 years, ushering in what is now thought of as the Golden Age for England, when life was relatively stable, they defeated the Spanish Armada, and Shakespeare was on the scene. Maybe more importantly was the fact that although she was officially Protestant, she was mostly neutral toward the Catholics living in the country. She made several concessions to how the Church of England worshipped to be more in line with the Catholics, and she didn't go around burning them as heretics.

When she died in 1603, James I came to the throne. The hope was that he would be as open minded as his predecessor, but it didn't exactly turn out that way. As a result, a few radicals decided that he needed to go.

At that time, the monarch spent quite a bit of time in the Parliament, and where the king goes, the important people follow. There are apparently a lot of tunnels and cellars that run underneath the building. These radicals started a conspiracy to blow up the building, including the king and most of the nobility with it. If you've seen the film "V for Vendetta", this may sound somewhat familiar. They rented out a cellar underneath the Parliament and over some time filled it with 36 barrels of gunpowder.

They started feeling a little bad, because they knew that there were a few guys in the Parliament who were Catholic themselves. An anonymous letter made its way to one of these guys, saying to stay away for a little while. He played it smart and passed the letter to the king, who started a search. Early in the morning on the 5th of November, they caught a gentleman by the name of Guy Fawkes in the room with all the gunpowder, and the plot was discovered and thwarted.

In order to celebrate the fact that the king was saved, the citizens of London lit bonfires across the city. Ever since, the night of the Fifth of November is known as Bonfire Night, although it is more commonly referred to as Guy Fawkes Day. Not really sure why they named the day after the conspirator, but that's another story. They still light bonfires throughout the country, but over the years they've also added the burning of effigies of Guy Fawkes, and they also do big fireworks displays.

We went to 2 displays - one on Thursday the 5th and another on the Saturday. Based on these, we decided that the UK does fireworks a heck of a lot better than the US. We've seen 4th of July displays in Kansas City, Addison Texas (supposedly one of the best in the country), and two in Washington DC, where you'd think they'd have the best show around and countless others. Must say that these two random shows that we saw - both within walking distance of our flat (not like outside Buckingham or anything) - stood up to any that we've seen at home.

The first was in Clapham Common, just south of our flat. It was free, and much better than we expected. It lasted 25 minutes, and was pretty much big and fancy from the beginning. They had some music playing in the background as well, but the speaker system wasn't the best. Either way, the show was good.

On Saturday, Eric and Anne came down and we went to Battersea Park, just north of our flat. This one did charge a small admission, but the show was well worth it. They had the whole show set to contemporary music that was playing over huge speakers. The show went non-stop with huge explosions across the sky. It was really awesome.

The only thing that made it a little weird was the fact that we were watching fireworks in full coats and still feeling cold, which just didn't feel right. In all though, we thought it was a really nice way to celebrate our anniversary.

100 Square Feet

As we noted in our last post, my Mom spent the last two weeks of October visiting us with her friend Cindy. Mom spends a week in Germany every year, so she pretty much gets a free ride over here, which was nice. She came for just a few days last year, but wanted to make an extended stay of it this time around.

Week One

They arrived early on a Saturday morning, Mom coming in from Frankfurt and Cindy from Kansas City. By the time we got home from the airport, we were all pretty wasted, so we took a mid afternoon nap. Turned out to be a pretty relaxed day - and we introduced them to wonder that is Indian food for dinner, which they thoroughly enjoyed, although they did play it pretty safe with what they ordered!

On Sunday we went our separate ways - us to Mallorca and them to Paris. We came back Monday night, but they were in Paris for an extra day. The rest of the week was pretty relaxed. They were very independent, spending the days touring around the city, and seeing Mamma Mia, which Jenna and Anne got to go with them. On Wednesday night, we went to the Ceremony of the Keys at the Tower of London. Every night there is a big ceremony to lock up the Tower. This is something that started over 700 years ago as a necessity to protect the crown jewels and prisoners that were within the Tower, but as they've done it absolutely every night since (even during the bombings in WW2), it has now become a bit of an event. Basically, it is a lot of marching and hollering things like "God save the Queen," but it was interesting none the less.

