Day 22 - Homeward Bound

Nothing much to do today but fly, we left Heathrow at 1:00 where we had to visit the Dr. Who activity center,  stopped in at Reykjavik for a couple of hours and were back home by 8:00 (one in the morning to us) - home sweet home to sleep in our own beds.  Thanks for reading; we can’t wait to share our stories in person.

Cheerio,

Steve, Mary Rose, Connor and Duncan

Day 21 - The Eye, the Circus and the Lions

Up and out early today to catch the 9:30 commute into London to take a spin around The Eye.  It threatened rain all day but we were lucky and happened to be inside for all the showers.  In case you didn’t know, the Eye is a giant Ferris wheel – 135 meters tall on the south bank of the River Thames.  It is right across the river from the department of Defense, Big Ben and the Parliament buildings and has a great view of London.  The whole ride takes about half an hour and it moves so slow you don’t even realize you are moving.  The view is 360 degrees and the pods are not overcrowded so you can see and photograph in every direction.   The Eye was built in 1999 for the Millennium celebrations and was meant to be temporary but has become such a financial success that it is still running.  The only downside is the queuing up for about 45 minutes to get on, but the view is worth it.  We even got to watch the changing of the guard from our pod.






After the Eye it was back across the Thames on the Golden Jubilee Foot bridge (worth the walk itself) then on to lunch at a great pub called the Sherlock Holmes (after the detective of course) right underneath Charring Cross station.  The pub is filled with photos of various iterations of the Sherlock Holmes character and our table was right beside a very well done mock-up of his study where several of his more infamous cases were obviously ongoing.   

 

 

 

 

We spent the afternoon wandering – Trafalgar square to visit the Nelson and climb the giant Brass lions, past Canada House,  up Haymarket street for some shopping, on to Piccadilly Circus and the Eros statue, then window shopping along the toney Bond street.  We also had to shop in the most awesome British tourist trap on Picadilly Circus, dragged in by the two charming Londoners you see below.!  Footsore and with bruised wallets we headed home to Glen Iris where the wine flowed and the food was as always wonderful.  Tomorrow home to Toronto and a sleep in our own beds!

Day 20 - The British Museum

Well I think we picked the hottest day of the year to head into London, everyone is on pins and needles waiting for the arrival of the Kate and Williams’s first child but we are heading into the city to go to the British Museum.  It is about an hour long journey via commuter train and tube to anywhere in London, but it is comfortable, reliable and a heck of a lot easier than trying to drive!  What struck me were the escalators, to get down to the Picadilly line you ride two of the longest, steepest escalators I have ever been on, easily 7 or 8 stories down each.  It gives you an idea how deep and complex the system really is.  I can honestly say that London is as confusing as Paris, the streets are laid out to follow the land, they go every which way, pedestrians often don’t watch the signals or even the traffic as they talk on cell phones and weave their way amongst cars and the abundance of road signs that seem to tell you to do conflicting things does not help. 

Well, there really are not enough superlatives for the British Museum so her goes it is - Superbafantasticachockablockfullofwonderment – how about that for a new word!  It really represents a couple of centuries of collecting restoring and protecting artifacts from around the world.  From massive Egyptian, Assyrian and Iraqi stone statues and wall plaques to gold, silver and electrum hordes the Museum is about a hundred rooms, each absolutely crammed with old and precious stuff.  We spent about five hours, breezed through about a quarter of it and probably actually looked at one percent.  The collection of time pieces was incredible (dating back over five hundred years), we then started in on the top ten and managed just a few:  the Easter Island ancestral figure, the Rosetta stone, The Standard of Ur, the Lewis Chessmen and the Portland Vase from Greece which inspired all the traditional Wedgewood Jasperware.  As you can see, a bit of a whirlwind tour, but then it was into our scheduled visit of the Pompeii collection, a series of artifacts from Pompeii and Herculaneum the detailed everyday life for the rich and the poor – fascinating particularly we had visited Herculaneum several years before and seen the buildings and mosaics but of course there were no artifacts, they had all been removed to museums.  Much of what there detailed life in Pompeii, however many of the items on display were from Herculaneum as it was flash buried under 24 meters of ash and literally frozen in time.  Well, a stupendous exhibit but after that we were done and had to head back to Glen Iris.  Onto the tube, a commute with the business crowd and a cold Gin and Tonic – great day!  Tomorrow is our last kick at London and we intend to do some of the touristy stuff starting with the Eye.

Day 18 - Sunny days ... and the livin' is easy!

