GOODBYE EDINBURGH...ONE LAST BEER

To say good bye to Scotland Janna and I hiked to the top of Arthur's Seat (the hill on the edge of Edinburgh). We enjoyed the sunset and a rare Belgian beer. Beautiful beer, beautiful scenery, and a beautiful wife. Couldn't think of a better way to end our adventure. See y'all soon.

LAST HOORAH

I didn't think I would get time to blog again, but here we are the night before we leave all our bags are packed and flat is empty. It is amazing the time one finds when you don't have a TV.


Last weekend we took a final trip up into the Highlands. But first we swung through St Andrews (the birth place of golf) and visited some friends. While there we saw some amazing beaches (too bad it is too cold to swim) and more old buildings (they all look the same to me anymore). As we drove to our B&B we stopped at the Famous Grouse distillery. Unfortunately there was a wedding going on (a wedding at a distillery would be awesome), so we couldn't get inside. Probably worked out for the best ;)


The B&B was on Loch Long. There is a popular hiking mountain near by called the Cobbler. The middle picture (right above Janna's head) shows the Cobbler from our B&B. The last picture is the reverse view from the top. My legs are still sore, but the beautiful view next to me was amazing and the mountain view was cool too.

ALL DONE....YIPPY

This morning Janna and one of her classmates got their dissertations bound and submitted. Even a day early. What overachievers. I am so proud of Janna for working so hard and doing such a great job. It is just a formality until I am married to a woman with a Masters Degree. How did I get so lucky?

FIT'n IT ALL IN @ THE END

Our adventure is coming to an end. We are doing our best to see and do as much as possible. Let me do a review of the last few weeks.


First of all my wonderful wife had a birthday. Guess who made the cake? (It was his first ever!)


One thing we alway intended to see but never got around to was the Scott Monument. This is an amazing gothic monument right in the heart of the city. The view from the top was amazing, but the stairs were a bit narrow.


August is festival season in Edinburgh. The number of people in the city has more than doubled. Everywhere there are street performers and theater acts. I even got called out of the audience during a fire juggler's performance. He handed me one of his flaming torches and wanted me to mimic his actions. First he held the torch in the air and so did I. Then he held it above his head and so did I. Then his gag was revealed. He rubbed the flame on his arm and .... so did I, while getting a look of utter disbelieve. The audience seem to get a kick out of his gag being defeated. Guess he hadn't ever meet a redneck who has been camping most his live and isn't really afraid of fire. Just wish I had a picture. (For the record - I went camping most of my childhood too, and I never rubbed fire on myself!)


Finally we went to the famous Edinburgh Military Tattoo. This was an amazing gathering of military bands from around the world. It is hard to describe this utterly amazing show, so I won't. The best I can do is let you see it for yourself.

Not sure if we will get much blogging in before our return. Hope to see you all soon. If you want we will even show you a few pictures. We only have 5000.

Remedy for the Homesick Blues

The realization that we will soon be home has actually brought on a severe case of the homesick blues. While we will miss Scotland, we are sooooo ready to get home and on with the next stage in life. A plane ride over the pond is the only cure for this affliction, but I did come up with a temporary remedy. All it took was a quick call to Grandma Meda. A pat on the back and coaster from the Augustiner brewery if you want it (see previous post) to the first who can name the dish?

Salzburg/Good Food/Good People/Good Beer

I went to Salzburg for work not too long ago. It was really tough going to this wonderful little town on the edge of the Austrian Alps. Salzburg is the birth place of Mozart (yawn), but is also home to the famous Augustiner Brewery/Tavern. The brewery/Tavern is part owned by the nearby monastery and has a very religious feel. When you walked in there were stands selling the most amazing food. I got a bratwurst with sauerkraut. Then at the end of hall you grabbed a mug off the shelves and handed it to a guy who filled it right from an oak barrel.

The whole experience was amazing as the tavern had a much different feel than I'm accustomed to. There were little old ladies having a social meeting, families enjoying dinner, businessmen conducting meeting, and of course, us tourists gaping. People where far more concerned with enjoying good food, good drink, and good people than getting drunk. The ideas of a neighborhood pub as a meeting place for a community has largely been lost in America. I think it is something that we should strive to bring back.

London/Cambridge/Bury

Again, let me try to get caught up. Janna wrote this over a month ago:

Hello everyone! I hope you all had a good Fourth of July. We didn't do anything for the Fourth. Not really a big deal over here, if you can imagine. Ryan was working out of the Cambridge office that day, so he traded the fourth off for Friday and I flew down to join him.

On Friday we took the train into London. It was a great chance to see some of the sights that we just hadn't had time to see when we were there on vacation a couple of years ago. The first thing we did was go to St Pauls Cathedral. Wow. I am a sucker for cathedrals and abbeys. I especially liked St Pauls because it survived the Blitz, thanks to volunteer firefighters who kept watch every night. What a landmark.There were three different viewing galleries in the cathedral, the lowest inside and the two highest on the outside of the building. We couldn't go to the very top because the wind was too strong. The views were still phenomenal from our middle perch, some 270 or so steps up.

Then we headed to the British Museum, where we stayed a little too long (for me, not Ryan). I have a time limit of about 2 hours in any type of museum before I start to go bonkers. There's only so much you can take in. We hit the Ancient Egypt section and looked at all the mummies, which was interesting. The building was pretty fabulous too.