Scotland

On Friday, we left early for a long weekend in Scotland. Jenna and I had been planning a trip there from the beginning, and when Mom said it was on the top of her list, we thought it would be nice to travel together.

We flew into Edinburgh, but immediately grabbed a car a headed north toward the highlands. We stopped first at Stirling, which was the strategic stronghold of the Scots during their conflicts with the English. In fact, all three of the major battles from "Braveheart" (Stirling, Falkirk, and Bannockburn) took place within a few miles of here. There is a castle here that we went to see. It wasn't really anything to write home about, but we did take the free tour and got a lot of information about Scottish history. Suffice it to say - Braveheart was a prety good movie, but far from fact.

We left Stirling and headed up to Loch Ness. We kept our eyes peeled...but no Nessy.

To be serious, though, the drive up into and through the highlands was really nice. The leaves were changing colors on the trees on the hillsides made for a very pleasant drive. And when we got to the Loch, we were really impressed by how nice it was. At the lakeside there is ruined castle. We got there after it had closed, but I think this made it better, because there was nobody else around. We couldn't go into the castle, but we got some great views of it and the lake, which looked amazing with the changing season.

We stayed that night at a nice B&B in Inverness, the largest city in the highlands that sits at the tip of Loch Ness. We only really saw the town in the evening, but it was a pretty nice place to lay our heads. In the morning we headed back toward Edinburgh, stopping along the way to see an ancient burial site/stone circles, and also the smallest scotch distillery in the country, both of which were pretty interesting.

When we got back to Edinburgh, we dropped our things at a B&B, dropped off the rental car, and headed to the main site in the city - the Edinburgh Castle. We got a little bit more of a history lesson, but this was really more of a look-and-see. Probably the main site was the Scottish crown jewels, which are actually older (though not as nice) as the English ones. We also saw some so-so royal apartments, the nice Great Hall, and an impressive WW1 memorial. There were also some great views over the city, as the the castle, of course, sits on the top of a high hill.

The main tourist sites in Edinburgh are on what's called the Royal Mile, which is almost exactly a one mile stretch between the Edinburgh Castle and the Palace of Holyrood - the Queen's official Scottish residence. After leaving the castle, we headed down the mile a bit, but as all the sites were closed or closing, we were really only able to pop into a few tourist shops. We grabbed some dinner at a place that was suggested by Rick. A bit touristy, but I did get a chance to try haggis, which turned out to be much better than expected. If you haven't heard, I think the traditional way to make it is to mix sausage and various grains together, stuff them into a sheep's stomach, and boil the whole thing. Not sure how they actually make it, but it looked a tasted very similar to meatloaf, just with more of a sausage taste. All the girls went with stuff safer and less memorable.

On Sunday morning, Jenna and I screwed up the changing of the clocks and were therefore and hour late to breakfast. Whoops!! We rushed through, though, and only got a slightly late start on the sight seeing. Mom and Cindy were interested in seeing the Palace, but since we've been to several royal palaces, including two of Queen Elizabeth's, we figured we could skip it. They went and did enjoy it, but we opted to do a hike up Arthur's Seat, a giant rocky hill formation that runs up from the Palace. It is about an 800 foot hike, so nothing too serious, but it was really nice. The weather was nice at the beginning but it started to mist about half way up - just enough to be annoying but not enough that an umbrella was any use. By the time we got to the top, though, it had stopped and the sun was shining, giving us some great views of the whole city and countryside. It was a little windy and packed with people, so we didn't spend a lot of time up there, but it was well worth the 45 minute hike.

