Day 2-4 Scotland

We had an amazing three day tour of the Highlands. We got to see tons of great sites and great scenery. We had tons of fun, even if things didn't quite go as planned, but we all got out alive. Haha!

 Do you recognize this castle? Well you should. Need a hit? I got a great hint for you.

"You're mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries! Now go away, or I will be forced to taunt you a second time!"

Guess it? That's right! Monty Python and the Holy Grail. They used this castle for all the castles in the movie. Just using different walls to do different castles. Pretty cool, right?

 Such beautiful scenery. You can't quit tell, there is a blob of grey in towards the lower right corner along the road. That is a Highland cemetery. It's pretty far from the little village. We also saw a cemetery on an island, though we couldn't stop to take pictures. They said they had put it on the island to keep the wolves from digging up the graves, but most people think it was because the Scots thought the farther away the cemetery, then the ghosts would leave them alone. Interesting. Or I thought so.

 We definitely got to see the ocean. A lot of the lochs in Scotland are salt water lochs. We sat on along the coast of this little loch for a picnic lunch. This little guy came to check us out.

 This was a total nightmare to get down and back up from. I thought I might die! But luckily I didn't. Since I'm here to show you the pictures after the fact, you know I didn't perish from a steep fall from a really steep staircase. But it was beautiful.

To the very left of the last picture, it just right after the picture cut off, I was sitting on a rock on the hill, just a few feet away from the path. The baby, here, got separated from it's mother. The baby escaped us through the fence, but the mom decided to come and check us out. She didn't eat me. She was pretty close to me, I was prepared to hop down and back up, but she just mozied on up the hill.

Ah! The most famous loch of them all! Can you guess? That's right... Loch Ness! And if you can believe it, and you should, we actually got to see Nessie! It's the find of the century!

Okay, so maybe not. But I thought these little guys were cute! Of course, Nessie, the Loch Ness Monster, doesn't really exist. It's just a really well done tourist scam. By the amount of people there, I can tell you they aren't hurting with the question of 'Does Nessie really exist??' Well, I'm sure the answer is no. Sorry!

The last castle we saw the inside of.  Well, we found out when we went inside, it was a replica. It was built 1918 or so after the previous castle was destroyed. It was actually blown up with all the gun powder that was stored there. It went a couple hundred years with nothing done with the ruins. I was a little disappointed with the inside. Too much modern stuff to get the feel it was a castle.

 Tons of rivers running through places, which also means tons of waterfalls. There was one just up from this little spot.

 We managed to avoid most of the rain, but just barely. But we did get to see some pretty awesome scenery with all the clouds.

 These yellow bushes were just about everywhere. Jeremy really likes them. If I thought they might grow in the desert climate (I highly doubt it, Scotland is no where near a desert climate) I would plant some in the yard.

 Not just a beautiful mountain. It was also the favored hiding place of the McDonald clan. They liked to steal cattle from other people and would hide them here, in the middle.

 This was the view from our Bed and Breakfast while on our tour. It was a beautiful sight! It was hard to really go to bed. It didn't get dark. Not really. The last night we were there it was just barely getting dark around midnight. I mean dark, not just fading light. The sun was coming up around 3 am. Crazy!

 This was on the first day of the trip. The pictures never seem to get on here in the order I put them and does funky things when trying to rearrange them. But it had rained pretty well the day before so we got to see a pretty good waterfall.

 The Isle of Skye. Beautiful, isn't it? The ocean was such an incredible blue color. The water was clear, so clear. The picture doesn't seem to do it justice though.

 Tons of pretty plants all around the cliffs. I really liked these. They are just a tiny flower that grows everywhere, kind of like grass.

Day 1 Scotland

We arrived late yesterday in Scotland. It was wet. Who would ever have imagined Scotland being so wet? Okay, so that is sarcasm. But by the time we got to our hotel, since we walked, we were soaked through. Even our luggage was soaked. Luckily, my stuff inside wasn't wet. Jeremy's was damp.

But we went to the Edinburgh Castle today, saw some great stuff, bought some cute stuff (I couldn't help it, found a great souvenir for my dad!), ate some food and then headed back to the hotel to charge my camera. Yeah. And then we saw Carlton Hill and did a bit of shopping.

I have to say, Scotland is beautiful. Even from the city. London didn't have much for trees and greenery except in designated parks. Scotland is green everywhere. It's pretty cool.

When we got to the hotel and got to our room, this is was the view outside our room. At first, we thought this might be a lighthouse. Well, it's not. We knew we were next to the ocean... but this is too far inland for it to be a light house. Whoop!

 This was a war monument. There are quite a few here. But you can see this from just about any point in the city. Or at least the middle tower. From far away, it almost looks like a cathedral.

 The castle itself! It's in the center of the city. Great view of the ocean from the castle walls.

This is the inner part of Edinburgh Castle. This was the main stair case of the castle. They finally made a roadway that slopes up to the top there to make it easier to get the cannons up there (the heaviest of them all weighing in at about 6 tons).  These guys were great. They let Jeremy take a picture of me with them, although that one is on Jeremy's phone.

One of the many, many cannons in the castle.

This is one of the coolest things about Scotland. Not just that this guy is playing the bagpipes in full Scottish clothing, but that just about everywhere you go, someone, somewhere, is out on the streets playing their bagpipes. We have someone outside the hotel now playing. I'm not complaining. At all.

