January 1-8, 2004
from our travel journal that Emily Jane gave us for Christmas
Happy New Year!
[Owen preparing to leave]
We are, right now, waiting in our seats in the plane. We've had what I think was only the first half of our safety instruction. A man got up from his seat and, we think, went to throw up.
But the pilot came on and said that we could listen to air traffic control on channel 9. It is pretty cool, but I have yet to hear our flight (UA958) mentioned.
We got to the airport a little after one via my college friend Nick Terrell. We promised to bring back a kilt for him, although I forgot to ask what family he was related to, so, oh darn, we can't.
Emily and I stayed up for the New Year last night (We had an excellent spinach avacado dip) packing. We woke up earlyish and finished packing. Nick and Zack came early, and there were no problems. I got to watch the Denver flight leave before our plane (a 777) came in. We're moving!
We didn't move. We waited three hours on the plane because the toilets weren't working. But eventually we took off. I watched "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" and had chicken that tasted like fish. Emily watched "Fighting Temptations" and had the pasta, which was surprisingly tasty. Overall, we were fed well, got no if any sleep, and arrived safely in London two hours later at 8:20am (Lonton time). We took a shuttle to the car rental place with a "fit bird" names Sam.
The guys (Matthew Weisberg, Dave Guarrerra, J.R (Jeremy Rifkin, I think)) had been waiting since 7:00 when we got there. We got two cars (after some issues with our ages and insurance) and drove the ~9 hours to Edinburgh, Scotland. We stopped at a church Ripon Cathedral. It was pretty, but the town smeeles sewery sometimes. It was 2:30 and NOBODY was serving lunch, just afternoon tea. We walked through narrow, cobbled, beautifully old streets and found a deli where we got sandwiches at a very reasonable price.
Emily and I were in culture shock when we stopped at Tesco (apprently a very large chain in England.) There were normal, english words on things, but they didn't make sense put together the way that they were! We bought Pringles and Pepsi. :) We also got gas, I think it was about 75p/liter. Do the conversion, it was expensive!
We're in a hostel, the Caedonian (old Gaelic word for Scotland) Backpackers. E12/night/person, shared bathrooms, bunk beds, with all of us in one room. The room is a bare place, but comfortable.
[Hostel stairs to nowhere]
Last night we would rather not remember. Zack, Emily, and I were dead tired. After much searching, it was 9:30, see note above about lunch, we found an Italian place for dinner and then went to bed.
This morning we walked around New Town, popped into some shops, and visited Edinburgh Castle.
 [Approaching Edinburgh Castle] |   |
This morning began very early. We were awoken by Zack's alarm clock at 6:30 so that we could go to the 8:00 service at St. Gilles cathedral (visited yesterday.) It was dark and the town seemed deserted. The service was small and ceremonial, but it was pleasant. He was preaching on Christianlity (education) in Britain. It was wonderful hearing the Bible read in his Scottish accent. We took communion and the cup was a large silver chalice that everyone drank from. It was an experience.
After the Presbyterian service Zack, Owen, and I walked through the park and what was a lake in front of the castle. It was lovely.
[On our morning walk.]
We then met up with the guys and we started our drive to Inverness.
[Loch Lochey]
[Switch to Owen's handwriting]
I drove, so I'll write this part: It was absolutely beautiful! The highlands are indescribable. Pictures don't capture the overwhelmingness of all of the scenery.
At first, driving the bridge over the Firth of Fourth, the countryside was impressive but opressive. The hills all around were completely barren and towere up into the sky. Maybe if they were green, but they were brown and white with dry vegetation and snow.
But we neared the Lochs and things changed incredibly. Many vibrant colors came out- red mists in the high branches of the trees, green mountain Laurel, grass, and conifer trees. Oranges of dry vegetation, browns, sometimes the forests looked a dark purple. Grey rock slick and reflective in the mist, snow-capped hills, fog hanging in the air.
