Today was our last day in Edinburgh. And it rained. Check that, it poured. All day. As I write this blog, it's still raining and it's about 7 p.m. So yeah, it's been pretty crappy all day.
Still, we had a plan for the day and we were going to achieve our goals! Here were our said goals for the last day in Edinburgh:
1. Go to Edinburgh Castle
2. Go to St. Giles' Cathedral
3. Climb Arthur's Seat
We got downtown and were still relatively dry at this point. As we were trekking up to the Castle, we made our first great decision of the day: stopping for coffee and breakfast. A very cute place off of the main road that had the best tomato and cheese croissant I've ever had. Great decision.
Then we went back out into the weather, which had worsened. As we walked up the hill, the rain started falling sideways so our umbrellas were pretty much useless. Our shoes, jackets, and jeans were pretty much soaked once we made it to the castle entrance. Here is where we made our second great decision of the day: only doing item one on our list. I knew the rain would persist all day and that a trek up the mountain was not in our best interests.
So we toured the castle and I personally don't have any pictures because it was raining and I didn't want to get my camera wet. It was really cool and on a clear day, it would have been great to see the city of Edinburgh from it. But it wasn't so we didn't get to see much.
After leaving the castle, and stopping at the shop of course, we made our way back into town. On the way, we made our third great decision of the day: stop for lunch before heading back to Dalkeith. We went back to The Albanach to actually have their food this time and they did not disappoint. I may have had the best beef stew ever (besides my mother's of course). And we couldn't resist having their dessert one last time so Sticky Toffee Pudding Cake it was!
(Side Note: We're all extremely happy that Jenny will most likely be moving here next summer so we aren't too upset that we didn't see everything. Melissa and I will just come back to visit and see stuff then! Next summer, hopefully.)
Then it was back to Dalkeith via the bus. Still raining pretty hard. We made it back to our rooms by 330, and I proceeded to spend the next 30-45 minutes in the shower to warm up to normal temperatures again. This evening will be a relaxing one of packing and preparing for our five days of travelling that commence tomorrow morning. I may not be as frequent about my blogs because we will be in a different hostel every night and I may not have the time to keep up with it. As a reminder, here is our schedule:
Thursday: Edinburgh to Newcastle. Visit Hadrian's Wall, Then back to Newcastle and head to York for the night.
Friday: York all day. Leave for Nottingham in the evening.
Saturday: Nottingham all day. Leave for Cardiff, Wales, very late.
Sunday: Cardiff all day.
Monday: Leave Cardiff mid morning. Return to London early afternoon.
Hopefully I'll be able to check-in periodically but I can't be certain. It will be a whirlwind but I'm looking forward to it. Til then!
- Kate
Showing posts with label Scotland. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Scotland. Show all posts
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
So Why Are You In The Lake District?
Day Two arrived in Scotland with a very early morning. Too early. We all had to be on the bus at 545, so it was up at 5 a.m. for most of us. Our plan for the day was to go to the Lake District with the Children's Literature Class. It was to be a real treat to see everything to do with Beatrix Potter!
(Side Note: Now, I'm really not here to complain but I don't care about Beatrix Potter. Her life really has no bearing on my future career and there are better things to see in the Lake District than her home and surroundings. I actually cannot remember when I last read any of her books, and probably never read them because someone read them to me. So she's not really important and I would have liked seeing the lakes in the Lake District instead. Or maybe a library! What a novel idea!)
Alas, we were stuck, and off we went to the Lake District. Back to England! We made a stop for breakfast along the way and arrived at the World of Beatrix Potter Attraction around 930. That was a 20 minute walk through of the world of Beatrix Potter, complete with smells and sounds and weird creepy life-size of Peter Rabbit, Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle, Benjamin Bunny, and all those other weird human-like animals. The men running the door asked us why we left Edinburgh to come to the Lake District. Sirs, we were asking ourselves the same question...
After that, we boarded the bus again and drove about 30 minutes to where we were getting lunch. A free lunch was our treat for getting up at 5 a.m. The booze wasn't free though, and we had to sit through a forty-five minute lecture from the President of the Beatrix Potter Society. That was riveting.
Then it was back on the bus to drive to Hill Top, BP's (Beatrix Potter from now on. I'm too tired of typing her full name). We had an hour to walk through a five-room house. I stood outside in the rain for about 45 minutes of that hour. Then it was back on the bus to go to our final stop: Wordsworths's grave. How that connect to BP, I'll never know, but it was in the vicinity, so hey, why not? We walked there, saw it, took a photo, and then had another half hour to kill before leaving.
Then it was back on the bus only to stop an hour later to eat at a rest stop. Yay rest stop food. Just what I needed. It was awful. Then back on the bus for another two hours. We finally reached the house at 930 p.m. It was late and I was tired but it began our mini-break a day early so that was an added benefit to a truly ridiculous and kind of wasted day.
