Edinburgh Part1

Well today I made it to Edinburgh. It was a fairly long ride releative to my train rides to date, but I met a couple also on holiday and a guy born and raised in Edinburgh to chat with. At the end of my trip I ran into a girl born and raised in NYC who had just completed college at GW and was "avoiding life" by traveling for a year. Must be nice to pay for college with loans and then spend the money on travel afterwards... Anyway, I got to Edinburgh around 1330. After about half an hour of walking I made it to my hotel, dropped the bags, and hit the Royal Mile. Nothing too special there other than some interesting architecture. Grabbed lunch at a pub along the mile, then headed up to Edinburgh castle and did the tour there. A very impressive place. I've included some pictures below and in part 2 (cause Picasa won't load more than 4 photos at a time).

The castle from a road that runs up along side the battlements.

St Theresa's chappel, the oldest building in the castle (built around 1200).

The two statues at the gates to Edinburgh castle are Robert the Bruce and Mel Gibson...at least according to our Scottish guide :-)

Dyson Hand Drier

OK, how is it that an 800+ year old castle has the coolest and most modern hand dryers? They even work fairly well...only a little wiping on the pants afterwards :-)

Yorkminster

There was a bright crisp morning on the way to the train station, and as I walked past Yorkminster I just had to grab some more photos. They resulted in this autostitch image...

Writing this while going 100+ mph

I'm headed to Edinburgh this morning, and it turns out the train has wifi...how cool is that? Weather today is cold (I could see my breath walking to rail station this morning) but the sun is out and the sky is blue, so no worries :-) 

Pub grub and beer

Found some (sausage and mash and some local beer) :-)

Yorkshire

Arrived at Yorkshire today. It pretty much rained the the whole train ride there, but cleared up once I arrived, which was around 1330. By the time I got my stuff to the hotel room it was almost 1430, so I didn't have a whole lot of time....things tend to shut down early in the UK, and this is especially so on Sunday's it would seem. I did get to check out Yorkminster, a gothic church built in the 1200's. Apparenty it went up so fast (50 years) that it only covers one building style. Most buildings like this covered multiple periods and so became building "mutts". Anyway, above is a autostitch generated photo, and there are lots more at the Picasa link I mentioned previously.

Tomorrow I head to Edinburgh, where I get to spend a couple of days. I have a day tour planned of northern Scotland, and I'm hoping to make it Roslyn chappel (just to say I've been). Of course there's also Edinburgh castle and the Royal mile. Anybody watch Underground (I think that is what it's called) on Discovery? There was a show dedicated to this area and all the underground passages under the Royal mile.

Stratford-Upon-Avon

Today I traveled to Stratford-Upon-Avon, where I met up with Jenn and Tony. We rode the citysightseeing tour bus (and froze our bums off), had Indian for lunch, Thai for dinner, and managed to even get in a group picture too. That house behind us is the birthplace of some guy name William Shake-something-or-other... Had a great time and the weather was nice, if a bit cold. Tomorrow I'm off to York...

Update

Got to Oxford just fine this morning. Train was very easy to figure out, and yes it left exactly on time. Oxford was interesting...not a whole lot to take pictures of (what I did take is up on Picasa), but lots of history, REALLY OLD stuff, and really young people. Rode the double decker sightseeing bus, which was worth the 12 quid as it served a dual purpose...got a tour of the city and a ride to my hotel at the same time. The guide (both real and recorded) had plenty of history and tidbits to share. I didn't realize the MG cars originally came from Oxford. Anyone know what MG stands for? Not all that creative, eh? Then again, is BMW? Anyway, it started to rain late in the afternoon so here I sit for now giving my feet a rest and doing some blogging. Gonna go out later if it doesn't come down too hard and find me a pub and grab a pint. Tomorrow it's off to Stratford-Upon-Avon, where I meet up with Jenn and Tony Kimbrough (somebody I used to work on call with) for some exploring.

More steampunk...

Since Picasa only uploaded the first four images...

This is an iPod speaker...you can see the jack on the left hand side of the box.

Steampunk

Oxford Science and History museum had steampunk on display (if you don't know what that is then use your google-fu grasshoper).

A self portrait :-)

Update

Well, I'm heading to Oxford tomorrow morning. Hopefully the trains are as easy to use as the tube. OBTW I've been updating Picasa with all the pictures I've taken. Not all of them are great, but I'm not really sorting them now. Here is a link to them.

London Apple Store

This one is at Oxford Circus. Notice all the people? The sidewalks all along Oxford St. were like that all day. Doesn't anyone work in the UK? And yeah this store was huge...nice glass stairway too :-)

What is "the most popular stone in the world"

And the winner is....the Rosetta Stone. Guess where I went today?

Talk like an Egyptian...

Ever wanted to say "cat" in Egyptian? Well here you go....

Big Ben

Went to Westminster Abbey today. Didn't get many pictures as they don't let you use cameras inside the Abbey. Did get a decent shot of Big Ben though...

Westminster sun clock

From a time before mechanical clock mechanisms...

Something for the F1 geeks

All two of you :-) Was strolling down Oxford street and walked into a dept. store. After some wandering, I found this F1 car. It's actually there to help pimp luggage...guess that is what happens to F1 cars when they are put out to pasture...

Well, I made it!

A six hour plane ride later, and I'm in London! My luggage arrived without issue, customs was nowhere to be seen, so after a 30 minute train ride to Paddington station, and a 30 minute walk to the hotel I'm here. Only issue was that hotel didn't have room ready yet (and I was really hoping for a nap). So I wandered to a cafe with internet and got some food.

For all the g33k5

The entertainment system on the plane is running Linux how cool is that?




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Well I've boarded...

So I guess I'm almost to the point of no return...c ya in London :-)


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