Sunny and hot in South England so like lizards on a rock we kind of lazed around.  We did get out in the afternoon for a walk around the block (a farmers block that is) – what is it they say – mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the noonday sun.  Anyways this led us to the local Woodside Animal Park, where we had taken the boys when they were very young about 14 years ago.  It is still fun to feed a lama, scratch a goat between the horns and play goofy golf!  We visited Zaboomafoo (the leaping lemur) and cooed over the new born baby alpaca – kind of like a big furry brown Bambi, then headed back to Glen Iris for a lovely roast dinner outside in the garden.  Tomorrow it is in to Londinium – old London Town.

Day 17 - Goodbye Scotland....

OK Folks... Time for a change of author???  Just be glad that it is me and not Steve that is blogging about today, because otherwise you would be treated to a twenty page treatise on the history of Riddell.

This morning we said goodbye to Honeyholm and headed back to Martin and Pauline's place, but not before making a detour through Roxboroughshire and the thriving metropolis of Lilliesleaf and the Ancient Riddell Estate.  With a little direction from Steve's bro Chris and the unfailing "navi" (Brit for GPS), we managed to make our way to the original Riddell homestead of the late 1800s.  We briefly met Virginia Grant, the current owner of the estate and she directed us across the cow and sheep pastures to the Riddell Tower (which interestingly was built by the Sprott family AFTER the Riddell's had sold the estate in the mid 1800's) and the burned out remains of the Riddell Home.  The tower was very interesting but Virginia did not know the whereabouts of the key so we could not get in to climb to the top.

The Riddell home is quite derelict, but the boys were able to wind their way through the ruins of what was obviously a glorious Estate home at one time.  Sadly the place burned to the ground in December of 1943, there are several stories that have to do with the Women's Land Army who were barracked there.  Supposedly a fire started on the third floor, reputedly after a Jackdaw (crow) nest blocked one of the chimneys but no one knows for sure.  The local fire crew attended, assured everyone that the minor fire was safely out, left, the fire flared up and destroyed the home.  We also met the farmer who works the land behind the woods of Riddell - his home built on the foundations of the old laundry and is called Laundry Cottage.  He shared several stories with us about the estate and also loaned us a book on the estates affairs in the early 1900's which we are bringing back to Canada.

 

After a poke about Riddell, we stopped back into the nearby village of Lilliesleaf for a pub lunch.  The pub (The Plough Inn) had an interesting photo of the old Riddell estate before the fire... The owners were friendly but we were the only ones in the place.... I'm guessing Lilliesleaf is not on the list of the best pubs in Scotland....

After our nostalgic stop it was on to visit Mark and Caroline, Martin's son and family.  We had another lovely BBQ in the garden while Steve treated toddler Henry to his reading of "The Queen's Nickers" which we bought in Edinburgh.  After dinner we made the last push back to Martin and Pauline's place.  In all, about 8 hours of driving which made for a long tiring day....   

Day 16 - Glasgow

Day 16, July 19, 2013:

Well this is starting to sound boring but another brilliant sunny day, not a cloud in the sky.  In fact the south of England is suffering under quite a heat wave; we are hovering around the mid-twenties in the heat of the day.  After a lazy start bringing the Blog up to date we headed off to Glasgow about 45 minutes away.   Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland located on the River Clyde in the lowlands, because of the river it grew to one of the largest seaports in the world and a trading center for the West Indies.  The University of Glasgow was established way back in the 15^th century making it a major center for Scottish enlightenment in the eighteenth century.  The greater Glasgow area encompasses about 2.3 million people or two fifths of Scotland’s population, the city itself has about 1.2 million people living within its boundaries.  It is the heart of Scotland’s engineering and manufacturing and is one of Europe’s top ten financial centers.   The core is a beautiful, thoroughly modern city filled with heritage buildings, museums and galleries galore, art and fascinating people – well worth the visit.  As we only had a few hours we limited ourselves to a small area of the downtown.

 

Our visit started at Glasgow Cathedral, a sacred site that has been used by Catholics and later the Orange for more than fifteen hundred years!  This is the site where Saint Mungo was buried back in 603 (but the first cross was planted back in 397 by St. Ninian).  Because the church is built into a hill it is ‘split-level’.  The lower church is the tomb of St. Mungo and the newer upper church (the third to be built on the site) which dates back to the 13^th century.  This church is old!  It is filled with tombs and treasures a bit of a warren of interesting naves and alters and quirky little corners all with something interesting to see.  The stained glass is stunning, much of it modern replacing old German glass that is no longer in the windows but has been retained for future restoration.  This church was one of the only ones spared from the reformation as it was protected by the city fathers and guilds who allowed it to be ransacked but not burned and pulled to the ground.  The Nave itself is 105 feet high with an open timber roof that dates back to the 14^th century – like I said old!