[Owen and Zack, Adventurers]
Driving near the Lochs we saw waterfalls every 100 yards feeding the deep, cold waters. Some were tricking streams, some threw spray onto my widshield and required a section of bridge to cross.
[A local]
The hills were steep and when they hit the water there was no transition, since there was no real vegetation at the edge. Just rock or rolling grass dipping into the water, which looked dark and cold and deep (I stuck my hand into the water of Lock Ness- It was freezing!)
[Loch Ness from Urquaht castle]
We stopped at a castle on Lock Ness calle Urquaht Castle. It played a small role in history, was beseiged a few times, but in the end left to ruin. So we visited the ruins. It was raining but we pretended that it wasn't. It was beautifully set on Loch Ness with a lot of green land around it, a drained moat, a drawbridge, a tower or two, but mostly broken and falled walls. In the gift shop Emily bought a book about a Skye Terrier in Edinburgh and I remember seeing a statue somewhere of a dog similar.. We will look into it more some day.
[Et tu, Brute?]
The drive ended in Inverness, at the #1 hostel in Scotland, although they just came in to tell us to quiet down, whatever.
We ate dinner downtown at Iguana Wana, "authentic" Mexican- in Northwen Scoland :) . It was very good, Emily had a Chicken Enchilada that was creamy & the chicken tasted roasted (and like chicken.) I had a Cajun chicken wrapped in tortilla with a lot of vegetables (peas too!) We also ordered a Tequila Sunrise (Double Tequila and mostly orange juice.)
 [Emily loves Scotland] |  [Hangin' out in Inverness] |  [Dave and JR at home] |
Xack is playing cards on the floor. This hostel is going to make us get up early, which is silly. But first: Isle of Skye.
This morning Zack and I got up early to gas up the cars to get an early start. I got doughnuts and apples too. In the supermarket they sell unpackaged loaves of bread. Sliced bread, apparently, is not the greatest thing that has happened to them.
We drove to the Isle of Skye, mostly on "single carriage" roads that had "passing areas" every couple of hudred feet which were the only places that two cars could fit on the road. People also used these sometimes to park. It was awesome.
[Following Zack on A Single Carriage Road]
The bridge charged us an outrageous toll of E4.70, both ways! But whatever..
It was raining all day, sometimes very hard, sometimes stopping. I forgot to mention that we stopped at Eilean Donan Castle, which was not a ruin, but was closed. We bought an umbrella and Emily pressed a penny.
[Eilean Donan Castle]
Once on the Isle of Skye we were disappointed byt the scenery. There were just bush trees on either side. Gradually they went away, but all we saw was water and sometimes islands.
Gradually the island in the distance became more dramatic and the land too. There were gushing waterfalls like before, but when the mountains began to get bigger we could see streams along them, starting from the snowy tops, making a dark crevice on the side of the mountain, then turning white as they began to move faster and drop furthewr, then turning into full waterfalls at the level of the road or so. We had to stop at a medium-sized one to climb on, it was slick and dangerous, Dave got his feet very wet and cold, Matt got his pants dirty (Not by falling down, which he did, but when he crossed the street and tried to wipe dirt off his butt by rubbing up against a fencepost. Instead his pants were stained with the paint from the post!), and we took lots of pictures from safety.
 [Mastering the waterfall] |  [A scenic moment] |  [Dave's wet feet] |
Forgot (Didn't have time) to write yesterday. But here goes:
Woke up lateish at Glen Nevis (8:30am). THe guys decided that they were going to climb partway up Ben Nevis, even though it was raining. Emily and I decided to spend a leisurely day in Ft. Williams. Our groups split at 9:30 from the Safeway parking lot in the rain. We ate a decent breakfast in the Safeway cafe, and went then exploring in the car.
We were afraid to drive too far from the Safeway in fear of not making it back. But eventually we wanderes out toward town center, but not before driving through some local residential areas, where we saw PUFFINS! They were black & white and had orange beaks. They were hanging out with some seagulls on a football field.
