London on a Budget

London is one of the most expensive cities in the world. However, we found that our lodging and food were cheaper than the other cities we visited in England. The secret is that we stayed in a B&B that had a shower two floors above us & we discovered Chinatown. It was probably smaller than Seattle's, but it had a lot of restaurants & shops. We ate three Chinese meals in a row. Pub food gets a little old after a while. It's pretty heavy and you quickly get tired of eating fries. The other thing about London is that the main attractions are free. We saw the changing of the guard, the National Gallery, which is an art museum, the National Museum and the National Library. As Rick Steve's says, just about every tourist in London gathers to see the changing of the guard. It's not really that exciting. There is a military parade that ends at Buckingham Palace where to new guards replace the old. The old guard marches out in their civies. The Malaysian Military was on duty the day we were there, so we did not see the Brits with the big black fur hats. One thing we did see was the Queen. She drove by while we were watching the parade. The museum and library had artifacts from all over the world, such as Egyptian mummies, the Magna Carta, early bibles, original music from Mozart, Bach, Chopin, Koran & Buddhist documents. Apparently the British Empire took whatever they wanted. There was even original Beatles music & lyrics.

Ruth Finds Yarn

Surprisingly, there isn't much yarn in the British Isles. As one farmer told us, they can't even give it away. However, as you can see, Ruth found some. I couldn't say much about her purchases, since I spent my money on golf. Her purchases filled an entire suitcase. I bought two ball marks from St. Andrews.

Charlies Horse Mexican Cantina

Last night we went to a Mexican restaurant in Windsor. It was pretty good. We both had fish. Weird thing was that there were not Mexican people working in the restaurant. Of course we should have expected this. There was only on Japanese student who was the waiter in the Japanese restaurant we went to.

The other pictures are of Windsor Castle. You weren't supposed to take pictures inside, but I did it on the sly without the flash & with my Nikon that swivels, so that I can take the picture at waist level.

I didn't mention that other that a couple rainy days in Scotland, it has been sunny the entire trip. Yesterday it was over 80 F.

We are about the head to the airport to return the car & then take a bus into London. May not be able to log on till we get home.

Bizzare Bath

Yesterday we were in Bath. It's famous for, you guessed it, baths. Bath has natural hot springs. The Romans first developed the town early AD. We didn't go in the actual baths, but visited the building. I didn't think it was worth 10 £, or $20 to see water that smelled or rotten eggs. The highlight of the evening was Bizzare Bath, which was a comedy/magic wal throught the town. Ruth was one of the vicitims. One on the acts asked for a volunteer to give up her wedding ring. Mom. Volunteeered. The guide tied her ring to a helium balloon. Then he tripped & the ballon went up in the sky. He then made a few jokes, such as where are you going next? Windsor. Good, the wind is blowing in that direction. After killing time by talking about the Bath Abbey, which is a church, a stuffed rabbit on a model car came wizzing into the square. The rabbit had a ball of Welsh yarn. Inside the ball of yarn was a pouch, & you guessed it, mom's ring. He gave mom a dog ballon for her trouble.

Before Bath, we were in the Cotswolds, which is an area of England that once was the center of the wool industry. The towns are very quaint with mansion looking houses. We didn't get in until around 8:00 since we drove from Conwy, Wales with a stop in Stratford on Avon to see where Shakespere was born & Anne Hathaways cottage. We ended up staying on a persons farm with our own private room above their garage. The room was richly decorated with a private sitting room. The house was only 11 years old, but it was a replica of the other houses. These people obviously had money. They had a BMW & a Jauguar. The gardens we lovely. (I didn't bring the cords to download pictures. Maybe we'll come back tomorrow. We are now in the Windsor library. In a few minutes we'll tour Windsor Castle, where the Queen lives on weekends. Price Harry & William attended college in Eaton, which is also in Windsor.)

