Here and There

Scott and Jackie's Travels – Thousand Trails Reviews, Campground Reviews, Fulltime RVing, European Travel

2022 – Around Edinburgh Scotland

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Edinburgh, Scotland is a great tourist city. We spent four days there and could have spent another four days continuing our exploring. The main attractions are all fairly close together so it isn’t hard at all to see a variety of things in one day. However, it needs to be noted that there are some serious hills there. This takes its toll on even people who walk on a regular basis.

We enjoyed trying out some different food places while we were there. Check out our photos of “Oink;” this is a chain of fast food restaurants specializing in – well you can guess! We ate at a local Turkish bakery near the train station. We liked it enough that we returned to grab some takeaway there to carry on the train on our return trip. We also had some good fish and chips at a nicer restaurant on Victoria Street near Grassmarket Square – an area with plenty of places to eat and shop. It is also where many public hangings took place in Edinburgh’s history. Of course, we checked out a few coffee shops along the way. Jackie loved the Chocolate Cafe where she got a coffee that was more chocolate than coffee! And, of course, we tried out the most popular soft drink in Scotland. It’s an orange colored soda that tastes to me like a cross between Big Red and Cream Soda. It’s not bad, but I think I’ll stick to my Coke Zero.

It was fun just being on the streets, looking at the shops and seeing the architecture. One secret is to look up! There are many building features like statues and gargoyles that are easily missed from street level.

We already posted a couple of site specific entries, but, as I mentioned earlier, we could have spent another week and seen more without ever repeating an attraction. We missed some biggies like Holyrood Palace, the Royal Yacht Britannia, several museums, and the Botanical Gardens. And that doesn’t even take into account the many other places to visit across Scotland.

Here are some specifics for anyone planning a visit to Edinburgh. (Note: this is based on just one visit, so there are likely many alternative approaches that a person might want to take.} I priced motel rooms in the central city and found them to be uniformly high priced. Instead, we opted to stay out at the Airport Premier Inn. The key to that location is that the tram (light rail) stop is just outside the motel. By buying online I was able to get us multiday tram tickets. Trams run every few minutes and, after a 20 minute ride, we arrived right in the heart of the city. Along the way the tram stops at both major train stations and, it just so happens, right at the Hop-on-Hop-off bus hub. We bought multi day Hop-on-Hop off bus tickets. There are three different bus tours included on that ticket. After riding and listening to the tour information on the entire route of a couple of them we switched to using the busses as our way to get around the city. By the way, we learned that this particular bus service gives you a real 24/48, etc. hour ticket. If you activate the ticket at 11:00 on one day it is good till the same time the next day. That gave us just enough time for the last ride we needed to get back to the tram after we visited the Castle.

As you can see, we had a good time in Edinburgh and highly recommend it to everyone. Just know that you will need to do some walking and some of it up and down hills. And, when you go, be sure to try some Irn Bru and a pork sandwich at Oink!

2022 – Edinburgh Castle

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It is no exaggeration to say that Edinburgh Castle dominates the city. It sits on Castle Rock, high above everything. Historically, it has defined Edinburgh since the 1200’s where It has housed royalty and served as a military stronghold through the centuries.

The Castle is located at the top of the Royal Mile. The other anchor is Holyrood Palace. Both should be visited, but we had to pick one or the other for this trip. The walk up to the Castle isn’t long but it is quite steep. Then, once on the Castle grounds, the steep walk continues, on up to where you can see the Crown Jewels of Scotland. The views of the city are beautiful and there are many displays and museums. We saw a lot but didn’t see nearly everything on the site.

Edinburgh Castle is a “must see” for visitors to this city. Wear your walking shoes and come ready to explore!

2022 – St Guiles’ Cathedral, Edinburgh, Scotland

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St Guiles’ dates back to the 1200’s and has played a big role in the history of this historic city of Edinburgh, Scotland. Thousands visit this church daily, not so much to worship as to see the stunning architecture and learn some of its history. This church was ground zero for the Scottish Reformation and John Knox, considered the father of that movement, became pastor of the church in 1559. Thus began the Presbyterian church. Honestly, there’s tons of information on St Guiles’ on the internet so I’ll just leave you with a few photos.