  After a wonderful personal tour by one of the Friends of Glasgow Cathedral it was time for lunch at a Glaswegian pub that of course was written up in the Good Beer Guide!  Fortified it was time for a stroll through downtown Glasgow where I am sure the temperature actually hit thirty degrees!  Fabulous wide streets, old interspersed with new, people strolling and eating everywhere (it was a business day after all).  We popped our heads into the Museum of Modern Art (wish I had time for more), did a bit of shopping then it was time for home. 

 We are going to try a bit of local Chinese and Indian take-out tonight and get packed for our long road trip back to Glen Iris tomorrow.  It is about seven hours drive but we have a couple of stops in mind.

Day 15 - Of Castles and Coconuts

Day 15, July 18, 2013:

Each day the same, sunny and brilliant!  Today it was off to Doune Castle, only a few miles outside of Stirling and by our standards just around the corner.   This is a smallish castle, a single courtyard on a small hill with two small creeks along its flanks, it is an irregular pentagonal shape made of rust red sandstone and you can walk all around it in five minutes.  It is a medieval stronghold built back in thirteenth century, damaged badly in the Scottish wars of Independence and then rebuilt in its present form by Robert Stewart, Duke of Albany (1340-1420) the son of King Robert II of Scotland and the regent of Scotland until he died.  It stands out from other castles for two reasons:  It has survived relatively unchanged and complete since building (it is now maintained by Historic Scotland and restoration is ongoing), and it has been the site of much filming including Game of Thrones (it is Winterfell) and the classic parody of the Arthurian legend – Monty Python and the Holy Grail.  So of course I had to enter the keep trotting up the cobbles under the portcullis banging together a pair of coconuts!  - I have the evidence on film! 

The castle itself is small and compact being made up of a single courtyard with living quarters and the great hall built into the front side of the castle.  You can visit virtually all of the castle, from store rooms to royal chambers to the battlements and it is incredibly undisturbed and original.  The castle is a bit out of the way so it is not crowded and the four pound entrance fee also gets you the best audio guide I have had complete with pithy commentary and cut scenes from the filming of Monty Python.  Great fun, great value and coconuts, what more can you ask for from an historic site.

After the castle and a spot of lunch back at our cottage, as it was so sunny and actually hot, we put on our swim suits, grabbed our towels and off we went to the small village of Luss, for a swim in Loch Lomond.  Not surprisingly the little beach at Luss was crowded but a pleasant surprise was the water in the Loch was pleasant to swim in, warmer on the surface and cool below but fine for swimming.  We paddled around, admired the ducks and family of Swans (mother and eight cygnets) that were unconcerned we were there and looking for handouts then headed into Balloch for a brief shop and home.  A wonderful bbq and dinner outside overlooking the hills behind us with the three quarters full moon rising then watched Rob Roy (a good Scottish film about Clan honour with Liam Neeson) and passed out.  Tomorrow is our last day in the north and we are Glasgow bound.

 

Day 14 - Storming Edinburgh Castle

Day 14, July 17, 2013:

What luck, another beautiful, sunny morning.  We had an early start today because the drive to Edinburgh is a bit over an hour and we have lots planned.  Edinburgh has an old and a new town.  Now the ‘new town’ is a collection of Georgian buildings all carefully laid out along broad avenues in the 1800’s.  The ‘old town’ is what sprung up from either side of the Royal Mile (the wide cobblestone street running east west between Edinburgh Castle and the palace of Hollyroodhouse over the last five hundred years.  The ‘old town’ is a dense warren of closes (alleys) and wynds (narrow lanes) with stairs and vaults that run off wide expanse of the royal mile which was used by the king to travel from castle to palace.  Many of the closes are but a meter wide and packed with houses that are several stories high.  In its heyday, many of the apartments soared to 12 or 14 stories and were only accessible by switched back staircases and narrow foot bridges that ran up the outside of the buildings.  The sewage system consisted of terraced cobble stone or dirt streets that sloped downhill to ‘Loch Nord’ which was a huge sewage sump to the north of the city proper.  Everything got simply thrown out the door twice a day to the ringing of a bell at the church to be sluiced down to Loch Nord when it rained.  Sanitation was simply not a high priority in those days.  The Loch is now filled in and is the beautiful Princess Gardens where we had lunch – I imagined the soil is very fertile with hundreds of years of human waste underneath.

