A day in the Isle of Skye

We started the morning staring out our hostel window upon a range that extends immediately upward from the castle mail ( or what's left of it) in kyleakin. One of our hostel mates exclaimed that we were actually staying in the boring bit of the isle of Skye, then he told us to just wait till we got firther onto the island. We weren't convinced until we caught our bus that morning. Within a few miles we were buried in the shadows by monstrous jagged crags. To say these mountains are warm and inviting would be a gross understatement. They almost intomidate saying, " come on I dare you." this is evidenced by the prevalance of mountain rescue points scattered across our map. The hills look prehistoric. I'd just about expect a dimasaur to cross the road as a sheep. It looks as if someone was given a chisel and a massive hammer, blind folded themselves, strapped themselves with TNT and set about pulverizing with dizzying affect.
We walked up to the old man of storr. Pnce again, it almost felt alien, like our bus transitioned from scotland to mars in one short hour. The rock almost looks like it's defying nature, standing firm and unmoved, stubborn but eroded just the same, spectacularly tall.
We finished the day walking to the castle mail. A great night walk as we watched the last of the setting sun over the Skye bridge.

Quick update

It is a positively chilly day in Scotland. The highs will only be in the 50's, burrrrrr. We are heading further north on another lengthy busride today. There is only one road into Inverness. It's strange to think that, given how many roads link towns in the u.s. Yesterday we traveled from st. Andrews to our current location, Aberdeen. At. Andrews is known as the birth place of golf. Pretty neat bit of history. We come from the land of the birthplace of country music to the birthplace of golf, kinds funny. Anyway, we have a bus to catch to Inverness, the home of the lochness monster, and you can bet that maria and I will be diligent hunters and will capture a famous photo for the Johnson city press.

a wee post of pictures

How would you like to come across this in the ocean?.....



yummm....crab legs!
this is the giant japanese spider crab at the Museum of Natural History in Oxford (as usual, free, free, free...makes up for the exchange rate, I guess)


This one is in Newcastle. Maria and Russell with the Millenium Bridge in the background.



The bridge is tilted in this picture. It tilts up to let boats pass through. We were lucky enough to walk over it and then see it lift up. The part that you walk over is the part that you can see lifted up closest to us.


And one more...



This is Russell standing on Salisbury Craig (just below Arthur's Seat) above Scottish Parliment and Edinburgh.
Pretty impressive isn't it?

More later!!

Good bye England, hello Scotland

We left behind new castle today, and England. For the bonnie, bonnie banks of Scotland. It was a beautiful train ride, and we caught our first glimpses of the north sea. We are now in Edinburgh, and the change on architecture is immediately apparant. This is an amazing town to view. No matter which direction we face, there are old buildings or old buildings in the shadows of vast crags which stretch hundreds of feet above the city. We climbed Authur's Seat, which took about an hour. It was a few mile hike. On our ascent, we were greeted by an ominous and expansive looking bunch of clouds. As we reached the top, it began raining. Everyone pulled out their raingear just in time for it to stop raining. And just like an unpredictable three year old child, the clouds changes their mind and went in the opposite direction. Russell and Maria- 1 , clouds and rain- 0. Anyway, the view from Authur's Seat was spectacular. It seems rare to find such a perch above a city; especially one that is free! Alas. We has to descend, because as nature would have it, Aurthur's Throne (bathroom...). So! We descended quickly. All 740 feet. Towarda the castle, and away from Scottish Parliment. And to be honest, it is hard not to feel a bit like royalty with a girl as good looking as Maria. We ate at the Royal Mile Tavern and listened to a local singer/songwriter entertain. Guess what? We were treated to his rendition of Sweet Home Alabama. He was great, but good grief! Can we not escape that song? Even in Scotland?! Argh :-). We then visited St. Giles kirk (church), and saw even more of the beautiful plaques, statues and sculptures commemorating local countrymen ( and women and children) lost in the many wars Scotland has seen through the years. Now back at our hotel, we bid you all goodnight and look forward to sharing our Scotland tales with you!

Have any of you been to Scotland? Where did you go? Did you find the weather just as spastic as we did today?