2022 – Exploring the Lake District, UK

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We had a terrific day touring the Lake District National Park, just northeast of Manchester. The National Park has beautiful scenery and picturesque villages. There are Herdwick sheep everywhere, lots of restaurants and shops, and narrow, twisting roads to explore.

We took a Busybus tour in a 15 passenger van and enjoyed the commentary of Shelly, our driver and tour guide. The tour took us to some of the famous places in the Lake District but also took us off the beaten path to places the bigger buses can’t go and places that the average tourist might not find.

One interesting stop was at the Castlerigg stone circle. This site is just as old as Stonehenge (around 5000 years old) but has smaller stones. That is more than offset by its location – natural beauty surrounds it.

We had lunch in the village of Grasmere. It was fun trying out a small café and then we topped our lunch off with a visit to Sarah Nelson’s gingerbread store. People line up to buy this unique treat which is a cross between cake and cookie; buttery with ginger. It is quite tasty and we bought enough to bring home for later on. Grasmere was the home of famous poet William Wordsworth. He called it “the loveliest spot that man hath ever found.” We saw where he is buried, in the church cemetery just near a pretty mountain stream.

From there we headed up into the mountains for what was my favorite part of the trip. The roads are one lane, twisting, climbing pathways with ancient rock fences crowding in on either side. When we met oncoming vehicles someone had to back up to a wider spot to let the other vehicle squeeze by. I was glad that someone else was doing the driving so I could focus on the scenery.

At one point we opted to get out and take a bit of a hike around Blea Tarn (“tarn” means “pool”). The scenery was amazing, especially the view out across Little Langdale Valley. It really is a special place.

Our last stop was at Lake Windermere. With the mountains surrounding it, the lake is well worth a visit. There is a cruise boat there that would be fun. Jackie opted for some ice cream and some quiet time just enjoying the view.

We were pretty much worn out from all the exploring and didn’t mind the hour and a half of quiet during the ride back to Manchester.

As you can tell, we had a wonderful time in the Lake District and we recommend it to anyone visiting this part of the UK.

2022 – Shopping downtown Manchester

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We took advantage of a pretty day to head downtown and do a bit of exploring.  Our primary target was the Arndale shopping mall, but we also wanted to look around and get our bearings.  It is a 10 minute walk to the bus stop, then a 40 minute ride to the heart of Manchester.  An all-day bus fare is about $6.45 each.  Busses run every 5-10 minutes, so it’s never a long wait.

For our Houston friends, Arndale reminds us a lot of the Galleria.  It has three levels and plenty of stores.  We looped each level, checking out a few stores and doing a lot of people watching.  Many stores are the same as what we have in the States and others reminded us of similar stores.  Honestly, if we were somehow transported into that mall, not knowing where we were we’d think we were in any of the hundreds of upscale malls in the USA.  Of course, when we saw that all the prices were in pounds we’d figure out that we weren’t “in Kansas anymore.”

Just for fun we decided to eat at a strange hamburger place called “Five Guys.”  It was that or another British place called “KFC” or another called “Taco Bell.”  Seriously, there were some restaurants that were new to us, but we thought it would be interesting to compare the UK version of “Five Guys” with the American one.  The result: no difference.  Again, had we not paid in pounds we could have been anywhere in the USA.  As usual, good burger and great fries – which, by the way, were called “fries” and not “chips.”

One thing that was different was the size of the crowds.  On this Tuesday early afternoon the streets were packed with people.  Every step we took outside included dodging people who were busy dodging everyone else.  In one store that reminds us of JC Penny, it looked like the Friday after Thanksgiving – people everywhere – I have no idea why it was so crowded.

Walking back to our bus stop took us through Piccadilly Gardens, an open, grassy area right in the heart of the city.  It was full of people who were sitting or lying on the grass soaking up the sun.  By the way, we are more tanned than any of these sun worshippers.  In Texas we get more sun by accident than they get on purpose!