We started the day at the top of Castle Rock at the famed Edinburgh Castle where they were in the process of setting up the massive stadium for the Fringe Festival which starts end of the month.  This fortress is the very reason for Edinburgh’s existence as it was the most easily defended hilltop on the invasion route from England to Scotland.  This route has been followed by countless armies over the millennia; from the romans in the first and second centuries up to the Jacobites following Bonnie Prince Charlie in 1745.  The castle is formidable, made of black volcanic stone atop rocky crags, impregnable and huge.  It has also played a key role in Scottish history as a royal palace going all the way back to King Malcolm of Canmore and Queen Margaret in the 11^th century.  First and foremost however it was a military stronghold and was forever being taken and re-taken.  It last saw action in 1745 and from then until through World War I it has been the British army’s main base in Scotland.  What can I say, it is a bloody great castle, lots of cannons (they fire off a 25 pounder at 1:00 daily), a great view and hordes of tourists.  The high point for me however was seeing the Honours of Scotland.  These are the oldest surviving crown jewels in Europe (sword, scepter and crown) and were actually hidden away for over a hundred years after the Act of Union between England and Scotland was signed in 1707.  Anyway they were in a vault in a tower in the castle, locked in a trunk and the door mortared over and kind of forgotten about until the novelist and amateur archaeologist Walter Scott found them in an investigation and brought them back to the public.  On display here is also the Stone of Destiny which is just as it sounds, a great stone block upon which every Scottish monarch is crowned which gives them the authority to rule.  So now when a new king is crowned (an English and Scottish monarch), the stone is shipped to Westminster for the coronation then returned to the castle vaults for safe keeping.  The castle is a great place to visit and a great place to get separated so we spent most of our time each doing our own tour until lunch time.  We headed off the rock into the Princess Gardens for a picnic lunch then it was time to wander the Royal Mile.

 

If you only have a day in Edinburgh (like we did) make it a point to wander the Royal Mile.  This broad avenue is lined with shops, filled with street performers and packs so much interest and atmosphere it is a must stroll.  We shopped, watched a man play the saw brilliantly, others juggled flaming torches on unicycles or simply did the statue shtick, a man with a marionette was brilliant and earned a couple of pounds from us.  About half way down the Royal Mile is St Giles Cathedral; build back in the 1400’s with a beautiful crown spire completed in 1495.  The stained glass windows are stunning and worth a look.  This was the heart of Scottish Reformation of the church and John Knox was the minister here.  Now we come to the Real Mary King’s Close which is an Old Town alley that was covered over 250 years ago to build the Royal Exchange (trading floor – like a stock exchange) and is now the City Chambers building.  Any way because they simply built right on top of the medieval close it has been preserved pretty much untouched and can be visited on tour.  It is an interesting and bit disgusting look into what life was really like in sixteenth and seventeenth century Edinburgh.  You spend an hour on tour through the labyrinth, under the current city hearing ghostly and ghastly tales of long ago and well worth the visit.

We ambled all the way down the Royal Mile which ends at the Scottish Parliament buildings across the street from Hollyrood Park and of course the Palace.  The Scottish Parliament buildings are not at all what you expect; they are very modern and look a bit like a high-tech prison behind all the security fencing.   Hollyrood Park is a huge green space around the Palace of Hollroodhouse which is the royal residence in Scotland.  This huge park (263 hectares) of moors, crags and a loch was the hunting preserve of the Scottish Monarchs.  It has a fantastic view point atop ‘Arthur’s Seat’ an extinct volcano in the middle of the park which is tied to the mythology and story of King Arthur.   It must be said however that when Queenie visits Scotland, she tends to prefer her castle in Balmoral (which we didn't visit!)
 

Tired, thirsty and footsore we jumped in the car and headed to a nice restaurant on the banks of the Firth of Forth (the estuary where the great river Forth comes to the sea) and dined on fish and chips in the shadow of the huge bridges that cross the firth.  None of us except the driver kept our eyes open on the drive home but we had a great day, I wish we had time for another in Edinburgh.  Tomorrow, another castle of course!

 

Day 13 - Fangorn Forest

Day 13, July 16, 2013:

Blue sky again, I’m beginning to think all the rumors of a grey and cold Scotland are simply a ruse to keep hordes of tourists out of the green hills!  Bit of a slow morning, mooing around, drinking coffee and enjoying the view.  The boys are a bit tired of being dragged around so we are leaving them to their devices today and Martin, Pauline, Mary Rose and I headed out to Callander for an explore. 