Here is how this day could have been more efficient:
1. Stopping only a few times. For example, eating lunch at the first place we stopped and then eating dinner at the last place we stopped. That would have cut down our stoppage and driving time. We could have left later and probably arrived home earlier. In fact, if we arrived home earlier, we wouldn't have needed to stop for dinner on the road and then could have eaten when we returned to Dalkeith.
2. Not overestimating the time we have to spend at every place. We didn't need an hour at Hill Top. We probably could have seen the first place in about 30-40 minutes, instead of an hour.
3. Not going to these locations at all...while there might have been some benefit to seeing these places, I really don't know how BP's life will be important to my career as an archivist. Even some of the future Children's Librarians were grasping at straws to discover why this was a good idea.
So that was my Tuesday. It was spent mainly in England, despite the fact that we were supposed to be in Scotland. It kind of took away from my time in Scotland and my ability to see Edinburgh. Still, I may find some silver lining in this trip but it wasn't the highlight of this month.
- Kate
(Side Note: Now, I'm really not here to complain but I don't care about Beatrix Potter. Her life really has no bearing on my future career and there are better things to see in the Lake District than her home and surroundings. I actually cannot remember when I last read any of her books, and probably never read them because someone read them to me. So she's not really important and I would have liked seeing the lakes in the Lake District instead. Or maybe a library! What a novel idea!)
Alas, we were stuck, and off we went to the Lake District. Back to England! We made a stop for breakfast along the way and arrived at the World of Beatrix Potter Attraction around 930. That was a 20 minute walk through of the world of Beatrix Potter, complete with smells and sounds and weird creepy life-size of Peter Rabbit, Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle, Benjamin Bunny, and all those other weird human-like animals. The men running the door asked us why we left Edinburgh to come to the Lake District. Sirs, we were asking ourselves the same question...
After that, we boarded the bus again and drove about 30 minutes to where we were getting lunch. A free lunch was our treat for getting up at 5 a.m. The booze wasn't free though, and we had to sit through a forty-five minute lecture from the President of the Beatrix Potter Society. That was riveting.
Then it was back on the bus to drive to Hill Top, BP's (Beatrix Potter from now on. I'm too tired of typing her full name). We had an hour to walk through a five-room house. I stood outside in the rain for about 45 minutes of that hour. Then it was back on the bus to go to our final stop: Wordsworths's grave. How that connect to BP, I'll never know, but it was in the vicinity, so hey, why not? We walked there, saw it, took a photo, and then had another half hour to kill before leaving.
Then it was back on the bus only to stop an hour later to eat at a rest stop. Yay rest stop food. Just what I needed. It was awful. Then back on the bus for another two hours. We finally reached the house at 930 p.m. It was late and I was tired but it began our mini-break a day early so that was an added benefit to a truly ridiculous and kind of wasted day.
Here is how this day could have been more efficient:
1. Stopping only a few times. For example, eating lunch at the first place we stopped and then eating dinner at the last place we stopped. That would have cut down our stoppage and driving time. We could have left later and probably arrived home earlier. In fact, if we arrived home earlier, we wouldn't have needed to stop for dinner on the road and then could have eaten when we returned to Dalkeith.
2. Not overestimating the time we have to spend at every place. We didn't need an hour at Hill Top. We probably could have seen the first place in about 30-40 minutes, instead of an hour.
3. Not going to these locations at all...while there might have been some benefit to seeing these places, I really don't know how BP's life will be important to my career as an archivist. Even some of the future Children's Librarians were grasping at straws to discover why this was a good idea.
So that was my Tuesday. It was spent mainly in England, despite the fact that we were supposed to be in Scotland. It kind of took away from my time in Scotland and my ability to see Edinburgh. Still, I may find some silver lining in this trip but it wasn't the highlight of this month.
- Kate
The Ocean Doesn't Look That Far Away....
First, I'd like to apologize for not updating my blog as frequently as I was last week. However, my short time in Scotland has been extremely busy. So let me know backtrack to explain what I've been up to for the past three days.
We left London on Sunday morning at 10 a.m. Of course, it was a beautiful sunny day and of course, we were going to spend all of it on a bus. But alas, we left, and after spending about an hour getting out of the city, we were finally on the road and heading towards Edinburgh. Things that suck about long bus rides: everything. The bus was really hot, I lost feeling in my butt after sitting for four hours straight, and it was almost impossible to sleep on the bus. I was glad that I two seats to myself so I could spread out. Still, it was a long day on the bus.
We finally arrived at our destination at 7 p.m. and most of us were cranky and tired. However, Dalkeith House is a beautiful home, surrounded by several wonderful acres of land. We checked in to our rooms, got oriented (probably unnecessarily) and then headed into the town to get some food before they stopped serving. It was a small shock that it was so light out, until I remembered that we are closer to the North Pole and thus the sun sets and rises much earlier.