We got a bit more walking than we intended – in part because of our laps around Arndale and also in part because I got turned around and had a hard time finding our bus stop.  Finding that stop was harder than you would think because there are probably 50 different stops in a five block radius.  Dozens of different bus lines converge at Piccadilly Gardens.  By the way, just for future reference, in Manchester Piccadilly Gardens is not the same as Piccadilly Station.  The Gardens is in the heart of the shopping district of Manchester and just about every city bus ends up there sooner or later.  The Station is the train station which is a 10 minute walk away.

The Adventure continues.

Touring Chester, UK

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The city of Chester is located about 35 miles from Manchester and our travel there by train and bus took us just over an hour.  We enjoyed riding National Rail on our previous trip to England and things were as we remembered.  The UK trains are amazing with comfortable seats, big windows, and even electric/USB outlets available in each seat.  The ride is smooth and quiet.  Honestly the train ride adventure was probably as much fun for as was our time in Chester.

Chester was founded by the Romans in AD79.  The biggest draw there is the remains of a Roman Amphitheatre and ancient city walls.  There are also many Tudor buildings.   If history doesn’t interest you, there is shopping galore and plenty of restaurants.   We had lunch at “The Eatery.”  I opted for a traditional British breakfast for lunch: egg, ham, sausage, toast, beans, tomato, and hash browns.  Frankly, with the beans and roasted tomato, it felt more like lunch than breakfast anyway, so it was a good choice.  Jackie went with quiche and chips (French fries for you Yanks).  It was all very good.

While shopping Jackie found a few items for our flat, so not only did we get to do some sightseeing, we also picked up a few needed items.  The weather was just about perfect, making our wanderings a real pleasure.  After we got home it started raining, so we felt pretty good about picking this day as the one for our first major sightseeing trip.

Our return trip was pretty much the reverse of our morning journey except that the train didn’t stop at the station closest to us.  We rode the bus about 45 minutes back to one of our local stops.   Just for fun we went to the top deck, front, so we could enjoy seeing the city.   It really is amazing to experience how the drivers navigate the narrow streets in the big buses!

Checking out our Didsbury, Manchester neighborhood

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We’re now in the second week of our UK Adventure.  Jackie has started volunteering in the Library.  My involvement begins with some minor stuff later on.  We’ve either been busy trying to get settled in or laying low, resting up from it all.  I generally do a lot of walking for exercise but today was the first time I’ve actually gone out exploring just for the fun of it.  The weather is perfect for a walk, in the 60’s and a bit overcast – a typical summer day in Manchester.

Our neighborhood is a nice one.  Lots of driveways with gated drives, small and often paved front yards, and beautiful homes.  Just down the street there’s a house gate with the Batman logo on it.  One of the cars is also branded with the logo.  Apparently, we’re well protected!

The main street (main streets are often called “high street” here) is less than 10 minutes away.  There are lots of shops ranging from restaurants to two butchers to a green grocer.  So far our favorite place to eat is the carry out (“take away”) fish and chips place.  But we’re still very early in our time here and there are plenty of eating places to check out.  Our main place to catch the bus is in front of the fish place but depending on where we are headed, we might want to walk a different direction to catch other busses going to different areas of the city.

People are walking everywhere.  From what I can tell, this has little to do with the excellent weather.  In spite of all the cars and traffic, the great public transit encourages people to walk rather than drive.  A surprising number of people don’t own a car or even have a driver’s license.

Of course, the biggest difference so far as the roadways are concerned is that people drive on the left side of the road.  You’d think that since we are walking that that wouldn’t matter to us.  However, every time we cross the road we have to be sure to check the traffic in the right direction.  In fact, “right direction” is just the way to think about it!  Look to the right for traffic.  Honestly, I feel like a 6 year old being given permission to cross the street alone.  I look back and forth about 4 times before I hurry across the street.