So we parked in town center and walked through the shops and sat in the library, which was simple but welcoming. We read: Phone books, maps, Clan Encyclopedia, and "Crossstitch", which in the states is calles Outlander (Emily's favorite book.)
[Emmie and Nessie]
We bought Tracy's gift here and visited Woolworth's, because we've heard of it so often. Just a general store.
Back in the parking lot we took a picture of Tracy's gift (A Nessie doll) in front of the loch (or whatever). But then we saw a rainbow and had to picture that too. (It had stopped raining)
[Imagine a rainbow]
Back in the Safeway at 1:00 we bought lunch. During out meal we overheard a mother tell her child, "Hurry up and eat your chippies." It was very cute.
We met up with the guys. They were tired but happy: only one casualty: Matt had fallen but broken his fall in a pile of sheep poop, which now covered the front of his jacket (And a little on his pants.) Poor Matt. [Appently, though, it was more funny than sad.]
And then we drove.
Stopped in Glasgow briefly at night. Got out and walked around cathedral (Emily stood on a grave accidentally.) We ate at Pizza Hut, it was very good. We didn't particularly like Glasgow. It was a shock after the Highlands. There were, really, 3 or 4 identical hishrises for each city block.
And then we drove.
At Manchester the youth hostel couldn't put us all together, so we decided to split up. The guys drove on another three ours to Cambridge to stay at Dave's. We drove to a Holiday Inn Express to stay the night. But we got lost.
We stopped at a petrol station to ask for diretions. It was 12:00 at night. There were three boys buying candy before us outside of the station (They operate through the window at night, fetching whatever for the customer from the shop.) They were a riot. Most of the time we couldn't understand what they were saying, they were heckling the attendent but he didn't seem to mind. One particularly rowdy boy asked us if we were toursts, "Are you tourists, then? Wachington D.C. and all?" Their accents were classic. Emily says they could have been in Oliver.
We asked for directions but no going, so a lady offered us directions from her map. Dave would say that she was a fit bird, Emily agrees and says she looked like Forrest Gump's Jenny. She was a God-send.
We got to our hotel (On the other side of Manchester) and slept like logs. We both had detailed dreams. [E63.00]
Today we got up at 8:30, got ready in an awesome shower (woops, I just wrote on Emily). You could dial in a temperature. (Although it was in celcius. P.S. 72F = 25.705C)(As we calculate it)
We asked at the hotel for directions to Liverpool and had no problems arriving there. Finding the Beatle Story (which is what we decided to do on our drive over) was a differnt boat. It took us over an hour and two tolls through tunnels (The B'head (=butthead) and m'something).
Luckily we had eaten McDonalds before we seriously started the search.
Being lost with a poor map was well woth it though when we finally arrived at our destination.
[Is this heaven? No, its Liverpool.]
Outside the building Beatles music was blaring., We went down the stairs and entered Beatledom. I was in heaven and Owen was amused.
To tour the exhibit cost us about E10. It was chronological. Each room of the exhibit was decorated for the year. A lot of information was presented by plaques on the walls and short video clips. We really liked the room that was made to look like the "Cavern" (which is wehre the music video was made recently.) It was so dark and echo-y. We also liked the psychadelic age with the yellow submarine (with real fish) and funhouse mirrors, plus funky lights. There was also a white room that the museum made to represent John's idea of peace.
[Owen at the docks]
Needless to say, it was a good time. We got a pressed penny and a magnet for my mom.
Oh! Owen finally saw a zebra crosswalk today, so now he can leave happy.
[He he he]
We drove for the past few hours, ate dinner at a service stop "Welcome Break" and are now staying at a Travelodge (also at the service stop). Tomorrow we fly out.
Jolly good.
[Returning the car]
[Getting some work done at the airport]
[Follow the yellow brick road]