Hostels, snoring roomates, and new castle

Oh the comfort of a private bedroom. Today we awake to find ourselves many miles from the comfort of our room in oxford. Rather we are now in the city of new castle in a youth hostel.. We arrived at the hostel at 8 last night, entered our room only to find our two roommates asleep, oops. The beauty of hostels though, is that after walking in on two snoring men from Singapore, you're eager to get out of the building and explore. New castle is very different from any of the cities we've visited thus far. As we were walking around we noticed more night clubs than pubs,and tons of Indian and Italian restaraunts. We persisted on and found a little pub named bodega. We popped in and found ourselves a seat at a table. We just so happened to be there on quiz night. I couldn't understand fifty percent of the questions asked, but maria and I jumped in anyway with a group of older guys who looked like they were struggling. The question I popped in on was " what musical had the song " music of the night". Being the geeks maria and I are, I leaned over to feed them the answer, and was surprised to see they already had Phantom of the Opera written down already. It was funny to see these three scruffy British guys, pint in hand of course, answer a musical theater question correctly. Incidently, the quiz master sounded like Scrooge Mcduck. Does anybody know if Scrooge was from new castle? Anyway, we proceeded to talk to them for a while, and it turns out one of them, jon, is a former tour guide for new castle. He was bubbling with excitement and history last night and was bestowing it upon is in heaps. He's even offered to give us a walking tour tonight if the weather allows. One amazing thing we saw last night are the ancient remains of new castle'soroginal walls. So, it's dumping the rain today but what can you do? We are preparing to hit it hard today. This city is full of free museums and tons of monuments. So off we go!
Other pub questions for you:
What song has the following lyrics " I'm sitting in the railway station, got a ticket for my destination."
What president appears on the twenty dollar bill?
What state was most affected by hurricane andrew?

Back in Oxford

*find a smattering of our pictures from this first part of our trip below this post*

So! To start off, Shelley (Russell's sister) commented on my 'toad in a hole' post and suggested I search for what it was. So I did. Amelia (a friend) also commented and threw out that it might be similar to eggs in a basket (fried egg in a piece of toast) I was thinking that same thing. Turns out it is sausages baked in Yorkshire pudding batter...hmm...usually served with onion gravy. Rich rich rich. Here is a picture.



It's Monday night in Oxford. Maria and I just finished another game of Boggle with her Aunt Diana, the British prevailed again, but I placed a solid second only two points behind. We are incredibly thankful to be welcomed back so kindly into their home for a few more days while we recover from our adventures in the Lake Land District. If you look at our recent picture update to the blog, you'll see how incredible some of the terrain was that we traversed. After hiking a whole quarter of the trail (that's 50 miles), we made the tough decision to call off the rest of the walk (even with a wonderful offer for the gift of a pack horse service -that's where someone else transports your bags from place to place), as my hip feels better, but isn't quite up to the shape it should be in for 15 and 20 mile walks a day. Instead, Maria's cousin Antony and his girlfriend Karen were our chauffers yesterday and took us all across the western ends of Oxfordshire County. We saw some beautiful countryside. If you notice the picture from our recently added photo album of the small boy, this is an image from a town called Bourton-on-the-Water. It's a famous tourist trap, and people lay lazily by the town's water while the kids play in the creeks. As we were driving from town to town, we came to find out that Antony went to school with, and knows well the members of Radiohead. This was a fascinating discovery as I have been following this band for nearly 15 years. He said it very casually, but I couldn't help being a little surprised. Immediately, I started thinking to what stars I might know/met throughout the years, but the only thing that came to me was, "Have you guys ever seen Oh Brother Where Art Thou?" Both Antony and Karen responded with "Yes!" Then I informed them, "I know the village idiot from that movie." And truthfully I do. Ed Snodderly from the Down Home in Johnson City played this character and is credited as "The Village Idiot" in the credits at the end of the movie. They weren't quite as impressed as I was :)

Note from Maria:
Anyone reading this know anyone famous? Have you met anyone that made you into a starstruck, blubbering, speechless fan? We'd love to hear about it. Comment and tell us about the impressive, the funny, the just plain weird stories about meeting the stars. We need the entertainment (just kidding...but really, we like stories)
Here is a star we met in NYC. Do you know who this is? BONUS Do you know WHERE this was taken?



Also. a few things in England that I love.

Top of the list, A-number one, Cadillac of a thing in England that I love-(well...besides Russell and my family, that is) is extra thick, double cream. This is a bit of heaven right here in the milk section of the grocery store. It is one of the most fabulous things I have ever put in my mouth. And here's the catch. You cannot find it in the good ol US of A. Sure we have cream. Sure we have thick (ish) cream. Sure we have whipped cream. But with this, I could eat strawberries and (real) cream every day for the rest of my life. You think I'm kidding. ... I'm not.

Second on the list, pretty darn good, Oldsmobile of a thing in England that I love-
Old things. Sounds funny, right? No. I mean REALLY old things. Schools, churches, artifacts, streets, people...okay...well the people aren't much older than they are anywhere else, but just as loveable. Anyway. Old buildings in the States are 150 and 200 years old. Old buildings here are 500, 600, 1000 years old. This goes for the whole of Europe, actually. I remember a monument in a square in Rome that was nearly 3000 years old. Wow.

Some other things I love-
Fish and Chips (and the fact that the places that serve Fish and Chips are called 'Chippies'

Hearing Brits say "cheers" for all sorts of things. As in "cheers, thanks" or "cheers, bye" or just "cheers" or "cheers, where's the loo?"...well, I don't know about that one.

Calling the bathroom 'the loo'. Love that. Always have.

Little children that speak in English accents (I know, I know, it isn't an accent for them...but it is super cute anyway)

Eyebrow windows. If you don'tknow what they are, look them up. Also super cute.