Spending 9 hours on a bus will take a lot out of you, even though you aren't exerting any energy. Thus, we only last a bit more before we all returned to the rooms and passed out.
On Monday, we were up pretty early to get into Edinburgh for our class/tours. Dalkeith is located about 15 miles from Edinburgh so we have to take a bus into the city and it takes about a half hour. First mistake of the day: purchasing coffee that I couldn't bring with me on the bus. Tossing that after two sips was really upsetting.
We had our first visit of the day at the Central Library of Edinburgh and that lasted two hours. Then we had time for a quick lunch at a local pub before heading to our second visit, which was at the National Archives of Scotland. Both were awesome, but left us both tired and a bit cranky. The weather was nice, so we wandered downtown Edinburgh for a bit and purchased some gifts. Then we decided to try this famous dessert that Jenny had heard of via a friend. We entered The Albanach, and into a magical world. Melissa, Jenny, and I each ordered a separate dessert. Best.Desserts.Ever. I had Belgian Waffles and Ice Cream. Melissa had the Sticky Toffee Pudding Cake, and Jenny had the Cranachan. All were awesome in their own way and it energized us to conquer the world.....
Or instead of that, walk to the ocean! It didn't look too far from the center of town and with the dessert courage, coupled with some liquid courage from my Scottish Coffee and Melissa'a Irish Coffee, we decided to make the trek. Our second mistake of the day....
One hour, three miles, and a lot of bitching later, we finally arrived at the sea. It was totally worth it. We got to walk on the beach and look our into the Firth of Fourth. It was still a beautiful day and made up for the pain coursing through our legs. Getting back to Dalkeith was quite a trek as well, for we needed to run to the bus twice. Both times uphill. We missed the first one, but made the second one, and finally made it back to the house by 830. A long but truly rewarding first day in Edinburgh. This is all for now. I will update on my second and third days in Scotland when I find the energy write again.
- Kate
We left London on Sunday morning at 10 a.m. Of course, it was a beautiful sunny day and of course, we were going to spend all of it on a bus. But alas, we left, and after spending about an hour getting out of the city, we were finally on the road and heading towards Edinburgh. Things that suck about long bus rides: everything. The bus was really hot, I lost feeling in my butt after sitting for four hours straight, and it was almost impossible to sleep on the bus. I was glad that I two seats to myself so I could spread out. Still, it was a long day on the bus.
We finally arrived at our destination at 7 p.m. and most of us were cranky and tired. However, Dalkeith House is a beautiful home, surrounded by several wonderful acres of land. We checked in to our rooms, got oriented (probably unnecessarily) and then headed into the town to get some food before they stopped serving. It was a small shock that it was so light out, until I remembered that we are closer to the North Pole and thus the sun sets and rises much earlier.
Spending 9 hours on a bus will take a lot out of you, even though you aren't exerting any energy. Thus, we only last a bit more before we all returned to the rooms and passed out.
On Monday, we were up pretty early to get into Edinburgh for our class/tours. Dalkeith is located about 15 miles from Edinburgh so we have to take a bus into the city and it takes about a half hour. First mistake of the day: purchasing coffee that I couldn't bring with me on the bus. Tossing that after two sips was really upsetting.
We had our first visit of the day at the Central Library of Edinburgh and that lasted two hours. Then we had time for a quick lunch at a local pub before heading to our second visit, which was at the National Archives of Scotland. Both were awesome, but left us both tired and a bit cranky. The weather was nice, so we wandered downtown Edinburgh for a bit and purchased some gifts. Then we decided to try this famous dessert that Jenny had heard of via a friend. We entered The Albanach, and into a magical world. Melissa, Jenny, and I each ordered a separate dessert. Best.Desserts.Ever. I had Belgian Waffles and Ice Cream. Melissa had the Sticky Toffee Pudding Cake, and Jenny had the Cranachan. All were awesome in their own way and it energized us to conquer the world.....
Or instead of that, walk to the ocean! It didn't look too far from the center of town and with the dessert courage, coupled with some liquid courage from my Scottish Coffee and Melissa'a Irish Coffee, we decided to make the trek. Our second mistake of the day....
One hour, three miles, and a lot of bitching later, we finally arrived at the sea. It was totally worth it. We got to walk on the beach and look our into the Firth of Fourth. It was still a beautiful day and made up for the pain coursing through our legs. Getting back to Dalkeith was quite a trek as well, for we needed to run to the bus twice. Both times uphill. We missed the first one, but made the second one, and finally made it back to the house by 830. A long but truly rewarding first day in Edinburgh. This is all for now. I will update on my second and third days in Scotland when I find the energy write again.
- Kate
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)