The highlight of the trip for mom was the Trefirw Woolen Mills in Wales. It was on the drive from Conwy to Bath. They actually made their own yarn & fabric from a hydro powered looms. She finally found her yarn & and a gift for someone that I can't tell you about.

I guess my highlight was play the Old Course at St. Andrews. Mom has a suitcase full of stuff. I bought a couple of ball marks.

More Pictures

I couldn't fit all the pictures on the previous blog. My time is running out soon in the Conwy Library. Tomorrow we head to the Stratford on Avon & the Costwolds.

Conwy Wales

We just arrived in Wales. Its a World Heritigage site. The old part of the city is surrounded by walls. The main attraction is a castle built by King Edward the first. It only took 4 years to build.

Yesterday we were in York, which is one of the top three cities in the UK. The others are of course London & Edinburgh. York is also a walled city first built by the Romans in 7 AD. It sits between 2 rivers. There are different people who occupied the city over time, including the Romans & Normans. The original city was about 20 feet below where it is now. Over time the level rises when the river floods & the silt gets left behind. The big attraction in York is the Minister, which is a huge church.

Before York, we were in St. Andrews. It was raining on the drive into St. Andrews from Edinburgh. After we checked into the Bell Craig B&B, which was across the street from the Lorimer B&B, we walked to the Old Course, which is where golf started in teh mid 1500's. Mary Queen of Scots played here. It is the site of the British Open. We got there at about 1:00 and by 3:00 I was teeing off with a couple of other American Tourists. While it was an experience that I wanted to have, and some say if they only had one more round to play, they would play there, I wasn't that impressed. It's fairly wide open & you don't see that much of the ocean.

More Royal Mile

A few more pictures along the Royal Mile. Notice the size of fish on the fish & chips. It's a whole haddock. Today the weather was overcast, which made it nice for all that walking. Tomorrow we head for St. Andrews.

Robert Stodart Lorimer

Today we did the Royal Mile, which is a street between the Edinburgh Castle and the Palace of Holyrood, which is where the Queen stays when she visits Scotland. While in St. Giles, which is the most important church in Scotland, we saw a memorial of Robert Stodart Lorimer. He was one of the architects of the church. Edinburgh Castle is where Mary Queen of Scots reigned. She lost her reign when her son was one years old because she was Catholic. They had a life size replica of her. She was 6 ft tall.

We also sent some post cards. (We need Emily & Nance's adress.) I think we'll take it easy tonight. It's tiring doing all that walking. We learned how to use the bus system. For 2.50 £ you can get an all day pass. We are getting a little tired of the pub food. There are a lot of ethnic restaurants where we are staying. It might have something to do with the location near the University of Edinburgh.

Scotland in the Rain

We just got into Edinburgh, after an hour plane delay & a little getting lost. We are hungry & are going to try a Turkish Restaurant.

This is the first B&B that has a computer that we can use. It's the Priestville in Edinburgh. Check it out. It's the nicesest one we have been in so far.
http://www.edinburgh247.com/links/frame.asp?linkid=1686&catID=157&linkURL=http://www.priestville.com&linkname=Priestville%20Guest%20House

When I last blogged, we were still in Dingle. I played golf the next day at Cenn Sibeal. And then we saw the Castle Minard, which is a ruins. The sign said that you were at your own risk if you got near it. There was a big crack down the middle. It was just off a sandy beach.

The next day we drove to stay in Ennis, which was only about 20 minutes from the airport. We stayed at An Karens, which was run by an older couple (about Grandma & Grandpa's age). Well, we have to leave for dinner. I'll try & post the pictures later.

Just got back from a Turkish dinner & getting lost after walking to the Edinburgh Castle. We'll go back again tomorrow when it is open.

In response to Sarah's comment, Ruth now has moved her clothes to the extra suitcase & is on the way to filling up the other one with stuff she bought. Today we go a couple of Starbucks mugs. The one picture is of me with a bottle of "Locke" wiskey form Ireland. It was 59 euro, so I'll wait & get it on the way home from the duty free shop.