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!!!