Callander is a small town in the Stirling region that sits right on the Highland Boundary Fault which is why it is often referred to as the “Gateway to the Highlands” and is the Eastern gate into the Trossachs National Park.  The town is overshadowed by the Callander Crags which rise hundreds of meters above the River Teith in the valley below.  A beautiful Scottish Gaelic town noted for its building with the locally quarried deep red conglomerate they call ‘puddingstone’.   We walked the few hundred meters of the main street, poking our noses into the shops, many of which were vacant (a sign of the economic times?) and visited a wonderful collectible toy shop where we bought some Enid Blyton.  A bite at a local pub then nothing would do but a hike to the top of the hills through beautiful mature spruce and pine forest (reforested) interspersed with clumps of centuries old beech.  A challenging walk uphill into the crags, but well worth it for the view and the impressive forest it passes through.  The Beech copses felt like the Fangorn Forest right out of The Lord of the Rings, it had an ancient feel to it.   Our walk completed it was home again for a cold one and another delightful supper on the back patio.

Day 12 - A Stirling Day

Day 12, July 15, 2013:

Off bright and early (well early, it was a bit overcast) to Stirling and one of the best restored castles I have ever been to.  We always think of castles as damp, drafty organized piles of grey stone with meter thick walls and poor sanitation.  Well Stirling castle does have meter thick walls and a bloody great moat which is dry because it is built on top of a hill attached right into the volcanic bedrock and it probably had poor sanitation but is was colorful!  Much of the original castle, or at least the higher bits have been knocked down by cannon fire or torn down to rebuild over the years, and what is left is a grey sandstone, but in its heyday back in the 1500’s it was covered with an ochre colored lime wash which made the entire place look gold.  Being on a hill in the middle of the valley, people from all around must have been mesmerized by the gleaming gold castle on the horizon and the show of strength and power it represented.

‘Hold Stirling and you hold Scotland’ was the saying and for hundreds of years people tried to do just that.  It sits atop a wooded crag that is the plug of an extinct volcano (dramatic black rock) right in the middle of the valley of the River Forth with a 360 degree view and a high vantage over the river and of course the bridge.  Stirling is the gateway to the Highlands to the north and the lowlands to the south and has always been a strategic position both military and economic.  It has had many owners but much of what is there currently was built by James V (his son James VI later became James I of England and Scotland, thus uniting the English and Scottish throne). The old town is beautiful being made up of twisty cobble streets and medieval buildings but always the castle towers above.  The Scots have undertaken a massive 35 yearlong restoration of the castle itself including restoring the Great Hall, chapel and royal palaces to their former splendor.  The vaulted chapel roof was re-built with oak beams from close to 400 oak trees and it held together completely with four thousand hand hewn oak pegs.  The royal palace has been hung with wall hangings and re-painted in the original colours and rather than a dank dingy castle is bright and almost garish.  There is also a group of artisans on site that is recreating a series of tapestries based on the theme of the hunt for the Unicorn.  Weaving a tapestry is a painstaking and lengthy process, each panel takes two years to make and they have completed six out of the seven planned for the castle restoration- we had to drag Mary Rose out of there she was so fascinated.

Now for those of you who have seen Braveheart (you know, Mel Gibson painted blue in a kilt….), this is the place and I had best say something about William Wallace or they may never let me back into Scotland.  First off, it is putting it mildly to say that there are a few historical inaccuracies in Braveheart and the battle at Stirling Bridge not the least of which was that William Wallace did not wear a kilt to battle nor paint himself blue.  William Wallace was one of Scotland’s greatest heroes, a commoner from a great clan (so he received some education) and by all accounts a huge man, well over six feet tall based on the huge sword he wielded.  Although he had no title or commission he was a patriot and a born leader and rallied the Scots to defeat a vastly larger and better equipped British army at the battle for Stirling Bridge in 1297.  He was later knighted by Robert the Bruce and proclaimed Guardian of Scotland.  But a few years later a combination English military superiority and disloyal (or fickle) Scottish nobility betrayed William Wallace.  In 1305 he was betrayed by nobility that were prepared to side with King Edward and he was captured tried for treason as Westminster and hanged, beheaded and drawn and quartered.  His statues now adorn Scotland and are found around the world, even as far as Australia.