Aside from the number of people walking and having to be aware of traffic the other thing we’ve noticed is the presence of sidewalks on both sides of the road just about everywhere.  Sidewalks are called “the pavement” here, and it is unusual for a roadway to not have sidewalks on both sides.  Judging by the number of pedestrians it makes perfect sense.

As I mentioned, we’re in a nice area here so I’m sure that things aren’t just like our neighborhood everywhere.

More Adventures in UK Shopping

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Our adventures in shopping continue.  In traveling to the UK we could bring with us only what could be checked on the plane.  Of course, we focused on clothing, personal items, and electronics.  That left us needing to purchase many kitchen items (although our new kitchen has all the basics provided).  Also, all the minor common items are needed.  For instance, I needed a tad of black tape to cover a too-bright LED light on one of our electrical plug adaptors.  That required a stop at a small hardware store and paying what to me seemed a high price for a small roll of electrical tape.  As we kept adding to our list of “stuff” I told Jackie that what we really needed was a car and a trip to Walmart.  However, we have no car and the nearest Walmart is over 3000 miles away!  We haven’t found a good substitute for Walmart, but if we did we would have to get there by public transportation and then carry everything home on the bus.

So…Amazon!  It’s just a click away, the prices are good, and they will deliver in a few days.  I changed my Amazon address to their UK version and I’m good to go.  We’re ordering stuff we’d never consider ordering online before!  From what I can see here on campus we have lots of company.  The Amazon driver leaves a pile of boxes about every day.

Speaking of online ordering…our nearest bigger grocery (think medium sized Kroger or HEB) is a short bus ride away.  However, once again, it’s kind of unhandy to carry the bags on the bus.  Instead, for less than $10 a month we get unlimited next day delivery of our groceries so long as we buy around $50 of stuff at a time.

Ordering groceries online is pretty nifty.  One challenge for us, though, is that we don’t think in metric very well.  When buying a jar of Old El Paso taco sauce (and, yes! They have tons of Old El Paso products in the store) how big is a 226 gram jar?  The answer is “not very!”  Easy enough when standing in the store, more of a challenge when looking at a picture online.  Or, want some black olives?  That looks like a nice jar – 450 grams can’t be that much can it?  So, we’ve ended up with a small jar of taco sauce, a giant sized jar of black olives, and an abundance of (pureed none the less) canned spinach.  Oh well, we’ll put more taco sauce on the next order – they will bring it right to us.

Finally, as someone once said, “Britain and America are two nations divided by a common language.”  Want to make hamburgers?  You want “minced beef” from the store.  Jackie wanted to buy some rubbing alcohol for our medicine cabinet.  The lady at the pharmacy (or “chemist”) counter looked a bit confused and said they don’t have any alcohol there.  After a bit of confusion we discovered that what we wanted was “surgical spirits.”  No doubt, this is but the tip of the iceberg.

Till next time, “cheers!”

 

Shopping, finding our way around in the UK

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We’ll start our volunteering activities next week so we’re trying to take care of settling in, getting our bearings, and trying to conquer lingering jet lag.

Yesterday we needed to pick up our UK Identification cards – called BRP cards.  This required a trip toward downtown to a post office that seems to specialize in handing out the cards.  I envisioned this to be a bigger, more central post office – a place that handles international postal concerns.  Our new friend, Doug, told us it that it is hard to find and he offered to be our guide for the day.  He is also a volunteer at NTC and his having just arrived last winter makes him the perfect candidate to show us the ropes!

As I mentioned, I envisioned this “special” post office to be a big one.  Boy, was I wrong!  This post office consists of two windows in the back of a small Subway restaurant!  Had we not had a guide we would have walked right past it!  Within minutes of arriving we not only had our ID cards, but we had our sandwiches too!  On that front, I’ll mention that a Subway sandwich is pretty much the same here as at home.  However, I noticed that there are no diet drinks or an ice dispenser on the drink machine.  The British think Americans are kind of weird paying for a drink that is mostly ice!

Speaking of sodas, I see that a can of soda here is 330 milliliters.  A can in the US is 12 ounces.  So Americans get about 341 milliliters when they buy a can of soda.  Obviously, that’s an 11 milliliter advantage to the USA!