So until next time, cheers! And if you are looking for something to do online late at night, check out some cool things to do in Newcastle Upon Tyne. Write about them and tell us, we're headed there next and looking for awesome sights to see (bonus if they're free). There is an incredible bridge there, by the way, called the Millenium Bridge. Look that up too.

Walking and 'toad in a hole'

It's been a rough go at it the past few days. We started the hike on July fifth. The night before we spent some time in a local pub in saint bees, where a colorful local asked me, " shouldn't we be fighting?" I guess they aren't so keen on celebrating the fourth in England, anyway he was a real riot. So the hike began by dipping our toes in the Irish Sea and then following the coast for the first few miles. It was beautiful. We then turned inland and started our approach for the lake district. At one point we were standing on Mount Dent, posed between a final glimpse of england's west coast with Scotland in the distance, and ahead of us mountain ranges that resembled the appalachians. Thus began our approach for the mountains and the lakes. Now here is where it got tricky, I must say that the english would much rather go directly over a range than weave to and fro like much of our hiking in the states. I have a new respect for what they call " walking" over here. When I go for a walk back home, I may put on some flip flops and be back in an hour. Here you say you're going on a walk and they don't expect you back for days. So here in lies the problem, maria and I are carrying too much weight. We tried every angle of redistribution of our clothes etc. But it finally got the best of my joints. These trails are rugged. They'll go straight up two thousand feet in one mile, climbing all the while up creeks and over boulders, it has proven to be hard on our bodies. Let me emphasize how majestic these mountains are, you would truly have to see it to believe it, but remember, if you come for a walk here, you may not be seen for many days:). To add to the dramatic effect I'm trying to create, maria and I witnessed a mountain rescue two nights ago.we were safe in our B&B watching as a helicopter came low on a ridge about 2,000 feet high, dropped a line and air lifted someone off the ridge at about midnight. Pretty intense, and when I asked someone the next day about it, they said it happens all the time. So to prevent that same scenario , maria and I have taken a few days in a small town called penrith to let our bodies heal, especially my wounded and weary left hip. I hope all is well, and do me a favor, go on a walk for me, one in flip flops, and come back in an hour :). For fun google images of "lining crag in the lake district". This was one of the most challenging climbs thus far, but so rewarding!

Note from maria: Russells hip is hurting because he took some of my weight from my pack to help me out. (without me even asking) he is the most wonderful husband a gal could ask for. :-). Also, I'm looking at a menu inthis hotel that offers 'toad in a hole' with chips for only 5 pounds... If you know what this is, please let us know by commenting on the blog. We are having a lovely time, and will hopefully be able to add pictures soon. Miss and love you all.

After a long and bumpy flight, (Russell might have some broken bones in his hand from my squeezing it so hard...) we made it to London Heathrow. There we picked up our bags and began the long process of finding our way to Oxford and getting to Mario and Diana's house. We finally found the bus station, got our ticket and then stood and watched our bus leave...without us. The sign said "Wait to be invited onto bus". So we waited, the driver stared at us, we stared at the driver, we never heard the invitation, the driver climbed on the bus, the bus backed out of the space, and we waved good-bye. No problem though, we caught the next one and were on our way. I leaned over to tell Russell to look out the window as the trip would give some nice views, but he was already snoring.
Mario came and found us at the station, we finally made it to their house and I slept. The rest of my day went like this: sleep, wake up to eat dinner and see Antony, sleep until late the next morning. Such beautiful days we've had in England so far. I hope it stays this way!
Maria - July 1st

Maria and I were engaged until late hours last night with her relatives Diana and Antony. We were of course playing the word game Boggle. Sweat dripping from our brows, furrowed in a frenzy of fannagled letters; I felt as if we were playing for public schools across America, I imagined they were chanting our names, transferring mad energy across the pond. I deciphered as many three and four letter words as possible, and guess what... I came in second to Diana. She wore her colours well and was a modest champion. Cheers to good company, good humour, and lots of laughs. (note from Maria: "I lost terribly...Washington County schools must not be quite up to par with Sullivan...") :-)
Today, we toured Oxford. Such an historical city, rich with humanities, and cheeky "City Site" tour guides.
Some highlights include:
College, college, college, college - Good grief, you must be an idiot to live here and not be educated, matter of fact it's probably impossible, or much worse, a crime. There are 39 colleges total, geeze!
Crime, ah yes, we toured Oxford Castle, which for so long took pride in its swift and expeditious practice of hanging criminals for stealing as little as one British pound. Lots of history, cool construction, neat castle, our tour guide's name was Black Bess.
We ate at the Eagle and Child. Apparently, J.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis and other notable authors met here to share pints, tell stories, convert from agnosticism to christianity, and invent incredible worlds such as Middle Earth - small stuff like that. I on the other hand shared a pint and fish and chips with my wife. In my opinion, equally as brilliant as Narnia!
Russell - July, 2nd