After an exhaustive tour of the castle and a pub lunch, it was across the valley to visit the Wallace monument, a great Victorian Gothic tower sitting again atop a rocky, impregnable crag.  It is a fifteen minute climb to the crag where the monument stands and two hundred steps up a steep and narrow (one way) spiral stone staircase to the ‘crown’ at the top.  The monument was built in the mid eighteen hundreds to commemorate the bid for Scottish independence using seven thousand pounds of seed money.  The project was fraught with difficulties and at one point it was suggested to be torn down and the stone sold off to recover costs, however it was completed and stands there still.  It is divided into three floors dedicated to the life of William Wallace and other heroes, inventors and statesmen of Scotland.  The high point however is to make it to the Crown at the top where the wind whistles and you have a magnificent view of the surroundings.  The tower also houses William Wallace’s 66 inch two handed broad sword giving you an idea what a large and powerful man he must have been - the sword is as tall as I am!

Day 11 - Of Lochs, Firths and Bens

Day 11, July 14, 2013:

Well we actually managed to get out of Honeyholm a little after 10:00, the weather is unusually bright, sunny and warm for Scotland and today it crept above 20 degrees.  We headed into the Trossachs which is a national park of rugged mountains, forests and of course beautiful Lochs.  A near I can determine a Loch is a lake, a Firth is widening or outlet of a river and all mountains start with Ben – as in Ben Lomond.  We went for a 4 mile hike along the edge of Loch Katrine, a smaller Loch but important as it has been the water supply for Glasgow since the mid 1850’s.  It is sailed by a turn of the century refurbished steam ship – the Walter Scott and it is this loch that really brought the beauty of the highlands of Scotland to the rest of the world and opened the country up to tourism.  This loch has been painted; there have been poems, stories and songs dedicated to its beauty and rightly so.  The loch is a little over ten miles long and less than a mile wide, but it is surrounded by mature forests of pine, oak and birch, caggy hills and boulders for clambering and beautiful mountains.  You can walk all the way down one side and take the steamship back however we chose to simply stroll in a couple of miles to a beautiful viewpoint and return for a picnic lunch.  The weather was beautiful however you never have a good hair day in Scotland as the wind howls continuously down the lochs.

 

After lunch we divided forces, returning the boys to Honeyholm to bounce, fish and play while Martin, Pauline, Mary Rose and I took on a hike into the hills over Loch Lomond.  Now Loch Lomond (on the Bonnie, Bonnie Banks O' Loch Lomond – sing it in your head) is a sizeable Loch, surrounded by rolling hills, a kinder, gentler loch much akin to our Muskoka region with hotels, cottages and boating around the Loch.  We hiked up to hills in the forest preserve on the East side of the Loch, north of Balmaha partially up the side of Beinn Uird.  An hour of hiking took us over farmers’ fields, through over old dry stone walls (where I added a very Canadian Inukshuk) and past a recreation of a ‘Shieling’ or temporary Sheppard’s hut made of twigs, sod and whatever was lying around (think Hobbit hole!)  It was surprisingly hot and sunny but the view from the top was stunning and the constant breeze a welcome companion.  Going down was much faster, back to our cottage for another brilliant late dinner in the garden, a cribbage match and bed.  Tomorrow – castles!

 

Day 10 - Honeyholm

Day 10, July 13, 2013:

This morning we started the day with a British custom that would be the death of me if I lived here for any length of time – The English Breakfast:  sausage, bacon, beans, fried bread, egg, fruit, fried tomato and blood pudding – and to finish; toast with Marmite.  Pauline's brother in law is a huge lover of Marmite and has a complete collection of "special editions"...  if you can believe!  This morning we were treated to Marmite Gold .... which actually sparkled in the sun.

 

We literally rolled out of there and back into the van for the second stage of our journey.  We stopped briefly at the border into Scotland for lunch (Connor polished off a full roast pork dinner while the rest of us settled for a drink at the pub) at a little place called Gretna Green which for over a century has been performing weddings in the blacksmith shop.  Apparently under age couples would come to be married by the blacksmith against the wishes of their families.  In reality it is now a set of gardens where couples come to tie the knot.  We enjoyed the piper and the wedding in progress then soldiered on into central Scotland. 

 

We arrived at The Honeyholm, our new home for the next week late in the afternoon after a half hour of rally driving on twisty roads, thank god for the GPS.  This is a 400 year old farmers ‘cottage’ backing on to a salmon/trout stream with the lovely green mountains behind.  We are sort of in the middle of nowhere (near the village of Balfron near Stirling) but only half an hour from everything!  The cottage is lovely with three bedrooms each with a bathroom, a large kitchen, a great living room with a view of the mountains and access to the gardens and best of all a trampoline!  Our adjoining neighbors (who are also the land owners) are a family with two children a few years younger than Connor and Duncan.  Really nice people who greeted us with fresh scones and homemade jam.  We unpacked and headed into Balloch the nearest larger town at the foot of Loch Lomond to stock the larder and get a look at our surroundings, then had a wonderful BBQ and ate a late supper outside on the patio watching the sun set over the rolling hills behind us –this is the life!  Tomorrow we are off to explore the Lochs.