After the hike we made our way up the Royal Mile, stopping in a few shops along the way (mainly Christmas shops), and getting some history lessons from Rick's guided walk. We grabbed a late lunch at the famous Balmoral Hotel (in our 1000 Places book), which was standard fancy hotel fare, though surprisingly affordable. We then went off to the last main site in the city - the Cathedral of St Giles. The cathedral it self wasn't exactly the most impressive, but there were a few things that made it very worth while. First, they had painted about half of the ceiling an incredibly vibrant blue, which the cross sections running through it painted white (looking kinda like the Scottish flag). We've never seen any church with painted ceilings like this, so it was something new and interesting. The thing that was really nice, though, was that we got to hear a little choir practice. They had the pipe organ going strong and about 30 people singing various hymns. If you've never heard music sung in one of these large cathedrals with full pipes and choir, I tell you that it is an experience not to be missed.

After this, the day was dwindling on and we'd seen everything we came for. We met back up with Mom and Cindy for a cup of hot chocolate to share the adventures of the day and show off some of our little trinkets purchased, before heading off to the airport and back home to London.

Week Two

After returning to London, I had to go back to work and Jenna had to work a little, so the ladies were pretty much back on their own. They did quite a bit of sightseeing in London - Westminster, St Paul's, and all the other major sites. They also saw several more shows - Billy Elliot, Les Mis, and Phantom of the Opera, which Jenna went to see with them. Jenna also took them to one of our favorite little cafes, Book for Cooks (which I'm sure has been mentioned in before in this blog).

They also took two tours outside of the city to see the other side of England. The first day they got up to Oxford, the Cotswolds, Stratford Upon Avon, and Warwick Castle. The next day they headed west to see Windsor Castle, Stonehenge, and Bath. They enjoyed both of the tours quite a bit, but did admit that it was a little tiring to leave at 7:00am and get back at 9:00pm - something we've been trying to tell people for a year now!!

By the end of the week, they were pretty tired, but had seen a great amount of London and the country surrounding it. They also got to see a ton of shows, which they really enjoyed. They left early on Saturday morning the 31st, almost exactly 2 weeks after their arrival. We were really glad that they were able to come and experience a little bit of Europe, and that we were able to spend some good quality time with them and do some travelling together. I am also fairly certain that they had a pretty enjoyable time with us!!

It was sad to see them go home, but it was better knowing that we'll be back in Kansas City in a few weeks for Thanksgiving. It also may be bad to admit this, but it was kinda nice to get our get a little space back. 400 square feet split four ways isn't the most ideal!!!

Mallorca, Spain

You may have noticed that the blogging has been a bit behind. October was a pretty crazy month, culminating with a 2 week visit from my mom and her friend Cindy. They arrived on Saturday the 17th, and the next day they left for a trip to Paris, and we left for a trip to Mallorca, an island off the east coast of Spain. Our next post will be devoted to Mom's visit - this one will just cover our quick weekend to Spain.

Sunday, October 18th

We left really early on Sunday since this was going to be such a short trip, and were in our rental car on the island by about 10:30. Its a small island, with the main city of Palma in the northwest, but with several sites to see all along the north coast. We decided to take the main highway across the island to the east, and work our way back toward Palma via the scenic route.

Our first stop was the Cap de Formentor, a cape at the far northeast tip of the island. The drive was a nice twisty route through the mountains along the coast to the far point of the island where they have a lighthouse. The coast was really beautiful, and the views around the cape were fantastic.
Our next stop was the Monastery of Lluc. This is a place of pilgrimage for many for its famous statue of Mary. We toured around the grounds and saw the main chapel that held the statue. It wasn't the most impressive statue we've ever seen. We definitely would have been disappointed if we'd made the trip just to see this, but it was a nice stop along the way.

Our next planned stop was the small coastal town of Deia. This was supposed to be a be a beautiful little town with great views of the mountainsides and the sea. As we pulled into town, though, we realized that the place must have been in every other guidebook as well. We were really surprised because it was outside of the main tourist season, but the town was packed. There were probably less than 50 parking spaces in the town, and every one of them was full. And outside of town, the roads were so narrow that it was impossible to park there. We ended up driving through the town three times looking for a spot before we just gave up, stopped in the middle of the road (holding up traffic) and took a few pictures before moving on.