When all attractions were safely closed, we just wandered a bit. Took in the views of Parliament and Big Ben, the London Eye, and Westminster Abbey. As we headed towards Buckingham Palace we ran into the Tour de France. Yep, really. I still haven't figured out why the Tour de France started in England, but it did. The Prologue (which is only 7.9 km so I don't know what the point is) was in London on Saturday. We didn't get to see it, but we got to walk along the finish line the night before. It looked like quite a big deal. Stage 1 was today, and it left London and went towards the coast. At least they got a little closer to France! Anyway, we did eventually get to Buckingham Palace. Big impressive building, beautiful grounds, etc. We got in too late to catch the changing of the guards. I think the Queen was still in Edinburgh while we were there, but I suppose it happened anyway. Oh well.

So that was our day in London. We caught the last train out, which turned out to be an interesting experience in and of itself. I would not recommend catching the late train on a Friday night. Lots of drunk people fighting and kids without tickets. At least it kept us entertained for the 75 minute ride.

The last day we spent with our friends from Bury St Edmunds. We started the day with Ryan getting pulled over for talking on his cell phone. You really can't do that here. A 45 second phone call is going to cost about $120! Oops. If we ever figure out how to pay for it, that is. (hoping we don't) Nobody seems sure how this works with Ryan not having a UK license and living in Scotland, not England. After that excitement, we had a lovely day with our friends and their little girl. We headed into Cambridge and went punting on the River Cam. Punts are the long, skinny, flat boats. There were so many boats on the river it was mass chaos. Adding to it, was the fact that you could either hire a punter to tour you around (which we did) or you could try to do it yourself. Nobody who did that seemed to be having much luck. We watched people fall in, run into trees or walls, or just get stuck perpendicular to the flow of traffic. When that happened, punting became very much like bumper boats. It was great fun, as long as you liked the water. (Sorry, Michelle.)

Lucky Again

Written by Janna:
Guess what. We saw the Queen! (yippy) Again, we had no idea anything was going on - just followed the crowd. She walked out of the palace, crossed the street, and then sat on a platform (covered on three sides) to watch a rather interesting parade in her honor. Then she walked back. That was it. She's the little greenish blur in a red hat in the picture. I can't believe all the pomp that accompanies a little old lady crossing the road. I suppose I should perhaps be a bit more respectful of their monarch. We went to catch a glimpse too, so we're just as bad. Ryan and I had more fun checking out all the security, I think. There were beefeaters, city police, military police, you name it
.

Sometimes You Just Get Lucky

The other day Janna needed a break from studying, so we took a walk up the royal mile to the castle. As luck would have it, we stumbled into a free ceremony to install a new Governor to Edinburgh castle.



As things do in this country the ceremony started out with a great bagpipe band.

But what was really neat to watch was the ceremonial part of the installation. It is all completely unnecessary, but the ritual tradition has been maintained. After the band played for awhile, a group of soldiers marched into the arena. The leader of the soldiers stood at the end of the line shouting orders while the troops shuffled back and forth to get properly aligned. Shortly after, the new governor came in and inspected the troops. When he was satisfied the installation began. He requested her Majesty’s officer read aloud the Queens commission appointing him governor of the castle. When read, the governor ordered the gates to be opened and the castle key to be brought to him. The castle garrison commander then shouted from the castle wall and demanded proof of the commission. At this point her Majesty’s officer took the commission to the castle gate and knocked three times. When the summons was verified the key was brought out. After a quick speech and some more music, everyone marched into the castle.

Fun With Friends

They have long since gone home but the memories will last. The middle of June was a fun time for us as some friends from Kalispell came to visit. We had a great time showing them around and they even talked us into taking a quick trip to Ireland. It didn't take much arm twisting as Dublin means Guinness brewery... mmm beer.


Much of their trip we took them to sights Janna and I have seen before. This actually worked out well as we would send them off the see the touristy bits whilst Janna and I explored the not-so-touristy bit around the touristy bits.
We also got to see lots of new sights like the magnificent (insert sarcasm) Antonine Wall. After a long hike through a field, across a trash dump, through some trees, under a train track, and across a cow field we finally found this amazing sight. Which turned out the be a ditch and some holes in the ground. But it was likely the oldest ditch we have ever seen. I know I am forever changed. ;)



One of days (they have all blurred together) we headed south and had abbey day. On this trip we saw Melrose Abbey, Dryburgh Abbey (Echo Echo Echo), Jedburgh Abbey, and Kelso Abbey.


Then off to Ireland. We saw a church (Christ Church Cathedral - Janna edit) and some other crap (Trinity College - Janna edit), but the only thing that really counts is the Guinness Storeroom. A tip for the guys... it is always a good idea to bring your non-beer liking wife as you then get two pints of that fresh godly nectar.


For dinner we had a traditional Irish meal that came with some music and dancing and more Guinness. While that was cool, I think the best part if the trip was the street performers competition (sorry Ryan). We had no idea such an event was taking place, but it turned out to be a very memorable occasion... especially when someone you know gets called onto the stage. Sorry Ryan but that was darn funny. (For those of you that are confused, our friend is also named Ryan).

Just like Janna's folks, we took them up to Arthur's Seat on the last day. Unfortunately the view wasn't quite as good. Nonetheless a we had a great time. Can't wait to get home and crack a beer back in Kalispell.