Day 9 - On the Road again...

Day 9, July 12, 2013:

Well, I had my one and only shot at driving in England as we headed out early this morning to pick up our rental van at the airport.  A diesel GM – 7 seater, enough for us all to fit in for our exodus to Scotland.  By the time we returned to Glen Iris, packed, emptied the refrigerator and jammed it all into the van it was late morning.  Martin very kindly offered to be the chauffeur (thank god, because I probably would have had a heart attack or killed someone from driving on the left instead of the right) and off we went!  We actually only travelled as far as Manchester that day where we spent the afternoon and night with Angela and Martin Losse, Angela is Pauline’s sister.  We were given the royal treatment, stuffed with good food and treated to excellent company and conversation.  I got to visit a local elementary school where Eleanor Losse is an Deputy Head.  It was really interesting to see how much is different between the Canadian and U. K. education systems.  I could have stayed for hours and asked a million questions – perhaps I need to organize a transfer and teach over here for a year, I could learn a great deal.  Anyways, another good feed in the garden, a walk around the Edwardian neighborhood and bed.  Tomorrow – Scotland!

 

Day 8 - Belle Paris

Day 8, July 11, 2013:

Today, it’s more pounding the pavement around Paris, again a city that just begs to be walked.  We jumped on the metro and headed over to the Place de la Concorde.  To the East are the grand jardins of the Louvre, but to the west, the Avenue Des Champs Elysees.   The city is preparing for Bastille Day on the 14^th so getting around some of the intersections where they were setting up for the parade was a trick but walking the Champs Elysees on a sunny day is something everyone should have the chance to do.   The Avenue is wide (6 lanes) with broad sidewalks and lots of chi-chi shops, a bit like our Bloor street at home.  Mary Rose got sucked into an old mansion which is now Gucci but the boys were more interested in clothes for the younger crowd.  Suffice to say we made it down the three or four kilometers with our wallets only slightly bruised to end at the Arc du Triomphe de l’Etoile. 

The Arc at the center of Place Charles de Gaulle at the confluence of twelve radiating avenues, so you have to access it through an underground tunnel and the traffic around it is fierce!    Its sister, the smaller arch, the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel is west of the Louvre.   This is a monument to those who fought for France in the French Revolutionary and the Napoleonic Wars, with the names of all French victories and generals inscribed on its inner and outer surfaces.  Beneath its vault lies the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier from World War I.  It was commissioned in 1806 after the victory at Austerlitz by Emperor Napoleon at the peak of his fortunes but actually wasn’t completed until over 30 years later.  Napoleon never saw it completed but his remains were paraded under it after his death.  Further to the west, the Grande Arche de la Défense, was built in 1982 which finished the line of monuments that forms Paris's Axe Historique.  This arch is modern but built on the same scale as the others and can be seen from the Arc du Triomphe.  We did not go up the Arc as the lines were massive; instead we headed South towards the Seine to the Trocadero.

The Palais de Chaillot was built for the Exposition Internationale of 1937, on the hill where the old Palais du Trocadéro used to stand and sits on a hill overlooking the Place du Trocadero and the gardens leading to the Seine and across the river – the Tour Eiffel!  The Palais is in the shape of two wings shaped to form a wide arc separated by a wide esplanade and houses a number of museums.  We did not go into any of them (the boys wouldn’t let me), instead it was across the river to the awe inspiring Eiffel Tower.  This place too was mobbed, the line up for the elevator to the second stage was almost an hour and we never made it to the top as they closed elevator access as so many people had already purchased tickets.

The Eiffel Tower, located on the Champ de Mars in Paris is, named after the engineer Gustave Eiffel, whose company designed and built the tower in 1889 as the entrance arch to the World's Fair.   This was the tallest structure in the world until the 1930’s when the Chrysler tower in New York City was built and is the most visited monument in the world.   When Hitler marched into Paris, the cables to the elevator were cut to make him walk the stairs to the top, when a Nazi flag was flown from the summit; a French resistance fighter climbed the tower and replaced it with a French flag.  This incredible iron structure was completed in a little over two years by a crew of men and each piece was prefabricated and shipped to the site where it was added to the structure.  Eiffel actually built it with only a quarter of the funds supplied by the French government; he retained the rights to all commercial traffic at the site for 20 years after which it was scheduled to be torn down.  By that time it had become so important for radio traffic and the war effort that it was saved.  This is a brilliant piece of construction, all cast iron and riveted on site.  It was originally painted a rusty red color but now is painted every seven years – Eiffel Tower Brown.  We loved the view from the second stage which is undergoing considerable renovation but Duncan refused to go to the edge – it gave him the willies.