The next stop was the town of Valldemosa. The main attraction here is an old monastary turned private residence where Frederic Chopin spent a winter with his lover, writer George Sand (female). They apparently had a miserable time and she wrote a book all about it. The place happened to be closed when we were there, but we got a few pics of the outside. The most memorable part of the town, though, was the Coques de Patata, a bread made potato. It was delicious. It tasted like homemade rolls that my mom and grandma make back home, but have the added delight of being topped with powdered sugar (just a thought, Mom). Yum!!!!

Our last stop on our northern route was to La Granja - a one time Moorish farm that evolved into a monastery and then eventually the home of a wealthy family - and this place turned out to be one of the more interesting places we've seen on all our travels.

It was in our Top 10 Mallorca book (our friend Rick doesn't cover Mallorca), as was nearly every other stop we made in the weekend, so we thought it must be worth a stop. This was a fully functioning home, meaning that they were fully self-sufficient. This included farms, gardens, and livestock of course, but also an olive oil press, a winery, a distillery, and even a dentist's office. Oh yeah, and I guess I shouldn't forget to mention the torture chamber.

We walked through the entire grounds and house, and it was just crazy. We didn't see a single in employee after we got past the entrance. For that matter, we only saw 4 other tourists in the entire place. There was very little information other than the titles of the rooms, but we saw the living rooms, game rooms, children's theatre including box seats for the dolls, doctor's/dentist's office, kitchens, etc, etc. There was really just too much to mention - just look at the pictures we have attached if you want more details. Or maybe make the trip to be astonished for yourself!

This was our last stop on our great driving adventure, so we headed to the hotel. It was in S'Arenal, on the outskirts of Palma, and literally 2 minutes from the beach. We had a little walk on the beach before heading to a local place for some paella - if you remember from Barcelona, rice with lots of spices, chicken, and various types of seafood. Delicious!!

Monday, October 19th

This was a fairly light day, spent mostly in the main city of Palma. We started with an early morning walk on the beach. It was warm enough that we could go without our jackets, but not exactly warm enough to justify a swim. We sat for a while and watched the waves before heading into town to see the sites. Our first stop was the Castell de Bellver, which is a castle at the top of the main hill in the city. It was never used for defense, but was a royal residence. It is a round castle with an empty plaza in the center. It was 2 stories tall, with museums in the rooms on both floors. The museums were interesting enough, having artifacts from the various people who have run the island - Romans, Moors, and Spaniards. The main thing that made the trip up the hill, though, was the view over the whole city, the ocean, and the surrounding mountains.

After leaving the castle, it was about lunch time and was pretty warm, so we decided to head to the beach. Not ideal beach weather, but we grabbed our standard picnic sandwiches and sat for a couple of hours, enjoying the sporadic sunshine and the waves. By mid afternoon, the clouds had started to roll in and it got pretty chilly, so we headed back into town to finish our site seeing.

We went into Palma's main attraction, its cathedral. There is a pretty nice "park" - concrete slab with several palm trees and a pond/fountain - at the bottom of the hill that the cathedral sits on. It offered some great views, especially as the sun was going down and they turned the lights on.

The inside was pretty nice as well - parts were completed by the architect/artist/designer Gaudi (see more in Barcelona post). There were also several rose stained glass windows which were probably the most vibrant we've ever seen. They were restored a few years back, and people actually complained that they did too good of a job because the colors were too bright! We thought they were crazy.
We spent a little while wandering through the church, then wandered a little while through the streets of the downtown. There wasn't a ton going on, but it was nice to just stroll down the main boulevard and pop into the occasional shop. We finished the evening sitting in the park under the cathedral as the sun went down and our trip came to a close.