From there we headed on into the main city centre, followed by a trip back out to “home” on the tram (light rail).  It is faster than the bus, but the station is just a bit farther from the campus than is the bus stop.

Living without a car is going to require a bit more planning.  For instance, it’s rather depressing to get home and realize you forgot to pick up the bread.  At that point getting the bread will require a 10-15 minute walk each way.  Maybe we’ll just do without until the next trip out!

Also, we keep getting caught without shopping bags.  This isn’t completely new to us as we’ve experienced the same thing on the west coast, but no store supplies bags for things you buy.  Of course, you can buy a plastic bag at the counter, but having to pay for the bags make you want to bring your own.  Two or three times now I’ve bought something and found myself standing there waiting for the sales person to put our purchases in a bag.  Meanwhile, they’ve looked at me wondering why I haven’t bagged the items and moved on!

Everyone seems to use their credit cards for purchases with cash being seldom used.  Most of the time you just place the card over the “touchless” symbol on the machine.  When it lights up, the charge is complete.  I’m glad I upgraded my card to an “international” one.  For an extra $30 a year I pay no foreign transaction fees.  Otherwise, an extra 3% would be added to every purchase.  As it is, we have to pay the exchange rate which isn’t in our favor.  One pound is around $1.20.  I’m just rounding purchases up in my mind so for every £4.00 I think “$5.00.”

I mentioned jet lag earlier.  We are getting closer to the new normal, although if we wake up in the night it can be hard getting back to sleep.  It may be, though, that rather than jet lag our weariness is related to walking to the store, up and down the stairs, and around campus.  I walk a lot, and step-wise I’m not doing any more steps than I usually do.  However, my legs are tired and a bit sore.  I remember feeling the same when we visited London years ago.

Again, I expect my post frequency to slow down as time goes by, but with everything new it is fun to share our adventure.

Settling into our UK Adventure

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2021 – Our “home” at NTC

Here’s our new “house.” This is student housing; however, it has four flats with a bedroom/living room, kitchen, and bathroom. One interesting thing is that we were told that our flat was on the second floor. However, at some point, prior to arrival, I remembered that in the UK the first floor of a building is called the “ground floor.” The second floor is called the “first floor” (first above ground), and the third floor is called the “second floor.” In other words, we’re on the third level rather than the second one. And, no, there isn’t a “lift” in the building. Hopefully, we’ll benefit from the extra exercise!

Jet lag is a real deal. That, and a sleepless night on the plane, left us very tired once the adrenalin began to wear off. By Wednesday afternoon we needed a nap! We slept like logs for two hours and only woke up when the alarm on my phone went off. We were then able to stay awake until around 10:30 local time. That’s 4:30 in the afternoon in Texas and according to our body clocks! However, that two hours of sleep didn’t come close to leaving us rested so we went to bed and slept hard for most of the night. We’ll see how day two works for us.

Our biggest chore of the day was going back to the grocery store. We actually went to the store soon after we arrived to get enough food to last us a day or two.  The one we went to was in more-or-less reasonable walking distance. What a disaster! We were very tired, walked farther than we expected, and when we got there everything that was refrigerated had been lost due to the terribly hot days preceding our arrival! The coolers just couldn’t keep up with the heat and all the food in them was lost. Today’s trip was to a bigger store (Tesco), and they were well stocked except for a couple of empty coolers which had signs on them apologizing that due to the hot weather their units had failed.  Happily, the temps are back to the normal summer 60s and 70s now.

Our journey to the store included our first Manchester bus rides. The busses are all double decker versions. The story is that that particular road hosts the busiest bus route in Europe. You’ll see a bus every few minutes, so no schedule is necessary. We got a day rider pass costing us about $6.35 (USD) each.  We only rode to the store and back, but two one-way tickets would have cost a bit more than one day rider pass.

Obviously, I’m not going to do a long post every day, but everything is fresh and interesting to us right now and I want to share while stuff like this is on my mind.