Well, back on the Metro and back to our hotel, picked up our luggage, quick feed of Mussels on the square than back to Gard du Nord, across the Chunnel to jolly old England and home (Glen Iris).  Paris in 40 hours!  Tomorrow we pick up our vehicle and head north for the fourth country on our trip – Scotland.

Day 7 - Paris or Bust!

Day 7, July 10, 2013:

Well it is off to Paris.  A very early start to get the train to St. Pancras where we transferred to the Eurostar to Paris and arrived a couple of hours later at Gare Du Nord station in as the name implies the 10^th Arrondissement of northern Paris.  Paris is a beautiful city but a bit confusing to navigate as well.  The city is a bit of a spider web centered around the Seine with ring roads joined with streets that go every which way through the arrondissement or neighborhoods.  It is old, it is confusing and the architecture is beautiful.  The idea of the arrondissement was for people to be able to work, shop and live all in their own area so the shops and businesses are at street level with flats above.  Most streets go up about four floors and the faces are right to the sidewalk.  Now, traffic – it’s furious!  The streets are jammed with cars and loads of motorcycles, between the sidewalk and the street are cycle paths and if you dare step into one by mistake beware of the consequences.  The major roads also have parallel side roads that are simply made for pulling off and parking.  So you have to be very cautious where you tread for fear of always being run over by something.  This is a city made for walking, it is beautiful and the sidewalks are generally generously wide.  As well while we were in Paris it was sunny and hot – perfect sun dress weather for Parisian women – a definite plus!  The only difficulty is to know which way you are going, we frequently started off in one direction only to realize we were totally turned around.  As well In order to get around the huge ‘Place’ in the centre of the radiating streets you have to cross 4, 5 or 6 radiating streets to get to the other side and I can tell you that you take your life in your hands every time you do so.  Connor quickly figured it out – look ahead, don’t flinch, surge forward and look like you know what you are doing, this is the Parisian way!

Well enough about the roads, we trundled down the Boulevard Magenta on the way to our hotel at the Place de la Republic and stopped into a local market where we bought bread, a couple of cheeses, some chicken and a box of strawberries and sat down to lunch – this is some of the best and most reasonably priced food we had in all of France.  Fortified we made our way to our hotel which is in a typical old apartment complex of Paris and we were in a huge room on the top floor with two great windows looking out of the roof over the Place below.  This turned out to be a great plus not only for the view but because they were having nightly rock concerts in the square below and we looked out of our room right onto the stage  and the thousands of revelers below – it was great!

But I am getting ahead of myself.  After getting ourselves sorted out, it was time to learn the Metro.  A great system, it goes all over Paris, it is colour coded and all you need to know is the ending station for the route you want.  Quiet, relatively clean and cheap, much better than any surface transport save walking.  Off to the Louvre which is what brought us to Paris in the first place.  What can I say about the Louvre?  It is massive, it is stunning and it is crowded!  Even though the building is massive, you simply cannot see it all in one go, there seem to be a million people all starting in the centre trying to get anywhere else.  But once inside – oh my god the treasures that are housed here are amazing.  From paintings to statues, Greek, Roman, Egyptian treasures, crowns, jewelery, treasured serving pieces all carved from precious stones – I cannot possible describe the number of treasures under one roof.  But perhaps most spectacular of all is the building itself – the home of kings, the opulence of which led to the French revolution, the formation of the republic and the beheading of King Louis.  Hundreds of rooms, massive halls all carved, gilded, painted and adorned.  Each room itself is an art treasure and some of the halls are as long as an airline hanger.   I must admit that after several hours we were really simply overwhelmed and just breezed through the halls – ‘oh another art treasure’ – ‘look a room full of sarcophagi’, ‘Ooooo that crown has a thousand diamonds!’, well you get the idea.  By 7:00 we were done, tired, overwhelmed and ready for supper – back on the metro to our hotel then dinner on the square which was delicious.  We ended the night listening to local rock bands along with thousands of Parisians in the square and drifted off to sleep as the third band of the night started playing.