 This was a little out of order. This was a shot from the greenway path we got on our way to the Edinburgh Castle. I hadn't meant to really get it framed like that, but I'm very happy with the shot I snapped up!

 Carlton Hill, Jeremy steps up to the plate to defend against the Zombie Apocalypse! I didn't have the heart to tell him he was a couple weeks to late for that.

 This is Carlton Hill from the bottom. We were at the base of the tower earlier.

This is Duke Wellington. We got tons of pictures from him in London, saw the Wellington Arch (The one with the horse drawn chariot at the top) and now we see him in Scotland. I guess being the man to defeat Napoleon makes you a rock star to the UK.

Day 5 in London

Well, we were busy today. We thought it was our last day in London. Turns out we have one more day. So we spent a little time shopping (just a little, because everything was super expensive. Like 500 pounds a shirt expensive) and then we went to the Museum of Natural History. And... cue the music!

*Music*

Roll back the rock
Till the dawn of time
And sing this song with me
If you’re thinking this guy’s unreal
Just imagine how I must feel
Just imagine how I must feel
Human beings
Mmmm what a meal

Roll back the rock
Till the dawn of time
And sing this song with me

*End Music*

Ten points if you can tell me where that is from!

Here is the first thing you see when you walk into the entrance.  A huge brontosaurus! This obviously wasn't actual fossils but a mold of one. But still pretty cool all the same.                                

This is an ancestor of the sloth. It was pretty huge! But cool to see. I had a hard time imagining some of these huge creatures roaming around the Earth.

Another ancient relative. I wouldn't have wanted to come by this guy by surprise!

There was tons of ancient sea creatures. But since they are all covered by glass, only a few turned out really well.

This is pretty cool. I like dolphins and this is one of the ancient ones.

 And the Dodo Bird. Can't get out of the museum without a picture of the Dodo!

Jeremy holding up the world. If it was really up to him, he would have tossed us all away long time ago to go get some sweets.

Oh, how did this get in here? How embarrassing! This was morning when Jeremy got between me and my morning coffee.

The sabertooth tiger! I was really starting to hate all the glass by the time we were out of the museum. Just doesn't help at all with picture taking.

I saved the best for last! This is the amount of blood in the human body. And the amount of hormones. Ha! Well, just be glad I didn't take a picture of the very informative 'How to create a baby' display. It was only from the hips to knees... but still. I think I get the idea of how exactly a baby is made.

Here is a little video from the Museum. It's from the exhibit of moving dinosaurs. It was pretty awesome in there. Well, once you got over all the parents forcing their children in dark rooms with scary looking creatures which resulted in tons of screaming, shrieking children. Luckily, in this one, you don't hear that. Enjoy!

Day Trip to Paris

Okay, so we spend the day in Paris. My camera died on me just after the Eiffel Tower and the river ride :( so I'm just going to post a few pictures of that (I got tons. I mean it. Of just the tower!)

 I really hate to make these smaller, but to fit the page I must.  I told you I have quite a few of the Eiffel Tower, so I picked my favorites. 

 It rained on us. A lot. I was a little bummed out that it was raining so much. Until I started taking pictures. The clouds made for such interesting pictures than I ended up glad it had rained on us. And not that gentle sprinkling stuff either!

 It cleared up fast and when we went on the river boat ride, the sky was blue and it was starting to warm back up. Here is a picture of Jeremy as he lets his gaze wonder to the Eiffel Tower, beholding the beauty!

And here is Jeremy! Saying how much he just loves being in France and how much he wanted to be an honorary French Man! (If you don't hear from me, Jeremy probably dumped my body in the ocean)

 And the Eiffel Tower with a blue sky!

 One of the first things we saw when we got out of the train station was a Dominos Pizza. The French drive on the right and have good pizza. It was like coming home!!

 This is Napoleon's statue. Can't be in France without a few statues of him!

 But here's what was cool about the statue. All the way up (it its really tall) was victory scenes from all of Napoleon's battles. This is a close up, which I got on the double decker bus. Not bad for snapping while moving, eh?

And the last picture I have for you from Paris. This is Place de la Concorde, where in the French Revolution many were beheaded. Including Marie Antoinette. What a happy ending for the post, right? Ha!

Day 4 in London

First stop of the day was The Globe! I was extremely excited to see this.

While it isn't the original building  (The original building burned to the ground in the 1600s by a cannon in the play Henry the Eighth), it is the most authentic replica in the world. Everything was built exactly how it was in Shakespeare's time.

There are only two exceptions to that though. For safety, they built in 7 emergency exits. In Shakespeare's time, there was only 2. One of the crowds, one for the actors.  The second difference is, and you can't tell in this small picture, is the electrical work.  They had lights put in so they could do plays no matter what time (there is no roof over the main area). But no speakers, no special light effects.

On our walk, we decided to walk across the Tower Bridge.  It was pretty cool. So named because it sits next to The Tower of London.

Our first steps on the bridge! Beautiful, isn't it?

 Since we walked across the bridge, we saw Big Ben (from the other side of the road this time) and this beauty here. Since we were next to this one and not on the other side of the street, we got to read the inscription. I thought it was pretty cool.

This is the inscription just underneath it.

And this is on the side. I just thought it was interesting. It was hard for me to read on the blog, it says: "Regions Caesar Never Knew Thy Posterity Shall Sway"